May 15, Taihua Island, Zhiyuan Port (now Santa Cruz Port, Tenerife).

A group of emaciated English prisoners of war, supervised by several armed convoys, laboriously unloaded the wagons before transferring them to a supply ship docked at the docks.

The long period of hard labor, the harsh living conditions, the poor food, and the occasional physical punishment have seriously damaged their bodies. But under the threat of the bayonets and leather whips of the Qi people, everyone did not dare to complain, and they bent their bodies and worked silently.

Occasionally, when they stopped to catch their breath and rest, they would involuntarily look up at the ironclad ship moored at the dock, the cold forged armor, the majestic gun barrel, the thick chimney, and the proud and professional sailors on the ship all made their faces full of envy, and at the same time, there was a trace of fear and horror in their hearts.

Oh God, the people of Qi not only mobilized a large number of ships to come to Europe, but also sent such a powerful ironclad ship!

It's incredible! How did the Qi people do that a warship made of steel could float on the sea like a wooden sailboat?

The fleet of the Qi people had arrived on the island five days earlier, and in addition to their own dozen or so warships, there were also several captured English warships and merchant ships, adding hundreds of new English compatriots to the island, who would endure the same heavy labor as them.

In recent months, almost every once in a while, several sailing ships have brought in a large amount of supplies, such as coal, gunpowder, guns, ship materials, canvas, grain, canned food, cattle and sheep, clothing, medicines, cement, building materials, steel bars, cane sugar, coffee, cocoa, etc., filling several large warehouses near the docks.

To this end, the Qi people requisitioned many of the island's former Spanish and Berber inhabitants and began to build a large number of berths, add new storage facilities, build forts, and make a massive renovation of the infrastructure of the city of Santa Cruz, oh, the Qi people called Zhiyuan, so that the inhabitants of the area and the officers and sailors of the navy who came here to rest would be more comfortable.

As prisoners of war, the English undertook the heaviest work of the time, and when the sky was slightly light, they were brutally driven to the construction site by armed guards for a day of hard work. Many poor compatriots, after months of hard labor, have been tortured and left this world forever.

Thanks to the efforts of many coolies, the entire island has been built into a perfect naval logistics supply base, which not only has the coal, fresh water, food and weapons needed for the organic sailing ships, but also a temporary medical center that can accommodate 400 people, and can carry out on-site medical treatment and care for the sick and wounded personnel of the Qi expeditionary fleet.

In less than a year, after spending countless supplies and coolie lives, the people of Qi have built this small city of Santa Cruz into a small city, a sea base that can provide all kinds of war supplies.

As we all know, the improvement of logistics and supply capability is crucial to enhancing the capability of ocean-going warfare. Previously, Europeans, including England, always felt that across the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean, the Qi navy was not particularly a great threat to them, because the labor expedition was both costly and dangerous, and the slightest carelessness would wipe out the entire army, which was not done by the wise.

Of course, they were right to think so, because at this time, an expedition across the sea was an extremely difficult thing to do. In later generations until the beginning of the 20th century, if a fleet was not well supplied and rested, its combat effectiveness would decline to a very low level after ocean voyages.

The most typical example is the Battle of Tsushima between Japan and Russia, in which the Second Pacific Fleet of Tsarist Russia went on an expedition from the Baltic Sea, across the Atlantic Ocean, through the Cape of Good Hope, into the Indian Ocean, and then on to the east coast of the Pacific Ocean, a journey of 30,000 kilometers and more than seven months. As a result, it was completely annihilated by the Japanese Navy in the Battle of the Tsushima Strait, and almost no damage was done to the Japanese.

In fact, before the departure of the fleet, there were many opponents in Tsarist Russia, but the tsar insisted on going his own way, and as a result, most of the ports on the way were not open to him, so that when he sailed to the waters of East Asia, the linen clothes on the Russian sailors were torn into strips of cloth, and the mental state of the personnel was also extremely bad, the morale was completely lost, and the operation of the battleship equipment was even more miserable. In such a situation, even if Da Luo Jinxian came, there was no way, which made the Russo-Japanese naval war a one-sided massacre, and achieved the prestige of the Japanese Navy in vain.

Of course, the Qi Expeditionary Fleet was not so miserable. They had numerous supply points on the shipping routes to Europe, including several naval posts such as Changning (present-day Durban), Huining (present-day Cape Town), Taihua Island, Tangier, and Tianmen (present-day Ceuta, Spain, North Africa), which allowed the fleet and personnel to obtain the necessary rest and replenishment during the long journey.

Under these circumstances, England was a little too optimistic to imagine that the combat strength of the Qi Navy would be greatly reduced after the expedition. Of course, crossing such a long distance still has a certain impact on the fleet, such as low morale of officers and men, unaccustomed to water and soil, a large number of non-combat attrition, and the lack of sufficient overhaul capabilities of ships. But the overall combat effectiveness will never drop too much, and it will not cause another Tsushima naval battle.

After nearly a year of combat attrition, the Qi expeditionary fleet has successively lost six sail warships, with more than 1,600 officers and men killed or wounded (including 485 killed, sick, or missing), and five sail warships and three sail warships have been seriously damaged, and have been carrying out major repairs at the ship repair station in Zhiyuan Port.

In addition to bringing the new ironclad ships as a big killer, the second task force support fleet also brought a large number of supplementary personnel to the entire expeditionary fleet by allocating more personnel to various positions in the fleet.

It is believed that after the fleet is merged, it will not only greatly boost the morale of the officers and men, but also provide sufficient confidence for the fleet to start a decisive battle at sea with the English navy.

"See, that ironclad ship is said to be worth more than 300,000 yuan." On the watchtower of the barracks, a young senior soldier pointed to the battleship "Rizakura" moored in the harbor in the distance, and his face was full of disbelief, "Those things in the navy will be ruined, such a battleship is worth the expenses of our entire Fifth Mixed Regiment for a year, right?" We were born and died overseas, fighting and killing with the Yi people, and these people in the navy were leisurely drinking tea and driving warships easily, and they could successfully cheat so much money from the cabinet and build such an expensive warship! Come to think of it, it's really unreasonable! ”

"What's your red eye?" A sergeant sat on a pillar, smoking a pipe by himself, comfortably swallowing clouds and mist, enjoying this rare time of peace, "The navy has always been expensive, and our army is made of mud, and it has always been a life of suffering and suffering, what can't you think about these decades?" Besides, in this expedition to England, the main force of the battle is their navy, and our army is just beating the side drum. ”

"However, a few months ago, didn't the company commander say that after defeating the English Navy, it will be the turn of our army to fight, and maybe they will attack the English mainland and occupy their capital London."

"Whew!" The sergeant scoffed, "I can't believe all the words of the commander above. Do you think we can attack England with just a few thousand troops? Still want to occupy their capital? What do you want to do? No matter how poor England is, it is also a medium-sized country with a population of six or seven million, and it is not just a matter of allowing a few thousand people to land on their soil. ”

"Then why have we practiced landing battles frequently in the past few months?"

"I guess it could be landing in Ireland after mastering the basic sea supremacy, or cooperating with the Spaniards to seize Gibraltar. Of course, it is not excluded to attack the Portuguese islands of Madeira and Azores. ”

After the 3rd Mixed Regiment arrived on Taihua Island in July last year, it was divided into two, half of which went to Morocco and Europe with the main fleet to deal with possible landing battles, and the other half remained on the island for adaptive training and rest, and later rotated to fight at sea.

Because it was an overseas campaign, the troops naturally had to conduct high-intensity military training. With the cooperation of the local escort, they almost completely cleaned up the surrounding islands, and the Spanish residents and Berbers who did not obey the king were all captured to work as coolies to support the construction of local infrastructure.

Although the army units can obtain sufficient supplies and the officers and men also enjoy the necessary overseas allowances when fighting overseas, they are still not comparable to the navy. Those people in the navy have to spend more than 100,000 or 200,000 yuan on a single trip when they go to sea for exercises on weekdays, all kinds of weapons and ammunition are consumed like flowing water, food and alcohol are openly supplied, and personnel subsidies are frighteningly high. When it really enters a wartime state, the cost of the navy will be even more staggering, far from being comparable to the army's mud legs.

From this point of view, the army that is only trained with one leg, one gun, and a few guns is really incomparable, even if their third mixed regiment is the trump card main force in front of the domestic number.

While the two minions were discussing the inequality between the army and navy, the 2nd Task Force Command and the Expeditionary Fleet (1st Task Force) Staff were being rehearsed about a planned strategic decisive battle at sea.

"We have a huge advantage for us because we have Gibraltar in the field." The chief of staff of the expeditionary fleet, General Yan Chuansong (Vice Admiral) Zhenguo (Vice Admiral), held the baton in the Strait of Gibraltar heavily, "Compared with the Atlantic, the sea area is considered to be calm, which makes the sail warships of the English very inconvenient, and thus loses the corresponding maneuverability." However, our fleet has a large number of sailing warships, and with the drive of steam engines, it is not affected by the wind direction and ocean currents at all, and can give full play to our advantages in mobile warfare. ”

"What if the English do not come to Gibraltar with their main fleet, as we would like?" Liang Yuanfu, commander of the Second Task Force Support Fleet and general of Zhenguo, asked with some concern.

"Had our fleet gathered in Gibraltar a few months ago in search of a decisive battle with the English navy, they might have hesitated to come." Yan Chuansong said with a smile: "But in March, they sent a fleet into the Mediterranean Sea to expedition to Egypt, in order to cut off the connection between this place and the Ottoman mainland, and at the same time to achieve the goal of preventing our fleet from obtaining supplies from Egypt. Therefore, when we gather the main fleet to block the Channel, it will inevitably make the English Navy nervous. Not to mention that we would cooperate with the Spaniards in seizing Gibraltar and removing them from this important point at the entrance to the Channel, would be to trap their fleet on an expedition to Egypt in the Mediterranean, which the English navy did not want to accept. Therefore, when our fleet appeared in the waters near the Strait, the English Navy would inevitably gather the main fleet. ”

"The main fleet is divided into three, and there will be a decisive battle with the English navy in the waters near Gibraltar, will they be able to reach the battlefield as promised?" Chief of Staff of the Second Task Force Fleet, General Guangwei (Rear Admiral) Zheng Xirui asked softly.

"After the detachment of the expeditionary fleet near Ireland last August, it was agreed that the detachments would go to Tangier in early June this year to rendezvous." Yan Chuansong said: "If there is no accident, the detachments should be able to rush to the battlefield as promised. ”

"Do we need to capture the Portuguese islands of Madeira and the Portuguese Azores before the decisive battle with the English navy?"

"When we go north to Gibraltar, we can think about taking Madeira with our cameras." Yan Chuansong said: "However, in order to ensure that the fleet is in a good state of readiness, military action will not be taken in the Azores for the time being. After defeating the main fleet of England, we will attack Portugal directly, threatening Lisbon and forcing it out of the war. ”

"Are we really going to help the Spaniards retake Gibraltar?"

"Nope." Yan Chuansong smiled slightly and said meaningfully: "Not only Gibraltar, but Menorca, we will continue to keep it in the hands of the English." In this way, the two countries will not be able to achieve real reconciliation, so that our Qi country will divide and disintegrate the British and Western countries after the war, and manipulate them in applause to obtain the greatest benefits. Because a united Europe is not in line with our strategy, and a Europe free from strife will also deprive us of opportunities to intervene and intervene. ”

"Then, after the war, the Anglo-Portuguese alliance must also be dissolved?"

"That's right. If the Portuguese wanted a decent result, in addition to ceding some of the overseas islands, the Anglo-Portuguese alliance had to be dissolved. ”

"What if they don't want to?"

"Then they don't blame our Qi State for uniting with Qingguo and killing them in Brazil."

"Don't you want Qingguo to eat Brazil in one fell swoop, right?"

"How is that possible? Qingguo occupies half of the plastered land of La Plata, and there is already a faint atmosphere of a great power. If Brazil is obtained again, it will be even more difficult to control. …… Perhaps, it is also a good option to let Brazil become an independent state. Of course, the premise is that the Portuguese are not interesting, and they have to fight our country hard to force us to make this choice. ”

(End of chapter)