New Ming Empire mixed in America

Chapter 265 The Merchant Ship Sunken Outside the Freeport

When the battle broke out on the border, Song He's fleet had already approached Victoria Freeport.

The port was named after Queen Victoria of England. After gold was discovered in the French River in 1857, it became a paradise for adventurers and gold prospectors.

And in 1859, Victoria Harbor became a free port, allowing ships from various countries to supply and dock here.

But today it is clear that there is no peace here in the past.

Along with the "dang-dang" lighthouse warning sound, something happened that made all the ship owners in the port a little confused.

A fleet broke into the waters outside Victoria Freeport, and it was with deep malice.

"The gun windows of those battleships are not closed, stay away from them!"

On a Prussian merchant ship that had just sailed out of the port, the captain slapped his son hard on the back of the head.

Then he grabbed the rudder from his son's hand and turned it quickly to one side.

"This is Daiying's protected port. No one dares to do anything here..."

Rubbing the back of his head, the captain's son muttered softly.

"Hurry up and tell the crew to stop being lazy and raise the sails. We need to get out of here as soon as possible!"

The captain did not hear his son's underestimation, otherwise he would definitely kick him to vent his anger.

Some time ago, newspapers published news about leading the British to declare war on the Orientals. Now that the Oriental fleet has appeared here, is there any need to think about it?

A war is definitely going to break out!

Under the captain's loud yelling, the merchant ship soon sailed towards the open sea at full speed. Only after the Eastern fleet could no longer be seen, the captain breathed a sigh of relief.

"Fake, it seems that we won't be able to do business in Victoria Harbor this year. We might as well go to Chile to load ore and win over the Orientals to make some money."

The captain took off his hat and scratched his thin hair.

This year, due to the civil war between the north and the south of the United States, he, a businessman who made a little money by transporting cotton, was on the verge of bankruptcy.

If he hadn't received a contract to transport supplies to the Victoria Freeport in the end, he might have taken a merchant ship to the Far East to try his luck.

Now that the Orientals are at war with Dai Ying again, it seems that it is no longer safe for him to continue delivering supplies, so he decided to try his luck in Chile.

When passing through the Chilean port some time ago, he overheard that the Orientals were in need of various mineral resources, especially saltpeter mines.

This made him determined to go to Chile to import ore.

At this time, there were many ship owners like this captain, because the economies of various countries were not very prosperous.

Especially after the economy of Britain, the world's hegemon, began to deteriorate due to the shortage of cotton, shipowners who traded with various countries had a difficult time.

This is one of the reasons why there are more and more merchant ships on the West Coast.

On the west coast, you can not only receive immigrants from the Far East to the New Ming Empire, but also receive many jobs such as transporting oil, transporting ore, transporting food, transporting luxury goods, etc.

This created a temporary boom on the West Coast.

It is said to be temporary because as long as the European economy improves, these ship owners will definitely return to Europe to continue doing business, instead of choosing to stay on the West Coast and risk being targeted by the British to do business with Easterners.

As for the sanctions announced by the British government now...

We are almost starving to death, who cares about that?

Not many merchant ships are as lucky as this ship owner. After all, most of the merchant ships that can transport supplies from London to Victoria Free Port are British merchant ships.

Occasionally, merchant ships from other countries will receive such orders with huge returns.

"Sign up and ask those merchant ships to return to the port honestly, otherwise don't blame me for being rude."

Song He looked at the Daiying merchant ships that were heading out regardless, smiled honestly and said what he just said. Gu

Correspondents have become accustomed to their boss's strange habit of pretending to be honest.

Along with the transmission of radio waves, the fleet began to slowly expand, and finally blocked the direction of the British merchant ships.

"Captain, those Easterners told us to go back to the port, otherwise we will fire."

A crew member knocked on the door of the captain's cabin and looked at the captain and first mate who were getting dressed. There was no surprise on the crew members' faces.

Everyone on the ship knew what happened between the captain and the first mate, but for the sake of their jobs, no one would say anything.

Then go back, I don't think those Easterners are easy to mess with.

The first mate fastened the last button and said something as he walked out.

"Don't worry about those Easterners. This is a free port with British people. Those people won't go too far."

The captain put on his hat and walked out. Looking at the armored gunboats cruising not far away, the captain unconsciously raised his eyebrows.

I didn't expect that the Orientals would have so many armored ships. It seems that the legend must be true.

These Easterners should have really defeated an American squadron.

As the merchant ship turned, the nearby armored gunboat approached the next merchant ship.

But when the forest gets bigger, there are always some stupid birds who think they have nothing to fear.

After seeing the semaphore signaled by the armored gunboat, two merchant ships ignored it and instead began to speed toward the open sea.

The most critical thing is that these two armed merchant ships actually pushed their artillery to the side of the ship, and it looked like they were about to force their way out.

But this stupid behavior soon attracted an attack from an armored gunboat, and the two sides fought back and forth for a while.

One of the two armed merchant ships was sunk and the other was damaged. The injured ship is now lying on the sea.

But this did not stop the Nadu armored gunboat, because the opponent's main mast was broken, so the white flag could only be hung on the tail sail.

However, due to the distance and location, the captain of the armored gunboat did not notice that the other party had surrendered.

Wanting to find a few merchant ships to establish his authority, he never stopped attacking, and soon this armed merchant ship followed in the footsteps of his predecessors.

The shelling off the coast caused riots at Victoria Freeport.

The port here is divided into two parts, the inner and outer. The outer port is specially provided for merchant ships to carry out trade, while the inner port is provided for offshore patrol ships that maintain port order.

Soon, this battleship formation consisting of three sail battleships began to sail out along the seaport.

The merchants on the port cheered loudly when they saw it, and many even took off their hats and threw them into the air to pay tribute to these heroic naval soldiers.

"Come forward!" Song He put away his telescope and issued an order to the communicator.

Song He was even happier than the cheering businessmen about these British warships coming out of the port.

After all, warships parked in the port and protected by coastal defense batteries are much more difficult to deal with than warships on the sea.

Ironclad ships are not invincible. Seeing the huge-caliber artillery on the coastal defense turret, Song He thought about how to draw out the opponent's warships.

Shelling those disobedient merchant ships was the first step. If that didn't work, Song He was ready to shell the port buildings that the coastal defense forts couldn't take care of.

But now it seems that the navy with British troops has more backbone than imagined.

The opponent had three sail warships, and Song He only had two armored warships of the same size.

After ordering the remaining armored gunboats to continue monitoring the merchant ships, the two armored warships gradually moved closer to each other under Song He's order.

But when he took the battleship and prepared to bully the opponent by relying on the advantage of its range, he saw through the telescope that the gun windows of the opponent's battleship had some artillery that he had never seen before.

Before he had time to think carefully, the battle formation had already been set up, so Song He ordered the artillery bombardment anyway!

Tap the screen to use advanced tools Tip: You can use left and right keyboard keys to browse between chapters.

You'll Also Like