Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 159 Escort Squadron

Zhenhai Fort Naval Base.

Just the second day after the two ships of the South African pioneer team led by Mo Ming left the port, Zhenhaibao Naval Base ushered in the most glorious day in history.All the warships of the First Fleet and the Second Fleet of the Navy gathered together and occupied several berths on both sides of the No. [-] trestle bridge in Zhenhaibao.

Looking at the tall hulls of the two battleships on the pier, Julian Pasquale was slightly relieved of the worries he had been filled with when he first arrived.No way, British ships have recently begun to appear frequently in the Bay of Biscay, many of which are close to military standards in terms of the number of firearms and staffing.

The British's change has attracted the attention of the French navy stationed in La Rochelle. In view of the current friendly relationship between the two countries, the British informed the local French navy of their purpose through private channels in exchange for the French's private plundering of them. ignore.Of course, in this way, it is naturally difficult to keep the news secret. The news of the appearance of some British privateers in the Bay of Biscay was transmitted to the east coast through the "Nightingale" of the Pasquale family.

The Executive Committee and the Joint Chiefs of Staff attached great importance to the intelligence that Julian took the risk to personally send.Although it is uncertain whether the British will openly attack the French ships carrying cotton cloth, it is better to be careful in everything.Therefore, the executive committee decisively decided to stop the naval privateering activities that had lasted for three years, and instead began to escort merchant ships to and from Bordeaux and the east coast.

For this reason, the Ministry of the Navy took an inventory of the existing strength at hand, a total of eight large and small ships.

主力舰是“八月十日”号和“共同市场”号两艘各装备66门舰炮的战列线炮舰；护卫炮舰分别是装备28门舰炮的“红鳟鱼”号、装备24门舰炮的“小猎犬”号、装备22门舰炮的“海上文学家号”和装备20门舰炮的“东岸之鹰”号；此外，还有装备16门火炮的武装商船“加利西亚飞鱼”号和新近入役的武装商船“生意人”号（俘获自切萨皮克湾外海，前莫里斯.斯通.塔克公司移民船）。

Excluding the two ships heading for South Africa, the remaining ships can theoretically be used as escorts.However, considering the strong maritime strength of the British, it would not be possible without a capital ship in the escort formation. Therefore, the executive committee decided to reorganize the two fleets.The battleship "Common Market" will soon be assigned to the First Fleet, and the armed merchant ship "Kommersant" will be assigned to the Second Fleet.In this way, all six professional warships were included in the First Fleet, which greatly increased the strength of the First Fleet, and the Second Fleet was reduced to a dispensable supporting role.

After the establishment adjustment is completed, it is the coordination of personnel.The 32 students who graduated from the first (150nd) and second class of the Nautical School have long been assigned to various warships as non-commissioned officers and alternate officers. Of course, before exercising their officer duties, they first need to work for a full year The trainee sailor career and passed the assessment of the chief officer of the trainee warship.

The graduates of these nautical schools are the "insiders" that the executive committee and the Ministry of the Navy can rest assured. When they grow up to become the backbone of the navy, the navy on the east coast will surely become a formidable sea force.

There are non-commissioned officers and officers, but the recruitment of sailors is a bit of a headache.Without him, the population base on the east coast is too small, and the number of sailors trained over the years is really limited. With the successive entry into service of two battleships and two large transport ships, the number of sailors on the east coast is seriously insufficient.

In desperation, spring has finally arrived for the hundreds of ex-pirate members who are currently playing hide and seek with the wild men of Charuya in Lower Yihe Fort and mining iron ore in the valley of Longshan Fort.Under the order of the executive committee, these pirates who had been subdued at least on the surface immediately put on naval uniforms collectively.The vast majority of them have married wives and had children locally, and they are relatively reliable people for the executive committee.

With the addition of hundreds of former pirates, the number of sailors has finally barely reached the standard. As for gunners, there is still no shortage of gunners on the east coast.

Due to the series of wars since the founding of the People's Republic of China and the strong sense of crisis in the Executive Committee, the East Bank currently implements a compulsory military service system, that is, every adult man between the ages of 18 and 50 must regularly receive high-density regular military service. Training to ensure that the Joint Chiefs of Staff can direct them to active duty when war breaks out.

The emphasis on artillery on the east coast can be said to be second to none in the entire world, so it has also trained a large number of gunners.These gunners only need to get on board to adapt, get used to it for a period of time, and after a lot of sea bombardment training, they can become qualified ship gunners.

In this way, when all the personnel of the two major fleets were replenished, the navy's establishment officially exceeded 1100, and this did not count the sailors of the two newly commissioned merchant ships of the South China Sea Transportation Company.Compared with the current population of more than 7000 in the whole country on the east coast, an army of this size has to be said to be militaristic.

There is almost no idler in the whole country, everyone is inspired to the greatest value, and the per capita GDP created is even more than dozens of streets away from all the countries on this planet.

Today, in order to safeguard the Republic's overseas commercial interests, and even more so to maintain the country's continued survival, the Navy will step up to the fore and fight to the death with Britain, the old European naval power.

The consolidated First Fleet was divided into two escort squadrons, each with a battleship as flagship.Today, the task of escorting the Zhenhaibao-Bordeaux route was handed over to Wang Tiehammer, the captain commander of the Second Squadron.

Wang Tiehammer will lead the ship "Common Market", the frigate "Red Trout" and the "Maritime Writer" to escort the flute-shaped transport ships "Penglai" and "Yingzhou" of the South China Sea Transportation Company loaded with various supplies. Bordeaux, the merchant ship "Nightingale" of the Pasquale family will also travel with it.

In view of the huge role played by the Army Musketeers in the previous Chesapeake Bay naval battle, the Joint Chiefs of Staff temporarily recruited a large number of militiamen to fight with the ship as usual.Among them, the "Common Market" battleship is equipped with five platoons of 5 musketeers, one platoon of 80 armored grenadiers, and two platoons of 16 breastplate spearmen, plus two commanders and deputy commanders, a total of 32 people. A mixed company was established; as for the army on the "Red Trout" and "Maritime Writer", it was halved from the establishment of the mixed company on the "Common Market"; while the two merchant ships were also equipped with Half a mixed company of Army soldiers.

In order to make up the nearly [-] army soldiers needed for this voyage, the Joint Chiefs of Staff mobilized a large number of veterans to join the army across the country, especially the [-] production teams in Dingyuan Township where the veterans were concentrated contributed most of them. share.

Because of this, the number of people engaged in agricultural production has decreased dramatically.And November is also the time for soybean planting, and the farm work in the fields is heavy. Such a large-scale deployment of strong labor is bound to affect domestic food production.After several years of large-scale grain exports, the current domestic grain reserves have dropped to less than a year. If the grain harvest fails this year, it may cause domestic turmoil.

In order to get rid of this predicament, the executive committee, tortured by the shortage of manpower, mobilized the army to start a large-scale cross-border search for Charuyas, Guaranis and other indigenous peoples, and at the same time hired a large number of people from Italians from the La Plata region.

Most of these Italians were immigrated to the La Plata region by the Spanish government in recent years to enrich the local strength.It's just that the living conditions of these new Italians are really worrying now. The native white people in La Plata deal with these foreigners with indifference, and the unruly gauchos are even more hostile to them. .

Few Italians can find work.The land around Buenos Aires has long been divided up, and because of trade restrictions, the white ranchers in Buenos Aires are reluctant to recruit more people to herd their cattle.Because they already had enough cattle, before the invention of refrigerated ships, the New World could not digest so many beef cattle at all.

Some Italians and southern Europeans who could not find work began to go deep into the interior of La Plata to open up wasteland and farm.But not everyone has this kind of courage. Many people are daunted by the epidemics that are prevalent in the barren land and the brutal and cruel natives.Therefore, under the intentional or unintentional propaganda of some people, hordes of Italians crossed the West Ridge and flocked to the East Coast to find work.

The State Council was extremely pleased with the arrival of these "cheap laborers" and instructed the Census Office of the Ministry of Civil Affairs to send special personnel to register every Italian and southern European who entered the country, and then distribute them to various places as needed.The Ministry of Civil Affairs promised them that as long as they served the East Coast Republic for three years, they would be given free citizenship and allowed to buy land.

This policy aroused the great enthusiasm of these poor southern Europeans for work. After the news reached La Plata, more southern Europeans flocked to it.According to statistics, since the beginning of this year, more than 600 southern European immigrants have entered the country through this method. It is the influx of these labor forces that has slightly alleviated the shortage of manpower in the east coast.In this matter, the King of Spain acted as the captain of the transport team.

On November 11, the Second Escort Squadron of the First Fleet, with a total number of nearly 11 people, sailed out of the Zhenhaibao Wharf one by one in the drizzle.After the six ships formed an escort formation on the sea, they turned northeast and headed towards Recife, which would be their first stop.

What awaits them is an unknown fate.Maybe it's safe, maybe they die at the bottom of the sea, what they can only rely on is their own courage and will.

(End of this chapter)