Zhao Yiwei, who was watching the battle on Gu Mazi's boat, was the first time he had seen the way of sea combat. He watched with interest the battle between his subordinates and the Spaniards on the deck, while Gu Mazi, a famous former pirate in the East China Sea, stood beside him with a smile and explained to him how the pirates fought.

Zhao Yiwei was watching a live teaching chapter, he watched these pirates sacrifice their lives to connect the two ships with cables, fix the enemy ships, and then launch one charge after another until the personnel on the opposite deck of the enemy ship were cleared.

Although the number of people involved in the war was not large, the intensity of the battle far exceeded that of Lu's fortress attack and defense. After all, it is possible to accept prisoners in battles on land, but for pirates, they rarely take prisoners unless their ships are short of manpower.

Most pirates either let a boat live or left it to fend for themselves on a desert island. In the middle of the ocean, such an action is no different from murder. As for the remaining pirates, they were known for their ferocity. It is because the people of this era are discolored by the smell of pirates.

As natural enemies of pirates, the Spanish officers and soldiers of these silver ships were obviously more worried about what would happen to them after they surrendered, so the will to resist was much stronger than that of ordinary sailors, but the fear also made them forget that they were not in the middle of the sea, but outside the port of Guayaquil.

However, the will of these officers and soldiers to resist was still nothing more than the despair of reality, especially when they fought to the death with the pirates, and the citizens of Guayaquil, who were close at hand, watched so indifferently that they did not even release their sampans.

What made these Spanish officers and soldiers even more unbearable was that they were still holding arquebuses in their hands, while these oriental pirates were all flintlock muskets, which made it easier for the opponent to aim and shoot and shoot with a platoon of guns.

When the colleagues on deck fell in pieces, many of the Spanish officers and men had the illusion that the pirates on the other side were more like well-trained troops, and that their own side was an undisciplined pirate gang.

The boarding battle lasted about 2 hours, and when the Spanish officers and soldiers were barricaded in the bilge, the first ship finally raised the white flag of surrender, and after more than half an hour, the remaining two ships also raised the white flag.

Gu Mazi looked at the flag sent by Captain Payne, and Ma asked the new North American Governor Zhao Yiwei for instructions: "My lord, Captain Payne said that the battle is over, and the ship's silver has been found, what should we do with those Spanish crew members next?" Isn't it..."

Gu Mazi made a gesture to wipe his neck, but Zhao Yiwei shook his head and said, "No, we robbed them under the banner of the British, and sooner or later this matter will reach the ears of the Spaniards."

Even if all these Spanish sailors are disposed of, will the people in Guayaquil and those English pirates keep it a secret for us? Give them a couple of dinghies and let them row to shore on their own.

Well, by the way, let the captured crew tell the mayor of Guayaquil, that Penn the Redbeard greets him, and that he can reassure him to bring the wounded crew back to the city, and that we accept this goodwill and will not attack Guayaquil, given that Guayaquil has held its own in the battle just now. ”

Gu Mazi didn't immediately convey Zhao Yiwei's order, he reminded with some worry: "But my lord, our appearance is very different from the British, these crew members can't think that we are British, right?" If they go back and say nothing, will these Spaniards make our city a target? ”

Zhao Yiwei pursed his lips and said, "It is to let the Peruvian governor know that if they continue to ban trade activities with our North American colonies, then we can only go to be pirates." We're not the unfashionable British pirates, and we should have the final say on the Pacific coast..."

Rewind to 10 months ago, the newly appointed Governor General of North America, Zhao Yiwei, was stunned to find that the most troublesome problem in front of him was not the organization of the North American Governor's Office and the construction of defense facilities for the North American colonies, but the economic recession that the North American colonies had fallen into.

Since the initial formation of the three strongholds of the North American colonies in the fifth year of Chongzhen, the biggest problem of the colonies is the shortage of food and daily necessities. Although the forests of North America at this time were rich in flora and fauna, and the coastal coasts were also rich in fish and sea animals, they were not suitable for this kind of fishing and hunting life for the Chinese immigrants who had just arrived on the west coast of North America.

It is precisely because of the adaptation to the soil and water and the drastic changes in the diet structure that the mortality rate of the initial immigrants is extremely high. It wasn't until Los Angeles and Spain began to trade in the American colonies for short-distance shipping along the Pacific coast that the colonies gradually became more abundant.

In 1521 Spain conquered most of Mexico and reached the Pacific coast, in 1533 it conquered Peru, and in 1540 Spain occupied most of Chile.

Like the nascent North American colonies of the Ming Dynasty, the Spanish colonies on the west coast of the Americas have been in operation for a hundred years. No matter how much the Spanish crown and the Gatianpin merchants imprisoned the colonies for economic construction, these colonies already had their own mature industries.

For example, wheat cultivation and animal husbandry in Chile; Peru's vineyards and olive groves, and the resulting winemaking and oil extraction boom; asphalt and timber from Guayaquil; Cocoa from Guatemala, silver, rubber and livestock from Mexico, etc. These goods can greatly compensate for the needs of the North American colonies of the Ming Dynasty, and they are also the return goods loaded by ships on the Pacific trade route.

For the estate owners and local merchants of these Spanish colonies, the short-distance shipping trade on the Pacific coast was also a natural need for the further development of the colonial economy. However, with the intervention of the Gatupin merchants and the Spanish crown, the Viceroyalty of New Spain adopted a series of trade ban policies, interrupting the burgeoning shipping trade on the Pacific coast.

For example, the Viceroyalty of New Spain banned the importation of Peruvian wine and oil into Panama in 1614, New Spain in 1620, and all trade between Mexico and Peru in 1631.

Therefore, when the Ming merchant ships appeared, they were quickly welcomed by the colonial ports along the Pacific coast. The Ming merchant ships not only brought all kinds of necessary materials to these colonies, but also kept their estates and herds for the lords of these colonies, so that their industries would not go bankrupt.

The demand for the Pacific route stimulated the economic activity of the colonies, and to a certain extent, the owners of the Creo estates on the east coast of South America felt that the Ming on the other side of the Pacific was closer to them. Los Angeles, Mexico City and Lima, on the other hand, seem to be a bit more liberal and egalitarian.

The Viceroyalty of New Spain and the Gatupíns instituted many of these policies prohibiting trade along the Pacific coast, with the main aim of preventing the outflow of silver from Mexico and Peru. But they were able to prohibit the colonial shipbuilding trade, but they could not prohibit the actions of the Ming merchant ships.

As the smuggling networks established by the Ming people in New Spain and the Viceroyalty of Peru matured, the country's goods began to occupy 30% of the turnover of the two markets, which was still limited by the scale of shipping.

So last year, also the tenth year of Chongzhen, under the persuasion of the merchants of Gatuping, the Viceroyalty of New Spain finally issued a prohibition order, not allowing Ming merchant ships to cross southern Mexico to trade in the Americas and the Viceroyalty of Peru.

For the Viceroyalty of New Spain, they felt that they were merciful enough, and they kept the Mexican port of Acapulco for trade. And this is also because of the huge benefits of the galleon trade and rubber exports, so it has to be retained.

But for the merchant ships of the Ming Dynasty, the prohibition of the Viceroyalty of New Spain greatly suppressed their interests. It also caused the economy of the North American colonies to decline significantly, and although there were extremely rich fur resources, furs could not be turned into daily necessities such as wine and wheat.

Limited by the size of the population, the North American colonies of the Ming Dynasty, which had lost the material replenishment of South America, suddenly rose in prices. Both the residents of the colony and the crew of the Ming merchant ships protested to the new governor Zhao Yiwei, hoping to teach the Spaniards a harsh lesson.

It was also at this time that Captain Payne, a British pirate wanted by the Spanish Navy and had to flee from the Galle Sea to the west coast of America, saw the protests of the citizens of Los Angeles while repairing in Los Angeles.

Finding a Spanish enemy on the west coast of North America made him feel that it was a good opportunity to take revenge on the Spaniards and to allow his ships to find a haven on the west coast of North America.

So he proposed himself to the Los Angeles Governor's Office, claiming that he could help the Governor solve the anger of the citizens of Los Angeles. For the sake of being British, Zhao Yiwei met him.

Payne's suggestion to Zhao Yiwei was that the ships in the port of Los Angeles, especially the three ships with 38 guns, were enough to sweep away the Spanish fleet on the east coast of the Pacific Ocean.

Peruvian silver wanted to be shipped back to Spain, first to Panama City and then via the Isthmus to the shores of the Galle Sea. Compared to other port cities on the east coast of the Pacific Ocean, Panama City is not only unfortified, but also exposed to the sea, making it an easy city to capture.

Therefore, as long as Zhao Yiwei is willing to support him, he is willing to take the fleet to capture Panama City, and then wait there for the silver ship to surrender, and can also extort ransom from the Peruvian Viceroyalty.

Payne's suggestion made Zhao Yiwei open up another way of thinking, before he was only bent on guarding against the Spaniards. However, after arriving on the North American continent, I realized that this concern seemed to be a little early, because the Spaniards wanted to transfer a fleet from the Galle Sea, and it was not much easier for the Ming to go to the west coast of North America.

But now that the colony's prices were high, his plans for the defense of the North American colonies and the construction of the Los Angeles shipyard had come to a standstill.

So he decided to take Payne's advice and teach the Spaniards a profound lesson, but unlike the English pirate. The International Trading Company, which had established a large smuggling network in the Spanish American colonies, had a clear idea of the departure time of the silver ships of the Viceroyalty of Peru.

It's just that they used to be engaged in legal trade, and they didn't take it seriously even if they knew the departure time and route of the silver ship. However, since trade could no longer be carried out legally, the news was of great significance to the actions of pirate ships.

After Zhao Yiwei learned the approximate departure time of this year's Peruvian silver ship through the smuggling network of the Four Seas Trading Company, he took 3 Ming-class warships, 6 armed merchant ships, and 2 British pirate ships, a total of 11 ships, to the south.

They wandered in the bay between Panama and Guayaquil and finally intercepted the three Peruvian silver ships. This is the second time that a Spanish treasure ship has been looted since the capture of the Spanish treasure ship by the Dutchman Peter Hine at the Battle of Matanzas Bay in 1628.

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