Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 171

On April 1637, 4, the Executive Committee held an important meeting. The topic of the meeting was to discuss the plan to attack Gambia submitted by the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

I won’t go into details about the lengthy and controversial meeting process. After the meeting entered the voting process, five people including Ma Ganzu, Peng Zhicheng, Wang Qinian, Xiao Bailang and Shao Shude raised their hands in favor of the military plan.However, there are only five votes, not more than half, and it cannot be passed according to organizational principles.

At this time, the dramatic scene came.A while ago, Bai Siwen, who has been clearly expressing his opposition position and actively acting as a key figure in the opposition, raised his right hand without changing expression in the eyes of the crowd, who were either surprised, despised, or ridiculed.

The meeting room was so quiet that even the sound of a needle falling on the ground could be heard, the proposal was passed!

Just as the big drama was going on in the administrative building of the executive committee, two "Yangwu" class fast cruisers were finally refitted in accordance with the advice of the Ministry of the Navy in the wharf of the Dayu River Naval Shipyard one kilometer away.

First of all, the Navy decided to remove some artillery after discussion. The current 36 artillery pieces are not very suitable, especially for the "Yangwu" class that emphasizes high speed. Too many artillery pieces will only limit her mobility.Moreover, for a clipper-like ship with a relatively small load capacity, 36 cannons are too extravagant.After modification, the number of "Yangwu" class artillery was reduced to 28, and the number of personnel was also reduced to 110.

Of course, the most eye-catching thing is the newly hung mainsail of the "Yangwu" class fast cruiser.I saw a huge double-headed eagle-yin-yang fish pattern on the topsail, and the dazzling purple pattern looked so beautiful.

In fact, this is just a canvas made of dyed cloth and white cotton cloth. Of course, its density must be much higher than that of ordinary civilian cloth.The chemistry department has already used the aniline component in coal tar to react with a strong oxidant to prepare the first artificial dye in the East Coast Republic of China—aniline violet under laboratory conditions.

This purple dye and the second dye under trial production - magenta is more than one level stronger than the current expensive natural dyes. It is not only bright in color, but also has high color fastness. Under the conditions of soaking and exposure Not easy to fade.It is conceivable what a huge response this dye will have once it is launched on the market.Of course, at present, the chemical industry department has only produced some finished products under laboratory conditions, and large-scale industrial production is still far away, and the executive committee does not dare to let go of production and sales, for fear of attracting coveted eyes.

Part of the aniline violet produced in the laboratory was used by the General Administration of Textile Industry for dyeing experiments. It was found that cotton cloth is not easy to adhere, so silk, wool, linen and other fabrics can be effectively dyed.Part of the dyed linen was required by the Admiralty to be blended with cotton and woven into two canvases, which are the two topsails currently hanging on the "Yangwu" class fast cruiser.

Once such a windy canvas was hung, it aroused heated discussions among the navy, and even the army soldiers resting on the pier were whispering.

"Will the navy be too arrogant? This way the British will know it's us at a glance. Didn't they say they were planning a surprise attack?" Lieutenant Jiang Zhiqing said to Chang Kaisheng who was next to him while arranging his luggage.

"Sneak attack? How to sneak attack?" Chang Kaisheng rolled his eyes at his deputy and said, "The British have a very strict port entry system. No matter which country's flag you hang, you have to go through their inspection and permission before entering their port. In other words, it is almost impossible to sneak into the port. The so-called "sneak attack" is nothing more than killing the British before they can react."

"That's right, that means there are still tough battles to be fought." Jiang Zhiqing echoed, "These delicate and expensive guys in the Navy will definitely not fight against the British forts, and we still have to rely on our army to solve the problem. ah."

"Of course." Chang Kaisheng smiled confidently, brushed the new khaki military uniform dyed with indigo on his body, and then looked at the naval ships that were raising their sails on the sea with satisfaction, and said, "Take a break." It’s been almost a year. I guarded the place of Dingyuan Fort. Even the natives didn’t have to fight. I heard that the British’s stronghold is full of gold this time. When the time comes, brothers, don’t fuck it If you have diarrhea, defeat the Brits in one go, and we can get more points from the Navy if you rob the gold."

The two were chatting, when three sharp copper whistles sounded on the pier, which was a signal to gather for boarding.

The former training officer of the [-]st Battalion of the New Army, the current captain of the Guinea Task Force, and Army Captain Zhu Liang loudly ordered the troops to assemble and board the ship, and a group of intern staff officers from the Dingyuan Army Officer Academy around him gave orders one by one Pass it to the company and platoon below.

The scale of this army dispatch is not small.According to the redefined military system, the army dispatched a company of the regular army, a company of the security army, plus some supplies, engineering, artillery and other troops, and the total number exceeded 400.Among them, the infantry company has 9 musketeer platoons (144 people), 1 grenadier platoon (16 people), plus officers, cooks, gunsmiths, military doctors, military judges, orderlies, etc. The standard establishment is 172 people.The army of the two companies is 344 people, plus an artillery platoon (4 light artillery) with 22 people, an engineering platoon with 16 people, a supply platoon with 16 people, and detachment team members, with a total strength of 410 people.

The army soldiers entered the Nanhai Transportation Company's "Yingzhou" and "Penglai" transport ships in two batches, including some luggage, gunpowder, and even horses.The two ships also carried a large amount of supplies, including boxes of canned food.

These cans are made of glass, and the food inside is completely sterilized by high-temperature steam, and then sealed with a cork stopper.There are many kinds of canned food, generally including canned fruit, canned vegetables and canned bacon, which are very popular among sailors and army brothers.Especially sailors, who have been floating at sea all year round, often cannot eat fresh vegetables and fruits for a long or short period of time, and they can only eat some spoiled meat with maggots, which greatly affects morale.Now with these canned foods that can be stored for a long time, their journey at sea will not be so difficult.

Due to the perfect preparations in advance, the army boarded the ship very quickly.After the army boarded the ship, two "Yangwu" class fast cruisers escorted the two transport ships, one on the left and one on the right, pulled anchor and left the wharf of the Dayu River Naval Shipyard, heading for the Zhenhaibao Naval Base.There, the remaining four warships of the Navy have been simply repaired and maintained, and are waiting for them to set off together.

And when they set sail, the proposal on whether to approve the action of the military department in the conference room of the Executive Committee's administrative building had not even entered the voting process. This is a great irony.

In the early morning of May 5, the four ships arrived at the pier of Zhenhaibao Naval Base on time.At this time, in the captain's room of the "August 2th" battleship, the commander of the naval task force, the commander of the joint sea and land operations, and Lieutenant Commander Lu Ming were presiding over a confidential military meeting. The participants included all the four warships in the port. Officers above second lieutenant.

"This operation is a joint sea-land operation. The navy's combat mission is to attack and destroy the merchant ships or warships that may exist in the enemy's docks, and cover the army's landing to attack the enemy's fort. After the army captured the fort, the main force of our naval fleet entered the Gambia River , bombarded the British trading post, and once again covered the army to capture the trading post. Unfortunately, due to insufficient intelligence, the plan for this operation can only be so rough. I hope you will carry forward the spirit of our navy, fight bravely, command flexibly, and strive for the lowest cost Capture the enemy's stronghold to intimidate the enemy to the greatest extent." Sitting in the chairman's seat, Lu Ming said calmly.

"How many British ships are stationed in the Gambia River?"

"This number is not certain." Second Lieutenant San Kai replied instead of Lu Ming, "Because there are often passing British or other merchant ships stopping there for supplies or trade. But generally speaking, the number of ships there is very few at the same time. When there are more than five ships, and most of these five ships are merchant ships."

"Is the fort strong, then? How many defenders are there? How is it armed?"

"The news about the fort was also passed on indirectly by the Portuguese." Sankai continued, "The fort is a brick and wood structure, with a small area and a low wall. There are probably 'no more than a hundred' British soldiers stationed inside. And some black native servant soldiers. Weapons, most of them are matchlock guns or cold weapons, maybe there are one or two iron cannons, in short, the number is not many."

"What did I hear?" Zhu Liang, the army commander who had just walked into the captain's room, said dissatisfiedly, "Such vague information is full of uncertainties and inaccuracies like 'about', 'maybe', 'some', etc. How can our army fight like this. A hundred British soldiers plus some black servants, and then guarding the castle, is already a big trouble. Maybe because of your vague information, we need My brothers will pay with their lives."

Hearing Zhu Liang's tone of yin and yang, all the navy present couldn't help frowning secretly.Although they also felt very troubled by the vague information, the fact that the Army people made such accusations face-to-face at this moment made them feel a little bit of the same hatred.

Lu Ming quickly put a stop to the squabble that was about to erupt between the two sides, and said in time: "It's just in time for you to come, Captain Zhu. Next, let's carefully improve the details of the sea-land coordinated operations. After all, this is completely important to us. This is the first time. How to coordinate, how to communicate, and how to fight must be figured out in advance, so as not to be in a hurry and affect the efficiency of the battle."

(End of this chapter)