I want to be emperor

Chapter 879: Portugal's Defeat

When a group of army officers were preparing to watch the fireworks with great interest, Louise, who was a member of the translation team on a large transport ship in the transport fleet, was also accompanied by a group of overseas Chinese from the Chu Empire. Colonial officials stood on the deck, watching the sea ahead from afar.

At this time, the weather is clear and the sight line is excellent. There is not a small wind on the sea, but it is not too strong. It can bring sufficient power to the sailing boat without causing the sail to bear excessive burden.

Under such weather conditions, although the distance is quite far and there is no telescope in hand, Louise can still vaguely see the general situation directly ahead.

There is the access to the sea in the port of Lisbon.

The port of Lisbon is a natural concave harbor, and there is a narrow channel with a width of more than 1000 meters between the harbor and the sea for entry and exit.

Now a large number of Portuguese ships came out of this passage one after another, opened their bulging sails, and continued to approach the open sea.

However, they didn't rush out to launch an attack immediately. Instead, they first sent a small fast schooner as a communication vessel, trying to go out to sea to contact the Chu people.

Even if the Portuguese had determined that the Chu people on the opposite side had bad intentions and wanted to attack Lisbon directly, but if possible, the Portuguese still wanted to appease the anger of the Chu people and let the Chu people retreat.

After the small fast schooner arrived near the cruiser Qiongzhou, it quickly made contact with the traffic boat sent by the Chu people, and then several Portuguese envoys were taken to the cruiser Qiongzhou.

It didn't take long before they left the cruiser Qiongzhou with anger on their faces!
They tried to calm down and make the Chu people retreat, but the conditions put forward by the Chu people were unbearable for them.

The conditions put forward by the Chu people are very simple, nothing more than three.

Portugal unilaterally fully opened its market and limited tariffs.

Portugal ceded the port of Setubal as a land leased by Chu people for business, living and living.

A certain amount of compensation will be used as the cost of sending troops from Chu State this time.
These three clauses... To be honest, they are more ruthless than Spain annexing Portugal back then.

Spain annexed Portugal, and at least the two parties would form the United Kingdom, but the conditions put forward by the Great Chu Empire, especially the full liberalization of the market, basically treated Portugal as a colony.

The Portuguese are not stupid. They know very well what will happen once the market is fully liberalized. Apart from other things, their various domestic handicraft industries will have to be finished first.

Therefore, the comprehensive opening of the market... is basically a policy of a big country targeting economic colonies.

The Portuguese have been colonizing by sea for more than 200 years... It is the first time that they are treated as a colony, which is naturally unacceptable.

The Portuguese's refusal was to be expected.

The Chu people did not expect the Portuguese to agree now.

Although from the perspective of Chu people, this time the Great Chu Empire does not have much demand for the European region, as long as the other party opens up the market, limits tariffs, sets up a concession port for Chu, and then establishes extrajudicial power or something. It's almost the same.

As for the cession of a large area of ​​territory, the right of military passage, the right to station, and protection fees have not been discussed yet.

But from the perspective of the Portuguese, or any dignitary in an indigenous country, fully opening up the market is tantamount to killing half of their lives.

Everyone is not stupid!
If other countries, such as Spain next door, or even France in the north, they want to let Portugal open their markets, if the Portuguese get other benefits, then they can really open up.

But the Great Chu Empire...

All fools know that the Great Chu Empire is the only industrial country on the contemporary earth, which can produce a large number of various industrial products with high cost performance every year.

For other countries, as long as you dare to completely open the market to Chu products, Chu products can crush all your handicraft industries and even some specific agriculture in minutes.

Even vicious competition is not even used occasionally, only normal competition is enough to achieve this situation.

Therefore, in the contemporary era, any indigenous dignitaries with some brains and strength will not easily let go of the market and let Chu products enter and exit at will, let alone open the market without reservation and limit tariffs.

It should be the Ottoman Empire that does business more normally with the people of Chu in the contemporary era. The relationship between the two is that although the Ottoman Empire allows goods from the Great Chu Empire to enter, it also charges tariffs, and the tariffs on some commodities are not low. , and some commodities that will seriously affect the interests of their domestic craftsmen or powerful people, the tariffs are often very high.

On the contrary, for some goods in transit, which are mainly transshipped through Egypt to the Mediterranean, and then shipped to Europe for sale, according to the agreement reached between the two countries, the Ottoman Empire only charges low and appropriate tolls, but does not charge regular tariffs. This is part of a series of agreements reached between the two countries, especially the agreement between Chu State and the Ottoman Empire to build an arsenal.

The ones that fully opened up the market were the indigenous kingdoms of India and the so-called Mughal Empire...

By the way, the Mughal Empire was dismembered by the Chu army a few years ago, and now it is only a relatively large country among the many countries on the Indian Peninsula.

The entire Indian peninsula has been split into more than 30 kingdoms of different sizes, except for the southern Indian region and some coastal territories controlled by Chu itself, under Chu's continuous military intervention over the past few years.

Among these kingdoms, some are puppet protectorates directly controlled by the Chu State, while others are severely controlled by the Chu State and forced to sign a lot of agreements, but still maintain a certain independent status. It is a kingdom that maintains its independent status in other respects except for being forced to open the market.

But no matter what, the entire Indian peninsula has become a dumping ground for the industrial goods of the Great Chu Empire.

The Portuguese naturally don't want their family to become like India.

The life and death of the untouchables is critical, and the key point is that it will greatly damage the interests of many powerful people: many handicraft workshops are actually the industries of the great nobles.

Your Chu people's products came in and destroyed these handicraft workshops. The dignitaries behind these workshops must not be happy.

And these dignitaries are often the most resolute group of people who resist Chu's products in a place.

Conversely, some merchants who rely on Chu's products to make money can easily turn into so-called traitors in their respective countries...bring Chu people in!

All of this is because of the word profit.

The Portuguese feel that they are a colonial power anyway. Although they have lost all their colonies in Asia and Africa, they actually still have a large number of colonies in the Americas, that is, the vast Brazilian region.

Now that the Chu people came to the door, they wanted the Portuguese to surrender and open up the market, and act as an economic colony for the Chu people. The Portuguese were naturally not happy.

The Portuguese envoy went back with anger and reluctance, Commodore Song Yuanlong and other Chu generals didn't care.

The reason why these Portuguese envoys came to talk just now was purely to delay time.

This time does not mean that the Chu fleet needs time to make any preparations. It is purely that the Portuguese fleet needs time to leave port...

It is much easier and faster to destroy this fleet in the sea outside the port and fight a serious naval battle than to break into the port and risk the enemy's shore firepower.

Even though the result is the same, waste less ammo if you can, and save some time if you can.

After such a negotiation, Song Yuanlong looked at the fleet on the opposite side and estimated that it should come out. At present, there are five third-class sailing battleships, about ten other thousand-ton battleships, and more than ten small cruisers or frigates left. There is a group of armed merchant ships and various small boats.

"Okay, it's almost done, let's get ready to move!"

"Start assigning combat targets, give priority to blocking the passages in and out of the port, and prevent the opponent from escaping back!"

Relying on the range advantage of one's own naval guns, even if the distance is longer, they can still pass the front of the opponent's fleet and directly bombard the opponent's rear ships, blocking their return route.

As long as they can't go back, then they can call and destroy these sailing ships one by one.

As the order was issued, the three warships began to lower their sails and began to sail on pure steam engine power, in order to expand the firing range of the naval guns as soon as possible.

Warships using rifled guns are relatively powerful and have a long range, so the number of naval guns carried has also decreased relatively. In order to cover a wider range of fire, the layout of naval guns is no longer limited to the sides, but in the front and rear of the hull. Large-caliber main guns will also be deployed at the central axis.

The eight 150mm front-mounted main guns on the Qiongzhou cruiser are deployed with two front and two rear, a total of four open-air rotary turrets.

In order to maximize the power of the eight main guns, the sails must be lowered so as not to affect the shooting range.

At about eleven o'clock in the morning local time, after a long wait and fruitless negotiations between the two sides, the cruiser Qiongzhou in the Chu State Fleet opened fire first!
Its 150mm front-loading rifled main gun, coupled with more than a dozen 75mm front-loading rifled secondary guns, took the lead in firing at the Portuguese flagship, which was more than 1000 meters away.

The fireworks feast has officially begun!

Amid the sound of rumbling guns, the other two frigates also accompanied the cruiser Qiongzhou, and began to fire at their respective intended targets from left to right.

The targets of their first round of bombardment were all the opponent's main battleships, which are the third-class battleships that are now mainstream among Europeans.

And these naval guns did not fire armor-piercing projectiles like those in traditional naval battles!
The navy of the Great Chu Empire basically did not use armor-piercing projectiles against the warships of the indigenous navy... The armor-piercing projectiles of the Chu State Navy were basically used to deal with the enemy's strong coastal fortifications.

To deal with warships, high-explosive bombs are usually used!

There is nothing better than explosive grenades for sailing warships. As long as a grenade hits, if you are lucky, you can directly break the mast of the sailing ship on the opposite side. No matter how bad it is, it can damage a large number of sails, ropes or decks sail handlers on board.

Attacking the battleships of the Age of Sails and hitting their sails is equivalent to attacking the engine compartment of the battleships of the Steam Age. Once an effective hit is made, the effect will be great.

No matter how powerful your sailing warship is, once it loses its sails, it will become a dead fish floating on the sea in minutes.

As the small fleet of Chu State opened fire, the Portuguese on the opposite side panicked at first, but soon mustered up the courage to try to launch a counterattack.

A large number of sail warships began to come by the wind, wanting to get close to a certain distance and use their smoothbore guns to counterattack.

But... How could Song Yuanlong give them a chance!
The three warships of the Chu State have even lowered their sails, relying solely on pure steam engine power to sail, completely ignoring the wind direction or ocean currents, and maneuvering at a high speed of about twelve knots.

Not to mention rushing forward to fire guns, or even playing side-to-side battles, it is impossible even if you want to get closer to within 1000 meters.

Ever since, Luiz, who was in the rear transport fleet, saw such a scene with others: a large number of Portuguese fleets on the sea were hit one after another, and these hit Sail warships either exploded and sank, or some of them were knocked off their sails and floated on the sea like dead fish.

The six third-class battleships didn't even last for more than ten minutes, but they were named by three battleships of the Chu people in turn, and then they sank and five dead fish!

During this process, the six third-class battleships didn't even fire a single shot... because when they were closest to the Chu fleet, they were also more than 1000 meters away, which simply couldn't reach the effective range of smoothbore naval guns.

Followed by many other warships and even armed merchant ships, these warships swarmed up from the beginning, and then became a mess.

The whole sea was in chaos, thick smoke billowed, and guns rumbled.

And the three Chu people's warships circled around the periphery, bombarding them easily over and over again, and finally blocked the entrance and exit passages of Lisbon port, and called the ships that wanted to escape back to the port one by one.

This battle at sea left Louis dumbfounded!

He knew that the Great Chu Empire's navy was very strong, but he never imagined that the Great Chu Empire's navy was so strong.

During the entire naval battle, not a single hair was lost, and the whole process was freely fired outside the effective range of the Portuguese fleet's naval guns.

"This is not fighting, this is massacre!"

This is what Luiz feels as a bystander, but inside the Portuguese fleet, they feel even more frightened and desperate!
At [-]:[-] in the morning, Portuguese ships began to surrender, and some ships began to flee... After finding that they could not escape back to the port, some of them chose to flee north.

However, the speed of sailing ships is too slow, and they are too dependent on the direction of the wind. It doesn't mean that they can go if they want to. These ships that want to escape from the battlefield will soon be named first by the Chu fleet.

The attack strategy of the Chu fleet was to attack six third-class battleships at the beginning, and then to attack those ships that wanted to escape... As for the remaining ships, they took their time.

Fast, maneuverable, naval guns have a long range, and high-explosive bombs can effectively destroy sails.

All these made the Chu fleet seem to have only three warships to fight, but in fact they crushed dozens of Portuguese ships on the opposite side...

No, it's fighting around!
At twelve o'clock in the morning, one of the surviving Portuguese generals finally ordered that the entire fleet surrender...if they don't surrender, they will all die.

Because at this time, there were actually no intact Portuguese ships on the sea, and the sails of the Portuguese ships still floating on the sea were basically destroyed.

These ships have neither resistance nor possibility of escape. Faced with the surrender of the Chu people, if they disagree, they can only be reduced to targets and be hit by the Chu navy.

At this time, even the Chu State armed transport ships behind them approached, playing with 55mm toothpick cannons.

Therefore, the Portuguese can be said to have fought to the last moment, and now it is time to start thinking about the lives of the soldiers.

Just looking at the Portuguese ships that surrendered one after another in front of him, Luiz, who is a Portuguese, felt very strange in his heart. There was a feeling of grief, but also a very strange sense of pleasure.

This feeling of confusion made it difficult for Louis to use, and in the end he didn't stay on the deck to watch this live-fire training behavior... Although the fireworks are indeed spectacular.

He shifted his sight and saw that the most powerful cruiser Qiongzhou in the Chu fleet began to approach the north shore defense fort of Lisbon port to shell.

After fighting the fleet, build a strong coastal defense fort, and when the fort is finished, it is almost ready to send troops to land.

The 150mm semi-armour-piercing projectile is still very effective against these antique coastal defense forts. If one hits, it can basically destroy a piece of coastal defense fortification. If you are lucky, you can directly lift the artillery on the fort. flipped.

At the same time, there are a large number of high-explosive grenades fired by 75mm rifled guns to cooperate with the shelling.

With such an intensity of shelling, this kind of coastal defense turret built to fight against sailing warships couldn't bear it at all. Soon the turret was beaten to pieces, and the garrison personnel on it suffered heavy casualties, and some of the rest also ran away. Cleaned up.

At around three o'clock in the afternoon, after confirming that there was no threat from the fort on the north bank, several transport ships carrying the army began to approach, and one of the flat-bottomed landing transport ships specially used for landing rushed directly to the beach.

The multiple 55mm naval guns mounted on the transport ship began to clean up possible enemies near the beachhead, and the covering infantry began to wade and land.

However, this time it was not the local regular army soldiers who landed, but the servant army troops from the Indian Third Division.

A battalion of Indian infantry quickly went ashore, followed by an artillery and cavalry company of native soldiers.

After the landing troops landed, they took the lead in attacking the artillery positions on the north bank, which had been heavily bombarded, and seized the deserted fort, which had become ruins. Then they placed their own 75mm mountain artillery on it, taking advantage of the height to cover the nearby battlefield.

At this time, the Portuguese ground forces also began to gather and want to resist.

At this time, the Portuguese in Lisbon still did not give up resistance. Although the navy failed and the coastal defense fort fell, they still had the army to resist.

They will never give up unless they have to.

It's just that the Portuguese don't have a large population, and the army is pitifully small, and they are not considered a powerful force in Europe.

In such a hasty time, those who can deal with the Chu army's landing force, that is, the local garrison in Lisbon, add up to no more than [-] people...

However, the strength of the Chu army that has landed already has a scale of thousands of people, including more than 700 Indian servants and more than 400 Chu soldiers.

The Portuguese didn't even have much advantage in military strength, let alone the advantage in weapons and equipment.

This is also the tragedy of a small country...even if it wants to do whatever it takes, even if it wants to use human life to fill it up...it doesn't have enough people.

So the Portuguese were defeated without hesitation.

It was not too late, just after five o'clock in the evening that day, the infantry battalion under the Indian Third Division tried to launch an attack, but accidentally overthrew the more than 2000 Portuguese troops on the opposite side.

That is to say, it was already approaching night at this time, and the night gave the Portuguese a breath of breath, or the Chu State's landing army would be able to enter the city of Lisbon that day.

That night, everyone in the Lisbon court was sleepless all night, and the regent Pedro, who liked to eat dumplings, was in a hurry, but there was nothing he could do.

Any indigenous country is helpless in the face of the powerful invasion of the Great Chu Empire!
Just half a day ago, Pedro thought that since he was able to lead his army to resist the Spanish invasion and finally force Spain to fully recognize Portugal's independence, he would naturally be able to lead Portugal to resist the invasion of Chu, maintain the independent status of the Portuguese, and avoid It became an economic colony of Chu people.

But he overestimated himself and Portugal, and even underestimated the Great Chu Empire!
Not to mention resisting the invasion of Chu's regular army, the Portuguese army under him could not even defeat the Indian army, the servant army under Chu's people...

If you can't fight, surrender will damage the national system. What should we do now?
Pedro doesn't know!

But the rest of the court knew it!

In the middle of the night, civil strife broke out in the Portuguese court. The former confidant of the exiled Portuguese King Alfonso VI, Count Castelumellor, took advantage of the chaos and led his private soldiers to attack the court and killed Pedro in the chaos.

Then it was announced that he would welcome back Alfonso VI...

Of course, the premise is to settle the Chu people outside the city first.

Count Castelumellor claimed that Pedro had collaborated with unscrupulous businessmen in an attempt to destroy the friendly business relationship between Portugal and Chu and provoke war.

Now that the culprit has been punished, the Kingdom of Portugal will hold formal negotiations with the Kingdom of Chu to restore peace...

By the way, Count Castelumellor has been envious of the commodity trade of Chu State for many years, but before that, the commodity trade of Chu State was monopolized by the South African company formed by Pedro and his trusted nobles. No chance to intervene.

In war, the old interest system will always fall and a new interest system will be born!

In the current Kingdom of Portugal, Count Castelumellor is the spokesperson of the new interest system!
(End of this chapter)