"Admiral, before we talk about the battle plan, should we give you a concise introduction to the current situation of maritime supremacy?" Gerhardt glanced at Xu Mo and made an abrupt suggestion.

"Huh? Oh, well! In order to give you a better understanding of the form of the ocean, I will first explain to you the general situation of the current sea power of various countries. After seeing Xu Mo in Gerhardt's gaze, Hedram immediately came to his senses.

"Hehehe!" Of course, everyone present also guessed why Gerhardt made such a seemingly unnecessary suggestion, and they all let out a good-natured laugh.

After all, Xu Mo's contribution to Sweden is well known, and now his status in the fleet is getting higher and higher, and he may even become the admiral of Sweden's second privateer fleet in the future, and it is also Hedlam's responsibility to train him. When explaining the battle plan, everyone will not have any opinion on giving him some additional basic knowledge of sea power.

Xu Mo rolled his eyes helplessly, although Gerhardt was talking about introducing the sea power of various countries to everyone, but the people in this room understood that it was actually meant to be for him alone. However, he could only endure this breath, who made him a real rookie in this gang.

"At present, there are three most important sea routes in the ocean, one is the New World route from Europe to the New World, the other is the African route to Africa, and the other is the eastern route to India, which goes around the Cape of Good Hope in Africa. Which of these three routes has the most powerful maritime power and trade volume on a certain route, also known as the maritime supremacy that owns this route, the current maritime form of these three routes is ......"

Hedram took out a nautical map, moved his fingers gracefully and slowly on the chart, and told everyone about the current hegemony of the seas, and Xu Mo gradually understood the basic situation of this sea power world.

Twenty years ago, England and Spain had a huge naval war because of their succession to the throne and their religious beliefs. England defeated Spain's Armada in the war, temporarily became the number one maritime power, seized hegemony over the New World routes, and plundered Spanish merchant ships laden with wealth on the seas.

And at the beginning of the century, England established the East India Company, and on the Eastern route began to compete with other powers in the Oriental trade, where there was great interest. However, because of its large number of competitors, it cannot dominate the eastern route, but it is still the most powerful sea power at sea.

Spain produced great defeats on their land and sea fronts at the end of the old century and the beginning of the new century, both on the European continent and in the seas of the whole world. The former dependencies of Portugal and the Netherlands became independent and dealt a heavy blow to it. In the oceans, it has lost the hegemony of the New World shipping routes, which have huge interests. However, Spain remained powerful, and with nearly two centuries of plundering wealth, it temporarily withstood the naval invasion of England and managed to maintain colonial rule in the New World and the slave trade in Africa.

France was originally plagued by religious wars in the old century, but after Henry IV ascended the throne, the 'Nantes Amnesty' was issued, and Catholicism became the state religion of France, but it also adopted a policy of religious tolerance for Protestants, ending the Huguenot Wars that lasted for more than 30 years, and France was revived again.

During the reign of Henry IV, he had a good personal relationship with King Elizabeth of England, and the two countries entered a brief honeymoon period. However, Elizabeth and Henry IV are already very old, and it is said that Prince Louis, the heir of Henry IV, was not friendly to England, and he was afraid that after the death of the old kings of the two countries, the two countries would enter a state of confrontation again. On the sea, France is currently no match for England and Spain, but it still has a significant role in the Black Triangle trade.

The last maritime power was the Netherlands, and the Dutch Confederation after breaking away from Spain also established the East India Company, inherited Spain's hegemony over the Eastern Route, and actively participated in the Black Triangle trade. Amsterdam also became the world's largest trading port, and the Dutch in the new century were known as the 'coachmen of the sea'. Although the Netherlands received a lot of aid from England in the War of Independence, they were the same powers that were now the first to challenge England's maritime supremacy.

As for the other European powers, Sweden was an emerging country with a nascent maritime power, and Portugal was not long independent, and although their merchant ships could be seen everywhere on the seas, they lacked the sea power to fight. Denmark, Venice, and the Ottoman Empire all possessed only partial sea power in secondary seas, and did not have the strength to compete for hegemony in the global seas.

Trade in other seas, while not comparable to the three most important shipping routes mentioned above, is of great value, such as the hegemony of the North Sea between England and the Nordic powers, the hegemony of the Mediterranean between the Ottomans and Spain and France, and the hegemony of the Baltic Sea between Sweden and Denmark.

"No matter how big a battleship is, it is just a grain of sand in the desert in the vast ocean. If you want to intercept it, you must know its route. If we want to attack Clifford, we'll have to get him on a fixed course before we have a chance to take on him. "Hedram has finally finished giving Xu Mo this sea power lesson.

"If we want Clifford to come to a fixed course according to our arrangement, it is necessary to strike at the sea route in which England has great interests!" Gerhardt added with a smile, "England's Black Triangle and the Eastern Route are not something that our ships can shake, so the only thing we can do to England is its Northern Sea Route." ”

"My battle plan with Gerhardt is to ask His Majesty Gustav to send armed merchant ships to attack England's Northern Sea Route, posing as pirates from other countries. As soon as the spies in London got the news of Clifford's attack, we set off north from Amsterdam to fight Clifford in the North Sea! Hedram clenched his fingers into a fist and slammed them into the vast northern ocean of the chart.

"Finally, I would like to inform you that because there were so many people involved in this operation that we could not guarantee the secrecy afterwards, His Majesty Gustav would have to declare us pirates even if Clifford was successfully addressed. We won't be able to go back to Stockholm until this matter fades down! Hedram said lightly.

"Hehe, I've always dreamed of becoming a fearless Viking one day, but I didn't expect it to finally come true today under the Admiral!" Charlie covered his mouth and snickered.

After looking around, Xu Mo found that the people in the room didn't seem to have a little psychological burden about becoming pirates, and he couldn't help but sigh with emotion. It seems that the values of Europeans and Orientals are really different, at least in China, a good citizen can never embark on the road of bandits unless he cannot survive, but these Westerners are different, and their natural adventurous spirit and desire to fight make them more adapted to the natural law of survival of the fittest.

……

"Little Blakeney, little Blakeney, wait a minute!" After the battle meeting, Xu Mo grabbed Blakeney and looked around like a thief, and then forced him into his room.

"Alfred, I've said it many times, call me Lord Blakeney, not Little Blakeney! Also, what do you want to do? Blakeney pouted, disgruntled. Looking at Xu Mo's sneaky and obscene appearance, Blakeney put one arm on his chest and looked at him vigilantly.

"Hehe, this ...... There are some things that I don't quite understand about Admiral Hedram's battle plan just now...... Well, can you explain it to me again! Xu Mo rubbed his hands and said a little embarrassed.

"Oh, I see, I thought it was ......" Blakeney lowered his hand and breathed a sigh of relief, "Of course, you can ask!" ”

"Why do you think it!" Xu Mo looked at Blakeney with an ugly face, no matter who was regarded as a monster, he would not have a good face, "What is the Black Triangle trade that the Admiral is talking about, and there are many merchant ships on the Northern Sea Route of England that are engaged in trade activities?" I don't think there were any prosperous ports or countries up there. ”

As soon as Xu Mo finished speaking, he saw Blakeney looking at him with wide eyes, and then his cute little face showed a look of contempt, and he almost blurted out that he was a big fool.

Alfred S. Your Excellency K. Anderson, everyone knows that your knowledge of navigation is very poor, but I really didn't expect that you don't even know the most basic common sense of a Swede. Please don't stand next to me in the future, and you'd better not tell anyone other than the Vestelos that you're the first mate on the Swedish battleship, or else Your Excellency the Admiral and we will be disgraced by it!" ”

With his mouth wide open and staring at Blakeney dumbfounded, Xu Mo didn't expect his question to attract a bit of cynicism from him. Seeing this arrogant dead boy, he turned around and was about to open the door and go out. Xu Mo's face slowly turned white, and then turned from white to blue, and the muscles on his face began to twitch slightly.

"Shadow Walk!" Xu Mo's figure brought out a series of afterimages, and before Blakeney could react, he was already standing in front of the door, blocking the young man's way, and said through gritted teeth: "Where do you want to go?" Blakeney ...... Excellency! ”

Seeing Xu Mo's hideous expression, Blakeney shrugged his shoulders indifferently and continued to sarcastically: "Your Excellency Alfred, this kind of childish question of yours can be asked by a random sailor on the dock, and I really don't bother to answer it. However, you'd better change into a scruffy outfit and not be seen by others, you're the first mate of the major on the Vestelos! ”

Seeing that Blakeney didn't eat oil and salt, and then thinking of the stubborn temper of this copper and iron boy, Xu Mo was suddenly discouraged, but he immediately remembered something, rolled his eyes, smiled and let go of the door.

"Humph!" Blakeney saw that Xu Mo seemed to have chosen to give up asking himself, his nose wrinkled, he snorted contemptuously, and opened the door.

Just as Blakeney was about to go out, Xu Mo behind him smiled darkly and said softly. After hearing this, Blakeney's body stiffened there, his face gradually turned white, and then turned from white to blue, his cute little face wrinkled into a ball, and beads of sweat the size of beans appeared on his forehead, slowly sliding down his cheeks.

"Bang!" Blakeney slammed the door back on, turned around and looked at Xu Mo viciously, looking eager to bite him, "How do you know!" ”