I am Emperor Wanli

Chapter 847 I don’t understand the third brother’s train of thought

The fleet continued to move forward, passing through the Sam Po Strait, passing the city of Anse, and sailing on the vast Sea of ​​​​Pagan.

Passing through the southern waters of the Anman Islands, we saw the lighthouse on the island in the distance flickering.

Marcelo and Leon were stunned. Could it be that the Ming Dynasty also had a port and stationed troops in the Anman Islands?

On the nineteenth day after leaving Longkou Port, the fleet arrived at Gaolang Port in Ceylon.

This place became a very important port for the Ming Navy in the South Seas.

It can go to the Strait of Sam Poh in the east, to Bengal in the eastern part of the Indian Peninsula in the north, and to ports such as Cochin and Goa in the west, as well as to Persia and Arabia.

It can directly reach ports such as Mombasa and Sofala in East Africa.

After staying for one night, Jose found Marcelo and Leon early in the morning.

"My Lord Marquis, Leon, we say goodbye now!"

"Why, aren't we going north with you guys?"

“No, we have received accurate information that the four sultanates of Gujarat, Bijapur, Ahmednagar, and Calicut Zamorin have formally formed an alliance, mobilized about 100,000 troops, and launched an attack on the city of Jizhou.

These guys picked the softest persimmon."

Having been in Ming for so long, Marcelo could understand what it meant to pick the softest persimmon to squeeze.

"Jizhou City has the weakest defense?"

Leon, who was familiar with the situation, said: "My Lord Marquis, Cochin, Zhengling and Goa Port have a long history. The Indians and Arabs have operated them for hundreds of years and built a large number of fortifications, which are very strong.

After the Portuguese occupation, they also spent a lot of manpower and material resources to expand and strengthen. The Ming Dynasty's guns and cannons were very sharp, and they had a strong navy as foreign aid.

Without the cooperation of the navy, it would be difficult for the Indians, let alone 200,000 or 400,000, to capture these three cities.

On the contrary, Jizhou City is just a few scattered castles, very small, and the defensive fortifications are very weak. The port is also small, and the Ming people are unlikely to station a fleet there.

The only barrier is the sea between the island and the mainland.

But the distance is not far, and the Indians can easily overcome it. Therefore, Jizhou City is the weakest point of the Ming Dynasty in western India.

It seems that the Indians have put a lot of effort into spying on the Ming people."

Jose nodded, agreeing with Leon's analysis, and added.

"Another point is that more than half of the cotton purchased by the Ming Dynasty in India was shipped at Jizhou Port. The Anti-Ming Alliance followed the public opinion of the people in various states of India and opposed the dumping of cotton cloth by the Ming Dynasty. Attacking Jizhou Port was exactly what the angry people of India wanted.

These sultans have their own considerations.”

Marcelo and Leon looked at each other. "Then how do we inform the Portuguese in Basra and Abbas to take over the ports of Diu, Surat and Dammam?"

According to the results of the peace talks, the Ming Dynasty returned these ports to the Portuguese.

The Ming Dynasty thought these ports were useless, but they were very important to the Portuguese because they no longer had to hide in the territories of the Ottomans and Persians and have to look at their faces.

Secondly, with these ports, the Portuguese can quickly restore the routes from India to the South China Sea, from India to the Ottoman Empire, and from India via East Africa to the Western Mediterranean. Once the routes are restored, trade can also be restored.

At present, the Ming people do not have the energy to open up trade routes to the Mediterranean, Western Europe and Northern Europe, so it can be completely controlled by the Portuguese.

Monopoly!
Think about the mountains and seas of goods of various kinds that the Ming people had. If they were shipped to Europe, they would be snapped up.

This is all money!

If Portugal wants to curb Spain's ambitions, the treasury must have money.

Only with money can you build ships and recruit soldiers.

Marcelo and Leon knew that the Ming Dynasty was making every effort to develop the New World, and a large number of ships and personnel were transferred there.

That was the lifeblood of Spain, especially the silver mines in the Viceroyalty of New Spain. After the silver mines in the Viceroyalty of Peru were robbed by the Ming people, it became Spain's only source of silver.

It is obvious that the Ming people, who are very good at strategy, will definitely focus their attack on the Spanish silver mines.

Without a source of income, you will be exhausted.

While Spain's purse is being controlled by the Ming people, Portugal should work hard to develop East-West trade and make more money by engaging in monopoly business.

That's why Marcelo and Leon are so anxious.

Jose shrugged, "Mr. Marquis, Leon, there is no need to rush to take over."

Marcelo and Leon calmed down and thought, yes, now the Ming Dynasty has made it clear that it wants to make great efforts to show those inexperienced sultans and princes of India a lesson and set some rules for them.

What is Portugal doing here?
If we help the Ming people to fight against India, we will offend the sultans and princes. How will we do business in the future?
The Ming Dynasty does not lack these Portuguese ships and cannons, so why bother with them?
The Portuguese are now a weak group in this area and need to survive in the cracks. They might as well stay in Basra and Abbas and not offend either side.

How nice it would be if the Ming people could teach the Indians a lesson and then come out to act as a middleman and peacemaker!
But Marcelo suddenly thought that Portugal, which dominated the seven seas and had almost no rivals except the Spaniards, had now fallen to this point, and he felt sad for a moment.

He took a few breaths, suppressed the sadness and frustration in his heart, and said: "Alfonso, please tell your commander, I will write a letter and leave two liaison officers, please send a ship to take them to Basra.

The two sailboats that brought us to the East have agreed to meet in Basra. We have to go and give them a message.

In addition, a war broke out in the western waters of India. I am worried that some Portuguese captains will not understand the situation and will recklessly join the war, thus destroying the hard-earned peace between Portugal and Ming. "

Jose nodded, it was indeed possible.

The captains and sailors who go on ocean voyages are all extremely daring.

Once they saw that the Ming Dynasty was fighting with the anti-Ming alliance in western India, they thought that their opportunity had come and wanted to take advantage of it. They waited for an opportunity to launch sneak attacks on Ming Dynasty ships, and that would be great fun.

Jose is now proud of being a Ming citizen, but deep down he still wants to see Portugal and Ming live in peace.

"no problem."

Jose continued, "Commander Chen has ordered that the fleet escorting you, Envoy Shen, and Deputy Envoy Wang, after replenishing supplies tomorrow, take advantage of the north wind and sail directly to Mombasa."

“Directly to Mombasa? Well, that’s fine too.

We will then write to Portuguese ships in nearby ports such as Mozambique Island and Mogadishu in Mombasa, telling them of our peace talks with the Ming Dynasty and asking them not to act rashly.

"Alfonso, how many ships are there to escort our fleet?"

"Thirty-six sailing vessels."

Marcelo and Leon were shocked. With so many ships, are you escorting them or fighting all the way?
"The Admiralty plans to open a new port in Zanzibar and another in the Cape of Good Hope area."

José's complicated words made Marcelo and León's hearts tremble.

The Ming people finally began to march towards Europe. It is unknown when this behemoth from the East will linger at the gate of Europe and show its terrifying fangs.

The fleet escorting Marcelo, Leon, Shen Wanxiang, Wang Yongji and others left Gaolang Port and headed southwest, sailing at full speed. Jose looked at the white sails going away on the sea, and suddenly felt sad.

"Manuel, are we really never going back?"

Komoman asked leisurely: "Alfonso, are you talking about your Portuguese Porto or my Italian Lombardy?"

José turned his head sharply, looked at Manuel, and suddenly laughed, "Fuck it all!"

The two said hello to Condorcet in the distance, "Let's go, we also need to prepare to board the ship and set off."

Condorcet was the liaison officer left behind by Marcelo. He knew many Portuguese captains operating in the Indian region.

The ship that Jose was on soon arrived at the port of Goa, which was filled with Ming warships. There was no end in sight, with about two hundred large sailing ships.

Battleships, frigates, cruisers, armed merchant ships, and armed transport ships are anchored in an orderly manner in the inner and outer waters of Goa Port.

Jose got off the boat and got into a carriage with a group of officers. They soon arrived at the meeting hall in the Goa Castle, where Chen Lin, deputy commander-in-chief of the White Tiger Fleet and commander of the First Line, convened a military meeting.

He sat in the center of the rostrum. On his left sat Tong Yuanzhen, commander of the Tianzhu Task Force of the Marine Corps, and on his right sat Li Mingchun, assistant commander and political commissar.

There were only three of them on the rostrum, even Jose, the deputy chief of staff of the First Branch, was sitting below.

Among them, Li Mingchun did not seem to hold a high official position, but his status as a "military supervisor" was very special.

At the same time, he also served as the chief executive of the four ports of Jizhou, Goa, Zhengling and Cochin in India.

Chen Lin glanced around, and the expressions of dozens of generals and officers sitting below were all startled.

"I'm reporting the latest military news to you all. Jizhou has not been lost, but Daman Port has been lost."

There was a buzz in the conference room.

What do you mean?
Everyone knows that the imperial court has already negotiated with Portugal and given up the useless ports in the northwest of India such as Diu, Surat and Daman, and the White Tiger Fleet has long since withdrawn from there.

The Ming Navy had little interest in ports in Persia and Arabia except the Port of Aden.

The Persian Gulf today is not the Persian Gulf of the 20th century, it is relatively barren.

As the pioneer, the Ming Navy was opening up new markets for the Ming merchant caravans. What it sought were two things: a huge market and abundant resources.

The only place in Greater Southeast Asia that meets this requirement is India.

The White Tiger Navy focused all its energy on India and maintaining the safety of the route from India to the South China Sea.

What is there in the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea?
Dates?

The rich region of the Middle East, a place flowing with honey and milk, is in the eastern Mediterranean region, which is the heartland of the Ottoman Empire. If the Ming Dynasty navy were to charge in, the Ottoman Empire would surely fight to the death.

The Ottoman Empire is currently a very good middleman for the Ming Dynasty.

Many goods of the Ming Dynasty were bought by Arab merchants, transported to Egypt via the land north of the Red Sea, or landed in Basra and transported to Damascus, Istanbul and other places, and then resold to Southern Europe, Western Europe and the Black Sea region via the Mediterranean route.

Arab merchants made a lot of money, and Ming merchants also made a lot of money.

The Ming Dynasty currently does not have the strength to develop this trade route, so it is better to let Arab merchants do it so that everyone can make their own money.

Therefore, the Ming Navy remained very restrained in the Arab region, occupied the port of Aden, flexed its muscles in the Red Sea, and then did not go deeper.

Especially after reaching a peace agreement with the Ottoman envoys, they emphasized "friendly coexistence" and making money together.

The Ming Navy abandoned the area north of the port of Daman and let the Portuguese act as a buffer in the middle to avoid direct conflict with the Ottomans and Persia.

How come the anti-Ming alliance suddenly turned around and captured the port of Daman?

I really can't understand the Indian people's train of thought!

Chen Lin continued, "Since Jizhou Port is difficult to defend, we are ready to give up. The coalition forces are arrayed on the coast opposite Jizhou, and one of our fleets will pick up the remaining personnel on board and prepare to retreat.

The commander in charge of the escort ordered the six frigates and cruisers to fire at the coast before leaving.

The six warships fired about three hundred shrapnel shells at the coalition forces, most of which landed in the front line of the coalition forces, quickly causing them chaos.

There were hundreds of war elephants in the front line of the coalition army. When they were blown up by shrapnel shells, they panicked and turned around and ran away, which resulted in the infantry and cavalry formations behind them being completely broken up.
The coalition forces were afraid of the artillery of our warships and retreated more than sixty miles, but they did not want to return empty-handed, so they turned around and rushed towards the port of Daman, more than one hundred miles north of Jizhou.

There was already an empty port there, and the coalition forces rushed in smoothly, and then announced with great joy that they had fought a bloody battle and captured the port of Daman."

Everyone was stunned.

I feel quite touched, but I don't know where to start.

Are all Indian wars so abstract?

Chen Lin also looked helpless.

"We returned to Jizhou Port and strengthened our defenses in time. The problem facing us now is that after the Indians occupied Daman Port, they are ready to move towards Surat Port.

But according to the agreement reached between the court and the Portuguese, we should hand over the ports of Daman, Surat and Diu to them.

That means we must march north to retake the port of Dammam, or the now lost port of Surat, and return it to the Portuguese."

What is this called!
“The commander evaluated the current military situation and found that this was also an opportunity.

The main force of the coalition forces is now gathering near the port of Dammam. We will land near the port of Dammam, and then look for an opportunity to launch a devastating blow to the main force of the coalition forces to complete the first step of the campaign goal!

Okay, now the line company will assign the task."

After the task was assigned, Li Mingchun called Wu Dafei.

He was born in the Zhenxiang Army and performed outstandingly in the battle to pacify Bozhou, becoming Chen Lin's trusted and beloved general.

Chen Lin was transferred back to the Navy, and he was transferred to the Marine Corps. He is currently the commander of the 3rd Regiment of the Tianzhu Task Force.

"Captain Wu, I have a special mission for you."

Wu Dafei knew that Li Mingchun was not an ordinary person, so he immediately responded, "Please ask Director Li for instructions."

"This mission was transferred from Taipu Temple. It is a Class B secret."

That is the second level of confidentiality, which is very important.

Wu Dafei followed Li Mingchun into a heavily guarded room and pointed at several wooden boxes inside.

What task?
Just a few wooden boxes?

How come it's so mysterious?

(End of this chapter)