When the news of the French attacking the Calais Fortress came, King Henry VII of England was panicked. However, thinking of the strength of the Calais Fortress, Henry VII did not lose hope. Then, he sent his men to various places, hoping to mobilize thousands more people to transport them to the Calais Fortress by sea to help resist the French attack.
However, unexpectedly, a few days later, Henry VII learned that only a few hundred British troops were left, and they fled from Calais on the ships on the dock. The Calais Fortress naturally fell into the hands of the French.
Hearing this news, Henry VII vomited an old blood on the spot, and then fainted gloriously...
After waking up, Henry VII hurriedly ordered the minister:
"Quick, hurry! Instruct the navy to enter the state of full preparation immediately. When you see the French fleet, be sure to sink!"
"Your Majesty, what's wrong?" Navy Secretary Johnson was a little puzzled.
"The French have mastered the method to easily break the oak gate. Now London is empty and it is another oak gate. If the French army is allowed to land across the sea and surround London, Britain will destroy its country!"
Johnson thought about it and it was really the case. So he suggested:
"Or what if we withdraw our troops in Ireland?"
"No, no need. This is a great opportunity to eliminate Edward, and it cannot be lost. Although the French army is strong, the premise is that the French fleet must be able to defeat the British fleet and control the English Channel. Otherwise, they will not be able to get through. Therefore, I require the British fleet to be fully prepared for combat. As long as our fleet can control the strait, the French will not be able to get through." Henry VII said firmly.
"Your Majesty is wise!" After saying that, Johnson quickly mobilized the warships and went to guard the English Channel.
"So, your majesty, what should I do if the Scottish invasion?" Henry VII's stepfather Thomas Stanley asked worriedly. After discovering that Henry VII had no sign of withdrawing troops, Scotland's 10,000 troops had broken through Hadrian's Wall and began to loot some towns in northern England, with the troops aiming directly at Newcastle.
"Scottish Army..." Henry VII frowned... After a long time, he sighed and said:
"Let him go, there are guards in northern England, and Newcastle also has 1,500 defenders. I hope they can hold on..."
"Then let it go?"
"Share? What do I do? The main force of the army went to Ireland. After finally arresting Edward, how could I allow him to run away? As long as Edward dies, my throne will be at ease. As for the Scottish army, I will not be able to fight London for a while. Don't forget that there are so many counties in England, and each county has troops. Before Scotland fights one city after another, the war in Ireland was over long ago. A few days ago, Richard wrote a letter saying that they had arrived near Dublin and were preparing to attack the city. I don't know if they succeeded..."
"What if the Scottish army came to London?"
"Don't be afraid, the Scottish army is only 10,000. Even if it hits London, it will consume a lot of troops. When you arrive in London, it will be good to have 8,000 left. There are also four or five thousand soldiers in the city of London, all of which are regular troops, and you can completely resist it. When Richard's army comes back, it will just destroy the Scottish army and then go north to annex your Scotland!" Henry VII said fiercely.
"What if Scotland also bombarded the city gates with artillery? We may not be able to support reinforcements to return to China..."
"This... I will send someone to Sussex to collect iron materials and melt and cast several iron doors to replace the oak door..."
Sussex is the center of iron smelting in England. There are many blacksmith shops here, so there is naturally no shortage of iron materials. It is no problem to collect iron materials here and make dozens of large iron doors.
...
In fact, Marin was also struggling at this time. The intelligence from the UK was constantly being delivered to him. At this time, Marin suddenly discovered that there was a chance to destroy Britain...
What opportunity? That is, Marin can send a fleet to destroy the British fleet. As long as the British fleet is destroyed, the French army can safely cross the sea, then surround London and destroy Britain. At least, killing Henry VII is no problem.
At present, Britain has only 120 warships in total, most of which are merchant ships of the "Five Harbor Alliance". Moreover, they are classical Kirk sailboats with thinner sides. The side sides of such ships cannot withstand the attack of Marin's warship artillery.
Now, there are more than 23 warships under Marin. Before, there were 8 warships and 15 level 250 armed merchant ships. However, as time goes by, the 250-level armed merchant ships have increased to 25, and the warships have increased to 10. In other words, Marin now has 35 warships.
Of course, even with 35 warships, Marin's navy could not shake up. Why? There were enough ships and enough guns, but there were not enough gunpowder...
Because of the large number of artillery and large caliber in naval battles, the consumption of gunpowder is also amazing. A warship of 20 18-pound cannons consumed 120 pounds of gunpowder on the spot. During naval battles, artillery fires on average every two minutes. If the guns are kept firing within an hour and 30 rounds are fired, the consumption of gunpowder is 3,600 pounds... If we shoot for one day, well, we will fire a 5-hour cannon, which is 18,000 pounds, equivalent to 8.16 tons of gunpowder. 10 warships will consume 81.6 tons of gunpowder...
There are also those 25 armed merchant ships whose number of artillery has been reduced by half, but it also consumes dozens of tons of gunpowder...
In other words, after a sea battle, the consumption of gunpowder was hundreds of tons. Damn, Marin felt again that the gunpowder was not enough! Or to be more precise, saltpeter was not enough...
I'm afraid that only by developing Chile's saltpeter mine can we let naval warships fire at will...
So Marin became more concerned about Panama's development. As long as he gained a foothold in Panama, he could go north to Mexico, the Inca Empire in Peru, or the desert in northern Chile further south to dig saltpeter...
However, the desert in northern Chile is too drought and has not rained for hundreds of years. Perhaps only in this climate can the water-soluble saltpeter be preserved. Otherwise, saltpeter would have been dissolved and penetrated into the ground by rainwater...
It’s true that Marin wants to mine saltpeter, but who can adapt to the desert climate?
"By the way, the Arabs and Berbers in North Africa seem to be quite adapted to this climate. Their homes are also arid deserts... Maybe, you can go to Morocco to get some Berber slaves and take camels to the desert in northern Chile to mine saltpeter..." Marin fell into deep thought...
Marin remembers that in a novel, he mentioned that Arabs used to dig saltpeter in northern Chile. The novel said that there are too many saltpeter in the Chilean desert, which is of amazing value. Therefore, it needs to be kept confidential. Otherwise, if people know that hundreds of millions of saltpeter are picked up on the ground, they will probably be snatched by people. Therefore, the big way is to let the Chinese manage the Arabs to mine Chilean saltpeter. In this way, it will not be easy to leak the secret...
Marin quickly wrote down this method. Although it is not necessary to use Chinese people, it is necessary to use the most loyal subordinates. As for mining saltpeter in the desert, it is okay for Arabs or Berbers...
Chapter completed!