The Rise of the European Emperor

Not to mention other countries, even Portugal, which was involved in the incident, did not understand Marin's intention to repair such a high-profile fort. After all, Marin hasn't done anything yet. Neither attacked the Baron Silva, nor sent someone pretending to be a pirate to attack the Portuguese spice ship.

Probably, only after Marin made a move, the Portuguese would react-Nimma, the forts of the North Sea Kingdom turned out to be aimed at us! Moreover, the layout has already been carried out...

At that point, it all makes sense. However, Portugal will also be caught in a dilemma-if you want to teach the opponent a lesson, the opponent has already built a fort to prepare for the battle, so I am afraid it will not be good. But if you don't teach me a lesson, it seems like it will hurt my brother's face...

Marin doesn't care what the Portuguese think. Right now, he is busy buying saltpeter all over Europe. The reason is that the two forts at the mouth of the Ems River have deployed hundreds of heavy artillery pieces, which require a large amount of gunpowder reserves.

In fact, Marin was covering for his return from Chilean gunpowder to prepare for the war. After all, with India's saltpeter being divided up by Spain and Portugal, Marin's source of saltpeter is very limited. At that time, when the artillery battle is together, everyone will wonder—is there so much saltpeter in Beihai?

In addition, the agreement signed in Rome to collect manure is also beginning to be implemented. A large amount of feces, after being barreled, is transported out to sea by special ships through the Rhine and other large rivers, and transported to Iceland to extract soil nitrate.

After this series of big moves, the saltpeter brought back from Chile will not be noticeable by then. After all, Marin had "acquired saltpeter in a big way" before.

At the same time, this also put pressure on Portugal-they have already stored enough saltpeter, and there must be no shortage of gunpowder. Should this battle be fought?

...

Marin's series of actions caused a lot of noise, but someone's actions were bigger than him-Britain and France began to conflict again...

Anglo-French relations have deteriorated sharply since England reoccupied the fortress of Calais. The two countries have directly advanced from the previous state of "face and heart discord" to a state of tearing faces.

The French began to build a wall similar to the Great Wall around the fortress of Calais as a defense against England. At the same time, it also began to secretly develop the navy, planning to turn the tables and rise.

Francois I has realized that if England cannot be restrained at sea, it is impossible for France to capture the fortress of Calais. Because the Strait of Calais is just that wide, it is so convenient for England to reinforce the Calais Fortress!

Therefore, Francois I also began to be ruthless, continuing the policy of Louis XII, quietly developing the navy, and intending to defeat the British at sea one day.

But the problem is,

England did not relax its surveillance of France. In addition, Marin is also helping to monitor, and it is really difficult for the French navy to develop.

For example, Francois I secretly obtained a large amount of wood this year, and built eight warships of two to three hundred tons in Nantes, intending to use them against England.

These 8 warships are the same as the North Sea State, they are all specialized warships, and they are not temporarily recruited from merchant ships like England.

As for the sailors on board, they were also trained secretly by the French. Without actual ship training, the French used the method they had learned from Marin secretly - using an oversized rectangular wooden board similar to a swing, shaking from side to side, simulating the shaking on the deck of a ship at sea. Then, compete on it.

In this way, the French trained thousands of swordsmen, swordsmen adapted to battle on the shaky deck!

But it is a pity that when the eight ships quietly went to sea for training, Marin, who had heard the news a long time ago, sent someone to secretly notify the English...

As a result, these 8 French warships were in bad luck!

It is true that there are thousands of well-trained swordsmen on these 8 warships, but they were only trained on shaking wooden boards, and they were not familiar with real seaships and naval battles. This is the first time to go to sea for training, and I was originally adapted to the situation at sea. Given time, these thousands of swordsmen will definitely become powerful naval combat masters. At least, he is a master in the boarding battle!

However, they have no chance...

After the fleet went to sea, there were no problems at first. But after the fleet sailed into the port of Brest, it was immediately blocked by the English fleet...

England dispatched a total of 20 warships this time to besiege the new French fleet. These 20 ships are all large merchant ships of about 200 tons conscripted from the private sector, and they are of the Kirk sailing type. Among them, there are 2,000 old sailors who are good at fighting. Obviously, they are a good number and deliberately target the French sailors.

Perhaps in Marin's view, these Kirk sailboats are all backward ship types. But in this era when boarding battles are still popular, Kirk sailboats are still the mainstream ship type. As for the fact that Spain and Portugal defeated the Indian-Egyptian fleet in the Indian Ocean, although it has spread, many people don't know about it because of the poor information transmission in this era.

In addition, the concept of ordinary people cannot be changed so quickly. Moreover, not to mention the French, even England, a traditional maritime power, has not been able to change its mind for a while. After all, they have been used to boarding battles for hundreds of years, and they are not used to all of a sudden changing to artillery battles.

In addition, there is another very important problem, that is-the artillery battle consumes too much gunpowder, so I can't afford it!

Europe is too short of saltpeter. Except for Spain, Portugal and the North Sea country, which can obtain saltpeter from overseas, other European countries have no way to purchase saltpeter from overseas. They can only rely on a little bit of frosty soil nitrate scraped by ordinary people from the corners of their toilets and stables in cold weather. Therefore, saltpeter is expensive and rare. Even a powerful country like France can only be equipped with hundreds of cannons, and they are small cannons like two or three pounders. In addition to the high price of copper, the low consumption of gunpowder for small-caliber artillery is also an important reason.

Historically, until the 17th century, during the reign of the unlucky Charles I who was beheaded, Britain was extremely short of nitrate. For this reason, Charles I specially set up a nitrate collector, who was authorized to break into the toilets and stables of the people's homes anytime, anywhere, and search for nitrate frost in the corners to supply the needs of the army.

It was not until the English East India Company found a stable supply of saltpeter in India that the situation of British salt deficiency improved. Then, relying on sufficient Indian saltpeter, the British warships opened up the ability to fire violently, and gradually grew into a sea supremacy.

Therefore, in this era, influenced by traditional concepts and the shortage of saltpeter, Britain and France still regard boarding battle as the core thinking of forming a navy.

Of course, France's finances are better off, and there are more artillery on board. For example, each of these 8 new warships is like Marin's armed merchant ship on the surface, and each ship is equipped with 4 artillery pieces. Two of the doors are at the bow and two at the stern. Among the 4 guns, only one of the bow is a 12-pound gun, and the other three are 6-pound guns.

The Kirk sailing ship in England has relatively few artillery pieces, only one at the bow and one at the stern, and they are all 6-pound guns...

It's not that they are unwilling to install more artillery. In addition to the problem of insufficient gunpowder supply, the hull cannot withstand the recoil of too many or too large artillery, which is also an important reason.

The Kirk sailing ship of this era is still the original ship type, and has not yet evolved into the later Galen ship. Therefore, the keel structure of this sailboat is simple, the ribs are thin and sparse, and the sides are relatively thin. With such a structure, dozens of cannons should be placed on it like the warships of the Beihai Kingdom. Once the shelling starts, a row of cannons will be shot down without the enemy attacking.

As a last resort, the old-fashioned warships of this era can only arrange as few artillery pieces as possible. Larger guns are installed only on the bow and stern with relatively strong structures. Sideboard or something, the old ship type is not suitable for installing too many artillery...

Therefore, although artillery was used in this naval battle in Brest Bay, the more important thing was actually a boarding battle...