Located halfway between Batavia and Dongfan, the Sea of Sulu is named after the state of Sulu, a sultanate founded in the 14th century and encompassing the Sulu archipelago, Palawan and the northeastern part of Kalimantan.

Sulu can be said to be a friendly neighbor of the Ming Dynasty, Ming Chengzu Yongle fifteen years (AD 1417), three kings of Sulu, the east king Batu Ge Horn Hara, the west king Mahara La, the king of the mountain Badu Ge Lama Bu had led a family of 340 people to form a friendly mission to the Ming Dynasty for a friendly visit, Yongle Emperor Zhu Di ceremoniously received the three kings of Sulu, the relationship between the two countries developed rapidly.

However, in the sixth year of Wanli (1578 AD), the Sulu Kingdom was invaded by the Spanish colonists, although it has not been completely conquered by the Spanish, but the princes, nobles and officials at all levels have all fled into the mountain fortress to defend it, and the entire Sulu Kingdom has entered a period of chaos.

During the Apocalypse, taking advantage of the endless war between the Sulu Kingdom and the Spaniards, Shi Daxuan, Hong Xu and Gan Hui led a group of foreign pirates under Zheng Zhilong into the Sulu Sea, occupied some islands, and stayed between the Sulu Kingdom and the Spanish-occupied Luzon State.

The area around the Sulu Sea is not very developed, the local residents are basically still in a semi-primitive and semi-feudal society, there is almost nothing to grab except food, and the firepower of the Spanish and Dutch merchant ships is too fierce, so Shi Daxuan, Hong Xu and Gan Hui have been living a very difficult life.

Until the seventh year of Chongzheng, their boss Zheng Zhilong didn't know how to move the current emperor, the Ming Dynasty actually transformed the battleship for them, and gave them all the weapons that Zheng Zhilong's main fleet replaced, now they are really a shotgun, if it weren't for Zheng Zhilong's repeated warnings, they really want to go The Spaniards in Luzon and the Dutch in Java have all robbed them!

Fortunately, they didn't go, or now they have been thrown into the sea to feed the fish, and after a few months of patience, their opportunity finally came, and the Jinyi Wei secret agents of the Ming Dynasty successively sent detailed information about the staffing of the Dutch fleet, the firepower configuration, and even the sailing date and sailing route, which means that they can now start robbing!

The first batch of seven Dutch merchant ships laden with sugar, cotton, porcelain, and rice had already departed from Dongfan, destined for the island of Java, with nearly 1,000 Dutch East India Company sailors on board, armed with more than 500 arquebuses and a hundred guns, and would pass through the line about 300 miles north of Palawan in ten days.

The Sulu Sea is south of Palawan, three hundred miles north of Palawan, which is now the South China Sea area, there is nothing to say, hurry up and prepare to rob.

In ancient times, being a pirate was a technical job, there were no planes, no radar, no satellite navigation, only a compass and the sun, and you had to find a few merchant ships on the vast sea, which was difficult to imagine, even if you already knew the approximate route of the Dutch merchant ships, it was not a very simple matter to find them.

Shi Daxuan, Hong Xu and Gan Hui almost poured out of the nest, and with more than 1,000 modified ships of all sizes, they came to three hundred miles north of Palawan Island in advance to prepare to encircle the Dutch merchant ships.

It's a bit of a joke, more than a thousand ships go to surround seven ships, and no matter how powerful the Dutch are, they don't have to take so many people there!

They didn't mean to joke, these more than 1,000 ships were not all used for siege, they were actually mainly used for searching, you must know that sailing thousands of miles on the sea, as long as they deviate a little from the angle, it is dozens of miles, so if they want to find the location of the seven merchant ships, they must at least spread out horizontally for more than 100 miles to ensure that nothing goes wrong. 、

They did just that, with 50 small boats for every 10 large ships, each of which was about five miles apart, and each of them found some small islands or coral reefs as docking points, and lined them up horizontally. This is already the limit distance within the reach of the eye, if you spread out a little more, if people are lucky, they can drill directly between the two teams, you may not be able to see it!

If the wind and the sun are beautiful on the sea, once there is a wind and waves, it is simply a disaster, not to mention a small bluff boat that can only carry more than ten people, even if the Dafu boat is more than fifty meters long in the wind and waves, there is a possibility of being overturned, they waited for two days in fear, fortunately, there is no wind and waves on the sea, except for the hot weather, nothing else.

At noon on the third day, the Dutch fleet finally appeared, and the first to find them was the fifth squad on the left, and when they saw the Dutch merchant ships from a distance, they did not rush to pounce on them, but sent two small boats to inform the two squads on the left and right, ready to intercept.

After receiving the news, the left and right teams immediately lifted anchor and moved closer to the fifth team, and each sent a small boat to continue to notify the other teams on the left and right.

The Dutch fleet did not know that doom was coming, and their leader was lying on the chairs in the cabin, and the pirates generally operated within two hundred miles of the archipelago or the coast, and the chances of encountering pirates three hundred miles from the coast were almost nil, unless a pirate happened to pass by on their route. So the team leader Prad was not worried at all, he just wanted to end this boring voyage quickly and go to Batavia to enjoy the exotic scenery.

After all, the Dutch merchant ships are the most advanced merchant ships in the world today, and their sailors are also veterans with rich sailing experience, even in safe areas, seven merchant ships take turns to send lookouts to climb the mast and look around. So they soon spotted the pirate ship in front of them, and when the lookout whistle blew a terrible whistle, Prad jumped up from his chair like a spring, grabbed the binoculars on the table, ran out of the cabin, climbed into the bow, and raised the binoculars to look in the direction pointed by the lookout post.

At this time, there are still four or five miles between the two sides, and the telescope can only roughly see the size of the enemy ship, when he found that there are only ten lucky ships, he can't help but breathe a sigh of relief, whether the other side is a pirate or not, a fleet of this size, he is not afraid at all, the armed merchant ships of the Netherlands are not a joke, each ship has more than ten guns, like this kind of lucky ship that is a little smaller than their merchant ships, the pirates are at most equipped with a soil cannon in the bow and stern, and they are not much of a threat at all. Unless the opposite side rushes up with a small boat and sets fire to the ship, but that is generally a trick used by the naval forces of the two countries during naval warfare, and pirates generally do not set fire to the ship.

He easily lowered his binoculars and ordered: "Lower the sails, slow down, the six-pounder guns on both sides are loaded with solid shells, the bow and stern 18-pounder run to fill with scattered shells, and the musketeers spread along the side of the ship, reloaded, and ready to fire." ”

At his command, everyone began to act, the flag bearer climbed the mast and waved the flag to the other ships, the sailor who controlled the sail released the rope and began to lower the sail, the artillerymen began to load the shells, and the musketeers spread out to the sides, then loaded the bullets, pulled out the tinder, and prepared to fire.

Prad couldn't help but smile proudly as he watched the skillful movements of his subordinates, hoping that the opposite side was not a pirate, preferably a merchant ship, he happened to be addicted to pirates, anyway, no one saw it on this vast sea, as long as the hands and feet were clean, no one would know, nothing faster than robbing money, I don't know how much I can gain this time!

While dreaming of making a fortune, he raised his binoculars and looked at the other side: "Oh, Lack, how can there be so many more ships!" ”

It was evident from the binoculars that a dozen or so large ships were rushing towards them with a bunch of small boats in front of them. Now it's troublesome, there is even an ambush, it must be pirates, if the thirty lucky ships are all equipped with earth cannons, it is really difficult to say whether they will win or lose.

He immediately ordered: "Hurry, hoist the sails, all the ships come closer, assemble together, break out of the encirclement, open their formation, and prepare to fight with them." ”

The sailor who controls the sail immediately pulls the rope frantically to raise the sail that has just been lowered.

At this time, the two sides were only two or three miles apart, and Prad raised his binoculars to look at each other, because their ship was a little higher than the Fu ship, so he happened to see the other deck: "Oh, shoot, the Spaniards' artillery; Oh, shooter, is this our Dutch artillery; Oh, there are so many people who buy cakes, oh, it's over, there are so many on every boat! ”

What the hell is going on, why are there so many artillery pieces on the other side, is it a caravan of the Spaniards? However, Prad carefully identified it, there were yellow-skinned, brown-skinned and even black-skinned, but there were no white-skinned ones, so he was not a Spanish merchant ship at all! He put down his binoculars in horror and shouted: "Quick, turn, disperse and break through, may God bless us." ”

As soon as the flag-bearer sounded the flag, the seven merchant ships scattered like fireworks, divided into seven directions and began to flee.

Unexpectedly, the first three waves of pirate ships did not disperse the pursuit at all, and still rushed straight towards the handsome ship in his middle, and Prad howled in despair: "The 18-pounder gun in the bow is ignited, fire, everyone pay attention to concealment, the enemy is going to open fire!" ”

Do I have a grudge against you, why do you bite my ship! Prader, cursing as he rushed to the side of the ship.

"Boom boom" Prad just squatted down and leaned his back against the side of the ship, the guns of both sides roared at the same time, but there was only one sound on their side, but there was no know how many sounds on the opposite side, countless scattered bombs fell like raindrops, and the ping pong on the deck kept ringing, but fortunately everyone was close to the side of the ship, and there were no casualties.

He quickly glanced at it, and the other side had already spread out into a fan circle, and he could only howl in pain: "The six-pounder guns on both sides are fired, fire, and all the musketeers are ready to shoot." ”

He didn't even bother to give the order to load the shells, but on the opposite side was the Spanish artillery, the submunitions, the reloading speed, there was no comparison with others!

Sure enough, the artillery on his side had just been fired, and there was another roar on the opposite side, and another rain of scattered bullets, and everyone shrank under the side of the ship and did not dare to move.

Immediately afterward, the sound of crackling muskets was remembered all around, and I don't know how many people were firing, and the side of the ship was popping and popping, and the bullets were flying everywhere, intertwined over the deck, and even the naked eye could see, how many muskets were there!

After a while, countless hooks flew over the side of the ship, the number was too many to count, poof, puff, ”