open sea

Chapter 1165 Landing on the Island
They are already prying.

When the Fuyuan fleet passed through the Azores, the people on the island were terrified.

They docked at San Miguel Island, which has three volcanoes on the island. This island is very small, about the size of Lisbon. There is a harbor named Ponta Delgada in the southwest of the island, which is the capital of the Azores.

The island originally belonged to Portugal. It was discovered and occupied by Prince Henry the Navigator 100 years ago. It was surrendered to Philip of Spain two months ago.

The port has always been an important supply station for the Atlantic route. In the past, merchant ships, warships, and pirate ships of Portugal, Spain, Ming Dynasty, and the Han Kingdom of Ming Dynasty all replenished here, but they have never received so many warships in one day.

Fuyuan's fleet consumed one-third of the water and food reserves of the grain and horse ships. In order to make up for the luggage, they almost evacuated everything on the island with a transfer order issued by Chen Mu, the Eastern Military Mansion.

For this isolated Spanish island, open ships have always been their nightmare, and they have also urged the islanders to grow up.

Due to the deposition of volcanic ash, fertile land has been brought to the island, but after all, there are still too few residents on the island, especially as the land of Portugal, they have never been able to cultivate all the land that can be cultivated on this island. Before is nothing.

There are a lot of Portuguese ships at sea, but there may be only one armed merchant ship here for replenishment in ten and a half months, and sometimes there is no one in a month; later, the Spaniards will come here for replenishment, and a Spanish fleet may pass by within a month At that time, the merchants on the island were cheering because there were more Spanish ships.

Sometimes the Jumbo Fleet sailing from the Philippines, transiting through Mexico, and returning to Spain will have a large ship and seven or eight warships at a time, which can sell a large amount of goods.

This situation has not changed until the last two or three years. Spanish ships seldom dock here, and the corresponding ones are armed merchant ships flying the flag of Ming Dynasty.

Ordinary caravans, with [-] or [-] boats at every turn, roared thousands of guys who claimed to be Chinese people to land on the island, more than the Portuguese who originally lived on the island.

The caravans alone, the merchant sailors flying the Fujian-Guangzhou Hexingsheng flag have made it difficult for the Portuguese to parry... These people have a bad temper, and when the supplies are slightly higher, they stare and frighten them, far from the Spaniards So easy to talk about.

But in the transaction, the sailors of Daming abide by their own rules. As long as the captain does not speak, they will not go further than staring and scolding; and the captains are all educated people wearing long gowns and holding folding fans. They will not resort to force, and are very smart. They will often discuss the prices of the other eight islands, and exchange precious silk and porcelain from the merchant with the lowest price in exchange for water and food.

The real trouble is in the tavern, they are not like the Spanish merchants or the Portuguese merchants, no matter what country the different merchant ships fight in the tavern, it is just a skirmish, and even the sailors on the same ship will watch the fun.

The sailors in Daming are different. No matter which ship, if a person initiates a conflict with others, all the sailors in the tavern will stand up, and even all the sailors outside will gather no matter what they are doing. All potential helpers of the opponent attack.

A fight between a Portuguese and a Spaniard often ended with one of them being knocked to the ground.

A Portuguese or a Spaniard fighting a Ming?There will be a war on the island.

They will mention the sailor ax made by Changsheng, a multi-purpose short-handled weapon with an ax on the front and a hammer on the back; the three-eyed musket made in the Ming Dynasty, a short-barreled musket that can fire three times in a row; the matchlock bird gun made in the Ming Dynasty, and There is no difference between Spanish and Portuguese arquebus guns; Ming-made tiger crouching guns, a large-caliber short-barreled artillery that sprays scattered particles to block the entire street; small-caliber Francois machine guns, no one knows why the Chinese people would use this kind of warship The artillery that is only available in the sky is here to fight.

The person who started the dispute, his crew, his captain, and the crew and captain in the same country with him, and their ship, may end up gone.

This situation did not occur in São Miguel Island, but people are still cautious in taverns or other corners where people from the Ming Dynasty can be seen, because this thing actually happened on the neighboring island of Santa Maria.

As for Ming’s warships coming here, it’s even worse. There is not enough barracks for them to rest on the island, so they left soldiers with shovels to build and even burn bricks and tiles by themselves. No one can say anything; the Portuguese kings all died in the war Among them, who can control this place? As long as they send some silk to the governor of the island, they are happy to give the land to the Ming army.

Because there is another group of people in this sea——Yang Ce's people. Only the Ming army can control them. Where the Ming army is stationed, Han pirates will not attack, and if they are in a good mood, they will pay for things.

In fact, Fu Yuan didn't dare to stay longer on these small islands, for fear that his soldiers would eat up the islands. After only three days of stationing, he sent people to replenish the supplies of the ships and then took Li Dan and led the army to continue to the island. Eastern Airlines to go.

Yang Ce didn't have such worries at all, and his subordinates and Shi He rushed directly to the two islands of Flores and Corvo, the westernmost islands of the archipelago. These two islands are not as big as São Miguel Island. Not far apart, the same point is that they have no intention of surrendering Spain.

Six thousand Han pirates landed in the town, and several pirate captains under Yang Ce led a neat line of men to seize the two fortresses and forts of Flores. Due to the news that the Fuyuan fleet had just passed by, the island defenders had not done anything yet. The plan to fight against such a huge fleet, people's hearts are fluctuating and frightened, and people have not even thought about how to give themselves a decent surrender, and the conflict broke out.

The battle on Flores Island lasted for two hours, starting from the defeat of the defenders of the fort, the tenacious resistance of the defenders of the fort until the pirates moved the artillery to the fort, and they had to surrender under the bombardment.

The defenders of Korvu had better luck. They were attacked by the men of the pirate king Shihe. Attacking the fortress was not their strong point, so they lost the opportunity. Even the defenders hid in the fortifications and set up a defensive line, but found that no one came to attack. them.

The leaders of the Pirate King landed on the island and started their old business. Who cares about those fortresses? First, they plundered all the towns without city walls until Yang Ce was done. Only then did I realize what I was here for.

But it was too late, and all the defenders got into the medieval castle built in the fifteenth century, leaving four thousand pirates at a loss.

Perhaps it was because of the different temperament of the army. The defenders on Flores Island saw those seemingly well-trained Ming troops leaving the city and surrendering before they were about to be bombarded; the defenders on Corvo Island on the other side faced The mob against Shihe became even more determined to stick to it. Even though Shihe built a civil fort outside the castle and moved artillery, he still refused to surrender.

They persisted until Yang Ce led his army to land on the island and finally let go after telling them that there was no news of Portuguese reinforcements. He asked Yang Ce for three armed merchant ships that they had parked in the port, and they were allowed to leave the island before leaving the city and surrendering.

(End of this chapter)