Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1730 Results and Consequences

"This time we have made a lot of preparations, mobilizing 2 'Star' class light cruisers, 4 'Madao' class sail escort gunships, 4 'Yaksa' class armed transport ships, 14 ammunition supply ship, 8000 food A water supply ship and a coal ship. Of course, we must not forget our main battleship, the old but still brave heavy cruiser 'Cadiz Rock'. Well, there are a total of [-] ships in total, with a total tonnage of about the same About [-] tons, which is larger than the combined tonnage of all the ships moored in Guanhe. If they don’t come out, they will be killed. If they come out, unless they are lucky, they will not be able to escape if they are hit by us.” Off the Guanhe Estuary, the third Lieutenant Commander Liu Fubo, commander of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk Squadron of the Fleet, said to Liao Xiaoyao who came with the ship.

Major Liu Fubo is the son of Liu Dafa, a veteran of the navy. He served as a staff officer in the Ministry of the Navy in his early years. He served on the "Tahiti", the first all-steam-powered ship in the country, and participated in the colonization of Tahiti Island organized by Zhang Jinhua; He joined the Third Fleet, served as the captain of the escort gunship "Mackerel", and crossed the South Pacific several times with high winds and rough waves—because this sea area was too dangerous, his mother was anxious to let him return to the Ministry of the Navy, but Liu Dafa didn't agree—he was an old sea dog.

Later, he was transferred to the Far East. At that time, he was still in the establishment of the Blackwater Temporary Task Force. After working for a few years, he felt boring and had no hope of promotion, so he moved around and wanted to return to the First Fleet.The turning point of the matter occurred when the designation of the Blackwater Temporary Task Force was abolished and the Okhotsk Sea Squadron of the Third Fleet was established. Liu Fubo (the then navy captain) with a good background and strong business ability stood out and defeated many The competitor, who was appointed as the commander of the squadron by his superiors, stepped into the middle and high-level circle of the navy for a while, and became a hot new star on the east coast.

Now Liu Fubo has served as the commander of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk Squadron for many years. He is not yet 40 years old this year, but he thinks he can go a step further and see the three main fleets—especially the most powerful. The First Fleet - the Commander's Throne.However, in the promotion of this level of official position, the factors played by connections and relationships are not the main factors, and the actual achievements are the most convincing.

Under such a guiding ideology, the current Liu Fubo Commander Liu is very aggressive and aggressive, and this seems to be the most important reason why Liao Xiaoyao negotiated with him to intercept and sweep Xiangshui Port, an important trade center in the Qing Dynasty. Reason: Attacking, intercepting, and capturing enemy warships (armed merchant ships can barely be called warships), and obtaining a lot of spoils, no matter how you say it, this is also a credit that cannot be ignored, although it may not be as good as in face-to-face naval battles The credit for beheading generals and capturing the flag (in this regard, some of the new generation generals on the east coast who participated in the Great Battle of East Portugal have a lot of advantages), but at least they avoided zeroing in their credit books, didn’t they?

This time to encircle Xiangshui Port, Liu Fubo mobilized almost all the mobile forces he could mobilize, even disregarding the objections of several captains below, forcibly shortening the maintenance period of some warships and ordering them to sail to Guanhekou , It can be seen that the cost is huge - 11 ships with combat capabilities, 7 of which are professional warships. He doesn't believe that in this Far East Ocean, who else dares to challenge them head-on!

In fact, they arrived quietly at the Guanhe Estuary in the first half of the night yesterday, and after discussing with several senior officers, they decided to take advantage of the high tide at night to see if they could sneak into the Guanhe River and repeat the Druittel Led the Dutch fleet to attack the Thames at night.

It's just that the Qing army stationed in Xiangshui Town looks stronger than the British navy and army that was short of funds, rampant with corruption, and half of its troops have been disbanded (because Congress refused to allocate funds)!After discovering the intentions of the people on the east bank in the first place—it was not difficult, they had two large lighthouses built by the Dutch with technical assistance on both banks of the Guanhe River, and there were also some small, The old-fashioned junk boats patrolled—the forts of the Qing people immediately fired warning shots at the fastest speed, and then caused a series of chain reactions, which bankrupted the plan of the people on the east bank to sneak into the Guanhe at night.

At this time, both Liu Fubo and Liao Xiaoyao were scolding in their hearts how incompetent the British were, how violent the parliament and the king were, and how the officers and soldiers were unwilling to fight, so that Druiter The success of that kind of extreme risky behavior is simply giving away his epic achievement for nothing!

It's a pity that the Qing people are not as stupid as the British at the beginning. They are unwilling to "cooperate" with the people on the east coast to steal Hong Kong in the middle of the night. This has ensured the safety of Xiangshui Port, a major trade town.

However, the coastal defense is temporarily safe, but the problem is that it is not a problem to keep people from the east coast blocked like this. The ships that have entered the port for trade cannot leave, and the ships that are coming here from the South China Sea are likely to be blocked. The people on the east coast are caught right, and the trade in Xiangshui Port is about to be paralyzed. This is why Qing officials are not in a hurry, because the current level of overseas trade has a great impact on their court, both economically and This is true at the military level.

In terms of economy, the Qing Dynasty obtained a huge amount of cash inflows through this increasingly large-scale overseas trade, which effectively enriched their finances, allowing them to maintain a large-scale old army (to be honest, raising this kind of army) The old army did not spend much money, it was nothing more than food and cloth and a small amount of money), and there was also sufficient funds to support the construction of the new army, which was an important part of supporting their military deterrence.

From a purely military point of view, a large amount of weapons, military assets and officers from the Old World (many English and German mercenaries were incorporated into the Eight Banners and granted high official positions) flowed in from overseas trade, which not only enriched the equipment of the Qing army At the same time, they gradually innovated their military thinking and combat mode, and their overall combat effectiveness has been greatly improved, just like the Dashun Armed Group and the local powerful factions in Nanming supported by the people on the east coast.

Therefore, the people of the Qing Dynasty now really attach great importance to Xiangshui's foreign trade. The navy and army stationed here are also front-line troops with quite good combat effectiveness. They also have rules for night defense, and there are supervisors to check at any time. If someone slack off, the military law will be followed immediately, which directly defeats the risky action of the people on the east coast to steal Hong Kong.

However, in the eyes of Liu Fubo and Liao Xiaoyao, stealing Hong Kong is a military operation with a low probability of success. If it fails, it will fail, it doesn't matter!Anyway, everyone still has a lot of time now, if you don’t come out, I’ll just waste it. I don’t need more, a few old "Madao" class sail escort gunboats can block more than a dozen foreign armed merchant ships inside, and dare not leave the port. Allocation of two "Yaksa" class armed transport ships to coordinate in the center, even the fish that slipped through the net is impossible to exist, unless the risk of going to sea at night.

In addition to these few ships, the navy still has five combat-capable ships including the "Cadiz Rock" that can spread out and patrol the vicinity, fully searching for foreign merchant ships that may come to trade-mainly the Netherlands The ships of the East India Company and the British East India Company-then catch up and detain them. Of course, if the other party does not cooperate, they can fire and shell them.

Now that the plan was made in advance, it is natural to implement it next. At this moment, after hearing that Major Liu Fubo boasted about the lineup he had in hand, Liao Xiaoyao smiled lightly and said, "Commander Liu, I naturally believe in your team. The strength of the Ministry. People from the Qing Dynasty, the coastal defense fortress is still in good shape, and the gunners seem to have been trained. Although the level is a bit ordinary, they are not just sloppy people who know nothing and wait to die. .Look at the Qing army on the shore. Whether it is infantry or cavalry, the response speed last night was not bad. If we really try to find a way to land, we will probably not be able to succeed, so the decision not to bring the army this time is to fight So, it’s probably your navy’s job to do next, block, intercept, and mop up the area, clean up the nearby ocean, and crack down on those European businessmen who dare to come to trade without opening their eyes. I don’t believe it hurts After that, they won’t restrain themselves.”

"I'll probably stay here for two or three days, and then I'll go north and return to Denglai. It's very close to Jiaozhou Port, and supplies are very convenient, which will help you a lot in continuing to fight. I don't have any other requirements, give I will wait until the end of this year, about four months, to teach these European businessmen a profound lesson." Liao Xiaoyao then instructed.

After saying this, he shook hands with other officers of the squadron one by one, and then transferred to the armed transport ship "Thousand Islands". He planned to return to Denglai by boat in a few days. There are still many things waiting for him there. Because the new batch of delegations from the Southern Railway Company has officially arrived at Yantai Port, and the field survey has been completed, the two sides still have a lot of details to discuss.The Jiaoyan Line and the Taorong Line were Liao Xiaoyao's most important tasks before he left office. He was worried about borrowing from others. He had to ask and arrange many things in person, so he had to return to Yantai as soon as possible.

On August 1676, 8, the armed transport ship "Thousand Islands" carried a batch of spoils-this time the people on the east coast were lucky and caught a merchant ship "Kent" (28 tons, Carrying 130 small cannons, this is the second time to trade in Xiangshui Port), and seized a large amount of woolen cloth, plate armor, old-fashioned matchlock guns, fairy medicine, spices, ambergris and other spoils - returned to Yantai Port, and the remaining The 12 ships below are still operating in the waters off the Guanhe Estuary, and they seem to have no intention of leaving in the short term. This undoubtedly makes many people in the port who are always paying attention to them regret it.

On September 9, a hapless foreign merchant ship was captured by two "Star" class light cruisers.At that time, the three-masted sailing ship from the Dutch East India Company was sailing towards Xiangshui Port along the strong southeast wind. It was spotted by the two warships seconded from the Bank of Taiwan, and then a chase began.

The Dutch merchant ships had a premonition that the warships flying the flag of the Republic of China on the East Coast might be disadvantageous to them, so they turned their course and fled desperately to the depths of the ocean, but they were kept getting closer because of the excessive cargo on board and the deep draft of the ship.In desperation, the Dutch could only reluctantly throw some cumbersome artillery purchased from Goa into the sea to speed up their own speed. However, they still lost to the naturally fast "Star" class light cruiser. At six o'clock, they were surrounded by one after another, and had to hang a white flag to express their surrender.

This ship doesn't have a lot of oil and water, because it is mainly loaded with weapons and military resources, and the people on the east coast don't like it. It is estimated that a small part of it will be distributed to the officers and soldiers of the Fourth Division of the Denglai New Army that is being formed. The next ones may still be half sold and half given to the Shun Army Group to strengthen their strength. Now they are fighting successively in Sichuan, and the front line in Hubei is also constantly fighting small battles. The risk of a full-scale conflict has begun to increase sharply. The people on the coast have to pay more attention to it.

On September 9, a merchant ship "Formosa" from the British East India Company was discovered by people on the east coast.This British merchant ship, which had traveled between Xiamen and Surat many times, was loaded with weapons, spices, woolen fabrics and other commodities. After being discovered by people on the east coast, they thought they would die. The fleet, the treatment of the crew members of the captured ships is not humane, and killing people is commonplace, which will naturally arouse the desperate resistance of the merchant sailors-so the battle did not surrender until the last moment, and the people on the east coast only had time to carry the ships. Some of the cargo had to abandon the ship because of the severe flooding of the ship.

On October 10, a merchant ship from Portugal rushed to Xiangshui Port with the tail of the southeast wind, but was stopped by people from the east coast as usual.Like the previous English merchant ship, the Portuguese sailors on board yelled "Santiago", and then fought desperately with the warships on the east coast until they were finally sunk without leaving a dime to the people on the east coast. On the contrary, it caused more than ten casualties, which is also unlucky.

And as time entered October, the prevailing wind off the coast of China began to slowly turn into a northerly wind. At this point, it was no longer possible for ships to come from the south. Therefore, the people on the east coast concentrated almost all their warships in the waters off the Guanhe Estuary, and began to take strict precautions. The dozen or so foreign merchant ships moored in Xiangshui Port went out to sea.

These merchant ships have basically completed the trade, and they are fully loaded with various Chinese specialty products. They are the "dissatisfied" East Coast Fleet-they have only captured two ships so far, and the goods of almost three ships are naturally very dissatisfied- —Excellent looting target.Although there were Dutch and British people at the port who came out to negotiate with white flags, accusing the people on the east bank of their actions that seriously damaged the bilateral relationship, and they had to bear serious consequences. In the end, Major Liu Fubo did not care about them at all, and directly drove them away. went back.

What a joke, you have reaped so many benefits in the past few years, if you don't clean up, you will be fine!I don't care about the bullshit consequences, let the white shirts of the local Ministry of Foreign Affairs negotiate!

(End of this chapter)