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Chapter 1371 Military Genius
To coordinate with this land raid, the European coalition forces also amassed more than 200 ships and more than 1 troops, preparing to launch a landing operation against Enniu Port using conventional methods.

Of course, the goal was not to win in this way, but to make it difficult for the defending forces to take care of both the city and the port. If the commander made a mistake in the rush, it would lead to disaster.

The plan was approved, and a commander-in-chief was appointed, but Bernhard was essentially a commander without troops. This was because the coalition was composed of troops dispatched by various countries, and the actual command of each army remained with its own officers, which, in principle, would not be relinquished. This was the foundation of the coalition and could not be changed.

Therefore, Bernhard was unable to command the armies of various countries, so he devised a compromise, which was agreed upon by the governments of those countries. He nominated some generals who were well-known in their respective countries to serve as regional commanders, and they would then lead the armies of those countries to fight in designated areas.

Who to choose? Bernhard was also an expert in this regard, having spent years leading mercenaries on battlefields around the world, gaining not only experience and lessons but also a wealth of connections. Many generals who were adversaries on the battlefield became friends after the war.

Now is the time to make use of connections. The Russian and Polish-Lithuanian forces in the northern theater are hostile to each other. It is a pipe dream to think that someone can unite them to fight together based on just one person's words.

Therefore, Bernhard selected two commanders for them, namely Russian General Ivan Vasilyevich Buturin and Polish General Stanisław Koniecpolski.

The former was a mid-career Russian general, born into a Boyar noble family, who served as the military governor of the southern defense line for many years. Now that the Crimean Khanate had ceased its harassment of the surrounding areas and had sent cavalry to join the eastern expeditionary force, the threat was temporarily eliminated, freeing up resources to lead an expeditionary force.

The latter is a military genius of the Polish people. Both father and son served as the royal commander-in-chief for many years, established the Polish Great Wall, defended against Sweden in the north, resisted the Ottomans in the south, and launched an expedition against Russia in the east. To date, they have experienced more than 20 major battles without ever being defeated.

His greatest skill was commanding the winged hussars in large-scale mobile warfare. This expedition to the Kazakh Khanate was mostly through vast plains, which was perfect for the Polish winged hussars to utilize their strengths.

The battlefield in the holy city of Jerusalem was also quite special, because all supplies and troops had to rely on the navy of the Republic of Venice for transport. Logically speaking, they should have been given some command authority.

However, the Republic of Venice declined, and their reason was quite simple: they said they couldn't produce a capable army general, so they wouldn't force it and would let someone with the ability do it!
It would be a grave mistake to think that the Venetian merchants were innocent; they were just being eloquent, but in reality, they had their own people in mind.

Who is he? This man is truly remarkable. His name is Antonio Barberini, the current commander-in-chief of the Papal Army and also a cardinal. But he is most famous for his uncle, Pope Urban VIII!
See? These unscrupulous merchants even have to scheme when it comes to war. They not only want to win on the surface, but also do their best to develop peripheral products and try to make one silver coin worth three!

Bernhard himself was naturally appointed as the commander of Enbird Harbor, but a more naval-savvy deputy was needed. Looking around, who in Europe at that time could be more suitable than Marton Harpertzson Tropp, the naval commander of the United Provinces Republic?

Tropp was born into a seafaring family; his father was a merchant ship captain, and he grew up on the high seas, sailing with his father from a young age. But his good fortune didn't last long. Before he came of age, his merchant ship encountered Barbary pirates in the waters off North Africa. His father was killed in battle, and he was captured and enslaved on the ship for more than two years.

After being rescued, Tropp joined the West India Company as a privateer. With his exceptional seamanship and unwavering character, he rose to the rank of privateer captain within a few years, engaging in numerous battles with Spanish ships in the Atlantic. About ten years earlier, Tropp had heard from a friend about a type of fast, maneuverable, and highly seaworthy three-masted warship in Asia. He left the West India Company and joined the East India Company, working in Asia for six years before returning to the Netherlands to join the Dutch Republic's navy.

Although he did not obtain the warships and blueprints he wanted from Asia, with the help of the Republic Navy, Tropp still managed to design and build a number of main warships based on his years of observation and experimentation.

The results of their battles with the Spanish Navy proved that this type of small and medium-sized warship, with its slender shape, lack of a forecastle, low sterncastle, and simplified version of the Gothenburg sails, was more suitable for ocean warfare than the main warships of European countries at the time.

Unfortunately, he never figured out the secrets of the naval guns used by the Ming Dynasty navy; otherwise, the "Marton Sailboat" named after him might have truly been able to compete with the Qin-class warships of the Ming Dynasty navy.

With a plan approved by most participating countries, relatively sufficient manpower and supplies, and generals with outstanding military achievements, could this war be won? Bernhard's answer was no.

The key to a surprise attack is the word "surprise"—it's sudden! If the enemy knows your movements too far in advance, you lose the element of surprise, and what awaits your soldiers is not victory but a trap.

How could they ensure the plan wasn't leaked beforehand? The first step was to control the number of people in the know. Bernhard was powerless to change this; he couldn't demand anything of other royal families. But on another level, he still made many necessary efforts.

For example, he used deceptive tactics, such as changing military uniforms to mislead the outside world. To this end, under immense pressure, he divided one of the most powerful forces in the Spanish army into several parts and sent them to various places, creating the illusion that the European coalition was massing troops on the eastern Mediterranean coast and toward the Crimean Khanate.

The troops actually intended to raid Enbird Harbor were transported in batches from various countries to the remote port of Wexford, Ireland, disguised as merchant ships sailing to the Americas. From there, they sailed south to Luanda, where, after a short rest, they boarded ships again to proceed to Orangemond.

It must be said that Bernhard's trick of fabricating something out of nothing and deceiving everyone did indeed fool the entire intelligence system of the Ming Dynasty and achieved a very good concealment effect.

Although the Ming Empire's intelligence agencies were spread across the European continent, including several important cities in England, they had not yet covered the desolate Ireland, let alone had the opportunity to reach the slave coast and the eastern side of the New World.

The reasons are varied, such as the distance being too far and the transportation being too inconvenient. News from two or three months ago can be considered intelligence, but if it is only known six months or even longer later, the difference between having it and not having it is not that great, and it is not worth paying too much for it.

If we include the sudden landing of the Ming Dynasty's expeditionary force on the west coast of the Americas, in the intelligence and counterintelligence war of the early 17th century, both sides gained one point, and were temporarily evenly matched.

(End of this chapter)