The Age of Discovery: Chinese cuisine swept across Europe

Chapter 280 Naval Battle

So everyone carefully planned and worked out a detailed plan. On that day, they began to unload the cargo on the ship. Of course, they didn't have to unload all of it, just the heaviest cargo that would not affect the flexibility of the ship.

None of the Ming sailors knew how to fire a cannon, so they transferred some people from other ships to the Xingyun, and the garrison at the supply point also sent several navy ships over. In this way, there were six ships with combat power, which was not inferior to the pirate group in terms of numbers.

Late at night on the second day, the moon was dark and the wind was high. The sky was gloomy. It was a moonless night with only a few stars. Several galleons went out to sea and headed in the direction of the spot that had been cleared during the day.

The pirate ships were anchored several miles away from the supply port. The six pirate ships were arranged in a semicircular structure, blocking the sea out of the port tightly. In this way, no matter where the merchant ships left the port, the pirate ships could find them.

But this also resulted in the pirate ships not being so close to each other. The pirates were not worried that the merchant ships would run away if they were too far away. They were empty ships, and it was easy for them to chase fully loaded merchant ships.

This gave Yun Ji the confidence to board the ship and defeat the enemies one by one.

The normal route is to enter and exit from the east, but this time Yun Ji chose to break through from the west. Less than two nautical miles away from the pirate ship, Yun Ji lowered a small boat, and Min Xi helped him lower the boat, repeatedly reminding him to pay attention to safety.

Yun Ji pretended to be relaxed and said, "I know. Just wait for my good news and pay attention to my signal lights."

Min Xi nodded: "I know."

In the darkness, Yun Ji squeezed Min Xi's hand, then climbed down the rope to the boat, and then rowed the boat towards the pirate ship.

Yun Ji had good eyesight, and could still see things far away even in the dark night. The pirates were very arrogant, and ordinary merchant ships did not light up lights at night to avoid being discovered by pirates, but pirate ships were not afraid of being discovered and still lit up lights at night.

This also made it easy for Yun Ji and his team to find their target.

Yun Ji rowed the boat to the pirate ship and listened carefully to the movements on the ship. It was around three in the morning, and there was still some time before dawn. It was the time of the day when people were sleeping deeply. Even the people on duty were probably beginning to doze off.

Yun Ji lightly swung the grappling hook and hung it on the railing of the pirate ship, then loosely tied the other end to the small boat so that the small boat would not be washed away by the waves and he could still retreat along the way he came.

Yun Ji climbed up the deck swiftly along the rope and scanned the area. He saw no one in this position. He crouched and crept forward. Suddenly, he smelled a smell coming from the front. It was the unique body odor of Europeans. It was too pungent. Yun Ji held his breath and quickly found the source of the smell. There was a torch swaying towards this side. It turned out to be a patrolman!

The pirates were indeed cautious, and there were still people patrolling in the middle of the night. Yun Ji slowly retreated, intending to bypass the cabin, avoid the range of light, and go around the man's back to kill him. However, after retreating a few steps, the man suddenly stopped, turned his face to the sea, and unbuttoned his pants with one hand to prepare to urinate.

The opportunity has come! Yun Ji took advantage of the other party's attention on peeing, stepped forward quickly, and took out a dagger and cut the other party's neck before the other party could react. The patrol was solved quietly.

Yun Ji grabbed the torch before it fell to the ground and held it in his hand.

The layout of the galleons was similar. Yun Ji held the torch, lowered it to his knees, and didn't shine it on his face. This way, even if someone saw him, they wouldn't be able to tell that he was not one of his accomplices. It took a lot of effort to find someone in the dark last time, but this time with the torch, it saved him a lot of trouble.

It was only because of his skill and courage that he dared to go to the pirates so blatantly with a torch. If it were someone else, would he dare to use a torch?

Min Xi was waiting anxiously on the boat. The night wind was very cold. He was cold all over and couldn't even control his shivering. But his palms were full of sweat. Yun Ji was using his life to fight for their chance to win the war. He hoped that it would be as smooth as last time.

However, this time things were not as smooth as last time. There were a lot more pirates on this ship than the last one, nearly thirty people. Yun Ji harvested them like cutting melons and vegetables along the way, and in the end he was turned into a bloody man. The strong smell of blood woke up some vigilant people. They woke up their companions in panic and stood up to resist with weapons. Although Yun Ji was an excellent martial artist and could easily beat these people, the space in the cabin was too narrow, which restricted his movements.

He was also injured, with a cut on his arm and a hole in his stomach. Fortunately, he returned to defense in time and the hole was not stabbed too deep.

Yun Ji gritted his teeth and killed all the pirates. He was also grateful that the pirate ships were far enough away that they could not hear the noise in the cabin, and Yun Ji trapped them in the narrow cabin, so they had no chance to go out and send a signal for help.

Yun Ji pressed the wound on his stomach with one hand, endured the pain and confirmed that there was no one on the boat who had escaped. Only then did he stop and hastily bandaged the wound to stop the bleeding.

In this situation, it was no longer suitable to go to another ship. According to the agreed signal, he stood at the bow and sent a signal to Min Xi with a torch. Then he sat at the bow and waited for Min Xi and others to come and meet him.

Min Xi had been watching the movements on the ship from the bow and saw the torches finally move. The trail of fire drawn was a signal that the threat had been lifted.

Min Xi quickly ordered his men to steer the boat towards the pirate ship. When the boat could not get any closer, Min Xi spoke: "Seventh Brother!" His voice was very low. There were not many sounds on the sea at night, so the human voice would be very obvious.

Yun Ji leaned against the side of the boat: "I'm here."

Min Xi heard something was wrong with his voice and asked quickly, "Seventh Brother, are you hurt?"

"Well, just a little bit, not serious. I have dealt with all the people on this ship. I will send some more people to operate the ship. We are seven to five, so we should have the advantage." Yun Ji's voice was obviously lacking in strength.

Min Xi conveyed his words to the captains of several other ships, and soon everyone selected some people from their ships to board the pirate ship.

At the same time, Yun Ji also struggled to get off the ship and returned to the Xingyun. When Min Xi saw the blood all over his body, he was so scared that his legs went limp. He half hugged Yun Ji and asked, "Seventh Brother, where are you hurt?"

Yun Ji's lips turned pale due to blood loss. He gave Min Xi a difficult smile: "Don't be afraid of your arms and abdomen. They are not serious."

Min Xike didn't believe him. He and Diego helped Yun Ji into the cabin and asked Diego to bring several lanterns and torches. He took off Yun Ji's shirt, found the medicine box, wiped the blood and bandaged his wounds. Fortunately, they distilled strong liquor as alcohol before they set off.

Min Xi looked at Yun Ji's bloody wound, and his eyes could not help but turn red. The injury was far more serious than he expected. He didn't know how Yun Ji supported himself until he got off the boat and back on. Min Xi's hands could not stop shaking. He knew how fatal such a wound would be in such an environment.

Yun Ji was lying on the floor. Seeing Min Xi's hands shaking as he wiped his wound, he raised his hand and held his hand: "Don't be afraid, Ninth Brother. It's just a minor injury. It will be fine. Help me apply medicine to stop the bleeding. We still have a tough battle to fight."

Min Xi put his hand on his shoulder: "Leave the rest to us. You are injured, don't get up again. The bleeding will not stop if the wound is torn. Maybe the injury will not take your life, but excessive bleeding will!"

Yun Ji heard this and said, "Okay. I won't go. I'll leave it to you. You also have to be careful."

"I will." Min Xi said firmly.

The wound was not small, Min Xi took a deep breath, calmed himself down, sewed up the wound with needle and thread, sprinkled golden wound medicine on the wound, and bandaged it carefully before Min Xi went out. Yun Ji was injured, and he was now the leader of the Xingyun, so he had to go out and command the ship.

The pirate ship was quickly taken over. Led by the navy, they attacked the pirate ship before the pirates could react.

The second pirate ship to the west was bombarded with heavy shells before they could react. It was not just one ship that was firing at it, but several ships that were firing shells at the same time. By the time they reacted and ran to the fort to fight back, the ship had been hit by several shells, and the deck and the side of the ship were penetrated. The pirate ship fired back a few shells without any rules, and completely lost the ability to fight back.

As soon as the cannon fire rang out here, several other ships reacted, started fighting, and quickly turned their heads and rushed over here.

The pirate ships thought that the Portuguese merchant ship was trying to leave secretly under the cover of night and was discovered by their accomplices, so they opened fire to fight back. But they did not expect that when they arrived, they were greeted by intensive artillery fire.

Although the pirate ships opened fire as soon as they arrived, their actual combat level was indeed very high and they fought in an organized manner, but because they were scattered and arrived separately, this gave Min Xi and his men the opportunity to defeat them one by one, and they almost used a random punch to kill the master's attack, and they took down the third ship.

The remaining pirate ships finally reacted and gathered together to attack. They only had three ships left. The merchant ship had seven ships, and their morale was high. They dealt a heavy blow to the three pirate ships. By the time the pirates reacted and wanted to escape, they were already riddled with holes, and there was not a single intact ship.

When the war ended, the sky was just getting light, the battlefield was filled with smoke, and the sea was in a mess.

Taking stock of the battle situation, although the Portuguese merchant fleet also suffered damage, no ship sank. On the other hand, one pirate ship was sunk, and another was slowly sinking. One of the three ships that escaped was seriously damaged, and the other two were also damaged to varying degrees.