The Expeditionary Fleet is quite familiar with the Cologne Islands. They called it the Giant Turtle Islands early on because they saw the giant sea turtles on the island. The fleet commander Zhao Longcheng once came here. When he led the fleet to perform the interception mission of the Lima Fleet, he stayed here and hid the traces of the fleet, but that time was not successful.

There are also some smuggling crew members recruited in Golden State in the fleet, and many of them have been here. In addition, there are pirates, the fleet quickly found a clean beach and prepared for a month of rest.

There are two things to do when resting. The first is to spend the New Year of the Lunar New Year, which is the most important festival for the people of the empire. The second is to maintain the ships that have been sailing for a long time. It is okay to say that the Zhiyuan class is mainly painted and repaired sails, but the rest of the ships are just fine, because the Zhiyuan class is built according to the level of a battleship, with copper covering the bottom of the ship, and is not afraid of tropical animals and plants, but other ships do not have this treatment and need to be stranded on the beach for elimination.

As the purchased ships arrived, the entire fleet held New Year celebrations, held various competitions, and prepared various programs, and the pirates were allowed to participate.

In order to obtain fresh ingredients, many times they are used locally. There are many strange creatures on this archipelago where Darwin has visited, especially the huge turtles and lizards. The chefs catch the giant turtles and use it to nourish the turtle, but the result is that it is not delicious at all. Although it is tropical, the cold current brings penguins. The sailors catch the penguins and kill them as big goose stewed meat, which is also a bit strange.

Fortunately, there is no shortage of sea fish around the Cologne Islands, and fish has become the main fresh ingredients.

On New Year's Eve, the fleet used muskets and cannons as fireworks, but saw a larger fireworks performance. It was the eruption of the volcanoes on the archipelago, which directly led to the fleet setting sail and heading to the combat waters on the second day of the Lunar New Year.

"...No, there is no such possibility. If we do this, we will only waste time."

"If you succeed, the harvest will be very fruitful. Can you imagine millions of taels of silver placed in front of you?"

“There is no silver or gold at all…”

When Li Junwei boarded the Zhiyuan ship, Zhao Longcheng, Zhao Wenting, Thomas, and Horayshaun were discussing something hotly. In fact, the whole fleet was like this, because many people regarded the next stage of combat mission as intercepting the Lima fleet and the Peruvian fleet.

There are obviously two factions here, one is a naval officer like Zhao Longcheng, and the other is a person like Zhao Wenting and Horayshaun who have an understanding of the Peru region. They have different information and come to different conclusions.

The navy regarded intercepting the Lima fleet and the Peruvian fleet as an opportunity to make a fortune, while the conclusion given by Zhao Wenting and Horayshaun was that it would be absolutely vain to be happy.

Li Junwei already had a considerable understanding of America. He knew that about 140 years ago, in order to safeguard Spain's interests in America and deal with increasingly rampant pirates, the Spanish established a dual fleet system for the liaison between the local colonies and the American colonies, that is, Spain sent two fleets to the Americas every year.

Both fleets had about forty to seventy armed merchant ships, and were equipped with six to eight escort warships. The two fleets brought 12,000 to 15,000 tons of goods to the New World. These two fleets were also the only legal trade that Spain could call in the American colonies.

The first fleet serves the Governor of New Spain. It sets from Spain in April and arrives at the port of Veracruz in Mexico in May, and then cargo is sold throughout the Governor of New Spain. The second fleet will set off in August and head to Venezuela, Panama Isthmus, Colombia, and serve the Governor of Peru. After each fleet arrives, a large market will form for about 40 days, which is also the time when trade in the Americas is most prosperous.

The two fleets brought industrial products such as textiles, weapons, swords, handicrafts, etc., as well as some luxury goods that the Spanish liked, such as rugby and wheat flour. The return brought back the colony's precious metals, diamonds, mercury and other minerals, cocoa, sugar, tobacco and other tropical plantation products.

In history, the fleet related to the Peruvian fleet was the August fleet. After the fleet arrived at the Port of Cartagena, the Governor of Peru would receive the news and then convene the ports along the Pacific coast of the Governor of Peru, load a large amount of cargo and gold and silver produced by the Governor of Peru, such as Potosi, to the Isthmus of Panama, transported to Port Bello by land, join the assembly trade, and then return in November.

Obviously, the Expeditionary Fleet was late, and the ambush of Peruvian fleets in the history of the American Development Corporation, whether successful or not, was encountered in September.

But Zhao Longcheng still insisted, and there were naturally his reasons. He explained to Li Junwei: "In fact, because of the existence of the American provinces, the Peruvian fleet can participate in all the dual-fleet trades. In April and September, the fleet will be sent to Panama. We can set our goal to participate in April."

This is a compromise between the two Governors, because the American provinces in North America should generally compete directly with the Governors of New Spain. However, one thing is that the Governors of New Spain does not have a decent fleet on the Pacific side, so every time a war occurs, Peru will ask Peru to send the Lima fleet north to join the war.

After the final compromise, the opportunity to participate in the first half of the year with the Peruvian fleet was given to the support of the Peruvian Governor's Navy.

Zhao Wenting said in front of Li Junwei: "Although General Zhao is right, it doesn't make much sense. What I need to tell you is that the current Peruvian fleet does not have gold or silver. Even if you wipe them out, you can only get local raw materials such as llama hair, cocoa, wheat, etc.

This is closely related to the naval operations carried out in the company era. Since Lima's silver-loaded treasure ship was hijacked, the Peruvian Governor has never transported it from sea. Instead, it chose to repair the ancient roads of the ICa Empire and transported them from land to Bogota and Panama.

Later, the cost of land transportation was too high, so this plan was modified to restore Peruvian fleets, and only gold and silver were transported on land. In order to allow merchants and locals to participate, the horse team not only transported the fiscal revenue of the Spanish royal family, but also transported on land together with the payment of goods from merchants in Peru. Therefore, there were only goods on the ship, and there were no silver boxes."

"But even so, it is a very valuable fleet." Zhao Longcheng argued with reason.

Li Junwei understood the meaning of Zhao Longcheng. It was just an excuse to obtain gold and silver to intercept the Peruvian fleet, an excuse that could inspire people. Zhao Longcheng's target was the only Lima fleet that poses a threat to the expeditionary fleet along the Pacific coast. If an ambush can be carried out with a relatively fixed departure date, at least half of the Spaniards' maritime power can be solved, which will be very beneficial to the expeditionary fleet's subsequent actions.

Unlike the double fleet, the Peruvian fleet went north to trade, with only twenty to forty ships of all sizes, most of which were small and medium fleets, most of which were colonial local ships and had little load. The Lima fleet, which was escorted, had recovered over the years. The original Lima fleet had about twelve ships, but most of them were cruise ships, with the number of artillery between twenty and thirty. At that time, the main combat target was the pirates coming from the Strait of Magellan.

However, with the rise of the empire in the Americas and fighting with the Navy of the Peru Governor's Region, the Lima fleet had already changed a lot. There were at least twelve heavy artillery boats with a displacement of about 1,000 tons in the fleet, but only four cruise ships. Only such ships were qualified to fight arm wrestle when they encountered battleships from the American Development Company.

In fact, in Europe, the tonnage of Western battleships is generally around 1,400 tons, and battleships with more than 2,000 tons are common. However, Peru does not have the ability to manufacture battleships, and can only continue the tradition of the past. The manufacturing speed and defense are not up to the level of the times, but the firepower is enhanced and the sails are improved.

These so-called heavy gunboats are essentially armed transport ships. The Governor of Peru once thought so that the heavy gunboats were equipped with gold, silver and precious goods, and merchant ships were equipped with ordinary goods. Once they encountered a Chinese fleet, they could escort them, and they would scatter them. They would escort them if they could not escort them, and they would scatter them. The heavy gunboats were escorted with precious metals and commodities to Panama. Therefore, heavy gunboats were generally bloated.

But in fact, it was found that except for firepower, the rest of this type of heavy gunboat cannot compete with the Chinese battleships. They are head-on and have the qualifications. If they escape, they cannot escape at all, so they will give up.

Generally speaking, every time the Peruvian fleet heads north, six to eight heavy gunboats will escort with the fleet. This is a number that an expeditionary fleet can deal with, but if all the Lima fleets gather together and the twelve heavy gunboats, the expeditionary fleet will be a little difficult.

Li Junwei looked at Horayshaun and said, "Captain Horayshaun, what about your opinion? When I was outside, I could still hear you debate with Mr. Thomas. Why don't you talk anymore? Is it because you haven't received your salary?"

After meeting Horeshaun in the Cologne Islands, Li Junwei attached great importance to the captain who had ten years of experience in robbing the Peru Governor's District, because not only did his ship join, but he also appointed Horeshaun as a consultant. However, the consultant had just been ten days and it was not time to get his salary, but this was just a joke.

Horayshen said, "His Royal Highness and the commander-in-chief of the fleet, I personally believe that even if I decide to intercept the Peruvian fleet, I will not gain any decent results. Instead, I will be like the proverb of your country, and I will startle the snake!" After seeing Zhao Longcheng's expression incorrect, Horayshen said, "The intercepting fleet is not capable of any operation. In fact, I had gathered a pirate fleet three years ago for this kind of test, but it turned out to be a failure."

"Can your pirate fleet be comparable to the expeditionary fleet?" a young staff officer whispered.

Zhao Longcheng glared at him. He knew that the Peruvian fleet is now very complex, and the Lima fleet escorted by the escort could not take care of all aspects. Many ships used similar schooners as pirate ships. Therefore, taking advantage of the poor management and climate, they intervened in and launched attacks at night. It is possible to succeed. After all, the pirates would cut as much as the big pot. Unlike the expeditionary fleet, they regarded Peruvian fleets without gold, silver and precious metals as useless.

"Mr. Horayshaun, please continue talking." Zhao Longcheng said.

Horayshaun took off his hat and clicked on Lima on the map, saying: "Although Lima is on the seaside, it is not the first choice for pirate attacks. We like to lurk in the island group near the waterway and then attack passing ships. There are no decent archipelagos around Lima. In fact, there are only Cologne around Peru, which we just left. Most Pacific pirates like to lurk in Panama.

According to our observations and the confessions of the captives we caught, the Spaniards adopted the fleet command system, that is, to set up a special command to manage the Peruvian fleet, dispatch liaison officers and corresponding flags for each ship, and number each ship. Because of this, we did not get in at the beginning, resulting in the failure of the operation."

"The fleet command system, please explain it in detail to us." Zhao Longcheng said.

The so-called fleet command system is to deal with the fleet of the American Development Corporation from the beginning, not the pirates. Before the trade period of each year, the outer port of Lima City, Kayao Port will establish a fleet command. Before the deadline, all unrelated ships must stay away from Kayao Port. That is to say, at a certain period of time, the ships in Kayao Port either participate in the Peruvian fleet or the enemy. This order prevents the enemy from sending sentry ships to monitor the accurate departure time of the Peruvian fleet and the Lima fleet.

Outside the port of Kayao is the vast Pacific Ocean, and a few islands are controlled by the Spanish. Even so, the fleet will first leave the port by schooners and cruisers, search for all suspicious islands and harbors around, and cover the large fleet to leave the port. After leaving the port, the fleet headquarters will require all ships to concentrate somewhere outside the port, line up to sail towards the outer sea, and sail on the outer sea that cannot be seen on land.

In the past, Peruvian fleets would enter the ports of the Governor's District one by one during their journey north, but now Peruvian fleets would not. Ships from north to Piura and south to Santiago must go to Lima to meet and then head north, and then organize their own fleets to the north. The current Peruvian fleet does not dock along the way, and does not appear within the view of the shore.

After hearing the fleet command system, the navy felt helpless. Sending a sentry to keep an eye on it. It was obviously not possible to ambush along the way. If the fleet went directly to Lima, the Spaniards would definitely not be able to retreat. Anyway, there were no decent mooring sites and supply points around. The Spaniards backed by the mainland could spend the entire time with the expedition fleet hanging from the lonely overseas.

Unless the commander of the Spanish fleet was a naughty or arrogant idiot, he would never come out, but everyone knows that this is impossible. Raphael, the commander of the Lima fleet, is 71 years old this year, is a firm protester. He was inseparable from the Imperial Navy in the era of society. The first naval battle between the two countries was the Battle of Guam. He was the captain of a cruise ship, the battle of the Indian Ocean. He was the commander of the Spanish fleet. Now he is still fighting against the Empire to the end. His fleet has never been stronger than the Empire, but he is as cunning as a fox.

Li Junwei said: "Maybe we can attack a port that the Spaniards must rescue, let a few ships come forward, the main force hides, and ambush the Lima fleet that came to rescue."

"This is not feasible." Zhao Longcheng was the first to object.

"You haven't tried it, how do you know it's not feasible?" asked the guard commander Li Su.
Chapter completed!