Chapter 888: The First Battle That Decided the Belonging of the World (1)

Marching with 20 kilograms of equipment on your back is really sour. Roa was incorporated into the Ming North American Army, the 100th Division of the Army, and the number of the North American Army in the past was cancelled, collectively known as the XX Division of the Ming Army. In the past, there were two words royal in front, but this time the word "royal" was completely abandoned.

The speed at which the 100th division was built was very fast, and the officer shelf was already there, so he went straight to it. The 3,000 veterans transferred from other units became the backbone of this army, and because of his outstanding performance in the new barracks, Rova became the deputy squad leader of the first squad of the machine gun platoon at the battalion headquarters. The squad leader is a veteran of the Ming Dynasty, and they need to serve a mortar and a Montini machine gun. Although there were already new breech-loading rifles, the scale of the expansion was too large for the North American Legion to get their hands on the new weapons and continue to use the original rifles. Roa was given a rifle to defend himself. As an artilleryman, after getting off the train, Roy was one of the hardest working people in the 100th Division.

There were cheers ahead, and turning the foot of a mountain, a huge lake appeared in front of them. When the soldiers cheered, Zhou Peigong was scolding his mother. In the North American military operation, his division went the hardest, a total of six infantry divisions, one division stayed behind, one division went south, and the remaining three divisions loaded ships and went directly to the Spanish colonies in the Americas.

Only this division, with four cavalry divisions, marched eastward, and everyone else was on four legs, but his troops were two-legged, tired like dogs. "Tell the 3rd Cavalry Division in front that our terminal has arrived, and don't beckon us to continue east." After complaining, Zhou Peigong finally calmed down a little. I can't do this job, and there is no decent road to go east this way. Where cavalry can pass. They had to stop and build roads. A whole infantry division has become a road construction engineer. You don't have a place to reason, their destination is this lake, and they are going to build a settlement here.

The place on the map is called Chicago, which should be an indigenous transliteration, look at the meaning. A long time ago, the people engaged in intelligence and surveying and mapping have been here, so they are the worst, and the devil knows what happened.

At this time, a staff officer came in and reported a message, and a group of natives came, asking for a conversation with the chief. Zhou Peigong asked the chief of staff to deal with it, and he continued to watch this place by the lake. Where is it appropriate to build a settlement.

The chief of staff went for more than an hour to come back, and the news that he brought back was very surprising, there were natives in the vicinity, called the Potawattomes. When the previous cavalry passed by, the natives also dealt with each other, and found that these people were quite gentle and easy to talk. So now it's coming again, offering to make a deal with them. What else to say. This is their ancestral home, and outsiders better not stay or something like that. Because there are places where language cannot be communicated. That's what it means.

"It's okay to trade, but it's going to take a while. Don't talk about the things that can't be left, when we set up the camp, they can't help it. Send someone to do a good job of investigating, and ...... when necessary. "Zhou Peigong is ruthless. made a murderous gesture. The chief of staff nodded helplessly and said, "Okay, I see." However, I advise that it is better not to do this, we are here in the rear of the forward troops, if it is unstable. It is troublesome for future operations. These natives are familiar with the terrain, and even if they can't be defeated, a sneak attack is enough for us. One more point, there are a lot of Indians in our division, and we cannot but consider this issue. ”

Zhou Peigong, the executioner, finally gave up his brutal approach and adopted the advice of the chief of staff, focusing on Huairou.

At the same time as the advance on land, the fleet on the sea was also busy, and the specific method was to mobilize all the ships that could be mobilized, and then move south along the coastline, with divisions as combat units, and the Spanish possessions were shoveled over one by one. Anyway, I don't plan to give the Spaniards a way to live, this is already a life-and-death situation. Compared with the march by sea, the 5th Division, which moved south along the land, walked on two legs, but their task was not to conquer the city, but to supervise the construction of roads by migrant workers.

In the spring of 1690, the Ming Empire's war against the Western world broke out. The global war on the battlefield that began in the Americas, with more than a million troops and manpower invested, was something that Europeans simply could not have imagined. The main force of the American cavalry went all the way east, and the navy covered a large number of land forces along the coastline to the south. The three infantry divisions split up and landed in Mexico and other Spanish colonies, and then advanced inland. Chen Pu was temporarily transferred to the Legion of the Americas to coordinate logistics and transportation.

At the same time, a large fleet of steam ironclads has been assembled in India, which is heading for the Cape of Good Hope. This place must be taken down, as an important supply point for logistics transport and fleet operations, the Suez Canal has not yet been dug and such a place is needed. In fact, Chen Xie knows best what good things are in South Africa. Therefore, two infantry divisions carried out landing operations under the cover of the fleet, and in just three days, the two infantry divisions landed and began to clear the Dutch forces of this generation. In fact, it doesn't matter what forces there are, all of them have to be killed or arrested. The personnel caught are naturally the result of doing coolies. This is a time when no mercy is needed, and this place in South Africa has been coveted by Chen Xie for a long time.

In fact, there was no difficulty in fighting in South Africa, and the Dutch, who were still playing with smoothbore guns and smoothbore guns, had only two results for their fleet in front of the huge ironclad fleet, either surrender or sink. As for the fortresses built by the Dutch, they struggled in front of large-caliber artillery, and the cannons on the fortresses had a limited range and did not play much role at all. At the time of the landing operation, the remaining artillery did cause more than a dozen casualties, but that was it. After the capture of Cape Town, some of the Dutch fled to the interior, while others became prisoners.

After resting in Cape Town for three days, the fleet that had completed the replenishment went north, and the next thing it would face was the whole of Europe, and Ye Hai was not nervous about it, but was very excited. The mighty ironclad fleet was where his greatest confidence lies, along the coastline of Africa, all the way north. If it weren't for the endurance and supply of the battleship, it would be possible to kill directly to the Americas.

Of course, those places are what the American fleet needs to do right now, and the sail warships over there are just the time when they are angry, and Ye Hai doesn't plan to stimulate them. The new fleet, also called the European Fleet, was aimed at Gibraltar. A large fleet requires an equally large supply fleet to ensure that this fleet can reach its destination without any problems. In this era, the endurance of steam ironclad ships needs to be improved.

Crossing Cape Verde and entering the Atlantic Ocean, Ye Hai's mood underwent some subtle changes. Is Europe ready at this time? I don't know if Europe is ready or not, but this time the fleet has not been idle, and when it sees a ship, it sinks one, and those who are interested in hoisting the white flag will naturally have a way to live.

Black smoke billowed from the vast sea, and the expedition of the first steam armored fleet in human history was finally approaching its destination. And along the way, the blood and tears of European colonists covered the sea. A total of 30 ships were sunk and 12 were captured. It seems that there are still fewer people who are interested, and more people are lucky. It is a pity that in the face of the cruiser's speed of up to eleven knots, the luck of any sailboat in this era is the result of being sunk.

When getting closer and closer to the destination, Ye Hai's mood became troubled, the purpose of this trip was to fight a decisive battle, the question was what if the Europeans refused to fight? If you don't fight, this sea operation will be meaningless, after all, the troops of the landing operation will reach Cape Town at the fastest at this moment.

"If the Europeans hadn't united, they would have helped the landing force take Gibraltar and then visit the ports of the Mediterranean countries one by one. Tell them with naval guns that the dignity of the Ming Dynasty cannot be violated. Thinking like this in his heart, Ye Hai's eyes became more and more determined, and the telescope was more eager to see the enemy's fleet.

On the top of the high watchtower, a roar suddenly came: "Look, starboard ......." Ye Hai raised his binoculars and looked over, coming, really coming, it was the combined fleet of Europe. A vast expanse of white sails covered the sea, forming several battle groups.

"Prepare for battle!" A terrible siren sounded, and the officers and men of the fleet quickly entered the combat position.

"Give a signal to the fast fleet, let them go outside, and the main fleet rushes forward." Ye Hai's arrangement is very simple, it is to bully people with ironclad ships. Despite the fact that there were only six battleships, Ye Hai was confident that he would make the Europeans tremble with his artillery. After this decisive battle, when the Europeans saw the banner of the Ming Dynasty, they would flee from the wind, right?

"Five thousand meters!" The ranging results came out, and the range of the 150 naval guns of the main fleet was within range, but Ye Hai did not give the order to fire, but said very calmly: "Keep going." "4,000 meters, 3,000 meters, 2,000 meters, constantly reporting the numbers, the main guns of the fleet are constantly adjusted.

At this time, Ye Hai was not facing a country, but the combined fleet of Britain, the Netherlands, Spain, and Portugal, and as for France, it found an excuse that its navy was not strong and sent its army to North Africa and North America to fight, and this time it did not send warships. Another hot-headed Sweden shrank at this time, sending only six ships to make soy sauce.

Among the four countries, the Netherlands sent the largest number of warships, 65, Spain sent 44 warships, Britain sent 58 warships, and Portugal sent 35 warships. These warships, which are the strongest in Europe today, are equipped with a large number of rear-loading rifled guns using solid shells. In terms of combat effectiveness, it has surpassed the maritime level of this era in history. But they are encountering a BUG fleet, which has not yet started fighting, and the result is already doomed. (To be continued......)