[Today's second update]

Dading in the north has lifted the biggest scourge of the Ming Dynasty. More than 4 million taels of silver were looted from the Manchu treasury, and more than 10 million taels of silver were confiscated from the property of the Manchu Eight Banners nobles. At the same time, the Manchu Qing Dynasty plundered a large number of Mongolian war horses over the years, plus no less than 200,000 of them. These were all requisitioned by the Ming army.

At the same time, the Manchu Qing Dynasty spent 20 years to build four large military horse farms, which can provide 50,000 military horses every year, and are the main military horses of the Manchu Eight Banner Army.

This qiē was reduced to the property of the Ming Dynasty with the fall of the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

Deng Haonan scavenged a lot of things from the Manchu Qing Dynasty, but what made Deng Haonan happiest was that he could finally graze and raise war horses on a large scale.

The vast and fertile Songnen Plain, combined with the Mongolian steppes, is one of the largest natural pastures in the world, and is the perfect place to breed war horses on a large scale.

Therefore, after pacifying Manchuria, Deng Haonan put the budget of the Far North Military Horse Farm on the agenda in order to save financial expenditures.

The reduction of the budget of the Far North Military Horse Farm is not to reduce the number of war horses raised, but to reduce it relative to the Seattle Military Horse Farm in the Americas. The Seattle Stud Farm in the Americas spends exactly one-fifth of the Far North's Studs, but the number of breeding horses is half that of the Far North.

This is mainly because the Seattle Military Horse Farm does not have to worry about the supply of forage in winter, while the Far North Military Horse Farm has a five-month snow period every year, which requires separate purchase and storage of forage, and at the same time, large-scale heating facilities must be built to protect the horses from winter.

These cost a lot of gold and silver, and Deng Haonan didn't care about it before, but now he has financial constraints and has to cut money.

Now that Mongolia is calm, Deng Haonan can finally move the Far North Military Horse Farm south to the grassland with a pleasant climate and a fertile climate.

Deng Haonan did not fully trust the Mongolian tribes now, but he could be more reassured about the Horqin tribe, so he transferred the Far North Army Horse Farm to the Horqin steppe. Many horse breeding experts under Zhai Sang were invited to the military horse farm to help breed excellent war horses, and strive to cultivate the world's best war horses suitable for large-scale equipment in the East.

With the pacification of the north, the military pressure faced by Deng Haonan was suddenly emptied. And the opposition in China was also drowned out because of Deng Haonan's strong strength and popular popularity.

So, Deng Haonan was idle and shifted his attention from the land to the sea again.

The war between Spain and the Netherlands in the Far East had begun three months earlier, but both sides were careful, and six naval battles broke out between the Philippine fleet and the Dutch East India fleet during this period. Two of the naval battles took place in the Tamida sea area a hundred nautical miles north of Batavia, and it was a battle in which the Philippine fleet took the initiative to attack and the Dutch East India fleet defended, and the two sides fought for three days, with mutual losses, but neither ship was sunk.

The Philippine fleet did not take advantage of it and withdrew. The Dutch East India Fleet saw that the Spaniards had arrived at the door and was ready to teach the other side a lesson, so as soon as the Spaniards withdrew, the Dutch divided into two routes, all the way north from the South China Sea, about fifty warships, followed and pursued the Philippine fleet. The other route detoured from the Pacific Ocean to the Solomons, penetrated deep into the heart of the Philippine archipelago, and bombarded Philippine port towns all the way.

In the South China Sea, two naval battles broke out between the Spaniards and the Dutch, the first of which lasted five days, the Spanish sank a cruiser, and the Dutch navy was heavily damaged by a cruiser, which was considered to have taken advantage of the Dutch. The second naval battle took place three days later. The Philippine fleet felt that it was shameful to be sunk by the Dutch, so Rear Admiral Francisco led a sneak attack on the Dutch East India Fleet, and the sneak attack was successful, sinking three cruisers of the Dutch fleet, but he paid two cruisers to sink.

Rear Admiral Rejods, commander of the Dutch East India Fleet, abandoned the idea of pursuing the Philippine fleet and returned to Batavia to replenish ammunition due to the severe ammunition consumption.

When Francisco led the Philippine fleet back to Manila, he learned that another Dutch fleet was attacking Philippine port towns everywhere, so he hurriedly replenished the fleet and attacked the Dutch fleet.

The second Dutch fleet was not going to fight the Spanish fleet for the purpose of bombarding the Philippine port town facilities, so it fired a shot to change places.

The Philippines has many islands, tens of thousands of large and small, in the era of strict and backward news. The fleets of both sides could not see each other's shadows even on both sides of a small island, and it was too difficult to find.

In this way, in the next two months, the Dutch fleet continued to harass various port towns in the Philippines, and the Philippine fleet followed the pursuit and looked for the enemy fleet to fight. The two sides met occasionally, but there were only two real battles, and both of them met when neither side was too prepared, so both sides involuntarily fought for a while and then left the battle.

In the space of three months, only six battles were fought between the two sides, which could barely be considered a naval battle, with casualties and losses on each other, but they were generally evenly matched.

However, as the Dutch East India Company gradually figured out the combat capabilities of the Philippine fleet, Rear Admiral Reyotz merged the two fleets and challenged the Philippine fleet.

The Dutch East India Company had more than a hundred lead cruisers, five were sunk, two were heavily damaged, and ninety-three remained. And the Philippine fleet had sixty lead cruisers, four were sunk, four were heavily damaged, and fifty-two remained.

In comparison, among the cruisers of the Dutch East India Fleet, there were ten quasi-battleships equipped with fifty guns.

At the beginning of October, the Dutch East India fleet was twisted into a group to find the Philippine fleet for the main decisive battle, at which time the Philippine governor Fernando was frightened, worried that the fleet would not be protected, so he ordered the Philippine fleet to only cruise near Manila, once it encountered the Dutch fleet, immediately retreated, relying on coastal artillery to assist.

In this way, the Philippine fleet lost its strategic initiative and turned from active to passive. In turn, the Dutch East India Fleet, under the command of Rayoz, began to raid various port towns in the Philippines with impunity, striking at Philippine trade and increasing the fear of the Filipino locals, intending to force the Philippine governor to stop the war.

Obviously, the Philippine Governor General would not accept the terms of the armistice. Not to mention that he lost more than 20 million yuan in financial allocation, he had to fight for himself alone, because the cargo ships of the treasure fleet carried a lot of things that belonged to him. He spent all those things, and if he lost them, he lost his own money. At the same time, Fernando got Deng Haonan's nod and knew that Deng Haonan's fleet would soon come over to help. As long as the Pacific Fleet came to help, then the Ming-Philippine coalition would surpass the Dutch East India Company, and then the rain would naturally be clear.

Philippine Governor Fernando's negotiation with Deng Haonan's request for help was finally finalized, and Secretary of the Navy Chen Yaoming negotiated with Governor Fernando on Deng Haonan's orders.

Of course, during these three months, the Dutch were not idle, and the representatives of the Dutch East India Company even threatened to woo Deng Haonan that as long as the Pacific Fleet did not participate, they were willing to pay the corresponding price.

It's just that Deng Haonan can't buy the Dutchman's account, because the strength of the Dutch East India Company now makes Deng Haonan jealous. The Dutch were able to mobilize more than 100 capital warships in half a year, and more than 20,000 ships of various kinds around the world, which made Deng Haonan's head sober up a lot.

Deng Haonan set the tone of the negotiation, that is, both sides dragged on, let them fight for a while by themselves, and try the depth first.

Sure enough, the Philippine fleet and the Dutch fleet fought for three months, and there was not a single decent naval battle! This made Deng Haonan very unhappy, so Deng Haonan decided to add fuel to the fire and let them fight vigorously.

During these three months, the Ming Imperial Naval Fleet Command continuously sent middle and senior naval officers to Manila, boarded the Philippine fleet, and followed them to the sea to observe the battle with the Dutch. The purpose is to know oneself and know one's opponent, so that one can win all battles.

At the same time, the Pacific Fleet's main patrol fleet conducted a live-fire exercise in the Pacific waters east of Taiwan Province to simulate the tactics and tactics of the Spanish and Dutch fleets, and used this as a future experience after participating in the war.

The Pacific Fleet had previously fought the Battle of Huayu with the Dutch East India Fleet, but that kind of skirmish could not be used as a training program for the fleet. You know, now the Pacific Fleet will face the Dutch fleet with 120 capital cruisers, and an unknown number of frigates and sloops.

The current strength of the Dutch East India Fleet is not something that the Pacific Fleet can compete with, and it is necessary to unite the Philippine Fleet, or even the fleets of Britain, France, Sweden and Norway to suppress the Dutch.

This required cooperation between the fleets, and the Philippine Governor insisted on appointing Giulio as commander of the combined fleet, so the Ming-Spanish combined fleet would fight against the enemy in the same way as the Philippine fleet.

On 18 October, after completing its last live-fire exercise, the Pacific Fleet was finally ordered to head south and anchor at Subic Naval Base on 20 October.

The next day, Commander-in-Chief of the Combined Fleet, Giulio, presided over the ceremony, which was attended by Shi Jianfei and others, who jointly enjoyed the tactical performances of the Philippine Fleet and the Pacific Fleet. In the afternoon, the captains of the ships of the two fleets gathered together to finalize the details of the unified command of the combined fleet. The two sides sent liaison officers and interpreters to each other's warships to stand by, and at the same time, the flags of the two fleets were unified, and the liaison flags of the Spanish Navy were uniformly used.

On the third day, the Philippine Fleet and the Pacific Fleet conducted a drill and rehearsed various tactics and formations several times, so that the two fleets could form a combined combat strength to the best of their ability.

Because the Pacific Fleet had been training for three months, he knew the Spanish Navy's tactical formation well, and the rehearsal made the opponent jaw-dropping, and within three days Giulio announced that he could form a combat force.

A week later, the Pacific Fleet sailed out of Subic Naval Base and stationed at Manila Naval Harbor, where it and the Philippine Fleet were anchored on the north and south sides of the Navy.

When the Pacific Fleet arrived in the Philippines, it really took the Dutch East India Company by surprise. They had heard of the secret talks between the two countries for a long time, but the Dutch had tried their best to prevent the fleet of the Ming Empire from participating in it, but in the end it came to naught.

In Batavia, in the Governor's office, Arnhem, the executive governor of the East India Company, was full of gloom.

"The Pacific Fleet is finally involved! What should we do, Your Excellency the Governor? ”

Arnhem's fingers kept tapping on the table, much to the annoyance of Reyoz and Van Kirk.

Rejoz snorted and said, "What about the Pacific Fleet?" But there are only about sixty decent warships, and like the Philippine fleet, they are not our opponents at all! ”

Van Kirk asked, "But one of them is not our opponent, but the two together are not easy to deal with!" ”

"Not necessarily!"

Arnhem spoke, only to hear him continue: "Two fleets of similar size, belonging to two countries of different colors, presumably the command system will not be flexible, one plus one does not necessarily equal two, maybe this is our chance!" ”

Opportunity?

Rayoz suddenly called, looked at Arnhem with bright eyes, and asked, "What chance?" ”

"It's a chance to lure them out and fight us!"

Arnhem said: "The fleets of their two countries are combined and surpass us in strength, so with Fernando's personality, they will definitely take the initiative to find us for a decisive battle." We just need to keep luring the enemy and let them go to war in the sea area of our choice, then we will have a chance! ”

Van Kirk asked worriedly: "But in this way, the other party has nearly one hundred and twenty cruisers together, and the battleships have surpassed us!" ”

"If the other side is not subordinate to each other and the command is not effective, we can concentrate our forces to defeat each other, and the odds are very good," Rejos said. ”

Arnhem nodded and said, "Strictly speaking, the difference of twenty warships is nothing, we can ambush a large number of frigates and schooners in the predetermined sea area, which is enough to make up for the lack of the number of capital warships!" ”

Van Kirk said: "Then now General Reyoz's task is to lure the enemy out!" ”

"That's easy!"

Rejoz said confidently: "I just need to continue to attack their port towns with the fleet, and then deliberately make a posture to attack the next town, presumably Fernando has had enough of it in the past few months, and will definitely send their combined fleet to ambush me!" ”

"Good!"

Arnhem nodded and said, "Just do what you want!" I'll gather the convoy in advance and ambush it is nearby! ”

Reyoz laughed, "Don't forget to bring more arsonist boats, you will definitely be able to destroy them in one fell swoop!" ”

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At the Manila Military Port, Shi Jianfei and Shen Yanghao stood on the breakwater, looking at the calm Manila Bay.

"This Westerner is so procrastinating in a war, a naval battle actually ran out of shells, but did not sink the opponent's warship, I really don't know what they think!"

Shen Yanghao picked up a few stones, first skimming them one by one, and finally throwing them one by one, a little impatient.

Shi Jianfei was also confused, and he had studied it for a long time, but he didn't understand what kind of tactics the Westerners were.

"Maybe they're playing a war of attrition!"

At present, there is only this explanation, to fight a war of attrition, until the opponent's artillery shells run out, the industrial production capacity can not keep up with the speed of war consumption, and the treasury is spent out, I am afraid that the winner will be decided.

Hey~ At that time, it won't be possible to distinguish the winner or loser.

Shen Yanghao said: "Even if you fight a war of attrition, you don't have to do this!" How nice it would be to divide the main fleet into several sub-fleets and wait for an opportunity to encircle and destroy the enemy ships! They can get to the end, more than 100 warships have to line up, stretching for dozens of miles, the battle line is so long, I don't know what is going on in front and behind. ”

Shi Jianfei nodded and said, "I have read Instructor John's logbook, he once recorded the tactics of the British Navy, and the current naval battle tactics of European countries have generally become two factions, one is called the regular faction, and the other faction is called the melee faction!" ”

Shen Yanghao looked at Shi Jianfei and waited for him to explain.

So, Shi Jianfei told him what he knew from Instructor John.

It turned out that in Europe at this time, in a regular battle, the ships of both sides maintained a parallel column formation, and each ship fired at its corresponding enemy ship until the other side was sunk or retreated. But experts who hold a view of melee tactics have a strong opinion, arguing that such tactics are prone to stalemate.

In fact, the British Navy used this tactic in 13 regular battles, each of which was a tactical draw - no warship was captured or sunk on either side.

Experts on melee theory believe that in order to defeat an enemy with equal strength, it is necessary to concentrate more warships and divide a small part of the enemy's column formation to surround and annihilate them. To achieve this, it is necessary to form a dense formation.

In other words, it is necessary to narrow the distance between your own ships, or to penetrate the enemy's columns, or to surround its vanguard or rear forces in a roundabout way. This made it possible to flank the enemy ships that were surrounded by a roundabout part of the enemy from both sides.

Experts on the theory of regular warfare, on the other hand, believe that such tactics can only provoke the enemy to retaliate by counter-detour and anti-encirclement. Obviously, once you get into this situation, then you will definitely lose a lot.

Of course, experts who hold regular warfare believe that in regular warfare, even if the enemy cannot be severely damaged, at least it can guarantee that one's own fleet will not be lightly damaged by the enemy. It can be said that this is based on the mentality of fighting peace first, and then relying on luck to win the naval battle.

As for how to rely on luck, such as the direction of the wind and downwind, rain, hurricanes, the enemy runs out of ammunition and food first, the enemy's country collapses first, and so on, the strength of those natural and national strength is ultimately reflected in naval warfare.

To be invincible first, and then to think about picking up the enemy, this is the core idea of the regular school. However, the melee faction is undoubtedly adventurous, they win by surprise, play tactical strategy, and tend to the tactical thinking of oriental naval warfare.

But this tactic is easy to destroy the enemy, and it is easy for the enemy to destroy himself in turn, that is to say, it is a double-edged sword.

"The Spaniards experienced a crushing defeat at the Armadada, and their Armada was in a hurry to destroy each other, but was defeated by the British. In that naval battle, the British strictly adhered to the tactics of regular warfare, fought with the Spanish fleet, and finally waited for the opportunity to use nature to defeat the Spanish fleet! ”

Shen Yanghao sighed and said, "Their way of playing is that they can finish fighting in the Year of the Monkey!" ”

Shi Jianfei said with a smile: "This is better, the Spaniards and the Dutch will consume their national strength, and our supplies will be paid by Fernando anyway, so there is no need to save money for him!" Why don't you take the opportunity to let our officers and men practice more! ”

Shen Yanghao smiled bitterly: "You are really calm!" I'm going crazy! ”

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[Today's second is to thank the book friends Universe Hooligans, Xiao Shi Wuji, ttlaoba, 3 plus 2-5 and other friends for their monthly tickets and rewards! ] 】V