"Although the Franji people nodded and agreed, they also said that it was difficult for the fleet in the Fujian sea to protect itself, so they could only cooperate with our army to contain the Dutch in Gerancha."

Listening to Wallace's tireless detailed explanation, a sneer appeared on the corner of Li Xin's mouth.

"The Spaniards had a good idea to play, they just wanted to beat the Dutch and take their place in Taiwan."

"Actually, give them some benefits in exchange for the result of containing the Dutch, and I feel that this deal is still worth it."

Wallace actually nodded his head to show that he was in favor of the deal with the Spaniard. In his analysis, the strength of the Three Guards in the eastern sea is still very weak, although it can win a few battles in the inland rivers, but in the sea, almost half of the sailors on the Pingbo fleet have zero experience, can you expect these people to defeat those pirates who work hard at sea all year round?

In fact, Wallace didn't have much hope that Li Xin would be able to agree to this condition, but surprisingly, Li Xin agreed after a moment of silence.

"Reply to them, the Three Guards can agree to their conditions, and if necessary, the Nanjing side can also provide them with material assistance."

"W-that's true?"

Wallace's eyes widened at Li Xin's answer, and he was reluctant to believe that it was from Li Xin.

But soon, Li Xin's urging prompted him to regain his senses.

"What are you still doing? Hurry up, now that the sailors of the Zheng family have launched a naval blockade of Nanjing and Zhejiang, the silk of the city boss cannot be sold, so it will have to rot in the warehouse, and the hair will be rotten, and the loss will be a large amount of silver. ”

At this time, Wallace seemed to have re-acquainted himself with Li Xin, looked at him in disbelief, and said in his heart, His Excellency the Marquis has always given him the impression of being rigid and conservative, belonging to the typical character of the East that is light on wealth and heavy on righteousness. Now, how does it seem like a different person? However, this is also the type of person Wallace is most familiar with. That's the goal of an organization, and it's all driven by money, and that's what goes long.

In order to test his judgment, Wallace continued to ask, "Does the Marquis intend to support the Franciscans to replace the Dutch?" And then rely on them to contain Zheng Zhilong in Fujian? ”

Li Xin nodded and shook his head again.

"Yes and no, these three parties are our enemies, and if we want to get rid of them, we can only prioritize them, Zheng Zhilong is an imminent threat, so we have to contain the Dutch, and Francois is naturally the best choice, so that we will only face Zheng Zhilong's side. Once Zheng Zhilong is cleaned up, Franz and the Dutchman, no matter who has the advantage, how can they withstand the thunder blow under the defeat of both sides? ”

Li Xin's idea made Wallace's body tremble, in his opinion, cooperation to make money is the best guiding direction, because after defeating the power of the Zheng family, the trade rights of the entire eastern sea have been monopolized by Nanjing, whether it is the Franco, or the Dutch or even the Japanese have to trade under the snort of Nanjing. In the end, the situation will continue to deteriorate, in exchange for continuous retaliation from the other side, and the maritime trade will inevitably be paralyzed by repeated naval battles.

But at the same time, Wallace also knew that this was Li Xin's true intention, after all, he was an Oriental, how could he get rid of the strong concept of land in the Easterners? This loss-making deal, I'm afraid that some of them will be hit. But in any case, Wallace, as the commander-in-chief of the Pingbo fleet, had the responsibility to deal with the naval battle, so he could only express his position and accept the order.

After Wallace left, Niu Jinsong looked at the person's back and was a little puzzled.

"General, this person seems to be a little unimpressed with our various defeat strategies, but I am afraid that he will not be able to exert all his strength in the upcoming big battle."

"Wallace's thoughts, it is obvious, he does not want the Three Guards to engage in a needless battle with the Dutch and the Francis." So Li Xin explained a little, and analyzed his judgment of Wallace and Niu Jinsong, the current Niu Jinsong is no longer the stunned green cow egg of the year, and has a faint tendency to become his right-hand man, so he spares no effort in the cultivation of this person. After listening to this, Niu Jinsong also nodded and said: "It sounds very reasonable, but I always feel that something seems wrong." ”

"It is true that maritime trade can make huge sums of money, but in the long run, it cannot but be said to be short-sighted. Look at this chart. As he spoke, Li Xin came to a simple chart on the table. Look at this, the small island where the Geranza and the chicken coop are located seems to be lonely and useless, and there are many people from outside the world. But it is like a lock firmly controlling my Ming Dynasty's throat to overseas, if these Westerners are allowed to colonize these places, then after a hundred years, my Ming Haijiang will always be subject to others. If they want to launch an attack on my Daming, they only need to be ready to go. But if we take this island back, the Westerners can only use this island in Luzon as a springboard, but it is still 108,000 miles away from Fujian and Guangdong, so there is nothing to fear. ”

Li Xin's words sound reasonable, but Niu Jinsong is still difficult to understand, in his subconscious, he should seize the time to seize the territory of Huguang, Fujian, and Guangdong, is it necessary to compete for some seas that cannot grow crops and cannot grow food? However, out of the habit of absolute obedience to Li Xin, Niu Jinsong also instinctively chose to obey, and would not really compete with him, whether naval warfare or land warfare should be the first.

However, He Bin, who was the deputy chief of the Pingbo fleet, expressed his opinion on the side.

"The Marquis of Zhenyu, the humble suggestion, the infantry battalion in the mountainous area of northwest Fujian can step up the offensive against the coast, so that the sea route is carried out simultaneously, and the destruction of the Zheng family's naval division is only sooner or later."

However, Li Xin shook his head, "The persecution of the Zheng family in the infantry battalion in Fujian must not be too urgent, otherwise these people will all flee along the coast, which will increase the difficulty of clearing the sea surface in the future." If we annihilate their sea forces first, these people will be trapped on land as if they had their wings cut off, and they can all be wiped out in one fell swoop. Otherwise, when their naval divisions and sea forces were still strong, they were all driven out of Fujian, and the south assured that in the next few years, the southeast coast would not repeat the tragedy of the Jiajing Dynasty. ”

He Bin was very impressed after hearing this, although he had been adrift at sea for many years and had worked with the Dutch for many years, he also felt that Wallace's kind of thinking was a kind of superficial view, but he also knew that the reason why Li Xin reused this person was because he valued this person's experience in sea command, so he chose to maintain a neutral attitude among the different opinions of the two sides.

Neither overly territorial nor extremely trade-oriented, he tried to find a balance between the two sides, and then used this as the basis for self-preservation. He Bin, who has experienced years of fire and internal cannibalism, after all, unlike the vast majority of the Three Guards, he has an instinctive distrust of his colleagues, so he never easily expresses his views on anything. Therefore, in this dispute within the Three Guards, although he was inclined to Li Xin, he did not want to offend the officers in the Pingbo fleet who supported Wallace's opinion by showing it too obviously.

After He Bin also retired, Niu Jinsong expressed his attitude to Li Xin about He Bin's senses.

"This guy seems to have something to say, and the general has to guard against it."

He Bin's careful thinking, Li Xin can roughly guess seven, seven, eighty, eight, this kind of person's first consideration out of instinct is often how to protect himself, as for forging ahead, it is also after being able to balance his own various forces. For example, at the moment, he thinks that Wallace has enough influence in the Pingbo fleet, and if he stands on the opposite side of him at this time, although he personally flatters him Li Xin, it will cause some dissatisfaction within the Pingfan fleet to give rise to him, and once these dissatisfactions are generated, they may be like seeds that have just sprouted, and maybe they will grow into a towering tree in the near future.

With the evolution of the composition of the Three Guards Army from the initial single outcasts to the current various people, the previous set of control methods has obviously been somewhat stretched, but Li Xin has a bottom line for this kind of intrigue between factions, that is, everyone must unconditionally implement the military orders that have been officially written, no matter what opinions they have in their hearts, they must not affect the effect of implementation. Otherwise, severe punitive measures await him.

Therefore, He Bin's self-preservation and Wallace's disapproval, Li Xin is also out of the sidelines, if anyone dares to challenge the military order, make the yang and the yin disobey, or will not be subject to foreign military orders, he will never be soft.

Because strict military discipline and rewards and punishments are the foundation of the Three Guards. If the intrigue between the internal parties is allowed to have a huge impact on this, Li Xin does not mind going on a killing spree to maintain the majesty of military law.

However, the initial results showed that Li Xin's previous doubts were a little too worried, and Wallace led several capital warships to strike a fierce blow at a sea force that was rampant in the waters south of Zhejiang, sinking a total of more than a dozen warships and capturing more than 20 ships.

Most of these merchant ships were spices destined for Japan, and it was clear that this was a fleet that traded with the Japanese, and the warships that were wiped out in the name of the Haikou were all under the orders of the Zheng family.

Although this batch of spices could not offset the hundreds of thousands of taels of silk silver, it clearly conveyed a message to Zheng Zhilong. That is, the Three Guards are not comparable to those small pirates on the sea, and if they dare to risk the world's condemnation to do something against them, he will also usher in unprecedented revenge.