Li Su took the lead and said: "This...this is not true."

Li Junwei asked helplessly: "You two have not lowered their ranks. I ask you, have your subordinates ever given you perfect suggestions?"

"No." Zhao Longcheng's answer was very direct, while Li Su's answer was worthy of fun: "No, it's impossible."

This is the difference between soldiers and bureaucrats. Zhao Longcheng is a soldier and thinks less politically. Although Li Su is young, as Li Dingguo's grandson, he has been influenced by him since childhood and is naturally very familiar with the officialdom. This is the issue of right to speak. Although Zhao Longcheng is a little naive in politics, he is a superior after all, and immediately understands it.

Shangguan's authority comes from many, but on the one hand, it is the right to speak. This right to speak is not necessarily the right to decide, but also the right to modify. No matter how good a plan is, as Shangguan, he must pick out some wrong things from it and make modifications. Only in this way can his own value be demonstrated. Li Su understands this because when he was working in the attendant room and the Secretariat of the Senate, he had been prepared for a long time. The things submitted will always deliberately reveal some flaws to demonstrate Shangguan's value, and then protect those things that he does not want to be passive.

Seeing that both of them understood, Li Junwei explained: "In fact, our strategy this time is to form an alliance with the strong but focus on colonial development. When I was in Shenjing, I took the initiative to form an alliance with the emperor and Wang Cheng, and said that the reason to form an alliance with France is very simple. They do not understand the continent, so they have to use the simplest and clearest reason to convince them. This reason is that France is the most powerful in the continent, and the army and the navy are the first. It only takes such a reason to form an alliance with France. But to say that it is necessary to form an alliance with other countries, there are many reasons.

The more reasons, the more flaws there will be. Not to mention at that time, even now, I was not sure whether to form an alliance with France. At that time, I was determined to say that allied with France was just to get the opportunity to do this.

When I was in Nangang, I submitted a plan to form an alliance with France, which means that I am consistent, not repeated, and for more freedom.”

"More freedom, how do you say this?" Li Su asked.

Li Junwei said: "If you list all the situations, how to form an alliance with France, how to form an alliance with Britain, etc., as the emperor's brother, will give his own opinions on each of these two plans. You must respect the emperor's opinions, it has nothing to do with right or wrong. Even the emperor's brother will make decisions based on his own understanding and choose one from two, so that we can only alliate with the country chosen by the emperor.

So, I submitted a plan to form an alliance with France, which was written in detail, and the emperor gave a lot of suggestions, but in fact, this plan was wrong from the beginning. The first step in the plan was to raise the alliance with France after arriving in the Caribbean. In fact, I didn't think so at all. Therefore, the suggestions given by the emperor would not have any impact on me. This is not the emperor's mistake, nor is it me wrong, but the development of the current situation has caused the change of the plan.

The result is that in the current situation, I still have complete freedom and decision-making rights, and I respect the emperor and Shin Kyung."

Li Su and Zhao Longcheng were shocked after hearing this. Although they knew that King Yu had received all the authorization from the emperor in the morning, they still had to receive the support of Shen Jing in the future. Therefore, King Yu did all of these to deal with Shen Jing in the future. This is the same as King Yu's handling of the seizure of the Americas. All the gold, silver and precious metals seized from the Americas were transported to the treasury of the Imperial Bank in Cape Town, and then military expenses were spent as needed. Although there was an extra procedure, this respect for central power would inevitably receive more support from Shen Jing.

Zhao Longcheng asked carefully: "So, can you please tell me when will you make the decision to form an alliance and which country will you alliate with?"

Li Junwei said: "I have already said this. We will form an alliance with the strong this time, but the more practical statement is to form an alliance with the winner. Whatever we do on land is nothing to do with us. The key is to rely on who controls the sea power. Now the European navies are mainly the British-Dutch coalition and the French navy. They have not yet decided the winner, so we cannot choose who we can form an alliance with. As long as we decide the winner, everything is simple. We can only form an alliance with the owner of the sea power."

Zhao Longcheng immediately understood that although the current European fleet could not go to the American region to fight, the problem was that once the empire launched a land war, it would require logistical support such as various weapons and ammunition. These could not only come from Cape Town, but also need to be purchased in Europe. Support from Xijin, local and other places would go to the Mediterranean and the North Atlantic. If they allied with those who lost the naval battle, they would encounter many difficulties. They could not stand it if they could send cruise ships and schooners to carry out pirate activities.

Therefore, in addition to the relatively low-intensity wars in the Caribbean, the empire only needs the European powers to decide the outcome. The reason why the Caribbean is low-intensity is two aspects: the empire's goal is limited, and the second aspect is that the Spaniards are not strong.

The first goal of the empire was naturally to occupy the Panama Isthmus, the main throat. It occupied the here, immigrated here, built railways and ports, and opened up the most convenient passage on the east and west coasts of the Americas. As for digging canals, it is unlikely. Although the Panama Isthmus is narrow, it is a humid and hot place. There is no place that is more terrifying than the tropical rainforest in this era. Moreover, due to crust movement and salt content of sea water, the Pacific Ocean in Panama is half a meter higher than the Atlantic Ocean. If the canal is excavated, the lake in the middle of the isthmus must be used. This lake is more than twenty-five meters above sea level. Obviously, a large ship lock must be needed, and this is not a problem that modern imperial technology can solve.

More importantly, whether it is avoiding lakes or utilizing lakes, the funds invested are obviously huge, and America is also on the edge of the world, and there is no economic benefit to bring the motivation to build canals.

In addition to occupying the isthmus of Panama, the empire's other goal is to occupy a decent port. This port is best to be mature, with enough craftsmen, shipyards and other facilities to provide various services to the expeditionary fleet, and the fleet's navy and army can also get a chance to rest.

There are not many ports that meet the conditions in the Caribbean, but most of them are on the east coast of Central America where the Governor of New Spain went. Li Junwei obviously ignited the war there. In addition, it is the Havana port in Cuba, which is the Spanish shipbuilding base in the Americas. Even 1,400-ton battleships can be manufactured locally. Havana also assembled the Spanish's return fleet, which is obviously the best target.

The Spaniards were not very strong in the Caribbean. Here, the Spaniards stationed a regular fleet of windward-facing fleets. This fleet consisted of four to six heavy gunboats or battleships. The largest one had seventy-two artillery pieces, and the rest were cruise ships with twenty-eight or more. There should be more than twelve main battleships in Havana Harbor. These were the escort warships of the two fleets that came last year. Of course, the ships in the Spanish's double fleet were all armed.

But these are theoretical and their actual strength is not so strong at all. For example, the windward fleet stationed in the local area is in a very bad situation. The financial source of this fleet is not from Spain or from local colonial regimes. It is a fleet established by the Governors of the New Spain and the Governors of Peru, which requires the donation of sages and nobles from both places. The military expenditure is intermittent, and the ship situation and crew are not good. What's more, this fleet has only two functions, one is to hunt pirates, so most ships must be stationed in major ports in addition to maintenance to serve as a force deterrent, because except for some bold and pirates like Henry Morgan, the rest of the other ports stationed by cruise ships generally do not dare to provoke them.

The second function is to supplement the escort fleet. The Spaniards' double fleet will come in March, April and July and August, and return at the end of March every year. Each fleet has six to eight main battleships to escort. Sometimes, the Spaniards will even use battleships to escort, but if these warships suffer losses or problems on the road, they will draw some of them from the windward fleet and replenish them.

According to the initial estimate, the Imperial Expeditionary Fleet Command believed that the Spaniards had eighteen main battleships, each of which had more than fifty guns. On average, it might be between fifty-eight and sixty. After all, most of the main battleships came from Europe, and too few guns could not be on the battlefield line at all.

But when the fleet arrived at the Dutch port of the Lieward Islands, the news was that Spain's main battleships in the Caribbean Sea might be less than ten. The merchants provided two news, because there was a war in the continental region and the Spanish coast was blocked by France, and the fleet urgently needed to protect the local area. Therefore, the escort warship of the fleet that came last July returned directly after simple repair and maintenance, and also brought back the two latest warships launched in Havana.

Since the previous year, the military expenditure of the Wind Fleet had been problematic, because local wars had already broken out, and it was a routine operation for the Spanish king to collect donations from the colonial nobles to carry out wars. The military expenditure of the Wind Fleet was only one-third of the year before, and it was not at all last year. Until the beginning of this year, the Spanish in the Caribbean received news that the Empire had prepared for the Expeditionary Fleet and urgently obtained a batch of funds to maintain the fleet to respond.

If Li Junwei had not led the fleet to expedition to the Caribbean Sea, the Windward Fleet would have not received military expenditure this year. The Spanish Council of West India Affairs even directly gave the king a suggestion to solve the problem - suspending the dual-fleet system. This suggestion was implemented in China, and the large fleet would not have arrived in at least March, but it was not implemented on one end of the Caribbean, because the Spanish knew that the Chinese were coming, and everyone was ready to join the return fleet and go to the Spanish mainland to hide.

This news directly solves a problem. The Expeditionary Fleet is fighting in the Caribbean and there is no need to convert cruisers into battleships for the time being.

Spain.

Antonio seriously told everything he saw in front of his father Duke Fajado: "..............................................................................................., the army of blacks and mixed-race people from Africa is the main armed forces for the conquest of the Americas..............................

There is also a fleet. Cape Town has a fleet from its homeland, with six ships called the American class. Like the Zhiyuan class I told you, this is also a naval battleship that can be converted from a cruise ship to a battleship. Of course, according to my investigation, this kind of warship cannot be compared with a battleship in terms of airworthiness performance or defense, but its firepower is absolutely strong. There is also a cruise fleet gathered from all over the country, and there are also many.

You know, the Imperial warships are relatively large tonnage, suitable for ocean navigation, and the Caribbean is disparate and it is difficult to stop the enemy's attack. Father, you must......"

"I want you to tell the facts you know, not to make suggestions." Fajado interrupted his son and said, "Antonio, what is the attitude of European countries?"

"All countries support China!" Antonio said.

"How is this possible?" Fajado felt incredible.

Antonio said: "As you said, King Yu is really a politically unparalleled genius. He threw out a bait that no one could refuse. Whether it is our enemies or our allies, King Yu said that the empire had no intention of ruling the Peru region. If it could not reach an agreement with Spain, then the king's colonies in Central America, those rich lands, European monarchs and merchants, could withstand this temptation? Even if they formed an alliance with the kingdom, they could turn purchases into civil acts through the East India Company."

"Okay, I understand." Fahado waved to his son, and Antonio knew it and handed a cane to his father. Whether it was the material of the cane, the carvings or accessories on it, it could be proved that this fine product came from the East.

When Antonio saw his father stand up and ignored him, he immediately asked, "Father, what should we do? We must not just abandon the land of the kingdom."

Fahado looked back at his son and said directly: "The colony of the New World belongs to His Majesty the King, not to the entire kingdom..." Antonio didn't know what this meant, Fahado left with a cane and said lightly: "I'd better ask an old friend and make a conclusion. You shouldn't go out recently."
Chapter completed!