After reading the report White Butcher had sent back, Zhou Xu had not never considered whether he should simply swallow the Barton Empire whole!
After all, judging from the other side's actions before this, those fellows had the typical forceful style of ignoring all consequences and striking first.
If they became neighbors, there was no guarantee they could coexist peacefully.
Not to mention that this time, they had already been forced to destroy one of the other side's small fleets first.
Forget whether they could negotiate peace—even whether they could negotiate at all was now a problem.
Zhou Xu's current line of thought was very simple. As long as the other side left that tropical island alone, it did not matter whether he fought this war or not. But! He absolutely could not lose!
Being unable to win and being able to win but choosing not to fight were two entirely different things!
The battlefield on White Butcher's side had undoubtedly shifted to the sea.
Ever since their Great Zhou had built its first ship, the shipbuilding project had basically never stopped.
That was because Zhou Xu clearly understood that with such vast stretches of sea before them, once they entered the Age of Exploration and began searching for more land and resources, it would inevitably become a great trend they could not avoid.
Once they reached the sea, the army would be of little use. The key was how many warships they had and how many fleets they could form!
Their Great Zhou navy had developed over the years, and at present, they had two fleets in total.
One was the South Sea Fleet, led by Soros, which was responsible for patrolling and garrisoning the waters outside the southern border. It consisted of one large warship and eight fast