Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 101 St. Augustine ([-])

The sea breeze blew away the diffuse gunpowder smoke, and the cotton shirts of the gunners, which were still white before the battle, were already covered with gray marks.However, they were still cheering heartily. This time the battle was 2 vs. 2, and the tonnage of the battleship was not as good as that of the opponent. However, the result of the battle was that one of the two pirate ships was captured, and the other fled in a panic after being damaged. There was no doubt that This is an exciting victory.

Anda Fifteen took a small boat and boarded the pirate ship that was repeatedly ravaged by the "Red Trout" and finally hoisted the white flag to surrender. The only remaining 20 English pirates on board stared at them with eyes mixed with anger and fear. They couldn't figure out how a small warship of two or three hundred tons could hold so many cannons, and the range and penetration of these cannons were incredible.

There was a platoon of 50 members of the Public Security Army who boarded the ship with Anda Shiwu. Most of them came from Pinganbao and Zhenhaibao. , and then tied up one by one and threw them into the bottom cabin.Of course, during the process of disarming the British, these soldiers would inevitably touch their pockets. The officers all turned a blind eye at this time, which was a reserved benefit for the soldiers on board.

"Taoist Shou, Anda, come here." Lu Ming also boarded the pirate ship in a traffic boat at some point, and he was seen walking towards the captain's cabin surrounded by a dozen trainee sailors and candidate officers. As he walked, he waved at the two chief and deputy platoon leaders of the Security Force.

The two of them ran up dog-leggedly one after the other. Lu Ming stopped, pointed at the English pirates who were being escorted to the bilge, and said, "Our 50 security forces don't have much training. For a long time, many people haven't even seen blood. They are just a bunch of rookies. You guys should keep an eye on me, and don't make any mistakes. If something goes wrong, you two will go back to Ping Anbao to dig coal, understand. Is it gone?"

"Understood, my lord." "Hay!" The two stood at attention together, and then said.

Lu Ming waved his hand, telling the two of them to go to work quickly, and then walked into the captain's cabin on the poop.The captain's room was in a mess, and there were some bloodstains on the ground, which should belong to the captain and first mate of the ship. Their bodies had just been thrown into the sea by the security forces.The wooden wall on the side facing the gallery at the back of the captain’s cabin was completely smashed. At that time, an explosive bomb entered the captain’s cabin from a short distance through the broken gap and exploded. Almost all the senior commanders on the ship were reimbursed on the spot. .

The Turkish wool carpet on the ground was soaked with blood and had turned a dazzling blood red.There are a few arty oil paintings hanging on the wall, which makes Lu Ming feel a little funny. Now pirates also know how to appreciate art?Next to the oil painting are several pairs of hanging ivory, which looks nondescript.There are two cabinets in the corner on the inner side. Lu Ming walked over and opened them to have a look. There were many large and small wine barrels in the first cabinet, which seemed to be wine cabinets; The things that were placed made people feel very excited. Lu Ming grabbed them casually, and there were several strings of dazzling pearl necklaces in his hands.There were several locked heavy wooden boxes below. Lu Ming kicked them with his feet, and there was a sound of coins crashing inside.

The trainee sailors and candidate officers from the nautical school who came in with Lu Ming immediately breathed heavily. Although they were young, they also knew the benefits of money, and there was no doubt that there was a lot of money hidden in these boxes.Lu Ming turned around, sat down at the desk in the middle of the captain's room, looked at his students with some amusement, and said, "A bunch of worthless guys! Yuri, go and tell Judge Wang Jun to come over, we It's time to count the harvest. Also, Kyle, you take the traffic boat to the "Red Trout" and tell Captain Guo Zili to send some ship repairers up. Don't forget to ask them to bring spare ship materials and canvas. This ship needs some serious repairs. By the way, what's the name of this ship?"

"It's called 'Beagle', Father Lu." Some students said with a smile.

"'Beagle', that's a good name." Lu Ming nodded, and then said: "Okay, children, now go back to your work. I request that within two hours, this ship will be Make all the preparations before you start again.”

……

The military judge Wang Bao and the army officer Xie Hansan led several army soldiers into the captain's room of the "Beagle" drifting on the sea, and Lu Ming was waiting for them inside.

Since he knew in advance why Lu Ming was looking for him, Wang Bao was not polite, and directly counted the necklaces, and then registered them one by one according to the shape, while Xie Hansan began to direct several army soldiers to open the necklaces with the keys they had seized. A solid wooden box containing coins.

Wang Bao sighed while registering those necklaces: "Pirate is a promising profession, look at this gold chain, it's really good in color, it's really heavy; look at how pure this diamond is; look at this gemstone, its color... ..."

"Hey, Judge Wang Jun, Daoist Wang! Aren't you a monk, why do you value these external things so much?" Lu Ming leaned on the back of the bear-skin chair and asked comfortably.

"Who said that priests can't love money?" Wang Bao countered, "I still want to marry a wife in the future. I also want the Religious Affairs Office to write this: priests can marry. What kind of Portuguese will I marry by then?" The princess, the daughter of the Spanish governor, the Danish princess, I'm so jealous of you."

Lu Ming smiled and ignored this dishonest Taoist priest.At this time, Xie Hansan and the others had successfully opened those wooden boxes. The boxes were full of coins from various countries. The silver coins were also mixed with a large number of golden coins, which made people unable to look away.

A group of people cleaned up for an hour before counting the boxes of coins, and then re-locked the boxes, and kept the keys in the captain's cabin.Wang Bao made some calculations on the various gold and silver coins filled with paper: "621 Venetian Gold Ducats, 234 French Grande Aige gold coins, 497 Petit Aige gold coins, 862 Florin coins, 395 cudos, 334 gold pistols; 11072 silver pesos, 9933 shillings... Hey, the total has reached more than 4 yuan. Adding those necklaces and accessories, the total is over [-] Ah. That's... really good business."

The rest of the people were also a little shocked for a while.Lu Ming quickly realized that he sighed and said, "Look at the complexity of gold and silver coins, I don't know how many merchant ships these British pirates robbed and how many people died because of it. Forget it, I can't care about that." More, let's take care of ourselves first. Tell everyone the general harvest to make everyone happy, and the specific rewards will be distributed after returning to the voyage in the future."

"That's a good idea. These bastards can share ten or eight yuan each this time, which is equivalent to their salary for a few months. By the way, where are we going now? Continue to Florida?" Wang Baoshun asked.

"No." Lu Ming nodded, "The damaged mizzen of the 'Beagle' needs a place to be repaired. Looking around, there are only a handful of places in the Caribbean except for the Spanish port. Repaired."

"Where?" Wang Bao subconsciously asked.

"St Christopher's Island and Tortuga Island."

"where are we going?"

"Tortuga Island!"

"Pirate Island?!" Xie Hansan, who had been silent just now, was taken aback, and quickly asked: "You know that place, why do you still go there? There are at least thousands of pirates gathered there, will there be any pirates when we go there?" Dangerous? The pirates will allow us to dock for repairs? This is unlikely."

"It's impossible." Lu Ming said, "It's the legendary 'free trade' area. Of course, the 'free trade' here means that you can freely sell stolen goods without worrying about trouble. In fact, anyone can come here. Repair ships, replace equipment, purchase supplies, etc., those merchants don’t care who you are, as long as you can afford their unscrupulous asking price.”

"The Spaniards won't let us call at the port. St. Christopher's Island has enmity with us, so we can only go to this pirate island." Xie Hansan felt a little helpless, "I will arrange a sentry regular army to stay on board , which is somewhat safer."

"Okay, let's do it like this." Lu Ming patted Xie Hansan's shoulder and said.

After replacing the damaged sail, the three-masted sailing ship "Beagle" (only two masts left at this time) finally recovered to a speed of more than 3 knots, and then followed the "East Coast Eagle" and "Red Trout". The gunboat sailed to Tortuga Island on the northwest side of Haiti Island.

On March 3, three warships arrived at Cape de France for fresh water and food.At the same time, Lu Ming also sent someone to the Pasquale family's manor in the interior to report the situation to Xu Xin and others who hadn't left yet.Xu Xin and others are expected to return to Bordeaux with the Pasquale family's "Butterfly" merchant ship for business investigation in April. After learning about the situation, Lu Ming immediately asked people to take out about 27 pounds of funds from the seized materials Hand it over to them and have them write a receipt.

Xu Xin and the others looked at Lu Ming with complicated and resentful eyes, as if they were saying, "Since the pirate business is so profitable, why do you need their trade and industry departments?"...

On the morning of March 3, the fleet left Cape-France and arrived at Tortuga Island, the famous pirate island, located on the northwest side of Haiti Island after sailing for only half a day.

(End of this chapter)