This task involves annotating the answer type to a given question that involve some kind of complex reasoning (including numerical reasoning). Note that the questions require looking at more than one part of the passage to answer. There are 3 possible answer types (i) spans, (ii) numbers and (iii) dates. If the answer can be found in the passage, label it as "span". If the answer is a number, label as "number". Similarly, label "date" if you think the answer to the given question is a date.

Let me give you an example: Passage: The outbreak of the Seven Years' War in Europe in 1756 resulted in renewed conflict between French and British forces in India. The Third Carnatic War spread beyond southern India and into Bengal where British forces captured the French settlement of Chandernagore in 1757. However, the war was decided in the south, where the British successfully defended Madras, and Sir Eyre Coote decisively defeated the French, commanded by Comte de Lally at the Battle of Wandiwash in 1760. After Wandiwash, the French capital of Pondicherry fell to the British in 1761. The war concluded with the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1763, which returned Chandernagore and Pondichery to France, and allowed the French to have "factories" in India but forbade French traders from administering them. The French agreed to support British client governments, thus ending French ambitions of an Indian empire and making the British the dominant foreign power in India.
Question: Which french settlement did the British capture first, Chandernagore or Pondicherry?
The answer to this example can be: span
Here is why: The answer "Chandernagore" is a word from the passage. So, the answer type is "span".

OK. solve this:
Passage: Then, in 1544, five French galleys under Polin, including the superb Reale, accompanied Barbarossa's fleet, on a diplomatic mission to Suleiman. The French fleet accompanied Barbarossa during his attacks on the west coast of Italy on the way to Constantinople, as he laid waste to the cities of Porto Ercole, Giglio, Talamona, Lipari and took about 6,000 captives, but separated in Sicily from Barbarossa's fleet to continue alone to the Ottoman capital. Jerome Maurand, a priest of Antibes who accompanied Polin and the Ottoman fleet in 1544, wrote a detailed account in Itineraire d'Antibes a Constantinople. They arrived in Constantinople on 10 August 1544 to meet with Suleiman and give him an account of the campaign. Polin was back to Toulon on 2 October 1544.
Question: How many cities did they lay waist to?
Answer:
number