Chapter 1841： Revenge first

Marin ’s worries are not untargeted. You know, there are now four maritime powers on the bright side of Europe-Spain, Portugal, England and Venice.

Among them, Spain is a double-material maritime power in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. It not only has a powerful fleet of Karak sailing ships, but also has a powerful fleet of paddle sailing ships. Portugal is second, but in terms of sail warships active in the ocean, Portugal is even stronger than Spain and is the first naval power on the Atlantic.

As for the later overlord of England, which is currently limited by national strength and population, it can only surrender to the two countries. And Venice, this is a pure paddle sailing country, can only dominate the Mediterranean with little wind and waves.

In fact, in terms of the strength of paddle sailing, Venice is much better than Spain. But the problem is that now Venice needs to compete with the newly emerging Ottoman Turkey for maritime hegemony in the eastern Mediterranean, so it can't do everything it can to deal with Spain. Otherwise, Venice will definitely teach Spain to be a man on the Mediterranean Sea.

In addition, there is a maritime "power" ... well, it can not be regarded as a country, but a consortium, that is-Hanseatic League!

The maritime strength of the Hanseatic League is comparable to that of England. Even more. If Lübeck and Hamburg are "one king and one queen" to join forces, England will also withdraw three points.

As for the third child Bremen, has been captured by Marin is considered Marin's territory. Moreover, in the eyes of foreign forces, because of the friendly relationship between Marin and the Hanseatic League, the maritime power of the North Sea State is actually counted as a "Hanse League" rather than an independent force. Because, in terms of the number of ships alone, the North Sea State is indeed a bit small.

At present, there are seventy or eighty merchant ships active in all parts of Europe in the North Sea all year round. There are only thirty or forty ships active between the Americas and Europe. But ships that are active between the Americas and the mainland cannot be seen by other European countries. Therefore, the outside world's assessment of the Beihai State is 10 warships and dozens of merchant ships. This strength, in the eyes of the outside world, is not as good as the original free city of Bremen Hansa. In terms of the number of ships alone, this is indeed the case. Therefore, the North Sea country will be underestimated by Portugal.

But Portugal does not know how powerful the hidden firepower of the North Sea ...

For example, the seventy or eighty 250-class armed merchant ships currently active in Europe, in theory, each ship can be equipped with 20 artillery. Moreover, they are all 12-pound guns.

But the merchant ships of the North Sea country, when traveling between Europe, removed most of the artillery, and only kept three or four 12-pound guns as a symbol. At the same time, it also confuses the enemy. Then, it gave the illusion of other countries-the merchant ships of the Beihai country seemed to have little combat power.

In fact, most sailors of these merchant ships, except newcomers, have mostly received naval combat training. Moreover, each ship is also equipped with an additional 40 matchlock guns. Once a pirate approached, the sailors took out the Vulcan gun from the bottom compartment to fight back. In the Mediterranean, the merchant ships of the North Sea have repelled several pirate attacks.

That is to say, in theory, if a sea battle occurs, the North Sea State can dispatch up to 30 warships and 120 250-class armed merchant ships to fight. The premise is that these merchant ships are all at home ...

But this is not possible, because the thirty or forty 250-class armed merchant ships traveling to and from North America are on the move all the year round, and it is difficult to call them back. Even the seventy or eighty merchant ships on the mainland usually have at most thirty or forty ships at home.

Therefore, in order not to affect trade, Marin will draw at most 20 armed merchant ships to form a joint fleet with 20 warships.

Although there are only 40 ships, its firepower far exceeds that of Portugal. The Portuguese warships, although there are twenty or thirty artillery on it, but most of them are two or three pounds of Franc cannons, and their power is very small. This kind of artillery, not to mention penetrating the sides of the Beihai warships, can't even penetrate the sides of 250-class armed merchant ships.

In addition, in order to prepare for the battle, this time Marin directly ordered 20 pieces of 250-class armed merchant ships prepared to be nailed with tinplate to prevent artillery bombardment. In this way, the firepower of Portugal's largest 12-pound gun can't cause any damage to the warships of the North Sea country.

In addition, because Dhaka has led a fleet to expedition to the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, at present, the maximum number of warships available to the Portuguese court is fifty or sixty, and most of them are about 200 tons of Karak and Caravel. Such a scale can't beat the combined fleet of the Beihai nation.

However, if Portugal broke out and recruited large national ships to fight, it would be able to mobilize more than a dozen ships. Therefore, Marin prepared 20 warships and 20 armed merchant ships in case of surprise.

However, if he can not fight, Marin still avoids fighting this battle. After all, whether winning or losing is not good for Marin.

How to say, if you lose, needless to say, the colonies of the North Sea country may be robbed by Portugal, naturally it is finished. And if you win, it's actually not a good thing ...

Why? Because Marin does not have enough strength to annex the benefits of Portugal after the defeat. The result may be-cheaper Spain ...

After all, there are too few ships in the North Sea and too few sailors. Even if you win Portugal, you can't take advantage of the Portuguese spit out. So, even if you win, what are the benefits?

And if it is cheaper in the end in Spain, then Marin is not willing to see it. You know, Spain is already very strong. If they are picked up by Portugal for a bargain, a stronger and fierce opponent will appear in front of Marin.

Therefore, Marin's immediate preparations are actually mostly intended to force the Portuguese back, rather than to divide the Portuguese.

But the future is uncertain. Once England has been annexed and the demographic dividend of England has been digested. If there are enough sailors, Marin dares to suppress Portugal and boldly devour the benefits of the Portuguese. Because there is no shortage of sailors in England. As long as there is a boat, you can **** the Portuguese's overseas interests.

...

However, those preparations are the latter things. Right now, Marin intends to take revenge on Rui Silva first. He is not a person who has been violated and swallowed.

Sending the fleet directly to beat Azul Silva in the Azores will certainly not work, it is equivalent to declaring war on Portugal. So, think of another way ...

So Marin called Kohler and asked:

"Where is the Silva family's fief?"

After Kohler went back to check the information, Huihui reported:

"A mountainous area near the city of Bragança in northeastern Portugal ..."

"Braganza?" Marin remembered the Bragança dynasty that ruled Portugal after 1640. But now, obviously the Duke of Bragança has nothing to do with the throne. Moreover, the Silva family is just a humble noble family led by the Duke of Bragança.

After recovering, Marin asked:

"In addition to the cork production industry, what other industries do the Silva family have?"

After Kohler looked through the information, he said:

"Some ~ www.novelhall.com ~ There are local grape growing and wine making, as well as logging and wood processing industries. In addition, there are cattle breeding ..."

Malin thought about it and ordered:

"Okay, you ordered the spy of the North Sea country in Portugal-from now on, do everything possible to crack down on all industries led by the Baron of Silva. We are in need of cork products and buy normally. As for its wood processing industry ... Go burn the wood processing plant led by Baron Silva, there must be a lot of wood there ... "

"Wine industry ... send someone to dive into its winemaking workshop in the middle of the night, smash the wine barrels, and let the wine flow to the ground ..."

"Cow raising ... Um ... just send someone to poison those cows ..."

After commanding, Marin sneered:

"Huh, want to take advantage of me? Next life!"

He estimated that the Silva family had lost at least tens of thousands of gold coins after finishing these things. Although he cannot offset Marin's loss, Marin does not care. He just wanted to give Rui Silva a warning and disgusted the other by the way. As for what is lost, he has a lot of money and can afford it ...