The Strait of Malacca is a famous transportation route in Asia and a node of the entire world, connecting the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. Hundreds of years ago, when Zheng He of the Ming Dynasty went to the West, he traveled all the way through Malacca to India, the Middle East, and even to the east coast of Africa. In that era, China was far higher than Europe in terms of navigation industry. In that era, the great geographical discovery was just the beginning, and China had begun to penetrate into Africa.

The feudal dynasty, relying on land, was always a powerful China. No adventurers devoted themselves to overseas and delayed the rare development opportunity. Instead, they allowed the West to develop and threatened the East.

Since hundreds of years ago, pirates have been growing in Malacca. There are many islands here, the environment in the strait is changing, and it is also a major transportation route. It is the best place for pirates to move around. Especially after modern times, after 1800 years, pirates from China, North Korea, and Japan in East Asia were driven to the east, and some local dilapidated houses. They were launched with a sailboat. It can be said that it has become much more lively, and the number and variety of pirates have increased. You can do it without hesitation. There are at least 100,000 pirates in Southeast Asia.

As early as 20 days ago, there was a news that spread among pirates. There was a huge fleet of ships who purchased a large amount of gold, silver and jewelry in Europe and went to the east. As for gold, it was calculated at least in tons, and there were even dozens of tons, including currencies, weapons, and even machinery and equipment from various countries, countless.

In itself, this news is at most a rumor, and no one will pay attention to it. The legend of the pirate world was once more than a hundred years ago. The black ships in Spain and Portugal, and the silver accumulated by the Japanese trade of Portugal black ships. The other part is precious metals obtained from South America. Unfortunately, those are escorts by warships, and they are generally difficult to get.

These are warships, and they were wiped out through certain channels. Although Southeast Asia is complex and is also a holy place for pirates, after the intervention of the great powers, especially the emergence of rapid destroyers and cruisers, the pirates who twisted them were like rabbits. There was nowhere to hide, and there were no other ways to hide similar tricks. I don’t know how many times I have been on, and the pirates have also learned to be smart.

The rumors have further developed. Some people sent a batch of weapons through special channels, even including torpedoes. This thing is absolutely controlled and the torpedo is too powerful. In a complex environment, it can pose a certain threat to warships. These pirates have channels to buy small cannons, and torpedoes are simply impossible.

The pirates are not completely unaware of the world situation. At present, in Southeast Asia, those who have this ability are nothing more than Britain, France, Germany and the United States. These four great powers have carefully learned about the situation of the fleet. The fleet belongs to a major Chinese force in the northwest, just last year. He defeated the polar bear Russia in the northeast of the Far East and was an extremely powerful existence, and this channel is more or less related to Britain and France.

The clever pirates saw that this was a whirlpool, neither the Northwest nor the United Kingdom could deal with it. The Northwest fleet had money, which was placed in the open. The 1.2 million-ton fleet could never have any concealment. But this batch of ships was a huge wealth.

The reason why pirates are pirates is that they are short-sighted and extremely vicious. Not taking action is a worry and a trap. Now it is obvious that Britain and France have to deal with the northwest. No matter what, Britain and France are always the strongest people in Southeast Asia. The northwest is thousands of miles away and is a land-based power. No matter how hard it is, it can't catch them. Let's take it first.

In this way, an undercurrent spread among the pirates. The 17 largest pirates in Southeast Asia actually had a faint joint trend. Together, they had a total of thousands of ships of various types, and even more than 50. The modified armored gunships were not professional armored gunships, but ordinary ships. Through modification, several artillery more than 100 mm were obtained. It poses a huge threat to ordinary-strength armed merchant ships, and even when they face warships, they can barely fight.

The number of people is always the biggest advantage. As for the pirates who rushed over during this period, they all knew some of the fur and wanted to come and get cheap. The British seemed to be clearly letting go and unable to break through the protection of the fleet. At most, they would be wronged souls.

In Singapore, in the Asian Fleet Command, a British intelligence official sat with the Asian Fleet intelligence officer. This time the conspiracy against the Northwest was controlled by the two of them. For the Fleet Street, the Northwest would not offend it, but some people below were full of hatred for the Northwest. The Northwest obviously helped Germany. The fights several times made Germany gain huge benefits. Even this time, Germany had the greatest benefits. The Baghdad Railway, the Basra Port, and the Kiel Canal, these can be quickly converted into military purposes. With this, the Northwest fleet cannot be let go.

It is impossible to take all the fleets of 1.2 million tons. Britain and France cannot take action on their own. It is still possible to use the pirates to deal with heavy blows. Now the information has been dispersed, especially a large number of pirates gathered in the Strait of Malacca. Not to mention anything else, 5,000 ships and more than 70,000 pirates gathered together. Even the British were surprised, let alone the unprepared Northwest.

"Do you know when the pirates will take action?" Rio, intelligence officer of the Asia Division of the Intelligence Department, asked happily.

"I don't know, it should be in the Strait of Malacca. It's narrow and the surrounding situation is complicated. I heard that some of the pirates' ships have entered it!" Fleet intelligence officer Quark nodded. He has been in Asia for 7 years, and he knows most of the hydrological situation in Asia, especially the Asian fleet's resident Malacca, who is extremely familiar with it. Some places where even the Asian fleet cannot encircle and suppress it has become natural hotbeds for pirates.

"By the way, Quark, what should we do with our ship? We will always lose several ships, otherwise it would be a bit unreasonable!" Rio suddenly thought of something and said.

"I have to sink a few ships, and I have even prepared the people who died. Anyway, it is the Northwest to hire, so the money must be taken out!" After saying that, the two of them laughed gloomy. Some things may not be known to outsiders. They are all in the field of intelligence. Both of them have done these dirty and tiring work. Perhaps on land, Britain is not as good as some army powers, but at sea, many things are left over from Britain. Even if they know clearly, they may not be able to find the omissions. What's more, the current situation, the Northwest fleet is ignorant.

The departure of the three ships was at night. After a little knowledge, no one would notice them. Compared with the hundreds, the three ships were very inconspicuous. They just left, not came over, and even the British ships around them did not even report them. The only ones who really knew everything were only a few, only the captain or the squadron captain knew, and the rest only knew that this was an escort operation, and they immediately passed Malacca. After Malacca, one day was almost like a day.

Before entering the Strait of Malacca, the last docking place finally arrived. The Port of Colombo in Sri Lanka was built by Muslims since the 7th century. In the 16th century, Portugal colonists established fortresses here, thus starting the development of the port. When Britain colonized Sri Lanka in the 19th century, it expanded the Port of Colombo on a large scale. Now the most recent reconstruction in 1912 is underway, and the tonnage and modernization of the docking have been greatly improved.

The fleet itself only plans to dock at Colombo Port for about a day, and needs to add coal and water. The next time it is docked is in Malacca, Kuala Lumpur, or simply in Singapore, which are large ports in the Strait of Malacca, enough to dock most of the ships.

However, on the first day after getting ashore, Yang Yuanzhao became ill, and the disease was very serious. It seemed that it was a tropical high fever. He kept the high fever and found many doctors, but it did not improve.

Yang Yuanzhao is the head of the northwest. He has supreme status in both the northwest and the fleet. Everything about him will be magnified. This fleet paused here. This was the second wave. The first wave had not left. Until the third wave and the fourth wave, about 900,000 tons of ships were concentrated in Colombo Port and occupied most of the ship positions here. The British port authorities only woke up and urged them to leave. However, the highest leader Yang Yuanzhao was in a high fever, and his life and death were uncertain, and no one could make a decision. This stalemate was here.

Singapore is monitoring the situation here at any time. I thought the fleet was going to be there, but I stayed in Colombo Port for 3 days and it was about to go to 4 days. Both intelligence officials were suspicious. After all, this time the action was quite big, and so many pirates were concentrated. If the news leaked and the northwest found out, it would be normal to stop.

Such a large fleet always has to leave. There is no naval force in the northwest, and it is even more unreliable to rely on the German East Asian fleet. Half of the East Asian fleet's strength is in Germany and it is still restrained by Britain. It is good to be able to send out several destroyers. For tens of thousands of pirates and thousands of ships, these forces are simply a drop in the bucket.

Even so, Rio, who was cautious, would still command the Port of Colombo through telegram and remotely control, and order the ships to immediately, otherwise, restrictions would be imposed on supplies and water sources.

This approach can be said to be a way to remove the fire from the bottom of the pot. In this way, the United Kingdom can only control a large number of ports around the world. Most of the nodes of the route are controlled in their hands, and they can almost do whatever they want.
Chapter completed!