Chapter 348: Intention

Although in the eyes of some people, it is unlikely that even if a merchant ship acts alone, it is not very likely to be attacked, after all, such a large fleet, even Liu Renliang's fleet boasts that it is not capable of being an enemy - otherwise, more than 300 large merchant ships with a self-weight of more than 2,000 tons or even 3,000 tons will collide together, then even a third-class sail battleship may not be able to withstand it.

Although it is unlikely, it is possible after all, and it is better to be more vigilant......

The reason why Qi Bin asked this is precisely because of this, after all, it is likely that the next war will start soon, and it is difficult to say when this war will be fought, most of these merchant ships are transporting the materials urgently needed by the Spice Islands, and if they are allowed to follow the fleet to continue their operations, it is likely to delay the construction of the Spice Islands. In that case, it is better to let the merchant fleet go to the Spice Islands first.

"No, it's not clear where our current enemy is, what if they let them attack the merchant ships?" Liu Renliang categorically vetoed, although the scale of the merchant fleet is large, and ordinary people can't afford to provoke it at all, but unfortunately the enemy they are facing is likely to be a group of enemies who are already extremely short of supplies, even if the merchant fleet is large, but in the face of a group of enemies who are already going crazy, they are likely to attack the fleet desperately - after all, even their lives are dying, where can they care if the enemy is strong enough? If you fight once, you may survive, but if you don't fight hard, it will really be a dead end.

Such a choice, as long as it is a person who knows how to choose.

Correspondingly, once the fleet is attacked, even if Liu Renliang finally destroys the enemy, this credit will be tainted after all - after all, before he left, he and Li Zhen had promised Li Shimin that he would escort the merchant ship to the Spice Islands intact.

Besides, this time such a large-scale transportation, the materials in the fleet can not be described as worth tens of thousands, once the loss is ten thousand taels of gold, even if Li Zhen gathers so many materials, it is not easy, almost hollowing out the entire Lingnan market, and even causing the price of such materials to skyrocket, so even if it is a little loss, Liu Renliang can't afford to pay for it.

"Then why don't you let the Quanzhou fleet escort the fleet first?" Qi Bin proposed again.

"Huh?" Liu Renliang's heart moved, this is indeed a good choice.

To be honest, Liu Renliang also dislikes the Quanzhou fleet very much - speaking of which, the previous contradiction is indeed that the Yuezhou fleet is wrong, but no matter how wrong it is, let's just sit down and discuss it carefully, and we can always come up with a result that satisfies both sides, why do you have to make trouble with Your Majesty? I was scolded by His Majesty, I really don't understand the rules.

So for the Quanzhou fleet, Liu Renliang's impression is not good, if it weren't for the people behind the Quanzhou fleet are Li Ji and Li Zhen, if he can't afford to offend, he would have left the Quanzhou fleet far behind, and taught them a good lesson - don't think that the performance of the ship is the same, you can run at the same speed, the performance of the ship is important, but the more important thing is the person who drives the ship.

After all, the situation at sea is complicated, and the veterans of the Yuezhou fleet can rely on their rich experience at sea to make different responses according to different situations, but the Quanzhou fleet is only a new navy, and in addition to what they have learned in textbooks, they have at most turned around the coastal waters twice, but they have not conducted many training sessions in the open sea.

According to the information that Liu Renliang knew, the Quanzhou fleet had been running with him for such a period of time, and their fleet had frequent problems, and there were even low-level mistakes such as two ships colliding that only novices would make.

However, the two sides are now in contradiction, the Quanzhou fleet cannot give in to the Yuezhou fleet, and the Yuezhou fleet will not take the initiative to teach them maritime experience - and because of the lack of experience, the Quanzhou fleet can be said to have exhausted the foreign appearance, and the Yuezhou fleet has seen enough jokes.

"Isn't that bad?" Liu Renliang was very moved by what Qi Bin said about sending the Quanzhou fleet to escort merchant ships to the Spice Islands, but he thought that if he did this, he was afraid that it would be difficult to go back and explain to the prince and His Majesty - after all, before he came, the prince and His Majesty had specially instructed him to let himself bring more Quanzhou fleet, after all, they had no experience.

Not only is it just that he doesn't lead the Quanzhou fleet now, after all, there are contradictions between the two sides, and he can completely put the blame on the Quanzhou fleet - it can be said that they have a grudge and are unwilling to listen to their own side to teach their experience, which can also be said.

But now to send them to the spice islands where birds don't, this is too biased, after all, he is still the head of the Lingnan Naval Region, and the Quanzhou fleet is also his own subordinate fleet, if he does this, not only will he give people an intolerable impression, I am afraid that His Majesty and the crown prince will also be unhappy in their hearts, which will have a great impact on their future.

Qi Bin smiled: "What's wrong with this? After all, this should be the best way at the moment, whether it is to search for the enemy or escort merchant ships is an extremely important task, it is better to carry out the two lines together, and it is certainly not safe along the way, it is reasonable to use half a fleet escort - and the danger on the way is not great, and it is also considered to be useful to use an inexperienced novice escort, so that your side will immediately start a war with the enemy, but you will also send the veterans out to perform other tasks, leaving yourself with a group of recruits who don't know if they can be used, right? ”

"If you say that, there is some truth......" Liu Renliang thought about it, this is indeed the case, I don't know how the next battle will be, maybe it will be an extremely tragic battle, he can guarantee that the Yuezhou fleet will not have any damage, but he can't guarantee that there will be any damage to a disobedient fleet, after all, he is the supreme commander of the two fleets, in case the Quanzhou fleet suffers heavy losses, then he can't explain it.

"Then so be it, order the Quanzhou fleet to separate from us at once, escort the merchant ships to the Spice Islands, and the Yuezhou fleet will stay ready to fight at any time." Having made up his mind, Liu Renliang immediately passed down the order.

"Yes." The herald immediately jumped out of the transport boat and went to the rear to convey the order - if you count the merchant ships, this is a fleet of 670 large and small ships, according to the safe travel distance between the major ships at least one mile, this is a huge fleet of at least a few tens of square kilometers, if you just rely on the flag to convey information, it is inevitably too slow, so this kind of light and fast transport boat has become an essential means of transportation for the fleet.

(End of chapter)