Daming Military Empire

Chapter 186
The Sulu Sea is located in the middle of Batavia and Dongfan. It is named after the Sulu Kingdom. The Sulu Kingdom is a sultanate established in the [-]th century. Its territory includes the Sulu Islands, Palawan Island and Kalimantan Island. northeast.

Sulu Kingdom can be said to be a friendly neighbor of Ming Dynasty. In the 15th year of Emperor Yongle of Ming Dynasty (AD 1417), there were three kings of Sulu Kingdom, East King Batu Gebahala, West King Mahala Gemading, and Dong King Batu Gebalab He once led a family of 340 people to form a friendship mission to Daming for a friendly visit. Yongle Emperor Zhu Di solemnly received the three kings of Sulu, and the relationship between the two countries developed rapidly.

But in the sixth year of Emperor Wanli of Ming Dynasty (1578 A.D.), the Sulu Kingdom was invaded by Spanish colonists. Although it had not been completely conquered by Spain, all the princes, nobles and officials at all levels fled to the mountain fortresses to defend themselves, and the entire Sulu Kingdom entered a period of chaos.

During the reign of Tianqi, taking advantage of the endless war between the Sulu Kingdom and the Spaniards, Shi Daxuan, Hong Xu and Gan Hui led a group of alien pirates under Zheng Zhilong into the Sulu Sea, occupied some islands, and stationed between the Sulu Kingdom and the Spaniard-occupied Luzon Kingdom. stay.

The area around the Sulu Sea is not very developed, and the local residents are basically in a semi-primitive and semi-feudal society. There is almost nothing to grab except food, and the merchant ships from Spain and the Netherlands are too powerful, so Shi Daxuan, Hong Xu and Gan Hui have been living very hard.

Until the seventh year of Chongzheng, their boss Zheng Zhilong moved the current emperor for some reason. Daming actually remodeled their warships and gave them all the weapons replaced by Zheng Zhilong's main fleet. Zheng Zhilong warned again and again, they really want to go! The Spaniards from Luzon and the Dutch from Java are all robbed!
Fortunately, they didn’t go, or they would have been thrown into the sea to feed the fish now. After a few months of patience, their chance finally came. Daming’s Jinyiwei spies came one after another about the Dutch fleet’s staffing, firepower configuration and even Detailed information such as the date of departure and the route of the voyage, this means telling them that they can start grabbing now!

The first batch of seven Dutch merchant ships loaded with sugar, cotton cloth, porcelain and rice had already set off from Dongfan, and their destination was Java Island. There were nearly a thousand sailors from the Dutch East India Company on the merchant ships, equipped with more than 500 matchlock guns and A hundred artillery pieces will pass through a line about [-] miles north of Palawan Island in ten days.

The Sulu Sea is south of Palawan Island, and [-] miles north of Palawan Island is the current South China Sea area. There is nothing to say, so set off quickly and prepare to grab it.

Being a pirate in ancient times was a technical job. There were no planes, radars, or satellite navigation, only a compass and the sun. You can imagine how difficult it is to find a few merchant ships on the vast sea, even if you already know the general information of Dutch merchant ships. It is not easy to find them.

Shi Daxuan, Hong Xu and Gan Hui almost came out with more than 1000 remodeled ships of all sizes, and arrived [-] miles north of Palawan Island in advance to block the Dutch merchant ships.

This seems to be a bit of a joke. More than 1000 ships are going to surround seven ships. No matter how powerful the Dutch are, they don't need to bring so many people there!

They didn't mean to be joking. These more than 1000 ships were not all used for siege. In fact, they were mainly used for search. You must know that if you sail thousands of miles at sea, as long as you deviate from the angle slightly, it will be tens of miles. Therefore, if they wanted to find the location of the seven merchant ships, they would have to spread out at least 100 miles horizontally to be sure. ,

That's what they did. Every ten big boats led fifty small boats into a team. The distance between each team was about five miles.This is already the limit distance that can be seen. If you spread out a little more, if you are lucky, you can sneak directly between the two teams, and you may not even be able to see it!
It’s okay if the sea is sunny and sunny, but once there is a storm, it will be a disaster, let alone a small boat that can only carry more than ten people, even a 50-meter-long Dafu boat may be overturned in the wind and waves , They just waited in fear for two days. Fortunately, there were no storms and waves on the sea. Except for the hot weather, there was nothing else.

At noon on the third day, the Dutch fleet finally appeared. The first to spot them was the fifth team on the left. When they saw the Dutch merchant ship from a distance, they did not rush to pounce on it, but sent two small boats , Notify the two teams on the left and right to prepare to intercept.

After receiving the news, the two teams on the left and right immediately anchored to the fifth team, and each sent a small boat to continue to inform the other teams on the left and right.

The Dutch fleet didn’t know that bad luck was about to come, and their leader was lying on a cool chair in the cabin to enjoy the cool air. Generally, pirates’ activities were within two hundred miles of the continuous archipelago or the coast, and three hundred miles from the coast. The chance of encountering pirates in miles away is almost zero, unless some pirates happen to pass by their route.So the leader, Prade, was not worried at all. He just wanted to quickly end this boring voyage and go to Batavia to enjoy the exotic scenery.

After all, the Dutch merchant ships are the most advanced merchant ships in the world today, and their sailors are also veterans with rich sailing experience. Even in the safe area, the seven merchant ships send out lookouts in turn to climb up the mast to look around.So they quickly found the pirate ship in front of them. When the lookout whistle blew a mournful whistle, Prade jumped up from the couch like a spring, grabbed the binoculars on the table, ran out of the cabin, boarded the bow, Raise the binoculars and look in the direction pointed by the lookout post.

At this time, the distance between the two sides was still four or five miles, and the size of the enemy ship could only be seen clearly through the telescope. When he found that there were only ten Fuchuan, he couldn't help but heaved a sigh of relief. He is not afraid of the fleet at all. The armed merchant ships of the Netherlands are not a joke. The prow and stern are each equipped with a local cannon, which will not pose much threat to them at all, unless the opposite side uses a small boat to rush up desperately and set fire to the ship, but that is usually a tactic used by the navies of the two countries in naval battles. Will not set fire to the ship.

He easily put down the binoculars, and ordered: "Sail down, slow down, the six-pound guns on both sides are loaded with solid bullets, the bow and stern 18-pound guns are filled with shotguns, the musketeers spread out along the side of the ship, load the guns, and prepare to fire."

Under his order, everyone started to move. The standard bearer climbed up the mast to signal to other ships. The sailor who controlled the sail let go of the rope and began to lower the sail. Good bullets, out the tinder and ready to fire.

Seeing the skillful movements of his subordinates, Prade couldn't help showing a proud smile. He hoped that it wasn't a pirate, but a merchant ship. He happened to be addicted to pirates. Anyway, no one would see them in the vast sea, as long as his hands and feet were clean. No one will know, nothing is faster than grabbing money, I don't know how much I can gain this time!

While dreaming of getting rich, he raised his binoculars and looked at the opposite side: "Oh, Vake, why are there so many more ships!"

It was obvious from the binoculars that there were more than a dozen large ships rushing towards them with a bunch of small boats in front of the left and right.This is troublesome, there is still an ambush, it must be pirates, if all the thirty lucky boats are equipped with local cannons, the outcome is hard to say.

He immediately ordered: "Hurry up, raise the sails, all the ships will move closer, gather together, rush out of the encirclement, pull out their formation, and prepare to fight with them."

The sailor manipulating the sail immediately frantically pulled the rope to raise the sail that had just come down.

At this time, the distance between the two sides was only two or three miles. Prade raised his binoculars and looked at each other, because their ship was a little higher than Fuchuan, so he just saw the deck of the other side: "Oh, Xet, the Spanish artillery; oh, Shetter, is this our Dutch artillery; oh, what a bargain, there are so many, oh, it's over, there are so many on every ship!"

What the hell is going on? Why are there so many artillery on the opposite side? Could it be a Spanish caravan?However, Prade made a careful identification. There are yellow skins, brown skins and even black skins, but there is no white skin. This is not a Spanish merchant ship at all!He put down the binoculars in horror and shouted: "Quick, turn around, disperse and break through, may God bless us."

As soon as the flag bearer played the semaphore, the seven merchant ships dispersed like fireworks, divided into seven directions and began to flee.

Unexpectedly, the three waves of pirate ships in front did not disperse their pursuit at all, and they still rushed straight to the handsome ship in the middle of him. Prade howled in despair: "The 18-pound gun on the bow is fired, fire, everyone pay attention to concealment, the enemy wants to fire!" Already!"

Lack, do I have any grudges against you? Why do you insist on biting my ship!Prade, cursing, rushed to the side of the ship.

"Boom boom boom" Prade just squatted down and leaned his back on the ship's side. The artillery on both sides roared at the same time, but there was only one shot on their side, but they didn't know how many shots were fired on the other side. Countless shotguns were like raindrops. There were ping-pong-pong noises on the deck. Fortunately, everyone was close to the side of the ship, and no casualties were caused.

He took a quick look with his head, and the opposite side had spread out into a fan shape, so he could only howl in pain: "The six-pound guns on both sides are fired, fire, and all musketeers are ready to shoot."

He didn't even bother to give the order to load the shells. The opposite was the Spanish artillery, with cluster shells, and the loading speed couldn't be compared with others!

Sure enough, the artillery on his side had just been fired, and there was another roar on the other side, and there was another rain of shotguns. Everyone huddled under the side of the ship and did not dare to move.

Immediately afterwards, the sound of crackling muskets was heard all around. I don’t know how many people were firing, and the ship’s side was beating non-stop. How many muskets!
After a while, countless hooks flew over the side of the ship, and the number was incalculable. With the sound of the hooks entering the wood, Prade's face turned pale, and he didn't even have the courage to order to shoot. Now, he shouted in a crying voice: "Don't shoot, don't provoke them, prepare to surrender, I hope they only want money, not life!"

(End of this chapter)