In the dungeon of the Fortress of Penion, Li Jinde, the protagonist of the Barbary Pirates incident, was locked up here.

He heard the sound of artillery and noisy footsteps outside from time to time. At first, the sound of artillery was still in the direction of the port, but later the sound of artillery was getting closer and closer, and he even felt that the artillery was ringing near the fortress.

The sound of artillery is getting closer and closer, which means that the Fourth Fleet who came to save him is getting closer and closer to him.

There was footsteps in the dungeon, and Pashamurat came in with a translator.

"Your people have won, you are the first person to be caught by me and can still be regained freedom." Murat threw the keys of the handcuffs on the floor.

Regaining freedom! Li Jinde picked up the key, and his mood felt a little calmer at this time.

When the tripartite coalition led by the Fourth Fleet blocked Algiers, Li Jinde was transferred to the dungeon, and his food improved a lot and his complexion improved a lot.

"I'll take you out. You are one of the bargaining chips we must hand over when we negotiate." Murat looked bitter.

He was Pasha of the Ottoman Empire, the commander of the Barbary pirates, equivalent to the governor of a province, and he, the governor, had to surrender with a white flag and had to pay compensation. Apart from this, I don't know what the Ottoman Emperor would deal with him.

If he had enough financial resources and military strength, he could still be the local emperor of a semi-independent kingdom. However, now that his ships have been captured, he will have to compensate the enemy with a large amount of property, and he may have lost the capital to fight against the imperial emperor.

Murat came to the city tower in the middle of the fortress in a heavy mood. The soldiers of the Fourth Fleet and the Far West Expeditionary Force had occupied various important strongholds and entrances of the fortress, while the pirates were disarmed and gathered in the open space in the middle.

The British militia and ordinary members of the Knights of Malta were prohibited from entering the fortress, preventing them from looting the fortress again.

The fortress has hoarded gold, silver and treasures of Pasha and other pirate leaders. If these spoils were stolen by the soldiers, Murat would probably not be able to provide silver to compensate Sun Chuanting and others.

Sun Xu, the Fourth Fleet represented by Zheng Zhibao, the Far West Expeditionary Force led by Sun Chuanting, the Royal Fleet led by Sir Pennington, and the Knights of Malta led by Castella, they sat at the negotiating table.

The one-eyed pirate of the Netherlands, Jansson, was afraid to see Pasha in Algiers, so he did not dare to show up.

"It's great to be able to see you!" Li Jinde couldn't help crying with joy when he saw a group of people from his hometown.

"Thank you for your hard work. We also learned from the Netherlands merchant Reit that you were locked up in Algiers, otherwise we would not be able to find your trace at all." Sun Chuanting looked at the Netherlands merchant Reit as if he had pointed.

Reit's face became not very good, because when Sun Chuanting saw it, the pirate leaders also focused their attention on him. Now everyone knows that it was the news he revealed. What should we do if the pirates retaliate in the future?

"Tell me, how much gold and silver do you need to get to be willing to leave here?" Pashamurat asked.

"1 million taels of silver."

"1 million taels?! Don't joke. Now that we are at the end of our lives, we have lowered our attitude to negotiate with you, you should at least give a reasonable number!"

The pirates started to argue and it was difficult to accept the claim of 1 million taels of silver for the trilateral coalition. They thought the trilateral coalition just didn't want peace talks, but they were wrong, and the trilateral coalition seemed to be serious.

"It is natural to release me and release the arrested persons. One million taels of silver is our compensation for losses, including the frigates. If we do not pay the compensation of one million taels of silver, we will not leave Algiers."

"Impossible, we can't take out 1 million taels of gold and silver, even I can't do it!"

Pasha Murat's psychological price was to compensate 500,000 taels of silver, but the other party always set the compensation at 1 million taels of silver, which was twice his psychological expectations!

The senior officials of the three forces looked at each other and they were now winners. They could put forward harsh conditions, depending on whether the other party was able to repay.

"You can first pay gold, silver, treasures or goods worth 500,000 taels of silver, and the remaining 500,000 taels of silver will be repaid in equal amounts within 10 years. That is to say, you need to go to London City every year to pay us 50,000 taels of silver compensation." Sun Xu formally proposed the solution.

There is no 1 million taels of silver now? Then pay half of it first and the remaining half will be repaid in installments.

It is equivalent to the Barbary Pirates who need to pay protection fees every year!

This is the first time that the pirates have been asked to agree to such harsh conditions. They have always collected protection fees from the navies of other countries. When did they pay protection fees to others?!

Li Jinde didn't know about the negotiations between the two sides. He was shocked when he heard the huge compensation of 1 million taels of silver.

Obviously they are here to blackmail a military pay from the Barbary pirates!

Currently, the military expenditure of the Fourth Fleet and the Far West Expeditionary Force is paid by the local government, and a large amount of military expenditure is required every year. The annual maintenance cost of the Fourth Fleet sailing fleet is a considerable amount. To make up for the expenses of this army stationed in Europe requires income, and part of the income comes from the tax amount of profits of Western companies. However, Western companies have not yet begun to make money from foreigners, so military expenditures are basically unable to be compensated from Western companies.

Another effective way to resupply is to launch a war and require the defeated party to pay compensation.

"What do you think?" Murat asked his generals in a low voice.

"Master Pasha, maybe we can agree to their request. It is our limit to take out 500,000 taels in one go. If the remaining 500,000 taels of silver is not under much pressure, and then we may not have to compensate the remaining 500,000 taels of silver..." Amur said.

“Why?”

"The empire will never allow us to pay 50,000 taels of silver to the Chinese and Europeans every year in the next ten years, because we, Algiers, handed over the money to the Chinese and Europeans, so we will have no money to honor His Majesty the Emperor and the imperial officials. This is a situation they absolutely do not want to see..."

"I understand what you mean."

When Murat heard Amur's analysis, he was not very disgusted with the other party's claim for 1 million taels of war compensation. He first compensated 500,000 taels of silver to ask them to withdraw their troops, and then he would talk about whether the remaining 500,000 taels of silver would be paid or not.

"We are willing to accept the conditions for half of the compensation and the remaining half of the compensation will be paid in ten years." Murat said on behalf of the pirates in order to save his life and property.

"In addition to compensation of 1 million taels of silver, any pirate under the jurisdiction of Algiers shall not plunder our merchant ships in China and Britain, nor shall we kidnap our merchants, or plunder the coastal areas such as England and Ireland. In addition, our merchant ships can freely enter and exit Algiers for supplies." Sun Xu and Count Strafford forced the pirates to agree to other conditions.
Chapter completed!