Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2288 Pirates

"I didn't expect that a dozen or so people with seven or eight guns would have created such a big situation now." On November 1695, 11, outside Liangshan City, Su Mo, who had a beautiful mustache, said vigorously. .

Liangshan City, later known as Houston in the United States, is a famous city. At present, there are more than 1000 settled residents here to reclaim wasteland, grow grain, and herd sheep and livestock.The reason why the city is called Liangshan was negotiated by the pirate leaders Su Mo, Wang Zhaoli, Han Zhong and others.

Of course, the city is called Liangshan, but that doesn't mean it's messy or full of bandits.Well, there are indeed many bandits, but the city is really not chaotic.In fact, the Pirates Roundtable Council - the highest authority of the Texas pirates - has paid to hire the well-known East Coast design firm Dapeng to help it plan the construction of Liangshan City.At present, the urban construction planning has basically been completed, and some buildings have also started construction. It is expected that the first batch of urban residents will be ushered in in the middle of 1696.

Most of the urban residents in Liangshan are old or disabled retired pirates and their families. The proportion of people from the east coast is not high, only about half, but the ruling class is basically people from the east coast, and their culture and language are also different. It's from the east coast.According to the report issued by the National Intelligence Agency, there are not many residents left on the original famous pirate island (Tortuga Island).The environment there is harsh, the amount of land is limited, and the security environment is also very poor. From time to time, they are beaten by the navies of Spain, England and other countries. For many years, they have maintained a state of net population outflow. Most of them went to Sioux City Port, and a small part went to Liangshan City.

Of course, there are some "good people" in Liangshan City.Because of the wars that have lasted for many years and the impact of bad weather, there are also a lot of people from European countries immigrating to the Caribbean Sea these years, and a considerable part of them flowed into the country of pirates.Because the land here is free, the tax rate is appallingly low, and people have a very high degree of freedom. At the same time, the pirates also have certain combat effectiveness, which can ensure that they will not be bullied by enemies from the sea.Even in recent years, they have successfully formed an army force (mainly regularly trained militias), defeated the nearby Indian tribes several times, and successfully maintained the land border security of this pirate country. increased attractiveness.

Of course, the pirates and the Indians are generally peaceful. Except for the conflicts caused by the territorial grab at the beginning, they have maintained peace for seven or eight years recently.The trade between the two sides is mainly based on trade. The Indians want to buy almost everything, but they only have leather goods to sell, which is definitely not enough.Therefore, in the end, they could only sell the land to smooth out the trade deficit, which made the development environment of the pirate country much more peaceful.

In addition, under the guidance of intelligence officials on the east coast, the pirates also actively chose to integrate the surrounding small Indian tribes, and achieved good results.The level of civilization of the pirates must be much higher than that of the Indian tribes. Those small tribes had a difficult life in the battle with the big tribes. Now that they find that they have thighs to hug, they naturally raise their families to vote.The pirates also welcomed this cautiously. After all, the ratio of men and women among them was extremely unbalanced. When the Indians came, some pirates who had been bachelors for half their lives also had the possibility of marrying wives. This was a very good deal for them. buy and sell.

According to incomplete statistics, there are currently more than 2000 Indians, men, women and children living in the Sioux City Port area.Under the influence of the pirates, they have now learned some simple manual work, such as twisting ropes, cutting boards, handling seafood, etc. Some of them are smart and have learned to farm. Although the level is not good, they can at least feed By themselves, the excess food output can still flow into the market for consumption by professional pirates who are not engaged in production.

By the way, Sioux City and Liangshan use the currency of the east coast, copper coins, silver coins and even gold coins that are hard to see in the east coast, highlighting the degree of penetration of the east coast economy.In fact, at the beginning, the currency used in the pirate country was quite complicated. There were pesos, shields, shillings, ducats, etc., and everyone recognized it (after all, what you grab is what you get, and the pirates have no right to choose) , but after a long time, everyone finally found that the currency on the east coast is the best, and the weight is not bad, so now the east coast yuan basically dominates the world.The pirates traded the stolen foreign currency to the merchants of the Caribbean Shipping Company in exchange for East Coast silver dollars and various commodities. The salaries of government employees in Sioux City and Liangshan were also paid with East Coast silver dollars. Everyone has accepted this. a monetary system.

The east coast government actually likes to see pirates doing this, because it means they start to formalize.When pirates fight and kill, it is obviously not sustainable for a long time. You may rule the roost for a while, but in the end you will die under the wind and rain, and become the talk of people after dinner.To really take root and create a legacy that can be passed on to future generations, it has to be formalized.The pirates in Sioux City are very lucky, because the east coast government is conscientious and has done so many years of "wet work" for the General Intelligence Bureau. In the end, they were not kicked away or murdered. Instead, they received comprehensive assistance to help them A ruling order has been established, a bureaucratic system has been established, an army has been established, and a trade system has been established. I don’t know how many residents of small islands in the Caribbean cannot receive this kind of assistance.

"Yes, the aid from the south has helped us solve a lot of troubles, but it also tied us up firmly." Wang Zhaoli, one of the [-]th Taibao and a member of the round table council, said.

The upper echelons of the pirates in Sioux City were basically from wealthy families on the east coast, and many of them were descendants of members of the Founders Council who had no right of inheritance, such as their leader Sumo.Therefore, they never shy away from talking about the help of the East Bank government, especially now that many "big courtyard children" from the local area have joined the ranks of pirates (in fact, they are aiming at Jianguo), and they are getting closer to the East Bank They are inseparable.

Don't think about being independent if you take advantage of others, everyone understands this truth!

"Now Sioux City Port has a population of more than 6000, and Liangshan City has 2000 people. The capital and manpower from the south are still flowing in. Hey, what can we do? Don't think too much, just follow the baton! I see, just keep doing nothing, ask those people from Air Canada and the General Intelligence Agency for more benefits, and go and take that disgusting San Joaquin!" Somo said with a fist-pump .

San Joaquin is a colony established by the Spanish many years ago, located near the port of Corpus Christi in the later United States.The colony was almost destroyed after being besieged by pirates and attacked by Indians. However, with the strong support of the Governor General of New Spain, it finally survived. At present, it has controlled thousands of people and is a little bit powerful.

The Spaniards' Windward Fleet in the Caribbean Sea has used this as a base many times over the years to attack the pirate groups in Sioux City Port, and the two sides have won and lost.After a port blockade that lasted for several months in 1692, Sioux City suffered a severe famine. Later, it was finally survived by the neighboring Free State's emergency assistance of a batch of food from land.Since then, the pirates have never wanted to pull out this nail and completely solve their serious problems.

But this was not possible before!The pirates are no match for the Spaniards in terms of personnel, equipment or money.That is to say, after some fresh blood brought money and ships into the gang in recent years, the pirates could easily gather more than a dozen medium-tonnage armed merchant ships, and only then moved the idea of ​​​​taking San Joaquin Port again.However, the National Intelligence Agency and Air Canada still have some differences on this matter. The former believes that the pirates should concentrate their efforts to solve this serious problem first, and then expand the territory and achieve the eternal foundation. The latter believes that the peace of the Caribbean should not be destroyed at will. The situation, which in turn affected the trade, because the Spaniards in San Joaquin seemed to be more peaceful in recent years and did not come to provoke the pirates again.

The differences between the two bosses also affected the decision-making of the pirates, and their actions became hesitant.However, the gang of newcomers from the mainland were not afraid of anything, and they had been urging the elders of the round table to quickly prepare supplies and send troops to take down San Joaquin.In particular, Tian Xiaochuan, the youngest son of Tian Xing, the leader of the intelligence department on the east coast, yelled all day long to act quickly, and often hurt the representatives of the Air Canada company who often came here.Poor those people are messengers and deliverers, who dared to offend Mr. Tian, ​​and finally returned to the Port of Mobile in despair.

Influenced by Tian Xiaochuan and others, Su Mo is also a little moved now.He was originally a militant guy, otherwise he would not have given up the superior and comfortable life on the east coast and took a boat to the Caribbean Sea to seek excitement. This man is not very peaceful by nature!Therefore, he is really seriously thinking about doing it now, and carefully calculating his possessions, whether personnel, ships, ammunition, supplies, food, medicine, and even money are enough?After defeating San Joaquin, how should we face possible counterattacks from the Spaniards?You know, the Windward Fleet still has some strength, and San Joaquin also has a certain number of garrison troops. How much will the pirates have to pay to defeat them and keep their spoils?It's all unknown.

"Actually, I don't quite agree with San Joaquin. It would be too much of a loss, and many old brothers might die there." Wang Zhaoli replied, "Isn't our life pretty good now? Yes, life is still a bit tight. Baba, not as happy as when I was a pirate, but since it is going to be formalized, all this is hard to avoid. We now have two cities, many things are on the right track, and the external environment is not bad, why bother asking for trouble Woolen cloth?"

"Since taking the road of piracy, who hasn't the consciousness to die?" Su Mo glared at Wang Zhaoli and said dissatisfiedly.

"I'm not afraid of death, but I think death is worthwhile. Master, now is not the time to be willful! The old brothers are all settled now, let them go to the Windward Fleet, they are all professional warships, we How many people are going to die? The old brothers are all dead, is it possible to let the newcomers seize power? Yes, some of them have a good relationship with you, the boss, and you may have played with them since childhood, but so what? In the face of power, any friendship is bullshit! Besides, our races and ethnicities are so complicated now that Indians, Europeans, Mestizos, and people from the East Coast break out some small conflicts from time to time. That is, we still have A little strength can keep the situation under control, and the conflict will not become serious. But what if we and the Spaniards lose both sides? Do we still have the ability to suppress them?"

Wang Zhaoli's words were heartbreaking, which made Su Mo very upset.He instinctively didn't want to agree, but something deep in his heart told him that all of this was right, and he couldn't ignore these factors.In the country of pirates, no one is a good man or woman. Those intelligence personnel on the east coast only want to see the existence of a country of pirates. As for who is the leader, they may not particularly care.The Thirteenth Taibao is now a community of interests. The newcomers have a boat and a crew, and they are also forming a group in private. They must not be ignored.

It seems that we can only wait for the opportunity!Pity!Su Mo sighed, suppressed his bellicose factor for the time being, and thought about how to manage the territory in front of him with a sad face. This is not easier than fighting and killing, really!

(End of this chapter)