"It's really a waste of rice." Guo Zili, commander of the Second Fleet and Navy Major, said depressedly in the lobster port of Beidao, "I originally planned to launch the army to attack Sofara, and then use the navy to take down Mozambique Island. Now, it's fine. I've been blocked by others and can't do anything."

Outside the Lobster Port of Petani, the originally crowded Portuguese ships have begun to slowly retreat (the sea storm begins to increase, which means a bad weather is coming). These ships slowly fall down their sails as if they are showing off their might, and then return to Mozambique along the southward current. However, for the time being, they can only stay in Mozambique and cannot go anywhere. Before August is approaching the end of the year, the monsoon generated in the Indian Ocean is relatively strong. If sailing along the coast is not a big problem, once they want to cross the Arabian Sea to India, they will be braved with strong winds.

The waves were in danger, and the Portuguese obviously would not do this - after all, it was not easy to save some property. When fighting with the West India Company, the Portuguese Navy sent more than 60 ships to Brazil at one time (at most 80 ships a year) to carry a large number of soldiers and supplies. However, in the battle with the Dutch, the ships were greatly damaged. Although they tried their best to make up for it over the years, they only had more than 50 ships, and their strength was far from returning to their old views, so they must not be easily lost. This is also one of the main reasons why they tried their best to avoid the decisive battle of the fleet.

However, this large Portuguese fleet was nestled in the Mozambique area, which caused considerable obstacles to the attacks of Sofara and Mozambique Island by the East Coast people. You should know that the captain of the New China Development Team Ma Wanpeng has been thinking about conquering there for a long time, because it is a famous gold export port in East Africa. He does not know how much gold is produced in the inland of Mutapa every year, but in terms of the amount of gold exported to Goa, it has been approaching 1.5 tons in recent years (historically, it was 400,000 Paldaus in 1600, equivalent to 1 ton, 850 kilograms in 1610, 1487 kilograms in 1667, and 1.5 tons in 1670, which has been showing a slow upward trend).

This figure was obtained when Portuguese India trade was hit hard. If the part exported to Macau, Lisbon and colonial officials themselves embezzled, then the gold production in the entire Mozambique (including the adjacent Zimbabwe Plateau) and nearby areas would be amazing. What is the specific, except for local officials, even the Portuguese kings are not very clear. The East Coast people only have a vague gold production figure at the end of the 16th century, that is, 8.5 tons (equivalent to 425 East Coast silver dollars, including a large amount of smuggled gold that has not entered the statistics of the Portuguese king), which is enough to make people crazy.

Ma Wanpeng, Guo Zili and others originally planned to take advantage of the favorable opportunity of the war in East Portugal to send the New China Infantry Battalion to completely remove Sofara, and then the naval fleet besieged Mozambique Island (the island needs to import all supplies including food and freshwater), forcing the Portuguese to surrender and seize the greatest benefits. Unfortunately, their plan was disrupted by the uninvited Portuguese fleet, and the attack on Portuguese East Africa was forced to come to an abrupt end. Now they may be more worried that New China Island will be peeped and blocked by the enemy, which feels terrible.

"The enemy will not leave until October. At that time, the monsoon coming to Mozambique from the south will end, and the ocean currents from the corner of Delgado will reach two knots. This is the most suitable for leaving Mozambique and returning to Brazil or Lisbon." Major Guo Zili slapped his thigh and said: "I don't think we can't spend time with the Portuguese here. What we should do now is to contact the local navy and ask them to send a fleet to help us immediately. There are many immigrant ships anchored in Xinhua Port waiting for departure, and there are also large amounts of cargo in demand for their own country, such as cotton, fine coal, wood, sugar, coffee, etc. If this group of Portuguese cannot be driven away, the problem will be very serious."

"Commander, Captain Ma's two tuna fishing boats had already headed south to Hezhong Port a few days ago. Their speed was very fast and they should be able to quickly contact the local fleet." A subordinate officer reminded Guo Zili.

"Of course I know this." Guo Zili glared at his officers and said, "We can't do nothing. In the past two days, the fleet will follow me again to see if we can mobilize a part of the Portuguese fleet, and then find an opportunity to annihilate one of them in pieces, reducing the pressure on the enemy to block us. In this case, ships with slower speeds do not need to keep up. My ships with the "Jingwu" fast cruise ship are the only ships that can escape from the Portuguese. The rest should be rested at home to save their lives in vain. By the way, what do the Italians on the other side say?"

"The Italians were very angry, but there was no way. They could neither snatch the cargo ships full of high-value sugar from the Portuguese, nor could they guarantee their ships not to be implicated. Therefore, most ships carrying cotton and sugar will be buried now, and wait for the situation to be clear before making plans." A small officer from the Second Fleet replied, "But I think they can try the Red Sea route and transport the sugar to the Port of Suez on the coast of the Red Sea, and sell it to the Ottomans nearby, or with our help, the cargo to Alexandria by land, and then find a way to transport it back to Europe for sale. I just don't know if the ******* is willing to do this."

"We can't take care of the people's affairs too much." Guo Zili said immediately, "Do your own business first. Immigrants try to let them all sail to the local land by sailing boat. This kind of ship is not enough. The Portuguese can't catch up with this kind of ship. If it doesn't really work, it can be a large flying cargo ship with faster speeds. In short, it can't be a flute-shaped ship, which is too dangerous. This will be a critical month for the Ottomans and Persian trade. However, the merchant ships of East African transport companies cannot go out to sea to transport all kinds of goods. The raw silk, ceramic tiles, porcelain, blankets, and slaves from the Middle East cannot transport them. The impact on the economy one by one is too great. To a certain extent, not only our Xinhua area has been affected, but the local impact is not light. Didn't the Portuguese intercept at least three local merchant ships with full cargo coming to Xinhua Port?"

After realizing his predicament, the Second Fleet began to actively respond. They finally organized four ships, namely a battleship, a fast cruiser, and two steam-powered tuna fishing ships (Ma Wanpeng's family, carrying 300 army soldiers), forming a fast fleet and began to move around under the nose of the Portuguese National People's Fleet.

Their attack range was actually very large. From the area of ​​Lorenzoma, to the area of ​​Fort Jesus in Mombasa in the north, sometimes they would even deliberately wander around the Mozambique Island. After abandoning the idea of ​​an unrealistic attack on Mozambique, the fast fleet commanded by Major Guo Zili took its advantages to the extreme and completely played a broken battle that stunned the Portuguese.

On August 3, this fast fleet appeared near Cape Delgado, and just intercepted a Portuguese merchant ship from Mombasa. Along with it, there was a near-shore Jung ship that had just returned to Mombasa, but was fled by it because it was dark (in fact, more factors were intentional release of water, and the goods it carried were of little value) - More than half of the goods on the merchant ship from Mombasa were of various Indian textiles, which made Major Guo Zili and others look at each other, but there were some Indian gems, perfume, exquisite tapestries, and Punjabi silk on it, which made up for a little "appearance fee".

Considering that the Portuguese merchant ship captured by them was difficult to bring back to its port, after transferring the cargo to its own ship, Major Guo Zili ordered it to sink it near Cape Delgado, and then led the fleet to stay here for two days before continuing to lead the team northward and move around Kilva to Mombasa.

On August 8, a small offshore boat from Malindi to Mozambique was intercepted by the East Coast people. The navy seized a large number of golden ivory and hundreds of black slaves in its cabin. The Portuguese suffered heavy losses. After the robbery, the ship was sunk as usual. Then, four ships in the fleet happily moved south to the vicinity of Zanzibar Island and encountered more than ten Portuguese ships heading north from Mozambique. It seemed that they were trying to wipe out the East Coast people.

Major Guo Zili, who had combat effectiveness, chose to avoid the battle. His ship caught the Portuguese for two or three hours at sea. Then, just as it was dark and the Portuguese gave up the pursuit, the battleship "Free Trade" followed the ocean currents southward, and with the addition of steam power, unexpectedly killed him at a relatively high speed of 4 knots, and caught a ignorant Portuguese naval armed merchant ship and beat him up.

The sudden fire on the sea alarmed the Portuguese squadron. They began to echo each other and tried to surround the east coast ships that had slipped over. However, their efforts were too pale at night, which caused great chaos, causing the Free Trade to chase the armed merchant ship and finally sank it.

The Free Trade, which sank a Portuguese ship, wandered around the periphery of the chaotic Portuguese fleet. After hurting several ships, it quietly left the combat waters and disappeared into the vast Indian Ocean.

The naval battle on Zanzibar had a serious impact on the Portuguese's psychology. For the first time, they deeply realized that if the main warships of the East Coast launched a crazy attack, they would not be able to guard against it. Considering that many ships would set sail from Goa in a few months and head to Lisbon, the Portuguese should be worried that their trade line would be attacked by others.

On August 15, the ships sent by the Portuguese were still trying to find Major Guo Zili's fast fleet on the sea, but they had no gains at all. Instead, they encountered an unknown Omani fleet. The Omani was extremely shocked by the Portuguese fleet of such a large scale on the coastline of East Africa, but they could only admit that they were unlucky. After a not-so-hard battle, more than ten near-shore junglers were sunk, and the rest fled into shallow waters covered with reefs. The Portuguese did not dare to pursue them, so they let the Omani remnant army go angrily.

On August 18, news came from near the mouth of the Zambezi River that the fast fleet of the East Coast people appeared here, attacking and capturing two jacks loaded with palm oil, wheat, coconut and cheese. After transferring the cargo, they sent people to burn the two ships, which looked extremely arrogant, which made the Portuguese who heard the news hate them. It was time to make a good conclusion. First of all, if the East Coast people did not want to fight them head-on in the waters of the Isle of Beer as last time, the fleet of the Portuguese Kingdom could not stop them, and could only rage the entire East African coastline by escorting them, unless they sent a large fleet of ships to escort them; secondly, if the East Coast people sent several faster ships to join this rank, it would be even more difficult for them to deal with, which is a very frustrating perception.

The Portuguese's concerns soon became a reality. On August 24, the Captain of the Molie's Navy, who arrived at full speed after receiving the news, led the "Fubomanli" and the "Control the East" battleship to the Mozambique Strait. After contacting Major Guo Zili with difficulty, the two battleships joined the fast fleet, accepted Major Guo Zili's unified command, and continued to find trouble for the Portuguese in the Western Indian Ocean. It turned out that a battleship made the Portuguese very worried, and now there are two more ships. This heavy pressure almost made the Portuguese breathless.

On August 31, the biggest bad news for the Portuguese appeared. After tricking nearly twenty Portuguese warships near Zanzibar, the East Coast Rapid Fleet quickly turned around and used ocean currents and steam power to move southward, and then unexpectedly landed near the estuary of the Zambezi River. After landing, more than 300 East Coast Army soldiers advanced rapidly and swept up a large number of Portuguese manors along the way - churches were burned, warehouses were looted, slaves were released, and all the resisters were killed.

After two days of sweeping, the East Coast Army, which had harvested a lot of leather, gold, ivory and some agricultural products, retreated back to the estuary of the Zambezi River, and then quickly boarded the ship and left the scene. At this time, the Portuguese fleet on Mozambique Island had just received the news and was hesitating whether to divide the troops to rescue and intercept them again.
Chapter completed!