Petru insists on one principle and one book—never kidnapping hostages to extort money from the government.
This ensured the trust of those countries that were secretly colluding with him.
To uphold this principle, he never even attempted to kidnap Arabia to threaten the Egypt government into releasing Lawiye. He knew very well that doing so would not only fail to save Lawiye but would also tarnish his reputation and bring him more enemies.
In the process of integrating Somalia pirates, the United States government secretly provided a lot of help, and many large enterprises and wealthy people who traded between Europe and Asia were also willing to pay money for peace of mind, so Petru's business seemed to be going smoothly.
He had helped many countries rescue hostages and hoped to rescue Lawiye through some roundabout means. Egypt United States and France had both pressured Egypt to release Lawiye, since, by all accounts, Petru's crimes had nothing to do with his woman. However, the crimes he committed in Egypt were too great, and other countries could not openly exonerate a pirate, so the Egypt government refused to release Lawiye.
Although they failed to rescue him, many people assured Petru, including some government officials' brokers and influential businessmen, that Lawiye would have a good life in Egypt prison, no different from staying in a hotel.
Petru sent a trusted aide to Egypt to investigate, and indeed, aside from the loneliness, living conditions in Lawiye were quite good. This was partly due to the influence of the brokers, but primarily because Petru had a notorious reputation; no one wanted to offend him. What if this Madman returned for revenge?
However, Petru's long-term plundering in the India Ocean and Arabia Sea region offended many people, such as India, a major power that possesses aircraft carriers and has always dreamed of dominating the India Ocean and controlling the golden sea lanes.
Petru had tried to curry favor with the India, but they seemed unwilling to reach an agreement with him. While the United States Fifth Fleet turned a blind eye to the Redbeard" incident, Indian warships began to actively escort merchant ships, especially Arabia merchant ships, in the India Ocean.
Petru tried his best to avoid a direct confrontation with the India Navy, for which he suffered heavy losses. Not only was his operational range forced to shrink, but he also lost some of his trusted naval comrades.
Many other pirate leaders began to openly oppose Petru, threatening to replace him and saying that he was a government lackey, that the rules he set were bullshit, and that they were meant to help the government devour and eliminate pirates, leaving the poor in the Gulf of Aden with no chance of ever rising up again.
To prove himself, after enduring for a period of time, Petru decided to announce to the world that Redbeard was not someone to be trifled with.
He first purchased two old submarines from international arms dealers, loaded them with ammunition, and lurked in the Carlsberg Ridge. Then, he meticulously planned and personally led a group of elites who had once been mercenaries like him and later joined the Saudi Arabia undetected and hijack an Arabia merchant convoy about to leave the Red Sea at Port of Jeddah.
The pirates, disguised as Arabia, headed towards a port in Asia according to the fleet's pre-arranged itinerary. As the fleet sailed out of the Gulf of Aden, it deliberately approached the India Navy's sphere of influence, whereupon it was attacked by a small group of pirates. After sending out a distress signal, an India destroyer came to the rescue and easily sank the attacking pirate speedboat.
However, the merchant ship had already suffered damage from a pirate attack and, after sailing for some distance under the escort of warships, began to take on water and sink. Of course, all of this was part of Petru's plan, with the aim of transferring his men to India warships.
The ship's owner was the Saudi Arabia Crown Prince, and both the cargo and the crew were of great importance, a fact confirmed by the India Navy through their Ministry of External Affairs. Therefore, the warship received all the crew members before the merchant ship sank and prepared to return them to the Gulf of Aden for handover to Saudi Arabia.
Petru's elite pirate group included many retired naval veterans who were familiar with warships. With the Indian officers completely unprepared, taking control of the destroyer by force was not impossible. However, to be on the safe side, they adopted a more cautious approach: salvaging a batch of poisoned, palatable food from the sinking merchant ship and delivering it to the ship's galley.
After a harmonious and pleasant dinner shared by the military and civilians, they easily gained control of the warship carrying 230 India officers and soldiers.
Hijacking a warship was unprecedented in modern piracy, and Redbeard Petru became the first to do so.
This matter certainly wouldn't end there. The India Navy was greatly shocked to learn that their warship had been hijacked by pirates. On the one hand, they concealed the news from the outside world, and on the other hand, they dispatched a fleet to search for and rescue it.
In the vast India Ocean, hiding a destroyer is certainly not difficult. But in that case, Petru would have to keep it as a private collection in some unknown harbor, and not a single word could leak out. No matter how incompetent the Indians are, they would never back down on this kind of thing.
Petru was well aware that he could not possess a naval force capable of rivaling that of a major power, so he had no intention of acquiring the destroyers.
Using his ships as bait, he led the India Navy fleet that came to his rescue in a cat-and-mouse game across the vast sea between the Carlsberg Ridge and the Maldives.
Of course, they couldn't really escape the India Navy's encirclement. So, after a week of maneuvering, they were trapped on one side of the Carlsberg Ridge.
Just when the India cat thought it had caught the mouse, two submarines lurking there attacked them, and the hijacked warship, which had been trying to escape, also began to fight back.
The final result was that the Indian army successfully rescued their naval personnel, but they had to sink their hijacked ships, and three other warships were severely damaged.
Although the pirates suffered considerable losses, including a submarine sinking after being hit by a torpedo and dozens of deaths in the firefight, these losses were insignificant to outsiders compared to the strength of the two sides.
The fact that the India Navy, touted as one of the world's maritime powers and invincible in the India Ocean, could be defeated by a pirate is no small matter; it's not just a matter of losing face. Therefore, the Indians would rather die than admit to this, and dare not even openly retaliate against Petru, because doing so would confirm that they were defeated by Petru.
Moreover, they themselves did not believe that a pirate would have the guts or ability to inflict such damage on their navy, suspecting that it was done secretly by other countries under the guise of piracy, with the aim of testing their strength and curbing their expansion in the India Ocean. China, Russia, the United States, and Australia all became suspects, and they even suspected that Saudi Arabia was colluding with pirates.
India's hesitation and retreat gave Petru a chance to catch his breath and develop.
This battle greatly boosted the confidence of the pirates, and pirates all over the world regarded Redbeard Petru as an idol, considering him the King of Pirates in the modern era. More elites began to join his organization, and his influence once extended to the Mediterranean Sea and Malacca, and even in the Atlantic Ocean, some people committed crimes in his name.
Redbeard's fame was at its zenith, and Petru's legendary pirate career continued. Some even suggested that he simply land at Cape Hafun, establish an armed government, and occupy the whole of Somalia. If he succeeded, he would be the head of government, Lawiye would naturally become the first lady, and the Egypt government would have no reason to imprison her anymore.
Some political brokers from Europe and America also hinted at supporting his plan, Petru was somewhat tempted. If he were given a few more years and made sufficient preparations, perhaps he could really build his own empire from the bottom of the sea, just like Redbeard Barbarossa.
Petru was ambitious, until he stole a ship he shouldn't have.