The Rise of the European Emperor

Da Gama has always emphasized that teaching Daming to cast artillery and repair forts seriously violated the interests of the Kingdom of Portugal, and demanded that the relevant personnel be severely punished. But Kong Tai's rhetorical question is also well-founded-they didn't violate any laws and agreements, how should they be punished?

In addition, Kong Tai insisted that it was the Ming country that imitated the 12-pound gun, not the Beihai country. Moreover, Kong Tai also produced evidence-a sample of a bowl-mouth gun made by the Communist Party.

Kong Tai told Da Gama that when the Ming Dynasty was first established more than a hundred years ago, Huaxia was able to cast this kind of short-barreled artillery. They themselves had the technology of casting artillery, not the Beihai Kingdom taught them. Therefore, it is not surprising that they can imitate the 12-pound gun.

Da Gama stared at the gun for a long time, and then recalled the process of fighting the Ming army. It seems that the navy of the Ming army was indeed equipped with this kind of short-barreled artillery, and the equipment rate was quite high...

From this, it can be deduced that it is not surprising that the Ming Dynasty could imitate this kind of artillery......

Da Gama asked the translator to ask the fisherman Lin Afu, and Lin Afu also said that this kind of bowl-mouth gun has long been equipped with coastal naval forces, and it was something that existed a long time ago.

Now Da Gama has nothing to say. As for the construction of the fort, Kong Tai insisted that the craftsmen were privately hired by Ming officials and had nothing to do with Beihai. However, in the laws of the North Sea country and the agreement reached between the North Sea country and Portugal, there is no provision that can determine that this is illegal...

Da Gama was so angry that he couldn't speak, but he also understood that Portugal could not blame the North Sea country on this issue. After all, no matter whether it is the law or the treaty between the two countries, there is indeed no provision that does not allow the Beihai country to sell artillery and send craftsmen to Daming.

Therefore, Da Gama had to hold back his anger, and talked to Kong Tai about another important thing:

"Governor Kong Tai, I see that your country seems to have a ship repairing dock here. Three of our ships were damaged by the short-barreled artillery of the Ming army and need to be repaired. Therefore, I want to borrow your country's dock and repair it. Our three wounded ships..."

Before he finished speaking, Kong Tai shook his head like a drum:

"No, no! Our Grand Duke Marin has long given me an order - not to get involved in any military conflicts between the Ming Dynasty and the Kingdom of Portugal, and to maintain 'wartime neutrality'. According to the 'wartime neutral' principle, We cannot allow any warships of your country and Ming Dynasty to dock and supply, nor can we help any party repair warships!"

Da Gama suppressed his anger,

asked:

"What wartime neutrality? Why haven't I heard of it?"

Conte then carefully described and explained to Da Gama the various regulations of "wartime neutrality" formulated by Marin, and finally said:

"In fact, the Beihai Kingdom is already partial to the Kingdom of Portugal. As you know, we Dongfan Island once swore allegiance to the Kingdom of Ming. Logically, we should actually send troops to help in the war. Considering our 'traditional friendship' with the Kingdom of Portugal, we Refusing to send troops to help the Ming Empire and declaring neutrality is already favoring your country. So, please don't make things difficult for me..."

Kong Tai's statement made Da Gama speechless. In fact, there is nothing wrong with saying this. As the chieftain region of the Communist Party of China, Dongfan Boguo should be on the side of the Communist Party. It's just that Marin had sent someone to explain to Ming Ting long ago, and he also took the initiative to send artillery and cannon casting technology, and spent a lot of money to bribe civil servants and eunuchs in power in the Communist Party of China, so that Ming Ting did not pursue Beihai's failure to send troops The question of aid.

Therefore, Conte said that the North Sea country is biased towards the Kingdom of Portugal, but it is not nonsense. After all, it is indeed unkind to allow other countries to attack their suzerain country.

Da Gama was also annoyed by Kong Tai's words - what he said made sense! In desperation, Da Gama could only play tricks and threatened:

"What if we insist on using your country's shipyard? Governor Kong Tai, you know, we now have 28 warships. Even if three ships are injured, there are still 25 intact warships to capture Danshui Port No problem..."

Kong Tai smiled and responded:

"Then you can give it a try, come on, let me show you around our artillery fortress..."

Then, accompanied by Kong Tai's parents and children, Da Gama visited the fort on the second floor of Fort Tamsui. Da Gama's face darkened when he saw the 20 18-pound cannons behind the window—Nima, this kind of firepower is too much for a Portuguese warship...

And then, something that surprised him even more happened - 10 huge warships came from Danshui Port, and they were 10 500-ton warships that came from Amami Oshima...

Recently, Amami Oshima has not made any big moves. In order to prevent Portugal from forcibly expropriating the ports and military facilities on Taiwan Island, Conte sent people to Amami Oshima and transferred 10 500-ton warships to Keelung Port. .

When Kong Tai rushed from Guihua City to Danshui Port to meet Da Gama, he also sent people to release pigeons to inform the fleet in Keelung Port. Keelung Port is only tens of miles away from Danshui Port. After receiving the letter from Feige, the fleet immediately set sail and rushed here. In the afternoon, the fleet arrived at Danshui Port and appeared in front of Kong Tai and Da Gama.

"Nimma..." Da Gama's face was as dark as the bottom of a pot at this time.

Originally, he really wanted to forcibly confiscate the troops of the Beihai State on Taiwan Island for supply and repair of ships. After all, he has 28 warships under his command and is full of confidence.

However, after visiting the artillery configuration of Fort Tamsui and seeing the 10 tall warships in front of him, he was at a loss...

In order to further blow Da Gama's confidence, Kong Tai also warmly invited Da Gama to visit the ship. On a 500-ton battleship, Da Gama was surprised to see that almost every battleship has 40 large-caliber artillery pieces, the smallest caliber is 6 pounds, and 18-pound heavy guns are standard equipment. Against such a powerful fleet, the Portuguese fleet seems to have no chance of winning...

"Your country has so many cannons, is there enough gunpowder? Also, can your country's warships withstand such a large recoil?" Da Gama asked suspiciously.

It's not that Portugal can't afford to be equipped with so many large-caliber artillery, but that it doesn't have that much fire to use for artillery. After all, a large-caliber artillery needs to consume several pounds of gunpowder every time it is fired. Portugal, on the other hand, does not produce saltpeter in its own country, so it seized the share of the North Sea country in time and purchased saltpeter in India, but because it had to be divided up with Spain, the annual purchase volume was not much. Moreover, to give priority to the supply of local artillery needs, it is even less distributed to fleets stationed abroad. Therefore, on Portuguese warships, the 6-pound and 3-pound guns are the main guns, and the 12-pound guns can already be regarded as the main guns. In addition, the current main force of the 200-ton Carrack sailing ship in Portugal, because the keel structure has not been strengthened, it is also difficult to withstand the strong recoil when firing so many large-caliber artillery.

Kong Tai smiled and said:

"Lord Da Gama, haven't you noticed that our warships are much larger than your country's main warships? The larger the ship, the stronger its ability to resist recoil..."

In fact, this is Kong Tai talking nonsense, but Kong Tai can't disclose the secret of strengthening the keel structure. Therefore, we can only talk nonsense in the direction of the boat. Moreover, the larger the ship, it does have a stronger ability to resist recoil under the same structure...

"No wonder..." Da Gama also thought that this made sense.

"As for the issue of whether there is enough gunpowder you said, we don't have to worry about it. The Ming Empire has sufficient gunpowder output, and we can purchase 100,000 catties of saltpeter from the Ming Empire every year, which is 110,000 pounds of saltpeter. Therefore, we don't Out of gunpowder..."

"110,000 pounds..." Da Gama was stunned, it was close to 50 tons. Although Portugal can purchase saltpeter from India, India's current annual output of saltpeter is only hundreds of tons. In addition, Spain wants to carve up a large share, and the North Sea country also purchases a certain amount of saltpeter in India. Therefore, Portugal purchases no more than 40 tons of saltpetre in India every year. Moreover, more than half will be supplied locally. Therefore, his expeditionary fleet does not get much. So, the figure of 110,000 pounds scared him...

"That's right, 110,000 pounds! Our cannons can fire as much as they want!" Kong Tai said with pride, and at the same time, it was also a kind of intimidation to Da Gama—do you dare to threaten to capture Danshui Port? Watch my cannon blow to death...