Chapter 1556: Pirate Flag Flying in the Caribbean
Colonel Tiago thought that the three Ming sailing ships had managed to escape the pursuit and would flee the Gulf of Mexico as soon as possible, running as far as they could.
But he was wrong, very wrong.
After confirming with a telescope that he was no longer pursuing them, the three Ming sailboats stopped immediately.
At this time, the number of people on the boats was also counted. There were supposed to be 1,086 people on the three boats, but there were actually 723 people on board, and 363 people had not yet boarded.
Ma Yishan quickly counted and found that there were nearly two hundred people on the boat who did not have time to get on board, which means that one hundred and sixty to seventy people were still left at the dock and in the city.
This is normal. In such a hurry, the messenger cannot notify everyone.
Who knows where they went to fool around?
But it doesn’t matter. They are probably all prisoners of the Spanish.
The atmosphere on the ship was extremely solemn. The crew had been hanging out in Havana for some time and had heard and witnessed many scenes of the Spanish executing pirates.
They all heard that in order to prevent the pirates' accomplices from breaking into the prison, the Spaniards would choose to hang the captured pirates on the dock as soon as possible as a warning to others.
Even the most indifferent person would feel very sad when thinking about so many companions who have shared weal and woe with us being hung up like a string of salted fish.
This is really the biggest setback since this round-the-world voyage!
Even when Mugudushu went their separate ways, only 250 men were lost, and those men were returning, not captured.
At other times, due to the advancement of navigation technology, medical conditions, hygiene habits and science, long-distance fleets did not experience outbreaks of vicious epidemics, terrible scurvy, and even basically no malnutrition.
The last one was mainly due to canned food. Although the canned food they brought with them had long been consumed, the crew members followed the training before going to sea and brought the canned food to shore.
Purchase all kinds of food... no matter whether it is meat, vegetables or fruits, put them into canning bottles after washing, reseal the bottle mouth with corks and then put them in the steamer to heat them, and you can make a simple version of canned food, which can be kept fresh for three months.
In short, the total loss of crew members due to illness and accidents so far is only fifty, creating a miracle in human navigation history.
Therefore, the heavy loss this time was unacceptable to everyone.
"What are you doing?!" Just as the men were secretly wiping their tears, Lin Feng's bandit-like voice exploded.
Everyone looked up at their captain, and saw her standing heroically at the highest point of the stern deck.
"Didn't I say that I would definitely go back and rescue them!" Lin Feng whipped the railing with his whip, as if whipping the men's faith, making them cheer up again and say, "Do you think I'm talking nonsense?!"
"Go back! Bombard Havana and force them to release the people!" The crew members shouted in response. The young masters also became excited and shouted, "Captain, Captain, I love you..."
"Kill his entire family and kill the sheep in his family!" Even the researcher wearing glasses joined in the commotion.
"Bullshit, I only love my master!" Lin Feng rolled his eyes at those young masters, then snorted, "Have you all been caught by Cuban women? Havana Bay is easy to defend and difficult to attack, and there are fortresses and artillery batteries. They have a large number of people and are very powerful. If we go back, won't we be walking into a trap?!"
"Boss, where do you want to go?" These were her former pirate crew members.
"Wongda!" Lin Feng said in a deep voice: "It is the livestock center of Cuba and the second sugar center. There are thousands of Spaniards living there!"
The Spanish colonized Cuba mainly to build plantations and grow sugarcane on a large scale. Although the purple sand sugar they made was the same as the brown sugar of the Ming Dynasty and could not be purified into white sugar, it did not affect their huge profits.
"Let's destroy Onda and capture all the Spaniards. If they kill one of us, we'll kill ten!" She licked her lips and said cruelly and excitedly: "If Onda is not enough, we'll go to Jamaica, Panama, and Guatemala and destroy their colonies one by one. Let's see who can outlast the other!?"
"Okay, that's a good idea!" The crew members responded loudly, rubbing their hands in excitement, wishing they could burn, kill and loot!
No matter whether they can handle the situation with just a few people, they just have to follow the captain.
"But Commander, isn't this pirate stuff?" But the police officers couldn't help but raise an objection: "We are the Coast Guard, we have rules."
"Yes, we are sailing around the world in a friendly way. How can we be guilty of burning, killing and looting?" There was also a bookworm whose brain was damaged by reading too much who said, "The Spanish people are innocent."
"You're talking nonsense!" Lin Feng yelled angrily. Joining the Coast Guard was great, but it had this one bad thing. There were too many restrictions. It was really unpleasant!
She was about to explode when Zhang Xiaojing stood up.
"All Spaniards are blood-guilty colonists, none of them are innocent!"
Xiao Zhuzi was seen wearing a red headscarf, a red cloak, a short gun and a golden sword tied to her leather belt. She stood beside Lin Feng with a murderous look on her face. She didn't look like a lady from a noble family at all. Instead, she looked like a member of the Red Turban Army who had rebelled and killed officials.
Obviously, the little bamboo, who has always been tolerant, was also angered by the Spaniards.
"They captured our crew members, seized our property, and seriously damaged our dignity! And they seriously threatened the freedom of navigation of our group in the Caribbean!"
"They carried out genocide against millions of Native Americans and committed serious crimes against humanity. They are the enemy of all mankind and everyone has the right to kill them!"
Zhang Xiaojing enumerated the crimes of the Spanish in a fierce manner, then drew out his golden sword and said in a deep voice: "As the Chief Police Commissioner of the Far-sea Fleet, I declare that the current situation has triggered the conditions for privateering. The entire fleet will temporarily withdraw from active service and, with the privateering license issued by the General Headquarters, legally plunder Spanish ships, strongholds, property and people until the conditions for privateering disappear!"
Now the police officers who represent loyalty and discipline have nothing to say.
Lin Feng secretly breathed a sigh of relief, and waved his hand fiercely, saying, "Raise the flag!"
The crew members quickly lowered the coast guard flag with the sun and moon shining together and carefully folded it up.
Then a privateering pirate flag drawn by Zhang Xiaojing herself was raised.
On the black flag was a white skull, and below the skull was a cross made up of interlaced short guns and short knives, which looked very scary.
But what’s a little cute is that there is a straw hat on the skull.
That was painted by Zhang Xiaojing based on the straw hat that Zhao Hao often wore in summer...
~~
Onda Bay is 150 miles west of Havana, southwest of the privateering fleet.
The fleet turned and sailed north.
This is because the Gulf Stream is even more powerful than the Kuroshio Current, and going against it is pure self-abuse.
But the ocean knowledge they learned at the Coast Guard School told them that the Gulf Stream is very narrow, and its strong currents are usually limited to a narrow band 75 kilometers wide.
Moreover, the flow rate of the Gulf Stream is too fast, and there are often weaker countercurrents that can be used on both sides of its strong current zone.
Sure enough, when the fleet rode the current rapidly northward for fifty miles and left the strong current zone, it encountered a countercurrent flowing in the opposite direction towards the southwest.
After a whole day of sailing in the vast ocean, the fleet finally found land via a reconnaissance balloon. A striking harbor similar to Havana Bay was just thirty miles to the southeast!
Lin Feng personally went up into the air to observe, and through the telescope he could clearly see the port and the fortress, as well as the dotted sails in the harbor and the large tracts of sugarcane forests surrounding the bay.
She was familiar with the geography of Cuba's northern coast and knew that was Onda.
While observing the defenses in the harbor and the locations of the ships docked, she made a new discovery.
In the harbor, I saw two ship masts, which were obviously different from those of other two-masted offshore cargo ships.
After adjusting the telescope to the highest magnification and carefully observing the two ships, Lin Feng's eyes lit up.
She could already conclude that the two three-masted sailing ships with tall stern decks were large Spanish galleons suitable for long-distance voyages!
After returning to the "Eternal Sinner Liu Daxia", she immediately called the captains of the Wenzhou and Taizhou and announced to them that the plan had changed. Instead of landing and fighting, they would seize the two Spanish treasure ships anchored in the harbor!
Although there was no evidence, she relied on her pirate's intuition to firmly believe that those were two huge sailing ships, the Spanish treasure ships that she had been coveting for a long time... Oh no, the ones she had been paying attention to for a long time!
Her reasons were very sound. Attacking a well-defended fortress would incur too much loss, and even if all the Spaniards were captured, it would not be as immediate as capturing these two treasure ships!
This is the royal family’s treasure, the loss of one cannot be concealed!
"Since it is so important, is there no escort fleet?" asked Zhang Nanhai, captain of the Taizhou.
"Idiot!" Lin Feng whipped him on the butt.
"Oh..." Captain Zhang screamed, and immediately understood. He immediately speculated clearly that the Spanish fleet that blocked the gate to arrest them yesterday was most likely escorting the two treasure ships.
The commander was probably worried that something might go wrong during the capture and that the treasure ship of His Majesty might be damaged by mistake, so he left it in Wenda Bay for the sake of caution...
"That would be even better!" Lin Feng nodded, agreeing: "It doesn't matter if it's not. This is like our tribute ship. Whoever loses it will lose his head!" He poked the map hard with the tip of his whip and said: "If we don't deal with it, what about your mother?!"
~~
That night, the sky was dark, the stars and the moon were dim, and there was a strong wind on the sea, which was perfect for murder and robbery!
At midnight, the fleet arrived outside Onda Bay.
The Wenzhou and Taizhou had covered their sails with black cloth and were riding the wind straight into the harbor!
Liu Daxia, the eternal sinner, was too big and inflexible to move, so it stayed outside the bay. After the fight broke out inside, it would attack the artillery fort at the mouth of the bay to disperse the firepower of the two frigates.
Visibility was extremely poor at this time, and it was around 2 a.m., when people were most sleepy. The defenders on the forts on both sides of the harbor were completely unaware of the two large sailing ships entering the harbor.
Moreover, Lin Feng chose this time to take action because she had long observed that this was the most dangerous period on the north coast of Cuba. Even if the Spaniards set up obstacles at the mouth of the bay, they would be temporarily ineffective due to the rising water level.
The two warships entered the bay smoothly. The harbor was still quiet and everyone was sleeping soundly.
Soon, the crew found the two distinctive sailing ships anchored in the bay!
It was not until the Wenzhou came within twenty meters of the large sailing ship that it was discovered by a sailor on night duty.
Seeing the black sails, the sailors lost all sleepiness and their screams broke the tranquility of the harbor.
"Corsario!"
"Fire!" Zhang Nanhai's roar sounded at the same time.
ps. The next chapter shouldn't be too late.
(End of this chapter)