I want to be emperor

Chapter 878 Lisbon, Portugal
In August of the 37th year of Chengshun, off the coast of Portugal, outside the port of Lisbon.

On the bridge of the cruiser Qiongzhou, Commodore Song Yuanlong, the commander of the second formation of the European Expeditionary Fleet, was wearing a navy standard navy blue uniform and was watching the port ahead with a large monocular on the bridge.

After a long time, he said: "As expected of this Portuguese man who has traveled across the sea for more than 200 years, he has some knowledge, and he should have accumulated a lot of wealth. This port is well-built, and it is better than most of the indigenous ports I have seen before. Be good!"

As an admiral serving in various overseas fleets for a long time, Commodore Song Yuanlong has been to most places in the world, including North and South America, India, West Asia, Africa and other places.

This time, he joined the European Expeditionary Fleet as a squadron formation commander and also came to Europe.

After coming to Europe, he first led the formation under his command to cover the army's useless guys and captured the port of Tangier. Then, after reinforcements arrived from the rear, he once led the cruiser Qiongzhou and the accompanying frigates and supply ships across the Strait of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean.

After experiencing the scenery of the Mediterranean Sea, I sailed along the North African side, mainly to draw up charts, determine the route along the way, the location of the local port cities, basic geographical conditions, and so on.

There were no surprises along the way, and the local aborigines basically didn't have the courage to attack... After all, the news that the entire city of Tangier had been completely destroyed had already spread, and many aborigines in the nearby area already knew the news.

And Commodore Song Yuanlong didn't plan to carry out any more attacks, not because he was kind, but because the ammunition reserve in his fleet was not too much at that time, so he didn't intend to waste ammunition!
When we beat Tangier back then, I was very happy, and I experienced the power, and Tangier was successfully beaten into ruins.

It's just that after the fun, the ammunition problem becomes more serious.

If you want to replenish ammunition in this broken place, you can only wait for the supply ship from the rear to come up, and the ammunition on the supply ship is also limited. The ammunition used on this supply ship will be one less.

If you want to get more supplements... then you will have to transport them from India, Southeast Asia or even the mainland, and it will take at least half a year or even longer.

Therefore, after defeating Tangier, Song Yuanlong also had to minimize his attacks to avoid wasting ammunition... Otherwise, according to his temperament, it is best to fire a round of artillery first when encountering medium and large port cities of indigenous people along the way. It is used to announce to the local aborigines that they are coming from the state of Chu, and they will be more honest in the future.

Wash it with shells first, and then it will be much more convenient to talk to the natives.

Like now in Lisbon!

If you want the other party to fully open the market, or even give up the power of tariffs, the other party will not easily agree to this kind of thing unless it is a fool.

Under such circumstances, if you want the other party to agree, you have to show enough strength!
This kind of strength does not mean whether the empire is strong... but how much the empire can deal with Portugal itself.

No matter how powerful the Chu people are, if they can't fight, or if they don't fight Portugal... then there is actually no threat to Portugal.

Even many dignitaries in Portugal will think that the strength of the Chu people is blown out... Don't doubt the knowledge and quality of the nobles these days.

Many aristocrats have never left his small village in their lives...not as well-informed as sailors in colonial ships.

But if the Portuguese were given a violent shelling in the port of Lisbon, it would be enough for them to fully realize the strength of the empire and its own fragility.

Then it is only natural to talk about market opening next.

It's a pity that it is difficult to supply ammunition in his formation now, and with the limited ammunition reserves in the entire European expedition fleet, Song Yuanlong can only endure it first.

I am going to send someone to talk to the Portuguese first... If they are smart enough, they will agree to open the market. As long as this general direction is agreed, Song Yuanlong feels that he can even make some concessions, such as leaving some for the other party on tariffs. face.

If he is not smart enough... then Song Yuanlong can only achieve his goal by wasting ammunition reluctantly.

But no matter what... the Portuguese on the opposite side must sign a treaty to fully open the market, which is the purpose of his second formation sailing this time.

As far as he knows, the main force of the European expeditionary fleet is heading north. Once the European expeditionary fleet arrives, they will find a way to sign a comprehensive market opening agreement with Spain.

In the short term, the European Expeditionary Fleet hopes to open up the markets of these two southern European peninsula countries first, and set a model for countries in other parts of Europe, so as to prepare for the subsequent full-scale entry into the European market.

Relatively stronger, the country has a larger land area and a larger population, and the capital is also inland Spain.

Market development on the Portuguese side is relatively easier...who made their capital, Lisbon, be by the sea!

As long as the current Song Yuanlong orders, one cruiser and two frigates under his command can destroy their coastal defense forts deployed outside the port in minutes, and then the fleet can go deep into the port directly and bombard their port city.

At the same time, a reinforced infantry battalion accompanying the fleet can be landed to cover the fleet's actions!
Based on the current absolute strength of the Great Chu Empire's navy, those indigenous countries that built their capitals in the coastal areas basically washed themselves clean and sent them to the Great Chu Empire's navy.

The Portuguese are no exception!

On the contrary, the indigenous countries that built their capitals in inland areas can have more buffer space and time when facing the Great Chu Empire.

Like Spain.

His capital is in Madrid, and the straight-line distance from Gasland, an important port on the Atlantic coast, is almost [-] kilometers.

The Chu army traveled all the way to Europe, and they know very little about the situation on land in Europe, especially the details of geography, transportation, etc. The landing blow forced the Spaniards into submission.

If you want Spain to completely surrender, it is estimated that tens of thousands of troops will be mobilized to land, and after landing directly on the shore, they will defeat the opponent through large-scale military operations.

This is also the reason for the action against Spain, which needs to wait until the main force of the European expedition fleet arrives, and requires a lot of preliminary preparations.

And Portugal is easy!

The three warships on Song Yuanlong's side moved out of the port, and panic began on the other side!

The sailing warships in the port began to gather regardless of whether they were useful or not.

A large number of soldiers on land also began to settle.

The shore defense forts on the north and south sides, guarding the passages in and out of the port, have directly entered a state of combat readiness.

The Portuguese cannot be blamed for being so panicked, but the Chu people's warships put too much pressure on them.

How was Tangier destroyed not long ago?

It was destroyed by these three warships.

Now these three warships are placed outside the port, and the cruiser Qiongzhou among them is particularly conspicuous.

The Qiongzhou cruiser, as one of the Jinzhou-class cruisers, is not the most advanced battleship in the Great Chu Empire to be honest, but this class of ships is the most representative among the active battleships of the Great Chu Empire, and it is also a battleship in actual combat. The most effective first-class battleship.

Battleships that are more powerful than it are rarely seen overseas. Even if there are, they are basically used as flagships, or they are used in the rear, or they are dispatched in large-scale battles. In fact, you don’t see such big guys as battleships in daily life. Fight with natives.

Although the more advanced Datong-class cruisers are said to be more advanced and equipped with rear-loading rifled guns, there is actually not much difference in size between the two. When fighting against natives, they are actually no better than Jinzhou-class cruisers: both Hang and beat!
So don't look at the Qiongzhou as a cruiser of the previous generation, but its status in the navy is very high. It is a serious main battleship in active service, and it is widely seen in seas around the world to fight.

The navy doesn't even want to do breech-mounted guns on this class of ships...wasting money, the current front-mounted guns are good enough.

In the minds of the high-level navy, this class of cruisers and the four Toyosu-class cruisers are cheap and easy to use for overseas deployment...much more reliable than any battleship.

Although this kind of cruiser is only a low-cost cruiser for overseas use in the eyes of the high-level navy. At that time, in order to save coal, they had to rely on sails to sail.

The protection ability is not very good, only very thin wrought iron armor... Seriously, with this protection ability, if the indigenous warship can get close to 200 meters, use a 32-pound caliber long-barreled smoothbore cannon, and fire Solid shells can really punch a hole.

It's just that no one in the Great Chu Empire Navy would be so stupid as to let the indigenous large-scale sailing battleship slowly approach its own side by 200 meters, and then fire solid bullets!
As early as hundreds of meters away, or even more than 1000 meters away, with the powerful firepower of the Jinzhou-class cruisers, they were able to sink the indigenous warships through intensive shelling. Even if they could not be sunk, they could destroy their sails, causing their The sailing warship became a dead fish on the sea!
Compared with land battles, Jinzhou-class cruisers are actually better at sea battles... After all, it is an ocean-going cruiser anyway, not an offshore gunboat.

To be honest, land support is not what it is good at... As an ocean-going cruiser, its hull is very slender and its draft is very deep. If it is close to the coast for shelling, it is easy to run aground.

However, land bombardment is what the Jinzhou-class cruisers have done the most since they entered service on a large scale, and they even do it often.

This is very frustrating.

But today... God seems to be giving the Jinzhou-class cruisers a chance to face off at sea.

Commodore Song Yuanlong was thinking about whether to launch a burst of shelling, or let the army turtles on the following troop carriers land directly.

The lookout officer on the side suddenly said: "They have left the port!"

As soon as these words came out, many officers on the bridge immediately looked forward curiously, and Song Yuanlong also looked forward with the dual-way navigation binoculars hanging on his chest.

In the binoculars, at the entrance and exit of Lisbon port about 6000 meters away, a battleship with sails appeared. From this look, it can be seen that it is a relatively mainstream sailing battleship in Europe in the past 20 years.

The visual displacement is about 74 to [-] tons, and there should be [-] long-barreled naval guns matched without accident.

The shape of the entire hull is very different from the European warships decades ago. It appears to be smoother, and the hull is more slender. Although it seems to have a displacement of about [-] to [-] tons, it does not use three-deck guns. structure, but a two-layer and a half-deck gun structure.

And these characteristics... Yes, this thing is the European version of the third-class battleship of Chu State, that is, the 74-gun battleship.

After the launch of the 74-gun battleship of the Great Chu Empire, the number of battleships built is extremely large, and more than 80 ships have been built in total... Widely active in various sea areas, it was the absolute main battleship of the Great Chu Empire before Chengshun 25 years ago, not one of them!

Even 25 years after Chengshun, some 74-gun battleships were equipped with steam engines and continued to serve as transitional battleships until the early 30s.

The large-scale service and use of this kind of warship inevitably affected the design and construction of warships in Europe. Three countries including Portugal, Spain, and the Netherlands successively built their own 74-gun battleships. Later, England, France and other countries, Denmark, Sweden Other countries have followed suit.

It's just that when the countries in the European region followed up to build and serve this kind of 74-gun sail battleship, the Chu State Navy had already begun to decommission the traditional sail battleship on a large scale... Instead, it was equipped with a steam engine and used an iron-rib wooden shell The new generation of warships, and then there will be new warships equipped with front-loading rifled guns and rear-loaded rifled guns.

The 74-gun battleship of the Europeans once caught up with the people of Chu, but soon fell behind, and it became more and more behind. In just a dozen years, it was left behind by the Chu navy.

After this 74-gun battleship, there were four battleships of equal size. After these five battleships, there were a dozen old-style battleships with a displacement of more than a thousand tons.

In the end, there was a bunch of messy ships of hundreds or even dozens of tons!
The Portuguese... this is pulling out the fleet in the port.

A naval lieutenant colonel next to Song Yuanlong couldn't help showing excitement: "It looks like we're going to have a full meal today!"

A lieutenant commander swallowed his saliva and said, "Delicious food comes first, but we have to exercise restraint. Let them come out and fight again. It's easy to scare them all back now!"

Song Yuanlong saw that the group under his hands had begun to drool, even those young people who had just graduated from the military academy this year and were assigned looked expectant, and couldn't help but sigh inwardly.

Their navy is miserable. How many naval officers have joined the army for more than ten or twenty years, but they have never fought a serious naval duel.

You can only enjoy yourself in exercises or sand tables. If you are exhausted, you will get a few scrapped ships to conduct live ammunition exercises.

Not to mention ordinary naval officers, even Song Yuanlong... he didn't brag, he never fought a serious fleet duel in his life.

Every day I play raids on ports and forts... To be honest, although this kind of thing is done well, it is worthwhile, but it is still a bit meaningless.

Now, the Portuguese have pulled out the fleet directly, and it seems that they are going to face their own fleet head-on at sea.

Opportunity!
In this life, I guess I can only encounter this serious fleet confrontation.

Although there are only a bunch of sailing warships on the opposite side, they are not warships, the key is the large number.

Immediately, Song Yuanlong's face tightened, and he said to more than a dozen officers under his command: "Pass down the order of the officer, deploy the formation and prepare for battle!"

"The rear troop carrier and supply ship slowed down and turned for safety."

"Let the boilers of each ship increase the pressure and prepare for the speed increase."

"Strictly order all artillery groups to be ready, but they must not fire without authorization before they are ready!"

Speaking of this, Song Yuanlong added a sentence: "If anyone fires in advance to scare the opponent away, I will personally throw him into the sea!"

After the series of orders were issued, Song Yuanlong rearranged his demeanor, stood on the bridge with a serious face and looked at the Portuguese fleet slowly coming out ahead.

But at this moment, the communications officer said in a loud voice with a trace of anger on his face: "Troop transport No. 20 ship semaphore: The army transport formation requests to approach, so that we can watch the battle at close range and provide support!"

"It's understandable to want to come and watch the battle, but..." Song Yuanlong's tone instantly increased: "But support, why do those landlubbers in their army support our navy in combat?"

This is a naval battle, and your army only has a thousand soldiers, most of whom are Indian soldiers... How can you support our navy in combat?
Don't even talk about your face!
The communication officer also looked angry: "They said that they can put the wild cannons on the deck, and they can provide fire support with the wild cannons after approaching!"

Song Yuanlong didn't need to answer, he said first: "As far as the firepower of their army's field guns is concerned, not to mention how accurate they are on the sea, with this amount, it is too little to fry fish..."

"They are purely here to disgust us!"

Song Yuanlong naturally also knew that the army was looking for trouble, so he would disgust their navy whenever he got the chance... Damn Xipi, now he really wants to send a diver there, and then put explosives on their troop carrier. Then bam.

When the army is dead, the world is quiet.

But after thinking about it, he still dare not do it, so he suppressed his anger and said: "Give them a semaphore: Say that our navy does not lack those toothpick guns, and let them obediently watch our navy show its glory in the background." , don't make trouble!"

After the army received the semaphore, Colonel Xu Duowen, the leader of the team, was not angry, but just laughed: "This Song Yuanlong looks like a petty man."

"Well, since the guys in the navy don't want us to get involved, let's watch the fireworks in peace!"

"Soldier, bring me the fine wine I found from Morocco, and bring me a grand master's chair!"

"There are so many ships on the opposite side today, it must be very spectacular when they explode and burn later!"

"Brothers take turns going up to the deck to watch what they want to see. Such a big fireworks event is very rare!"

"However, we must arrange the order well, and don't huddle together and fall into the sea."

(End of this chapter)