Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 891 The Bottom Line Is Inviolable

On October 1651, 10, the battleship "Cadiz Rock" deftly drew an arc on the sea and sailed towards the open sea.

Ston (formerly Captain John Ston) has served as the captain of this warship captured by the Spaniards for more than four years. Many years ago, he was a drunk and dreamy pirate captain. Unexpectedly, he would still have the opportunity to regain the captain's throne-especially this is a modified sail warship with 40 large and small cannons.

The "Cadiz Rock" was originally the flagship of the La Plata Fleet. After being captured in the Second East-West War, the people on the east coast modernized it, and an additional "Popeye-2" was installed. The steam propulsion system makes the ship have steam power.From then on, when the "Rock of Cadiz" turned, turned, entered and left the port in the face of bad weather, it no longer had to test the skill and courage of the captain. They could use steam power to make adjustments. Stronger by more than one grade.

At the end of last year, this ship arrived at Heishui Port along with the new immigrant ships from the mainland. When Wei Boqiu went south, he still took this ship to Dinghai.The "Cadiz Rock" ship with a displacement of more than 1624 tons is also very new. It was completed in Havana Shipyard in [-]. moth, good elasticity), the internal facilities are also made of high-quality walnut wood, and the cost is extremely astonishing.

This battleship with a capacity of 258 people has now officially joined the establishment of the Blackwater Temporary Task Force, and has replaced the "Red Trout" escort gunboat (captured from the Peruvian fleet nearly 20 years ago) as the flagship of the fleet—— This is a matter of course. Gein is a first-class ship in the Far East at this time. The Dutch East India Company is at least not a large ship of more than 800 tons in the Far East at this time. The largest galleon in Manila is also Only more than 400 tons, compared with the "Cadiz Rock" with 40 artillery pieces, they are like children and adults.

Today's Liaohai sea is calm and calm. This powerful warship that can change the outcome of a small-to-medium-scale naval battle has just returned from a demonstration in the Jinzhou area, and now it has sailed to the east of Juhua Island.Captain Ston has ordered the end of this routine patrol and is preparing to sail the ship back to Yantai Port to do maintenance before the immigrant ship departs in late October.

At this time, the watchman on the topmast immediately issued an early warning: "There is a ship ahead, the number is one, Galen-shaped, with weapons! Repeat, there is a ship ahead, the number is one, Galen There are weapons!" After finishing speaking, he rang the bell on his hand vigorously.

A group of officers, including Captain Ston, immediately rushed to the railing of the third-story bridge, and all raised their binoculars to look forward.The appearance of Galen ships equipped with cannons on the Liaohai Sea is a very strange thing in itself. Captain Ston and others can confirm that the warships on the east coast of the northern ocean have recently concentrated on the coast of North Korea for armed deterrence. Several ships are also berthed in Hangzhou Bay.On the ocean near Jinzhou, there are galleons with sails, which is interesting. Could it be the Dutch?

Two years ago, people from the east coast captured the Dutch East India Company's ship "Casteliku" near the Changshan Islands. The ship's full load of weapons and dozens of Western mercenary officers were detained by the Yantai side.After interrogation, it was learned that this was a ship heading to Jinzhou for trade with the Qing Dynasty. Not only were there instructors on board who helped the Qing Dynasty carry out military modernization reforms (whether the Qing court accepted it is another matter), but also a large number of artillery, matchlock guns, Weapons such as flintlock guns.

After hearing the news, Shao Shude was furious, and immediately sent people to Taiwan to negotiate with the Dutch. At that time, the Dutch apologized for this, and repeatedly stated that it was Captain Frith's personal behavior and had nothing to do with the company itself. Get it clean.Of course Shao Shude knew that the Dutch were talking nonsense with their eyes open, but considering that rice had to be imported from the Dutch at that time to maintain the food balance in the Blackwater area, and the route of the immigrant ships also passed through the waters near Taiwan, they had a bad relationship with the Dutch. It was unwise, so he held back his breath for the time being.

Unexpectedly, just a year or so after the end of the negotiation, the Dutch returned to their old ways and sent a ship to Jinzhou to trade with the Qing Dynasty. It has been determined that this is a trading ship sent by the Dutch, because there is no second Western power nearby except the Dutch.

"Let's go up, make a semaphore, and ask them to stop the ship for inspection!" Captain Ston put down the binoculars on his chest, drew out the command knife at his waist, and shouted loudly: "If they refuse, fire!"

The gunner complied, hurried to the deck, and directed the sailors to start intense pre-war preparations.

The "enemy ship" was getting closer and closer, but they didn't mean to slow down at all. Instead, they adjusted the yards, followed the strong southeast wind, and accelerated towards the north.This behavior immediately angered the sailors on the east coast of the "Cadiz Rock". I saw the bosun running around, loudly instructing the sailors to adjust the yard and approach the enemy ship.The chief engineer also went down to the engine room and ordered to increase the pressure of the boiler and move forward at full speed!

"Boom!" A soaring water column splashed on the side of the enemy ship.This is a naval gunner conducting a correction test, and it is also a warning to the enemy ship to lower sails and slow down quickly.It's a pity that the enemy ships didn't pay any attention to this. Instead, they dropped some cumbersome supplies into the sea, and the attempt to escape was obvious.

"Boom! Boom!" A few more test shots.The shells were getting closer and closer to the enemy ship, showing that the gunners had found the feeling of shooting, and at this time the "Rock of Cadiz" itself was getting closer and closer to the enemy ship.At this time, the people on the east coast had basically given up their efforts to intercept and stop the enemy ships peacefully, and planned to resolve the matter by force.

There was a crisp "crash", and a glass window outside the bridge of the "Cadiz Rock" was smashed by a shell fired from an enemy ship-the people on the east coast fired at least a dozen shells first, but unexpectedly In the end, it was the enemy's first shot by accident—but this didn't frighten the officers and officers on the ship standing here. Boys at sea, life and death are normal. A group of old seals.

"Fire!" The gunner swung the command knife in his hand vigorously, and suddenly there was a loud rumbling sound. More than a dozen cannons on the starboard side of the "Cadiz Rock" that had already moved into place opened fire one after another, and the sea was filled with smoke for a while.

Since the distance between the two sides is already very close, the hollow iron projectiles fired have a high hit rate, and they are scattered everywhere on the enemy ship: forecastle, side, mast, canvas, steering wheel compartment, etc.There were only seven or eight artillery pieces on the enemy ship, all of which were of small caliber, so the counterattack was extremely weak, and hardly caused any substantial damage to the people on the east coast.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!" Another round of bullets rained down, and the sailors coming and going on the deck of the enemy ship suddenly exclaimed.Captain Ston had already seen clearly at this time that the enemies were all European faces, maybe they were Dutch!Then you can't let them run away!

A powerful warship with 40 guns bullying a civilian ship that is at best an armed merchant ship is not like playing.Therefore, an hour later, the "Rock of Cadiz" sank the unidentified enemy ship at a slight cost of killing 2 people and wounding 11 people-the enemy never surrendered with a white flag from beginning to end.However, this is not a big problem, because the small boats on the "Rock of Cadiz" quickly picked up some sailors who fell into the water from the enemy ship. After the battle, it is not difficult to find out the truth as long as they interrogate them a little.

"After saving those who fell into the water, conduct an interrogation immediately. At the same time, the ship will temporarily patrol nearby for two days, and return to Yantai Port in two days." Captain Ston walked off the bridge, stood on the deck and gave orders, and the first officer quickly issued his orders. passed on.

On October 10th, the "Cadiz Rock" that had finished its cruise mission (obviously they did not encounter any Dutch ships) slowly sailed into Yantai Port. Shao Shude, who was working in the city, immediately learned of Sidun's The captain handed over the interrogation report, and at the same time the captive sailors were handed over to the gendarmerie on the pier.

"It's extremely arrogant!" Shao Shude stood up all of a sudden, patted the desk made of fish scale pine in Sakhalin angrily, and said angrily: "Are you fooling us for being three-year-olds? We promised well before, but But talking like fart! If the Zheng family hadn’t besieged Fujian this time, and the ships were all over the southeast coast, this Dutchman probably wouldn’t have changed his trading location with the Tartars to Jinzhou, let alone let us run into him!”

Shao Shude's secretary, Peng Yuanzhi, the son of former army tycoon Peng Zhicheng, picked up the interrogation report that Shao Shude had swept down on the floor, glanced at it quickly, and immediately put it on the table.

"This Dutchman is really outrageous. He has been hooking up with the Manchus. But the old man really believed the promise made by the Dutchman a year ago, right? The Qing court promised to export raw silk, tea, and porcelain to them. They buy muskets and cannons in their hands, and the profits here are so great that even an outsider like me thinks that the Dutch are interested in money. Can they not be tempted? I think the old man has already figured it out in his heart. Buying food from the Dutch is just pretending to be confused. Now it is taking the opportunity to attack, what is the reason? Is it possible to go to war with the Dutch? No way, we don’t have any extra troops in Heishui to attack..." The young man The secretary sneaked a glance at Shao Shude and started a nervous analysis.

"The prohibition of trade with the Qing court is our bottom line, and no one will be allowed to violate it! Xiao Peng, record the order for me!" Shao Shude waved to his secretary, and then said: "Major Liu Haiyang of the Southern Theater Command, the last Before the end of the first ten days of November, we will draw out capable ships and go to Zeelandiaburg to negotiate with the Dutch, and warn them for the last time to prohibit trade with the Manchu Qing. If the Dutch do not agree, then we reserve all rights of freedom of action! The 11 soldiers of the Qing Dynasty were stationed in Qingzhou Prefecture and did not dare to go east. It is a foregone conclusion that Dengzhou will have a good autumn harvest this year. There is no need to worry about grain trade, and there is no need to be burdened by thoughts. The most important thing is to prohibit trade! This is roughly the meaning, Xiao Peng, you can polish it and send it to Ningbo."

Peng Yuanzhi responded softly. He privately felt that the Dutch would not agree easily this time—maybe they didn’t even bother to do the superficial effort—that kind of thing would be bad. Sliding into the abyss of war.

(End of this chapter)