Daming Crazy Emperor

Chapter 520 Caribbean

The reason why the Caribbean is famous probably stems from the Spaniards' misunderstanding of a certain legend.

This legend is the legend about eating that tribe.

The reason why there are so many pirates in the Caribbean is probably because this is a pirate den.

The British, French, and Dutch all like to play pirates here, and the Spaniards are frightened by the pirates played by businessmen and even the navy of these three countries.

Historically, because of the decline of the Spanish navy, it has become a paradise for the British, French and Dutch to play pirates.

If the Daming Fleet does not come, Spain will not be able to defend it for long, and this place will soon become a colony of the British, French and Dutch.

Because the Spanish navy at this moment has been in decline, and it is impossible to defend this archipelago.

Everyone is not stupid, Taichang wants to use Spain to consume the strength of European countries, why does the King of Spain not want to use Ming Dynasty to consume the strength of European countries.

Therefore, the King of Spain gave this archipelago to Daming without hesitation, and let Daming and this group of "pirates" consume each other.

Cordoba also has a headache looking at the West Indies in the Caribbean right now.

You know, the Spanish navy is struggling to protect the treasure ship at the moment, and the gold and silver they transship are often robbed by pirates pretending to be British and Dutch, and the West Indies don't even get any support from the Spanish navy.

Under such circumstances, it was really difficult for him to defend the West Indies. When the soldiers heard that they were going to be stationed in the West Indies, it was like going to the execution ground.

Now, Daming is about to take over the hot potato, and he still gave the hot potato to others under the king's order, so he naturally threw the hot potato to Zhang Zhiji and Xu Yunzhen without hesitation.

He even gave others the maps and nautical charts of the West Indies.

The area of ​​the West Indies is actually not small. From the map, it is even about the same size as the original Dongpu.

Moreover, the location here is quite good. It can be said that this is the central area connecting the four continents of North and South America, Africa and Europe.

This place is naturally the most important strategic location for Taichang, which wants to focus on sea area colonization.

It can be said that as long as they take root in this sea area, the European countries will basically have nothing to do but sigh.

Taichang attached great importance to this place. After getting the sea chart, he decided to lead the fleet to set off in person to manage the West Indies. out of North America.

This time, he brought sixty Aegis warships, sixty Dragon Fang warships, thirty large fishing boats, thousands of Spike warships and 20 infantry.

In the Caribbean Sea, on the channel from Xinhaizhou City to Cuba Island, the huge Daming Navy Fleet is running northward at high speed like a giant dragon.

In the leading position, above the flagship, Taichang summoned a group of civil servants and generals, including Zheng Zhilong and Xu Erjue, into the meeting hall.

He stared at the map for a while, then pointed to the West Indies on the map and said, "Everyone, we are going to build a lot of cities, forts and ports here."

Well, all civil servants and generals are used to it.

The emperor seems to like to build cities, forts and ports wherever he goes.

Taichang pointed to the north of Cuba Island and said earnestly: "This is the closest place to the Apache tribal territory. From the map, it is only about four to five hundred miles away, and it is also the closest to the big river mouth in central North America. Therefore, we will build large cities and ports here."

The civil servants and military generals still felt nothing, because they seemed to be planning to go to the big river system in the north this time to help the Indian tribe drive away the European colonists.

Taichang then pointed to the east side of Cuba Island and introduced: "It's not very far from the Port of Veracruz in the Governorate of New Spain, and it's about a day's voyage. We will transport a large amount of food and supplies from the Port of Veracruz in the future." Come here, so a large city and port will also be built here."

uh, another one?
The civil servants and military generals were already a little moved. After all, building large cities and ports is not a one-sentence matter.

We must know that the construction of large cities and ports not only requires a lot of manpower and material resources, but also takes a lot of time.

It took at least one or two months to build one, and three or four months to build the two.

Unexpectedly, Taichang pointed to the south of Cuba Island and said: "This is the closest to Xinhaizhou City. The personnel and materials we transported through the canal will be transferred here. Therefore, a large city and port will also be built here."

My goodness, three.

All the civil servants and military generals were a little confused.

Unexpectedly, Taichang pointed to the northeast of Cuba Island and said: "This is the closest place to the European continent. Our ships have to travel to and from the European continent. This is an important transit base. Moreover, we also need to defend against attacks from European countries. Therefore, large cities and ports must be built here.”

what?
All civil servants and military generals couldn't help being dumbfounded when they heard the words.

Taichang then said on the periphery of each island: "Also, here, here, here, forts and ports need to be built. We must firmly guard this archipelago."

Uh, four large cities and ports, and more than a dozen forts and small ports, I'm afraid it won't be completed in a year!
Lu Xiangsheng finally couldn't help asking: "Your Majesty, didn't we come to help the Indian tribe drive away the European colonists?"

Taichang nodded slightly and said: "These are two things. We helped the Indian tribes drive away the European colonists so that they could not gain a foothold on the North American continent. We built fortresses and ports here to prevent them from gaining a foothold on the sea. Both things are very important, and we cannot afford to lose sight of one.”

Uh, the problem is that we don't have so many people!

Lu Xiangsheng asked: "Your Majesty, we seem to be short on manpower, right?"

This is indeed a problem. To develop an archipelago as large as the original Japan, even if all 20 infantry are left here, it seems that it is not enough.

Taichang stared at the map, and then said decisively: "Well, you are right, we don't have enough manpower.

Well, let's see if there are enough Indians on the island.

If there are enough, we only need to mobilize [-] garrison guards from the mainland of Daming to come over.

If there are not enough, we will recruit hundreds of thousands of laborers from Dongyang Chengxuan.

In short, we must establish a firm foothold here as soon as possible and hold it here. "

It is not easy to hold such a large archipelago!

Lu Xiangsheng thought for a while, and then asked: "Your Majesty, what about the artillery, at least a fort needs to have hundreds of artillery pieces. To defend large cities and ports, you need even more artillery pieces. Moreover, it is best to use a thousand jin artillery pieces." Shall we transport all the above cannons to the Armed Forces City?"

This seems unnecessary.

Taichang pointed to South America and said: "Didn't we purchase a large amount of pure copper from the Spaniards? Just pull it here to process the artillery, so as to save the trouble of transporting it back and forth."

This is true, because the mainland of Ming Dynasty is tens of thousands of miles away from South America. It is too troublesome to pull pure copper back, cast it into a cannon and then pull it back. It is a sea route of hundreds of thousands of miles.

Forging artillery is not too difficult for Daming at this moment, and building a factory for casting artillery is simply a piece of cake for the Ministry of Industry.

So, there is no need to be so troublesome at all.

All right, so be it.

If the emperor says to do it, then do it.

Lu Xiangsheng nodded slowly, "I understand."

If the British, French and Dutch knew that Ming was going to build a bunch of cities and fortresses in the Caribbean Sea, they would probably spurt blood with anger.

Because they have already set their sights on this place, and once they defeat Spain on land, they will come to occupy it.

Now, it's hard to say whether they can beat Spain on land.

If they dared to come to the Caribbean to pretend to be pirates, they would definitely be beaten to the ground by Da Ming!
(End of this chapter)