"Brother Xian, Guilin, tell me about the situation of the Westerners, where have they been?"

Xu Yifan followed the two people back to the Governor's Mansion and couldn't wait to ask.

Tan Guilin replied in a deep voice: "My lord, now our merchants in the West have brought back the news, and now the Western coalition army has bypassed the Cape of Good Hope, and now it must have reached the northeast of Africa, if the march is fast, they will be able to reach the Strait of Malacca within a month." ”

Shi Kefa smiled bitterly: "Yifan, this time is a hard battle, I went to the Western Ocean, I have a deep understanding of the giant ships of the Western Ocean, their top warships, the maximum displacement has exceeded 1,500 tons, which is even bigger than our super battleship, a top warship is equipped with more than 100 guns, and it is said that some warships have begun to be equipped with flowering guns, 500 warships, you can imagine, how many guns they have, for the Strait of Malacca, our pressure is too great......"

Xu Yifan said indifferently: "It's okay, Xianzhi, your task is to manage the Nanyang government, mobilize grain, grass and ammunition, take care of the logistics affairs, and leave the rest to me and Guilin, it won't take a few days, Lao Cha will also come to Nanyang in person, the three fleets will be dispatched at the same time, even if our fleet strength is slightly inferior, it will not be too inferior, not to mention that we are also equipped with a large number of flowering cannons, the power of this artillery is actually better than that of the West, and there are 500 warships of the Western Alliance, more than 100,000 troops, The consumption along the way is too great, it is difficult to support the South Seas only by relying on the supply of the West, and it is necessary to supply fresh water food along the way, even if they want to be fast, they can't get up fast, from northern Africa to Malacca is not less than 10,000 miles, a month, they can't reach Malacca, what we have to do now is to be fully prepared! ”

Tan Guilin asked, "My lord, what should we do next?" ”

Xu Yifan said with a smile: "I have brought all the three towns of the Tianxiong Army, of which the first town of the Tianxiong Army is deployed in the Malay Peninsula, and the second and third towns of the Tianxiong Army are deployed in Sumatra. ”

"Are you saying that they will force landings on the Malay Peninsula and on the island of Sumatra?"

Tan Guilin raised his eyebrows and asked.

Xu Yifan nodded and said: "It will definitely be forcibly landed, do you think, now in the past two years, the Strait of Malacca has deployed two or three hundred shore defense guns, dozens of batteries, and launched an attack at the same time to block the Strait of Malacca. There will definitely not be more than a hundred warships invested at one time, and if you launch a strong attack from the sea, you will encounter a strong counterattack from shore defense artillery, even if you can break through the Strait of Malacca, then they will definitely pay the price of blood, can they afford it? ”

Tan Guilin nodded slowly, Xu Yifan was right, his two or three hundred artillery pieces, all deployed in the most secret positions of each fort, with bunkers on them, most of them were built with bluestone or square bricks, and the entire Strait of Malacca, almost all positions have been marked by artillery to shoot Zhu Yuan, the hit rate of the coastal defense artillery will be greatly improved, to wait for work, the Western coalition forces want to defeat the battery group, it is definitely not as easy as imagined, at least, half a month, it is absolutely impossible, half a month, I don't know how many Western warships will be sunk by themselves!

Xu Yifan continued: "Also, the emperor expects that the Western coalition forces are very likely to bypass the Strait of Malacca from the southern tip of Sumatra Island or the Banda Sea area further south, and launch an attack straight towards the hinterland of the South Sea. Therefore, we must act early to build watchtowers at the southern tip of Sumatra, the northwest tip of Java, Borneo and the key islands of the Java archipelago to prevent a sneak attack by the Western coalition. Once the Western coalition forces really bypass Sumatra or the Java Islands and attack the Luzon Islands, the three fleets can be dispatched at any time to intercept halfway, so that the Strait of Malacca can only rely on our own strength for the time being! ”

Tan Guilin and Shi Kefa's hearts were shocked, there are three fleets to suppress the formation, but there is no huge difference in combat strength, but once the three fleets are stationed in the north of Borneo, the distance from the Strait of Malacca is at least nearly 1,000 miles, and the distance is 2,000 miles back and forth, how can it take four or five days to be able to support the Strait of Malacca in time......

"My lord, when the two armies are fighting, the most taboo thing is the dispersion of troops, our three fleets are separated from the Tianxiong Army and the Malacca Fortress, but we will run the risk of being broken by others!"

Tan Guilin said urgently.

Xu Yifan replied: "There is no way, above the sea, there is no shelter, this area has been occupied by Westerners for hundreds of years, the Dutch and the English are very familiar with this sea area, and may launch a surprise attack from a direction that we did not expect, once their conspiracy succeeds, then the coastal area of the empire will face the risk of being bloodbathed by the Western coalition forces, this risk we can't afford, you must know that most of the empire's commerce and agriculture are concentrated in the eastern coastal area, once it encounters a bloodbath, it may even lead to a big loss of the empire's vitality!" Therefore, it is not terrible to lose Malacca, we can regain it again, and it will not affect the core of the empire, but if we let the Western coalition army drive straight into Jiangnan and directly enter Jiangnan, it will be a real big trouble! ”

Tan Guilin and Shi Kefa looked at each other, Xu Yifan was right, more than half of the finance and taxes of the Ming Empire were concentrated in the Jiangnan area, and there was absolutely no room for any mistakes.

"Okay, Guilin, immediately send an order to set up watchtowers around the Java Islands and the islands around Borneo, and once the traces of the Western Combined Fleet are found, immediately report to the three major fleets of Borneo so that we can intercept them in time!"

Everyone, the Immortal Empire has gradually come to an end now, and in the next time, Boling will slow down the update speed slightly, hoping to write the end well, start and finish well, update two to three chapters a day, occasionally update in a timely manner, I hope you understand, I will try to ensure the three more.

(End of chapter)