Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2471 Gibraltar Crisis ([-])

On February 1703, 2, several days had passed since the great battle of February 22.In the past few days, the Spaniard has been like a poor man who was shot in the jaw in a boxing match and fell unconscious. He has not made any big moves.On the contrary, people on the east coast have been actively repairing fortifications, building new warehouses and military camps.To this end, they also transported more than 2 Moroccan laborers from across the sea, allowing them to work around the clock to ensure that various projects were completed on schedule.

Today, the control area on the east coast is only about a dozen square kilometers, but there is already a decent barracks, a large material depot, a weapon depot, a field hospital, and a water filtration system (to filter collected rainwater and fresh water from Danji Port), a small gun repair shop, a remodeled military pier, etc.The price paid is that more than a hundred local residents and Moroccan laborers in the town died of illness, and the original appearance of the town was completely changed.However, in the eyes of the people on the east coast, the original planning of the town of Gibraltar was very problematic, and they wished to tear it all down and rebuild it. Now that they have this opportunity, it is naturally better.

As for the local Spanish residents, the people on the east coast have also planned to ship them collectively to Alexandria, Egypt, after the situation stabilizes, and then cross the famous horse-drawn rail line into the Red Sea, and then enter the Red Sea. Take a boat to settle in the colonies controlled by the east coast such as Diu, Shallow Island, Bahrain, Rabaul, Brunei, and Dili. Each place has an average of hundreds of people, and the distribution is almost over.

The Moroccans on the other side of the channel are treated in much the same way.Of course, these people are more troublesome, mainly because of religious beliefs.As we all know, the local laws on the east coast are different from those of the overseas colonies. The locals have barely recognized the Green Church as a legal religion (but there are still a lot of suppressions at the social level, and the Green Church is not a community, and the number is very small), but the overseas colonies Few recognize it as a legitimate religion.Not only the Green Church, but even foreign religions such as Orthodox Church, Shintoism, and Hinduism have not been recognized. Think about it, Diu and Qiandao do not recognize Green Church and Hinduism. What a grassland, although their number is very small.

As a result, how to resettle the tens of thousands of Moroccans in Tangi and Ceuta has become a practical issue before the Straits Management Committee.In fact, according to their original intention, they wished to keep all these people, build various infrastructures for the local area, and slowly "consume" them in high-intensity labor.But this is obviously unrealistic, because the east coast is a civilized country and cannot act so brutally. For these people, they still have to go through various tasks to slowly digest them.

The most important of these is naturally the conversion of believers. To put it bluntly, it is to convert them.This point, the National Taoist Association has been doing, and has made a little progress.According to their latest report, more than 2000 of the tens of thousands of Moroccans in Danji and Ceuta counties have converted to East Coast Taoism, which is gratifying.The Taoist Federation also publicized this as a major achievement of theirs, which was affirmed by the relevant leaders of the East Bank Religious Affairs Bureau.

It is reported that the Taoist Federation has already planned to send a real person to sit in the town, who will be responsible for the transformation of pagan beliefs and strive for greater achievements.The strategy adopted by the Taoist Federation is nothing more than positive and negative, and it is inseparable from the cooperation of the Strait Management Committee government.The positive aspect is the induction of interests, that is, those who are willing to convert can be exempted from corvee, or engage in easier corvee work, and the service period is shorter.In addition, the tax rates of various taxes they pay will also be reduced, and it will be more convenient and faster to apply for various permits, and the improvement of living comfort is still obvious.

The opposite is punishment.For those who refuse to convert, it is certain that they will pay more taxes, and many business licenses will be indefinitely-the government will never say that they cannot be processed, but it will be delayed indefinitely-they will even be often punished by the police And the discriminatory treatment of the soldiers of the garrison regiment, such as various interrogations and so on.

Of course, we must not forget the corvée that made these Moroccan pagans the most dismayed!The endless construction work in the counties of Danji and Ceuta had already driven them crazy. Every day, a large number of Moroccans fled south, hoping to return to the motherland in the south to live.At the beginning, the east bank government took a laissez-faire attitude towards this, but tried in absentia on the charge of illegal absconding, and confiscated the land of these people to distribute them to the new immigrants from the Far East.But recently, to be honest, the Straits Management Committee has been reluctant to give up these labor forces. After all, there are tens of thousands of men, women, children, and children, and how many things they can do!Therefore, they resolutely changed their policy and sent cavalry from the garrison regiments of Danji and Ceuta counties to hunt down fugitives. Every time they caught one, they would extend their service period and confiscate the land at the same time.

What's interesting is that after implementing such a cruel policy, the number of people who converted to Taoism on the East Coast increased considerably. In just a few months, there were more than 1500 people, which made the Taoist Association really smile.They are determined to spend several years converting at least 15 percent of the remaining [-] Moroccans.In particular, the struggle for the faith of the next generation is a top priority-considering that religious organizations among Moroccans have been destroyed, this goal is still possible to achieve.

On February 1703, 2, just as the Spaniards breathed a sigh of relief and were about to reorganize a wave of offensive, another batch of warships from the East Coast Navy arrived in the Bay of Gibraltar.Leading is still an ironclad battleship, the second ship of the "Bianliang" class, the "Luoyang", accompanied by two "Star" class light cruisers, two "Jieqi" class escort gunboats, and a a collier, a troop carrier and a repair ship.

The displacement of the "Luoyang" ironclad ship is slightly heavier than that of the "Bianliang", exceeding 4000 tons.The ship also has a turret layout in the middle of the hull, but a 75mm naval gun is added to the bow and stern, bringing the total number of guns on board to ten.This type of artillery is aimed at the European 18-pound naval gun when firing pointed solid bullets, but because of the relationship between the rear-mounted artillery and the rifling, the gun has a longer range, higher accuracy, and greater destructive power to the hull.

In fact, the Ministry of the Navy originally did not want to equip these two guns. They believed that the improvement of the "Luoyang" should focus on the redesign of the new generation of armor, power system and coal bunker.Bow and stern guns meant little to them, as they could always easily overtake enemy ships and kill them with their broadsides.The design of these two cannons and the corresponding turrets, armor, and ammunition depots will occupy the space of other cabins, and at the same time complicate the logistics management of the shells, which is not worth it.

But no matter what, the "Luoyang" was finally designed like this, and the entire ship's two hundred officers and soldiers happily accepted the battleship.After some hard training, he finally crossed the ocean and came to Europe, where he joined the bombardment mission of coastal towns in Spain.

The two armored battleships "Bianliang" and "Luoyang" formed a formation to act alone, and the other eight sailing warships formed another formation, completely controlling the command of the sea in the Strait of Gibraltar.However, they were quite restrained. Except for the continuous bombardment of the Spanish coastal towns and villages near the bay, they did not expand the scope of their attacks. They also released all neutral ships passing through the strait to Spain for trade. Generally speaking, they were relatively "civilized". Of course, those The Spanish people whose homes were destroyed by the East Coast Navy certainly don't think so.

At midnight on February 2, the Spaniards organized a massive offensive.They dispatched more than 23 people, under the command of General Morales, and under the cover of night, launched a large-scale offensive against the east bank control area.It should be said that the Spaniards were very smart in this attack, knowing that they used the night to sneak attack, and they were very successful for a time. They were only discovered by patrol dogs when they approached the trenches dug by the people on the east coast.

At such a distance, their muskets were within range, and their cannons were more powerful, causing some damage to the people on the east bank.However, the people on the east coast had relatively solid fortifications and stronger firepower projection capabilities, so the counterattack was extraordinarily fierce and tragic.

Navy warships also joined the counterattack after receiving the news.They moved close to the coast and shelled the Spanish army with long-range cannon.Although it is inevitable that some shells fell into the east bank position in the night and hit the friendly army by mistake, overall, it still severely damaged the Spanish army, making the enemy's night attack come to an end.

During this field battle that lasted several hours, a 150mm heavy artillery shell unfortunately exploded beside General Morales, directly taking away their entire command system.The Spaniards insisted that this was the reason they finally retreated, not fear of the guns and cannons of the East Coasters.They were just unlucky. If they come again next time, they will definitely be able to break through the defenses of the people on the east coast and drive them all into the sea.

But, is this really the case?After paying more than 1500 casualties, the Spanish army was frustrated by not even touching the enemy's fortifications.They have already discovered that simply attacking fortifications is purely based on their own weaknesses and attacking the enemy's strengths, which is really not worthwhile.The best way is to attract the people from the east coast, and use our own advantages in geography and intelligence to ambush them and defeat them during the campaign. This is the most reasonable tactic, and it is also the best way to defeat the strong with the weak.It's a pity that the people on the east coast didn't want to get out of the "tortoise shell". They were content with the status quo and just wanted to hold on to the territory they had already occupied until the enemy couldn't consume it anymore. This completely blinded the Spaniards.

Considering that the people on the east coast now have the command of the sea in the Strait of Gibraltar, the Spaniards are even more lacking in means, because they can't even blockade the sea and besiege the troops on the east coast that have landed!The Spanish navy no longer has the courage to fight the enemy's large fleet. Their strength is too weak and they urgently need to recuperate.Besides, are you really sure to let them collide face-to-face with the two east coast ironclad warships that are showing off their might in the bay at the moment?No!That is not a battle, but a crime, a shameless murder of Spanish naval officers and soldiers!

This kind of cognition really hurt the self-esteem of the Spaniards.They thought that the army on the east bank that landed had only a thousand men, a lone army, and they could take it with hard work.But who would have thought that the people on the east bank would increase their troops to more than [-] in a short period of time, mobilize a large amount of manpower at the same time, roughly build a fortification, and at the same time, the artillery fire is so fierce-damn, the army uses a lot of heavy weapons Naval guns, is this still a human being? The sea also firmly holds the command of the sea, and there is no shortage of various supplies.

Today, the battle has been going on for several days.The shells of the people on the east bank fell on their heads every day, causing more than 5000 casualties (nearly half were killed and injured by the shelling that lasted for several days). General Morales, who had fought against the French Army many times, was even more It was a heroic death, and the morale of the army has dropped to the bottom. This battle-basically cannot be fought!

Continue humiliating representations and negotiations?The Spaniard may not be able to hold back this face.So, it seems that we have to drag it down first.There is no war or peace on the front line, but in fact disengagement, let's see the situation first.

(End of this chapter)