shadow of britain

Chapter 104 Barbary Pirates Attack!
On the blue sea of ​​the English Channel, the bow of the Beagle broke through the waves and rode the wind.

Colonel Fitzroy observed with a binocular, and ordered the helmsman: "Full left rudder, first seize the windward position, and don't rush to get close."

Under his command, the Beagle quickly turned around to face north.

Immediately afterwards, Colonel Fitzroy loudly ordered to the crew on the deck: "Gunners, musketeers load ammunition! Quartermaster, how many Congreve rockets have we brought this time?"

The quartermaster responded with a loud voice: "Report, we have prepared [-] rounds for this sea training!"

"Okay! Don't fucking save it, bring it all up for me! First set up the rocket sampan. If the situation changes in a while, give it two rounds of shelling first. After reaching nearly 150 yards, let me use the rocket to shoot him. Damn it! Two hundred rockets must be fired within 8 minutes!"

"As ordered!"

Just as the Beagle turned around, the two ships in the sea ahead seemed to have spotted the Beagle.

Soon, Arthur saw the red, white and blue tricolor flag on the opponent's mast through the telescope.

He frowned and murmured, "French flag?"

Elder on the side listened and corrected with a smile: "What! Arthur, the French flag is white. This is a sea signal flag. It is asking us to keep a distance from him."

As soon as Elder finished speaking, he heard Colonel Fitzroy order: "Tell them, we want a dialogue."

Soon, the yellow and blue communication flag was also raised on the mainmast of the Beagle.

On the opposite boat, Fred was pinching his waist and talking to a man with a white turban, beard and a machete in his waist.

After seeing the flag on the Beagle, the first officer of the Black Thorn hurried to his side and whispered a few words.

I saw Fred spit out the straw in his mouth with a bah, and cursed: "Damn it, why are there so many things about this shit boat? Tell them to get out of here, I don't have time to tangle with them."

Hearing this, the first mate had no choice but to reply: "Mr. Fred, the Royal Navy's reserve flag is hanging on the opposite side. Isn't it good for us to talk like this? After all, they may just want to accompany the escort."

Fred stared and said, "It's just crossing the Strait of Dover. How can there be a pirate who doesn't have eyes and dares to go to the English Channel to rob?"

Hearing this, the man in the white turban opposite couldn't help but stroked his beard, and asked in raw English that tasted like barbecue: "Mr. Fred, I'm afraid it's inappropriate for you to say that? After all, I'm standing In front of you."

Fred laughed loudly when he heard the words, he hooked the other person's shoulder and said.

"Brother, you are different! Isn't this a special case? Alas, you are also unlucky, not born in a good age. If it is the 16th century, Barbarossa Hayreddin the 'Silver Hand' is still alive. In a moment, even if the French have a hundred guts, they won't dare to destroy your base!

But the Frenchman's retribution came quickly!That son of a bitch Charles X had just destroyed Algiers and had the Revolutionary Party blown out of office the next month.So, in fact, Allah still blesses you, and your bad luck is purely because He dozed off occasionally. "

Hearing this, the other party was also silent for a while, and then he put his right hand on his left chest, and sighed slightly: "Ansalam Rikong, I hope we can all have good luck in the future."

Hearing this, Fred took a puff of smoke and said, "But...brother, it's no problem selling you some slaves before. But, you want me to pick up the people in your boat, which is a bit... ...After all, you know that I don't have a lot of money either."

Hearing this, the man in the white turban couldn't help but press down his hand, but just when he almost touched the waist knife, Fred's voice sounded again.

"But you are lucky this time. To tell you the truth, I don't plan to do it in London. This Blackthorn is going to the United States. I bought some properties there a few years ago. If you are interested, You can make a fortune with me.

There are still a lot of desperate poor people on my ship. Although they can't be directly used as white slaves like in Ottoman, they can also serve as labor force for seven or eight years in America. At that time, we will add some black slaves.

Looking back, whether it is a tobacco plantation or a cotton plantation in the West Indies, there is a lot to do!During the planting season, you can run some business orders and smuggle goods, and help me transship the goods during the picking season.

When you have saved a sum of money, you can also switch to some serious business. Isn't this much better than floating on the sea every day?IMHO, since the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the crackdown on pirates has become more and more severe.

Originally, even if you didn't mention this today, as an old brother, I wanted to persuade you. "

Hearing this, the other party couldn't help asking: "Didn't you do a good job in England? Why didn't you do it?"

Fred grinned his mouth wide, showing his big gold teeth: "Brother, the situation in England is different from your Barbary pirates. As long as you make the Pasha in charge of Algiers happy, everything will be fine.

But the shit pot of Britain is different.Not only to lick Scotland Yard, but also to lick parishes, magistrates' courts, and some random private detectives and robber catchers, but if one of the links goes wrong, it is easy to fall into the pit.

Come to think of it, brother, I'm just a little bit of a slave trade, selling stolen goods, smuggling goods, bribing judges, clearing channels, and the like.Over the course of a year, after excluding the cost of labor costs, relationship management, etc., there is only a negligible profit.

After working hard for a year, sometimes the earning is not as good as the dozens of looms in the textile factory.For this little money, I have to be so busy, is it easy for me?I'm not like you, you Barbary pirates can get a lot of money, and when you go back, you can get a few beautiful slave girls to have fun.

Alas, I am a person who has been working hard all my life!From this point of view, believing in Allah is indeed better than believing in God. "

The man in the white turban pursed his lips a few times when he heard this, and finally couldn't hold back and said, "Mr. Fred, Allah and God are actually the same person."

"Oh? Really?" Fred put his arms around each other affectionately and said, "No wonder I think you look like my brother, so we believe in the same thing. How about it, you will give me lunch later Tell me about the Qur'an, and let's talk about it."

Fred was having a heated chat with the pirate leader, when suddenly, the first officer couldn't help interjecting in a low voice: "Sir, that ship is constantly approaching us, and their behavior seems to be not quite right."

"What's wrong?" Fred cursed, "I'm worse than him! What's the matter? Is it possible that you still want to rob me? The serious pirates are my brothers, so let them try!"

Hearing this, the first mate was almost speechless towards Fred who had no common knowledge of navigation.

At this time, it was the pirate leader who first discovered the subtleties of the situation.

He took out the binoculars in his pocket, looked in the direction of the Beagle for a while, and suddenly said in his mouth.

"They played flags, asking us to stop sailing immediately and accept their boarding inspection."

"Huh?" Fred almost laughed angrily: "You really don't fear death when you come here? Brother Ahmed, are you interested in doing another vote before going to America?"

Ahmed looked at the size of the Beagle, thought for a moment, and then nodded slowly: "It can be done, but after we finish it, we must flee quickly. If this matter reaches the ears of the Royal Navy, we will Even having ten lives might not be enough to die."

Fred sneered: "This is what I want! The Royal Navy? Those who defeated Napoleon back then, but our glorious army that experienced the artillery fire of Waterloo! Pass my order to let them in, and I will let them see what it means to come from the first place." The impact of the cavalry second lieutenant of the 18th Dragoon Regiment!"

(End of this chapter)