Cao Li took twelve merchant ships that were seriously overloaded and set sail back the next day!

It was not advisable to stay here for long, and although they had taken the French fort, they did not have enough strength to defend it, and most of it had to be transferred back to California.

This time, Cao Li's fleet became very large, and more than 500 fishing boats were connected to the warships with ropes, and on each fishing boat there were two captured fishermen sailing.

The French did not know what their fate would be, but Cao Li promised them that if the French political axe was willing to pay a ransom, they would release them.

The fishermen on the fishing boat did not dare to run away because they were surrounded by two warships patrolling and they could not break the ropes on the fishing boat.

Cao Li ordered the fleet to sail straight for the port of Dios, which was their centralized trading point with the Spanish and Portuguese, and a transit point on the east and west coasts.

The fleet sailed for more than half a month before reaching Cuba at the speed of a turtle, and Cao Li sailed into the Caribbean Sea after replenishing fresh water from their Spanish stronghold in Cuba.

This huge fleet shocked the Pirates of the Caribbean when they saw it, and what they couldn't understand was why there were so many fishing boats in this fleet.

However, in the face of the escort of three warships, those pirates rushed and did not dare to approach, and there was no strength at all to provoke Cao Li's fleet along the way.

There is only a Spanish navy in the Caribbean, and other countries have no navy here at all, and some are just their privateers, but these privateers are thankful that they don't get troubled by Cao Li, how dare they run away to hijack warships.

Cao Li was not an ansheng on the road, so many trophies, there were always accidents, often fishing boats were overturned by the waves, and after losing more than a hundred fishing boats, they successfully reached the port of Dios.

The Spaniards in the harbor looked at the spoils of the American fleet in amazement, and the Spanish governor himself came and secretly asked the guide who had been sent, "Where did they get so many fishing boats?" ”

"These Far Easterners sacked the French city of Potcovan, captured their northern city, and took all the ships and people with them." The guide replied in a low voice, "As long as we leak the news to the French, I believe that the French will go to these Far Easterners desperately, and when the time comes, we just need to watch them fight." ”

"Very well, these Far Easterners have the same appetite as the Dutch, what a good partner!" The governor of Panama suddenly laughed: "The French are not too strong, but it's okay to provoke." You'd better encourage them to plunder St. John's, and the British will surely jump to their feet. ”

The Spaniards obviously have some vigilance against the rapid expansion of the American fleet, but they will not deal with the American fleet by themselves, nor will they be bent on suppressing the American fleet, but want the American fleet to fight to the death with the Dutch, the British, and the French.

After Cao Li arrived at the port of Dios, he immediately rented several warehouses to free up most of the goods on the merchant ship, and finally solved the problem of overloading.

These overloaded cargo ships could easily sink if they passed through the Strait of Magellan.

In addition to the large two dried cod, Cao Li also vacated those livestock, which was obviously not a wise choice to leave on the boat.

The French slaves who were captured remained on the ship, and leaving them in Central and South America could easily cause them to contract infectious diseases, which then spread to California.

Cao Li then sold the odds and ends that could not be used to the Spaniards and the Portuguese in exchange for about 100,000 taels of silver.

Central and South America has a terrible amount of silver and gold, and prices are naturally the highest, and those dried cod are not for sale, because California is now short of food.

Colonial pioneers were often accompanied by hunger, and the California authorities were no exception, and the food problem became more urgent as the number of Indian slaves increased.

Cao Li stayed in the port of Dios for three days, and then ordered the fleet to sail back, and seven army ships, plus twelve merchant ships and more than 400 sturdy fishing boats, headed for the Strait of Magellan, and the more than 400 fishing boats they brought back would improve the food problem.

What they didn't know was that no sooner had the front foot left, the Spaniards had already sent personnel to the French stronghold and revealed all the details of the American fleet to the enraged French.

The kings of France have always dreamed of becoming a monarch who rules over a wide territory, and overseas is a place on which they have great hopes.

Newfoundland's cod interests, though not insane, were highly valued by the French, who were one of their few colonies.

The Spaniards, standing on a moral standpoint, took responsibility for the actions of the American fleet, declaring that they would unite with the outside world against the Far Easterners from the Empire of Light.

Of course, the Spaniards were only paying lip service, and it was almost impossible to get them to help, and the Spaniards also needed to trade with the Ming Dynasty, and were extremely eager to expand the amount of trade.

France, a Protestant state that split off from the Holy Roman Empire, has always been hostile to the Spaniards. Even if the European states were in a state of hostility with each other, they would not rush into trouble until they entered the stage of declaring war, and no monarch was willing to suffer the consequences of decades of war.

The French were indignant and began to clean up the mess of Potcovan, and almost all the inhabitants of Potcovan were plundered, leaving only some old and weak soldiers, and it would take at least a few years to restore it.

The French, knowing the details of the American fleet, began to plan revenge, and at the end of the year, the 100-man company decided to concoct the same plunder as Potcovan and return it to the hated Far Easterners.

The Spaniards were very measured, and they were afraid that the American fleet would die too quickly to allow them to achieve the goal of weakening the Protestant maritime forces to the greatest extent, so they only leaked the details of the American fleet to the French, and the Dutch still do not know where the Far Easterners came from the last time they attacked Brazil.

In the eyes of the Spaniards, as long as the news was leaked to the Dutch, the end of the American fleet was not far off.

The Dutch are by far the most powerful at sea, with more than 30,000 merchant ships large and small, accounting for most of the maritime trade, far from being comparable to the French 100-man company with thousands of merchant ships.

After circumnavigating the west coast, the American fleet rested in Panama City, opposite Puerto Dios, and then loaded the more than 1,000 cattle that had arrived in Panama City from Puerto Dios, and sailed towards the Golden Mountain.

When the American fleet arrived at Jinshan, it was already November, and they brought back more than 2,300 white slaves, more than 1,000 livestock, more than 2 million taels of silver, and more than 300 fishing boats, and more than 100 more scattered on the way.

However, the fishing boats that have been preserved are all very sturdy fishing boats, and those that have fallen apart are those simple fishing boats, after all, in Newfoundland, fishing boats do not need too good boats to return with a full load, but the Newfoundland fishing grounds are not very calm, and many larger fishing boats have also been born.

Among the more than 300 fishing boats, some of them even have more than 200 tons, which is the same tonnage as the sailing boats used by Drake to plunder the west coast that year, and the waves at sea generally cannot be overturned.

Governor Liu Yuan of California couldn't help but be overjoyed, he didn't expect Cao Li to be able to capture so many people, animals and ships this time, and even grabbed more than two million taels worth of gold, silver and goods.

At this moment, five flying clippers loaded with personnel from Qingdao also arrived in Jinshan, and Liu Yuan got the news that the large group of ships was still behind.

To Liu Yuan and Cao Li's surprise and surprise, the military department had sent 2,000 sailors to California this time, in addition to 1,500 marines, plus 600 colonists, a total of 4,100 men, and would also bring a large amount of munitions, and the five warships that sailed back to Qingdao were also transferred to them.

As long as the follow-up fleet arrives, plus the French [***] ship that has just been captured, the strength of the American fleet will be expanded to eleven warships.

When they came to the Americas, Zhao Yan told them that Shandong might not send too many forces to the Americas, because the main interests were not in the Americas.

However, now the Americas have become one of the main sources of interest, there is gold and silver everywhere, and a large number of precious metals can be exchanged from Spain for the development of the Americas, and at the same time, there are a large number of sailing ships in the Americas and the Atlantic, and most of the European ships are concentrated here.

"My lord, let us focus on developing trade with the Francis, and try to exchange gold and silver from the Franco, while the fleet speeds up the snatching of ships." Liu Yuan said to Cao Li after reading Zhao Yan's letter.

"We now have eleven warships, and there is no problem in grabbing them." Cao Li said.

"Hmmm! In this regard, I will ask the shipyard to speed up the construction of schooners. Liu Yuan nodded, using a warship to go out to plunder, obviously not a long-term solution.

As trade unfolded, warships had to be used for escort operations.

The reason why the Europeans, although hostile, did not send warships to attack each other's merchant ships was because they had signed an agreement that both sides only needed to send frigates to escort the merchant ships, and did not need to guard against the enemy's main warships.

However, the failure of the American Fleet to comply with these agreements also created a greater risk of trade, which could be attacked by the Dutch, British, and French navies at any time.

Barefoot is not afraid of wearing shoes, this is Zhao Yan's current attitude towards the ocean. Zhao Yan's merchant ships are only forty or fifty, not at all as thousands or tens of thousands as European countries, his merchant ships cannot run around, he robbed the ships of the Europeans, but the Europeans cannot retaliate in the same way.

That's why Zhao Yan was so unscrupulous, and the Spaniards in Bo Xishan were his chosen trade partners, and through the Spaniards, Zhao Yan was able to trade with the whole of Europe.

There are many advantages to choosing the Spaniards as a direct trade object, first of all, Spain has weak industrial capacity, low productivity, and the need to import large quantities of goods.

The Spaniards have a lot of gold and silver mines in Central and South America, as long as the trade with the Spaniards reaches a certain level, it is equivalent to mastering those gold and silver minerals, and the Spaniards are just miners, no matter how powerful the miners are, they are only miners.

Two days later, a clipper ship sailed into the Isthmus of Panama, and an envoy sent by Liu Yuan delivered a letter from Zhao Yan to the Pope of New Spain to the Doge of New Spain......

(To be continued)