1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 54 Met Pirates? (one)

"There should be no soldiers from Boni here, it looks like they are all fishing boats!" Cao Xiong held up the binoculars to observe the coast for a long time, and then said: "Signal, tell Lao Hu to drive the boat over. . . to send them ashore. "

The tonnage of the ships commanded by Hu Wenjin was relatively small, and they could approach the pier a little, but only "slightly".This kind of fishing pier with unknown hydrology, approaching rashly, if it runs aground, you will not be able to cry.

Huang Binyuan asked his people to shout loudly at the scattered Boni fishing boats, asking them to approach the big boat so that they could take a small boat to dock.

However, the scattered fishing boats did not dare to approach at all, thinking that the big boats coming were Westerners or pirates.To be caught by either of these two, the consequences are not very good.

Huang Binyuan looked at the tribe with some discouragement. The man could say that if he worked harder, he could swim to the shore, but what about those women and children.

"Father, I'll swim to the shore. Let's see if I can find a boat!" Huang Mingfang volunteered.

Although somewhat reluctant, Huang Mingfang was "sent" to Cao Xiong by Huang Binyuan, and asked him to follow him to the continent in the extreme south.

Cao Xiong is optimistic about this. With this relationship, it will be convenient for him to travel to and from Daming in the future, and he will obtain a very crucial intermediate fulcrum.

Huang Binyuan assigned two strong escorts to go into the water with Huang Mingfang and swim to the shore together.

In about an hour, Huang Mingfang took three small boats from a small river fork and sailed over.

After transporting them back and forth twice, all the Huang clan landed ashore.At the time of parting, I was grateful again and again, and finally presented the three fishing boats to Cao Xiong's department.

The five large ships adjusted their sails and sailed towards the open sea, and then headed southwest with the help of a strong east wind.

"I don't think we can dock in Batavia." A day later, the fleet crossed the northwestern tip of Borneo (Kalimantan Island) and was about to turn around and head south to Batavia.In the evening, several ships docked in a bay for some repairs.

Everyone gathered on Cao Xiong's flagship (formerly the Santa Cruz) to discuss the next step.Yu Fukun bowed his head and pondered for a long time, and suddenly said: "Our five ships are full of people and property, especially gold and jewelry. It is hard to guarantee that the red-haired ghost will take advantage of the money and rob us on their territory in Batavia. Yes! Say it, how unjust it is!"

"Not really!" Zhou Yingping shook his head and said, "Although the Dutch are tyrannical at sea, they pay more attention to order and credibility in Batavia. There are tens of hundreds of ships docking in Batavia every day. , but I never heard that a ship was robbed by them there." This time, Zhou Yingping followed Cao Xiong and the Sulu people to raid Boni, and he also made a fortune.He exchanged all the 3000 taels of silver promised to him by the Eastern King into the treasures of the royal family of Boni.He even privately used gold and silver to buy the looted proceeds of those Sulu soldiers.He believes that if he transports these to Batavia or Daming, his income may reach 3 to [-] taels of silver, which is more than what he earned from the sea trade for two or three years.Looting is indeed the fastest way to get rich.

"Uncle Kun is right." Qi Tian said: "We can't put all our wealth on the self-restraint of the Dutch. When we pass Batavia, let's go around!"

Qi Tian misses the mechanical power boats of the later generations very much. It doesn't need the wind direction, it can be inserted obliquely in the Java Sea, and then pass through the Timor Sea to reach Australia, which saves at least half of the journey.

Well, well, the first steam-powered ship came out, and there are still 170 years until the beginning of the nineteenth century.

Zhou Yingping was very annoyed, if he didn't stop at Batavia, wouldn't you make me earn less money and spend more time following you to that continent I don't know where.If he wasn't afraid of the force of Cao Xiong's troops, he really wanted to sneak away at night.But they placed more than 20 powerful pirates on board, what a pity!

The itinerary has been planned. Next, the fleet is going to sail through Batavia in one go, and then after crossing the island of Java, head east along the coast, and then turn southeast according to the itinerary, looking for the Australian mainland.

Qi Tian looked at the frustrated Zhou Yingping, and couldn't help laughing, as if he felt a [-]-point crit, but he dared not speak out.It is inappropriate to say more at this time, and then consider giving him compensation when he reaches the continent of Australia.

The fleet no longer stopped for a day or two for repairs along the way as in the past, but all sailed, away from the coast, and sailed at maximum speed.However, all ships are fully loaded, and the maximum speed can only run to 4-5 knots.

"According to this speed, it is estimated that there are still two days to pass through Batavia." Yu Fukun turned to Luo Rucheng and said with a smile.

After speaking, Luo Rucheng didn't respond for a long time. The other party was looking sideways at the two large Western-style ships accompanying the fleet in the distance.

After the two ships discovered Cao Xiong's fleet in the afternoon, they first slowly approached to a distance of one mile, and then kept accompanying them.

"Damn it, you must have encountered pirates, right?" Yu Fukun also glanced at the two large western ships from a distance.

"Old Yu, aren't we pirates ourselves!" Luo Rucheng looked back at Yu Fukun.

"Haha..." Yu Fukun was taken aback for a moment, and then he and Luo Rucheng burst into laughter.

"Now, I'm a rich pirate!" Yu Fukun yelled madly at the distant ship, "If you have the guts, come and rob me!"

"Old Yu, Master Cao has sent a signal, let's move closer!" Luo Rucheng reminded Yu Fukun.

"Boss Cao is afraid that there will be a fight soon?"

"It's hard to say." Luo Rucheng said: "Although we have five ships, that Fuchuan has no combat power. The rest of the ships are too full and inconvenient to move. If we fight, we may suffer losses."

Cao Xiong put Zhou Yingping's Fuchuan and a smaller Haicang boat in the middle of the fleet, with the original Spanish Santa Cruz at the back of the fleet, and the Flying Bird and another Haicang boat in front. Maintaining a compact formation, the ship slowed down and slowly headed south.

The accompanying Western ships also slowed down and sailed unhurriedly on the side of the convoy. Even a fool can see their ulterior motives!

Finnenberg, the captain of the English three-masted sailing ship "Iron Strikeman", set off from Mumbai, India, with Chartres, a businessman from Liverpool, to import cotton, copper, tin, ephedra, etc. from India to Guangzhou. Silk, porcelain, and handicrafts from Ming Dynasty were shipped to Europe.

While passing through Borneo, five large ships were spotted moving slowly.This fleet combination is very strange. The four ships are all Oriental-shaped ships, but one of them is actually a Spanish galleon.It can be seen that the draft of the five ships is very deep, and the ships must be full of goods.

Since the fleet is so fully loaded and the speed is so slow, Feiningberg and Chattelland decided to follow after a little discussion to see if there was a chance to find some bargains.

On the boundless sea, merchants from all over the world are like this. They are usually serious maritime merchants. Once they encounter a single ship or other opportunities, they will cooperate with each other without hesitation and act like a pirate. buy and sell.

As night fell, the lookouts on the ship tried their best to widen their eyes, trying to find possible approaching enemies from the darkness.At this time, all personnel of Cao Xiong's fleet had been mobilized, the gun covers of the artillery were all untied, and gunpowder and projectiles were also piled up near the artillery.In addition to the operators on board, some young immigrants received short knives and long guns, as well as some firearms seized from Spain and Boni, in order to deal with possible boarding battles.

"I don't believe it. Its two ships can beat our five ships? If you dare to come over, there are more than 700 people on our side, at least three or four will beat him!" Luo Daqi yelled.

"What if other people don't outnumber you, what should we do?" Qi Tian said leisurely, "They just need to break our mast or destroy our sails, and then stand by our side, coming up from time to time to fire two cannonballs! What do you say? , I can’t run away, I can’t hide, I can’t hide, there are so many people, but they’re all their captives!”

"Well, the teacher is right!" Niu Hu echoed beside him.Ever since he learned to read characters with Qi Tian, ​​he began to call Qi Tian his teacher just like a dog.

"It's really come to that point, you idiot, you can only carry a knife, jump into the sea and swim over, and fight them desperately!" Niu Hu felt that after he recognized a few words, everyone else was idiot.

"I'll just swim over there and hack those bastards to death!" Luo Daqi said angrily,

"Boom! Boom!..." At this moment, several cannons were heard suddenly in front of the fleet, the orange-red flames flashed a few times in the night, and then a few more "boom! paw!..." shells were heard The sound of falling water.

"Damn it! How dare you snatch me on the head!" Cao Xiong stared at the place where the artillery was fired in front of him, "Rush over there and kill those bastards!"

(End of this chapter)