After two days and three nights of pursuit, the Expeditionary Fleet forced the Lima fleet to return to the port of Kayao. This is the outer port of Lima, the capital of the Peruvian Governor. It has no advantages except for the vast port and deep water, especially in the military.

There is a peninsula in Lima city that penetrates deep into the ocean. On this peninsula, the Spaniards built a fort, which has been continuously expanded in the past decade to form the Felipe Castle. This castle occupying the commanding heights is equipped with hundreds of artillery pieces, covering the wide harbor within the fire range. Although the north turret of the harbor can form cross fire with Felipe City, it is too internal to prevent enemy ships from entering the mooring land, so the outer defense relies more on the island of San Lorenzo and affiliated islands outside Lima.

The location of Lima City did not consider the need for military defense at all. If it were not for the rise of the empire, the threat of this city would always be just pirates. Therefore, surrounding Lima's low stone wall would be enough, and even Fort Felipe might not exist.

Boom! Boom!

The sound of shelling of the Imperial Navy warships sounded in the city of Lima. Although the Peru Governor Pedro, who was standing at the top of Felipe Castle, and the Lima Fleet Commander Raphael, both knew that the Chinese were showing off their power, but they had no choice. Except for the six battleships brought out by Raphael, the other six were repaired in the shipyard. It took three days to launch these ships and prepare for the battle. Now Lima can only watch the Chinese show off their power in the sea.

"If they dare to disturb me again, I will send all those idiots to the island of San Lorenzo to guard the fort." Pedro told him in an unquestionable tone when facing the adjutant who kept sending messages.

Since the arrival of the Chinese Expeditionary Fleet, all the merchants and squires in the Lima area have been in a state of hysteria. They are very interested in knowing whether the Peruvian Governor's Office has the ability to protect the merchant ships in the port of Kayao. At the same time, they are crazy about transporting the merchant ship's cargo ashore, making the inner port area of ​​Lima City messy.

"Your Excellency Governor, look, the Chinese seem to be throwing things into the sea." Another adjutant pointed to the sea and said.

Pedro said angrily: "You idiot, can't you see that they are measuring the water depth?"

"No, I just measured the water depth, and now I have started throwing things, look." The adjutant retorted.

Pedro then set up his telescope again and watched the Chinese ships' actions. The six battleships blocked the waterways on both sides like castles, and only two schooners went deep into the port area. Outside the range of the artillery, they had just seen that they used a depth-shot plumb to measure the depth, but now, the two schooners had turned their heads and used small boats to pull the action in front. The lower deck of the stern building was opened, and rolling things were thrown from time to time, feeling like sheep pulling sheep's dung eggs.

After careful observation, Pedro couldn't figure out what the Chinese were doing, so he asked Raphael, who had rich combat experience with the Chinese. Raphael kept watching the opponent's actions. When facing Governor Pedro's question, he said helplessly: "Governor General, the Chinese are bridging."

"Bray, what does it mean?" Pedro had no idea about Bray's statement.

However, Raphael participated in the Indian Ocean Navy. During that naval battle, the Netherlands, Spain, France, Denmark, and Sweden brought the forced Britain (in fact, except for Spain, there were some East India companies) and fought a decisive battle with the Imperial Navy in the Madras area on the east coast of India, in which the Chinese used mines.

Raphael explained: "It is a new type of naval combat weapon, which the Chinese call mines and can be used to block the port. The round thing is the thunder body, which contains a lot of explosives, and the iron anchor is tied to the bottom. After measuring the depth of the water, they threw the mines into the water. The iron anchor hooked the ground and underwater to ensure that the mines will not float away. The mines float at a certain height from the sea. This height is unseen by people on the water surface, but can also make the underwater part of the ship encounter.

There are many firearms on the thunder body, similar to flintlock machines. Whenever the hull touches, it will explode. No ship can withstand the damage of a mine."

"How should we deal with this kind of mine?" Pedro asked.

Raphael said: "In fact, mines are a very unstable weapon. Most mines will enter water due to sealing problems, resulting in complete failure. We also cleared mines with the Dutch in Madras. It is not difficult to find enough divers."

Pedro asked directly: "Can you finish these things in one day?"

"It can't be done. In fact, no one can guarantee that the scheduling will be completed. Even three years after the end of the Indian Ocean War, there was news that a British ship in Madras was sunk by a mine. Perhaps it could not be discharged in one month or three months." Raphael said in despair.

After hearing this, Pedro fell into deep thought and murmured: "So that's it."

"Governor General, what did you say?" Raphael asked.

Pedro said: "Obviously, Brey is not targeting the Lima fleet, but the city of Lima. They deliberately disturbed the Lima fleet outside the sea, and asked you to retreat to the port of Kayao and block it with mines so that they can do whatever they want at sea. General Raphael, you should be clear that the enemy's army has crossed the Andes, and I think they will soon be on the city of Lima."

"No way, why do they have the courage to land in Lima City directly?" Raphael felt incredible about Pedro's guess.

Pedro asked back, "General Raphael, do you think they really need to land directly in Lima?"

Raphael spent longer in Peru than Pedro. He quickly shook his head and said that it was not necessary. The city of Lima has a tropical desert climate that is thousands of kilometers north and south, which is related to cold currents and southeast trade winds. Lima is the ultimate in the world. It often does not rain for decades, but the river originating in the Andes flows westward into the Pacific Ocean, forming many irrigated agricultural areas along the coast.

During the Inca Empire, these areas were not well developed. After all, the core area of ​​the Indian country was on the plateau and mountains. However, during the Spanish colonial era, the Spanish found that these riverside areas were especially suitable for growing wheat and grapes, and bread and wine were indispensable things that the Spanish could not lack, so these places were developed.

Because of agricultural development, these places also have ports of all sizes. Obviously, they cannot withstand the attack of the Chinese army.

As Pedro expected, after the Expeditionary Fleet decided to block the Lima fleet in the port, the Marines landed in Pisco and Saint Vincent de Canet. The former is the latest wine producing area, while the latter has a development history of hundreds of years, especially the latter. The Marines seized a large amount of food and horses here, which greatly reduced the logistical pressure from the army that came from afar.

The fall of the two southern towns was soon known to Lima. Pedro knew very well that there were definitely not many Chinese attacks there. The reason was that the straight-line distance from Santiago in Chile to Lima was more than 2,500 kilometers. Along the way, there was also a passing through the largest desert in South America. It was completely impossible for land advancement. All troops must be transported by sea, but the Chinese could not let the army and the fleet act at the same time. After all, no one could be sure that the naval battle would be won before setting off.

Therefore, the two southern towns must have been seized by land forces operating with the fleet, with a number of no more than two thousand people. This is a completely defeatable military force, but by a month later, the main force of the enemy in Chile will arrive, and this possibility will not exist.

Pedro told Raphael about his idea and received Raphael's support. With the lack of clarity in the strength of the Chinese fleet, Raphael did not want to consume precious ships, so he naturally hoped that land warfare could solve the problem. However, when Pedro proposed to send troops to Pisco at a high-level meeting, he was fully opposed. The court of prosecution, merchant representatives and local squire were all opposed.

In desperation, Pedro could only draw military officers and senior officials with service experience from the army and provinces to discuss this issue with them, but the consequence was that these people's opposition was more intense than those representatives.

The officers' reasons are very simple: sending troops to Pisco is seeking death.

"You see, Lima City is here and Pisco is here, and the two are sixty-four gigabytes (a unit of distance used by Spanish colonists, equivalent to 5.5 kilometers on the sea and 4.8 kilometers on the land), while Saint Vincent de Canet is almost in the middle of the two. We will inevitably go by sea, but now the sea control power is in the hands of the Chinese, so we can only go to the land.

Obviously, we cannot walk the Inca Trail inland, otherwise we may not be able to reach it in two months. We can only walk along the coastal areas. With such a long distance and we have no sea control, the ending is obvious." Army Commander Fonseca introduced Pedro very seriously.

Fonseca was Pedro's friend, the former Chief of Prosecutor of Charkas, but before he took office, the La Plata region managed by Charkas was occupied by the empire. He had been stranded in Lima. As a nobleman who had participated in many wars, Fonseca was quite capable, so Pedro was willing to believe his analysis.

"What's obvious, Fonseca, my friend, you have to say it carefully." Pedro told the others to leave and said to Fonseca.

Fonseca said helplessly: "If I were the commander of the Chinese army, I would immediately retreat after discovering the army you sent, and retreat until Pisco. Then, after our army left St. Vincent de Canet, we would immediately use the navy to launch another landing, and constrain our army in the desert area between the two towns.

Of course, they can also start a landing before we are about to arrive at St. Vincent de Canet, which is also a desert area to the north, so that you can destroy the army you sent south by just using the weather."

"In other words, if you want to defeat the Chinese, you must have the power to control the sea." Pedro asked.

Fonseca nodded slightly: "That's true, respected Governor. But I don't think General Raphael can seize the power of sea control in a short period of time. Their speed of clearing the waterways is outrageous, and the Chinese fleet is still harassed. He may not be able to leave the harbor within a month."

Pedro believed this. In the past few days, he had been observing Raphael's navy fighting wits and courage with the Chinese, but obviously, Raphael had fallen into a disadvantage. The mines arranged by the Chinese were true and false, both shallow and deep. Sometimes, it took half a day to detonate a mine. The diver took a risk to catch it, but found that it was just a barrel tied by an anchor and filled with some sand.

Sometimes, divers find a wine barrel tied underneath. When they go fishing, they trigger an explosion. It must be a mine that is tied up with a wine barrel. The mines are arranged by the Chinese. They know the location. Small ships can shuttle around the reserved channel value and shell out ships that demine. These ships are in a minefield and dare not move, so they are often sunk or burned by fire attack ships.

At night, the Chinese would send small boats to sneak into the waterway to lay mines, trapping the mined ships completely in the minefield. The Chinese even used the tide to place lightnings and blew up merchant ships and warships at the docks. However, this kind of lightning was not controlled and also destroyed a brigged schooner of the expeditionary fleet, which was no longer used.

Pedro said annoyedly: "My friend, if I don't lead my army to destroy the Chinese in the southern towns, then in a while, many troops will appear under the city of Lima. Although it was false that the legendary Chinese who captured the La Plata area had a size of 100,000, there must be many enemies, and pirates, Indians, and even some mixed-race people joined them, and time is no longer with us."

Fonseca said: "In fact, even if the enemy does not set a trap for us, I do not recommend you take the initiative. Francisco's infantry regiment was destroyed in Santiago City. In Lima, there is no longer a regular army of regiment-level forces. Relatively speaking, only by relying on Lima City and widely recruiting militias and using local armed forces can we defeat unknown enemies."

Pedro raised his head and said, "Fonseca, how are you talking about my negotiations with the Chinese?"

"What are you talking about when you negotiate?" Fonseca asked.

"In a few months, my successor will come. Wouldn't it be great if I could delay it for a few months?"
Chapter completed!