"This time I went ashore to play, it was generally quite smooth, but I was not as easy to catch people as before." Major Zhou Yafu, who had a big beard, unbuttoned the buttons on his military uniform and said while fanning the fan.

Sitting opposite Major Zhou Yafu is his brother, Zhou Yu, who is also the Navy Major, currently serves as the commander of the first fleet Cape Verde squadron. However, although there is a commander on his name, the Cape Verde squadron is actually pitifully small, with only two "Star"-class light cruisers and two old and retired "Madao"-class sail guard gunboats (it was retired, but later due to the insufficient number of ships, it was re-suspended and re-entered), so it was able to fight nearby pirates and maintain the safety of the lower channel, which was praised by the crossing east coast and other merchant ship intersections of other countries.

In addition, the Cape Verde squadron occasionally sent the land here and used warfare to go ashore to play with the local black uncles. In two or three years, they have robbed a lot of slaves, livestock and sand gold, and subsidized some household income. Especially those black slaves, at the moment when labor in the east coast is becoming increasingly scarce, these slaves captured by the land warfare camps have basically been given to the three major mining bureaus in Ping An, Tieling and Changshan in China at a low price, and supplemented the miners with extremely high mortality rates and greatly supported the economic construction of the Great East Coast.

This time, I don’t know how many times the land war battalion has landed, but Zhou Yu also knew that from today on, the Marine Battalion may move to Huaiyuan Island to cooperate with the First Fleet Caribbean Squadron (with two "Star"-class light cruisers and one "Solar"-class guard gunboat) to clear the pirate forces around the island. In addition, some remaining indigenous people in the central inland of the island are also very rebellious, and this army with only three compilation companies is also needed to clear them to ensure the stability of the lives of the immigrants.

"You have been asked to go ashore and sweep a few times. You have bad brains and inflexible legs and feet. You probably have been kidnapped by you. If you can catch people easily in the beach area now, I really have to doubt whether the IQ of those black people is already terrible." Zhou Yu, wearing a sky blue naval school uniform, glanced at his elder brother and said with a smile: "Okay, it's boring. You'll be transferred to the Caribbean again soon this time. You're really busy."

"What's the way? It's delicious in front of the imperial grain." Zhou Yafu said angrily: "But this is good, and I avoid the army people who may be coming later. Henghai Island, Jianchang Island, and Nankang Island are too small to accommodate too many people. I don't like them now, so I probably have to be bothered by them. As the saying goes, I might as well pack up my things and leave. Speaking of which, the Caribbean Sea is also a good place to make a fortune near the Western Land. The pearls, corals, gold and gems there are very famous, and I have to go and see them. The only thing I need to worry about is that there are no ships. By the way, how many ships should return from the Ottoman Empire next month? Maybe they can carry our camp in the Caribbean, anyway."

"The ships next month may not work." Zhou Yu shook his head and said, "Don't say whether their ships will lose their time (it is very common for them to sail at sea). Even if they do not lose their time, they will arrive at Henghai Port on time to get anchored, and they will probably not be able to carry your land war battalion personnel and supplies to the Caribbean. For no other reason, I guess there is no cabin."

"There is no cabin space? How much Turkish cargo have they imported?" Zhou Yafu didn't react for a moment and asked foolishly: "No! I have a blank recruitment order given by the Admiralty. As long as the ship has only cabin spaces, my children can get on the boat. Those people can't disagree!"

"You're thinking too much, brother." Zhou Yu laughed and said, "It's not a question of whether you want to or not, but I guess this ship is really full of loads and there are no spare cabins. Because the war between the Ottoman Empire and the Polish and Lithuanian Federation has probably been fighting for some time. The Crimeans should also transport the first batch of slaves to Kafa or Haji Port to deliver to our people. Think about it, how much space can ships full of cargo and non-nationals have? Can you change the route without authorization to send your people to Huaiyuan Island? You're thinking too much!"

In fact, although Zhou Yu predicted that the Borussia War had officially broken out, this was only limited to the extent that Turkey declared war on the Poles. As for the fight, there was no one yet. The Ottoman Great Vizifashir Ahmed Koprulu had just assembled the 200,000 troops he summoned, and the supplies were barely sent to the coastal areas of the Doroshenko controlled area in Western Ukraine. The Ottoman army with complex composition and thoughts included private soldiers led by the Serbian lord, the Hungarians who pleased the Ottoman Sultan, and the

Greece and Bulgarian soldiers recruited in the Rumili region, including the Grand Duke of Moldavia, tribal soldiers from the Arabian Peninsula, Egyptian Mamulik, Cossacks who defected to the Ottomans, and Crimean Tatar cavalry. The real Turkish soldiers were only a few, because even the famous Ghanisari Legion and Spasi Cavalry Legion were mostly foreigners with complex sources, but had not yet begun to march into Poland, so the Crimeans could not get a large number of Slavic "trophys" so quickly.

However, Zhou Yafu felt that his brother was right. After all, the Ottomans have declared war on Poland for several months, so they can't just say no to practice. This is not their style. So after thinking about it, he could only frown helplessly and said, "That's it! Then you can find a way to take me to the Gulf of Guinea. There has not been a sweep there yet, so it should be a bit of a problem. Just take four ships in your fleet, take turns to send them. I really don't want to meet those guys, and I will also go to Guinea to make a fortune."

"It's OK, but I can only draw out two old "Horse Island" class guard gunboats for you. I can transport a company and some equipment at about one time. The indigenous people there should not be very strong. The Portuguese, Dutch, and British have captured black slaves for many years, but they have never stopped. If you get ashore, you will first take steady steps on the coast and wait until the subsequent troops arrive before thinking about other things. It is probably not a big problem. If this happens, you can be someone else.

If you push it into the sea, then I have nothing to say." Zhou Yu nodded, agreeing with what Zhou Yafu said. He said again: "It's good that you leave, five or six hundred people, people eat horses and chew it. The burden of several islands supporting you is not small. If there are two or three thousand people in the future, the food, fruits and vegetables on the island will be a little tight, and there is no shortage of salt. There are so many things to do, and there are many on the Salt Island (Sar Island)."

...

On September 1, 1672, the Cape Verde squadron's "Golden River Tiger" gunboat returned to the Cape Verde Islands from the coast of West Africa. When he was just passing through the sea outside the Port of Playa, two large ships with the flags of the east coast were slowly sailing from the south. After hearing the news, the captain Zhou Yu immediately ran to Cambridge and watched with a telescope. He found that it was a troop transport ship and a "grocery merchant"-class water supply ship. He guessed that some troops might have come from the local area.

Major Zhou Yu's guess was quickly confirmed, and the two ships quickly discovered their cruise ship, so after spending a few hours, they finally got closer and sent a small boat to contact him. Major Zhou Yu learned at this time that it was a fleet transporting the infantry battalion of the Zhongguo Army, including more than 500 officers and soldiers, their equipment, ammunition, military supplies, and the water supply ship behind was full of food, drinking water, alcohol and medicine.

The two ships had a total transportation tonnage of more than 2,000 tons, but they could only transport the materials and equipment of more than 500 soldiers and themselves. This shows how difficult it was to fight across the ocean in this era. Otherwise, every time a two or three thousand people were dispatched on the east coast, they would have been able to send out all the navy's water supply ships, ammunition supply ships, troop transport ships, coal transport ships, repair ships and medical ships. Nearly one ton of every two tons of fleet tonnage is to ensure the tonnage of ships, and no one else is of course this is not a bad thing. It is difficult for the East Coast army to go to Europe, and it is also difficult for the Europeans to expedition to the East Coast. The Atlantic Ocean is both an obstacle and a barrier to protect the East Coast people through the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China.

As for the idea that the country had planned to transport tens of thousands of people from 6-8 battalions of the Army to Europe to assist in the war, it was simply a joke! Because even if all the ships of the First Navy Fleet were collected, they could barely transport people. They had to continue to recruit 20-30 merchant ships from the South China Sea Transportation Company to form. How could this be possible? It was also an irresponsible approach, because this was equivalent to sending the essence and backbone of the East Coast Army to an unknown road. Not to mention how long their absolute disadvantages can survive the attack of more than 100,000 French invincible army. If only a few thousand people, the entire field battle would be wiped out in one battle. If the city defense battle could still fight, it would be said that the distant sea routes of tens of thousands of miles in the past few months. If something happened accidentally, the troops would fall into the sea to feed sharks. This is not sensational, but something that could indeed happen.

So, now you can understand why the Army Department has not been very active in sending 6-8 battalions of main forces to Europe. Speaking of which, the group of guys who were blinded by the greed and confused at the Executive Committee really thought this way. In the end, they were tricked by the Army and turned into a de facto expansion. Who made the capable and experienced older generation of executive committee members gradually wither? Now there are more and more people who are incapable of corpses? The only advantage of their only is that they live long enough and have a chance to get to the top, but they may destroy the country because of their stupidity. It is better to give way to the capable second generation as soon as possible.

Well, let's get back to the point and continue to talk about transporting the infantry battalion of the Zhongguo* Army.

At noon on September 2, 1672, under the guidance of the "Golden River Tiger", the two ships adjusted their sails and slowly sailed into Henghai Port and anchored in this harbor with relatively good conditions. More than 500 officers and soldiers of the Zhongguo* Infantry Battalion who had changed their yellow reserve uniforms also took the opportunity to get off the ship and rest. The soldiers who had been on the boat for two or three months were all sick and not angry at this time. It seemed that they had been destroyed along the way, and they heard that they had lost 70 or 80 people due to illness, which was also miserable.

Because Henghai Island is a key transit node, there is a small health center on the island that can accept more than 30 patients at the same time. In addition, various drugs are relatively sufficient, so it can slightly accommodate some officers and soldiers who have suffered from various diseases due to long-distance travel. After all, they were all landslides before.

The two islands next door, Jianchang and Nankang, also received orders soon. Some grain was produced on these two islands with relatively high rainfall, so under Zhou Yu's order, they immediately used small wooden boats to transport some supplies such as grain, oil, fruits and vegetables to supply the army's needs; some pickled chunks of fish were also sent to the salt island to supplement protein for the officers and soldiers of the Zhongguo Army. Of course, none of this was free.

In this way, hundreds of people from the first batch of Zhongguo* troops were placed in this way, and the two ships affiliated with the navy did not delay. After a little maintenance, they were loaded with salt produced in the Cape Verde Islands. The salt here is not small in the local market on the east coast because it is better than the salt produced in Yancheng County when pickling fish, and is ready to return to the local area and continue to load the remaining officers and soldiers.

By early October, another water supply ship and a troop transport ship arrived at Henghai Port and sent about 600 people from the infantry battalion of the Baoguo Army to the shore. In addition to a large amount of supplies, there were nearly ten war horses, which were probably the daily mounts of officers.

In mid-November, heavyweights finally arrived at the Eastern Cape Verde Islands: Army Major Yang Liang took all 1,450 people from the Third Mixed Battalion and a Black Eight Banner Heavy Infantry Battalion on the Navy fleet (at the same time, four civilian ships were requisitioned. For this reason, the military headquarters and the South China Sea Transportation Company had a dispute with the South China Sea Transportation Company for a long time) to arrive at Henghai Island, which made the island's east coast soldiers more than 3,300, and they felt a little overwhelmed. After all, the foundations here are still very weak.

So, another Black Eight Banner heavy infantry battalion that arrived in early December was arranged to the adjacent Jianchang Island. The Zhongguo Army and the remaining soldiers of the Baoguo Army were dealing with this to share the pressure on Henghai Island. At this time, some news from Europe gradually came here through the return East Coast merchant ships. The most important one was the news from France. It is said that Louis XIV said to the left and right at an open banquet: "If the United Provinces were "making trouble" with us like Spain before, I would send my subordinates to hold hoes and shovels and throw the Netherlands into the sea (meaning to dig up the seawall of the Netherlands).

In addition, news came from the Spanish court: The envoy of King Louis XIV of France went to Madrid and asked the Kingdom of Spain to open up the Spanish Netherlands for the French army to pass. In return, once they conquered the United Provinces, they would force the Dutch to agree to abandon the previous treaty and allow trade in the Schelde River in the South Netherlands to reopen. In that way, Amsterdam's economy will show a serious downward trend and Antwerp's economy will recover rapidly, which will greatly increase the income of the Spanish royal family.

News from England: King Charles II of England took out a huge sum of money a few months ago and didn't know where the money came from and handed it over to his younger brother Duke of York, asking him to help recruit sailors, renovate ships, buy cannons, and prepare for battle; news from Sweden came slowly, but it was shocking enough: the Swedish Kingdom has officially announced its withdrawal from the British, Dutch and Swedish alliance because they needed the help of the French to resist the military pressure of the Danish and German princes.

Almost all the news is unfavorable to the Netherlands! This made the East Coast people quickly realize the major changes in the situation. War may be imminent and will inevitably break out within half a year to a year!
Chapter completed!