Wu Mingjin was stunned for a while, and his heart was very moved, he knew that this Huang Dahu was anxious for justice and righteousness, and whenever there was a bandit in the place, he would often lead the clansmen to fight out bravely, and he had already lost several sons and nephews who were close to the house, but he didn't expect that even his son died this time.

"Please mourn the old gentleman. The thief retreated, and the student reported to the official and asked for the honor for the noble son. Huang Dahu has no fame, but he has a son who is a showman, and Wu Daling intends to exalt him, so he calls him "old gentleman" on weekdays.

"The dog is not there for the pacification of the place. My Huang family has received the grace of the country, and I should serve the court and defend Sangzi with broken bones, and I am not greedy for this honor. Huang Shoutong didn't bother to talk about his son - although he had three sons, this was both a concubine and no fame, but the pain of losing a son was still heartbreaking.

"Shoutong is here to warn the Ming government." He said straight to the point, "This time the pirates are not as usual, and I will have a big disaster in the heights!" ”

"Why did the old gentleman say that?" Wu Mingjin was taken aback, he knew that this old man was quiet and tenacious, and he was not a person who talked big words.

Huang Shoutong told him about the situation of his son and a dozen villagers ambushing three pirate spies near Bairentoutan yesterday. Although he didn't participate, but the description of Xiang Yong who fled back surprised him very much, a round of bow and arrow attacks only shot down one, although the old saying three arrows are not as good as a knife, Xiang Yong's bow is not good, but the other party has no armor, the two big men are hit by seven or eight arrows can still rush all the way to kill, even kill several people, Zuihou killed his son also.

He closed his eyes, remembering the tragic situation after Xiang Yong brought back his son's body, half of his cheek was almost broken, one eye was missing, listening to Xiang Yong talk about the whole process, this person was surrounded by Xiang Yong with several arrows, and his son, who liked to dance with guns and sticks since he was a child, was killed in only one round in his hands, such a character is a rare fierce general even in the official army.

With his personal martial arts alone, he was not too worried. But there was another thing that Xiang Yong got back that worried him.

"The pirates' firearms are very powerful, and one of them used a small handcuff to kill several people in a row, and he didn't even have a medicine. Mingfu, please see-" As he spoke, he handed over a cloth bag in his arms, Wu Mingjin opened it and saw that it was a piece of black blue iron, which was very small in appearance, slightly like a handcuff used by a red-haired person in terms of style, but the appearance was simple, there were no superfluous lines, and there was no place to clamp the fire rope.

"This is a handcuff?"

"Exactly," Seeing Wu Daling's puzzled expression, Huang Shoutong said that this was picked up by Xiang Yong when he returned to the battlefield afterwards, probably because the pirates were lost in the melee.

"This, is what Xiang Yong said credible?" Wu Daling still doesn't believe it, he is a literati, but in the past 20 years, literati and doctors have been talking about firearms, and although they have never seen all kinds of firearms, the drawings are always seen in books. This thing has nothing to do with any firecracker, except for a muzzle and a trigger.

(Note: In the late Ming Dynasty, there was a climax of the discussion of firearms among intellectuals, and most of them were of course only talking on paper, and Song Yingxing criticized this trend in "Heavenly Creation")

"Credible, this gun does not need to be charged, and it can be launched by deducting the plate machine." Huang Shoutong said, "After I got it back, I tried to fire a shot, and the power was considerable, and the thick wooden cannon five zhang away could also enter." But if you shoot again, you won't get angry. I think it is to store multiple copies of the medicine in this gun, and the buckle machine will fire one at a time. ”

"It's got to be a very powerful thing." Wu Mingjin looked at the small dark blue object in front of him and was worried. If the pirates have many such firearms, how can the bows and arrows of the field warriors be able to resist them. It seems that it is better to rely on artillery to defend the city.

"I came to the county this time, first, to warn the police, and secondly, to ask the Ming government to allocate some equipment."

He is now the head of the regiment of the six village joint security, and his subordinates are hundreds of strong, but weapons are in short supply, except for the big and small leaders and some family members who have knives and guns, the general village warriors only have wooden sticks. Lingao originally lacked iron tools, even fewer weapons, and the knives and guns used by his family were still left by his ancestors many years ago. Although there are many bows and arrows, the climate of Hainan itself is unfavorable to bows and arrows, and they are not suitable for use.

Wu Mingjin was inconvenient to refuse, so he allocated him 20 waist knives from the arsenal, 10 cards, 40 tiger forks, and 5 iron spears. He also gave him some fire yao iron - there are some iron cannons in Huangjiazhai to carry guns, but fire yao is a forbidden object of the government, and it is difficult to prepare it.

Huang Shoutong was about to say goodbye and go down to rest, Menzi came to report, and the spies who went out to reconnoiter in the morning came back. Since the arrival of the pirates, the county has sent a group of spies every day to find out the situation, these people are all from local backgrounds and familiar with the terrain and paths.

The city did not dare to open the door, but put down the large basket that had been prepared for haode, and pulled the people up to the city. The spies went out every day and were unharmed, but when they came back today, they were very frightened. When the people of the city saw them like this, they talked about it.

"What, build roads?" Wu Daling asked in surprise.

"Yes, sir." The spy knelt on the ground and glanced at the old man secretly.

"It is from Bopu to Bairentoutan repair. There are markings along the way. The pirates piled up dirt for the road. It's been repaired for about five or six miles. ”

"Five or six miles away, you read that right?!" Huang Shoutong rushed forward and asked.

"The little one is not mistaken." The spy glanced at this famous figure in Lingao with fear.

Huang Shoutong was very surprised, he turned around and bowed his hand: "Mingfu, the townsmen of this village went to fight yesterday, and there is no road along the way......

Wu Mingjin nodded, and said in a deep voice: "The matter of building the road is indeed seen, and it is not exaggerated?" If there is a little lie, you will not be spared! ”

The spy kowtowed again and again: "The little one doesn't dare to deceive the master, it is true that the road has been built for five or six miles." He also said that the pirates had evil spirits, and that many carts could walk without wheels, and that they had huge iron arms on them, and that they could dig up the earth with a giant shovel, and that the hills of earth could be easily dug up and carried......

It's evil again! Wu Daling didn't believe in the strange power of chaos, but the pirates had more and more things beyond his comprehension, and their abilities were getting bigger and bigger, which really worried him. It's not that he hasn't thought about building roads and repairing bridges and roads in the county, but he always restricts all kinds of things, either he can't recruit migrant workers due to lack of money, or the landlords on the land are noisy and refuse to give up the land. Even if everything went well, he didn't have the ability to build five or six miles of road in two days -- or pile up dirt to make a road. What kind of characters are these pirates?

However, the question at this time is not the road, but why the pirates built the road, since they are bandits, it is impossible to accumulate merit; They meant to rob, and it was redundant to do so. Besides, there is nothing to rob in Bairentoutan, there are only a few stonemasons there, and most of them have fled now.

In hesitation, he hurriedly ordered the officials in the county office, Liu Dalin and the hundred households who came to reinforce to be invited, and everyone discussed countermeasures together. After listening to the situation of the spies and Huang Dahu, the officials and gentry in the hall were silent. Originally, they thought that the pirates had landed, and no matter how bad they were, they would be so bad that they would rob the people at most and burn down a few villages and bazaars. Since the Song Dynasty, this county has never been captured by the Li people riot or the robbery of the sea bandits. Some people are also glad that this group of pirates landed after the Mid-Autumn Festival, and if it was before the beginning of winter, when the autumn grain appeared, I am afraid that the losses would be much heavier. However, in the past few days, the bad news has come one after another, first the spies reported that the other party had set up a large camp in Bopu, and unloaded the goods to the shore day and night. Then there is the defeat of Huangjiazhai Township, which has always been known for its courage and bravery, and now the pirates are actually building roads again, and no one can figure out what this gang of hairy gangsters wants to do.

Wu Mingjin looked at Liu Dalin, who was still a senior counselor: "What does the old gentleman think?" ”

Liu Jinshi supported his forehead with his hand, and said after a while: "Ming Mansion, this matter is very dangerous. ”

Wu Daling and Wu Ya, who were present, were taken aback, and Wu Daling hurriedly said, "Please teach me the old gentleman." ”

"I'm afraid that the intention of this hair-haired pirate is to attack the city!"

"How so?"

"Most of the bandits and bandits are lightly plundered, so why do they need to build roads? If it is to build a road, the only solution is to attack the city. Da Lin thought that the pirates must carry siege equipment, which was very heavy, and they could not be transported to the city without building roads. ”

Roads need to be built to transport siege equipment to the city, how much does it weigh? The people up and down were suddenly silent. Wu Mingjin said in a trembling voice: "Could it be the Hongyi cannon......"

"Other than that, it's hard for him to think about it."

Hainan is close to Guangdong and Macao, and Hongmaoyi's ships pass by from time to time, and the imperial court buys cannons from Hongmaoren in Guangzhou, and the officialdom also hears about it. Wu Mingjin knew that this cannon was very heavy, but the power was amazing, and the imperial court used it to defend the palace in Liaodong. Last year, the siege of Quang Ninh relied on this cannon to hold on; It can be called a sharp weapon in the army.

At the moment, if such a thing is pulled to the city, Wu Daling can't imagine what the result will be.

"How's that for good? The county is just a small town. Wu Ya had already screamed in shock, in fact, what he meant was that the officials and gentry present all understood that there was something worthy of such excitement from the pirates in this small border city of Lingao? What kind of evil did Lingao create, he wanted to attract a killing weapon like the Hongyi cannon.

At this time, they didn't know that they were facing something more demonic than the Hongyi cannon, just like the storyteller in the Baijia bookstore in the high city later: "Tragedy! ”

Everyone turned their attention to Sun Baihu wearing a mandarin duck standing jacket, this hereditary Baihu thought that this was a good messenger, and when he got off the horse in the city, he received a reward of ten taels of silver, and half of the reward issued by the county to the soldiers was looted by him. The two days of wine and meat were much more comfortable than the half-dead days in the guardhouse, and as for the pirates attacking the city, he felt that it was impossible.

Seeing that everyone was looking at him, he couldn't help but panic. He knew very well that although he was a hereditary hundred-householder, he was actually a small landlord, and the thirty big-headed soldiers he brought with him had more days of pinching hoes than holding knives and guns. The only thing that had some power was the Franc cannon. How can he get a countermeasure? Besides, the pirates were really going to drag the Hongyi cannon, and it was too late for him to escape. I knew that it was not good to say anything, so I simply pretended to be calm and didn't say a word.

Wu Xianling secretly scolded Sun Baihu for being a waste, but he didn't expect the guards to do anything. I'm afraid that General Tang will have to be asked to send troops for this matter.

"The only way to deal with the situation is to attack." Liu Dalin said, "The thieves can't always get together all the time to build roads, so we send more villagers to promise heavy rewards, or attack with bows and arrows, or take advantage of the gap to set fires, and attack day and night to make them unable to live in peace." and shall be able to hinder the building of his way. ”