When they heard that there was such a Chinese gathering place in the southern Philippines, and it was still in the hands of two sultanates with independent management, this immediately shocked Sa Zhenbing and Zhu Yuan. Because they didn't expect that there was a "country" in the south that could not be managed by the Spanish Philippine Viceroyalty, which made them feel very surprised. And Sa Zhenbing and Zhu Yuan have been following Wang Guorui for a while, and they also have a certain understanding of the international form, so they know what this means.

Now Taiwan is occupying the Philippines in the name of declaring war on Spain, but they did not expect that there are two independent kingdoms on the Philippines, and these two independent kingdoms are only nominally Spanish colonies, and in fact they are not controlled by the Spaniards. And when Sa Zhenbing heard this, he immediately decided with Zhu Yuan to eliminate these two countries as much as possible to avoid extraneous complications. Because now they are independent kingdoms, although they are not recognized by any country in the world, they must be solved as much as possible.

If it is too late to eliminate them, then who knows if someone will deliberately use this as a political excuse to bargain with Taiwan. You must know that these two so-called sultanates are not recognized by any country in the world, but if other countries use this as an excuse to interfere in the affairs of the Philippines, it will definitely be very bad. Therefore, in order to avoid extraneous complications, it is necessary to eliminate them as much as possible, so that Taiwan can truly occupy the entire Philippines. And this kind of thing should be done sooner rather than later, if the West thinks that there are two independent sultanates here, and then use this as an excuse, it will be too late. So when he heard this, Sa Zhenbing immediately set off his ships and prepared to transport the soldiers over to destroy the two sultanates.

And Sa Zhenbing took the initiative to send troops this time, and he immediately sent a telegram to Wang Guorui to ask for recognition, and explained everything clearly. explained that if it was too late, it might be used by other countries as an excuse, and hoped that Wang Guorui would agree to recognize his troop transfer. After all, this is different from the previous battle plan, and it must be recognized by Wang Guorui, if there is no posthumous recognition, it is an unauthorized transfer of troops, and it is easy to be suspected by the military law. So Sa Zhenbing took the initiative to ask for recognition. That shows that he is not transferring troops without authorization.

Soon, Wang Guorui also sent a telegram to agree to Sa Zhenbing's transfer of troops. And Wang Guorui remembered that he had seen a news in later generations, that is, about the situation that the Moro people in the southern Philippines hope to obtain a high degree of autonomy and even independence, and the Moros in the southern Philippines have different beliefs and living habits from the northerners, the northern ones believe in Christianity, while the southern ones are Muslims of Islam, so they are actually very incompatible with each other. However, they were forcibly divided into the Philippines by the United States, so they reluctantly became a country. And when Spain later ceded the Philippines to the United States, it ceded the two sultanates along with the two sultanates. In this way, the United States has inherited this tradition. Since then, the Moros have not been very receptive to the central jurisdiction of the Philippines, so this has led them to want autonomy and even independence.

And Wang Guorui didn't expect that things had begun to be an independent kingdom since the nineteenth century, which reminded Wang Guorui of this. And since they are an independent kingdom that can govern itself, it is better to perish as much as possible, otherwise it may cause other countries to use this as an excuse to interfere. Therefore, Wang Guorui also knows that this kind of thing should be done sooner rather than later, and they must be destroyed as much as possible.

And in the Sulu Sea, above Palawan, the sultan of the Sultanate of Sulu heard the report.

"Sultan. There was a fleet outside, a Chinese fleet. They have already entered the Sulu Sea. What are we going to do? They seem to be coming for us! A minister said.

But the Sultan still said: "Let's not provoke the Chinese, the Chinese are not as good as they used to be, and the Chinese can defeat even the hundreds of thousands of Dutch troops who occupied Nanyang, so we should not be able to provoke them." And how can we take the initiative to provoke, and they have no reason to come at us! ”

"Sultan, the Chinese have declared war on the Spaniards. Maybe they're really coming for us! The minister replied.

"Why are they coming at us? Didn't they go to fight the Spaniards? What do we have to do with the Spaniards? The Sultan asked.

It has to be said that the sultans of the Sulu Sultanate have not been directly ruled by the Spaniards for a long time, and they seem to have forgotten that they belong to the Philippines, and then the Philippines is also a Spanish colony. So they were also nominally Spanish colonies. Taiwan can use this as an excuse to attack the Sultanate of Sulu. And the Sulu Sultanate has always regarded itself as an independent state, although no one recognizes it internationally, but it also thinks it is. So their sultans don't know why Taiwan is coming at them, they don't think of themselves as a Spanish colony at all!

"Sultan, we did not have that pact of autonomy with the Spaniards, and we are nominally the land of the Spaniards. And we just have a high degree of autonomy, so if the Chinese use this as an excuse to attack us, then we really don't have anyone to support us. The minister said.

"How is this possible, we do not accept the direct jurisdiction of the Spaniards!" The Sultan asked.

For the leaders of such small countries, their thinking of national rule is still very primitive, they all think that the actual jurisdiction is their own, they do not know the situation of international exchanges, and they do not have any ideas of international diplomacy. So now they all think that they can govern themselves, that is, an independent country. But they have no idea that their so-called independence is not recognized internationally at all, but they just think of themselves. They simply can't figure out why Taiwan would take the initiative to attack them?

"Send out a fleet at once, stop the Chinese, and explain the matter clearly! We must tell the Chinese, we are an independent country, not the territory of the Spaniards, understand? The Sultan asked.

And the Sultan's fleet immediately began to move, and hundreds of their ships soon arrived in front of the Taiwanese fleet. They want to block Taiwan's fleet, after all, if Taiwan's fleet continues to attack, then I'm afraid they will all be destroyed.

Compared with the fleet of the Sultanate, Taiwan's fleet is much worse, although Taiwan's fleet is more than 100 ships, but at least 50 or so are troop carriers, and there is almost no combat effectiveness. And the real combat effectiveness is more than forty destroyers and frigates, which are much worse than the hundreds of warships of the Sultanate. However, no one doubts that the winner of this battle will be the Taiwanese fleet, because the Taiwanese fleet is made of steel and has a caliber of 75 millimeters. And the fleet of the enemy Sultanate of Sulu was made of wood, and there was not much steel on board. And their artillery is an old model more than a hundred years ago, and even many ships do not even have this old model of artillery, and they all rely on cold weapons such as bows and crossbows to fight. Therefore, the asymmetry of this kind of weapon is not something that can be solved by quantity at all. Once there is a generational gap in weapons, it will be more or less useless.

"General, we are not Spaniards, we are the Sultanate of Sulu, an independent state. We are not Spanish vassals, so please do not attack us. Said the envoy of the Sultanate of Sulu.

But Sa Zhenbing said: "You say that you are an independent country, do you still have countries in the world that recognize you?" ”

"Admit it, do you still need to admit it?" The messenger asked.

"Needless to say, then you are all Spanish places. And aren't you Spain's highly autonomous region in the Philippines? Even if you have a high degree of autonomy, it is a part of the Philippines, and you are a Spanish place, so we have the right to occupy it! Sa Zhenbing said.

"General, we are ......"

The messenger was pulled away and sent back to their boat, and then forced him back to his side.

"Tell Sù to let his destroyers and frigates play freely, the time has come for them to play freely, and they can play freely in this battle, and I will not command them. This kind of enemy can't be defeated, so you guys can jump into the sea collectively! Sa Zhenbing said.

Sa Zhenbing also hopes to let his subordinates play on their own, and then train their command skills, after all, only after training can they really be familiar with commanding fleet operations, so that they can have a better development prospect.

"Commander Zhu Yuan, why don't we sit down and have two drinks now? Isn't it nice to taste the milk tea of Westerners while watching the demeanor of this soldier fighting and killing the enemy? Sa Zhenbing asked.

Zhu Yuan also took the initiative to sit down and said, "Okay, today it depends on how Commander Sa and your troops are, this is a blood-stained demeanor." ”

"However, this is the blood of the enemy, not the blood of our Chinese!" Sa Zhenbing said.

"Hahahaha......" The two laughed together.

Soon, Taiwanese destroyers and frigates also began to wage war with the fleets of the Sultanate of Sulu, and then they began to annihilate the fleets of the Sultanate of Sulu. And these unpopular things, of course, the Taiwan fleet is very unceremonious, and it is simply a live target, so they don't need to be polite at all. With such a good opportunity for actual combat training, how can you miss this opportunity? (To be continued......)