The Tiger Shark dragged its scarred hull into Sioux City Harbor. The pirates, who had been waiting on the dock for a long time, rushed up, took the ropes thrown from the ship and fixed them, and looked at the tired travelers on the deck with concerned eyes.

"I came across a prick idea, and some brothers died." A pirate with a bandage on his head jumped off the splint and said in a gloomy tone: "The big boss is also injured, but fortunately it is not serious, and the ship will be raised for some time, and it is almost well." ”

The pirates were silent for a while, and then watched Su Mo, who was pale, being carefully helped off the ship by several henchmen. He was wrapped in a thick bandage, and it seemed that he had been wounded in the abdomen, perhaps from shrapnel, or perhaps from the enemy's weapon, and now he looked a little weak, but he was still in good spirits, and he insisted on giving a few words of encouragement and encouragement to everyone on the dock, and then returned to the mansion in the city.

Wang Zhaoli, Han Zhong, Zhou Zuoren and other core figures in the Thirteen Taibao rushed over from their respective places as soon as possible, and they were relieved after seeing that Su Mo's situation was not bad.

"Big boss, what's going on this time? Why is it so messy? Zhou Zuoren has always been straightforward, and seeing that everyone was paying attention to Su Mo's injury, he finally couldn't help but ask after holding it for a long time: "Who is so fierce, the 'Tiger Shark' was also beaten and scarred, this is not an ordinary person, right?" ”

"What do you say about the warship?" Su Mo glanced at Zhou Zuoren and said angrily: "A Spanish frigate, maybe it is from the old continent or the Windward Fleet." At that time, we bit a merchant ship, chased it from the afternoon to the evening, and finally interspersed it between the darkness of the day, and the result was less than an hour, and it was the critical moment, the Spanish frigate came out of nowhere, caught us and chased us together, and almost did not come back, which is really unlucky. ”

Everyone was speechless when they heard Su Mo say this. Professional warships, even Spanish ones, are a formidable character for pirates. Unlike the pirate ships, which sacrifice firepower and protection in pursuit of lightness, warships are designed for combat, with fierce firepower and better protection (pirate ships have a large number of personnel who exist for gang jumping), and warships are really too advantageous to fight.

This was the case with the Tiger Shark of Sumo, which was entangled by a Spanish warship at the western tip of the island of Cuba, and it took great effort to get out of the crisis by night and flee back to the port of Sioux City. Pirates are really too vulnerable in front of the navy! A few decades or a hundred years ago, it may have been possible to compare each other, but in today's era of professional warships, the gap between the two has indeed slowly widened, and they can no longer be compared.

"The Spaniards are so fierce now...... Zhou Zuoren was suddenly a little depressed after hearing this, and said in a loud voice: "But the local stupid officials and gentlemen are still talking and laughing with the Spaniards, giving them loans to strengthen the strength of the Wind Fleet." Damn, our biggest adversary is the Windward Fleet, if they replace all those old warships and make up the numbers, how can we play? ”

As soon as Zhou Zuoren's venting words came out, many people's faces turned bad, especially Wang Zhaoli and Han Zhong, who were inextricably linked with the local intelligence department, and would help get some weapons and medicines on weekdays, and the pirates were very sympathetic. However, when it comes to their own survival, the pirates quickly forgot about the past and became a little dissatisfied with them, who made the Windward Fleet the biggest enemy of all the Caribbean pirates?

Wang and Han are so smart that they naturally won't be able to hear the dangerous information hidden in Zhou Zuoren's complaints, but at this time, they don't have any good solutions, so they can only be silent. After the war between the native and the Spaniards and the strengthening of the construction of the Windward Fleet broke out, they could not wash the ground. After all, the local people don't think much of their pirates as people, although they also send liaison officers, regularly provide weapons, and Air Canada also helps sell stolen goods, but chess pieces are chess pieces, which can be sacrificed and replaced at any time. When the local people want you to help create trouble, even if you are reluctant, you have to go to sea to act, and when the local needs you to stay at home safely, even if you are already waiting for the rice to be cooked, it is best to stay at home honestly, otherwise it may cause some unpredictable disasters.

But who are the pirates? To put it nicely, they are all people with strong free will, and to say that it is unruly and lawless, and the government secretly influences them on weekdays, which has already annoyed everyone, which will fight their biggest enemies again, and even enhance their strength, how can this convince the pirates? Therefore, at this time, Wang Zhaoli and Han Zhong were still quite embarrassed, and not speaking was the best choice.

Of course, pirates are not fools, they are not irrational fanatics, especially those who have achieved a core circle like the Thirteenth Taibao. They also understood that in a dangerous place where wolves were fed, in a sea where white people dominated, they had to have their backs against the big trees to enjoy the shade, otherwise if there was a little urgency, they were afraid that a catastrophe would come. For example, where do you buy all kinds of medicines that are urgently needed to live in the tropics without the assistance of the national intelligence services? Where to rob? You know, this is a sought-after commodity, Huaiyuan Island and Air Canada are still not enough for their own use, how can they sell it to you with kindness, don't even think about it! For example, where do you get excellent nautical surveying instruments? All kinds of nautical precision instruments produced locally on the east coast have been used, and European goods are far inferior, and they are controlled commodities, and the purchase procedures are cumbersome, what price do you have to spend on a pirate without identity to buy? Without the General Directorate of National Intelligence or the Gendarmerie Command, I believe they would not have been able to get any of them.

Therefore, no matter how much these pirates in Sioux City Harbor dislike the East Coast government and how dissatisfied they are with what they are pointing at behind the scenes, they must endure it. The relationship between the two sides is interdependent and cooperative, and the pirates are more interested in the East Coast government, so they must be honest in many cases, and they must have the consciousness of being a pawn, so that it is possible to strive for a better future for themselves.

"Don't even talk about what you have and don't have." Hearing Zhou Zuoren say this, Su Mo immediately waved his hand to stop him from continuing on this dangerous topic, and then only heard Su Mo say: "This time it was unlucky, it just happened to hit a Spanish warship, this is a small probability event, and if you bump into it, you can only say that your life is not good, and you can't blame others." My injuries are not in the way, it will be good to raise for ten days and a half months, and no one will die! Lao Wang, this time I went out, there was nothing to do at home, right? ”

"Everything was fine, nothing was too big. Only one skirmish with the Indians was also demarcated by us. Well, it was a dispute over the extent of the pasture, and we are not to blame, the Indians did not know where they came from, and they came to the vicinity and suddenly came into conflict with us. However, we were more restrained, and they seemed to have scruples, so in the end both sides took a step back and settled peacefully. Wang Zhaoli immediately stepped forward and replied.

"It's not a big deal. At present, more than 600 people (including family members) have settled down, most of them are old men who have retired due to old age or disability. If something goes wrong, the morale of the brethren on the boats will plummet, and your words will not be so effective, right? Su Mo stroked his injured abdomen and said, "Why is our popularity higher than others?" One is because we have good weapons, great navigation equipment, and a high success rate of robbery, but another important reason cannot be ignored, that is, we have a solid logistics base, a place for everyone to rest and even settle down after retirement. Who said pirates shouldn't quit the mechanics? The pirates who don't have an exit mechanism, that is, those drunken and muddy guys on Tortuga Island in the past, have no tomorrow today, and their morale is naturally not high. ”

In fact, to some extent, Su Mo was not wrong. Today's Sioux City Port, after years of development, has been rough and rough with the appearance of a small town, city walls (wooden), docks, warehouses, city halls, farmland, orchards, pastures everything, and the settled population has reached 659 people (all retired pirates and their families), in a place with a very low population density in Texas, at least, the development of Sioux City Port is much better than the Spaniard town of San Joaquin next door, isn't it?

The current port of Sioux City has long become the spiritual home of six armed merchant ships of the Sumo pirate group and more than 500 pirates of various ethnic groups (most of them are East coasters, blacks, and Indians, and there are also many Europeans). No one has to worry about being wounded in a battle and having their limbs amputated and being ruthlessly thrown to fend for themselves by a stinking ditch, or about being abandoned by a pirate group and begging for food when they are old and weak. After withdrawing, they were free to choose to settle near Sucheng Port and rely on the land to support themselves, which was still very attractive to the pirates, and at the same time further enhanced the authority of the pirate leadership, including Su Mo and others.

In addition, the East Coast is actually happy to see the Sumo pirate group build a port in Texas. Although the pirate force cannot be said to be completely controlled, at least partially, its core layer even has some big courtyard disciples who have gone out from the mainland, and they are inextricably linked with the upper echelons of the country, and they have also done some "wet work" for the government in the past, and the credit is not small. If they establish a city-state in Texas and succeed in gaining a foothold, it will be an additional card for the East Coast government to play, and its usefulness should not be underestimated.

Moreover, if the port of Sioux City wants to develop in the future, it is fundamentally inseparable from the support of the mainland on the east coast, and this is naturally a good opportunity for the local to exert influence and mix sand. Once it is well managed, it is not impossible to produce a controlled and powerful country in Texas in the future, after all, their opponents are mainly Indians and Spaniards, and the possibility is still quite small.

"What's been going on with the Spaniards in San Joaquin lately?" Su Mo suddenly asked, "How is their city building?" Does it threaten our strength? Has there been any additional reinforcements on the part of the Mexican Court of Prosecution? ”

"There's movement in the Spaniards, and it's not small. The Mexican Prosecutor's Court has also recently sent additional troops to San Joaquin, about 300 troops. The answer to Su Mo was Han Zhong, the de facto mayor of Su Town, who saw that he had sold a pass when he said this, and then he laughed and said, "However, the Spaniards did not send troops to San Joaquin for us, and I even doubt that they had ever found our true location, but to suppress the local Indian rebellion." Most of these Indians were Comanches, who had been fooled by the Spanish missionaries, but the tragedy eventually led to the tragedy because the Spanish colonization methods were too rough and the officials were too empty-sighted. I've heard from many people that the town of San Joaquin was on the verge of destruction, with heavy casualties, and if it weren't for the sudden rush of more than 300 reinforcements by boat, I am afraid that the town would have been completely destroyed. I wonder how they can really have the energy to take care of other things now that they are so miserable, so I think we will be in a relatively comfortable state for a long time to come, and the only opponents will be the Indians, and it doesn't seem to be very difficult to deal with. ”

"San Joaquin is so miserable...... Su Mo laughed when he heard it: "Well, since the Spaniards are now fighting with the Indians, then how can we forget the way of hospitality, it is normal to have contacts with each other!" In this way, Treasurer Zhou, you can now start preparing all kinds of supplies and ammunition for the ships to sail, well, the amount of four ships. I will give you ten days to prepare, and ten days later Captain Wang Zhaoli (who is now the captain of the Humpback Whale) will go around the San Joaquin area and demolish their bird harbor. If possible, it would be better to burn it out in one fire, so as to save us from blocking it later. ”

Wang Zhaoli was stunned at first when he heard this, and subconsciously thought that this would cause a strong reaction from the Spaniards, but then he thought that they were pirates, and it was not a normal thing for pirates to burn and loot the towns of the Spanish American colonies? Considering the subtle encouragement of the local government for their expansion in Texas, Wang Zhaoli did not hesitate and responded directly.

The Americas were supposed to be the Americas of the East Coasters, and the Spaniards should stand aside!