The Ming army was celebrating their victory, but the Spanish fleet headquarters was in a miserable state.
After escaping from the battlefield, the San Martin on which Waldo was riding finally failed to hold up and sank at sea. Waldo and the sailors on the ship were rescued by other ships and returned to the fleet base on Sumatra Island.
20 warships went to sea, but only 5 came back. The Spaniards in the base could see how the battle was going. When Waldo got off the ship, his head and hands were wrapped in gauze, and his face looked like a fighter.
Like a defeated rooster, any optimistic imagination everyone had was all gone.
"Mr. Waldo, what should we do now?" Kevin stood in front of Waldo and asked timidly.
"It's all because of you idiot!" Waldo said angrily, "You don't have a full understanding of the strength of the Chinese. You know nothing about their cannons, the range of their cannons, and how many ships they have! Where are you?
Look like a soldier! Also, you lost more than ten ships in Reims, and this was entirely because of your negligence. If not for this, how could we be at a disadvantage in terms of strength! If we could have more ships today,
Five ships, and the situation will be completely reversed! Also, why did your St. Maryan suddenly stop when it was charging!"
"Uh...that's because our rudder was suddenly damaged." Kevin hesitated.
"You are lying!" Waldo shouted, "You are obviously scared, you don't dare to charge forward! It is because of your cowardice that the Chinese focused their firepower on my flagship. I want to accuse you to the king
, once the king’s order arrives, I will personally hang you on the mast of the St. Martin... ah no, hang you on the mast of the St. Marion!”
Waldo actually had no evidence to prove that Kevin was lying, but on the way back, he fell into the sea and was soaked in cold water, and his mind became extremely clear. Then he thought of the abnormal behavior of the St. Mary's at sea, and made guesses
This may be Kevin's way of avoiding battle.
Of course Kevin will not admit this, and he also knows that Waldo cannot find evidence. Without evidence, it will not be easy for Waldo to hang him. Kevin can be in charge of a small detachment, of course not
There will be no backstage. A senior commander like him cannot be hanged by his superiors casually.
"Mr. Waldo, the rudder of my ship really broke down. You see, after we repaired the rudder, didn't we immediately join the battle? Of course, you had already ordered the retreat at that time, so we were the best to execute the retreat order.
Resolutely and most quickly." Kevin said, "Well, this matter has passed, I think we'd better not discuss it anymore. Mr. Waldo, what do you think we should do next?"
"What else can I do? Now I can only write a letter back to China and ask His Majesty to send another fleet to kill all the damn Chinese." Waldo said angrily. He also knew that he could not punish Kevin.
Stupidly, he blocked the gun for Kevin. This revenge can only be avenged later.
Kevin said: "I'm afraid it's a bit unrealistic to want the country to send another fleet. Since the Armada was defeated by the British, our domestic fleet has become stronger than before, and the existing strength is just enough to guard against the British.
How could we send to Asia to harass the Chinese? You know, we sent 20 ships to fight the Chinese. The result... was not satisfactory. If we expect to send a domestic fleet to defeat the Chinese, I think we need at least 40 ships
Only then can we do it..."
"It is impossible for His Majesty to send 40 ships to Asia." Waldo also figured it out. There are only fifty or sixty ships left in Spain. If you send 40 ships to Asia, the country will be empty. You know, Europe is now
When the mainland was still competing for hegemony, although Spain had withdrawn from the competition, its ability to protect itself must still be maintained.
"Report!" Staff Officer Rafael's report came from outside the door.
"Come in," Waldo said.
Raphael walked in. He looked at Kevin, then at Waldo, and then said: "Mr. Waldo, I have an idea that I want to report to you."
"Say it," Waldo said.
Raphael said: "I met several officers from the base just now. They said that a Taoist priest came to the base not long ago..."
"Taoist priest?" Waldo frowned. He had spent several years in Asia and knew what a Taoist priest was. He just didn't understand why Raphael would talk about Taoist priests.
"It's like this..." Raphael knew Waldo's doubts and quickly explained: "They said that this Taoist priest claimed to have run away from China. The reason for running away was that he was blackmailed by the Chinese government. This
The Taoist priest knows some Chinese magic, so many officers admire him."
"Let's get to the point, what do you want to tell me?" Waldo said impatiently. The lower-level officers believed in local Taoism or other religions. That was something that the military chaplain should pay attention to. Raphael came here to talk about it.
, obviously not just to talk about religious issues.
Raphael said: "Yes, I'm about to get to the point. According to the exchanges between the officers and the Taoist priest, the Chinese seem to be interested in getting involved in Southeast Asia. They are building warships on a large scale in several seaports. We see
These are the first batch of warships they built."
"What? You mean, the Chinese are still building more warships?" Waldo was really surprised. In the battle that just ended, they encountered 18 Chinese warships. If the Chinese build more warships,
Warships, I'm afraid it won't help if the entire Spanish fleet is transferred here.
Raphael said: "According to this Taoist priest, the Chinese are preparing to build no less than 100 large ships and hundreds of small ships. However, they are currently facing a shortage of wood and shipbuilding workers and are expected to build no more ships in one or two years."
It is possible to achieve this shipbuilding goal."
"Even if the construction is completed in a year or two, it will be very scary." Kevin said with a stern face.
Raphael said: "So, if we want to have a decisive battle with the Chinese, we must get there before they build their subsequent warships. If it is just these 18 ships, we can still deal with them, but if there are more, we can't.
Already."
"They only have 15 ships left now." Waldo corrected. He saw with his own eyes that 3 Chinese warships were sunk. "However, we only have 5 warships left. You won't suggest that.
Shall I let those transport ships go to fight?"
Of course, the transport ship can also participate in the war, the premise is to modify the cabin and install the artillery. But on the one hand, there is not enough time, and on the other hand, Waldo cannot find so many artillery that can be installed on the transport ship, so this idea can only be
I am just joking.
Raphael said: "The Taoist priest once missed a sentence, which I thought was very enlightening for us."
"What words?" Waldo asked.
Raphael said: "He said that compared with China, European countries are just small countries. If each country wants to fight China alone, it is impossible to win. But if European countries unite, China will not be able to do so."
"Unite?" Waldo immediately grasped the key to Raphael's words and couldn't help but fall into deep thought.
"But we Europeans are still at war ourselves." Kevin muttered.
Raphael said: "Mr. Waldo, Mr. Kevin, my opinion is that we Europeans fight each other in Europe, but in Asia, we should unite. This is like encountering a storm on the sea, no matter how big the enemy is,
They will help each other, otherwise no one will survive. Now the Chinese plan to invade Southeast Asia. If each of our countries fights independently, they will eventually be defeated by the Chinese. If we can unite, we will have the power to fight the Chinese.
"
The Chinese Taoist priest Raphael was talking about was naturally Chen Guanyu, the gold medal spy sent by Su Hao. The words he repeated were gradually told by Chen Guanyu to the lower-level officers in the base in the name of preaching. The lower-level officers
I felt that what Chen Guanyu said was quite reasonable, so I relayed it to Raphael, who in turn relayed it to Waldo.
Neither Waldo nor Raphael doubted the Chinese Taoist priest's intentions when he said these words. In their opinion, Chen Guanyu might have really been persecuted by the Chinese officials, so he took a European position.
Come up to offer advice to deal with the Chinese. Because these ideas of Chen Guanyu are really not in line with the interests of the Chinese, and it really seems that he is considering the Europeans wholeheartedly.
Li Zhi gave Su Hao the idea to unite the Europeans and then eliminate the European forces in Nanyang in one battle. Su Hao dared to put this idea into practice because of his high confidence in the strength of the Ming Navy. Maritime operations
The difficulty is that the sea is vast and you have no way of judging where the enemy is hiding. If you cannot gather the enemy together and destroy them all at once, once the European navy is broken into pieces and adopts a pirate-style combat strategy, then for the Ming Dynasty,
It would be too much trouble.
Waldo couldn't guess the true strength of the Ming army. How could he have thought that Su Hao had such great ambitions?
"Mr. Raphael, do you think they would be interested if we went to discuss alliances with the navies of Britain, the Netherlands and other countries?" Waldo asked.
Raphael said: "Compared with the Chinese, I think they will be more willing to accept us. We can explain the interests to them and tell them that once the Chinese fleet is formed, no one will be able to occupy the Chinese.
They have to withdraw from Southeast Asia, or even all of Asia. I think the fleet commanders of the British and Dutch countries should be people who take the overall situation into consideration."
"Well, now we can only do this." Waldo figured it out. The Spanish fleet fought a desperate battle with the British fleet in Europe, which led to the destruction of the Armada, but in Asia, the fleets of the two countries did not
There has been no conflict. On the contrary, everyone still has some tacit understanding with each other to ensure that the guns are aligned with the outside world. What needs to be done now is to turn this tacit understanding into an alliance, and everyone will jointly send troops to destroy the unformed Chinese fleet. Waldo believes that,
The fleets of other countries should be interested in this matter. (To be continued, please search Piaotian Literature, the novel is better and updated faster!