Chapter 1905： Disaster

The reason why Marin recruited sailors on a large scale in England was really helpless. At this time, the Beihai State actually had tens of thousands of sailors, serving 90 merchant ships and 30 warships serving the North Sea Shipping.

However, the real sailors are only about 5,400 people on 30 warships. The others are armed merchant ships, and the sailors above usually run commercial shipping and do not train much. It really depends on the 5400 sailors who often conduct combat training.

But shipping is also so important, it is the economic lifeline of the North Sea country. Therefore, it is impossible for Marin to stop the operation of merchant ships and engage in combat training every day.

If those merchant ships happened to ship out by sea, once there was a war, Marin could really count on only 30 warships. Just like this time, because 10 warships went to the Far East, Marin could only rely on 20 warships and twenty or thirty armed merchant ships at home.

Therefore, Marin made up his mind this time to prepare to double the fleet to 60 ships to completely guarantee the safety at sea.

But the problem is that there are too few fishermen in the German region, and there are fewer than 100,000 Frisians in total. Counting non-Frisian Germans fishing, there are hundreds of thousands of fishermen. Taking tens of thousands out of them as sailors has affected the fisheries of the North Sea country. Therefore, Marin can no longer recruit fishermen from Frisian fishermen. Otherwise, there would be no strong man driving the fishing boat. And women cannot do the heavy lifting of sailing and sailing. Therefore, if you want to expand naval power, you can only think of other methods.

The Englishman happens to be the ideal recruiting target ...

Perhaps it is not wise to recruit infantry in England. After all, the English are not too aggressive on land. However, the English are an ethnic group that is good at running the sea. They are not very prominent on land, but like a dragon entering the sea at sea, they become cattle.

Just like the conflict between Britain and France, since the French broke the advantage of the English Longbowmen with artillery, the English could not do France on land. However, when at sea, England was like a godsend, always hitting the French to find teeth.

Moreover, there are rain and rain all year round in England, and the English people are well adapted to the humid climate at sea. Even English farmers with poor water adaptability to sea life are much faster than German farmers. In this regard, Marin ’s American colony has relevant records to check.

In the American colonies, the tens of thousands of English victims who had emigrated in the past were mostly farmers. But later, I saw that fishing in the Newfoundland fishing grounds had a big harvest and could eat fish every day. Many English farmers, with the support of the colonial authorities, changed their jobs and adapted quickly.

Now, the fishermen fishing in Newfoundland fishing grounds are already the majority of the English.

It was precisely because of this performance that Marin made up his mind to prepare some of the two or three hundred thousand landless farmers in England to be sailors.

However, no excuse for recruiting was found before. After all, recruiting is a major event and it is difficult to get permission. Therefore, Marin can only "curve to save the country" by borrowing money to buy a fishing boat, first dragging the peasants who lost their land in England, and then thinking of recruiting into the army ... But now through the conflict with the Portuguese, Marin has Under the pretext of recruiting sailors. This excuse, even Edward, could not openly object. Why, you guard the national maritime security, you have to stop it?

It is said to recruit 5,000 people, but in fact Marin will recruit about 5,400 people, which can control 30 warships. In this way, the total number of 500-ton warships in the North Sea State will reach 60. Coupled with ample gunpowder, you can fire at will, such strength can definitely win Europe.

Marin wondered, when the matter of France was resolved, did he pull the fleet over and abuse the Portuguese, and then grab the benefits from them?

However, if the Portuguese are beaten too hard, it seems that the Spanish will be cheaper ...

Obviously, if Marin maimed Portugal, Spain will definitely take the opportunity to fall into the rocks and possibly annex Portugal. At least, it will annex Portuguese interests in India. And this is not what Marin would like to see.

If Spain completely monopolized the huge profits of India's spice trade, then Spain's gains would be no less than the gains in the history of monopolizing the Americas.

But the problem is that in this time and space, none of Charles V squandered the golden mountains and silver seas earned by Spain. In history, most of the Spanish money earned from the Americas was used by Charles V to engage in hegemony in the European continent.

But because Marin saved Juan III, this time and space Spain, there is no need to throw money into the bottomless hole in the European hegemony. By then, Spain's financial resources will be extremely strong.

Although Spain also participates in the Italian hegemony, the Italian hegemony is not as pitlike as Charles V's simultaneous confrontation with the alliance of France, Turkey and the German princes, and the cost will be much less.

Without Europe ’s bottomless hole to throw money, Spain may continue to strengthen the navy to make it a threat to the North Sea colony.

Therefore, Marin thinks about it and thinks that Portugal cannot be scrapped, lest it be cheap in Spain. Therefore, the best option is to let the fleet deliberately release some water and Portugal for a horse to keep its vitality against the erosion of Spain in the future when the naval battle between the two countries is guaranteed.

But it ’s still too early to say, because Marin is not so strong now ...

...

At the same time, in the far Far East, a sea battle is about to erupt. Dagama and the main force of his fleet have now returned to the deep-water bay of Hong Kong Island and are repairing here. Then, Dagama prepared to move to the Zhoushan Islands, a little north of Daming, and planned to find an island there as a base to invade Daming's most prosperous coastal areas of Jiangsu and Zhejiang ...

After returning from Tamsui City, Dhaka began to prepare immediately to return to Hong Kong Island for repair. However, after catching a desolate scholar along the coast of Hu Jian, and listening to this person's introduction, Dhaka changed his decision and took the fleet northward to the Zhoushan Islands.

Of course, the three warships injured were first returned to the temporary base of Deep Water Bay on Hong Kong Island to repair. Afterwards, the three wounded ships, after a simple repair, will regret the thorough overhaul of the Port of Malacca. There, the Portuguese built a large shipbuilding plant.

In an accidental operation along the coast of Hu Jian, Dagama caught a down-and-coming talent named Hong Hengjiu. This person was very lacking in character. After being threatened by the Portuguese, he didn't think of Sun Juren's tricks to get through, but he simply cooperated with the Portuguese and sold out Ming's interests.

Under the guidance of Hong Hengjiu, Dagama's fleet went directly to the Zhoushan Islands and conducted some investigations.

At this time, because of the sea ban policy of the early Ming Dynasty, only Zhoushan Island had tens of thousands of residents and a Changding Haiwei. The other islands of the Zhoushan Archipelago, except for a few islands near the main island of Zhoushan Island, the Ming court basically did not send people to manage it, and was in a semi-abandoned state. On those islands, there were only one or two small fishing villages that existed illegally, and lived with some fishermen who secretly caught fishing Failed to capture the local city. Subsequently, his fleet conducted a survey in the Zhoushan Islands and found that most of the islands outside Zhoushan Island were in an undefended state and were very suitable for setting up bases.

Moreover, the most important thing is that it is very close to the area of ​​Suzhou and Hangzhou that Hong Hengjiu said is rich in silk. As long as you have a firm foothold here, you can always push into Suhang. Even if this area cannot be captured, it can greatly deter the Ming Dynasty. Because, that shameless Hong Hengjiu said, the area around Suhang is the most important area of ​​the Ming Dynasty's finances and taxes and belongs to the core area. As long as this is won, the core interests of the Ming Dynasty will be touched. At that time, they must not compromise ...

After making the plan, Dhagama led the fleet back to Hong Kong Island. Hong Heng-jiu, who had fallen into disregard, followed the boat directly to Dagama. Anyway, he was determined to sell the Ming Dynasty ...

The reason why Dagama wants to return to the temporary base on Hong Kong Island is because there are a lot of stolen goods accumulated here. Now that the base is transferred, these stolen goods will naturally be taken away together.

However, he didn't expect that this time his stay on Hong Kong Island caused the Portuguese fleet to suffer a disaster ...