"Do you have the confidence that if you sail to the South Seas after next spring and start a decisive battle with your opponents in the South Seas? At this time, Xiao Xuan suddenly asked Li Yuan.

Of course, Li Yuan also knew some general information about the remnants of the Western enemies in Nanyang, so he said confidently: "I have this ability!" Although the scale of the remnants of the Western Ocean in the South Seas has increased to a great extent in recent years, according to the materials provided by the king, most of the big ships that are really threatening will retreat to the Americas, and it is difficult to have the courage to cross such a long distance to come to the South Seas. According to our understanding, the reinforcements of the Netherlands, Spain and even Britain with Batavia and Manila as the core, plus the original strength, are about 20,000 sailors and fleets, and the scale of combat ships is about 60,000 or 70,000 tons, most of which are small boats or armed merchant ships of about 1,200 tons, and the sail battleships in the serious sense should be about 278 ships of 10,000 tons, and in the face of them with different core henchmen, Our army can also choose the method of breaking each one... ”

Xiao Xuan also felt in his estimation that if these ships of about four or five hundred tons with the protection of the ship's side armor did not have serious problems with their quality, the tactics were used properly, and they also had obvious quantitative advantages, there should be no problem. Even if the defeat greatly reduced or wiped out the preparations in the past two years, it still played a large role in testing the strength of one's own strength and the enemy's army. Of course, Xiao Xuan did not have the confidence to let this fledgling navy go to the Western Ocean or the New World to fight against the main force of the Western European navy, but the Nanyang sea power was indeed a good test subject. If this approach proves to be feasible in practice, and eventually fights for control of the entire South Seas, then some key timber sources can be obtained at a relatively low cost, and the foundation for building Western sea ships and developing a more combat-ready fleet will be available.

"In that case, let's temporarily convene the new Admiralty to discuss the relevant battle plans for the liberation of Java and Mania!" Xiao Xuan finally made up his mind and said.

The primary goal of the battle plan is also self-evident, that is, to get closer to the remnants of the enemy in the Philippines. According to the intelligence obtained on the internal and external lines, the Spaniards in the Philippines have twelve capital ships, and some armed merchant ships with not small specifications, and the strength of the troops cannot be ignored, because of some conflicts of interest and even connections, compared with Batavia, the enemy situation in the Philippine Islands is also more clear: perhaps because the threat at sea is too great, at this time, the Spanish maritime power in the Philippine Islands will concentrate the forces around Sanyanbao to Manila, In addition to the armed merchant ships and large sea vessels with a total tonnage of more than 30,000 tons, it also has a regular land force of tens of thousands of people, with a total land and sea strength of 20,000 people.

However, Xiao Xuan was not willing to gamble with a military force of about 20,000 people. In the plan, the elite main force of the volunteer troops who followed the fleet to participate in the war was only about 2,000 people, and the total number of the entire fleet was about 7,000 people.

The Zheng family's greater compromise also brought more benefits than in history, and despite the limited scale, they had significantly more decent firearms and artillery than they did in history.

Of course, there were also about 3,000 troops with 30 warships as the core, and the main fleet formed a main fleet of 10,000 people to carry out operations, which were used to first seek a decisive battle with the enemy's sea forces.

At this time, the Spaniards also paid more attention to the threat in the direction of Chinese mainland than history, and after the arrival of the spring of the tenth year of Chongzhen, when the ship group began to assemble in the Fujian area, Manila also heard the news of the possible arrival of the main fleet of the Ming army.

Because many people already had an understanding of the most elite forces of the strong enemy in the east during the expeditionary operations back then, they did not have much fear of war this time. Since the beginning of the year, the maritime forces under the Philippine Governor General have also made a lot of preparations to deal with the tactics of blasting fireships. In terms of land armed forces, a lot of excellent steel car shields have been added, and even blasting rods and heavy guns that imitate the opponent have been added, which is very different from the original response ability, so the voice advocating retreating to the Sanyanbao area is not strong.

However, for some reason, the Spanish governor in charge of the defense of the Philippines still said: "The threat of the opponent at sea should not be very large, according to intelligence, those ships are not keel warships in the Western pattern, although the tonnage is okay, but it must not be able to arrange too powerful firepower, and it is not justified to sail in the open sea." It would be great if the enemy intended to engage us head-on at sea during the day. However, I am concerned that they will first choose to bypass the sea defenses and attack Manila by land from other directions. Compared to the water fleets of the Orientals, who had just been created and did not have much experience in naval warfare, their ground forces were a little more troublesome... ”

"It's not too difficult to ask, the main force of the sea fleet can wait for them on the northern coast of the harbor. Their experience in the open sea is still far from ours, and even if it is not too far away, they will ultimately have to rely on the coastline to the west of Luzon Island to determine the location of Manila. If their skills on the water are not strong, they can directly let their fleet and the marines who may accompany them sink in the sea or go to the natives in the mountains and forests to beg for food... ”

The governor of Manila did not object to this approach in the end, after all, judging from reliable sources, the main fleet of enemy ships that came this time should not be large. In the absence of a significant difference in numbers and tonnage, it is almost impossible for the sea forces of the East to defeat the Western fleet head-on, and even decent armed merchant ships have considerable combat effectiveness in the East in this era.

"When fighting, try to avoid night or when it's almost night, even if we have some preparations. Their ships should not be very strong, and when they are engaged, they should try to deprive them of the ability to move by long-range means, and then artillery bombardment is the most effective way to win... ”

Hearing these advices, the general who led the fleet to prepare for the expedition did not think so: "I will be able to adapt to these things, and I will be very cautious... ”

(End of chapter)