The Sun and the Lion

Boxes of supplies were loaded onto each ship under the lift of port cranes. All sailors who had boarded the ship were making final preparations for combat with the help of port workers.

Ahsan looked at the busy fleet from the stern command building of the flagship, and then anxiously re-checked the intelligence and checked the plan. As a former pirate leader, his experience in commanding naval battles was basically plundering merchant ships, and there were only a few fights between pirates.

For this expedition, he needed to defeat the Qeshm Island fleet at sea and conduct landing and siege operations. He used merchant ships as much as possible to gather intelligence before the battle.

Although the previous act of imprisoning the Safavid embassy by Hormuz's Vizier Waqa Atta severely damaged the relationship between the two, neither side took any further action after the incident. The court in Hormuz became a puppet of Qeshm Island, and the King of Kings in Tabriz was temporarily unable to come up with effective countermeasures.

This has led to an awkward diplomatic situation in the Persian Gulf. Merchant ships traveling to and from Hormuz, Basra and other Safavid-controlled ports and officials at each port have tacitly remained silent and continued to act in accordance with convention, allowing trade routes to Keep running.

However, the pirates' previous massive attack on Hormuz still damaged the Persian Gulf trade routes, and many merchants chose to stay away from Hormuz for the time being. Faced with the sluggish business situation, the Hormuz palace was very friendly to every merchant ship that was still willing to trade here. Ahsan took advantage of this situation and sent a large number of spies to the two islands to gather information.

After taking control of Hormuz, the Sultan of Qeshm Island was at the height of his power in the Persian Gulf. He regarded himself as the lord of the entire Persian Gulf island and regarded all pirates operating in the Persian Gulf as his vassals. , hoping that they can shoulder more obligations for the palace.

As a pirate leader, Ahsan was well aware of the growing rift between the pirates and the court on Qeshm Island - the Sultan's will made Qeshm Port no longer a free port for pirates.

This was also the reason why he dared to attack the city alone. A dozen galleys and merchant ships could carry a large number of people and materials to deal with the guards of the palace on Qeshm Island, while the Karavel sailing ship equipped with artillery could quickly attack Qeshm Port. Strong city defenses.

In order to ensure maneuverability and surprise, he did not build and hire additional merchant ships to serve as supply ships into the fleet. This means that warships can only rely on the supplies they carry to fight, and they can only count on seizing the warehouses in Qeshm Port to raise military supplies.

At the same time, in order to disrupt the order in the city and quickly take over the port of Qeshm, he also dispatched a merchant ship full of goods and sailors in advance to act as a Trojan horse. Under the bulk cargo such as grain and wood in the cargo hold, there was a canister piled high. A sealed can of kerosene.

However, accidents will inevitably occur in combat, and accidents at sea can be more deadly than on land. Even with such a feasible plan, Ahsan and the other captains present still felt anxious and uneasy.

"Huda protects us."

At this time, Ahsan was reciting devoutly in his heart, and there was a sound of people reciting scriptures from the port.

Almost all the clergy in Kuwait gathered at the port, and they collectively prayed for the sailors who were about to go to sea. The sailors gathered on the deck were infected, and many of them temporarily put aside their finishing work and knelt down to pray to Huda. Every time they go to sea to fight, they are the most pious.

After completing the final verification work, Ahsan ordered everyone: "Everything will be carried out as planned."

"Yes." The captains who spoke in unison quickly left the flagship after receiving the order and returned to their respective warships through small boats.

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A sharp whistle sounded, and the sailors who were resting at their posts after praying on the deck started to move. They lowered the furled sails and pulled up the anchor. The lookout quickly climbed to the observation deck on the mast and had a panoramic view of the situation in the adjacent sea area.

Ahsan's flagship took the lead and took the lead to leave the port. The oarsmen sat in groups on benches and repeated a single action in rhythm under the whistles blown by the officers responsible for managing the oarsmen.

After the pirate fleet was incorporated, Ibrahim, who did not understand naval warfare, still made some requests to Ahsan based on his own knowledge. First, he established a fleet's signaling system in accordance with the army's signaling system. The document recorded all the flags and different trumpets and drums used by the fleet and compiled it into a standard communication manual.

The pirates in Kuwait Port are not idle. Leaders of all sizes who become officers are required to memorize the new communication signals and military regulations, and are personally inspected by Ahsan during weekly drills. Find a bookstore www.zhaoshuyuan.com However, this is not difficult for the pirates, because there is no reference object, and what is included in the manual is basically the pirates' sailing habits for many years.

The second was that slaves were not allowed to be used on ships, at least not as slave oarsmen on ships belonging to the King of Kings. Slave rowers were cheap and low-cost, but they were inefficient and carried the risk of rioting and fleeing, making it difficult to turn them into combat power in emergencies.

Moreover, the current scope of the navy's activities is still limited to the Persian Gulf, and it is impossible to replenish slave rowers by violently kidnapping pagan slaves like galley owners in Mediterranean countries. Taking fellow Muslims as slaves will seriously damage the reputation of the monarch. Unlike the Mediterranean, the Indian Ocean is very cost-effective to rely on the slave trade to replenish consumables.

If this is the case, then why not regularly pay a negligible amount of money to allow some people who have personal freedom but narrow prospects to voluntarily come to work on the ship for various reasons?

Ahsan was noncommittal about this request. Having fought in closed waters for a long time, he relied heavily on rowers to provide power for warships, and he also understood the demands of rowers and other lower-level crew members. He also mobilized oarsmen into battle when they were at a disadvantage. However, the slave rowers are considered the public property of each ship, and it is not his decision to decide how to deal with them. He has the ability to dismiss the slaves on his own ship, but he cannot force the little leaders below to liberate the slaves.

However, these were not problems in the face of the money ability provided by Ibrahim. The King of Kings directly used boxes of silver coins to buy slaves from the pirates and sent them to construction sites and mines on the shore for production. The vacant oarsmen were filled by a small band of pirates who had recently been annexed by him.

These dhows, roughly lined up in a row and powered by oars, sailed toward the unknown in the distance under the light of the setting sun.