On August 12, the fleet set off from Rio Grande do Sul and sailed for half a month before arriving in the center of the Caribbean Sea. From the ship, you can see scattered small islands not far away and a piece of land dozens of nautical miles away.
Sun Bin stood on the bow of the ship, staring at a small island with dense vegetation ahead, and said to Chen Sen next to him, "The small island ahead is of medium size, and it would be a good transfer station for our army in the Caribbean.
"
Sun Bin was talking about the small island closest to the fleet. There are two larger islands nearby. However, compared with the other two islands, the island in front has a steep terrain and a small cultivable area of several dozen.
Only a dozen simple wooden houses and a row of sparse rubber trees can be seen growing randomly on the small island covering an area of 1 square kilometers.
A watchtower near the sea leaned crookedly on an oak tree. The port built next to the coast may have been destroyed by the storm, leaving only a pile of stacks corroded by the sea water.
Apparently this island had been abandoned for a while and became an ownerless land in Sun Bin's eyes.
"Mr. Sun has a good vision. This small island is close to Puerto Rico and Haiti, and is surrounded by dense islands. It is a good place for our small fleet to hide." Chen Sen nodded in agreement and changed the subject, "But I don't know about this.
Which country does this small island belong to? If it is a colony of Britain or France, the fleet building a base here will face attacks from the British and French navies. In this way, the mission assigned by the prince will be failed."
The Caribbean Islands have always been an ideal base for pirates and an important waterway for the two major European powers, Britain and France. The British and French navies often patrol the Caribbean and severely crack down on pirates active on their colonial islands, making many Caribbean pirate forces
They dare not easily attack the colonial islands of Britain and France, and even the islands abandoned by Britain and France will have warships patrolling regularly to prevent pirates from occupying the islands and posing a threat to the waterways.
The fleet passed many islands along the way. However, either the naval forces of European countries were stationed on them, or the area was too small to be used as a base for the Chinese fleet. However, the size and geographical location of the islands in front of them were good, so they approached the islands and observed them for a while.
Later, Sun Bin considered using this island as a base for the Chinese fleet, without considering the ownership of the island.
"There are so many islands in the Caribbean Sea, so it doesn't necessarily mean that the islands we finally spotted belong to Britain and France, right?" Sun Bin smiled and turned to Li Han, who was returning with the Chinese mission team: "Brother Li Han,
You have been in the Caribbean for a long time, and you should know the news about this island. Why don't Brother Li introduce to us the specific ownership of this island and the situation around the Caribbean, so as to help us make a judgment."
"I originally planned to give you a detailed introduction to the situation around the Caribbean when I get to Feilong Island. Since Mr. Sun asked, I will give you a rough explanation."
Li Hancong walked up to the bow of the ship, pointed to the island in front and said, "This island originally belonged to France, but was later bought by the King of Denmark and became a Danish colony. It was named St. John's Island by the Danes, but because of its shape
It looks like a turtle, so the navy brothers in heaven called it Turtle Island.
Turtle Island covers an area of about fifty square kilometers. There were originally plantations opened by the Danes on the island. However, the Americans abolished the slave trade a few years ago, and the Danes lacked slaves to plant commercial plants. This small island and the other two
A larger island gradually became deserted. Because Turtle Island was the smallest in size and was hit by a storm three years ago, the Danes completely abandoned Turtle Island. More than a hundred slaves on the island were also transferred to the largest island, St. Croix.
On the island of Roos.”
"The Danes also have colonies in the Caribbean?"
Sun Bin asked.
No wonder Sun Bin was suspicious. Whether he was fighting with the foreign gun teams composed of soldiers from Britain, France and other countries in the mainland, or the general situation of the Western powers explained by Li Mingyuan after joining the Chinese Independence Army, Denmark was not mentioned. But like this
A small and insignificant country in the impression actually occupies colonies in the Caribbean, which are valued by Britain, France, and the Netherlands. As soon as Li Han said this, the first thought in Sun Bin's mind was disbelief.
"Turtle Island is indeed a Danish colony. Mr. Sun, don't underestimate Denmark. Although I don't know Denmark's strength among European countries, in the Caribbean Sea, the Danish navy is much stronger than ordinary pirates."
In order to deepen Sun Bin and others' understanding of the Danish navy, Li Han continued, "A year ago, a relatively powerful pirate in the Caribbean joined other pirates to attack Puerto Rico. As a result, the intelligence was leaked, and five thousand pirates and the local rebel forces in Puerto Rico were captured.
The Spanish were defeated in one fell swoop, and more than a thousand of the 5,000-man troops escaped. After the remnants of the pirates escaped, they were unwilling to fail and wanted to make up for their losses elsewhere. In the end, they chose the Danish West Indies colony as their target.
There are more than fifty islands in the Danish West Indian colonies, including Turtle Island. Among them, St. Thomas is the slave trade center and commercial transit station in the center of the Caribbean. The island is rich in oil and water, but the Danish military force is only a dozen ships.
The total number of merchant ships, five or six warships, navy and island garrison is only five to six hundred people.
The number of pirates who escaped from Puerto Rico was over a thousand. After the operation failed, the pirate leaders annexed seven more small groups of pirates, increasing the number of pirates to 1,500, and once again invited other pirate forces to send troops together.
Most of the pirates who attacked the Danish colony but suffered a loss did not accept the invitation, and only some pirates who could not survive joined."
Li Han paused and then said, "The pirates gathered their strength and learned from the last lesson and did not immediately send troops to attack the West Indies. Instead, they waited until the Danish warships left port before launching an attack on St. Thomas."
Nearly two thousand pirates attacked the island aggressively, but it took them half a day to capture the bunker built by the Danes. In the end, they were attacked by the Danish navy who returned for reinforcements, and the leader of a large pirate group that was rampant in the Caribbean was killed.
The remaining pirates were either taken prisoner or fled in all directions, and the situation was no longer the same as before."
After Li Han finished speaking, he sighed for a while, as if he still felt pity for the pirates' failure.
"Brother Li Han means that once we occupy Turtle Island, the Danes will also eliminate us to ensure the safety of St. Thomas Island?"
"Yes, the commercial status of St. Thomas declined with the abolition of slavery. In order to maintain the normal operation of the islands, Denmark also imported funds to the colony. However, even if the islands cannot bring profits to Denmark, the Danes have no intention of giving up the islands.
After the pirates attacked the islands, the Americans sent representatives to buy the islands from Denmark. The two parties initially signed an agreement, but the Danes did not fulfill the agreement in the end. In order to reduce expenses, Turtle Island was abandoned and the other two islands were abandoned.
The investment from above has also been reduced a lot, but the military strength has not been reduced but is showing signs of strengthening."
"The most threatening pirates have been wiped out. Isn't it unnecessary for the Danes to strengthen their defense forces?"
Chen Sendao.
"No, the Danes are not guarding against pirates, they should be Americans." Sun Bin said thoughtfully.
"Mr. Sun is right. When it comes to the Caribbean, what pirates fear most is not the British Navy, which hangs pirates when they catch them, nor France, which has a powerful military, but the United States, which is close to the Caribbean.
Americans appear to be harmless businessmen on the mainland, but this is not the case in the Americas and the Caribbean.
The Americans engaged in the extermination of Indians on land. Many Indians who were originally civilized by Westerners fled the United States through Mexico. Some Indians who relied on the sea had no way to make a living and had to go to sea to become pirates. However, the Americans not only expanded on land,
There are also their warships sailing on the ocean,
New Bajo Island was originally an uninhabited island in Colombia. The surrounding pirates often stayed on New Bajo Island. However, American warships occupied New Bajo Island and continued to attack nearby pirate forces on the pretext of combating piracy.
They occupied the islands left by the pirates and refused to leave. Because of similar actions, not only did the pirates regard the U.S. Navy as their enemy, but countries such as Britain and France were also dissatisfied with the actions of the United States.
The Americans have no credibility in the Americas. They just occupied a large area of land from Mexico a few years ago, and then they want to expand their land on the ocean. At the same time, they have no good intentions towards the Spanish colony of Cuba.
Such a country with strong expansion ambitions has set its sights on the Danish colonies. It is strange that the Danes can rest assured, so the Danes dare not relax the defense of the archipelago to prevent the Americans from sending troops to snatch it."
Li Han's words extinguished Sun Bin's thoughts of occupying Turtle Island. Turtle Island is a small island. Not only is it impossible for the Danes to give up, but even the Americans are involved. If the Chinese fleet occupied Turtle Island, I am afraid that they would be happiest.
The Americans can occupy Turtle Island in the name of exterminating pirates. In this case, it will be a dead end for the Chinese fleet to occupy Turtle Island.
What Li Mingyuan often said to the top brass of the Chinese Independent Army is: The United States is the biggest obstacle to the development and growth of the Chinese Independent Army. When the Chinese Independent Army is still weak, Americans may not pay attention, but when the Chinese Independent Army develops to a certain level,
The Americans will definitely get involved to stop the expansion of the Chinese Independence Army.
The United States is the biggest enemy of the Chinese Independence Army. Under Li Mingyuan's indoctrination, this sentence has become the consensus of the top brass of the Chinese Independence Army, but Sun Bin recognized the threat from the Americans earlier than others.
Sun Bin reluctantly moved his eyes away from Turtle Island and drove to the center of the Caribbean. A suitable island as a base was still not found, and his main mission was to go to Prussia, so the task of finding an island construction base could only rely on Chen