The Strait of Malacca is a famous traffic artery in Asia, but also the node of the whole world, connecting the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean, hundreds of years ago, when Zheng He of the Ming Dynasty went to the Western Ocean, he passed Guò Malacca, all the way to India, the Middle East, and even came to the east coast of Africa, in that era of navigation, China is far higher than Europe, that era, the geographical discovery is just the beginning, China has begun to go deep into Africa.

The feudal dynasty, relying on the land forever and the tyrannical China, did not have adventurers to throw themselves overseas, delaying the rare opportunity for development, but allowing the West to develop and threatening the East.

Since hundreds of years ago, pirates have been clustered in Malacca, there are many islands here, the environment in the strait is changeable, and it is a traffic artery, it is the best place for pirates to live, especially after modern times, after 1800, the pirates of China, Korea, Japan in East Asia, the pirates of the West was driven to the East, and there are some local broken settlements, a windsurfing board is launched, it can be said that it is a lot more lively, the number and types of pirates have increased, you can be unceremoniously so, the whole Southeast Asia, all kinds of pirates, At least 100,000 will be there.

As early as 20 days ago there was news that there was a huge fleet of ships, buying a large amount of gold, silver and jewels in Europe, going to the East, and as far as gold was concerned, at least in tons, even tens of tons, currencies, weapons, and even equipment, countless people.

In itself, this news is at most a rumor, no one will pay attention to the legend of the pirate world, more than a hundred years ago, the black ships of Spain and Portugal, the silver accumulated by the Japanese trade of the Portuguese black ships, and the other part is the precious metals obtained from South America, but unfortunately those are escorted by warships, and it is generally difficult to get their hands on them.

These are warships again, they are certain channels to eliminate them, although Southeast Asia is complicated, it is also a holy place for pirates, but since the intervention of the great powers, especially the emergence of fast destroyers and cruisers, the twisted pirates are like rabbits, there is nowhere to hide, similar when, I don't know how many have been on it, and the pirates have also learned to be smart.

The rumor further developed, someone sent a batch of weapons through a special channel, and even included torpedoes, this thing is absolutely controlled, the torpedo is too powerful, in a complex environment, it can pose a certain threat to the battleship, these pirates still have channels to buy small cannons, torpedoes This is simply impossible.

The pirates are not completely ignorant of the world situation, at present in Southeast Asia, there is no more than Britain, France, Germany and the United States, these four major powers, carefully understand the situation of the fleet, the fleet belongs to a big power in China's northwest, just last year, he was in the north of the Far East, defeated the polar bear Russia, is an extremely powerful storage zài, and this channel is more or less, and the British and French side have some connections.

The clever pirates can see that this is a whirlpool, whether it is the Northwest or the United Kingdom, it is not something they can deal with, there is money in the fleet in the Northwest, this is in the open, the 1.2 million tons of fleet, there is never any concealment, but this batch of ships is a huge wealth.

The reason why pirates are pirates is that they are short-sighted, extremely vicious, and they are worried that they are traps, and now it is clear that Britain and France want to deal with the northwest, no matter what, Britain and France are always the strongest in Southeast Asia, the northwest is thousands of miles away, and it is a land power, no matter how they can't catch up with them, they will rob it first.

In this way, an undercurrent spreads among the pirates, the largest 17 pirates in Southeast Asia, there is a faint joint situation, they together, there are thousands of ships of various types, and even more than 50, modified armored gunboats, not professional armored gunboats, just ordinary ships, through guò modification, got a few guns of more than 100 mm, for ordinary strength of armed merchant ships, there is a huge threat, even on the warship, can barely pass the move.

The number of people is always the biggest advantage, as for this period of time, the pirates who rushed over frantically were some who knew some fur and wanted to come over to pick up the cheap, and the British seemed to be clearly releasing the water, and they could not break through the protection of the fleet, at most they were wronged souls.

Singapore, in the Asian Fleet Command, a British intelligence officer sat with the Asian Fleet intelligence officer, this time the conspiracy against the Northwest was manipulated by the two of them, for Fleet Street, the Northwest can not be offended, but there are some people below who are full of hatred for the Northwest, the Northwest is clearly helping Germany, several fights, so that Germany has gained great benefits, even this time, it is Germany that has received the greatest benefits, the Baghdad Railway, the Basra Port, the Kiel Canal, All these can be quickly converted to military use, and on this basis, the fleet in the northwest cannot be spared.

The fleet of 1.2 million tons cannot be taken all, Britain and France cannot take it by themselves, with the help of pirates, it is still possible to give a heavy blow, and now the intelligence has been dispersed, especially a large number of pirates gathered in the Strait of Malacca, not to mention anything else, 5,000 ships and more than 70,000 pirates gathered together, even the British were surprised, not to mention the defenseless northwest.

"Do you know when the pirates will do it?" Rio, an intelligence officer in the Asian Department of the Ministry of Intelligence, asked happily.

"I don't know, it should be in the Strait of Malacca, where is it narrow, the surrounding situation is complicated, I heard that some of the pirates' ships have entered it!" Fleet intelligence officer Quark nodded and said, he has been in Asia for 7 years, and he knows most of the hydrological conditions in Asia, especially Malacca, where the Asian fleet is stationed, is even more familiar to the extreme, and some places that even the Asian fleet cannot encircle and suppress have become a natural hotbed for pirates.

"By the way, Quark, what about our ship, we have to lose a few of them, otherwise, some can't be justified!" Rio suddenly thought of something and said.

"It's going to sink a few ships, and even the dead personnel are ready for me, anyway, it's hired by the Northwest, and this money still has to be taken out by the Northwest!" After saying that, the two of them laughed gloomily, similar things, maybe outsiders don't know, they are all in the field of intelligence, these dirty jobs are tiring, and the two of them are not less done, maybe on land, Britain can't compare to some army powers, but on the sea, a lot of things are left over from their British play, even if they know it, they may not be able to find the omissions, not to mention, the current situation, the northwest fleet is ignorant.

The departure of the three ships was at night, after a little notice, no one would notice them, compared to hundreds of ships, three were very inconspicuous, just left, not coming, and even the surrounding British warships, not even reported, really knew a qiē, only a few, only the captain or the captain of the detachment knew about it, and the rest only knew that this was an escort operation, and it was immediately past Malacca, and after Malacca, the day was almost like a day.

Before entering the Strait of Malacca, the last place of call finally arrived, the port of Colombo in Sri Lanka, which was built by the Muslims since the 7th century, and in the 16th century, the Portuguese colonists built a fortress here, thus beginning the development of the harbor, when the British colonized Sri Lanka in the 19th century, the port of Colombo was expanded on a large scale, and now the latest reconstruction in 1912 is underway, and the tonnage and modernization process of the port have been greatly improved.

The fleet, itself is only planned to dock at the port of Colombo for about a day, and needs to be refueled with coal and water, and the next call is in Malacca, or Kuala Lumpur, or simply in Singapore, which is a large port in the Strait of Malacca, enough to dock most ships.

However, on the first day of going ashore, Yang Yuanzhao fell ill, and he was very sick, it seemed to be a tropical high fever, and he had a high fever that did not go away, and he found a lot of doctors, but he never got better.

Yang Yuanzhao is the head of the Northwest, whether it is in the Northwest or in this fleet, he has a supreme position, anything he does, will be magnified, this fleet, just stopped here, this is the second wave, the first wave has not gone, until the third wave, and the fourth wave, almost more than 900,000 tons of ships are concentrated in Colombo Port, occupying most of the ships here, the British port authorities woke up and urged them to leave, but the supreme leader Yang Yuanzhao had a high fever and did not go away, life and death are uncertain, no one can decide, so the stalemate is here.

On the Singapore side, the situation here is monitored at any time, I thought that the fleet was about to set sail, but I stayed in Colombo Port for 3 days, and it was about to go for 4 days, and the two intelligence officers were suspicious, after all, this time the action was relatively large, and so many pirates were concentrated, in case the news leaked and was known by the Northwest, it was normal to stop.

Such a large fleet always has to leave, there is no naval force in the northwest, and the East Asian Fleet, which relies on Germany, is even more unreliable, half of the strength of the East Asian Fleet has not returned in Germany, and the rest is still held back by Britain, it is not bad to be able to send a few destroyers, for tens of thousands of pirates and thousands of ships, these forces are simply a drop in the bucket.

Even so, the cautious Rio still telegraphed the port of Colombo and ordered the ships to set sail immediately, otherwise they would be limited in terms of supplies and water.

This kind of practice can be said to be a salary draw from the bottom of the kettle, and it is like the United Kingdom, in the world, a large number of ports can be controlled, and most of the nodes of the shipping route are controlled in their hands, and they can do almost whatever they want.

In the evening, the news came, Yang Yuanzhao had already subsided his fever, and took the initiative to promise that by tomorrow at the latest, he would leave Colombo Port and continue the journey back to China, as if it was a small episode. R1152