In May of the fifteenth year of Wu'an, the fleet of ships flying the banner of the Xia Dynasty in the Indian Ocean gradually increased, which made the Dutch, the de facto overlord of the Indian Ocean, even more uneasy.

Although these Xia fleets were not officially warships, they were growing in number, and even the most clumsy people could detect that something was wrong—the Xia people had probably set their sights on the vast ocean west of Malacca, and these civilian fleets were undoubtedly the pioneers of the Xia government.

This reminds the Dutch of the Spaniards and Portuguese at the beginning of the Age of Discovery, who began with civilian expeditions, and after discovering more overseas lands, they turned into fleets carrying colonists to seize overseas lands.

In order to hinder the progress of the Xia people's overseas exploration, although the Dutch could not directly participate in the treaty between the two countries, this did not mean that they had no other way.

Under the covert contact and impetus of the Dutch Ceylonese authorities, the Indian pirates who were making waves in the Indian Ocean accepted the employment of the Dutch authorities and began to frequently attack the Xia fleet, in an attempt to counter the Xia people's westward advance.

For a time, the situation in the Indian Ocean became tense in vain, and those dark-skinned Indian pirates drove Indian galleys to launch a siege on the Xia ships that appeared in Cape Comorolin, Malabar and other seas.

Chen Yongan's fleet was not spared, and as the five ships were passing through the Malabar Sea, the sailors who were guarding the mast spotted multiple dark shadows approaching in the distance.

As soon as the shadows approached, the sailors recognized the identities of the shadows - Indian pirates!

"Pirates! Enemy attack! Enemy attack!"

The panicked sailor hurriedly raised his throat and screamed loudly to warn the sailors below, and his shout was soon heard by the others, and the deck was suddenly in chaos.

This was the first battle of the fleet after leaving Malacca, and although they were ready for battle when they set out from Malacca, they did not encounter even half of the enemy's movements until Colombo, which made some of the sailors slacken.

Chen Yongan stepped forward in time, scolded the panicked sailors, ordered them to enter combat positions, and at the same time waved flags to other ships to signal that there was an enemy situation.

This set of flags was designed within their fleet, inspired by the advice of the instructor during their training at Quanzhou Port, without which they probably would not have been able to come up with on their own.

And now, it turned out that the flags designed in response to the advice had come in handy, and the sailors of the other ships had also entered combat positions under the command of the ship's principals.

They lifted the cannons' jackets, opened the windows, and removed solid shells and black powder from the arsenal to reload the guns.

Some of the sailors armed with muskets were assembled on the deck, and they were busy reloading their muskets, most of which were arquebuses purchased in the South Seas, and they had to be careful that the arquebuses on them were soaked by the splashing sea water during naval battles.

As a result, many Han Chinese sailors were reluctant to use firearms, preferring to use melee weapons such as waist knives and axes, or more primitive bows and crossbows, rather than more powerful muskets. ….

In the confusion, Lai rushed to the deck with an arquebus, nervously watching the Indian pirates as they approached, and it was only as they approached that they were finally able to see the ships and numbers of the attackers.

The Indian pirates were aboard four galleys and two Arabian three-masted galleons – the style of the latter was naturally unknown to the Han Chinese, and it was the Portuguese who joined the fleet that Duvar was the first to recognize.

There were six ships in all, each of which was topped with naked Indian pirates, armed with scimitars, crossbows, and javelins, and only a few of them were armed with arquebuses, but they were numerous enough to make the Han Chinese feel terrified—there were at least sixty pirates on each ship, and a cursory glance showed that there were at least three hundred pirates.

However, although they were numerous, the number of artillery pieces was small, with only two or three guns per galleys and more than a dozen Arabic three-masted galleons, and the firepower of the Han fleet was superior.

Portugal joined the fleet

After seeing the configuration of the pirates, Di Val hurriedly found Chen Yongan, and said in a hurried tone: "Captain, I suggest that you use grapeshotfire in battle, I believe you have also seen it, these damned pirates far outnumber us, but their hull is low, and our grapeshots can directly hit the pirates on the deck."

When Chen Yongan heard this, he looked at the pirate's ship again, and compared it with his own ship, even the cheapest brig shore defense ship was higher than the pirate's ship, not only the guns on both sides of the ship could hit directly, but the Han sailors on the deck could also shoot condescendingly.

"Good!"

Chen Yongan patted Divar's shoulder and said, "Just do as you say."

Immediately, Chen Yongan ordered the sailors to prepare grape bombs, and with his order, the sailors quickly struggled to carry out bags of heavy grape bombs from the cabin, these grape bombs were small iron beads, which looked so insignificant.

But no one dared to underestimate it, once in the port of Quanzhou training, the instructor demonstrated to them the power of the ship's artillery, after using solid shells to fire, the instructor ordered people to replace grapeshoe and fire at an abandoned ship not far away.

After the shelling, dense bullet holes appeared on the surface of the ship, and iron beads were directly embedded in it, and even a strong ship could not withstand the bombardment of grapeshot bombs, let alone people?

The Indian pirates not far away did not expect that they would soon be in trouble, and on the deck of the leading Arabian three-masted schooner, the leader of the pirates, Bakht, stepped on the wooden crate with one foot, one hand pressed on the hilt of the scimitar at his waist, and his eyes were full of greed as he looked at the Xia ships.

Bakht was a notorious pirate leader in the region, who had repeatedly sacked European and Indian merchant ships, and the crews of all the merchant ships he ransacked were either unscrupulous or sent to galleys as slaves, and the goods were brought ashore and sold for white and golden coins.

On the four galleys behind him, dozens of miserable slaves were tied to their seats, and the oars were swayed under the whipping of the pirates, allowing the ship to slowly sail to the next victim. ….

Although I don't know why the Dutch would not deal with these Xia people who came from afar, this is not something that Bakht and other pirates need to care about.

In his eyes, the fleet of the Xia Dynasty in front of him was about equal to the coins of the white flowers, even if there was no valuable cargo on the ship, the guns could be directly dismantled and installed on their own ships.

"Get up there and jump to grab the boat!"

As Bakht's order was given, six pirate ships roared up, and the guns deployed in the bow of the ships also made a loud noise, and the shells flew out of the muzzles and smashed into the Han ships at high speed.

I heard a loud bang, and the cannonball hit the hull head-on, directly smashing through the planks on the surface of the hull, leaving a gap, and the mood of the Han sailors, who had not experienced the battle, finally stabilized, was shaken again, and they hid behind the bunker in a hurry, not daring to poke their heads out.

Chen Yongan knew that these sailors were overwhelmed before they experienced a real battle, so he rushed straight forward and kicked the sailors out of cover one by one, he tore his throat and shouted, "Hit Lao Tzu!" Fire! After repelling this wave of pirates, and waiting for the next port, Lao Tzu invites you to play for free!"

Listening to Chen Yongan's encouragement, the sailors suddenly boosted their morale, returned to the gun position, turned the muzzle, and aimed at the approaching pirate ships, because the guns of these civilian ships were not equipped with flintlock devices, so they could only use torches to light the fuse to shoot.

There was a faint sizzling sound as the fuse was ignited, and a few seconds later, the cannon roared, and the cannonballs whizzed towards the pirate ship, but the accuracy of the Han sailors was so poor that only three of the dozen shells hit the target.

The cannonball hit one of the galleys head-on, plowing a bloody path on the overtime, tearing apart the bodies of several pirates, and the blood gushed out, mixing with the surrounding splash of water, leaving the entire deck covered in red blood.

The slaves tied to their seats were too frightened to move at this scene, but many of them had hope in their eyes

emotions, no one wants to die a humiliating death as a slave, and they will not hesitate to rebel whenever they have the opportunity.

Rumble –

As the lead Tier 6 ship opened fire first, the rest of the ships followed closely to launch an artillery attack on the pirate ship.

The firepower of the Brig and the Brig Cruiser is not high, but the combined firepower of the four ships is enough to shred any pirate ship.

Under the combined bombardment of four ships, an Arabian three-masted galleon that rushed to the front was bombarded by more than ten shells at once, and many large gaps were smashed, and the pirates on the deck also suffered heavy losses.

The surviving pirates were at first willing to rescue the sea, but seeing the speed of the water pouring in, they abandoned the idea and scrambled to jump into the sea one by one, swimming towards the surrounding friendly ships.

After a cannonball landed on the galleys and killed several pirates, it flew to the slave position on the side by inertia, smashing the iron chains that bound the slaves to the deck.

Hearing a crisp sound and the chains breaking, the slaves were stunned for a moment, and then quickly reacted, got up from their seats, and desperately broke free from the chains that bound them. ….

Then, one of them grabbed a broken chain and shouted, "Compatriots, take up arms and take back the freedom we deserve!"

As soon as the words fell, he grabbed the chain and smashed it towards a pirate who had come to suppress them, and the pirate subconsciously raised his hand to block, and the chain threw heavily on his body, and actually threw him to his knees, and the other slaves rushed up, one of them roared and threw the pirate to the ground, and the other picked up the scimitar he had dropped, and stepped forward to stab the pirate in the vital part.

The entire galleys were thrown into chaos, and the freed slaves rushed forward one after another, fighting the oppressive pirates in close combat with the intention of seizing and controlling the ship.

The other pirate ships noticed the unusual movement on this galley ship, and they wanted to go for reinforcements, but the sixth-rank ship commanded by Chen Yongan had already taken the initiative to approach, and after firing the solid bullets in the barrel, the sailors changed to grapeshot shells against the infantry according to the order.

After approaching a galleys, Chen Yongan immediately gave an order, and then saw dozens of sparks blooming one after another on the side of the sixth-level ship, and a barrage composed of countless tiny iron beads overwhelmingly shrouded the deck of the galleys.

The pirates on the deck and the poor slaves who were tied up were instantly bombarded into a puddle of rotten meat, and after this round of shelling, there was hardly a living person still standing on the deck of this galleys, and some of the people who were lucky enough not to die directly were still lying on the deck and letting out a heart-rending wail, at this moment, it was not lucky for them not to die directly.

Seeing such a terrible scene, the other pirate ships suddenly lost the courage to continue fighting, and under Bakht's orders, the remaining three ships hurriedly turned around, trying to escape before the Xia people's ships approached.

At this time, the high maneuverability of the pirate ship finally played its due role, and the three pirate ships moved forward at full speed, decisively abandoning their companions who were still floating on the surface of the sea and the pirates who were fighting with the slaves.

The latter, seeing that their companions had abandoned themselves without hesitation, had no idea of continuing the fight, and hurriedly threw their weapons on the ground and surrendered to the captives who were usually oppressed.

The enraged slaves wanted to kill them outright, but the first to jump up and resist stopped them, telling them that the pirates were captured by the owners of the five ships, not theirs, and that if they didn't want to offend them, they should not be carried away by their anger.

Listening to the man's words, and looking at the black hole in the cannon on the sixth-rank ship approaching this way, the hot minds of the slaves immediately calmed down, and they obediently lowered their weapons, tied the pirates together with ropes, and waited for the owners of the five ships to contact them.

Chen Yongan stood on the deck and looked at this group of slaves, who were mainly Europeans, and immediately felt that his head hurt a little, he was not very good at dealing with foreign devils.

Therefore, he called the Portuguese Duval and wanted to replace him

He negotiated with the captives - he had no intention of continuing to enslave the poor people, but he would not be so generous as to let them go.

Chen Yongan wanted to send them to the nearest port and make the freed slaves pay a little hard money...... The shells fired and the black powder consumed in the battle just now also cost money, and even if you can't fully recover your original cost, at least you can get back a little loss.

He thought that his idea would be dissatisfied and opposed by the Europeans, but he didn't expect that after he and Divar expressed their thoughts, the latter agreed very much and thought it was a very reasonable behavior.

They rescued the poor men from the pirates, and they deserved a little thanks and hard work, and Duvar said that such behavior was normal in Europe.

Tears.