March 20, 1650, sunny, off the sea of ​​the Bahamas.△↗

Li Yi held a monocular telescope and carefully observed the large sailboat in front of him. The sailboat was a three-masted Garen ship, with a tonnage of about 400 tons, which is an amazing ship in trade with the New World. You should know that the average tonnage of fifty or sixty ships in the famous Spanish treasure fleet was only about 400 tons. The tonnage of ships from other countries such as the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Portugal, and France to the colonies was generally only two or three hundred tons. It can be seen how rare this three-masted sailboat appeared in this sea area.

The ship was flying the flag of the Kingdom of France, with a deep draft, and it seemed that the cargo hold was filled with cargo. In terms of military equipment, it was also the average level of ocean-going merchant ships, equipped with 12 guns of various caliber. The number of crew members was not visible, but it should not be too many. After all, it was a merchant ship. Pay attention to controlling costs, and there would be about forty or fifty people.

It was indeed a good fat sheep! Li Yi put down his telescope and looked back at the row of officers standing behind him with his head held high and his chest raised. His face was filled with smiles. He waved his hand and said in a relaxed tone: "The French big fat sheep is full of goods transported from the old continent. Let's do it, brothers! Do you still use me to urge you?"

Everyone who heard the order immediately responded, and then scattered to the area where they were responsible to start commanding. The sailor leader shouted loudly and adjusted the sail trusses. The engineer went to the bottom to inform the furnace to start increasing the furnace temperature. The gunman commanded the gunmen to pull the cannon coats, and the sailor stared at the ship in front with wide eyes and began to adjust the course. The army officers and soldiers who accompanied the ship also silently picked up the muskets and began to prepare for loading. After a while, they would be an important force to take over the enemy ship.

These army combatants were all elite soldiers drawn by the Army Department from the militias of each county. Because this time it was a privateer task equivalent to piracy, the Executive Committee did not send regular army soldiers, but instructed the Army Department to select the best from the militias of each county, forming a unit of more than 700 people, accompanying the Navy to fight against the Caribbean. Of course, the Army Department was willing to do this. After all, they were also jealous of the Navy going to sea to make a fortune. Now they sent some soldiers to help. When they distributed the spoils after the war, they could also receive some share of the money to subsidize the current very embarrassing Army finance.

Today, the sea was shining brightly, and the visibility was very good. Under Li Yi's order, his ship "August 10" took the lead and emerged from the hidden sea area. Following closely were four auxiliary ships, namely a repair ship ("Marine Engineer"), a water supply ship, an ammunition supply ship, and a coal transport ship. These ships basically had no military equipment or were very few, but they were successful because they were extremely fast and they were not likely to be captured by the enemy in battle.

"Fat Sheep" obviously also discovered these uninvited guests, and saw it panic and began to turn the bow of the ship, preparing to rob the wind and escape. This strait between Florida and Cuba is always an active sea area where pirate ships are active. Every ship passing by will be extremely alert. Although the French ship has a large tonnage and a lot of artillery, it is also worried when sailing, for fear that there will be unaware of pirate ships coming to rob them. Therefore, the captain of the ship immediately discovered several east coast ships rushing over with malicious intentions.

Moreover, the knowledgeable French captain also recognized this kind of ship with high chimneys standing on the ship: this is a ship that only pagans have on the east coast! Thinking of the country's high tariffs on all kinds of goods from the east coast a few months ago, the experienced captain immediately understood that today's things cannot be done well.

"God testified that the great France never targeted the East Coast Republic alone. In fact, the British, Dutch and Portuguese Jewish merchants were the biggest victims of this high tariff policy..." The captain drew a cross on his chest, then pulled off his hat, and shouted at the sailors standing behind him with pale faces: "That is the main battleship of the East Coast pagans. If we count the number of gun windows, we have no chance of winning. Listen to me, Mr. Pirez, I will throw some heavy cargo in the cabin into the sea, otherwise we will not escape."

Although Mr. Pires, who seemed to be the owner of the cargo, had a painful face, but he knew that life and death had taken place in one fell swoop, so he nodded heavily. He also did not think that the East Coast ships that did not hang any flags were just coming to chat with them.

A large number of heavy iron tools were first thrown into the sea, then tiles for building houses, followed by various mining machines, barrels of wine... As heavy cargo was thrown into the sea, the ship's speed was obviously much faster. But I don't know if it was the sailors' mistake or something, the cargo in the cargo hold at the rear of the ship was obviously thrown more than in front, which made the stern slightly upturn, and in the bumpy waves, it affected some ship speed.

However, what the French did was destined to be futile. Even without the modification of the latest high-powered marine steam engine, the speed of the "August 10" was still 3-4 knots higher than the heavy-load French merchant ship, which was almost deadly at sea. Therefore, at two o'clock in the afternoon, the East Coast Navy officers and soldiers who had already finished lunch in batches leisurely finally caught up with the French merchant ship that was pouring vinegar into the sea. They looked at the panicked French crew with a playful look, and then, under the command of the officer, mercilessly bombarded the French with a stunning 18-pound and 24-pound artillery.

The sea suddenly filled the sea with strong smoke. The iron bombs crashed into the deck of French ships with the roar of death. Debris were flying, sailors were screaming, officers were roaring, and the French ship was in chaos. The "August 10" was not too slow, and relying on its superior mobility to control the distance with the opponent. The 24-pound, 18-pound and 12-pound cannons on the ship were usually dumped onto the enemy's hull for no money. Hollow iron bombs, explosive bombs, chain bombs, hot bombs, etc., as long as the things that could be fired were smashed to the French heads! However, due to the heavy ships, insufficient maneuverability and the range of artillery, the French could not cause enough damage to the battleships of the East Coast people, so they could only be beaten passively, which was terrible.

An hour later, three cannons on the port side of the French merchant ship were silenced, the foremast was broken, and the canvas was damaged on a large scale; two hours later, the top sail of the middle mast and the upper sail caught fire under the repeated blows of hot bombs. The raging fire quickly burned the mast and cables. A large pile of canvas with fire fell to the deck, covering a group of French crew members who were shooting towards the east coast; three hours later, the captain's room was destroyed, the rear mast broke, and many places on the ship caught fire, and the crew members were also injured on a large scale; four hours later, the fear of death finally overwhelmed everything, and the rumors of "East Coast Pirates" not killing people to silence people became their last life-saving straw. More than a dozen French crew members killed the captain and cargo owner of the ship, and then shot out the white flag and surrendered... The battle ended!

Pei Qin from the Qingdao County Militia Brigade frowned and stepped onto the deck of a mess of enemy ship. Most of the dozens of brothers following him were from various townships in Qingdao County. At this moment, they were carrying bayonet rifles, carefully gathering the surviving sixteen French crew members together, then collected their weapons, took them to the deck, and transported them back to the large ship through small boats. The East Coast people did not kill all the surrendered French sailors, but these people would never be relaxed. Their final destination may be the construction site of the Two Ocean Railway, or a plantation on New China Island, which will not appear in Western society again, and this also prevents the French government from obtaining the most direct evidence that the East Coast people privateed their ships.

"Tops, trousers, cloaks, scarves...a lot of ragged textiles, some linen, some wool, and not many cotton fabrics. Look at this color, it's indigo extracted from plants. It's so damn bad. It fades out after washing it a few times! Even this kind of ragged goods dares to sell to Peru and Mexico? Peru, Mexicans have been fooled by these ragged goods for more than a hundred years? Damn, I take these ragged things back and still think they occupy the cabin..." Li Yi, standing on the deck of the ship, first sarcastically sarcastically at the trophy transported back by his subordinates, then sighed and continued: "Check them first, go back and transport them to New China Island for sale. The slave owners who run the plantations there should be happy to buy some of their slave workers. Anyway, those contract slaves don't have to wear any good things."

Unfortunately, the French ship captured by the East Coast people was too severely damaged and was already slowly sinking. It seemed that it could not be dragged back to the local area for maintenance. Therefore, the East Coast people also began to work to transport spoils. The goods carried on the ship were basically goods smuggled to Peru, such as clothing, iron tools, wine, mining machines, tiles, etc. - most of them were despised by the East Coast people, which was greatly discouraged. But on the other hand, if you knocked off this French smuggling ship full of cargo, then less of such goods flowing into Peru, and the corresponding East Coast people could export more such goods to Peru, and some of them were still profitable, but they could not make double money at the same time.

Of course, there are things that the East Coast people need in the cabin, such as candles, mercury (used in mines), lead blocks, copper and silverware with European style, etc., and you can take them back and sell them slowly, and you can always get some money back. Thinking of this, Li Yi's face finally calmed down a little.
Chapter completed!