The huge fleet began to turn, heading from west to south.
The endless coast begins to appear with fleets of ships to the west.
By this time, both Putmans and Menezes showed relaxed expressions.
"We are finally out of Ottoman territory, and we won't encounter any trouble on the rest of the journey."
"Really?"
Liao Zhongjian didn't believe it.
Just because he saw many small boats with sails flying in the distance on the sea rushing toward him.
These boats are very simple and can be seen at a glance.
There were only about four or five people on each boat, and their clothes were very rudimentary.
wrong.
Many people had their buttocks bare, but looked as usual, showing no sense of propriety or shame.
Because the boat is small, although the sail is simple, the speed of the boat is very fast.
Moreover, these small boats were irregular and swooped over like locusts.
Seeing this scene, Putmans was very angry.
"Damn pirates!"
Kong Zhiguang's head was filled with questions.
"You don't see many pirates like this."
Putmans explained through gritted teeth.
"General Kong doesn't know anything. This place is called Somalia. It is very poor and backward, and the people here are bold and cruel. What they like to do most is to use small boats to rob passing merchants. I don't know how many people are here.
Suffering losses and losing everything. We must be careful and never let these pirates succeed."
The Xia people on the boat looked at each other in shock. They had no idea that this would be the first time they encountered pirates since setting sail.
According to Zuo Mengeng's description, the pirates should not be driving large ships with similar performance to battleships, and have a rebellious captain standing on a tall mast.
If the captain wore a blindfold, he would be even more powerful.
As for these flea-like boats in front of us, and the naked black men on them, are they really pirates?
But no matter what, after the boats got closer, they discovered that the people on the boats had weapons in their hands.
Regardless of whether it is crude or not, as long as it is a weapon, it can still hurt people.
The size of the fleet is too large, and one consequence is that it is difficult to take care of each other. Especially those merchant ships, if there is any negligence, accidents will occur.
Kong Zhiguang, Putmans, and Meneses gave orders respectively, and the entire fleet began to enter combat mode.
Those pirates were very cunning. They kept cruising nearby in small boats and never came close for a moment.
Obviously, they are like advanced hunters, very patiently looking for weaknesses in their prey.
In the minds of these pirates, there has never been a concept of whether the enemy is strong or not.
Just passing through without leaving anything behind is an insult to their profession.
Moreover, although these pirates were ignorant, they had fought against the Western colonists too many times in the past, which gave them a deep understanding of the capabilities of such large ships and weapons on board.
They had absolutely no fear of the ship's artillery.
Whether that kind of big iron ball hits a person or a ship, the consequences will be very terrible.
However, their boat was too small and it was difficult for a big iron ball to hit it.
The range of the muskets on the ship is also very limited, and because the ship is too high, there are many visual blind spots, which are all spaces they can use.
Now they just need to swim back and forth, looking for opportunities, and causing panic at the same time.
With such a large fleet, for these pirates, as long as they rob one ship, they will not be short of food and drink for a year.
"What annoying flies, let me get rid of them."
After hearing Kong Zhiguang's order, Putmans quickly stopped him.
"General Kong, please don't act randomly out of anger. As long as we maintain our formation, we will be safe and sound."
Hearing his words, Kong Zhiguang showed a cruel smile.
"These pirates need a new understanding of the world."
He waved his hand, and several soldiers came to the side of the ship with muskets.
The muskets in their hands are very different from those used by ordinary soldiers.
The barrel is very long and has a mirror on it.
This was something Putmans and Meneses had never seen before, and they were both stunned and silent.
The soldiers holding guns were very ordinary. After finishing loading, they put the guns on the side of the ship and leisurely aimed at the pirates on the sea.
After a while, one of them opened fire.
There was a loud noise, and Putmans and Menezes quickly looked towards the sea.
On one of the pirate ships, a dark man screamed "Ah" and fell into the sea on his back.
All the other pirates on the boat were so frightened that they even forgot to catch people and quickly rowed the boat away.
This very monotonous sound of gunfire was heard one after another from all Xia's ships.
But it is no surprise that whenever a gun is fired, almost a pirate is killed.
Although there were few gunshots, the pirates could not withstand such consumption.
The pirates who were still leisurely at first were all frightened at this time, and they backed away from each other, not daring to get closer as before.
But they were unwilling to leave just like that.
They had never seen such a large fleet in their lives.
People die for money, and birds die for food.
They were still fantasizing about the robbery.
“I really don’t want to give up until I reach the Yellow River!”
Kong Zhiguang's laughter became more cruel.
After waving their hands, the soldiers who came forward this time began to form groups of three.
One of them was carrying an iron pipe about one and a half meters long, which was a rocket launcher that was commonly equipped among the Xia army.
The pirates thought they were safe if they were far away and out of reach of their muskets.
How did they know that Xia Jun's weapons were diverse, of various types, and extremely powerful.
The new generation of rocket launchers, like sniper rifles, are already equipped with sights.
With the cheater Zuo Mengeng around, everything seemed very scientific.
When the scope is not in use, it can be removed and carried separately.
As for the bazooka...
It's just a broken tin tube. If it's really a burden, it wouldn't be a pity to throw it away.
Ignite and launch.
The rocket shot out quickly with a long tail flame.
How accurate...
Very touching.
But it doesn't matter.
Even though it did not hit the pirate ship and exploded ten meters away, the debris generated by the explosion still swept away everyone on the pirate ship.
Every Xia ship began to use rocket launchers to deal with pirates.
When had the poor pirate ever seen such a weapon?
More than half of them were killed in a short period of time.
At this time, the remaining pirates finally realized that they had hit an iron plate and fled away one after another.
On the flagship, Putmans and Meneses felt their blood boiling as they looked at the Xia army's endless weapons.
The two of them had already made up their minds.
They want all these weapons!
Damn Spaniards, your good days are over.
The encounter with Somali pirates was just a small episode in the fleet's life.
Sure enough, as Putmans and Meneses said, they went south without encountering any disturbances along the way.
More than ten days later, a long and large island appeared in sight.