The end of the Ming Dynasty swept the world

Chapter 879 Silver from Mexico
Back then, He Kui Niu and the others traveled more than [-] kilometers from Malacca to Europe, bypassing the Cape of Good Hope in Africa, and there was no danger this time.

Because on the way to Europe, He Kuiniu sailed along the coastal waters all the way, and walked around the African continent. Although the distance is long, it is safe and has reference points.

If there is a disaster and the supplies are not available, they can also dock from Africa at any time for supplies.

Now across the Pacific Ocean, there is no reference. In this era, experience depends on luck.

"Husband, it's a bit hot outside, why don't you go back." Wang Bao's wife, Liu Shi, was also on the boat.

Both of them are employees of the mining company. The company used to be state-owned and counted as officials. Later, Ding Yi changed it to private ownership. They became employees, but their salaries were higher than before, and they also had generous bonuses.

"I seem to have seen the North American continent, which proves that we are right. If we come back next time, we will have experience." Wang Bao said excitedly.

Of course, he couldn't be sure at this time, because he was afraid that if he drove over and saw that it was the South American continent, he would be depressed.

Fortunately, South America and North America were connected together, so they did not deviate too much. The next day, Wang Bao was sure that he had arrived at the North American continent, probably near Guatemala in later generations.

Guatemala will still be a Spanish colony, and the Spaniards on board were obviously stunned when they heard that the ship came from a big oriental country.

But they didn't dare to take any action. After all, Dagan is very powerful now, and Wang Bao's five ships are all third-tier battleships.

Wang Bao spent money to go ashore for fresh water supplies, and then adjusted his direction to look north for Mexico City.

"Daqian is still late." Wang Bao sighed when he left Guatemala.

At this time, most of North America and South America were occupied by Spaniards, and of course some places began to become independent in recent years.

This is also the reason why Spain's troops are not enough and cannot be controlled.

The development of Daqian is slow, and the European empires have been colonized for so many years, and a lot of wealth has been plundered by them.

"It's still too late." Liu said with a smile: "The emperor asked us to come here to see the situation first, maybe we will do something here in the future."

"Before the steamship comes out, it's unlikely." Wang Bao said directly: "It's too difficult to go. If there is a disaster, the ship will sink at any time, which will cause a lot of loss of personnel."

There are few Spaniards, hundreds or thousands of people each time, but Ding Yi usually wants to conquer a place, he must send a large number of troops and relocate tens of thousands of immigrants.

This is very easy to cause accidents. Once the ship sinks, the loss will be huge.

"Besides, the emperor is preparing to use troops against Dongyu, so he probably won't be able to take care of this in recent years."

Although Wang Bao was not a soldier, he knew Ding Yi's strategy well.

The land route is easier to fight than the sea route, and Ding Yi must give priority to dealing with matters in Asia.

Liu thought for a while: "I hope this time, I can return home with a full load."

A few days later, their fleet approached Mexico City.

When Spain administered North America and the Philippines, they collectively referred to these two places as New Spain, with its capital in Mexico City.

The jurisdiction of New Spain includes present-day Mexico, Central America (except Panama), California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and the Philippines in Asia.

Now the Philippines is occupied by Dagan, and Spain only has a small amount of territory in North America and Central America.

After 1535, the colony began to be ruled by the viceroy of New Spain, and the viceroy was appointed by the king of Spain.The capital is in Mexico City.

Before Luzon was taken away by Ding Yi, life in Spain was actually quite easy.

Because in 1540, after the Spaniards discovered silver mines in Zacatecas (the capital of the Mexican state of Zacatecas, established in 1585), more settled people began to pour in.

Before the 19th century, the output of silver mines around Zacatecas accounted for one-fifth of the world's total output, far exceeding Japan's Iwami Ginzan.

The silver mines were not only the economic lifeline of New Spain, but also the key to Spain's rapid prosperity, which transformed the global economy.New Spain was the terminus of Philippine trade in the New World, making it an important link between Spain's New World empire and the Asian empire.

After going to Luzon (Philippines), a new problem arose in Mexico.

There is nowhere to spend a lot of silver.

In the past, they had a stronghold in Luzon, where merchants from various countries transported various materials to Mexico in exchange for their silver.

Now Luzon is occupied by Ding Yi, and Ding Yi intends to weaken Luzon's status as a trading point. He wants to let more European merchant ships enter Dagan, Dayuan and even Quanzhou to trade with them.

Especially in the past two years, Luzon has almost become a military port, and there are very few trading ships.

After Ding Yi occupied Annan, Luzon's status declined again.

After many European merchant ships arrived in Annan, they could buy what they wanted, and they didn't need to go to Mexico to exchange for silver. They would rather go back to Europe directly to exchange.

As a result, apart from Spain's own merchant ships, merchant ships from other countries have rarely come to Mexico.

In the past few years, Mexico has hoarded a large amount of silver, and because they could not consume it, they had to ship and ship the silver to Spain in Europe for use.

But this is very risky, once the ship sinks, the loss will be heavy.

More importantly, without too many merchant ships coming, there will not be enough supplies coming, so now the supplies in Mexico are also in short supply and getting more and more expensive.

After Wang Bao knew the details of Mexico, it was not difficult to understand why 200 pesos of raw silk could be sold for [-] million pesos here.

At about three o'clock in the afternoon that day, Wang Bao's fleet entered the later Tehuantepec Bay.

The Gulf of Tehuantepec is a bay in southeastern Mexico.On the Pacific coast, south of the Tehuantepec Isthmus.The mouth of the bay is about 450 kilometers wide and 110 kilometers deep into the land.The general depth is 200 meters, and the mouth of the bay is 3 meters deep.There are reef lagoons such as Superior and Inferiol.Many sharks.

On the coast of Tehuantepec Bay is the famous Salina Cruz Puerto.

The Port of Salina Cruz is located on the banks of the Tehuantepec River. In the future, it will be the end of the Isthmus Railway and the oil pipeline in the region, as well as an oil transshipment port and a fishing port.Petroleum products from Minatitlan at the northern end of the isthmus can be transshipped to ports on the Pacific coast of Mexico.There are oil refining and fish canning industries.

This side of later generations is the largest settlement and main port on the Gulf Coast, and a port with heavy oil transportation.

It is also one of Mexico's important trading ports.

Wang Bao was on the boat, and he could see from a distance that there were many forts on the left and right sides of the front port, and the defense was very tight.

The Port of Salina Cruz is divided into inner and outer ports.The inner port is rectangular, semi-enclosed, and the entrance is only 30 meters wide. It is a fishing port and a general cargo port area. The east-west pier line of the entrance is 915 meters long, and the water depth along the side is 9.5 meters. There is a repair pier in the northwest, which is 392 meters long and the water depth is 1.5-4.0 Meter.In the south of the inner harbor, the water area is more than 55 hectares, protected by breakwaters, the east breakwater is 989 meters, the west breakwater is 647 meters, and there is a trading wharf inside the heel of the east breakwater, which is 240 meters long and the water depth along the edge is 8.8-12.0 meters. The inbound fairway is 140 meters wide.

In later generations, there is a 25-ton oil tanker terminal outside the port, which is the loading station for the export of crude oil from the Gulf of Mexico to the Far East, and also a shortcut export port for trade between the country and the Pacific coast.There is a dry dock, which can repair various types of ships.

There is no tanker terminal now, but a large number of forts have been built along the coast of the rest of the terminals.

Wang Bao preliminarily counted it from the binoculars. The total length of the coastal fort is more than 700 meters, and there are at least fifty or sixty artillery pieces. The firepower is very strong. If you use battleships to attack, unless the artillery range exceeds the shore artillery, it will be difficult to fight.

Hong Xu is very experienced in this kind of place where there are many coastal defense guns.

That is to find other landing ports and use small boats to transport infantry ashore.

There are thousands of kilometers along the coastline of Mexico, and you can always find a place to land. If Dagan really wants to fight, it will be easy as long as the infantry goes ashore.

Just as he was looking at the port with binoculars, someone waved a flag at him from a fort watchtower in the port.

The other party was warning him not to get too close, and he would enter the range of the port turret any closer.

Wang Bao turned his head immediately: "Send people ashore and inform them that we are businessmen of the Dagan Empire, and we bring a large amount of raw silk and tea."

Du Badu, who accompanied Qian Zong, had a Mongolian mother and a Han father. He grew up in Dayuan and immigrated to Taiao with his parents.

Because Wang Bao is now a private company, operations like this are funded by Wang Bao's company and the army is asked to help.

Dubadu is the head of the navy, and besides the normal salary every month with Wang Bao, he also has 50 taels of silver, which is very high.

In addition, two of Wang Bao's profits will be handed over to the Ministry of War (actually handed over to the imperial court).

Duba laughed, turned around and left. After a while, a small boat was released from the big ship, with three soldiers and an interpreter going to the port.

In less than half an hour, the flag was waved in front again, telling them to go to the outer port.

Because the inner harbor is only 30 meters wide, it is estimated that their ocean-going third-tier battleships are too large.

The outer harbor is more than 100 meters wide, and Wang Bao's fleet sailed to the outer harbor.

Just as their ship sailed towards the outer port, Gonzalez, the commander of the local Spanish garrison, was watching their ship with a telescope.

He was accompanied by several local generals and officials.

"Qianren's ship is very big, like a third-tier European battleship. Although you can't see the artillery, you can see that there are many gun ports on it, and the artillery is not small."

"Should we preemptively strike and sink them all?" A general said solemnly at this moment: "They stole our Luzon."

"Don't do it." Several local officials said in unison.

"Why can't we fight?" Some generals were dissatisfied: "Someone broke Luzon Port, captured our people, and forced us to exchange them with gold coins. This is a disgrace to the Kingdom of Spain."

This general is called Dulusi, and he was in Luzon before. Back then, Ding Yi's men broke Luzon and captured him alive.

Then he built a fort in Luzon and worked on mining for two years before being redeemed by his family with gold coins. It can be said that he suffered a lot of shame.

He has been brooding about this incident, thinking of revenge.

(End of this chapter)