It was not the first time Christian had been to the North Port, as a Portuguese maritime merchant he came to the North Port every year to trade. But every time he arrives at Beigang www.biquge.info he can notice the changes in Beigang.

"Beigang is really developing fast, and now it has far surpassed Macau. In a few years, I am afraid that even Quanzhou will be compared to it. Looking out at the busy North Harbor terminal, Christine said to his partner Rafanelli.

"I heard they got into a fight with the Spaniards?" Rafanelli asked, "I don't know what the outcome will be." ”

"The result? My friend, what else can this do? "Actually, these Chinese don't care what you do to the diaspora outside their territory." In fact, a few years ago, the Spaniards had a large-scale massacre of Chinese expatriates, but in the end, China did not pursue them. ”

"But this time it was different, I heard that the Zheng fleet," said Raffanelli, looking around, "attacked the Spanish fleet, and captured four merchant ships with one man." ”

"What's that? The Zheng family is a businessman, and they just want to take this opportunity to blackmail a Spanish guy. In the end, the two sides will still compromise. You see, the Spaniards certainly didn't have the strength to attack Quanzhou and Beigang. Not to mention anything else, as for this fortress fortress in North Harbor, it was full of 24-pound heavy guns, and all the Spanish warships in the Far East combined could not defeat this fortress. Of course, the Spaniard's fortress in Manila was just as impregnable. My friend, you know, there is basically no other way to deal with such a fortress than by relying on a long siege, until the people in the fortress die of starvation. And whether it is the Zheng family or Spain, it is actually difficult to adopt such a long-term siege method. Since no one can eliminate the other, what other possibility is there than negotiation. However, in order to gain the upper hand in the negotiations, they must first have a good fight. For us, the longer it lasts, the better. Isn't it? Christine laughed.

Rafanelli nodded, he knew what Christine meant, it was impossible for the Spaniards to stop trading with China, and if there was no fine silk and porcelain, the meaning of the entire Far Eastern colony would be lost for the most part. So now the Spaniards are at war with the Zheng family, but on the other hand, they use Portuguese merchants like Christine, or even Dutch merchants, as intermediaries to buy goods from Beigang or Quanzhou. That's what Christine is doing today. The North Port is not far from Manila, and it can run a round trip in ten days, and the Zheng family fleet did not directly block the port of Manila. This kind of business is safe and profitable, so Christine naturally hopes that the battle between the Zheng family and the Spaniards will drag on as long as possible.

"You see?" Rafanelli suddenly saw a fleet sail into the North Port.

It was a large fleet of more than twenty ships. With the appearance of this fleet, a cheer suddenly sounded on the pier of Beigang.

"Look at those ships, aren't they the silver ships of the Spaniards? Those Chinese defeated the Spanish silver fleet and captured them! Faranelli shouted, "Oh my God! The Spaniards have lost a lot this time! They're going to go crazy, right? ”

……

Governor Aquila really felt that he was going crazy, he had been a little worried a few days earlier, when the silver fleet had not arrived, and just now, he had received bad news - some Portuguese merchants who had gone to North Harbor claimed that they had seen a silver fleet captured by the Zheng family fleet in North Harbor, including eight silver ships and two cruisers. This news means that the entire silver fleet has been wiped out.

The loss of this fleet alone was no less than the money plundered in the massacre of the Chinese organized by Aquila. Combined with the losses caused by the embargo, the losses of this massacre of the Chinese have outweighed its gains. And as the war continues, the embargo continues, this loss continues to expand.

Aquila knew that he had underestimated the strength of the Zheng family and their ability to act, which had caused a lot of losses to Spain, and now he could only reach a new peace with the Zheng family as soon as possible, otherwise, if nothing else, his governor would probably have done it.

But the conditions originally proposed by the Zheng family were so harsh that if Aquila agreed to such conditions, he would also lose his political life, and in order to save his political life, he must ensure that the agreement he reached with the Zheng family must be an "equal agreement".

But Aquila knows that in the current situation, he cannot get any "equal agreement", and how can the side that is at a disadvantage on the battlefield get an "equal agreement"?

"I think we have to find a way to defeat the Zheng family's fleet in one fell swoop through a decisive battle at sea, and only in this way can we get an acceptable peace. And how to defeat the Zheng family's fleet, do you have any way? Governor Aquila asked those who were attending the meeting.

"Mr. Governor, I have an idea." One person said.

"Oh, Mr. Borg, what do you have in mind?" Aquila frowned. He made his own decision to massacre the Chinese, which led to the current troublesome situation, largely because of the instigation of this guy.

"The problem now, Mr. Governor, is that we have suffered losses on the battlefield, but the Zheng family has profited from the war. So in such a situation, the Zheng family will definitely not have the sincerity to negotiate peace. If we want to negotiate peace, we must be able to cause considerable losses to the Zheng family. "So, I think, our fleet should take the initiative to attack them, rather than be led around by the nose." ”

After hearing this, Governor Aquila thought for a moment and said, "Colonel Nelson, has our fleet directly attacked the enemy's harbor, or blocked its forces?" ”

"Mr. Governor," replied Nelson, "our fleet is naturally stronger than the fleet of the pirates, but it is very difficult to attack their harbors. According to the information we have obtained now, whether it is Beigang or Quanzhou, there are strong forts. If our warships were to attack the harbors, they would have to fight these batteries -- and that would be very much the case -- so it would be very difficult to attack them directly. ”

Aquila nodded, he knew that it would be almost suicidal to let the navy's fleet smash the coastal defense batteries. The position of the turret is higher, so the range of the turret is obviously superior to that of the naval gun when using the same artillery; Moreover, as a firing platform, the warship is shaky, but the battery is stable, so in terms of shooting accuracy, the battery can also overwhelm the naval gun; Not to mention, the fort is carried by the earth, which can be defended almost infinitely, and the warship has a maximum of about one meter thick planks to defend against shelling, but on the side of the battery, as long as there is a need, it is no problem to build a few meters of granite in front of the cannon as a cover. Therefore, in general, to capture the coastal defense battery, you can only rely on the roundabout attack of the army, and rely on the fleet to do it hard, that is almost to give the enemy medals. And through the roundabout attack of the army, Spain only had more troops in the Far East, and there was no need to think about it at all.

"Mr. Governor, I don't mean to attack Beigang and Quanzhou, for it would be militarily easy for us to find ourselves in the predicament of the Dutch fleet. And if we try to blockade these two ports, it is likely that those who are eager to trade with them will also declare war on us. We can't attack them like this, but learn from them and take the initiative to attack their trade routes. Mr. Governor, I suppose that the Zheng family's fleet has just attacked our merchant fleet twice, and it is impossible for them to be without losses. After so many battles, both their ships and men need to rest, and for some time to come, they will most likely not be at sea. Like us, there was a trade route that was very important to the Zheng family, and that was their route to Japan. Mr. Governor, you know that this route used to bring them huge revenues every year. And because of the Japanese shogunate's current closed country policy, we can no longer trade with the Japanese, and all trade with Japan is controlled by the Zheng family. Therefore, the Zheng family's gains on this route must be greater than in previous years. We can take advantage of the fact that their fleet is repairing and attack the trade routes between them and Japan and capture their merchant ships. In this way, we can make up for our losses, and secondly, it can also make them understand that war will not only hurt our interests. I believe that if we can cut off the trade routes between them and Japan, we will be able to bring them to the negotiating table, and we will also allow them to be more pragmatic in their terms. ”

Hearing this, Aquila nodded, and then said to Colonel Nelson, "Colonel, what do you think of this suggestion to attack the trade route between the Zheng family and Japan?" ”

Colonel Nelson thought for a moment and said, "This plan works. Moreover, we can also lure the Zheng family's fleet out by attacking this trade route, and then kill them all at once. ”

……

"Mr. Fabio, how long do our ships need to be repaired in the dockyard?" Zheng Sen asked.

"Ah, Major General, you must know that the degree of damage to each ship is different, for example, the 'Endeavour', which only has a little skin injury, so it is the fastest to repair, and it can be rebuilt by the day after tomorrow, but at least two of those fast transport ships that were injured in the storm are actually no longer worth repairing. In addition, it is estimated that the two captured cruisers will take at least half a year to be repaired. ”