Chapter 1491: Careful — Don't Fall Off!

"New Ryukyu Island. Mergui Archipelago. Mount Anduman."

In the Old Mountain Palace, in the Hall of Imperial Supremacy, Zhu Cilang, the Son of Heaven of the Great Ming, was pacing around a newly erected giant sand-table platform with his hands clasped behind his back.

This sand-table platform had been made on Zhu Cilang's orders by the Grand Marshal's Office, and what it displayed was a world that was not entirely complete. The reason it was not entirely complete was that it lacked Antarctica, Europe, Africa, the Atlantic coasts of North and South America, and also the Arctic Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean.

The places that were missing were all places the Zhu Emperor had no interest in — Zhu Cilang's ambitions were not great; he had never thought of becoming the great leader of the whole world, so he had decided to leave Europe, Africa, the east coast of the Americas, and Antarctica to the European whites to rule. Basically, it was dividing the world in half!

In the Zhu Emperor's mind, it was enough for the Celestial civilization to occupy the greater part of Asia, all of Oceania, half of North America, and half of South America. Leave the European whites a full Europe (perhaps half, if they could not finish off the Ottomans), an Africa, half of North America, half of South America, and an entire Antarctica. It seemed the European whites still had the larger territory — even if they could not take all of Europe, they still had one more Antarctica than the Celestial Empire!

Besides, the Zhu Emperor had no intention of toppling the three great empires of the Islamic faith — the Ottoman Empire, Timurid India, and Persia — either. There had to be someone standing as a buffer between the Celestial Empire and the Christian whites, right?

Moreover, the Great Ming had no need to rule India. Trade with the Timurid dynasty of India was going very well at present, and they had even gained control of the other side's "Junior Grand Secretary supply chain," which could ensure long-term friendship and a daily inflow of gold in trade. Why resort to swords and spears?

As for the Ottoman Empire — they were quite capable fighters, and poor besides. Before the oil in the Middle East became valuable, there was nothing much good there anyway; taking it would just be poverty relief. Better to leave it there to make trouble for the Europeans.

And to realize Zhu Cilang's "Great Celestial Dream," the Americas were clearly the top priority. Places like New Ryukyu Island, the Mergui Archipelago, and Mount Anduman were, in Zhu Cilang's view, of no consequence whether gained or lost — as long as wealthy India did not fall into European hands, that was enough!

Without the wealth of India, it would not be easy for the Europeans to race wildly down the road of no return that was capitalism!

And Louis XIV had clearly set his sights on India as well. As soon as the war opened, he had placed his pieces at Mount Anduman, New Ryukyu Island, and the Mergui Archipelago.

It was now mid-April of the 26th year of Hongxing of the Great Ming, and war between the Great Ming Empire and the Kingdom of France, the Republic of the United Netherlands, and the Kingdom of Portugal had officially broken out!

And the state of war between the Shun Empire, the Russian Empire, the Khanate of Khiva, the Kazakh Alliance, and also a Republic of Siberia on one side and the Great Ming Empire on the other had never ended. Now, of course, they were still enemies!

The Kingdom of Spain and the Kingdom of New Spain would sooner or later join the war as well; it was only that they had not yet entered — or perhaps they had already entered, and no one here in Yingtian knew yet.

In addition, there were Britain, the Holy Roman Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the Kingdom of Sweden, and the Republic of Poland — these military powers had all long since declared their "neutrality" to the Great Ming Empire, unwilling to join the war, wanting only to happily do business, or they had wars of their own to fight!

And standing on the side of the Great Ming Empire, apart from a host of vassal states of the Great Ming Celestial dynasty, was the Timurid Empire of India. What the French, the Dutch, the Portuguese, and perhaps other Western colonizers wanted to seize was the Indian fools, so Aurangzeb would certainly stand together with the Great Ming!

Broadly speaking, the war now being fought was a bunch of poor devils armed to the teeth seizing upon a weak Indian rich man, while at the same time wanting to keep the Great Ming, a rich man quite capable of fighting, shut out of the Indian Ocean and the richest territories of the Americas.

So this war was unlikely to be wrapped up in three or five years, because as long as India lacked the ability to defend its own wealth, France, Holland, Portugal, and that robber state the Shun could keep profiting.

If they could profit, and those countries certainly did not care about human lives, then would the war ever have an end?

"Your Majesty, according to the report of the Malacca Fleet, what they encountered at the Mergui Archipelago was very likely a large combined fleet of France, Holland, and Portugal. Had the Malacca Fleet not been highly vigilant, posting a warning cordon of sea sentinel boats outside its temporary anchorage at the Mergui Archipelago, it would likely have suffered heavy losses from the enemy's night attack!"

The one speaking was Chen Shangchuan, Director of the Naval Staff (Naval Chief of Staff). The night attack at the Mergui Archipelago he described was historically known as the "First Battle of the Mergui Archipelago," which took place on the night of the 24th to the early morning of the 25th of the 2nd month of the 26th year of Hongxing.

At that time, the Malacca Fleet's 24 capital ships and an equal number of sea sentinel boats (light, fast vessels of around a hundred tons burden) had just lifted the siege of New Ryukyu Island and pursued the retreating Shun naval fleet northward all the way to the Mergui Archipelago, where they bottled up the Shun fleet at the mouth of the Bacang River (in Tenasserim, beside the Mergui Archipelago).

Just as Shi Lang was preparing to annihilate the Shun fleet trapped at the mouth of the Bacang River in one stroke, the grand combined fleet commanded by Michiel Adriaenszoon de Ruyter arrived as well. The number was unknown, but it was estimated that there were as many as over a hundred allied warships, and on the night of the 24th they launched an attack on the Ming Malacca Fleet at the mouth of the Bacang River. They planned to open the way with fireships and then bombard fiercely with gunboats, dealing a heavy blow to the Ming fleet in one stroke.

And the Shun fleet bottled up at the mouth of the Bacang River was also prepared to counterattack, likewise adopting the approach of fireships plus gunboats!

But the Ming commander Shi Lang was no pushover either. Early on, he had used 20 sea sentinel boats to set up a warning line for his fleet.

A few of these sea sentinel boats happened to spot the vanguard of the grand combined fleet, and the two sides immediately exchanged fire. As a result, one French large bombardment gunboat was overly eager for battle and opened fire on a Ming light fast boat that was approaching it, exposing its position and arousing Shi Lang's vigilance.

Admiral de Ruyter's night surprise attack had been exposed, and Shi Lang immediately adjusted his deployment and began to turn around and break out. The two fleets collided in the darkness, and at once it became a chaotic melee at sea.

A night battle on top of a night battle — of course it was utter chaos!

Neither side in the engagement could make out the other's strength; all they knew was that the sea surface was full of firelight everywhere, and everywhere there were the burning wrecks of warships set alight by exploding shells, at least thirty clusters of fire — and no one knew whose they were.

But Shi Lang still knew that he had few ships. He had brought out only 48 vessels in total, while the ships firing wildly across the sea numbered at least two or three hundred (in fact, most of them were armed merchantmen on the India run)!

Not knowing what the enemy's ship types were, Shi Lang lost his nerve at the sight of this situation and did not dare to prolong the fight. Before dawn on the 25th, he sent up the signal rocket to retreat, handing victory to Michiel Adriaenszoon de Ruyter.

After returning to New Ryukyu Island and counting, it was not too bad — only 8 warships were missing, of which 5 were sea sentinel boats, 2 were Malacca Type-A ships, and 1 was a Malacca Type-B ship. The losses did not seem great, but both Shi Lang and Zhu Cizhao felt a lingering fear.

The enemy fleet was very large — better to be cautious!

So they did not dare to prolong the fight either. Leaving Wang Jinbao with 2,000 troops to garrison New Shuri Castle, they took the samurai families and merchants on New Ryukyu Island and withdrew together to Temasek Island.

After arriving at Temasek Island, Zhu Cizhao and Shi Lang jointly submitted a memorial to the court, stating that France, Holland, and Portugal had gone to war with the Great Ming and had dispatched an enormous fleet to the Indian Ocean, and requesting that the court immediately send the main force of the Nanyang Fleet south to assist in the war!

"Your Majesty," Chen Shangchuan, Director of the Naval Staff, said loudly to Zhu Cilang, "the Naval Staff recommends transferring the main naval force currently assigned to the Nanyang Fleet southward to join the Malacca Fleet, and upgrading the Malacca Fleet to the Little Western Ocean Fleet!"

Qin Mingtao, military advisor of the Grand Marshal's Office, then continued: "Your Majesty, the Staff Department of the Grand Marshal's Office also believes that we should first concentrate our main forces in the direction of the Little Western Ocean, join forces with the Timurid state of India, and defeat the sea and land forces of the Western nations in one stroke, seeking a quick decision!"

A chapter recommendation for the great author Comrade Wang Zijun's latest masterpiece, "Dreaming Back to the Spring of Great Ming." What it is about, I actually don't know either, but I know it must be brilliant, because this is the first novel on Qidian to date whose very synopsis has been censored! If it weren't brilliant, it couldn't have been censored — even the synopsis got censored, who has ever seen that? For that alone, every esteemed reader simply must go take a look and add it to your collection!

(End of Chapter)