On July 5, 1725, at about 9:40 a.m., a fierce naval battle broke out in the waters off the Cape Verde Islands in Portugal.

Yesterday evening, the Qi State Expeditionary Fleet, consisting of 36 large warships, six armed supply ships, two medical and health ships, four troop carriers, and several small fast liaison ships, arrived in Cape Verde waters. The two English warships cruising here immediately turned around and fled back to Puerto Praia, the largest port in Portuguese Cape Verde, and sounded the battle alarm.

At 6 o'clock in the morning today, the commander-in-chief of the Qi Expeditionary Fleet, the commander of the Western Indian Ocean Fleet, and the general (admiral) of the Hussars, Wan Botai, sent an envoy to the island to meet the Governor of Cape Verde, demanding that the other side expel the British fleet stationed in the harbor and to warn the Portuguese side to strictly maintain neutrality in wartime.

As a result, the Portuguese ignored Qi's well-intentioned warnings, politely rejected the expeditionary fleet's request, and claimed that the British fleet had the right to stop and use the Portuguese port of Cape Verde due to the alliance treaty between Britain and Portugal.

At the same time, the Portuguese are telling the people of Qi that Cape Verde is the legitimate territory of the Kingdom of Portugal and will not be violated in any way, and they are demanding that the expeditionary fleet of Cape Verde leave the waters of Cape Verde, and that there should be no acts of war here, let alone attack Cape Verde for no reason.

The Portuguese were also very helpless at this time, the British fleet of twelve ships had sailed into the port of Playa two months earlier, and then took over the dock batteries and barracks, and their fleet commander took out the "Anglo-Portuguese Alliance Treaty" signed by the two countries that year, requiring the Portuguese to fulfill their obligations as allies and provide necessary supplies and defense facilities for the British fleet during the period when it was stationed here.

Yes, the British Royal Navy is ready to set Cape Verde as an outpost for the defense of Qi to provide the necessary early warning for the rear and home fleets. At the same time, the detachment deployed here will launch an attack on the incoming Qi Navy in this sea area to find out the combat strength of the other side and provide necessary reference and guidance for the Royal Navy's follow-up operations.

On paper, more than 20 years ago, Qi's navy was the largest in the world in terms of numbers, controlling the vast Indian and Pacific Oceans, and almost all of the Eastern world under their sphere of influence. Moreover, the Qi State put their strong industrial productivity and various advanced technologies into the construction of their navy, constantly increasing the number of ships and equipping them with more advanced weapons.

The Qi navy was also the first country in the world to install a steam engine on a ship, which allowed their sailing ships to be faster and more agile on the oceans.

When the Royal Navy of England allocated a small number of flowering shells with poor stability to the ship's naval guns, Qi Guo had updated and iterated this sea mass killing weapon for several rounds, and the performance was more stable and powerful.

Although the officers and men of the Qi navy had not experienced many large-scale naval battles, they had been sending naval officers and sailors into the Dutch, French, and Ottoman navies for decades to participate in and observe the naval wars they were engaged in. In the two Anglo-Dutch Wars, the Franco-Dutch War, the Venetian War, the War of the Spanish Succession, and the War of the Four-Power Alliance, the officers and men of the Qi Navy can be seen.

It is reported that the naval officers of Qi State who observed the war would record the detailed battle process after the war, and bring it back to Qi State for repeated chessboard deduction exercises, and even conduct on-the-spot simulation exercises.

That's right, in this world, Qi is also the first country to put the war process on the chessboard for deduction, and accordingly formulate various combat plans and battle plans, and predict and calculate all the situations that arise in the war in advance.

The deep-pocketed Qi Navy also has the largest number of combat exercises in the world, and the annual expenditure on training and exercises is enough for the Royal Navy of England to arm a medium-sized fleet.

To sum up, it would be a lie to say that the Royal Navy of England was about to engage the powerful Qi Navy when they were not cautious (nervous).

Now, Qi's expeditionary fleet has finally arrived, and the size of the number is roughly the same as they estimated. However, the only thing that surprised the English was that there were as many as a dozen ships with a displacement of more than 1,200 tons among the many warships of the Qi State, and the number of guns equipped with them was obviously not as large as that of the Royal Navy's first-class warships (in 1677, Samuel Peppis, then the British Royal Admiralty's Minister of the British Royal Navy, classified the combat ships according to the number of guns equipped).

You must know that the first-class warships in the Royal Navy of England generally have a displacement of more than 1000-1200 tons, two or three decks, and 90-100 guns. However, through the telescope, the number of guns of those large warships of the Qi Kingdom was only about forty or fifty, and besides, a large ship was only equipped with one combat deck.

Perhaps, because these ships were equipped with steam engines, several huge chimneys seriously crowded the place where the guns were placed.

The English really couldn't understand whether on the sea, in order to strengthen the mobility of the ships and configure the necessary steam engines, the Qi people had to sacrifice the firepower of the warships?

In this era, isn't naval warfare about who has more artillery and whose firepower is more ferocious, and who can win the war in the end?

With puzzles and doubts, the twelve ships of the Royal Navy fleet of England stationed in the port of Praia formed a long line at 9:20 in the morning, slowly sailed out of the port of Praia, and bravely killed the Qi expeditionary fleet that was waiting not far away.

Twenty minutes later, the fleets of both sides collided fiercely in line columns.

As for who fired the first shot on both sides, no one paid much attention at that time. But as soon as the two huge ships - the "St. Lawrence" with 66 guns and the "Qu Fu" with 52 guns (taken from the Classic of Mountains and Seas) approached each other, they immediately faced each other with gunwales.

After entering close combat, the fleets of both sides also went into battle with their respective flagships. A captain of the Royal English Navy later admitted, "I don't know how the battle began because of the distance, but when I saw the general fighting, I opened fire as ordered." ”

England had a small number of ships, but it was agile and brave in battle, and with its inherent sophistication and ruthlessness in combat, it took the initiative to attack the Qi fleet, which was four times its size. After an hour of fighting, the Portuguese, who were watching the battle from the cliffs of Santiago Island, could only see the two fleets melee together, completely unformed, more than 30 Qi warships, 12 British warships, all heading in different directions, firing fiercely in succession at close range.

The belligerent waters were filled with gunsmoke, black fog, the roar of artillery, the cracking of ship's planks, the swishing of leather whips, the cries, shouts, and screams, which were deafening, and occasionally mixed with bursts of enthusiastic cheers.

The scene on board was even more dramatic, with smoke billowing from gunfire, flashes of gunfire, bodies and stumps thrown from the gun windows and decks, and the wounded being carried out of their cabins, blood dripping from both sides. As the ship recoiled under the influence of the recoil of the guns, blood overflowed the deck, and the young sailors rushed to the gun emplacements with gunpowder. The scene was even more terrifying in the lower aft cabin below the waterline, where only candles were lit, and in the dim darkness, the improvised doctors were chopping and sawing the bloody limbs of the wounded who had endured severe pain.

On the upper deck, the masts and booms broke, burying the sailors in tangled canvas and cables. Raining bullets and sharp pieces of wood swept across the deck, causing a wave of wailing. The captain and helmsman instinctively steered the ship to avoid collision. The battle continued in billowing smoke, sometimes making it impossible to see the ship's hull, and pungent smoke filled the air.

Perhaps, in the chaos and blurred sight of the battlefield, the English could not see the whole battle. But the Portuguese, who had gathered on the island's commanding heights, had the privilege of witnessing the entire battlefield.

To the astonishment of all the Portuguese spectators, although the English warships showed great bravery, the frequency of artillery bombardment was also very high, and they showed their superb combat skills, the whole situation of the battle was clearly tilted in favor of the Qi expeditionary fleet.

The Qi warships seemed to be equipped with protective iron plates, and after withstanding the bombardment of the English navy, the entire hull did not seem to be much damaged, unless the shells were fired directly into the deck, which could cause some damage to the Qi ships.

On the other hand, after being bombarded by countless Qi artillery, or the sides of the ship and the waterline were broken through terrifying huge holes, causing the hull to enter the water and tilt, or after being bombarded by flowering shells, dazzling flames rose up, devouring the sails and planks on the ship, and one after another sailors jumped into the water in a hurry.

Those Qi giant ships, which should have been clumsy and slow, spit out puffs of smoke, like dexterous boats, quickly moved their hulls on the battlefield, turned their bows, and entered round after round of line bombardment.

The battle lasted two hours, and four English ships were sunk, six were badly damaged, three of them were completely damaged sails, basically lost power, and floated helplessly on the sea. Seeing that there was no chance of victory, the English tried their best to get rid of the entanglement of the Qi ships, puffed up their sails, and fled to the northeast.

The Qi warships immediately divided more than ten ships and chased after the fleeing figures of the English, looking at this appearance, it was obvious that they wanted to kill the English.

Although, in this battle, the English tried their best to concentrate their fire on the hull of the opposing ship, in order to form an effective damage to the warships of the Qi country. But the shells fired by the English were almost always solid shells that were strong and did not explode, and unless they hit the ship's powder magazine, it was generally difficult to sink the opposing ships. What's more, the Qi people covered the shells of all ships with a layer of iron armor, which increased the protection of the hulls.

Of course, adding iron armor to the hull will inevitably increase the weight of the entire hull and affect the flexibility of the ship. Probably, this is also one of the reasons why there are relatively few artillery pieces placed on the ships of the Qi State.

However, the Qi people equipped the warships with steam engines, which well avoided the disadvantages of overloading the ships and slow speeds, and also increased the maneuverability of the ships, so that they could quickly adjust the course without relying on the wind direction at all.

After capturing three wounded English warships and rescuing all the crew members who had fallen overboard, the Qi expeditionary fleet stormed into the port of Praia in preparation to seize the Portuguese territory.

(End of chapter)