Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1476 Forces you to fight

The land wind was blowing off the coast of Dunkirk Port, which was a headwind for the people on the east coast who were sailing eastward. Therefore, the entire fleet immediately began to tackle the wind, separating several French cruisers in the open sea.

The tonnage of several French ships is not large, but they are obviously the so-called "heavy ships" in Colbert's maritime statistics in 1664, that is, ships with a tonnage of more than 100 tons.However, a 100-ton ship is still not enough compared to the 1000-ton "August [-]th" class battleship.Therefore, after seeing the large fleet of the people from the east coast, these ships immediately turned their rudders with the wind and sailed to the open sea, trying to escape the tracking of the people from the east coast, but how is this possible?

The East Coast Fleet is still turning slowly, only a little faster than the French, and it seems that it is not in a hurry.Even, they still have enough energy to spare their energy to look at the Dunkirk Fortress on the shore to see if there are any French warships that are not afraid of death rushing out to rescue their comrades in arms, but unfortunately not—at least not so far.

Major Jiang Yaohui is a person who likes to command battles on the front line, which has been reflected in many previous battles, and this time is no exception.The battleship "National Will" under his command will take the lead and complete the turn first, and then the sailors can pull up as many sails as they can, and the whole ship sails westward at high speed under strong winds, straight into the French flank.

The flagship of the fleet is like this, so naturally others cannot lag behind.I saw that except for some warships and auxiliary ships that were cruising in the sea outside the port of Dunkirk and watching the French in the port closely, the remaining nearly ten warships were divided into two groups, using their own speed advantage to catch up with the French. The cruiser was successfully intercepted in the open sea an hour later.

"Boom! Boom!" The two bow guns of the battleship "National Will" which was chasing the most forward fired at the same time. The two shells almost partially passed the deck of the last French cruiser, and then fell into the up the sea.

And as the flagship fired the first shot today, many other ships were not far behind. They used their speed to catch up, and then lined up, ruthlessly ravaging the stern and bow of the enemy ship with their broadside artillery.Even some impatient guys went around and directly bombarded the enemy's side with their side guns, and then used powerful firepower-the French cruiser only had more than ten guns on the whole ship-the deck of the enemy ship was one by one. Smashing, while causing a large number of casualties, also caused serious damage to the hull, which further reduced the possibility of the enemy escaping.

More than two hours later, a total of three French cruisers were damaged and sank one by one after being ravaged by many "strong men" of different levels.In fact, if these French ships are determined to fight the people on the east coast, although they will still be dead in the end, they can also cause greater damage to the navy on the east coast.But it's a pity that these people only cared about running for their lives, and turned around to fight to the death when they couldn't escape, but they lacked cooperation, and finally they could only sink in the North Sea aggrieved.

The performance of the French navy also surprised Major Jiang Yaohui, who commanded the entire battle. He felt that if the French navy had this kind of quality and level, it would really not take much effort to fight. And down.The only worry now is probably that the French will always be in the Dunkirk fortress and will not fight, so the people on the east coast will have nothing to do.After all, people on the east coast don’t have the ability, and there’s no need for it, to attack Dunkirk, a sea-land fortress that cost millions of livres and a huge sum of money to build. It's not here to fight for the Hidalgos, so it's better to take it easy.

The destruction of the three French cruisers caused a burst of exclamation from the French soldiers and civilians watching the battle on the shore. The superb maneuverability, fierce firepower, and excellent quality of the naval officers and soldiers displayed by the warships on the east coast made the warships nestled in the port of Dunkirk The French naval officers and soldiers who dared not attack were greatly surprised. This must be a year-round training—well, at least a few real drills every month—to develop combat effectiveness. How could they be willing to spend so much on the navy? Rich?Is it really worth it?

In the eyes of some senior French naval officers, the most valuable asset of the fleet of the East Coasters is not the invincible warships, but the officers and soldiers who are extremely skilled in manipulating sail cables, controlling navigation, and shooting cannons.These people should be professional soldiers, who have been trained for years and can carry out the will of the commander well without losing shape.Moreover, they should have received other education, their knowledge level is not low, and they are not very afraid of death. Naturally, they can freely knead the French navy that evolved from fishermen not long ago, although their ships are also very different. .

After witnessing this crisp naval battle, the French Navy became more determined to hide in its lair as an existing fleet, and the envoy of King Louis XIV of France seemed to have conveyed the same order: On June 6th, the French Navy was traveling from Lille to Louis, who was on the way to Brussels, strictly ordered the navy not to go to war, and the priority was to preserve its strength.He may not only consider the people on the east coast, but also Spain, the Netherlands, England and other countries. He is worried that once his naval seeds are exhausted, who will drive the 15 heavy warships under construction?Pull people training from scratch?The cost would be too high, and the cycle would be too long, and Louis could not afford to wait, so it was only natural for this order to appear.

In this war, the French Navy fell into a comprehensive disadvantage because of the intervention of the people on the east coast-for this reason, they even had to give up their plan to transport materials from the sea to the Southern Netherlands, because they obviously lost Domination of the sea-but the French Army is really powerful and relaxed in terms of the current situation.

It is said that since Louis personally led 3.5 people into the Southern Netherlands, the Kingdom of France has successively increased its troops here, and the number has reached 5.5 at present, while their opponent, the Kingdom of Spain, has only a pitiful [-] soldiers. The morale of some of their defeated men was very low.Since the outbreak of the war, the French have easily occupied a series of towns such as Charleroi, Tournai, Courtret, Douai, and Lille. Among them, Lille, which is said to have a strong city defense, also It only lasted nine days under the siege of the French army-it made people feel that this was not an evenly matched war, but a very pleasant spring outing.

Vauban, an experienced general, was in charge of defending the captured towns. His ability was unmatched in this war. Louis' army was well supplied at every stop, and even the silverware for the officers' meals was readily available. Artois, Hainault, Wallonia, and Flanders were all controlled by the French army. The remaining Spanish troops hid in the two cities of Brussels and Mons and did not dare to attack. They almost gave up on the other vast southern Netherlands. control.

Basically, it can be said that Louis's attack on the Southern Netherlands has almost ended at the military level.What to do next depends on Louis' own determination!It is said that Louis XIV was excited about easily occupying the southern Netherlands, but he was not satisfied, because he felt that the Kingdom of Spain was too weak, so weak that he could take it away at any time, so he was considering whether to expand his invasion of the Kingdom of Spain , to seize more land and make his reputation more noble and invincible among the courts of various countries.

The East Coasters were powerless against the French army's victory on land.Their huge and elite fleet could not go ashore to attack and bombard the enemy, and the Spaniards had to carry the pot on land by themselves.Unless they can find allies, such as the United Provinces, Austria, Sweden, England and other countries, but it seems that no one is free to help them, and Austria seems to have an ulterior motive for dividing up the land of the Kingdom of Spain. The situation is simply dire.

Major Jiang Yaohui has no time to pay attention to the troubles of the Spaniards. What he is most concerned about at present is how to mobilize the French fleet from the port of Dunkirk, and then destroy it annihilatively. Delay their rise by ten or twenty years.Therefore, after seeing that the French navy could not stand firm, the East Coast Fleet dawdled in the open sea for a long time, and after a few demonstrative bombardments, it sailed westward along the land wind to Calais, an important city on the northern coast of France. Commercial port, wool distribution center, textile import and export port, seafood import port.

The move of the East Coast Fleet to Calais was basically done under the noses of the French. It is very close to Dunkirk, and it can sail there in a few hours with a downwind. What will this do.So one by one was in a hurry, but they were helpless, because the king's order had just arrived not long ago, and they did not dare to go against the order to attack, and the tragedy of the three cruisers being quickly sunk by the people on the east coast was still vivid in their minds, so one One can only watch the east coast fleet go west to ravage their shores.

Of course, the East Coast Fleet did not attack the port of Calais directly. No matter how bad the French were, the artillery of the coastal defense fort was not vegetarian, and it was enough to cause enough damage to the warships of the East Coasters.The strategy they implemented was still the same as they did to the Portuguese back then, that is, dispatching faster and more flexible "Star" class light cruisers to rob French merchant ships and fishing boats in the offshore, "Jiqi" class and "Madao" class , "August [-]th" class and auxiliary ships formed the main bombardment fleet, avoiding the French's heavily defended main port, and carried out large-scale bombardment of neighboring fishing villages, docks, and small towns, focusing on destroying enemy buildings and killing The focus is on personnel——Major Jiang Yaohui doesn't believe that the French can bear it under such heavy slaps in the face, and can continue to hide in the port of Dunkirk to watch the show.Of course, if the French can really do this, then he has nothing to do, he can only say some admiration, and then sincerely "wish" these French cowards to be torn apart by the angry people. The French have this tradition.

The blockade and shelling of the Port of Calais and its surrounding areas by the Spanish temporary task force on the east coast lasted for three full days. After capturing four small French merchant ships and fishing boats that did not know where they were, they also smashed a large number of French coastal ships. In the fishing village and the wharf, the casualties were not small, and the hatred was almost overwhelming.

On June 6, the East Coast Fleet continued to sail westward beyond the two large commercial ports of Dieppe and Le Havre, and broke into Dieppe, a port with relatively weak defenses, in a sudden attack. Just as the British fleet led by Black bombarded the port of Santa Cruz in Spain and the home port of the Barbary pirates, more than 20 artillery pieces of the East Coast Fleet aimed at several isolated small forts inside and outside the port of Dieppe. Mute them all after taking a certain amount of damage.

After the fort was knocked down, Dieppe, a commercial port with ships traveling to and from the Caribbean Sea all year round, became a shelled egg, ready to be eaten by people on the east coast at any time!In fact, they didn't waste too much time. A large number of ships in Dieppe Port were bombarded by the East Coast Fleet. Unless the owner immediately raised a white flag to express his surrender, there was only one way to be sunk.

In addition to the ships, the warships on the east coast also used fierce artillery fire to baptize the docks, destroying a French barracks, several warehouses, and countless dock facilities.Even, relying on their own fierce artillery fire, they sent many naval officers and soldiers to the pier to remove some tobacco, sugar, dyes, wine, textiles, weapons and other goods stored there by the French, and there was nothing left. Leave it to the French, but burn it directly with a fire.

The flames soaring into the sky can be seen from a long distance. Then, the angry French soldiers and civilians rushed to the pier at the risk of being bombarded by the East Coast naval guns. After driving away the East Coasters who were still fighting against fire, He hurriedly put out the fire again.Seeing this, the ships on the east coast moored in the port turned their bows one after another, and once again shelled the urban area of ​​Dieppe, the port city, with fierce side artillery. After the French soldiers and civilians who came to fight the fire left many corpses, Had to avoid leaving again.

After ravaging the port of Dieppe, on June 6, the Spanish provisional task force led by Major Jiang Yaohui rushed to the port of Le Havre.Two cruisers of the French Navy and a slightly larger heavy warship (the "Boulogne" frigate) bravely went up and had a heroic artillery battle with the main force of the East Coast Fleet. The bomb sank, and it was the most exotic French navy that people on the east coast had encountered in the recent period.

The port of Le Havre, similar to Dieppe, is a large port on the northern coast of France, but it is not mainly oriented to colonial trade, but more involved in trade with the United Provinces and England, because it has a rich hinterland, It is famous for exporting agricultural products all the year round.Of course, as an excellent port and a city where businessmen gather, Le Havre is inevitably involved in overseas colonial trade, but it is not as distinctive as Saint-Malo and Dieppe.

The East Coast Fleet failed to break into the port of Le Havre. They were stubbornly blocked by well-defined coastal defense batteries near the mouth of the Seine.

At the same time, the upper reaches of the French also prepared some fire attack ships, which made Major Jiang Yaohui dispel the idea of ​​breaking into the port.However, they were not without any gains. The three merchant ships returning from overseas trade were captured by the East Coast Fleet at the mouth of the Seine River, and then slowly left with the entire fleet. They sailed to the port of Dover, England for supplies, and also dealt with them by the way. The spoils of war, of course, include the intention to closely observe the French's reaction.

(End of this chapter)