The Strait of Magellan in late autumn was furious, and the formation of three ships, including Yunsheng No. 1, was carefully navigating under the guidance of a group of old European sailors. It was not until the end of June that this small formation finally crossed the only safe passage connecting the coasts of the entire Americas and entered the Pacific Ocean for the first time in history, after experiencing all the difficulties and dangers of high winds, high waves, dense fog, whirlpools, and adverse currents almost every one imaginable.

"What kind of sea current is the Peruvian cold current, Yuri, you answer." After sailing north along the Peruvian cold current for a while, on the frigate gunboat "Eagle on the East Coast", Lu Ming, who had nothing to do, simply tested his students again.

"It's a compensatory stream, sir." Yuri Petrovich replied triumphantly, "This upwelling compensating current runs along the coast of Chile all the way to Peru. We can easily go anywhere we want to go by following this current. ”

Lu Ming smiled with satisfaction: "Even Yuri is willing to spend time on studying, not bad." So who will tell me about the history of Valdivia? Kyle? Nick? Johnson? You bunnies must have gone to the bilge to watch and play cards again, and you haven't completed the study tasks I gave me at all. Yuri, you're the team leader, and you're here to answer my question. If you answer incorrectly, the whole team will clean the deck for a week. ”

"The port of Valdivia was founded in 1551 by Pedro de Valdivia. Originally established as an export port for gold and silver mining sites in inland areas such as Villarica, it gradually developed during the perennial wars to conquer the Araucans in the south-central region, and is now the largest city in the south-central part of the Spanish Santiago Inquisition District. Yuri replied fluently, clearly with a lot of hard work.

"Yuri, you're kind of surprising me right now." Lu Ming praised.

When Lu Ming was assessing the students, in the officer's lounge on the ground floor of the stern, a group of naval officers were around a table for some kind of entertainment. Long sea voyages were boring, so officers and sailors would engage in all the activities that added to the fun as playing cards, drinking, wrestling wrists, and fighting rats whenever they had time.

"Thirty thousand!" "Bar! Ten thousand! Ha Lu Ha, 10,000 bars! All the same, on the paste, alone hanging plus the bar on the flower, a total of 4 times, give money to money! Ha Lu Ha! Second Lieutenant John Ston reclined in his chair and smirked smirked.

"What bad luck!" "This one will make you a five! You were so lucky today that you kept winning. "Forget it, which of you will replace me, I'll go to the deck to breathe." Several Navy Alternate Officers at the card table had pale faces and lamented again and again.

After giving the money, the sound of shuffling continued to sound.

At that moment, a herald came down from the gangway, and when he reached the door of the officer's lounge, he shouted: "Gentlemen, we are almost at the island of Ziloe, and the captain tells everyone to stop all entertainment and prepare for battle." This area may be infested with Spanish fishing boats and warships. ”

When a group of officers heard this, they all stood up. "Damn, where's my weapon!" "Evan, stand up, you sit on my uniform." "Damn, Simpson, you're stepping on me!" The commotion lasted five or six minutes, and then a group of well-dressed officers came to the bridge on the third floor of the stern.

Captain Lu Ming was talking to Ji Wen, who came from Yunsheng No. 1 in a traffic boat: "So, Xiao Bailang has decided to land on this island. It's a good thing that after sailing for so long, the supplies have been consumed a lot, so it's time to go ashore to replenish it. Well, the East Coast Eagle will be on guard. ”

"Gentlemen, turn the rudder to the right and head northeast into the Gulf of Córdoba." Lu Ming began to order, "All officers return to their respective posts, pay close attention to whether there are any Spanish ships in the bay, and report immediately if they find anything!" ”

With the "East Coast Eagle" at the head, the Yunsheng No. 1 in the center, and the "Galician Exocet" behind the palace, the three ships sailed in a line into the Crórdoba Bay between the island of Ziloé and the mainland. After a half-day voyage, the three ships sailed into the port of Castro on the east side of the island of Ziloe.

"Quick! Hurry up! The Spaniards in the harbor are watching you! "The boats were lowered from the Yunsheng No. 1, and the heavily armed army soldiers, at the urging of the officers, began to climb down the rope ladder on the side of the ship. Due to the large waves in the harbor, the turbulence of the ships caused some soldiers to fall into the sea. The hapless soldiers were immediately scooped up to deck by the ship's sailors in leather hanging bags attached to the pulleys, and when the water was cold in May, they immediately changed into dry clothes and drank liquor to ward off the cold.

Several fast-moving boats were already approaching the beach, and the Charuya, who were in charge of rowing, jumped into the icy waist-length water and pushed the boats up the beach. With no one to thwart the landing, Fabian Klingermann, armed with a 32-B flintlock rifle in his hands, led the men into some cabins on the shore. It was once a log cabin for a lumberjack, and it seems that his owner has now fled.

The shore is full of coniferous forests, many of which are already very old. Scattered around the edge of the forest were some logging axes and saws, proving how panicked their owners were when they fled.

"Bang!" Not far away rang out the sound of gunfire, a belated act of resistance by the Spaniards. Fabian immediately rushed with his brothers in his squad towards the place where the shots rang out, where soldiers from a squad of the provisional 4th Platoon were firing at each other across a small woods with some Spaniards. The addition of the new force greatly increased the firepower on their side, and the dense bullets hit the trees with a "poof" sound, and it seemed that someone on the Spaniard's side had been shot.

Xie Hansan landed on the coast with the last group of soldiers in the second row. Seeing the battle ahead, he immediately rushed over with 47 officers and soldiers in the second platoon.

"Second row, fast step flat marksmanship... Halt... Reload... Raise your gun... Ready, put! Xie Hansan fiercely waved the command knife in his hand. The sound of gunfire rang out, and several creepy screams rang out from the Spaniards' side at once, and the rest of the people began to retreat after firing a few shots indiscriminately.

Four platoons of army soldiers had already landed at this time, and Xie Hansan commanded them to form a sparse three-line horizontal line and advance towards the Spanish town. There were five or six Spaniard corpses lying in the grove, and the army soldiers did not look at them, but continued through the grove. At this time, Castro City finally appeared in full view of everyone's eyes.

Strictly speaking, Castro is called "the city" very reluctantly. This is because this small town as far as the eye can see has no defenses such as city walls, not even wooden fences. The city is dotted with wooden and mixed brick and wood houses, as well as thatched Indian-style dwellings. All in all, it's a run-down town.

"Let's go! One, two, one... One, two, one..."With Xie Hansan's command, the drummer beside him beat a rhythmic drum, and the soldiers began to move forward slowly according to the rhythm of the drum. There were several lookout towers in the town ahead, and some Spanish soldiers were standing on them and peeking in this direction.

"One row, half left turn, full volley ... Ready, put! "The second row, the upper right front line is scattered, and the whole row is volleyed... Ready, put! "At the officer's order, the soldiers of the first and second platoons were within range of the Spanish arquebus, and the dense projectiles shot all the Spaniards who dared to climb the towers into blood gourds.

The battle ended after twenty minutes. Eighteen Spanish soldiers and twenty-five Indian servant soldiers from Peru were killed on the spot, and the army took over the desolate and remote town.

The town is home to hundreds of residents, most of whom are Indians. In addition, there were a small number of Spanish soldiers, missionaries, merchants, artisans, and farmers. These people hid in their homes in confusion and waited silently for the judgment of these new conquerors. Xie Hansan requisitioned one of the most imposing buildings in town, a wooden church with three Jesuit missionaries. The missionaries looked at Xie Hansan's eastern face with a mixture of fear and amazement, and they seemed to understand something in an instant.

After the army took control of the situation, Xiao Bailang took some naval sailors and began to go ashore to "collect" the spoils. According to a plan drawn up in advance, every resident of the town of Castro was required to pay a ransom of at least one peso or its equivalent. The sailors, armed with sabers and rifles, began to collect money from house to house.

Xie Hansan interrogated a group of newly arrested Spanish town officials in the church, with Father Pedro acting as an interpreter. Castro's mayor and a group of members of the city council didn't have time to flee before they were blocked by the army. In fact, they have nowhere to escape, surrounded by large primeval forests, inaccessible to people, and most of them will freeze and starve to death if they escape. Instead of that, you might as well stay in town and try your luck.

The mayor and six commissioners, an officer, a judge, a sheriff, a treasurer, and three religious figures were tied up and thrown to the ground. Xie Han said expressionlessly: "Gentlemen, I hate nonsense. Maybe some of you have already guessed where we came from, so I won't introduce myself in a wordy way, now I'll ask questions, and you answer. If the person I'm asking can't answer my question, then he can go to God and report. So, I started ......"

Half an hour later, Xie Hansan had all the information he wanted: there were three logging camps and a woodworking plant around Castro City; There are several fishing boats moored in the bay to the north, and there is also a leather processing yard for processing caught sea otters and fox skins. Soon, Xie Hansan sent some army soldiers to cooperate with the Charuya people to these places to clean up.

In the evening, the dispatchers all returned. The strongholds around these towns are very small, often inhabited by only a few to a few dozen people, and when they see a large number of strangers with rifles rushing towards them, these people immediately run away and disappear. There was a lot of dry wood stored in the woodworking yard, and after the crossing people had selected some for their own use, the rest was burned, and it was not left for the Spaniards anyway. The men who had returned from the northern bay had brought back furs full of fishing boats, which had been sent to the Galician Exocet for preservation.

Crossing the crowd and staying overnight in Puerto Castro. The next day, the hard-working Charrua workers began to move the various supplies they had collected onto the ship. It wasn't until noon that the whole material handling process was over. After counting and counting, it was found that a total of 2 pigs, 5 cows, 14 sheep, 2,000 catties of grain, 20 bottles of wine, more than 3,000 pesos of various gold and silver coins, in addition to a large number of precious furs and a number of gunpowder and lead bullets, can be regarded as a bumper harvest.

Pirates are a promising career. Xie Hansan sighed.

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