Volume 3: Confrontation! The Run of Civilization Chapter 562: Caution is needed at this moment
About 100 kilometers south of Santiago, the central city of Chile, the land that originally stretched almost straight to the south suddenly retracted a little, forming a natural harbor. Not far outside this harbor, there is also a large island that blocks the typhoons and tsunamis that may surge in the South Pacific. Therefore, this is a rare treasure land.
In the 19th century, after Chile gained independence, it named this natural harbor Puerto Montt, the largest port and economic center in the southern part of the country. Since then, the port has become more and more prosperous until 1960, when it was destroyed by a major earthquake.
In this era, Zhu Shengmiao and Tia also selected this place as the port for communication between Ming Dynasty and the Independence Army. The name was changed to "Inca" Port.
At four o'clock in the morning on May 10, 1627, Du Youning's fleet of the Ming Navy arrived at Inca Port.
"Strange, it's dark, but why is there no sound at all? Lieutenant Fengguo, are you sure this is the place?"
"…41.4 degrees south latitude, 73.1 degrees west longitude, that's right, Admiral, it's here."
"There's something strange. Um, Island Master Zhang?"
"I know, I know, MD. I agreed to go out with you to relax on the boat, but who knew there would be work to do. Luckily I brought a dozen brothers on board this time."
Although Zhang Hong was mumbling to himself, his hands were not slow. He quickly put on the blue and white combat uniform of the Marine Corps and said, "I will take some people to investigate at night."
The commander of the Marine Corps led the team personally, so the efficiency is naturally beyond words. Zhang Hong came back in just over forty minutes: "The port has been destroyed, and there are ruins everywhere. We found a body. Judging from the clothes, it should be an Indian. The cause of death should be that his legs were cut off by heavy artillery shrapnel and he died of excessive bleeding. As for the time of death, I am not interested in studying medicine in Fangshan, and I have never been exposed to forensic medicine, so I can't infer it. But the body has been completely decomposed, so I think it should have been quite a long time."
There must be more than one body in this port, but Zhang Hong did not investigate further after he understood the situation, and hurried back to the ship: There is no doubt that the Spanish fleet must be the one that could destroy this port. At this time, it is possible that the enemy fleet is hiding somewhere nearby, and this news must be passed on to the navy as soon as possible.
Sure enough, after listening to Zhang Hong's report, Du Youning's brows were almost furrowed: "Lieutenant Fengguo, is there a backup contact point?"
"Yes!" Zhu Shengmiao was of course very anxious after hearing the news that Inca Port was destroyed, but he was severely reprimanded in Beijing at the beginning of the year. At this time, he still forced himself to suppress his worries about Tia's safety and opened a map of the Pacific coast of South America and said: "Because the distance between the two sides is too far, it will take at least half a year to go back and forth, and there are too many variables. So every time before I leave South America, I will agree on three contact points with the rebels. Now, since Inca Port has been destroyed, the second contact point is here!"
Everyone looked at Zhu Shengmiao's finger, which moved south for a long distance, and everyone's faces looked unhappy.
Because this is a seaport, a seaport further south than the Inca Port: the Spanish must have come from the Atlantic side of South America, and then swept along the Pacific coastline from south to north. The Inca Port in the north was destroyed, so how could the ports further south survive? If they continued to move south, they might collide with the Spanish fleet.
Of course, now that the three major ironclad gunboats of the Ming Dynasty are here, Du Youning is not afraid of fighting. However, this fleet came out from Chongming Island, which is rapidly closing in, and scraped the bottom of the ship . Apart from this expedition of more than 10,000 kilometers, the entire fleet has not been maintained at all. What if they encounter the main force of the Spanish navy that is recuperating here?
"Lieutenant Fengguo, where is the last point of contact?"
"That's the last resort, Admiral. If we choose the third contact point, we have to turn back north to the vicinity of Concepcion. Then send a small force to the east mountain to look for the small rebel force stationed in the Andes. However, who knows if the Spanish have strengthened patrols nearby? After all, although we Han people and Yindians are both yellow people, there are obvious differences in appearance."
"..." After pacing repeatedly in the small command tower, Du Youning glanced at Zhang Hong . After getting the affirmation from his old classmate, he patted the chart table and said, "We are not going south anymore. We are going north."
…
Just as the Ming fleet turned back to the north, a large Spanish fleet was waiting in the sea 60 kilometers south of Inca Port.
This is a super fleet with five ironclad warships and sixty sailing warships. The commander of this fleet is the commander-in-chief of the Spanish Navy, Count Barudes.
At the end of December last year, Raimondo arrived in America and learned about the specific situation here. At Cromwell's suggestion, he made up his mind: he must eliminate the Chinese support for the rebels, otherwise the war would never end. Therefore, in addition to taking the Second Division of the Guards by boat along the coastline of what would later become Brazil to Buenos Aires, he also wrote to Philip asking for maritime assistance.
At this time, the European Union had stopped all wars with the Ottoman Empire, so Philip could completely spare his time to deal with the problems in the Americas: in terms of taxes alone, the taxes that the entire American colonies could pay were far behind those of the Netherlands. However, the gold and silver paid by the Americas were directly dug out from the mines, which was a pure increase. The taxes of the Netherlands were earned through trade: this was an increase for Spain, but a decrease for other places. As the leader of the European Union, Spain could not suck blood from its allies too hard, especially when Philip was preparing to establish a modern household registration system and compulsory military service system throughout Europe. It had to make appropriate concessions and provide certain financial subsidies - in this way, the pure increase in the Americas became particularly important.
Therefore, after reading Raimondo's detailed explanation, he made the decision directly: the main force of the navy will be dispatched!
At this time, the Spanish ironclad warship had been finalized: standard displacement of 3,000 tons, 100mm main gun, and maximum speed of 18 knots. Compared with the 5,000-ton Songjiang of the Ming Dynasty, such data was not as good in attack and defense. But the speed was much faster than the Songjiang.
According to the opinions of the professors of the Academy of Sciences of Asturias, headed by Galileo, before the electricity mentioned by His Majesty Philip could be put into practical use, a 3,000-ton ironclad ship would be enough. If a larger tonnage was desired, it would have to wait for further progress in materials science and the taming of electricity.
In terms of the current progress in materials science, Europe lags behind the Ottoman Empire and the Ming Dynasty, which was once instructed by Ibrahim - at least they don't have celluloid. But in terms of electrical research, Europe is at the forefront of several time travelers: Europe's basic science began to develop in the 15th century, and by the 17th century, it was already ahead of the Ottoman Empire and the Ming Dynasty - this is the overall lead of the entire society, and it cannot be completely reversed by a single time traveler.
In short, following Philip's order, five ironclad warships and a large number of sailing warships came to South America from Europe: the Atlantic Ocean is much narrower than the Pacific Ocean, and the Ming Navy is naturally at a disadvantage when fighting in the Americas.
After arriving in South America, Barudis led a large Spanish fleet around the Strait of Magellan and headed north along the coastline, destroying the two ports built by Tia's rebels along the way. The Guards led by Raimondo and Cromwell used Buenos Aires as their base and launched an attack on Tia's newly established base on the Pampas.
After the equipment gap was made up, or even slightly surpassed, the situation naturally turned around: in terms of military strategy, the top student of the Imperial Military Academy of the Ming Dynasty was not much worse than the over-exerted Raimondo Montecuccoli. But the quality of the armies of both sides was too different. On Raimondo's side, Cromwell had formulated a battle plan, and he could let the officers below carry it out with confidence. On Tia's side, she had made a plan, but she had to pray with trepidation that the army would not suddenly collapse.
So, there is no need to fight this battle.
Starting from the end of January 1627, when the Spanish Second Guard Division marched towards the southern Pampas, within four months, Tia’s rebel army was completely defeated and lost the Pampas. Even the Patagonia Plateau, where the Laucans had lived for generations, could not be defended, and the rebel army was forced to move towards the Andes Mountains.
The rebels on land were defeated, and at sea, the powerful Spanish navy prepared a pocket formation for the upcoming Ming fleet: the second contact point agreed by Tia and Zhu Shengmiao was another famous seaport in southern Chile, Porto Aysen. The periphery of this port is a circle of islands, which is very conducive to the fleet's hiding and ambush. So Barudes arranged the ambush circle here: if the enemy fleet came here, on the one hand, the distance would be extended by dozens of kilometers, and on the other hand, there were dense islands here and the hydrology was extremely complex. If the Ming fleet ran into it head-on, even if the opponent had ironclad ships, it would be wiped out!
However, the personalities of each commander of the Ming Dynasty were very different. If Li Guozhu had led the army, he might have just run into it head-on. But the admiral of the Ming Dynasty fleet this time was Du Youning, and it was his caution that saved the fate of the Ming Dynasty fleet.
