The Rise of the European Emperor

After Captain Kidd led the fleet into the Irish Sea, he immediately changed his style and began to search for British ships resolutely, seeing direct sinking. , Visit the latest chapter: ШШШ.79xs.СоМ.

But what made Kidd unexpected and also expected was that there was hardly a warship in the Irish Sea at this time, only some dilapidated warships.

How can you tell it's a warship? Because the St. George's Cross, representing England, and the red and white roses, representing the Tudor family, were also hoisted on the ship. The two flags are hoisted together, representing the Tudor royal family ruling England... Edward has not yet occupied England, so his army only flies the white rose battle flag, not the St. George's cross that represents England...

But these two kinds of flags are only hanging on those warships over 200 tons, but hanging on the dilapidated boats, how can they not look so right...

However, Kidd didn't care whether those boats were real warships or not, but directly bombarded them...

Henry VII was originally a "fascinated" and "confused" opponent this time, so he was also prepared to be sunk several ships. Therefore, these small boats sent are not only small, but also dilapidated, and many of them are basically on the verge of falling apart...

For these broken ships, the general disposal method is direct dismemberment. Useful wood is left to continue building the ship (such as some of the wood in the interior, which is rarely corroded and worn, and can be recycled), and the useless ragged wood is directly removed for firewood.

And this time, in order to "fascinate" and "confuse" the "French", the ships that Henry VII put on the Irish Sea were almost all old ships that were ready to be dismantled. The keel parts of many ships have been eaten away by sea maggots or termites, and they are about to fall apart...

In general, such a ship will be eliminated only if the keel is damaged. Because, if other parts are broken, it's a big deal to replace a wooden board. However, the damage to the keel is very serious, and it is easy to fall apart during sailing and has to be dismantled.

Therefore, the old ships sent by Henry VII this time are basically broken ships with rotten keels. Even though the fleet that Captain Kidd brought this time used the Spanish Clark sailboats, and the artillery caliber was not large, it was very easy to make a contribution to such a fast-breaking ship...

In a few days, more than a dozen "British warships" in the Irish Sea were sunk. Then, British ships were less visible in the Irish Sea.

At this time, the Clark sailboat that originally "reported to France" also turned back...

Of course, the ship did not go to France to report the news, but to guide a group of cargo ships at the mouth of the Shannon River in the southwest of the island of Ireland.

These cargo ships were all arranged there by Marin before to transport Edward's soldiers. In order not to be noticed by the British, these ships arrived in batches at the mouth of the Shannon River under Edward's control in the southwest of Ireland.

Stand by there.

Today, this ship has brought over all the 30 200-ton Kirk sailboats moored at the mouth of the Shannon River...

Seeing that there were almost no British warships in the Irish Sea, Captain Kidd set aside 10 warships to escort the 30 Kirk sailboats northward to transport Edward's army. Captain Kidd himself, with the remaining 20 warships, went to the port of Plymouth on the Cornwall Peninsula, where the English "fleet" was temporarily docked, and deliberately provoked.

Since acting, we must act the whole set. Marin's script is - let Kidd and his fleet, pretending to be French, deliberately seduce the British Navy to pursue. However, Wallace, the British commander who was huddled in Plymouth Harbour, ignored it.

In fact, Wallace couldn't even think about it. Because, the real fleet was hidden to the southeast coast. In the fleet he brought, only a few ships really belonged to the order of battle. The other ships, all fishing boats and small merchant ships, were simply vulnerable. Therefore, Wallace can only ignore Kidd's provocation.

At this time, Henry VII also carried out a large-scale tactical fraud. In order to give the French the illusion of "the 'terrorist' scheme succeeded", Henry VII specially found a lot of larger fishing boats, forming a huge scale of hundreds of ships.

Then, this fleet, from the southeastern coast of England, through the narrow Strait of Calais, was deliberately visible to the French.

The Strait of Calais is only 30 kilometers wide, and the British fleet travels in the middle of the strait. Even with the 'nature' eyes, the French can see that the British have indeed dispatched a large number of ships to the west... Of course, the French can only use the ' With naked eyes, because they don't have telescopes...

After swaggering through the Strait of Calais, this "fleet" of hundreds of large fishing boats continued in the middle of the English Channel and headed westward... It seems that this fleet really seems to be going to support the Irish Sea battlefield of……

After listening to the report of the coastal garrison, Louis XII also concluded that this British fleet was indeed going to hunt down the fleet of the Grand Duchy of the North Sea. Although there are not many big ships, there are so many medium-sized "warships", enough for Marin's fleet to drink a pot...

For Louis XII, though, it was none of his business whether Marin's fleet was good or not. The best thing is that Marin's fleet and the British fleet are in a lose-lose situation. At that time, the French just came out to clean up the mess...

...

A few days later, the "fleet" arrived at the port of Plymouth, where Wallace's fleet was docked, and joined with it. And Captain Kidd's fleet, who was provocative outside Plymouth Harbor, saw hundreds of ships coming to support, "scared" and immediately retreated to the Irish Sea to the west...

But the strange thing is that this "fleet" that came to reinforce did not pursue, but also stopped at Plymouth Harbor, and then everyone on board disembarked and landed...

Captain Kidd "knows" because Marin's "script" tells him that the fleet could be fake. And the so-called "sea battle" between the two sides was also a strange sea battle full of tacit understanding...

Because he was worried, Captain Kidd specially sent three ships to provoke him. As a result, the British simply ignored it. This time, Captain Kidd was finally relieved - this fleet was indeed fake. Otherwise, they would have been hunted down long ago...

Captain Kidd then left only four ships to monitor the movements of the British off the Cornwall peninsula. And he himself took the main force north to escort the transport of Edward's army...

If there are football 'fans' in later generations who see this strange naval battle, they will definitely snort - "Isn't this 'playing ball'?"

Yes, it does look a lot like match-fixing in later generations of football. From start to finish, Kidd's fleet sank a dozen small wrecks that were about to fall apart in the Irish Sea. Then, there was no real battle between the two fleets at all. The 'confrontation' near Plymouth Harbour is more like testing and deceiving each other...

It's just that both sides are proud - the British thought they had deceived the "French", while Kidd knew that he had indeed deceived the British...

Of course, the British were not wrong to think they had deceived the French. Because the real French were indeed "fascinated" and "confused" by the actions of the British. But in fact, Kidd's fleet is not French at all, but the Grand Duchy of the German North Sea...

Therefore, in this "sea battle" full of tacit understanding similar to match-fixing, both sides were very satisfied and believed that they had deceived the other side. Of course, one party really deceived the other party, while the other party "believed to deceive the other party"...