1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 1008 Indian Ocean, Pirate's Tomb!
May 1684, 5, Cloud Island (now Mahe, Seychelles).

In 1502, when the Portuguese da Gama led his fleet around the Cape of Good Hope for the second time, he discovered some uninhabited coral islands between Madagascar and the African continent.Since there was no indigenous population on the island, and there were no valuable properties, Da Gama just marked these small islands on his nautical chart and gave them a general name: "Seven Sisters Island". Abandoned, never set foot in this beautiful archipelago.

In the 22nd year of Qianwu in the Great Qi Dynasty (1664), He Zongyuan, the then deputy commander of the Indian Fleet and Lieutenant Zhaoxin (Colonel), led four warships to explore and inspect the hydrology and geography of the east coast of Africa, and inadvertently "discovered" this archipelago.

In view of the fact that many ports with better conditions on the east coast of Africa were occupied by the Portuguese at that time, He Zongyuan decided to bring the archipelago under the rule of Qi, making it a key supply point for the navy in the western Indian Ocean region.

He temporarily appointed a Lieutenant Renyong (Lieutenant) as the local civil affairs officer, and landed on the largest island (now Mahe Island, Seychelles) with more than ten naval officers and soldiers, as well as dozens of Cochin servants. Started to establish a stronghold, raised the flag of the Qi State, and declared that the archipelago and the sea area were all under the jurisdiction of the Qi State.

After 20 years of development and construction, the archipelago has established three settlements with more than 560 residents.The people in this area mainly grow cassava, sugar cane and corn, supplemented by offshore fishing. They have enough food and clothing, but they definitely don't have much spare money in their pockets, and life is very difficult.

Today, for the more than 400 residents of Yunwu Island, it may be an extremely lucky day.Without him, at about nine o'clock in the morning, a pirate ship rashly broke into the island and sent a boatload of looted treasures to the poor local people.

Well, to be precise, this pirate ship is actually an armed merchant ship with a privateer license issued by the English government, and it is a "licensed" pirate.According to the license regulations, 10% of the wealth captured by privateers at sea will belong to the British royal family. With this license, they are allowed to enter the colonial ports belonging to England to dock for supplies.

Strictly speaking, privateering was permitted only in wartime. After England and the Netherlands signed a peace treaty in 1674, they have been in a neutral state. All privateers or armed civilian ships that have obtained privateering licenses should stop such piracy against enemy countries, let alone attack merchant ships of other countries.

However, those who dare to run a ship on the sea are naturally lawless, daring and fierce people.Moreover, the sea is boundless, so there are no legal and moral constraints.If you happen to encounter a weak merchant ship, if you just let it go, wouldn't it be too violent and let your wealth be "lost"?
Therefore, on the vast ocean, let alone armed merchant ships and pirate ships with private plunder licenses will behave extremely viciously, wantonly robbing merchant ships with weak force, even those merchant ships that trade normally, will not hesitate to obtain excellent favorable opportunities. I don't mind temporarily acting as a pirate for a while, doing a murder and stealing business.

Once upon a time, the most popular sea area for privateers and pirate ships was in the fertile Caribbean Sea, where countless islands were dotted with large and small sugarcane plantations, and merchant ships loaded with sugar or coins kept coming and going.What makes many privateers and pirates coveted is that many Spanish treasure ships will pass through this sea area.If a treasure ship can be hijacked, it is absolutely possible for an ordinary person to obtain huge wealth immediately, marry Bai Fumei, and climb to the pinnacle of his life.

The route of the Spanish treasure fleet was relatively simple. The Spaniards transported the silver and gold mined in South America to Panama by water, and then to Portobello on the other side of the Central American Isthmus. The large armed galleons from the mainland were transported back to the mainland in a unified manner.And this mode of transportation has reached the level of more than 50 galleons at most—this kind of unique super-large-scale fleet basically does not require the pirates to bother to track it.

At that time, in the Caribbean region, the coast of the mainland was almost occupied by the Spaniards, and the only French colony was also wiped out by the Spaniards.Large islands such as Cuba, Dominica, and Jamaica have also become Spanish colonies.That's why the Spaniards were able to carry out such a large-scale transportation with confidence.

However, with the confrontation between European Protestants (British, Dutch) and Catholics (West), as well as the influx of French immigrants, several famous "pirate ports" appeared in the Caribbean, Nassau in the United Kingdom and Port Royal, Haiti in France, Tortuga Island, and more.These pirates gather along the route of the treasure fleet, robbing the treasure ship with the attack tactics of wolves encircling and suppressing the reindeer herd, driving away—locking on the weakest target—and rounding up.In the later period, the navies and privateers of Britain, France, and the Netherlands also joined the hunt.

As the loss of the treasure fleet was plundered, Spain began to actively encircle and suppress pirates in the Caribbean, and suspended the delivery of its treasure fleet.

In order to make a living, some Caribbean pirates with extraordinary courage began to expand their business scope, eyeing the ocean-going fleet returning from the Indian Ocean.During this period, the value of goods traded in India and the East has surpassed that of Europe, and the income from porcelain, silk and spices has become the fastest way to accumulate wealth.What makes the pirates even more excited is that the sea power of several major countries in the region is extremely weak, which hardly poses any threat to them, and naturally it cannot be said to attack the pirate forces.

The several East India companies that expanded Eastern trade were all in commercial competition, so selling information on each other's fleets naturally became one of the means of competition.Therefore, for pirates in this period, it was almost effortless to obtain information on the merchant fleet.Although the voyage was long and difficult, every time the object of robbery was a large ship full of wealth that could not be parried, this made the pirates join the ranks of robbery in the Indian Ocean with great joy.

However, the good times didn’t last long, and the rapidly rising Qi State gradually expanded its influence to the entire Indian Ocean region. In order to maintain its growing Indian Ocean trade, it began to send professional warships to escort its merchant ships, and frequently combated and eliminated rampant piracy.From the Straits of Malacca, to the east and west coasts of India, to the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, and the east coast of Africa, there are naval ships of the Qi State everywhere.

All pirate ships captured by the Qi State Navy, the captain, first mate, bosun, etc., were all sentenced to death without exception, and the crew was sentenced to hard labor ranging from ten to twenty years. The wealth of the other party will be confiscated by the other party.

Any ports and strongholds that dare to shelter and hide pirates will be mercilessly attacked by the Qi Navy. Muscat, Salalah, Mogadishu, Lamu Island, Zanzibar, and Comoros have all been attacked. The provision of supplies and stolen goods for pirates has been bombarded by the artillery fire of Qi State. Whether it is the coastal Sultan Kingdom, local indigenous tribes, or even European colonial strongholds, under the threat of Qi State, they all promise not to give pirates any convenience. .

Under such circumstances, countless pirates were either forced to leave the Indian Ocean, or they could only "be good" and engage in maritime commercial activities in an orderly manner under the leadership of Qi's trade.In this sea area, Qi has become the defender of trade order and the maker of trade rules.Their navy can intercept ships suspected of pirates at will, conduct questioning and inspection, but those who disobey will be sunk.

However, in this busiest sea area in the world, endless wealth flows. The Dutch East India Company’s ship returning to Europe is filled with spices, precious stones, and silk; , cotton cloth; there are also a large number of Qi State merchant ships, which are full of various industrial products, as well as oriental commodities such as tea, porcelain and silk.

As long as you are brave enough and lucky enough, you can grab a full-loaded merchant ship and you can bring tens of thousands of pounds of wealth.Although Qi has a large number of warships deployed in the Indian Ocean and their combat power is also very powerful, it may not be easy to catch a pirate ship whose whereabouts are uncertain in such a vast ocean.

The armed privateer "Reston" crossed the Cape of Good Hope in February last year and came to the Indian Ocean to start its hunting trip.In the past year, they have successively landed on the east coast of Africa, plundered simple trader stations, robbed local aborigines, and even chased many single merchant ships.

Of course, there is also the thrilling experience of fleeing in embarrassment under the pursuit of the cruising warships of the Qi State, and finally escaping into the depths of the sea by luck.

They have had only two successful hunts so far.Last June, an Omani slave ship was captured near Mogadishu. The galley with a displacement of less than 150 tons actually stuffed 120 black slaves, ready to be shipped to the Arab region for sale.

The armed privateer "Leston" only confiscated less than a hundred gold and silver coins and a small amount of ivory from the slave ship.Frustrated, they blew up the ship and drowned all the sailors and slaves in the sea.

In February of this year, they intercepted a single Qi merchant ship in the waters near Comoros Island.This merchant ship belonging to the South African Trading Company encountered a storm in the Indian Ocean. Not only was it separated from the accompanying fleet, but it also damaged two masts. Repair damaged ships.

After the "Leston" armed privateer intercepted the Qi merchant ship, it seized a large amount of Persian carpets, raw silk, female slaves, cattle, horses and livestock, and many exquisite commodities from Qi, roughly estimated to be worth fifteen thousand. £ or so, which made the pirates smile.After they transferred all the goods to the privateer, in order to ensure that the piracy would not be exposed, they killed all the sailors, and then set a fire to destroy the ship.

In the following months, the armed privateer "Leston" failed to find a suitable hunting target. The opponent was either a fleet composed of several armed merchant ships, or the flexibility and mobility of the ships was far superior to its own, and it was impossible to catch up. .

A few days ago, the armed privateer "Reston" encountered a storm and blew them near Cloud Island.I thought it was a desolate and remote island. Even if there were people inhabited, it would be nothing more than a group of ignorant natives.

The pirates carefully sailed their boats into the northwest harbor of the island, but they were surprised to find that there was a stone pier, on which two small fishing boats were moored, and a tall tower stood hundreds of meters away from the shore. Watchtowers, all this shows that a group of indigenous tribes that have begun to take shape of civilization thrive here.

After seeing the situation, the captain of the "Leston", Pierre Brad, made the decision he regretted the most in his life - he ordered to land and occupy the island without conducting a careful investigation. Prepare to make it their pirate stronghold, in addition to harboring the looted property, they can also get a reliable shelter.

More than 70 pirates, armed with muskets and swords, couldn't wait to land on land as soon as the ship landed, and rushed towards the camp of the "natives".

Although the outer defenses of the camp had stone platforms and protective walls, most of the enclosures were built with logs, which could only keep some wild beasts or backward natives out.If you face "civilized people" with advanced weapons, it may not be enough.As long as you rush forward and use musket cover to frighten the natives, you can easily climb over the fence and enter the camp.The rest may be to simply clean up the battlefield, take in the prisoners, and let the men who have been holding back for a long time vent their anger.

Just when the pirates were about to approach the "indigenous" camp, they suddenly heard a "boom" artillery roar, and dense grape bullets hit their heads and faces, killing more than ten pirates in an instant.

All the pirates were startled by the roar of the huge artillery, what's going on?
The natives even had artillery! ?

Just when the pirates were hesitating, the "natives" in the camp put muskets on the fence one after another, and then fired a wave of untidy shots, killing more than a dozen pirates again.

Where are the aborigines? It is clearly a colonial island occupied by a civilized country!
The pirates uttered a cry, turned around and fled towards the pier.

More than 30 officers and soldiers stationed on Yunwu Island immediately led more than 100 armed residents and chased them out. When they reached the beach, the pirates who could not retreat were forced to abandon their weapons and surrender.The pirates who stayed on the boat saw that the lone tree was hard to support, so they got off the boat and automatically became the captives of Yunwu Island.

According to the laws of Qi State and previous cases, Han Chengliang, Governor of Yunwu Island and Lieutenant (Captain) of the Navy Martial Arts School, sentenced all pirate leaders including the captain, first mate, and bosun of the "Leston" to death and hanged them at the pier.After some interrogation, it was learned that the pirates had attacked a Qi merchant ship and killed all the crew members, and immediately issued a "two-one killing order" to those ordinary pirates, and the last remaining pirates were killed. Sentenced to lifelong hard labor.

Under the Indian Ocean order dominated by Qi, any piracy is not allowed.Regardless of whether these pirates are behind the local princes or European colonial forces, anyone who connives or engages in maritime plundering will be severely cracked down by the Qi Navy, with the exception of Gaimo.

When the captain of the "Leston" Pierre Brad was put on the noose, he sighed sadly: "In the vast Indian Ocean, because of the wide distribution of Qi's power, there may no longer be any sea area where you can go anywhere." We pirates are raging! This place will be the grave of all adventurers, and his greed and ambition will be completely buried in the depths of the ocean."

(End of this chapter)