New Shun 1730

Obviously, the bourgeois revolution in Britain was not thorough, so that the real ruling class in London is still the Anglican landlords and nobles.

Therefore, they overwhelmed the request of the West India Chamber of Commerce and deployed all their troops to the Channel.

It is impossible for the French to swallow up the whole of Britain, let alone the trade in the entire West India, but the restoration of the Jacobite Scottish nobles will mean a major reshuffle of the land nobles.

The current situation is like a gamble.

Dashun has ten dollars, and Britain must bet all its wives and children.

Strategically, the decision-makers on Dashun's side despise Britain, not because the Celestial Empire is arrogant and doesn't open its eyes to the world.

It's because, in the decisive battle in the open sea, Dashun lost the gamble. At worst, it would retreat to the east of the Cape of Good Hope to establish an imperial free trade zone. Could it be that if the decisive battle in the Strait failed, Vietnam, North Korea and Myanmar would be able to invade the capital?

If Britain lost the battle in the open sea, it would have to pay with its house, land, wife and children. France could really set fire to London and raid the Bank of England, learning from the Amsterdam financial incident in the later Anglo-Dutch War, forcing British financial capital to buy French government bonds.

Therefore, Dashun strategically judged that Britain did not dare to bet on a decisive battle in the open sea.

Obviously, it now seems that Dashun has basically won this "unfair bet".

After Spain and Dashun signed a secret agreement, Dashun's merchant ships and cruisers could be repaired in Havana, cutting off Britain's trade routes with Havana as the center, and began to frequently contact North American smuggling groups.

A large number of British merchant ships were captured by Dashun's heavy merchant ships and cruisers, and their goods were robbed.

This really needs to be thanked for the "War of the Spanish Succession" and the subsequent "Treaty of Utrecht".

Because of this treaty and some benefits gained by Britain, the British, who started out as pirates, began to purge pirates in the Caribbean, achieving very significant results - this is the background of the "Pirates of the Caribbean" story, where the pirates were lined up and hanged: In 1715, the finalization of the "Utrecht-Madrid Treaty" rewrote the trade pattern of the Caribbean and set off a vigorous pirate suppression campaign.

On the one hand, this made the degree of armament of British merchant ships significantly lower than the pirate chaos before the great suppression in 1718.

On the other hand, the pirate suppression and subsequent capture that reached its peak in 1718 caused a large number of pirates to flee to Madagascar and West Africa, providing Dashun with a rich talent pool for finding some "fellow villagers familiar with the Caribbean terrain".

"Where might there be merchant ships", "Where is a hidden harbor", "Where is the hidden fresh water"... These things are definitely not something that can be solved by a few maps and the moon distance angle longitude method.

However, although the Dashun side was definitely considered a pirate act, due to some official purposes, the Dashun side still used the model of "forcing the ship to stop and forcing it to go to ports such as Port-au-Prince and Havana", rather than the old pirate system's means of killing, burning and looting.

In addition to robbing their goods and ships, they generally did not kill people, but had special personnel preach to them "the bright future of free trade, free trade is very beneficial to Atlantic merchants, mercantilism is beneficial to the people of the East India Company, slave trading is a bad behavior, and it is wrong to treat people as livestock", etc.

As for whether Dashun himself believed it or not, that's another matter.

But what he said was definitely a self-contained system. After all, at this time, those who mastered that forced trade was free trade and could write the scriptures according to this set of rules were basically in Dashun.

In general, these cruisers and heavy merchant ships of Dashun were an indispensable part of Dashun's strategy against Britain.

They were even the strategic winners. Because Dashun bet that the British army would not dare to go all out for a decisive battle in the open sea; in addition, Dashun did not want to really defeat the British navy and let France dominate. Therefore, victory depends on heavy merchant ships and cruisers, or trade, to force the British finances into bankruptcy.

Tactically, these heavy merchant ships were also used by the siege troops of Gibraltar.

On the one hand, their goods were purchased at low prices to ensure the supply of the troops.

At the same time, a large number of wine barrels, grains, etc. were transported to the Dashun camp in the direction of the Isthmus in front of the British garrison in Gibraltar.

It was like chewing a big elbow that was greasy in front of a starving person, which was tactically tempting the Gibraltar garrison to take risks.

On the other hand, a large number of merchant ships preparing to return to Dashun also put great psychological pressure on the Gibraltar garrison.

In conjunction with the deployment of the Sky Monkey launcher in the Isthmus, the construction of floating artillery in the Gulf, and the merchant ships and cruisers coming in and out every day.

This forced the British army to make a judgment: the Chinese are about to launch a full-scale offensive, and we must counterattack before their reactionary offensive, disrupt their offensive deployment, and seize enough supplies in the direction of the isthmus to hold on until our reinforcements arrive and strive for the final victory.

On November 16, the staff of Dashun gave the British defenders in Gibraltar a final psychological blow.

Six hot air balloons took off from the base on the Dashun side, and then threw several grenades near the fortress of Gibraltar - within 500 meters, it was considered nearby. The balloons flew to the sea or Spanish towns with the wind, whatever happened.

This first "air raid" in human history was huge.

About 60,000 spectators watched the air raid around the bay from La Concepción to Algeciras.

But in terms of material results, there were zero or even negative results. A huge silk airbag fell on a Spanish town and was shattered by the roof of the church, resulting in a loss of at least 200 taels of silver. The grenade thrown did not even hurt the British defenders.

But in terms of psychological pressure, it was too great, just like the last straw that broke the camel's back.

After the first "air raid" in human history, the British commander in Gibraltar summoned all the officers.

In the fortress, the only remaining firewood removed from the old ship lit a bonfire. The British officers gathered around the bonfire to warm themselves and cursed the horrible weather in Gibraltar.

Although they were British and were not qualified to curse the weather in Gibraltar, the temperature in the past few days was really low, mixed with the sea breeze, even if it was close to ten degrees, it was still a bit biting.

Commander John Mordaunt was cold in body and heart. He just wanted to curse his mother for the current situation, but he still maintained the dignity of a gentleman and tried to be as calm as possible.

John Mordaunt is one of the few anti-China madmen in Britain at this time.

There is no love or hatred without reason in the world. His hatred for Dashun is naturally justified.

It should be said that the emergence of Dashun completely changed his fate.

At least in his own opinion, that's the case.

He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, although he was not considered a top noble in London. His father was a lieutenant general, which was slightly worse than those dukes and marquises who started from several generations, but after all, he grew up in the circle of power and nobility since birth.

His mother is the daughter of the Spencer family, and her ancestors were really rich. Queen Elizabeth issued lotteries to make money, and it was the Spencer family who was responsible for it. It's conceivable that those who can be responsible for lotteries.

It's just that the tide of the times is mighty and mighty. Those who follow it will prosper, and those who go against it will perish. After Elizabeth, there have been waves of state religion, Catholicism, republic, monarchy, restoration, protection of the country, and anti-restoration... one after another. If you stand in the wrong team, it's easy to fall from the clouds.

But now he has not fallen into the mud. His father is a lieutenant general and his mother is from a famous family, so he will have a smooth journey.

The life trajectories of the children of feudal nobles are basically similar, whether in Britain, France or Dashun.

He started as a servant in the marshal's tent. In Dashun, he was called to serve in the marshal's tent, which is not much different. After a few years of gilding, accumulating some qualifications, and being promoted to general.

It should be said that until he came into contact with Dashun, John Mordaunt's life was relatively smooth, which can be regarded as the standard fate of the children of the upper aristocracy.

Until he got involved with Dashun.

A few years ago, that is, the year when Clive and Bengal fought the tariff war, William Pitt began to take charge of the British naval and land strategy.

He proposed the strategy of "harassing the French coast, forcing France to be unable to assemble its navy, and forcing France to reserve a large number of troops on the coast to reduce the direction of Hanover and Prussia".

This is the policy of "using gold ingots to smash other people's glass" that was criticized by the Tories at this time.

John Mordaunt was entrusted with the important task of attacking the port of Rochefort as the commander of the army.

The fate of Rochefort, La Rochelle, this French port, is a bit like the cities of Liaocheng and Yangzhou in Dashun - cities that rise and fall due to changes in geography, transportation tools, and trade routes. For example, Liaocheng, whose annual trade volume was conservatively estimated at 7 million taels in the canal era, later became the poorest area in Shandong.

The same is true for Rochefort. This small town, which was unknown in later generations and had a population of only 20,000 to 30,000, was a very important port for France's trade with the Americas at that time.

Colbert chose this place and built a fortress, a naval base, and a trade port. Originally, due to the loss of Canada, the chaos in North America, and the defeat in the Seven Years' War, this important trading port finally died and became obscured by the crowd, symbolizing the complete failure of France in America. This port is the tombstone of France's American strategy...

At this time, Rochefort was a very important port. How important was it? It was a distribution center and transshipment port for the slave trade, Sino-French ginseng and sable fur, and other "former Dongluo trade".

Because there are rivers, bays, and islands at the entrance of the bay, it is obvious that this is also an important naval base. Colbert has a good vision.

John Mordaunt's original mission was to implement Pitt's harassment strategy of France.

The intelligence given by the spy said that Rochefort was easy to attack and the defense was lax.

But in fact, when the fleet arrived, it was found that the situation was not as simple as the spy said.

Moreover, because Britain and France had declared war at that time, and Dashun was the initiator of the armed neutrality alliance - at least at that time, it was indeed neutral - so Dashun's merchant ships docked in Rochefort Port to transfer ginseng and mink from Canada.

After all, if it was a French ship, it would be easy to be caught; and Dashun's merchant ships were neutral, and armed neutral, so no one dared to catch them, and they would be empty anyway, so they helped France transport some goods.

As a neutral country, Dashun told the British side directly: Do you know what armed neutrality means?

The British side studied it and thought that it was useless to fight. If they accidentally hit Dashun's merchant ships, they were fighting with France, and they provoked another monster over there. Isn't this looking for trouble?

John Mordaunt and Admiral Hawke, who was the commander of the British Channel Fleet at the time, discussed it and decided not to fight and retreat.

Then, John Mordaunt's fate took a sharp turn for the worse because of these merchant ships of Dashun.

At least, that's what he thought.

But in fact, it was not the case at all.