Mpu Nala as Commander of the Navy of the Majapahit Kingdom was widely reviewed by Agus S Serono in the book "Jayaning Majapahit: The Story of the Knights of the Ocean Guard", and Irawan Joko in his book "Majapahit Maritime Civilization".
This Majapahit warlord had a precise strategy by placing dozens of his warships to guard five important points in the waters of the archipelago. The war fleets of the Majapahit Kingdom, among others, were stationed in the west of Sumatra, namely the Cluster 1 Fleet which served as the guard of the Indian Ocean. This fleet is controlled by an admiral from Central Java.
The Cluster 2 fleet guards the South Sea, or the South Sea of Java. This fleet is led by an admiral who is the son of Bali.
Meanwhile, the Fleet Cluster 3 is in charge of guarding the waters of the Makassar Strait, and the Ternate, Tidore, and Halmahera areas, under the leadership of a Makassar son admiral.
The group 4 fleet has the task of guarding the Malacca Strait and the Natuna Islands led by an admiral from West Java.
While the Fleet Cluster 5 has the authority to guard the Java Sea, to the east to the spice islands of Maluku. This fleet was led by an admiral from East Java.
Flag ships were placed in every fleet of the Majapahit warship group. The flag ship is the seat of the highest command leader for all attack ships, supply ships, and flag ship protectors. When initially led by Mpu Nala, the Majapahit Royal Navy used warships from the former Mongol army, which was sent by Kublai Khan to conquer Java, during the reign of Kertanegara.
The presence of Admiral Nala as the navy commander of the Majapahit Kingdom, was the beginning of Gajah Mada's awareness to ask for his help. Gajah Mada, who had said the Palapa Oath, realized that it was impossible to fulfill his oath to rule the archipelago, relying solely on land routes.
When the Amukti Palapa oath was pronounced by the Mahapatih of the Majapahit Kingdom, the islands of Bali, Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, and Tumasik (Singapore) were not yet under the banner of Majapahit rule. Gajah Mada needed a strong money navy, to unite the islands through maritime expeditions.
The naval power of the Majapahit Kingdom at that time was still very weak. Gajah Mada ventured to ask for help from Admiral Nala to strengthen the Majapahit Kingdom's navy. The strengthening of the navy is carried out in terms of the quality and welfare of the soldiers, as well as the quality of the warships.
The Majapahit ships were created by Mpu Nala from a kind of giant wood that only grows on a secret island. This made the Majapahit ships quite large at that time. Mpu Nala succeeded in building the Majapahit Kingdom's navy to become the largest and strongest in the plains of Southeast Asia. The navy of the Majapahit Kingdom under the leadership of Admiral Nala had about 40 thousand soldiers. This power made Majapahit respected in Southeast Asia, even to the Chinese Empire.
Admiral Nala became the commander of the jeweled navy of the Majapahit Kingdom, who had a high genius in his time. When there was no marine school, Mpu Nala was able to create sophisticated ships with the results of studying the warships belonging to the Mongols.
Thanks to the cold hand of Admiral Nala, the naval power of the Majapahit Kingdom became very powerful and invincible. This maritime power, made the greatness of Majapahit legendary until now.
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