Zhenhae Fort Naval Base.

Just the day after the two ships of the South African Pioneer Team led by Mo Ming left port, the Zhenhai Fort Naval Base ushered in the most glorious day in history. All the warships of the Navy's First Fleet and the Second Fleet gathered together to fill up several berths near the shore on both sides of the No. 1 trestle of Zhenhai Fort.

Julian. Pasquier looked at the tall hulls of the two battleships on the docks, and the apprehension he had felt when he first arrived was slightly relieved. Recently, British ships have begun to appear frequently in the Bay of Biscay, and many of them are close to military standards in terms of the number of firearms and the staffing.

The British movement attracted the attention of the French navy stationed at La Rochelle, and in view of the current friendly relations between the two countries, the British informed the local French navy of their purpose through private channels, in exchange for the French ignoring their privateering. Of course, this made it difficult to keep the news secret, and the news of the appearance of some British privateers in the Bay of Biscay was transmitted to the east coast through the Pasquier family's "Nightingale".

The Executive Committee and the Joint Staff Headquarters attached great importance to the information that Julian had personally sent. Although it is uncertain whether the British will openly attack the French ships loaded with cotton cloth, it is better to be careful in everything. As a result, the Executive Committee decisively decided to stop the naval privateering that had been going on for three years and to begin escorting merchant ships between Bordeaux and the East Coast.

To this end, the Admiralty took stock of the existing strength at hand, a total of eight large and small ships.

The main ships were the "August 10th" and the "Common Market", two battle line gunboats armed with 66 guns each; The frigates were the "Red Trout" with 28 guns, the "Beagle" with 24 guns, the "Sea Writer" with 22 guns, and the "East Coast Eagle" with 20 guns. In addition, there is the Galician Exocet, an armed merchant ship armed with 16 guns, and the newly commissioned armed merchant ship "Dealer" (captured from the Chesapeake Bay off the coast of the former Virginia Company immigration ship).

Planing away the two ships bound for South Africa. The remaining few ships could theoretically be used to escort ships. But taking into account the strong maritime power of the British. If there is no capital ship in the escort formation, it will definitely not work. As a result, the Executive Committee decided to reorganize the two fleets. The battleship "Common Market" was assigned to the First Fleet, and the armed merchant ship "Businessman" was assigned to the Second Fleet. In this way, all six professional warships were included in the First Fleet, which greatly increased the strength of the First Fleet, and the Second Fleet was reduced to a dispensable supporting role.

After the adjustment of the staff, it is time to coordinate the personnel. The 150 students who graduated from the first (32nd) and second classes of the Navigation School have long been assigned to various battleships as non-commissioned officers and alternate officers, of course. Before exercising their officer duties, they are required to complete one year of apprenticeship as a sailor and pass the examination as the chief officer of the trainee warship.

The graduates of these nautical schools are the "own people" of the Executive Committee and the Admiralty, and when they grow up to become the backbone of the navy, the navy on the east coast will surely become a formidable maritime force.

There are non-commissioned officers and officers, but the recruitment of sailors is a bit of a headache. Without him, the population base of the east coast is too small, and the sailors trained over the years are really limited, and with the successive entry of two battleships and two large transport ships, the number of sailors on the east coast is seriously insufficient.

In desperation, spring has finally arrived for the hundreds of former pirate members who are currently playing hide-and-seek at Fort Lower Yi and the Savages of Charua, as well as mining iron ore in the ravines of Fort Changshan. The Executive Committee issued an order. These pirates, who had at least ostensibly been submissively reorganized, suddenly put on their naval uniforms en masse. The vast majority of them have already married and had children in the local area, and they are relatively reliable people for the Executive Committee.

With the addition of a few hundred former pirates, the number of sailors is finally barely up to the mark. As for the gunners, there is still no shortage on the east coast at the moment.

Due to the series of wars since the founding of the People's Republic of China and the strong sense of crisis in the Executive Committee, the East Bank is currently implementing a compulsory compulsory military system, that is, every adult male between the ages of 18 and 50 must regularly undergo high-density formal military training to ensure that the Joint Staff Headquarters can directly integrate them into active duty when war breaks out.

The East Coast's emphasis on artillery can be said to be second to none in the entire world, so it has also trained a large number of gunners. These gunners only need to get on board to get used to it, run in for a period of time, and go through a lot of training in shelling at sea to become a qualified naval gunner.

As a result, when the two fleets were fully staffed, the navy's strength officially exceeded 1,100 men, not counting the sailors of the two newly commissioned merchant ships of the South China Sea Transportation Company. Compared with the current population of more than 17,000 people in the country on the east coast, an army of this size has to be said to be extremely militaristic.

There is hardly a single idler in the whole country, and everyone is stimulated to the greatest value, and the per capita GDP created is dozens of streets away from all countries on the planet.

Now, in order to safeguard the overseas commercial interests of the Republic, and more importantly, to maintain the continued survival of the country, the navy will come to the fore and fight to the death against Britain, the old naval power in Europe.

The consolidated First Fleet was divided into two escort squadrons, each with a battleship as its flagship. Today, the task of escorting the Zhenhai Fort-Bordeaux route was entrusted to Wang Tiehammer, who was the captain commander of the Second Squadron.

Wang Tiehammer will lead the ship "Common Market" and the frigates "Red Trout" and "Sea Writer" to escort the flute-type transport ships "Penglai" and "Yingzhou" of the South China Sea Transport Company loaded with various supplies to Bordeaux, and the Pasquier family's merchant ship "Nightingale" will also accompany him.

In view of the tremendous role played by Army musketeers in the previous Battle of the Chesapeake Bay, the Joint Staff Headquarters temporarily called up a large number of militiamen to fight with the ships as usual. Among them, the battleship "Common Market" was equipped with 5 platoons of 80 musketeers, 16 armoured grenadiers in one platoon, and 32 cuirassier spearmen in two platoons, plus two commanders and deputy commanders, a total of 130 men formed a mixed company; As for the army on the "Red Trout" and the "Sea Writer", the number of mixed companies on the "Common Market" was halved; The two merchant ships were also manned with half a mixed company of army soldiers.

In order to meet the nearly 400 army soldiers needed for this voyage, the Joint Staff Headquarters mobilized a large number of veterans to enlist in the army throughout the country, and in particular, the 15 production teams in Dingyuan Township, where veterans are concentrated, contributed the vast majority of their share.

Because of this, the number of people engaged in agricultural production has decreased dramatically. In November, when soybeans are planted, the fields are heavily sold, and such a large-scale deployment of strong labor will inevitably affect domestic food production. After several years of large-scale grain exports, the current domestic grain stocks have dropped to less than a year, and if the grain harvest fails this year, it is likely to cause turmoil in the hearts of the people in the country.

In order to get out of this predicament, the Executive Committee, which was tormented by the shortage of manpower, mobilized the army to start a large-scale cross-border search for the Charua, Guarani and other natives, and hired a large number of Italians from the La Plata region who crossed the border into the towns on the east bank.

Most of these Italians were immigrated to the La Plata region by the Spanish government in recent years to strengthen the local area. However, the living conditions of these new Italians now seem to be really worrisome, and the native whites of La Plata deal with these outsiders with indifference, and the unruly gauchos are extremely hostile to them.

Very few Italians can find a job. The land around Buenos Aires had long since been divided, and white ranchers in Buenos Aires were reluctant to recruit more men to graze their cattle due to trade restrictions. Because they already had enough cattle, the New World could not digest so many beef cattle before the invention of the refrigerated ship.

Some Italians and southern Europeans who could not find jobs began to go deep into the interior of La Plata to cultivate the land. But not everyone has this courage, and the plagues that prevail in the wilderness and the barbaric and cruel natives are intimidating to many. So, under the propaganda of some, whether intentional or unintentional, hordes of Italians crossed the West Ridge and flocked to the East Coast in search of work.

The Government Council was overjoyed by the arrival of these "cheap laborers" and instructed the Census Office of the Ministry of Civil Affairs to send a special register of every Italian and southern European who entered the country, and then distribute it to various places as needed. The Ministry of Civil Affairs promised them the status of freemen and allowed them to buy land after serving the Republic of the East Bank for three years.

This policy sparked a great enthusiasm for the work of these poor southern Europeans, and when the news reached La Plata, more southern Europeans flocked to the country. According to statistics, more than 600 southern European immigrants have entered the country in this way since the beginning of this year, and it is the influx of these laborers that has slightly alleviated the shortage of manpower in the east coast region. In this matter, the king of Spain acted as a captain of a transport brigade to the letter.

On November 11, the Second Escort Detachment of the First Fleet, which had a total number of nearly 1,000 people, sailed out of the Zhenhaibao Pier in the drizzle. After forming a convoy formation on the surface of the sea, the six ships turned northeast and headed for Recife, where their first stop would be.

What awaits them is an unknown fate. Maybe they are safe, maybe they die at the bottom of the sea, they can only rely on their own courage and will. (To be continued......)