Daming Military Empire

Chapter 407 Sulu Naval Battle
The Sulu Sea is located between Batavia and Manila. It connects the Luzon Islands in the northeast, the Sulu Islands in the southeast, Borneo in the southwest, and Palawan Island in the northwest. A huge sea surrounded by archipelagos.

After entering the waters of Sulu, Fan Mendi was in a good mood. He would arrive in Manila in ten days or so. As expected, the Ming Empire did not react at all. The sea was calm along the way, except for occasional merchant ships, fishing boats and warships evading far away. Not one of them was seen, and there was no alarm from the sentinel ships near Manila Bay, all of which proved that the Ming Empire hadn't noticed his sneak attack at all.

How should the Ming Empire be threatened after the occupation of Manila?This issue needs to be discussed carefully. It just so happened that representatives from various countries were on his flagship. Taking advantage of the high interest, he directly summoned all the representatives to the flagship conference room and began to discuss the matter of threatening the Ming Empire.

When the representatives from all countries arrived, Fan Mendi said very proudly: "Everyone, after crossing this Sulu Sea, Manila is in front of us. The Ming Empire still hasn't responded at all. It seems that our sneak attack plan has not been noticed. Wait." When the United Fleet arrives in Manila, no matter how fast the Ming Empire reacts, it will be too late. Five thousand new recruits will definitely not be able to withstand the joint attack of land and sea for three days. How should we blackmail the Ming Empire? Please give us some advice."

The French representative immediately said excitedly: "We, France, demand that Portugal return the port of Calais."

The British representative followed closely: "We, the United Kingdom, demand that Spain return the Port of Dover."

When Van Mendy heard this, he rolled his eyes. We in the Netherlands also demanded that Spain cede Dunkirk!Now we are discussing things in the Far East, the target is the Ming Empire, how did it involve Portugal and Spain.

The representative of Sweden said very pertinently: "At least let them withdraw from the Mughal Empire immediately."

The Danish representative then said hopefully: "Let them compensate us for our losses. The Ming Empire is very rich now. Let them compensate us at least 5000 million taels!"

Fan Mendi is so depressed, he shook his head and said: "I don't know if the translators misinterpreted my meaning, or if you misunderstood my words, what I said was how to blackmail the Ming Empire, not what conditions were raised with the Ming Empire. We It is necessary to figure out how much threat it will pose to the Ming Empire after occupying Manila, and then we can raise conditions according to the degree of threat."

After finishing speaking, he pulled out a map of the Far East, put it on the conference table, pointed to the waters west of Manila, and said, "This is the only way for the Ming Empire to go to the South Seas. It only takes a day or two to start from Manila Bay." , all I can think of right now is to send warships to cut off their shipping lanes, so that the Ming Empire’s business ties with Southeast Asia and even Europe will be cut off. I think this is a very good way to blackmail them.”

The representatives of various countries finally understood what Fan Mendy meant, and the British representative immediately said without hesitation: "This place is not far from the southeast peninsula, Formosa, and the southeast coast of the Ming Empire. If the Ming Empire agrees to our conditions , we will send warships to plunder these places, is this a good method of coercion?"

Van Mendy nodded and reminded: "Don't go to Formosa, there is their naval base there, and other places can be considered."

The French representative immediately suggested: "There must always be merchants from the Ming Empire in Manila and the Luzon Islands. After we occupy Manila, we will directly search for merchants from the Ming Empire. The army and all the merchants they captured were killed, so there should be some concerns about threatening them like this?"

It is a bit cruel to massacre civilians, but this kind of thing was not uncommon in the colonies of the great powers. Fan Mendi nodded and agreed: "Well, yes, we can consider it."

Next, representatives from various countries spoke enthusiastically, and all kinds of insidious tricks emerged one after another. For a while, the atmosphere in the entire meeting room was extremely enthusiastic, and foam was flying everywhere. Looking at their expressions, people who didn't know thought that the Ming Empire had been trampled under their feet. too!

Just as their discussion was in full swing, a personal guard broke in suddenly, gave a hasty military salute, and then said in panic: "Your Excellency, it's not good, there are a lot of warships from the Ming Empire in front of our fleet!"

Hearing this, Fan Mendi's expression changed, he immediately left everyone behind, ran to the bow, took out his binoculars, and looked towards the front of the fleet. He saw a large number of warships of the Ming Empire appearing in front of the combined fleet. However, it seemed that There are only [-] or [-] super battleships on both sides, and the rest are Fuchuan battleships. Although the number of battleships is terrifying, the number of artillery pieces may not be as large as the United Fleet.

There is still hope, because the United Fleet has 120 super battleships, and it also carries [-] musketeers. It is not afraid that the Ming Empire will rely on its numerical advantage to board the ship and seize the ship. Fan Mendi put down the binoculars and ordered decisively: "Order, all The battleship is loaded with solid bullets and ready to shoot. The super battleships are divided into two rows on the left and right, and pass between the two fleets of the Ming army.

According to Fan Mendi's observation, the distance between the two fleets of the Ming army is about ten miles, which is enough for the combined fleet to pass through. First, give them a round of shelling. If they hold on tight, there will only be melee.

In fact, the Ming army came with not just two fleets, but three fleets. The North Sea Fleet and the South China Sea Fleet were separated on the left and right in front, and the Nanyang Navy was slowly following the two fleets ten miles behind. Look, you can find that these three fleets are heading towards the combined fleet of the great powers in an inverted triangle shape.

The super battleships of the United Fleet lined up for bombardment, and the super battleships of the Ming Army's North Sea Fleet and South China Sea Fleet also lined up to meet them. All the Fuchuan battleships just followed the periphery and did not immediately join the battle.

The two sides quickly staggered on a horizontal line, and the battleships on both sides began to pour shells at each other crazily. What a stop,; the United Fleet's advantage lies in the powerful shells. The shells fired by the cannon are at least twice as powerful as the howitzers.

The fleets of the two sides quickly passed by each other. In this round of bombardment, the combined fleet generally took advantage, because the power of the howitzers can hardly penetrate the hull, and can only cause certain damage to the sails and sailors on the deck. The shells hit a hole, so most of the battleships of the Ming army suffered damage to their hulls, and most of the battleships of the United Fleet had many holes in their sails. In terms of damage, the Ming army's side was more damaged.

Just as Fan Mendi was proudly holding up the binoculars and looking to the left and right to appreciate the results of the battle, the flag bearer on the mast suddenly blew his whistle. He couldn't help but looked up in surprise, and the flag bearer was pointing forward!

He swept the binoculars forward, oh, what a bargain, there is actually an even bigger fleet of the Ming Empire approaching ahead!

(End of this chapter)