Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1474 Delicate East-British Relations ([-])

On May 1667, 5, when the Caribbean Sea was turbulent and the East Coast Army was attacking the city, the East Coast Fleet, which had gathered in Bilbao Port, had already left the port for a long time. They were currently looking for the main force of the French Navy Decisive battle, in order to quickly solve this trouble.

The scale of this fleet is not small, and its strength is extremely strong. There are eight "August 26th" class battleships, two "Jiqi" class escort gunships, and eight "Madao" class sail escort gunboats, with a total of [-] ships. battle ships.In addition, there are two fresh water supply ships, two ammunition supply ships, one coal carrier, one repair ship, one troop carrier, and one medical ship. The entire fleet has a total of [-] ships with a total tonnage of nearly [-]. Four thousand tons is definitely a large fleet, higher than the total tonnage of many small countries in Europe.

Such a large-scale fleet also came to Spain successively through several escort batches, and then assembled at the port of Bilbao in the Bay of Biscay area, preparing to participate in the battle against France.It is worth mentioning that Major Jiang Yaohui was transferred from the Deputy Commander of the Third Fleet to command the Spanish Temporary Task Force this time, and his deputy was the experienced veteran Major Ston who was transferred back from the Far East.The combination of one middle school and one old man, all of whom are generals from this time and space, almost all the time-traveling people have withdrawn from the front-line combat positions, seems to be able to declare the end of an era.

The large fleet is stationed in the port of Bilbao, so it is naturally impossible to be completely silent, not to mention that the two countries are transparent to each other, and the marriages of nobles are frequent, so no news can be kept for a long time, unless a few people deliberately keep it secret (such as things The secret of the covenant is kept secret until the last moment).Therefore, the French had known about the arrival of the East Coast Fleet several months ago, and vaguely understood the existence of the East-West Confidentiality, but they still invaded the Southern Netherlands without hesitation, which shows their firm determination and extreme confidence in this war.

Of course, the self-confidence of the French comes from their victorious army, abundant population resources, and strong national power, but for the fact that the national power has not yet been effectively transformed into maritime combat power-the five-year 1665 heavy warship construction plan formulated in 65 Some of the funds have just been put in place—for the Kingdom of France, their navy is now at its weakest, and if they rashly face the navy of the pagans on the east coast, which is known for being elite and good at fighting, it is afraid that they will go to the tiger's mouth and give away their heads in vain. .

Therefore, the French navy ran away shamefully, to the Dunkirk fortress that King Louis spent a lot of money to build these years, and hid under the protection of coastal defense heavy artillery, in vain trying to leave some naval seeds for France.But it’s hard to say whether this is a good thing or a bad thing. Although the navy is a technical arm and it’s not easy to cultivate talents, it also required blood and courage in the 17th century. You can hide now, but it’s not because of avoiding war. Did you also avoid your own morale?When the first round of your navy's shipbuilding plan was completed in 1670, France had hundreds of heavy warships and tens of thousands of naval officers and soldiers. The scale seemed huge, but was the combat power really good?Is the quality really high?Don't you really panic and even run away during the battle?Not necessarily!

The news of the escape of the French fleet has not yet been fully known to the people on the east coast (this blame has to be borne by the Spanish intelligence agencies), but the Spaniards also vaguely told them that the French might avoid fighting, which makes people scratch their heads.The existence of fleets has always been the most annoying thing for naval powers, because even if they dare not go to war, the existence itself is a threat, and it will inevitably restrain some ships on the east coast itself, so that they do not have enough combat power to carry out other operations. Activity.

"How many French naval ports are there in the Bay of Biscay?" On the bridge on the second floor of the stern tower of the "National Will" battleship, the gray-haired Major Ston had just put down his binoculars and turned to Major Jiang Yaohui, who was in his prime, and asked: "I remember only the port of La Rochelle, maybe half of the port of Brest? Decades ago, I often traveled to France. Nantes and Bordeaux were the most frequented places. These are famous Great commercial port. Ah, and St. Malo, this port has a lot of ships going to Newfoundland or Quebec, and there is plenty of oil and water..."

Seeing Major Ston who accidentally mentioned his "old business", Jiang Yaohui was also a little helpless, so he could only change the subject and said: "It is meaningless to discuss whether the French have a military port or a civilian port. La Rochelle has become an airport. There are no valuable targets other than a few small warships or fireships. The French navy is said to have been mostly transferred just before Louis XIV launched the war, and we have no trace of them at all. Besides, merchant ships How different is it from a warship? With a little modification on a merchant ship, can the upper deck also hold cannons? At worst, they can also carry dozens or hundreds of fully armed sailors to fight against our merchant ships. It's also a huge problem."

In fact, the Spanish temporary task force sent by the people from the east coast now seems to be powerful, but it is really facing the embarrassing problem that the two of them mentioned just now, that is, the French navy has admitted to hiding and will not cooperate with it. People on the east coast are engaged in face-to-face combat, so how should the east coast navy protect its increasingly large-scale trade routes to Europe?Especially for the ships passing through the Bay of Biscay and going north to the United Provinces, the French will never let go of such a good opportunity, and they don't need to sell warships, privateers converted from ordinary merchant ships can confuse the people on the east coast There is no peace.

This is the case near the Bay of Biscay, and the western Mediterranean is actually similar.You must know that the east coast is now heading to Spain's Mediterranean territories (including Catalonia, Aragon, Naples, Sicily, etc.), Genoa*, the north-central region of Italy led by Genoa, Ottoman, and Crimea. More and more, these key routes are actually exposed to the threat of the French "Oar Fleet" (that is, the Eastern Fleet), and the threat to the East Coast is self-evident.

Although this time the Spaniards vowed to pat their chests and stated that they would transfer some ships from the Atlantic Fleet to the Mediterranean Fleet, and then look for the main force of the French Eastern Fleet for a decisive battle, trying to defeat their vital forces in the first battle, and blockade Toulon and Marseilles in France. , Montpellier and other important ports, while attacking the enemy's trade lines, protect the safety of your own trade routes.But what kind of virtue the Spaniards are, the people on the east coast are very clear. Their guarantee is worthless in the eyes of many people. On the Mediterranean side, they really don’t expect them to destroy the main force of the French Eastern Fleet. They can mainly force them to hide in the port. Just don't move around, and don't overly threaten the trade line on the east coast.

Based on this consideration, Major Jiang Yaohui, the commander-in-chief in charge of this operation, is planning to strongly request the Spaniards to transfer most of the ships of the Atlantic Fleet to the Mediterranean Fleet in order to more effectively carry out the blockade mission against the French.For this reason, he will even ask Special Envoy Li Qing to find a way to communicate with the Ottoman Empire, to see if he can temporarily restrain the North African pirates who have always been entrenched in Algiers and Algiers. Let it not excessively harass Spain's offshore waters during the war, so as to relieve the Spaniards' worries, but I don't know if this matter will eventually come to fruition.

But in any case, things still have to be done step by step.Now Jiang and Si are entrusted with the great trust of the country, and the Spanish temporary task force led by them is also the elite of the country. Their first goal is still to go to the sea off Dunkirk and block the French main fleet with some force , so that they are not allowed to go out and wantonly attack the merchant ships of the South China Sea Transportation Company; and then separate some ships to attack and plunder the French merchant ships along the coast, cut off their trade lines, and even destroy their ports-no way, who let the French main force They can't shrink back, and the position they occupy (Dunkirk) is too "disgusting". It happens to be stuck on the only way for merchant ships on the east coast to go to the United Provinces, and they are there just outside the door. The threat is quite great. Therefore, it is really worrying not to strictly blockade the French fleet here.

However, during the journey to Dunkirk, you might as well do a side job along the way, such as——

"Order the 'Xiaohan' and 'Dahan' to turn! Stop those ships and capture them as much as possible! The rest of the ships continue to move forward, maintaining a constant speed of 4 knots." Some French ships shuttled off the coast of La Rochelle Afterwards, Major Jiang Yaohui, commander of the fleet, immediately ordered.Of course, he was very sensible, and only dispatched two "Jiqi" class sailing frigates to go, while the large fleet continued to move forward. Their most urgent task at present was still to rush to Dunkirk to deal with the main force of the French navy.

The two "solar energy" sail escort gunboats have a displacement of 708 tons, but they are quite fast in terms of flexibility and speed. Generally speaking, they can have a speed of 4-8 knots. Compared with the old " The Falklands"-class gunboat is much stronger, and it is no problem to catch up with those French merchant ships or fishing boats with the same old-fashioned design (it can even be said to be unreasonable, which correctly reflects the actual level of the French shipbuilding industry).

In fact, it was almost the same. Not long after Major Jiang Yaohui gave the order, probably less than an hour, two "Jiqi" class escort gunboats surrounded those ships, one left and one right, and they were turning wildly. , but the speed was too slow, and after firing warning shots, two of them were easily captured.

This kind of behavior by the people on the east coast happened under the eyes of many French fishermen, sailors, citizens, priests, businessmen and nobles in La Rochelle Port. Cruise ships of about 50 tons did not dare to sail at all. For this reason, they were under great pressure from the citizens. Many fishermen on the wharf threw stones or rotten fruits at them to express their anger—but this is another What's the use? If you can't beat it, you can't beat it. It doesn't depend on anyone's will. Going out now is really just giving away your head.

The two captured fishing boats were laden with large quantities of seafood, one of which was almost entirely pollock, evidently just returned from Newfoundland, to be sold in the port of La Rochelle for profit, and it would all be done The spoils of the people on the east coast, the fishermen on the boat wanted to cry but could not resist at all; the items in the cargo hold of the other ship were of higher value, except for a small part of rough tanned whale skin, most of them were The whale fat that can be sold at a high price, the naval officer on the east coast who got off the ship saw it with a smile on his face. After questioning, he learned that the group of Frenchmen had just returned from Spitsbergen Islands, and they unfortunately hit the muzzle of the gun. , All the hard work I got from going out to sea to hunt whaling after a near death was all cheap for the pagans on the east coast.

"La Rochelle is an important fishing port in France (and also one of the military ports). Many ships fishing in Newfoundland and the North Sea will return to St. Malo, Nantes or La Rochelle for replenishment and rest, and to sell their own products. This naturally leads to the prosperity of the local fishery economy. Therefore, if we can stay here for a long time, we will be able to intercept many French fishing boats, which is a lot of money. Unfortunately, we don’t have the time, so we have to go now Dunkirk, what a pity." Second Lieutenant Jiang Yaohui put down the binoculars, the action just now was very easy, which made him think of some possibility: "Don't rush back the two 'Jiqi' class frigates, you can stay there for a while , but not later than this afternoon when the sun sets. The two fishing boats will go with the team, and then we will stop at the port of Dover, England. The two fishing boats and the catch can also be handled by the British at a low price. How wonderful !"

It was an agreed plan in advance that the Spanish provisional task force went to the port of Dover, England, to replenish.The reason for this is that the Dutch formally rejected the request of the East Coasters to use any port in the United Provinces as a supply base to attack the Kingdom of France. After all, the Anglo-Dutch War is now at its most critical moment. They also have a good relationship with France, so after weighing the pros and cons for a long time, they finally chose to side with France and refused to use their port to block Dunkirk on the East Bank—maybe they were afraid that once they agreed to the request of the people on the East Coast, they would be so angry Louis XIV would have marched directly from the Southern Netherlands into the United Provinces, and the Dutch would have had a lot of fun.

After being rejected by the Dutch, the East Bank Plenipotentiary Envoy to Europe picked up a fast boat and rushed to London, and risked the whole epidemic to find some members of Congress, and then asked them to match up with King Charles of England. Unexpectedly, Charlie had already Because of the plague, I have taken refuge in the suburbs, not in the city of London.However, the diplomatic letter from the people on the east coast was still sent to Charlie in time by the courier. After reading the letter, Charlie was overjoyed and immediately agreed that the east coast fleet would use the port of Dover as a supply base to attack the French, and said that if possible, the two sides could also work together Intercepting the treasure fleet of the Dutch East India Company, of course, this was selectively ignored by the people on the east coast, they are not so brain-dead.

On June 1667, 6, the East Coast Fleet quietly arrived at the port of Dover, England, ready to launch an attack on France at any time.And if we take a look at the situation of several major countries at this time, we will find that the three countries of France and Netherlands are hostile to the United Kingdom, the East and the West are hostile to France, France and Portugal are hostile to Spain, and the East Bank is vaguely hostile to the Netherlands. Allies, this is really a chaotic situation.Allies and enemies are just in the blink of an eye. Turning faces is really faster than turning a book. Everything depends on interests. This is really a wise saying!

(End of this chapter)