San Francesco, Presidio Fortress.
This fortress on the highlands on the southern shore of the Golden Gate Strait in the back city of San Francisco is now the center of the rule of the Kingdom of New Spain in California. After de Velasco, the governor of California, settled the Shimadzu people in the northern part of the Satsuma Valley (north of the Central Valley), he began to fortify the long coastline of California.
California has a very long coastline, hundreds of miles (more than 2,500 kilometers) long, and it is impossible to defend it tightly. It's not enough to deploy all the troops of New Spain in California!
Therefore, De Velasco could only choose to focus on defense, and he focused on three areas. One is the Golden Gate Strait in San Francisco. He had the Presidio Fortress built here and set up cannons to block the entrance to the strait.
The second is the City of Angels area, which is the so-called Los Angeles area. Los Angeles is a transliteration, which means the City of Angels. It was the name given by the first Spaniards who arrived here in 1542.
However, there was no real "city" here until 1661. De Velasco ordered people to build the City of Angels fortress near a very beautiful beach, which became another large stronghold of the California colony.
The third is San Diego Harbor, which has always been Spain's stronghold in California. Before de Velasco became governor of California, San Diego was the only important Spanish stronghold in California.
After de Velasco took office, he decided to move Spain's defense line in California, pushing the outpost to the Satsuma Valley, and then using San Francisco, City of Angels, and San Diego as the main support. point.
At the same time, he moved the headquarters of the Governor of California from San Diego to the Presidio Fort in San Francisco.
However, no matter how hard he tried, he could not pose a substantial threat to Ming's colonial activities in the Gulf of America. There are even some counter-effects... The Chinese Empire, which originally seemed not to care much about the Gulf of America, has significantly accelerated the construction of colonies in the past few years!
Not only did it raise huge amounts of money by issuing shares domestically! And they continue to send immigrants and troops to the Gulf of America.
In comparison, the power that the Kingdom of New Spain can invest in California is very limited... Even if the bankers in Amsterdam loaned a large sum of money to the Kingdom of New Spain for the sake of God, it would still change Nothing.
Because even if the Dutch found their conscience and could lend money to New Spain, they could not help Spain generate enough population to fill the empty California!
The Spanish mainland only has a population of 5.6 million, while the Ming Dynasty mainland plus its vassal states have a population of about 200 million! How do the Spaniards compare with them?
But it was precisely the huge advantage that the Chinese Empire had in seizing territory in the Americas that neither de Velasco nor Don Juan Jose dared to take it lightly—if they didn’t take advantage of the fact that the population of New Spain was several times larger than that of the Americas. (Not counting the Indians). When the population of the Americas has the upper hand in the future, New Spain will not be able to keep California. It will be a question of whether the Mexican home base will be taken away by the Chinese... ...
And a Dutch merchant ship that visited San Francisco today brought another piece of bad news that made the Governor of California, De Velasco, and the Commander of the California Squadron, Bassabo, a little frightened.
The United King of the Celestial Empire has arrived in America!
"Are you sure you are the King of the United States?" Bassab asked.
"I'm not completely sure," the Dutch captain said, "but he must be a prince from the Ming Dynasty...because I saw the Yellow Dragon Flag, which was the flag used exclusively by the emperors of the Ming Dynasty! In addition, the American Government is The prince's arrival was greeted with a grand welcome ceremony."
De Belasco nodded: "That's right!" He nodded to the Dutch captain, "Thank you for the news!"
The Dutch captain smiled and said: "Your Excellency, this is what I should do...I am also a believer in God!"
De Velasco said approvingly: "God will bless you!"
Captain Holland said: "I think so too...and I also brought dozens of persecuted Catholics from Japan, and they all want to join Mr. Shimazu."
Of course, the Dutch businessman would not tell De Velasco that his merchant ship also transported more than 100 "stock refugees" from the Ming Dynasty to settle in America...
"Okay, thank you very much!" De Belasco smiled, "Arrange for them to disembark, you will get the reward!"
The Dutchman bowed to de Velasco and left with one of de Velasco's lieutenants.
"Captain..." Basabo saw the Dutchman leaving and whispered to De Velasco, "Don't you think the Japanese population in California is growing a bit fast?"
Shimazu Mitsuhisa and others arrived in the New World two years ago, in 1660. At that time, a total of more than 7,000 people arrived. Now, the number of Japanese in the Satsuma Valley has exceeded 12,000!
The reason why it has grown so much, in addition to natural reproduction, is that Japanese people continue to "smuggle" from Nagasaki to seek refuge with Shimazu Mitsuhisa.
Although these people all claimed to believe in God and therefore came to seek refuge with Shimazu, De Velasco did not remember that Mitsuhisa Shimazu was a Catholic!
"We still need Shimadzu!" said de Velasco, "and we also need those guys who smuggled themselves over from Japan...without them we can't defeat the Chinese in the Gulf of America!"
Major General, do you still remember the false surrender plan that Mitsuhisa Shimazu mentioned to us a month ago? "
Bassab asked: "Did you just use fake surrender to lure the Ming army to the Satsuma Valley?"
"That's right! This is the way!" De Velasco said, "Obviously, we do not have the power to expedition to the Gulf of America by land, at least not yet.
Going north by water is also very risky. Not only will you face the powerful Ming Dynasty navy, but the navy's transportation capacity is also limited. It is very good to be able to transport 10,000 expeditionary troops at a time. This number of people is simply not enough to win. So the best way is to lure the Chinese over. "
"Are they going to be fooled?"
"Of course!" De Velasco smiled, "Because the Japanese worked really hard... Within two years, they built a castle in the northern part of the Satsuma Valley, opened up a large area of farmland, and also... A lot of food was hoarded.
If the Ming army gets the support of Shimazu Mitsuhisa, they can use Satsuma Castle as a stronghold to seize the entire valley, and even seize the Presidio Fortress of San Francesco! "
Shimazu Mitsuhisa and his men have really shown the Japanese workaholic spirit in the past two years, working hard and opening up 100,000 acres of farmland in the Satsuma Valley, of which 50,000 acres can be planted with rice. of paddy fields.
Although floods occur frequently in the northern part of the Satsuma Valley, the Japanese have avoided losses to the greatest extent by carefully selecting areas for reclamation and building water conservancy facilities. Therefore, these 100,000 acres of farmland can bring a harvest of more than 200,000 dan every year.
With this food, the Ming army could station tens of thousands of elite soldiers in the Satsuma Valley!
These tens of thousands of elite soldiers do not need to fight the Spanish. As long as they can hold on to the danger and consume military rations with the original Spanish, it will be enough to force the Spanish away from central and northern California.
It was precisely because he realized the importance of the area around Satsuma Castle that Shimazu Mitsuhisa came up with the strategy of using a false surrender to lead the Ming army into the Satsuma Valley, and then gather together to annihilate them.
"Commander, do you really believe Shimazu Mitsuhisa?" Bassabo asked, "In my opinion, he is no different from those Chinese."
"I don't believe him!" De Velasco's face has darkened, "So I will ask them to hand over the hostages and all the women and children! If they dare to betray, then they will lose their loved ones! "
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