Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 582 New Guests from the Caribbean Sea ([-])

Cape-de-France, May 1647, 5.In this quiet early morning, four powerful warships led by the battleship "August 27th" quietly unanchored and set sail, turned directly to the east and north, and then began their own cross-border attack journey.After they leave, the transport fleet will leave Cape de France under the escort of 8 professional warships three days later, and then follow the current to return to the mainland by way of Recife.

Within a week starting from May 5, the battleship detachment on the east coast suddenly appeared all over the coast of Santo Domingo, Spain, and successively broke through seven Spanish towns, including Isabela, almost one a day. Rhythm.The population of these Spanish towns is basically only 28 people. Often the Spaniards rush to escape as soon as the east coast fleet reaches the open sea—because there is really no need to resist. According to the calculation of the Europeans, such a powerful four warships At least bring more than a thousand brave and skilled troops, this is really not something they can compete with, it is better to save their own lives early.

Therefore, when the naval officers and soldiers on the east coast take the traffic boat, carefully measure the water depth, and then drive the big ship in, they often encounter empty Spanish towns.They often can only helplessly search for some agricultural products in towns (not so much towns, but villages and towns), such as shredded tobacco, sugar, cotton, grain, etc. As for silver coins, they are quite few. Less than [-] pesos, poor as hell.Fortunately, those shredded tobacco, sucrose and other things are urgently needed consumer goods in the local area, and bringing them back can also enrich the commodity inventory on the market.

On June 6, East Coast ships approached the waters off Santo Domingo after sinking two Spanish offshore frigates.But at this time, an ironic scene appeared: more than 3 pirate ships were dotted far behind the warships on the east coast, as if they were planning to follow suit.These pirates should come from nearby. It is likely that they used to be pirates who were often active near Tortuga Island. Most of them came from Scotland, Ireland, Germany, and Italy, and they often attacked Spanish towns. The powerful double-decked battleship was looking for trouble for the Spaniards, and immediately surrounded them like sharks smelling blood.

Of course, the people on the east coast would not give up this great opportunity. They had no intention of attacking a big city like Santo Domingo, because they lacked the necessary landing personnel, so it would not be worthwhile to forcefully capture it.But now it looks like they have free thugs, so why not try your luck?

Faced with the suggestion made by the subordinate officer, Lieutenant Colonel Lu Ming, who led the team, agreed after a little thought.Therefore, the adjutants immediately sent people to get in touch with these pirates, and agreed that the pirates would land and attack the Spanish town, and the warships on the east coast would be responsible for destroying several Spanish professional warships hiding in the port—these warships were not The pirates who mainly fight by gangs can handle it, and the two sides will share all the spoils equally afterwards.

Of course the pirates would not refuse such an offer, in fact it was definitely a pleasant surprise for them.In the era when Tortuga Island was not occupied by the French, there were tens of thousands of pirates gathered there. Every time a pirate leader with high prestige raised his arms, he could easily gather dozens of ships. And thousands of bloodthirsty pirates, this huge force can guarantee their victory in the battle with the Spaniards, so as to obtain the coveted spoils.

But not anymore.After the pirates on Tortuga Island dispersed, being able to gather ten pirate ships at a time is already a great achievement, but what is this strength in the eyes of the Spanish Caribbean fleet that often patrols everywhere?They often set sail with several warships, and they can teach pirates how to behave in minutes.In addition, in recent years, the King of Spain has realized that his armed forces in the New World are extremely weak, so various Spanish settlements have been ordered to improve their defenses, such as adding forts, updating weapons (replacing thermal weapons), strengthening soldier training, etc. .Therefore, the defense of the various strongholds of the Spaniards has been improved to a certain extent. Even those small towns with only a few hundred people settled can no longer be insulted by a few pirate ships.Of course, there is a limit to this level of defense improvement. For example, they still knelt when facing the battleship squadron on the east coast with 264 artillery pieces, because the gap between the two sides was too great.

After reaching an agreement with the pirates, at noon on June 6, the four east coast battleships no longer hesitated. They forcibly broke into the mouth of the Osama River, and then lowered their tail anchors to confront the Spanish forts on both sides of the river. .The Spaniards set up a total of 3 bronze cannons on both sides of the river, all of which were semi-enclosed forts with partial bunkers.The four battleships on the east coast have a total of 18 guns, about 264% of which are long-barreled cannons. Therefore, the task of removing the Spanish forts is left to the people on the east coast. Otherwise, the small size of those pirate ships is really not enough. .

In this way, the tragic and spectacular exchange of artillery fire began on the Osama River.The battle lasted for an entire afternoon, and the sky was temporarily covered by gunpowder smoke.In the evening of the battle, the battleships "Free Trade" and "Control East" were wounded and retreated from the battlefield. Driven by steam engines, they sailed to the open sea, and the ship's craftsmen carried out emergency repairs.

The other two battleships were still fighting tenaciously with the Spanish artillery hiding behind the bunker. During this period, they also destroyed 9 Spanish coastal artillery, and the Spaniards blew up another 2 artillery.In addition, although the explosion rate of the explosive bombs fired on the ship was less than 4%, it also killed a large number of Spanish gunners, so that only [-] artillery pieces on the Spanish forts on both sides of the strait can continue to fight.

After dark, the pirates who watched the exciting artillery battle in the open sea all afternoon couldn't hold back anymore. They drove their boats into the channel of the Osama River one after another as agreed, and then sent a large number of fighters to land ashore. The target was directed at the few remaining Spanish coast fort emplacements.These ragged pirates were particularly enthusiastic about fighting. They shouted the most rude slang in their mouths, brandished short guns and rapiers in their hands, and jumped into the waist-deep sea water impatiently before the boat reached the shore. , Then waded through the water and rushed to the shore laughing, and rushed to the Spanish fort after a little gathering.

More than half of the Spanish soldiers guarding the fort were killed or injured in the artillery battle in the afternoon. Facing the attack of at least [-] pirates at this moment, they immediately gave up resistance wisely, then turned around and fled back to the town to hold their ground. .

The pirates did not stop after occupying the fort, and they rushed towards the city of Santo Domingo under the leadership of some leaders.What a joke, if you don't rush into the city to grab things at this time, then you can only watch others eat meat while you can only drink some leftover soup.Therefore, all of them were full of energy and rushed towards the city of Santo Domingo, which was in chaos.

At this time, in the outer sea, the four battleships on the east coast were slowly approaching each other, and Lu Ming himself boarded the two damaged battleships in a transport boat to check the situation.Both ships suffered varying degrees of damage in the afternoon, but thanks to the fact that no expense was spared during the construction of the hulls (both were made of tough Brazilian hematoxylin), the damage to the hull itself could be repaired on site, which made Lu Ming Immediately let go of a lot of heart.

Perhaps the only thing that bothered him was that in the afternoon the navy had killed 32 people and injured 61 people. In addition to those killed and injured in the Tyrrhenian Sea battle, the total number of casualties in the escort squadron had reached about 440.If the reduction of staff due to illness is included, the number should be around 470.The navy was already short of manpower, and now that so many people have been killed or injured, this is really a troublesome matter.

However, when he turned his eyes to the pirate ships that were looming near the mouth of the Osama River, he made up his mind again: he will send people to establish relations with those pirates immediately, since there are already many officers and soldiers in his fleet who are Born in the Pirates of the Caribbean, these people might be able to make friends with the pirates in front of them.It would definitely not be a problem for them to act as lobbyists to persuade and win over some pirates to come to the east coast.With four battleships on the east coast dominating the sea as their backing, those pirate captains must not dare to keep the lobbyists sent by the people on the east coast.

The attack on the city of Santo Domingo did not go very smoothly. The Spaniards resisted very tenaciously, but all this was in vain in the face of as many as [-] pirates. The pirates finally captured the city before dawn. It belongs to the capital of Santo Domingo, and then crazy robbery and massacres were launched in the city.

The people on the east coast of the sea were indifferent to the atrocities committed by the pirates. They just sent some liaison officers ashore to negotiate with the pirate captains and supervise them to count the spoils.At the same time, a larger number of east coast naval officers and soldiers were sent ashore into the city of Santo Domingo, which was in chaos, to contact the pirates they encountered, and then try to persuade them to join the east coast navy.In fact, quite a few pirates were really moved, especially those pirates who returned with their plunder. They eagerly wanted to spend the rest of their lives safely with the wealth they plundered.

After all, everyone is not a fool. Who would be a pirate if he had money?There is a hole in the brain!But what is helpless is that pirates are not tolerated in all European countries at this time. They are wanted and have nowhere to go. On the belly of wine and whores, and then died silently in a corner due to poverty and sickness on an unknown night.There is no decent funeral, no crying of relatives, and they can't even rest in the ground. Pirates are also human beings, and such a life is definitely not what they need, so if a country can accept them regardless of past suspicions, then they will probably be happy to carry them. Go and settle with all your wealth, even if this country is a pagan country-is there still a small number of European pirates who settled in Morocco and Algiers?

The pirate captains were very angry at the actions of the people on the east coast, but there was nothing they could do.One is because the four powerful battleships of the people on the east coast make them feel suffocated, and the other is that the pirates who landed and fought are actually temporary joiners. Except for the backbone of the pirate captains, most of the other manpower is temporary before the war. Therefore, according to the rules of pirates, these people can come and go freely, and the captains have no right to restrict their freedom.In this way, at the end of June 6th, with the testimonials of a large number of former pirates and current East Coast navy officers and soldiers, they actually recruited more than 4 pirates who volunteered to go to the East Coast, and the number continued to increase, which made everyone very excited. surprise.

The loot was also counted after a day of counting. The people on the east coast gave up all the cash they looted. As compensation, they took away all materials such as sugar, tobacco leaves, cocoa, cotton, etc., and four hundred Spanish women ——They were also counted as spoils of war, and sold to them at a price at the strong request of the people on the east coast.

After finishing this vote, the pirates were still full of ideas, but the people on the east coast had no time to spend with them. They just sailed the ship far to a part of the coast of New Granada and fired a shot to warn the Spaniards. , He left the Caribbean Sea with the recruited pirates and looted supplies, and headed for Recife.

(End of this chapter)