open sea

Chapter 616 Annual Tribute
Along the coast of East Africa, Yang Ce's offensive plan failed.

"It can't be said to be defeated. The subordinates did bombard the ship for a while. Three shells from the seven guns entered the poop, which may have broken their rudder stock."

The evening wind was blowing on the beach of Xidacheng. Lin Feng was wearing a plain silk singlet and squinted his narrow eyes to look eastward. In the dark night, the high mountain in the east was shrouded in shadow like a giant. He nodded and said: "The rudder pole is broken, then Why didn't you bring that ship back?"

"Even if the ship doesn't move, even a flying shark can't snatch it. There are at least thirty cannons on board. The upper deck is full of Franco-guns that fire [-]-jin bullets, which can shoot backwards from the middle of the ship. The lower deck is Heavy artillery, the shells unloaded on the hull on the shore weighed three and a half catties, and there was a stone-shooting heavy cannon at the stern, which fired [-] catties of boulder shells, and the hull was cracked in one blow."

Yang Ce, who survived the catastrophe, had a white cloth wrapped around his forearm, and the wound was not deep. He was cut by a pirate's weapon that he didn't know during the chaotic artillery battle. He didn't feel it at the time until the Baihu left the battle area. Only then can I feel it.

He shook his head lightly and said: "Our artillery can't penetrate its hull, and there aren't enough of them to hurt people, so we can only use the speed of the boat to leave. I always thought that only Xiyi had warships equipped with heavy artillery."

In the textbooks of the Navy Lecture Hall, the Portuguese navy and warships are weak, but the army tactics are good. Yang Ce never thought that the big ship had so many cannons, and he felt invincible after only a short battle. The earlier one fired a round of shells and interrupted the rudder of the enemy ship and could not turn. I am afraid he will not be able to come back.

"Double-layer gram, what is it called gram? Clark? The speed of the ship is only slightly slower than that of the flying shark. It has [-] cannons, and the upper layer is a Francophone and the lower layer is a heavy artillery. It sounds more powerful than the Nanyang thousand material shark ship. Unfortunately, I don't know how much it can carry." Soldiers."

It seemed that the plain silk robe on his body made Lin Feng very uncomfortable. Yang Ce saw Lin Feng involuntarily arranging his robe time and time again under the moonlight, walking slowly without knowing what he was thinking, and only after a while did he hear him chuckle, Said: "It's interesting to offend two countries when you first come here."

"Ok?"

Yang Ce took two quick steps to follow Lin Feng and asked, "Two countries?"

"Well, two, after you went to sea, King Dan and King Qiong found a small artillery tower and trestle bridge built by the Portuguese in the far west. Dozens of the Arab barbarians you mentioned were stationed in it, and they kept talking about plain eggs The plain one was beaten to death, I think this island may be the land of Northwest Tianfang and other countries."

"But it's not without good news. Our ship found out the surrounding situation. The fleet that came back earlier than you said that the northern part should also be the land of what the barbarians of the Western Regions called Lumi. It's very big. We are a big island. There are three small islands, and two large sea stones that can be used to build artillery towers. The islands are like deserts, and there is very little arable land that cannot support us."

"But guarding the Red Sea, there is Lumi in the north and Portuguese in the south. Once the route is clear, you can also raid the Indian countries. It's a good place, but the harbor is not deep, so you can't build big ships."

Lin Afeng didn't seem to care about offending the two overlords of this sea area at the same time, and instead asked, "How about all the bones?"

"The subordinates fought with the Portuguese and Yi before they landed. They seem to be very prosperous. This time, they brought back an Arab merchant. I am going to let him act as an interpreter. By the way, when it comes to cultivated land, it seems that the north of the wooden bone is full of There is a desert, but the south is full of woods, and the king can make his capital there."

"Although the Portuguese and Yi have a few commercial stations along the coast, they are not their own cities, let alone important towns. It is better to repel them than to face enemies on the island."

Lin Feng turned to look at the young Yang Ce, and asked, "Are you scared?"

"Daxi City will not be the capital city, at least it will not be my capital city. Ships are my capital city. They can't find us." Lumi and Portugal, who were at war, took it to heart, but changed the subject and said, "Is it a bit awkward for me to wear this silk robe?"

Yang Ce didn't think it was awkward, but he had never seen Lin Afeng wearing a silk robe. In the past, Lin Afeng often wore chain armor and pierced armor. That broken bamboo hat.

Putting on a silk robe suddenly, others don't find it awkward, but Lin Afeng herself is very awkward.

Without waiting for Yang Ce to say anything, Lin Afeng had already said to himself: "Your Shuai Chen is a man of insight. I have read his book and said that he knows where he came from, where he is, and where he is going. Said to see the essence through the appearance - becoming a king was not a good idea in the first place."

"Calling the king is to keep people, and now people are staying, but they have lost their aggressiveness, thinking about setting up the capital, ceremonial guards, and uniforms all day long, trivial and useless. At this moment, it is a good thing that someone wants to fight us .”

For the Pirate King, the essence of power is obedience. If no one obeys, he is not an emperor even if he wears a dragon robe.

At this moment, he needs a victory.

"Take your interpreter to the wooden bones, and replace all the cloth and porcelain with iron in multiple batches. It is best to buy a batch of gun armor directly, as well as wood and gunpowder. The bleeding tree with a cockscomb on the island cannot For shipbuilding, we only have 77 large ships, and we need to build hundreds of small boats for the purpose of setting fires."

It seemed that the preparations were never enough. Lin Afeng pointed to the darkened coastline under the night and said: "There are more than 70 large ships with less than [-] guns. No matter who they fight with, they will suffer."

"At least one hundred more cannons must be purchased to meet the urgent needs. We can build the rest by ourselves. Although we can't make cannons as durable as General Zhenshuo, we can make iron cannons like that."

Yang Ce finally understands that Lin Afeng is not a war madman, and he doesn't really want to go to war with Portugal and Ottoman at the same time. In fact, what they did can't be called a war with two countries, it's nothing more than a little battle at sea. , even if the other party sends troops to attack them, it will only be a small fleet. To be honest, for Xida City, which has thousands of sailors and more than 70 large ships, unless there are tens of thousands of troops, they are not afraid of anyone.

It's just that Lin Afeng needs to set up a powerful and terrifying target, so as to scare the pirates and concentrate his power.

As for how long this power can be concentrated, he has never thought about it, or he doesn't care if he thinks about it.

His life is like walking on eggshells.

"Next year, here, here, and there, there will be three boatyards on the island, and a cannon factory dedicated to casting cannons. I'll give you five boats to go back and forth and sell the goods. And to have a long-term trade relationship with them, they better be willing."

If you don't want to, Yang Ce knows what he should do.

"All ships will leave the island in the next two months to plunder the largest fleet navigating here. We just need a city to stand up. All navigable ships and cities in this sea area must pay tribute to us ,Once a year."

　Good morning!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)