Chapter 407: Blockade of François
Han Xing stayed in Saint-Pierre for a few days until the four cruisers under construction in Toulon had entered the battle sequence, and then set off for the eastern part of Martinique to exterminate the pirates at the smuggling port of François.
"Detected that you have more than 5 three-masted galleons in your fleet. You have completed Mission 2, Fleet Ambition, you have gained 5000 points, 1000 Fame. ”
"You have a new mission: Fleet Ambition Mission 2. Objective: Have a fleet of 20 ships (at least 8 three-masted ocean-going sailing ships, 2 or more battleships, and the rest must not be less than 2 masts). Complete the quest to reward 10,000 points and 5,000 reputation! ”
Han Xing took a look at himself and found that his points were still at the top of the list, with a total of 12,800 points. Fame is 4100 points, which is still at the top of fame (1000), and it is still 900 short of the next level (5000).
The four new ships were all light cruisers of the Interceptor type, but the Ranger was average compared to the heavy cruiser Ranger, which had an additional gun deck and 30 guns per gunboard. But the upside is that due to its light weight and the fact that it is equipped with a 12-pounder gun, its reload time is only 10 seconds, which is already a rare thing for a gun!
These four warships, Han Xing doesn't plan to name them himself, if the ships of the entire fleet have to name themselves, he will not collapse? Instead, Lyanna and Rhaeggar, Barristan and Ashara, and Louis each asked for one, intending to experience what it was like to be a captain.
Han Xing didn't have a problem with this, and assigned them 20 devil terminators plus 80 sailors per ship, making a hundred people. The last boat, Han Xing gave it to Li Xinshu, and this guy also received a similar task as Han Xing, so Han Xing appointed him as a captain, and according to the previous configuration, he was also equipped with a boatload of people.
Mr. and Mrs. Rhaegar named the ship the Aegon Raging Dragon, and Aschara took it upon herself to call her own ship, the White Knight. Louis XVI and his wife named their ship the Royal Versailles. To Li Xinshu, he named his ship Noah's Ark.
In any case, this nascent fleet finally set foot on the road to François, but fortunately, Han Xing had a spiritual link that could act as a "humanoid radio", so it saved a lot of trouble!
The fleet led by Han Xing sailed west along Martinique's coastline, but did not find any suspicious locations. As far as the eye can see, there is no trace of Pirate Harbor. I continued to search, only to find that I had unknowingly circled Martinique and returned to Port Saint-Pierre!
After thinking about it carefully, Han Xing only thought of a suspicious location - but it was a fjord. At that time, when Han Xing led his fleet to see this fjord, he was only a thousand meters away from the sea, and he hastily looked at it with a telescope, but he thought it was a dead end, but now it seems that this fjord may have another mystery!
Sure enough, after Han Xing put away several other warships, leaving only the Ranger, and stopped in a hidden river bay, and after squatting for a short time, Han Xing found a small two-masted sailing ship and slowly sailed out of the fjord.
The fjord is not wide, less than 100 meters, and can only be used by two boats in parallel, and is flanked on either side by dozens of meters of gray and white rock walls. Under the constant night of sea breeze and waves, the surface of the rock face leaves a series of ravines like knives and axes.
If you rashly drove the Ranger into it, you were afraid that you would be startled, so after discussing it, Han Xing and his party decided to travel lightly and touch it from the land.
The fjord is an extension of the Martinique Middle Mountains, and the further you go to the middle of the island, the higher the terrain becomes. Han Xing and the others walked nearly a thousand meters of mountain roads, and only then did they occupy the commanding heights and get a glimpse of the true face of this fjord.
The entire fjord is surrounded by rock walls tens of meters high, forming a small valley covering an area of about ten miles, and a small town is located in the valley below, mostly low wooden buildings, without walls. Han Xing wasn't even sure that it should be called a "town" because even the area of Ganquan Village was much larger than this place!
At this time, the small town was basking in the sun, and the humble harbor was anchored with more than a dozen warships, including several galleons, three-masted trading ships, Caravel clippers, and even a Frut merchant ship. They sway up and down with the waves under the tireless lapping of the breeze and the waves.
In the town, you can vaguely see the simple loess roads, and the simple fields, which seem to be planting some (rè) belt crops, and people walk through them, like a paradise-like scene!
It's a pity that judging from the black skull flag fluttering on the mast, in this paradise, he is not a wise man who lives in seclusion, but a group of pirates who burn and loot and do all kinds of evil. It's just a filthy place to hide filth and filth~
"Alas~ what a good place! It's a pity that it was taken up by a group of scum~ wasted this piece of green mountains and green waters, a paradise! Han Xing looked at the pirate harbor below with a monocular, and sighed.
"Indeed, such a person who burns, kills, and loots like this should be punished!" Barristan said with a cold face, (ròu) as far as he could see, the knuckles of his sword gripping the hilt turned white. Obviously, this white knight is not in vain~ not only can he fight, but also pursue the spirit of chivalry! And his understanding of pirates these days has made him hate this group deeply~
"So what are you waiting for? Let's go straight in and send these people to meet the Seven Gods! Sir Geralt Hightower angrily drew his knight's sword from his waist and said indignantly.
"If you want me to say, let's take the cannon off the mountain and give them a big surprise!" Louis XVI suggested a rare forceful suggestion.
He had always been a good gentleman, but he was also a man of right and wrong, and he could not bear to suppress the revolutionaries with a shotgun because they were the people of France. In his opinion, they were only instigated by some people with ulterior motives to make wrong decisions in the midst of hunger and cold. But these pirates are serious scum, robbers, hooligans, villains, and thieves, of course, for such people, of course, there must be no (qíng) for such people~
"What do you say, Hanschel?" Lyanna and Rhaegar asked in unison, however, as they set their eyes on Han Xing (shēn).
"Actually, if we want to get rid of all this scum, I have a very simple way, this valley, you see, do you want a bag?" Han Xing pointed to the valley and gestured with his hand.
"And the mouth of this bag is the fjord!" Han Xing pointed to the fjord again, and then said with a wicked smile: "We only need to blow up the fjord with gunpowder, and we can easily close the door and beat the dogs, and trap these pirates in this fjord!" ”
"Wonderful~" Everyone exclaimed in unison, even Louis XVI nodded again and again.
"Wouldn't that be a little too cruel?" Only Li Xinshu, a benevolent healer, said with a hesitant look on his face.
"Too cruel? These people are pirates who do all kinds of evil, can they be considered human? Louis XVI gave him a blank look.
"Excuse me, occupational disease, occupational disease! Who made me a doctor? I've been taught to treat people equally since I was a child~" Li Xinshu smiled embarrassedly and put away his voice embarrassedly.
"I'm not going to do that, though!" At this moment, Han Xing's words shocked the four.
"The location of this port is very good, and the trade is already quite productive, and it would be beneficial if it could be captured! And, as Li Xinshu said, it is indeed too cruel to do so! After all, there may also be old and weak women and children among pirates, and the disaster will not affect the family, this is the principle~"
Speaking of this, Han Xing paused, but continued: "Therefore, I plan to use pirate methods to deal with this pirate port!" As the saying goes, the way of others, and the rule of others (shēn)! ”
Han Xing also has his own considerations, but there are a lot of ships in the François pirate port, which means that there are at least hundreds of people among them, and judging from the growth of crops, they will definitely not be harvested in the short term, and even if they are harvested, in terms of cultivated area, they will not be able to support the long-term consumption of hundreds of people in this port.
Han Xing has always pursued the strategic idea of not attacking if he can outwit, and not attacking the city if he can attack the heart, which is the experience that Han Xing has come to after following Napoleon for many years and meditating hard. And most importantly, you get the most out of it! Isn't it clear which is more important than the corpse-strewn burning ruins and a vibrant, thriving town?
And Han Xing's strategy is the same as the tactics of besieging Göttingen at the beginning - besiege but not attack, only enter but not exit! Han Xing knows that such a small port will inevitably rely on foreign imports for food. What Han Xing has to do (qíng) is to detain every ship entering the port, check the goods on it one by one, and then "kindly" send them a lifeboat to let them in, so that these people can further consume the grain in the port, so as to intensify the conflict between outsiders and locals, and profit from it.
Similarly, just like the method of attacking Eagle's Nest City that Han Xing thought about back then, natural hazards can be a geographical advantage for the defender, but it can also be a help for the attacker. After all, if we besiege and do not attack, the defenders will run out of food, and they will have to give up their geographical advantages and break through the city, at this time, the offensive and defensive situation will be reversed in an instant!
And Han Xing also used a very Caribbean pirate style blockade method - fleet patrol blockade, 平 (rì), the fleet hides behind the coastline not far away, and then as soon as a ship is found to be in and out, it immediately rushes up (bī) to stop, if the other party is disobedient, he will directly beat him, and then take the ship to capture the enemy ship. If there is a devil terminator to make a move, are you afraid that you won't be able to get a group of **mortal pirates?