May 30, 1636, off the coast of Chesapeake Bay. A total of nineteen British officers were executed, all of whom were British sailors who had expressed their willingness to surrender. Threatened by the muskets of the sailors on the east coast, they took up their sabers and stabbed their former commanders and superiors, and the slightest hesitation was immediately dragged out and thrown into the sea.

There were more than 70 English sailors and six "worthy" officers who were to be sent back to the country and subjected to a lengthy period of inspection before they were screened for use.

The Admiralty has gone through great painstaking efforts to recruit all the talents it can find, and after its own painstaking research, it has only just figured out the optimal route for a small part of the sea. Examples include the route between Port Oriente and the Falklands, the route from the Falklands to the island of Chiloé via the Strait of Magellan, the route from Cap-de-France to Bordeaux, and the route from Bordeaux to Massachusetts.

As for the other vast sea areas, although there are always general maps of the traversal, there is no specific information about the currents, climate, and ports along the way in each sea area, and these sea areas can basically be regarded as unfamiliar waters for the traversers. Now with these British who have surrendered, the charts in the Admiralty can finally be perfected again. Exploring new routes can be a laborious, time-consuming, and costly affair, and there will inevitably be casualties such as ships running aground, encountering storms, and lost ships.

It can be said that the role of these old British sailors and officers is still very large. Otherwise, they wouldn't have been spared an extra life, and it would be naïve to think that Captain Clifford's five hundred pounds would have saved so many Brits. In those days, there were no laws of war, and humanitarianism was only lip service. Killing people like hemp and careless human life is the norm in society. Even Lu Ming, a modern person in the 21st century. After all these years, he would not hesitate to think that once his subordinates were captured by the British. There will be more than 70% chance of being put to death, and the remaining 30% chance of being sold as slaves.

Therefore, he did not have much sympathy for the fate of these Englishmen, not to mention the fact that they had just killed his beloved students. If this matter had been placed a few years ago, perhaps Lu Ming would have ordered the forgiveness of these Britons, but now it is absolutely impossible. Sometimes I have to sigh that people will also be assimilated by the times.

After all, the hole in the waterline of the "Lemon" could not be closed.

The East Coast sailors on the Red Trout used layers of canvas to block the breach, but this only slowed down the ship's sinking speed. Seawater is still pouring into the cabin. Within minutes of the sailors removing the sugar, cocoa, coffee and other goods from the hold, the 450-ton British three-masted gallening ship sank into the sea. Seeing that the officers and men of the navy of the East Coast Republic were distressed for a while, the sky was pitiful, and there were not many warships in the country at present. It's really frustrating that I finally got captured and sank after getting to the worst.

The sea breeze blew away some of the fog, and visibility on the sea gradually increased.

There was no sign of the British on the sea, but in order to avoid long nights, after the funeral of the brothers who died in battle, the five battleships were close together. Turning southeast, he sailed for half a day away from this area before dropping anchor again.

The captains of the four warships, including the "East Coast Eagle," took a transport boat to the captain's room of the flagship "10 August" for a meeting to discuss the next step.

This time due to various unexpected factors. This led to a naval battle with the British, which was not planned, and caused a lot of casualties. For this reason, Lu Ming, as the commander-in-chief of the First Fleet, was under tremendous pressure. On the one hand, there were heavy losses of 181 officers and men of the army and navy, and on the other hand, a series of possible consequences of the battle.

None of the captains in the room were fools, and they were equally aware of the far-reaching implications of the incident.

In today's naval battle, it was later learned from the interrogation of the prisoners that the British had committed a total of ten armed merchant ships (only five of which had fought). According to post-war statistics, the British "Lucky Gianni" and "Warrior" sank in battle, the "Lemon" leaked and sank after being captured, the "Prosperity" and "Asuka" were damaged and fled, and the remaining five British merchant ships turned around and fled within the first moment of the appearance of the "10 August" and disappeared into the fog.

The British ships were either on their way back to Portsmouth, or they had already taken refuge in the British colony of Virginia in Jamestown by virtue of their familiarity with the seas. All in all, it is completely impossible to expect this battle to be kept secret. The British were not stupid, and they only had to ask the details of the naval battle a little to conclude that their opponents had such a "Tatartan cannon". So, who raided the British colonies of Massachusetts and Virginia last year and this year? The answer to this question is probably already obvious.

"Looks like we're in trouble." The corners of the mouth of the newly appointed Lieutenant Li Yi, the commander of the "East Coast Eagle" (Wang Tiezhu, who was transferred to the newly built "Common Market"), tried to make a joke to liven up the atmosphere.

Lu Ming, Guo Zili, Chen Tumu, and Han Dezhi (captain of the "Sea Writer") gave him a blank look and did not speak.

Li Yi smiled a little embarrassedly, only to see him scratch his hair, and continued nonchalantly: "I remember that at this time, King Charles I of England was fighting to the death with Parliament in order to raise funds for the war, and those squires, enlightened nobles and big merchants who controlled the wealth of England should not support him to rashly launch a foreign war, right?" Especially since they are still mired in the quagmire of the Thirty Years' War and have not come out, although they have not directly sent troops, their annual military spending has always been a lot of money. ”

"Lao Li, have you figured it out?" Han Dezhi held his forehead and lamented: "We are robbing the ships of the East India Company and the merchant adventure company now, and they are serious bourgeoisie, so they don't have too much motivation to encourage the king to fight with us." I think this time it hangs, and I don't know if the British will really go to war with us, at least the East India Company will not give up. ”

"We robbed the Indian cotton market for the British entrepot trade, and made the originally lucrative woolen market into a cabbage price, which greatly reduced the income of the British, and they didn't look for us to have a ghost." Chen Tumu also echoed and said, "Who let both of us put our minds on textiles, this is a fundamental contradiction and irreconcilable." There is no way to solve the problem other than war. ”

"What are you talking about?!" Lu Ming slapped the table, stood up irritably, and walked back and forth on the ground covered with Turkish cashmere carpet, "The reaction of the British is something that the Executive Committee and the Foreign Office need to consider, let's it." Damn, I said it was a dangerous thing to come to North America to fight the autumn wind, just the stupid ...... of the Admiralty The bureaucrats couldn't see it, and they said that they wanted to curb the development of the British, and curb you! Don't look at us only a few boats, a few people, small arms and legs come to the British side to gnaw hard bones. Okay now, if you walk too much at night, you'll always bump into ghosts, damn it, a bunch of troublesome goods! ”

Seeing that Lu Ming, a good old man who had always had a good temper, was angry, and several captains stopped talking.

Lu Ming walked around the carpet two more times, then returned to his seat, unbuttoned the wind and discipline button on his neckline, and then said: "Don't talk about things that far, let's talk about what we should do now." Do you want to continue wandering around here, or do you want to head south, or do you simply end the hunt early and pick it up in Bordeaux? Let's all share our opinions. ”

"I have an idea, it's just an idea, say it and you total." Li Yi was the first to speak, "Can we take advantage of this fog to find a way to break into the harbor of Jamestown?" As far as I know, the British batteries are not capable of shooting inwards (in fact, most of the harbor batteries are not capable of shooting inwards at this time), and we can completely destroy the port after we rush in, and even take advantage of the chaos to go ashore and plunder, what do you think? ”

"Not good!" Han Dezhi hurt Li Yi and said: "You also know that it is foggy now, please, we can't accurately locate the sea area we are in now, so how can we accurately find Jamestown?" In addition, the hydrological information of the port of Jamestown is also unclear, so aren't you afraid of hitting the reef when you drive it indiscriminately? Your suggestion is completely unreliable. ”

Several others also expressed some opinions, the general effect of which was that there was really no point in staying here, and that it was better to go south to the Caribbean, or simply go to Bordeaux and sail back.

Seeing that everyone was not much interested in staying and gnawing the hard bones of the British, and Lu Ming was also worried that there would be British warships nearby, he simply decided to end this year's privateer operation and leave for Bordeaux with the entire fleet.

However, due to the severity of the damage to the Beagle, which required some time to be repaired, the entire fleet continued to stay near the Chesapeake Bay for another two days. Dramatically, though, these two days were not without a little gain. A Virginia Company immigration ship carrying more than 300 British immigrants was intercepted off the coast of Chesapeake Bay by a cruising First Fleet warship, and the hapless migrant ship was immediately controlled by the East Coast Republic Army soldiers who boarded the ship, and then turned south and headed for Oriental Harbor under the escort of the simply repaired "Beagle".

As for the remaining main fleet, under Lu Ming's order, it set sail and turned due east, preparing to cross the Atlantic Ocean towards the port of Bordeaux. (To be continued......)