open sea

Chapter 610 Ambush
Yang Ce's anxiety also appeared in Jiaao's heart on the Santa Caterina. They only knew when their reinforcements would arrive, but at the same time they were worried about whether the other side's reinforcements would arrive in time.

On the night of the fourth day of pursuit, the navigator on the Santa Catalina reported that it was still a day and a night away from the port of Malindi. Canao ordered the lights on the ship to be extinguished, the sails to be lowered, and the ship quietly moored on the sea, like a ship shrouded in darkness. A monster in the shadows, waiting for its prey to bite.

There are many Portuguese sailors on the deck, and the gunners hold flints and stand behind the sixteen swivel guns nailed to the side of the ship. The lower deck equipped with heavy guns also puts the muzzles out of the gun ports. More sailors put on their best armor from the cabin, Holding all kinds of weapons, he stared wide-eyed at the dark and calm sea.

Darkness and sea water are two things that are inherently capable of bringing fear to human beings.

But there is no fear in their hearts. At this moment, they are the embodiment of fear.

Captain Jiaao, wearing a velvet-covered light helmet with a brim, walked slowly across the deck, cheering his men up in a low voice, followed by a row of sailors holding unlit torches, and he ordered: "The battle begins, you lead Burn all the torches on board."

More knowledge than others makes him tired of knowledge. In Mogadishu, if it is not for the "Ming army who followed closely" after the pirates of the Ming country, if the Lina, which led the retreat at the first time, killed Xiang Ming The ship, perhaps this exhausting chase of four days and nights was over long ago.

He waited until four days later, and finally, in the long chase at slow speed, he found that there was only one open ship hanging far behind them all the time, an open ship with not so strong firepower and soldiers.

God knows what gave Ming the courage to chase the Santa Catalina with a ship for four days and four nights?

And what made Ming people have the illusion that they can defeat them?

In fact, at the other end of the ocean, the pirates on the Baihu sailing through the waves also had great doubts. They expressed to the leader more than once that they might not be able to win once the war started, but every time the leader asked: What can they do if they cannot win? Woolen cloth?

They will still choose to continue the pursuit.

This is not out of a competitive heart, and it has nothing to do with winning or losing, but only about the dignity of their professional ethics.

Some of them may die in a fight, and they may not win in the end, but when they see a big fish, they must not let themselves turn around and leave, they must try.

Maybe...reinforcements are coming?
Yang Ce's plan to recruit local natives was extremely successful. Although the local black-skinned people attacked the ship with longbows and short spears as slave ships when they docked at the shore, but later he found a man who had gone to the fishing village. A businessman who has been doing business in Malindi, named Ali, can speak some Portuguese, and for Baiyin's sake, he is willing to board the ship to recruit people for him.

"I will not join your battle. Before the battle begins, I will be put on the shore. On the way, if you recruit a strong man, you will give me such a big piece of cloth." Ali has obvious Arab blood in appearance, but his skin color is like a northern Arab. Painted a layer of black, gently shaking his hand with a slight philistine to talk about business with Asian pirates is inevitable, slightly widening his eyes revealing the taste of money, said: "Your spoils, I can help you sell them on the spot. "

Yang Ce leaned against the mast, blowing the evening wind, watching Ali draw a distance of about one foot with his hand under the torch, lifted the Indian cotton cloth under his feet and used a knife to draw a square of one foot, and then said: "This is a foot , you recruited 58 people for me, seventeen of them brought their own weapons, and I will give you seventy feet of cloth."

"No, 58 feet." It seems that this is not the first time Ali has cooperated with pirates. He looked at Yang Ce, Sun Liu and others with prudence, and insisted: "I only want what I want, and you will give it to me." I put it on the shore, right?"

This answer made Yang Ce and Sun Liu look at each other and smile. Even Sun Liu, who had been busy intimidating Ali, couldn't bear to threaten him any more. He just said to Yang Ce: "He can't get off the boat, only he and you can speak Portuguese, that's all." You can't talk to those people, they seem to be good at eating this bowl of rice, but they don't know how to do it."

After Ali's brief recruitment, they landed four times and recruited 58 sailors. Some of them were restless pirates who were very familiar with offshore life, and some of them heard that Yang Ce had paid for them to fight the Portuguese. Then they boarded the boat, and the Baihu was almost full at this time. These people were generally tall and thin, and they only wore a circle of sackcloth around their waists when they got on the boat, and a few people who boarded the boat with clothes looked like aliens.

But it's better now, Yang Ce captured the Portuguese clothes and gave them to them, each of them put on his clothes and picked them up on the armored boat, holding a longbow, short spear and short knife, it seemed like that.

The biggest shortcoming is that so many people insist that none of them can use firearms, which is disappointing.

"You won't be able to disembark for a while, but I will keep you alive..."

At this moment, the watchman on the watchtower, holding Yang Ce's inferior pair of goggles given by Lin Feng, quickly climbed down, went to Sun Liu and whispered a few words, followed by Sun Liu, and told Yang Ce the news. When he cut off what he was about to say, he frowned in surprise, pushed Ali into the cabin, and followed Sun Liu to quickly climb up the watchtower.

The young watchman pointed to the approximate direction in the distance, and Sun Liu handed the goggle to Yang Ce, saying: "Their ship's fire has gone out, I don't know what it means to stop there, it looks strange."

It's really not easy to find if you don't look carefully. There are nearly ten miles away. Yang Ce searched the sea twice carefully and found that the Portuguese boat with a huge hull has now extinguished all the lights and even lowered the sails, leaving only the shadows. The huge silhouette of the ship is quietly moored on the sea.

In the God's Eye, Santa Caterina is like an elephant squatting on the grassland, covering her eyes with her nose, with a smile that only she knows, thinking that others cannot see it.

Yang Ce laughed.

"What to do, it seems to be waiting for us."

Sun Liu didn't notice the smile on Yang Ce's face. The wind on the mast was so strong that he squinted his eyes, and said, "It seems that the ship wants us to pass by from the side and bombard us with artillery."

"What else can I do? Thank you Chen Shuai. If it weren't for this thing, they would have found it too late." Yang Ce put the crude eyepiece back on his waist, patted Sun Liu and said, "We will pass from the left, and we will turn the steering wheel as soon as possible." Use the port side to bombard him for a while, then turn around and leave, he will take a while to hoist the sails, but he won't be able to hit us."

This would give them an advantage, a pity they don't have heavy artillery on board.

"Full speed ahead, let's take a closer look at this big belly!"

　Good morning!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)