The Tiger Shark slowly sailed into the harbor of Sioux City, along with a battered two-masted galleon. In terms of type, this galleon was undoubtedly a very popular round-tailed galen ship in the Iberian Peninsula, with a small tonnage, more than 200 tons, and could sail to the sea, but it was more often seen in the near sea, and served as a trading vessel between two towns.

The Viceroyalty of New Spain had many of these vessels, active in various coastal towns, and a strong complement to the lack of official vessels. Some people even estimate that the volume of these private boats may be more than five times that of the official one, and the navigation routes are also varied, and they are not confined to one place, and are widely welcomed by the residents of various colonial towns.

Of course, we have to recall the brain-dead and rigid colonial trade policy of the Kingdom of Spain. The lords of the House of West Indies, the colonial administration in Madrid (who had probably never been to the New World once in their lives), mapped out several ridiculous trade routes, and demanded that the colonies' courts of trial and trial enforce them conscientiously. For example, they initially stipulated that Buenos Aires could only trade with Lima, Córdoba could only trade with Santiago, and so on, and that unauthorized trade with other cities could be punished, which made people speechless.

Undoubtedly, this ridiculous trade restriction caused great dissatisfaction among the colonists, and thus eventually encountered a major problem in enforcing it, that is, even though the colonial officials (who were usually peninsulars) repeatedly ordered the observance of the trade rules established by the colonies, the colonial towns always carried out trade in private, ignoring the local bans. At this time, even the governor could not ignore the interests of the colonists and force a blanket ban, and most of them would choose to turn a blind eye until the "illegal trade" was really too much to deal with.

The ship captured by the "Tiger Shark" this time is obviously this kind of sailing ship specializing in offshore trade, which can be seen from its ship design, large capacity, shallow draft, high center of gravity, slow speed, obviously not suitable for ocean navigation, mostly in the offshore activities with less wind and waves, generally used to transport bulk materials.

"Caught off the coast of Tampico and carrying a shipload of corn, I heard them say that the destination was the port of San Juan in Puerto Rico, where there were Spanish troops, presumably prepared for an attack on the French." Dressed in a short suit, Su Mo jumped lightly onto the creaking wooden dock and said to the henchmen pirates who greeted him.

"The big boss, this time I robbed the Spaniards' grain ship, and those big-headed soldiers with guns in San Juan will sit on wax. Lao Tzu has long seen that they are not pleasing to the eye, and this time it can make them hungry, and I don't know how refreshing it is. The one who spoke was a "little white face" named Wang Zhaoli, who was born as an immigrant from the Ming Kingdom, and is now one of Su Mo's main henchmen.

This gentleman also has an elder brother named Wang Zhaowen, who is a common man in the Wentai area of the Ming Kingdom, and moved to the east coast to escape the war. The eldest Wang Zhaowen is currently a small civil servant in the Yinxian County Government of Ningbo, and follows his boss to help deal with some trade affairs with the Zheng family in Fujian, mainly because their parents immigrated to the Wentai area from Fujian and know some local dialects.

Wang Zhaoli was more interested in the East Coast because of his personality and interest, so he crossed the ocean to the East Coast mainland, and then was recruited by the people of the State Intelligence Administration, and after a few years of training, he was thrown under Su Mo's command to serve as his subordinates, and he was also the main liaison with the local intelligence department.

Of course, this is not to say that Su Mo is also a member of the National Intelligence Administration, this guy from an extraordinary background is obviously a man who likes to be unrestrained, and he doesn't want someone behind him to point fingers at him, which is very difficult for him to tolerate, as evidenced by the first few times the National Intelligence Directorate stuffed people around him and was driven away.

It's just that when you come out to mix, you still be a pirate in the Caribbean, a place where white pirates occupy the mainstream, if you don't have any support behind you, I'm afraid you will already be served. This is not a joke, don't look at the people who go out with Su Mo to fool around, many of them are from high-ranking families and have a small net worth, but in the Caribbean, it is not very important whether they are strong or not. The strength of one's own strength, the level of personality charm, the number of channels for selling stolen goods, and the quality of luck are the main reasons that determine the appeal of a pirate leader.

In these respects, Su Mo and his original friends had a natural disadvantage. At this time, the people of the State Intelligence Bureau came to the door again, this agent named Wang Zhaoli would sail in the Ming Dynasty, and after coming to the east coast, he systematically studied navigation knowledge for several years, and he was also a high-level talent among pirates. After a night of secret talks with the Sumo, he eventually became a member of the Sumo pirate group, participating in many naval robberies against the Spaniards, Dutch, English, and French in the years that followed.

Wang Zhaoli has learned a lot of knowledge systematically, can see the stars, can measure latitude, can calculate ballistics, in the pirates are simply like a herd of existence, so in the past few years has made a lot of contributions, and now is one of the thirteen Taibao under Su Mo, is the first mate of a "humpback whale" converted from a captured merchant ship.

This time Su Mo went out for activities, he and a few other old brothers led their troops to stay in the old nest, because recently Suzhou City Port received a batch of materials from the mainland, mainly livestock, grain seeds, metal farm tools or something, which is still relatively expensive. Needless to say, these were all allocated by the General Intelligence Bureau, and then secretly transported to the new port of Beijing in the Free State, where they were turned around from the hands of the Xhosa, and then sold to Sumo after being "laundered".

These supplies were prepared for some people who had settled in the nearby port of Sioux City, most of them were old or injured pirates, and their physical condition no longer allowed them to go to sea to fight, so they were ruthlessly eliminated - piracy was originally a high-rate industry - and there was no other place to go, so they had to settle down and make a living from farming.

This is not uncommon among pirate groups, such as the famous "Pirate Island" (Tortuga Island), which was cut off by the East Coasters and Spaniards a few years ago, and many of these old pirates live. They grew grain, vegetables, raised poultry and livestock, and occasionally brewed some wine, which they sold to the returning pirates, and the income was not bad, because the pirates mostly practiced the practice of drinking and getting drunk today, and spending lavishly, so that these people really made a lot of money.

There are probably more than 300 former pirates living in Sioux Harbor, not only old or injured pirates, but also some pirates who are tired of wandering or feel that they have earned enough money - you know, not every pirate is voluntary, and many merchant ships are often forced to join the sailors in order to survive when they are plundered - these people have built farms, orchards and pastures in this coastal area under the protection of Sumo, and live a self-sufficient settled life.

Later, some of them who were able to do so tried by all means to relocate their relatives from the Old Continent to live in this land, which was nominally under the jurisdiction of the Spanish General of Texas. Rather than live under the brutal and tyrannical monarchs of the Old World, they found that it would be better to settle in this free New World, which at least made it a good place to live with its fertile land, herds of bison, and mild climate.

What's more, there were no nobles and priests who came here to collect taxes, and the pirate leader Sumo and his thirteen knights of the round table (i.e., the thirteen Taibao) only required them to work hard to farm, graze, and provide the pirates with plenty of fresh food (for a fee, of course). In addition, as the price of being sheltered by the pirate leader Sumo, each settled pirate household in Sioux Port had to contribute a bison, four sheep, two bags of dried fruits, and a number of grains every year, which was a light "tax" for this rich place, and the settled pirates were very satisfied.

The General Intelligence Directorate of National Intelligence (GIS) certainly took note of the development of Sioux City, a prosperous city-state, and never gave up infiltrating and managing this humble town. At present, the manager of this town is a person from the State Intelligence Administration, named Han Zhong, whose father, Han Kechang, immigrated to the East Coast, and Han Jin and Han Yin, who are currently serving in the Bank of Taiwan, are cousins.

Han Zhong was also one of the thirteen Taibao under Su Mo's command, and he had also mixed up on ships in the early years, and even participated in the attack on the port of Campeche in the colonial city of New Spain, personally killing the Spanish commander, and became famous in the war. Later, under the covert operation of the General Intelligence Bureau, Su Mo half-pushed and half-on-the-spot arranged this gentleman to the position of the mayor of Sioux Port to manage dozens of old and injured pirates at the beginning.

Obviously, Han Zhong has a certain management talent, and almost all the planning of the town comes from him, and all kinds of production and life arrangements are also handled by him. To put it mildly, in the minds of the more than 300 settled pirates, the prestige of Su Mo, the great leader of the four seas, may not be much higher than that of Han Zhong, the "Knight of the Round Table".

When Su Mo's "Tiger Shark" returned to Hong Kong today, Han Zhong was also among the people who came to the dock to greet him, but he had always been silent and didn't say much, so he didn't come forward to say anything, but just nodded in tacit agreement with Su Mo, indicating that everything was normal.

A shipload of corn was not a rarity for the townspeople, as they had long been self-sufficient in food, and the shipload was destined to be stored in warehouses for the pirates. The person who manages the warehouse is handed over to Zhou Zuoren, the illegitimate son of the historical celebrity Zhou Shenwo, is a little friend brought out by Su Mo from his hometown, and the relationship is very close, one of the thirteen Taibao, and he is not a person from the State Intelligence Administration, otherwise he would not be the person in charge of the warehouse.

"Has there been any movement from the Spaniards lately? Have you ever found this nest of ours? After throwing the cloth bag full of gems and gold ornaments around his waist to Wang Zhaoli, Su Mo asked casually.

It is said that in Sioux Port and its nearby land, the biggest enemy of the pirates is naturally the Indians, this is a group that has some direct land conflicts with them, there have been several conflicts before, fortunately the scale is not large, and the pirates will also bribe the chiefs of the Indian tribes with some captured booty, so that they can restrain their subordinates, and try not to hang around Sioux Port, so as not to fight between the two sides.

Apart from the Indians, their greatest enemies were undoubtedly the Spaniards, or more precisely, the Texan generals under the Viceroyalty of New Spain. However, what is a little hilarious is that the office of this peninsular nobleman named Joaquín is not in deserted Texas, but in Mexico City, which is simply unbearable. The master's main job was probably to give orders in Mexico City, and then send expeditions and missionaries deep into the Texas wilderness in an attempt to conquer and educate the local Indians—a task that seems to have been unsuccessful so far.

Su Mo was also stunned for a long time when he first learned about this Texas general, and then after learning that there was no decent Spanish colonial town in the whole of Texas, he gradually became a little ecstatic, because it meant that they could be free from the Spanish colonial forces and develop freely in the local area.

The officials of the National Intelligence Directorate on the East Coast were naturally happy to see this scene, but their excitement level was not as high as that of Su Mo. Because in the eyes of these sophisticated bureaucrats, Texas, far from its homeland, lacks sufficient value and attractiveness, has no useful minerals, no famous local products, and is simply useless except for farming and grazing. Therefore, they now only regard the expansion of the pirate group in Texas as an inconsequential move, and it doesn't matter if there is progress.

This time, they approved the report secretly sent back by Han Zhong, gave some seeds, farm tools and other materials, and also allocated fifty rifles and supporting ammunition, which was basically the limit of their assistance, and it was impossible to do more, because they were obviously not optimistic about what these pirates would be able to do in Texas.

Of course, Texas, which the General Intelligence Administration does not look down on, is the most beautiful home for pirates such as Sumo in the eyes of Sumo and other pirates. I thought that Tortuga Island was such a place in the beginning, but unfortunately now it has been ended, and the personnel are scattered everywhere; In the early years, Jamaica was also a place for British pirates, and now most of the island's inhabitants are old or wounded pirates whose ancestors are old or wounded, but unfortunately it was later taken over by the British government during the Anglo-Dutch War. Now that Sioux City has not been taken over by the East Coast government, at least on the surface, the pirates are actually quite satisfied.

Of course, I heard that the taxes of the East Coast government were not high, and the pirates felt that being managed by them did not seem to be a bad thing, especially since the Spanish colonists would find out about their existence at any time-

"The Spaniards are not sure of the existence of our lair, but I suspect that they may have gotten the news from the Indians, which is not a long-term secret, and the Spaniards have not sent men to surround us by this time, so they are already slow to react." After hearing Su Mo ask about the situation of the Spaniards, Wang Zhaoli immediately replied.