Since they had to go south around Cape Horn and at the same time conduct a dragnet on the Spanish ships heading north, it was already mid-February when the Jiexuan fleet arrived at the port of Buenos Aires.
This is nearly half a month slower than expected. The remaining matters cannot be delayed any longer and must be resolved quickly.
That's right!
The Ming Expedition Fleet is here again!
If you want beef, you also want horse!
No way!
Everything is dead!
Local businessmen thought that the previous sweep by the imperial fleet had made the Viceroyalty of Peru safe.
Unprepared for this, more than 20 ships were sunk or severely damaged in the port and the mouth of the Rio de la Plata.
The remaining sixty or so ships are completely honest. After all, they can still run away on the shore. If they are sunk in the sea, they can only feed the fish.
Including the ships captured after leaving Lima, the total number was eighty-two, which had already met Zheng Guangying's psychological expectations.
What else is there to do in the Port of Enos Aires?
It’s nothing more than eating beef and playing with women!
The local chamber of commerce has promised to spend 200,000 silver coins and 2,000 cattle, plus some women, in exchange for the "Qiu Wuji" of the Ming Dynasty Expeditionary Army!
A cow basically contains about 200 kilograms of pure meat. According to the standard of ten kilograms of beef per person, it can feed twenty people.
One thousand cattle is the consumption of 20,000 people, and the rest can be put in the refrigerator and taken back to the friends fighting on the west coast.
Although the money is less, it saves precious time. Now the fleet must race against time.
"Shall we return immediately?"
"No! Since we are already here, we might as well go further north!"
"Huh? If you go further north..."
"Brazil!"
“It doesn’t seem like Spanish territory!”
"It belongs to Portugal, but His Majesty said that in recent years, the country does not seem to be willing to get close to the Ming Dynasty. In this case..."
"Brother Jie has His Majesty's order, everything is easy to talk about!"
Zheng Guangying just followed him to drink the soup, and Jie Xuan made all the decisions in the war.
I have an extraordinary relationship with His Majesty, and since I will be abroad, I can fight wherever I want, as long as I don't suffer a loss.
The Portuguese had been playing tricks on both sides before, hoping not to offend both sides, which made Emperor Hao Jing very dissatisfied.
I sent someone over to remind me, but the other party actually kept pretending to be deaf and mute, so I told him the wrong thing, so don't blame yourself for being rude!
Jiexuan has only one goal, which is Rio de Janeiro, which is less than a thousand miles away!
It’s the largest port in Brazil, so it’s just a fat sheep!
If we can get it there, we can just make up for the "loss" here in the Port of Buenos Aires.
Jiexuan thought that he could at least get more than 500,000 silver coins here, but the gap was still quite big at the moment.
Then we have to take action on the Portuguese, and simply take out one of this iron rooster's overseas chicken coops!
The entire army ate beef locally for three days. After loading the inventory into the refrigerator, the entire army immediately set off and the fleet set sail immediately.
The entire port, as well as the people in the nearby Trinity City, all breathed a sigh of relief, finally sending away the plague army.
According to Jie Xuan's calculations, this round trip will only take up to twenty days. If you are quick, it can be done in about two weeks.
In this way, we can circumnavigate Cape Horn before April and reach the southern mining area of the Viceroyalty of Peru as soon as possible.
With luck, Kamchatka can be reached before September, and the entire army can return to the Dengzhou base before New Year's Day.
The Portuguese had always believed that their relationship with the Ming Empire was pretty good, and their relationship with the Spanish Empire was pretty good too.
But these good days have come to an end. When the Ming Dynasty Expedition Fleet appeared off the coast of Rio de Janeiro, the merchants and ship owners in the port were all dumbfounded.
Just like the Portuguese were begging for nothing to find a place to stay, the Ming fleet did not need to find a high-sounding excuse to start a war.
I'm going to hit you, why not? ? ?
Jiexuan and Zheng Guangying relied on the large number of armored ships in their hands to run rampant on the sea.
The ironclad ships of Beiting's two fleets are red below the waterline. In order to reduce the adsorption of shellfish, the hulls above the waterline are gray, and the superstructures are all painted orange, so they are also called "Big Orange".
Zheng Zhilong originally wanted to follow suit, but he couldn't paint the colors he agreed with, so he automatically ignored white (unlucky), black (same as wooden boats), blue (easily faded to cyan, cyan is the same as voiceless), red (too dazzling), and yellow (imperial) color).
So I could only choose from purple, pink, and green, and finally chose pink. Although it looked girly, it just matched the colors of the big orange fleet...
Think orange and pink are innocent, childish, and simple?
That would be a big mistake!
In nature, these two colors are warning colors!
Most of the insects or snakes with this color are highly poisonous!
The same is true for the Ming Ironclad Armored Ship. It seems harmless to humans and animals, but when it gets close to its prey, it will launch a fatal blow!
Within two hours, every Portuguese, British or Spanish merchant ship off the coast of Rio de Janeiro was devoured.
The only survivors were two Dutch merchant ships and one French merchant ship. These three ships did not dare to stay in the waters of the war zone and fled immediately.
Fortunately, the weather was very good when the war started and the visibility was good. Otherwise, if we found out it was an ally ship after it was sunk, we would have had to take off our hats and apologize...
Because the ironclad ship kept emitting black smoke when sailing, the Spaniards, who hated it, nicknamed it the "witchcraft ship".
Any sailor or captain who sees black smoke at sea will instantly become nervous. Captains of countries equipped with ironclad ships are fine, but otherwise it means that death is about to come.
The appearance of more than thirty ironclad ships off the coast of Rio de Janeiro has dumbfounded the merchants and defenders on the shore.
Jiexuan ordered some of the previously captured captains to be released and asked them to give a message to the defenders, saying that as long as they gave out 500,000 silver coins, the Ming expedition fleet could retreat immediately, otherwise they would have to wait to be bombarded.
There are only two hours, and if you don’t reply within the expiration date, it will be regarded as rejecting your kindness!
Emperor Haojing was very surprised that Portugal had been paying protection fees to Spain before. If he didn't pay the money to the Ming Dynasty, he was ignoring the strength of the Ming Dynasty!
In this case, Jiexuan must be shown off on the Brazilian coast to let the other side see that he is the maritime overlord in the world today!
It doesn’t matter whether you believe it or not, what matters is whether you accept it or not!
If you don't accept it, you'll be bombarded. If you accept it, you'll pay. It's that simple!
Sure enough, the Portuguese, who had never suffered such a loss, did not send anyone over even after the ultimatum.
When the time came, Jiexuan ordered the fleet to open fire, on time and on time, with ten thousand guns firing!
The Marines, who had been sharpening their skills for a long time, began to land on the beach on a large scale. They had not encountered a stubborn enemy for a long time.
Like the group of guys at the Port of Buenos Aires who are very knowledgeable about current affairs, everyone is a little embarrassed to take action.
The city of Rio de Janeiro is very strong. The Portuguese originally built it according to the standards of a fortress.
This is also the largest and strongest stronghold in Brazil, but I did not expect to encounter such a situation.
Although Jiexuan's fleet was loaded with a lot of silver coins and beef, it did not delay the bombardment!
After consuming some cannonballs and gunpowder barrels, you can also hold some more loot. Wouldn't it be the best of both worlds?
Since the previous attack on the Port of Buenos Aires went very smoothly, not much ammunition was consumed.
In addition, Rio de Janeiro is the last battle of the expeditionary force, so it can be opened up.
Viewed from the countryside or the seaside, the city of Rio in the distance is simply a village surviving in a hail of bullets.
It doesn't matter if the range is out of reach. The advantage of the bronze cannon is that it has strong firepower and is light in weight. It can be carried on a ship or be transported to the beach.
Some tanks can also use copper cannons to replace the Folang machine, which increases its power by several levels, but the rate of fire is slower.
But as long as all the troops are not replaced with this kind of heavy artillery, it is enough to leave some rapid-fire Franchise machines to block the opponent's cavalry.
Regarding the information about the city, Jiexuan had already captured it last time.
The reason is simple. The Spanish, whose national power is declining, want to make up for it from the Portuguese.
Devouring Brazil is the most convenient way, which is equivalent to eating a free meal.
The problem is that an attack on Brazil can only be launched from the sea. Brazil is surrounded by rainforest and swamps to the north and west.
In the south, there is only a narrow strip bordering the Spanish Viceroyalty of Peru, which is an area that is easy to defend but difficult to attack.
Spain's capital to launch a naval war was not enough, because it had to send ships to support the newly formed alliance with Britain, and to regain the temporarily lost sea control on the west coast of America.
This delayed the attack on Brazil, but I believe that as long as Britain solves its own troubles, it will not be a problem for the powerful Spanish Empire to eat Brazil.
Now Jiexuan inadvertently helped the Portuguese eliminate this huge threat, and King Philip's fleet deployed in South America had been packed to pieces.
Not to mention using it to attack Brazil, even keeping the Viceroyalty of Peru is a problem.
The ships docked at the port could not sail to land, nor could they break out from the sea. In the end, more than thirty ships all became spoils of war.
Zheng Guangying rubbed his hands happily about this, because not only did he get a new batch of ships, but judging from the draft of the ships, there should be a lot of cargo inside.
No matter what it is, even if it contains a bunch of fruit, you can give it to your subordinates as a toothpaste. Anyway, you get it for free.
"Commander, look, those barbarians really sent out cavalry!"
"Yeah! Very good!"
"ah?"
"In this case, wouldn't there be horse meat to eat?"
"You are wise!"
Facing the steam tanks of the Ming Dynasty Expeditionary Force, the Portuguese infantry was completely unable to defeat them, and the artillerymen were blown away by anti-ship missiles until they cried for their parents.
In desperation, the defenders could only send nearly three hundred cavalry to fight, aiming to launch a high-speed assault and overwhelm the invading enemy in one fell swoop.
It seemed very spectacular, but less than ten minutes later, it turned into a tragic scene of people falling on their backs.
Not a single horse ran away, they were all knocked to the ground by artillery fire. Naturally, the fate of the cavalry was not much better.
Jiexuan believed that although the taste of horse meat was not as good as beef, it could at least give his men a change of taste.
After this battle, the defenders no longer dared to fight easily. They could only hold on to the city and survive.
Jiexuan ordered his troops to cut off the city's connection with the outside world, then surrounded it, using artillery fire and missiles to slowly eat away at the city walls and the living forces inside.
Zheng Guangying proposed to continue using coconut bombs to demoralize the enemy. Considering that the local area is rich in coconuts, it can kill two birds with one stone, so Jie Xuan followed suit.
If the defenders are stubborn, any method that can capture the city as quickly as possible can be considered.
After four hours of continuous bombardment, Jiexuan saw that there was no hope of breaking the city today, so he asked the entire army to stop the bombardment.
But suddenly I remembered that the emperor had given him a lot of new artillery shells, which were specially used to destroy fortress-type city walls, and they came in handy this time.
This kind of cannonball is not an ordinary round shape, but is similar to a spindle shape. The front end is a needle as long as an adult's hand, which is similar to an armor-piercing arrow.
The tail and middle part are also inlaid with elastic wings, which look relatively regular and exquisite. Those who don't know better may think it is a new type of toy, but this kind of toy is very deadly.
The warhead is made of tungsten to prevent it from deforming under high temperatures and affecting penetration. It can cause damage to the wall with its speed and penetrate directly.
Tungsten was purchased from Nanting. For this reason, Nanting also specialized in operating tungsten mines in Jiangxi. Nanting, the mine owners, and the coolies all made a lot of money from it.
The principle of city-breaking with winged tungsten-head armor-piercing bullets is very simple, that is, to drive the warhead into the wall.
One might not pose much of a threat, but hundreds or even thousands of them would go in.
The entire wall will become loose, and if you blast it with ordinary artillery shells a few times, the wall will collapse.
Emperor Haojing has always combined theory with practice. Before large-scale production, he asked the Academy of Sciences to send people to specially build a wall similar to a Western-style fortress, and then conduct live ammunition firing.
The complete set of texts, photos and even images obtained from this have been compiled into documents. Based on this, Emperor Haojing finally finalized the mass production plan after witnessing the whole process with his own eyes.
The wall structure of a Western-style bastion is actually similar to that of an Eastern one, with wall bricks on the outside and rammed earth on the inside.
Tungsten-tipped cannonballs are used to break walls. As for the rammed earth that can absorb the kinetic energy of the cannonballs, it is better to use high-pressure water guns directly!
When the Egyptian army used this trick, it destroyed the temporary fortifications built by the Israeli army in the Sinai Peninsula.
Where does the high pressure come from?
Are the Marine Corps equipped with so many steam tanks just for transportation? ? ?
The remaining problem is water, but Rio de Janeiro Marina!
The flaw is that the steam engine burns sea water, and the distilled sea salt corrodes the inner wall of the boiler.
It doesn't matter, Jiexuan has already thought about it. He will sell these tanks to Zhang Xianzhong at a discount when he returns...
The artillery took three days to "skin" the city's walls, and then the Marines rushed up with steam tanks and gave them a beating.
During this period, a large number of coconut bombs and missiles were continuously fired into the city, and the defenders almost suffered an unprecedented saturation attack.
On the sixth day, the rammed earth of the southern wall of Rio City finally could no longer bear it, and a large-scale collapse occurred.
The Marines swarmed in through this gap and engaged in street fighting with the defenders who had not given up resistance.
It's not too intense. After throwing grenades wildly here, the other side basically stopped!
Throwing grenades before hand-to-hand combat is a repertoire of the Ming Dynasty king's division, and it is also one of the main projects of each department.
Soldiers who throw grenades far away can eat meat first. This is like a humanoid mortar in a war!
Faced with this almost hooligan-like tactic, the defenders' will finally collapsed.
It took less than an hour for the Marines to occupy the entire city.
Jiexuan was busy making up for his capital, because although Emperor Haojing did not tell him the cost of the tungsten-headed cannonball, judging from its appearance and purpose, this thing was definitely not a bargain.
The 5,000 tungsten-headed artillery shells we brought were fired in one go. It would definitely not be possible to return home without some "return money".
According to the rules of the Master of the Ming Dynasty, if the money is not enough, use people to raise it!
