The other side of the globe, California, North America!

After nearly a year of operation, the California Colony exported 300,000 taels of gold and more than 1 million taels of silver to Shandong last year.

This year, patches of cotton have been planted in California's Golden Delta.

The number of native Indians ruled by the colony has reached 150,000, and the area of cotton cultivation exceeds 300,000 acres.

Due to the extensive planting, the cotton yield per mu is only about 80 kilograms, but it is also very considerable, and about 480,000 quintals of cotton can be obtained by harvesting all the cotton.

480,000 quintals of cotton can be spun into nearly 450,000 quintals of cotton cloth, cotton cloth in the Americas is not bought and sold according to weight, a load of cotton cloth sold by the ruler, about 25 taels, the total value of more than 11 million taels, after deducting the cost...... There is almost no cost.

The natives were now treated better, but the wages were still low, and there were taxes, less than a tael of silver per load of cotton to produce, and the textile mill was built in California, which saved the cost of shipping cotton back to Shandong, and cotton cloth to the Americas. After spinning into cotton cloth, the cost is about one tael, the cost of the textile mill is at most two taels, and the cost of a load of cotton cloth is only three taels.

The transportation is carried by its own ship, and there is no need for freight, as long as the military salary is paid. Therefore, the annual profit in cotton cloth is more than 10 million taels.

Cotton cloth is always very profitable at the beginning, and the Americas are not only because of the many precious metals, but also the textile technology is much more backward than Shandong, and it is normal to make huge profits. It's just that with the increase in cotton production, the situation of windfall profits will decrease, but with the increase of production, profits will not decline.

In addition to the cotton aspect, the shipyard also developed rapidly.

With enough shipwrights and enough captured labor, the shipyard began to build frigates of 500 tons.

Twenty frigates will be launched in the first half of next year.

The food problem was largely solved by the increase in fishing boats and the planting of sweet potatoes.

In the mining of precious metals, the gold brigade that went to California began to dig gold underground, and at the end of November, 500,000 taels of gold were mined.

There's so much gold in California's underground that it's so easy to mine that it's often a nugget with a shovel and doesn't need to be refined.

At the same time, California colonial forces also found large numbers of mink on several coasts of California, and they were in frightening frightening frightening groups.

Sea mink, also called ferret, belongs to the genus Weasel, which feeds on fish and shellfish and can dive into the sea at a depth of six meters for about half an hour. There were many minks before the end of the seventeenth century, but because they had the most noble fur, they were hunted and slaughtered, and at one time they were almost extinct.

Later, thanks to unremitting conservation, the sea mink population slowly grew.

The mink in Asia is mostly mink, and only the fur of the sable is comparable to that of the mink. In the Americas, however, mink are everywhere.

Mink, which is a kind of existence that is no less valuable than gold, mink has the three characteristics of "the wind blows the fur and the fur is warmer, the snow falls and the fur disappears by itself, and the rain falls and the fur is not wet". A complete mink fur is shipped back to Daming, and it can definitely be sold for hundreds of taels.

Liu Yuan immediately set up a hunting team in May, set up strongholds on several coasts where minks are concentrated, and hunted and killed the mink ashore for a long time.

Because Zhao Yan once confessed that the killing of wild animals should not be excessive, and sustainable development should be ensured, Liu Yuan stipulated that no mink should be killed during the breeding season, and that no more than 50,000 mink should be killed in California every year, and at least 100 taels per skin, he could earn 5 million taels of silver per year.

It is obviously not a wise choice to capture the light with one surname, so if the surname is killed at one time, then the mink skin will naturally be worthless.

At the same time, the mink was captured and killed, and there was no hunt in the future. Sustainable development is the most basic common sense possessed by a traveler, and there are too many tragic phenomena caused by the development model of future generations.

In terms of the number of mink found in the population, 50,000 per year can still be sustained, but it is also not too long, and the killing must be stopped for a few years every few years.

But whether cotton or gold or mink, the most profitable was the plundering of the Caribbean.

The American Fleet has grown to eighteen warships, nearly twenty pirate ships, and four more warships this year. In addition to warships, there were fifty large merchant ships.

The strength of the American Fleet is no less than that of the First Fleet.

Since the number of warships and pirate ships has increased, the American fleet has snowballed, and most of the pirates in the Caribbean have been wiped out by the American fleet.

The largest pirate in the Caribbean, it is currently the American Fleet. As far as plunder is concerned, the American fleet is still so unscrupulous.

Under normal circumstances, except for the ships of Spain and Portugal, the ships of other countries are all robbed, and those merchant ships that encounter the American fleet are equivalent to sheep falling into the mouth of the tiger, and very few can escape, after all, the speed of the merchant ships carrying goods is too slow, and the corsair ships of the American fleet are all warships, but they are not comparable to the small ships of those small pirates, and the speed is naturally much faster.

Only those warships can escape the plundering of the American Fleet, and yes, even the warships are within the range of the American Fleet.

In addition, pirate ships captured by the American Fleet were also put into service, and some of these pirate ships were captured and surrendered by European pirates who had been in the Caribbean for a long time.

These pirates were very familiar with the Caribbean, and in a year they had captured fifty large merchant ships, which was still a little slower, far less than the speed at which the Dutch had started.

The reason for this is that it is still on guard against the attack of the coalition forces at sea.

The Spaniards revealed a message to the fleet that the three countries of Britain, France, and the Netherlands were forming a maritime alliance, of which the Netherlands and France were the most active, and the British, although not active enough, were also responding.

The three countries of Great Britain, France, and the Netherlands are very contradictory.

First of all, England and the Netherlands were similar in thought and religion, but they were very competitive in trade. France, on the other hand, is a great power on the European continent, but this refers to the army, which is ideologically, religiously and institutionally hostile to the Netherlands and Britain. The Dutch lived in the lowlands for fear of flooding the city, of being trampled like grapes by the French, and of being overtaken by the British in trade.

The willingness of these three countries to form a maritime alliance was apparently provoked by the American Fleet.

The American fleet plundered fifty large merchant ships. There were fifty of them, and each galleon was worth more than a million taels.

Spread it out, the Dutch suffered the most losses, and whoever made them the coachmen of the sea, they would run almost everywhere in the port.

The Anglo-Dutch War was caused by the British banning Dutch merchant ships from entering their ports, and the Dutch launched the war, but they were defeated.

This is followed by England and finally France.

But King Louis XIII of France was furious because his colony was attacked by the American fleet and his daughter was taken away by the damned Far Easterners.

Louis XIII was an emperor who dreamed of ruling all directions, and he attached great importance to his overseas colonies, so he sent his daughter to inspect the colonies on the island of Finland.

Louis XIII was furious and decided to send warships to exterminate the Far Easterners.

At the right time, the Spaniards revealed to the rest of the world the location of the base of the American Fleet, the port of Golden Mountain in California. At the same time, the Dutch hated this group of Far Easterners who suddenly appeared, so the two sides hit it off, and at the same time they approached the British, and the British agreed to form a coalition army.

After nearly half a year of preparation, in August of the tenth year of Chongzhen, the Netherlands, Britain, and France formed a maritime alliance with hundreds of warships.

This coalition was far larger than the Armada of the Spaniards.

At the same time, the coalition army had 15,000 French soldiers, 5,000 British soldiers, 5,000 Dutch soldiers, and 25,000 soldiers, not counting the sailors.

This coalition has both a strong army and a strong navy.

The Spaniards were dumbfounded, it was too big to play now. The strength of the American Fleet is simply not enough to withstand such a huge maritime coalition.

The Spaniards played with a balance, that is, they were afraid that the American fleet would be too large, and they were afraid that the American fleet would be destroyed. Because of the existence of the American Fleet, it is possible to act as bodyguards for their treasure ships, after all, the two sides are allies. The reason why it was necessary to balance the development of the American Fleet was that the combat effectiveness of the American Fleet was too strong, and the speed of expansion made the Spaniards feel extremely terrifying.

Under such circumstances, the Spaniards hurriedly sent messengers to inform the American fleet.

When Cao Li heard that the Netherlands, Britain and France had formed such a huge maritime alliance, he was stunned for a while, hundreds of warships!

This is definitely not something that the American Fleet can match at the moment.

If it is twice as much, it is not afraid, but the American Fleet can only fight with eighteen warships, plus some pirate ships that are not in the flow, and the European formation of a maritime coalition is five times as powerful as the American Fleet.

In terms of Marine soldiers, California has only 5,000 men, but this coalition army has 25,000 men, which is also a five-fold difference.

Liu Yuan was also shocked when he received the news.

The Governor's Office of California hurriedly held a meeting to discuss countermeasures, and the atmosphere at the meeting was somewhat heavy.

"Although the difference in strength is five times, it is not necessarily defeated, first of all, although our navy cannot be said to be victorious, but in land operations, we are sure of victory." Cao Li stood up and said, "We should first ensure the absolute security of the colony, so we need to strengthen the fortifications of Jinshan and other places. In naval warfare, we can adopt the strategy of avoiding the enemy's edge, and it is best to break them one by one. ”

"Well, that's good." Liu Yuan nodded in agreement and said, "As long as we build more fortresses and superior artillery, it is almost impossible for the alliance of the three countries to capture the colony." ”

"But we have to make sure that there are enough shells, food and fresh water." Cao Li said.

"There is no need to worry about shells and artillery, last month the flying clippers brought 100,000 shells from Shandong, as well as 500 artillery pieces, and we still have 200,000 shells now, which is enough to deal with." Liu Yuan said that 10 clippers arrived just last month and brought in a lot of arms supplies, which will be needed for the next six months.

(To be continued)