The bad news came one after another, causing Zheng Jie's scalp to tingle when he saw the soldier who reported the news.

But looking at the soldier's embarrassed appearance, it doesn't look like there is good news to report.

The soldier who reported the news walked in silently, and saw that the atmosphere in the hall was solemn, and the generalissimo's face was gloomy. The soldier who reported the news didn't know how to open his mouth for a while.

After a long time, Zheng Jie took a deep breath and slowly spoke.

"Tell me, what military intelligence?"

"Two days ago, the Ming fleet attacked the port of Taojiang, and our warships were completely annihilated. Their soldiers have landed at the mouth of the Tao River, captured Hai Duong City yesterday, and are heading towards Thang Long!"

"Hiss~"

As soon as the soldier said this, everyone in the hall gasped.

And Zheng Jie was so shocked that he couldn't speak for a long time, and gently sat down on the back of the chair. Although he tried his best to hide it, his trembling hands still revealed that he was in an extremely uneasy mood at this time.

The silence in the hall was terrifying, and everyone was silent, trying to hold their breath, lest they be angered by the generalissimo.

"How many soldiers do they have?"

After a long time, Zheng Jie's mouth finally spoke again.

His voice was hoarse, as if he had just swallowed two handfuls of sand.

"Back to the Generalissimo, in the early 10,000s."

"In the early 10,000s!? What about Zheng Jiu in the port? What about Hai Duong's Mo Bi Xian? The soldiers under the two of them together are more than 10,000 people, right? How could the Ming army capture Hai Duong in such a short period of time?"

Zheng Jie's tone is not high, and the speed of speech is not fast, but everyone can hear the anger contained in it.

"General Zheng resisted to the death in the harbor and fought until the last moment, but the artillery on the opposing ship was so powerful that our warship was vulnerable in front of them! General Zheng fought until the last moment, and was finally rescued by the artillery explosion, and finally had to retreat to Haiyang with 2,000 remnants. But who knew that Hai Duong didn't hold it either!"

"At this time, there are at least dozens of large and small warships in the port, why are they all wiped out? How many ships did they come?"

"Eighteen!"

"It's all big ships?" Zheng Jie said subconsciously. Because only big ships can have such strong firepower.

"It's all big ships! The big kind!"

"How big?"

"The largest is about thirty feet. But when they attacked, they only sent seven ships."

"Seven? Are you saying that their seven warships wiped out all the ships in our harbor?"

"Yes!" The soldier nodded solemnly.

"Hey! It seems that our warships are all parked there and lined up for them to fight, and there is no return fire." Zheng Jian sneered, obviously not believing what the soldier said. "Okay, according to what you said, then I'll ask you again. The artillery on their warships is sharp, and it doesn't matter if the port can't be defended, what about Haiyang? Can their cannons hit Haiyang directly?"

"Back to the generalissimo, the Ming army that came down from the ship also has extremely powerful firearms!"

"Isn't an extremely powerful firearm just artillery? How many doors did they bring!?"

"It's artillery, but it's very different from what we're used to."

"What's the difference?"

"It's so small that a person can run on his back."

"Are you kidding? The bigger the artillery, the more powerful it is, you say it's small, how did you capture Hai Duong?" ….

"The shells of this kind of artillery fall from the sky, and as long as the cannonballs fall on the city walls, there is no one who can stand within a radius of ten paces! The most terrifying thing is that this artillery is very accurate, and at least more than half of a single round of shelling can hit! They used forty of these cannons, but after a few rounds, our soldiers were dead and fleeing. Not only that, but they didn't know what they used, and they blew the city gate to pieces with a bang. General Zheng Jiu tried to gather the remnants of his army to continue the battle, but seeing that the general trend had gone, he had no choice but to flee Haiyang!"

The soldier's account of the battle was clear and coherent.

But in Zheng Jie's ears, it is tantamount to a fantasy.

Seven warships defeated dozens of their own ships.

The artillery is small and can be carried on a person's back.

The shells fell from the sky and were very accurate, and most of them hit the target accurately.

There was a firearm that I don't know what it was called, and it blew the fortified city gate to pieces with a "boom".

Zheng Jie stared at the soldier for a long time, only looking at him in the heart.

But it looks like this guy is lying.

"Do you believe what he says?"

Zheng Jie looked at several of his subordinates who were also stunned.

When several guys heard Zheng Jie's question, they all shook their heads frantically.

I've heard of explosives, but I've never heard of them being so powerful. And artillery, the smallest of those iron bumps weigh hundreds of pounds, and people can run around on their backs?

"Is it that Zheng Jiu is afraid that I will punish him for his crime and deliberately let you say this?" Zheng Jie thought of another possibility.

"No, Generalissimo! If what the little one said is half a lie, he is willing to be executed by Ling Chi, beheaded all over the house, and divided into five horses..."

The soldier was so frightened that he kowtowed like garlic, and it seemed that he wanted to cut open his heart for Zheng Jie to see.

"You go down first."

Seeing that he couldn't ask anything more, Zheng Jie waved his hand and sent the soldier away. Then he ordered the guards around him to send an order to urgently summon the Chinese Wu to the Generalissimo's Mansion for discussion.

After everyone in the hall left, Zheng Jie let out a sigh and collapsed on the chair.

Although he seemed to be relatively calm, he was already in turmoil.

The Ming army on the border of Yunnan in the northwest, the rebels in Shanxi Province, and the Ming army in Haiyang Province.

Needless to say, the targets are all Thang Long.

The Ming army in the northwest is quite normal, but it is said that the armor is complete and the combat effectiveness is strong, and I haven't heard of anything unbelievable. But the Ming army that captured Hai Duong was too unusual.

Reporting what the soldiers said, he actually believed most of it, the Ming army definitely had a weapon of destruction that they didn't expect, otherwise they wouldn't have dared to attack with just such a few people.

He remembered the rumors he had heard from the Dutch people before, saying that the Ming had a fleet of only seven warships, which defeated the Spaniards in Luzon and drove them out of Luzon.

But naval warfare is different from land warfare, after all, his base camp is still on land, and the other party has to fight on land if he wants to defeat him.

Although Da Ming is very powerful, in fact, he has not taken it very seriously before, because of various factors, it is too difficult for Da Ming to use troops against Jiaozhi, which has been verified by history. Not to mention whether we can win or not, the issue of governance alone has become a huge challenge. It took countless manpower and material resources to get this piece of land, which was extremely uneconomical for Daming. This was one of the reasons why he connived at Zheng Kai to contain the rebels of the Ming Dynasty.

But is this once nothing to become the fuse of the erosion of the situation?

Zheng Jie sat alone in the hall and thought about it, but he couldn't find a clue.

He knew that Da Ming had become strong again in the past few years, but he really hadn't adapted to this kind of strength yet.

Or, how powerful is the current Ming Dynasty?

Fry a serving of fries