Bruvine was thoroughly enraged by the shamelessness of the 'Spaniards', and sent pirates to rob his merchant ships and come to him to ask for ransom, when he was muddy! He stood up with a pale face and scolded Prader: "Seven armed merchant ships were all intercepted by pirates, how did you become a team leader?" Go ahead and write a report on your war with the pirates. ”

When Prad heard this, he quickly saluted and cautiously left the room.

The more Bruwen thought about it, the more angry he became, he slapped the letterhead on the table directly, and shouted: "Guard, go, call Admiral Fandimen over to me." ”

The guards outside led the way, and Brookin looked at the letterhead on the table, took a deep breath, and slowly calmed down.

With the loss of more than 30 merchant ships, his position as governor is basically unsafe, but if he can defeat the Spaniards, capture Luzon, and get back all the lost merchant ships and goods, then not only is he not at fault, but he has greatly merited! Thinking of this, his eyes narrowed, and he slowly had a plan.

When the sound of the guards came from outside, he held his breath hard, his face flushed, and as soon as Fan Dimen entered the door, he immediately slapped the table and roared: "The Spaniards are so shameless, Your Excellency the General, I ask you to send troops immediately to wipe out those shameless Spaniards!" ”

Fan Dimen was taken aback by his angry appearance, and hurriedly asked, "Lord Governor, what's the matter?" ”

Pushing the letterhead towards Van Diemen, Bruwen continued to growl: "I have found out that the Spaniards instructed the pirates to rob our merchant ships, and I wrote to them to return the merchant ships and the cargo, as well as the employees of our company, and they replied like this. ”

He knew that Fan Dimen coveted his position as governor, if he said what he really thought, Fan Dimen would definitely not work, and he would go directly to the sea near Manila to fire two shots and come back, at that time, what was waiting for him must be removed from his post and investigated, and Fan Dimen would be able to take the position easily. So he deliberately confused the concept and presented the letter sent by the pirate as a reply from the Spaniards, in order to provoke Van Diemen and make him hot-headed and desperate to clean up the Spaniards.

When Van Diemen picked up the letterhead, he added fuel and vinegar to the stimulus: "They are blatant contempt, contempt for our East India Company, contempt for your Second Fleet of the East, and think that we have nothing to do with them!" ”

Van Dimen was born as a commoner, he climbed up completely by ability, and what he hated most was that others doubted his ability, so he was angered by his success. After all, the governor was his immediate boss, he couldn't roar at others, he could only hold back his anger, gritted his teeth and said: "Your Excellency the governor, you give orders, I will let the Spaniards know the power of the Dutch navy." ”

Bruvine pretended to be zealous and said, "Why don't I send the fleet directly under the East India Company with you." ”

Fan Dimen replied coldly: "No need, Batavia also needs to keep people stationed, I can just take my fleet with me." ”

Bruwen sneered in his heart, added the last fire, and he pretended to hesitate: "Why don't I let someone inform the pirate Liu Xiang to help you, the Spanish army is indeed difficult to deal with, if they defend Manila City, your troops may not be enough." ”

Fan Dimen was really angry, he snorted coldly: "No need, pirates are useless in this kind of large-scale battle, aren't the Spaniards still a little garrisoned in the chicken coop in Formosa, you let Putmans lead the pirate Liu Xiang to attack there." ”

"Okay then." Bruwen pretended to be helpless and took out a piece of formal paper, brushed and signed the order, then stamped it with a seal, handed it to Fan Dimen, and solemnly ordered: "Your Excellency Fan Dimen, I now formally order you to lead the Second Eastern Fleet to attack Manila." ”

"Yes, Lord Governor." Fan Dimen snapped, gave a standard military salute, and then, taking the order, turned and walked away.

The next day, the Dutch Navy's Eastern Second Fleet fifty super battleships all set sail and went straight to Manila, the headquarters of the Spanish Empire in the East, a big war that can be recorded in the history of world colonization is about to start, and both warring sides have a pivotal position in the history of world colonization, one is the first generation of sea hegemons, and now they still rule nearly one-fifth of the world's land, and the other is the second generation of sea hegemons, during this period, their naval power exceeds that of all colonial powers combined!

Bruvine looked at the fleet, a strange smile appeared on his face, and he suddenly ordered Duvert, the commander of the fleet directly under the East India Company next to him: "Immediately gather all the warships, replenish ammunition and provisions, and be ready to support Admiral Van Dimen at any time." ”

Devette didn't dare to slack off, and immediately took the order, Bruwen looked at his back, and said proudly in his heart: "Hmph, Van Dimen, you are still a little tender, if you want to grab my position, you are ready to be cannon fodder, when you are almost consumed by the Spaniards, it will be time for me to play, and the glory of defeating the Spaniards will be mine in the end!" ”

The Dutch made such a big move, and the Manila side naturally knew about it quickly, and the Spanish governor Coquaan was also enraged, and the Dutch were too arrogant, first inexplicably accusing him of sending pirates to rob the merchant ships of the East India Company, and asking him to hand over all the merchant ships, goods and crews, and now he is silent, and directly drives the fleet over, is it really easy to bully the Spanish Empire!

He had recently heard that the Dutch merchant ships had been hijacked, and that the pirates had transported the looted goods to Manila through various means, but what did this have to do with him, the Netherlands were not allies of Spain, on the contrary, they were still enemies of Spain, and he had no obligation to help the Dutch fight pirates and collect the stolen goods.

He was originally going to watch the Dutch and the pirates fight to the death on the side with the mentality of watching the excitement, but now it's a good thing that the Dutch don't go to the pirates, they just come to him!

Corquian was not the kind of weak and incompetent, he had participated in countless battles on the American colonial side, and he was a battle-hardened veteran, and he did not panic in the face of the overwhelming superiority of the Dutch navy, but calmly issued a series of orders in response to the comparison of strength between the enemy and the enemy.

First of all, he ordered all the Spanish merchant ships to sail into the Passy River to prevent the Dutch from jumping over the wall and taking them out of anger.

He then ordered the Spanish Army, which was attacking Sulu, to withdraw all of its troops to Manila and prepare for the Dutch attack.

In the end, he had all ten super battleships of the Spanish Navy assemble at the mouth of the Passy River, and cooperate with the batteries along the coast to stop the Dutch fleet.

Manila City is a port city, located in the west of Manila Bay, on the south bank of the Passy River, with forts built on both sides of the port, which can be condescending and blockade the entire port, Corquian is not afraid of the Dutch fleet attacking from the port, but the only concern is that the Dutch will rush into the Passy River and copy it from the north, so he ordered the super battleships of the Spanish Navy to block the mouth of the Passy River. The super battleships of the Dutch, although several times larger than the Spanish Navy, were almost impossible for them to attack with the cooperation of coastal batteries.

It is said that Van Dimen came with anger, originally wanting to attack the city of Manila, but when he saw the tight defenses near the port of Manila from a distance in the telescope, his heart was also a little hairy. Of course, he was not afraid that he would not be able to beat the Spaniards, but that he was worried that the losses would be too great to go back and not be able to explain.

He calmed down and thought about it, and finally decided to salute before the soldiers, and he sent a lifeboat to send a letter to the Spanish governor Corquian, which probably meant that Corquian handed over the looted merchant ships, goods, and employees of the East India Company, and he immediately withdrew his troops, otherwise he would attack Manila.

When Corquian received the letter, he was so angry that he didn't send someone to rob the Dutch's merchant ships at all, and what did he pay, which was clearly an excuse for the Dutch, they just wanted to take down Manila and dominate the whole of Southeast Asia. Whoever is afraid of whom, he didn't bother to reply, and drove the Dutch messenger back.

Fan Dimen couldn't help but hesitate after listening to the messenger's description, this is a clear show that there is no fear, whether to fight or not?

Just as he hesitated, there was another movement in the place where the Dutch were being held in Manila, the same in Spanish, and then a captain was called out, blindfolded, and then held hostage by a dozen pirates and walked south of Manila.

As the Spaniards had returned all their forces to the castle of the Intraologus, the civilian quarters of Manila were in disarray, full of fleeing crowds, and their group was not very conspicuous, until they had bypassed the batteries on the south side of the harbor and walked another mile or two, when the captain was pushed onto a small fishing boat, and the two pirates raised the little white flag and rowed the boat towards the Dutch fleet.

When they reached the sea, which was more than a mile away from the Dutch fleet, the two pirates tore the black cloth from his eyes, and then shoved the small white flag and a letter into his hand, and dropped the sentence: "Go and give the letter to your General Van Diemen." So he jumped into the water and swam toward the shore.

The captain inexplicably looked at the letter and the small white flag in his hand, and then looked up and looked around, only to realize that not far in front of him was their Dutch fleet!

Without hesitation, he stuffed the letter into his bosom, put the little white flag on his back, and then rowed the small fishing boat desperately towards the nearest warship, shouting in Dutch as he rowed: "Don't shoot, it's your own people, don't shoot, it's your own people......." ”

This hapless and fortunate captain was soon sent to Van Dimen, who was so strange, didn't the Spaniards not intend to compromise, why did they send someone to deliver the letter so quickly, did they suddenly figure it out?

He opened the letter curiously, and almost spurted out a mouthful of blood in anger, which read:

Your Excellency General: Due to the extremely tense situation caused by your arrival, the difficulty of our search has increased exponentially, so we have to raise the price of the search, now each merchant ship needs one million taels of silver, and each crew member needs twenty thousand taels, as for the cargo on board, if you are willing to withdraw the troops immediately, we will help you buy it at the original price. Finally, we have to regret to tell you that your arrival makes us very unhappy, and we hope that you can realize your mistake and withdraw your troops immediately, otherwise the search price will rise!

Fan Dimen's face was flushed with anger, he tore the letter in his hand to shreds, and then shouted: "Order, all warships are ready to attack!" ”