A pirate as strong as a Mingzhou bull stood on the bow of the Fu ship, he was wearing only a pair of pants on his body, his bare upper body muscles were tangled, and his exposed skin showed a black and red color, so that people knew at first glance that he was a half-life veteran of the sea who had been honed in the stormy seas.

Holding a telescope in his hand, he was looking intently at the islands dotted in the distance, as if he wanted to find something out of them. I don't know how long it took for the pirate to suddenly put down his binoculars, turn around and yell at the cabin.

"Found it! Boss Lei, I'm tired of finding Ma! ”

Then he saw a man with a head and dress similar to him, and the muscles of his body were also bulging, out of the cabin. It is the owner of this lucky ship, Lei Batian. Lei Batian also held a telescope in his hand, and in a few steps, he got on the bow of the boat, and then raised the telescope to look in the direction of the man's finger. In the eyepiece, there is a small island, the island is densely packed with houses, and there are more than a dozen large ships moored on the seaside. A wooden fortress was built next to the pier, and a crescent moon flag was fluttering in the wind - this was not the crescent moon flag commonly used by the Tianfang Sect in later generations, and it did not represent the Tianfang Sect, but the Moon Dynasty of Tianzhu. As a branch of a once-glorious ancient dynasty that was now dying under the ravages of the Celestial Sect, the Moon King of the Maldives simply joined the Celestial Cult and became a sultan.

"Boss Lei, the one with the moon flag is the barracks of the Sultan of Male, there are only a few hundred defenders, all of them are the children of nobles, not slave soldiers."

The strong, bull-like man introduced Male's generalization. He is Lei Batian's right-hand man, also surnamed Lei. I didn't seem to remember the name, and everyone called him Lei Manzi. After Lei Batian decided to participate in Tran's adventurous actions. So he sent this thunder barbarian on the ship of the Brahmanical maritime merchants, and went to Male' to find out the truth. He had only joined up with Lei Batian in Colombo the afternoon before yesterday.

Lei Batian smiled and patted his right-hand man on the shoulder, "Barbarian, well done!" Take a credit. ”

"The nobles of Tianzhu don't need to be beaten, as long as there are no slave soldiers."

"yes, it looks like I'm going to be able to make a lot of money this time!"

"Follow the thunder head, it's really fragrant and spicy......"

The pirates were talking with a smile on their faces, as if they were on a sightseeing trip, and they didn't take the noble soldiers of Male' seriously. Even the two fathers and sons, Lai Bao and Lai Fu, who had just blackened their conscience and were determined to devote themselves to the pirate industry, were also relaxed.

They are now bold "old pirates", and they are still afraid of those Tianzhu nobles?

These pirates, who have been roaming the Little Western Ocean for months, have long figured out what is going on here. Before the invasion of the Eight-Nation Coalition in China. The war here in Tianzhu seems to them to be a child's game. All Brahmanical countries strictly follow the caste system, and only Kshatriyas can serve as soldiers. The higher brahmins and the first Vaishyas are not soldiers. However, the Brahmins, Kshatriyas, and Vaishyas make up only a small fraction of the population of Tianzhu. The vast majority of the Tianzhu people are Shudras and Datleys, and they are not qualified to serve as soldiers at all. In other words, the armies of the Tianzhu Brahmin countries have nothing to do with more than ninety percent of the population.

And the Tianfang Sect is even more funny, everyone doesn't have to be soldiers, the soldiers are all imported slaves, and in the end, even the Sultan is a slave - the emperor of a country is actually a slave bought from a foreign country!

However, those slave soldiers who had the opportunity to become the Sultan were still skilled in fighting. They were sturdy boys who had been trafficked since childhood, and had been trained in the barracks of slave soldiers at an early age. When they entered the barracks, they were strictly disciplined. His performance on the battlefield is naturally stronger than that of those Tianzhu masters who are "planted" well.

Moreover, it was not only the Sultan who used slave soldiers. Many Arab seafarers also liked to use slave soldiers as bodyguards. For the pirates of China, it was more difficult to encounter slave soldiers.

"Don't get complacent too soon!" Lei Batian raised his face and roared, "The poor sultan of Male's can't afford to buy slave soldiers, but the black conscience slave traders of Solomon's family have black warriors!" Waited for the battlefield. Give Lao Tzu a clever point, knives and guns don't have eyes! ”

The Black Knights were also slave soldiers, trained from an early age by the Solomonic family on the purchase of young black children. But the quality of the black slave soldiers was always inferior to that of the slave soldiers brought from the steppes of Central Asia, the mountains of the Caucasus, Afghanistan and Persia. The market share is not very high. Therefore, Solomon's family mainly sold coolie slaves - the life of the Black Shu millet is miserable. Tears in the face.

"Got it!"

"Those Kunlun slaves can't help me!"

The pirates responded in chaos, and Lei Batian was about to say a few more words of warning. A shout came from the stern: "Big brother, the British prince has an order." Now it's time to attack! ”

It's broad daylight, and as usual it's not the time for a sneak attack. However, twenty-one lucky ships suddenly appeared off the coast of Malé, and the Sultan of the Maldives would definitely be on guard as long as he was not stupid. So the sneak attack or something, now it's even started.

The twenty-one ships of fortune have all given their tasks in advance, except for the one that Chen Defang took as the flagship to command in the back. The remaining twenty ships were divided into two, ten to rush the slave ships, and ten to land in Malé, regardless of thirty-seven twenty-one, to occupy the broken island first.

"Oarman, go and swing it!"

"The gunners are all in position, and the starboard cannon is ready to fire! Let's go blast that wooden fort! ”

Lei Batian gave orders one after another. His lucky ship is the vanguard of the fleet, and the ship is in the lead. Now it was full speed ahead, straight to the wooden fortress built on the edge of the dock. It doesn't matter if there is anyone in there or not, let's talk about it first.

At this very moment, all the pirates on the Fu ship rushing to the island of Male did not notice that a pair of Arabian galleys with a spinnaker and twenty or thirty long oars was sailing away from the waters around Malé at full speed, as if it were flying north.

But even if someone notices, they won't take it seriously. It's just a deserted Arab ship, which may have just entered the harbor or may be preparing to leave. The sailors and crew were there, so they were able to slip away so quickly. But so what? Again, it is not the main target. There aren't many good things on such a small ship.

As for calling for help. Haha, there are now twenty-one large fortune ships. More than 6,000 pirates are here.

Whoever dares to come to the rescue, it must be tired of life!

……

Enduring a violent feeling of nausea, Admiral of the Combined Fleet of the Celestial Sect and Emir of Basra, Gahravin boarded the bow of the Vostok and overlooked the massive fleet under his command. More than 1,000 large and small Arabian galleys covered the entire sea as far as his eye could see.

These are more than 1,000 Arab galleys and ships that can sail in the Indian Ocean. Gaerawin didn't know if there had ever been a naval fleet in the Mediterranean that was larger than the Combined Fleet of the Celestial Sect, but in the Indian Ocean, this fleet was absolutely unprecedentedly large.

And the scene presented before Gallawin's eyes was truly spectacular. At this moment, the seasick fleet admiral who almost fainted to death even felt. The fleet in front of you is enough to compete with the powerful Ming Nanyang Fleet for sea dominance in the Indian Ocean......

At this moment, Gallavin suddenly noticed that a light sailing ship with galleys and sails flew close to the "Vostok" where he was located. He lifted up his binoculars and saw that all the slave oarsmen on the ship were sweating profusely, and all of them were hurrying to the boat, but they were still sliding the long oars as if they were dying. I don't know what benefits the captain of this ship promised? Isn't it going to be to give them freedom?

"It's the Sea Serpent! We sent a reconnaissance boat in Male. ”

The captain of the "Vostok", a member of Maher's clan, a middle-aged man with a big bushy beard named Hafez, had recognized the caravan approaching.

"Male?" Gaerawin was stunned, "Could it be that those Kafiles from the East have gone to Male?" But what does Male have? ”

"There are ten slave ships from the Salomon Chamber of Commerce."

At this time, one of Gallawin's aides reminded, "Maybe they went to buy black slaves?" ”

"Buying black slaves? Why? Gallavin asked.

"Maybe you want to build a fortress out of black slaves?"

His staff members began to analyze it.

"The Chinese may have to build fortified forts on the seven islands or fortify castles in the lower Indus, so they need to use black slaves."

"Maybe they're buying black slave soldiers trained by the House of Solomon! Ten slave ships could carry 2,000 slave soldiers, and there were at least 500 heavily armed black warriors on board. Twenty-one Chinese galleons can carry at least 5,000 soldiers. This will allow them to transport 7500 fighters to the Seven Islands or the lower Indus. There are already thousands or tens of thousands of people there......"

"An army of 10,000 men appears in the lower reaches of the Indus River or the Seven Islands!" Gallavin also felt a little prickly at this point.

Then. The captain of the caravan had crawled up to Gallawin.

"Your Highness the Emir, Male! Male is under attack! Chinese are attacking there......"

"It's Male!?" Gallavin's eyelids rolled, and what everyone said was impossible had happened. The Chinese want to seize this palm-sized island!

"What the hell are they trying to do?"

"Why should they be male?"

All of them were taken aback, no one understood such a small island. And also inside the pirate den, why should the Chinese occupy it?

"Atlantic! Europa! Maher cried out as if he had just woken up from a dream. It must be yes, the Chinese occupied Malé in order to open a route around Africa. It can be a freshwater supply station! The Chinese have already set up a stronghold on the island of Madagascar. It is said that there are other strongholds on the African continent. Not long ago, they also leased the port of Colombo.

In this way, their merchant ships would be able to depart from Colombo. Passing through Malé, Madagascar and then skirting the African continent into the Atlantic. And...... They can also cut off trade routes in the Arabian Sea! As long as the main forces of the South Sea Fleet attack and occupy Muscat and Socotra! ”

"But they can't control the Maldives Islands, this is our home!" Maher's analysis has been disputed.

"They don't need to control the entire island!" Maher shook his head, "The route around the African continent is so far away, it is difficult for a single Fu ship to arrive safely, and it is inevitable to form a ship group, led by the warships of the Ming Navy." If there are several 'New World' class escorts, who would dare to grab them? Moreover, having lost trade routes to the West, how long will our power be maintained? ”

When everyone heard his last words, their faces changed greatly. The reason why Arab pirates and maritime merchants have been able to dominate the Indian Ocean for so many years. It's not like driving a small sampan to rob! Now the merchant ships sailing on the sea are all armed, and some of the merchant ships from the Ming Dynasty are even equipped with cannons!

To rob them, you have to have good boats and good guys. Medium and large Arabic galleys were the most common equipment, and hundreds of muscular pirate sailors had to be fed up and equipped. If the route is cut off, you won't be able to grab anything for another year and a half. How many more pirate bosses can hold out?

Even being a pirate deserves to go out of business, this life is too bitter, right?

"We can't let the Chinese control Male!"

That Sven pirate leader Isfahan. Yusuf had already ascended from his large Arabian galleys and ships, the True God Truth, to the Vostok as the flagship of the Combined Fleet.

He walked quickly to Gaerawin and bowed: "Your Highness the Emir, please give the order!" Kafir must have captured Male by now, but it was too late to turn it into an impregnable fortress. If we counterattack back, we may be able to surround and destroy all the Kafiles! ”

"Counterattack back and destroy them all!"

"Kill them all, God is great!"

"Kill the Kafir!"

The pirate chieftains on the "Vostok" were boiling. Tran's occupation of Male Island was completely misunderstood. Daming does have plans to open up commercial routes to Africa, but this is not something that can be completed in a few years or even a decade. It's not because of pirate sabotage or the inability to capture enough staging stations. It's that there aren't enough good seafarers. Sailing across the ocean is not something that the sailors who only sail along the coastline can do. To this end, the Daming Admiralty, the Daming Naval Academy and the Mingdu Tiandao Academy have joined hands to open the Mingdu Maritime Academy in the Mingdu Mansion to train more professional senior seafarers. But where can the cultivation of talents produce results overnight? The good life of these Arab maritime merchants and pirate leaders could have lasted for a few years.

And now, it depends on whether these people survive this sea battle that was hailed by later generations as determining the maritime hegemony of the Little Western Ocean.

And the start of this naval battle was 1000 to 21, the Arabs had 1000 ships, the Chinese had 21. (To be continued......)