Take the arsenal to Da Ming

Chapter 330
The combined fleet of more than fifty warships from the Ming Empire and the Kingdom of Portugal headed straight for the Spaniards in Luzon after the crew was ready.

The combined fleet has more than 8000 troops, while Spain's troops in Luzon are less than 3000.

The combined fleet first defeated the relatively weak Spanish fleet in the naval battle in Manila Bay. Except for three warships fleeing in a hurry, the rest of the Spanish fleet was wiped out.

Immediately, the Ming army and the Portuguese army landed. After the Western army went out of the city to block the defeat, they retreated into the city.

The Spaniards have ruled Luzon for hundreds of years, and the bastion they built in Manila is much stronger than the simple fortress built by the Raksha people in the Far East, and they have more and more advanced artillery.

The Ming army also used hot air balloons and German artillery to intimidate the Spaniards at the beginning, but Luzon was too important to the Spaniards.

Moreover, they are not comparable to those bumpkin Cossacks, and their knowledge is obviously much better, and they have long known that the Ming army has very powerful artillery.

Although panicked, it will not surrender without a fight.

In desperation, the Ming-Portuguese allied forces could only attack by force. The scouts on the hot air balloons were constantly monitoring the movement of the Western Army. The Ming-Portuguese Allied Forces could launch a targeted attack. It did cause a lot of casualties to the Western Army, but it still could not break through. city.

The Ming-Portuguese allied forces stormed for a month, and then dug secret passages and buried a large amount of gunpowder to blow up a section of the castle, blasting a gap as wide as three feet, and then entered the city.

After the Ming-Portuguese allied forces invaded the city, the Western Army lost their morale and chose to surrender without resisting for a long time.

After stabilizing the situation in Luzon, the Ming-Portuguese allied forces set their sights on Batavia, the largest ruling center of the Dutch in Asia.

In the past few years, due to conflicts of interest, the two sides have also been in constant conflicts. However, Tang Ning had no time to be distracted before, so she never freed up to clear the Dutch stronghold in the Far East.

Now, the threat of Spain is gone, and Ming's biggest opponent in Asia is only the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

The Dutch are also the opponents of the Portuguese, and the exacerbated decline of the Portuguese Kingdom has nothing to do with the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Looking at the thriving Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Portuguese were naturally very unhappy. In a sense, they even hated the Spaniards more.

Because since getting rid of the rule of the Kingdom of Spain, the Kingdom of the Netherlands is the biggest threat to the Kingdom of Portugal. They keep robbing the colonies of the Kingdom of Portugal and robbing various interests, which naturally aggravates the decline of the Kingdom of Portugal.

In fact, the Dutch people also knew that sooner or later, the Ming Empire would come to attack Batavia, because any powerful empire would not allow another empire to gain huge benefits at its doorstep.

So in the past few years, the Dutch people have used various means to understand the situation in the Ming Empire. The more they learn, the more disappointed and frightened they feel. They have seen the rapid rise of a powerful empire.

Or it can't be called a rise, it should be called a revival, which is more appropriate. When this ancient empire is internally stable, it will quickly become stronger.

Now, the Ming Empire has maintained its internal stability, and at the same time integrated the heroic Manchuria and Mongolia. It is unprecedentedly powerful, with more than one million troops and more than [-] warships of various types.

If all the power of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is gathered, it can still fight the Ming Empire with all its strength. However, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which is thousands of miles away, is definitely not the opponent of the Ming Empire even if it gathers the strength of the Far East strongholds.

Therefore, the Dutch were very conflicted. On the one hand, they knew that they might not be the opponents of the Ming Empire. On the other hand, they were unwilling to lose the huge interests of the Far East.

Because of this, in the past few years, they have been divided into two factions. One faction hopes that the Kingdom of the Netherlands can support more forces, strengthen the kingdom's rule in the Far East, and curb the development of the Ming Empire.

The other faction is more cautious, and does not agree to compete with the Ming Empire in the Far East, because the Ming Empire has too much advantage here. Once the Kingdom of the Netherlands invests too much power, it will eventually fail. The hit is huge.

Just like the original Kingdom of Spain, the Armada was so powerful. After being defeated by England in World War I, the national fortune of the entire kingdom declined rapidly.

If this painful lesson happened to the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which has a smaller population and military strength, the decline may be faster.

Today, England, which defeated the Spaniards, has become a strong opponent of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Compared with the distance between the Ming Empire and the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Kingdom of England is too close to the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

If you fail to compete with the Ming Empire, at most you will lose your interests in the Far East, and it will not hurt the fundamentals. Once you lose the competition with the English, the best result is to slowly decline like the Kingdom of Spain.

If it is more tragic, even the entire kingdom may be annexed.

So, after some consideration, the Dutch didn't dare to fight desperately. On the one hand, they sought to reconcile with the Ming Empire, but Tangning ignored them;
On the one hand, the defense of Batavia and other strongholds was strengthened with the help of local resources, but the Kingdom of the Netherlands did not invest more troops and materials in support.

In other words, the Dutch only wanted to compete against the Ming Empire with their power in the Far East. It would be better if they won, and they would leave if they lost, without investing more capital.

It can be seen from this that, from the very beginning, the Kingdom of the Netherlands took a relatively passive attitude in its confrontation with the Ming Empire.

There's no way they weren't like that in the first place.

Thinking back, they had plotted against the back several times, but they all ended in failure. Moreover, it was only Tangning's new army that was fighting against them.

Now, Tangning has become the bright king of the Ming Empire, gathering the power of the entire Ming Dynasty, which is many times stronger than the original new army.

Even the new army was incapable of fighting back then, how can it be the opponent of the entire Ming Empire now?This is also one of the important reasons why the Kingdom of the Netherlands is unwilling to invest more power.

For the expedition to Batavia, Ming prepared for a longer period of time and with stronger forces. The Ming-Portuguese coalition sent 5000 troops and a combined fleet of more than [-] ships.

Depart from Dayuan, pass through Luzon, and then arrive at Manlajia to rest and replenish, and then go straight to Batavia.

After the Spaniards were defeated by the Ming-Portuguese coalition forces, the Dutch knew that the next target of the Ming Empire and the Portuguese would definitely be Batavia, so they also sent various forces to monitor Ming's actions.

Naturally, such a huge fleet could not be hidden from the Dutch. While the Dutch were terrified, they quickly withdrew their forces and prepared to rely on the fortified city of Batavia to hold on.

As for the dozens of warships of the powerful Netherlands Navy, they avoided the edge of the Ming-Portuguese coalition forces for the first time, and did not dare to fight the enemy head-on.

They once saw an opportunity for a sneak attack, but in the end they didn't dare to do it, suspecting that the coalition forces had set them a trap.

Because their sneak attacks had already cast a psychological shadow, who told them to attack the new army led by Tangning a few times before, but they all ended in disastrous defeats.

(End of this chapter)