The Rise of the European Emperor

At this time, São Miguel Island was not well developed, and there was only one port city, Ponta Delgada, located at the southwestern tip of the island. Although São Miguel is the largest island in the Azores, with an area close to twice that of Terceira, the third largest island, it is a volcanic island with many earthquakes and small-scale volcanic eruptions. Coupled with the rugged terrain of the island, the proportion of plains is not high. Therefore, Portuguese talents put the development focus on Terceira Island.

But in any case, the island is still very valuable for development. After all, on the island of 759 square kilometers, there are still many places that can be used. For example, planting sugar cane, grapes, etc., and grazing cattle and sheep.

For the native Portuguese nobles, although the earthquake on São Miguel Island and the eruption of the two volcanoes were terrible. However, the fertile soil produced by volcanic eruptions is also an excellent farmland. Therefore, some Portuguese nobles still recruited some farmers on the island to grow sugar cane and grapes here to supply sugar and wine for the local people. Anyway, even if there was an earthquake or a volcano erupting on San Miguel Island, only the subordinates and farmers would die, not the nobles themselves. Perhaps, those nobles who owned large tracts of land on São Miguel would never set foot on this island for the rest of their lives...

But it is undeniable that the island is still valuable because of the high price of sugar and the importance of wine in Europe. The only port on the island, Ponta Delgada, is also an important export port for sugar and wine. It is related to the interests of many nobles, and it is impossible for Portugal to give up here.

When six English-style cork sailing ships arrived in Ponta Delgada, the locals were unaware of the danger. After all, for an island in the Atlantic Ocean far away from the European mainland, it is very rare for foreign ships to arrive.

But when six English-style Kirk sailing ships hoisted the pirate flag, the port of Ponta Delgada was in chaos...

The fishermen and sailors in the port abandoned their boats and landed one after another, and hid in the city of Ponta Delgada, shivering inside the city walls. This small island town is not big, but it is still solid. At this time, because of the threat of pirates, more than 2,000 residents inside and outside the city hid in, making the city extremely crowded.

Under the terrified eyes of the residents in the city, more than 300 "pirates" were dispatched from six ships, landed and ransacked all merchant ships and fishing boats outside the city, and ransacked several villages outside the city.

However, I don't know why, those "pirates" didn't destroy the ships on the pier...

After looting several villages near the port of Ponta Delgada, the pirates began to lay siege to the city of Ponta Delgada. However, instead of storming the city, the pirates chose to bombard the gates of Ponta Delgada with the 6-pound guns on the bow. The six 6-pound guns on the bow of the six ships bombarded the south gate of Ponta Delgada port together, making the south gate look a little crumbling.

At a critical moment, Fonseca, the lord of Ponta Delgada, ordered to block the opening of the south gate with bricks and staff to prevent the enemy from breaking in after the gate was blasted.

Ponta Delgada is a small town in a remote area. Naturally, the city gate cannot be an iron gate, and the iron sheet is not even nailed. Therefore, the oak city gate cannot withstand the long-term bombardment of artillery.

Fortunately, the 6-pound gun used by the pirates is not a powerful artillery, and it cannot blast through the oak door in a short time. Therefore, before the oak city gate was blown to pieces, the residents of the city finally blocked the city gate.

In the evening, for some unknown reason, the pirate fleet temporarily left the port of Ponta Delgada and went to anchor elsewhere to rest. Taking advantage of this opportunity, the Lord Fonseca ordered 20 sailors to leave the city and sneak into a 100-ton merchant ship in the port.

And drove the ship, left the port of Ponta Delgada at night, and went to Port Heroes on Terceira Island for help.

But they didn't know that in a hidden place outside Ponta Delgada, two Beihai State spies who were in charge of monitoring the city's movements put down their binoculars, smiled and clapped each other and said:

"It's done!"

In the next few days, six "pirate ships" bombarded the south gate of Ponta Delgada step by step, seemingly in no hurry.

...

Three days later, in Porto Heroes, about 300 kilometers away, the Governor of Azores Rui Silva received a distress letter from São Miguel Island...

"What? San Miguel Island was attacked? English pirates?" Rui Silva was a little confused.

"Are you sure it's an English pirate?" Rui Silva asked again in disbelief.

"Sure! Governor, our Lord Fonseca said that those ships are English sailing ships, and their offensive orders are also in English!" Said the sailor who came to report.

"Why did the English pirates come here to make trouble? Didn't they always only attack the French?" Rui Silva couldn't figure it out.

In fact, if you were the famous generals in ancient China who were deeply influenced by strategy, you might be able to guess the strategy of "tuning the tiger away from the mountain". After all, this kind of thing was very common in ancient Chinese wars.

However, this is ancient Europe, and trickery was not in vogue. And Rui Silva is not a very smart person, so he didn't see the tricks in it.

He didn't dare not rescue São Miguel Island. You must know that on São Miguel Island, there are many manors of powerful and powerful Portuguese nobles, and there are even several royal manors.

He can't afford to offend any of these big bosses. If he doesn't rescue them, he will be the governor to the end. Therefore, he could only decide to send a warship to rescue.

"By the way, what is the strength of those pirates, for example, their firepower?" Rui Silva asked about the strength of the "pirates" before the rescue.

The sailor who came to report thought for a while and said:

"There were more than 300 pirates who landed and ransacked the village, and there were estimated to be hundreds of people on board. As for firepower, they used 6 cannons to attack the city. However, the city owner said that each of their ships should have three cannons, arranged separately. At the bow and stern..."

"More than four hundred people... hiss—" Rui Silva gasped after hearing this.

You know, he, the governor of Azores, has only 420 sailors in the 7 warships under his command. Rui Silva didn't even have the confidence to beat the group of pirates if it was just a side-to-side battle. You know, England presumably has a tradition of pirates, and pirates are much better at fighting on board than ordinary sailors.

Although Portugal is also a maritime power, it has never done much with pirates. The Portuguese sailors mainly attacked the west coast of Africa, focusing on trade and landing attacks on black villages. They were really not good at boarding battles. I don't want the English to attack the French and French ships all day long, and they are very familiar with boarding battles.

Fortunately, the Portuguese also knew their own weaknesses, so they later focused on the development of the naval warfare mode of artillery bombardment and achieved success. A few years ago, in the Calicut naval battle in India, although the Spaniards were the main force, it was also a great success of the artillery naval battle.

Although the Azores fleet has only 7 small warships, each ship has at least seven or eight artillery pieces. In terms of vitality, it is definitely stronger than the pirates.

To be on the safe side, Rui Silva decided to send 6 warships to fight, leaving only one warship to protect Hero Port...

This news was discovered by the spies stationed in the Azores by the North Sea State. Then, it was delivered overnight to 4 warships 200 kilometers north of Terceira Island...

"This is difficult..." Tailar, the commander of the four warships, scratched his head. The four warships he brought were all refitted British sailing Kirk ships, and the total number of artillery pieces on the four ships was only 12. As for the Portuguese warship staying at Heroes Port, the number of cannons on board is 10...

If the two sides confront each other, although my side has a chance of winning, it is definitely not easy. After all, a Portuguese warship with 10 cannons will definitely make them suffer.

If it was a regular warship of the Beihai Kingdom, it would naturally not be afraid of this Portuguese warship. But what they used were all modified English-style Kirk sailboats, thin-skinned and unbeaten. It would be a lot of fun if one was sunk by a Portuguese warship...

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