Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1267 The Sorting Fleet: Landing and Harvesting

April 1660, 12, sunny.

Off the coast of Mozambique Island, the four warships of the East Coast People are still slowly cruising, constantly monitoring the movement of Mozambique Island.I don't know how, but the Portuguese on the island seem to be able to survive, and they still have no intention of surrendering. This surprised Lieutenant Colonel Guo Zili who led the team: Could it be that this group of people are all hardened?Don't you need to eat and drink?

Some officers of the subordinates guessed that perhaps the Portuguese sent supplies to the island quietly at night through small boats. The bay is so big and there are so few boats on the east coast, it is impossible to completely block it, so they sent supplies to the island quietly at night. possible.Otherwise, it is impossible to explain why Portugal is still alive and well. It hasn’t rained in the past three days. He doesn’t believe that people can still jump when they can’t drink water or can only drink rotten water (the water quality deteriorates rapidly in tropical summer). so happy.

Guo Zili took this statement very seriously, so he immediately sent the water supply ship back, and asked them to go to Mianhe Port to pick up the rescue soldiers—and replenish drinks and food by the way—the blessing of Thomas Wanpeng’s vigorous emigration to the Daqing Basin. , the population of this place has grown rapidly in recent years, and more than [-]% of the people on the island have settled here, so the number of militias is relatively large.In addition, there are also a large number of Polish and Ukrainian prisoner-of-war indentured slaves in the local cotton plantations. These people have combat experience. If they are given certain benefits (such as promises to become regulars in advance), they can definitely be mobilized as an armed force. .

Guo Zili didn't want these troops to attack Mozambique Island by force, it wasn't worth it, and the casualties would be heavy.His real intention is to let these people land on the land in the north and south of Mozambique Island, and then gradually clean up the local Portuguese manors, completely cutting off the source of supplies for Mozambique Island, so as to starve, thirsty, and trap them to death. .

This idea was approved by Captain Xiao Baitu, the security commander of the Daqing Basin, so he planned to take a special boat trip back to Mianhe Port to gather troops there. It was he, the veteran colonial leader, who fought it all - selected elites, landed on the coast of East Africa, and washed those "sightless Portuguese" because they were "not civilized people at all."

Of course, Xiao Baitu also said frankly in private that attacking the Portuguese is certainly one aspect, but making his old brothers rich and gaining some benefits is also a reason that cannot be ignored.It is said that in the past half a year, Xiao Baitu gathered his men and horses to start from Qingyang, advance a long distance to the north, reach the banks of the Manambulu River, and set up a settlement near a small city named Bekupaca in later generations. It is also a military outpost, named Tongyuan Township.

However, their footsteps have only reached here. Due to the resolute resistance of the Boyla Kingdom and the repeated fierce battles between the Manab Kingdom and the Bezimisaraka people and some forest peoples in the area south of Xinhua County, Ma Wanpeng will The main force of the Xinhua infantry battalion was transferred back, which made Xiao Baitu's offensive a setback.Later, due to the development of the Daqing Basin and the start of the coastal railway, a large number of contracted slave laborers were transferred away, which further weakened Xiao Baitu's material and personnel reserves, making him no longer have enough strength to attack northwards—— No, his sons and daughters have been idle for almost half a year, almost looking forward to the war with the attitude of looking forward to the stars and the moon.

Therefore, Xiao Baitu was still very excited to seize the opportunity to go wild in the Portuguese territory in East Africa.He believes that this is an excellent opportunity for his sons and daughters. They have also heard about how rich the Portuguese manors are, especially those who export a large amount of edible oil (palm oil), wheat, cashew nuts, tobacco, dried fruits, beans to Xinhua Island. Such a plantation, the accumulation in the manor over the years must be extremely rich. If it is captured, everyone will be able to eat and drink spicy food for several years, and this is why he took the initiative to ask Ying to go back and gather people.

Guo Zili's positive attitude towards Xiao Baitu is naturally indispensable. Anyway, as long as he lands and cuts off the enemy's supply to Mozambique Island, he doesn't care about anything else. Therefore, he was very happy to be appointed by Li Yi as the former commander-in-chief of the enemy. He approved Xiao Baitu's proposal without hesitation, and sent him and some trusted officers back by boat.

After Xiao Baitu left, the troops he left on the northern promontory of Mozambique Island were still there, and under the leadership of their commander, they walked out of the fortifications and began to cautiously go deep into the inland area, intending to strike at the Portuguese villages and villages on the shore. stronghold.After all, at this time, the Portuguese fleet has been destroyed, and it is meaningless for them to stay in the fortifications, and the supply is more troublesome, so it is better to bravely attack the inland area, eat in the inland of Mozambique, and attack Portugal by the way The power of man on shore.

At the same time, the two "August 800"-class battleships and four "Amur"-class inland river shallow-water gunboats staying in the bay also received strict orders: they must closely monitor the movements of the Portuguese on the shore, and search and destroy everything that appears in sight. The small sailboats, long sampans (the kind with oars) and even canoes, rafts and other shipping tools in the village are determined not to allow the Portuguese on Mozambique Island to get water supplies.You know, there are thousands of Portuguese Army soldiers there—most of them are white, and a few are mulatto. This is their largest station on the coast of East Africa. There are more than [-] people in the area—as well as a large number of merchants, craftsmen, officials, priests, sailors, and adventurers. If you attack by force, you can know how many casualties you will have if you think about it, so it’s better to trap them to death. It can best give full play to the sea dominance advantages of the people on the east coast.

Sure enough, after the naval gunboat was reprimanded and cruised desperately, on the night of December 12, they intercepted two long sampans on the sea surface only 6 meters away from Mozambique Island.At that time, there were three or five white soldiers on each of the two sampans, respectively urging more than 1000 black paddlers to row towards the island. Judging by the draft of the sampans, it is estimated that they are full of wine, flour and vegetables. It was to send supplies to the island to keep them going--they were no strangers to doing this. In those difficult years of the Dutch siege, they used sampans to send supplies to the island at night. It was exhausted, and now people from the east bank besieged Mozambique Island. Although the situation is much worse than before, this is the only way. They can only take risks, otherwise all the people on the island will die.

After sinking one long sampan and ditching another, the gunboats of the East Coasters triumphantly lit up their lights and loudly challenged the Portuguese.Their behavior naturally drew angry shots from the Portuguese gunners on the island, but it had no effect, and they could only watch the people on the east coast walk away.

On the night of December 12, the people on the east bank intercepted a small sailing boat again in the bay. The Portuguese soldiers and black sailors jumped into the water and fled the moment they were exposed, leaving the boat full of fresh water, cured meat, wine, dried fish and bread behind. At sea, the sailors from the east coast who were driven over laughed.

On December 12, two more assembled inland shallow water gunboats were towed over, and then joined the battle order to block Mozambique Island.The joining of the new force has greatly improved the efficiency of the blockade. The Portuguese on the Mozambique island have obviously panicked, and there are people who flee almost every night-the way is to swim back to the shore. These sneaky guys were found on the Internet, and dozens of them were captured.

On December 12, although it rained several times in a row, the water shortage situation was greatly alleviated, but the food and vegetable reserves on the island of Mozambique were very few, and the shadow of hunger hung over everyone's head, making them jump into the sea at night More and more people escaped, almost reaching the level of groups.

The naval gunboats of the people on the east coast naturally discovered this situation. They drove over slowly, then stood on the deck, shot the Portuguese struggling in the water with shotguns and muskets, and then laughed wildly. The morale of the Portuguese military and civilians on the island was severely hit, so that many people began to demand surrender to the people on the east coast despite the strong opposition of the priests-although their voices do not currently prevail, this is clearly a trend.

On December 12, the troops led by Xiao Baitu finally arrived close and landed on the southern cape of Mozambique Island.The more than a thousand soldiers he led (composed of East Coast militia, Polish laborers, and Cossack prisoners of war) landed during the day, and then defeated a black army numbering in the hundreds. Most of the officers on the island saw it.Frustrated, they reported the truth to the highest colonial officer, which further intensified the strength of the "surrender faction" on the island.

On December 12, the Portuguese, who had not received supplies for three days, ate the last piece of bread, and then sent envoys with white flags to ask for surrender.However, the surrender conditions proposed by the people on the east bank are relatively harsh, that is, they do not recognize their request for a decent surrender, and do not guarantee the safety of their private property. It was also implicated and convicted, which made it difficult for the Portuguese to accept for a while, so the surrender was over.

On December 12th, the two groups of troops marching from the land had already penetrated very far. They worked together to repel the attack of a large number of black soldiers (by the way, they captured many prisoners, all of whom were slaves on the best plantations), and then completely Swept Portuguese villages along the coast.In this sweeping operation, under the banner of "revenge for the sailors of the East African transport company", the bad-tempered colonial army on the east coast refused to recognize the Portuguese as civilized people, and then carried out unscrupulous robbery on their manors, Rape, massacre, and some wooden manor buildings were set on fire afterwards. What they did made the few surviving Portuguese keep quiet about it, for fear that they would be affected too.

On the night of December 12th, six gunboats of the East Coast Navy galloped across the sea. They fired shotguns into the water continuously, killing and wounding many Portuguese who were swimming and fleeing, and the water changed color for a moment.The next day, the Portuguese, who had been tortured by disease, hunger and thirst for several days, couldn't hold on any longer, and unconditionally agreed to the request of the people on the east coast, expressing their surrender.After Lieutenant Colonel Guo Zili sent someone to get in touch with Xiao Baitu on the shore, both of them agreed to accept the Portuguese's surrender, and dispatched 16 island soldiers from the Eight Banners to the island to take over the important areas, and at the same time dismantled them. The armed forces of the Portuguese on the island—in fact, it doesn’t matter whether it will be lifted or not. The half-month-long siege has caused the health of the Portuguese on the island to deteriorate drastically. What's more, many of them are shrouded in disease and are already in a dying state. Even if the people on the east coast do nothing, it is estimated that most of the enemies on the island will die of starvation, thirst, and disease in less than two days. .

In the afternoon of the same day, Xiao Baitu and others boarded the island of Mozambique in batches on naval gunboats, and then set up the Colonial Governor's Mansion (not the real governor, Mozambique and other places are still under the control of the Governor of Goa), official treasury, shipyard, coastal defense fort, etc. Valuable goals are in their own hands.As for the soldiers of the Eight Banners who were the first to go to the island, they were sent to churches, grain depots and other places to guard the Portuguese there. die.

In the early morning of December 12, Lieutenant Colonel Guo Zili, Commander of the Second Fleet, led seven warships on the east coast into the port of Mozambique to anchor.At this time, Captain Xiaobaitu, who had been counting for the whole night, told him excitedly that the people on the east coast had gained a lot on the island: a total of 18 Pardaus gold was seized, about 50 tons, equivalent to 1.25 Dong In addition, there are many rare ancient gold and silver coins, artworks, ivory, rhinoceros horn, and high-grade leather from various countries, with a total value of no less than 62.5 yuan, but they need to be realized slowly.

In addition, it is somewhat speechless that the Portuguese colonial governor on the island colluded with the merchants to vacate one of the two granaries in violation of regulations, and then stored a large amount of Punjab raw silk, fine Indian textiles, tapestries, pepper, sugar, Tobacco, tea, precious stones, matchlock guns (which seem to be outdated old guns), iron cannons, brandy and other commodities shipped from Europe are resold for profit.But in the end, their behavior completely deceived themselves, so that after being besieged for more than half a month, they ran out of food and were dying-this matter was temporarily cited as a joke by Xiao Baitu, Guo Zili and others .

On December 12, Li Yi and others who returned to Xinhua Port a while ago led the ship to come.After listening to the reports from Xiao and Guo and inspecting the loot, he issued the first order after landing on the island: hang all the Portuguese priests and soldiers who participated in the burning of the sailors on the east coast in public. Originally, Xiao Bai Tu suggested that these "eternal scoundrels" and "human dregs that are worse than dogs" be executed by cannonball, but was rejected by Li Yi-their family members were also sentenced to hard labor and will work in the plantations of the East Coasters for at least ten years .In addition, in view of the "uncivilized evil deeds" committed by the Portuguese, Minister Li Yi decided to implement the "Eleven Smash Law" among Portuguese prisoners to deter the enemy and make them think carefully before committing evil next time.

In the afternoon of the same day, all the prisoners were executed, and the Mozambique island was filled with blood and the atmosphere was solemn.

(End of this chapter)