Daming Military Empire

Chapter 187 The Merchant Ship Is Missing
There are two methods of boarding a ship in ancient times. Either use a hook and sickle to hook the ship together and jump directly into the enemy ship from the side of the ship, or hang on the enemy ship with a hook lock, and then climb directly to the enemy ship through the rope on the hook lock. go on board.

The Dutch merchant ship was more than one meter taller than the pirates' lucky boat, and they couldn't climb up even if they were boarded, so the pirates directly chose the hook lock. After the pirate ship approached the Dutch merchant ship, the hook lock flew over like raindrops. After a while, the pirates swarmed onto the Dutch merchant ship like ants.

A group of Dutch sailors shivered under the gunwale, not knowing what to do, as Prade had ordered that no shots should be fired.

The pirates didn't say anything polite, they rushed up, grabbed his musket, kicked them on the deck, and then took out ropes to tie them tightly.All of a sudden, it was like a pot was boiling on the deck, with all kinds of yelling and cursing, such as "Ba Ge Ha Ku Chi", "Po Tan Goola Mu", "Ni Ge Tuo Tuo Lu", "Fu Ke Jiu Xi Mu".
The Dutch are desperate in their hearts. What kind of language is this, why can’t they understand it?In fact, it’s not the dialect of any country, but a combination of dialects from many countries. Whoever said that these pirates belong to any country!

Finally, a man who looked like a pirate leader climbed up out of breath. As soon as he got on the deck, he caught a sailor who was tied up like a rice dumpling beside him, slapped his ears, and shouted in Dutch: "Your boss! Woolen cloth?"

The sailor burst into tears after being beaten. Hearing this, he hurriedly snarled at Prad, who was already tied up. The pirate leader threw the sailor on the deck, and then ran to Prad, holding his hand with one hand. Grab his collar, slap another big ear, and then shout in Dutch: "Hurry up and tell your people to surrender, or kill you?"

Prade's slap was wronged, he replied aggrievedly: "We didn't resist!"

The pirate leader took a closer look around and found that the group of Dutchmen really did not resist, but his subordinates kept yelling and screaming, he frowned, and yelled directly in Chinese: "Quiet. "

A strange thing happened, and all the pirates understood it, and all closed their mouths and looked at him.

The pirate leader raised his hand and pointed at the stern of the ship, and ordered in Chinese: "Dutch, throw them all over there."

The pirates immediately dragged the bundled Dutchmen to the stern and threw them into a pile.

The pirate leader pointed at another Dongying rogue and said, "You guys, guards."

The Dongying rogue immediately bowed and replied: "Hayi." Then he called all the Dongying people to surround the captives at the stern.

The pirate leader then ordered: "Others, go down and see what's there."

When the other pirates heard this, they immediately cheered and rushed to the cabin.

After all, this ship is the flagship of the merchant ship leader, and there are still many good things in it. In addition to rice, sugar, cloth and porcelain, there are also some high-quality tea, fine wine, silk and buckskin antler.

Now the cabin was in disaster, the fine wine was opened and drunk, the sugar was stuffed into the mouth, the tea was stuffed into the bosom in bags, the rice was scattered everywhere, after about a quarter of an hour, These talents got out of the cabin one after another, and one of the little leaders who spoke Chinese well ran to the pirate leader and reported: "There are a lot of rice, sugar, cloth and porcelain, but very little tea, wine, silk and animal skins. .”

The pirate leader nodded, and directly ordered: "Take your people and stay on the boat, and everyone else will go back to their own boats and prepare to gather with the boss."

At this time, more than 30 big blessing boats and more than 100 small boats have gathered beside the largest coral reef in this sea area. Both Hong Xu and Gan Hui boarded Shi Daxuan's flagship. The three stood side by side on the bow, talking and laughing, While waiting for his subordinates to come and gather.

The seven Dutch merchant ships were all surrounded by their men, and they would definitely not be able to run away. The rest was just a matter of time.

A sailing boat shuttled back and forth on the sea, delivering news, and good news kept coming. After all, these Dutch people were businessmen. Under the absolute disadvantage, they did not choose to fight desperately. Basically, they just wanted to surround them and fire a few shots. They surrendered, and about half an hour later, the farthest wave of pirates sent back news that the last Dutch merchant ship also surrendered. Shi Daxuan laughed and said, "Old Jiu, I said they won't fight with us, right?" , just a bunch of businessmen, you really think they are the Dutch Navy."

Hong Xu shook his head, and said awkwardly: "Mynah is still the best, I thought they would always be a little bloody, but I didn't expect they were all a bunch of softies!"

Shi Daxuan said proudly: "I'm willing to bet and admit defeat. This time, you will lead the people to escort the captives and goods back."

Hong Xu said dejectedly: "Okay, you have to leave some good things for me. I heard that the Batavia merchant ship passing here next wave brought a lot of exquisite gadgets from Holland. Swallowed."

Gan Hui joked: "Ninth brother, don't worry, that thing is not edible, we can't swallow it."

Shi Daxuan laughed again when he heard the words, and then warned: "Be careful when delivering the goods, you can send someone to watch the Dutch in Manila, and it will be troublesome to let them escape."

Hong Xu asked curiously: "Why do you want to detain a few people to Manila? Just throw them all on a small island. There are seas on all sides, and they can't escape even if they want to."

Shi Daxuan shook his head and said: "You don't understand this, you have to rely on these few people to lure the Dutch over to fight with the Spaniards, remember, everyone's eyes should be covered with black cloth before they get off the boat Don't let them know that we are being held separately."

Hong Xu was still at a loss, and he asked: "Why do we rely on these few people? We caught them all, and smuggled the goods to Manila for sale. Wouldn't the Dutch go to the Spaniards for their lives?"

Shi Daxuan saw his attitude of breaking the casserole and asking the end, so he had to explain in detail: "Anyone can sell the goods over there, the Dutch are clear about this, they only suspect that the Spaniards did it, just because of this suspicion They don’t necessarily run to fight the Spaniards, they only run to fight people if they think all the captives are in Manila.”

Hong Xu is still a little confused. Are people more important than goods?He was puzzled and said: "Isn't it just a few thousand people, as for fighting with others?"

Shi Daxuan rolled his eyes angrily, and he said impatiently: "The Dutch are precious, you think they are all like our miserable men, what a shame, their whole country only has a million people, not many thousands of people Is it? Okay, okay, don’t talk about it, you will understand in due time, just be careful not to be discovered by the Spaniards.”

Seeing Shi Daxuan like this, Hong Xu had no choice but to keep his mouth shut, he couldn't bear it if the starling got mad.

The pirates who besieged the Dutch merchant ships rushed over one after another, and finally the seven Dutch merchant ships were escorted to the assembly point. Hong Xu followed Shi Daxuan's order and led his troops to escort the seven Dutch merchant ships back. go.

After returning to the Sulu Sea, Hong Xu directly ordered all the Dutchmen to be blindfolded and put on boats. Most of them were sent to a deserted island. Only the captains of a few merchant ships were secretly sent by him. Manila, there, has their stronghold.He specially sent a hundred trusted Luzon men to escort the seven people to the stronghold in Manila, and ordered them to take turns guarding them for twelve hours, and they must not let the seven people escape.

As for the goods, he ordered people to unload them from the Dutch merchant ships, leaving half of the rice and some of the sugar, and sent his men to send them to Manila in batches in small boats for sale.

Before Hong Xu finished his work, Shi Daxuan and Gan Hui ushered in another group of Dutch merchant ships. There were only five merchant ships in this group, and they sailed from Batavia to Dongfan. Specialties such as spices, pepper, and amber from Via, as well as precious metals, medicinal materials, telescopes, clocks and other exquisite things shipped from the Netherlands.

These are all to be sold to Daming, Japan, and North Korea. Although the quantity is not very large, the value is very high, so the Dutch East India Company has sent additional manpower, and the five ships are equipped with a thousand people, and the number of musketeers is also high Reached about five hundred.

To Shi Daxuan and Gan Hui, this kind of person is naturally not worth mentioning, and they easily brought people and boats to the same pot. So far, they have completed the task in July, and they will have to wait until next month to do business again. At that time, Shi Daxuan and Gan Hui also took their respective people and escorted the Dutch merchant ship back to the Sulu Sea to deal with the captives and stolen goods.

It is seven or eight thousand miles east from the Batavia Road, and even with the sails up, it will take at least forty days to sail day and night. Therefore, the Dutch have not noticed their robbery for the time being, and the Dutch East Indies have not yet noticed. Not only these few merchant ships, but in August, they sent six merchant ships from Dongfan and Batavia respectively to transship the cargo of that month.

Needless to say, the ending of these twelve merchant ships was the same as that of the previous twelve ships. They were all snatched by Shi Daxuan, Hong Xu and Gan Hui. By mid-August, the Dutch East India Company finally realized that something was wrong. , because the merchant ship did not arrive on time last month, and there was no news at all. Could it be that they encountered a storm at sea?
At this time, the Dutch didn't realize that they were intercepted by pirates, because Zheng Zhilong, the largest pirate leader in Southeast Asia, had gone to Daming to become a prince, and Liu Xiang, the second largest pirate leader, was their partner. It is almost impossible for other pirate forces to eat five or six of their armed merchant ships.

It is not unheard of for a merchant ship to be lost in a storm at sea, so the Dutch did not take drastic measures. They just sent a team of search and rescue ships from Batavia to search eastward along their route. , hoping to find these two fleets.

In September, they still dispatched merchant ships on time, because the business on both sides could not be delayed. After so many years of hard work, the Dutch East India Company has gradually occupied the Southeast Asian market, and there are quotas for the sales of the strongholds in various countries every month. The customer has paid the deposit. If you don’t deliver the goods, the customer will definitely be with you forever. If you do this a few times, the market may be lost, so in September they not only sent out the goods for the month, but also They made up the share for July, that is to say, they sent more than ten merchant ships in both directions this time!
(End of this chapter)