"This is a place occupied by the British and French, who estimate that there are tens of thousands of fishermen on the island." The guide sent by the Spaniards explained the situation on the island to Cao Li.

The British Trade Commission once believed that Newfoundland was more important in terms of wealth and security than Canada and Louisiana combined, and this perception was the current mainstream.

Although the British occupied Newfoundland, they could not form absolute control, and the French also had a good power on the island.

In order to maintain an absolute monopoly on the Newfoundland fishing industry, from the thirties of the 17th century, the British tried to prevent immigration to Newfoundland.

And now it was the thirties of the 17th century, and the British were trying to increase the number of British people on the island.

"This place is too far away from Daming, and our strength is far from the level of occupying here." Cao Li shook his head and said, he was soberly aware that the strength of the American Fleet was still very weak.

"It's too far!" Yang Yichuan shook his head regretfully, at present, Shandong can only take care of the interests of the west coast of the Americas, and the east coast of the Americas is too far away.

"The British have greater maritime power than the Hongyi, although on the surface they are not as good as the Hongyi." Cao Li continued.

The American fleet was not strong enough to confront the British or the Dutch, neither in terms of seamaking experience nor the number of ships.

In a naval war with hundreds of warships, the American fleet will definitely not be able to bear it. Sometimes, even the superiority in firepower, range, and rudder speed cannot offset the absolute numerical superiority.

Of course, if enough forts were built on the island, it would be able to resist the attack of the British, but the California colonial authorities had not even swallowed a single California, so how could they have enough strength to take care of the interests of the East Coast, the Panama Canal had not yet been opened in this era, and it had to go around a big circle from the West Coast to the East Coast!

Cao Li was currently plundering on the east coast and had to rely on the Spanish port of Dios. California has set up a supply depot in Puerto Dios, from which artillery shells will be transported and other supplies will be procured.

Every time the crew went to Central and South America, they had to wear loose Confucian skirts, cover their bodies tightly, apply gold oil, drink boiled water, and strictly guard against cholera, malaria, and yellow fever. Once rehydrated, the fleet continued to plunder the east coast, and the loot was carried from the Strait of Magellan back to the west coast.

"Up front is a very small port with a couple of French fishing villages on it." At this time, the Spanish guide strongly instigated: "The defense there is very weak, there are only more than two hundred French soldiers, and a few shots can make those people flee in panic." ”

The Spaniards instigated Cao Li to plunder Dutch, British, and French ships in order to make them angry with these countries, and then the two sides had better fight to the death.

These countries are all Protestants and are fighting intermittently in Europe, while the Holy Roman Empire (Germany) is at war, and Spain and Portugal are Catholics and belong to the same camp as the Holy Roman Empire.

Cao Li held the telescope expressionlessly and continued to observe the small port in the distance, the entrance of the port was not small, but he couldn't see the situation in the port, obviously behind the high cliff, half-thinking Cao Li ordered: "Give me a robbery!" ”

Without any hesitation! Although the power of the American fleet could not compete with the Netherlands and Britain at sea, it did not mean that they were afraid.

The Dutch and the British sent small fleets, and they were naturally not afraid. And when their large fleet is dispatched, the luck is generally not bad to the point of being blocked.

Three warships rushed directly to the harbor, while two troop transports searched for a landing site on the gentle shore on the side. Two other clippers were stationed in the open sea, and the fishermen had no binoculars and were far from spotting the approaching American fleet.

Two troop transports successfully docked on the coast not far from a small fishing village, and Suo did not run aground or run aground in this strange sea, and the marines jumped off the boats in groups, and then rushed towards the fishing village.

According to the Spanish guide, there are four small fishing villages in the area, with more than 1,000 people. Fifteen hundred Marines rushed into a small fishing village like wolves.

The sweep has begun!

The fighting in the small fishing village went well, the Marines did not meet much resistance, the fishermen raised their hands and surrendered, and the Marines directly began to count the prisoners.

Except for the elderly, everything else is for money and people.

However, there are not too many young people in the fishing village, most of them are fishing outside, and only some women and children are caught, and a lot of dried cod is grabbed.

The old men were left to fend for themselves. The Marines continued to sweep other fishing villages while carrying the loot toward the landing site.

However, the situation in the port was not as simple as the Spanish guide said, and Cao Li raided the small port with three warships, but was met with resistance.

No less than two hundred French soldiers were stationed in the port. By the time the three warships appeared, the French garrison in the harbor had already reacted, after all, Newfoundland was not as lax as it was on the west coast of the Americas in the sixteenth century.

Their batteries fired at the American Fleet, making a hole in the deck of the flagship on which Cao Li was riding.

The coast of Newfoundland was often a cliff, and the French batteries were erected on the cliffs, which were so high that the artillery of the American fleet could not attack.

However, there were still two French [***] ships in the harbor to set up an ambush, and for a time the cannon roared, and the American fleet was almost knocked unconscious, and many sailors were killed on the spot.

"Retreat, retreat." Cao Li hurriedly shouted, and the warship quickly withdrew from the harbor and got out of the attack range of the battery. The two pursuing French [***] ships were severely attacked by the American Fleet at this time.

Hundreds of guns fired in unison, and at such close range, a French [***] ship disintegrated and sank on the spot under the explosion of a grenade.

Another French [***] ship fled back to the port in disarray.

When Cao Li and the others stabilized their position, Yang Yichuan said to Cao Li: "Why don't we use the Vulcan cannon to hit their fort first." ”

"We don't have many Vulcan cannons, and it's not cost-effective to use them against such small targets." Cao Li shook his head, Yang Yichuan stopped talking, he was only responsible for doing ideological work, he was not good at operations, and he only occasionally gave some advice.

"Wait for the Marines to attack the port." Cao immediately made a decision, 1,500 marines had landed ashore, and it was not very difficult to attack such a port.

After the Marines had swept through four fishing villages, they saw that the harbor had not yet been captured, and knew that the fleet had encountered a difficult problem, and began to reconnoiter the harbor.

And Cao Li was constantly firing signal flares (rockets) at the moment, and after the scouts found the signal flare, they also fired a signal flare, and then immediately went back to report to the large army.

About three hours later, the Marines launched an attack on the port. In less than twenty minutes, the harbor battery was captured by the marines.

The French [***] ships, which had retreated into the harbor, decided to flee as soon as the battery was captured. The French warships are among the best warships of the moment, but they are few in number, so the tactics of combat are generally downwind, attacking the opponent's sails first, and then making it easier to escape.

As soon as the French [***] ship sailed out of the port, it was immediately intercepted by the American fleet, surrounded by three warships, and the sail was destroyed in less than a moment, and then Cao Li commanded the warship to come to the side, and the marines immediately jumped on the French [***] ship, and captured the French [***] ship in less than ten minutes, and the whole process appeared clean and neat, and extremely sophisticated.

This is a tactic they have practiced during raiding in the Caribbean, and warships in the upwind position generally do not attack, but let the warships in the downwind position attack the target, so that the target hull will not be damaged, and it will be easy to repair after capture.

After solving the fort, the three warships sailed directly into the port, and to their surprise, there were twelve French merchant ships docked in the port, all of which belonged to the French Hundred Company.

The port was part of the French colonial centre in Newfoundland, where the company Centurion has long been involved in the stockfish trade.

The company of a hundred wealthy men did not have many profitable trading points, and Newfoundland's stockfish was one of their pillars, and they were also the main rivals of the British on the island of Newfoundland.

There was not a single person on the merchant ship, apparently all of them had taken refuge in the fortress. Twelve merchant ships were soon taken under the control of the fleet.

At this moment, the Marines had surrounded the fortress on the edge of the harbor, and the French discovered them shortly after the Marines landed, but they were intimidated by the number of the Marines, and did not dare to send people to block them, so they could only retreat into the fortress.

However, the Marines did not immediately start the siege, and the artillery they were equipped with was not intended to be used for siege, because they were armed with grenades, which were mainly used to kill and injure the enemies in the city, but the American Fleet was here to capture the white slaves, and the development of California required a large number of slaves.

The heavy guns used on the warships were very suitable for siege cities, not only cannons, but also large cannons, firing grenades that had great damage to the walls.

Cao Li boarded the harbor and had the sailors remove the ship's heavy guns, while bringing a letter written in Spanish to a captive fisherman into the fort.

The fisherman entered the fort through the hanging basket, and after reading the letter of surrender, the Frenchman tore it to shreds on the spot, cursing insults such as Huangpi monkeys.

Apparently the French were not prepared to surrender, as they thought they were strong enough to hold out until reinforcements arrived. The fortified fortress is their greatest reliance.

It took the Marines half an hour to assemble hundreds of 125-mm cannons under the bastion, which had an effective range of 1,100 meters and could wreak havoc on the walls at a distance of 1,100 meters.

The French on the fortress held a telescope and couldn't help but sneer when they saw Cao Li letting people set up an artillery array thousands of kilometers away, but at this moment, they ...... "ignite." With a shout, the rumbling of cannons rang out in this small port, and hundreds of cannonballs directly blasted into the city wall thousands of kilometers away.

The sneering Frenchman on the city wall was overturned on the spot by the air wave of the explosion of the flying cannonballs and fell from the city wall. After the volley, the city wall became full of holes and was very badly damaged.

However, due to the lack of concentration of artillery strikes, these damaged parts were scattered and could not allow the walls of the bastion to collapse.

The artillerymen, having conducted a salvo, began to move into single-gun firing.

After each shell was fired, the artillerymen began to correct the elements so that they could all hit the same wall.

"East 05, West 12......"

"East 03, West ......"

The French were scared into a cold sweat inside the fortress! Just when the artillery was correcting Zhu Yuan, Cao Li once again asked a fisherman to be released and sent a second letter of persuasion.

The French in the city hesitated and were unable to make a final decision.

Half an hour later, hundreds of artillery pieces were all corrected, and in the rumbling cannonball, the second salvo began, and hundreds of cone-shaped shells drilled directly into the city wall, and with the loud roar, the shells that drilled into the wall exploded one after another.

"Boom...... Kalala ...... "The walls of that section of the fortress collapsed directly!"

With the fall of the city walls, the French finally could not hold on, and their greatest reliance had been lost. The French then sent an emissary asking for a conditional surrender.

"Tell him that we can guarantee that we won't kill anyone as long as we don't meet resistance when we enter the city, and nothing else will be discussed." Cao Lirang the interpreter said to the messenger.

Cao Li's attitude was tough, and no matter what the Frenchman said, he did not enter into negotiations anymore, and the envoy returned to the fortress with frustration and chagrin.

After twenty minutes of waiting, the French finally raised the white flag!

The Spanish guide smiled at the white flag, and the fact that these Far Easterners had now uprooted the French in Newfoundland was enough to make the Spaniards happy, if not to cause a major war between the two sides.

Of course, it would have been better if the British had captured St. John's, the largest British colony on the island of Newfoundland, and one of the few colonies of the British, with a population of more than 8,000 people.

St. John's, however, was easy to defend and had a small entrance and high cliffs on either side, on which the British installed many cannons.

By the time the Spanish guides were thinking about how to lead the American fleet to St. John's, the French had already left the city and surrendered.

Immediately after the surrender ceremony, Cao Li ordered his soldiers to enter the city to disarm any of them, and after all the French were disarmed, Cao Li began the Great Ransack operation.

All the people, except for the old man, were driven to the twelve merchant ships that were captured, and after counting, the number of white slaves captured this time amounted to more than three thousand, and the French army was not two hundred at all, but eight hundred!

In addition, a large number of dried cod, as well as thousands of livestock and more than 500 fishing boats, were also recovered.

As the main profit point of the 100-person company, the merchant ships sent are all top-level merchant ships, all of which have reached the thousand-ton class, but it is obviously impossible to load everyone and goods.

They gritted their teeth and reluctantly abandoned the five ships of dried cod, making room in the second cabin of the unowned merchant ship, while the bottom continued to be stocked with dried cod.

But this still can't fit all the livestock and people.

What to do?

Cao Li called the military doctor, and he and several military doctors began to screen the prisoners.

Don't be thin, don't be sick! Cao Li personally selected women, all those ugly women did not want, these women were not as valuable as men in terms of labor value, at best they were only better than the indigenous Indians, mainly because of some ability in animal husbandry, but there was no shortage of these people.

Those who were eliminated were all driven back to the island and left to fend for themselves. However, the fleet left so much dried cod that it is estimated that it will not die, and when the French come to their senses and find that their stronghold is left with this dregs, I wonder if they will be so angry that they vomit blood.

Just when Cao Li was inspecting them one by one, suddenly a beautiful figure appeared in front of him.

I saw that it was a sixteen or seventeen-year-old European girl, with snow-white and delicate skin, bright eyes and bright teeth, pure and sacred, wearing a nun's robe, but the robe could not hide her perfect curves.

Stunning nun!

Cao Li, who hadn't touched a woman for several months, suddenly widened his eyes!

"No, this beauty is going to be brought back to Shandong to give to adults, but ......" Cao Li struggled violently in his heart, and suddenly saw him turn his head away, and instructed others: "Give her a separate cabin, no one is allowed to touch her fingers, she is our gift to adults." ”

(To be continued)