Li Erjiazi is visiting the United States as an imperial envoy, and Tang Shaoyi is also traveling with him. They actually have no specific mission. It is just that the Americans want to please Yang Feng and let them go to the United States to show off Sino-US friendship. After all,
Besides Yang Feng, the most famous person in the United States is Li Hongzhang.
In addition, Chen Fang, who claims to be visiting relatives in Hawaii, has a wife and twelve children there. This number makes Yang Feng unable to help but marvel at how powerful this old guy is. At this rate, he is basically the same as that Julia.
One year old.
These three people brought nearly 400 followers, half of whom belonged to Chen Fang. They were said to be his servants to the outside world, but in fact they were all elites selected from the army. The person in charge of leading the team was also an officer with overseas Chinese origin.
They also lived in Hawaii, and their main task was to protect Chen Fang's safety.
These people were aboard the latest cruise ship Oriental built by Yang Shipping in Sweden. It had a displacement of more than 10,000 tons and used up to eight steam turbines. It could run from Taiwan to Hawaii at an economical speed of 18 knots. This was Yang Feng's future.
It is mainly used to operate routes between China and the United States. After all, cruise ships have to deal with costs, so using a diesel engine is a bit too crazy.
"Your Highness, I believe that Your Majesty's visit will definitely bring China and the United States into a new era." Tian Bei, who came to see off the ship, said with a smile on his face as he watched the Oriental sailing on the dock.
"Of course, we are friends to begin with!" Yang Feng said with a shrug.
After sending off Li Ergui and the two returned to the palace together, Tianbei immediately offered to buy destroyers and torpedoes. Dewey had just sent a telegram to the Navy Department, saying that if the same high-speed destroyers could not be introduced again, he would not be able to guarantee escort in the Florida Strait.
Just to transport Schefter's landing force, he lost four cruisers, including a protective cruiser. If this continues, I'm afraid he will have to prepare several cruisers for each voyage.
His telegram made the capitalists in the U.S. Congress extremely anxious. Even if the U.S. industrial strength is strong, it cannot withstand such consumption! What's more, it's all money. So far, the loss of warships alone has exceeded 20 million U.S. dollars.
How much is it if this continues? The value of Cuba is nothing more than the 100 million US dollars per year sugar industry. If it wins, it will be easy to say. If it loses, it will lose everything. Capitalists are very sensitive to this word. Since Yang Feng has
The solution to the problem is to hurry up! Anyway, what he wants has been given, and it will be unreasonable not to sell it again.
"Of course, no problem. Just go to Gothenburg and talk to Erikson. I have already told him that from now on, all items that were originally prohibited from being sold to the United States will be lifted." Prince Yang said boldly.
His attitude made Tian Bei a little surprised. According to his understanding of this guy, he should take advantage of the situation. But of course this is a good thing. After expressing his heartfelt thanks to Yang Feng, Tian Bei hurried back to report to the country.
.
Looking at his back, Yang Feng smiled sinisterly. Go ahead and buy it! It’s none of my business if the Swedish government doesn’t release it after you buy it.
This guy has already negotiated with the Swedish government to trick them. After all, Sweden is a neutral country. It is absolutely forbidden to sell weapons to belligerent countries. This is a matter of principle that cannot be discussed. Of course, if the US government is willing to spend some money to seal it
The Swedish government can agree to sell military diesel engines, but the destroyers must not be sold.
As for when they can build a high-speed destroyer with the same performance after they buy back the diesel engine, this is not what Yang Feng needs to worry about. That is a problem for the Americans themselves.
As for the steam gas torpedoes, the Swedish government will definitely not let them go, and then the United States will go and pay for the bribes. After a month or two, the Swedish government has collected enough benefits, and then reluctantly agreed to allow them to repurchase it from a third country.
Of course, the three countries are Turkey, and then let Hamid II blackmail them again. It is estimated that after half a year of tossing like this, they will be able to see the torpedoes. Not only do they not have to be evil, but they can also give away Sweden and Turkey for free.
With a large windfall, especially Turkey, you can sign an additional agreement with them. This money can only be used to purchase weapons from the Yang Group, and I think Hamid II will agree.
In this way, Turkey's strength can be enhanced to create obstacles for Nikola without exposing himself. Yang Feng found that this model of his was very good.
Just when the Americans excitedly began to purchase weapons, the Spanish army led by Torres also began a counterattack on Matanzas. Schefter had already transferred his headquarters to the city at this time, and he now only had 10,000 soldiers in hand.
The pressure on the troops was still very high. Fortunately, after taking Matanzas, nearly 2,000 Cuban revolutionaries gathered from nearby. Together with the Cubans in the city who spontaneously helped them, the number was almost 10,000.
Five thousand people, these Cubans are not bad in combat effectiveness, especially the guerrillas. Their combat experience is far beyond that of the US military, and their fighting will is very tenacious, which really helped Schefter a lot.
The battle was extremely cruel from the beginning. The Spaniards were determined to win this port. Together with Diego's remnants, more than 12,000 people carrying Mauser rifles with bayonets swarmed towards the US defense lines. It looked like a tide.
The American soldiers who had experienced such a scene for the first time were frightened. The officers kept walking in the trenches, patting the soldiers on the shoulders with their white-gloved hands from time to time to calm them down.
At this moment, the Spanish artillery opened fire. On the artillery position in the distance, twelve Bofors 75 rapid-fire cannons were lined up in a row, pouring shells at the US position non-stop, one or two hundred rounds per minute.
The rate of fire instantly turned the U.S. military position into a sea of flames. The poor U.S. soldiers huddled in the trenches one by one, holding their heads and crying, waiting to be shattered into pieces in the flames of the shell explosion. Fortunately, God took care of it today, and the wind direction was not conducive to the Spaniards.
, so the terrifying gas bomb has not fallen yet.
Schefter watched this scene with an expressionless face in the rear command post. Although the Spanish rapid-fire artillery shocked him, this scene could not scare the veteran who had crawled out of the corpse mountain of the Civil War. He calmly said
With a wave of his hand, the signal soldier next to him immediately raised a semaphore. Then, on a high ground in the distance, an observer with a gun scope reported the coordinates. The signal soldier also used the semaphore to notify the American warships at sea in the Bay of Matanzas.
All the main guns began to aim at the same time, and then roared.
Among the charging Spanish soldiers, huge fireballs exploded one after another.
"Attack, speed up!" General Torres shouted with a sullen face, looking at the panicked soldiers in the flames of the exploding large-caliber artillery shells.
Although this kind of shelling looks scary, it actually does not cause much damage. Indirect targeting is still a new thing for artillery from all countries. Even the US military has just begun to learn it. Coupled with the inherent flaws of naval guns, the shells are absolutely useless.
Most of them missed their targets, and a few shells even landed on the US military's own positions.
The charging Spaniards immediately began to accelerate. At this time, the Gatling machine gun of the US military on the opposite side rang out, and dense bullets spurted out. The Spaniards fell in pieces, and the Bofors heavy machine guns carried behind them followed closely.
Starting from the same moment, Gatling, who also fired at the US military, using black powder bullets, immediately became a target in front of Bofors, who used smokeless powder. The black smoke emitted from the muzzle of the gun made it clear that both sides were firing, regardless of the rate of fire or the speed of fire.
The continuity of shooting was even more different, not to mention the mortar roll call at close range. Soon the few Gatling guns in the US military stopped making any movement.
At this time, as the distance between the two sides narrowed, the naval guns stopped firing. At the same time, the American rifles in the trenches opened fire. The dense volley of bullets became the most deadly threat to the Spaniards. In an instant, blood spattered and corpses piled up.
The charging Spaniards fired back with the same dense bullets. The American soldiers in the trenches screamed and fell down one by one. The remaining people braved the bullets fired from the opposite side and the shells exploding around them, mechanically
Repeating the shooting action, the two armies with almost the same strength began a bloody battle outside the city of Matanzas.
At the same time, a large number of Spanish troops were coming from all over the country, preparing to completely wipe out the U.S. troops who set foot on Cuban soil. At the same time, the second U.S. military unit also began to gather at the Port of Tampa to prepare to reinforce Matan.
SARS, but they now face a very serious problem. They cannot cross the Florida Strait. The transport ship has it, but the escort ship does not.
And Cervera's fleet is wandering like a pride of lions on this sea of more than 100 kilometers, so Dewey must return to Tampa from Matanzas, and then escort the second group of soldiers back and leave Matanzas.
Dewey felt a shudder when he thought about the difficult voyage he was about to embark on.
"How many battleships are we going to lose this time?" He said to himself a little nervously, looking at the Severa fleet watching him on the distant sea.
However, Cervera was not planning to attack them this time, and he did not have a lot of ammunition in his hands, so he had to use it sparingly. Moreover, Dewey did not have soldiers with him at this time, so those merchant ships were of little value. With the industrial capabilities of the United States,
Simply sinking a few merchant ships is meaningless.
The twelve wolves just quietly watched Dewey heading north, with only one destroyer following behind, reporting their position to Severa at any time, including when Dewey arrived in Tampa, when he started loading, and so on.
It was time to set sail again, and all intelligence was continuously delivered to the commander.