On February 12, 1725, the Chinese New Year's Eve, just as the residents of Zhongjing (formerly Hengzhou Fort, present-day Biedma, a city in south-central Argentina) were preparing to celebrate the New Year's Day, a liaison clipper boat sailed up the mouth of the Xiang River (present-day Negro River in southern Argentina) and quickly entered the port, bringing back an urgent report from Yongding (present-day Buenos Aires).

"Yingyi attacked my Qingguo's merchant ships?" Qi Shaoyi, the third king of the young Qingguo, suddenly widened his eyes, and looked at the prime minister of the kingdom's cabinet, Yin Baisong, and the chief of the military and political department, the hussar general (general) Bi Sihan, "Can it be confirmed that Yingyi did it?" …… Why do they dare to attack our merchant ships? ”

"Back to Your Majesty, two British privateers suddenly attacked a merchant ship named Hesheng under the American Trading Company in the waters near Salvador, Portuguese Brazil, but fortunately, after some difficult maneuvers, the ship fled to the vicinity of Port Seguru and encountered two patrol warships of the Northern Fleet of our Qingguo Navy." Bi Sihan handed a battle report in his hand to King Qing, with a bit of solemnity on his face, "The Yingyi privateer saw that the situation was not good, and fled separately, but it was pursued by our naval warship all the way and luckily damaged a Yingyi ship, capturing all the sailors on board. After being severely interrogated by the officers and men of the navy, the British sailors confessed to their privateering and robbery, and confessed that they were authorized by the government of the Kingdom of England to intercept and attack Qi merchant ships in the Atlantic Ocean as much as possible. ”

"The Yingyi privateer was ordered to attack the merchant ships of the Qi Kingdom, so why did they attack our Qingguo ships for no reason?"

"Your Majesty, when my Qingguo merchant ships go to sea, under normal circumstances, in addition to flying the flag of my Daqing Kingdom, they must also hang the flag of Qi State." Bisham reminded softly.

"Oh......" Qing King Qi Shaoyi bowed slightly, and then put the battle report in his hand on the imperial case, "Since Yingyi accidentally attacked our Qingguo merchant ship, then send someone to the Yingyi Merchant House to reprimand and warn us, and ask them to give us a proper explanation." As for the captured sailors of the Yingyi privateer, the first one was hanged at the port of Yongding, and all the rest were sent inland to Gyeongju (present-day Patagonia) and sentenced to ten years of hard labor. ”

"Your Majesty, according to the confessions of the captured British sailors, the Government of the Kingdom of England has issued nearly 100 privateer permits at sea in the past few months, allowing the armed merchant ships of England to attack and capture the merchant ships of the Kingdom of Qi at will, at the right opportunity. The minister has reason to believe that the three merchant ships that disappeared in our Qingguo were also committed by Yingyi. Therefore, the minister thinks that ......" Bi Sihan said this, and he wanted to stop talking.

"Huh?" King Qing looked at Bi Sihan suspiciously, frowned and asked, "The chief has something to say, even if you come to the Tao, don't be like this!" ”

"Your Majesty, the minister thinks that you can take this opportunity to declare war on Yingyi to show the prestige of my Daqing Kingdom!"

"Heh, with just a dozen warships in my Qingguo, can I fight with Yingyi?" King Qing smiled, shook his head, and said: "The sporadic Gaucio rebellions in Xiazhou (now La Plata) have not been completely quelled, making the place unstable; Yizhou (present-day Uruguay) has not been in Singapore for ten years, and it is still necessary to immigrate to the town; Although the rebellion in the Zezhou region (present-day southern Chile) had been quelled with the help of the Qi navy, the people were unstable and needed time to calm down. In such a situation, where did our Qingguo have the spare strength to fight with the Yingyi who were far away in Europe? ”

"Your Majesty, it is precisely because of the difficulties and extremely difficult finances of my Daqing Kingdom that I need to declare war on Yingyi." Prime Minister Yin Baisong, who was standing on the side, had burning eyes and said meaningfully.

"If there is a fight between Qi and Yingyi, then they will send troops to attack each other, is it possible that our little Qingguo will be courteous and stand up for them?" When King Qing heard this, his face suddenly sank.

One of you, a cabinet premier and a military chief, clearly knows that our country is small and weak, and the navy cannot be put on the table. Moreover, it has only been more than ten years since the end of the war with Spanish America, and the annexed La Plata and the east coast area still need time to digest and absorb, and it is urgent to vigorously recruit immigrants to fill the empty land, as well as the planned railway to Yongding, local water conservancy construction, material subsidies for new immigrants, and so on, none of which does not require a huge amount of money!

Declaring war on Yingyi, can I afford to fight in Qingguo?

"Your Majesty, as you said, Yingyi is far away in Europe, thousands of miles away from my Qingguo, even if it is at war with it, our Qingguo is not strong enough to form a substantial threat to it." Yin Baisong smiled slightly, arched his hand and said, "But as the suzerainty of my Qing Kingdom, the Qi State has enough strength to attack the Yingyi sea ships and even its European mainland. Moreover, in the past two years, there have been constant trade frictions between Qi and Yingyi, and there has been a faint confrontation between diplomacy and military, and the two sides only need a reason to start a war. Then, as a vassal state, my Qingguo should share the worries of the mother country, take the initiative to provoke a war with Yingyi, and drag the Qi country directly into this war. ”

"Your Majesty, imagine that once my Qingguo and Qi jointly launch a war against Yingyi, will Chang'an mobilize a large number of ships at sea to the Atlantic Ocean? In addition to their material supplies being replenished in South Africa, will the rest be provided by my Qingguo? Our Qingguo has weak maritime strength and is unable to maintain maritime security, so does it need the suzerain's suzerainty to provide necessary military and material assistance? If Portugal formed a military alliance at the request of the British, should Qi directly send troops to Qingguo to launch an attack on Portuguese Brazil? …… In this war, no matter what the process and outcome are, we in Qingguo will always get a lot of economic assistance from Qi State. In this way, we can not only strengthen the military strength of our country to a certain extent, but also promote the development of industry and agriculture in the country to a certain extent. ”

"Yes, Your Majesty." Bi Sihan followed: "This war, most of the chase and fight at sea, I don't think it will involve too many landing operations, my Qingguo doesn't even need to send a large number of troops, just provide the corresponding logistics supplies, you can follow behind the Qi State to get a lot of benefits." This is good for my Qingguo, and there is no harm in it! ”

"Are you saying that through the war with Yingyi, I, Qingguo, can ask for more economic aid from Qi State?" King Qing's eyes suddenly lit up.

"Yes!" Yin Baisong nodded heavily, and said with a smile: "More than ten years ago, my Qingguo declared war on Spain with the Qi State, thus seizing the southern region and the east coast of the Spanish La Plata in one fell swoop, expanding the land for thousands of miles, and greatly strengthening the strategic depth of our Qingguo. In addition, after the war, he also received more than 500,000 taels of silver. In addition, Qi sold all the Spanish ships and materials captured during the war to our Qingguo at a discount, which not only promoted the development of the domestic maritime transportation industry, but also prospered the local economy. It can be said that in that battle, my Qingguo earned enough war dividends. ”

"Now, Yingyi has instigated many privateers to attack our Qingguo merchant ships for no reason, which is tantamount to a provocation to our Qingguo Chiguo. In this way, I, Qingguo, should take the opportunity to declare war with Yingyi to show toughness. It is reported that Portugal has a close relationship with the British and the Yi, and has signed an alliance for hundreds of years, and has always been the first to look at it, and may be coerced into joining the war. Portuguese Brazil has discovered a lot of gold mines, and the people are rich in goods, if they lead troops to join the Qi State into its territory, they can expect to have a lot of gains, and it can be regarded as a supplement to the empty treasury. ”

"If my Qingguo is attacking Portuguese Brazil, will the Westerners take advantage of the situation and seize my Xiazhou and Yizhou?" King Qing has already moved.

"Your Majesty, with the army of Qi in charge, the Westerners will definitely not dare to act rashly." Bi Sihan said firmly: "It is reported that the Westerners and Na Yingyi are also in dispute in the Caribbean, and there is also a port in their European mainland that is occupied by Yingyi, and the contradictions between each other are quite acute, and they will definitely not obey Yingyi and fight with our Qingguo." ”

"In this case, then inform the envoy of Qi in Zhongjing, and I Qingguo wants to declare war on Yingyi!"

——

February 20, Yizhou, Anye Port (now Mondvideo, the capital of Uruguay).

"The people of Qingguo are not allowed to let us land?" Pat Mitchell's eyes widened when he heard the return sailor's report.

"Yes, sir." The sailor said with a look of dismay, "They declare that the Qing Kingdom is already in a state of war with our England, and that we are forbidden to dock to obtain the corresponding supplies. ”

"But I haven't brought their declaration of war back to England, so why am I at war?" Pat Mitchell subconsciously touched the Qingguo declaration of war in his arms, and his mouth was full of bitterness.

"Sir, the Qingguo people on the shore have said that they have received orders from the king and are making military mobilization to prepare for an attack on our England." The sailor shrugged his shoulders and said, "I think they're serious, the entire dock has been martial law." In addition, many soldiers were stationed in the fort near the port, and all the gun jackets that were usually covered were untied. ”

"Just them?" Pat Mitchell pursed his lips and said disdainfully: "How many warships do they have in Qingguo, so they dare to attack our England?" ”

"Mr. Mitchell, since we in England and Qingguo have entered a state of war. Then, the Qi country behind them will presumably also declare war on us England later. As far as I know, Qi has an obligation to protect this South American kingdom militarily. Dikran Harry, captain of the Orverny, said solemnly: "I think we in England are facing a great crisis and challenge. ”

"Damn the people of Qingguo! Damn the people of Qi! "Then we must return to London as soon as possible and report this to the gentlemen of Parliament." Oh God, I can't imagine that I, a small merchant house in charge, would witness the outbreak of a war with my own eyes. ”

Yes, Pat Mitchell was just an insignificant little person, a trader with almost no connections or doorways, the popular Caribbean sugar trade, the lucrative slave trade, and even the North American tobacco and cotton business, so he could only find his own way to distant La Plata eight years ago to deal with the people of Qingguo.

La Plata's grain, livestock, and seal skins, sea lion skins, and whale products from Gota Bania – oh, the southernmost part of South America as Gyeongju – are not very profitable, but fortunately they are relatively large in quantity and have few competitors, and they are sold well whether they are shipped to Portuguese Brazil or back to Europe.

To this end, Pat Mitchell also rented a building in Zhongjing, the capital of Gyeongguo, and opened an English merchant house, preparing to make this business bigger and stronger and develop into a large transatlantic trading company.

Who would have thought that just when he was celebrating the Oriental New Year with a group of Qingguo merchants, the foreign minister of this kingdom came to his merchant house, and he was accompanied by a large number of soldiers with loaded guns.

The foreign secretary told him with a solemn expression that in view of the brazen attack on the Qingguo merchant ship by the armed merchant ships granted privateer permission by the Royal Government of England, this action would be considered an act of war by the Qingguo. Therefore, Qingguo declared a state of war with England from the date of the proclamation.

Oh God, Kyungkook has declared war on us England!

As soon as the people of Gyeongkook announced the proclamation to him, they immediately made the decision to expel him from the country and gave him only two hours to prepare. Afterwards, the rough soldiers escorted him and his accompanying merchant men to the dock, where they left Zhongjing on the "Overnny", which docked there.

Unfortunately, some of the goods that Pat Mitchell had accumulated in the merchant hall had not yet been disposed of, and they were all confiscated by the Qingguo government, and even the "Orvilleny" they were riding did not have time to replenish too much food and fresh water, so they had to leave in a hurry under the urging of the Qingguo officials on the dock.

As a result, when they arrived at the port of Anye near the mouth of the La Plata River, they were not even allowed to sail in and get the corresponding supplies.

"It seems that we will have to make an extremely difficult voyage, and only by sailing to Brazil may we have a chance to get the necessary supplies." Captain Declan Harry sighed.

"I wonder if our Kingdom of England is fully prepared for this coming war?" Pat Mitchell looked back at Anye Harbor in the distance, and said faintly: "By all indications, this Qingguo, located at the southern tip of the South American continent, is quite eager for this war to come soon. I don't know, what idea did they play? ”

"Since the Qingguo people seized the East Coast region from the Spaniards more than a decade ago, they have de facto bordered Brazil." Captain Declan Harry pondered, "Mr. Mitchell, do you think that the people of Qingguo have some kind of unrealistic idea of Brazil and want to tear a piece out of the Portuguese?" After all, our Kingdom of England has always had close ties with Portugal, and the big men in London are likely to coerce them into joining the war. ”

"Heh, who knows?" Pat Mitchell shrugged, then turned and walked towards the cabin, "I need a good rest." Oh God, my brain is so messy. …… Damn war! ”

(End of chapter)