"Boom! Boom!" Several evil shells shot from the port side, interrupting the middle mast of the "Yingzhou" flute-shaped transport ship with a helping god, causing the speed of this huge merchant ship to drop rapidly, which undoubtedly declared her destiny.

"Haha! Beautiful job!" Two pirate ships leaned over from left to right, and dozens of pirates skillfully climbed onto the side of the "Yingzhou" ship and gathered the remaining crew members of the East Coast together. These crew members were all employees of the South China Sea Transportation Company. They looked pale and realized that they would probably be difficult to escape. No pirates would leave a living unless you can successfully convince them to join.

"Let me see what good things are there." A middle-aged man with a big belly, who doesn't look like a person who has been making a living at sea all year round, opened the door of the cargo hold with several pirates, and then carefully checked the cargo carried by the "Yingzhou".

"Oh, the high-quality East Coast soda ash and a whole of 3,000 pieces of printed cloth, are you rich! What is this? The parts of the textile machine are made of iron. There should be many people in the big rural area of ​​Manchester that need this kind of thing; there are five hundred barrels of the snowiest refined flour, which is also a good thing; well, is this a new thing called a rubber poncho? The gentlemen in London should be flocking to it..." After a discussion, the middle-aged man with a big belly climbed out of the bottom cabin excitedly, and then started talking to several guys who obviously looked like pirate leaders.

The conversation ended in a few minutes. The middle-aged man took the boat to leave the captured "Yingzhou" first. Before leaving, he ordered something. The trepidated sailors on the East Coast could not hear their conversation clearly, but he heard a sailor leader call the fat middle-aged man "Just", which made him seem to understand something.

But everything ended here. The pirates rushed over with a grin, killed all the remaining 11 East Coast sailors and threw them into the sea, and then quickly began the material transfer work. As for the captured merchant ship "Yingzhou", the pirates finally decided to give up after a long debate and let it sink out of the Canary Islands. The 650-ton transport ship is not a little guy in Europe, but it is too eye-catching and its characteristics are too obvious, so they can only give up.

After watching the "Yingzhou" slowly sink, the two pirate ships adjusted the sail trusses and then left the sea area where the incident occurred one after another. Their cabin was filled with all kinds of property, and they even had to throw away some ballasts for this, which was full of loads. After these stolen goods were shipped to Bristol, even if they were to be slaughtered by the merchants wandering in the gray area, the profit was absolutely abundant, which would allow everyone to spend a long time.

...

November 11, 1659, London was drizzling.

Harrison, wearing an east coast raincoat, was standing under some roof, quietly waiting for something. Behind him were several sword-holding guards, with serious faces and silent words, looking at the slightly rippling River of Thames without blinking.

A small cargo ship quietly docked on the dock. An obese middle-aged man climbed up the dock with an oil lamp. On his left and right, several followers carefully observed the surrounding environment while holding umbrellas.

"Sir Montagu? I am Harrison, Mr. Thompson's servant." Harrison moved like a wooden sculpture. He walked over and held the middle-aged fat man with a slippery sole of his feet. At the same time, he confirmed with the dim oil lamp whether the person was his target. Fortunately, Harrison breathed a sigh of relief. It was indeed Sir Montagu himself.

"Oh, every time I come to London, either fog or rainy, I hate the weather here more and more. To be honest, I prefer to stay in the sunny Barbados Island, rather than to come to London full of musty smell." Sir Montague took a bottle of strong wine from his entourage, took a few sips before saying angrily: "This ghost weather is so cold that it is not snowing yet."

"Please get in the car, Jazz, Mr. Thompson is not asleep yet," Harrison invited, pointing to a carriage not far away.

Sir Montagu nodded, and then got into the car with Harrison one after another. Two agile guards also jumped on the pedal outside the car at this time, observing the surroundings with swords vigilantly, while the remaining people quietly disappeared from a certain street and alley under the guidance of another person.

"The East Coast carriage with luxurious decoration is light and comfortable. No wonder the wealthy people in London like to buy this kind of car more and more. Well, even the tarp on the roof is imported from the East Coast. The magical rubber rain cloth, I have never figured out how the East Coast people discovered this kind of thing and how it was made." Sir Montagu sat comfortably on the Turkish blanket and said lazily.

"Some people in London tried to imitate the East Coast people's light raincoats and tarpaulins, but they failed without exception because they lacked the key material called 'rubber'," said Harrison. "In fact, Sir Bridge once advocated to form an expedition team to search for this kind of thing in the New World, but there were not many people responding. The expedition team failed to raise enough funds to go to sea, so they had to give up."

"Sir Bridge? Cromwell's son-in-law?" After obtaining Harrison's confirmation, Sir Montague smiled: "He should be very frightened now. Major General Lambert's army does not value him, and the gentlemen of the parliament also despise him. Bridge is now like a poor clown."

Sir Montagu was really full of disgust for Bridge. Thinking back to the time when the royals suffered a tragic failure and went into exile overseas, Cromwell's son-in-law still relied on the power in his hands to oppress the sympathizers of the king who remained in England, and even advised Cromwell to attack the royal fleet in exile in Lisbon, which made the royals extremely hateful.

Sir Montagu was born as an orthodox aristocrat - of course he had no inheritance - his ancestors were one of the knights who conquered Britain with the Duke of Normandy. Although he did not stand on the side of the royal party in the civil war, he was undoubtedly a sympathizer of the royal party. After the civil war, he was naturally extorted by the Republican soldiers and had no good impression of all the republicans, including Sir Bridge.

Of course, he would not forget that among the people who overthrew the throne of King Charles I, there were also a large number of wealthy people active in the business world. But as the saying goes, one time and another, now that the gentlemen of the House of Commons can "repent" and are willing to restore the monarchy in England, there is no need to talk about the past, and it is not appropriate to talk about it again. What the two sides should do now is to eliminate misunderstandings, deepen cooperation, and jointly deal with the forces of the officers led by Major General Lambert.

"Sir Bridge has been completely abandoned by the officers' regiment. This guy once boasted at a party that the East Coast people sent two ships of weapons and one million pounds of cash to Major General Lambert." Harrison said softly, "but Major General Lambert denied the matter and angrily scolded Sir Bridge."

"How likely is this?" Montagu had also heard of this incident vaguely. He immediately asked when he heard Harrison talk about it.

"Mr. Thompson believes that the possibility is extremely small. With two ships of weapons and one million pounds, will Major General Lambert still use to raise military expenses everywhere? You know, he is almost overwhelmed by the heavy financial expenses. After all, the daily expenses of 10,000 or 20,000 soldiers are not a small amount. Now the gentlemen of the House of Commons are already moving around, and they plan to persuade some generals not to join Major General Lambert, at least to maintain neutrality, and for this purpose they will provide some economic assistance. Of course, it would be even better if they can be brought to our side." Harrison seemed to have participated in many confidential matters, and knew very well about such news. After the story was told, Sir Montague, who often stayed in the Caribbean, also heard it very fresh.

Mr. Thompson's residence was soon arrived. Sir Montague, wearing a raincoat, quickly flashed in, and then met Maurice Thompson himself, who was burning in the living room.

"I heard that you sold a lot of East Coast goods in Bristol. Why did you do a few big business?" Mr. Thompson signaled the maid to make a cup of tea for Sir Montagu, saying, "Wuyi green tea imported from Amsterdam is a bit popular now, so try it."

"You are always well-informed, Mr. Thompson." Sir Montagu took a sip of tea, feeling that he didn't feel anything.

"I have no intention of paying attention to the source of your goods." Morris Thompson stirred the tea with a spoon and said leisurely: "The warships of the East Coast people wantonly attacked other countries' ships in the Caribbean Sea, including English merchant ships. Even if someone used improper means to retaliate against the East Coast people, I think it is just in the end. Besides, now that England's industry is booming, we need to explore overseas markets. So the question is, why should we hand over the rich New World market to the East Coast people for exclusive use? This is unacceptable!"

Sir Montagu nodded silently when he heard this, and then changed the subject: "Tell me about the domestic situation. I haven't returned to London for a long time. I heard that Monk summoned the army in Scotland to oppose Major General Lambert?"

"Yes, Major General Lambert dissolved Congress, but he had no place to raise military expenses. Now there are soldiers who left him to join Monk every day. Haha, he can't last long and will inevitably suffer a shameful failure." Morris Thompson said confidently, because he deeply understood that a hungry army could not be maintained for a long time. Lambert was not Cromwell. He did not have that great ability to impose new taxes nationwide to raise military expenses, not to mention Cromwell's son was unwilling to cooperate with him, which further divided the power of the republicans.

"So, can we think that the Stuart family is about to re-enter London?" Sir Montagu asked, sitting up.

"It can be said that the premise is that 'Your Majesty' promised us the conditions." Mr. Thompson said leisurely.
Chapter completed!