After learning this news, King João V of Portugal could not help but worry, the War of the Spanish Succession was fought intermittently for eight years, seeing that the war had ended, and when it was time to pick the fruits of victory, the Qing fleet was inexplicably stationed in the port of Cádiz.

What do Qing people want to do? How could they have entered the port of Cádiz now with the Spanish welcome after capturing the Spanish Luzon fleet in the Far East, capturing Manila, seizing the island of Luzon, and openly declaring war on Spain? Could it be that the Qing Dynasty and Spain could not form an alliance?

Thinking of this, João V couldn't help but be upset, the Qing people refused his invitation, turned around and threw themselves into the arms of Spain, he was sure that the Qing fleet was stationed in the port of Agadir before, just waiting for the news of the alliance with France and Spain, and now that it is stationed in the port of Cádiz, the Qing, France, and Spain must have successfully formed an alliance.

Qing both territory and population are almost the sum of Europe, and very rich, France and Spain have received the Qing country's strong aid, this war is afraid that it will soon start another twist and turn, he can't help but secretly regret that he should have signed a treaty with Spain as soon as possible, now, this boiled duck is about to fly again, thinking of this, he quickly ordered someone to pass the news to the two main allies of Britain and the Netherlands as quickly as possible, which naturally includes a rough estimate of the size of the Qing fleet.

This news immediately attracted the attention of Britain and the Netherlands, but it was only attention, the Queen Anne of Britain was terminally ill at this time, and there was no heir, whether it was Queen Anne or the two major political parties in Britain, the Tory Party and the Whig Party were fighting for the heir to the throne, where was there any heart to manage the fleet of the Qing Kingdom, as long as it did not hit the British head, they had no energy to pay attention to it. Talent to the throne is a top priority for the United Kingdom.

The Netherlands hated the Qing State to the core, because the Qing State seized the Indonesian archipelago where they had been entrenched for more than 100 years, and cut off the trade between the Netherlands and the Far East in one fell swoop. The Netherlands entered the second period of no-government in its history.

The Netherlands was in powerless. The provincial assemblies themselves are responsible for the administration of the provinces, and they maintain a loose union on the basis of independence and self-determination, and in such a situation it is natural for them to wait and see what happens.

The port of Cadiz is not far from the port of Tangier, only 50 nautical miles, and the wind is half a day, Yinzhen and Shi Shibiao are not willing to stay in the port of Cádiz, and after two days of formal talks, the Nanyang Fleet set sail for the port of Tangier.

Spain's Foreign Minister Reinaldo and France's Chancellor of Finance Demaret rushed back to Paris and Madrid with the draft to report to their respective kings. Archer sent a large number of ships to the sea to find out the routes and timing of the "golden fleet" of the Portuguese carrying gold from Brazil.

In those days, the difference between the navies of European countries and pirates was not very great. It is not uncommon for naval warships to rob merchant fleets by pretending to be pirates, and robbing merchant fleets is a familiar way for the navies of various countries, and the Spanish are particularly interested in robbing the Portuguese's 'golden fleet', because Spain's 'treasure fleet' has also been repeatedly robbed in the North Atlantic, and the British have even robbed the 'treasure fleet' at the gate of Cádiz, and the 17 treasure ships that sank in the Bay of Vigo 12 years ago are an eternal pain in Spain's heart. They had been holding back their strength for revenge.

In less than a month, Archer figured out the situation of the Portuguese gold fleet, and this task was for him. It wasn't that difficult, because he didn't need to know the route of the gold ship, he only needed to know the size of the gold ship and the time of arrival, which was not difficult to inquire.

It is no secret that the great gold mines in Minas Gerais, Brazil, have been in development for twenty years, and that a large number of gold ships travel between Lisbon and Brazil every year.

On the same day, Archer rushed to Tangier Port, as soon as he entered the harbor, he found that the Qing people were building forts in the harbor, and he couldn't help but laugh at the caution of the Qing people, the terrain of Tangier Port was very dangerous, and Portugal and they had built some forts successively, with the artillery of the Qing fleet, it can be said that it was foolproof, but I didn't expect the Qing people to think that the defense was not strong enough.

Hearing that Archer had arrived, Shi Shibiao immediately realized that it must be the robbery of the Portuguese gold fleet, and when he brought Lin Wei, Fu Anding and other admirals to the dock to greet him.

After the group entered the temporary signing room, Archer asked with a smile: "Are you satisfied with everything in Tangier Port?" ”

Tangier Port is not only a dangerous terrain, but also a natural deep-water port, and the scale is quite large, the size of the Nanyang Fleet is enough to accommodate if it is twice as large, and what is even more rare is that the climate here is pleasant, and the Nanyang Fleet is very satisfied, listening to this, Shi Shibiao couldn't help but smile slightly: "The port is good, but the defense is too poor." ”

Archer listened to the slander, but he immediately thought that if it was in the face of the artillery of the Qing fleet, the original defense was really not worth mentioning, and if the Spanish fleet could be equipped with this kind of artillery of the Qing country, it would definitely be able to restore its former glory.

He didn't want to continue on this topic, so he hurriedly changed the topic and said: "The situation of the Portuguese gold fleet has been basically figured out, I wonder if you are still interested?" ”

How can there be no interest, the Nanyang Fleet came to Europe to provoke a war, but it can't be fought in vain, groaning slightly, Shi Shibiao said: "Of course I'm interested, but we need supplies, food and raw materials for making shells and gunpowder, otherwise this war can't be fought." ”

"That's no problem, you make a list, and if you can meet it, we'll do our best to meet it." Archer immediately agreed with his mouth, the consumption of naval battles was particularly large, and after a large-scale naval battle, the ammunition consumed was calculated in tons, although the supply ships of the Qing State brought a lot, but they couldn't help but consume it like this. Since the Qing proposed to fight Portugal, the Spanish side had long expected that the Qing people would ask them for supplies, and they had already made full preparations for this.

After a slight pause, he said cautiously: "Spain has been fighting for many years, not only is there a shortage of materials, but the navy has also suffered great losses in the past two years, and there is a great shortage of warships. We're going to split fifty percent of the spoils. ”

Shi Shibiao smiled slightly when he heard this, the Spaniard's wishful thinking was really fine, and after a little hesitation, he asked: "How many warships does Spain have participated in the war?" ”

Is this to be divided according to the amount of effort? Archer groaned slightly, and said: "Fighting the Portuguese fleet, how can we Spain watch the battle?" All thirty-four warships of the Cadiz fleet took part in the battle. ”

"Your main battleship is small, and even with the merits of reconnaissance, you can't share fifty percent." Shi Shibiao didn't think about it and said: "The loss of the naval battle is great, and the officers and soldiers under my command have come from far and wide across the ocean, and the salaries are very high. The gold, merchant ships, and warships obtained from the robbery must be divided into three or seven parts. Three of you, seven of us. ”

"Four, six points, no less, after all, all the supplies are provided by us for free." Archer said quickly.

Shi Shibiao glanced at him, and he knew very well that even if he offered to take the spoils of victory, the Spaniards would willingly and fully support them in attacking the Portuguese fleet. He was unwilling to go too far in consideration of the future cooperative relationship, so he reported the opening of Sanqi. Unexpectedly, this guy turned out to be inch-inch, and he said lightly at the moment: "Sanqi open." ”

"Well, as you wish." Archer shrugged his shoulders lightly, spread his hands, and pretended to be helpless, but in fact, he was secretly happy in his heart, the Qing people were so easy to deal with, and he was already satisfied to get twenty percent.

After negotiating the share, Archer smiled and said: "The gold convoy from Lárjes, Brazil to Lisbon, Portugal generally travels in tandem with the merchant fleet, carrying mainly coffee beans, cotton, cane sugar, etc., and the amount of gold carried each time is about four thousand pounds, the size of the fleet is about twenty ships, and five or six warships escort it. ”

Four thousand pounds? Shi Shibiao had no idea about pounds at all, so he couldn't help but glance at the translator and asked, "How many are four thousand pounds?" ”

The interpreter immediately said, "Hui Dashuai, one pound is about 13 taels, and 4,000 pounds is about 52,000 taels." ”

Fifty-two thousand taels of gold, that is, more than 600,000 taels of silver, only thirty percent of gold, nearly more than 200,000 taels of silver, this is just a small head, the captured warships and merchant ships are the big heads, Shi Shibiao glanced at Archer, it seems that this supply list has to be opened widely, otherwise it will be a loss, in addition, the craftsmen who maintain and repair the ship also need some, and he groaned slightly, before he said: "Tell me about your envisioned plan." ”

Archer glanced at the large map of Europe hanging on the wall, got up and stepped forward, pointed to the sea outside the port of Lisbon, and said, "This is Cascais Bay." ”

The sky was blue, the water was turquoise, and a fleet of ships returning from the Brazilian port of Lajes slowly sailed towards the Gulf of Cascais, looking at the coastline getting closer and closer, and all the people in the fleet could not hide their inner joy.

The port of Cascais, the busiest port city near Lisbon, is where most merchant ships from Brazil dock to sell coffee beans, cotton, and sugar from Brazil's big plantations, and the merchant fleet of gold ships sail up the Tagus River to the port of Lisbon.

Seeing that they were about to enter the Cascais Bay, everyone was preparing to land with smiles on their faces, but at this moment, Blanco, the leader of the fleet, saw seven or eight fast cruisers in the northwest direction speeding towards them with full sails, but there were no flags on board, he looked at the coast, and then at the cruisers, with an incredible look on his face, what a joke! There are pirates robbing this place?

Before he could react, there were exclamations on the ship one after another, and he hurriedly looked around, and there were also two small fleets in the northeast and southeast directions quickly approaching their fleet, and a small merchant fleet not far behind their fleet, which was originally flying the Dutch flag, also lowered its flag at this time and quickly caught up.

As soon as he saw this, Blanco knew that the other party had come prepared, and he really couldn't understand where the pirates were so bold as to dare to rob them at the door of Lisbon's house, and he immediately ordered: "Send a frigate to rush out to report the news, this is not far from Lisbon, and they can't succeed." ”

Then, he shouted: "It's a pirate, prepare for battle, hold on for two hours, and our fleet will come to clean up these sons of bitches." ”

As soon as the words fell, a burst of thunderous cannon sound rang out one after another.

Blanco knew as soon as he heard that it was the merchant ship following their fleet that had opened fire. He couldn't help but curse secretly, "A bunch of garbage." Immediately after, he heard one after another violent explosions and a series of screams, and his face immediately turned pale, and the bullets bloomed! God, is this really a pirate?

As soon as the pirates actually shelled with flowering shells, the entire fleet immediately panicked, and sailors, crews, gunners, and musketeers sought each other to hide. No one dared to run around on the deck, the speed of the fleet slowed down suddenly, and the anxious Blanco scolded loudly, "Pigs, they don't have many flowering bombs, hurry up and prepare to shoot back!" ”

As if to make a mockery of his words, another wave of flowering bullets burst in, some of which exploded in the air over the sailboat because of the fuse, and some of which fell on the ship and rolled around. There was smoke, and the frightened people were hiding in all directions. There was chaos on the decks of the entire merchant fleet.

Seeing that the other party's speed had slowed down, Lin Wei ordered in a deep voice: "Change the artillery, hit their masts with solid bullets, remember, you are not allowed to hit the parts below the waterline, you will sink the gold ship, and Lao Tzu will deduct your salary." ”

The flowering elasticity in Europe has been very unstable this year. Especially in naval battles, it was rare to use flowering shells to clean up the personnel on the deck of the opponent's battleships, and the Spaniards saw that the flowering shells of the Qing fleet were not only accurate but also had a high explosion rate. I couldn't help but be greatly excited, and naturally I didn't want to fall behind, so that my allies underestimated it, and as soon as I entered the firing range, one battleship after another was full of artillery bombardment.

Although the Blanco fleet is also an armed merchant ship, and there are also several frigates, but after all, they are amateurs, where is the opponent of the Qing and Spanish coalition forces, they were beaten without any power to fight back when they landed, and the four frigates were the worst, they were hit mercilessly and fiercely, and they were quickly hit into the water.

The only thing that comforted Blanco was that the frigate that had gone to report had already rushed out, and all he had to do now was to delay time, he knew very well in his heart that there was a patrol fleet in this area, and as soon as the cannon sounded, they would definitely come to the rescue, not to mention, there were gold ships in his fleet, and the Portuguese fleet would definitely come to the rescue as fast as possible.

According to the practice of pirates, the next step is to jump the gang to grab the ship, Blanco didn't care about the danger at this time, ran to the deck and loudly encouraged the musketeers and gunners to prepare for the most brutal gang jumping battle that was coming, and everyone on the ship also knew what the fate would be if the pirates seized the ship, and seeing that the sound of the cannon had thinned out, they all ran to the side of the ship with courage to prepare for battle.

However, what made them desperate was that these pirates did not have the professional ethics of pirates at all, and there were more shells than the regular Royal Navy, so they were ready to meet the battle on the side of the ship, and a burst of bullets came again, and they blew up the ghost crying wolf when they landed, and all those who could still move fled from the deck with rolling and crawling, no matter how Blanco cursed, no one was willing to go to the deck and die in vain.

At this moment, a neat shout came from the battleship outside, "Surrender or kill." ”

Surrender without killing? What kind of pirates are these? The people of the merchant fleet couldn't help but look at each other when they heard this shout, but Blanco immediately realized that the other party was trying to save time and want to plunder the gold ship smoothly before the Portuguese fleet arrived, he couldn't help but hesitate, and was thinking about how to delay time, but there was a shout outside, "Within three minutes, if you don't surrender, sink the ship." ”

Seeing this, Blanco hurriedly shouted: "They are here to rob the gold ship, and they dare not open fire." ”

As soon as the words fell, the cannon rang out again, and the crowd was startled when they boarded, but they soon judged that it was not the pirate ship that was firing the cannons, and they were overjoyed when they boarded, and the Portuguese fleet had come to their rescue.

Blanco knew very well in his heart that this was a small Portuguese patrol fleet, and seeing that the pirate ships were afraid to approach, they were firing empty cannons to intimidate the pirates, and he couldn't help but curse secretly, "Useless things." ”

It was precisely because Lin Wei saw the Portuguese patrol fleet coming, so he called people to shout surrender and not kill, in order to buy time to transfer the gold, the Portuguese patrol fleet only had two fourth-class ships and six auxiliary ships, seeing that they had many ships, they did not dare to come forward, but they only harassed from a distance, but in this way, it boosted the confidence of the gold ships to resist.

After looking at it with a telescope, Lin Wei couldn't help but secretly slander himself, the Spaniards were too unreliable, obviously saying that they had led the Portuguese patrol fleet far away, but let them rush over in such a short time, it seems that in the future, we should try to cooperate with the Spaniards as little as possible, otherwise they will have to be killed sooner or later.

Three minutes passed in a blink of an eye, all the merchant ships were quiet, without the slightest sign of surrender, Lin Wei groaned slightly, and then ordered: "Concentrate firepower, sink the first ship, no one surrenders and continue to sink the second ship, Lao Tzu doesn't believe that they are not afraid of death, and this gold is not theirs." ”

As soon as the order was given, a dense cannon sound sounded when boarding, and the front merchant ship was immediately beaten with thousands of holes, and the crew members who were lucky enough not to be killed on the ship dared to hesitate at this time, rushing out in a swarm, shouting for surrender.

Lin Wei sneered: "Only now do I know that it is too late to surrender, and no one will be left." ”