The command of the Dutch fleet in Sumatra.

In the large conference room, there was a large round table for banquets, and around the table sat more than a dozen officers wearing various military uniforms, each of whom had a small national flag representing his nationality in front of him, and counted carefully, there were six countries, including Britain, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, and Italy.

If it were in Europe, the military personnel of these six countries would not be able to sit at the same table and discuss the same thing, and they would have all kinds of contradictions with each other, and some countries could even be regarded as feuds. After arriving in Asia, the contradictions between them were not completely reconciled, and the struggle for colonies continued both openly and covertly. However, when confronted with the threat of the native Asians, they remembered that they were all Europeans and that they should be in the same boat.

The meeting was held at the request of the commander of the Spanish fleet in Southeast Asia, Waldo, to whom the naval commanders of the countries were invited to first hear a briefing by Waldo on the last naval battle.

"And so it is ......," said Waldo, at the end of his speech, to the crowd, "gentlemen, you should be aware that Chinese are now only landing in Luzon, but once they have established themselves, they will certainly invade the other islands of Southeast Asia. We cannot wait for the Chinese to defeat each of us, and we should kill their maritime dreams before they build a strong navy. China is a land power country, so let it always have only land power. ”

For the sake of face and interests, Valdo did not explain the situation of the naval battle with the Chinese fleet. He admitted only that he had lost five warships, while destroying three ships of the Chinese fleet. He knew that if he told these colleagues about his real loss, the first thought that came to everyone's mind was probably to take the opportunity to carve up Spain's interests in Asia, and then think about revenge for Spain.

"How many warships are there in total among the Chinese?" The commander of the British fleet, Joel, asked.

"There are 18 boats in total, including 6 large ships of about 600 tons and 12 small boats of 200 tons. Three of them have already been sunk by us. ”

"There are only 15 ships left, and you have gathered so many of us?" Joel said with some disdain, "Don't you Spaniards even have such a little self-confidence?" ”

"Of course we have confidence, but we're in Asia, China is very close to here, and their follow-up fleet will come soon, and then they will no longer have 15 ships, but maybe 30, or even more." Valdo said forcefully, and he also knew that he had been a bit embarrassed in his last battle. If you don't lose all your capital. Why did he come to a former enemy like Joel for help?

Joel smiled slightly: "Even in Asia." The courage of you Spaniards is also in doubt. ”

Valdo glared angrily: "Joel, do you want to duel me?" ”

"Sir, we should unite ......" Dutch commander Dick interrupted the argument between Waldo and Joel and asked Waldo, "Waldo." You just said that you have received intelligence that the Chinese are building more and larger warships, right? ”

"That's true." Valdo said huffingly.

"If that's the case, then it's really worth our attention," Dick said. Judging from what Waldo just said, the Chinese have mastered a technology of projecting gunpowder from a cannon over long distances, which is very threatening to our warships. At a distance of 500 paces, our cannons are not powerful enough, but their exploding shells can effectively kill us. This means that we have to pay additional losses. to be able to get close enough to destroy the opposing ship. ”

The participants were all naval officers, and naturally they all had a deep understanding of this point. After listening to Dick's words, everyone fell silent, simulating the scene of a naval battle in their minds, imagining if they met such an opponent. What can be done to avoid failure like Waldo?

"I think we have to have three times the strength of the Chinese to maintain an advantage in battle." French commander Mattis was the first to judge.

"I think this judgment is relatively accurate." Dick said, "If the Chinese artillery is really capable of effectively destroying ships at a distance of 500 paces, as Waldo said, then we must have no less than 90 ships against a fleet of 30 Chinese ships." ”

Joel glanced at everyone and said, "90 ships is almost 70% of the total strength of our six countries in Southeast Asia, and no country can organize such a large fleet alone. ”

Waldo said: "This is the reason why I invited you to come here, I said, we can't sit back and wait for the Chinese to eat us one by one, we must form a coalition to destroy the Chinese fleet in one fell swoop and let them withdraw from Southeast Asia." ”

The crowd was silent again, pondering the pros and cons of this matter. Everyone hopes that someone else will be able to take the lead and fight a decisive battle with the Chinese, so that they do not have to bear the loss, but they can avoid the threat of the Chinese. But they also understand in their hearts that others are not so stupid, and if everyone is unwilling to come forward, the final result can only be as Waldo predicted, broken by the Chinese, and in the end no one can take advantage.

"Let's vote." Dick proposed that he was the host and had an obligation to move the entire process forward.

The results of the vote showed that everyone was rational enough, and everyone was in favor of forming a joint fleet to jointly deal with China.

After that, the crowd debated for a long time on the number of warships to be dispatched, the command of the fleet, and the composition of the formation, and finally finalized the details.

According to the strength of the fleets of each country, the six countries each drew a part of their own fleets to form a huge combined fleet of 100 ships, and went to Luzon to fight the Ming fleet. It was promised that after the war, the subsequent benefits would be distributed according to the differences in the number of troops provided by each country, as well as the losses in naval battles.

Valdo's Spanish fleet, having suffered heavy losses in the early stages, was limited in what it could do in this combined fleet, so it had to accept a series of terms to compensate other countries afterwards. The content of these articles is so harsh that it is not too much to describe it as a loss of power and humiliation of the country. However, if this battle can defeat the Ming fleet, the Spaniards can recover Luzon, and when the time comes, they can still afford to use Luzon's production to compensate.

"You should go back to your base at once, and in seven days, send the ships that are going into battle. We have to conduct two sea exercises before we can fight the Chinese. Dick finally explained to the crowd.

A Ming Dynasty version of the Six-Nation Alliance was formed in this way.

With such a large-scale action of the fleets of various countries, it was naturally impossible to hide the many eyeliners sent by Su Hao and Deng Zilong. Information about the composition of the forces of the Six-Nation Alliance, the progress of training, and other information, flew like snowflakes to the headquarters of the Ming fleet in Luzon. Su Hao, Deng Zilong, Li Zhen, Tu Wenhuan and others repeatedly studied these materials and carried out tactical deductions over and over again.

"I didn't expect that these Hongyi would really come together to fight us." Li Zhen shook his head and said, "Didn't Matteo Ricci say that European countries also fight each other on weekdays? ”

Su Hao smiled: "In the end, they are all Caucasian, and this result did not surprise me." Push back another 300 years, and they will form an eight-nation alliance to bring the Yuan Ming ...... Well, we burned down the capital. ”

He originally wanted to talk about the allusion of the Eight-Nation Alliance's burning of the Old Summer Palace, but suddenly remembered that the Ming Dynasty still exists, and with such an outlier as him, the Ming Dynasty should not be in the hands of the Jianzhou people, so the Old Summer Palace may not exist.

Of course, Li Zhen couldn't hear what Su Hao swallowed back, he frowned and said: "The old man originally thought that they would connect three or four countries to fight with us, but who would have thought that they would actually get together six countries. In this way, if we want to fight a war of annihilation, I am afraid that it will be a little difficult. ”

"That's true." Tu Wenhuan said, "The art of war, ten are to surround it, five to attack it, and to fight it twice, now we only have 15 ships, and the other party is 100 times the ship, six times as many as me." If we want to encircle and annihilate it, I'm afraid it won't be easy. ”

"Our 2,000 merchant ships can be transferred over for use." Deng Zilong said, "These merchant ships are slow and should not be used for attack, but their ships are large and stable, and they are suitable for defense." Let's use these big ships as a barrier to block Hongyi's attack, and use small boats to make a detour. Even if you can't wipe out all the enemies, you should be fine with a beautiful crushing battle. ”

Su Hao said: "It's not bad to be able to defeat them." It's better for the six countries to come together, let's fight to scare them all, and then clear their bases in the South Seas one by one. In my opinion, after this war, the navies of various European countries did not dare to face our Daming Naval Division head-on. ”

"So be it." Li Zhen clapped his hands and said, "Let's hurry up and transform the merchant ship and move the shore artillery to the ship for use." The number of Deng General Army's naval divisions was insufficient, so General Su had to transfer the gunners in the survey battalion to replenish them. ”

"No problem." Su Hao said, "My people just listen to the dispatch of General Deng's soldiers." ”

Deng Zilong waved his hand and said: "It's wrong to change this, it's my people who listen to the dispatch of the change." Old man, sooner or later, the matter of this conquest in the four seas will be handed over to you young people. This battle can be regarded as a joint drill between the two of us. After this battle, the old man will play the Ming court and completely hand over the naval division to the command of Su Zongbing. ”

"Thank you, Mr. Deng!" Su Hao respectfully bowed to Deng Zilong, which can be regarded as accepting Deng Zilong's trust.