Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2035 Beihai ([-])

On December 1688, 12, near the Strait of Dover, an east coast fleet was sailing at high speed.

This is a huge fleet consisting of two "Executive Committee"-class battleships, eight "Jieqi"-class escort gunboats, twelve "Star"-class light cruisers, and several auxiliary ships.They were originally cruising the sea, intercepting some suspicious ships they thought, whether the other party wanted it or not.There is no doubt that this is a very unflattering behavior, because no one has given the East Coast Navy this kind of power, and no one has attacked the East Coast ships or merchants, and the East Coast itself is far away. In addition, they are so arrogant, directly preventing the Grand Fleet from coming to Europe, and then using the Southern Netherlands as a base to unscrupulously interfere in the internal affairs of England and the United Provinces. If this kind of thing is not owed, then what is owed? What about flat?

However, the world in the 17th century was a world where the weak preyed on the strong, and there were not many axioms—comparatively speaking, the people on the east coast seemed to be the most axiomatic, which has to be said to be a huge irony—there were only power .Therefore, when the East Coast Fleet openly "law enforcement" in the North Sea, while neighboring France, England, and the United Provinces are all silent, it is conceivable that nothing can stop them.

Today this squadron is personally commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Ding Zhen.Today's Dover Strait ushered in a rare good weather, sunny and calm.After experiencing the bad weather yesterday, the sailors finally had time today to clean the deck, dry the utensils, and check whether there are any hidden dangers on the ship. In short, it should be a very leisurely day.

However, when the watchman spotted a small fleet ahead, this leisurely state immediately came to an end.Lieutenant Colonel Ding Zhen, who led the team, made a decisive decision and ordered to intercept this suspicious fleet and conduct an inspection, because it was actually sailing from the direction of the United Provinces to the United Kingdom.

Surprisingly, this small fleet of five ships immediately chose to flee instead of slowing down for inspection. Even though their speed seemed to be significantly slower than that of the east coast, they still chose to flee, which is very suspicious up!Therefore, Lieutenant Colonel Ding Zhen ordered a full-speed pursuit, and he had to take it down before giving up.

In this way, two fleets, one large and one small, started the chase.Because of the wind speed and ocean currents, the people on the east coast had been chasing for several hours before catching up. Then they divided the fleet into two groups and seized the shooting formation respectively, threatening the fleet to stop for inspection.As a result, of course they refused, and fired shells at the people on the east coast.

In this way, the situation is very clear, there is a problem with this fleet!Therefore, the East Coast Fleet was not polite, and directly attacked it.Their firepower is undoubtedly ferocious. Although these ships of unknown nationality have amazing firepower and have a lot of cannons, they are still a bit inferior to those on the east coast.Not to mention, their speed and maneuverability were much lower than those of the ships on the east coast, so they were quickly defeated. Two ships were sunk, one was seriously injured, and the remaining two were suspended. White flag, choose to surrender.

Among the two ships that surrendered, one was filled with various supplies, such as munitions, medicine, food, etc., and one was beyond everyone's expectations, with more than [-] Walloon mercenaries from the southern Netherlands on board. .After a simple interrogation, the officials of the State Intelligence Bureau who were with the ship were shocked to learn that these people were hired by Prince William III of Orange and planned to go to England to seize power.

Lieutenant Colonel Ding Zhen got the news very quickly, knowing that the Prince of Orange's troops had quietly left the port the night before.Taking advantage of the silence in the second half of the night, they left several berths in the province of Holland and sailed to France in three convoys, one of which went to Devonshire (the other two destinations are unknown) and landed , was the convoy they were in, but they got separated last night due to bad weather, so they were intercepted and captured by people from the east coast at sea.

Ding Zhenzhong did not dare to neglect the news, and immediately dispatched two brisk "Star" class light cruisers, carrying messengers to Bruges and Vlissingen respectively, to report the news to Morie and Mao Jun in the navy and army.They have been out at sea for six or seven days, and they don't know what's going on behind them, but it's always better to send this kind of news back as soon as possible.

As for the two captured ships in front of them (the severely damaged one was about to sink, and the people on the east bank rescued part of the supplies and personnel), they sailed to the port of Bruges for disposal.The materials on the ship can be used for their own use, and those that cannot be used are sold on the spot to return part of the funds.In addition, there are a total of more than 700 mercenaries from the southern Netherlands. Because they are all Spanish nationals, the people on the east coast decided to be lenient and take them back to the Port of Bruges to be imprisoned. After this incident is over Think of a way to deal with it.

After dealing with these, Lieutenant Colonel Ding Zhen led the fleet to sail westward again, and began to search for other Dutch ships in the vast sea to see if they could catch some more.Although England is basically ruled by the Congress, and King James II is in a state of distress—this guy has rejected two French proposals to send troops to aid, which is unreasonable—but it can prevent some of William III’s troops from going to England. , is also good.

In the middle of the night on December 12, a "Star" class light cruiser arrived at the port of Vlissingen and reported the news to the East Coast Army Representative Office who stayed here.At this time, the army had also received the news that William III was leaving port sent by the republicans.Based on the two-phase confirmation, this news is basically all right, it is already a certainty!

The east bank army stationed at Breda Fortress had to get the news earlier.Lieutenant Colonel Mao Jun, who was reviewing the troops here, rode back to The Hague overnight, and then met with Van Boiningen, the speaker of the United Provinces' three-level parliament, and asked him to hold a meeting to vote immediately to cancel William III's ruling position in the United Provinces. Jointly launched, wiped out all the partisans of the Orange faction, and seized power as quickly as possible.

Van Beuningen hesitated.He told Lieutenant Colonel Mao Jun that it is not impossible to convene a three-level parliamentary vote to cancel William III's ruling position, but that requires the approval of all provincial representatives and parliamentarians.Provinces such as Groningen and Oberijssel have always been William III's base. Most of them will sing a different tune in the parliament and eventually prevent the passage of the vote. Therefore, he still needs to think long-term and think of a surefire plan.

What Van Boyningen said almost made Lieutenant Colonel Mao Jun vomit blood in anger.When is this damn, still such a mother-in-law!So what if the representatives of the provinces of Groningen, Friesland, Oberijssel, etc. listen to the Orange family?Don't you have an army and money?I'm still afraid of them being a bird!Mr. Mao directly said to Van Boiningen, don't pay attention to other things, just hold a meeting and vote directly. Those who agree will receive [-] guilders, and those who disagree will be dragged out of the meeting by the East Bank army.You know, not every congressman is rich, and not every congressman is not afraid of death. Mr. Mao doesn't believe that it can't be done!

To be honest, Van Beuningen was a little intimidated by the plan.He had never imagined such a decisive and ruthless means, and he was worried that there would be no consequences for forcing the members of Congress, and would it be considered invalid and illegal.However, Lieutenant Colonel Mao Jun put a lot of pressure on him. After thinking about it, he finally nodded in agreement.

In the next few days, Van Boyningen began to assign personnel, kept visiting provincial councilors, and organized series activities.For those congressmen from the three northern provinces, he took the means of money to win over the key points.Businessmen and nobles are not always willing to be members of parliament, because it will obviously take up their time and limit their activities to The Hague, which is very inconvenient for them to run industries and travel, so professional politicians representing their interests are required to come to power Be a marionette.These politicians may still be attracted by money, and this is their opportunity.

As for Lieutenant Colonel Mao Jun, he took some officers and soldiers of the Portuguese garrison army and nearly [-] Russian mercenaries (screened prisoners of war) to quietly stationed in various key points in The Hague for control, controlling the whole city like an iron barrel.The original Dutch garrison in The Hague had poor combat effectiveness and had been transferred to a barracks outside the city, controlling the avenue leading to Amsterdam.By the way, I forgot to say that the regular army and militia in The Hague are basically controlled by the republicans now. After all, if these people are not controlled, then they should stop fighting with William III and go home as soon as possible.

Lieutenant Colonel Mao Jun set up his headquarters in the famous Gwangenport Prison, which was the place where William III imprisoned and tortured Admiral Cornelis DeWitt, and the East Coast Army used bayonets at the prison gate A large number of Dutch mobs were dispersed, creating the so-called "Gwangenport Prison Massacre", which made the Prince of Orange gnash his teeth.This time, the people on the east coast still chose Gwangenport Prison as the headquarters, which is a bit irritating to say the least.

On December 12, Lieutenant Yang Chengdong escorted a batch of East Coast Army artillery to The Hague.Lieutenant Colonel Mao Jun found him, gave him some emphatic instructions, and then rushed to Breda to join the main force stationed there.In addition to their 18 people, there are about 5000 Dutch Army troops.A considerable number of these people were dissatisfied with William III's fawning over the navy and ignoring the army. At the same time, they were even more dissatisfied with the fact that he might harm the interests of the Netherlands. Therefore, they voted quickly under the wooing of the republicans, and the total number was about 1.

And once 5000 people come here, it's almost enough.With the words of some senior military officers, these officers and soldiers alone can coerce the rest of the people into an uprising. Only anyone who is experienced in the military understands this.

The commander-in-chief of this army was Victor van Marberg from Dordrecht, a fellow countryman of the de Witt brothers.He had been serving in the Dutch army before, but he was not very successful. He participated in the last Franco-Dutch war, and his performance was quite satisfactory. He had faced off against the French army in the Southern Netherlands for several months, so he should be regarded as an experienced veteran.In principle, the [-] soldiers of the East Coast people are under their command, but in fact they have a very high level of autonomy, which is quite different from ordinary mercenaries.

In the next step, their army will move in the direction of Nijmegen to cooperate with the political action in The Hague (voting whether William III will continue to be in power in the United Provinces) and carry out military coercion.And this, in fact, was achieved by Van Marberg and the people from the east coast together.The two agreed that since William III hired German mercenaries, he would never give up and would resort to force. It is impossible not to fight this battle.

In addition to them, the republicans actually need to do some other political offensives to win the support of the most people in the Netherlands, especially the troops stationed in the provinces of Holland, Groningen and Friesland. .Among these troops, there are still quite a few hardcore members of the Orange faction. If Van Beuningen is smart enough, then he should take advantage of William III's favorable opportunity to go to England and "betray" the United Provinces to make a big fuss in public opinion (this It happens to be what they are good at), shake the morale of this part of the army, unite the majority, isolate a small group, and then find a way to deal with the remaining diehards, that is, to act simultaneously with both political and military hands to completely eliminate the support of William III By.

On December 12, the three-level parliament in The Hague held a formal vote on whether William III was still "competent for the post of governing united provinces".Representatives from the seven provinces gathered together in the parliament hall and engaged in fierce quarrels and debates, so that the speaker of the third-level parliament, Van Boiningen, had to interrupt the quarrel several times to bring the issue back on track.

At noon, representatives from the provinces of Friesland and Groningen clamored to leave the parliament (the representative of Upper IJssel was persuaded to continue to vote) and returned home.Van Boyningen had no choice but to send someone to quietly notify the East Bank liaison officer who was on standby.After Lieutenant Yang Chengdong received the news, without delay, he immediately dispatched a company of East Bank infantry and about a thousand Cossacks to the parliament, blocking the two provincial councilors who were about to leave.

The congressmen also had some guards and entourages waiting outside. They stepped forward and scolded the east bank army who rushed over, but they ate a few gun butts and were driven aside to take care of them.Lieutenant Yang Chengdong drew out his pistol, fired it at the sky, and then ordered the members of parliament to return to the parliament and continue to vote.

Seeing the formation of the people from the east coast, some councilors were immediately discouraged and returned to the parliament without saying a word.However, there were still more than 20 diehards who refused to return. They yelled at the East Coast people and asked them to get out of the United Provinces.Some radicals even threatened to mobilize the army to suppress the people on the east coast, very arrogant.

At this time, Lieutenant Yang Chengdong stopped talking nonsense and directly ordered the arrest.Some councilors pulled out their rapiers to resist, but they were directly stabbed to the ground by soldiers on the east coast, and the rest were captured one by one. Those who entertain them are not afraid that they will not sign the voting documents.

The speaker of the third-level parliament, Van Boyningen, also turned pale when he saw this scene.But the matter has come to this point, no matter how regretful he is, there are five ways to retreat, and he can only go one way to the dark.William III will never let them go, this is something he has already understood.

Then, there is only one thing to do to the end!

(End of this chapter)