Chapter 447: The Captives

Zhou Weisen didn’t speak Spanish, but he had dealt with plenty of Mexicans back in the US and could manage a few everyday phrases—otherwise, it wouldn’t have been so easy to pick up Mendoza. He understood the word “surrender,” so he stopped the assault team from throwing a second tear gas grenade and turned to the Indian translator.

“Tell them to put their hands over their heads and come out one by one!” The Indian translator rattled off the words, then repeated them. This time, there was a response from inside. A Spaniard emerged from the pepper smoke, sneezing and tearing up, but he didn’t forget to keep his hands over his head.

Looking at his woolen clothes and layers of stiff, ruffled collar, it was clear he was a person of status. The empty scabbard on his thigh also indicated this—only a person of status, if not a nobleman, at least a so-called “scion of a noble family,” could wear a sword.

The man, irritated by the pepper smoke, was both tearing up and sneezing. He was grabbed by the assault team and tied up before he could even see what was happening. Then, under the loud shouts of the Indian translator to “Kneel!”, they were all forced to kneel on the deck, like a string of crabs.

Someone tried to stand up and speak, but Zhou Weisen had neither the time nor the interest to listen. With a gesture, the Indian translator, as if on stimulants, beat the unfortunate Spaniard with a stick until he lay motionless on the ground.

Zhou Weisen counted ten people kneeling on the deck, including two young pages. From their appearance, they were all important people on the ship and their servants.

After the tenth person, there was no more sound from inside. Zhou Weisen attached a tactical flashlight to his SW 629 and was the first to enter the cabin, followed by the assault team wearing masks and goggles.

There was no need to display their tactical training成果 inside. The cabin was in a mess, with furniture and various utensils scattered on the floor, along with many rapiers, sabers, and matchlocks, as if the people inside had been preparing for a last stand. But now, there was no one left.

“Secure the entrance to the gun deck!” Zhou Weisen shouted. This entrance was the connecting passage between the hold and the stern cabin. If the Spanish were to counterattack, this would be a shortcut. “Search carefully!”

The sterncastle had two entrances. One was the cabin door leading to the upper deck, where they had entered. From here, one could go to the upper deck or up the stairs on either side to the sterncastle deck—where the helmsman steered and the ship was commanded. The other entrance was on the upper level of the sterncastle and led to the gun deck. This entrance was usually locked to prevent mutinous sailors from using it to launch a surprise attack on the sterncastle from the lower deck. In case of a boarding by pirates, the sterncastle also served as a point of resistance.

The assault team quickly cleared the first level of senior crew cabins and then entered the second level. The second level was divided into three rooms. The outer one was a large room used by the captain for various shipboard duties. The middle one was the dining room for the ship’s senior crew. The innermost room was divided into left and right cabins, for the ship owner and the captain, respectively. When the ship owner was not on board, this room was also used by distinguished guests.

“Clear!” “Clear!” “Clear!” Confirmations of safety came from all directions.

“Search carefully!” Zhou Weisen shouted. The stern cabin often stored the personal belongings of the captain and distinguished guests—especially on a regular ship like this, traveling between two colonies, everyone would seize the opportunity to engage in large-scale smuggling. The captain of the San Luis would be no exception. They might even make a small fortune here.

“Report, Chief!” a team member suddenly shouted. “There’s a woman on board!”

The word “woman” sent a jolt through Zhou Weisen. In this era, apart from slaves, very few women traveled long distances by sea. Although some captains would bring their wives or daughters along, this was a rare exception.

However, this was a royal ship traveling between New Spain and the Philippines. It was entirely possible that it was carrying the families of some important officials.

A Spanish woman on a ship, it went without saying, would be a fiery and passionate Latina. Although Zhou Weisen already had a foreign woman he was tired of sleeping with, capturing a foreign woman would earn him more merit points in the Senate than capturing a ship full of Spanish men.

“Where?” he asked eagerly.

“In the ship owner’s cabin,” the team member said. “She refuses to come out, and we can’t understand her…”

“If she won’t come out, why don’t you drag her out?” Zhou Weisen said coldly. “Capture her alive!”

A few minutes later, two team members dragged a woman before him. Zhou Weisen was greatly disappointed. The woman was indeed a foreigner, but she was clearly not young. She was wrapped in a thick, black long dress—he had some knowledge of European clothing and knew this was a widow’s attire. A closer look at her face revealed she was at least fifty.

Seeing that she was a past-her-prime foreign woman, Zhou Weisen couldn’t be bothered to ask any more questions. With a wave of his hand, he ordered the team members to take her away. He himself also left the stern cabin.

At this moment, a member of the marine assault team came to report to him: the entrance to the middle and lower decks on the main deck had been secured. They were currently having the Indian translator shout, but there was no response from below.

“Keep shouting!” Zhou Weisen had just finished speaking when a volley of gunfire erupted on the deck, and white smoke filled the air. The Spanish below had suddenly fired their matchlocks through the entrance and then pushed open the wooden grating, trying to rush out in a swarm.

But their attempt was immediately met with a fierce counterattack from the waiting marines. The seven or eight men who had climbed out of the hatch had barely shown half their bodies before they were hit by a dense volley of canister shot, their brains splattering, and they died instantly.

It seemed they had to resort to extraordinary measures. Zhou Weisen didn’t like poison gas at all, and the several hundred sailors and soldiers were also good labor for the mines.

Zhou Weisen picked up the walkie-talkie and called Lin Chuanqing, “Old Lin, prepare the ‘disinfectant’!”

“Understood!”

As he was speaking, he saw team members dragging two more women out of the stern cabin. Zhou Weisen was greatly surprised. What was with this ship? So many women!

He quickly asked, “What’s going on?”

“Report, Chief! They were found in the cabins below, hiding in a luggage room.”

Zhou Weisen looked at them. These two women were quite young, but their faces showed mixed yellow and white features—they should be Creoles from the Americas, the mixed-blood descendants of Spanish conquerors and Indian women.

From their clothing, they didn’t seem to be women of status, probably maids or something similar. As he was thinking this, a strange fragrance suddenly wafted to his nose—the smell of perfume.

Zhou Weisen was suddenly stunned. Connecting this with the “crow” from before, he became excited. He gave a few instructions to the captain of the marine assault team and then went back into the stern cabin with a few men.

I was too slow, I didn’t even think of it! he thought to himself. Isn’t this widow a “chaperone”? The Spanish upper class always used to hire an elderly widow to act as a companion and supervisor for a young lady or young wife. Otherwise, why would a plainly dressed widow be staying in the ship owner’s cabin on a transoceanic voyage? And those two maids, the smell of perfume on them—it was all so obvious!

In the ship owner’s cabin in the stern, there must have been a young and high-status foreign woman! She must be hiding!

“Attention, start searching again! Search every cabin carefully!” Zhou Weisen ordered. “Report to me immediately if you find anything suspicious!”

Not long after, a young woman was dragged before him. She was wearing a magnificent long dress made of a material similar to silk, embroidered with gold thread, which Zhou Weisen had never seen before. She held a folding fan tightly in her hand. From her appearance, she was a woman of high society, most likely the family of a high-ranking Spanish official or nobleman from New Spain or the Philippine colony.

Zhou Weisen estimated the woman’s age to be around twenty. She was petite, with long brown hair in many small curls falling from her temples. She stared at the man in the strange clothes before her with a pair of frightened brown eyes. The scent wafting from her was the same perfume as on the maids, but stronger and more exotic.

“Take her away,” Zhou Weisen had no time to question her now. He had more important things to do.

“Who is the captain? Bring the captain here.”

The team members pushed a Spaniard over. He had a large bump on his head, a result of the ruthless Indian translator’s beating.

“How many people are still below?” Zhou Weisen asked bluntly.

The captain had originally wanted to stand tall and say a few fine, brave words to show his noble family background, but the few blows from the Indian translator had left him dizzy, and he no longer had the strength to maintain his image. Seeing these pirates with their strange ships and strange clothes, the captain decided it was better to tell the truth.

“There were a total of 412 people when we set sail from Acapulco. At the last roll call three days ago, there were still 375.”

“How many soldiers are on board?”

“A company of 90 men was loaded in New Spain at the start of the voyage. I don’t know how many are left now.”

“Why didn’t you surrender just now? You clearly raised the white flag,” Zhou Weisen said fiercely. “Do you know the consequences of a feigned surrender? I’ll hang you all from the mast!”

“Please do not insult my honor!” The captain, though his hands were tied, still maintained a noble air. “I had already given the order to surrender, but Lieutenant Alvarado refused to surrender…”

“Who is Alvarado?”

“He’s the captain of that company. An restless scion of a noble family,” the captain said, still shaken. “He even tried to seize the sterncastle. It was terrible!”