Regarding the transfer of the battleship "Bayezid" to the Ottoman Empire, the members of the Executive Committee have communicated with each other privately several times, and basically an agreement has been reached among the members, and the next step is to hand it over to the Admiralty for specific operations. This time, Liu Weimin called Lu Ming, the commander of the First Fleet, mainly to ask what is the chance of winning for the first person in the navy in his mind, concentrating the main fleet to escort the merchant ships to the Ottoman Empire?

You must know that this escort is not only to the port of Smyrna in the Ottoman Empire, the route of the fleet on the east coast is quite complicated, and there are many ports that need to be stopped on the way. The route in Europe was roughly as follows: Pisa - Smyrna - Kaffa - Bordeaux - Riga - Danzig, and after unloading the last cargo at the Danzig trading station, the East Coast fleet would return to the East Coast with supplies purchased from the Old Continent, slave girls, and mercenaries.

Such a complicated route, the Mediterranean, the Bay of Biscay, the North Sea, and the Baltic Sea will all sail to one by one, which can be said to be circling around Spain, and it would be really self-deception to say that the Spaniards did not react. Therefore, it is very likely that a naval battle of a certain scale will break out between the escort and the Spanish Navy, and the danger is still quite high. Therefore, Liu Weimin summoned Lu Ming to want to know whether the navy was sure that the merchant ships on the east coast would safely escort these merchant ships to these merchant depots, unload the goods and load them with the materials, gold, silver and personnel stored in the Zài merchant depot, and return to the mainland safely.

The reason why it was necessary to organize a merchant fleet to go to the Old Continent despite the outbreak of a full-scale war with the Spaniards was because the Ministry of Finance clearly told Liu Weimin that an Ottoman market alone was not enough to support the normal operation of industry on the east coast. The markets of northern Italy, central and southern France, parts of Poland (northern Poland + the Duchy of Prussia), and Sweden (mainly southern Sweden, Finland, and Swiss-occupied Vonia) represented by Tuscany. Combined, these markets have a much larger share than the Ottoman Empire. You must not give up lightly. Otherwise, the country's economy will go wrong. Overcapacity, declining fiscal revenues, and insufficient material imports affected the country's war potential.

Lu Ming thought silently for a while, and then slowly spoke. "We do not have detailed information on the navy of the Kingdom of Spain, except that a few years ago they were severely damaged by the Dutch navy at the Battle of the Downs, and that one of the two fleets, the Mediterranean Fleet, was completely destroyed, and the main force of the Atlantic Fleet was also destroyed, and there were not many ships left. Several years have passed, but given Spain's scarcity of finances, the recovery of their naval strength should be slow. But this qiē is just speculation. If you can't do it accurately, only God knows what the situation will be. But you also said that the country needs those markets, and when it comes to this, can our navy still retreat? ”

"This time the fleet is organized in a hurry, are there any problems in navigation?" Liu Weimin asked again.

"Fortunately, although the season for sailing is not very right, it is not impossible." Lu Ming thought for a moment and replied, obviously the answer to this question was already familiar to him: "It's already spring in October, and the direct point of the sun begins to move southward at this time. The subtropical high pressure zone in the southern hemisphere also retreated southward, and the southern margin was roughly located between Ping'an Port and San Vicente. It's just that the intensity and range are much weaker than in the summer. It is more advantageous for navigation. The latitude of the port of Vostochny has always been recorded by our navy in this season, but to be honest, it is rather chaotic, and if you sail north, you will have to go against the warm current of Brazil. Naturally, there was nothing wrong with our steamboats, but it was difficult for the flutes that sailed on their sails, so we had two ways to go. ”

"For one, we can wait for a favorable weather to help our fleet move through the three latitude-width areas of variable winds. It then sails north along the southeast trade wind belt, which has now moved south to about 30 degrees south latitude, to the Bahia region of northeastern Brazil, and then either follows the North Atlantic circulation into the North Sea - well, that's not in line with our course, remove it - or uses the weak crosswinds near the equator (northwest winds formed by the Earth's rotation after crossing the equator from the Northern Hemisphere) into the vicinity of the Gulf of Guinea, and then north along the near-Earth monsoon in northwestern Africa into the Strait of Gibraltar. ”

"Second, of course, we could sail south, then go south by the westerly winds blowing south of 40 degrees south latitude, and then resupply at the river port and then follow the strong Benguela cold current and southerly winds into the Gulf of Guinea and then into Europe. I personally took this route, because we could be resupplied at the port of the river, and at the Elmina Fort, which is now under Dutch control. After getting supplies and repairing the ship at Fort Elmina, we headed out to the Strait of Gibraltar in good condition for any troubles that might arise. ”

Naturally, the people present had no say in how to choose the route of the navy, after all, they did not understand this knowledge, they only needed to know that even if it was not a more suitable winter for sailing, the navy could have a way to reach Europe along the way. Therefore, after a little discussion, Liu Weimin said on behalf of everyone: "Then choose the second route, we also think this route is more secure." After all, there is no need to stop at a crowded place like Brazil on the way, and the concealment is much better. There is a high possibility that a battle will break out with the Spanish Navy on this voyage, and all kinds of spare artillery, canvas, ammunition, water, spare parts, and even personnel will be brought with you, and we will be waiting for you to return safely on our homeland. ”

"Please rest assured that our navy will protect the country's merchant fleet and bring back the materials, funds and personnel in the European trading stations safely." Lu Mingli stood up and said resolutely: "People are on the boat, people are dead, and the ship is dead!" ”

After the executive committee meeting, Lu Ming hurried back home, and after spending a warm night with his wife and children, he arrived at the berth of the military wharf in Dongfang Port by horse-drawn carriage early the next morning, where the main force of the Navy's First Fleet was moored.

After the last fierce battle with the Spanish fleet of La Plata in the port of Buenos Aires, the East Coasters captured three intact warships. Among them, the offshore patrol ship with a tonnage of only more than 100 tons is currently undergoing a major renovation on the dock, and the engineers are planning to install a steam engine on the ship, of course, the ship's ship type and center of gravity will also be redesigned, and the amount of work is still quite large, and it is still being intensively reconstructed. After the conversion, the ship will become a fast communication / liaison ship for the Navy's First Fleet.

In addition to this small boat, the East Coasters captured a 500-ton frigate gunboat "Inquisition" and an 850-ton gunboat "Cadiz Rock". The "Inquisitioning Judge" was slightly larger than the Falklands-class frigate designed on the east coast, and after removing the old guns on the original ship, the workers of the Dayuhe Naval Shipyard installed 28 guns on the ship, including four powerful 24-pounder long-barreled heavy guns and eight 18-pounder long-barreled/short-barreled naval guns, which was a step up from the original power in the hands of the Spaniards.

And the battleship "Cadiz Rock", which was badly damaged in the harbor breakout battle at that time, was urgently towed back to the port of Vostom, and the technicians of the Dayuhe shipyard repaired it, and it has now been completed. The standard displacement of the newly-renovated battleship "Cádiz Rock" has reached 850 tons, which is directly catching up with the "10 August" class battleships, which are currently the sharp weapons of the navy on the east coast. The repaired and refitted "Cadiz Rock" is currently equipped with 44 naval guns of various types produced by the Northern Arsenal, of which the most deterrent is the six 32-pounder long-barreled heavy guns.

Such a battleship, among many naval personnel, is already worthy of the title of battleship. If it weren't for the tight schedule, the Admiralty would definitely have asked that the ship be fitted with the latest Popeye steam engines and then incorporated into battleship formations.

The captain of the "Cadiz Rock" was John Brown. Lieutenant of the Navy Ston (with the treatment of captain), former first mate of the battleship "August 10th", adjutant to captain Lu Ming. He has been serving in the East Coast Navy for more than 10 years, and he is a mid-level and high-ranking officer in the Navy that the East Coast people can trust.

On 17 October, just as the Permanent Kaisheng Detachment of the Army on the east bank of the La Plata area had just rested in Santa Fe for two days and was struggling with whether to draw valuable troops to take the city of Corrientes upstream, the main force of the Navy's First Fleet, anchored in the port of Orient, was dispatched to escort the merchant fleet bound for Europe.

The navy dispatched four "10 August" class battleships, eight "Falklands" class frigates, and one "Cadiz Rock" battleship, making a total of 13 professional warships. Their escorts included 12 flute ships of the South China Sea Transport Company, as well as two Dutch, two Portuguese, one English, one Danish, and a large shear-sheared cargo sail loaded with coal. If you add the sail battleship Bayezid, which was about to be handed over to the Ottoman Empire, the size of the entire fleet would be 33 ships with a total displacement of more than 22,000 tons.

After these ships were dispatched, there was only one frigate gunboat and one naval training ship left in the warships on the mainland, which was basically out of fashion.

The cargo carried by the merchant fleet included all kinds of textiles (cotton cloth and some finished products), leather goods, steel bars, hardware products, metal farm tools and knives, cement and lime and other building materials, railroad tracks, liquor (liquor, wine and beer), munitions, cheese, animal fat, soda ash, high-end furniture and musical instruments, heavy four-wheeled freight carriages, rail wagons, machinery parts, etc.

At noon on the 17th, the fleet gathered all the convoys that needed to be escorted off the coast of the port of Oriente, formed a group and headed for the port of Buenos Aires. There they will replenish some beef cattle and fresh water before heading 40 degrees south latitude. (To be continued......)