Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 56 Ziloe Island

The Strait of Magellan in late autumn was violent, and the formation of three ships, including Yunsheng No. 6, sailed cautiously under the guidance of a group of old European sailors.Until the end of June, after experiencing strong winds, rough waves, dense fog, eddies, countercurrents and almost all the difficulties and obstacles you can imagine, this small formation finally crossed this bridge that connects the coasts on both sides of the Americas. The only safe channel has entered the Pacific Ocean for the first time in history.

"What kind of ocean current is the Peruvian cold current, Yuri, you can answer." After sailing northward along the Peruvian cold current for a while, Lu Ming, who had nothing to do on the escort gunboat "Eagle of the East Coast", simply made another assessment from his students.

"It's the compensating current, sir," replied Yuri Petrovich triumphantly. "This rising compensating current runs along the Chilean coast to Peru. We can easily go anywhere we want with this current." .”

Lu Ming smiled with satisfaction: "Even Yuri is willing to spend time studying, that's right. Then who will tell me about the history of Valdivia? Kyle? Nick? Johnson? You bastards, I must have gone to the bottom deck to watch the card game again, and I didn’t complete the learning tasks I gave. Yuri, you are the team leader, and you come to answer my questions. If you answer wrong, the whole team will clean the deck for a week.”

"The port of Valdivia was founded in 1551 by Pedro de Valdivia. It was originally established as an export port for gold and silver mining points in inland areas such as Villa Rica, and later in the conquest of It gradually developed during the perennial wars of the Araucan people in the south-central area, and it is currently the largest city in the south-central area of ​​the Spanish Santiago Trial Court." Yuri replied fluently, obviously working hard.

"Yuri, you're surprising me now." Lu Ming praised.

When Lu Ming was assessing the students, in the officer's lounge on the ground floor of the stern building, a group of naval officers were having some kind of entertainment around a table.Long sea voyages are boring, so officers and sailors will do everything that can increase fun, such as playing cards, drinking, arm wrestling, and mouse fighting, whenever they have time.

"Thirty thousand!" "Bar! Ten thousand! Haha, 4 bars open! All in one color, right and wrong, single hang and flower on the bar, a total of [-] times, give money give money! Haha!" Ensign John Stone slanted Sitting on the chair, he laughed smugly.

"How unlucky!" "This hand made you a dollar and a half! Today you are so lucky, you keep winning." "Forget it, whoever will replace me, I will go to the deck to get some air." Several people on the card table The midshipman's face was livid, and he lamented repeatedly.

After the money was given, the sound of shuffling the cards continued to sound.

At this moment, an orderly came down from the gangway, went to the door of the officer's lounge and shouted: "Gentlemen, we are approaching Ziloe Island. The captain asked everyone to stop all entertainment and prepare for battle. This There may be Spanish fishing boats and warships in the area."

A group of officers immediately stood up when they heard the words. "Damn, where's my weapon!" "Evan, stand up, you sit on my uniform." "Damn, Simpson, you stepped on me!" The chaotic scene lasted five or six minutes, and then a The officers, all dressed up, came to the bridge on the third floor of the poop.

Captain Lu Ming was talking with Ji Wen who came from Yunsheng No. [-] in a traffic boat: "So, Xiao Bailang decided to land on this island. It's okay, after sailing for such a long time, the supplies have been consumed a lot. Just go ashore to add. Well, the 'Eastern Eagle' will do a good job of guarding."

"Gentlemen, turn the rudder to the right, head northeast, and enter the Gulf of Cordoba." Lu Ming began to order, "All officers return to their respective posts, pay close attention to whether there are Spanish ships in the bay, and report immediately if found! "

The "Eagle of the East Coast" took the lead, the Yunsheng No. [-] was in the middle, and the "Galicia Flying Fish" was in the rear. The three ships entered the Gulf of Cordoba between Ziloe Island and the mainland in a straight line.After half a day of sailing, the three ships entered Castro Port on the east side of Ziloe Island.

"Quick! Move quickly! The Spaniards in the port are watching you!" Small boats were lowered from the Yunsheng No. 5, and the heavily armed army soldiers began to descend along the rope ladder on the side of the ship under the urging of the officers. climb.Due to the large waves in the port, the bumps of the ships caused some soldiers to fall into the sea.These unlucky soldiers were immediately fished up to the deck by the sailors on the ship through the leather hanging bags connected by the pulley block. The sea water in May was cold, and these soldiers immediately changed into dry clothes and drank strong wine drive away the cold.

Several fast-moving boats were already approaching the beach, and the Charuyas in charge of rowing jumped into the icy waist-high water and pushed the boats onto the beach.No one came to obstruct this landing operation. Fabian Klingemann held a 32-B flintlock rifle in both hands and led people into some cabins on the shore.It used to be a log cabin where lumberjacks lived, and it looks like its owner has escaped now.

There are stretches of coniferous forests everywhere on the shore, and many of the trees have grown for a long time.Some logging axes and saws were scattered around the edge of the forest, proving how panicked their masters were when they fled.

"Bang!" There was a gunshot not far away, which was the belated resistance of the Spaniards.Fabian immediately led the brothers in his squad to the place where the gunshots sounded. Over there, soldiers from a squad temporarily organized into the 4th platoon were shooting each other with some Spaniards across a small forest.The joining of the new force greatly increased the firepower on our side. The dense bullets hit the trees and made a "pop" sound. It seemed that someone had been shot on the Spaniard's side.

Xie Hansan boarded the coast together with the last group of soldiers in the second row.Seeing the battle ahead, he immediately rushed over with 47 officers and soldiers in the second row.

"Second row, quickly step forward and fire the gun...Stand still...Reload...Raise the gun...Ready, let go!" Xie Hansan swung the command saber in his hand viciously.The gunshots sounded like popping beans, and there were a few creepy screams from the Spaniard immediately, and the rest of the people started to retreat after firing a few shots indiscriminately.

The four platoons of soldiers had already landed, and Xie Hansan commanded them to form a sparse three-row line and march towards the Spanish town.There were five or six dead Spaniards lying in the grove. The army soldiers did not look at them, and continued to move forward after passing through the grove.At this time, Castro City finally appeared completely before everyone's eyes.

Strictly speaking, it is very reluctant to call Castro a "city".Because this small town that can be seen at a glance does not have any defensive facilities such as city walls, and there are even few wooden fences.There are many houses with wooden or brick and wood mixed structures scattered in the city. In addition, there are some thatched houses full of Indian style.All in all, it's a run-down town.

"Let's go! One-two-one...one-two-one..." Following Xie Hansan's command, the drummer beside him beat the rhythmic drumbeat, and the soldiers began to move forward slowly according to the rhythm of the drumbeat .There are several watchtowers in the town ahead, and some Spanish soldiers are standing on them and peeping this way.

"First row, half turn left, full row salvo...Get ready, let go!" "Second row, spread out in front of the upper right, full row salvo... Get ready, let go!" Following the order of the officer, temporarily organize the first row He and the soldiers in the second row called the watchtowers one by one outside the range of the Spaniards' matchlock guns. The dense bullets shot all the Spaniards who dared to climb the towers into blood gourds.

The fight was over after two 10 minutes.Eighteen Spanish soldiers and 25 Indian slave soldiers from Peru were shot dead on the spot, and then the army took over the desolate and remote town.

There are hundreds of residents living in the town, the vast majority of whom are Indians.In addition, there are a small number of Spanish soldiers, missionaries, merchants, craftsmen and farmers.These people hid in their homes in dismay and waited silently for the trial of these new conquerors.Xie Hansan requisitioned the most magnificent building in the town, which was a wooden church, and there were three Jesuit missionaries in the church.These missionaries looked at Xie Hansan's eastern face with eyes mixed with fear and surprise, and they seemed to understand something at this moment.

After the army took control of the situation, Xiao Bailang led some navy sailors to go ashore to "collect" the spoils.According to the plan formulated in advance, every resident in Castro Town was required to pay a ransom of at least one peso or something of equivalent value.Armed with sabers and rifles, the sailors began going door to door collecting money.

Xie Hansan was interrogating a group of Spanish town officials who had just been arrested in the church, while Father Pedro was acting as an interpreter.The mayor of Castro and a group of city council members were blocked by the army before they could escape.In fact, they have nowhere to escape. Surrounded by a large tract of primeval forest, there are few people. If they escape, they will probably die of cold and hunger.Instead of this, it's better to stay in the town and try your luck.

The mayor, six commissioners, an army officer, a judge, a sheriff, a treasurer, and three religious figures were tied up and thrown on the ground.Xie Han said with a blank face: "Gentlemen, I hate nonsense. Maybe some of you have already guessed our origin, then I will stop introducing myself. Now I will ask questions and you will answer them. If I ask If a person can't answer my question, then he can report to God. Then, I started..."

Half an hour later, Xie Hansan got all the information he wanted: there were three logging camps and a wood processing plant around Castro City; several fishing boats were parked in the bay to the north, and there was a leather processing plant there. For processing captured sea otter and fox skins.Soon, Xie Hansan sent some army soldiers to cooperate with the Charuya people to clear these places.

In the evening, all the dispatched personnel returned.The scale of the strongholds around these towns is very small, often ranging from a few people to dozens of people. Seeing a large number of strangers with rifles rushing towards them, these people ran away without a trace.There are a lot of dry wood stored in the wood processing plant. After the cross-travelers selected some for their own use, they burned the rest. Anyway, they couldn't leave it to the Spaniards.Those who returned from the northern bay brought back a whole fishing boat full of furs, which were sent to the "Galician Flying Fish" for preservation.

The crossing people stayed overnight in Castro Port.The next day, the hard-working Charuya workers began to move the collected materials onto the ship.It was not until noon that the entire material handling process was declared over.After counting and counting, it was found that 2 pigs, 5 cows, 14 sheep, 2000 catties of grain, 20 bottles of wine, various gold and silver coins worth more than 3000 pesos, and a large number of valuable furs and some gunpowder and lead bullets were collected. , can be regarded as a bumper harvest.

Pirates are really a promising career.Xie Hansan sighed.

(End of this chapter)