More than an hour later, the Yuandou, which was maneuvering zigzags on the surface of the sea, was already able to see the European-style ship on the opposite side through the telescope.

When the flag of the King of Spain with a golden background, depicting a lion and a castle, jumped into the camera, Pan Mingzhong immediately shouted to Lei Jian on duty in the stern cabin: "Send a report, send a report quickly, let them come." ”

While Pan Mingzhong was observing his opponent on the Yuandou, wearing a white shirt and a short blue coat, a wide-brimmed hat, and rolled up sleeves with copper buttons, Second Lieutenant Diego Sandova, who was standing on the bow of the "Alicante", was also using a classic brass single-tube telescope to observe the small black dot on the sea.

The Alicante is a Galen ship with a displacement of only 180 tons. As a supply ship specializing in running between Taipei and the Philippines, the Alicante departed from Jilong Bay in Taipei by empty boat.

Apart from a pitiful amount of brimstone and cloth porcelain, there was nothing on the Galen ship.

......

At this time in 1628, the Spaniards had a hard time in Taipei. Both the city of San Salvador, built on the island of Chicken Coop and Heping (Sheliao Island), and the recently built city of Santo Domingo in Tamsui are surrounded by hostile indigenous tribes.

The Spaniards were denied supplies, and the early looting of indigenous land and villages had a devastating effect – after which the natives refused to sell grain to the flatbread faces. Due to the delay of the supply ships, the soldiers in the castle even had to rely on dogs and rats for a time.

Nowadays, everything that Taipei needs still needs to be shipped from the Philippines. And due to piracy and the lack of trade goods, the number of Fujian merchants who came to trade in Jilong Bay was also gradually declining.

...... Therefore, the captain of the Alicante, Second Lieutenant Diego Sandova, did not want to deal with the other side after seeing the flat-bottomed junk ship approaching from the opposite side.

Whether the junk was a merchant ship going to Japan to trade or a pirate ship to Japan to rob, Sandova was ready to rub shoulders with each other...... The task of the Alicante was to get to the Philippines in time and then bring the supplies back to the chicken coop, and the rest of the options were not on the second lieutenant's radar.

However, God will not obey people's wishes, and God will estimate that he will go to Tik Tok and have no time to bless his people. So, 20 minutes later, when Sandova saw the junk begin to make a strange maneuver – coming straight up in the headwind, he knew trouble was coming.

"I need the gunners to be ready! You, go and kick all the bastards in the cabin to the deck, besides, there are three people on the mainmast on standby, everyone else has to take up arms, and the helmsman takes care to keep the course constant! ”

The Alicante, under the command of the experienced second lieutenant Sandova, quickly completed its combat readiness. At the same moment, the strange junk ship on the opposite side had already entered within 500 meters of the left front of the Galen ship from an oblique angle.

The Spanish ship is now heading south along the coastline of Taiwan on the right-hand side.

Although all the crew members, including the ensign, were surprised by the junk ship rushing against the wind, and some even made a point of looking up at the wind vanguard, the second lieutenant still ordered the ship to keep course unchanged - no matter what the opponent wanted to do, the Galen ship, which was in full sail downwind, was in the best condition at the moment, and was fully capable of meeting the challenge.

When the two sides are facing each other, the distance is shortened very quickly. After a few more minutes, when the junk approached a distance of 300 meters to the left front, it finally turned: it began to level the course with the Alicante.

Seeing the current situation, Second Lieutenant Sandova naturally didn't think that the other party was just running to have fun. Sure enough, soon, the Galen ship received the other party's flag.

"Stop the boat... Get checked...".

The second lieutenant fell into confusion.

At a distance of 300 meters, you can already see it clearly with a telescope. Although Sandova couldn't read the unique hand-woven brocade style of the Junk ship's Chinese character surname flag, it didn't matter, what mattered was that he could clearly see the weapons on the ship...... There is no armament.

There was only one row, about a dozen sailors standing behind the bulwark, holding something resembling a bird's gun, revealing their upper bodies, and nothing else.

Sandova was unable to distinguish between the machine gun nest on the roof of the stern of the sand ship and the M2HB heavy machine gun with only one barrel exposed. So, the ensign had now been identified: apart from their amazing sailing skills, this was a damn pirate ship.

...... The displacement of the Alicante is not high, only 180 tons, which is slightly higher than the junk ship opposite. However, the armament on the Alicante is four and a half snakes.

Two 8-pounder guns and two 6-pounder guns were now in place on the left side of the ship, and the solid and shotgun rounds were ready, and the gunners were to teach the East Asian Yankees a good lesson when the second lieutenant gave the order.

......

The distance of 300 meters, at the beginning of the 17th century, was a very awkward distance.

Due to the quality of cast iron, the ingredients of gunpowder, and the accuracy of the borehole, the Western-style artillery of the early 17th century was far inferior to the naval artillery of the Opium War in terms of range and accuracy.

Although the range of the guns on the Alicante was generally more than 500 meters, that was the maximum range where the shells could not be found. In the undulating sea, in order to get an acceptable hit rate for the iron ball hit, then the enemy ship must be at least close to a distance of 150-200 meters.

So Second Lieutenant Sandova did not give the order for shelling at this time. He's a professional soldier, and it's all about getting home, and he's perfectly okay with the end of the two sides passing by—as long as the mad pirates on this ship don't try to get closer.

The junk seemed to know what the lieutenant was thinking, and did not make any other gestures other than the constant abbreviation of the flag. The two sides just kept a distance of 300 meters and passed by.

There is a saying that the cake always has the creamy side that lands first......

Just as the second lieutenant breathed a sigh of relief at the departing junk, the cargo returned after making a sleek turning radius.

All the people on the Alicante were dumbfounded.

They watched as the junk made a small turn, and then watched it catch up...... Well, now everyone is tailwind, and the funny scene is once again there: two ships 300 meters apart, moving in parallel.

It is frustrating that the second lieutenant Sandova until now did not guess the intentions of his opponent.

What are they waiting for? Is it reinforcements from the front, or a surprise attack after dark? You know, it's not yet noon, and it's still early at night.

Apart from being sure that its opponent would not rush up for hand-to-hand combat, the Alicante is now at a loss for what to do with its familiar neighbor 300 metres away......

The ongoing exchange of flags between the two sides was not enough for the Spaniards to understand the identity of the other side: because the concept of the exploration team could not be expressed in simple flag language, including the crossing forces on Dayuan Island, it could not be explained in flag language.

......

This confusion of self-presentation has in fact existed here for a long time. It can't be helped, everything is moving so fast that the whole group is in a situation similar to "Who am I?" Where did it come from? Where to go? "In these kinds of philosophical questions, it is always difficult to keep up with the situation.

To put it simply, it is the lack of a mature theoretical system to support the regime, and when it is fed back into reality, it is the chaos of the system.

Walking on the streets of the Republican period, one can see merchants in long robes and horse coats, elites in suits and leather shoes, old and young people with braids, and Oriental students wearing stand-up collar uniforms—social change is too fast, and this will happen.

From the first batch of traversers to the beginning of the fledgling of Dayuan Island today, it only took a year.

The traversal crowd is also overwhelming.

Whether in terms of ideology or system, with the rapid expansion of power, while desperately adapting to the actual situation, everyone can only use some temporary identities as a cover in confusion. In fact, until the great debate on the constitutional monarchy, there was no unified external expression for the masses.

From the original nameless merchant gang, to the pirates who robbed the big people, then the immortal soldiers and immortal generals of the West Kunlun, and then the exiled nobles who emerged from the wasteland of the Ming Kingdom, and recently the subordinates of Cao Chuan, the coastal defense guerrilla, and the identity and system of the queen of the monarch......

For the Ming Dynasty, for the Europeans, for their subordinates, for the interpretation of the inside and outside of the congregation, these masks of chaos inside and out are intertwined, and the result is chaos. A department like the exploration team today can't even make it clear where it comes from and what kind of force it belongs to.

As for the solution, at least today when the Yuandou intercepted the Galen ship, there is no news yet.

-- The Rules Committee, which is in charge of resolving these tactical issues, has been busy with the Constitution, the national flag, and the name of the country that has been decided in the early stage, and has not had time to care about these small matters.

......

Therefore, the signal soldiers on the poor Yuandou could only signal the Galen ship over and over again today to ask for a halt, until noon, when the ships of both sides came to Kenting.

The Yuandou took a night to run against the wind, and this morning it took less than half a day to return to the original point: Kenting, the southernmost point of Taiwan.

And at this time, Pan Mingzhong and the others naturally would not let the Galen ship continue to go south. Their purpose was to hijack the Galen ship to the Lord, and the men should now turn around and head north.

Therefore, the Yuandou finally changed the flag slogan at the next moment: stop the ship, or start a war!

Second Lieutenant Sandova remained unmoved, and Galen continued on a direct flight.

Soon after, the junk opened up some distance, and now the distance between the two ships was 400 meters.

The next moment, a row of white smoke rose neatly from the side of the junk ship.

"Hahaha"...... Seeing that these stupid Ming pirates actually cast bird guns on the 400-meter sea surface, the sailors collectively let out a laugh.

The bird gun really didn't work. When the white smoke passed, the sea was calm and nothing happened.

However, in the next short time, another line of white smoke erupted from the muzzle of the sailor opposite.

"These bastards even have spare guns!" A big-nosed Catalan named Puyol shouted.

Before the words fell, a "whoosh" sound suddenly passed over everyone's heads.

Just as the flatbread faces looked at each other in confusion, a row of white smoke erupted from the junk boat. This time, Puyol's big nose was shattered by a buckshot, and blood splattered his big pie face.