Daming Military Empire

Chapter 387
Since the arrival of the Spanish Armada at the port of Dunkirk in the Spanish Netherlands, the situation in Northern Europe has become increasingly tense. Both Denmark and Sweden have sent tens of thousands of troops to the Netherlands. The British Navy has also begun to cruise in the Nordic waters, ready to support the Netherlands at any time. The Netherlands is frantically assembling various warships, preparing to deal with the Spanish attack, and a big battle is about to start.

At the beginning, the Spanish navy and army were indeed advancing towards the Netherlands. However, halfway through, they had not exchanged fire with any troops, and they even retreated to the port of Dunkirk. Such a strange behavior is really confusing. mind.

The Port of Dunkirk is still a certain distance from the Strait of Dover. As long as the Spanish Armada does not leave the port, there is no threat to the ships passing through the Strait of Dover. , ready to set a trap for the Spanish Armada in the North Sea, so that they will never return, defeat Philip IV's last hope in one fell swoop, and make him surrender on his knees.

But this time Spain actually changed its previous proactive style and became a coward, staying in the port of Dunkirk but not coming out, which shattered the eyes of the anti-Habsburg alliance powers.

At the end of December in the Ming Empire calendar, there was finally movement in the port of Dunkirk. However, it was not the Spanish Armada that came out, but a huge fleet of the Ming Empire that entered!
This frightened the anti-Habsburg alliance powers. Is the Ming Empire going to join the war?
Naturally, the North Sea Fleet did not come to participate in the war. They were only ordered to bring the Construction Corps to Northern Europe to build bunkers. If the big powers did not take the initiative to provoke them, they would not bother with the big powers at all.

The arrival of the North Sea Fleet made the Spanish Admiral Oquendo very happy. To be honest, if he was asked to take the Armada to the vast North Sea to find the fleet against the Habsburg Alliance, he would feel a little trembling. You must know that the first five Spanish armadas were all caught in a sea storm, as if they were bewitched by evil spirits. He didn't want to be the sixth unlucky ghost.

He supported the defense and blockade strategy proposed by His Majesty the Emperor of the Ming Empire, the allied country, with both hands and feet. He waited for the big powers to attack, and there were more than a dozen bastions to support him. Combined Fleet of Boothsburg Union!

He even asked Philip IV to give this combined sea and land defense a name called "Nordic Iron Chain", which means to lock the anti-Habsburg alliance powers in Northern Europe. Expectations are high. Of course, there is a premise to really use the Nordic chain to lock the anti-Habsburg alliance powers in Northern Europe. This premise is that the twelve bastions promised by the Ming Empire can really be built quickly.

Now that the fleet of the Ming Empire has finally arrived as promised, how could he not be overjoyed? For this reason, he specially gathered [-] Spanish and Portuguese armies at the port, lined up in a neat square formation, and held a letter written in Chinese characters by students who graduated from the Daming Academy. Welcome banner, a grand welcome ceremony.

Yang Geng did not expect to see so many welcome banners in Chinese characters in Europe. He disembarked with several hundred personal guards and exchanged greetings with Admiral Oquendo for a while, then ordered that all the Construction Corps disembark and prepare.

This Ming Empire is like a cow. Even the laborers who built the bastions are in uniform, and even their equipment is uniform. Of course, they are not carrying muskets, but shovels and shovels. Each phalanx is The unified system, the formation, looks even more orderly than the Spanish Army's phalanx. They also pushed many identical carts, but they were not artillery carts, but simple flat carts, with iron bars, wooden boards, paper bags, etc. The ones are also neat and tidy, I don't know what to use them for.

There are a total of 10 people in the construction army, and there are so many materials, it is not a matter of time to disembark all of them. At this time, Yang Geng was not idle, he directly took eight experts who built the bastion, and invited Oquendo climbed a nearby hill.

Oquindo didn't know what they were going to do, so the eight experts who built the bastion took out the binoculars from their pockets and scanned the surroundings. It didn't take long for them to gather together and discuss in a low voice. Quickly, one of them respectfully stepped forward and pointed to the four small hills to report to Yang Geng.

After listening to the report carefully, Yang Geng asked directly in Spanish: "Your Excellency, General, what do you think of the bastion built here?"

Oquendo looked roughly in the direction Yang Geng was pointing at. The location is not bad. Two are near the sea and two are inland, just surrounding Dunkirk Port in the middle, but he doesn’t know if the distance is suitable. Yes, the artillery has a range. If the distance built is not suitable, they will not be able to support each other. In that case, they will not be able to stop the 20 troops.

He hesitated and said, "Why don't we measure the distance first, this eye can't measure the exact distance."

Hearing this, Yang Geng smiled. He directly asked for the telescope from the person who reported it, put it into Oquendo's hand, and introduced: "There is a scale on this telescope. They have already measured the distance. There is absolutely no problem."

Oquindo curiously raised the binoculars and looked into the distance. There were indeed two crossed scale lines in the lens. However, how could the accurate distance be measured when the viewing distance fluctuated?

This is a little secret of the Ming army. Naturally, Yang Geng will not explain it to him. Let them think about it slowly. Seeing that Ao Kundo has no objections, he waved his hand and said loudly: "Start work!"

Hearing the words, the eight experts immediately stepped down the mountain bag, came to the phalanx of the Construction Corps, and gave a few pointers. Soon, the [-] Construction Corps members were divided into four groups, each led by two experts, and went to The designated location is removed.

Oquindo stared at all this in a daze. The efficiency is too high. Are they going to build the bastion immediately?
He really guessed right, the construction corps started working immediately after arriving at the designated hill, digging soil, finding stones, carrying sand, carrying water, plywood, reinforcing steel bars, cement mixing, and division of labor Clear and methodical, he looks as skilled as a farmer in farming!
Seeing Ocundo standing there in a daze, Yang Geng stepped forward and reminded him kindly: "Your Excellency, General, thank you for your warm welcome. Can the troops below invite them back to camp?"

After hearing the words, Ocundo came back to his senses, and directly said to the guards behind: "Order, all the troops are collected and returned to the camp."

The personal guard went to deliver the order, but he himself stood there motionless, looking curiously at the four construction sites with binoculars.

After watching for a while, he suddenly realized a problem, these people did not go to collect stones!

He couldn't help asking in surprise: "Doesn't stone be used to build the bastion?"

Hearing this, Yang Geng said proudly: "Our Emperor of the Ming Empire invented a miraculous building material called reinforced concrete, which is harder than ordinary rocks. We don't use stones at all to build the bastions!"

There is such a thing in the world!Oquindo couldn't believe his ears, he murmured: "Without using stones, it can be repaired in a few days?"

Yang Geng replied without hesitation: "Five days!"

"Five days!" Oquindo's eyes were about to explode. How could it be possible to build four bastions in five days!

(End of this chapter)