On August 12, the fleet set off from Rio Grande do Sul and sailed for half a month at sea, arriving in the heart of the Caribbean Sea, where from the ship it was possible to see a few small islands not far away and a piece of land dozens of nautical miles away.

Sun Bin stood at the bow of the ship, staring at a small island with dense vegetation in front of him, and said to Chen Sen next to him, "This small island in front is of a moderate size, and it is not bad as a transit station set up by our army in the Caribbean Sea." ”

Sun Bin was talking about the island closest to the fleet, and there were two larger islands near it, but compared with the other two islands, the small island in front of it was steep and the cultivable area was narrow, and only a dozen simple wooden houses and a row of sparse rubber trees could be seen growing randomly on the small island of dozens of square kilometers.

A watchtower near the sea leaned crookedly against an oak tree, and the harbor built by the shore may have been destroyed by a storm, leaving only a pile of trays eroded by the sea.

It is clear that this small island has been abandoned for a while, and in Sun Bin's eyes, it has become an ownerless land.

"Mr. Sun has a good eye, this small island is close to the islands of Puerto Rico and Haiti, and the surrounding islands are dense, which is a good place for our army's small fleet to hide." Chen Sen nodded in agreement, and changed his words, "But I don't know which country this small island belongs to, if it is a colony of Britain and France, the fleet building a base here will face the blow of the British and French navies, so the task assigned by the son of the next generation will be completed." ”

The Caribbean archipelago has always been an ideal base for pirates, and it is also an important shipping route for Britain and France, the two major European powers, the British and French navies often patrol the Caribbean Sea, and severely crack down on pirates who are active on their colonial islands, so that many Caribbean pirate forces do not dare to easily attack the colonial islands of Britain and France, and even the islands abandoned by Britain and France will have warships to patrol regularly to prevent pirates from occupying the islands and threatening the shipping lanes.

The fleet traveled all the way through many islands, but either the naval forces of European countries were stationed on it, or the area was too small to be used as a base for the Chinese fleet, and the area and geographical location of the island in front of it were good, so after approaching the island and observing for a while, Sun Bin considered using this small island as the base of the Chinese fleet, without considering the ownership of the island.

"There are so many islands in the Caribbean Sea, maybe the islands we finally see are British and French, right?" Sun Bin smiled, turned his head and asked Li Han, who was returning from the voyage with the Chinese envoy team: "Brother Li Han, you have been in the Caribbean for a long time, you should know the news of this small island, why don't Brother Li introduce us to the specific ownership of this island and the surrounding situation in the Caribbean Sea, so as to help us make a judgment." ”

"I originally planned to go to Feilong Island and introduce the situation around the Caribbean Sea to you in detail, but since Mr. Sun asked, I will explain it roughly."

Li Hancong walked up to the bow of the boat, pointed to the island in front of him and said, "This small island originally belonged to France, and was later bought by the Danish king and became a colony of Denmark, and was named St. John's Island by the Danes, but because it was shaped like a turtle, the heavenly sailor brothers called it Turtle Island."

Turtle Island covers an area of about 50 square kilometers, the island originally had a plantation opened by the Danes, but a few years ago the Americans abolished the slave trade, the Danes lacked slaves to grow economic plants, this small island and two other larger islands gradually abandoned, and Turtle Island because of the smallest area and three years ago was hit by a storm, the Danes completely abandoned Turtle Island, and more than 100 slaves on the island were also transferred to the largest area of Santa Cruz Island. ”

"The Danes also have colonies in the Caribbean?"

Sun Bin asked.

No wonder Sun Bin was suspicious in his heart, whether it was fighting in the mainland with foreign guns composed of soldiers from Britain, France and other countries, or Li Mingyuan's explanation of the general situation of the Western powers after joining the Chinese Independence Army, he did not talk about Denmark, but such a small country with no importance in his impression actually occupied a colony in the Caribbean Sea, which Britain, France, and the Netherlands valued.

"Turtle Island is indeed a colony of the Danes, Mr. Sun should not underestimate Denmark, although I don't know the strength of Denmark in European countries, but in this Caribbean, the Danish naval force is much stronger than ordinary pirates."

In order to deepen Sun Bin and others' understanding of the Danish Navy, Li Han continued: "A year ago, a relatively large pirate in the Caribbean Sea united with other pirates to attack Puerto Rico, but the intelligence leaked, 5,000 pirates and the local rebel forces in Puerto Rico were defeated by the Spaniards in one fell swoop, and more than 1,000 troops of 5,000 people escaped.

The Danish West Indies colony included Turtle Island and a total of more than 50 islands, of which St. Thomas was the center of the slave trade and commercial transit point in the center of the Caribbean, and the island was full of oil and water, while the Danish military strength was only a dozen merchant ships and five or six warships, and the navy and island garrison combined were only five or six hundred people.

After the failure of the operation, the pirate leaders annexed seven smaller groups of pirates, increasing the number of pirates to 1,500, and again extended an invitation to the rest of the pirate forces to jointly attack the Danish colony, but most of the pirates who suffered a loss did not accept the invitation, and only some pirates who could not survive joined in. ”

Li Han paused for a moment, and then continued: "After the pirates gathered their forces, they learned the lesson of the last time, and did not immediately send troops to attack the West Indies, but waited until the Danish warships left the port before attacking St. Thomas.

Nearly 2,000 pirates attacked the island aggressively, but it took half a day to take the pillbox built by the Danes, and finally was attacked by the Danish navy that came back, and a group of pirate leaders who were rampant in the Caribbean were killed, and the remaining pirates were either taken prisoner or scattered and fled, and they were no longer in full swing. ”

Li Han sighed for a while after speaking, as if he still felt sorry for the failure of the pirates.

"Brother Li Han means that once we occupy Turtle Island, the Danes will also destroy us in order to ensure the safety of St. Thomas?"

"Yes, the island of St. Thomas has declined in commercial status with the abolition of slavery, and in order to maintain the normal operation of the islands, Denmark has also imported money into the colonies, but even if the islands do not bring profit to Denmark, the Danes have no intention of abandoning the islands.

After the pirates attacked the islands, the Americans sent representatives to buy the islands from Denmark, and the two sides had initially signed an agreement, but in the end the Danes did not fulfill the agreement, and in order to reduce expenses, Turtle Island was abandoned, and the investment on the other two islands was also reduced a lot, but the military force did not decrease but showed signs of strengthening. ”

"With the most threatening pirates exterminated, isn't it superfluous for the Danes to strengthen their defenses?"

Chen Sen said.

"No, the Danes are not on guard, they are not guarded against pirates, they should be Americans." Sun Bin said thoughtfully.

"Mr. Sun is right, if you want to say that in the Caribbean Sea, what pirates are most afraid of is not the British Navy, which hangs pirates when they catch them, nor France, which has a strong military force, but the United States, which is close to the Caribbean Sea.

Americans look like innocuous businessmen on the mainland, but not in the Americas and the Caribbean.

The Americans carried out extermination of Indians on land, many Indians who were originally educated by Westerners fled from the United States through Mexico, and some Indians who were close to the sea had no choice but to go to sea to become pirates, but the Americans not only expanded on land, but also sailed their warships on the ocean.

Nuevo Bajo Island was originally an uninhabited island in Colombia, and the surrounding pirates often stayed on Nueva Bajo Island, but the U.S. warships occupied Nueva Bajo Island, and under the pretext of fighting pirates, they continued to attack nearby pirate forces, and then occupied the islands left by the pirates and refused to leave, because of similar behavior, not only did the pirates regard the U.S. Navy as a great enemy, but Britain and France and other countries were also dissatisfied with the behavior of the United States.

The Americans had no credit in the Americas, having just occupied a large area of land from Mexico a few years ago, and then wanted to expand it across the ocean, while at the same time harboring ill will towards the Spanish colony of Cuba.

It is no wonder that such an expansionist country has its sights on the Danish colony, and the Danes can rest assured, so the Danes do not dare to relax the defense of the archipelago to prevent the Americans from sending troops to loot. ”

Li Han's words extinguished Sun Bin's mind to occupy Turtle Island, Turtle Island is a small island, not only the Danes cannot give up, even the Americans have also mixed in, if the Chinese fleet occupies Turtle Island, I am afraid that the most happy are the Americans, they can occupy Turtle Island in the name of exterminating pirates, so that the Chinese fleet to occupy Turtle Island will become a dead move.

Li Mingyuan often said to the top brass of the Chinese Independence Army that the United States is the biggest obstacle to the development and growth of the Chinese Independence Army, and when the Chinese Independence Army is still weak, the Americans may not pay attention to it, but when the Chinese Independence Army develops to a certain point, the Americans will definitely participate in stopping the expansion of the Chinese Independence Army.

The United States is the greatest enemy of the Chinese Independence Army, and this sentence has become the consensus of the top level of the Chinese Independence Army under the indoctrination of Li Mingyuan, but Sun Bin recognized the threat of the Americans earlier than others.

Sun Bin reluctantly took his eyes off Turtle Island and sailed to the center of the Caribbean Sea, where a suitable island as a base had still not been found, and his main mission was to send an envoy to Prussia, so the task of finding an island to build a base could only be completed by Chen Sen and his sailors.