Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 1489 Beiyang Expedition ([-])
The surrender of the Spanish Grand Treasure Fleet brought a huge surprise to the Beiyang Expeditionary Fleet, not only because of the 85 taels of American silver on the six Great Galenic Warships, but also the six Great Galenic Warships themselves, And captured more than 2000 crew members.

Although Jinghua's warships have their own unique features, and their performance in this actual battle is also good, but as the saying goes, stones from other mountains can be used to attack jade. For the direct capture of Spain's first-class warships to conduct research and comparison, as the commander of the Beiyang Fleet, Gao Zhenxin There is a very clear understanding of this.He knows that he attaches great importance to "Red Fan" with a high degree of pragmatism, which must be a great achievement.

Of course, to a certain extent, these six large galleons themselves are also a fortune.Although it is not clear how much the Spaniards spent on building these warships, according to Jinghua's own situation, the 1200-ton Galen is equivalent to a first-class cruiser, and the cost of a single ship is as high as 16 taels of silver—these six ships Not even cheaper in itself than the American silver it brought with it!
Of course, they are all in a "hanging color" state now, and it may cost a fortune to repair them, but it must be that Beiyang does not have to pay for the money himself.

It's a big profit... Especially this battle was actually fought by the Beiyang Fleet itself. Although the representatives sent by the various nobles were extremely greedy, they couldn't ask for a share of the profit.

However, Gao Zhenxin is well aware of the importance of the "United Fleet" after all, and adhering to Gao's consistent thinking of pragmatism, he estimates that the master will not completely monopolize the money-of course, the "money" is only limited to the 85 taels of American silver seized.So Gao Zhenxin, after arranging the relevant guarding matters, told the representatives of the nobles that he would ask the master for instructions on how to divide the money.

In short, his meaning is very simple. It is impossible for him to decide on the distribution of this money, and it must be handed over to the Maritime Trade Alliance for decision.

All the honorable representatives are very satisfied with this. Although everyone knows that the Maritime Trade Alliance is actually Gao Situ's words, Gao Situ's reputation is good enough. Everyone thinks that the Maritime Trade Union's decision is the most reasonable arrangement.

The six large Galen warships must have been taken by Jinghua himself. This is what Gao Zhenxin is most concerned about now-without him, Gao Zhenxin hopes that these ships will directly serve in the Beiyang Fleet, which will greatly strengthen the combat strength of the Beiyang Fleet.

However, when he went to see the "San Antonio" in person, he had some doubts.Because the shipbuilding ideas of these six ships gave him some headaches.

Jinghua's shipbuilding idea is very clear. The transport ship is only an armed transport ship. No matter how it changes, its tonnage is basically the same, that is, 1600 materials (800 tons).At most, it is to make some internal cabin adjustments to meet the customer needs of export ships.

Their main task is of course transportation, and their armaments are mainly to deter pirates and cooperate with the two ocean fleets when necessary.

In addition to the armed transport ship, it is a pure battleship system.According to the highly pragmatic plan, in addition to the existing third-tier battleships, first-tier cruisers, and second-tier cruisers, Jinghua's battleship system also has second-tier battleships and first-tier battleships.However, the development of the latter two has not yet been completed, let alone started construction - fortunately, Gao Pragmatism has no mandatory time requirements for these two tiers of battleships, it can only be said to be a long-term plan.

But in any case, the tasks of warships at all levels under the battleship system are very clear. They are basically only responsible for fighting. The Marine Corps is not loaded on several warships, because the number of armed transport ships is sufficient.

So when comparing the Spanish Galen Grande, the difference between the two sides is obvious: Although the Spanish Galen Grande sailing ship is also a warship class, due to the different tactical systems of the two sides, the shipbuilding ideas are also very different.

In Gao Zhenxin's view, these six large Galen ships are actually "enlarged versions of armed transport ships".They had a lot of cargo space because of the ocean haul, and because the Spanish navy tended to fight side-by-side, the troop bays were huge and plentiful.

This led to the fact that they are soft-sail warships that need more manpower to operate, but their actual sailors are no different from the number of Jinghua warships of the same tonnage.

According to Gao Musan's face-to-face report to him after the battle, the combat effectiveness of the enemy ship dropped rapidly after being hit. Combat power drops.

Based on these judgments, Gao Zhenxin feels that although these six warships are also very good in themselves, they seem to be a bit uncertain about their own positioning if they are incorporated into Beiyang.What's more, they are still soft-sail warships, which are a bit incompatible with Jinghua's current hard-sail warship system. If they are organized at the same time, they have to consider the issue of different speeds-for example, they may be too fast with the wind and need to retract part of the sail, but the headwind may follow the wind. Not in the Grand Fleet.

"Is the commander thinking about what to do with these ships now?" Gao Musan had a lot of experience after all, and he guessed Gao Zhenxin's thoughts by observing his words, and asked beside him.

Of course Gao Zhenxin would not lie to him, nodded and said: "These are soft sailing boats, and our people may not be able to handle them skillfully. If they are taken all the way to Manila, it is hard to say whether they will be effective. But if their marines are detained and replaced by Our people are going to supervise their sailor manipulation, and there is no guarantee that these people will be able to honestly attack Manila with us...

However, if I send people to escort these ships back now, I can't rely on the marines alone, and I will definitely have to send ships to follow.But we still have to fight in the future. Even if our sea strength is sufficient and we can allocate part of it, the Marine Corps must not be dispatched casually. After all, if the attack on Manila is restricted, this expedition will not be considered perfect. "

Gao Musan nodded and said: "The commander is thinking about it, but I think we can think about it differently. For example, these six ships were not in our plan. The attack on Manila has nothing to do with them... "

"Oh, I know what you mean." Gao Zhenxin responded quickly, and immediately said: "You mean we don't have to consider how taking them to Manila will improve our combat effectiveness, and taking them there is just to save trouble, is that what you mean? ?”

"That's right, that's what it means. Besides, I think there is another benefit in taking them to Manila." Gao Musan blinked and said, "There are nearly 2000 Spaniards on these six big treasure ships, and Spain has a total of almost 2000 people in Manila.

Commander, just imagine how the Governor-General of the Philippines will feel when these six large Spanish treasure ships fly our book and sword flag and [-] captives appear outside Manila under our custody? "

Gao Zhenxin's eyes lit up, and he boasted, "Well, you Gao Musan, you have some skills in attacking the mind!" He cheered up, and walked quickly and said, "I heard from the master that the mainland of Spain should be counted as at least two. The union of two countries, one is called Castile and the other is called Aragon. And the combined population of these two countries is just over 600 million. In this way, even if Castile is stronger, it’s a big deal It has 400 million people.

What is the use of 400 million people?Annan has more than this number [Note: Annan originally had a population of about 500 million. After Jinghua’s vigorous immigration, there are now about 600 million people]!Since their population is so small, the lives of 2000 naval personnel must not be taken lightly.I even doubt...whether these 2000 people can be used to have a good discussion with the Philippine Governor's Palace, such as a deal such as offering the city peacefully. "

Originally, Gao Musan was only thinking of using the capture of six large Galen ships to deter the Governor-General of the Philippines. Who knew that Gao Zhenxin thought of going further, and actually thought of exchanging the captives for the city of Manila.

To be honest, this kind of thinking is quite magical in Takagi-san's view.After all, in Daming, a mere 2000 people is not at the same level as a city with an important stronghold.Many times in Chinese history, in order to defend certain important cities, even if hundreds of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians were killed or injured, that was a common occurrence.

As the ruling center of the Spaniards in the Philippines, will Manila really give up for just 2000 people?Gao Musan was a little skeptical about this.But after he thought about it, he felt that what Gao Zhenxin said made sense. After all, Spain—oh, the population of Castile is really too small.

The loss of 400 people in the Ming Dynasty is really light, but Castile has only [-] million people, so of course the death of [-] people is very painful-this may be equivalent to the loss of [-] troops in the First World War.

One hundred thousand troops, if Ming Dynasty suffered such a loss in World War I, I am afraid that a series of generals will be killed. Is it different in Castile?

When Gao Musan thought about it, he felt that although the commander's idea was a bit magical, he might as well give it a try.After all, in his view, although the Philippines is important, it is not the native land of the Spaniards, and its status is at most equivalent to that of North Korea to Ming Dynasty (this is not accurate, but it can only be compared in Gao Musan's thinking).

So Gao Musan also expressed support for Gao Zhenxin's idea, and Gao Zhenxin made up his mind.He discussed with Gao Yimin first, and asked him to dispatch the marines to the Spanish warships to supervise the sailors to continue sailing, and then sent people to transfer the American silver and other goods from the Spanish Grand Treasure Fleet to Jinghua's ten armed ships. On the transport ship—these ten ships will not return to China, and will still fight with the large fleet, but will not undertake front-line combat missions.

Next, he went to meet Silva and other important prisoners.

Silva's saber had already been handed over to him when he surrendered, and now the commander of the Spanish Grand Treasure Fleet and the six captains are all imprisoned in a certain cabin of the "Liu Rengui".When Gao Zhenxin, Gao Yimin, Gao Musan and others passed by, there was some noise inside.

Gao Zhenxin asked the sailor of the supervising team who guarded them at the door: "What's going on inside?"

A leader of the supervisory team smiled wryly: "The interpreter went in and asked. This group of people said that they are all nobles, and they asked us to provide treatment commensurate with their status - they asked to live in a single cabin."

Gao Zhenxin and the three listened to each other and were speechless.Gao Musan scolded angrily: "Damn it, how dare a group of captives make demands? They don't live in the Chase cabin now, and they think they are not treated well!"

Gao Zhenxin recalled some European traditions mentioned by Gao Yushi when he "trained" them individually, and suddenly said: "Oh, these Spanish officers are all nobles, right? Let the interpreter ask whose title they are Highest, let the person with the highest status and the commander of the fleet come out and talk to me."

The interpreter was quickly called and went in for questioning.Gao Musan asked in surprise: "Isn't the commander of their fleet the highest title?"

Gao Zhenxin shook his head and said: "This is not accurate, just like... If our master leads troops to go out, it wouldn't be surprising if there are several honorable commanders under his command."

Oh, so it is.Gao Musan nodded suddenly.

Not long after, the interpreter brought out two people from the cabin—coincidentally, they were still Silva and Echevari.It turned out that although Silva came from a prominent family, he was not the eldest son, and his father hadn't won any other titles for him, and he himself didn't have that kind of military exploits, but Echevari was a legitimate viscount.

As soon as the two sides met, Silva protested loudly and chatted for a long time.It's a pity that none of the three members of the Gao family can understand Castilian—in fact, they don't speak Castilian, but French.

"What did he say?" Although Gao Zhenxin and the other three were victors, obviously due to their high pragmatic habits, the servant leaders did not necessarily have the habit of making people kneel and talk to prisoners of war, and they just talked about business first.

The interpreter listened for a while, and replied: "He said that he wanted to accuse us of attacking their fleet for no reason. This is the Kingdom of Castile's war behavior. He also said... and said that our behavior is the same as that of pirates. "

Like the pirates, it must mean that Jinghua directly emptied the American silver and other goods on the six large Galen, but Gao Zhenxin rolled his eyes and said: "Tell him, we warned them to stop the ship for inspection, but they refused to stop the ship." Hou Jian, this is what led to the fight, and they should take full responsibility for it."

The interpreter negotiated with Silva, and then said: "He said that we have no right to inspect the naval warships of the Kingdom of Castile, and that this is the territorial waters of the Philippine Governor's Palace of the Kingdom of Castile."

"Huh? The territorial waters of the Philippine Governor's Mansion?" Gao Zhenxin sneered and said, "Tell him that the Luzon Kingdom paid tribute in the third year of Yongle in the Ming Dynasty. It is a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, and I am the master of this territorial waters. As for the Governor's Mansion of Castile and the Philippines...Hmph, as the Suzerain of Luzon, I, Ming, have never recognized this illegal organization."

As soon as these words were conveyed by the interpreter, Silva was obviously a little dazed, and whispered to Echevari for a long time before returning to the interpreter.

The interpreter smiled bitterly and said to Gao Zhenxin: "They said that the legal status of the Philippine Governor's Mansion can only be determined after the discussion between the Emperor of Ming Dynasty and the King of Castile. They are 'willing' to put aside the dispute for the time being and discuss the 'pirate' plundering first. And said that if we do not accept the statement of pirates, we should first return the ships and goods of the Kingdom of Castile, including the silver."
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(End of this chapter)