In fact, against a Western-style fleet, it is not necessarily necessary to confront the opponent's artillery. Another old tactic, just as powerful. That's the fire attack.

From the Three Kingdoms period, the ancient Chinese used fire attack for water warfare. This battle is too famous, and that is the Battle of Red Cliffs.

Of course, there are limits to the fire attack. The success of the Eastern Wu fire attack in the Battle of Chibi was based on the fact that Cao's army locked the ships together with chains. If the ship is not locked and sees the other party's fireboat coming, it is a big deal that the ships will scatter and lose some of the ships at most.

In the original history, the great pirate Zheng Zhilong in the last years of the Ming Dynasty also used fire attack tactics against the Dutch and Liu Xiang's fleet in the Battle of Liuluo Bay. In that naval battle, Zheng Zhilong gave the most standard tactics for naval warfare and fire attack, and the enemy fleet was anchored in the harbor, and when the wind was headwind, he took advantage of the situation to rush up with hundreds of fireships......

When the fleet was docked in the harbor, especially at night, many sailors were not on board at all, but went ashore for repairs. At this time, the fire attack is launched, and the opponent has no time to react.

In addition, if the harbor happens to be in a headwind direction, it will be difficult for the boat to rush out. Because, there is not enough power. The Chinese sails are better, and you can use the wind from all sides. And the Western-style schooners were miserable. In the face of headwinds, the power of the windhoard is out of balance. It's extremely difficult to dodge the brisk fireboats. Therefore, Zheng Zhilong's fleet easily defeated the combined fleet of the Dutch and Liu Xiang.

Later, the Dutch also learned this trick and used it on the Spaniards. Six years later, at the Battle of the Dons, the Dutch used the same fireship tactics they had suffered against the Spanish main fleet. As a result, the destruction of 43 large Spanish warships led to the collapse of the Spanish Navy. After all, what the Spaniards lost was not the more than 50 small and medium-sized ships lost by the pirate Liu Xiang, but the main warships with a displacement of more than 1,000 tons. As a result of this loss, the Spaniards lost the ability to suppress the Dutch at sea, and were even forced to agree to Dutch independence. And the era of the Dutch "sea coachman" also emerged after that naval battle. After all, the Dutch did not have the right to control the sea before, and only suffered from the Spanish fleet.

Ma Lin thought about it and felt that even if he provided artillery to the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty would not be able to use it. After all, the people of the Ming Dynasty did not have the habit of using cannons and huge ships. It's like giving Uncle Black Africa, a big killer like AK47, and as a result, they put on various ** poses to shoot, but they just couldn't hit......

The fire attack method is different, which was originally a trick that the ancient Chinese people were good at. Moreover, it is very in line with the ancient Chinese Confucian way of thinking of "using tactics to break the enemy".

The military decline of the Ming Dynasty was very sad, and the Confucian scholars of the Ming Dynasty, like the Confucian scholars of the Song Dynasty, believed too much in the strategies of the literati and liked to take shortcuts.

As a result, the basic skills of the soldiers during the war were not solid. And the civilian officials who command the soldiers and horses always think of using their own strategies to solve the opponent, rather than relying on strong strength to crush the opponent.

If you encounter an opponent who is also weak, these tactics will naturally work. However, when encountering the Mongolian cavalry, which far surpassed the Ming army in terms of mobility, it naturally became a fool's fork......

In this world, after all, it is necessary to rely on strength to speak. Even if Marin likes to play intrigue and trickery, the army of the Beihai Kingdom is also trained according to the strict standards of later generations. With stratagem, the Beihai ** team lined. If it is tough, the Beihai ** team will not be afraid.

And the civil officials of the Ming Dynasty were too brainless, always thinking about solving the opponent by their own strategies, and they never thought about improving the combat effectiveness of the soldiers through training.

Only Qi Jiguang realized the importance of the training level of the soldiers themselves. Therefore, he trained an invincible Qi family army. But it's a pity that later Qi Jiguang's backstage Zhang Juzheng fell, and Qi Jiguang was also implicated in the civil and official struggle and was forced to go into the wilderness. His brilliant military ideas were also discarded by stupid civilian officials. The last Qi family army was even deliberately thrown to Liaodong to die.

……

Ma Lin estimated that even if the thinking of the cannon giant ship was correct, those Ming civil officials would not adopt it. If they were willing to accept this kind of thinking, Liu Daxia would not have hid Zheng He's nautical charts and treasure ship drawings.

Without him, the development of the navy is too expensive, and the maintenance costs are staggering. But the finances of the Ming Dynasty, because the Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang had no vision restrictions, never had a good time.

The imperial court was short of money, and these civil officials naturally opposed the construction of warships and artillery. In particular, the Napoleonic 12-pounder cannon presented by Marin used copper cannons, and each cannon required an average of five or six hundred kilograms of copper. For the Ming court, which is relatively short of copper, if those civil officials are willing to make it in large quantities, there will be ghosts.

But Marin couldn't let the Ming court lose the battle with the Portuguese, because the current emperor was a militant Zhengde!

If the water war is lost, those civilian officials will not be able to prevent Zhengde from developing a navy. And if Zhengde has a strong navy, East Asia will not be stable.

Therefore, Marin came up with the fireship tactic again......

The fireboat tactics were very famous in the Ming Dynasty, because the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", which was now very popular in the Ming Dynasty, specifically mentioned "Burning Red Cliffs". This story was so famous in the Ming Dynasty that it is estimated that most of the people in the city with storytellers had heard this story.

Ma Lin's proposal of fireship tactics not only made the Ming Dynasty people familiar with it, but also very much in line with the style of the Ming Dynasty literati who "liked to use resourcefulness".

In the final analysis, even Luo Guanzhong, who wrote the book "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", is actually a half-hung literati. This product was originally to assist Zhang Shicheng, but with the assistance of half-hung literati "military strategists" such as Luo Guanzhong, Zhang Shicheng simply lost to Zhu Yuanzhang. Because, Zhang Shicheng is too superstitious about the military ability of these half-hung literati. Unlike Zhu Yuanzhang, there are famous generals such as Xu Da and Chang Yuchun.

In the face of absolute strength, those little tricks are useless. "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is just a commentary to entertain the public. We can see that the war scene inside is very funny, and the master of the hall actually goes out to fight with people alone...... How brain-dead is this......

Then, the ambusher simply described the enemy general and shouted "It's not good, it's a plan", and then the army was defeated......

To put it simply, the book "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" treats all soldiers as NPCs, and eagerly exaggerates the role of military generals......

……

But this kind of brain-dead book is of little use to the Ming Dynasty, where soldiers can't do it. However, it was useful for the Jurchens, who already had strong combat effectiveness......

Nurhachi, who is semi-literate, was deeply influenced by "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and began to like to fight with stratagem.

Unlike the Ming army, the Jurchen barbarians under Nurhachi were originally very fierce, not NPC soldiers like the Ming army, but "elite monsters" similar to the game. And the brutes do not lack bravery, only the resourcefulness of the commander. Although the wisdom of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is a bit naïve, it is against the Ming Dynasty, a country that emphasizes literature over military force. And for Houjin, whose soldiers were all fierce barbarians, those tricks worked. Because, the shortest "soldier ability problem" in "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is not a problem on the Houjin side.

In this way, there was already a fierce barbarian Houjin, coupled with the resourcefulness of the Three Kingdoms, so there was the later Manchu Qing Dynasty......

Of course, there was also a great luck factor in the Manchu Qing Dynasty's ability to enter the customs, such as Li Zicheng's internal sabotage. But the fit between "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and the situation of the Manchu Qing Dynasty is also an important factor.

……

Ma Lin could not change the military thinking of the Ming Dynasty's civilian officials who were brainless and "relied too much on strategy", and he did not want to change it. But this time, in order to deal with the Portuguese, he had to follow those Ming civil officials and adopt what they thought was the most correct way to defeat the Portuguese fleet.

Even, this time the credit Marin did not want, to avoid angering the Portuguese.

Therefore, Ma Lin had long planned to let Kong Tai select a Ming Dynasty scholar to let him rush to the army commander of the Ming Dynasty as a strategist. In this way, even if the Portuguese were defeated, they could not blame Marin.

Moreover, Ma Lin estimated that with the urine nature of the Ming Dynasty bureaucrats, even if the commander knew that it was Ma Lin's strategy, he would try his best to put the credit on his head. Fortunately, Marin didn't want to take credit for it, but everyone hit it off......