Whether this shocking war can start or not is not in the hands of Zheng Zhilong, but in the hands of Dutch Admiral Van Mendi. Why? Because Zheng Zhilong can win but can't fight, while Fan Mendi can't win but wants to fight.

This seems to be a bit contradictory, but this is the case, the situation on the battlefield is very clear, the Ming Navy has an absolute advantage in both the number of warships and the terrain, once it starts, it is almost guaranteed to win, but after the victory, the opposite side is the coalition of the five major powers, does the Ming now have the strength of one against five? Obviously, he didn't have it yet, so Zheng Zhilong didn't dare to provoke a war easily.

As for Fan Mendi, since he led the fleet back to the Far East, he has always wanted to fight with the Ming Empire, because if he doesn't fight, he will have no chance to avenge the capture, and more importantly, if the Ming Empire is not defeated, the Dutch East India Company will not be able to develop, so he has always wanted to fight.

However, the strength of the Ming Dynasty in the Far East is not an ordinary terror, it is difficult to win a local war, and if you know that you can't win and still fight, then you are not looking for death!

Like this time, the number of warships of the Ming Empire far exceeded that of the coalition army, and the coalition army was also divided into two sections, which could not be coordinated at all, and the Ming Dynasty also had countless artillery support on both sides of the strait.

The last defeat in Manila Bay has always been an eternal pain in Fanmendi's heart, in this kind of terrain that is more unfavorable than Manila Bay, he really can't muster a trace of courage to shout and fight, holding the telescope and gritting his teeth for a long time, Fanmendi finally unwillingly ordered: "Hit the flag, ask for dialogue." “

The herald behind him immediately raised the flag and made a few movements, and the standard-bearer on the mast immediately waved the flag to the Ming army on the opposite side, and soon there was a reply from the opposite side.

The herald said with some trepidation: "Report, Your Excellency General, please come over." “

"Hmph" Fan Mendi snorted coldly, his expression becoming more and more angry, but in the end, he still ordered indignantly: "Order the guards to assemble and recruit another sailboat." “

The guards were quickly assembled, and a sailing ship quickly approached the flagship, Fan Mendi led dozens of guards to step on the sailing boat, and rushed towards the direction of the Ming fleet, he was not afraid of what the Ming army would do to him, if he dared to do it, the Ming army would have done it a long time ago, and the Ming Empire, the force behind him, was quite fearful, and he knew this very well.

As soon as the sailing oars sailed out of the fleet group, a fortune ship with a flywheel immediately sailed out of the Ming fleet group, leading the sailing oars in the direction of Xingcheng Port.

Passing through the dense groups of Ming warships, and in the distance is a dense array of Ming warships, starting with a huge treasure ship battleship, Fan Mendi knows, that is the flagship of the Ming Empire's Zhennan King Nicolai, looking at the huge hull, he is envious and jealous and hateful, the Ming Empire loves to play the score, don't you want money to build such a huge battleship? It's kind of you building a fleet!

Came to the side of the treasure ship giant ship, a huge ladder slowly stretched out from the giant ship, just a few steel cables were hanging, and there was no need for people to carry it at all, Fan Mendi was jealous again, the Ming Empire This kind of thing that can output huge power, the Netherlands has been researching, but it can't be studied, it's really annoying.

He led the guards to step up the huge ladder to the deck in a huff, at this time there was a huge phalanx in the center of the deck, densely packed with at least hundreds of people, Zheng Zhilong actually set up a big conference table in front of the phalanx, just sat on the side of the conference table with such a big grin, looking at him with a smile.

Fan Mendi snorted coldly, walked straight to the other side of the conference table with his guards, sat down, and then said solemnly: "Your Highness Nikolai, what do you mean, why do you want to prevent us from joining the fleet of the coalition forces?" “

Zheng Zhilong said solemnly: "It's not interesting, it's just acting according to the will of His Majesty the Emperor of our Ming Empire." “

Fan Mendi asked, "Then what do you mean by His Majesty the Emperor of the Ming Empire?" “

Zheng Zhilong hurriedly arched his hand towards the north and said, "How dare I speculate on the meaning of His Majesty the Emperor. “

This is clearly perfunctory, Fan Mendi said sharply: "I don't care what you mean, please withdraw all the warships immediately." “

Zheng Zhilong pretended to be afraid and said: "No, no, no, that's a protest against the will, and the resistance to the decree is to kill the head." “

Fan Mendi is so angry, just look at the attitude of this thing, you know that this matter has nothing to talk about at all, and he called me over without talking about it, isn't this clearly playing tricks on me!

The more he thought about it, the more angry he became, and in the end he was really angry, so he directly slapped the table and stood up, pointed at Zheng Zhilong and said, "Don't think that we won't be able to converge here, let's see." “

Zheng Zhilong was not angry this time, but waved his hand with a smile: "Then I won't send it." “

Fan Mendi snorted angrily, turned around and left.

Zheng Zhilong looked at Fan Mendi's back, his smile slowly disappeared, and his face showed a worried look, of course he knew what the emperor meant, the emperor did this just to delay time, but in this way, it can be delayed for a month, can you win Donghu in a month?

He also knew that there was not only one way to Batavia, but also that the combined European fleet could bypass the long island of Sumatra from the south and reach Batavia, but that would be more time-consuming, because the currents there were very unstable and there was a high risk of storms, so most ships chose the calmer Strait of Malacca instead of venturing to the south.

There is no typhoon forecast now, and the direction of the wind and the direction of the current are very important when the sailboat is sailing, if the wind and the current are against the current, let alone forward, it is difficult to stabilize and not retreat, if you go to the south of Sumatra, if you are lucky, you will probably be able to get to Batavia in a month, if you are unlucky, you will be blown away by the storm, and it would be good to have a few warships left.

This is not alarmist, Spain is almost only such a distance from England, but Spain organized five armada expeditions to Britain, and each time it encountered a storm at sea and suffered heavy losses, which shows the terrible storm at sea at this time.

Fan Mendi returned to the flagship in a huff, stood at the bow of the ship and thought for a long time, and finally said dejectedly: "Order, close the team, retreat." “

There's no way, there's really no chance of winning at all, it's useless for him to fight anymore, what's the point of asking his subordinates to follow him to death, maybe after their annihilation, they will arouse the anger of the alliance and run to the Far East to fight the Ming Empire, but at that time, if he doesn't die, he is also a prisoner, and these are meaningless to him.

Fan Mendi really didn't understand what His Majesty the Emperor of the Ming Empire meant, did it make sense to block the difficulties here, it was a big deal to let the combined fleet go south of Sumatra, although it may encounter a storm, but as long as you walk slowly along the coast and pay attention at any time, it will not cause too much damage, does he want the combined fleet to be blown away by the storm like the Spanish Invincible Fleet? That's because Spain is afraid of French misunderstanding and doesn't dare to drive along the French coast, are we afraid of the indigenous misunderstanding of Sumatra?

As for the issue of delaying time and taking down Donghu, he won't even think about it, what are you kidding, Donghu is not a small country, even if they don't resist and let you take it piece by piece, it won't be able to be collected in a month!