The Strait of Magellan in late autumn was violent. The formation of three ships including Yunsheng 1 was carefully guided by a group of old European sailors. Until late June, after experiencing strong winds, rapid waves, thick fog, whirlpools, and countercurrents, this small formation finally crossed the only safe passage that communicated the coasts on both sides of the Americas, and entered the Pacific Ocean for the first time historically for the first time.

"What kind of sea current is Peru? Yuri, please answer." After sailing north along the Peru cold current for a while, Lu Ming, who was idle on the guard gunboat of the "East Coast Eagle", simply took the test of his students again.

"It's the compensation stream, sir." Yuri Petrovich replied proudly, "This rising compensation stream extends along the coast of Chile to Peru. We can easily get to wherever we want to go."

Lu Ming smiled with satisfaction: "Even Yuri is willing to spend time studying, which is great. So who will tell me about the history of Valdivia? Kyle Nick Johnson? You bastards must have gone to the bottom cabin to watch cards again, and they did not complete the learning tasks I assigned. Yuri, you are the team leader, please answer my question. If you answer incorrectly, the whole group will clean the deck for a week."

"The Port of Valdivia was established in 1551 and was established by Pedro de Valdivia. It was originally established as an export port for gold and silver mining sites in the inland areas such as Villarica. Later, it gradually developed in the perennial war of conquering the Araucan people in the south-central region. It is currently the largest city in the south-central and southern Spanish prosecutorial court district of Santiago." Yuri replied fluently, obviously working hard.

"Yuri, you're a little surprised to me now." Lu Ming praised.

When Lu Ming was evaluating students, in the officer rest room on the ground floor of the stern building, a group of naval officers were circulating a table for some kind of entertainment activities. Long-term sailing at sea was boring, so whenever officers and sailors had time, they would engage in activities such as playing cards, drinking, wrestling, and fighting rats that could increase the fun.

"Thirty thousand!" "Bar! Ten thousand! Haha, ten thousand! The bars are all open, both sides, and the single hang and the bars bloom, a total of 4 times, give money! Haha!" The second lieutenant John Ston sat obliquely on the chair, laughing proudly.

"What a bad luck!" "This hand made you earn a piece of five! You are so lucky today, and you keep winning." "Forget it, who will take over me? I'll go to the deck for some breath." Several naval alternate officers on the card table looked ashen and lamented repeatedly.

After paying the money, the sound of shuffling continued.

At this moment, a messenger walked down the gangway, went to the door of the officer's lounge and shouted: "Gentlemen, we are about to arrive at Zilloe Island. The captain asked everyone to stop all entertainment and prepare for battle. There may be Spanish fishing boats and warships in this place."

The officers stood up immediately after hearing this. "Damn it, where is my weapon!" "Evan, stand up, you sit on my uniform." "Damn, Simpson, you are stepping on me!" The chaotic scene lasted for five or six minutes, and then a group of well-dressed officers came to the bridge on the third floor of the stern building.

Captain Lu Ming was talking to Ji Wen who came from Yunsheng No. 1 on a traffic boat: "So, Xiao Bailang decided to land on this island. Well, after sailing for so long, he consumed a lot of supplies, so he just came ashore to replenish it. Well, the 'Eagle of the East Coast' will do a good job of alerting."

"Gentlemen, turn right and head to the northeast, and enter the Bay of Cordoba." Lu Ming began to order, "All officers return to their respective posts and pay close attention to whether there are any Spanish ships in the bay. If any discovery is found, report it immediately!"

The "Eagle on the East Coast" took the lead, Yunsheng No. 1 was in the center, and behind the "Galicia Flying Fish" hall, three ships sailed into the Bay of Cordoba between Ziloe Island and the mainland in a row. After half a day of sailing, the three ships drove into the Port of Castro on the east side of Ziloe Island.

"Quick! Move quickly! The Spanish in the port are watching you!" Small boats were put down from Yunsheng 1, and the fully armed army soldiers began to climb down the rope ladder on the side of the ship. Due to the large waves in the port, the bumps of the ship caused some soldiers to fall into the sea. These unlucky soldiers were immediately taken to the deck by the sailors on the ship through leather hanging bags connected by pulley sets. The sea water in May was cold, and the soldiers immediately changed into dry clothes and then drank strong wine to drive away the cold.

Several fast-moving boats had approached the beach. The Charouians, who were in charge of rowing, jumped into the cold and waist-length sea water and pushed the boat onto the mudflats. No one came to block the landing operation. Fabian Klingman held the 32-B flintlock rifle in both hands and rushed into some small wooden houses on the shore. This was a small wooden house where lumberjacks lived, and it seemed that his master had escaped.

There are scattered coniferous forests everywhere on the shore, and many of them have grown up in the years. There are some logging axes and tug-of-warming witnesses scattered around the forest, proving how panicked their owners were when they escaped.

"Bang!" Gunshots rang out not far away, which was the Spanish's belated resistance. Fabian immediately led his brothers to the place where the gunshots started. The soldiers of a squad of the 4th platoon were shooting at each other through a small forest with some Spaniards. The joining of the new force greatly increased the firepower of their side. The dense gun bullets hit the trees and made a "puff" sound. Someone on the Spanish seemed to have been shot.

Xie Hansan climbed the coast with the last group of soldiers in the second row. Seeing the battle ahead, he immediately rushed over with 47 officers and soldiers in the second row.

"The second row, quickly move up the gun and set up the gun...release...release the gun...prepare, let go!" Xie Hansan waved the command knife in his hand fiercely. The sound of gunfire sounded, and the Spaniards immediately rang out a few creepy screams. After the rest of the people fired a few random shots, they began to retreat.

The four platoons of army soldiers had already landed at this time. Xie Hansan directed them to line up in three sparse rows and headed towards the Spanish town. Five or six Spanish bodies were lying in the woods. The army soldiers didn't even look at it, and continued to move forward through the woods. At this time, the city of Castro finally appeared completely in front of everyone.

Strictly speaking, it is very difficult to call Castro a "city". Because this small town that can be seen at a glance does not have any defense facilities such as city walls, and even fewer wooden fences. There are many houses with mixed wooden or brick and wood structures in the city, and in addition, there are some thatched houses full of Indian style. In short, this is a dilapidated town.

"Step! One, two, one, one…one, two, one…” With Xie Hansan's command, the drummer beside him beat the rhythmic drum sound, and the soldiers began to move forward slowly according to the rhythm of the drum beats. There were several watchtowers in the town ahead, and some Spanish soldiers stood on it and peeked towards this side.

"One row, half of the face turns left, all the rows are fired... ready, let it go!" "The second row, the upper right front character spreads, the whole rows are fired... ready, let it go!" With the officer's order, the soldiers of the first and second rows of temporary platoons named the watchtowers one by one outside the range of the Spanish mesh rope guns, and the dense projectiles shot all the Spaniards who dared to climb up the tower into blood gourds.

The battle ended twenty minutes later. Eighteen Spanish soldiers and twenty-five Indian servants from Peru were shot dead on the spot, and the Army then took over the desolate and remote town.

There were hundreds of residents in the town, most of whom were Indians. In addition, there were a few Spanish soldiers, missionaries, merchants, craftsmen and farmers. These people hid in their homes in a panic, waiting silently for the judgment of these new conquerors. Xie Hansan requisitioned the most magnificent building in the town, a wooden church with three Jesuit missionaries in the church. These missionaries looked at Xie Hansan's eastern side with mixed fear and surprise. They seemed to understand something at this moment.

After the army controlled the situation, Xiao Bailang and some naval sailors began to "collect" the spoils. According to the plan formulated in advance, each resident in Castro town was asked to pay at least one pesos of ransom or equivalent items. The sailors carried sabers and rifles and began to collect money from house to house.

Xie Hansan interrogated a group of newly arrested Spanish town officials in the church, and Father Pedero acted as an interpreter. Castro's mayor and a group of city council members were blocked by the army before they had time to escape. In fact, they had no place to escape. They were surrounded by large areas of primeval forests, with few people on the road, and they would most likely die of starvation when they escaped. Instead of doing this, it would be better to stay in the town to try their luck.

The mayor and six committee members, an officer, a judge, a sheriff, a treasurer, and three religious people were tied up and threw them on the ground. Xie Han said with a expressionless face: "Gentlemen, I hate nonsense. Maybe some of you have guessed our origin, so I will not introduce myself anymore. Now I will ask questions, you will answer. If the person I asked cannot answer my questions, then he can report to God. Then, I started..."

Half an hour later, Xie Hansan got all the information he wanted: there were three logging camps around Castro City and a wood processing farm; several fishing boats were moored in the bay to the north, and there was also a leather processing farm for the captured sea otters and fox skins. Soon, Xie Hansan sent some army soldiers to cooperate with the Chalua people to clear these places.

In the evening, all the dispatched personnel came back. The bases around these towns were very small in size, often only a few people lived to dozens of people. When a large number of strangers carrying rifles rushed over, these people ran away immediately. There was a lot of dry wood stored in the wood processing farm. After the travelers selected some for their spare time, the rest were burned, and they could not be left for the Spaniards. Those who returned from the north bay brought back fur full of fishing boats, and these were sent to the "Galicia Flying Fish" for preservation.

The travelers stayed in Port Castro for a night. The next day, the hardworking Chalua workers began to move all kinds of materials they collected onto the ship. It was not until noon that the entire material transport process was declared over. After counting and counting, it was found that a total of 2 pigs, 5 cows, 14 sheep, 2,000 kilograms of grain, 20 bottles of wine, and various gold and silver coins of more than 3,000 pesos. In addition, there were a large amount of precious fur, several gunpowder and lead bullets, which was considered a great harvest.

Pirates are really a promising profession. Xie Hansan sighed.
Chapter completed!