Opening game, American Tycoon

Chapter 197 Caribbean Ghost (First update, please subscribe)
May 1863, 5 AD.

This will be a day destined to be remembered in history.

A few hours after the sun rose, Nanhua Bay was still shrouded in layers of mist.At this time, a steamboat carrying a group of people with a special mission was slowly and solemnly sailing towards the mouth of the bay.Dozens of members of the mission, led by the two gentlemen, gathered on the promenade deck of the ship.

One of them was a Westerner with a big black beard, wearing a suit and a top hat. He was Rhys Angle, and he was the translator of the mission.

The other is the focus of everyone. He stands upright, looks solemn and solemn, and is also wearing a black suit. As the head of the mission, Zuo Zongtang, today he will lead a mission of 58 people and 137 overseas students to set foot on the the road of the expedition.

These people of all ages represent China's past and future.

Just as the "New Hope" sailed out of the bay, a booming salute sounded from the fort at the mouth of the bay...

In the sound of the gun salute, Zhu Xianhai looked solemn, staring at the steamboat far away, he said silently in his heart.

"I hope that after you come back, you can bring a better future to this area."

Along with the steamship "New Hope" sailing out of the bay, there was another steamship, a fast steamship of more than [-] tons. Unlike ordinary steamships, it had a lower freeboard and even no The tall mast—that's the Nanhua Clipper.

To the outside world, the "South China Clipper" is not well-known, but in the Caribbean, it has another famous nickname-"Caribbean Ghost".

The so-called "Caribbean ghosts" are actually high-speed smuggling boats.It was a steam ship known for its speed. Until now, no one knew where those ships were built, or even where they started from.

But what is certain is that these ghost ships brought too many military supplies to the south.

Since the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, the Northern Navy began to implement a maritime blockade against the South, and now the Northern Navy's maritime blockade has become more and more stringent.By the end of 1864, more than 470 Confederate blockade warships were in service, large enough that not a single ship could sneak through the blockade.

Although the Northern Navy only implemented a symbolic blockade at the beginning of the war, Zhu Xianhai has been thinking about how to break through the blockade after learning the lessons of successive setbacks in the simulator against South American fire smuggling.

The easiest way is to build a high-speed smuggling ship—just like the "big fly" on the coast of another time and space, breaking through the sea blockade at high speed.

In fact, this is also the most common method used by Nanhua and federal smugglers in the simulator. In the late war, the typical ship that broke through the blockade was the Wald ship built in the United Kingdom. It has a shallow draft, extremely low freeboard, and almost no superstructure. , the engines are also mounted as low as possible in the hull, the long hulls of these ships are slender, but as much space as possible inside the boat is handed over to the cargo.The hull is graceful and streamlined, curved with the hull, the stern is rounded to reduce wake turbulence, and the bow is designed into a graceful bow to keep the bow low in the water.

Although this kind of ship has an extremely low freeboard and fast speed, it is not easy to break through the late breakthrough of the Northern Navy.However, the Wald ship improved by Nanhua is completely different. Compared with the original 150 or 200 horsepower diagonal engine of the Wald ship, Nanhua Shipyard directly replaced it with a 1000-1500 horsepower triple-expansion steam engine. Its speed increased to a whopping 18 knots!
In this era, such a high-speed breakthrough ship is definitely an existence against the sky!With the launching of high-speed breakthrough ships, the trade between Nanhua and the Confederacy is constantly strengthening.The tens of thousands of tons of supplies brought by the breakthrough ship also became a blood-drawing machine for the Yankees to bleed.

……

In the early morning, the harbor was as quiet as before. Although the south has not lost all the harbors, as the blockade in the north is getting tighter, few ships can sail into the harbor.

Although there was a little sea fog on the sea, there were many Confederate soldiers standing on the fort fortress, all of them were looking at the sea helplessly.

"Is the ghost ship coming?"

"Don't worry, there will definitely be a ghost ship breaking through the blockade of the Yankees, don't worry!"

"I'll bet a dollar that no ships will come today. I heard the Yankees have dozens of warships in order to stop the ghost ships. I dare say that even the "Sea Fox" may not be safe. Put the boat into Richmond!"

The "Sea Fox" that the soldiers called is the most famous captain in the smuggling circle of the Confederacy. A year ago, after his ship appeared in this sea area, he broke through the blockade of the Northern Navy dozens of times and brought a large amount of supplies to the Confederacy. , hence the nickname.

These sailors didn't know that while they were chatting, in the deep sea less than a hundred nautical miles away from Richmond, there was a steamboat with a low freeboard, and even the sides were painted with blue, white and black stripe camouflage. , is sailing slowly, its speed is not fast, on the lonely mast, there are two watchmen standing, they are observing the situation at sea.

"Captain, no Federation warships are found nearby."

"there must be!"

Lin Yuehu narrowed his eyes and sneered.

"They must be waiting for us nearby, now..."

No sooner had he finished speaking than the lookout on the mast shouted.

"A plume of smoke is found at 8 o'clock on the port side!"

Pillar of smoke!

Not the mast, the lookout shouted again as he picked up the binoculars and looked to port.

"Found in two smoke columns..."

"Captain, could it be a smuggling ship?"

The answer, obviously, is no.

"It is impossible for two breakthrough ships to appear at the same time. They must be the ambush navy..."

Lin Yuehu held the binoculars in one hand and shouted.

"Listen to my order, pressurize the ventilation, and move forward at full speed..."

Now there is no need to hide it, speed is the foundation of a breakthrough, and soon, this breakthrough ship, which was painted with camouflage and was not very obvious at sea, began to accelerate continuously, rising towards the land.Although it uses the finest Welsh anthracite coal, the smoke column from the chimney is still extremely obvious.

While it was accelerating, the federal navy in the distance immediately spotted them, and soon, water columns rose up around it, and Lin Yuehu completely turned a blind eye to this.

"speed!"

As long as the speed is fast enough, they can only eat ashes behind their buttocks!
"Damn it, what ship is this?"

The major on the Federation steamship complained angrily.

"How could their ships be so fast? If they were all ships like this, it would be impossible to intercept them with the broken ships we captured..."

Even if they are now using the best steamships in the world—that is, those steam smuggling ships paid by the southerners, they want to intercept these Caribbean ghosts.But still can only follow their ass to eat ashes.

They could only watch those ghost ships quickly leave their sight.After all, those ghost ships were almost twice as fast as them.

In fact, it's not that fast, but it's only about 20 knots.But in this era, this speed is absolutely amazing.

Looking at the ghost ship going away, the US Navy officer on the steamer couldn't help but swear.

"Their boat must be equipped with the latest British steam engine! Otherwise, it would be absolutely impossible to run so fast!"

"Damn Brits! If there weren't some Brits, maybe this war would have been touched."

Of course, when these people cursed the British, they didn't know that these ships were actually from another unknown place in the southern hemisphere.

These ships were rebuilt from the beginning to smuggle arms to the south, just to let the south continue the war.

In fact, almost every country is now exporting arms to the south, but except for these ghost ships, most of the other smugglers are just small-time individuals - and these ghost ships come from Nanhua!

　A book friend group has been established: 335260551, everyone is welcome to join, discuss the plot together, and deduce the plot.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)