The Sulu Sea is located in the middle of Batavia and the Eastern Banner, and is named after the Sulu Kingdom. The Sulu Kingdom is a sultanate founded in the 14th century. Its territory includes the Sulu Islands, Palawan Island and the northeast of Kalimantan Island.

The Sulu Kingdom can be said to be a friendly neighbor of the Ming Dynasty. In the 15th year of Yongle (1417 AD), the three kings of the Sulu Kingdom, the Eastern King Badu Gebahala, the Western King Mahala Gemading, and the Dong King Badu Geba Labu, led a friendly delegation of 340 members to come to the Ming Dynasty for a friendly visit. Emperor Yongle Zhu Di grandly received the three kings of Sulu, and the relations between the two countries developed rapidly.

However, in the sixth year of Wanli of Emperor Shenzong of the Ming Dynasty (1578 AD), the Sulu Kingdom was invaded by Spanish colonists. Although it had never been completely conquered by Spain, all princes and nobles and officials at all levels fled to the high mountain fortress to defend the death, and the entire Sulu Kingdom entered a period of chaos.

During the Tianqi period, while the Sulu Kingdom and the Spaniards continued to fight, Shi Daxuan, Hong Xu and Gan Hui led a group of alien pirates under Zheng Zhilong into the Sulu Sea, occupied part of the islands, and stayed between the Sulu Kingdom and the Luzon Kingdom occupied by the Spaniards.

The Suluhai area is not very developed, and the local residents are basically in a semi-primitive and semi-feudal society. There is almost nothing to grab except for eating. The merchant ships in Spain and the Netherlands are too strong, so Shi Daxuan, Hong Xu and Gan Hui have been living a hard life.

Until the seventh year of Chongzheng, their boss Zheng Zhilong had no idea how to persuade the current emperor. The Ming Dynasty actually transformed the warships for them and gave them all the weapons replaced by Zheng Zhilong's main fleet. Now they really changed their guns. If Zheng Zhilong hadn't repeatedly warned him, they really wanted to go and snatch all the Spaniards in Luzon and the Dutch in Java!

Fortunately, they didn't go, otherwise they had been thrown into the sea to feed fish. After enduring for several months, their chance finally came. The Ming Dynasty's Jinyiwei spies successively reported detailed information on the personnel configuration of the Dutch fleet, firepower configuration, and even the departure date and navigation route. This means that they can be snatched now!

The first batch of seven Dutch merchant ships loaded with sand sugar, cotton cloth, porcelain and rice have set off from Dongfan, with a destination of Java. There are nearly 1,000 Dutch East India Company sailors on the merchant ship, equipped with more than 500 mesh guns and about 100 artillery guns, and will pass by about 300 miles north of Palawan Island in ten days.

The Sulu Sea is south of Palawan Island and 300 miles north of Palawan Island, which is the current South China Sea area. There is nothing to say, so set off quickly and prepare to start grabbing.

In ancient times, being a pirate was a technical job. There were no planes, no radar, and no satellite navigation. There were only compass and the sun. You had to find several merchant ships in the vast sea. The difficulty was imagined. Even if you already knew the approximate route of Dutch merchant ships, it was not a very simple thing to find them.

Shi Daxuan, Hong Xu and Gan Hui almost came out in full swing, and brought more than a thousand transformed ships of all sizes and sizes to the north of Palawan Island in advance to prepare to encircle Dutch merchant ships.

This seems a bit joking. More than a thousand ships are going to surround seven ships. No matter how powerful the Dutch people are, they don’t have to bring so many people!

They did not mean to be joking. These more than a thousand ships were not all used for besieging. They were actually mainly used for searching. You should know that if you sail thousands of miles on the sea, as long as you deviate a little from the angle, it would be dozens of miles. Therefore, they had to find the locations of the seven merchant ships, at least spread horizontally for more than a hundred miles to ensure that there was no accident.

This is what they did. Each ten large ships bring fifty small boats into a team, with each team being about five miles apart. Each team is looking for some islands or coral reefs as stops, and line up horizontally. This is already the limit of distance that can be seen by the eyes. If they spread a little more, if they are lucky, they will directly crawl through the two teams, and you may not be able to see it!

If the wind and sunny sea are bright, it will be a disaster once there is a wind and wave, let alone a small bluff ship that can only carry more than ten people, even the big bluff ship that is more than fifty meters long may be overturned in the wind and waves. They waited for two days in a hurry. Fortunately, there were no wind and waves on the sea, and there was nothing else except the hot spots in the weather.

At noon on the third day, the Dutch fleet finally appeared. The first thing they found was the fifth team on the left. When they saw the Dutch merchant ship from afar, they did not rush to pounce on it, but sent two small boats to inform the two teams on the left and right to prepare to intercept.

After receiving the message, the two teams on the left and right immediately raised their anchors and moved closer to the fifth team, and each sent a small boat to continue notifying the other teams on the left and right.

The Dutch fleet did not know that bad luck was coming, and their team leader was lying on the cabin to cool off. Generally, the pirates' range of activities was within a continuous archipelago or within two hundred miles near the coast. The chances of encountering pirates 300 miles away from the coast were almost zero, unless pirates happened to pass by their route. So the team leader Prade was not worried at all. He just wanted to end the boring voyage quickly and enjoy the exotic style in Batavia.

After all, Dutch merchant ships are the most advanced merchant ships in the world today. Their sailors are also veterans with rich sailing experience. Even in the safe area, seven merchant ships took turns to send a lookout post to climb up the mast and look around to watch. So they soon discovered the pirate ship in front. When the lookout whistle sounded, Prade jumped up from the chair like a spring, grabbed the telescope on the table, ran out of the cabin, boarded the bow, and raised the telescope to look in the direction the lookout post pointed.

At this time, the two sides were still four or five miles apart, and they could only see the size of the enemy ships in the telescope. When he found that there were only ten lucky ships, he couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. Regardless of whether there were pirates on the opposite side, he was not afraid of a fleet of such a large size. The Dutch armed merchant ships were not a joke. Each ship had more than ten guns. For example, a lucky ship with a smaller size than their merchant ships, at most, a local cannon was equipped at the bow and stern of the ship, which would not pose much threat to them at all. Unless the opponent rushed forward with a small boat to set fire to the ship, it was generally a trick used by the naval forces of the two countries during the naval battle. Pirates generally would not set fire to the ships.

He easily put down his telescope and ordered: "Slow down the sail, slow down, six-pound cannons on both sides load solid bullets, 18 pounds of the first and last sterns of the ship are filled with shotguns, musketeers spread along the side of the ship, loading and preparing to fire."

Under his command, everyone began to act. The flag bearer climbed up the mast and fired flag words to other ships. The sailors who controlled the sails loosened the rope and began to lower the sails. The artillery began to load shells, and the musketeers scattered to both sides, then loaded bullets, took out the fire, and prepared to open fire.

Prad couldn't help but smile proudly as he looked at his subordinates' skillful movements. He hoped that the person who came from the opposite side would not be a pirate, but a merchant ship. He just happened to be addicted to pirates. Anyway, no one saw this vast sea. As long as his hands and feet are cleaner, no one would know. There is nothing faster than robbing money. I don't know how much you can get this time!

While dreaming of getting rich, he raised his telescope and looked at the opposite side: "Oh, Fake, why are there so many more boats?"

It can be clearly seen from the telescope that there were more than ten large ships rushing towards them in front of them with a bunch of small boats. Now that I am troublesome, there are still ambushings. It must be pirates. If the thirty lucky ships were all equipped with earth cannons, the outcome would be hard to say.

He immediately ordered: "Hurry up, raise the sail, all the ships get closer, gather together, break out of the encirclement, pull out their formation, and prepare to fight a chase with them."

The sailor who controlled the sail immediately pulled the rope frantically and raised the newly descended sail back.

At this time, the two sides were only two or three miles apart. Prade raised his telescope and looked at each other. Because their ship was a little higher than the Fortune, he happened to see the other's deck: "Oh, Shot, the Spaniard's artillery; Oh, Shot, is this his artillery from our Netherlands? Oh, there are so many people who buy cakes, oh, it's over, there are so many on each ship!"

What was going on? Why are there so many artillery opposite? Is it the Spanish caravan? But Prade carefully identified the yellow, brown, and even black, but there were no white. Is this not the Spanish merchant ship at all! He put down his telescope in horror and shouted: "Hurry, turn, scatter breakout, may God bless us."

As soon as the flag bearer blew the flag verb, the seven merchant ships dispersed like fireworks and began to flee in seven directions.

Unexpectedly, the three waves of pirate ships in front did not scatter the pursuit at all, and still rushed straight towards the handsome ship in the middle. Prad howled in despair: "The 18-pound cannon on the head of the ship is igniting, fire the cannon, everyone should be concealed, the enemy is about to fire it!"

Fake, do I have a grudge against you? Why do you bit my boat and keep it away! Prad rushed to the side of the boat while cursing.

"Boom boom boom" Prad just squatted down and leaned his back to the side of the ship. The artillery from both sides roared at the same time, but there was only one sound on their side, but there was no one on the other side. Countless shots were smashing down like raindrops, and the deck kept ringing. Fortunately, everyone was leaning against the side of the ship and did not cause any casualties.

He quickly looked at the head, and the opposite side had already scattered into a fan shape. He had to lower his pain and said: "The six-pound cannons on both sides are igniting, firing, and all the musketeers are ready to shoot."

He was too lazy to even order to load shells. The opposite side was Spanish artillery and cobs. The loading speed was simply impossible to compare with others!

Sure enough, the artillery on his side had just been fired, and there was another roar on the opposite side, and another rain of shotguns. Everyone was huddled under the side of the ship and didn't dare to move.

Immediately afterwards, crackling muskets sounded around me. I don’t know how many people were opening fire, and the boat was hit and kept thumping. Bullets flew everywhere, intertwined on the deck, and even the naked eye could see how many muskets he had!
Chapter completed!