Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 150 Navy and Pirates ([-])

Off the Chesapeake Bay, May 1636, 5.A total of nineteen British officers were executed, all of whom were British sailors who had expressed their willingness to surrender.Under the threat of the sailor muskets on the east coast, they picked up their sabers and stabbed their former officers and superiors fiercely. Those who hesitated a little would be dragged out and executed immediately before being thrown into the sea.

There are a total of more than 70 English sailors and six "worthy" officers who surrendered. They will be escorted back to the country and will be screened for use after a long inspection period.

The Admiralty has gone through untold hardships, collected all the talents it can, and after its own assiduous research, it has just figured out the optimal routes for a small number of sea areas.For example, the route between Orient Port and the Falkland Islands, the route from the Falkland Islands to Chiloe Island through the Strait of Magellan, the route from Cape de France to Bordeaux, and the route from Bordeaux to Massachusetts.

As for other vast sea areas, although the traversal crowd has always had a rough map, they do not know the ocean currents, climate, and various information of the ports along the way in each sea area. These sea areas are basically unfamiliar to the traversal crowd. The sea area.Now with these defecting British, the nautical charts in the Admiralty can finally be improved again.You must know that exploring new routes is a very labor-intensive, time-consuming and expensive matter, and in the process of exploration, there will inevitably be certain casualties such as ships hitting rocks, encountering storms, getting lost and so on.

It can be said that these old British sailors and officers played a very important role.Otherwise they would not have been spared an extra life, and it would be naive of you to think that Captain Clifford's five hundred pounds would have redeemed so many Englishmen.In this day and age there is no law of war, humanitarianism is only lip service, and killing people like hemp and disregarding human life is the norm in society.Even Lu Ming, a modern person in the 21st century, will not hesitate to think that once his subordinates are caught by the British, there will be more than [-]% chance of being executed, and the remaining [-]% will be killed. The probability is that they will be sold as slaves.

Therefore, he did not have much sympathy for the fate of these Englishmen, not to mention that they had just killed his beloved student.If this happened a few years ago, perhaps Lu Ming would have ordered the British to be spared, but it is absolutely impossible now.Sometimes I have to sigh that people are also assimilated by the times.

The hole under the waterline of the "Lemon" was not sealed after all.

The east coast sailors on the "Red Trout" blocked the breach with layers of canvas, but this only slightly slowed down the sinking speed of the ship, and the sea water was still pouring into the cabin.A few minutes after the sailors removed the sugar, cocoa, coffee and other goods in the warehouse, the 450-ton British three-masted galleon sank into the sea.The naval officers and soldiers of the East Coast Republic felt distressed for a while, God is sorry, there are not many serious warships in the country at present.It was very difficult to capture one ship, but it sank in the end, which was really discouraging.

The sea breeze blew away part of the fog, and the visibility at sea gradually improved.

There is no trace of any British on the sea anymore, but in order to avoid long nights and dreams, after holding the funeral for the brothers who died in battle, the five warships stayed close together, turned southeast and sailed away from this sea area for half a day before returning to the sea. Anchor and berth.

The captains of the "Eagle of the East Coast" and other four warships took a transportation boat to the captain's room of the flagship "August [-]th" for a meeting to discuss the next step.

This time, due to various unexpected factors, it led to an unplanned naval battle with the British, which caused a lot of casualties.For this reason, Lu Ming, as the commander-in-chief of the First Fleet, was under tremendous pressure.On the one hand, it is the heavy loss of 181 army and navy officers and soldiers, and on the other hand, it is a series of possible consequences of this battle.

Every captain present is not a fool, and they can also realize the far-reaching impact of this incident.

In today's naval battle, according to the interrogation of the prisoners later, the British invested a total of ten armed merchant ships (only five fought).According to post-war statistics, the British "Lucky Jenny" and "Warrior" sank in battle, the "Lemon" sank after being captured, and the "Prosperity" and "Asuka" were injured and fled. A British merchant ship even turned around and fled the first moment the "August [-]th" appeared, and disappeared into the thick fog.

These British ships were either on their way back to Portsmouth, or they had already hid in Jamestown in the British Virginia colony by virtue of their familiarity with this sea area.All in all, it is completely impossible to expect this battle to be kept secret.The British are not stupid. They only need to inquire about the details of naval battles a little bit, and they can come to the conclusion that their opponents have "Tartan cannons".So, who looted the British colonies of Massachusetts and Virginia in succession last year and this year?The answer to this question is probably already obvious.

"It looks like a big disaster has happened." Lieutenant Li Yi, the new captain of the "Eagle on the East Coast" (Wang Tiehammer was transferred to the captain of the newly built "Common Market"), twitched his lips, trying to make a joke. Lower the atmosphere.

Lu Ming, Guo Zili, Chen Tumu, and Han Dezhi (the captain of the "Maritime Writer") rolled their eyes at him without saying a word.

Li Yi smiled awkwardly, saw him scratching his hair, and continued nonchalantly: "I remember that at this time, King Charles I of England was fighting with Parliament to raise funds for the war. The wealthy gentry, enlightened nobles and big businessmen should not support him to launch a foreign war rashly, right? Especially since they are still mired in the quagmire of the Thirty Years War. Although they did not send troops directly, the annual military expenditure can be It’s always been out.”

"Lao Li, have you figured it out?" Han Dezhi lamented while holding his forehead, "What we are robbing now are the ships of the East India Company and the Merchant Adventurer Company. They are serious bourgeois. Let’s not be too motivated to fight. I think this time it’s hanging, maybe the British will really go to war with us, at least the East India Company will not let it go.”

"We robbed the Indian cotton cloth market of British entrepot trade, and made the originally lucrative woolen market into the price of cabbage, which greatly reduced the income of the British. It would be a ghost if they didn't work hard with us." Chen Tumu also He echoed, "Who made both of us put our minds on textiles? This is a fundamental contradiction and irreconcilable. There is no way to solve the problem except war."

"What are you all talking about?!" Lu Ming slapped down the table, stood up irritably, and walked back and forth on the floor covered with Turkish cashmere carpets, "The response of the British is that the Executive Committee and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs need to consider Let’s fuck our ass. Damn, I said earlier that it’s very dangerous to come to North America to fight the autumn wind, and the idiots in the Admiralty... those bureaucrats can’t see it, and they said they want to contain the British Stop the development of your bastard! I don’t even look at how many boats and people we have, but those with small arms and legs come to the British to chew hard bones. Now it’s all right, if you walk too much at night, you will always hit ghosts Yes, damn it, a bunch of troublemakers!"

Seeing that the good-natured and good-natured Lu Ming got angry, the captains tactfully stopped talking.

Lu Ming walked on the carpet for two more laps, then returned to his seat, untied the collar button, and said: "Don't talk about such far-reaching things, let's talk about what we should do now. Continue here Should we wander around, or go south, or simply end this hunting operation ahead of schedule and go to Bordeaux to pick up people? Let everyone share their opinions.”

"I have an idea. It's just an idea. You can add it up when you say it." Li Yi spoke first, "Can we take advantage of this fog to find a way to break into Jamestown Harbor? As far as I know, the British fort It is impossible to shoot inside (in fact, most of the port fortresses are unable to shoot inside at this time). After we rush in, we can completely destroy the port, and even take advantage of the chaos to go ashore and plunder. What do you think? ?”

"Not so good!" Han Dezhi hurt Li Yi, and said: "You also know that it is foggy now, please, we can't accurately locate the sea area we are in now, so how can we find Jamestown accurately? In addition , The hydrological information of the Jamestown port is not clear, isn’t it afraid of hitting the rocks if you drive indiscriminately? Your suggestion is completely unreliable.”

Several other people also expressed some opinions. The general meaning is that it is meaningless to stay here. It is better to go south to the Caribbean Sea, or simply go to Bordeaux and return.

Seeing that everyone was not interested in staying to chew on the hard bones of the British, and Lu Ming was also worried that there would be British warships nearby, so he simply decided to end this year's privateering operation, and the entire fleet went to Bordeaux.

However, due to the serious damage of the "Beagle", it will take some time for repairs. Therefore, the entire fleet continued to stay near the Chesapeake Bay for another two days.However, the dramatic thing is that these two days are not without a little gain.A Maurice Stone Tucker immigrant ship full of more than 300 British immigrants was intercepted by a patrolling warship of the First Fleet off the Chesapeake Bay, and the unfortunate immigrant ship was immediately boarded on the east coast The soldiers of the Republic Army took control, and then turned south under the escort of the "Beagle", which was simply repaired, and headed towards Oriental Port.

As for the remaining main fleet, under Lu Ming's order, they set sail, turned due east, and prepared to sail across the Atlantic towards Bordeaux port.

(End of this chapter)