Just as Chu Fan's task force was searching around the sea off Nagasaki, on the west side of Tanegashima Island, hundreds of nautical miles away, three large Galen had just gathered together.

On the main mast of the Great Galen, the red, white and blue Orange flag fluttered high, and in the center of the flag a large V strung together the letters O and C, which was the abbreviation of the Dutch East India Company; Above the three letters is a slightly smaller A, which is shorthand for Amsterdam, the heart of the Netherlands.

The three ships, numbering from north to south, were the Courage, the Resolute, and the St. Paul, heading north against the wind with their big spinnakers on their bows—they had just finished chasing a Zhejiang convoy and were now heading north to join the flotilla of their allies Shimazu and Chen.

On the deck of the St. Paul, which fell at the end of the line, a commonplace massacre was being staged at this moment.

Four drenched Ming men were still on deck tied up like rice dumplings, and in front of them dangling large leather boots were owned by the captain of the St. Paul, Captain Van Oust—yes, he was born in Oster, a small village on the edge of Utrecht.

Van Oost was a typical Dutchman, with a messy reddish-brown hair tricorne hat that couldn't cover anything; The tanned face was full of brown beards, but it could not cover the scars on his face; The longest scar stretched from the corner of his mouth to his cheek, pulling his right eye down, making it look even more hideous.

He was an old pirate, having robbed the coasts of Ceylon and India for more than twenty years, from Clavill to Clark to Spanish galleons, and at its peak he had four privateer licenses: the Netherlands, England, Venice, and finally the Ottoman Turks!

Van Oost was not a picky eater, and whenever the ship was in or out of stock, as long as it was flying a Spanish or Portuguese flag, he would pounce on it like a shark smelling blood. This earned him the nickname "Oster Redbeard who specializes in treasure ships".

When he grew older, Van Oussted, tired of his pirate life, joined the Dutch East India Company in Batavia on his Spanish galleon, becoming a captain in the Dutch Navy; His extensive experience in naval warfare led him to become the captain of the Dutch Navy's most advanced ship, the São Paulo.

Launched just three years ago, the St. Paul is the most advanced warship in the entire Dutch Navy, and the masterpiece of Amsterdam's largest shipyard concentrates the most advanced technology in Europe at the moment, although there are no major changes in the shape and sails, but the rigging and sail surface have been fine-tuned. To make it even more maneuverable, Van Oost was so pleased with his new car that he even believed that, with the permission of the Governor of Batavia, he could go around Manila Bay and return unscathed after humiliating the Iberians!

It was because Van Oost was so proud of the St. Paul that he was so furious when the idiot governor of Oto Island ordered him to carry out the task of blockading Nagasaki and Hirado - such a good warship should have to deal with the arrogant Nagakugami navy. And not these don't even have decent artillery, hard sailing ships!

But he had to come, and that's the difference between a naval officer and a pirate - if he refused to carry out the mission, the idiot governor would surely have taken his St. Paul!

What made Van Oosted even more indignant was that after arriving off the coast of Nagasaki, he had to obey the command of Major Hunter on the old Courage—that little bastard with no hair on his mouth, if it wasn't for his father being a member of the Board of Seventeen, why would he have been promoted to major at such a young age?

The double dissatisfaction made Van Oost seem to have reverted to the "Auster Redbeard who robbed treasure ships" in Ceylon, and he was extremely ruthless with the merchant ships he stood. Whether it's the Ming Dynasty, or the Korean or the Japanese. Not a single mouth left alive - in his opinion, these flat-faced Orientals are damned barbarians.

So at this moment, he didn't care about the pleading of the satin merchant from Hangzhou at his feet, and after raising his chin, his men, who were still pirates in Dutch naval uniforms, whistled and screamed and dragged the four of them horizontally and vertically to the stern of the ship, and after each of them pulled a bloody wound, he hung upside down and put them into the sea—this was one of the pirates' favorite shows. Live people feed the sharks!

Sure enough, the strong smell of blood soon attracted the surrounding sharks, and the sea behind the ship suddenly turned into a Shura slaughterhouse churning with blood and debris.

Amid the screams of his men, Van Oost watched the play with great interest for a while, then turned back to the lookout. His hideous eyes were fixed on the mainsail.

The bottom quadrangular sail of the mainsail was covered with patches large and small—the scars left by the pursuit of the strangely winged warship more than ten days ago.

If there's one thing that has piqued the interest of the old pirate in this tedious blockade, it's the battle just over ten days ago.

Strange wings, speed not inferior to Galen's ship, exploding crossbow arrows, and never giving up on the behavior of partners......

All kinds of unusual actions made the old pirate full of curiosity about the sunken battleship, and the other party's unyielding fighting spirit made the old pirate take off his tricorne hat - you know, the last time the old pirate took off his hat to pay tribute was when he sank the Spanish Navy's treasure ship in Mount Ceylon, and that was more than ten years ago!

"Woo~~Toot~~"

The muffled sound of a conch pulled Van Oost back into his thoughts, and he turned his head to see a shadow of a sail in the distance, needless to say, it was the ship of the Shimazu family and the Ming pirate named Chen Jinji, allies of the Dutch.

Including the old Galen, the two allies had a total of seven, but Van Oost was very unimpressed with them.

In his opinion, these cowardly Orientals are not worthy of sailing on the seas at all - they do not even have the courage to fight a battle in a dignified manner, they will only hide behind the mighty Dutch navy and do some stealing things!

Although Van Oost knew that this was a tactic agreed upon by the three parties, that is, the three Galen ships drove them forward, and the Orientals opened a large net to trap their prey downwind, this did not prevent the old pirate from despising the Orientals - I heard that Chen Xinji, a native of the Ming Kingdom, was also known as a pirate, which was really an insult to the profession of pirates!

"Woohoo! ~~Doodle! ～～”

In response, the sound of conches sounded one after another on the Spirit and Resolute in front, and Van Oost glanced at the trumpeter waiting for his order, waved his hand impatiently, and the long sound of conch also sounded on the St. Paul.

After the sound of the conch was answered, the seven ships turned their bows and followed the Galen boat, heading slowly towards Nagasaki to the northwest. (To be continued.) )