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Chapter 1288 Panicked Pirates

"Amur, you are my right-hand man. This year you have plundered as many as 17 ships, and you are loyal to me. I should have trusted all your information. But the information you reported is too shocking. It's unbelievable. You said that when you plundered a ship of the Knights of Malta, you encountered a fleet of more than 30 sailing ships, many of which were large warships..."

Murat, the pasha of Algiers, sits on a throne-like seat, and below him are his loyal subordinates, who have joined his pirate chieftain, among them Berbers, Turks, Arabs, Persians , any pirate who died at sea and loyal to the Ottoman Empire can be active in Algiers.Amur was an Arab pirate who served Pasha.

Since Algiers is [-] miles away from Constantinople, the sky is far away from the emperor, and Pasha is the king of the pirate kingdom, who has the power to formulate rules and collect taxes in Algiers.

"Great Lord Pasha, my subordinates have seen with their own eyes that their fleet covers the sky, their sails cover the sea, and their cannons are as numerous as the stars in the sky. The direction they are sailing is our Algiers, which belongs to Your Majesty does not think that such a powerful fleet will come to Algiers to discuss peace and business with us." Amur bowed his head and said to the powerful Pasha here.

Murat realized the seriousness of the problem, those who come are not kind, and those who are kind will not come!
"Whose ship is that?"

"They fly the Union Jack of Britain, and a strange dragon-like flag."

Dragon flag?Murat thought about it carefully, and no forces on the Mediterranean coast would use this kind of flag.

"Lord Pasha, your servant once went to the Spice Islands with the Arab fleet. The army of the ancient Chinese civilization used a special dragon flag as a symbol of the army. Could it be that the Chinese fleet entered The Mediterranean Sea?" A pirate seemed to remember something and reported it to Murat.

"Impossible. The Spice Islands are so far away from Algiers, and the voyage is tens of thousands of kilometers. How can they have the financial resources to send such a huge fleet to us?"

"What is the purpose of their fleet entering the Mediterranean? Why did they get involved with the Britons?"

"As far as I know, the British have long been in collusion with the Chinese. Many Arab merchant ships have witnessed people from the two countries frequently appearing together in the East Indies and the Spice Islands, so even if their warships and the Chinese I will not feel the slightest surprise when the warships move together."

The well-known pirate leaders in Algiers and even the entire Barbary region speculated on the origin of the unknown fleet. Apart from plundering merchant ships and coastal areas in the Mediterranean, this group of people also directly or indirectly participated in traditional Indian Ocean trade. There is not too much lack of understanding of things in the East.

However, they didn't know what happened in Britain. At this time, the speed of information transmission was very slow. Unless they concentrated on a certain matter to collect information, otherwise they had to rely on word of mouth to know when it would be able to spread from one place. to another place.

Hearing the discussions among his subordinates, Murat's eyes flashed brightly: "The Easterners detained my son's ship in the Spice Islands and executed him, and the surviving sailors brought back words to humiliate our family. They are cruel and despicable. .Now what are they going to do with the Britons?!"

Murat still didn't know that the fuse of the war was because he had his men capture Li Jinde in Halep because of his hatred of the Orientals, and transported Li Jinde and other slaves from Halep back to Algiers, their hometown.

At this time, he had almost completely forgotten that Li Jinde was such an ordinary Chinese businessman, let alone that he was still working as a coolie in the Fortress of Pennion in Algiers.

Who would have thought that the Chinese fleet would mobilize so many troops just to get a merchant!
As expected, many pirate leaders shook their heads and spread their hands, completely unaware of the purpose of the upcoming unknown fleet.

"The visitors are not good... Order all the ships that go out to return to the port, the guards gather, and all the pirates are on alert. They are likely to attack our Algiers fleet!" Murat, as the Pasha here, the governor of Algiers, everything He didn't understand why a large combined fleet was heading for Algiers, but there was nothing wrong with being careful.

Pasha's guards were dispatched everywhere in the mountain city and port of Algiers. This guard soldiers loyal to Pasha Murat entered the forts and castles and guarded every important street.

The action of Pasha's guards made thousands of pirates in the mountain city and port aware of something serious.

In the past, when the Ottoman Empire and the Spanish Empire were at war, the Pasha of Algiers would strengthen the defense of Algiers and organize a fleet to reinforce the Ottoman Navy.

"Has the emperor declared war on the Ottoman Empire again?"

"Could it be that the Spanish Armada wants to attack us in Algiers?"

The pirates were chatting about gossip in private, but no one knew the strategic trends of the British Royal Navy and the Fourth Fleet.

It never occurred to the pirates of Algiers that a fleet would dare to attack them in their prime.

They have plundered the merchant ships and populations of Britain, Spain, France, Venice and many other countries. These kingdoms dare not even fart, and they have to pay them protection fees.

Murat Pasha's 2000-man guards were all dispatched, and they were mainly concentrated in coastal forts, city walls, and castles. As long as these coastal defenses were guarded, the opponent's warships would not be able to approach the port.Large carriages and camels transport the solid bullets and gunpowder from the ammunition depot to various fortifications, as if a big war is coming.

At this time, the pirate ships that were active in the nearby waters were quickly recalled to the port of Algiers, and the ships originally planned to go to sea were also left behind.

"It's really bad luck for eight lifetimes. I actually went to Algiers to get goods at this time. If the Spaniards attack here and there is chaos, I might die here." The slave trader who couldn't go to sea was frowning.

They trade other people's lives like commodities, but when it's their turn to be threatened, they find it unacceptable.

Not only the slave traders who couldn't go to sea, but all the pirates who were still stranded in Algiers were thinking about whether a war would break out, and how to escape from Algiers if a war broke out.No pirate would be willing to fight for Algiers. As long as their ships are still there, they can be active in other ports in North Africa and continue to rob merchant ships.

The situation in Algiers is very bad now, and the atmosphere has become extremely depressing.

(End of this chapter)