Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 1088

"Is this your answer, Mr. Collina?" Sir Diego lit the pipe in his hand that had only begun to rise in Europe in the past 20 years, and exhaled a puff of smoke: "If my observation is correct, the expulsion you commanded The tonnage of the formation is about 1.5 times that of the other party. As a result, you now tell me that you cannot expel them effectively, but instead gave up the mission and returned because you were afraid of more serious losses? Mr. Collina, with all due respect, Such words should not come from the mouth of a knight of the Kingdom of Castile."

Captain Corina's face was calm, neither happy nor angry, but said: "I have said what I should say, sir. If you still have doubts about my command, you can temporarily dismiss me. It is your responsibility." power. But I also want to declare that if I need to be tried after returning to China, I will truthfully state the ins and outs of the whole incident.”

Sir Diego's eyelids twitched lightly, he grabbed his pipe and took a deep breath before saying: "Captain Corina, I am not questioning your command, as a soldier who has served in the Royal Navy for more than 30 years Excellent soldier, I believe that all your command actions can stand scrutiny, what I question is the performance of the Ming fleet or their ships that you mentioned."

Captain Corina's voice also softened a bit: "So, do you suspect that I misjudged their speed and firepower? I really can't guarantee that my judgment is completely accurate, but I think that the six ships on our side just now Soldiers and sailors should have similar judgments. If you ask them about it out of a sense of duty, I will not be offended, but I will fully appreciate your prudence."

"Very good." Sir Diego nodded vigorously: "You are a true knight, I take back my presumptuous words. Now you can go to rest first, goodbye."

"Goodbye." After Captain Corina finished speaking, he walked out with his usual expression.

Sir Diego took another long puff of tobacco from America.

Alfaro, who had been sitting on the sidelines, sighed and said, "Although Collina is only a knight, his elder brother is the Count of Badajoz. I believe you should know about this."

Sir Diego said unhappily: "Of course I know, Your Excellency, the mead of the Earl of Badajoz's family is well known in Iberia. Of course, mead is not the key point. I guess you want to remind me, Earl Your Excellency is himself the present Doge of Milan—of course I know that."

[Note: After 1500, Milan was occupied by France several times, and was "liberated" by Charles V. Finally, in 1535, Spain simply took Milan into its pocket.However, during the time period of the "Italian War", the territory of northern Italy changed greatly and rapidly, and they liked to repeat it very much, so I won't talk about it. ]
Alfaro raised his eyebrows slightly: "What I want to say is that His Excellency the Earl is not only the Governor of Milan, he has a good personal relationship with many bankers in Genoa... Sir, you know, although His Majesty the King is rich in the world, but Often the friendship of these bankers will be needed."

Sir Diego's face became more and more stinky, and he tapped his pipe on the table lightly: "Your Excellency, your reminders are enough, I am very grateful. But please forgive me for being rude, now we can turn the topic back to Come to the current problem?"

"Of course." Alfaro smiled slightly: "But what do you think is the problem now?

"What's the problem? The first question is: the Spanish fleet cannot be beaten in vain!" Sir Diego's face darkened, "I know you have high hopes for peaceful trade with the Ming Kingdom, and you are also full of confidence in going to the Ming Kingdom to spread the Lord's Gospel , but I still want to say: the glory of the Spanish Navy must not be desecrated!"

Unexpectedly, Alfaro did not refute, but raised his head slightly, and asked: "Then what do you want to do? Mr. Collina has made it very clear that at least in this sea area north of the Spice Islands, our fleet is In terms of speed, it can’t compare to the fleet of the Ming people. So, if you want to catch up with them and take revenge, I think it will be very difficult.”

This is of course reasonable, but since Sir Diego was able to sneak into the secretary team of Philip II, he is obviously not an idiot. He raised his eyebrows slightly and said: "Judging from the sea area where the opponent's fleet appeared and the direction of escape. , I think they were planning to go to Malacca."

Alfaro frowned slightly, pondered a little, and said, "You want to attack them in Malacca?"

"I am the special envoy of His Majesty the King. If I need it, the Governor of Malacca in Portugal would not dare to refuse my request." Speaking of "Special Envoy of the King", Sir Diego immediately looked confident.

"Maybe." Alfaro shrugged slightly, and said, "But what's next? You just faced six armed merchant ships from Jinghua, and it was already so difficult to deal with. I have already told you about Jinghua's strength. You. How do you think Jing Hua will react after you 'handled' their ship in Malacca harbor?"

Sir Diego's face suddenly darkened, and he said coldly: "No matter what strength Jinghua Company has, I don't think it can compete with Spain and Portugal at sea."

Alfaro didn't comment on this, but asked instead: "Are you really planning to let His Majesty the King send the main force of the Armada to the Far East thousands of miles away to fight the Ming people when he is worried about the situation in the Netherlands? "

Upon hearing the Netherlands, Sir Diego's expression became ten times uglier, and he cursed: "These damned Protestant heretics, damned lowland beggars, and that damned William... If it weren't for these traitors, the Spanish The brilliance has already illuminated the whole world!"

Alfaro said: "Sir, I appreciate your devotion to the Lord, but what we are talking about now is another matter."

Sir Diego calmed down, let out a long breath, and said, "I'm sorry, President, I am so angry that I can't control myself when I think of the terrible situation in the Netherlands."

These words are sincere, because as early as four years ago, the Inter-Provincial Republic had been established, and the northern part of the Netherlands had announced the abolition of Philip II. Now the Netherlands is in the stage of North-South confrontation.

At this time, Philip II, or the Spanish Empire, was greatly restrained in the Netherlands. I'm afraid I won't be able to spare a hand to clean it up.Sir Diego, as a member of Philip II's secretary team, of course hated the Dutch.

But after Alfaro reminded him like this, Sir Diego finally lost his temper, and sighed: "Damn it, can't we find an effective way to warn the Ming people?"

"Why should we warn them? Oh, I mean, what are we going to warn them about?" Alfaro shrugged: "Warning them not to monitor our fleet? IMHO, we are currently in the sea area, Theoretically speaking, it should be regarded as the territorial waters of the Ming people, because all the nearby islands and reefs belong to them, and they will be patrolled by the Guangdong local navy every once in a while."

Sir Diego frowned and said, "I don't think there is any sea area where the Spanish navy cannot navigate freely."

"Really? Will the Spanish Navy sail into the Dardanelles to enjoy the beautiful scenery of Constantinople—no, should I say Istanbul?"

"Uh, this..." Sir Diego was at a loss for words.

Although the Holy Alliance of Spain, Venice and the Pope won the victory against the Ottoman Empire in the Battle of Lepanto 12 years ago, the problem is that the Ottoman Empire was also in its heyday at this time.

Not only did the Ottoman navy regain its strength quickly, but after only two years, it forced Venice to sign an alliance under the city that humiliated its power and humiliated the country, and the Holy Alliance collapsed directly.The Spaniards won the battle, but lost the war.

Even the failure of the Lepanto naval battle caused almost no disturbances within the Ottoman Empire, because although the naval battle was lost, the island of Cyprus was still firmly in their hands.The Holy Alliance couldn't take Cyprus at all, so it could only withdraw after declaring victory.

So as soon as Alfaro put the Ottomans out, Sir Diego sat on the wax.

A Cyprus island hanging in the sea can't be taken down, so go to the Dardanelles to seek death?Although the Urban Cannon more than 100 years ago is a thing of the past, the development of Ottoman artillery is no worse than that of Western Europe. The Spanish fleet may not have entered the Dardanelles before it will be destroyed by the coastal defense cannon at the mouth of the strait. They were beaten so badly that they cried and howled.

Since the territory of the Ottomans is forbidden by the Spanish navy, why can't the territory of the Ming people be the same forbidden place?The ancestors of the Ming people drove the ancestors of the Turkic people from the Far East all the way to Central Asia, and finally fled to Europe!
The Turkic people can do it, and of course the Han people can do it too.

Sir Diego was finally discouraged, and was about to speak with a helpless face when there was a knock on the door.

"Which one?" Sir Diego asked in a bad tone.

"It's me, Captain Rivera." The people outside seemed very anxious, and before Sir Diego could further say "Please come in", they said directly: "No sir, a very large Ming Dynasty fleet is heading towards us Here we come! According to preliminary visual inspection, there are at least hundreds of armed merchant ships that are the same as the six Ming ships!"

"What!" was Alfaro's surprised voice.

"This is impossible!" Sir Diego's voice was filled with disbelief and fear.

"Nothing is impossible, Sir, the other party has already appeared!" Captain Rivera's voice was not afraid, but urgent.

Sir Diego and President Alfaro looked at each other, and suddenly ran towards the door at the same time, regardless of any gentlemanly demeanor.

When they ran to the bridge from the lounge at the stern, both of them were stunned by the sight in front of them.

The size of the opponent's fleet is really larger than their treasure fleet that almost crosses the earth. Captain Rivera's mathematics is not in vain. The size of this fleet must exceed one hundred ships.

Gao Musan’s record earlier helped Huang Zhiting and Gao Jing a big favor this time—Sir Diego’s mathematics was not in vain: the previous six vs. six, when the total tonnage exceeded the opponent’s, one’s own side was actually at a disadvantage of being beaten passively. Now that the situation is reversed, and the size of the opponent's fleet overwhelms one's own, is there any need to predict the outcome of the battle?

Although the opponent's single-ship tonnage should be smaller than our own, if their armaments are basically unified, they must have a clear advantage in long and heavy artillery. As long as they continue to fight according to the previous tactics, the Spanish fleet has no chance of winning!
But Sir Diego still hasn't figured out a key question until now: Why did the Ming people have such a large fleet of destroying the country appear here?

Alfaro couldn't help but said with a gloomy face at this time: "Sir, it seems that you have indeed provoked an enemy that should not be provoked—more importantly, the other party was originally our partner, not an enemy."

Sir Diego's complexion was a bit uglier than Alfaro's, and he gritted his teeth and said, "Your Excellency, at this point, don't you doubt why a fleet of the size of the other party is here?"

"Why do you think they are here?" Alfaro asked back.

"There are only two possibilities." Sir Diego said categorically: "Either, they have been eyeing us for a long time, just like the English pirates, and want to rob our treasure fleet; or, they just want to sneak attack on Malacca. Grab the throat of this seaway!"

After he finished speaking, he stared closely at Alfaro, and said, "Do you think they fell from the sky? How long has it been since the naval battle just now? Even if the Ming people came from their nearest seaport, it is impossible to reach this position so quickly! "

Alfaro frowned, and he had to admit that Sir Diego's analysis was reasonable. The Mingguo seaport closest to the current location should be Annan's emerging seaport, Golden Port, but from Golden Port to here, even if the wind direction is right and the wind is strong. It takes at least two or three days.What's more, if the results of the first battle just now were to be reported to Jingang, it would take an additional three days.

Therefore, the opponent's fleet must have been nearby in the first place, and it was absolutely impossible to set off from Jingang. Even if it was counted from the time when the fleet discovered the Ming people's ship, the time would not match.

The two of them were still wondering why the Jinghua Fleet appeared here and now with the thinking of politicians, and the captain of the fleet flagship "Galicia" Rivera couldn't help reminding: "Sir, priest, now is not the time to think about these issues! Sir Diego, if we want to fight, we must immediately order preparations. Look around us, all the ships are waving flags and asking us what to do!"

"Fight! For the glory of Castile!" Sir Diego roared.

Captain Rivera didn't ask why, just nodded, and was about to give an order when Alfaro's voice came to mind.

"Wait a minute..." Alfaro said suddenly.

Sir Diego suddenly looked at him, his eyes narrowed slightly: "Your Excellency, in this situation, don't you still think that the other party's appearance at this time and place is just a coincidence?"

"Of course not, I also have serious doubts about this." Alfaro did not speak slowly this time, but spoke quickly: "But if this war breaks out, our situation may be very bad. I think that now We need to find a way to save it."

Sir Diego said coldly: "I hope that the rescue you mentioned does not mean surrender."

"Of course not. Don't worry, sir. I just want you to prepare a small boat for me. I want to negotiate with the people of the Ming Dynasty first—I know quite a few senior managers of the Jinghua Company who serve the southern region of the Ming Empire. A last-ditch effort for peace can be made."

Sir Diego immediately replied: "If you think this is necessary, then I agree with your request——Captain Rivera, please lower the escape boat immediately and prepare a few oarsmen and a white flag for His Excellency the President."

He turned his head and said to Alfaro: "Your Excellency, President, I wish you a smooth meeting, but please know that our preparations will not stop until you reach an agreement with the other party, and we will never accept surrender."

"I understand." Alfaro replied solemnly.
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(End of this chapter)