Lord of Ming Dynasty

However, food still cannot be saved much, because compared with the huge captive base, there are about 90 captives on both sides of the canal, about 20 captives in South America, about [-] captives in the Azov Islands, and about [-] captives in the mainland. There are about [-] to [-] captives in Dingzhou.

With the arrival of 80 Han Chinese, as captives were captured one after another, with the immigration of mercenaries, the number of Mexicans defecting increased, and the arrival of foreigners, there are 120 million Han Chinese in Dingyang Prefecture alone. 90 captives, as well as Mexicans, aboriginals, North American British immigrants, South American aborigines and immigrants from various places reached 70, and there are also a large number of mercenary troops, recruit troops, and Han Chinese troops. The total number is about 300 million many.

Although war can reduce some people, they are people after all, and it is impossible to kill them on a large scale like slaughtering animals. They can only be consumed slowly and let them make contributions. They are overwhelmed in labor, accidents, diseases, or die. Fleeing, and their contribution is that the excavation of the canal has been accelerated, and the three locks have been completed.

The water levels of the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean are different, and the terrain of Panama is also different, so the locks are needed to raise the water level, otherwise the ships cannot sail.

There used to be various small lakes to resolve this water level drop, but only some wooden sailboats or small steam engine boats can be used, because the water level requirements are not high, and now it is necessary to pass through [-]-ton warships, so ship locks are needed.

The width of the ship lock is full of three separate locks with a width of more than 30 meters, a width of more than 20 meters, and a width of 100 meters, which can allow ships of different widths to pass through. Li Ya and the others have heard Zhang Qiang talk about the concept of the Panama ship lock. When it is in place, go directly to the 100-meter-wide ship lock. Although the technology is relatively primitive and the passage is a bit complicated, it can be used for many years. It is estimated that it may be used in the next century or several centuries, once and for all.

This project is much bigger than Zhang Qiang's later British, Spaniards, and French when they dug the Panama Canal, so it took a lot of time and labor, but no matter how much they spent, they only spent money and needed to calculate the cost, while the new Qin State The cost is only the cost of tools and materials, and the labor cost is too much. At that time, the entire Panama Canal took ten years to employ only 30 people. Now Li Ya and Zhuang Lin spent 2 to [-] people in the initial stage, plus their own It took a year for recruits to clean up the river bank.

Later, 10 people were employed to dig the river channel, and the reefs and some silt under the river channel were initially cleaned up. It was equivalent to building a rough outline of the canal. For the widening and reconstruction of the channel from the Atlantic entrance of Coron Port to Gatun Lake, 30 people dredged the silt in the various tributaries of Gatun Lake and those channels in the center of the lake, and the excavation depth reached as much as 10 meters.

After that, 50 to 70 people were employed to dig and build the first section of the lock while fighting the war, which took a year and a half.

Afterwards, 120 million people were gathered to dredge the river in an all-round way. The depth of the excavated river channel reached 50 meters in the center, and after about 500 meters in width, the depth of excavation on both sides was about 40 meters, and then retreated like the bank to a depth of 30 meters to 28 meters. The drainage channel to the shore has a depth of 12 meters or 28 meters. This is the part of Gatun Lake near the south bank, and the other places are basically at a depth of [-] meters.

After occupying Panama City, the section of the river leading to the Pacific Ocean imitated the excavation of the channel at the mouth of the Atlantic Ocean. It took half a year to complete the assault. Three ship locks were completed, and now basically all large ships that have passed through this century have been unblocked. It's all right.

So 20 Spanish prisoners were released.

The first thousand 570 chapter two dealing with too much population

The release of 20 Spanish captives is not because of the good intentions of the new Qin State, but because of the need to reduce food pressure and population pressure, and the release is not a normal release, but a captive riot, and I have created a trouble for myself. , it looked as if the Spaniards were trying to rescue them.

This is because the canal is about to be completed, and the new Qin State does not want to raise so many captives. Nearly 1000 of these captives die every day due to various accidents and punishments, and they do not want to actively invest in the New Qin State. Zhuang Lin's ideas released them to go back to the north of Panama to consume the food of the Spaniards. If they go to the place where the Spaniards are willing to receive them, at least 1 people will die of starvation or cannibalism. Now the Spaniards If they are needed, they will be organized and organized into a colonial army to fight the French and fight for the colonies. At least three of them will die, and not many will survive.

Compared with the nearly 200 million idle population, these 20 Spanish captives are not too many, but they can be counted as food. Even if it is a small part every day, it will cost several thousand catties of grain, and tens of thousands of catties of grain will be needed in a month. Wouldn't the people behind the saved food supply be better off?

So in a period of time, thousands of people were released every day. After about a month, 20 selected Spanish captives were released. Many of them were old, weak, sick and disabled, and some were young and strong. , Let them take these old, weak, sick and disabled to northern Panama, Mexico, and even Louisiana, which is being contested.

Where to increase the burden, the French are also happy to see these things, because they will consume the food of the Spaniards and cause conflicts between the original immigrants and outsiders in their colony.

The release of these 20 Spanish captives only solves the food consumption population that the Chinese Imperial Fleet transports to Panama every six months. In addition to the captive population consumed by deaths within a few years, about 50 people have saved food. There are still at least hundreds of deaths and diseases every day, and being punished can save a lot.

As the canal project came to an end, so many people had to be diverted. The families of the original mercenaries were immediately diverted to South America and southern Panama, which diverted about 11 people, and then those who had been trained each time Several batches of recruits were sent to South America and Panama to garrison or replace the original recruits and garrison battalion soldiers stationed on the military depot line.

Those soldiers were transferred back to Cologne City for reorganization and decommissioning. After decommissioning and reorganization, about [-] troops became ordinary people, and continued to be distributed to some people on the north bank and some people on the south bank. Then two brigades composed of Han Chinese and mercenary groups were transferred. Back to Xindingzhou to garrison, some soldiers and officers who have been trained and have the possibility of promotion will be diverted to recruit battalions in various places to serve as officers, or promoted to the regular army. Peru in South America was stationed and changed defenses. Luo Zuo's subordinates had been with him for too long, so he had to replace some of his subordinates and troops.

One of the other two brigades returned to the mainland to rest and garrison the main island, and the other brigade went to the Azores to change defense and garrisoned the Grand Ribery Island, and the troops there were replaced back to the mainland to garrison Xinbao Island.

This transfer has reduced the population of South America and Panama by about 8 people, and also reduced food consumption, saving 8 people's food consumption, and let Zhuang Lin and the others breathe a sigh of relief. With the change of seasons, their The food reserves have increased, but the burden is too heavy to be relieved all at once. They have lost nearly 30 people, but they can still relax a bit, because what they lack is the food for these 30 people.

The toss of the new Qin State, with a population of more than 300 million and more than 200 million captives, reduced nearly 30 captives at once, and also reduced the pressure. Other captives can still create value in South America because of the continuous mineral production in South America To supply the mainland and Xindingzhou, these diverted soldiers are needed to be stationed and guarded, and these captives are needed to mine and transport.

However, this increased the food pressure in South America. This time they accepted 40 soldiers and prisoners withdrawn from the canal. Although they also increased their troops, the pressure on custody and food pressure was still very high. Zhuang Lin and the others It means that the pressure here has been relieved, but part of the pressure has been shared with Luo Zuo from the three South American countries.

But Luo Zuo is not worried, because the food they produce here is also gradually increasing, and the captives are killed and injured much faster due to primitive mining and disease than the canal.

60 captives, soldiers, and some local aboriginals, Mexicans, and North American immigrants were taken away, but there are still nearly 140 million excess population here. Zhuang Lin and the others thought about whether to come to a land battle and destroy the north coast of Panama. Occupy over.

There are so many mercenaries and Han troops that are used to resettle the population and disperse the garrison.

However, the increasingly tense maritime situation forced them to change their direction. They attacked Puerto Rico and San Juan Island. Except for the captured population and some soldiers, there are not many people on it, so they arranged for ships. 2 captives, two mercenary regiments of 2000, a cavalry battalion, and a company of Han officers were transported to the island for construction.

One island has 6000 people, another island has a population of 4000 people, plus a 6000-person mercenary brigade stationed on an island, a mercenary regiment-level force and a shore artillery battalion on an island, guards from a cavalry company plus those who have not withdrawn The two regiments of the Han Marine Corps have reached their limit for the two small Caribbean islands.

Many captives can actually drive ships and have the potential to be sailors, so Zhuang Lin and Lu Fang organized at least [-] captives to join the merchant fleet. Of course, the merchant fleet they organized was used to transport resources from South America and here. It is processed locally and in Xindingzhou, and sometimes some materials are transported to the Moroccan base in Africa.

Some supervisors were formed into a mercenary marine team to protect the caravan. They may not be able to fight. The captives fought for the enemy country, but they pretended to be escorted by the battleship fleet of the mercenary army around the ship. , they can't be fooled.

In this way, after emergency diversion and multi-party mobilization, the regular army troops in Panama's new Dingyang state decreased by 10, recruits and garrison battalions decreased by 8, prisoners decreased by 30, and other local indigenous people decreased by 20. , the mercenary family members decreased by 10 people, and the entire Xindingyang State of Panama decreased by 80 people. Within a year, the number of deaths, diseases, escapes, and demobilization reached nearly 40 people, and the population of Panama dropped to 280 million. .

There are still nearly 60 captives working on the canal, with 3 recruits stationed, 2 garrison battalions stationed, 7 recruits stationed elsewhere, and 5 garrison battalions. There are 10 people, because there are still a large number of Mexicans and local indigenous people here, and nearly 20 Indians and people of other ethnic groups who fled from the United States.

The number of Han Chinese has increased to 130 million, of which 20 are Han troops and 5 are regular troops.

With the implementation of the South American strategy, the Han Chinese began to migrate to the three South American countries one after another. 30 people are gradually moving to the three South American countries.

There are also 80 Han Chinese in the local area and Xindingzhou, about 60 mercenary family members and foreign civilians, and foreign New Qin people.

In the native land and in Xindingzhou, the Han Chinese surpassed the foreigners for the first time.If all the places are counted, and other foreigners in South America are not counted, the population of the new Qin State is infinitely approaching 500 million people, and the captives are also counted.

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The first thousand and 570 chapters and three chapters of the continuing naval battle 1

In other words, it is not a big deal to win the Spanish naval battle. The Spaniards knew that they would not be able to compete with the new Dingyang fleet of the new Qin State, but they saw that the fleet that captured the island was too old. The fleet of Type [-] and Type [-] ironclad ships, and one or two Type [-] ironclad ships was not enough to see in front of them having a few first-generation British ironclad ships acquired from the British and two Type [-] ironclad ships. The Xinding Yangzhou Fleet commanded by Zhuang Lin and the others made dumplings.

Because the package was too tight, when the British arrived, they didn't even know that the Spanish fleet had been defeated, so they also fell into the pit.

After three consecutive days of bombardment, after destroying the captured Spanish warships sitting on the Bund, as well as the forts built by their own wounded warships and the repaired shore artillery firepower, the British Caribbean Sea Fleet dispatched a landing force, Under the cover of naval guns, they landed on the islands of Puerto Rico and San Juan.

This is not the bottom line of the new Qin State. They still have nearly 40 warships. The original [-]-year-old warships hid in the port. Although the port is not very spacious, there are still places to hide from the enemy's naval guns. The severely wounded and injured battleships were all lost in the frontal artillery bombardment. This is recognized by everyone, and it is considered good to be able to use waste.

What they sacrificed was only some captives and some mercenary recruits, artillerymen, sailors, and captured British immigrants on the island. At most, they lost a few hundred Han soldiers. The loss was not large, a total of only 2000 mercenary recruits, 1000 veterans, more than 6000 mercenary sailors and gunners in the fleet, and the loss of captives and immigrants on the island was nearly 34 people, 320 Han officers, They are all at the corporal level, with [-] soldiers.

A total of 2000 wounded people were rescued, and the rest were dead. Facing the nearly [-] warships of the British Caribbean Fleet, they had the firepower of [-] broken warships plus shore artillery batteries, and field battles on land The artillery sank twenty of the enemy's warships and damaged nearly seven or eight of the enemy's armored ships, which can be regarded as a contribution.

In the early counterattack, the shore artillery also made a lot of achievements. At least a dozen of the enemy's warships were damaged. It may not affect the battle, but the loss is not small. This completely angered the British. Under the cover, a landing battle was launched. At this time, the temporary captain also felt that it was impossible to attack. After sending a telegram to contact the fleet commander Lu Fang, he led two fleets and rushed out of the port.

The two ports have recently met for nearly [-] nautical miles. The Puerto Rico fleet he led has eleven Type II battleships, three Type III battleships, and one capital ship.The other second lieutenant led the San Juan Fleet, which had five Type [-] battleships, three Type [-] battleships, one British Type [-] battleship, three Type [-] battleships, two cruisers, and a capital ship, a total of ten Four battleships.

Why do the warships there seem to be more powerful? Because despite the small islands, deep ports, and many waterways, they are suitable for hiding large warships and have fewer troops, so two more new warships were given.

The Puerto Rico port here is relatively shallow, and you can see it at a glance from the outside, but there are many hidden reefs in the waterways outside, and the water is shallow, so most of them are old warships with a slightly shallower draft.

While leaving the port, they bombarded the place where the enemy landed, and almost wiped out all the small boats that landed in this wave of the enemy. At least more than 1000 British troops were killed by the artillery fire, hundreds of small boats of several hundred tons, and hundreds of small boats. They were blown up, and two or three of the merchant ships and warships that landed were sunk. This wave of landing was in vain, and the next wave of British was not ready yet, so the British troops who landed and those who did not landed were separated. up.

This is the case on both sides. Who made the British army choose the nearest place to land near the waterway of the port? As the two fleets rushed out of the port, the first to intercept the British fleet was the fleet covering the landing.

Because the fleet of the New Qin State has been huddled in the port, the British also know that the strength of this fleet is not very high, so the fleet they dispatched is not very strong. There are only [-] warships, nine on one side and eleven on the other.

The nine battleships are mainly the previous first-class battleships, because they want to support the landing. Of course, the firepower of the first-class battleships is fierce. There are more than 100 artillery pieces on a battleship, and one fire is equal to the artillery firepower of a regiment. Five ships will fight The shore artillery firepower and the wounded battleship firepower rearranged by the New Qin State could not hold their heads up, otherwise they would not be forced to rush out of the port for a decisive battle at this time. It would have been three to five days, because Zhuang Lin was It is still in the Governor's Mansion of the Port of Cologne to carry out the task of population reduction.

This time it was Lu Fang who led the main fleet.

Six main battleships, fifteen cruisers, eighteen frigates, and ten destroyers.

When fourteen warships rushed out of the port, the British's five first-class battleships, three first-generation ironclad ships, and one second-generation ironclad ship were continuing to bombard. When they saw the fleet rushing out of the port, they turned to rush out of the port The fleet fled while shelling, and they saw that the enemy was more numerous than them.

When they escaped eight nautical miles from the port, the entire fleet just rushed out. A battleship in the rear that captured the British was hit by three shells from the enemy's second-generation ironclad ship and was immediately injured. The hull was flooded with water and had to face After rushing to the shallows on one side of the waterway, the bow of the ship ran aground on one side of the waterway. The hull of the battleship behind blocked the waterway, occupying at least half of the distance of the waterway, so the waterway was scrapped. .

Although the port in San Juan is relatively wide, the waterway in and out is relatively narrow, which cuts off the return route of the fleet led by the second lieutenant. They either flee to the deep sea, or they can only stop in the port of Puerto Rico. The captain will make peace, but San Juan Island is more dangerous.

But now is not the time to think about this. Now is the time to annihilate the enemy fleet. Although they lost one ship, they still have nearly thirteen warships. On the way out, they bombarded the enemy's landing force with all their strength, and did not take care of the enemy's fleet. The fleet, therefore, is taken care of by the vitality of the enemy fleet, and every battleship is wounded, and the actual combat power may only be about ten ships.