Chapter 344 The Coquettish Sea Sparrow

[Today's second update]

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Under the bright sun and blue sky, the snow-white Sea Sparrow 9 is sailing in Peruvian waters off the eastern coast of the South Pacific Ocean.

This is the sixth voyage of the Sea Sparrow 9, a ship of the Chinese Imperial Postal Company, which is loaded with letters and parcels from officials of European embassies in China, ready to be delivered to their families in Europe.

The monsoon from the South Pacific Ocean blows from south to north.

Headwind, the Sea Sparrow 9 had to take a "Z" route, using the crosswinds in the front direction to provide power.

"Speed nine knots to east-south"

On the hour, the reconnaissance sailors on the tower report their speed and heading, and then the bridge watchman makes calculations and marks their positions on the chart to roughly estimate their position.

Dangdangdang

After twelve o'clock, the sailors had lunch, and before that, the captain and the principal officers went to the foredeck to make longitude and latitude observations, in order to correct the day's latitude and longitude course errors.

Although the Sea Sparrow Nine was a ship of the Imperial Postal Company, the officers in charge of the ship were officers appointed by the military, and most of the sailors were retired Navy soldiers. The reason for this arrangement is that the Sea Sparrow-class communication ship, regardless of its secrecy or the cost of up to 1.3 million silver dollars, needs capable personnel to manage.

At 12:20 a.m., Major Li Guohai, the captain of the Sea Sparrow 9, had just completed the latitude and longitude measurement with the other officers, when the sentry on the tower sounded the alarm.

"Two Spanish warships were spotted twenty miles ahead of the right"

At this time, the ships of the empire were equipped with high-powered telescopes, especially on key ships, and the towers were equipped with telescopes with a longer observation range. In order to ensure the safety of the Sea Sparrow-class communication ship, the tower is equipped with a more advanced telescope, and with the help of a mainmast tens of meters high, the sentinels on the tower can clearly detect the situation 20 miles away.

Li Guohai quickly took out the telescope and looked in the direction of the front right.

Since he was no longer at a high place, he could only see a few sails in the telescope, but he could see the flag of the other side, and it was the Spaniards.

"The only thing in this vicinity is the Spanish Navy of Peru"

Chief of Staff Xue Kai walked over.

Li Guohai put down his binoculars, nodded, and said, "The Spanish Navy in Peru has four third-class battleships, thirty-two cruisers, seventeen frigates, and several schooners. ”

Xue Kai smiled and said, "You remember clearly."

Li Guohai nodded and replied proudly: "Of course, when I came back last time, I almost destroyed one of their cruisers, if it wasn't for the lack of flowering shells, it would have broken the record."

So far, the largest of the enemy ships sunk by the ships of the Imperial Postal Company is a frigate. The last time Li Guohai returned from Europe, he passed through Peruvian waters and was chased and intercepted by several Spanish patrol ships. After several twists and turns, the Sea Sparrow Nine accidentally hit the rudder of one of the cruisers, rendering the cruiser unable to move. Li Guohai then ordered the only two remaining shells to be fired at the cruiser, blowing a wide hole in its starboard waterline belt.

Originally, if a few more shells had been fired, it would have been sunk. But by that time, there were no shells on the Sea Sparrow 9, and for the sake of safety, Li Guohai had to give up this fat meat and retreat before the other Spanish warships arrived.

Xue Kai said: "This time is different from the last time, the last time we returned to China, we have already arrived at the doorstep, so you can run out of shells without worrying about other people coming to harass you." But this time is different, we have just left our homes and are heading to Europe, and we can't just run out of shells here. ”

Then he sighed and said, "If you can bypass as much as possible, save ammunition."

Li Guohai thought about it and agreed with the chief of staff.

However, soon their ideas were shattered. Because of the Sentinel's report, a large number of Spanish warships appeared in front of them, heading towards the Sea Sparrow Nine.

Dangdangdang

The rapid siren sounded, and all the officers and men of the Sea Sparrow 9 entered the combat state, and the front and rear main guns began to be loaded with shells and propellants, and the whole ship was on guard.

The steel-hulled battleship gave the officers and men a strong sense of self-confidence and security, so although there were many new recruits at the time of this departure, it did not affect morale. On the contrary, the eagerness of the recruits made the officers and men of the ship full of fighting spirit.

The Sea Sparrow 9 was able to maneuver around enemy ships, mainly because of her speed, which allowed her to avoid enemy ship's side-firing fire and run into the enemy's shelling blind spot. At this time, the front and rear main guns of the Sea Sparrow 9, because they can rotate, have no blind spots for shooting, and can shell the bow rudder and stern rudder plates of the enemy ship, and once it is damaged, the opponent will lose his temper.

Of course, such an opportunity does not come up easily. Therefore, in most cases, the opponent will expel the schooner attack, or choose to avoid it.

"They won't necessarily find out about us"

The chief of staff had no choice but to try his luck at this time, after all, the other party's observation equipment was inferior to his own, and he might not be able to find Sea Sparrow 9.

"I hope so"

Li Guohai smiled faintly, he knew that although this probability was very high, the appearance of the opposing navy at this time was obviously purposeful.

The Spaniards suffered a loss last time, and the Spaniards will not give up lightly. The Peruvian navy rarely comes out to wander, and this time it must have learned that a caravan was passing by, so it came out to rob.

"The other party has found us"

The Sentinel reported that the Spanish warship turned and moved closer to the Sea Sparrow Nine.

"It looks like we're either going to shoot back head-on, or we're going to turn around and go around again."

Xue Kai thought for a while and said, "We are in the direction of the wind, it is not wise to entangle with them, turn around"

Li Guohai did not object, so he ordered the Sea Sparrow 9 to turn around and sail southwest into the depths of the South Pacific.

Unexpectedly, the Peruvian fleet also turned westward.

Both sides then drove in opposite directions by means of crosswinds.

The Spaniards dispatched several fast frigates and schooners in an attempt to stop the Sea Sparrow Nine before it entered the Pacific Ocean.

The Spaniards knew that the Sea Sparrow was fast, and in order to avoid not being able to catch up, the other side formed a huge "human" formation, advancing downwind, faster than the Sea Sparrow Nine.

The two sides were getting closer and closer, and when they were 1,300 meters apart, the Sea Sparrow 9 had not yet fired its cannon, but the other side fired first.

Knock knock

Several Spanish frigates in the upwind direction were the first to open fire, and the dull sound of cannons instantly drowned out the howling of the sea breeze, and dozens of shells were fired into the sea, stirring up huge columns of water and dotting the sea.

"Just know how to scare people"

Li Guohai pursed his lips and was very disdainful of the commander of the Spanish Navy. Although the naval guns used by the Spaniards were still long-barreled guns, which were powerful and long-range, it was still very difficult to hit the opponent's battleship at 1,300 meters, and the cannonballs were exhausted, so it was impossible to inflict fatal damage on the opponent.

On the other hand, the two 150-millimeter guns in the front and rear of the Sea Sparrow 9, although the effective range exceeded 1,500 meters, in fact, it was equally difficult to hit the opponent at 1,500 meters. However, if the distance is placed within 500 meters, there is no doubt that the Sea Sparrow 9 will definitely have a higher hit rate than the Spaniards.

Of course, Sea Sparrow Nine did not dare to go as close as 500 meters. Although the Spaniards' shells still had a low hit rate at 500 meters, the opponent had many ships and artillery after all, and the Sea Sparrow 9 would definitely suffer if it approached.

Although the Sea Sparrow-class communications ships have steel-hulled hulls, the masts and rudder are made of wood. The main reason is that if the mast and rudder are made of steel, it is difficult to repair them in a short period of time if they are damaged. In this era, there were no advanced welding machines and water welding, and it was all human, so the mast and rudder were still wooden. This way, even if it is broken, it can be repaired and replaced.

But this also created a weak point for the Sea Sparrow communication ship, that is, the mast and rudder. Last year, there was an incident that caught the attention of the Empire, and that was when the Sea Sparrow XVII was dealing with the enemy, and the opponent used fire attacks and chain bullets to attack its masts and sails. During the dogfight, the Sea Sparrow XVII sails were heavily damaged and caught fire. The other party almost succeeded, but suddenly it rained heavily in the sky, so that Sea Sparrow XVII was spared.

As a result, the Imperial Government feared that the Sea Sparrow-class communication ships would fall into the hands of the enemy, so it strictly ordered that they should not engage a large number of enemies unless they had to do so, and that the engagement distance should not be close to the enemy's range.

The reason for this regulation is that the Sea Sparrow-class communication ship originally only had two main guns, and it was also a loss to engage at close range. Anyway, the main gun has a long range, so this regulation was introduced.

Of course, this regulation of the empire is very imperfect, but it is not surprising that any system and regulation is slowly summed up.

"I can't get around, I can only go back"

After observing the enemy situation for a long time, Li Guohai had no choice but to give up sailing westward and turn around and head north.

However, before leaving, Li Guohai was unwilling to be bullied by the other party like this, so he ordered the front and rear main guns to fire.

There was a loud bang, and the front main gun of the Sea Sparrow 9 was the first to fire.

One hundred and fifty millimeter shells burst out and whistled in the direction of the enemy ship, and after a few seconds, a huge column of water several meters high rose in the distance.

Judging from the height of the water column and the width of the splash, it is still the power of Sea Sparrow 9.

boom

There was another loud bang, and there was a tremor from the steel-hulled hull, and the rear main gun also fired.

The shells drew a long parabola and flew in the direction of the enemy ship with a whistling sound.

A sloop happened to rush forward quickly, perhaps he wanted to grab the credit, but this time it was ten o'clock back, and it was hit by a cannonball in an instant, and it was instantly shattered.

In the telescope, Li Guohai and others saw it really, and they were secretly enjoyable.

It's just that this kind of luck doesn't happen often.

In the ensuing shelling, not a single shell hit, so Li Guohai ordered the shelling to stop.

After the Sea Sparrow 9 turned north, it was a tailwind, and the speed suddenly increased, and three hours later, the Spanish Peruvian fleet was thrown away.

Although it was an escape, it sank a fast sailing boat on the other side, which I have to say is a happy thing.

As the two sides faded out of each other's sight, all the officers and men aboard the Sea Sparrow Nine seemed to hear the roars and grumblings of the Spaniards.

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In the days that followed, the Sea Sparrow Nine attempted to sail along Peru, but the waters around Peru were infested with Spanish warships, apparently imposing an embargo on the Imperial Post Company, preventing the Imperial fleet from reaching Guò from South America.

However, the South Pacific is a vast territory that cannot only be driven from Peruvian waters. While it's safe to follow the coastline, it's not necessarily risky to go along the Pacific Ocean.

Sea Sparrow 9 then boldly passed through the central part of the South Pacific, and due to the accurate calculation of latitude and longitude, it did not directly hit the glaciers of Antarctica, and safely passed through South America and entered the Atlantic.

Not all Imperial ships were as lucky as the Sea Sparrow Nine, though. Because the Spaniards blocked the shipping routes along the coast of Peru (at this time Peru occupied the entire Pacific coast of South America, and Chile was under the jurisdiction of Peru), the trading fleets of the Chinese Empire had to change their routes, most of them took the Cape of Good Hope in Africa, and a few boldly crossed the dangerous sea areas of the South Pacific, and continued to detour South America into the Atlantic.

Several of these ships were sunk by storms while traversing the harsh South Pacific, and several pierced directly into the glacial world of Antarctica, causing considerable losses to the Imperial merchants.

For this reason, the issue of the South American route was quickly submitted to the cabinet for discussion, and at the same time, Deng Haonan, the emperor of Shenwu, also paid attention to the situation in South America.

Peru, the world's largest producer of silver, produces much more silver than Mexico, which occupies the second place.

In the 11th century, the Indians established the "Inca Empire" in the plateau region with the city of Cusco as their capital, and agriculture and handicrafts were highly developed. One of the ancient civilizations that formed the Americas in the 15th and early 16th centuries - the Inca civilization. It became a Spanish colony in 1533. In 1535, the Spanish built the city of Lima, and in 1544, the Viceroyalty of Peru was established, which became the center of Spanish colonial rule in South America.

There are too many mountains in Peru, and the huge Andes Mountains occupy a third of the country's territory, so there are quite a lot of gold and silver mines in Peru at this time that have not been discovered by the Spaniards. There is still a lot of great wealth hidden in the mountains of the Indians, and it has not been fully discovered until the twenty-first century, and there must be more at this time. Of course, the Spaniards did not know that Peru has the largest natural silver mine in the world, far more than Mexico. The Spanish rule over what is now Peru was only mined from the original gold and silver mines of the Inca Empire.

Deng Haonan originally planned to start against Mexico first, but the Spanish Navy in Peru blocked the South American shipping route to the Atlantic Ocean of the Chinese Empire, so he had to redeploy, after all, the trade volume with Europe at this time was huge, an average of one trip to Europe every two years, and the average annual European trade earned nearly 100 million silver coins for the empire, such a huge trade surplus must not be affected.

In the imperial study, Deng Haonan studied the map, focusing on Peru.

"I'm going to attack the Spaniards in Peru"

After a long time, Deng Haonan suddenly said: "What do you think? ”

Lin Feng next to him thought for a while and said, "The Spaniards have 150,000 troops in Peru, and their combat power is relatively strong, and they conquered the Inca Empire. The navy was relatively weak, with four third-class battleships, thirty-two cruisers, seventeen frigates, and more than 100 other auxiliary boats. If the emperor decides to go to war against Peru, then the Imperial Royal Navy will leave for Peru within two months and take control of the Pacific coast of South America within three months. ”

Deng Haonan nodded, knowing that at this time, the Imperial Royal Navy was fully capable of defeating the Spanish and Peruvian fleets within three months.

At this time, the Pacific Fleet of the Royal Navy of the Chinese Empire had already commissioned a large number of main warships, including 60 Beiyun-class fourth-class sail battleships and 40 Sea-Lion-class third-class sail battleships.

Originally, the Pacific Fleet was preparing for war against the Dutch East India Fleet. However, as the situation developed, the situation in Europe changed, and Britain and France concluded a paramilitary alliance with the Chinese Empire, and together with the Russian Empire, the membership of the Central Powers expanded to four countries. Due to the influence of the Thirty Years' War in Europe, the Netherlands was an important ally of Britain and France at present, so under the mediation of Britain and France, the Chinese Imperial Government temporarily abandoned military action against the Dutch East India Company and maintained a stable situation in Southeast Asia.

With the start of the colonial war in the Americas, the base of the Royal Navy's Pacific Fleet began to move to Guam and Pearl Harbor. But the Mexican Navy in North America was no longer in the Pacific, so the importance of the Pearl Harbor naval base declined, and Hawaii became an important cantonment location for the Army.

In turn, the Navy shifted its focus to Mapra Naval Base in Guam and expanded the Mapra Naval Port to allow it to moor the Pacific Fleet's main warships.

The main battleship, consisting of a hundred battleships, was more than enough to deal with the Spanish fleet in the South Pacific.

With the Spanish navy in Peru blocking the South American routes, the imperial government had to go to war against Peru in order to recapture the routes. Of course, the seizure of the shipping route was only superficial, but Deng Haonan's goal was to carry out a colonial war against Peru, where the silver mines were mouth-watering.

"Naturally, there are no problems with the Navy"

Deng Haonan said: "I am thinking about how the Spaniards will react after starting a colonial war against Peru? ”

Lin Feng was stunned for a moment and asked, "Does the emperor mean the Spaniards in Peru, or the Spaniards in a few colonies near Peru, or the Spanish mainland in Europe?" ”

"Let's have it all"

Lin Feng thought for a moment and replied: "Peru has 150,000 Spanish troops, Argentina has 50,000 troops, Brazil has 170,000 troops, New Granada has 70,000 troops, Central American colonies have about 30,000, and Mexico has about 300,000 troops. But the standing army of the empire was only 500,000 and was distributed all over the place, which was actually the bare minimum. With the addition of several divisions drawn to Southeast Asia and North America, there are no more troops to be deployed within the empire."

Deng Haonan nodded and said, "So, if a colonial war is launched against Peru, then the empire will have to re-recruit troops."

Lin Feng thought about it, he knew that the emperor had always believed that a huge army was a burden that dragged down the country's development, so the emperor never mentioned the expansion of the army.

"It is more appropriate for Weichen to recruit servant troops from the colonies, firstly, to consume the young and strong in the colonies, and secondly, to help the empire complete the colonial war."

Deng Haonan thought for a while and said, "This is a good idea."