Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1297 Promoting Peace by Fighting ([-])

On January 1662, 1, off the coast of Situbar.

Situbal is actually quite famous in Portugal and even Western Europe. Without him, it is rich in white table salt, which was once sold to half of Europe. Of course, it was thanks to the Dutch. The Portuguese handed over the salt of Situbal to The Dutch were able to greatly increase their market share and crush their biggest competitor, salt from Nantes, France.Therefore, in the final analysis, there are still some family backgrounds here, at least it is not a poor area, and it is worth visiting by the officers and soldiers of the East Coast Navy.

The sky was clear and the visibility on the sea was excellent on this day. While waiting for the ships returning from the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, the fleet of the people on the east coast planned to slap the Portuguese severely in the face, so that their heads would be sober. I always feel that I am awesome, and continue to raise some unrealistic conditions that confuse everyone.

Ever since, Lieutenant Colonel Wang Tiehammer ordered that the entire fleet carry out "routine" (meaning to do it from time to time in the future) bombardment operations against the Portuguese coastal towns.As for the first step, the repair ship "Sea Engineer" sailed into the bay with a faster speed, and first carried out a fire reconnaissance (mainly to find out the position of the enemy's fort and the number of artillery pieces). action for reference.

However, before attacking the small town of Xitubal, it seems that the warships of the people on the east coast can also do some warm-up exercises, such as bombarding other small towns or fishing villages in the offshore, and if possible, send people ashore to reap some benefits.

And the first target to be chosen was the poor fishing port of Sesimbra. On the morning of January 1, due to the unfavorable wind direction, many ships on the east coast, including the escort gunboat, could only adjust their course along the near-shore ocean current, and then followed the northeast wind to the port of Sesimbra. The starboard guns fired ashore.

Strictly speaking, the conditions in the Port of Sesimbra are actually good, and the near-shore water is deep enough for large ships to approach.The only disadvantage is probably that the harbor is too wide, which makes it impossible to effectively weaken and block the large waves coming from the ocean in bad weather, and cannot provide adequate shelter for anchored ships-but anyway, the excellent water depth conditions of Sesimbra Port At this time, it became her reminder——

At seven o'clock in the morning, the sea breeze is blowing, and the military flag is flying.The mighty East Coast Fleet lined up along the coastal waters and sailed westward, with the escort gunboats in front and the battleships in the rear, using hundreds of side guns to bombard all the targets on the shore that they thought were valuable.Under their artillery fire, churches, residential buildings, warehouses, outposts, docks, and markets have all become targets of artillery fire. Although the Portuguese had already had a certain amount of warning time (Gein's warships on the east coast had huge targets, easy to spot), but they still suffered heavy losses due to the lack of training of the population and the slow transmission of information.

The starboard side of the sixth-ranked "Big Red Squid" was firing fiercely. With relaxed smiles on their faces, the gunners fired hateful shells at the Portuguese villages and towns on the shore at the speed of training.Thanks to their efforts, the Portuguese on the shore suffered huge casualties, and a large number of buildings were "patronized" by hollow iron bullets. If they were not made of stone or brick, they would be damaged immediately, and the people living in them had to panic They ran out of the house in a panic, but this often caused them to suffer greater casualties-solid iron bullets jumped and flashed in front of the ground or walls, and every time they hit the crowd, they could often create some casualties, and those who fell in the middle were killed instantly , Those who stick to it will die, and those who rub it will be injured...

Lieutenant Cai Anguo stood in the bridge of the stern tower, calmly raised his binoculars and looked towards the shore, and saw a large area of ​​withered yellow grass and farmland (there seemed to be no overwintering wheat in the field). The relatively neat fruit trees and olive trees are estimated to be specially managed by someone.There are water wells at intervals beside the fruit forest. The sharp-eyed Lieutenant Cai Anguo even noticed that there were two dumped buckets and a suspected hat beside a certain well, which should have been discarded by panicked fruit farmers when they fled. yes.

"I heard from the comrades who came to bombard Portugal last time that the southern Algarve area is extremely poor, and the only export goods are wool, and the scale is just that, so-so. It is said that many times it is not enough to come to pull goods. The cabin of a transport ship. It is said that there are mineral deposits in the mountains, but there is not enough manpower to mine them, and the handicraft industry is also withered. In such an area, it is no wonder that they have no motivation to go ashore to rob." Lieutenant Cai Anguo said to himself while watching said eloquently.

"I heard that the Kingdom of Portugal had a population of 200 million in the last century, but it was greatly weakened by excessive overseas immigration, sea expeditions, famine and plague, and it dropped to 100 million. Haha, it's really scary. Well, it seems that it has only recovered to more than 160 million now. , This is probably related to their continuous overseas colonization and local wars, and our country will try to avoid this in the future." Second Lieutenant Zhang Zhijun, the first officer, also stood by the window at some point, and said to Cai Anguo.

"The population is small, and the hinterland behind the port is too narrow. This is probably the main reason why Portugal's local trade has always been tepid. Whether it is Porto's wine or Algarve's wool, they cannot escape the shackles of population and land. Of course, my statement may be inaccurate. I heard from the group of people who bombarded the Minho River last time that many places in the nearby Portuguese countryside were completely half-abandoned. You can see wild wolves wandering in groups in the wild. Perhaps, if there is a strong demand in foreign markets, the Portuguese trade can still develop. For example, the British reduce the import share of French and Italian wines and switch to Import more wines from Porto, so that their economy should improve to some extent." Cai Anguo said, still holding his binoculars intently.

While the two were talking, the escort gunboat "Anchovy" sailing ahead had sunk two Portuguese fishing boats, and forced several fishing boats of the same type to surrender with a white flag. The people on the east coast quickly sent sailors to disembark to receive the spoils Of course, most of the Portuguese fishermen abandoned their boats decisively, jumped into the sea, and swam back to the shore.But they are just lingering for a while. After the bombardment, Wang Tiehammer will deploy his men to land ashore and rob the whole city.As for the manpower for the landing operation, it is very simple. Some of them are composed of naval sailors, some of them are composed of officers and soldiers of the Black Eight Banners, and some of them are drawn from the purchased Moldavian prisoners of war. It shouldn't be difficult to retreat after a while - although this place is very close to Lisbon, the capital of the Portuguese king, if the battle is resolved quickly, it should not be blocked by the enemy.

The shelling continued, and the city of Sesimbra in Cai Anguo's vision began to disintegrate little by little, first the towering church steeples, then the bustling market, and then several warehouses, and the tarpaulins on the roof It was ignited by a hot bomb fired from an unknown ship-probably a battleship-and then the whole thing burned up, which added to the chaos of the town. Some brave Portuguese residents braved the artillery fire to start fighting the fire.

"Boom! Boom!" Multiple 18-pound and 12-pound hollow iron bullets fired from the starboard side of Cai Anguo's ship hit a barn on the outskirts of the small town of Sesimbra.Two pillars of the barn were planned, and the whole collapsed. Several frightened horses broke free from their restraints and ran out neighing.They are lucky, no longer need to stay in the small town to be shelled, and can roam freely in the wild.

Compared with them, people were not so lucky: an elderly priest stood anxiously at the door of the church, waving his hand to let everyone hide in the relatively strong church. The stones fell off and directly hit many Portuguese people including the priest, directly causing a tragic death and injury accident.

Similar scenes abound. After the large-scale shelling lasted for three full hours, it is estimated that there is no relatively completed building in the small town of Sesimbra, and the narrow streets are also full of sundries and Human and animal corpses, the whole town seemed to have experienced an eight-magnitude earthquake, which was horrible.

After the shelling was over, it was time for the landing scene. Seven or eight warships carrying landing officers and soldiers slowly drove into the only facility in the harbor that was not destroyed: the pier.Two hundred carefully selected sailors, more than 400 Black Banner officers and soldiers, and more than [-] Moldavian prisoners of war—in order to motivate them to fight bravely, Lieutenant Colonel Wang Tiehammer has promised to give them the status of free citizens after returning, although I don't know the effect, but it's more or less an incentive—it's ready to go, and then divided into more than a dozen small boats, carrying muskets and cold weapons, struggling to board the pier, and quickly marched into the town.

The less intense battle broke out in the town after more than ten minutes. The Moldavians wearing leather armor and holding sabers slashed and killed every Portuguese who was still standing there resisting; the heavily armed Black Banners The officers and soldiers guarded the side, and they were already dressed up, and they kept stabbing every Portuguese they met on the street with their spears. Many of them might not be soldiers, but just guys who were frightened by the shelling and ran around. It was a moment of bad luck for them, basically under the 3.5-meter spears of the black Eight Banners officers and soldiers; from time to time, some Portuguese armed with muskets shot at the landing officers and soldiers, but they obviously could not compete with more than 200 muskets and more than [-] guns. Compared with the east coast sailors with small guns, they were quickly beaten into a sieve.

Half an hour later, most of the blocks in the small town of Sesimbra were occupied by people from the east coast. The Portuguese residents either died in the shelling and the fighting just now, or fled inland. Hundreds of people crowded into the small church. Dozens of men held muskets and halberds, and blocked the door with pale faces, watching the officers and soldiers on the east bank slowly approaching with desperate eyes.

"Boom! Boom!" Two cannons rang out, and the grape bullets shot out like a fan and swept towards the door of the church. Part of it hit the wall, peeling off a large amount of dust and debris. Some marbles hit the gate, destroying more than 20 brave Portuguese men and the simple obstacles they made. The whole scene was extremely bloody, and the children and women in the church screamed in shock.

After firing these two cannonballs, Lieutenant Zhou Yu, who was in charge of the landing battle, waved his hand, and the Portuguese Governor Assuncao who had surrendered in Cape Verde rolled over and persuaded the residents in the church to surrender in Portuguese, because resistance was meaningless , will only increase casualties in vain.Perhaps it was the bloody shelling just now that knocked down the last courage of the Portuguese. A total of 235 residents crowded in the church surrendered collectively and unconditionally. On the transport ship outside, as for their future fate, no one knows—of course, not everyone in the church is willing to surrender. The 4 clergy and 9 Portuguese soldiers refused to surrender, and then the people on the east bank fired a volley of guns. Shooting made their wishes come true.

"The quality of the residents in this small town is poor, not as good as the residents of the town at the mouth of the Minho River that was bombarded last year. Those people even built a parapet overnight and gathered at least two hundred determined men to resist, which finally made us We failed to plunder there, and of course this was also related to our relatively small number of people at that time and our impromptu intention.” A naval officer who participated in the bombardment mission last year talked about the past, and soon aroused the approval of others.

"That time there were few boats and few people, and our will to attack was not firm. We retreated when we met a little resistance. Officer Ding obviously didn't want to increase casualties. This time is different. We have hundreds of mercenaries leading the battle. The resistance of the citizens of Simbra was not firm enough, so we naturally captured them easily. But how do we deal with these captured Portuguese, there are men, women and children.” Someone asked this question.

"Probably bring them back to the mainland, and then maybe work as undocumented laborers. There is no possibility of becoming a regular worker until the number of years is enough. In addition, they may be exiled to overseas colonies. After all, these people may have relatives The dead and injured are under our artillery fire, and they must be full of hatred for us. Who can rest assured if they are not exiled overseas? Well, I think exile in South Africa will be cheaper for them, maybe the hot Xinhua Island, the barren Australia and the ice and snow The Sakhalin Island is their best destination."

"No, according to the recent processing mode of the Portuguese colonists in Brazil, these people are likely to be resold to the Courlands, and then work in the lumber field, tobacco plantation and cotton plantation in the Congo area. But they are all white, which has some advantages in New Courland, and they should get an official status after working for many years. But who knows, I don’t bother to care about these crap things.”

The chirping discussions were quickly interrupted by Lieutenant Zhou Yu who came with a command saber. The captain of the frigate "Golden River Tiger" was full of depression at this time, and when he saw some officers chatting here, he suddenly became angry Come, and immediately shouted at them: "What are you doing here? Hurry up and carry the supplies for me! The flour, olive oil, cured meat, dried fruits, wine, cattle and sheep in the houses are all transported to me by boat; The cash, gold and silverware, books and works of art in the council, warehouses and churches are all removed by me; in addition, there is a pasture on the outskirts of the town, and there should be some horses in it that have not gone far. They are very valuable, so go and collect them; By the way, the orchard, the salt field, and the fish market are also going to send people. You, you, and you, bring a team of mercenaries, go and come back quickly! Everyone, move immediately, don’t let me rush! Now we The news of the shelling of the small town of Sesimbra may have reached the royal palace in Lisbon. The enemy army may arrive at any time. If you don’t act quickly, are you going to wait here for the Portuguese army to come and treat you to dinner? Work quickly !"

When everyone heard the words, they immediately dispersed, and then went to work with their own hands.They were efficient, and although they were doing "garbage picking" jobs (that is, searching for valuables in bombarded cities), most operations were over within two hours.

At two o'clock in the afternoon, the people on the east coast had quickly evacuated to the big boat, gathered together more than a dozen Portuguese fishing boats left on the sea, and burned them all, which was regarded as a perfect event for this operation. footnote.At this time, the "Maritime Engineer" that was sent to investigate the area around Bar Bay in Xitu had also returned, and the naval officer onboard reported to Commander-in-Chief Wang Tiehammer that the port of Bar in Xitu was not large in scale, and there were basically no decent coastal defense facilities. , the water depth in the bay is also good-this is no nonsense, otherwise why there are Dutch merchant ships coming in and out all year round to transport salt-it can completely accommodate the large fleet of people from the east coast.Of course, just to be on the safe side, they don't plan to drive most of the ships in, otherwise they will be caught by others, which is always a trouble.

At three o'clock in the afternoon, Wang Tiehammer ordered the dispatch of five ships, including two battleships, a water supply ship, an ammunition supply ship and a repair ship, to carry some sea and land officers and soldiers to Xitu Bar Harbor.The combat mode is the same as the small town of Sesimbra, that is, after the artillery plows the land, people are sent to land ashore, and the battle is quick, and the money and people are evacuated immediately, and they will never stay, so as not to be taken advantage of by the enemy.As for why you didn’t send flute-shaped transport ships or escort gunboats to follow in, this is purely because the wind direction (northeast wind) and currents are unfavorable (the water in the bay flows outward). It is quite difficult for ships without steam power to enter the port, so they can only Send in ships that have been equipped with steam propulsion systems.

After the five ships left with hundreds of officers and soldiers on board, Lieutenant Colonel Wang Tiehammer ordered the rest of the ships to form a formation outside the port in case they were attacked by the enemy fleet—although it was unlikely, one must know that the Portuguese navy The fleet is not exhausted, and they are stationed in the mouth of the Tejo River, which is far away from here, and it may not take a day to drive from there.It would be a big joke if they let them sneak attack at night and caused the loss of the ships of the people on the east bank. The way of liaison is to keep in touch with each other so as not to suffer undue losses in the dark of night.

In this way, I waited until four or five o'clock in the morning the next day. Everything was normal and nothing happened.At this time, the five ships puffing out black smoke (they lowered most of their sails, because the wind at sea gradually increased and the speed of the ships was too fast) also returned to the voyage again, and were spotted by the battleship "Executive Committee" cruising outside .It was also at this time that the news that the Port of Situ Bar, the Kingdom of Portugal, was breached and plundered by the people on the east coast officially spread throughout the entire fleet.Also too uplifting!

Lieutenant Colonel Wang Tiechui summoned the officials of several ships on the return journey to come over for questioning, and learned that this small formation sailed to the sea off Situbal Port at dusk. Because of the dark sky and unfamiliar with the hydrological conditions, he was a little afraid to go up. front attack.Later, the "Sea Engineer" who had been here took the lead, and the two battleships slowly followed up, and used broadside artillery (nearly [-] heavy artillery pieces in total) to bombard the enemy port at close range. The attacks on Raya Port and the small town of Sesimbra were exactly the same. At that time, the enemy also made some counterattacks, but they were weak and unable to cause enough deterrence to the ships on the east coast, so they simply misfired after hitting the back.

After several rounds of bombardment, it was estimated that the whole town had fallen into chaos under the ravages of the large-caliber naval guns of the people on the east coast, and the officer leading the team immediately ordered the army soldiers to land at night.There were more than [-] army officers and soldiers who landed, and everything went smoothly when they advanced from the pier to the core of the town. , the folk customs are weak, far inferior to the brave and brave people in the northern mountainous area. When they were rushed by the five hundred troops on the east bank, they were defeated without even a decent resistance, and then fled everywhere, and they couldn't catch up. .

However, after the enemy army capable of fighting fled, the people on the east bank did not dare to stay in the town for long. The officers led their soldiers to knock on doors from house to house, openly carrying out organized and orderly robbery operations, and took Xitubaer The wealth accumulated in Hong Kong over the years was swept away—at the same time, there were even more than 400 Portuguese residents who were born and raised in the city. In the end, these "wicked" guys who were smoking were setting fires in many places in the town, directly burning almost In half a small town, Wang Tiechui and others were really speechless when they heard it. They were so hateful. The Portuguese will definitely be very impressed by this in the future.

After the two small towns were defeated, the people on the east coast did gain a lot of loot, but most of them were flour, cured meat, salted fish, olive oil, dried fruit, wine, cheese and other food, in addition to some chickens, ducks and geese. Livestock such as horses, cattle, sheep, and horses were also carried on board, and these could be killed during the voyage to supplement fresh meat for everyone.

In addition, there are very few valuable things, including various gold and silver coins worth more than [-] yuan, gold and silver wares collected from churches, a few works of art and a whole three ships (the boat), the harvest really can’t be said to be rich, it can only be said to be so-so.Fortunately, they are not here to make money, but to hit the morale of the Portuguese, and then achieve the goal of promoting peace, isn't it?

(End of this chapter)