Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1729 Interception

August 1676, 8, night.

Xiangshui Port in midsummer is extremely hot, even at night.Hawkes Clifford, who had just been awakened by the sweltering heat, sighed helplessly, and climbed out of bed, intending to cool off in the yard.

He has lived here for a week, and now he can't wait to escape the sweltering heat, sail back to England, and share the good life brought by wealth with his loved ones.Of course, he still needs a little patience at the moment, not only because the last batch of goods has not been neatly arranged, but also because the damn north wind will take nearly two months to cover the entire sea area, and then he can go home .

The pier of Xiangshui Port has been built by the Qing government for many years. Even from a European perspective, it is spacious and convenient enough, although the degree of modernization seems a bit insufficient.Due to the fact that it is still early, only 12 merchant ships from Europe are moored in the port, except for the "Denmark Queen", "Duke of Shatri" and "Duke of Montella" which are from Denmark and France respectively. The nine merchant ships were all from the Dutch East India Company and the British East India Company, and even the British had one more ship than the Dutch, including the "Squid", "Roman Warrior", "Xiamen Merchant", and "Caesar" Five merchant ships including the No. 9 and the "Flying Eagle".

The ships were lined up in the calm waters of Guanhe, guarded by forts and barracks of the Qing army to ensure that they would not be attacked by surprise.Speaking of which, the more than 60 long-barreled heavy cannons used in this fort of the Qing people were purchased from England, because the cannon foundry in Goa was still unable to produce such powerful heavy cannons, which could not meet the needs of the Qing people.

It is a pity that because of the huge profits, these more than 60 artillery pieces were directly sold by the East India Company, and they were not handed over to their agents. Otherwise, maybe Clifford would have made a fortune long ago and would not have to risk his life to sail to China for the second time. .He could have bought a farm and estate in East Anglia and spent the rest of his life in peace.

Xiangshui Town is the seat of military and political institutions such as the Qing Customs Yamen, Yandao Yamen, River Affairs Yamen, Water Transport Yamen, and Xiangshuiying. relatives.Among these institutions, Xiangshuiying, with a staff of more than 4 people, is a well-equipped modern army, which is the so-called "new army" by the Qing court.This army has more than 30 rifles and more than [-] large and small portable artillery. It also trains hard on weekdays, and its combat effectiveness cannot be underestimated. It is the most effective "field force" near Xiangshui Town.

In addition, between Guanhekou City and Xiangshui Town, there is also a Manchurian and Mongolian Eight Banners cavalry with a scale of nearly [-] stationed. The fighting power is much stronger than the ordinary Eight Banners, otherwise it will not be arranged. place.The above two troops are field teams, specialized in dealing with the enemy troops that landed at the first time, using their skilled combat skills and powerful impact to drive the enemy into the sea—of course, there are some city defense troops outside the field troops, But their combat effectiveness is much worse, similar to the general green battalion, with a population of about ten thousand people, distributed in many fortresses in the wild.

An army of this size is enough to ensure the safety of this port.Even if the East Coasters, the biggest enemy of the Qing Dynasty on the sea, sent troops to attack, they would probably be pushed into the sea by the Qing people in the chaotic stage of the initial landing. Hawkes Clifford did not doubt this conclusion at all, because he had personally watched the army named The daily training of the Qing army in the "Xiangshui Battalion" is not bad. Although it has not reached the level of the European army, the imitation is quite good. At least it is much better than the untrained militia in the Irish countryside, isn't it?

Therefore, many foreign businessmen, including Hawkes Clifford, are optimistic that with such a decent army force, it is impossible for Xiangshui Town to be breached, especially since it still has more than 60 The heavy coastal defense naval guns of the door are also a huge and almost insurmountable obstacle to the enemy from the sea, so their ships moored in Guanhe should be relatively safe.

The street along the river where Clifford stood was densely packed with warehouses and shops.The officials of the Qing Dynasty who manage here have sent many patrol personnel to roam around, whether it is day or night, to ensure the safety of the warehouse.Clifford had learned that they struck the gong every half-hour--as Clifford and his ship's bells--once at half-past twelve, twice at one, and so on, Knock eight times until 12 o'clock, indicating that eight 1 minutes have passed. At 4:30, they started a new round of beating cycle. In this way, each of 4 o'clock, 4 o'clock, and 8 o'clock had to be struck eight times.

Just after the sound of the twelve gongs stopped, Clifford looked at the sky, the moon was mostly covered by dark clouds, the weather was not good, and the visibility was not high.He reckoned that it was about four o'clock in the morning outside, and the surroundings were completely silent, except for some scattered fishing fires on the river, maybe poor fishermen who got up early to fish at that time.

Clifford sighed softly. He still had great sympathy for the living conditions of these people. Although they were pagans, Clifford would occasionally donate some food or other things to them, which often earned the respect and respect of these people. Grateful eyes, which made him very useful-in fact, as long as it wasn't the Moors, he was still happy to help them, after all, he made a lot of money through trade here.

Thinking of earning money, Clifford's spirit suddenly recovered. He walked to the warehouse behind the yard by the dim moonlight, and then opened the warehouse door with a key under the surprised eyes of two sailors with swords, and left. go in.The warehouse was full of various goods, and Clifford walked through the containers one by one, including raw silk, satin, musk, tea, porcelain, alum, rhubarb and many other interesting small commodities and works of art, worth more than [-] pounds.

Clifford looked at these commodities with a kind of fascinated eyes. If they were shipped back to London, after deducting customs duties and other miscellaneous taxes, and then deducting sales expenses, it would be easy to double the profit, which would be a profit of [-] pounds. .According to the investment ratio and some of his privileges as the captain, a personal dividend of [-] pounds is indispensable after returning, which is enough to put him firmly in the circle of London's upper class, although currently he is only a little close to this side.

There are still some goods he brought to China from other places in the warehouse, mainly spices, woolen products, opium, ivory, tin, agarwood, camphor, agate, bright feathers, etc., which are left over from previous trades Goods vary in quantity and quality.Clifford once planned to reduce the price of these goods in order to return the funds and purchase some silk fabrics and ship them back to London, but his Chinese employees confidently told him that as long as he was given another month, he could sell these goods slowly at the original price. If he sold it slowly, he was given a 10% rebate in the early stage, and Clifford agreed without hesitation.

He estimates that these goods can return about 3000 pounds in cash. He can use the money to purchase the famous brocades, silks, and embroidery (embroideries customized according to European customers' requirements) in the Qing Dynasty, and then pay for the shops and warehouses. rent, purchase a large amount of supplies such as grains, fruits and vegetables, and livestock for the "Squid", and finally hire a little man to maintain the ship, and then they can take advantage of the northeast wind and head south to return to England.

Hawkes Clifford's thoughts are also the thoughts of most European businessmen in Xiangshui Port at the moment, and everything seems to be going well so far.Of course, reality will soon teach them how to be human. In the early morning of August 1676, 8, when the Qing Army Fort near Guanhekou suddenly let out its first roar, everything changed!

Clifford heard the cannon from his own storeroom.At first it was just a few muffled noises, and he thought it was thunder, because tonight the sky was covered with dark clouds, and it was summer, so thunderstorms were normal.It's just that when the "thunder" became more and more intensive, and the sound of horseshoes and shouts gradually sounded in the field, he realized that something might have happened, so he immediately went back to the room, put on his clothes, and brought his sword , a pistol, and under the escort of a few capable sailors, they rushed towards the "Squid" moored on the Guanhe River—at a time when the situation was unclear, Clifford subconsciously felt that only his ship was the right one. The safest place.

"What's going on, Martin?" Clifford looked at Martin, the first mate who had just climbed off the mast, after paddling the small punting boat up to the deck of the "Squid", and asked anxiously: "I really want to hear Cannon!"

"I don't think so, that's really the sound of artillery firing." Martin, a Dane, pointed to the direction of the east fort, and said, "I saw the fire from the coastal defense artillery on the top of the mast. This is definitely not training. It should be an enemy. And the scale of this enemy is not small, I think about it, they can only be—”

"People from the East Coast!" Clifford spat out these two words heavily, and then said in a somewhat panicked tone: "What do the people from the East Coast want to do? Occupy the important trade town of Xiangshui Port? It's unlikely, right? They There is no fleet of this size in the Far East, and it is even more impossible to surpass the coastal anti-corruption artillery system that the Qing people spent a lot of money on. You must know that many technical officers of those forts are still from England and Germany!"

"I think the situation may not be that bad, Captain." Martin took off the boat cap on his head, then wiped his sweat in a disfigured manner, grinned at Clifford, and said, "If you are from the east coast, Don't worry, they don't have the strength to break through the blockade of the coastal defense fort and enter the upper reaches of the Guanhe River. Even if they pay a heavy loss and forcefully break through the customs, so what? On the Guanhe River, where the river is not wide enough and there is little room for maneuver, they face The trouble will be even greater, and sooner or later it will become a living target for the Qing people, either surrender or be destroyed, there is no third way to go."

"So, we are safe now?" Hawkes Clifford also felt a little relieved, because he found that his deputy was right, the people on the east bank could not rush into the Guanhe regardless of everything, that would be terrible This is really a great gift to the people of the Qing Dynasty. Whether it is setting fire to a small boat or sending water ghosts to dig a boat, they can kill the people on the east coast without a place to bury them. They should not be so stupid.

"Of course we are safe, Mr. Captain, provided that the Qing army does not suffer a disgraceful defeat." Martin nodded without hesitation and confirmed: "There are no problems at sea, and I don't think there are any big problems on land. The Qing people have three Thousands of elite cavalry can rush over the people on the east coast the moment they land, and kill all attempts to land on the beach."

"That's fine!" Clifford said with a long sigh of relief: "Now there are my goods worth more than [-] pounds in the warehouse on the shore. If I bring them back to London and sell them, I can make a net profit of [-] pounds. I don't want any accidents at this point, I might go crazy. Well now, let's see what happens next. Interesting, the east coast people should have found and investigated this port for a long time Now, launching an attack brazenly at this time must be premeditated. Okay, children, relax and go back to your respective posts. You can take a break, but you can't drink alcohol or leave your post without permission. We'd better wait until dawn , when everything is clear.”

The sky finally became brighter after more than an hour.At this time, more news came from the lower reaches of the Guanhe Estuary. Clifford asked his Chinese employees to inquire desperately, and finally got some vague information, but it was enough to understand what happened: , in the early hours of yesterday, the people on the east bank gathered "more than a dozen" warships, gathered in the sea off the Guanhe Estuary, and tried to take advantage of the cover of the night and the favorable opportunity of the high tide at night to break into the rear of the fort in one fell swoop, and then attacked from both sides. The coastal defense fort of the Qing people.

However, the belts of the forts of the Qing Dynasty seemed more vigilant, and the officers were more professional. They fired directly at the general direction of the warships on the east coast, and did not spare the ammunition. It was directly overwhelming artillery fire. This was to remind other artillery positions. It also made the army in the nearby camp prepared.

And since the Qing army was prepared, the people on the east coast would naturally not rush in under the threat of intensive artillery fire - you must know that they are all long-barreled, large-caliber heavy artillery, and it would be "a big blow" if a wooden boat was hit by a shot. "It hurts" so much—so I adjusted the yard again, retreated out of the range of the enemy's artillery fire, and slowly started cruising.Judging from the meaning, it probably means that stealing the port is not possible, so they simply intercepted it openly in the open sea. Anyway, it is to block your trade and attack foreign merchant ships who dare to do business. "Class light cruiser, the efficiency of catching merchant ships should not be too high!

(End of this chapter)