There are indeed not many pirates in the Gulf of Aden, and Ang Lee sent a number of detachments to work for several days before encountering a few incidents of piracy and robbery, and there was also a case of a businessman who failed to rob a fellow businessman, capturing a total of twelve ships involved and capturing more than 100 pirates.

These captured pirates were all detained on one of the ships involved, which were guarded by fifty Tang Dynasty soldiers, and the remaining eleven ships, each with only ten soldiers in charge, were towed by steam boats, and there was no need for people to row the boats, so naturally there were not too many people.

Aden City is not far away, and Ang Lee, who is standing on the command platform, can already see the port of Aden City with a telescope, and he will be able to reach Aden City in another hour at most.

"Li Shilang, we have captured so many pirates for the merchants, the merchants of Aden City will definitely welcome us very much!"

A Datang official spoke.

Li An smiled and said: "The merchants are naturally happy, but the city lord of Aden City will not think so, we have so many people and so many ships, we have to occupy a large port area, and we have the strength to seize the port, they will be afraid and worried." ”

"If Artik doesn't know the times and doesn't let us enter the port, then we will have to storm the port."

The subordinate said.

Li An nodded and said: "That's right, no one can refuse Datang, if they dare to refuse, we can make them succumb with a little means, just like the last time we treated Xi Tianzhu." ”

When the subordinates heard this, they nodded very approvingly, feeling that what Li An said was very reasonable.

"The city of Aden is ahead, and we did not greet us in advance, so it is very rude, so we immediately sent someone to meet the city lord and told the city lord that we are going to visit the city of Aden and live in the city of Aden permanently."

Li An looked at the subordinates beside him and spoke.

The subordinates immediately gave the order, and soon a steam gunboat sped up to the city of Aden, with Ang Lee's subordinate officials on board.

The city of Aden has been quiet these days, nothing special has happened, as if it were a very ordinary city, and there are no two armies eyeing the city outside.

The lord of the castle, Artik, also patrols the castle every day to create a peaceful and stable atmosphere in the castle, and occasionally goes to the top of the tower to see the scenery.

The speed of the Datang steam gunboat was very fast, many times that of an ordinary merchant ship in the accelerated state, so soon the steam gunboat arrived outside the port of Aden City and asked to enter the port.

"Huh! The port defense is doing a good job! More than a dozen defense towers. ”

A Tang lieutenant looked at the port defense of Aden City, and smiled at the corner of his mouth.

In order to prevent pirates from sneak attack, the general port has defense towers, the specifications are different, the role is to prevent the invasion of force, the large defense tower can accommodate catapults and crossbows, and the smaller defense tower can only accommodate a few archers, as long as there is a certain number of defense towers, it can block the attack of ordinary pirates, so as to protect the safety of the port.

However, these ordinary defense towers can only be used to defend against pirates with cold weapons, and for the Datang steam gunboats, these defense towers are fixed targets, and they are simply vulnerable, so the captain of the Datang Dynasty can smile proudly, not afraid that Aden City will not welcome him.

"Look, there's a big smoking ship."

"What a big ship! Or is it the first time I've seen such a big ship? ”

"Hello, you don't have knowledge, this is Datang's steam cannon ship, it's very powerful."

"If you look closely, there are so many smoking boats behind them. In the distance, there are all Datang's steamships. ”

"I know, it's the main fleet of the Tang Dynasty here, it's Li Shilang's main fleet."

"Li Shilang is here, the last time we passed by West Tianzhu Port, did we see Li Shilang? Unexpectedly, after not seeing each other for a few months, Li Shilang came to Aden City again. ”

"Come and see, everyone! It is the steam gunboat of the Tang Dynasty. ”

There were already a lot of people in the port, and after seeing the Datang steamship, there were more people gathered, whether it was the people in the cabin or the people in the port, all gathered near the port, in order to see the face of the Datang steamship.

Although many businessmen have already seen the Datang steamship, the Datang steamship is not seen every day, so as long as there is a chance, they have to come over to take another look, and they can also be embarrassed in front of people who have not seen it, telling others that they have seen the Datang steamship many times, and even bragging that they have boarded the Datang steamboat, which makes the people around them envious.

The Datang steam gunboat suddenly appeared outside the port, and there was a huge number of Datang fleets in the distance, which was not a trivial matter, and the soldiers in charge of guarding it immediately reported the news.

"What, the Tang fleet has arrived in Aden City."

The city lord Artik, who had just returned from the observation tower, asked with a surprised expression.

"Yes, Lord of the City, the Tang fleet is amazing, all of them are smoking steam ships, I don't know what you are coming to Aden City for?"

The subordinate spoke.

Naturally, Artik had heard of the Tang steamship and could obtain this knowledge from the mouths of some merchants, but he himself had never seen a steamship with his own eyes, and he could not understand what a smoking ship looked like.

As for why the Tang steam ships appeared in Aden City, Artik seemed to have a slight feeling, Malacca, Anshizhou, Anzhu City, these are Li An's big deals, he naturally heard about it, and Li An's fleet arrived in Aden City at the moment, which made Altic very nervous, and always felt that Li An had intentions for the territory of Aden City.

"I heard that the Tang fleet recently built an Anzhu City in the east, but I didn't expect that now we are coming to Aden City, what are they going to do, are they going to occupy Aden City?"

Altic was depressed.

There are too many people who fight the idea of Aden City, the soldiers and horses under the command of Osman and Ziyad are still there, and now, the Tang Dynasty soldiers and horses are also here, and they are still from the sea, so that the city of Aden is surrounded on three sides, and the form has become quite critical.

"Lord of the City, our small city of Aden, I didn't expect it to attract three forces, isn't it just a port, why did it attract so much attention?"

The subordinate said half-jokingly.

"Have you seen the map of the Tang Empire?"

Artik asked.

Several subordinates shook their heads, how could they have seen the map of Datang.

Artik took out a map and said: "I have a copy here, I bought it from a merchant of the Tang Dynasty, you look at this map, the color marked here is our city of Aden, next to these colors are Khorasan, on the right is the Tang Dynasty, to the west is Egypt, here is Spain, France, and here." ”

"Oh my God, it's unbelievable that the world is so big."

Many of his subordinates were all taken aback and sighed at the size of the world.

"Take a look, these places are the places occupied by the Datang fleet after it went south, and they are all arteries of transportation, and our Aden City is also the same, so Datang has territorial intentions for Aden City."

Altic pointed to the map and analyzed.

"City Lord, if the Tang Dynasty has an intention against Aden City, then what should we do? If the Tang fleet is denied entry into the port, they may launch an attack. ”

Several subordinates were a little panicked and didn't know what to do.

City Lord Artik thought for a moment and said, "Where is the Datang steamship?" ”

"The nearest one is almost at the port, and the remaining nearly 100 are still dozens of miles away, but they should be able to catch up soon."

The subordinate answered truthfully.

Artik thought for a moment and said, "Prepare the horse immediately, let's go to the port and see for ourselves." ”

Because he had never seen a steam gunship, Artik wanted to go to the port to see if the Datang steamship that the merchants boasted about could really shock him.

When Artik arrived at the port, there were already a lot of people gathered in the port, all watching the excitement, which shows how huge the boring people are.

"Lord of the City, that big ship with black smoke is the steam cannon ship of the Tang Dynasty."

The subordinate pointed to the Datang steam gunboat, which was already very close to the port, and spoke.

It was the first time for Artik to see the Datang steam gunboat, and he was deeply shocked at the first sight of the gunboat, he was so big, he really had never seen a ship bigger than the Datang steam gunboat, it was really shocking.

Moreover, the black smoke emitted from the ship was very domineering, and occasionally there was a deafening roar, which increased the momentum of the steam gunboat.

"This is the steam gunboat of Datang, it is really huge, what the merchants say is true, it is really majestic."

Artik was so shocked that he didn't know what to say, and he didn't have the strength to compete with such a large fleet.

"City Lord, the armed ships of the Tang Dynasty in front of you are asking to enter the port."

A soldier spoke.

"City Lord, the Tang fleet has captured more than 100 pirates along the way, do you want to let them enter the port?"

The subordinate asked.

Artik looked into the distance, and saw a large number of Datang steam ships in the distance, and he was very scared, how could he fight against such a huge Datang ship, but if he gave up Aden City like this and handed Aden City into the hands of Datang, he was also very unwilling, and no one was willing to give away what he got to others.

"Tell Datang Steamship that this is a commercial port, and armed ships are not suitable to enter the port, and let them wait outside the port."

Artik said stiffly, impressing the people around him.

"What, Artik won't let us enter the port, is this eating the bear's heart leopard gall?"

The captain of Datang was quite angry and asked, "Didn't you tell them that my Datang captured more than 100 pirates?" ”

"I told them, but the city lord still won't let us enter the port."

The soldier said.

Captain Datang said angrily: "Since they don't give face, then you can't blame us, do you see the largest defense towers on the left and right?" A few salvos to take out the two largest towers. ”

"Yes."

The soldiers immediately began to prepare ammunition and aimed at the largest defensive towers on the left and right sides of the port.

"Boom, boom, boom......"

When a volley was fired, smoke rose from the two largest defense towers on both sides, and the soldiers on it saw that the situation was not good, and immediately fled. They all saw it very clearly, the location of the Datang steamship, outside the range of the giant crossbow and projection vehicle, they could not fight back at all, they could only be beaten passively, in this case, if they didn't escape, would they still have to wait for death?

The first round of shelling was followed by a second, more precise one, which destroyed the two largest towers in an instant.

The crowd of onlookers were all startled, and the timid ones ran away, many Datang businessmen didn't understand what was going on, some retreated to see the situation, and some simply went back, only the most daring people stayed in the port and were stunned by the development of the situation, maybe they were confident that the Datang army would not go on a killing spree!

The most surprising thing was, of course, the city lord Artik and his men, who did not expect that after the Tang steam gunboat was denied entry into the port, it would directly fire at the defense tower, and moreover, with three strokes and five divisions by two, the two strongest defense towers in the port were blown down. If the cannon continues to fire, all the defenses of the port will be leveled.

The large defense towers are all made of stones, which belong to the very strong and durable kind, and the general cold weapon attack cannot hurt such a strong defense tower at all, so Altic is very confident in these defense towers, believing that with the protection of these defense towers, no force can attack the port, but he did not expect that a few rounds of artillery salvos from the Datang steam gunboat completely destroyed the large defense tower with amazing defensive power, this attack power is too terrible, so that Altic is unbelievable.

"Lord of the City, the two largest towers have been destroyed, and six soldiers have been wounded."

"Lord of the City, the steam cannon ships of the Tang Dynasty are too powerful, and they are not capable of fighting at all! The destruction of the towers was only a warning, and if they did not comply with their demands, they would probably attack the port. ”

"Yes! Lord of the City, just one steam gunboat is so powerful, if all the steam gunboats behind come up, the power of the port will not be able to stop it at all. ”

"Oh my God! This power is terrifying, if we have such a powerful weapon in the city of Aden, it will not be a problem to sweep through Khorasan! ”

"Forget about sweeping Khorasan, the key is what we should do now, this is the problem at hand."

"City Lord, it seems that we can only agree to Datang's request, because we can't beat others at all."

Several subordinates said babblingly.

Aden City's lord Artik shrugged his shoulders helplessly, and ordered unconvinced: "Let the Datang steamship enter the port and agree to Datang's request." ”

Seeing that Artik agreed to Datang's request, Captain Datang smiled very happily and ordered the steam gunboat to enter the port, with the huge fleet behind him as the backing, he didn't have to worry about the soldiers and horses in Aden City setting up an ambush for them.