Chen Shouxu heard that although the Philippines was a colony of colonies, the Spanish army in the Philippines was stronger than the Americas. If the level of Asian and American white soldiers is considered to be similar, then the Asian soldiers who are more numerous in the army are significantly more effective than the Native Americans. The Japanese Kishitan samurai and the mercenaries from India in the South Seas have a good reputation.

In Guam, Chen Shouxu wanted to test the combat effectiveness of the Philippine Spanish army. To his disappointment, however, the Spaniards abandoned the batteries and fled inland before the fleet could attack the port of Guam. It is a pity for Chen Shouxu.

Guam is not big, but it is not small. Hundreds of square kilometers of land, forty people who are familiar with the terrain hide inside, and there is no way to find it.

The fleet was anchored in the harbor. Guam has some simple ship repair facilities, and galleons are repaired here if they are damaged. The usual practice is to find a shoal, unload all equipment, empty the holds, and tie barrels and rafts to the side of the ship. Take advantage of a high tide to wash the boat onto the beach, and then pull it up to the shore by manpower, so that the bow or stern of the boat will run aground and will not be washed away by the waves. Then where to fix it.

It is conceivable that such a way of repairing a ship will do a lot of damage to the ship. It's not that it's not in a particularly bad situation, and it usually doesn't do it. In fact, it is not necessary to carry out this type of repair, as long as there are gentle shoals or sandbars and the tidal range is suitable. If the reserve buoyancy is insufficient, the sail boom and detachable mast are usually removed and tied to the side of the boat to provide additional buoyancy.

It is difficult for medium and large warships to roll over during temporary repairs, exposing the keel. Guam has artificially leveled beaches and some winches, poles and other facilities that appear to be used to assist ships in rolling. The equipment is rudimentary, just an option when you have to.

The cruiser will not be able to use the facilities in Guam. Chen Shouxu had the fleet's three sloops turn to roll the bottom of the ship on the sandbar and replace the coating to fill the seams.

Recently, Chen Shouxu has become more and more interested in the use of the sloop, and in order to sail across the ocean, the fleet's Slupp is a large model. Each ship has 8 guns, and the firepower in the Asian seas is not at all worthwhile. Schooners give Slopp more choice of wind direction, and the shallower draft is also better suited for offshore activities than cruisers.

Recently, the Tempest, Adventure, and Excellence have all been used at a high rate, but unfortunately most of the dhows captured during their time in the Americas have been abandoned, and only the current three remain. The numbers could not be increased, and Chen Shouxu could only try his best to keep them in the best condition.

Because Guam was already enemy territory, the fleet did not send more people to land except for the Marine Corps. Most of the sailors were still on board, except that some craftsmen and servants were assigned to help the crews of the three dhows.

The Spaniards retreated in a hurry, and they did their best to take away the grain and straw, and only symbolically destroyed the forts. It is a masonry structure, typical of a colonial battery. There were 6 guns and 12 swivel guns. In front of an army with ample firepower, such as Chen Shouxu's fleet, this kind of battery is useless at all. A 12-pounder cannon can be destroyed in a few strokes. But if it was the Sulu pirates who attacked, the role of the batteries would be great.

Chen Shouxu climbed to the second floor of the fort, and the fleet in the harbor waved its flag, and he thought for a long time. Many of the members of the fleet had served in the East India Companies of various countries, and were no strangers to European power in Asia.

In the 17th century, the situation in the seas of Asia was complicated. The Dutch, though the strongest, had control of all the important shipping lanes. But they were not strong enough to oppress the inshore, and the Dutch had to give priority to their right of passage in all areas except the East Indies.

Britain and the Netherlands were still allies for the time being, and the British East India Company had been with the United Dutch East India Company. While the Dutch had their headquarters in Banten, the British also had their Asian headquarters in Banten. The Dutch moved their headquarters to Batavia, and the British moved to Batavia. Amsterdam even gave the United East India Company an order to share the Spice Islands with the British. The board of directors of the United East India Company signed a joint defense treaty with the British East India Company in Amsterdam, allowing the British East India Company to buy half of the pepper in the Dutch-controlled area, and the spices shipped from the Moluccas, the United East India Company took two-thirds of it, and the British took one-third. The British were to provide 10 warships for the combined East India fleets of the two countries. In general, the British still kept the contract, and more than ten years ago, when the Dutch attacked Macao, the British sent two warships to help in the battle.

The Dutch did this mainly because of the situation in Europe, and England was their potential ally in the war with Spain.

This upset the Dutch in Batavia. The conqueror of Jakarta and the founder of the city of Batavia, Jean. Pete Eitz. Cohen's assessment of this is that "the company is embracing venomous snakes, and the British should not take even a grain of sand from the Moluccas, Ambon and Banda Islands." ”

The Batavian authorities were often at odds with the board of directors in Amsterdam, to which the governor once angrily wrote, "For the good of the company in Asia, for God's sake, I ask for autonomy to act at certain times." We are halfway around the world, and the situation is often very different from the requests to you from Batavia and the time we return......"

Amsterdam, taking into account the situation in Europe, did not agree to Batavia's request. Batavia couldn't watch the British snatch their silver, anyway, the sky was high and the emperor was far away, so they did a lot of it. The Dutch arrested ten British company employees on the grounds that the British East India Company's Ambon Merchant House was collaborating with the enemy. The Dutch accused the British of colluding with the Portuguese and the Japanese in a conspiracy to seize the Dutch fort. After being beaten into a confession, a summarized trial was made, and all ten Englishmen were executed. The British dubbed the incident the "Ambon Massacre." ”

The Ambon massacre was suppressed by the top brass of both sides, and the seventeen gentlemen of Amsterdam were worried about the strength of the British navy, and the British were not strong enough in the East Indies, so the two sides did not provoke a superficial war.

Southeast Asia had been occupied by the Dutch, Spain, and Portugal, so the British turned to eastern India in search of a territory. Although previously they built a factory in Surat and brought huge profits to the company. Although the Mughal Sultan appreciated the defeat of the British in naval battles against the Portuguese, who had no choice but to fight in India, he warned the British against the idea of gaining land in Surat.

Originally, the British wanted to work with the Dutch to make a profit in "quiet trade", and they only had trading houses in Asia, not their own territory. But after the Ambon massacre, the British and the Dutch went into a state of separation. The headquarters in Banten needed the protection of the local king, and in Batavia he was stabbed by the Dutch. The Ambon massacre was a painful lesson for the British, and they changed course.

The Portuguese controlled the west coast of India and the Malabar coast, and with the fortresses of Diu, Mumbai, and Goa, the Portuguese controlled trade in the Indian Ocean Circle. It also provided escort services for the Mughal princes and nobles on pilgrimage to Mecca.

The Dutch are eyeing the Malabar Coast.

The British realized that victory or defeat in naval battles was only temporary, and that land was the decisive factor in long-term gain. What is written at sea, after all, must be done on land.

Just last year, the British bought a plot of land on the edge of the Mughal Empire, on the inhospitable Coromante coast. The local Indian maharaja allowed the British to build forts to protect warehouses and factories. The British used the name of the fishing village before, Puerto Madras. Construction began on their first castle in India, Fort St. George. Had it not been for the Dutch's selfish monopoly on the business of the Spice Islands, the British might never have remembered to build an empire in India. And now that Chen Shouxu has arrived in Asia, a new era is about to begin.

Portugal were once the dominant seas in Asia, but now they are actually going downhill in Asia, and the competition from Britain and the Netherlands is putting them under a lot of pressure.

The Spanish were content with the Manila galleons to trade with China, and their main military resources were currently placed on the conquest of the Sulu people to the south. Of all the European colonizers, the Spaniards valued missions the most. Originally, Legazpi had consulted the king after establishing his first colony in Cebu. The Spaniards were faced with two options in the Philippines, going south or going north. To the south, they were to expand into Mindanao, occupy a solid base and invade the Spice Islands. To the north was to conquer Luzon and choose to trade with China. Considering that it was the Portuguese who controlled the Spice Islands at the time, the Spanish king chose to go north to Luzon. But after the conquest of Luzon, the Spaniards could not tolerate a Muslim country around them. So they set their sights on the south again. The Spaniards repeatedly raised armies of several thousand men to attack Mindanao in an attempt to conquer the Moros. (Spanish name for Muslims in the Philippines)

But the Muslim state of Mindanao and its nearby archipelago is not weak. Islam was introduced to Malacca from India and from Malacca to Southeast Asia. The Sulu people were also conquerors from the south, and their base camp was on the island of Hoa Le in the Sulu archipelago.

Spain's amassed power could easily wipe out an Indian empire in the Americas, but it struggled in Asia. The Sulu raised the banner of religion and unleashed jihad against the Spaniards. The initial expedition of the Spaniards was a failure, and Figueroa, the commander of the expeditionary force, was killed by the Muslims.

The Sulu not only repelled several Spanish attacks, but also launched counterattacks on Spanish territory, gathering dozens of galleys and 34,000 soldiers on several occasions to plunder the coast of the Spanish colony. Messed up the Spaniards. After more than 20 years of détente, the war has resumed. The current Governor of the Philippines, Sebastian Brown. Hurtado. Coqueira gave the territory of Mindanao to the Society of Jesuits, which received their full support. He launched a major offensive against the Muslims, conquering the capital of the Sultanate of Majindar and capturing the capital of Sulu and the island of Raku. But the Muslims did not give in to Catholicism, and they retreated into the mountains and launched a widespread attack on the Spaniards. The Spaniards were outnumbered, and the Governor of Coquilla was forced to concentrate his forces to the south. Including their garrison in Taiwan. The number of Spanish troops stationed in Taiwan has now dropped to a very dangerous level.

Dutch, Portuguese, and English, this is the main European player in this game of thrones in Southeast Asia right now. The Dutch are like the rising sun, shining brightly.

Portugal may have passed their prime, but they are still very powerful.

Spain was so preoccupied with the conquest of the Philippines that it was powerless to expand elsewhere in Asia, although there were a few Spanish adventurers, and even the ousted governor had privately organized expeditions to intervene in the Mekong region, where there was a power vacuum, and there were no Dutch and the French had not yet arrived. They gathered a few Galen and tried to control an Asian country like the Americas, but the result of that strength was to send their faces to the countryside and be beaten by the Asian villagers.

The British, on the other hand, were not strong enough, and they quietly began to lay out on the coast of Coromante.

The rest of the powers, France has not yet come. In the future, they will look at the Mekong and Chao Phraya rivers. The Swedish and Danish princes were insignificant.

The European powers were in control of the basic situation in Asia, but he was not familiar with the situation in the local Asian countries, which had a long history and complicated diplomatic, in-law, and trade ties with each other. Even the powerful United Dutch East India Company relied on cooperation with local countries, and Chen Shouxuan could not but be more cautious.

After Guam, the fleet officially entered Asia.

As a pure outsider, there is no support from the state at any cost behind it. The fleet in front of him is all his capital, and where to invest his chips, he needs to find a suitable entry point as the beginning of his intervention in Asia.

To be precise, Chen Shouxu needs to lead the party. Cai Yuanding and others are only familiar with Luzon Manila, and they do not have the ability to contact the upper echelons of Southeast Asian power at present.

Knocking off the ash of the pipe, Chen Shouxu said to Tiqi beside him, "Convene a meeting of commanders, and invite everyone to discuss important matters."