The surrender of the Spanish Treasure Fleet brought a huge surprise to the Northern Expeditionary Fleet, not only because of the 850,000 taels of American silver on the six Great Galen warships, but also because of the six Great Galen warships themselves.
and more than 2,000 captured crew members.
Although Jinghua’s warships have their own unique features and performed well in this actual battle, as the saying goes, stones from other mountains can attack jade. To study and compare the direct capture of Spain’s first-rate warships, Gao Zhenxin, the commander of the Beiyang Fleet,
He has a very clear understanding of this. He knows that paying high and pragmatic attention to the "Red Fans" must be a great achievement.
Of course, to a certain extent, these six large galleons themselves are also a considerable fortune. Although it is not clear how much the Spanish spent on building these warships, judging from Jinghua's own situation, these 1,200 tons
The Great Galen is equivalent to a first-class cruiser, and the cost of a single ship is as high as 160,000 taels of silver - the six ships themselves are not even cheaper than the American silver they bring!
Of course, they are all in a "bad" state now, and it will probably cost a lot of money to repair them, but Beiyang will definitely not have to pay for this money.
It's a huge profit...especially since this battle was actually fought by the Beiyang Fleet itself. Although the representatives sent by the major nobles were very greedy, they couldn't ask for a share of the profits.
However, Gao Zhenxin knew the importance of the "United Fleet" after all, and adhering to Gao's consistent pragmatic thinking, he estimated that the master would not completely monopolize the money - of course, the "money" was only the 850,000 taels of American silver seized.
Therefore, after Gao Zhenxin arranged the relevant custody matters, he told the representatives of the nobles that he would ask the master for instructions on how to divide the money.
In short, his meaning is very simple. This money cannot be distributed by him and must be handed over to the Sea Trade Alliance for decision.
All distinguished representatives were very satisfied with this. Although everyone knew that it was Gao Situ who had revealed the truth to the Sea Trade Alliance, Gao Situ's reputation was good enough. Everyone felt that the decision by the Sea Trade Alliance was the most reasonable arrangement.
Jinghua must have taken the six large Galen warships himself. This is what Gao Zhenxin is most concerned about now - without him, Gao Zhenxin hopes that these ships will directly enter the service of the Beiyang Fleet, which will greatly strengthen the combat strength of the Beiyang Fleet.
However, when he went to see the "San Antonio" in person, he had some doubts because the shipbuilding ideas of these six ships gave him a headache.
Jinghua's shipbuilding ideas are very clear. The transport ship is only an armed transport ship. No matter how it changes, its tonnage is basically the same, which is 1600 materials (800 tons). At most, it is to build some internal cabins to meet the customer needs of export ships.
adjustments in aspects.
Their main mission is of course transportation, and their armament is mainly to deter pirates and cooperate with the two ocean fleets when necessary.
In addition to the armed transport ships, there is a pure battleship system. According to high pragmatic planning, in addition to the existing third-level battleships, first-level cruisers, and second-level cruisers, Jinghua's battleship system also has second-level battleships and first-level battleships.
.However, the latter two have not yet completed development, let alone started construction. Fortunately, Gao Pragmatic has no mandatory time requirements for these two classes of battleships. It can only be said to be a long-term plan.
But in any case, the missions of warships at all levels under the battleship system are very clear. They are basically only responsible for fighting. Although they also have a certain loading capacity, they are prepared to transport the Marine Corps - and in fact, this time the expedition company
The Marine Corps is not loaded on several battleships because the number of armed transport ships is sufficient.
So when comparing the Spanish Gallen Gallen, the difference between the two sides is very obvious: Although the Spanish Gallen Gallen is also a warship, due to the different tactical systems of the two sides, the shipbuilding ideas are also very different.
In Gao Zhenxin's view, these six large Galen ships are actually "enlarged versions of armed transport ships." Because they need to transport cargo across oceans, they have a lot of cargo holds, and because the Spanish Navy tends to fight one after another, the troop transport compartments are also large.
Very big, a lot.
This resulted in the fact that although they were soft-sailed battleships that required more manpower to operate, their actual number of sailors was no different from that of Jinghua's battleships of the same tonnage.
According to Takagi San's face-to-face report to him after the battle, the enemy ship's combat effectiveness dropped quickly after being hit. It is probably related to this point - the professional deck personnel were lost but there were not enough professional manpower to supplement them. Of course it would
Combat effectiveness decreases.
Based on these judgments, Gao Zhenxin feels that although these six warships are very good in themselves, they seem to be a bit unsure of their positioning when incorporated into Beiyang. What's more, they are still soft-sailed warships, which are also a bit incompatible with Beijing's current hard-sailed warship system. At the same time,
When forming a group, you also have to consider the issue of varying speeds - for example, they may be too fast downwind and need to furl some of their sails, but they may not be able to keep up with the large fleet against the wind.
"Is the commander thinking about what to do with these ships now?" Gao Musan had a lot of experience after all. He guessed Gao Zhenxin's thoughts by observing his words and asked from the side.
Of course Gao Zhenxin would not hide it from him, and nodded: "These are soft sailing ships, and our people may not be able to operate them skillfully. If they are taken all the way to Manila, it is hard to say whether they will be effective. But if their marines are taken into custody and replaced with
Even if our people supervise the operation of their sailors, there is no guarantee that these people will be able to join us in the attack on Manila...
However, if I send people to escort these ships back now, I can't just rely on the Marines. I will definitely have to send ships to follow. But we still have to fight. Even if we have enough strength at sea and can spare some of them,
But the Marine Corps must not be deployed casually. After all, if the attack on Manila is restricted, this expedition will not be considered perfect."
Takagi San nodded and said: "The commander is thinking about it, but my subordinates think that we can think differently. For example, these six ships were not originally in our plan, and the attack on Manila has nothing to do with them...
"
This chapter is not over yet, please click the next page to continue reading the exciting content! "Oh, I know what you mean." Gao Zhenxin responded quickly and immediately said: "You mean we don't need to consider taking them to Manila to treat us.
How can their combat effectiveness be improved? You just brought them there to save trouble, is that what you mean?"
"Yes, that's what I mean. In addition, my subordinates think that taking them to Manila has another benefit." Takagi San blinked and said: "There are nearly 2,000 Spaniards on these six large treasure ships, and
There are only about 2,000 Spanish people in Manila.
Commander, just imagine what the feeling of the Philippine Governor-General would be like when these six large Spanish treasure ships, flying our calligraphy and sword flags, and two thousand prisoners under our custody, appeared outside Manila?"
Gao Zhenxin's eyes lit up and he praised: "You Takagi San, you have some skills in this mind attack!" He became happy and walked quickly on the sidewalk: "I heard from the master that the mainland of Spain should be counted as at least two
A union of two countries, one is called Castile and the other is called Aragon. The two countries combined have a total population of just over six million. Calculating it this way, even if Castile is stronger, it is amazing.
Count it as having four million people.
What use are four million people? Even Annan has more than that [Note: Annan originally had a population of about 5 million, but after Beijing’s vigorous immigration, it now has nearly 6 million]! Since their population is so small, 2,000 navy
The lives of personnel must not be taken lightly. I even doubt... whether these two thousand people can be used to discuss with the Philippine Governor's Office a deal such as the peaceful dedication of the city."
Gao Musan originally just thought of using the capture of six large Galen ships to shock the Philippine Governor-General. Who knew that Gao Zhenxin thought further and actually thought of exchanging prisoners for the city of Manila.
To be honest, this idea seems quite magical to Takagi San. After all, in the Ming Dynasty, compared with a mere two thousand people and an important stronghold-type city, it is not on the same level at all. Many times in Chinese history, for the sake of
It is common to defend certain important cities even if one hundred thousand or even hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians are killed or injured.
As the center of Spanish rule in the Philippines, would Manila really give up for a mere two thousand people? Takagi San was a little skeptical about this. But after thinking about it, he felt that what Gao Zhenxin said made sense. After all, this Spain——
Oh, the population of Castile is really too small.
The Ming Dynasty had hundreds of millions of people, so the loss of two thousand was really light, but Castile only had four million people, so the death of two thousand people was certainly very painful - this may be equivalent to the Ming Dynasty losing a hundred thousand troops in the first battle.
With an army of 100,000, if the Ming Dynasty suffered such losses in a battle, a series of generals would be killed. Is it different in Castile?
When Takagi San thought about it, he felt that although the commander's idea was a bit magical, he might as well give it a try. After all, in his view, although the Philippines was important, it was not the Spanish homeland, and its status was at most equivalent to that of North Korea.
Daming (this is not accurate, but it can only be compared in this way in Takagi San's thinking).
So Takagi San also expressed support for Gao Zhenxin's idea, and Gao Zhenxin made up his mind. He first discussed with Gao Yimin and asked him to send the marines to the Spanish warship to supervise the sailors to continue sailing, and then sent people
Transfer the American silver and other cargo from the Spanish treasure fleet to Jinghua's ten armed transport ships - these ten ships will not return home first, but will still fight with the grand fleet, but they will no longer undertake front-line combat missions.
Next, he went to meet with Silva and other important prisoners.
Silva's sword had already been handed over to him at the time of surrender. Now the commander of the Spanish Treasure Fleet and the six captains are imprisoned in a cabin of the "Liu Rengui". Gao Zhenxin and Gao Yimin
, when Takagi San and others passed by, there was some noise inside.
Gao Zhenxin asked the sailor of the supervising team at the door: "What's going on inside?"
A leader of the supervising team smiled bitterly and said: "The interpreter went in and asked, and these people said that they are all nobles and asked us to provide treatment commensurate with their status - they asked to live in a single cabin."
Gao Zhenxin and the other three looked at each other speechlessly. Gao Musan cursed angrily: "Damn it, a group of prisoners still dare to make demands? The place they live in is not a large cabin, and they think they are not treated well!"
Gao Zhenxin remembered some of the European traditions that Gao Jingshi had mentioned when he "trained" them individually, and suddenly said: "Oh, these Spanish officers are all nobles, right? You first ask the interpreter to ask which of them has the title.
Supreme, let the person with the highest status and the fleet commander come out and talk to me."
The interpreter was quickly called, and then went in for questioning. Takagi Sannori said in surprise: "Isn't the commander of their fleet the one with the highest title?"
Gao Zhenxin shook his head and said: "This is not accurate. It's just like...if our master leads an army on an expedition, it wouldn't be surprising if he has several distinguished commanders under his command."
Oh, that's true. Takagi San nodded suddenly.
Not long after, the interpreter brought out two people from the cabin - coincidentally, it was Silva and Echevari. It turned out that although Silva came from a prominent family, he was not the eldest son, and his father had not given him another plan.
No matter what title he has attained, he himself has not yet achieved such military exploits, while Echevari is a legitimate viscount.
As soon as the two sides met, Silva protested loudly and babbled for a long time. Unfortunately, none of the three Gao family members understood Castilian - in fact, what they spoke was not Castilian.
, but French.
"What did he say?" Although Gao Zhenxin and the other three were the victors, it was obvious that due to Gao Zhenxin's pragmatic habits, the servant leaders did not always have the habit of having people kneel down to speak when facing prisoners of war, and they just talked about business first.
The interpreter listened for a while and replied: "He said that he wanted to accuse us of attacking their fleet for no reason, which was an act of war against the Kingdom of Castile. He also said... He also said that our behavior was just like pirates.
"
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! The pirates must have meant that Jinghua directly emptied the six large Galen ships of American silver and other cargo, but Gao Zhenxin rolled his eyes and said: "Tell him, we
They were warned to stop the ship for inspection, but they refused to stop the ship for inspection, which led to the fighting, and they should bear full responsibility for this."
The interpreter negotiated with Silva, and then said: "He said that we have no right to inspect the naval warships of the Kingdom of Castile, and believe that this is the territorial waters of the Philippine Governor-General of the Kingdom of Castile."
"Huh? The territorial waters of the Philippine Governor's Office?" Gao Zhenxin sneered: "Tell him, Luzon paid tribute in the third year of Yongle in the Ming Dynasty. It is a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, and the Ming Dynasty is the master of this territorial sea.
As for the Governor-General of the Philippines in Castile... Well, as the suzerain of Luzon, the Ming Dynasty has never recognized this illegal organization."
As soon as these words were relayed by the interpreter, Silva was obviously in a daze. He muttered with Echevar beside him for a long time before he spoke back to the interpreter.
The interpreter smiled bitterly and said to Gao Zhenxin: "They said that the legal status of the Philippine Governor's Palace can only be finalized after discussion between the Ming Emperor and the King of Castile. They are 'willing' to put aside the dispute for the time being and discuss 'pirate-style' plunder first."
behavior. And said that if we do not accept the statement of pirates, we should first return the ships and cargo of the Kingdom of Castile, including the silver.”
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