Not to mention other countries, even Portugal, which was involved, didn't understand Marin's intention to repair the fort in such a high-profile manner. After all, Marin hasn't done it yet. Neither attacked the Barony of Silva, nor did he send anyone to attack the Portuguese spice ship in the guise of pirates.

Probably, only after Marin makes a move, will the Portuguese react to Nima, and the artillery of the Beihai Kingdom is actually aimed at us! Moreover, the layout has been carried out for a long time......

At that point, everything will make sense. However, Portugal will also be in a dilemma and want to teach the other side a lesson, the other side has already built a fort to prepare for war, I am afraid it will not be pleased. If you don't teach it a lesson, it seems to damage the face of the eldest brother......

Marin didn't care what the Portuguese thought, but at the moment, he was busy buying saltpeter all over Europe. The reason for this is that the two batteries at the mouth of the Ames River have deployed hundreds of heavy guns, which require a large stockpile of gunpowder.

In fact, Marin was preparing for war on his return from Chile. After all, when Indian saltpeter was divided between Spain and Portugal, Marin's saltpeter sources were very limited. When the time comes, together with the artillery battle, everyone will wonder how much saltpeter there is in the North Sea country?

In addition, the agreement signed in Rome to collect manure is also beginning to be implemented. A large amount of manure is barreled and transported out to sea by special ships through the Rhine and other large rivers to the direction of Iceland to extract soil nitrate.

After this series of big moves, when the time comes, the saltpeter shipped back from Chile will not be noticeable. After all, Marlin had been "buying saltpeter on a large scale" before.

At the same time, this also put pressure on Portugal to have enough saltpeter in stock, and there must be no shortage of gunpowder, so should this battle be fought or not?

……

Marin's series of actions caused a lot of noise, but there were people who made bigger moves than him, and Britain and France began to clash again......

Relations between England and France have deteriorated dramatically since England recaptured the fortress of Calais. The two countries have directly advanced from the previous state of "face and heart discord" to a state of tearing their faces.

The French began to build a Wall-like wall around the fortress of Calais as a defense against England. At the same time, it also began to secretly develop the navy, intending to turn the tables and rise.

François I had realized that it would be impossible for France to capture the fortress of Calais if England could not be restrained at sea. Because, the Strait of Calais is so wide, it is too convenient for England to reinforce the Calais fortress!

Therefore, François I also began to be ruthless, continuing the policy of Louis XII, quietly developing the navy, intending to one day defeat the British at sea.

The problem was that England did not relax its surveillance of France. Coupled with Marin's side, which is also helping to monitor, it is really difficult for the French navy to develop.

For example, François I secretly obtained a large amount of timber this year and built eight warships of two or three hundred tons in Nantes, which he intended to use against England.

These 8 warships, like the North Sea State, were all specialized warships, not improvised from merchant ships like England.

As for the sailors on board, they were also secretly trained by the French long ago. There was no actual training in the boat, so the French used the methods they had learned from Marin to use an oversized rectangular wooden plank similar to a swing, swaying from side to side, simulating the shaking of the deck of a ship at sea. Then, compete on it.

In this way, the French trained thousands of swordsmen, swordsmen adapted to combat on a rocking deck!

But it's a pity that when these 8 ships quietly went to sea for training, Marin, who had already learned the news, sent someone to secretly notify the English......

As a result, these 8 French warships fell into bad luck!

It is true that there are thousands of well-trained swordsmen on these eight ships, but they are only trained on rocking planks and are not familiar with real sea ships and naval battles. This is the first time to go to sea for practical training, and it is supposed to adapt to the conditions at sea. If it takes time, these thousands of swordsmen will definitely become powerful naval combat masters. At the very least, a master in the broadside battle!

However, they didn't have a chance......

After the fleet went to sea, there were no problems at first. But as soon as the flotilla sailed into the port of Brest, it was blocked by the English fleet......

England dispatched a total of 20 warships to encircle the new French fleet this time, and these 20 ships were all large merchant ships of about 200 tons recruited from the people, Kirk sailing type. Among them, there were 2,000 old sailors who were good at fighting, apparently counting the number and deliberately targeting the French sailors.

Perhaps, in Marin's opinion, these Kirk galleons were backward ship types. But in this era when broadside warfare was still popular, the Kirk sailing was still the mainstream ship type. As for the defeat of the Indian and Egyptian fleets by Spain and Portugal in the Indian Ocean, although it spread, many people still do not know about it because of the poor transmission of information in this era.

In addition, the concept of ordinary people is not so quick to change. Moreover, not to mention the French, even England, a traditional maritime power, has not been able to change its thinking for a while. After all, they have been accustomed to broadside battles for hundreds of years, and they are not used to all of them at once to artillery battles.

In addition, there is a very important problem, that is, the artillery battle is too gunpowder-intensive to fight!

There is a shortage of saltpeter in Europe, and except for Spain, Portugal and the North Sea countries, which can obtain saltpeter from overseas, other European countries have no way to purchase saltpeter from overseas. They can only rely on the little frosty soil that ordinary people scrape from the corners of their toilets and stables in cold weather. So, saltpeter is expensive and there are few of them. Even a powerful country like France can only be equipped with a hundred guns, and it is a small cannon like two or three pounder guns. In addition to the high price of copper, the low consumption of gunpowder in small-caliber artillery was also an important reason.

Originally, in history, until the 17th century, during the reign of Charles I, the beheaded unlucky man, England was extremely short of nitrate. For this reason, Charles I set up a special collector, who was allowed to break into the people's homes anytime and anywhere...... In the toilets and stables, the corners of the walls were scavenged for the frost to supply the army.

It was not until the English East India Company later found a stable supply of saltpeter in India that the shortage of nitrate in Britain improved. Then, relying on the abundance of Indian saltpeter, the British battleship turned on the ability to fire fiercely, and gradually grew into a sea hegemon.

Therefore, in this era, under the influence of traditional concepts and the shortage of saltpeter, Britain and France still took broadside warfare as the core thinking of forming a navy.

Of course, France was more financially well-off, and there were more guns on board. For example, each of the eight new warships is equipped with four guns, just like the armed merchant ships of Marin. Two of them were in the bow and two in the stern. Of the four guns, only one of the bow was a 12-pounder gun, and the other three were all 6-pounderers.

The English Kirk galleons had relatively few guns, one gun in the bow and one in the stern, and both were 6-pounder guns......

It was not that they were reluctant to place more guns, in addition to the lack of gunpowder supply, the hull could not withstand the recoil of too many and too large guns, which was also a significant reason.

The Kirk sailing ships of this era were still primitive and had not yet evolved into the later Galen ships. Therefore, the keel structure of this sailboat is simple, the ribs are thin and sparse, and the side sides are relatively thin. With such a structure, if dozens of guns are really placed on it like the warships of the Beihai Kingdom, once the shelling begins, a row of cannons will be shot down, and the enemy will not need to attack, and it will be shaken apart by the strong recoil first......

As a last resort, the old warships of this era could only be arranged with as few artillery as possible. Only on the bow and stern, which were structurally relatively solid, large guns were installed. The side or something, the old ship type is not suitable for installing too many guns......

Therefore, this naval battle in the Brest Bay, although there was also the use of artillery, but more importantly, it was actually a broadside battle......