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February 15, 1651, in the sea near Cape Verde. The three battleships of the First Fleet of the East Coast Republic Navy, the "National Will", the "East Coast Doctrine", and the "Oriental Fortress", were hovering in some unknown corner, while the supply ship "Grocer No. 2", which was responsible for the supply of draft water for the entire fleet, quietly sailed into the port of Praia on Santiago Island.

Navy Captain Jiang Yaohui was standing helplessly on the dock smoking a cigarette.

Bare docks, towering volcanoes, scorching sun, and air that seems to contain a lot of sand and dust make up most of the scenes on this monotonous island. It doesn't rain much throughout the year, the coastal plain formed by volcanic lava is full of sand and dust, and only a few green trees are found far away near the peaks. At the foot of the mountain, there is a lot of dry grass that has withered and yellowed due to lack of water, and some cattle and sheep chew on this dry and waterless food, and life is as difficult as the colonists of this island.

There are a number of seasonal rivers on the island, and it is usually only during the short rainy season that the entire dry riverbed is filled instantly. At this time, the bottom of these riverbeds is a little wet, but you can hardly find the river, it seems that there has been a rainstorm a while ago, but before long the river water has been absorbed by the thirsty land and the hot air, and there is no trace of it anymore.

There are a few small lizards and insects at the bottom of the river, and they take advantage of the little moisture at the bottom of the riverbed – which will cause some grass to start growing for a short time – and come out to feed. But the tragedy is. They are often quickly preyed upon by some hungry birds. The environment here is really too harsh for them.

"Sir. The Portuguese have already taken all the linen and wine and farming implements we have sent us, but I don't think they used it themselves, and most of them will be resold to the colonies of the African continent. Especially on the mainland across the island of Mozambique, Zambezi housewives have always had a high thirst for these supplies. Ding Zhen, Jiang Yaohui's adjutant and the son of Ding Wei, one of the veterans of the navy, wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead and reported.

"Where do you care they sell? It's good to be able to collect it! These bubbling Portuguese merchants are really bold, and they dare to accept anything of unknown origin! Jiang Yaohui slapped Ding Zhen's military hat lightly, and scolded with a smile: "But who let us give a low price?" As the saying goes, wealth moves people's hearts. What's more, we are a 'wealth silk' worth tens of thousands of pesos, and the gods are also tempted! Okay, everything that should be purchased has been purchased, right? The brethren at sea are still waiting. ”

"It's already purchased!" Ding Zhen immediately nodded and said, "Pickled fish, dried meat, vegetables, live cattle, live sheep, and salt, all bought." Oh, and by the way, we also bought a lot of buckets of fresh fresh water, which is enough for us to use for a while. ”

Jiang Yaohui already has a deep understanding of how arid this island is. Most of the fresh fresh water that Ding Zhen was able to procure was collected by the island's Portuguese colonists from the few trickles that flowed between the mountains deep on the island. The price is quite high! But from another point of view, the island is so arid, rainfall is so scarce, and the sunshine is so strong, isn't it a great convenience for the artificial beach to dry salt? In fact, the Portuguese opened salt pans on many islands near the Cape Verde archipelago, and the salt produced was exported to Africa and South America – of course, after the eastern coast took control of the port of Yancheng, the salt that had been historically dumped in the entire Viceroyalty of Peru began to be gradually shut out.

This time, the draft water supply ship of the people on the east coast sailed into the Cape Verde Islands, mainly to buy supplies for the battle fleet that was cruising on the sea, and the Spaniards in the Canary Islands and the Portuguese in Cape Verde could deal with nearby. The Spaniards were obviously not a good choice, so they had to go to the Portuguese to buy supplies, including food, fresh water, and canvas rigging and other things.

In addition, by the way, it is their mission to throw away some of the less eye-catching and better materials they have taken on this trip. The Portuguese on the island were very hungry for metal farming tools, wine, linen and other goods, because they could resell them to other colonies in addition to their own use, a natural advantage that foreign merchants did not have.

Of course, the people of the East Coast were not stupid enough to sell the goods they had looted in the nearby waters on the island. In fact, not long after they arrived nearby, the battleship "10 August", which had first gone to the waters near Florida to plunder, had even returned to the mainland to recuperate, and the battleship "Kongzhì Dongfang" had already arrived to take over. Previously, they had been tossing and turning in many parts of the Caribbean Sea for more than half a year, and the results were quite fruitful, capturing a total of eight large and small ships, sinking more than 10 ships, seizing materials (most of them have been auctioned off at a low price), cash, totaling more than 1 million yuan, and capturing more than 300 sailors from various countries - all of which have now been transported to the local Changshan Iron Mine for internal control.

Most of the captured and sunken ships were French merchant ships, but there were also some unlucky Danish, British, and Dutch ships that were easily disposed of. At present, there are even new pirate legends in the Caribbean Sea and some parts of its coast, saying that a new wave of pirates is robbing ships of various countries passing by, which is very murderous - of course, a little reasonable people will not think so, they will only think that the navy of another country has pretended to be pirates to carry out privateering activities, which undoubtedly violates the unspoken rules that all countries abide by, so it must be severely cracked down, otherwise the trade and colonization of the Caribbean and even the New World will be greatly affected.

For this reason, the Spaniard's windward fleet even sent a number of warships to patrol the waters where there were frequent "accidents", but fortunately they did not meet the people on the east coast, otherwise they would have been beaten and sunk to the bottom of the sea. However, the people on the east coast also understood that their ships could not stay here for a long time, otherwise they would be exposed sooner or later - in fact, it was not far from being exposed, and it was impossible for the people on the east coast to erase all their heads and tails in the Caribbean Sea for most of the past six months, and if they investigated carefully, they would find some clues sooner or later - so they resolutely moved their entire army to the waters near the Cape Verde Islands to continue the cause of "privateering".

From the Cape Verde Islands, it is quite convenient to go north to the Canary Islands, south to the Gulf of Guinea, and west to northeast Brazil, so it is really a key point. To the north, near the Canary Islands, there were still quite a few merchant ships, and many of Gain's ships bound for the Caribbean passed through them (including the Spanish "Gayaanes" fleet, the treasure fleet that departed from the port of Cádiz); In the Gulf of Guinea to the south, there are trading posts or colonies of many countries, and it is a necessary place for ships returning to Europe from Asia, and the density of ships is also quite large; As for going west to Brazil from here, well, it is usually mostly Dutch or Portuguese ships, and the people on the east coast are not ready to touch it for the time being, they are mainly staring at the French!

"A gentleman's revenge, from morning till night!" These are the words of Rear Admiral Li Yi, who has returned to China, and the officers and men of the East Coast have always "encouraged themselves" with this, that is, to specialize in French ships and make the French cry and fear! Anyway, their country is now fighting a civil war and a foreign war at the same time, and it is very chaotic, and they can't spare the energy to take care of other things for a while. By the time they were able to withdraw from the chaos at home and look elsewhere, the trade between them and the New World would have shrunk by at least a third to a half.

In fact, things have developed to this stage, and they have gradually departed from the original purpose. A year ago, when the Executive Committee approved the navy's northward attack on French transports, it was only intended to attack France's own cotton textile industry, so that it would not be able to obtain key raw materials, and at the same time to vent the French for the flagrant increase in tariffs and the losses suffered on the east coast. But now that the privateer has been going on for nearly a year, the Navy has grown to like the privateer itself, not just for the sake of gas.

So, in line with the principle of one shot for another, the East Coast Navy swooped down on the waters off the Cape Verde Islands, and then went north to attack French merchant ships near the Canary Islands, most of which were French ships destined for smuggling trade in the New World. In addition, they sometimes descended south to the Gulf of Guinea to attack French ships returning from the Indian Ocean—whether they were ships heading for expeditions and trade in the East or to the island of New China, all of which were sunk or captured if they collided.

To this day, they had sunk a small French transport near the Canary Islands, and they had also rammed a French ship returning from Madagascar near the Gulf of Guinea, and they were lucky enough to sink it on the spot – because finding a ship in the middle of the ocean is not an easy task. As for the rest of the results, they haven't been there yet, maybe it's the peak of the year yet, but the people on the east coast have patience, and they're going to be with you French, what's the matter? You can bite me!

"Let's withdraw when we have purchased the supplies, these Portuguese people on the island are smart people, don't they know that the supplies we are selling are stolen? But they won't ask, and we won't say, everyone tacitly agrees and makes a fortune in their own silence. Jiang Yaohui straightened his barrel-shaped naval hat and said, "Let's go, I have to be busy next." This sea area is not a place to stay for a long time, and it is estimated that you will have to change places quickly after a few votes, otherwise you will be discovered. And the brethren have been out for so long, and I have heard that the commanders intend to let some of the ships go south to South Africa to rest and recuperate, and to do a good job and make a good impression on the superiors, so that perhaps it will be our turn to rest and recuperate! (A pie-in-the-sky event, cool phones are waiting for you!) Follow from ~ Dian/Chinese network public account (WeChat add friends - add public account - enter ddxiaoshuo), participate now! Everyone has a prize, now pay attention to ddxiaoshuo WeChat public account! (To be continued......)