Daming: At the start of the showdown, Lao Zhu was stunned

Chapter 1161: Attack on Spain

At the end of the negotiations, João did not directly agree to the Ming Dynasty's request. Submission to the Ming Dynasty, becoming a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, and directly confronting the Western Church and even the whole of Europe was ultimately unimaginable for a small country like Portugal.

However, Zhu Su's whisper obviously also made João very moved.

In the end, he offered his own conditions to Zhu Su, hoping that the Ming Dynasty could help them attack Castile and help them become the most powerful country on the Iberian Peninsula. At that time, he would be willing to accept the title of the Ming Emperor and serve the Ming Dynasty as his master.

In order to show his sincerity and respect for Zhu Su, the King of Zhou of the Ming Dynasty, João took the initiative to offer a large amount of gold and silver, and designated part of the Lisbon coast as the Ming Dynasty Concession. He also promised to do his best to help the Ming Dynasty fleet build a stronghold and provide corresponding supplies.

"Fifth uncle, that red-haired devil is thinking of driving a tiger to devour a wolf. He wants me, the Ming Dynasty, to work for them just by giving him a little bit of profit..." After Zhu Su had Joao released again, Li Jinglong stepped out with an indignant look on his face and said to Zhu Su.

"We can't fall for such a simple trick. We have come here across the ocean, through countless hardships and dangers, and lost many brothers along the way. How can we let our brothers risk their lives for him just because of his lip service?"

Tie Xuan also stepped out and said:

"Your Highness, I think so too."

"They have evil intentions and cannot be trusted. Now that we are in an enemy country, we should be more cautious."

Most of the other generals had the same idea. They all felt that this small country of Portugal was really going too far. When the Ming soldiers arrived here, they still dared to act so pretentiously.

His Highness was kind and took the initiative to propose to make them a vassal state. They did not bow down and thank the Ming Dynasty profusely, and it would have been fine. Instead, they even wanted to drive the Ming Dynasty to attack their enemy country. This was really arrogant.

On the other hand, they were also worried that Zhu Su would get carried away and be tempted by João's promise and agree to his request.

"Don't worry." Zhu Su waved his hand facing the generals who were waiting for his statement.

"I have not taken the benefits Joao has given me seriously. I will not be tempted by these things and let my men work hard for Portugal."

"Oh. He is a brave man. He has a sword on his neck, but he still has the guts to fool me. If they don't give us the gold and silver treasures, we can take them ourselves. Even if they don't want to give us the concession, our fleet of treasure ships is stationed on the sea. Can they still protect the port?"

Hearing that Zhu Su was not deceived by the Portuguese king, Tie Xuan and others all breathed a sigh of relief. But then they heard Zhu Su change the subject and said:
"However, precisely because he is ambitious, we have the opportunity to instigate him to have a good fight with that damn church."

"I understand what you mean. It is not easy for us to cross the ocean and come to this remote place. Although we have strong ships and powerful guns to rely on, after all, there are only a thousand people left, and we are thousands of miles away from the mainland. We should be careful to protect ourselves."

"But you must not forget that we have come here from thousands of miles away not for an outing, but to help our Great Ming Army to defeat the church that dared to challenge our majesty and turn the Western Continent upside down."

"If we don't win over some people, how much storm can we stir up with only a few thousand of us, even if we have the treasure ship and its cannons?"

"..." Li Jinglong and others were speechless for a moment after hearing this.

"Portugal is a good candidate. It is a small and weak country, and its ruler is ambitious. If we can conquer it, it will help the Ming Dynasty penetrate the Western Continent."

"As for whether he is sincere... Hehe, you probably don't know that the countries in the Western Continent are very different from our China. Even the king does not have the final say in their country."

Everyone was slightly surprised when they heard this, and Li Jinglong blurted out, "Is this true?"

"The king of the Western Continent is similar to the leader of an alliance or a chieftain. In essence, he is a nominal leader elected by the nobles. Although he can command the nobles to a certain extent, if he damages the interests of the nobles, I am afraid that he will soon be sidelined by the nobles or even driven off the throne."

"I see." Tie Xuan touched his chin. This was a habit he learned when he was with Zhu Su. "No wonder Joao just now kept hinting that if he disobeyed the church, his people and ministers would definitely not be willing; no wonder Joao was obviously persuaded by your Highness, but in the end he still bit the bullet and politely rejected our request."

"It turns out that it's not that I don't want to, but that I can't."

"As a leader of a country, he has to look at the faces of his nobles. This is too cowardly." Li Jinglong said disdainfully.

Zhu Yuanzhang, the Emperor of the Hongwu Dynasty of the Ming Dynasty, was an extremely capable man with absolute power and the final say. This made the civil and military officials of the Ming Dynasty subconsciously believe that all state affairs should be ruled by the monarch, and they found it difficult to understand the Western aristocratic system.

"But it is precisely because of this that Joao's surrender just now actually means he has agreed to our request. As long as we can help them defeat Castile, Joao will use the power of victory to control the nobles in the country who are unwilling to submit to the Ming Dynasty and lead Portugal to submit to the Ming Dynasty."

"Of course, he also has the intention of using us. However, we are also planning to plunder the Western countries and intimidate the church... and by the way, helping Joao to intimidate the Portuguese nobles is also a matter of course, so why not?"

"As for asking me to disregard the lives of my brothers and serve Joao... that is absolutely impossible. When we go to sea to fight, if Joao is sincere, he will seize the opportunity. If he is not sincere, the worst that can happen is that he will return to Santiago and destroy Portugal... maybe he can even use Portugal as a bargaining chip to trick Castile into becoming a vassal state!"

"Hahaha, this is a good idea, we can win on both sides!" Li Jinglong laughed. The generals also realized that if they only fought at sea, there would be no big problem.

They were all confident in the strength of the treasure fleet. Since attacking and plundering Castile along the coast would also allow them to conquer Portugal's Joao, this could naturally be done.

Seeing that he had successfully convinced the generals, Zhu Su clapped his hands and said, "Okay, since everyone has agreed to work together, let's work out a strategy for the expedition."

As he spoke, he unfolded the Kunyu World Map. Integrating the intelligence Joao had offered, as well as the Ming army's active investigation and collection of surrounding intelligence during their landing, the information on the surrounding areas of Portugal on the Kunyu World Map was much more detailed.

"According to what Joao said just now, Castile's naval power is mostly concentrated in these two directions." Zhu Su took out several war chess pieces symbolizing fleets and placed them in the North Atlantic and Mediterranean waters controlled by Castile, and said.

"And according to the intelligence Jiujiang brought back, Castile is now hostile to several small countries in the south that believe in Islam."

"In my opinion, we can take advantage of this opportunity to attack the south of Castile first and then the north, and capture its important towns with lightning speed."

"The Muslim countries have suffered from Castile for a long time. Seeing that Castile has been plundered by us, they will definitely take advantage of the situation to rob it. If this happens, the southern part of the country will be caught in the flames of war and will be unable to take care of itself."

"We will use the fleet to blockade the seaport here." Zhu Su pointed to the location of the Strait of Gibraltar in later generations.

The generals looked at the map and saw that this place was like the mouth of a big bag. If they controlled this place, they could block the Mediterranean Sea tightly, just like tying the mouth of the bag tightly, and the fleet stationed in Castile would be trapped.

"Good idea." Tie Xuan took the lead in supporting. "This way, the other country's naval forces will be at a loss, and we can destroy them in one battle."

"Since the south is no longer able to provide support, we will turn to the north, weaken and erode its coastal forces, and assist João in attacking that country." Zhu Su said.

This strategy was simple and clear, and all the generals agreed. Zhu Su finally ordered: "Although we have strong ships and powerful guns, we are alone in deep territory, so we must not fight for a long time."

"Everyone, please remember that your own safety is the most important thing. In addition, you must not slack off in the construction of the bases you have set up on the uninhabited islands. You must not leave our logistics and life and death in the hands of Portugal alone."

"Yes!" The generals responded one after another with high morale.

Since Your Highness does not want the Ming Dynasty to be a puppet for others, what else is there to say?

Just hit him!
Three days later, Zhu Su led the Ming fleet out from Lisbon, sailed south along the coastline, and launched a surprise attack on the port of Seville in Castile.

The port of Seville was an inland port of Castile, and it was difficult for the treasure ship to enter. However, the huge and eye-catching treasure ship was not suitable for such a surprise attack. The Fuzhou ships accompanying the treasure ship and the ships seized from Portugal had no problem entering the inland river. Zhu Su ordered Li Jinglong to lead a small army to attack the port of Seville at midnight.

Castile was also a country that believed in the church. After seeing the benefits of the westward expedition, their king also sent people to join the church's eastward expedition. They were very far away from Central Asia and had never worried that the Ming Dynasty would come to retaliate.

Therefore, when the Ming army's warships appeared outside the port, the tax officials in charge of the port thought they were merchant ships of the Ming Dynasty's wealthy merchants. Not only did they not take any precautions, they even took the initiative to drive their small boats forward, hoping to extort some money.

Then, the sky-high artillery fire instantly sent this greedy tax collector and the port into a hell of fire.

"These barbarians are really rich!" After completing the surprise attack mission, Li Jinglong returned to the flagship treasure ship with a look of surprise on his face, and he could hardly stop smiling.

In the previous battle with the Portuguese navy, the Ming army used artillery to "clean" the navy under Joao's command. Those navies were built by Joao with all his national strength, and almost drained the Portuguese treasury. Therefore, the money Joao paid later could only offset the artillery fire fired by the Ming army at most.

This made the Ming army feel painful, and they always felt that they had made a loss. This was also the reason why the generals later had a lot of hostility towards Joao. Li Jinglong was the best at the "cannon fire" tactic. During this expedition, some people used this as an excuse to compete with him for the position of vanguard, believing that if Li Jinglong was allowed to fight, the Ming army would lose everything.

This made Li Jinglong feel somewhat restrained when attacking the port of Seville this time.

As a result, to Li Jinglong's surprise, the wealth of this port was far beyond his imagination. He just took advantage of the chaos and sent several groups of people to loot the port, and brought back several times more gold and silver treasures than what Joao had offered.

Zhu Su was also surprised at first, but after a little thought, he knew the reason: Castile was in the stage of "Reconquista" at that time. The church countries and Muslim countries on the Iberian Peninsula had been hostile to each other for nearly 700 years, and the church countries represented by Castile were slowly occupying the entire peninsula. After 700 years of tug-of-war, Muslim countries could only retreat to the south and survive, while Castile was cheering up and preparing to annex this piece of fat meat in one fell swoop.

Wars are fought for resources, so Castile will inevitably gather most of its assets in the south to cope with the consumption required for the "Reconquista". The port of Seville is the key hub for the kingdom to transport resources, and the rich accumulation of the nobles in this port over the years has benefited the Ming fleet that succeeded in the surprise attack.

Since they had gained something, Zhu Su immediately ordered the fleet to leave Seville. Their advantage was the sea. If they stayed in the inland river for a long time, they would inevitably be surrounded by the troops from Castile.

According to the original plan, Zhu Su immediately sent people to block the Strait of Gibraltar. He judged that if Castile learned that their Ming fleet had robbed Seville's treasures, they would definitely send the kingdom's fleet to try to recover them.

Sure enough, the Ming army soon discovered that the Castilian fleet in the Mediterranean had begun to assemble. Zhu Su then set up the battlefield in advance and planned to ambush the Castilian fleet.

The battle unfolded in the Strait of Gibraltar, and the Castilian fleet still seemed to have no direct understanding of the power of the Ming fleet. On the blue waves, the wall-like Ming treasure fleet once again became an insurmountable barrier for the Western fleet. The roar of Eastern artillery once again resounded throughout the sea, and the one-sided situation of the Lisbon naval battle was repeated again.

Facing this hellish situation, the naval commander of Castile did not choose to charge forward like Joao did, but chose to withdraw with most of the remaining fleet. This time, it was Sanbao who stood out in front of Zhu Su. This eunuch in charge of intelligence under Zhu Su actually led his speedboat, which was mainly used for reconnaissance, to charge at the flagship of the Castilian fleet at the first opportunity.

Facts have proved that even in building small boats, the Ming Dynasty's shipbuilding skills are still superior. Sanbao successfully intercepted the flagship of Castile, and together with the Ming army generals who caught up later, boarded the ship and successfully captured the noble who only wanted to escape.

Afterwards, the treasure ship fleet pursued relentlessly and successfully broke up most of the Castilian fleet. Most of the Castilian warships fled towards the Atlantic Ocean, and only a few ships escaped back to the Mediterranean in embarrassment.

At this point, the Ming Dynasty's combat plan has been basically completed.

(End of this chapter)