Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1258 Fast Fleet

"It's really a steal." Guo Zili, the commander of the Second Fleet and Lieutenant Commander of the Navy, said dejectedly in the Lobster Port of Isle of Bey: "I planned to attack Sofala with the army, and then use the navy to take Mozambique Island. Now it's better." Well, the door is blocked by others, and I can’t do anything.”

Outside the Lobster Harbor on Isle of Be, the Portuguese ships that originally gathered have begun to recede slowly (the wind and waves on the sea have begun to increase, which means that a bad weather is coming), these ships slowly lowered their sails like a show of power, and then followed the current going south Return to Mozambique.However, for the time being, they can only stay in Mozambique, and they can't go anywhere. Before the end of August, the monsoon generated in the Indian Ocean is relatively strong. If you go to India, you will have to risk strong winds and waves. The Portuguese will obviously not do this-after all, it is not easy to save some property. When fighting with the West India Company, the Portuguese Navy sent more than 8 ships to Brazil at a time. Ships (more than 60 ships were dispatched in a year at most) carried a large number of soldiers and supplies, but later the ships suffered a lot in the battle with the Dutch. Although they tried their best to make up for them over the years, there were only more than 80 ships The way they look, their strength is far from restored to their old appearance, so they must not be easily lost, and this is one of the main reasons why they try their best to avoid fleet decisive battles.

However, the large Portuguese fleet nestled in the Mozambique area, but it caused a lot of obstacles to the east coast people's attack on Sofala and Mozambique Island.You know, Ma Wanpeng, the captain of the New China Pioneering Team, has been thinking about conquering it for a long time, because it is a famous gold export port in East Africa. In terms of the amount of gold in Goa, it has been close to 1.5 tons in recent years (in history, it was 1600 pardaus in 40, equivalent to 1 ton, 1610 kilograms in 850, 1667 kilograms in 1487, It was 1670 tons in 1.5, and it has been showing a slow upward trend).

As far as this figure was obtained when the Portuguese-India trade was hit hard, if the export to Macau, Lisbon and the part embezzled by the colonial officials themselves are counted, then the entire Mozambique (including the adjacent Zimbabwe Plateau) and the surrounding area Gold production is amazing.The specific amount, except for local officials, I am afraid that even the King of Portugal is not very clear. People on the east coast only have a vague figure of gold production at the end of the 16th century, which is 8.5 tons (equivalent to 425 silver dollars on the east coast, which contains a large amount of unidentified gold). smuggled gold into the King of Portugal's statistics), is enough to make people crazy.

Ma Wanpeng, Guo Zili and others originally planned to take advantage of the favorable opportunity of the war between East Portugal and send the Xinhua infantry battalion to completely eliminate Sofala, and then the naval fleet besieged Mozambique Island (this island needs to import everything including food and fresh water) materials), forcing the Portuguese to surrender, and then grab the maximum benefit.It's a pity that their plan was disrupted by the uninvited Portuguese fleet, and the attack on Portuguese East Africa was forced to stop abruptly, and now they may be more worried that New Huaxia Island will be spied on and blocked by the enemy. It just sucks.

"The enemy will not leave until October, when the monsoon coming from the south to Mozambique will end, and the current from Cape Delgado will reach two knots, which is the best time to leave Mozambique and return to Brazil or Lisbon Yes." Major Guo Zili slapped his thigh and said: "I don't think we can mess with the Portuguese here. What we should do now is to contact the local navy and ask them to send a fleet to help us immediately. The ship is anchored in Xinhua Port and is waiting to set sail. There are a lot of immigrant ships, in addition to cotton, clean coal, timber, sugar, coffee and other goods that are in great demand in the country, if the Portuguese cannot be driven away, then the problem will be very serious."

"Commander, Captain Ma's two tuna fishing boats headed south to Hezhong Port at high speed a few days ago. Their speed is very fast, and they should be able to quickly contact the local fleet." An officer reminded Guo Zili.

"Of course I know about this." Guo Zili glared at his officers and said, "We can't just do nothing. The fleet will attack with me again these two days to see if we can mobilize part of the Portuguese fleet. Then I found an opportunity to annihilate some of them piecemeal, reducing the enemy's blockade pressure on us. In this kind of thing, ships with slower speeds don't have to keep up. My ship and the fast cruiser "Jingwu" are The only boat that escaped from the Portuguese, the others should rest at home, so as not to lose their lives in vain. By the way, what do the Italians on the other side say?"

"The Italians were very angry, but there was nothing they could do. They could neither snatch the cargo ships full of high-value cane sugar from the Portuguese, nor ensure that their own ships would not be implicated again. Therefore, most ships carrying cotton and sugar They’re all lying down, and we’ll wait for the situation to clear up before making any plans.” A junior officer of the Second Fleet replied, “But I think they can try the Red Sea route, transporting the sugar to the Port of Suez on the Red Sea, and selling it nearby. To the Ottomans, or with our help, transport the goods overland to Alexandria, and then find a way to transport them back to Europe for sale, I just don’t know if the Japanese are willing to do this.”

"We can't take too much care of the affairs of the **** people." Guo Zili said immediately, "Let's do our own business first. The immigrants try to let them all go to the mainland by motor sailboat. This kind of boat is Portuguese. People can't catch up at all. If it's really impossible, a large clipper cargo ship with a fast speed can also be used. In short, it can't be a flute-shaped ship, which is too dangerous. This will be a critical month for the trade with Ottoman and Persia, but the merchant ships of the East African Transport Company It is impossible to transport all kinds of goods to the sea, and the raw silk, ceramic tiles, porcelain, blankets, and slaves in the Middle East cannot be transported. The impact on the economy is too great. To some extent, not only our New China region has been affected Not to mention the impact, the local area is not affected lightly, haven't the Portuguese already intercepted at least three local merchant ships full of cargo coming to Xinhua Port?"

After realizing its own predicament, the Second Fleet began to actively respond.They finally organized four ships, namely a battleship, a fast cruise ship, and two tuna fishing boats with steam power (Ma Wanpeng's family, carrying 4 soldiers), forming a fast fleet. Began to move around under the nose of the Portuguese Grand Fleet.

The scope of their attacks is actually very wide, from the area around Lorenzo Marquis in the south to Fort Jesus in Mombasa in the north, and sometimes they even deliberately wandered around Mozambique Island.After abandoning the unrealistic idea of ​​attacking Mozambique, the fast fleet commanded by Major Guo Zili took its advantages to the extreme, and completely played a broken battle that stunned the Portuguese.

On August 8, this fast fleet appeared near Cape Delgado, and just rightly intercepted a Portuguese merchant ship sailing from Mombasa, accompanied by an offshore junk that had just returned from transporting ammunition to Mombasa The ship, but it escaped because of the darkness (in fact, more factors were the intentional release of water, and the goods it carried were of little value) - more than half of the goods on the merchant ships from Mombasa were all kinds of Indian textiles , Major Guo Zili and others looked at each other in dismay, but there were also some Indian gems, perfumes, exquisite tapestries, and Punjabi raw silk on it, which made up for a little "appearance fee".

Considering that the Portuguese merchant ship captured by them was difficult to bring back to their own port, after transferring the cargo to his own ship, Major Guo Zili ordered it to be sunk near Cape Delgado, and then led the fleet to stay here for two days. In the next day, he continued to lead the team northward, and was active in the area from Kilwa to Mombasa.

On August 8, a small offshore boat sailing from Malindi to Mozambique Island was intercepted by people on the east coast. The navy seized a large amount of gold ivory and hundreds of black slaves in its cabin. The Portuguese suffered heavy losses.After the robbing, the ship was sunk as usual, and then the four ships of the whole fleet happily went south to the vicinity of Zanzibar Island, and encountered more than ten Portuguese ships going north from Mozambique. It seemed that they were trying to come to destroy the people on the east coast Broken fleet.

Major Guo Zili, who only had two ships capable of fighting, chose to avoid the battle. His ship caught the Portuguese at sea for two or three hours, and then just when it was getting dark and the Portuguese gave up their pursuit, " The battleship "Free Trade" went down the ocean current going south again, and under the addition of steam power, it unexpectedly came back at a relatively high speed of 4 knots, and caught a still ignorant Portuguese navy armed merchant ship and beat it up.

The sudden artillery fire on the sea alarmed the Portuguese squadron, and they began to echo each other, trying to surround the east coast ships that slipped over.It's just that their efforts were too pale at night, and instead caused great confusion, causing the "Free Trade" to chase the armed merchant ship and fight all the way, and finally sunk it.

The "Free Trade", which sank a Portuguese ship, wandered around the chaotic Portuguese fleet. After damaging several ships, it quietly left the battle area and disappeared into the vast Indian Ocean.

The naval battle that took place on Zanzibar had a serious psychological impact on the Portuguese.For the first time, they deeply realized that if the main battleship of the people on the east coast went crazy to launch a cross-border attack, they would be completely defenseless.Considering that many ships will set sail from Goa to Lisbon in a few months, the Portuguese should worry that their trade lines will be attacked by others.

On August 8, the ships sent by the Portuguese were still at sea trying to find Major Guo Zili's fast fleet, but they found nothing at all. Instead, they encountered an unknown Omani fleet.The Omanis were extremely shocked by the appearance of such a large Portuguese fleet on the coast of East Africa, but they could only admit that they were unlucky. Entering the shallow water area densely covered with hidden reefs, the Portuguese did not dare to pursue, so they resentfully let go of the remnant Omani army.

On August 8, news came from near the mouth of the Zambezi River that the fast fleet of the East Coasters appeared here, attacked and captured two junk ships full of palm oil, wheat, coconut and cheese, and transferred the goods to Afterwards, they sent people to burn the two ships. It seemed extremely arrogant, which made the Portuguese hate them madly after hearing the news—it was time to add up the matter. If people don't want to fight them head-on in the waters of Isle of Be like last time, then the fleet of the Kingdom of Portugal can't stop them, and they can only use it to ravage the entire East African coastline, unless they send a large fleet of ships to escort them; It is a very frustrating realization that if the people on the shore send several faster ships to join the ranks again, it will be more difficult for them to deal with it.

The Portuguese concerns soon became a reality. On August 8, after getting the news, the captain of the Navy, Captain Morieel, arrived at the Mozambique Strait with the battleships "Fubo Wanli" and "Control East".After struggling to get in touch with Major Guo Zili, two battleships joined the fast fleet, accepted the unified command of Major Guo Zili, and continued to trouble the Portuguese in the western Indian Ocean—it turned out that one battleship was It worried the Portuguese very much, and now that there are two more ships, the heavy pressure almost made the Portuguese breathless.

On August 8, the worst news for the Portuguese appeared.After deceiving nearly 31 Portuguese warships to the vicinity of Zanzibar Island, the East Coast Fast Fleet quickly turned around, using ocean currents and steam power to go all the way south, and then unexpectedly landed near the mouth of the Zambezi River.After landing, more than 300 soldiers of the East Coast Army quickly advanced, sweeping a large number of Portuguese manors along the way-churches were burned, warehouses were looted, slaves were released, and all resisters were shot to death.

After two days of such sweeps, the East Coast Army, which had harvested a large amount of leather, gold, ivory, and some agricultural products, retreated to the mouth of the Zambezi River, and then quickly boarded a boat and left the scene. At this time, the Portuguese fleet on Mozambique Island had just received the news and was hesitating. Is it necessary to divide the troops again to rescue and intercept them?

However, considering that the consequences of doing so were too serious and unpredictable, they gave up and ordered troops to be mobilized from Tete, where there were heavy troops, to clean up the mess near the mouth of the river. Sign in here.But in any case, being engaged by the fast fleet on the east coast, the Portuguese did have such a sense of being overwhelmed in East Africa.And considering that a large number of ships from India and Macau will arrive on the coast of East Africa in a few months, how to deal with it is really a problem. How dare the Portuguese fleet stay here until December?

(End of this chapter)