Definitely create a web service to act as an abstraction layer for your database. Here are some important reasons in my opinion:
Since you want speed, you can add caching when using a web service, so you essentially get rid of the need to run the same requests (sometimes).
If you need to change your data model later, you just need to change the webservice firewall and do not need to update your application.
You can better control security by not revealing the database to the world and not hiding it behind a web service.
The credentials of your database should not be stored in the application. What if you need to change them?
I highly recommend the web service. Hope this helps.
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