Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1256 Southwest Africa ([-])

The fact that the Portuguese fleet was discovered—correspondingly, the Portuguese also discovered them—made Moreel almost immediately give up his plan to attack the port of Luanda, but he forced himself to calm down in his heart and think about how to deal with it This sudden change is to stick to the original plan to attack Luanda, or to take other measures.

The first officer, second officer and other officers on the ship also cast their eyes on him. At this time, it is time to make a quick decision!

Morie eel thought for a while, and quickly made up his mind: turn to run northward, and get rid of the Portuguese fleet first!The two sailboats had no firepower at all and were unable to participate in the battle, and their two battleships could not take advantage of more than 20 enemy ships.After all, although my mobility is higher than that of the enemy, it is also limited. Once entangled with the enemy, the Portuguese can completely encircle their two ships with a large net. Too much disparity.Therefore, the best way is to escape, use the speed to get rid of them first, and then consider the next move. As for the safety of Jakob Port, there are thirty or forty heavy coastal defense artillery screens there, and the Portuguese probably don't have much ability to land and fight. , then the problem is not big.

"Raise the green follow-up flag, tell Captain Jiang of the 'Control Dongfang', the whole fleet adjusts the yards, and head to—" Captain Morley cleared his throat, and just as he was halfway through the order, he was suddenly rushed over from another cabin An official interrupted.

This official was from Hezhong County and was not part of the army, but because he was proficient in German and Latvian, he was brought in as an interpreter in order to communicate with the Courlandians.At this time, he just came from another place and there were several Courlandians behind him. Moreel knew them. They were all knights of New Courland, and the leader was Krivitz.

"Sir, there are some things you'd better understand." The translator looked at the Courland knights behind him and said helplessly, "These Courlands strongly demand to return to Jakobshaven, because their wives and family members live there , they said they could not bear the consequences of the city being taken by the Portuguese..."

"You—" Morie eel glared at the translator, then looked at the serious-looking Courlandians, weighing the pros and cons in his heart.More than [-] musketeers were carried on the four ships, but the two transport ships had the most, and there were also about two hundred people on their own ship "Fubo Wanli". Hearing from the Krivitz Knights and his group, and they must also be looking forward to returning to Jakobshaven to protect their homeland, then this matter will be difficult to handle!

There were more than 200 Courland musketeers, and their determination to return home was relatively firm. If they violated their wishes at this time, Morley Eel didn't know what would happen.In the worst case, probably the entire fleet is controlled by these Courland musketeers, that would be too bad!Thinking of this, Morie Eel had no choice but to give up the previous plan, and said in a very unhappy tone: "Then let's return to the voyage, I hope we can get the blessing of the Heavenly Lord."

After finishing speaking, Morley Eel went down on the deck without looking back, already secretly remembering the Krivitz knight in his heart, and planned to beat him if he had the opportunity.

Several ships sailed into Jacob's Harbor very quickly, and because of the assistance of steam power, they entered the port very quickly, which bought some time for the personnel to safely evacuate to the shore—of course not all of them retreated to the shore Yes, at the urging of Morley Eel, the Courlandians kept some musketeers on board every ship, just in case.

Since the two sailboats basically have no combat effectiveness, they are now docked on the inner shore, under the protection of two battleships and sea artillery.The sailors on the two ships have also received orders. Once the ship is approached by the Portuguese ship and it seems impossible to hold, then immediately ignite the gunpowder on the ship (ammunition prepared for attacking Luanda), and would rather send the two ships together. Even if it is blown up, it must not be allowed to be obtained by the Portuguese. After all, no one can afford the consequences of the steamship being captured by the Europeans.

At eleven o'clock in the morning, the Portuguese fleet finally approached Port Jakob. They lowered part of their sails in the open sea, adjusted their formation slightly, and rushed straight towards the port without hesitation—these guys , I actually want to learn from the move that Black led the fleet to the port of Santa Cruz in the Canary Islands a few years ago!In that battle, the Spanish coastal defense forts were completely suppressed by the British naval guns (many Spanish gunners collapsed as soon as the battle started), and then were smashed, directly causing a large number of Spanish treasure ships moored in the harbor to be sunk.Although the Courlandians in Jakobshavn seem to be stronger than those pampered Spanish gunners, and there are more coastal defense artillery, no one dares to predict how the battle will turn out, so we can only take one step at a time .

"Boom! Boom!" Several old bronze cannons were the first to speak. They fired several solid projectiles from a height into the sea, stirring up a column of water in front of the Portuguese fleet.After seeing it, Morie was sure, knowing that the Courlandians still had the courage to fight against the enemy, unlike the Spanish counselors in the Canary Islands who were timid before fighting. This was probably the first one I encountered today. Good news!

"Fire!" The gunner slammed down the command knife in his hand, and the multiple 12-pound and 18-pound guns on the port side of the "Fubo Wanli" began to fire vigorously. The morale of the gunners was still high, and they shouted Tune, under the command of officers and veterans, stuffed bullets into the barrel of the gun, and then fired in the direction of the enemy.Mo Lieel took a look. This group of people almost showed the highest rate of fire, and it really didn't waste so much training fee every year!Even the Portuguese navy, which has always been famous for its fast and accurate shooting, probably can do this to this extent.

However, it is a little embarrassing that compared with the rate of fire, the shells fired by the people on the east coast seem to be inaccurate. The bow of the ship, but limp, seems to have done little damage.

"The swell is too big and the distance is too far. It's not accurate at all." The first officer standing behind Mo Lieel said with some regret, but then he reacted, and immediately changed into an excited tone and said: " Wouldn't it be more difficult for those Portuguese to shake like this when we dropped anchor, so what's the chance of their shooting?"

In fact, in the Congo area, the coastline mostly runs from southeast to northwest. Because there are many small bays protected by capes, the coastline is not really straight, but more or less tortuous.These capes include the famous Black Point, Indian Point, Kunda Point, and of course the Cape where Cabinda is located (their arrangement is related to the deep geological structure fluctuations), and the huge waves that regularly spread to the northeast , under the action of these capes, a deviation current is produced, which makes it extremely difficult for any ship to navigate in it.

Coupled with the slight slope of the seabed off the coast of Jakobshavn and the existence of rocky reefs, there is always a continuous wave with three or four rolling waves in this small bay that turns the cape. ——This phenomenon, the local natives use a word called "furious tide"—in this raging wave belt, people can often hear the roar of the waves several kilometers away. This shows its power.

In the old days, both the Courlandians and the East Coasters cursed the damned swell when ships came in and out of port, because it made their voyage more difficult and dangerous.But today, whether it is the Courlandians on the shore or the people on the east coast on the boat, they all sincerely thank this uncanny workmanship of nature, so that they can have the help of "General Waves" when they fight the enemy, which may be better than The power of several main battleships.

Sure enough, the Portuguese ships approaching one after another in a line bumped up and down in the swell as if they were drunk, and the shells fired by the sailors after finally overcoming the bumps naturally didn't know where they hit.In this case, the coastal defense heavy artillery on land is the most dominant. Although the training of the Courland gunners is so-so, although the rate of fire is slow, the advantage is that there is no interference from the waves, and the shells they shoot are more accurate. Several Portuguese ships were hit, which further boosted their morale and gave the East Coast naval officers and soldiers on the two battleships peace of mind.

"Boom! Boom!" Nearly twenty Portuguese ships sailed by one after another, and after overcoming the adverse swell effects, they threw as many shells as possible at the two east coast battleships anchored in the harbor.It’s just that these Portuguese ships were affected by the swell on the one hand, and on the other hand, they had to avoid the heavy artillery shells fired by the fort on the shore (it’s not a good feeling to be hit by one shot...), and it was extremely difficult to be left and right, so most of the shells were shot. In vain, I made countless water jets for everyone to watch.

On the other hand, the people on the east coast, the two ships were relatively stable after mooring, and the gunners were well-trained, so various types of artillery—12-pound, 18-pound, 24-pound and even 32-pound—were flying, and the shells were like Raindrops fell on the front and rear of the Portuguese battle line. Although many hits missed, there were still many gains, causing certain casualties to the enemy.

And when they are all like this, the hit rate of the Kurlanders on the shore is even higher. It is conservatively estimated that hundreds of rounds hit the Portuguese ships. Although they failed to hit them hard, the disgusting people are enough. .Of course, if the Portuguese leave the range of the coastal defense cannons quickly without understanding, as time goes on, they will suffer more shells, and there may be heavy casualties-this battle is really not in a fair situation ongoing!

"If the Portuguese commanders are a little bit more sensible, then it's time to leave the enveloping range of the coastal defense artillery and go to a farther place to gather. However, this also means that their operation to force the harbor failed. Isn't it?" Morie eel slapped his palm on the railing of the bridge and said loudly.

"They can't do anything about us after all. Thank God, it's God's blessing. The Portuguese will probably withdraw. They don't dare to stay in one place for a long time." An officer immediately echoed, "Sir, what should we do next? ? Do you want to wait until the Portuguese fleet retreats?"

"Wait?" Two shells hit the third floor of the stern building of the "Fubo Wanli" in succession, startling everyone in the bridge. Said: "Wait! Let's go tomorrow morning! That bastard Knight Krivitz, if it weren't for his father, he would have left the Portuguese fleet and went to Luanda, why would he eat shells like a fool here. Go tomorrow If not, we will leave the day after tomorrow. Anyway, it is the dry season recently, and the sea is very foggy. We turn on the steam power and rush out while the Portuguese are not prepared, so we won’t play here with them.”

It is said that in places like the Congo coast, its annual atmospheric situation is affected by the South Atlantic anticyclone (St. Inland, it then meets a hot and dry air mass from the Eastern Sahara, forming a discontinuous tropical convergence front.

During southern hemisphere winters (such as it is now), when the southwest monsoon prevails, this convergent tropical front moves northward into the northern hemisphere, deep seawater churns up off the coast of the Congo, and moist air masses from the Atlantic are cooled by rising seawater before approaching the continent, After crossing the coast, it starts to heat up again, but because this is the time when the sun's rays are most oblique, the air mass is not heated too much, and it is possible to slowly absorb water vapor to stabilize the air mass: there is no precipitation at this time, generally called Do "big dry season".

However, although there is no precipitation, the air mass in the dry season absorbs a large amount of water vapor, which produces dense morning fog and dew in the coastal area.The dense fog and dew play a very important role in the growth of plants, and at the same time, they also play a significant role in covering the departure of the ships on the east coast, and this is obviously the reason why Morley Eel threatened to sail away in the early morning of tomorrow—— It has been foggy almost every day recently, very regularly.

After the intense—but not very intense—gun battle lasted for several hours, as Morel eel guessed, the Portuguese could not bear the consequences of a large number of damage and destruction of ships, and retreated to the open sea one after another. Wandering around, it seems that I haven't made up my mind what to do.However, the people on the east coast didn't bother to care about them. In the afternoon, Morley sent someone ashore in a small boat and quietly informed Governor Beveren of his retreat plan.His Excellency the governor naturally had no objection to this, and appointed a knight to follow the east coast people back, saying that this person would lead more than 300 musketeers who were still scattered on four east coast ships, and accompany the east coast people to go to sea to fight.

In the early morning of the 27th, thick fog enveloped most of the coast of the Congo just like a big aunt.The people on the east coast who had been preparing for a long time controlled the lights, strictly followed the plan made in advance, turned on the steam power, adjusted the sail boom, and quietly drove out along a waterway.

The plan went very smoothly at the beginning, but at five o'clock in the morning, the last sailboat sailed was washed by a sudden swell and barely hit the rocks, which caused a burst of exclamation from the officers and soldiers on board.

The movement of the ship hitting the rocks quickly aroused the vigilance of the Portuguese. The enemy ship that had not yet left tested a few shells, which seemed to remind the entire fleet to get ready.Seeing this, Morie Eel didn't dare to be negligent, and sent an officer to row to the motor sailing boat that had the accident, and asked everyone to abandon the boat and return to Jacob's Harbor immediately.Considering that the Portuguese are in the open sea, Captain Mo categorically ordered the crew to blow up the steam engine before leaving, and try not to let it be obtained by the Portuguese.

And after doing all this, the three ships didn't care about anything else, and headed towards the sea to the north at full speed.They were lucky. Because the bay was extremely open and covered with dense fog, the Portuguese ships could not block the sea like it was during the day, so they were able to escape from the port and enter the vast Atlantic Ocean.

After the sun rose, they had left Port Jacob and the Portuguese fleet far behind. At this time, Captain Moreel ordered the two battleships to turn around and head south—due to the relationship between ocean currents and wind direction , At this time, the only thing available is steam power, and it can be expected that the two ships will travel south at a speed of less than two knots, which is horribly slow.As for the other 1200-ton motor sailing ship, after transferring the Courland musketeers on board to the two battleships, it was ordered to turn west by north, intending to follow the ocean current across the Atlantic to the coast of Brazil, and report the situation here to the main force. fleet.

And the next destination of the two battleships is the port of Benguela, which was besieged by Second Lieutenant Xie Hansan and others-well, the local area has probably been completely occupied at this time, and it is almost not difficult-they will go to this once famous port of Portugal. The slave distribution port merged with the army, and then all the troops rushed northward, heading straight for Luanda Port, intending to completely pull out this nail, abolish the Portuguese fleet's ability to operate in Southwest Africa, and further reduce its scope of activity.

What?You said that the Portuguese fleet that is besieging Puerto Jacopo will return to rescue Luanda?Brother, their boat has no steam power, and the wind direction and ocean current are not right at this time of year. It is difficult to return to the port of Luanda even if sailing in a crosswind.If they don't want to stay for a long time off the coast of Port Jacob, the next destination is the Gulf of Guinea, because only there are their colonial strongholds and ports.

The next move after going to the Gulf of Guinea is actually easy to guess. Most of them dare not cross the Atlantic to return to Brazil, so they can only go north along the coast of West Africa, passing through Cape Verde and Madeira Island and returning to Portugal. Local, and then do the next step.Of course, due to the extremely painful traffic and communication conditions in this era, even if Morel eel guessed the movement of the Portuguese fleet right now, he can't do anything. As for whether they can catch up with and stop the Portuguese in time, they can only resign themselves to fate.

(End of this chapter)