Unlike the imperial emperor who readily agreed to Li Junwei's North American colonial disposal plan, the war in North America was very unsuccessful.

At the beginning, the expeditionary army went south to conquer, because most of the central colonies were owners' colonies, such as New York, which was actually New York, and the so-called York was Duke of York, and this Duke of York was James II. There were still many Catholics in the central colonies. After Li Junwei forced Fitz James to agree to Richard Cromwell to take over the New England colonies, Fitz James established a ruling core with Philadelphia as the base, and after a little settled, he continued to go south to occupy the rich southern colonies.

In fact, the southern colonies are not that rich anymore, especially in recent years, the single tropical crop cultivation of the southern colonies has been directly competed by similar commodities from the Empire and Brazil, Spain and other countries. The southern colonies mainly plant tobacco, sugar cane and indigo, and these commodities are also suitable for cultivation in Southeast Asia and East Africa, and South America, especially around the Indian Ocean. With the opening of the Suez Channel, especially the Suez Railway, these large number of cash crops have poured into Europe, causing the overall price of these commodities to drop a lot.

Although the UK has trade protection represented by the Navigation Act, there is also a loophole in the East India Company. Every year, East India Company buys a considerable amount of tobacco and sugar from the empire, which also reduces the price of the UK's internal market. You should know that the colonies where the empire planted these cash crops have been in operation for decades, and some are simply local productions of the empire. Although they have disadvantages in terms of freight, they are far superior in quality and technology. A safe environment and more efficient processing technology are not available to North American colonies. Therefore, in recent years, the economy of the southern colonies has shrunk a lot.

But Fitz James was not allowed to choose. In September of the 28th year of the Empire, the coalition forces entered Charleston, the largest town in the southern colony, but soon encountered resistance because Fitz James not only raised the tax rate on a large scale and increased tax items to expand his army, but also implemented strict religious policies, which led to the British in the colony resisting one after another. Sir Philip, who fled during the Battle of Boston, joined forces to attack the coalition forces.

The biggest failure occurred at Charleston Harbor. Disguised as a resistance organization of port personnel, he sneaked into the expeditionary fleet berthed in the port. The group of people transformed several small boats into mineboats. From the outside, it looked no different from ordinary small boats. It was just that a wooden pole with a wooden pole that was more than ten meters long was tied to the bottom of the water, and an explosive was loaded with gunpowder. It was in two firing methods. One was the trigger fuse using the fire hat as the detonator, and the fire hat was bought from the soldiers of the Expeditionary Force. The other was the pull fuse transformed by the flintlock machine.

Due to the sealing of mines, only two of the five minecraft detonated in the end, and members of the resistance organization participated in the setting fire, resulting in huge losses to the expeditionary fleet.

The Salu Zi, a rut boat, was hit by a mineboat and exploded a huge hole. Because the Sail Cruise had no watertight compartment, the warship quickly entered water, and was killed and the drowned soldiers reached fourteen. The ship also lost its repair value because of the damage to the keel. The Expeditionary Fleet simply recycled the artillery and steam engines on the ship and abandoned it.

The armored frigate, Copper Wall, was hit by the right side of the ship by a mineboat. Fortunately, the mine was blown up on the armored belt under the waterline, but it also caused damage to the hull and a large amount of water inflow. However, the watertight cabin of the iron armored ship rescued the ship, but the one who was not transported was also the Copper Wall. Because it was leaning on the shore, Copper Wall was attacked, causing most of the hull to overfire. The ship was originally transformed with a cruise ship hull, which burned a lot, and a gunpowder depot explosion occurred. However, the steam engine, which was powered, was basically intact. In the end, the ship was abandoned. The steam engine was sent to Boston and used by waste. It was eventually transformed by Pan Mingqi into a shallow water heavy gunboat.

During the war in North America, the attack on the warships in Charleston was the biggest loss of the Imperial Expeditionary Force, but it was also the biggest loss of the British colonists' resistance organization in North America. Because of this attack, the empire only lost two warships, which was insignificant to the powerful empire, but the resistance organization lost the most prestigious commander Sir Philip.

It was not Sir Philip who died in the attack, but the subsequent reaction to the attack.

The mineboat used by the attacker was modified by Sir Philip himself. He used paddles as a power and mine explosives fixed on the underwater pole as an attack method. The problem is that Sir Philip used some methods. He told the craftsmen who made the pole that this kind of boat would evacuate the crew in advance before the explosion attack. He also deceived the crew involved in the attack. The ten-meter long pole and the amount of black gunpowder in the mine were enough to ensure everyone's safety. The result was that the two ends of the scam were deceived. At the moment of the explosion, all the crew members who rowed were killed by violent explosions, and some of them had no bones left.

Only two of the more than forty attackers on the six dinghys escaped. The dinghys they were riding was hit by a 178mm shell at a distance. The two fell into the water and snorted to the shore to escape while the chaos was running. However, they also saw the scene of all the members of the two successful dinghys. The two believed that the weapons of the modified dinghys made them deceived them, so they killed the craftsmen's family. After learning the truth, the craftsmen were in great pain and pretended to join the resistance organization. Finally, at the end of the 28th year of the empire, they killed Sir Philip in the tobacco plantation where he was hiding.

Of course, as the war with Britain expanded, the losses were not only on the Expeditionary Forces and Expeditionary Fleets, but also on the Caribbean Sea, so much more that Li Junwei even regretted provoking the Earl of Stockton.

When Li Junwei led the expeditionary force to send troops to the North American colonies, the Earl of Stockton also led a small fleet that he had pieced together to expedition the Caribbean. The fleet was backbone with three cruise ships, the largest being only 800 tons, the smallest being only Liu Bait, and the remaining five were double-brigged or single-masted schooners, and arrived in the Caribbean in April of the 28th year of the empire.

At that time, the Treaty of Madrid had been signed, and the imperial merchants had the authority to legally enter the Spanish American colonies. However, the problem was that they had just ceased to fight with Spain. With backward information transmission methods, and at the beginning, the two sides were tense due to war relations, and trade would not really flourish until the empire's twenty-nine years. Therefore, in the Caribbean, it was rare to see the imperial merchant ships. Even if there were, they were small merchant ships mainly smuggling trade. Without exception, these merchant ships were all flying shears, at least schooners using flying shear hollow bows.

The result was that this group of fleets with British flag could not get close to them at all. The two months after the arrival of the Earl of Stockton was only to restore the pirates' base in the Bahamas with the pirates. However, an accident gave the Earl of Stockton the biggest gain since he organized a privateer. At the end of June of the 28th year of the Empire, Stockton's small fleet mixed three sailing frigates and two pirate ships, and approached a coal fleet in the name of the pirate fleet that cooperated with the Imperial Expeditionary Fleet.

This coal transport fleet exited the Mediterranean from West Jin and replenished coal for the Panama land of Bello on the Caribbean Sea. Originally, there were eight ships in the coal transport fleet, all of which were used together with sails, and three Iron Wall-class frigates escorted. However, in the Cape Verde Islands, the fleet was separated. Five coal transport ships and two Iron Wall-class frigates went to Boston to transport coal for the expeditionary fleet. Three coal transport ships went to Port Bello. However, after entering the Caribbean, the frigate separated from the fleet due to a storm. The fleet was attacked by the Earl of Stockton. Although the crew resisted, only one of the most powerful coal transport ships with the fastest left, and the remaining two were captured by the British fleet.

After learning the news, Stockton immediately ordered to throw away all the coal on the ship and force the Chinese crew to drive to London. Earl Stockton knew very well that after the Battle of Ireland, not only Britain, but also the entire European navy were shocked by steam-powered ironclad ships. It was not difficult to add ironclad ships to warships, but steam-power was an insurmountable gap for the European navy. Taking these two steam-powered merchant ships back was of great significance to the British Navy.

As Stockton expected, Stockton returned to London was treated like a hero, and tens of thousands of people crowded to the docks of the Thames to welcome him, because the ignorant British saw the merchant ship spewing black smoke and hulls, and thought that this was the legendary ironclad ship, and thought that the Earl of Stockton defeated the Imperial Expeditionary Fleet and captured two ironclad ships.

The British Parliament in London also gave Stockton a generous reward, and just two steam-powered merchant ships gave him a reward of up to 80,000 pounds. This was almost as much as 350,000 taels of silver, and it could be purchased for a serious iron-armored cruiser.

The result was that more and more British people chose to join privateers, especially those who had trade relations with British North American colonies but were forced to stop because of the war.

For the British Navy, two steam-powered merchant ships were also precious, which allowed the British to get access to the real steam ship power. You must know that at this time, the British were just trying to install their inefficient drainage steam engines on the warships to reduce the number of naval personnel and work intensity.

Boston, Expeditionary Fleet Station.

This was originally a garage warehouse located near the Boston Harbor. It was bought by the Expeditionary Fleet as a garage to facilitate the fleet personnel to rest ashore. The only red brick two-story house naturally became the command center. With the squeaking sound, Li Junwei, who was sitting in the office, knew that Pan Mingqi had returned. His only steam motorcycle was given to Pan Mingqi and asked him to be the car for the station to the shipyard. This was Zhao Longcheng and Li Su's idea. Now everyone in Boston knows that the guy riding the weird tricycle with black and white smoke was His Royal Highness of the Empire. Neither of them could guarantee that someone would suddenly jump out, shoot a shot or throw an explosive.

"Doctor, look at this." Li Junwei handed Pan Mingqi the battle report he had just sent from Beiluo Port.

The battle report was the robbery of the coal transport fleet. Pan Mingqi looked at it and asked, "Your Highness, is there anything important to besides coal... or is there anyone important?"

"Don't you think the steam engines and boilers of the two ships are the most important?" Li Junwei asked back.

Pan Mingqi nodded slightly, and then he understood Li Junwei's intention. Li Junwei asked: "I want to know if this will change our naval advantage over the UK. I hope you can analyze this for me from the perspective of a professional."

"I haven't been to the UK, but I know that the shipbuilding industry in the UK is very developed throughout Europe, which can be seen from the ships I saw in Boston. And the UK is also the fastest and best place for steam power in Europe today, although they have only reached the level we were thirty years ago. However, this does not mean that it will take thirty years for the UK to reach our current level.

If it weren't for this, I think it would take ten to twelve years for the UK to reach our current level, and perhaps only twenty years would be able to have the same technical level as us." Pan Mingqi said while making tea for Li Junwei.

"why is that?"

Pan Mingqi said: "Because the expansion of technology is uncontrollable, for example, the Steam Power Act that you and Lord Dan Tai implemented together allows our domestic merchants to export steam engines of European technical standards to Europe, but this technical level is very broad, is it manufacturing level, design level or work efficiency? We used ten or twenty years to spend a lot of wealth experiments on designs, and Europeans only need to get a finished product to quickly copy them. Some of the designs and structures can be used on more advanced steam engines.

In fact, this bill just doesn’t allow Europeans to reach the top in one step, but every step that Europeans have risen in new technology will inevitably be built by us. Of course, Your Highness, I do not oppose your bill. In fact, the entire empire supports it, because without these bills, new technologies in Europe will also improve. From the perspective of technological progress alone, the British would have been able to take two or three years of detours after getting two mature steam engines."

When Pan Mingqi said this, he picked up the war report and took a look, and said, "The two ships that were stolen were made of Giant C steam engines, which may have a history of ten years, which is extremely precious to the British and even the Europeans. But that is only at the technical level and design level. The development of steam engines now involves multiple disciplines, and they cannot copy them even if they get it. This is determined by the industrial level. So if these two ships are only used for research, then there will be no problem within ten years. Of course, it is not ruled out that the British used two merchant ships to rebuild two ironclad ships.
Chapter completed!