Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 324 Chopping

A few days after the United Fleet left, on February 1642, 2, the second group of Portuguese immigrant ships arrived at Xinhua Port.They brought more than 20 immigrants from the Ming Dynasty, and the large number of immigrants almost blocked the small Xinhua Castle wharf.After paying all the immigration fees, Shi Qinjie suddenly found that he still had a cash balance of about 8 to [-] yuan. After thinking about it for a while, he decided to keep the money and use it for the next work with Musca. Buy some slaves when trading with special merchants or the Ottoman Empire to increase the population of the country.After all, population is the largest "commodity" imported by the East Coast Republic at any time, and it is also the main way for them to digest their foreign trade surplus.

Just when this group of immigrants had just arrived here, about a thousand of the first batch of immigrants from the Ming Dynasty who arrived here had already lined up on the pier, ready to take a boat to the mainland. The "Galicia Flying Fish" transport ship, the "Penglai" flute-shaped transport ship and a rented French transport ship docked at the pier in turn. After a while, they will carry the more than a thousand immigrants and a batch of wood and a few coal samples. return home. The "Common Market" and the "Traveler" have already gone out to patrol the sea, and then they can only rely on the "Super Brave" high-speed cruiser that has just returned a few days to escort them to the South African river port.As for the voyage back to the mainland from Hezhong Port, it will be escorted by the frigates of the Navy's First Fleet.

While the New China region was busy, a few months ago at the wharf of the local Hekoubao Modern Special Shipyard, the factory director Wei Huazheng and several naval officers were carefully inspecting a quietly moored ship. What.

"This ship is almost finished." With a pipe in his mouth, Wei Hua said to Li Yi, the newly promoted naval captain behind him as he walked, "This multi-functional expedition ship should be regarded as one of the two major fleets of the Navy. Is it the first steamship? Hehe, you're lucky, I don't know what Minister Wang has taken a fancy to in you, and let you become the captain of this ship "Chopper."

Hearing the ridicule from Wei Hua's mouth, Li Yi, who was quite familiar with him in private, was not angry at all, but he also said in a slightly teasing tone: "Do you think my rank of captain is caused by a strong wind? Hey, it's because I caught a Dutch pirate ship that attacked our grain ship off the coast of Luocha Port. This is luck, and it can't be stopped! I still remember Ding Wei and Huang Yang The surprised faces of those guys, haha, in the end, I, Old Li, took the lead and took the ship 'Chopping' from the hands of these animals."

What Li Yi said happened last month, that is, in mid-November 1641. At that time, when he was conducting a routine patrol on the fixed route from Zhenhai Port to Luocha Port, he discovered that a ship of the Inland River Transport Company was transporting grain. The 11-ton small steamer broke down due to a breakdown and was moored on the ocean more than ten nautical miles north of Rachaport.Not far from the small steamer, a suspected pirate ship that did not fly any flag was shooting threatening shots at the small steamer while trying to approach to capture the ship.At this time, the frigate "Red Trout" immediately seized the upper hand after patrolling so far, and quickly defeated the resistance of the enemy ship that had lowered most of its sails and was temporarily unable to move freely with a burst of fierce artillery fire.

More than 20 minutes later, the off-guard pirate ship tragically broke its hull and sank to the bottom of the South Atlantic Ocean.The sailors who abandoned the ship and escaped naturally became the captives of the East Coasters. After some surprise interrogation, the group confessed that they were from the Netherlands.It turned out that about two or three months ago, the Dutch West India Company suddenly announced to all Dutch captains staying in Recife that they were free to attack any ship of the East Coast Republic of China they encountered.As for the diplomatic disputes caused by such attacks, the West India Company will bear full responsibility.

As soon as these words came out, although the Dutch captains present did not say anything on the spot, many people's minds became active instantly.These lawless captains have been at sea for many years, and there is nothing they are afraid to do.I heard that all the people on the east coast are very rich, and their sea traffic lines are always very busy, transporting food, cloth, arms and other urgent supplies, so maybe it would be good to start a business without capital .Especially after some Dutch captains who once went to Dongfang Port to sell their catches vividly publicized the richness of the east coast, a few impatient captains crossed the sea and went south that night.

After getting this important information, Li Yi quickly reported it to the First Fleet Command and the Ministry of the Navy, and then the news was quickly fed back to the Executive Committee.The Executive Committee held an emergency meeting for consultations that day, and everyone agreed that this was a dangerous signal, which meant that the Dutch had changed their policy towards the East Bank to some extent.That is, they had lost patience with the unscrupulous favoring of the Portuguese by the East Coasters, and they began to encourage their ships to carry out free attacks on the East Coasters, just as they did in Africa and the Far East against all competitors they encountered. like that.And such an aggressive move may be just the beginning.If the people on the east coast still insist that the previous policy has not changed, maybe they will consider some more radical measures, such as a trade blockade, or even a full-scale declaration of war.

Unfortunately, the opponents the Dutch encountered this time were different from those in the past, and they cannot be guessed with common sense.The East Bank was kidnapped by terrorists from top to bottom, and they immediately responded to the incident.First, they forwarded a severely worded diplomatic protest letter to the Dutch West India Company through a Dutch captain who came to sell sea fish, demanding that the Dutch West India Company respond positively to the matter within three months; at the same time, The Trade Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that a three-month temporary punitive tariff ranging from 12.5% ​​to 75% will be imposed on all goods carried by ships from the Netherlands. tariff.

As soon as this policy came out, the smell of gunpowder between the two sides gradually became stronger, and the Spaniards and Portuguese seemed to see some kind of possibility they had been looking forward to for a long time, and began to send envoys to Dongfang Port frequently.However, they failed to get more valuable information from the people on the east coast, and it is even unknown whether the people on the east coast have made up their minds to go to war with the Dutch.

The time-traversing crowd definitely didn't want to start a full-scale war with the Dutch, but having said that, there are many things in this world that people can't predict.Therefore, the necessary precautions are also essential.In mid-August 1641, Wei Hua, the director of the Modern Special Shipyard, began to apply to his superiors for the construction of the "Chopper" double paddle steamer, and carried out a lot of preparatory work for this. He even ordered the workers to We used some of the saved materials to build a part of the hull in advance.After this serious attack on the grain ship, the Executive Committee quickly approved his application for the construction of the "Chopper", and at the same time began to step up the strategy of importing sulfur, Brazilian rosewood, lead, copper, flax, wax, etc. supplies.

At this time, it was the end of January in 1642. After more than five months of intensive construction, the "Chopper" was basically ready to go to sea for sea trials. The basic parameters of the "Chop Wave" are exactly the same as the "Breaking Wave" built before, with a displacement of 1 tons, a flying shear hollow bow, and three-masted sails.The difference from "Break the Waves" is that the "Chop Wave" is equipped with two paddle paddles, which are located on both sides of the ship's side, and are driven by a "Popeye-730 Kai" type marine steam engine.

The "Popeye-1 Kai" type steam engine was made by the Second Machinery Factory (which was reorganized after being independent from the boiler workshop of the First Machinery Factory) to improve and optimize the original basic model. Its rated output power is slightly higher than the original one. Some improvements, reaching about 36 kilowatts, or about 48.3 horsepower.Moreover, the airtightness of this steam engine is better than before, and a large number of brass sealing gaskets are used in many parts, which further improves the performance of this model of steam engine.

The two paddle wheel blades of the "Chopper" are made of cast iron, which is not easy to damage.Different from the wheel-type driving method of the "Broken Wave" train, the transmission rod of the "Chopper" steam engine is directly connected to the central axis of the paddle paddle, which directly drives the paddle paddle to rotate.Similarly, there is still no bearing in this shaft, but the rotation of the paddle wheel is driven by the sliding friction between the transmission rod and the paddle shaft, so that the wear speed of the equipment is greatly accelerated, and maintenance personnel need to pay close attention to and carefully maintain .

"The rated output power of the steam engine is 36 kilowatts, and it consumes about 125 kilograms of coal per hour. How about it, is it much stronger than the steam engine with air leakage everywhere in the basic model of 'Popeye-1'? Haha, the output power has gone up. , The coal consumption per unit time has come down. What does this mean? It means endurance!" Wei Hua said with a proud smile, "It means that we can sail longer distances at a faster speed, if the cabin is full of coal , we can even sail directly across the sea from here to the South African River Central Port on the other side of the sea. How about it? This is a great pioneering work, right? Haha, our industry is improving bit by bit! I believe that if We will continue to work hard to develop a better steam engine, excavate better coal, and the endurance of this ship will be further enhanced."

"It's really good!" Li Yi also said with a smile on his face, "I can't wait to go out to the sea for a drive and find the feeling."

(End of this chapter)