May 25, 1647, French Santo Domingo, Port de France.

Historically, this Caribbean port city was not officially established until the second half of the 17th century, and in the 40s it was just a small fishing village in the middle of nowhere, with only two or three French ships from Bordeaux calling at the port a year. But in this day and space, because of the ongoing large-scale cotton trade with the people of the East Coast, the port developed rapidly, from a small fishing village to a large fishing village, well, but at least this "big fishing village" contained taverns, inns, shops, and some other commercial facilities. There were also a large number of natives selling agricultural products in the vicinity, and there were also water merchants who specialized in providing high-quality spring water to passing ships, and in short, it had the rudiments of a commercial town.

The convoy of convoys on the east coast from Tunis now sailed into the port one after another, and then anchored one by one. They were lucky to have sailed in the North Atlantic for more than a month without storms or waves. At this time, the size of the fleet was reduced compared with the previous time, and there were 12 professional warships such as battleships and frigates; 15 transport ships - the contracts of several foreign merchant ships originally hired have ended, and the captains unanimously decided not to renew the contract, so the East Coasters can only hire 3 Dutch merchant ships at a high price in Amsterdam; 1 coal carrier, 28 in total - still a fairly large fleet.

The port of Cap-de-France (i.e., Cap-Haïtien) had never been exposed to such a large fleet, so the few French officials on the docks were stunned. But it didn't matter, because they knew from the moment they saw this fleet appear that this was not something that their small port could resist, and in any case, it was not the enemy who hoped to come.

Of course, it's not the enemy who comes! When the officers and men of the East Coast Navy rowed ashore in small boats to negotiate with the dock officials for the purchase of large quantities of supplies, these men immediately jumped for joy. And when they knew that the people from the east coast who had come from the east coast would need up to 10,000 men in Cap-de-France for two weeks' worth of food (biscuits, cheese, cured meats, salted fish), the French were also drunk - what a deal. Ten thousand people, God, the whole of French Santo Domingo is less than a thousand whites in total......

In addition to contacting the dock officials, the envoys of the East Coast people also went ashore in a horse-drawn carriage and traveled to the Inner 6 area. They were preparing to go to the Pasquier family's estate in the interior. In addition to purchasing some cotton from them, they also settled the previous year's payment - their family was an agent for goods on the East Coast and in the neighboring Spanish countries of Santo Domingo, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, etc.

Regardless of the actions of the administrative and logisticians, the commander of the escort fleet, Lieutenant Commander 6 Ming, first called a meeting of his officers. According to the plan, the entire fleet will take a short break in Cap-de-France, and about 7ooo immigrants (2ooo Livonias, 2ooo Cretan Greeks, 3ooo slave girls) will go ashore in Cap-de-France to ventilate and eat some fresh food, water and fruit to sustain their bodies. Meantime. The fleet's carriers also took the opportunity to do some simple maintenance for better sailing.

After the flotilla had rested, since the southward movement from the Caribbean Sea was no longer the usual area of activity for the Spanish Navy, 15 transports were to return to the port of Orient via Recife escorted by eight warships. As for the remaining four battleships, they would return home a little later - for a trip to the Caribbean. How can you just just walk away? And of course to impress the Spaniards!

The Caribbean was the first stop in the Spanish colonization of the Americas. As early as the end of the 15th century (1492), the Spaniards established the first European stronghold on the island of Haiti - Isabella; Then, in 1496, a second stronghold, Santo Domingo, was founded; In 15o8, San Juan (Puerto Rico) was founded; In 1514, Santiago was founded (Cuba......

The expansion of the Spaniards in the Caribbean was very rapid, and their colonization of these islands was also resolute. Take the island of Haiti as an example, when in 15o9 Diego. When Columbus became governor. There were already seventeen Spanish towns and twelve thousand Spaniards on the island, and even more so for the Indians. The island was extremely wealthy, and in the beginning, the island's inhabitants grew tobacco, cotton, and raised livestock (pigs, cows, and chickens brought from Spain) as their main source of income. Later, there were many more sugar cane plantations, where the Spaniards squeezed and made sugar, and then shipped it back to Europe for sale. Quite profitable.

In today's 17th century, in the 40s of the 17th century, the island's economy was somewhat depressed due to the mass death of the Indians, but it was still a place of abundance. At present, the Spaniards have effectively abandoned the western part of the island (present-day Haiti) due to a lack of labor, but there are still large numbers of Spanish plantations in the eastern part of the island (present-day Dominica). And compared with San Juan, Havana, Santiago and other important cities, the Spanish Santo Domingo has a somewhat weak defense, which is an excellent target for robbery.

"After the Spaniards abandoned the western half of the island. French influence infiltrated here. Under the shade of a tree at the port wharf, 6 Ming was holding a meeting with four battleships with officers of the second lieutenant and above, only to hear his adjutant Jiang Yaohui point to a hand-drawn map of the Caribbean and say: "But the French are also very limited, they only occupy a few areas. Anarchy remains in most areas. Well, these places are currently self-governing by pirates, but there are also some immigrants from Europe, who hunt in the jungle or in the mountains (wild boars, bison), and grow produce to sell to the pirates at the bottom of the mountains. Oh, and by the way, the pirate island of Tortuga was occupied by the French a few years ago, and at its peak there were at least 50,000 pirates all year round, and now they are scattered all over the place. Some of them were recruited by us, some of them were scattered to other islands, and there are only more than 10,000 people left near the island of Haiti. ”

"Don't talk about the useless ones, just get to the point." 6 Ming, who had been silent until the meeting, suddenly interrupted Jiang Yaohui's chatter and said, "Say something valuable!" ”

Jiang Yaohui was reprimanded by Shangguan, his face couldn't help but turn red, and then he cleared his throat and continued: "I built a battleship detachment to go to Spanish Santo Domingo to attack the Spanish towns there, of course, the key targets are those Spanish towns with weak defenses, after all, we lack a large number of 6th Army. As for the great ports of Santo Domingo and San Juan, it is better not to go, because even if we forcibly capture those ports under the fire of the Spanish batteries, they still have a large number of combatants on the 6 grounds, and we will probably not be able to conquer those towns after paying heavy casualties. In addition, in addition to these small towns, we can also wait for opportunities to attack the Spanish sea lines of communication and sink some Spanish merchant ships, which can also be a great blow to the will of the Spaniards to war. ”

After Jiang Yaohui finished speaking, it was everyone's discussion time. There was a lively discussion, some people built yì to go deep into the coasts of Mexico and Cuba to try their luck, some people built yì to contact some pirate ships to "make money together", and some people built yì to directly enter the ports of the six Spanish territories (present-day Venezuela, Colombia and other places) to rob them, in short, everyone put forward a lot of opinions.

6 Ming sat quietly and listened to the discussion, and did not interject. When everyone had nothing to say and turned to look at him, he Shi Shiran said, "It's all over?" Well, let me say a few words. First of all, we don't have a lot of time, and with the current time, we will probably not be able to return to our home country until early to mid-July, and there is not much time for us to harass the Spaniards. Secondly, we don't have the 6th Army, forget about Mexico and Cuba, the Spaniards there are stronger, and we can't afford to lose any of them. In this case, we will only be able to attack the nearest Spanish Santo Domingo. ”

Speaking of this, 6 Ming paused slightly, glanced at everyone's expressions, and then said: "Now I order, two days later, the battleship detachment will pull anchor and set sail to the coast of Santo Domingo, Spain, to clean up the Spanish towns. Our goal is not to gnaw hard bones, but to pick soft persimmons and pinch them, so as not to cause us heavy casualties. Alright, this is the final order, everyone go down and prepare immediately! ”

When the final order was given, everyone said nothing more, and then they all went to their respective ships to get ready. They had to prepare plenty of fresh vegetables and meat on board, and the drinking water had to be fresh, after all, the kind of fresh water that was always floating with a lot of suspicious green overhangs was really frustrating. In addition, it would be great to be able to buy some more alcohol - whether it be spirits or beer - although it is not very likely to be bought here.

In this way, the various agricultural products on the market in Cap-de-France were sold out in just one day. The people of the East Coast brought boxes of coins and went around shopping for supplies. At the same time, 7,000 European immigrants disembarked in batches with curiosity, fear, and doubt, and went ashore to rest in the wind, where they could step on solid ground, breathe fresh air, eat delicious meals, and drink sweet spring water, which would obviously be of great benefit to them for the rest of the voyage.

The next day, a large number of natives living in the Inner 6 areas drove horses and mules, and transported a large amount of supplies to the docks overnight, and then sold them to the people on the east coast; When the natives from other nearby regions heard the news, they even rowed small boats from the sea to Cap-de-France to sell their agricultural products, and the entire port and wharf area almost became a grand bazaar. And in this festive and market-like atmosphere, the four battleships had also quietly completed their preparations before sailing.

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