Dragon Sea Empire

It was only a few days later that the Macao municipal authorities figured out what was going on: when the black slave guards fired guns in celebration at the Pentecost parade, the stray bullets unfortunately injured the Spanish and Philippine colonial envoys present, resulting in the "new Christians" being Jewish. The businessman de Montoya died of serious injuries, while Captain Cueva of the Spanish army died at the scene.

Why did the stray bullet hit these two people?Ha ha, of course, bad luck, character problem.

At that time, the level of forensic science in Western countries had not surpassed that of Song Ci's "Winning Injustices", and Galileo's ballistic knowledge research had just started, and no one on the entire planet could possibly explain how these two men were killed by musket bullets .There is no way for the Macau authorities to explain this way. After all, the mysterious death of a Spanish diplomatic envoy in Macau is not a trivial matter.

After finishing the task of assassinating the envoy, Yin Feng asked Lin Xiao to organize a group of thieves to ransack the residence of the Spanish envoy, and found several documents in it. The Emperor of China made a love letter.Yin Feng set it on fire, and then quickly took people out of Macau.

The Xinxing ship left Macau early the next morning. After a day of cruising in the open sea, Yin Feng finally received the mercenary team of Colonel Coutere at Ap Lei Chau near Hong Kong Island (the earliest inhabited place in Hong Kong). There is also a whole ship of Siamese-made firearms: 300 matchlock guns, ten 10-pound bronze cannons, two 12-pound cannons, dozens of barrels of gunpowder, and a large number of tools for making firearms.The only regret is that the production technology of the flintlock has not yet spread to Siam, and few of the Portuguese veterans recruited this time know the flintlock.

This ship belonged to the Siamese King Naresuan, but the captain and sailors are basically Chinese, and the craftsmen who built the ship are also Chinese, so this ship is a typical bird ship in the Fuchuan style, with two masts and eight oars, and it is ocean-going. The power is slightly inferior, but it is very flexible for coastal and offshore sailing.

The boss of the boat is a Cantonese Chinese in his 30s, named Lin Songtao, who has lived in Siam for more than ten years.He has always wondered that the ship of gunpowder and firearms shipped to China will be bought and sold by that firm. Didn't he hear that the Ming court bought firearms from Siam?

The mystery was not solved until Macao. The person who bought the whole ship of firearms was actually a Fujian businessman who claimed to belong to the China United Company.

When Xinxing set off, Yin Feng temporarily carried some raw silk on board.The trade situation in Macao this year was not good, and the Dutch raids made the trade sluggish. As a result, the raw silk was snapped up by Macao merchants and sold for nearly 8 times the price, which made Yin Feng overjoyed.He persuaded Lin Songtao to go to Taiwan with him. In addition to paying him more transportation fees, he could also let him bring back a large number of goods back to Siam.

So, with Xinxing in front and Lin Songtao's Siamese ship behind, sailed north to Taiwan.

The current crew of Xinxing, apart from Mai Dahai and the first batch of more than a dozen Dan people sailors, most of them are Hainan Island Dan people sailors recruited just this year.Most of the first and second batch of sailors experienced the adventures of Luzon Island, and some are now literate in the newly opened sailor school-the principal and teacher of the sailor school now has only one person: Bartley Jr., formerly The new captain.There are also Danmin sailors training in the escort, and some joined the newly established fleet of the escort. They are the backbone of the future Chinese company merchant fleet and fleet sailors.

The remodeled Xinxing was painted blue on the bow, and a Chinese flag with a blue background was hoisted on the mainmast.This "Zhong" character flag was designed by Yin Feng, and its style copied the later "Bank of China" logo, which is very similar to the copper coins in the round sky, so it was quickly recognized by everyone.All the ships of the China United Company will have a unified bow color, unified flag, and unified number in the future.On the bow of the ship, the word "No. [-]" is written in red in large numbers. This is Yin Feng's first ship, and of course it is No. [-].

The current boss of Xinxing is Mai Dahai.The new crew members were all trained by Mai Dahai, and the physical training and other items invented by Yin Feng were also included.The crew did pull-ups on the bow mast, did push-ups on the deck, and ran along the side of the ship with high legs, and the group of veteran Portuguese mercenaries often watched curiously.

With the help of the southeast wind, the two ships headed north quickly.Originally, it could have sailed straight from Ap Lei Chau to the ocean, but in order to take care of the speed of the Siamese ship, Xinxing could only accompany it along the coastline of the mainland.

After sailing for a few days, Mai Dahai came to find Yin Feng: "Boss owner, there seems to be something wrong on the sea. We have almost reached the range of Nan'ao Island, but we haven't seen a single boat."

Yin Feng stood at the bow of the ship, picked up the binoculars and looked around, but there was no ship in the sky above the sea.According to the map of Zhenshi Dehai, to the west is the coast of Shantou, Chaozhou, and to the north is Nan'ao Island, which is known as one island governing two provinces.Yin Feng has traveled on this route countless times over the years.At this time in previous years, Chinese merchant ships from Nanyang Champa, Siam, Malacca, and Batavia returned to Haichengyue Port in the direction of Fujian. In groups.

And for five days in a row, not a single ship was seen, which is definitely not normal.

Is there a large group of pirates along the coast of Fujian, Guangdong?No, the biggest "pirate" on the southeast coast is the "Jinghai Gang" affiliated to the Zhonghua Company. In the past six months, Lushitou has continued to attract pirates from all over the world to join.In addition to robbing the Japanese Zhuyin ship and intercepting Chinese merchant ships that refused to listen to the call to go to Luzon, the Jinghai Gang has been issued a strict order by Yin Feng: Do not rob the Ming Dynasty's own merchant ships at will.

As for those "temporary" pirates who go to sea in their spare time to do business without capital, they are small gangs of pirates along the coast. They don't have the ability to make sails disappear across thousands of miles of sea.

Something must be wrong!Yin Feng regretted that he left Macau in such a hurry that he didn't have time to inquire about the situation of the Dutchman.It is likely that the Dutch have already arrived in Fujian.Yin Feng immediately raised the vigilance of all the crew, and a small sailor climbed onto the newly installed watch bucket on the top of the mainmast, looking around vigilantly.This group of crew has received more than half a year of training, and they are already proficient in using matchlock guns and cannons. What they lack is actual combat experience; at this time, those veteran sailors set a good example.

The ship sailed for another day, crossed the waters of Nan'ao, and entered the coast of Fujian.

"There's something on the sea!"

The sailors on the watchtower yelled, and Mai Dahai jumped onto the bow, looking forward as far as he could.

After a while, the crew fished up a few planks and a damaged flag from the sea.The plank is the remnant of the stern of a sailboat, and the flag is half of the "Chinese flag" on the merchant ship of the China United Company, with burnt marks.

Colonel Kutley rushed over from the Siamese ship, Yin Feng, Mai Dahai, Li Lihua, Chen Zhongji, Magaro and a group of people surrounded these things and checked them repeatedly.

"This is our boat." Chen Zhongji couldn't help but said first.

"And it wasn't sunk by the wind and waves..." Yin Feng said, stood up and said loudly: "Okay, everyone is in position, ready to fight! The sea, blow the trumpet!"

Mai Dahai blew the Conch, and all the crew members of the Xinxing entered the state of combat readiness in an orderly manner, and the cannons at the bow and stern also began to load ammunition.

Lin Songtao on the Siam boat was in a panic, not knowing what happened.Finally, Yin Feng sent Colonel Cutley back to his ship, telling him that the pirates had been spotted, and it would be fine to follow the Xinxing.There are more than 20 old Portuguese mercenaries on board. As long as they are not hit by long-range firearms, self-protection should be no problem.

The so-called sudden change of wind and cloud is like this: just after Yin Feng ordered everyone to prepare for battle, a large group of dark clouds swept in from the southeast sky, and in a blink of an eye, strong wind mixed with heavy rain and hail violently attacked the two ships.The waves were higher and higher, and the heavy rain and hail drove all the crew back to the cabin, and even the helmsman was beaten and bruised and hid back to the bottom cabin.The sailor on the watch was out of luck. He tied himself tightly to the mast with cables, curled up his body and hugged his head, not daring to move.

The extremely bad weather lasted for an hour and a half, and the hail stopped first; after another half an hour, the rain stopped and the wind stopped, and the sun shone through the clouds in the sky again.Yin Feng rolled and crawled out of the cabin, stepped on the unmelted hail on the deck, stood on the bow and looked around, what he was most worried about happened: this terrible weather separated the Xinxing and the Siamese ship, and the surrounding sea There was no sign of Siamese boats.

The old needleman Lin stumbled out, fiddled with the compass and charts for a long time, compared the height of the sun, looked at the surrounding sea for a long time, then pointed to a small shadowy island in the west and said: That is the direction of Zhangzhou.

The sailors on the Wangdou were carried down with bruises all over. Mai Dahai went up to the Wangdou himself and looked around with Yin Feng's binoculars.For a moment, he stopped, stared at the coast for a long time, and shouted loudly: "Smoke, smoke, in the northeast direction... there are two ships, no, no, three ships!"

He stood up abruptly, stepped out of the lookout, and quickly slid down the mast holding the cable with one hand.This is an action only experienced sailors dare to do. Yin Feng nodded repeatedly below, asking himself that he would never dare to do this.Mai Dahai came to him: "Three ships, I can see clearly in the telescope: one is our Siamese ship, the other is also a merchant ship; The upper cabins are low, and the stern is not too high, not like a Frangji or Ganrila ship."

"See the flag?"

Now there is no need to look up and look around, the small island is gradually getting bigger, and the smoke from the burning ships on the side of the island can already be seen clearly.Fortunately, it's not a Siamese ship. Those veteran mercenaries have considerable combat capabilities. The Siamese ship is also filled with gunpowder, and there seems to be bursts of gunfire. jump gang.

Yin Feng observed the bow of the ship with a telescope for a while, and finally saw the flag of the Fanguizai boat 5 miles away: orange, white, and blue tricolor flags arranged up and down, yes, this is the Dutch flag before 1630 , the three colors are derived from the coat of arms of the family of the ruling Prince of Orange in the Netherlands: a white horn on a blue base and decorated with orange ropes.The flag, which accompanied the Dutch's 80-year war of independence against Spanish rule, is now on China's coast.

After 1630, because the color of the flag was not bright enough, it was difficult to recognize on the battlefield and at sea, and some people were dissatisfied with the rule of the Orange family, so the color of the flag was gradually changed from red to orange, and the blue was deepened.

Yin Feng turned his head and nodded heavily to Mai Dahai and the others: "It's the Dutchman, Hongmaoyi. The sea, the front and rear sails are lowered, leaving only the mainsail, and slowly approaching. All the cannons are ready for ammunition, and the portholes must not be opened. .”

Everyone didn't know how powerful the Dutchman was, so they didn't look surprised, and hurried down to clean the deck and prepare for battle.Only Yin Feng, the traverser, knows the glory of the "Sea Coachman".

Yin Feng raised the binoculars again; it seems that the Siamese ship will fall into the enemy's hands for a while.He thought and deduced for a long time in his heart, and decided that it is still risky to be a soldier, so let's go up and fight!