"After all, we still have too few people in the Far East!" Aquila ended her conversation with Franco with such a sentence. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 After all, things in Manila are no longer something he needs to continue to think about.

A day later, Aquila boarded a cruiser to Mexico, which he would take back to Europe. It is more convenient to take this route than to go west around the entire African continent, including the stormy and cape of Good Hope.

……

Time flies, and in a blink of an eye it is March 1641. Riding the trade winds, several more Spanish ships arrived in Manila, and the Zheng family spies in Manila soon discovered that the Spaniards had begun to dig a new dock near the Manila Battery.

It's just that at this time, Zheng Sen didn't have time to take care of this matter, because he received Zheng Zhilong's order to return to Anping immediately.

"Huang Taiji, this is just an old trick to encircle the battle of the Daling River and send reinforcements. Rushing to send troops, not only can not keep Jinzhou, but I estimate that even the more than 100,000 troops of Inspector Hong may not be able to have a good result. Sitting in the cabin of the Feiyan, Zheng Sen saw that Kong Zhang had finished reading the letter in his hand, so he said this to him.

"Da Mu, if you come to command, how do you plan to fight this battle?" Kong Zhang asked.

Zheng Sen smiled and said: "I'm not modest, you said that I am just a young man, how can I command more than 100,000 proud soldiers under the command of the nine general soldiers?" You'd better be smart. ”

"I didn't really let you go, just said that if you are Inspector Hong, how do you fight?" Kong Zhang's eyes widened, and he was obviously not satisfied with Zheng Sen's excuses.

"Brother Bangui, if I were really Master Hong, I would probably be really sad to death at this time. It's hard! Zheng Sen let out a long sigh and said, "You see, although there are nine general soldiers and 150,000 troops in the hands of Inspector Hong, there are not many of them who can really fight. is what can be beaten, and the only ones that Inspector Hong can really command are his old subordinates. The rest are mostly people who hold their own worries hostage and are afraid of the serious. is the so-called 'uneven army strength', how to fight the Tartars. From a military point of view alone, the first thing to do is to delay, and it is best to delay it until April and May, when the sea ice along the coast has melted and the food is ready, and then the army of more than 100,000 people will be concentrated together and slowly advance along the coast. Nowadays, although my Daming is not very good at fighting the Tartars on land, he still has an advantage at sea. Uncle Jia is also among the nine generals this time. Although my uncle was good at fighting, he still suffered a loss against the Tartars in land battles. If the army marches along the coast and covers each other at sea, at least food and grass are much more secure. In this way, slowly advance to Jinzhou, and then choose an island or peninsula to be a place to store grain, and send troops to defend it. He also built a wharf as a way out, and then slowly tried to forge ahead. There are few Tartars, and they can't afford to spend it on the dead slowly. If you can't say it, you can solve the siege. It's just that this plan is one thing to say, but it's another thing to really do it, and most of the time it's useless. ”

Kong Zhang listened to it and said strangely: "I listen to Da Mu's plan, although it is quite a bit afraid of the enemy, but it should still be feasible to think about it, how can it be useless?" ”

"Most of the things I can think of, Inspector Hong can think of, but there are some things that Inspector Hong can control. And this plan, there is one biggest problem, but it is also impossible for Inspector Hong to solve. Zheng Sen shook his head and said.

"What's the problem?" Kong Zhang hurriedly asked.

"It's nothing, it's just that the court has no money." Zheng Sen spread his hands and smiled.

……

This time, Zheng Zhilong summoned Zheng Sen back, and the most important thing was related to the upcoming Battle of Songshan. In the original history, my Ming Dynasty lost the last troops with some combat effectiveness in the great war of gambling on the national fortune in Songshan, thus ruining the national fortune of the Ming Dynasty for nearly 300 years. In this time and space, the battle took place, and later last year, Huang Taiji besieged Jinzhou, just like in history, thus opening the prelude to the Battle of Songshan.

However, in this plane, there are some things that are different from the Battle of Matsuyama. For example, in history, the 8th general army of 130,000 became the 9th general army of 150,000. Among them, there is Zheng Sen's second uncle Zheng Zhihu, a general soldier.

Zheng Zhihu is now serving as the chief soldier of the Dengzhou Naval Division, and there are almost 10,000 people in the mess of ships and sailors under him. Over the years, our Ming army has been beaten by Jianshen in various tricks, and only Zheng Zhihu's team can go out from time to time to bully the fishermen of Jianshen (in fact, they are mainly Koreans). Although Zheng Zhihu's soldiers were also beaten by Jianshen on the shore in the last battle of Jianzhihu's breakthrough, this also proves that Zheng Zhihu "dares to fight", which is already a very rare quality among my Ming generals. In addition, Zheng Zhihu and Hong Chengchou are fellow villagers, and the relationship between the Zheng family and the Hong family is also very close. So when Hong Chengchou was ordered to save Jinzhou, he pulled Zheng Zhihu. In Hong Chengchou's opinion, in addition to his old subordinates, such as Cao Bianjiao and others, Zheng Zhihu can also be regarded as a more reliable force (at least compared to Guan Ningjun, who is known for being good at pitting people).

Zheng Zhilong knew that this battle was not trivial, and after getting the news, he hurriedly sent someone to summon Zheng Sen back to discuss the matter.

"Daddy, in this battle, my Ming soldiers will only be 150,000, and most of the soldiers on the Jianxuan side will send troops to pour the country, and I am afraid that there will be more than 100,000 people. If the 150,000 people of my Ming Dynasty had fought more than 100,000 gills, they would have been destroyed a long time ago. I'm afraid this battle will most likely not work. But the second uncle doesn't have to worry too much. I think the reason why Inspector Hong wants to bring the second uncle is probably also preparing to use the second uncle's army to transport grain and grass or something, and he doesn't plan to let the second uncle take the lead. As long as the second uncle stays with the fleet at all times, there will be absolutely no danger. If Daddy is still not at ease, he can also transfer a model army of 1,000 people from Jeju Island to serve as a guard for the second uncle, so that it will be even more foolproof. Faced with Zheng Zhilong's question, Zheng Sen thought about it and replied.

"No, this model army can't be commanded by your second uncle." Zheng Zhilong shook his head, "Your second uncle is a crazy person, he has always been a troublemaker, and he has never been able to suffer losses. The last time he suffered a little loss from the Tartars, he has always been obsessed with it, always thinking about revenge. If he had a model army of more than 1,000 people, God knows what kind of mess he could make. Besides, your second uncle is a real person, not as treacherous as the other guys. Now in this army, there are really a lot of treacherous guys. Don't talk about Guan Ningjun's gang, it's famous. And that Wang Pu is also a treacherous guy. Your second uncle and these people will suffer if they can't keep it...... Well, Assen, there's nothing big going on in Taiwan lately, right? ”

Hearing this question, Zheng Sen knew that his father probably wanted to send him over to help his second uncle, so he replied: "Recently, there is a brand new musket, and a steel cannon is being tested, and other than that, there are not too many things in Taiwan." But Daddy, the Spaniards did make some moves on the Luzon side. ”

Zheng Zhilong also knows the actions of the Spaniards.

"The Spaniards are building a shipyard now, and the scale is not small, what do you think they are thinking?" Zheng Zhilong asked.

"Daddy, this year the Spaniards have sent another fleet from Europe, and among them are two second-class battleships, and in terms of cannons alone, this warship has a lot more cannons than ours. However, the Spaniards also understood that they did not have the ability to quickly repair warships of this level, and if they really wanted to fight, their two warships would be unusable for more than half a year after one use. You can't fight us with this. That's why they hurriedly built a shipyard. However, it will take some time for this shipyard to be built, and in a short time, the Spaniards will not make any big trouble. At least not until the shipyard is built. Zheng Sen replied, "When their shipyard is built, our blast furnace in Qiongzhou should be iron, and then our warships can be replaced with steel cannons, and when the time comes, they will not be our opponents at sea." ”

"Damu, will the Spaniards build ships directly in Manila and learn from us to build some clippers, so that they can attack our route with Japan when the time comes?" Zheng Zhilong said again.

"If you want to build a new ship, you need a lot of timber that has already been dried, and if you really want to build a big ship, I'm afraid it will take a few years."

Zheng Zhilong nodded after hearing this and said, "Since this is the case, then you can estimate it yourself, take a few boats and guards, and go to your second uncle first." ”