Late Ming Dynasty: The Counterattack Begins with Sea Pirates

"Master!" Pang San shouted, ignoring what Chi Honghai thought, and tackled him to the ground.

But a few seconds later, Pang San looked up and saw that nothing had happened; he only heard a splashing sound coming from the stern of the boat.

Chi Honghai propped himself up and dusted himself off.

"master."

"What are you afraid of? Don't you trust the master's words?"

"No, I didn't mean to..."

"I know you mean well, but stop talking, the war isn't over yet."

Chi Honghai used his speed and a sudden inside turn to shorten the distance between the two sides, causing the Spanish guns that were originally aimed to miss their target.

But while the first wave of operations was successful, the second wave was not so easy to handle. The incoming shells still had to be dealt with, and the incoming shells still had to be intercepted.

After exchanging two rounds of fire, Chi Honghai ordered the boat behind him to engage in close combat, skirmishing alongside the other vessel.

As for the three warships led by Chi Honghai, they circled around to the other side of the enemy fleet and boarded the ships, putting the Spanish in a pincer movement.

On this voyage, Instructor Lang's entire crew consisted of Portuguese men. Although there were more than two hundred sailors on board, they were all incredibly energetic after boarding.

Those who drew their rapiers did so, while those without rapiers grabbed muskets and bayonets and charged forward. Crew members on the lower decks grabbed whatever they could find and jumped onto the Spanish deck.

Enemies meeting are bound to be filled with hatred.

Instructor Lang on the deck didn't care about formations at all. He attacked the Spaniards so badly they couldn't catch their breath. Some of their weapons were knocked away, so they simply used their teeth to bite the opponent's neck.

Chi Honghai's team, on the other hand, was much more organized. Their well-trained lineup sliced ​​through the opponent's flesh like a slow, agonizing death, ensuring their own safety while inflicting damage on the opponent. For a time, the Spaniards were unable to withstand them.

Just then, the ship's captain recognized Chi Honghai on deck. His face contorted with rage, he roared, "You bastard! You bastard! You were just lying to us when you went up to the chicken coop! I curse you!"

Chi Honghai chuckled and shook his body, then sneered in Spanish, "Occupying other people's land and oppressing their people, who's really the one who's being shameless? And do you dare offer your blood-stained money to God? Or is he just like you?"

Then he added, "Damn it."

The Spaniard was both anxious and angry, and charged towards Chi Honghai with his rapier.

Chi Honghai was not to be outdone, and immediately ordered his subordinates to make way. The already small deck was thus cleared out by the two of them.

The other party shouted and charged towards Chi Honghai.

Chi Honghai snorted coldly, pulled a flintlock pistol from his waist, and "Bang!" the man fell to the ground, several small holes appearing on his body, from which blood flowed.

"What era are we living in? Why are you still obsessed with cold weapons?"

"Clear everyone off the deck, leave no one alive!"

"yes!"

Before long, the close-quarters combat ended. Apart from Chi Honghai and Instructor Lang, who were all dealt with, there were still some surviving Spaniards left on the remaining ship.

As for the remaining survivors, Chi Honghai stood on the boat and shouted, "Give them their weapons, let them pick them up, leave no one alive!"

"Sir, aren't we taking these people back to work for us?"

"What do you know?" Chi Honghai continued shouting, "Give them to them! We don't accept prisoners, kill them all!"

The last group of Spaniards were all killed after this order was given. Chi Honghai did this not because he hated the Spaniards, but simply because there were Dutch and Portuguese on his island, and he could no longer accept these Spaniards.

At least, not now.

Chi Honghai then immediately ordered that the second and third ships be assigned to different crews and sailed away together, while all the cargo from the first ship was moved onto his own ship.

Although the first ship suffered the most severe shelling, it was not beyond repair. In theory, Chi Honghai could have steered it back. Although the damage was extensive and the repair time would be long, it would have been much faster than building a ship from scratch.

However, he did not do that; instead, he chose to leave one ship alone in the area.

In addition, he ordered the Dutch naval flag to be brought out of the ship's hold. He first straightened the flag and then used a knife to cut it in half. He then threw one half of the flag onto the deck and the other half into the sea.

After arranging everything, Chi Honghai led eight ships and quickly sailed away from the scene.

Back in Hong Kong, the cargo was unloaded and carefully inspected. Most of it consisted of winter supplies—cotton, grain, and of course, some firearms and equipment.

Overall, this cotton harvest was quite beneficial for Chi Honghai and his team, who were about to face the winter. After all, the weather was starting to turn cold, and there were many more people who needed to go out to work. This batch of cotton could be used to make them into excellent cotton-padded clothes to keep them warm.

The food problem has been further alleviated, giving people more confidence to get through the winter.

The damage to the ships, overall, wasn't that great. It mainly consisted of a few cannon holes. After the apprentices had the experience of repairing the Dinghai, Dingbo, and Dinglang ships, they were already quite skilled at repairing these minor damages. They confidently said that they would be able to repair the cannon holes on these ships in a few days.

Chi Honghai was naturally delighted, but the Spaniards were in a different situation.

More than ten days have passed, and according to the original schedule, the winter supplies should have arrived long ago. Why haven't they been seen yet?

No matter how you look at it, it's impossible to be delayed for this long. The sea isn't like the road, where you can't move after a rain. Besides, it's almost winter, so where would you find strong winds and waves? Even if it's a headwind, it's not a valid reason.

But people on the same side wouldn't betray each other, so the only possibility is that the ship has been hijacked!

The original plan was to use three armed merchant ships, and since it was in the open sea, the pirates in the East were not like those in the Caribbean. Although there was a more powerful pirate on the other side of the strait, he mainly operated in the coastal waters!

After thinking it over, it seems there's only one family that could have hijacked the ship—those damned Dutchmen.

But now is not the time to curse; we should first send out a fleet to see what's going on.

Governor Moore thought the same way, and sent three ships from Keelung to sail around Taiwan from the outside, along the original transport route.

When they reached a point 50 nautical miles (about 92 kilometers) from Taiwan, they found a wrecked ship adrift at sea, along with some wood chips.

Although I really didn't want to see this result, I had no choice but to accept it in the end.

The Spanish commander looked at the half-struck Dutch flag, marveling at the bravery of his men while simultaneously cursing the Dutch.

He ordered the ship to be towed back to Chicken Coop and brought before Governor Moore.

The Dutch will pay the price!