Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1390 The Smell of Gunpowder ([-])

On March 1665, 3, the huge east coast fleet had to temporarily stop at the port of Brest, France.The reason is that they encountered heavy wind and rain when crossing the Atlantic Ocean, the formation of the fleet was broken up, a ship full of metal utensils, hardware tools, mechanical parts, cables, and canvas sank in the sea, and another older ship Although the escort gunboat barely survived the storm, unfortunately one side of the ship board was broken and the water was seriously flooded. After struggling for a long time, it was finally ordered to abandon the ship.

But then again, the fleet of 20 ships lost only 2 ships in the storm - of course, Captain Cai Anguo didn't know it at this time, because 5 ships were blown away in the storm, and they are still at the moment. Heading towards the Netherlands, but he thinks that these merchant ships that have lost contact are "more ominous and less fortunate"-it is already considered a blessing in misfortune, and it can already be regarded as the great blessing of Tianzun, what else do you want?

The French allowed the docking of the fleet on the east coast and provided maintenance services for the ships on the east coast at a relatively fair price, so that they can pass through the North Sea in a better condition. Captain Cai Anguo was more grateful, and felt that although the Frenchman was too arrogant, he was not without merit.

During the repairing of the ship in Brest Port, Captain Cai Anguo’s adjutant Zhang Zhijun also seized the opportunity to go to the pier to inquire about news—this once made Cai Anguo wonder if he was still secretly working for the National Intelligence Agency—mainly related to England and The news between the United Provinces, this will be in Western Europe, this is also a popular event.

"England and the United Provinces have declared war on each other. I can't remember who declared war first. It must be the British. Anyway, they have declared war on each other. Poor Dutch, their 150 merchant ships detained by the British have officially became their spoils of war." said a German with a big nose, who seemed to be the boatswain on a merchant ship, employed by a Lübeck merchant, and spent many years in North Germany, the United Provinces, the Southern Netherlands, England, Doing business with France, coupled with an optimistic and open-minded nature, and a wide network of contacts, so the news is very well-informed.

In fact, at the docks of European countries at this time, there are many individuals who sell news of this kind.Just as France, England, and Spain love news of the acquisition of the United Provincial Council in The Hague (peddled by local sources), there are quite a few of them on the docks of Brest, such as this Stralsund native. The boatswain of De, who didn't mind earning himself some booze money during his short stay.

"The point is, there is no war between them again?" Second Lieutenant Zhang Zhijun held up his wine glass with his left hand, and secretly handed over a five-yuan silver coin with his right hand, and said, "Isn't it difficult to know this news? The news of the war spread quickly, not to mention how many pairs of eyes are staring at these two countries..."

The boatswain took the silver quickly, and said bluntly, "This East Coast--sir, let my soul go to hell if I deceive you, but I really haven't heard of any The news of the battle of the fleet. I can only say what I know for sure. Now the British have a lot of fleets deployed in the Strait of Dover, most of which are intercepting the passing Dutch merchant ships, but this is not all of their strength. I heard There was a surmise circulating among the sailors, and of course it was only a surmise—”

Second Lieutenant Zhang Zhijun gave the big nose a helpless look, then threw a five-yuan silver coin over, and said, "I don't want you to play any more tricks, sir, you must know that you are not the only one selling news here .”

"Of course." The bosun whistled triumphantly, stuffed the second silver coin into his pocket, and said with a grin: "I heard that the British are gathering strength in secret and are preparing to dispatch a large fleet to intercept the returning Dutch East Indies. The company's merchant fleet. This is a fleet full of spices, gems, silk, porcelain, tea, copper (as ballast), and opium, sesame oil, dyes and other Indian specialties. The goods on it are so valuable that anyone wants to Cut it off and keep it for yourself. You know, one of these ships can be worth three other merchant ships, if I will also look for news about the East India Company fleet, and then designate a blocking plan."

"You have no chance, Stralsund man. You can't be the bosun of a battleship, but the information you provided is still valuable." Zhang Zhijun ended their conversation with satisfaction, and then poured the drinks between the two of them. After paying the meal bill, he quietly disappeared into the crowd.

In the next two days, Second Lieutenant Zhang Zhijun shuttled around the dock again, inquired about a lot of news, and then summarized and analyzed it himself, sorted out the chaff and kept the chaff, and sorted it out into files.In general, England and the United Provinces have declared war on each other, but so far no large-scale decisive naval battle has broken out. This is probably related to the bad weather and the huge wind and waves in the North Sea. It is easy to be scattered by wind and waves, which is the reason why both sides avoid large-scale decisive battles.

But there is no decisive battle, and small-scale destructive battles have always existed.Especially the British, they will continue to send small fleets to intercept Dutch merchant ships and fishing boats in the English Channel and even off the coast of Scotland, causing them to suffer a lot of losses, and the scene is quite passive.But what can be done about this, whoever makes the British guy's geographical location is good, directly stuck in your trade route, can only live with it.

Zhang Zhijun predicted that after the weather improved, both the UK and the Netherlands would gather their respective fleets and look for opportunities for a decisive battle.The Dutch can't drag it on, the longer the time passes, the greater the loss they will suffer from merchant ships and fishing boats scattered everywhere; More than the Dutch sailors, ships and cannons are also superior to each other, so I want to go through a few large-scale decisive battles at sea, severely damage the main force of the Dutch navy, and then force it to negotiate peace and sign a treaty that is beneficial to England-as for completely destroying it now Holland, I'm sorry, the English have never had this idea, because they are not ready to take over, and they don't want the Netherlands to be overly weakened and lead to being taken advantage of by the French, especially when they are not ready case of preparation.

In addition, Second Lieutenant Zhang Zhijun also sorted out the attitude of the French towards the war that took place at their doorstep.Compared with the first Anglo-Dutch war ten years ago, when France was still fighting in Spain and had no time to take care of it, when the second Anglo-Dutch war broke out, the French were full of energy to reap benefits, especially in their country With the end of the war and the inland, and the rapid recovery of industrial and agricultural production, this war is also an excellent opportunity for France to some extent.For example, the Dutch ordered a large amount of food, daily necessities and ordnance from France—mainly army ordnance, because the three-level parliament also had to make preparations for using the army to prevent the enemy from landing if the navy failed—to a certain extent. Promoted the development of French industry and agriculture.

Moreover, the English on the other side of the war are also purchasing goods from France through intermediary merchants (such as the Portuguese) to enrich their domestic material reserves.After all, it is hard to say how long the war will last, and many businessmen have already begun to hoard supplies for a rainy day. For this reason, even the "Navigation Regulations" are ignored-the "Navigation Regulations" stipulate that any goods sold in the UK must be purchased by the country of manufacture. It can be transported by own ships or by British ships (or foreign ships, but the majority of British sailors must be on board), which shows the urgency of the mood.

The urgent demand for French goods in the British market also made King Louis of France, as in history, try his best to postpone the time of declaring war on Britain in order to grab more profits.The United Provinces were naturally very dissatisfied with this. Their ambassadors went to the Louvre or Versailles twice in three days to urge Louis to declare war on England, but each time they were shunned by clever words.

In addition, there is another piece of news that was obtained at no cost, a piece of lace-colored news that was circulated in Paris-this was especially popular among the citizens of Paris and quickly spread to other provinces-it turned out that King Louis XIV of France had disposed of it. His rival in love, former National Finance Director Nicolas Fouquet, successively imprisoned him in the Bastille and Vincennes, and his wealth was also confiscated.

Well, how rich is Lord Fouquet? The castle, manor, and gardens he built cost more than 1800 million livres (the annual fiscal revenue of the French government at that time was only about 9000 million livres). The degree of luxury even exceeds that of Louis XIV's Saint-Germain and Fontainebleau villas, which shows its degree of luxury.

In addition, in order to pursue Miss Lavalier, this fellow planned to give 20 livres to her.Tragically, Miss Lavalier refused the gift, and then Louis XIV, who was also full of admiration for her, knew about it, and then there was no more - Fouquet was captured by Louis' musketeer captain Louis de Barthez (one of the protagonists in the novel "Three Musketeers") was arrested on charges of embezzlement of public funds and selling officials to sell nobles. After three years of delay, 22 of the 9 judges recommended the death penalty and 13 recommended exile, so he was finally released. Imprisoned in Pinherol Castle.

The property of Nicolas Fouquet was confiscated, which made the government of the Kingdom of France more financially rich. A series of workshops were established in Calais, Le Havre, Paris, Lyon, Bordeaux, Nantes and other places, and through the second The east wind of the Anglo-Dutch War began to export aggressively, and made a lot of profits.Moreover, the French are also trying their best to improve their technical level. While introducing various relatively advanced technologies from the Netherlands, they also import a large amount of mechanical equipment and parts from the east coast. Some people even vaguely heard that there are businessmen in France They are somewhat interested in the steam engine that has been used to pump water in Newcastle in the UK, but considering the high cost and frequent failures (the three equipment sent to the test failed in less than a month), they Give up sensibly.

Lieutenant Zhang Zhijun was extremely happy to get so much important information in one place, so after giving a copy of the information to his immediate superior, Captain Cai Anguo, he went back to his room to write the report.

The people on the east coast did not stay in the port of Brest for too long. On March 1665, 3, after all the ships were repaired and replenished, the east coast fleet, consisting of 25 ships, set sail in turn. , left the port of Brest, adjusted the yards, and headed for Amsterdam in the United Provinces.

On March 3, the East Coast Flotilla passed safely through the Strait of Dover without being attacked or intercepted by anyone.During the period, a light ship from the British Navy came to check, but after seeing the flag of the East Coast Republic of China hanging on the mast and the sailors from the East Coast walking around on the deck, they left slowly without further entanglement. This seemed to show the attitude of the British, and at the same time, Captain Cai Anguo was greatly relieved.

In addition, there was an unexpected surprise that they encountered a flute transport ship that had lost contact in the previous storm in the Strait of Dover.Laden with flour, butter, and cheese, the ship was plodding toward the United Provinces with a few damaged sails.Captain Cai Anguo was very happy to see them, and immediately sent a small boat to deliver supplies, and at the same time sent them back to the team, and sailed towards Amsterdam together.

Later on March 3, the east coast fleet safely arrived at the busy port of Amsterdam, and moored near Tethyr Island in the open sea, waiting for the echo of the Dutch.At this time, they saw a medium-sized Dutch fleet leaving the port, and it seemed to be fully armed.After inquiring, they learned that they were going to the Spitsbergen Islands at this moment, where a large number of Dutch whaling ships, processing ships and fishing ships had gathered, because it was rumored that the English would send a fleet to attack the local islands. Dutch ships, so the three-level parliament sent such a small fleet to escort them, so as not to be taken by the British and cause unnecessary losses.After all, the income from whale products, even for the rich and powerful United Provinces, cannot be called a small amount, and must be properly protected.

The arrival of the east coast fleet quickly aroused the interest of the Dutch. They immediately completed the entry procedures with the highest efficiency, and halved the entry fees for all ships-of course, import and export duties cannot be reduced or waived.

After the ships entered the port and moored in place, the major commercial banks that ordered such goods immediately sent their personnel to deliver the goods with the Dongan people. All the money was transferred from the special account opened by the Dongan people in the Exchange Bank in Amsterdam, which was very convenient.For other goods ordered by the government, such as ship equipment (ordered by the Ministry of the Navy), special personnel also came to carefully count, inspect, and deliver. The whole process was carried out in an orderly manner, and it lasted until the afternoon of the third day.

To be honest, the Dutch were both happy and disappointed with the trip of the ships on the east coast. They were happy that a large amount of food, daily necessities, textiles, medicines and other urgently needed supplies during the war were brought in, but they heard that the ships full of artillery had been lost in the storm. After contacting, the Dutch also sighed heavily, and then involuntarily repented to God. They felt that this must be the Lord punishing their daily actions, otherwise how could they be so unlucky?

You know, artillery is really in short supply now, the United Provinces have no production capacity, and the production capacity of their workshops invested in Sweden is extremely limited, they can only be imported from France and parts of Germany (even placed orders from Venice and Milan , it's really scary...), if you can't continue to purchase a sufficient amount of artillery, then the prospects of the United Provinces in this war will be a bit bad-think about it, the combat effectiveness and fighting will are not as good as the British , If there is no sufficient equipment, then there is no need to fight this battle, just surrender and count the ball!

Captain Cai Anguo, who escorted all the way to Amsterdam, expressed his understanding of the disappointment of the Dutch, but there is an unexpected situation, Tianzun wants to take your boat and guns, what can you do?For the current plan, we should face it positively and quickly purchase a large number of artillery from other places for preparation (although this is very difficult). At the same time, the people on the east coast will also send the news back to the mainland as soon as possible, so that they can step up production and send a batch over there. .This time they took the African route, trying to reach the United Provinces in a little over three months, so they must not miss the upcoming naval battle.

The people on the east coast said so, and the Dutch could only agree, who made them really unlucky.

(End of this chapter)