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Text Chapter 58 Contact (Part 1)

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    "The Imperial Navy has made adequate preparations for this." A young officer next to Deng Ming replied on behalf of Prime Minister Huang Ming.

    Five years ago, Deng Ming opened the Imperial Naval Officers Academy in Zhoushan and officially changed the name of the Navy to the Navy and River Fleet. The trainees were all recruited from western Sichuan and the alliance area.

    From the beginning, the students were told that their goal was to protect China's maritime trade lines. The empire would never tolerate the maritime lifeline being threatened by Western powers forever, especially when the home countries of these Westerners were thousands of miles away.  It is undoubtedly a huge shame for China.  After Deng Ming's unremitting propaganda, naval officers and soldiers regarded this situation as their own shame, and Deng Ming also tried his best to use his influence to allocate resources to the navy.  This expedition was regarded by the new naval officers as a battle of revenge - ten years of education starting from teenagers made them believe that the Spanish and Dutch opening colonies near China was a deliberate humiliation of China and a blockade of their own homes.  Swearing at the door.

    "Since Marquis Jing said so, it is naturally the best." Although he knew that this young officer was only a lieutenant colonel, Feng Xifan did not dare to be rude and addressed the other person's title respectfully.

    But the major didn't appreciate it. His face turned slightly red: "Shiwei Feng, I became the captain because of my ability and not because of family ties."

    "Of course, of course." Feng Xifan realized something was wrong and hurriedly corrected: "Major Li is right."

    The captain of Deng Ming¡¯s flagship was named Li Siming, the eldest son of Linguo Duke Li Laiheng. His name, like that of Jin Crown Prince Li Siye, was given by Emperor Yongli fifteen years ago.

    After the Northern Sichuan War, Chengdu¡¯s attraction to the alliance also increased significantly.  Zhang Huangyan once intended to give up his independent status and go to western Sichuan to take over the position of chief justice of He Daoning. The latter also wanted to change his administrative job, but the court clearly refused, claiming that this would have an adverse impact on the anti-Qing alliance.  Let the alliance misunderstand that Western Sichuan is trying to annex the alliance.  Finally, Zhang Huangyan, who failed to make the trip, sent his son to go to school in Sichuan, and now he has also entered the Imperial Ministry of Justice.

    After repeated psychological struggles, Yuan Zongdi finally gave up the idea of ??maintaining independence and sold the land to Chengdu on the condition that the imperial government paid him a large pension and appointed his son as the prefect of Kuizhou Prefecture.  Now the cousins ??of the Yuan family hold the positions of two prefects, and they can be said to be the best family in the empire.  When Yuan Zongdi retired to Chengdu, he actually brought fifteen concubines with him, bought a large piece of land, and began to enjoy his happiness.

    After redeeming Wanxian County, the council declined the requests from Wang Guangxing, Ma Tengyun and others to redeem the land, saying that it would not consider spending huge sums of money to acquire the land of these alliances in the short term - at least until Chengdu could take a few breaths and transform it.  This matter can only be considered again after Kuizhou.  Because acquiring these lands not only requires money, but also requires huge sums of money to implement the laws and rules of the empire, and to avoid misunderstandings from the alliance.

    Even Liu Tichun, who was relatively ambitious before, is now busy organizing military camps to make money by producing goods needed in western Sichuan.  His eldest son didn't have to worry, so Liu Guogong spent all day thinking about how to earn some property for his other sons and save some dowry for his daughter.  Although there will definitely be some money from selling Yiling in the future, there is never too much money.

    Hao Yaoqi and his neighbor Di Sanxi still attach great importance to military construction, and they do not put all the money they get from land scraping into their own pockets, but continue to buy arms.  However, there are rumors that their wishful thinking is to go to Henan to build a territory in the future, and sell a lot of it to Chengdu for some money.

    "Compared with these people, although Li Laiheng had the deepest friendship with Deng Ming, their relationship seemed relatively distant. So far, he had not revealed any temptation to join the empire.  However, Li Laiheng also sent his eldest son to western Sichuan for education.  After discovering that Deng Ming was planning to build a navy, Li Laiheng also wrote to Deng Ming, requesting that his eldest son join the navy so that he could become a veteran of this new force that was likely to rise.  Li Siming, who died fighting against the Qing Dynasty with his father in his previous life, was able to stand out in this world, rise all the way to the top, and become the captain of Deng Ming's flagship. Of course, it was not entirely dependent on his personal ability.  However, this is also the current situation within the empire. Feudal warlords still have huge influence that civilians cannot match.

    The relationship between the King of Jin and Deng Ming in Yunnan seems to be even more distant.  After Wu Sangui captured Guangxi, he used the excuse that he had made a secret agreement with the King of Jin to hand over Guizhou at the expense of Hunan. Since Hunan did not get it, Wu Sangui would certainly not fulfill the agreement.  Originally, with the support of Deng Ming, the strength of Li Dingguo and Wu Sangui had begun to draw closer, but after Wu Sangui defeated Guangxi, the strength of the two sides suddenly became wider.  Faced with Wu Sangui, an old fox, and the dangerous terrain of Guizhou, even Li Dingguo was not sure that he could defeat the Guizhou army with inferior troops. Moreover, Wu Sangui's attitude also made Xiying have some illusions, thinking that Wu Sangui could be persuaded to defect in the future. There was no need.  The soldiers met each other, so Wu Sangui and Li Dingguo were involved in each other.??The situation continues.  Now Li Dingguo, as the fake prince of Huang Yue, is still on an equal footing with Prime Minister Deng Ming in terms of etiquette, but he also sent his son to Chengdu.  Deng Ming immediately changed the Xichuan Xingdu Division to Jianchang Prefecture for him, and appointed Li Siye as the Jianchang Prefecture. He was also responsible for the transportation of materials between Chengdu and Kunming.

    Although they knew that Feng Xifan and others still had doubts, the Ming army had been moving around the sea while maintaining communication with the envoys, looking for the best time to start a war.  Deng Ming looked up at the sky. Since yesterday, the clouds above his head have become thicker and thicker. It seems that a large cloud is drifting towards here.  It is now the beginning of June, and even if there are no clouds, the moonlight will be relatively dim. This is the favorite time for the Imperial Army to fight.

    ¡­¡­

    The envoy ship following the Ming army has been sailing on the sea non-stop for ten days.  At first it sailed towards the west, but after the messenger ship made several curved turns, it finally took the Spanish fleet towards the strait.  General Mario has always been very patient, and he expected that the opponent would constantly change directions to escape tracking.  In order to further paralyze the opponent, the Spanish reconnaissance ships have been replaced several times, and the replacement has been very clever. Many times, they predict the possible turns of the enemy based on operations on the charts, and then maintain the position of the previous reconnaissance ship.  After the course separated from the messenger ship, another "merchant ship" happened to encounter the Ming army's messenger ship again and maintained visual contact.

    Although the maritime power of the Ming Dynasty has risen rapidly, and the maritime hegemony of the Kingdom of Spain has declined over the past hundred years, Mario is still very confident in his own navigation technology.  This kind of accumulation of hundreds of years of navigation is definitely not something that the Ming army can catch up in the short term.  According to intelligence from Manila, the Duke established a naval school about five or six years ago to provide systematic training for Chinese naval officers.  And five or six years is really too short. This kind of maritime tracking and counter-tracking skills of fighting wits and fighting strength is even more difficult to master than formation naval battle.

    And a few days of non-stop sailing is not a problem for the Spanish Navy. Perhaps the declining Spanish Navy cannot still maintain most of its combat effectiveness after a month of non-stop sailing like the British and Dutch, but this ten-day  The slow speed of offshore navigation will still not weaken their combat effectiveness.  If the Chinese think that this can tire the Spaniards and greatly bring the fighting level between the two armies closer, then Mario can say contemptuously: "That devil has a completely wrong idea."

    There were heavy clouds over the Babuyan Strait, so before the sun went down, General Mario ordered the fleet to anchor.  This is not the open sea, and sailing on a moonless night is prone to danger.  The general now had a feeling that he was close to his prey, and within a few days, or even tomorrow, the Duke might be found.  If he encounters the Duke at night, it is very likely that the Duke will realize the danger and make an emergency landing.  Although the Chinese landing here will greatly reduce the threat to Manila, it will also bring the Spaniards' quick victory plan to naught.  And what if the Duke's flagship was sunk during the night battle, resulting in the death of the devil?  They are not fighting for war's sake, but for trade. The death of the Duke is likely to lead to a complete interruption of East Asian trade, which will also be criticized by Madrid.

    According to General Mario¡¯s order, thirty warships anchored in place.  They would stop the boat and rest for the night.  Even if the Chinese envoy desperately continues sailing on a moonless night, the fleet will still be able to easily catch up with its tail tomorrow by taking advantage of its speed.  The Spanish fleet formed a circular deployment. General Mario once thought from the position of the Chinese. If the opponent did not use armed merchant ships to fight regular battles with the battleship formation, then arson tactics seemed to be the only feasible method.  Therefore, the Spanish fleet cannot be arranged too closely. Even if the outer warships are paralyzed and careless and are hit by enemy ships, other warships still have time to react.

    The clouds covered the entire sky, and not a trace of moonlight came through.  Even if the Chinese suddenly encountered the Spanish, they would not be able to launch an attack in such weather.  However, the vigilant Spanish soldiers still arranged the personnel on duty meticulously, and the rockets used for lighting were also placed in appropriate positions.  After arranging the officers on duty for the night, Captain Leonardo and other officers had dinner with General Mario in the captain's room.

    "I hope it won't rain tomorrow." During the meal, Captain Leonardo said with some worry while chewing the food.  What the Spaniards are most worried about now is that they can't find the Duke's fleet, and the longer they leave Manila, the more worried they are: "Is it possible that the Duke hasn't set off at all and is just scaring us?"

    "That would be great. But we can't pin our hopes on the Duke's bluff." Mario believes that he should continue to follow the Chinese envoy's ship for at least half a month until he is convinced that he is going to return to China to report the news.  As long as the Spaniards do a good job of vigilance and send ocean-going reconnaissance ships towards Taiwan, they can have sufficient early warning.time.  However, judging from the repeated circles of Chinese envoy ships these days, the Duke should be nearby, and the Chinese expeditionary force, which may number tens of thousands, may launch an offensive at any time.

    When the Spaniards were discussing the war situation at the dinner table, Deng Ming, Li Siming, Feng Xifan and others stared at the looming fire on the sea with telescopes.

    Through contact with the messenger ship, the Ming army already knew the weather conditions around the Spanish fleet.  After the sun went down, the Ming fleet, which had been waiting for a long time, quietly sailed out from behind the sea level and headed in the direction of the enemy.  Now the commander of the Ming army was able to use his telescope to capture the light coming from the windows of the captain's cabin of each Spanish battleship.  The dim lights were like some fuzzy stars, looming in the telescope. Although they were blurry, they could provide the Ming army with the general direction of the enemy fleet.

    "We will come into contact with the enemy at approximately midnight." Li Siming said with confidence.

    "Let the officers and soldiers go to sleep for two hours first." Deng Ming put down the telescope.  On the dark sea, a night attack fleet composed of one hundred and twenty ships lined up in two columns and quietly approached the Spaniards.
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