The smoke of gunfire on the sea has not yet dissipated, and the sound of cannons still sounded like muffled thunder in the sky. The Daming armored warship drove full horsepower and sailed forward at a speed of seven knots (with the flow and the same as the captive ship). By the time they sailed to their destination, it was already past nine:30 pm. At this time, the fleets of the East and West countries, which had been fighting for a long time, had broken off from contact and ended the battle.

In this battle, twelve east coast warships fought against six Spanish warships. The two sides fought fiercely for several hours on the sea. In the end, four Spanish warships sank, one was captured and the other fled with injuries.

In fact, this is not a typical sea battle. In fact, during the entire battle, because of the concern of our transport ships and the serious lack of strength, the Spanish escort warships did not fight hard with the East Coast people, but just wandered and fought, mainly to delay time. The direct consequence was that the entire battle process was greatly extended. Although it was still impossible to stop the fate of the collapse of our escort warships, it at least provided an opportunity for the transport ship to escape, right? Although the cargo ships did not escape several of these more than ten troop transport ships in the end.

"The Spanish escort warships were not worth it. Not only were they sunk and captured during the pursuit, but they had not caused much casualties to our people. The most annoying thing is that most of their transport fleets were also destroyed. If they had known this, it would be better to just click and fight against our battle lines. Don't waste time, as it might kill a lot of our personnel. As a result, hehe, he died awkwardly, and it was not worth it!" After sending people to understand the battle, Lieutenant Colonel Huang Jiandong immediately smiled and was quite disdainful of the Spanish Navy. The windward fleet was like this. This time, it would be fine if they had lost almost half of the main force and no longer posed any threat. If they were hiding at home, they would not mind sending them all to the bottom of the sea, making the Spaniard completely unlucky tigers in the Caribbean.

"They were caught off guard and did not expect that we were so determined. In the battle, we discovered that the soldiers were very brave, but the officers were confused and had fired face to face. They were still thinking about everything and shrank their hands and feet." An officer came up and said with a fun voice: "I think it's because I've been poor and weak for a long time, and I've been used to the style of being tolerant of our country step by step. Therefore, I have more ideas and have bad morale. I'm not wronged to be beaten."

"Well. It's better for soldiers to be purer. The country's diplomacy is weak, but you are a soldier, and you can't be weak. Long-term avoidance of war and fear of war will destroy your morale. Professional and daring officers are the soul of naval combat power. Just relying on sailors to bravely defeat them! I want to see if the remaining warships of the Wind Fleet continue to stay in Havana Port, or stand up bravely and draw swords at us. It is probably the former." Huang Jiandong commented.

The middle and low-level officers around him burst into laughter and were quite disdainful of their Spanish colleagues.

"Send two warships to search the sea east to retrieve the two surrendered Spanish transport ships. Next, we go to the Bahamas to replenish the supply. The brothers have not been ashore for a long time and need to relax. By the way, leave two ships to continue on duty here. Consultant He, you will arrange it." Huang Jiandong ordered.

In this battle, five warships of the Spanish Windward Fleet were sunk, one was injured, and four transport ships were captured (a large amount of supplies and more than 600 Spanish soldiers), and many were sunk. After suffering such a huge loss at one time, even the New Spain Governor's District, which is rich in land and materials, it was a bit painful. Army soldiers and supplies were actually okay, and they could be raised twice, but the lost naval warships were difficult to recover in a short period of time, especially sailors and professional officers. After all, the navy is not like the army. A farmer can go to war after training for a few months.

In the field, the navy needs more professional knowledge, especially officers in various positions that can be called souls, and it is very difficult to train. According to the standards of East Coast people, a naval officer needs to learn courses such as mathematics, physics, chemistry, mechanics, ballistics, management, foreign languages, etc., need to be proficient in climate knowledge, understand the information of ocean currents in various seas, be familiar with the information of multiple ports, be able to operate all the weapons on the ship, know the operating principles of the equipment, and also participate in various ideological exchange activities all year round (the Navy spirit injection stick is watching you...).

Look, how difficult it is to train a naval officer. It has a long cycle, high cost and low success rate. It is not without reason that the navy looks down on the army for a long time. We are indeed superior to you! Although the Spanish navy is not as good as the East Coast, its officers also need to master a lot of knowledge. They generally rely on word of mouth or apprenticeship to impart knowledge, and it will only be more difficult to cultivate than the East Coast. Therefore, so many officers and veteran sailors have been lost in one battle. Even if you are transformed into a ship, you will not be able to form effective combat power. Therefore, the windward fleet is no longer a concern, and the Spanish may not have the courage to organize an expedition and escort operation again. The East Coast Navy does have a time window to rest.

On October 14, 1703, as the naval fleet headed by the "Daming" returned to the supply base of Grand Bahamas Island, the news also spread to St. Augustine. On the bustling Dengzhou Street, Gao Yi's residence was really crowded. Florida had been liberated, Gao Yi officially got rid of the identity of an underground intelligence officer and transformed into the deputy commander of the Advisory Group in St. Augustine. Because the leader had not yet taken office, he is currently in charge of the work.

Gao Yi has resigned from his position as principal of Palm Tree Elementary and devoted himself to his new job. After all, the freshman Republic of Florida also paid him a salary and received two salary per person. He had to make some suggestions for the development of other countries. By the way, the original East Coast Intelligence Station also became an embassy (well, it seems that there is no difference between the two?), and waited for the new ambassador to preside over the intelligence - no, the tongue is wrong, diplomacy - work. Gao Yi is still working on intelligence, and all kinds of information will be delivered to his desk as soon as possible, so he soon learned about the battle that took place in the Caribbean Sea.

"The backbone of the windward fleet was defeated in one battle, and so many ships were dried up. The fish and shrimp in the Caribbean should like their new home very much." Gao Yi signed a document and handed it over to his secretary Xiao Zhang, saying: "I will also notify the people of the Autonomous Committee of this news. They need good news to stabilize the people's hearts now. In addition, we should talk about cooperation quickly. I don't want any changes. I will make it clear to Nunez, and if anyone disagrees with him, I will report the list to me and I will find a way to deal with it."

The secretary nodded and went out to handle the so-called cooperation agreement immediately. He participated in the whole process and naturally knew the content. In short, it covers a wide range of agreements, from agriculture to commerce, and a package of agreements. Of course, there is also an agreement that Gao Yi attaches great importance to to accept Indians and Mestiso peoples who have been receiving the South American mainland for twenty years. For this reason, the families need to give up some land to settle the house for these new immigrants. Whether they want to or not, they must do it.

These native white nobles in Florida are really exaggerated, and they almost divided the entire land of Florida. Even though most of them are rare primeval forests or swamps, at least they have their own masters on the map, which is simply a mess. In the future, the East Coast people are expected to flood into Florida, and these people cannot all engage in industry and commerce. Therefore, the nobles urgently need to give up some of the land and provide new immigrants with means of production. This is a condition offered by the East Coast people, and the nobles must accept it if they do not accept it.

In fact, Secretary Xiao Zhang didn't know that most countries in South America had this virtue in later generations. Take Brazil as an example. Most of the land is in the hands of the descendants of aristocratic people who account for 0.1% of the population. So much so that the poor have nothing to do and have no land to plant. After being forced to go to the Amazon rainforest to burn wasteland and obtain land - of course, they can only burn the public. In fact, a considerable number of Amazon rainforests are private, which must not be burned - the East Coast people do this will actually be of great benefit to the long-term development of the Republic of Florida. At least, if infrastructure construction is carried out in the future, land acquisition will be easier, and small farmers and small households are easier to deal with than large landlords, right?

After the secretary left, Gao Yi put down his pen and thought about the possible changes in the situation in the future. Now the East Coast and Spain must have broken up. If the Spanish court in Madrid still has a sense of honor and shame, it will definitely declare war on the East Coast. Intercepting the official fleet at sea and taking a blatant move to annihilate it, this has already broken through the boundaries of small armed conflicts and is a naked act of war. If the Spaniards dare not even face this fact and still try to bury their heads in the sand, then this government is ridiculous.

Once the Spanish officially declared war, Gao Yi felt from his own perspective that what he should do was to prepare various materials in Florida, prepare as much as possible, and minimize the cost of the East Coast army's expedition. If possible, they could also send a team to the Caribbean islands to persuade Spanish military and political officials to soften their will to resist and reduce casualties in the East Coast army.
Chapter completed!