Lake Maracaibo, the largest lake in South America, is a saltwater lake that connects to the Gulf of Venezuela by a narrow strait near Maracaibo City.

Heading southwest from Aruba to the Gulf of Venezuela, the Tempest and Revenge are in front of Maracaibo on the western side of the Strait. Maracaibo has a harbor that shelters from the prevailing winds.

Chen Shouxu opened the binoculars, and the Maracaibo city in the lens was not like other cities that were suddenly attacked by pirates, there were no panicked crowds on the streets, some barricades had been built in the city, and women and girls could be seen hurrying between the barricades with wooden baskets full of supplies. The castle on the edge of the city is also unfurled with flags, and soldiers stand at the head of the city with weapons in their hands.

Although there are not many people in sight, this kind of orderly order is rare in the colonies.

Chen Shouxu sneered and ordered, "Keep going, let's go to Gibraltar." ”

Gibraltar, Venezuela, is also located on the western shore of the lake and was established decades ago by Gonzalo, the administrator of Western Venezuela. Gonzalo named the new city after his hometown of Gibraltar. Although Venezuela is now claimed by the Spaniards, most of the area is deserted by mountains and primeval forests. A limited number of colonial cities were located on the western shore of Lake Maracaibo, and they relied mainly on inland lake boats for transportation to each other.

After Sterling stayed, Rhaegar returned to serve as Chen Shouxu's captain, and he was surprised to hear Chen Shouxu's order, "Captain, shouldn't we go to Maracaibo according to the plan?"

"We announced at the crew meeting that Maracaibo was the next target for plunder. Do you expect sailors to keep it a secret? The Spaniards on the shore had long been prepared. ”

"Captain, you have declared your goal of Maracaibo in front of the entire crew......"

Chen Shouxu's brows furrowed into Sichuan characters, "We only have more than 100 people plus the Revenge, and the Spaniards are ready for us to hit their muzzles, are we crazy?" In battle, I have full command and carry out orders. ”

"Yes, Captain."

Now, in order to train officers, Chen Shouxu will take time out of the ship every day to give lessons to candidates like Rega Robert. After class, they were also given exams, and only by passing the exams could they be promoted to officers.

Most of the time, he would now only give one order about the target, leaving the choice of course, the number of compass points to turn the rudder, and the plan for sail hanging. Unless something goes wrong, he doesn't correct it.

Before setting sail, Rhaegar carefully studied the map around Lake Maracaibo and knew the location of Gibraltar by heart. There was no need to flip through the materials on an improvised basis, Rhaegar had already arranged for the sailors to sail the instructions. That's why Chen Shouxu loves this student.

The Tempest raises the signal flag to follow the turn. The Vengeance hesitated for a moment before completing the flagship's command.

Chen Shouxu was working on sorting out the battle signals, and he did not have the conditions to turn all the letters into signal flag combinations like the regular navy, nor did he lack the people who could recognize complex signal flags. However, Chen Shouxu still tried his best to sort out some commonly used navigation orders and compiled them into a code composed of signal flags. It was going to be a long job, but Chen decided to stick with it. With the size of the fleet, this is absolutely necessary.

Gibraltar was not far from Maracaibo, and two pirate ships soon arrived off the coast of the port. The battle in Panama made Chen Shouxuan already have an idea of the combat effectiveness of the defenders of the Spanish tropical colony. He did not wait for the night, and directly ordered the ship to stop and drop anchor, and the landing party changed to a long boat.

The arquebusiers, archers, and grenadiers, under Walter's training, Chen Shouxuan's pirates had the concept of a simple combination of troops. The pirates aboard the Revenge are a mess with a variety of weapons.

The longboat docked, and the Spaniards scurried around the town in terror. It was a medium-sized town with a population of more than 2,000, and like the other colonies, the Spaniards and Creoles born in the Americas, both to white parents, occupied the upper echelons of the city and owned houses in the most prime locations. The next highest status was the mestizo and the mulato mulatto. The largest number were Indian and black slaves.

Whites had easy access to all levels of town management and the officer class of the local city guard, while the soldiers were mainly mestizos and Mulatos.

Chen Shouxu opened the binoculars, and the white people of Gibraltar lived in a wealthy area north of the port, near the castle. Mestizos and slaves lived in the slums to the south. He ordered, "We go into the city from the slums. ”

The pirate's vanguard raised Chen Shouxu's orca pirate flag, which had spread throughout the southeast Caribbean, and in front of the flag bearer was a skirmish line of a dozen light infantry armed with arquebuses and bows and arrows, and carrying scimitars at their waists. The rear team dragged a 1-pounder boom gun and marched into the city in column.

There were no walls, and the soldiers of the vanguard advanced along the sides of the street, raising arquebuses against their shoulders, alerting in all directions. If anyone dares to jump out and resist, they will be beaten into a sieve.

The slums are full of shacks made of broken wood, canvas and palm fronds, and the streets are filled with black sewage that smells bad.

The slaves closed their doors and windows, and occasionally they could see curious, fearful, and indifferent eyes through the cracks in the doors.

Chen Shouxu, who had no interest in the ghetto, pulled over a few Spanish-speaking pirates and said, "Shout out that the pirates are going to burn down the city, so that these slaves can either run away or join us in taking revenge on the Spanish masters." ”

Chen Shouxu detached some of the pirates, broke into the shack area, and drove the slaves out of the city. The rest of the men quickly advanced towards the fortress in the center of the city.

There were some elaborate wooden two-story houses in the rich quarters, and the Spaniards cried out to leave their homes and flee to the castle, but the fortress of Gibraltar was not a fortress, only slightly larger than the fort, and the space was limited, and the Spanish city magistrate closed the fort door to prevent others from entering.

The whites gathered in front of the fort gates, crying and praying for God's blessing, while some yelled at the magistrates, "Damn dogs, open the gates of the city quickly, and if you don't open it again, I will go to Bogotá and report to the governor about your abandonment of your people." Let the Governor remove you from your post and hang you! ”

The scene was chaotic, and the pirates quickly arrived in the square in front of the castle and fanned out the whites. The muzzle of the boom cannon fired a shot at the crowd.

The chaotic crowd cried louder.

Chen Shouxu was a little surprised, the number of white people was much larger than he imagined. He noticed the church on the west side of the square and said to the pirates around him, "Put them all in the church, separate the men and women." ”

The castle was garrisoned by more than 70 people, but pirates rushed into the crowd right before their eyes, capturing and plundering the population. Those who resisted, regardless of their clothing, were knocked down with the butts of their rifles, and those who drew their weapons were killed on the spot.

More than 300 people lost the will to flee and waited in despair for the pirates to tie their hands and escort them into the church. The soldiers in the fort showed no sign of attacking, and there were only three cannons fired at the head of the city, and the accuracy was extremely poor.

Chen Shouxu said to Walter, "Take 30 people to block the fort gate." Then he ordered the rest of the pirates, "Search for gold and silver in the rich districts, don't be in a hurry, be meticulous." ”

Rhaegar asked, "What about the captives?" ”

Chen Shouxu thought for a moment, "You go and interrogate them one by one, and try to be as civilized as possible." ”

Several people went separately, and Chen Shouxu looked at the castle in front of him and thought about what to do. He didn't worry about the Spaniards going out of the city to fight back, they had been plundering in Central and South America for a long time, the Spaniards in these tropical colonies had very poor combat effectiveness, and it was a bit useful to stay in the castle, and the counterattack when the number of people was about the same was simply a send-off. But he is not easy to do, if he waits until the night to carry out a resolute assault, he will definitely be able to take it, but many people will die.

Chen Shouxu decided to test it, and he called out to a pirate who knew Spanish, "You go to the castle and call inside, tell the city magistrate to make him surrender." ”

The man agreed, unloaded his weapon, and walked to the fort gate with his hands raised, but the Spaniards did not shoot.

He shouted, "Our captain orders you to surrender. You can leave Gibraltar with some of your personal property. ”

The Spanish magistrate in the city replied, "We will not surrender." ”

Chen Shouxu held his chin, and couldn't think of anything for a while. Just leave the castle aside, anyway, the private money of those rich people is in the city, and they can't run away.

When he came to the church, the cries of the captives could be heard far away. Rhaegar is leading people to threaten and torture the captives, forcing them to hand over their money.

"How's it going?"

"Very few people have given an account of where they have hidden their money." Rhaegar shook his head, "Another thing to report to you is that there are a lot of people here from Maracaibo. ”

"Oh, what's going on?"

"They learned the other day that we were going to loot Maracaibo, so they took the money and hid in Gibraltar."

Chen Shouxu laughed, "It's just right to come, so we don't have to go to Marakaibo for a run." You tell them, hand over the ransom, and I guarantee their personal safety and freedom. If they don't, I'll give them to the Indians on the east shore of the lake to dispose of. ”

Before Chen Shouxu left, he added a few more words, "You can also help them get free faster." In fact, sometimes it is not necessary to use corporal punishment, you can use a more gentlemanly way. For example, not letting them sleep, continuous interrogation, waterboarding is not bad. ”

Since the nearby Spaniards did not have much fighting strength to go out of the city to fight back, Chen Shouxu felt that he might as well spend more time. He recruited slaves and mestizo civilians to drive away those who did not participate in piracy.

Rhaegar used a variety of tactics on his captives, and over the course of a few days, he gradually acquired the pirates' favorite things.

Chen Shouxu could observe that the morale inside the castle had become even lower. He again made a condition to the Spanish magistrate to pay the ransom fee. Chen Shouxu took a step back and no longer demanded surrender.

Rhaegar gets more and more from his captives, and the people inside the castle become more and more anxious, and their homes are outside the city.

In the end, Chen Shouxu calculated that the income of this trip was already very good. He had the pirates line up under the city, carrying torches. Shouted to the city, "Ransom, or burn the city." ”

Just as Chen Shouxu was about to light the first fire in the rich area, the Spanish magistrate in the city collapsed. He handed over all the gold and silver in his stock.

A total of 10,000 pounds of precious metals, Chen Shouxu did not break his promise. He returned the city in its entirety, leaving even most of the goods behind. Leaving Venezuela with pirates.