The Sulu Sea is located between Batavia and Manila, connecting the Luzon Islands in the northeast, the Sulu Islands in the southeast, Borneo in the southwest, and Palawan Island in the northwest.

After entering the Sulu Sea, Fan Mendi was in a good mood, and he could rush to Manila in ten days, the Ming Empire really didn't react at all, and there was a calm sea along the way, except for the occasional merchant ships and fishing boats that were hiding from afar, none of the warships were seen, and the sentinel ships near Manila Bay did not send an alarm, which was enough to prove that the Ming Empire did not find his sneak attack at all.

After occupying Manila, how should the Ming Empire be blackmailed? This issue should be discussed carefully, and it just so happened that the representatives of various countries were on his flagship, and taking advantage of the high interest, he directly summoned all the representatives to the conference room of the flagship and began to discuss the matter of blackmailing the Ming Empire.

When the representatives of various countries arrived, Fan Mendi said proudly: "Everyone, across this Sulu Sea, there is Manila in front, the Ming Empire still has no reaction at all, it seems that our sneak attack plan has not been detected, and when the combined fleet arrives in Manila, even if the Ming Empire reacts quickly, it will be too late, 5,000 recruits, under the joint attack of sea and land, it will definitely not be able to carry it for three days, how to blackmail the Ming Empire next, everyone give some advice." “

The French representative immediately said excitedly: "We, France, demand that Portugal return the port of Calais. “

The British representative followed: "We, the British, demand that Spain return the port of Dover. “

When Van Mendi heard this, he rolled his eyes, and we in the Netherlands also asked Spain to cede Dunkirk! Now the discussion is about the Far East, the object is the Ming Empire, how to get involved with Portugal and Spain.

The Swedish representative was very pertinent: "At the very least, let them withdraw their troops from the Mughal Empire immediately." “

The Danish representative then said with hope: "Let them compensate us for our losses, now the Ming Empire is very rich, at least let them compensate 50 million taels!" “

Fan Mendi was so depressed, he shook his head and said: "I don't know if the translators translated my meaning wrongly, or if you misunderstood my words, what I said was how to blackmail the Ming Empire, not what conditions were put forward with the Ming Empire, we must figure out how much of a threat it can pose to the Ming Empire after occupying Manila, so that we can put forward conditions according to the degree of threat." “

After that, he turned out a map of the Far East, put it on the conference table, pointed to the sea west of Manila and said: "This is the only way for the Ming Empire to reach the South Seas, starting from Manila Bay, it only takes a day or two, all I can think of now is to send warships to cut off their shipping lanes, so that the Ming Empire's trade with the South Seas and even the European continent will be cut off, I think, this is a very good way to coerce." “

The representatives of various countries finally understood what Van Mendi meant, and the British representative immediately said without hesitation: "This is not far from the southeast peninsula, Formosa and the southeast coast of the Ming Empire. “

Van Mendi nodded and prompted: "Don't go to Formosa, there is their naval base there, and other places can be considered." “

The French representative then proposed: "There are always merchants of the Ming Empire in Manila and the Luzon Islands, after we occupy Manila, we will directly search for the merchants of the Ming Empire, if the Ming Empire dares to disagree with our terms, we will kill all the captured defenders and the merchants we have captured, so we should always have some concerns about blackmailing them, right?" “

Slaughtering civilians is a bit cruel, but this kind of thing was not done less when the Great Powers colonized, Fan Mendi nodded and agreed: "Well, yes, you can consider it." “

Next, the representatives of various countries spoke enthusiastically, all kinds of vicious tricks emerged one after another, and for a time the atmosphere of the whole conference room was extremely warm, foaming everywhere, looking at their expressions, people who didn't know thought that the Ming Empire had been trampled under their feet!

Just as their discussion was in full swing, a personal guard suddenly broke in, hurriedly gave a military salute, and then said in a panic: "Your Excellency the Governor, it's not good, a large number of warships of the Ming Empire have appeared in front of our fleet!" “

When Fan Mendi heard this, his face changed, and he immediately left everyone, ran to the bow of the ship, took out his binoculars, and looked at the front of the fleet, only to see that a large number of warships of the Ming Empire appeared in front of the left and right sides of the combined fleet, however, it seems that there are only forty or fifty super battleships on both sides, and the others are all Fuchuan battleships, although the number of battleships is terrifying, but the number of artillery is not necessarily as much as that of the combined fleet.

There is still hope, because the combined fleet has one hundred and twenty super battleships, and it also carries 30,000 musketeers, and is not afraid that the Ming Empire will rely on numerical superiority to board ships and seize ships, Fan Mendi put down the binoculars and decisively ordered: "Order, all battleships are loaded with solid bullets and ready to shoot, the super battleships are divided into two columns on the left and right, and pass through between the two fleets of the Ming army, and the other battleships temporarily live in the middle of the super battleships and do not fire." “

According to Van Mendi's observations, the distance between the two fleets of the Ming army was about ten miles, enough for the combined fleet to pass through, and they would give them a round of artillery bombardment first, and if they clung to it, there would only be a melee.

In fact, the Ming army came not only two fleets, but three fleets, the North Sea Fleet and the South China Sea Fleet were separated from the left and right in front, and the Nanyang Naval Division was slowly following ten miles directly behind the two fleets.

Seeing that the super battleships on the side of the United Fleet were lined up in a single column to prepare for the shelling, the super battleships of the North Sea Fleet and the South China Sea Fleet of the Ming Army were also lined up in a single column to meet them, and all the Fufu battleships only followed the periphery and did not immediately participate in the battle.

The two sides soon staggered on a horizontal line, the battleships on both sides began to dump shells frantically on each other, the Ming army won on this side in the fast rate of fire, and the fifty battleships on both sides "boomed and boomed" and fired non-stop, almost without stopping; The victory on the side of the combined fleet lies in the power of the shells, and the shells fired by the cannons are at least twice as powerful as the howitzers.

The fleets of the two sides quickly staggered, and this round of shelling, in general, the combined fleet took advantage of it, because the power of the howitzer is difficult to penetrate the hull, and can only cause some damage to the sailors and sailors on the deck, but the cannon shells are smashed into a pit, so most of the battleships of the Ming army are injured in the hull, and most of the battleships of the combined fleet are smashed out of many holes in the sails.

Just as Van Mendi was triumphantly holding the binoculars and looking to the left and right rear to enjoy the results, the flagbearer on the mast suddenly whistled, and he couldn't help but look up in surprise to see that the flagbearer was pointing ahead!

He swept the telescope forward, oh, the cake buyer, there was an even larger Ming Empire fleet in front of him!