Cohen and Davis were furious, and Cervantes and Luke were silent.

"Cervantes, before you left, Count Cohen and I had already granted you full powers, as long as England is willing to send troops and let them open the conditions, are they still not tempted?"

Davis asked.

Cervantes smiled bitterly: "Lord Earl, the conditions we can give are indeed generous enough, but the conditions given by the Ming Empire are even more generous......"

Davis was stunned and said, "Better? How can it be? ”

Luke said in a sullen voice: "The Daimyo envoy Shi Kefa promised the English people, as long as they are willing to remain neutral, without their troops to help, the Ming Empire alone to send troops to destroy us, after the matter is completed, Siam, Annam and other countries in the South Seas, let the English invade, the Ming Empire will never interfere, and you can take a large area of land without sending troops, compared to the gold and silver we offer, our conditions are too insignificant......"

Davis and Cohen's faces were bitter, and their hearts sank, yes, even if the two countries came up with five million taels of silver, it would be necessary for the English to go out of the nest, in the face of the huge Ming Empire, the victory or defeat is five or five, and the English have to take a very big risk, but the conditions of the Ming Empire are very simple, you only need to watch from the wall, and the great benefits will be in hand, as long as the Ming Empire defeats the Dutch and the Spaniards, there will be no other forces in the entire South Seas, and the Ming Empire is turning a blind eye to the invasion of the English, with the strength of the English, it is easy to invade Siam, Annam and other countries!

Those countries are too backward!

"Damn it!"

Cohen said fiercely, "This greedy fellow, Dale, doesn't he understand the truth of cold lips and teeth? Once we all fail, there is only one strength left in the Ming Empire in the South Seas, at the door of others, just the little strength of England in the Far East, it is not enough to stuff people's teeth, Siam, Annam, the big cake drawn by the Ming Empire is not small, the problem is too big, can he England eat it? Even if he can eat it, will the Ming Empire let him eat it for nothing? Think beautifully! “

Davis sighed bitterly and replied: "Cohen, let's not talk about that, the biggest problem now is here, without the support of everyone in England, we are facing even greater difficulties......

Cohen looked at Soria and asked, "Soria, you are the commander of our fleet, tell me, what are we going to do next?" ”

Soria said in a deep voice: "The soldiers will block, the water will come to cover, their Ming fleet wants to defeat us also need to pay a lot of price, I think, we have two strategies, first, protect our back road, the Strait of Malacca, is our choke point to the Western Ocean, we must always be in our hands, if we really lose the war, then through the Strait of Malacca, withdraw from the South Seas, and wait for domestic support; secondly, to shrink the forces of all our forces to the island of Java, and to fight a decisive battle with the Ming army, including Borneo, and to give up as well, otherwise we will face the danger of being broken by each other; Third, protect our port, gather all our warships, all not in the Batavia area, now Batavia port, there are fifteen batteries, nearly 100 guns of size, in addition, plus our hundreds of large and small warships, the strength is strong, if we transfer a part of our infantry artillery, deployed near the Batavia military port, to resist the enemy at sea, although the Ming fleet is strong, do not want to take the port of Batavia, as long as we stand firm, do not give the Ming army a chance to land, they have no way, Their Tianxiong army can't grow wings and fly to the port, can they? ”

Cohen was shocked, and said in a deep voice: "Soria, Borneo has our huge interests, and now there are more than 40,000 troops guarding it, so it's a pity to give up Borneo like this, right?" ”

Soria smiled bitterly: "Lord Governor, the first thing we need to ensure now is the safety of Java, to ensure that we are not annihilated by the Ming army, instead of considering how much our interests are damaged, if we divide our troops to defend Borneo, then in the end we will die very miserably, 40,000 troops, it seems to be a lot, but under the attack of the 60,000 Tianxiong army, it is absolutely vulnerable, and when they kill the defenders of Borneo, and then come to clean us up, the remaining 80,000 troops, do you think they can be the opponent of the Ming army?" Your Excellency the Governor, we have no choice now, if we want to restore our rule over the Java Islands and Borneo, we must wait until the main fleet is sent from the country, otherwise, even if we are not completely wiped out in this battle, it is absolutely impossible to hold the huge territory! ”

Cohen and Davis glanced at each other, their eyes were full of bitterness, the current situation is either that the fleet takes the initiative to attack and the Ming fleet fights hard against knives and guns, and the sea is decisive, and they win, and the Ming army retreats; Defeated, the Ming army occupied the territory owned by the Dutch; Either shrink all the forces, keep the island of Java, leave a foothold, and wait for the main fleet of the country to come, if you want to hold the Java Islands and Borneo, with the current strength of the Dutch and the Spaniards, it is simply impossible, the strength of the Ming army is too strong!

"Okay, according to your strategy, shrink your forces, defend Java Island, Batavia and Semarang The two ports must gather heavy troops to prevent the Ming army from landing, our fleet will send warships, cruise day and night, and not leave the Ming fleet the slightest chance!"

Cohen said in a deep voice, "George! ”

Brigadier General George, the commander of the army, on the side, hurriedly stood up.

"You are responsible for the military deployment on the land of Java Island, seize the time, let our soldiers familiarize themselves with weapons, improve their training level, and at a critical time, don't worry about weapons and ammunition, as long as you can hone them out, at all costs!"

George smiled bitterly: "Your Excellency, I know this, but even if we take out all the muskets in our inventory, it is only sixty or seventy thousand muskets, and at least half of them are arquebuses, and nearly half of the soldiers do not have firearms, and our ammunition is only about 5,000 boxes, such ammunition is enough to deal with an ordinary war, but to start a large-scale war with the 60,000 Ming army, I am afraid that these weapons and ammunition are not enough to see......"

Cohen looked at Davis, Davis quickly shook his head, and replied: "Cohen, you see that I am useless, we killed from the port of Manila, almost all the gold and silver treasures, weapons and ammunition have been sunk, and now the ammunition replenishment of the Spanish fleet has not been completed, as for the musket ammunition, 4,000 muskets, 500 boxes of ammunition, this is already all my belongings......"

(End of chapter)