unclear

Chapter 1315 Eastern Expedition
In fact, their tasks were not heavy and risky, and they would only report once a month under normal circumstances. If an emergency occurred and there was no time to wait, they could go to the contact point in Manila to make contact. If that didn't work, they could still use the special channel in Batavia.

Betrayal is part of human nature, deeply engraved in everyone's genes. It is just that it is always restrained by morality and law, so it is not easy to show it.

When a person has tasted the sweetness of betrayal and will not be punished, over time he will no longer regard betrayal as an evil act. Instead, he will find all kinds of excuses to convince himself from the bottom of his heart that everything he has done is for the good of others.

William and Karl thought so. They did not want to leave Batavia, and they did not want to lose the glamorous world of Manila. However, Governor Coen did not choose to stay, so they had to return to Europe with him.

I thought that once I left Asia, the Navy Statistics Department would be out of reach. Unfortunately, it didn't work out that way. Cohen was picked up by the company's carriage, and two Dutch businessmen took the initiative to identify themselves and explained the future work arrangements and new contacts.

In Europe, including many places in West Asia, there are people like William and Karl. Some belong to the Navy Statistics Department, some belong to the Army Statistics Department, and some are secretly developed by the Royal Advisory Office. The first two sometimes work together under the coordination of the General Staff Statistics Department, while the latter is a very independent system.

After spending so much effort and money, did it have any effect? ​​Generally speaking, it did have some effect. At least it allowed the Ming Empire's top leaders to be more aware of the development trends and specific situations of countries in Europe and West Asia in a timely manner.

But then again, being relatively timely does not mean being absolutely timely. Many times, the intelligence that we have worked so hard to obtain cannot be put to the proper use due to communication inconveniences.

For example, the troop deployment and mobilization data this time would take at least a month to be sent from Istanbul to the Naval Staff. Only those deemed valuable would be handed over to the General Staff for overall screening, and it would take a few more days for it to finally be delivered to the emperor's desk.

If the emperor and the general staff adjusted the troop deployment according to intelligence from more than a month or even two months ago, the front-line commanders would be completely confused and might even have engaged in a fight with the enemy or not be able to find the enemy at all.

But generally speaking, it is better to know late than not to know, especially from the overall strategic point of view, it is still useful for deploying troops. If the Europeans also had a similar intelligence system covering the Ming mainland and overseas territories, they would not be unaware of the huge fleet cruising at high speed off the coast of Mexico.

However, the condition of this fleet was not very ideal. Having just emerged from the storm sea, the fleet was scattered. The flagship could only see more than ten ships, all of which were soaked like drowned rats, and the sails of two of the ships were damaged.

"Do you have the fleet loss statistics?"

Standing at the flagship's helm, Settle was covered in seawater, his curly hair lying on his forehead like wet sheepskin. Compared to when he just left Pearl Harbor, his high spirits were gone, replaced by depression and anger, as if he was not yet depressed.

"Captain, more than half of the ships have not yet arrived at the assembly point."

The naval commander being questioned was in a slightly better condition, at least he was wearing a raincoat and a rain hat, but his face looked even worse. This commander was a bit unreasonable. How could he report to the damage control before reaching the assembly point? He must have been confused by the storm!
"...Call the commander, the commander of the expedition fleet!" Settle was indeed a little confused. He had done expeditions before, more than once, but this was the first time he led a group of transport ships and merchant ships that were as slow as turtles and had inconsistent speeds.

I don't know how the bastards in the Navy Staff Department planned it, and how they persuaded the Army Staff Department to agree. Those cargo ships were carrying army soldiers. Every time a ship got into trouble, it meant that several hundred soldiers were killed. This was not a war at all, but a gamble with the lives of the soldiers. If His Majesty the Emperor led the army in person, these damn bureaucrats would definitely not dare to take human lives so lightly. Of course, if His Majesty the Emperor was present, it would not be his turn to give orders.

"...Yes, Commander! Report to the Commander... We are still 25 kilometers away from the first assembly point, and no ships have been found yet!" The naval general lifted the hood of his raincoat, revealing a dark young face.

Wu Bing, formerly captain of the Qin-class battleship of the East China Sea Fleet, later followed the emperor on an expedition to the west coast of America, where he formed a decoy fleet with Settle and successfully lured the main Spanish fleet to the Galapagos Islands and annihilated it.

With such a brilliant resume and successful experience, it was natural for him to join the landing in America. And as Settle became the fleet commander and deputy commander-in-chief, he was also promoted to captain of the Han-class battleship, and his ship was designated as the first flagship.

The larger the scale of the operation and the more critical the nature of the battle, the greater the credit and responsibility. The American waters were a blank sheet of paper for the Ming Navy. Pearl Harbor, thousands of miles away, was not enough to maintain maritime security. A new fleet had to be established to guard it.

As long as this combat mission can be successfully completed, his position and honor will be promoted further, and he will become the commander-in-chief, and it will not be a dream for him to command a new fleet.

However, this expedition was not smooth from the beginning. First, it collided with a local civilian ship while gathering in Japan, and then a sailor got an upset stomach after going ashore, causing the two armed cargo ships to have to return to the Ryukyu Naval Base for rest and recuperation.

It was not a good sign to suffer a loss before achieving success. As expected, the journey from Japan to Wake Island Base was a mess.

Even with the escort of naval warships, or pilots, merchant ships from different countries and regions still made numerous mistakes. The three columns traveled less than 50 kilometers and turned into a plum blossom formation, with no horizontal or vertical alignment and no pattern to follow.

As a last resort, Settle had to transfer key personnel from each ship to the merchant ship to serve as temporary navigators and lookouts. Only by keeping an eye on it day and night did he manage to get the fleet to Wake Island, and overall it was still intact.

However, this was only the beginning of the nightmare. Five days later, just a few hours after the fleet had left Wake Island after resting and replenishing, the sky in the south was covered with dark clouds, the wind became stronger and stronger, and the raindrops became more and more frequent.

Experienced sailors didn't even need to look, they just needed to raise their noses and smell the sea breeze to know that something was wrong. They had encountered a tropical storm, which was later called a typhoon.

In the age of sailing, sailors were most afraid of neither pirates nor cannons. Neither of these two things was invincible, and most of the time they could be avoided with strong skills and a little bit of luck. What really scared sailors were typhoons, diseases, and getting lost.

(End of this chapter)