Brunei's port lay roughly at 3° north latitude and 111° east longitude on the charts. The Portuguese had managed and plundered it as a colony for many years. It mainly produced nutmeg and gutta-percha, and was a very important port and trading hub on the largest island in the Spice Islands, where Portugal had established itself.
However, it no longer fell under the jurisdiction of the Malay governor, Duarte Lopes de Pereira. The flags of the Ming and the Li family now flew over it. Most of the Portuguese officials and colonists who had once been in the port had been driven away, replaced by Li family merchants, locals, and descendants of the Ming, who worked together to administer and defend the place.
As the port city nearest to Malacca, it naturally became the prime target for Governor Pereira and his huge fleet.
Fortunately, a fleet that large, made up of warships and armed merchant ships, couldn't possibly be prepared and sent out from Malacca without word getting around. Brunei had received news well in advance, and immediately dispatched a fast ship to inform the Li family fleet, which was still at the port of Ternate, preparing to head south and sweep through the Spice Islands.
So, on this day, the five giant ships of the Li family's expeditionary fleet—rushed back under urgent orders and resupplied once at Brunei—finally encountered the great fleet led by Governor Pereira in the South Seas east of Brunei, in the open waters near 2° north latitude and 108° east longitude along the spice route.
Of course, it wasn't quite right to say they encountered the enemy. The Li family fleet's lookouts had spotted them from far away.
That's right. They had found them!
Grand Admiral Annie Hastur of the Li family fleet had come