Late Ming Dynasty: The Counterattack Begins with Sea Pirates

That's what Chi Hung-hai thinks, but creating conflict across the Taiwan Strait is still quite difficult.

Although both sides are escalating their efforts, they are also relatively restrained at this point.

The reason for this was that the Spanish needed to focus more of their energy and resources on controlling Portugal and its colonies. Although it was the Age of Exploration, their focus at this time was still on the European continent.

At this time, Europe was still deeply mired in the Thirty Years' War. As a fervent religious country that originated from Catholicism, it was impossible for it to miss this opportunity. Logically, it was a major Catholic country, and emotionally, it was a relative of the Austrian Habsburgs. When a fellow countryman was in trouble, it was only right to lend a hand.

The Dutch were no exception; the Thirty Years' War also affected the Low Countries to some extent. What was even more devastating was that the Tulip Mania of the previous two years had a significant impact on various industries in the Netherlands, and this influence had spread to Zeelandia over time.

Therefore, although there are many frictions and even firefights between the two sides on the island of Taiwan, it has not yet reached the point of a full-scale war that would destroy the other side.

Thinking about it for a while, there really isn't much that can be done about this situation.

However, the Chinese people have always been resourceful, creating solutions even when there are none, and Chi Honghai naturally demonstrated his initiative as well.

If you two can restrain yourselves, then I'll personally light the fire so that neither of you can continue to restrain yourselves.

Chi Honghai looked at the date. Winter was approaching, and southern Taiwan was relatively mild, so the Dutch were making more preparations. It shouldn't be necessary to send a large amount of supplies in winter.

But Taipei is different. Some of the supplies for the Spanish were delivered by the English via the bay, and the temperature in the north is relatively colder than in the south, so the winter supplies had to be matched accordingly.

What left him uncertain was whether the person delivering the supplies was English or Spanish. If it was English, then he would have missed his target.

Of course, that only applies to other people.

If it were Chi Honghai, even without another hijacking, he would have stopped the British and seized the supplies. Both sides tacitly agreed that, from the British perspective, these supplies, though intended as aid, were actually preparations for their own landing in Taiwan.

With Instructor Lang and Pang San, they sailed out to sea in six warships, leaving only the Tianquan in the harbor. Chi Honghai assigned people to guard it, with Shen Er and Ai Si in charge.

Chi Honghai knew that this voyage would be quite long, so he instructed the crew to bring half a month's worth of dry rations as a backup. This was the first time since training that the entire team had embarked on a long voyage and stayed for such a long time, which served as a test of the training results.

Six warships lined up on the sea, without any cover. Any ship that saw them would tremble. They weren't afraid of pirates.

Firstly, Eastern pirates wouldn't travel such a long distance unnecessarily. Secondly, it's quite simple: which Eastern pirate fleet would consist almost entirely of Western-style warships?

If you see one, your first thought should be whether it's an enemy warship lying in ambush.

They had been at sea for four or five days, with a cold wind blowing and not a single ship in sight. The morale of the crew was somewhat low, but Chi Honghai had no intention of retreating. Since they had come out, they should at least wait until the food was gone before making any moves. He refused to believe that the Spanish would not survive the winter!

On the seventh day, the sight of ships finally appeared on the sea.

Three ships, sailing in a 1/4 shape, heading towards Taiwan.

Upon hearing this news, Chi Honghai, who was sitting in the cockpit, hurriedly ran to the bow deck with his monocular binoculars. As the fleet approached, he could clearly see the naval flag hanging at the stern of the other ship through the binoculars—a white background with a red cross.

He's Spanish, no doubt about it.

"Master, shall we drive over and take them out?" Pang San asked from the side, holding a weapon in his hand.

Chi Honghai looked back at the sails and stretched out his hand to feel the sea breeze. The wind that was about to enter winter was blowing from the north. If the other side turned around and ran away now, it would be a tailwind.

"Are the flags at the stern all ready?"

"Ready, sir."

"Signal them, tell them to raise all the flags at the stern!" Chi Honghai looked at the opposing fleet. "Turn the sails and sail over!"

As the flags on the sterns of the six ships changed to English flags, Chi Honghai rushed over with the north wind.

The Spanish looked at it and realized it was an English ship.

Upon closer inspection, although the first ship was somewhat blurry from a distance, it was still recognizable. After confirming that it was indeed an English ship heading towards Taiwan, it meant that Xin Song's supplies had arrived. Why were the English so diligent lately? Didn't they just deliver supplies there not long ago?

Although I had some doubts, the British warship and the British flag were right in front of me. I couldn't possibly not believe what I was seeing with my own eyes, could I?

Without thinking much, I drove straight there.

"Pass down the order: once close, circle around to the left and open fire!"

"Sir? Shouldn't we just board the ship directly? I think this Spanish ship isn't bad either," Pang San asked.

Chi Honghai looked at Pang San and said, "What's your hurry? One or two rounds of shelling won't sink the ship. I still need to haul the cargo back."

Fatty scratched his head: "We're just afraid of hurting these treasures..."

"Human life is more precious than a ship. Besides, we still have people supporting us at home. If it breaks, we can just fix it. Bomb it!"

After conveying Master Chi's orders, the lead ship turned around and circled around the enemy fleet as it approached.

This behavior is quite common among Spaniards. Although it's not a big deal to be too close at this time, it's not uncommon for the other party to deliberately keep a little distance, and everything goes as usual.

Until the first ship reaches the designated position, open all its gun ports.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!" As the cannons roared, wood chips were torn up from the enemy ship.

The sudden shelling caught the enemy's lead ship completely off guard. Before it could even open its gun ports, a second and third volley of shells rained down, throwing the sailors on deck into chaos.

However, although the lead ship was caught off guard and had no time to react, the second and third ships were prepared. They quickly opened their cannon windows and aimed their cannons at Chi Honghai's warship.

Seeing the gun vent open, Pang San instinctively ran to the shore near Chi Honghai: "Master, be careful! They're about to fire!"

But Chi Honghai did not shy away at all. At that time, the north wind was blowing high, and their ship had no other cargo besides firearms. The speed was quite fast, and the shells should not be able to hit them in the flight time.

He ordered the ship to turn to the right, that is, to get close to the Spanish ship.

"Master! That would be like running into a cannon! No way!" Pang San shouted.

"What are you afraid of!"

boom! boom! boom!

Spanish shells came hurtling towards them!