Chapter Ninety-Seven: Blockade of the Port of Acapulco Surprise attack by Franco's man-in-war ships

Colt, the governor of Acapulco, wanted to send the Ming Dynasty away and let them get out of the way, even if there was no business to do, it was better than Acapulco being occupied by them.

The liaison officer of the kiln gang was escorted by the Franz soldiers with guns on board the boat and left.

Wei Chong's thoughts were different from Colt, he took the fleet and came to Acapulco thousands of miles away, how could he leave like this.

Hearing the liaison officer's report, Wei Chong said, "After you left, I took a look at the port of Acapulco, and there were many large and small ships in the port. Since they don't let us into the port to trade, then we can blockade their port of Acapulco. All ships were not allowed to enter or leave the port of Acapulco, until they agreed to our trade. ”

The young liaison officer asked puzzledly: "Captain, we bombarded their San Diego fort with a cannon, and they were honest, so why bother with them like this?" ”

"Huh! It's easy to flatten, but the merchants here have also run away, who are we selling our goods to? Besides, we don't want to occupy this place, we don't have the energy to manage it, and it's in our interest to leave a prosperous port of Acapulco! We are here this time to open up trade routes! Wei Chong explained.

"Hey, how much time does it take? We brothers have had enough of frozen fruits and vegetables, and that bean sprout! ”

"Huh! Don't underestimate bean sprouts! Our President Zhang said that when Europeans sailed, many people died at sea because they could not eat fresh vegetables at sea and contracted black blood, but we Zheng He did not have such a problem when he went to the Western Ocean several times, because we Chinese carried soybeans on board. Soybeans do not have vitamin C when eaten directly, but bean sprouts contain vitamin C. This is our magic weapon! ”

"What is vitamin C?"

"Huh? Hehe! I don't know, but I heard Zhang always say that! Hehe! Wei Chong actually couldn't tell him about it, but he knew that if he didn't want to get sick at sea for a long time, it was good to eat more bean sprouts.

At this time, the lookout reported that a small boat with a small tonnage was not large, estimated to be more than 50 tons.

Wei Chong ordered: "Let's go over and stop it." Then he said to the governor, "Write a letter to their governor, and tell him that we have come to trade." We could have flattened the San Diego fort with heavy artillery. However, we feel that that will hurt the harmony of the two families, and we Chinese pay attention to harmony and wealth. We will not take any extreme measures unless we have to. But we have come thousands of miles to come and will not go back like this. We have decided to blockade the port of Acapulco until you agree to trade with us on an equal footing. ”

"Okay!" The general said yes, turned around and went to write.

A small Franco-Merchant Ship was loaded with cargo and left a dock in Acapulco, just about to leave the Gulf of Acapulco, when it was blocked by a large ship with no sails and black smoke like a mountain. The captain hurriedly ordered the rudder to be turned, so that he did not crash into the mountain-like ship. But the swift reversal of the big ship blocked their way. At this time, a loud voice came from the ship, warning them in a not-so-standard Spanish, "Listen to the boat ahead, the port of Acapulco has been blocked by us. Please return to the port of Acapulco immediately. From now on, no ship will be allowed to enter or leave the port of Acapulco. Those who don't heed the warnings will sink them mercilessly. ”

At this time, a letter addressed to Acapulco was shot into the boat with a bow and arrow.

The captain of the boat had never seen a steel ship of this size, and he knew that he could smash his boat to pieces without a cannon being fired. So the boat quickly turned around and walked towards Huihui. In this way, three ships that were about to leave the port and two ships that were about to enter the port were stopped.

When Governor Colt received this letter from Wei Chong to him, he spun around in a hurry. He had already been informed that the steam warships of the Ming Dynasty were very good, and many of the Franc warships were sunk by them, including the ships of the Dutch, the coachman of the sea, and many were also sunk by them. Both the Francos and the Dutch colonies in Nanyang were easily broken by the Ming Dynasty. Although Wei Chongxin said that the port of Acapulco was now blocked, he did not say that he would resolutely not attack Acapulco. Clearly, if the blockade doesn't work out, they'll take action.

After sending off the liaison officer of the Ming Dynasty, Colt immediately wrote a letter informing him of the situation and sending him to Mexico City on a fast horse, asking the governor what to do? Now he eagerly awaited the Governor's reply. Now that this situation was in place, Colt wrote another letter and sent someone to Mexico City again.

Colt knew that there were still a few slightly larger armed merchant ships in the port of Acapulco, but he did not dare to send these merchant ships out to meet the warships of the Ming Dynasty. He knew there would be no return.

The reply from Mexico City has not arrived for a long time, but the merchants of the port of Acapulco have stopped doing it, and the business is not good, and now the ships cannot get in and out, is this not going to kill everyone? Many of those captains and merchants were not something that Colt, the governor, could afford to offend. In the face of their anger, Colt also directly said that he would wait for the instructions of the governor of Mexico City to decide what to do.

In fact, there were many merchants of Acapulco, who heard that two very large galleons had come this time, which was something they had been looking forward to for a long time, but they were driven away by Colt and were not allowed to go ashore to trade, which was tantamount to cutting off their way of life. This is what they are even more dissatisfied with.

Two days later, there were bold Acapulco locals rowing small boats to the anchorage of the kiln gang fleet, they brought a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables, which was exactly what the kiln gang people needed, and the goods were bought by the kiln gang people, which greatly encouraged the locals, and many merchants came by small boats to buy the goods on the big ships.

Wei Chong didn't want to sell things like this, it would be too time-consuming. However, in order to expand his influence, Wei Chong notified the two cargo ships and invited the merchants who came over to board the ship to choose their favorite items.

The people who boarded the ship were small traders, and when they waited for the big ship to go up the mountain, they were dazzled by the exquisite things on board, and even many things they had never seen before. In particular, the aluminum basin is the same as the silver basin, but the strength is much greater than that of the silver basin, and the price is much lower. And they can't afford to buy singing machines, all kinds of textiles, small hardware, many of which they haven't seen. It's just the things I've seen, those exquisite sharp knives, the scissors are all forged from very good steel, and they can't put it down.

When they had spent all the gold and silver coins, there was no shortage of things on board. When they returned to the shore, they caused a sensation in the whole of Acapulco, and those Franc merchants even blocked Colt in the office, asking him to allow the merchant ships of the Ming Dynasty to dock and give everyone a chance to earn money.

When Colt was overwhelmed by everyone, the herald returned, bringing back a letter from the governor of Mexico.

Colt opened the Governor's letter and read it, then raised his hand and held the letter and said: "The Governor has sent a letter, and the ships of the Ming Dynasty are absolutely not allowed to dock in our harbor." If necessary, you can shoot them away! ”

When the merchants heard this, they immediately blew up the nest. They scolded the governor.

They knew that both Colt in front of them and the Governor of Mexico City were afraid of responsibility. Because of the conflict between Franji and the Ming Dynasty several times, many colonies were taken away by the Ming Dynasty, and if they had close contacts with the Ming Dynasty and passed it to their families, they were likely to be punished.

But the temptation in front of him is too great, just like a hungry wolf, looking at the fat meat, how can he not want to eat it in his mouth.

These Francois merchants could not hire a small boat to do business like the local peddlers, but they hired a small boat together and came to the ship of the kiln and asked to see the chief treasurer of the merchant ship.

Wei Chong received them.

A merchant said to Wei Chong, "We are all merchants from Franco, and we are very willing to do business with you. But our governor is afraid that you will occupy Acapulco, and will not allow you to come ashore. Their big trading companies can afford to lose, and we merchants can't survive without business. That's why we're willing to do business with you. We're here to discuss with you if we can trade at sea? ”

Wei Chong said to them, "You have also seen how big our ships are, and if we were to trade at sea, we would have to do it for a very long time. Besides, we are here this time, on the one hand, to do trade, we want to restore or even develop the galleon trade. Our boat can come once a year, or even twice a year. Therefore, we must get the Governor's permission for us to trade. It really doesn't work, we can solve this problem with artillery. ”

Wei Chong didn't expect that a Franco businessman asked, "Then why don't you do it yet?" ”

Wei Chong was stunned for a moment and said, "We were afraid, as soon as our cannon went off, you merchants ran away, who are we going to trade with?" ”

"Haha!"

Everyone laughed for a while, and one of the merchants said, "We are merchants, as long as it is profitable, and your shells do not fall on our heads, we will not run!" ”

"That's right! We don't run! ”

“”

"That's good! In that case, we will give you a chance to make a fortune. We blockaded the port of Acapulco for a while, and if Colt didn't let go, we would have flattened the San Diego fort with cannons, and see if the Governor Colt would agree to us going ashore for trade. ”

"I don't think I have to wait!"

"Yes! What a waste of time! ”

“”

Wei Chong thought to himself, "Damn, these Franco businessmen even disregard their own national interests in order to make a fortune for themselves!" ”

However, Wei Chong said: "Don't worry about this. Now that you're here, let's discuss how we will trade in the future. In the past, the galleon trade used to come every two years, and the kind of ships were less than half the size of our ships. You don't have to worry about selling goods in two years. But that's too slow to make money. We are going to come once a year in the future to use such a big ship, which requires you to also have the means and channels to sell as soon as possible. That's how you can earn more money! ”

"Haha!"

"The big shopkeeper, you look down on us too much, don't say that you come once a year, even twice, as long as we bring the goods we need, we can sell them."

"That's good!" Wei Chong said, "I think we can leave some people here, usually keep in touch with you, what goods you need, how much you need, you can contact them, when our ship comes, we can bring goods according to your requirements." lest what we bring is not what you need, and we don't have enough of what you need! ”

"Oops! All right! ”

"That's right! You should keep people, that's the real business! ”

"That's right! This can be done for a long time! ”

Fran was very welcoming to Wei Chong's proposal.

At this time, Wei Chong didn't know that he was not ready to make a move against Fort San Diego, and the Franz people were already ready to do it against them.

Colt's second report said that the Ming Dynasty naval army had begun to blockade the port of Acapulco, which was a major event that the Mexican governor could not accept, but in fact, Luzon was also under the administration of the Mexican governor, and the Ming Dynasty occupied Luzon, that is, a piece of meat was dug up from the Mexican governorate. However, Franco, who escaped from Luzon, said that the military strength of the Ming Dynasty was too great, and all of our current warships were not opponents of others, and they could not defeat them when they went ashore. The matter was reported to the king of Spain, and the king did not say anything about it, so the people below had to endure it.

The Francos have been here in Mexico for 100 years, and the Northern Spanish in the Americas are divided into several viceroyalties, and the Mexican District is a large part of North America and Central America, including Mexico. When the Francos came to Mexico, they wanted to use Spanish coins directly, but the Mexican area was too big, and the Spanish coins they brought were simply not enough, so they began to use Spanish coins as a template to start minting coins, including silver and gold coins. Due to the continuous advancement of technology, Mexican gold and silver coins became better and better of quality, the same standards, and the Spanish business did all over the world, so the Mexican eagle became a popular coin among merchants from all over the world. Mexico's influence is also growing. But now that someone is bullying them, the Governor of Mexico knows that no matter what, he must drive them out, otherwise they will not be able to stay in Mexico. Therefore, the Mexican governor began to mobilize all the warships and armed merchant ships from all over the country, and all of them were assembled in Acapulco, with the aim of concentrating all the warships to drive out the merchant ships of the Ming Dynasty.

In this way, the Franco's secrecy work is still very good, the Governor of Acapulco got the news and didn't reveal it at all, the Franco merchants in Acapulco didn't know, and Wei Chong certainly didn't know.

Just when Wei Chong and they had been trapped in the port of Acapulco for ten days, Wei Chong and they were a little impatient to wait. At dawn that day, the radio detector on duty was already sleepy, for a long time, there were no ships at sea, and the same signal was displayed on the radio detector display, and there were no moving targets. Just as he rubbed his eyes and looked at the screen again, he suddenly realized that something was wrong on the screen, showing a lot of targets. He thought it was another false alarm, and pressed the knob to clear the screen, but the detector scanned it and still showed a lot of targets. The officer on duty knew that there was a situation and immediately reported it to the officer on duty, and the officer on duty immediately sounded the alarm when he asked about the situation, and all the personnel immediately ran to the battle position. After Wei Chong got up, he asked, "Have you notified the other ships?" ”

"Report to the captain, the other ships have been notified in accordance with the regulations."

Wei Chong came to the radio detector and asked, "Can you determine how many ships are coming?" ”

"Report to the captain, there is a high density of ships coming, and you can't tell how many warships are coming?"

"Good! The more comes, the better! Wei Chong's heart became excited, "Get ready to fight!" ”

Wei Chong understood that this was the Furlong Machine, taking advantage of their familiarity with the waterways here, and taking advantage of the darkness to get close to them and attack them with their warship.

The Fran machine people believed that as long as their ships and the Ming Dynasty ships were close to each other, the long-range artillery superiority of their warships would not exist, and they would be entangled, and perhaps they would win by virtue of the numerical superiority of the ships. But they didn't expect that there was a radar on the Yaogang warship, and they could be spotted at night. They didn't even know that the 1,800-ton warship was also equipped with a radio sight, which could accurately shoot at them at night.

This time, the Fran machine man concentrated more than 50 large and small warships, and after gathering in the distance, he used the night to surround the Ming Dynasty warship, in fact, they couldn't see anything at night, but he knew the approximate location of the Ming Dynasty warship, and the Fran warship surrounded it without a big deviation by virtue of its familiarity with the wind and water flow and accurate sailing skills.

Wei Chong ordered all the lights on the ship to be extinguished, not to indicate the target to the enemy, and when the Furlong machine came closer, Wei Chong and his two 130-caliber cannons on the foredeck of the 1,800-ton station ship aimed at a large ship with a large radio echo through a radio sight, and opened fire with a "dong dong."

At night, the sound of cannons on the sea spread far away, and soon the fire on the sea flashed, and a cannonball hit the warship, and the fire flashed, and the canvas and so on the ship, which had not yet sunk into the sea, began to burn. In the firelight, the ship could be seen slowly turning into a pile of floating torches. Then another Fur Battleship was hit and burst into flames.

The captains and sailors of the Franco warship that came in the dark night were as if they had seen the devil, and they did not know when their ships would sink into the sea in flames, just like those two ships. But when he came out, he gave a death order, that if anyone dared to flee in battle, he would be hanged when he returned.

Wei Chong understood that the 130-caliber cannon was enough to fight the warship of the Franco-man, and the 203-caliber cannon was not used at all. Today was the first time that a radio sight was used in real combat, and it turned out to be much better than expected, with two guns hitting two ships in two shots.

However, Wei Chong's 1,500-ton warship was not equipped with a radio sight, and only one of his own ships fired at night, so many Franco-man-made warships surrounded him, so he could not give full play to his artillery advantage, so Wei Chong suddenly ordered that the searchlights on all the ships be lit at the same time.