Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1340 The Rhythm of the Second Anglo-Dutch War? (fifth more)

In late November 1663, the Cape Verde Islands were sunny.

The Cape Verde Islands in autumn and winter are the driest seasons of the year. Even Fogo Island, which has always been known for its relatively high rainfall (last year, people on the east coast measured 495 millimeters of precipitation. Correspondingly, Bo Avesta Island has only 60 millimeters of precipitation, making it the driest island), and there are few raindrops falling from the sky at this time of year, and the whole land is just like the color of its surface, gray, bleak, and lifeless.

Under the influence of this characteristic climate of the Sahara Desert, severe droughts occurred repeatedly in the history of the Cape Verde Islands. In the more than 18 years with data records from the 20th century to the 70s, 200 years were drought years, causing a total of About 58 people died, and most of the deaths were caused by famine—during a drought, due to the lack of rivers and water storage reservoirs on the island, it not only made it difficult for people and livestock to drink water, but also caused a large area of ​​food in the field to fail. This is undoubtedly the most important factor causing the famine, after all, it is too dry here!

However, no matter how many shortcomings the 15 large and small islands of the Cape Verde Islands have, they cannot dispel the coveting of the East Coast Navy.Without him, the geographical location of the Cape Verde Islands is really good. It is located at the hub of three continents, Europe, Asia, and America. Moreover, there is no open-pit coal available for mining on San Vicente Island. The attraction is not so great, and it is no wonder that the Ministry of the Navy has sent a group of warships to form a temporary task force stationed here.

At present, more than 600 people from the East Coast have immigrated to the Cape Verde Islands through various channels, of which 100 are Ming immigrants from Huai’an Prefecture, and the remaining [-] people are forced to migrate from the occupied area of ​​Brazil. Come the Tupi Indians.In addition, there are about [-] Transylvanian prisoner-of-war laborers on the island. Under the guard of dozens of mercenaries on the east coast (hired in Italy), they built a pier on San Vicente Island and leveled it. Roads, and trying to mine coal at the same time, the work is pretty hard.The daily necessities and a supply of water are transported to the island by galley boats twice a day in the morning and evening, so the people on the east coast don’t worry about what happens to these foreign laborers. Once the water is cut off, it will be a dead word. !

The agricultural production of the entire Cape Verde Islands has basically returned to the previous level, except for animal husbandry.As we all know, because the islands of Cape Verde have few rivers, extremely scarce water sources, and lack of large-scale water storage facilities, more than [-]% of the annual rainfall is evaporated by the sun, so agricultural development is extremely difficult, and only a few have seasonality. On the flat land of the river and in a few volcanic fissures with ponds, only limited-scale agriculture can be developed, and most of them are dry farming such as wheat, corn, peanuts, and sorghum. Occasionally, some farmers grow crops around their homes. Some bananas are already rare and good products on the island.

According to a year-long survey conducted by several technicians sent by the local Ministry of Agriculture, less than 15% of the total area suitable for agricultural planting on the 10 islands of the Cape Verde Islands can be transformed into irrigated land The area of ​​arable land is even less than 1% of the entire island, about 3000 hectares (mostly in Santiago Island and San Antão Island), and the rest is dry land (and a considerable part of it is destined to be unusable), which is pitiful enough .

But as mentioned above, the Navy, the Ministry of Communications, the South China Sea Transportation Company and other ministries and commissions have all taken a fancy to this place, so the Executive Committee finally decided to take over the Cape Verde Islands, or at least part of them, as a In the future, it will be a place where ocean-going ships and warships will be docked for supplies, shelter and maintenance. At the same time, it will be able to supplement coal combustion. This is obviously the reason why a considerable number of immigrants and cadres have been sent here to settle here.After all, without these local people, the remaining less than a thousand Portuguese on the Cape Verde Islands are really not reassuring.

On this day in late November 1663, Li Zemin, the second officer and lieutenant of the three-deck battleship "Executive Committee", was wiping his leather boots boredly in the port of Praia. There are no girls, this really makes the eldest son of Minister Li of the Navy very worried.Two merchant ships flying the Dutch flag came to the sea in the distance, but Li didn't care, because there were too many merchant ships from European countries passing through Cape Verde to the Caribbean at this time of year, and the people on the east coast who actually controlled the Cape Verde Islands also These foreign merchant ships are allowed to dock for supplies, as long as you pay a certain amount of entry fees. Anyway, this small squadron of the East Coasters is mooring on Santiago Island at the moment, so there is no need to worry about foreign merchant ships coming to the Port of Playa. What serious threat would it pose.

"The draft of these two Dutch merchant ships is not shallow. They should be fully loaded with daily necessities and headed for Curacao." Lieutenant Li Zemin threw down his broken boots and handed them to a soldier to wipe, while he patted Butt got up, lit a pipe and smoked, looked at the Dutch ships that were slowly lowering their sails and approaching the port, and thought.

On the pier, several Port Authority officials transferred from the mainland stepped forward to negotiate. Behind them were more than a dozen Portuguese troops from the port of Praia. The cheap looks of benefits.Lieutenant Li Zemin stopped looking at this side after he finished smoking. He turned around and looked at the continuous volcano behind him, wondering if he should go for a stroll in the mountains in the afternoon. There are some Portuguese villages there, maybe there is some fun Xun, is it a vacation now anyway? I have nothing to do, and I don’t play for nothing.

Unexpectedly, when he was thinking about where to go to play, the bell tower on the pier not far away was suddenly rang. Li Zemin was a little dazed.The commander of the squadron, Major Huang Yang, is still living in the port. Could it be that Commander Huang personally ordered the bell to ring?

Lieutenant Li guessed rightly. In fact, Huang Yang personally ordered the ringing of the bell this time.According to the regulations, the military officers at all levels in Hong Kong who heard the bell had to arrange the affairs at hand immediately, and then gathered in the Wharf Command for a meeting, while the army officers had to take precautions, and the fort was on alert immediately.

Lieutenant Li Zemin quickly rushed to the headquarters of the Cape Verde Temporary Task Force. Major Huang Yang, who was slightly injured, also sat on the main seat solemnly, looking at the officers under his command.

"Everyone, I just got the news that the British have already moved to the Netherlands." After saying this briefly, Major Huang Yang raised his teacup and signaled his adjutant to elaborate on the news he just got.

The adjutant spoke quickly, but the meaning was clear, that is, they had just received news from a Dutch ship docked at the port that the British "Royal Adventurer African Trading Company" established in 1660 had raided the Dutch West India Company in the last month. Some slave trade strongholds in West Africa, although this is not yet an open confrontation between the two governments, on the surface it seems to be just a common interest competition between colonial enterprises, but considering the deep background of the two companies, no one will take this issue Take it easy, and this is why Major Huang Yang called everyone into a meeting.

As for the Royal Adventurer African Trading Company that popped up suddenly, according to the brief narration of the officials present at the State Intelligence Bureau, this company has shares in Charles II’s younger brother James, and it is a chartered trading company approved by the British government. According to regulations, no less than 1663 African black slaves must be sent to Barbados every year—because of the rise of large plantations in recent years, the white residents of Barbados, at most close to 40, were overwhelmed and emigrated in large numbers. In the North American continent, the local labor force was insufficient, so it could only be supplemented by black slaves—and the company sent as many as [-] slave ships to West Africa in early [-]. The companies invested by the duke and London business leaders are amazing.

Of course, in addition to slave trading, the company's other major business is to collect gold from West Africa for profit, and it seems to have achieved some results so far.For example, in the Gambia River and Guinea, they exchanged (sometimes robbed) a lot of gold from the natives and shipped it to the British mainland. , because the place of origin is Guinea, the British locals call it "Guinea".

The profit of this kind of business is likely to far exceed the profit of the slave trade, because according to the news that the people on the east coast bought it from The Hague, the British seem to be still planning to mint 2 guineas (that is, two pounds) and 5 guineas. Gold coins of Nigerian denomination.The upper echelons of the British political and business circles are very fond of these gold coins, and often inlaid them on their dresses (a pair of nouveau riche style...) to show off their wealth.

But now it seems that the British intend to gradually expand the scale of their slave trade on the basis of continuing to maintain the gold trade. After all, this is also a cash cow.Therefore, you will see that armed merchant ships from the Royal Adventurer African Trading Company attacked several slave shipper stations of the Dutch West India Company in West Africa, adding new variables to this restless world.

"That's the main thing, I've finished." Huang Yang's adjutant finally said: "Because we don't have a complete intelligence network in the UK, many things are based on hearsay from merchant sailors. The information bought by spending money is not very detailed, and it may not be accurate, but it is not a problem to make a rough reference. The British did attack the slave trading station of the Dutch, although this is only an inter-enterprise The behavior may not cause too much fluctuation in the situation for the time being, but no one should take it lightly."

After the adjutant finished speaking, all the officers were lost in thought. Apart from the occasional sound of waves coming from outside the harbor, no one spoke in the room, and the atmosphere was extremely solemn for a while.

"I said, everyone—" Huang Yang put down his teacup when he saw this, cleared his throat, and said, "This is a mess between the Dutch and the British. Why are you all hanging your heads down, as if It’s like our country’s ships attacked the Dutch slave trader’s station. To be honest, this is not a bad thing for our country, maybe it’s a big or small opportunity. This time I call you all to come to the meeting, The main thing is to hear your opinions, not to see your face as if you are facing a big enemy, what does that sound like."

Huang Yang's words heated up the atmosphere in the room again. After digesting the somewhat surprising news, many military officers also began to express their opinions in a few words. The department should be able to step up its activities to see what the three-level councils of the United Provinces think about this matter. The other thing is to find some old friends of the West India Company and listen to the opinions of their company insiders. This should be of great reference value.

"What if this company-level conflict between the UK and the Netherlands turns into an all-out war between the two countries? Then it will be the arrival of our strategic opportunity for the East Coast Republic of China." Lieutenant Li Zemin finally said .

Lieutenant Commander Juan, who has been promoted to the security commander of the naval base in the Cape Verde Islands, also pointed out at the meeting that although this incident seems inconspicuous, it may not cause too much waves in the end, but if the people on the east coast operate well In a word, it may not be able to be used as a weapon in the negotiation—the Portuguese are now trying their best to rely on their relatives in England to help them fight against the people on the east coast. Now that the Royal Adventurer African Trading Company and the Dutch West India Company are engaged, I will ask you Are you scared?

Major Juan’s words brought a smile to the corners of many people’s mouths. Yes, the reason why the Portuguese have been so strong and refuse to submit to the terms of peace proposed by the people on the east coast is not because they are against Britain, France and other countries. Do you have any illusions about your intervention?It's just that now it seems that France has made it clear that it will only give support to the mouth, and will not end in person (to be honest, they do not have the strength to end in person), and the United Kingdom was originally the most hoped by the Portuguese, but this will affect the two countries. The British colonial trading company has blatantly torn its face in West Africa. Can the British still personally help the Portuguese against the East Coast Navy while coping with the pressure of the Dutch?I am afraid that any Portuguese with a bit of IQ will not believe that the British will fight against the people on the east coast as they expected-the Kingdom of Portugal really depends on itself!

The meeting finally ended an hour later. Major Huang Yang, the commander of the Cape Verde Provisional Task Force, called out the only fast liaison ship in the fleet and ordered it to cross the Atlantic westward immediately, and then go to the coast of Brazil to return to the mainland. Pass this important news to the members of the executive committee as soon as possible, so that they can make arrangements for many things in advance.In addition, this news should be notified as soon as possible to Special Envoy Zheng Yong who is negotiating in Palermo Port. I believe he will reassess the current negotiation situation between East and Portugal after learning about this situation.

(End of this chapter)