Chapter 232

At the time of the battle, it was not obvious, but when they watched the Zheng fleet flee in the wilderness, the officers and men of the Ning Navy were relieved, especially many of the officers and men of the Ning Navy had trembling hands and weak legs.

Of course, some of the officers and men of the Ning Navy were nervous, some were tired, and of course a few were frightened, after all, the sea was too fierce.

Speaking of which, this is actually Ning Haijun's luck, because of Zheng Zhibao's mistake, he consumed the sharpest knife under Zheng Zhilong's command, that is, Kumamoto Taro and the more than 6,000 samurai under his command.

If in this battle, Zheng Zhilong's fireship is controlled by these small day warriors, it is not easy to say whether Ning Haijun can win this battle, because the small day warriors are very crazy.

Because the country of Kori is very poor now, even as a samurai, now the samurai of Kori are managing places and taxes for daimyo at all levels, which is equivalent to civil servants. However, their income is very low. Most of the samurai who served the shogunate were called "Hachimoto" and "Goke".

Moreover, the samurai have no salary, their income is stone, that is, rice, relatively speaking, the income of the flag is slightly higher, and the royal family is slightly lower, and in general, their ordinary income is about fifty stone rice. Of course, like Kato Morimoto Ichihisa, his income must be much higher, but the ordinary samurai under his command nominally have an income equivalent to that of an official of the Ming Dynasty.

That's the income level of a full-fledged samurai, and even lower if you count the nominal samurai who hold a katana, and if you subtract from taxes, you're barely able to make ends meet. So, the samurai of the small day had to eat rice balls, and there was also the so-called sushi, and the reason for making sushi was that they didn't have enough rice to eat.

It can be said that the reason and background of sushi are like the authentic snacks of Beijing City, in the Qing Dynasty, the big families, the Eight Banners magnates did not eat the water, every year there are poor people with the roots of the imperial city, guarding the door of the big families and the Eight Banners magnates, watching people throw the water, they will pick up these water and eat them, which is also considered meat, but the problem is that there is not much water after all, so they add dead dough cakes, and they will be burned, forming the current stew.

Of course, the Samurai of the Little Day did not have a good time in the country of the Little Day, pickles, dried radishes and natto were their daily staple food, and as for the common people, the standard of living was too far worse than that of the Samurai of the Little Day. Even if there are natural and man-made disasters in the Ming Dynasty, in fact, the living standards of the people in the Ming Dynasty far exceed those of the small days.

These days, after the samurai took refuge in Zheng Zhilong, they fought very bravely, because if they died in battle, their family could receive a settlement fee of one hundred taels of silver, which Zheng Zhilong was still very generous.

Therefore, when the samurai under Kumamoto Taro were fighting, they were not afraid of death at all, and for them, death was a relief.

It's just a pity that Zheng Zhibao didn't know what his mind was thinking at the time, so he actually put monsters little by little to brush up on the experience of Ning Haijun's sailors.

For a young army, indiscriminately, a brawl, this is the best choice, in the later generations, a small day to fight with the navy of a beautiful country is to commit this big taboo.

Zheng Zhibao actually used such a useful blade to spar with the sailors of the Ning Navy, and as a result, the fleet of the sailors of the Ning Navy, who had no combat experience, used these more than 200 ships and more than 6,000 Xiaori warriors to gain sufficient combat experience.

Although Zheng Cai recruited samurai from Xiaoriguo, his cooperation and training level were far inferior to those under Kumamoto Taro, so after this battle, the real fireship did not cause much damage to the Ning Navy.

Of course, there are not so many ifs in reality.

Li Zhixiang watched the Zheng fleet retreat, and did not pursue, once the Zheng fleet pursued and attacked fiercely, he would miss the opportunity to treat the wounded.

Cheng Shijie told Li Zhixiang many times that the sailor is a technical soldier, and the wounded soldiers are very valuable, and the wounded soldiers who survive on the battlefield will become elite soldiers when they return to the team after recovering from their injuries. There is no shortage of warships in the Ning Navy, and now with the speed of warship production in the Ning Navy, they can produce a huge fleet within a year.

And the sailor soldiers are truly priceless.

What's more, the current Zheng fleet has broken its backbone, and there is little point in continuing to fight the water dogs, and those sailors have been trained by him with great difficulty, and it would be too sad if they died because of this.

All levels of the Ning Navy sent lifeboats to search for and rescue the survivors on the sea, and this sea area stained red by blood and fire was suddenly bustling.

At the time of the decisive battle between the Subic Henin Navy and the Zheng fleet, the Dutch East India Company sent a third-class battleship and two fourth-class warships on the tulip, the flagship of this small fleet. Colonel L. DeVos handed the telescope to Lieutenant Colonel Peter van der Waals, the chief of staff next to him, and said, "What do you think? ”

"Their battleships...... It's really fast! And their naval guns are also much larger in caliber than ours, have a longer range, and are more powerful, but they are full of eccentricities! ”

Bernard sighed and said, "Those vampires on the board, their wishes have been disappointed!" ”

As a matter of fact, since Manila in Luzon changed hands, the Dutch East India Company paid special attention to this matter, because most of the more than 150 armed merchant ships and warships of more than 1,000 tons in the Dutch East Indies were scattered all over the world, they could not actually draw many warships in a short period of time, and it was still possible to have twenty or thirty warships.

At the Dutch East India Company's Eastern headquarters in Batavia, Senior Commercial Commissioner Koopmans proposed that if Zheng Zhilong and Ning Haijun were defeated in a decisive battle, they would save 120,000 francs in protection money, and at the same time they could take advantage of Spain's inability to take care of Luzon and get a share of the Luzon island.

It's just a pity that the Battle of Subic began very hurriedly and ended even more quickly, and it ended in just two or three days, ending in a fiasco for the Zheng clan.

"How did they manage to do it when their ship was about two knots faster than our battleship without full sails?"

Lieutenant Colonel Valls said in disbelief, "How did they do it?" ”

"It doesn't matter how they do it, we are merchants, and profit is the standard by which businessmen measure everything! The current situation is very obvious, and the profits from the war with the Ning Navy are far less than the protection money paid to them! ”

Bernard smiled bitterly: "Unless the board is willing to fight to lose at least a hundred warships, or five thousand sailors, and lose millions of gold carters." ”

Regarding the Dutch's spectatorship, Li Zhixiang's reaction was the same as Cheng Shijie's, he had already sent someone to warn the Dutch: "It's okay to watch, don't interfere, otherwise Ning Haijun will not die!" ”

Obviously, these Dutchmen did not have the courage to fight Ning to the death.

……

Although Zheng Zhilong retreated, he was not without nothing, because when they faced off against the main battleship of the Ning Navy, their detachment, that is, the troops led by Zheng Zhibao, finally did a serious job.

Zheng's fleet succeeded in taking Subic Harbor. At this time, Subic Harbor was actually only a small port for the Spaniards, but there were four forts, and this time Zheng Zhibao was very powerful, he successfully learned the lessons of the Battle of Wusongkou, but attacked from both land and sea at the same time.

First, about 100 small centipede ships with very shallow drafts landed on the left and right flanks of Subic Harbor with army troops, and after the landing force successfully landed, it did not move the Spaniards, but after Zheng Zhibao's detachment successfully attracted the attention of the Spaniards, it was only after the land and sea attack was flanked.

After more than half a day of fierce fighting, Zheng Zhibao captured Subic Port and Subic Castle after paying the price of more than 1,000 casualties, killed 63 Spanish soldiers defending Subic City, captured 93 of them, and annihilated about 1,500 Spanish colonial troops.

When he came to Subic Port, Zheng Zhibao held a grand welcome ceremony.

However, Zheng Zhilong was not interested in this, his ears were buzzing, his chest rose and fell sharply, and he swallowed the mouthful of blood that was gushing to his throat with great difficulty.

"Fifth brother, prepare some food and drink, and women!"

Zheng Zhilong knew that the life of pirates at sea was very boring, and now that they had lost the battle, they needed to revive their morale, and there were only two things that could boost their morale, wine and women.

Zheng Zhibao looked at Zheng Zhilong with an unkind face, although he did not ask Zheng Zhilong in detail about the results, but at a cursory glance, he, the number three person of the Zheng Group, could also find that the Zheng Clan's fleet had been streamlined too much.

"Yes, big brother, I'll arrange it right away!"

Zheng Zhibao had actually been prepared for a long time, but he was to celebrate Zheng Zhilong's victory, and after he occupied Subic Port, he sent troops to sweep away more than a dozen tribes around him, and captured six or seven thousand women.

Now that the celebration is not successful, it is also easy to appease the soldiers.

Zheng Zhibao paid a little attention, and found that Zheng Zhilong's main fleet only had more than 300 warships left, and most of the battleships were scarred, lying all over the ground full of bloody wounded soldiers, these wounded soldiers could not be effectively treated, and they kept dying in the hot and stinking cabin, and it was probably unknown how many people would survive in the end.

Recalling the grand occasion when the fleet set out on the expedition, the white sails were like clouds and the flag covered the sun, and then looked at the current miserable scene, Zheng Zhibao really wanted to cry, the losses of the Zheng fleet were too heavy, and the consequences were very serious.

Located in a castle built by the Spaniards, in the face of more than a dozen shivering Spanish women, Zheng Zhilong was not in the mood, he was drinking alone, and his face was terrifyingly stinky.

Most of the bottles of whiskey were poured into his stomach, and Zheng Zhilong couldn't figure it out.

"How so?"

The warships of the Ning Navy Naval Division are obviously only one-tenth of their main battleships, and if they are based on the total tonnage, they are also one-eighth, and the pilots of those battleships are a group of sailors who have been in the army for less than two years, and they are still very immature in terms of technology and mentality.

Although it is said that Zheng Zhibao lost a lot of warships in the battle of Wusongkou, the main force is still there, in order to achieve victory, from him as a commander to every ordinary sailor, even the strength to eat milk has been used, as long as it is a tactic that can deal a blow to the naval division of the Ning Navy, there is only what he did not expect, and there is nothing he has not tried.

With ten times the advantage of the Ning Navy Naval Division, coupled with the fierce sailors who have been honed across the sea for more than ten years, as well as the muskets and artillery they purchased at a high price from Xiyi, why can't they win the battle? Why?

Shi Daxuan also knew that Zheng Zhilong was in a very bad mood, and Zheng Zhibao didn't dare to touch Zheng Zhilong's brows.

Zheng Zhilong at this time, just like Huang Taiji after the Battle of Baliwan, began to worry about the future of their Zheng group, not to mention that the Zheng fleet had more than 3,000 warships, but he also had many enemies.

Xu Xinsu, who parted ways from the official party, Li Kuiqi, the big pirate Zhong Bin, Liu Xiang, etc., he has been crisscrossing the sea for more than ten years and has established countless contradictions.

Zheng's Group is completely different from Ninghaijun Group, Cheng Shijie's control over Ninghaijun Group is different, Zheng's Group is like a typical company, Zheng Zhilong is just the chairman, and the following are large and small shareholders. And the shareholders of all sizes are also mountains, and these shareholders have their own people, their own ships, and even a certain division of spheres of influence.

But the problem is that the Ning Navy is a collective, even if it is Li Zhixiang, who controls the main fleet of the Ning Navy, as long as he dares to betray Cheng Shijie, he will immediately have the capital to deal with him. If he dares to surrender to the enemy, he is afraid that he will not be able to take even a ship with him, and the most likely is to take his personal guards.

In fact, during this retreat, he found that many of the warships did not follow, and it was possible that the ships were damaged or betrayed.

What to do in the future?

Zheng Zhilong had a great headache.

He borrowed wine to kill his sorrows, so he got drunk very quickly, and before he knew it, Zheng Zhilong fell asleep.

Then, Zheng Zhilong, who was sleeping, had a dream.

In the dream, the sky and the sea had been painted red by blood and fire, and thousands of cannons were roaring wildly, and the smoke and flames rising from the muzzles of the guns made the battleship vibrate violently, as if a volcano had erupted.

The huge battleships like a mountain fluttering the black battle flag were lined up in two rows, as if a copper wall was lying in front of them, no matter how they rushed, they could not rush, and every time they fired, one or two or even several battleships were bound to be hit in flames, and the frontal impact almost became synonymous with suicide.

A row of shells slammed into the face, most of them missed, and turned into a blazing fire with a loud bang, and sharp shrapnel rained down, beating many sailors to the point of blood and flesh......

"Ah......h

Zheng Zhilong screamed, but scared the dozen or so Spanish beauties around him.

Seeing that these dozen or so Spanish beauties discovered their gaffes, Zheng Zhilong snorted coldly: "Someone! ”

"What do you command, Lord Admiral?"

"Throw them into the sea and drown!"

Zheng Zhilong's personal guards are a little regretful, it's a pity, Zheng Zhilong doesn't look down on these Xiyi, they don't mind, but the problem is that they dare not disobey Zheng Zhilong's order.

……

Cheng Shijie, who was in Chongming, didn't know the news of the naval battle of Subic, but he received further news from Luzon, after Mao Youjun, a survivor, was rescued by Liang Zhiqi, Liang Zhiqi was ecstatic.

This was a good opportunity to hug his thighs, so he directly ordered the fleet to turn around and go to Tamsui, and after arriving at Tamsui Port, Mao Youjun reported the news of Luzon to Chen Dayong.

Chen Dayong knew that this news had to be reported to Cheng Shijie immediately, and in order to avoid another accident with Mao Youjun, the Fifth Fleet, which had not yet formed a battle, went directly to Chongming Island.

On June 19, the seventh year of Chongzhen, that is, the fifty-fifth day of the Ning Navy's attack on the port of Manila and the fourth day of the Battle of Subic, Cheng Shijie received Luzon intelligence reported by Mao Youjun.

Cheng Shijie is not a native of the Ming Dynasty, he is not afraid of Spain, an empire that has sunset, because the Thirty Years' War successfully pulled the Spanish Empire off the altar.

As early as the 37th year of Wanli, that is, the year of the second large-scale massacre of Chinese by the Spanish colonial authorities in Luzon, the Spanish Empire, which was forced to collapse from then on, and no longer had the strength to fight the Netherlands, signed a 12-year truce with the Netherlands, effectively recognizing the independence of the republic.

However, at the beginning of the first year of the Apocalypse, the truce between the Netherlands and the Spanish Empire ended, and the Netherlands began a war of independence from Spain.

No matter how unwilling Philip IV was, he could not undo the situation in Luzon that changed hands, and at most he called on the Netherlands and Portugal under Spanish administration to put pressure on the Ning navy.

But Cheng Shijie knew very well that at this time, the Netherlands and Portugal were trying to get rid of Spanish rule, especially the Dutch, they had clearly understood that the Ming Dynasty was not a small country, and it was not an indigenous country that they could bully at will.

What's more, the Ning Navy, which is stronger than Zheng Zhilong?

In this case, the only variable is Zheng Zhilong, if Zheng Zhilong defeats the main fleet of the Ning Navy led by Li Zhixiang, and then attacks Luzon, then Zheng Zhilong's strength will swell again.

In fact, Zheng Zhilong did not have the strength to take the entire Luzon, but he did not realize the importance of Luzon, because the Ning Navy took Manila, and he took Luzon in the name of fighting the Ning Navy, I am afraid that the struggle between the Ning Navy and the Zheng family will last longer, which is very unfavorable to the development of the Ning Navy.

Cheng Shijie looked at Li Fangdao: "Do you dare to go south with Ben Shuai to meet Zheng Zhilong for a while?" ”

Li Fang was slightly stunned: "Just rely on our Fifth Fleet?" ”

"Of course it's not all!"

Cheng Shijie said with a smile: "Ben Shuai is not idle on Chongming Island, and I also asked people to build more than 600 warships!" ”

When Li Fang heard that there were more than 600 warships, he was immediately overjoyed: "Dare not obey your fate!" ”

However, when Li Fang saw the more than 600 warships mentioned by Cheng Shijie, he was very speechless.

How to put it, this is just more than 600 small boats that will fall apart when the wind blows, and they can't even compare to small fishing boats.

Li Fang swallowed with difficulty: "Dashuai, this ship ...... It's too small, you can barely sail on the river, but at sea, you're afraid that a wave will turn over! ”

"Ben Shuai has thought of this problem a long time ago, you can rest assured that Ben Shuai has other plans!"

Cheng Shijie's plan is that this kind of small boat will be placed like a wooden row, connected in parallel, directly connected to the front and back with iron locks, just like a small train, dragged by the main battleship.

When encountering the Zheng fleet, set fire to the ship.

Hearing that Cheng Shijie was going to the South China Sea to fight Zheng Zhilong, Shen Boyun was frightened.

The Shen family finally hugged Cheng Shijie's thigh, not to mention that their basic plate is Chongming Island, and now it has become Zhu Weiyuan's fiefdom.

The Shen clan and their Shachuan gang followed Cheng Shijie to eat a full meal for a few days, and now that they heard that the meal ticket was going south, Shen Boyun was anxious: "Handsome, a gentleman does not stand under the dangerous wall......

Cheng Shijie said with a smile: "I am not a gentleman, this commander is a general, as the commander of the Ning Navy, I believe that the officers and men of the Ning Navy will protect their commander!" ”

Li Fang directly sang the opposite tune to Cheng Shijie: "Dashuai, naval warfare is not the same as land warfare, on land, all our Ninghai officers and soldiers have the confidence to protect Dashuai, even in the face of heavy encirclement, even if the enemy is outnumbered!" ”

"Ning Navy Sailor, is it Ning Navy?"

"The sailor is naturally also a member of the Ning Navy, but the fifth detachment is all recruits!"

At this time, Li Fang wanted to cry, although the Fifth Squadron he led now had strong strength, but these strengths were only on paper, twelve Sea Shark-class warships, and four Giant Shark-class, but the problem was that due to the rapid expansion of the Ning Navy Naval Division, the old foundation of the Dongjiang Army Naval Division and the Denglai Naval Division was basically exhausted.

Now these sailors and gunners, although they are not recruits, they have not fought, they are just barely able to control ships, and they have not fought a real naval battle, although they are not recruits, they are about the same as recruits. No blood has ever been seen.

Li Fang also did not have any confidence in the officers and men of this detachment.

"Your worries, Ben Shuai understands, okay, the veterans are all from the recruits!"

Cheng Shijie said: "You are also a veteran who followed Ben Shuai, when you were in Dengzhou, Ning Haike was all new soldiers, were you scared at the time?" There are only more than 500 of you, and more than 8,000 Denglai sailors have been surrendered, aren't you just as brave? ”

"The last general is just as brave now!"

Li Fangdao: "Great marshal, the last general can lead the fifth fleet south, and the great marshal is waiting for the good news of the last general on Chongming Island!" ”

"Okay, this matter is not to be discussed with you, but an order, you have forgotten the military regulations of the Ning Navy!"

"The last will not dare to forget!"

"Execute the order!"

"Yes!"

Seeing Cheng Shijie's resolute attitude, Shen Boyun had no choice but to ask Zhu Weiyuan for help, but the problem was that Zhu Weijie did not persuade Cheng Shijie.

However, what Cheng Shijie didn't know was that in fact, Mao Youjun, the survivor, was not the only survivor of the Gaizhou and Fuzhou, and the other sailor with a big life was called Gao Zongsheng.

Gao Zongsheng was fished up by the patrol fleet of the Ning Navy Naval Division, from the Liaodong Peninsula to the Korean Peninsula to the Xiaori Sea, it was the default range of the Ning Navy Naval Division, and when the Zheng fleet attacked the Ning Navy's commercial fleet, the Ning Navy Naval Division actually wanted to return the color.

Of course, those old gunboats could not defeat the Zheng fleet, and under the leadership of Chen Shiji, they trained sailors and entered the Sea of Xiaori to attack the cargo ships that traded with Xiaori.

When rescuing Gao Zongsheng, the news was transmitted back to the Liaodong Ning Navy General Staff and the Liaodong Management Committee for the first time, Song Xiance saw the strategic position and value of Luzon at a glance, and he also knew that Cheng Shijie was absolutely unwilling to spit out what he ate in his mouth.

He did not think that Zheng's fleet would capture Luzon, but was worried that the Spaniards would take Luzon, and he suggested that Zhou Ning, the chief of the general staff, send additional army troops to Luzon, and Zhou Ning accepted this suggestion.

The Sixth Squadron, which was originally planned to take half a month for sea trials, went to sea eight days ahead of schedule, and even all the paint of the battleships of the Sixth Squadron was not completely dry.

Accompanying the Sixth Detachment to sea were Liu Qingsong of the Ning Navy and more than 9,600 army officers and men.

Those Ninghai officers and soldiers from Liaodong and Dengzhou are better, but the soldiers from the Guanning Army are bitter, they are all landlubbers, and those Ninghai officers and soldiers who can't do it have fallen into eighteen lifetimes of bad luck, and they vomited one by one......

It's really uncomfortable! Even the fierce veterans turned pale, but these veterans were more ruthless, and even if the gastric juice gushed into their throats, they swallowed it back.

When Sun Chengzong learned that Cheng Shijie's Ning Navy had seized a large island with an area of not less than a province from the Spaniards, he asked Sun Zhixi, his grandson, to follow Cheng Shijie.

Sun Zhilan looked at the undulating peaks on the sea, and said with a slight fear: "People are too small in front of the moody sea, a storm can make 100,000 troops die in the belly of the fish, no wonder Meng Yuan's two attacks on Xiaori were defeated!" ”

Chen sometimes smiled faintly: "That's because they don't have a large warship like us, if you want me to say, I actually don't understand, how did the Mengyuan Naval Division fail, I have been to Xiaorihai countless times, although the wind and waves are bigger, there is no problem with our four hundred broken ships, how did they wipe out the 100,000 army?" ”

In the seventh year of Chongzhen, on June 25, just as Cheng Shijie was about to set off from Chongming Island, Catherine told Cheng Shijie a shocking news.

"What do you say that our Ning Navy won?"

"yes!"

Catherine smiled, "Congratulations to Your Excellency the Duke, you have won a great naval battle!" I think your victory is comparable to the glory of the British defeat of the Spanish Armada! ”

Cheng Shijie also knew that Catherine only knew the news from hearsay, and it would take some time for detailed information to come.

He digressed the topic and asked, "By the way, you said that Britain defeated the Spanish Armada, so what is the British Navy doing now?" ”

"What else? After defeating the Armada, it was disbanded. ”

"Disbanded?"

"That's right!"

Catherine pouted: "Six thousand to eight thousand sailors who fought bloody battles with the Spanish Armada and fought desperately to protect the British died of disease and starvation in extreme poverty, and now the British Navy almost no longer exists. ”

"The British's ability to cross the bridge and draw the board is really admirable!"

Although almost everyone attributed the credit to the British in this Anglo-Spanish naval battle, in fact the British navy did not rise at this time, and the Dutch also contributed a decisive force in this battle, and the Dutch dispatched thirty-four warships, accounting for slightly more than one-third of the Anglo-Dutch army.

"What can be done, the navy is a big military spender, it is easy to build a group of warships, and it is easy to recruit a group of sailors, but it is very difficult to maintain it for a long time, with Britain's national strength, it simply cannot afford to raise such a large navy!"

"A good one can't afford to raise ......"

Cheng Shijie couldn't help but think of the British that would be at the extreme of the street a few hundred years later, the empire where the sun never sets, and the army was cut to only about 70,000 people, which was similar to a class A army of my rabbit, and there were only about 200 combat aircraft left in the Royal Air Force, of which 100 were still old-fashioned Tornado fighter-bombers.

The navy is even worse, not to mention the aircraft carrier battle group, the total strength of the entire British Empire has been reduced to only about 160,000 people, and it is still shrinking further...... In inverse contrast to the shrinking force is the persistently high military spending and the growing staff of the Ministry of Defense.

The total strength of the British army is 160,000, and the number of employees in the Ministry of Defense is as high as 100,000.

Now the hegemony of the empire on which the sun never sets is still asleep, waiting for the spring breeze of the first industrial revolution to wake them up, so Britain is still getting by, being a monk for a day and hitting the clock for a day, a powerful British navy?

Not even a shadow can be seen yet. However, Cheng Shijie did not intend to let Britain's hegemony sprout, he was full of interest in leading the Ning naval fleet to Europe and asking Britain and France to compensate millions or even tens of millions of pounds for military spending.

Of course, Catherine at this time was also very interested in Cheng Shijie, especially Cheng Shijie's naval guns, this naval battle, it was a coincidence, she had just purchased a batch of silk from Shanghai and shipped it to Venice, and on the way, she happened to encounter this naval battle.

The captain in charge of transporting these goods was Giovanni, and he was very clear about the distribution, and he couldn't even care about the silk that could make more than ten times the profit, so he immediately turned around and returned to Shanghai.

Cheng Shijie is actually a very high price for a water cultivator, of course, his way of making money is not disgraceful, but the people of Liaodong, in fact, if the factory workers of Liaodong Shipyard can get higher wages, the cost of his shipbuilding will be much higher.

The British Sea King battleship has a full load displacement of more than 1,600 tons, which is similar to the Giant Shark-class battleship of the Ning Navy, but the problem is that the cost of building this battleship is more than 40,000 pounds.

One pound is equal to twenty-five francs, which is equivalent to one million francs, or about 13,460,000 taels of silver, and Cheng Shijie can't afford such a cost.

Although he knew that the Subic naval battle against the Ning Navy had won, Cheng Shijie decided to go to Nanyang, now is the best time to harvest the prestige of the Chinese in Nanyang, if you don't go now, when will you wait?

On June 26, the seventh year of Chongzhen, after Cheng Shijie joined the Sixth Detachment of the Ning Navy, the Fifth Fleet and the Sixth Fleet of the Ning Navy, plus more than 200 merchant ships and sand ships, and more than 9,600 Ning Marine soldiers, took the Eighth Princess to Luzon.

(End of chapter)