Back to Ming Dynasty with Industrial Revolution System

Chapter 1716 The Fifth Fleet
The cold winter is gradually passing, and the war between the Holy Alliance and the European Continental Alliance has not yet completely ended. However, because the manipulator behind the scenes of the Holy Alliance, Chu Yun, is going to return to the mainland, the blockade of the sea has also slowed down. The merchant ships of the Netherlands and Spain have reappeared in England. strait.

Sun Chuanting, Cao Bianjiao and others who went to Denmark also returned to Portsmouth, basically helping the countries of the Holy Alliance to achieve their goals. The prestige of China is in full swing in Europe, and Chu Yun is called "The Conqueror Chu Yun" by the European countries. , although Chu Yun did not actually occupy any territory in Europe.

The Chinese people in London City and Portsmouth are preparing to return to the teacher.

Chu Yun wanted to bring back two elite troops, the Zhili Fleet and the Imperial Guards Brigade.

These two elites have been tempered in the Mediterranean and European battlefields, and the officers and soldiers who have experienced wars can be regarded as important talent pools for the future.

During this period, not only the industrial areas of the City of London, but also Chinese merchants began to be active in places outside the City of London, such as opening teahouses in Cambridge, Birmingham and other places, bringing tea culture from the City of London to various important towns.There were seven teahouses in England this year.

In addition, the fleet brought by Chu Yun brought in more smallpox and malaria drugs such as vaccinia vaccine and quinine, almost monopolizing the pharmaceutical market in England.

Under the promotion of Chu Yun, the first newspaper office was established here, which published a Chinese-English bilingual newspaper "London Pictorial", published important news, and became an important publication that influenced local public opinion.Only with the more advanced printing technology owned by Chu Yun can it be possible to produce newspapers in large quantities on a regular basis.

A businessman from Italy found Zheng Zhihu and handed over a piece of goods to him: "Mr. Zheng, the price of the item you are looking for is not cheap, but we also have this item in our collection, but I don't know that Mr. Collect our western things."

"It was entrusted by someone, and these are gold coins for you." Zheng Zhihu checked the goods and handed over a small bag of gold coins to the person.

This thing is not cheap, but Zheng Chenggong asked him to ask an Italian businessman, and he gritted his teeth and bought it for this nephew.

"It's really strange that some of you still understand this thing." The Italian businessman put away the gold.

Secretary of the Navy Nelson used the winter to revisit his hometown in England. He may see England for the last time.

Originally in his world, he should have died in the Battle of Trafalgar in the Mediterranean Sea. He was very old when he was summoned to this world by Chu Yun. He was about to retire at this time and had no chance to return to England.

The Fourth Fleet has its own troubles, too.

The Kyushu Army has established a firm foothold in the Mediterranean, and Athens, a city directly under the Central Government, can form a new fleet—the Fifth Fleet, also known as the Mediterranean Fleet.

The ships and personnel of the Fifth Fleet cannot come out of thin air. The only source is to dispatch some ships and sailors from the existing fleet to build the Fifth Fleet from scratch.

"The Mediterranean Fleet is temporarily equipped with three galleons and five small and medium-sized galleys. The goal is to ensure the safety of the Greek waters and provide timely assistance when our merchant ships are attacked. Of course, this is only the initial establishment. The next five years will depend on The trade situation in the Mediterranean Sea, adding 5 to 7 steamships."

"If the fleet in the Mediterranean is attacked, you can call on the countries of the coastal countries in the Mediterranean to organize an alliance, ask for help from the Fourth Fleet when necessary, and request the Fourth Fleet to enter the Mediterranean for joint operations."

Chu Yun put forward the idea of ​​the Mediterranean Fleet.

At present, the Kyushu Army has four regular fleets, the Zhili Fleet guarding Gyeonggi, the Beiyang Fleet monitoring the two new provinces of Dongying and Korea, the Nanyang Fleet patrolling Southeast Asia, and the Fourth Fleet controlling the English Channel.

There are also two irregular fleets, the armed fleet of the East India Company, and the coastal and river defense fleet to combat smuggling and crime in the local coastal and river areas.

Compared with the four regular fleets, the fifth fleet is much smaller. At the beginning, there were only 3 galleons and 5 galleys. This scale is much more pitiful than the first four fleets when they were established. After all, China Merchants did not yet have much commercial interest in the Mediterranean.

Where the general economic interests are more important, the military power will be tilted towards the local area, and large-scale wars will even break out.In order to control the Suez Canal and the market along the Mediterranean Sea in the future, the number of ships and personnel in the Mediterranean Fleet will definitely be gradually increased.That's for later.

"Who's going to be the commander of the Fifth Fleet?" The admirals found that if there was to be a Fifth Fleet, there would be a lot of vacancies.

Despite the small size of the Fifth Fleet, its organization and status are no different from the other four regular fleets. Now it participates in the establishment of the Fifth Fleet, and it will be a veteran of the Fifth Fleet in the future.

"Temporarily, Ruan Youjin will serve as the commander of the Fifth Fleet to prepare for the establishment of the Fifth Fleet." Chu Yun made the final deployment before leaving London.

Ruan Youjin, who had joined the Navy Department for more than ten years, was overjoyed when Chu Yun appointed him as the commander of the upcoming Fifth Fleet. He immediately stood up and said, "I will definitely live up to expectations!"

Chu Yun nodded, Ruan family also has a bit of reputation in the Admiralty.Originally, the Zheng brothers were more influential in the Admiralty, but Zheng Zhilong, the eldest brother of the Zheng brothers, had already served as the commander of the Beiyang Fleet. A family could not have two commanders at the same time, otherwise it would bring disaster to the Admiralty.So Nguyen can only be promoted to balance.

The deployment of the Fifth Fleet in the Mediterranean also has another purpose - the Fourth Fleet is too far away from the mainland. In order to prevent the Fourth Fleet from becoming dominant and out of control, the Fifth Fleet in the Mediterranean has become a check and balance on the existence of the Fourth Fleet.

These layouts sometimes give Chu Yun a headache.Conquering external enemies is far less difficult than designing internal checks and balances.

With the current domestic leading position, the biggest enemy may not come from outside, but from inside.

"The Fourth Fleet will find a way to seize the island of Cuba in the West Indies and use it as our stronghold in the Caribbean Sea to monitor the Atlantic Ocean." Chu Yun proposed another plan.

The ten-year plan of the Admiralty established three important military ports in the west, Portsmouth in the English Channel, Malta Island in the Mediterranean Sea, and Cuba Island in the Caribbean Sea.The island of Cuba is still in the hands of Spain, the enemy.

"If we want to control the Caribbean Sea, are we going to set up the Sixth Fleet?" The officers of the Ministry of the Navy were surprised by the increasing number of fleets.

"Maybe, maybe there will be the Sixth Fleet and the Seventh Fleet in the future. In the future, the popularization of steamships in various areas will divide jurisdictions according to oceans, and each ship will rotate in different jurisdictions according to the order of the Ministry of the Navy." Chu Yun Said.

(End of this chapter)