"Ladies and gentlemen, I have just received the news that the Portuguese fleet will enter the Strait of Malacca tomorrow, and will appear off the coast of Malacca the day after tomorrow at the latest. In the yamen of the prefect's palace in Malacca, Wang Shouren asked the people below with a serious face, since receiving the news of the Portuguese attack, Wang Shouren rushed from Shanghai to Malacca to sit in the town, after all, he is not Zhou Chong, there is a war in Nanyang Zhou Chong only needs to sit in the rear, but Wang Shouren does not have so much prestige, so he can only do it himself.

Hearing Wang Shouren's words, Qu Lie, who was in charge of the First Squadron of the South Seas, immediately stood up and said: "Your Excellency, the port of Malacca is very important, and the Portuguese must not be allowed to approach the port, so the last general thinks that when the fleet is sent to fight a decisive battle with the Portuguese in the strait, with the strength of our First Fleet, it will not be difficult to defeat the other party!" ”

Qu Lie didn't say much, their first fleet had thirty warships, but the Portuguese who came this time only twenty-five, and the Ming navy after these years of development, the warships were better than the Portuguese, plus the other party was a labor expedition, Qu Lie They were waiting for work, so Qu Lie had full confidence to defeat the other party.

However, for Qu Lie's words, Wang Shouren shook his head and said: "The Portuguese are afraid of power but not virtue, last time His Royal Highness King Zhao wiped out their entire army, but it only made them honest for a few years, this time they will attack again, then we must beat them in one fell swoop, and even directly send troops to the Indian Ocean to destroy the Portuguese ports there." Eliminate this hidden danger once and for all! ”

Wang Shouren deserves to be the one who can take over Zhou Chong's position, for the Portuguese to commit this matter. He coincided with Zhou Chong's opinion that the Portuguese should be driven out of the Indian Ocean completely.

"Your Excellency, what do you mean, do you want to annihilate the Portuguese who have come to invade?" At this time, Tang Bohu, who was the prefect of Malacca, also said that although he was a civil official, Malacca was under his rule, so he naturally had to participate in such a meeting.

"Yes, Portugal is a maritime power in Europe. But after all, it is only a small country, the population of the country is not large, the last battle of Malacca, so Portugal lost more than 2,000 people, which is already a pain in the bones for them, even after a few years of accumulation, their troops in the Indian Ocean have been around 3,000 to 5,000. The twenty-five warships sent this time are already most of their forces in India, if they can destroy this fleet in one fell swoop, then the Portuguese will have no troops to defend in India, and then our Ming Navy will drive the warships to the Indian Ocean, then the other side will only have one way to surrender! ”

Wang Shouren talked about sending troops to Nanyang. He was also very excited, after all, the work of opening up the territory was enough for the feudal lords in any dynasty, and Zhou Zhong laid such a good foundation for him, if he couldn't seize this opportunity to wipe out the Portuguese in the Indian Ocean in one fell swoop. I'm really sorry for how much Zhou Zhong values him.

However, Qu Lie smiled bitterly at this time and said, "Your Excellency Governor, although we have an advantage in troops. But the strength of the Portuguese is not bad, even if we can defeat them, but if we want to annihilate them, it is simply impossible, unless we lead them all to the shore, but after the Portuguese suffered such a big loss in Malacca last time, I am afraid that before destroying our navy, will they make the same mistake again. ”

Naval warfare is different from land warfare, for example, it is easy to defeat the opponent at sea, but it is not so easy to completely annihilate the opponent, unless it is with the help of special sea terrain, or several times the opponent's troops, it is possible to completely annihilate the opponent at sea, otherwise people will scatter the warships to escape, and the winning side will not dare to disperse its forces to chase at all.

Wang Shouren is a person who knows the soldiers, he has served in the governor's palace in the past few years, he has often been in contact with the navy, and he is also very familiar with the methods of naval warfare, and knows that what Qu Lie said is not wrong, but he has long been in the chest.

"General Qu doesn't have to worry, Governor Ben has already thought about this issue before he came!" Wang Shouren said and pointed to the Malacca terrain sand table in front of him and said: "Everyone, please see, the Strait of Malacca is a long and narrow strait, the narrowest place is our Malacca port to the opposite side of the Rupa Island, this strait only needs a small number of warships to block it, if we divide the army into two teams, one to fight with the Portuguese, and lead the other party through Malacca to the line of Lupa Island during the battle, and then the other fleet completely blocks this strait, then the Portuguese fleet will become a fish in the net, and there is no possibility of escape!" ”

Wang Shouren had been to Malacca before, and he had also studied the topography of this strait, and knew where the best place to ambush was, so he had already made a plan to annihilate the Portuguese fleet before he came.

However, for Wang Shouren's plan, Qu Lie once again put forward a different opinion: "Your Excellency Governor, our first squadron of the South Seas stationed in Malacca only has thirty warships, on the surface, it may be stronger than the Portuguese fleet, but we have never fought the Portuguese warships head-on, the reason why we were able to destroy the Portuguese fleet last time was all by surprise sneak attacks, so although we are confident, we only have a chance of winning six or seven percent, but if we divide the troops into two places, I am afraid that it will be broken by the Portuguese, and then the navy will be defeated, and it may be difficult to protect the safety of the port by relying on the port defense force of Malacca alone. ”

"Haha~, General Qu, don't worry, I'm not so confused, I won't let your first fleet separate, the second fleet stationed in the old port has received my order, and it will come over yesterday and this afternoon, and let them ambush on the north side of Lupa Island, and when you lead the Portuguese through Lupa Island, they will block the strait, and then they will catch turtles in the urn, and don't worry that the Portuguese can escape!" Wang Shouren laughed and said that yesterday he had already consulted with Admiral Shen Ying, and mobilized most of the Second Fleet stationed in the Old Port, preparing to leave the Portuguese in the strait in one fell swoop.

Qu Lie heard that Wang Shouren had also mobilized the second squadron of the Nanyang Squadron stationed in the old port, which made him stunned, speaking of which, the Portuguese were coming to Malacca City this time, as a local garrison, he thought that he could monopolize the credit in this battle, but he did not expect to be mobilized by Wang Shouren The second squadron was mobilized, and the general in charge of the second squadron was Shen Ying's son Shen Zhou, and it is estimated that this is one of the reasons why Shen Ying is not in a hurry to transfer the fleet.

Thinking that it was originally his own credit, but it was half taken away by Shen Zhou for no reason, which made Qu Lie a little unhappy, but since this matter was decided by Wang Shouren and Shen Ying, the two highest-ranking civil and military officials, it was impossible for him to object, so in the end he could only agree. As for Tang Bohu and other civilian officials, they will not object, anyway, they just need to ensure logistics.

After agreeing on the strategy against the Portuguese, Wang Shouren just changed his words and said: "This Portuguese invasion is not to worry, even if we can't wipe it out in the Strait of Malacca, our army will enter the Indian Ocean through the strait in the future, and those Portuguese will not be able to escape the fate of being wiped out, but I don't know how you have collected intelligence on the Indian Ocean during this time?" ”

Entering the Indian Ocean is the direction of development that Zhou Chong has set before leaving, Zhou Zhong set three directions for the Governor's Palace, one to the south, to include the South Seas into the Ming Dynasty's rule, this has been realized, the second is to the west, the Ming power to extend into the Indian Ocean, this is what Wang Shouren they have to do now, and the last one is to go east to the Americas, but now the Ming Dynasty has not had the leisure to develop the Americas.

Hearing Wang Shouren ask about intelligence, I saw that Shen Ying, who had not spoken, finally spoke: "Your Excellency the Governor, rest assured, the old man has always been personally responsible for the situation on the Indian side, and the collected intelligence has filled a room, and the adults can check it at any time, now I will give a brief introduction to the situation on the Indian side." ”

"There's the Governor of Laoshen!" Wang Shouren is still very polite to Shen Ying, although Shen Ying is not very proficient in naval warfare, but he has been serving as the governor of the Governor's Palace, in charge of the various armies under the Governor's Palace, and these years have been sitting in Malacca, so that no one in the Nanyang area has dared to make any changes, which can be described as a high achievement.

"Your Excellency the Governor is gracious!" Shen Ying returned the salute to Wang Shouren, and then began to introduce the situation on the Indian side, especially the distribution of Portuguese influence in India.

According to the information collected by Shen Ying, now India, a place called Tianzhu in ancient times, has long been in chaos, and there are many small countries on the entire Indian continent, and religion is also very chaotic, mainly local Hinduism, but Islam is also very popular, and there are endless disputes between various small countries, which can be said to be a threat to the Ming Dynasty at all.

With the arrival of Portugal in India more than ten years ago, the coastal areas of India have now become the world of the Portuguese, and the Portuguese have also occupied several ports, such as Manuel and Goa, which are the most important strongholds for Portugal to control the coast of India, and now the Kingdom of Portugal has set up a governor-general in India, and the seat of government is in Goa, and Da Gama is the governor of India this time, and it is precisely under the impetus of Da Gama that the Kingdom of Portugal has made up its mind to attack Malacca.

Next, Shen Ying introduced several ports of the Portuguese in India, the most important of these ports is Goa, which is not only the distribution center of Portuguese goods, but also their most important place to garrison troops in India, more than ninety percent of the Portuguese army in India is concentrated in Goa, so if you want to drive the Portuguese out of India, you must occupy Goa. (To be continued.) If you like this work, you are welcome to come to the starting point (qidian) to vote for recommendation, monthly pass, your support, is my biggest motivation. For mobile phone users, please go to m.qidian to read. )9