Beijing, Wenhua Hall of the Forbidden City, the venue of the Ming peace talks with Spain, the Netherlands, England, Portugal and Japan.

"What Armada? Is the name Invincible Fleet? Isn't that Spanish Armada always beaten up on the other side of the Atlantic? The English have beaten them, the Dutch have beaten them, and the French seem to have beaten them what even small countries with millions of people like England and the Netherlands can do. To tell you the truth, my four major shipyards alone can complete 32 third-class battleships, 8 first- or second-class battleships, and hundreds of fourth-class battleships every year! It is no problem to launch a Dutch navy in two years! How many ships do you have in the Spanish Armada? Our Ming Navy may not be an opponent one-on-one, but it's not okay to fight one out of ten? They are all wooden boats with bronze cannons, and shells of more than 20 catties are guaranteed to be a hole! ”

The one who spoke was Zheng Zongming, the secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Ming Dynasty, who was the second son of Zheng Zhilong, the one whose Japanese name was Tagawa Nanaemon. After Yang Qilong invaded Japan and took control of the port of Nagasaki, his mission in Japan was completely over, and then he returned to the Ming Dynasty, entered the Ming Shangshu Province under the arrangement of his nephew Zheng Jing, and soon became the Shangshu of the newly established Ministry of Foreign Affairs - he has been campaigning for the cause of anti-Qing restoration in Japan, a proper diplomatic veteran, and it is expected to be the secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Since he was the secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he was the one in charge of peace talks with the Spaniards, the Dutch, the English, the Portuguese, and the Japanese. Although those Westerners and Orientals would prefer to meet with General Li and discuss directly the issue of achieving a decent peace.

However, Li Yat-sen did not meet with these foreign devils at all, and the reason was also very grand, that is, those envoys were not plenipotentiary representatives sent by the monarchs of Spain, the Netherlands, England, and Portugal to hold peace talks with the Ming Dynasty at all, and they were not qualified to meet with General Li directly, and they did not even have the qualifications to meet with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The reason why I can see Zheng Zongming now is completely because of the envoy sent by Tokugawa Yoshitsuna, the blessing of the former old middle and large Kubo Tadasa.

The Loyal Dynasty was a weighty character, with the authority of the Shogun, and the State of Japan and the Ming Dynasty were not at war. Although tens of thousands of Japanese mercenaries had now landed in Hangzhou Bay, they were all hired by the Kingdom of Spain, and the Tokugawa shogunate itself did not declare war on the Ming Dynasty.

However, even with the face of Okubo Tadashi, the envoys of Spain, the Netherlands, England, and Portugal still touched Zheng Zongming's nose. Zheng Zongming was not only unwilling to discuss any decent peace with them, but also questioned the "invincibility" of the Spanish Armada, and even proudly declared that he would use ten Ming battleships to fight one Spanish battleship, and also claimed that the Ming could launch an entire Dutch navy in two years!

Spearman, the former governor of Batavia of the Dutch East India Company, and the former governor of the Philippines, Juan Spearman, who had been ambassadors and advisers to the Qing Dynasty for a while. Carlos, hearing this, trembled in his heart.

They all understand the navy, and of course they know that as long as there is no obvious generation difference between the warships of the two sides, the side with a greater advantage in number (tonnage) in naval battles can often win!

They also knew that in a duel of battleships, it would be very difficult to sink unless there was an obvious mistake on the part of one side, and more likely wounds and captures. The former needs to compete for the ability to repair the ship, which side is closer to the shipyard and has more dry docks, which side is more afraid of damage!

And the latter competes in the ability to replenish personnel! The people in charge of jumping on the battleship are not veteran sailors, just soldiers who can adapt to life at sea and fight on deck!

Among the European powers, the Dutch, who could pay more to hire sailors, were particularly capable of this!

But this is East Asia!

In East Asia, the Ming Dynasty has almost unlimited manpower! And due to Japan's long tradition of seclusion and the long-term control of maritime trade in East Asia and Southeast Asia by maritime merchants in Fujian and Guangdong, Daming also has the largest number of seafarer resources in East Asia and Southeast Asia - in addition to Europeans and Tianfang Christians, almost all seafarers in East Asia and Southeast Asia are Chinese! Sailors from Persia, Arabia and India were also difficult to use for Spain.

Therefore, although the Spanish Arma has a temporary advantage, the balance of power in the eastern sea is undoubtedly tilting in favor of the Ming Dynasty!

And after the Netherlands, England, Spain and other Western maritime powers showed their might in France, it was impossible to draw a large number of maritime forces from Europe to the East.

Hence Spearman and Juan. Carlos was very anxious, eager to make peace with Da Ming when he still had some chips in his hand. If it is delayed any longer, in case the Spanish Armada is accidentally hit hard by the Ming Navy. Then I can't really talk about it.

Spain can't give up New Spain and sue for peace with the Ming Dynasty, right?

The Dutch were in a similar situation, they couldn't give up the oily East Indies, right?

And for Britain, also represented by Spearman, the situation is not much better. Although Britain currently has no colonies in East and Southeast Asia, it is too difficult for them to do business honestly and make a small profit of "no monopoly", right?

If the Ming Dynasty drove away the Spanish Armada and the Dutch East India Company's navy, took the East Indies, and drove the fleet into the Indian Ocean, how could the British make monopoly money?

Not to mention that you can't make money in East Asia and Southeast Asia, and you can't make monopoly profits in India!

Britain is going to be poor!

"Zheng Shangshu," Spearman was anxious to death, but he still had to look confident on his face, "this time the Spanish Armada is different from the past, and the naval battleships of our United Republic of the Netherlands and the Kingdom of England have also joined in. This is actually a three-country combined fleet! How long has your Ming Navy been established? How could it be possible to defeat the fleets of the three major naval powers, Spain, the Netherlands, and England? ”

Juan. Carlos is also an old god: "If your navy's three-nation combined fleet is annihilated, then your 10,000-mile sea frontier will be full of loopholes!" At that time, the Japanese will not just land in Hangzhou Bay! ”

"Hahaha," Zheng Zongming laughed.

"Zheng Shangshu, what are you laughing at?" Okubo Tadachao looked at Zheng Zongming, and his heart was always a little empty.

Although Hotta Masatoshi continued to report to Edo in the past few months, saying that he had defeated tens of thousands of Ming troops, the battle line was nailed to the area of Pinghu County on the edge of Hangzhou Bay.

Even though the shogunate later sent several additional reinforcements, the number of Japanese mercenaries thrown into the battlefield of Hangzhou Bay had reached 60,000 or 70,000 so far, but the battle line remained unchanged.

While the battle line is not moving, there is a big problem with the logistical supply of this Japanese mercenary!

Because the main force of the Spanish Arma went to fight a chase with the Ming Navy's ocean-going fleet, it was only the armed merchant ships of the Dutch East India Company and the English East India Company that were responsible for the supply of Japanese mercenaries.

Although the armed merchant ships of these two East India Companies were also very capable of fighting, as the "dumpling ships" of the four major shipyards of the Ming Dynasty continued to be launched, the armed merchant ships of the Dutch and English could no longer cope with it - recently there was even a newly built first-class battleship circling around the Yangtze River estuary and Hangzhou Bay! Armed merchant ships are, in the final analysis, armed merchant ships, and the other side is already very reluctant to get a fourth-class ship, how can a first-class ship with a displacement of more than 2,000 tons be beaten by merchant ships?

So the tens of thousands of Japanese mercenaries who landed in Hangzhou Bay have now begun to starve!

When Zheng Zongming heard Okubo Tadasa's question, he suppressed his smile and said to him with a serious face: "Okubo Laochu, your mercenaries are starving, they have been abandoned by the Westerners and the Tokugawa shogunate, and the reason why they are not completely desperate now is that they have illusions about the Spanish Armada When our Ming ocean-going fleet returns to Hangzhou Bay, they will become the Japanese mercenaries of the Ming Dynasty!"

When the time comes, the Ming Navy will send them to attack Batavia and Malacca! ”

When the Dutchman Spearman heard this, his face turned black!

Because what Zheng Zongming said is very likely to happen!

No matter how much Japanese mercenaries can fight, they are also mercenaries!

Mercenaries are fighting for money, and they have no feudal obligations to their employers. As long as the Spanish Armada has no way to guarantee their supply lines, they will change their doors and fight the Spaniards for the Ming Dynasty, and the Dutch will not turn against them, will they wait to starve to death?

Once these tens of thousands of rotten pirates defected, the Dutch rule in the East Indies would collapse!

Because the greatest difficulty in the capture of the East Indies was not the more than 10,000 Dutch mercenaries, but tropical diseases! Tropical diseases typically take the lives of one-third to two-thirds of outsiders.

Whoever can endure this illness will win!

The previous victory of the Ming army in Luzon was based on the fact that the Japanese mercenaries could afford to die. There was nothing to praise about the war, with Japanese mercenaries falling ill in droves outside Manila's Santiago Castle, while the Spaniards were crammed into cramped castles to endure infectious diseases and flowering shells.

Fight to the end, half of the Japanese died, and a third of the Spaniards died, but the Spaniards couldn't stand it and Kaesong surrendered! The surviving Japanese mercenaries either settled in Luzon to act as lackeys for the Ming Dynasty, or took the silver back to Japan to live a happy life, while all the men among the Spaniards were slaughtered by the Japanese, which is called "besieging but not forgiving"!

Luzon will be enclosed to the Lee dynasty, which lost Korea.

If tens of thousands of Japanese cannon fodder in Pinghu fell into the hands of the Ming army, and the Ming navy sent them outside Batavia and Malacca, relying on their super tolerance for death, the Dutch would almost 100% lose their richest colony!

In the South China Sea, thousands of miles away from Beijing, the sky is already beginning to lighten. Behemoths made of teak and fir trees are exhausted on the surface of the sea and carry the wind. Each battleship bears the marks of fierce battles, and many battleships have holes in the board, large and small, and the sails are tattered. They were all wounded by projectiles fired by the enemy's heavy artillery! On the Liaodong first-class battleship, there were black traces everywhere, which were burned by arson bombs fired by Spanish and Dutch warships that ignited the ship's planks and sails. On the deck of this large warship with a displacement of more than 2,000 tons, the flesh and blood of the casualties and officers and soldiers who have not yet been cleaned up can be seen everywhere, indicating that there was once a bloody gang jumping battle here.

Not far to the west of this first-class battleship, there were several fourth-class battleships that looked even more miserable, and three fourth-class battleships were missing from their originally neat battle lines. In these days of repeated pursuit battles with the Spanish Armada, the ocean-going fleet of the Ming Navy has been suffering losses! Three fourth-class battleships and eight armed Galen ships and thousands of sailors had been lost.

One of the fiercest battles took place yesterday during the day. The Admiral of the Ming Navy's ocean-going fleet, 55 Ming warships (including 1 first-class ship and 28 fourth-class ships) commanded by Vice Admiral Cotentin from France and more than 80 Spanish armadas (including many Dutch and English warships or armed merchant ships) fought a bloody battle.

More than 100 warships of both sides fought a bloody battle in the vast South China Sea, which began early in the morning and continued until yesterday evening. The fleets of both sides first shelled in formations, then engaged in a melee for several hours, and did not disengage until it was almost nightfall.

As for the losses of both sides, it is half a catty. At present, the losses on the side of the Spanish Armada that can be confirmed are also two fourth-class ships sunk and one third-class ship heavily damaged

However, all the officers of the ocean-going fleet of the Ming Navy, including Cotentin, knew that the Spaniards and Dutch would not give up!

Because time is not on their side!

In the year and a half since the Ming Navy's ocean-going fleet left the mouth of the Yangtze River almost a year and a half ago and began its long journey, they have not landed again except for a brief stop at the ports of Acapulco, Manila, and Huining. Among them, the longest non-docking continuous voyage accumulated to 3 months! If it weren't for the large quantities of lemons and tea that were carried, the fleet would have broken out with scurvy long ago.

After a year and a half of sailing and combat, the officers and men of the ocean-going fleet of the Ming Navy have grown up, learned to sail, adapted to long-term sea life, and exercised their skills in naval warfare.

They are no longer the original rookies, but the most valuable asset of the Ming Navy!

And in the past year and a half, the local shipyards of Daming will not be idle, and now dozens of powerful first, second and third class battleships must have been built, and hundreds of fourth-class battleships have been built!

Only after the officers and men of the ocean-going fleet of the Ming Navy returned to the port of Guangzhou to complete a short rest, they would board the powerful and brand-new battleships, and then the Spanish Armada would be completely wiped out again!

Knowing this, Admiral Pedro of Spain. Morality. Sabala will not give up. Because his invincible fleet is difficult to achieve great results when attacking the ocean-going fleet of the Ming Navy, whose strength is far smaller than his own, let alone facing a Ming naval fleet whose strength is far greater than his own?

And the strength of the Ming Navy surpasses that of the Invincible Armada, which is the immediate thing, once the veteran gets on the new ship, then the advantage of the Spanish Invincible Armada will be gone.

On board the "Our Lady of Concepción", the flagship of the Spanish Armada, Admiral Zabala was patrolling the deck while listening to the report of the staff officer: "Admiral, now five percent of the sailors are showing symptoms of scurvy and the fleet is very tired!"

Moreover, more than 30 percent of the ships were injured to varying degrees and had to go back to Batavia for overhaul."

"Overhaul?" Admiral Zabala looked back at the staff officer, "Do you know how many warships and armed merchant ships are waiting to be repaired in the shipyards in Batavia? Our warships will have to queue up when they go back, and they may not be able to line up for a year. By the time we have repaired all the ships, the Chinese will probably have built 300 first, second and third class battleships! ”

"But." The staff officer said, "They should have built quite a few by now!" If we catch up all the way, I'm afraid we will encounter the cutting-edge warships of the Ming Dynasty in the coastal waters of China! ”

Admiral Sabala shook his head firmly: "It doesn't matter, excellent naval officers and sailors can't be cultivated overnight, as long as we destroy the fleeing Ming fleet, then we can maintain the Eastern Sea Power for at least another two years or so!" ”

As soon as he finished speaking, a piercing bell rang from the lookout post on the mast!

The admiral looked at his staff officer and laughed: "Okay! Caught up! ”

(End of chapter)