Lord of Ming Dynasty

Of course, we must always pay attention to Wunan's movements and be ready to reinforce them at any time.

This time, the Third Squadron of the Auxiliary Fleet accompanying Wu Nan suffered a lot of losses? "After Li Ya finished speaking, he asked casually.

Lu Fang blushed a little, "Yes, leader, I went to ten ships, only two came back injured, and most of the others were sunk in battle. If we hadn't captured many enemy ships this time, maybe the third squadron of the auxiliary fleet would have died this time." To be removed."

"It's okay, it's not your fault. The enemy has too many elite warships, and there are too many auxiliary warships. We don't have that many resources. Therefore, it is impossible to squander personnel and ships like the enemy. In terms of numbers, we are not The enemy's opponent, but in terms of quality, we have defeated the enemy.

Didn't your attack sink, destroy, defeat, and capture dozens of enemy ships, causing the enemy to lose nearly 200 ships?This is also a heavy blow to the enemy. The enemy's six super fleets have already defeated two of the fleets of the New Qin Empire, and most of them have been defeated. This time it is half again, um, it is half, Zhuang Lin and the others also consumed one and a half of the enemy's super fleet in the Caribbean Sea.

Now the British are able to make up two complete super fleets, about 140 or so third-class battleships and above. The main battleship of the super fleet, plus [-] local ships, is basically [-] ships. , Compared with the previous nearly a thousand ships, the strength of the British has dropped too much.

We have reduced the number of their warships by at least [-] ships several times, and they are only nearly [-] ships. Although they are still very powerful, they are scattered in various colonies, throughout the West and other places. The concentrated ships will not exceed [-] in the future, which will be good news for us.

The French and Dutch in the Caribbean, and the Spaniards have held back at least [-] of their main warships, nearly a thousand auxiliary warships, and nearly two thousand merchant ships. As the conflict between them has not ceased, what we will face There will not be too many. In the future, at most, they will face at most [-] main battleships, nearly [-] auxiliary warships, and hundreds of merchant ships or armed merchant ships.

As the strength of our fleet increases, we will have the ability to fight to determine the world in the future. "

Li Ya said to Lu Fang confidently looking at the scenery outside with his hands behind his back.

"Are these the intelligence statistics brought back by Zhao Shuai's intelligence personnel?" Lu Fang asked.

Li Ya nodded, "Yes, Zhao Shuai can not only help the New Qin Empire in terms of civil affairs and military affairs, but also an indispensable talent for the Empire in terms of intelligence."

-------------Chapter Dividing Line---------------

After arranging things with Lu Fang, Li Ya met Mo Lin the next day. Mo Lin has been staring at the construction of the second batch of iron-clad ships for the past few days. The first ten ships of the iron-clad ships have been completed. The tonnage has dropped to more than 4000 tons, and there are still three giant guns. The secondary guns have been replaced with 75mm guns. At the same time, some rapid-fire guns have been installed, 45mm British-style guns, 37mm French-style guns, Cannon gallery artillery and old-style artillery are completely eliminated.

At the same time, the hull is elongated and widened, and the armor plate covering is changed to the overall iron armor covering, and the rivets are riveted. The entire hull is completely made of iron armor. Only some teak boards are used for interior decoration, which increases the fire escape and more watertight. The isolation of the cabin has slightly improved the living area and environment of the warehouse crew. The boiler has been replaced with the latest Chinese Empire boiler, and the power has been increased. The maximum speed has reached [-] knots, and the average fastest speed can reach about [-] knots.

The firepower has become long-range, medium-range, and short-range, with three levels of firepower, and the crew has also been customized. Sixty slaves are doing handyman and boiler maintenance and coaling operations in the bottom warehouse, and ten Han technicians in the bottom warehouse. Responsible for managing peacetime maintenance, three armed guards, and 75 gunners operating the artillery on the upper deck. The artillery has been reduced from five to six people to operate a [-]mm turret artillery to two with a prisoner as an assistant. A set of redundant personnel, who also serve as armed personnel and damage control personnel, thirty.

Adding thirty officers in this way, there are almost 170 five people on a battleship.

In normal times, slaves or auxiliary personnel can be reduced, and at least [-] personnel can operate.

If one person holds two positions, or three positions, such as slaves who change shifts can be used as an assistant for artillery operators, about 30 to 65 people can be reduced, and a battleship can be operated by a minimum of [-] people.

Ten ships are 750 people, and fifteen ships are about 700 people.

In order to select more than 800 to [-] slaves here, Morin personally asked the officers of the army and navy for those loyal slaves, because a warship usually hangs overseas alone, and if the slaves are not loyal, they will die at sea. Mutiny would cause a lot of losses. What Mo Lin meant was to select more people, at least three times the number of people, to supplement the shortage of the navy's manpower, and to give priority to those sailors who could drive the ship.

In that case, once there are heavy losses in the battle, sending two guards can let the slaves also take care of part of the technical work, or operate the artillery, or counterattack, without putting the Han people too much into the battle or unnecessary sacrifices, of course one On the fleet, it is impossible to maintain this model. There must be guard warships composed entirely of Han Chinese, guarding those warships that may rebel.

The gunners generally choose loyal mercenaries, and the Han people also take responsibility, and the skills of the Han people must be better than those of the mercenaries, slaves, and captives, so that when those people rebel, they can take over the ship in time, and can fight while escaping. The battleship was brought back.

With three times the number of people, plus three times the number of newly trained naval officers and soldiers, the navy can double its military expansion, from 6000 to more than 3.

The recent few battles have not been very intense, and the loss of personnel is only about 3000 people. The slaves, captives, and mercenaries accounted for 1000 people. In fact, the Han Chinese navy personnel only lost more than [-] people. Wunan is replenishing personnel. After collecting supplies, they will lead the repaired nine Ironclad Type [-] ships, five Ironclad Type [-] ships, [-] selected steam engine battleships, and [-] ocean-going reconnaissance small-tonnage steam engine battleships to set sail again.

Morin had to deploy these personnel. He had been busy with his head in the past few months, and he had to pay attention to the construction of the third modification of the Ironclad Ship II.

Seeing that ten ironclad warships have been launched in the third modification of the second type, and the remaining five will be launched in the next few days for outfitting, he is even more busy. There are too few, and the construction of steam engine warships is easy to become homogeneous with the British and the French who are gradually catching up. If they want to compete for resources, they cannot compete with the French, let alone the British with colonies distributed around the world.

After sending off the fleet led by Wu Nan, he once again devoted himself to the busy battleship. At this time, Li Ya sent someone to call him, and he hurried to the Juyi Hall of the camp in Xinxianju Town.

Entering the Juyi Hall, Li Ya and Zhao Shuai arrived. Li Ya said to Mo Lin: "They have found Zhuang Lin and the others. They may have gone to Mexico under the Caribbean Sea. That's where the Spaniards are. I think they must be very difficult, now there is no one, you can only lead the fleet to rescue him, how many warships can we set off now?"

Mo Lin thought for a while, "If we can wait for a few days, we will build and install at the same time, and will not conduct sea trials. The fifteen ironclad ships of the second type and three modifications will be able to take them away. At the same time, our remaining Thirty warships can be produced from the warships that have been captured over the past six months, and we will have a main fleet of forty to fifty ships.

After taking all of them out like this, there will be no warships to protect our homeland. Relying on Lu Fang's Second Squadron of the Auxiliary Fleet may be a bit dangerous. I am worried that the French and Spaniards may suddenly attack because of the last time we detained the merchant ship. We are native, we are now different from the poor and white people in the past.We now have so many industries and people.

Moreover, there are so many captives and slaves on the island. Although many people have been evacuated and consumed, our manpower still does not account for the majority. This time Wunan took away another two thousand soldiers capable of fighting. Many Han people have not yet formed combat effectiveness, and most of our people are civilians, militias, and their combat effectiveness is not high. If the British attack the mainland again, we will not only be unable to resist at sea, but we may also be captured and betrayed on land, or slaves Backlash.

This time they brought back more than 1 captives. The total number of captives and slaves on our island is almost five times that of ours.... "

Li Ya stretched out his hand and signaled him to stop complaining, or put the facts and reason, "Don't worry about that, I'll give you half a month to prepare, and after half a month, go to the Caribbean to rescue Zhuang Lin, we can't give up on them, they must It’s hard. We need them. If Zhuang Lin doesn’t come back, we’ll feel like we’ve broken an arm. Let Song Qing follow you and share the burden for you. He’s been exercising for a long time, and he has the potential to be cultivated. Cultivate him, When the time comes, let him follow Zhuang Lin, and Lu Fang will accompany Wu Nan here."

"Okay," Mo Lin nodded silently.

Chapter 12 Twelve Years

In a blink of an eye, another year of snowflakes fell, and the heavy snowflakes froze the earth into a white cotton-like world, and almost all outdoor production activities stopped.

This year, 8 Han Chinese stayed on Newfoundland, 3 foreigners were mercenaries, 3 were captured by the British and Newfoundlanders, and the Inuit and other captured British slaves were converted into slaves. There are 10 people and other foreign mercenaries, a total of 20, a drop of 12 from the previous year's population.

Of the 12 people, 3 people were permanently buried in Newfoundland. More than 1 people went to fight and sank in the sea forever or were captured or rescued by the British. The remaining 5000 people followed each other. A fleet set off to go outside, and some remained on the fleet, patrolling the open sea, and more than 5 people were transferred to Xindingzhou, which is the North American continent.

Where to contribute to the construction of new territories and new colonies of the New Qin Empire.

The 11 Han Chinese have also decreased by 3 in the past three years due to various reasons. Most of them died in battle, some were captured, some disappeared, and some died on the island.

The mercenary foreign civilians have dropped from the original 6 to 3 to more than [-], most of them are civilians, and some of them have become soldiers and officers of the New Qin Empire, receiving generous rewards. Many people hope to earn enough Go back to their homeland, because many of them were transformed from British captives, and some of them want to escape from this place, because this is not their country, not their hometown, but they still accept their fate helplessly, if they If you don't choose to be a mercenary, you will become a prisoner of restricted freedom.

What is even more tragic is becoming a slave, being sold, or dying of labor. Most of them were raised from captives or slaves.

Some British people have worked hard enough, then surrendered, became overseers, enslaved their compatriots, and then rose from overseers to mercenaries to serve the new Qin Empire. Went away on a French trading vessel.

Some people choose to stay and become the common people here.

Because the British have not been in contact with the New Qin Empire for a long time, the two sides are still in a state of war, so there is no captive exchange or redemption, so many of them have become slaves or captives. The New Qin Empire will not treat them well. It is planned to consume them or sell them. There are nearly 6 or [-] British people who have been sold.

Thousands of Han Chinese went to Xindingzhou, but 4 slaves and captives went there.Two foreign mercenary groups have also been transferred, as well as some of their family members, with a total number of thousands of people.

After such a toss, there were not 8 Han people on the island, but there have been sporadic people from Russia and Turkey who were exiled by the Chinese Empire, or were taken over by the New Qin Empire. Come on, the latest large-scale arrival was 2000 people a month ago, and there are sporadic dozens or hundreds of people coming every month.

Compared with the frequency and number of personnel before the blockade, there is no way to compare it. It has dropped a lot, but it is better than nothing.

At the very least, it can fill every month because of friction with slaves and captives, or going to work in other places, accidental death due to accidents, wild beast attacks, fights, or disobedience to orders, etc. , or the number of accidental deaths due to overwork.

In the past 12 years, the New Qin Empire has grown from nothing, from being weak enough to resist the enemy's land aggression to being able to actively attack the enemy at sea. Don't be afraid of things, take the initiative to attack the enemy.

The French suffered a lot in front of them, and finally gave up their colony on Newfoundland, and had to swallow their anger because the merchant ship was detained and has not been returned, because the French really couldn't spare the energy to deal with the new The Qin Empire, they are fighting for islands with the British in the Caribbean Sea. The fight is not over yet. The two sides are on the sea. You attack my merchant ships, I attack your merchant ships, or I sneak attack your escort fleet, I sneak attack Your convoy.

Compared with the huge Britain, the French may already have some impressions of the New Qin Empire, but it is still impossible to remember them. They just feel that there are more powerful pirates on the sea. They even suspect that the New Qin Empire is British. Some of the colonial explorer teams supported.

Of course, in the eyes of some people, it is still very powerful. At least in terms of business and trade, many French nobles have formed a circle that is proud to have mastered the trade channels with the New Qin Empire. The Qin Empire received a steady stream of benefits, such as goods, such as merchant ships, such as coal, steel, and grain, which they could continuously sell to the New Qin Empire.

Although the circle formed by this group of people does not have much influence in France and is still very loose, it has been formed after all, and many people rely on trade with the New Qin Empire to make a living.

There are even some French who came to communicate with the New Qin Empire. They are not regarded as immigrants, but they can also be regarded as expatriates. They lived in the New Qin Empire and taught the knowledge and French of the Han people in the New Qin Empire, or in some factories and mines with relatively high technological content in the New Qin Empire. Got a job.Some French people became merchants and lived in the New Qin Empire for a long time. For these French people, the New Qin Empire issued them identity certificates and archives that surpassed the standards of nationals and captives and slaves, and established files to protect them.

Otherwise, if the intelligence department of the New Qin Empire accidentally captured a wandering Frenchman, it would be bad. Most of the captured people would be killed or thrown into the slave camp after a torture.

So this group of people were warned not to go to some places, and other places to go casually, but they should not be too persistent, otherwise if you are too serious, you will be spying on intelligence. Zhao Shuai’s newly established intelligence department against enemy spies is not a vegetarian. The New Qin Empire did not lack French people. There were many French immigrants and soldiers who voluntarily stayed. There were many officers and many craftsmen.

It has been 12 years, although there are not many French people, there are only a few hundred people who can be allowed to become ordinary people, only about 1000 people can live here for a long time, and there are no more than 2000 people who can do business here, and the total population does not exceed 5000 people. .

But it is part of the friendly composition of the new Qin Empire.