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Ma Wuyan was fast, and when he saw the sharp arrow flying towards the sedan chair, he drew his waist knife and quickly slashed at the arrow shaft, and the sharp arrow was split in two and fell to the ground. At the same time, he shouted loudly, "Protect your lord!" The guards immediately surrounded the sedan chair in the middle to protect Lord Zhou in the sedan chair.

At the same time, with the sound of shouting and killing in the reeds, a team of men and horses rushed out and went straight to their team to kill. There were about forty or fifty people in this section, and they knew by looking at the clothes and clothes that they were a group of Japanese Japanese pirates. Most of them were armed with swords and ran directly with the guards, who raised their spears and shot at the rushing pirates, and with the sound of gunshots, seven or eight of them immediately fell. At such a close distance, you don't need to aim at all to hit the Japanese Kou.

But after the first shot, it was simply impossible to reload the second shot. The would-be wouldn't flinch from the blow, and the remaining forty men were still coming at them, when the guards put their spears on their shoulders and immediately drew their short guns and fired another round of fire, this time seven or eight more of them lay in a pool of blood.

But the remaining pirates did not retreat, and slew them again. At this time, the bullets of the two guns had been fired, and Ma Wu shouted, "Get on the bayonet, prepare to meet the enemy!" They took back their spears, took out their spears, and mounted their knives, and fought with the Japanese who came up to them.

The more than ten guards led by Ma Wu are all extraordinary, but these Japanese are Japanese samurai, swordsmanship masters, and their skills are also very good, and there are at least more than 30 Japanese guards now, with the advantage of numbers, the Japanese will have the upper hand after a short time, and three or four guards are also wounded and bleeding.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, one of the Japanese invaders broke through the guards and approached the palanquin. The sedan chair drivers were so frightened that they got up early and lay on the ground and didn't dare to move, and the wolf looked at the sedan chair on the ground and laughed, and stabbed into the sedan chair with a swing of his sword. At the same time as the wolf slammed into the sedan chair, with the sound of a gunshot, the wolf found that there was an extra blood hole in his chest, and blood gushed out of his chest. He immediately fell, and the long sword in his hand was also stained with blood, and fell into the ground drop by drop along the sword groove.

Ma Wu heard the gunshots, looked back and saw all this, and shouted, "My lord!" Then he blocked the slashed sword with his sword, turned around and ran to the sedan chair. At this time, the team led by Xu Detian rushed up, because it was a scuffle, for fear of accidentally injuring his own people, Xu Detian did not order to shoot, but directly surrounded him with a spear that was slashed. Fighting with the Japanese bandits, the leader of the Japanese invaders saw that reinforcements had arrived, and his own people had been successfully killed, so he gave the order to withdraw from the battle and retreat to the reeds.

When Xu Detian saw that the Japanese were out of battle, he immediately ordered the soldiers to shoot, and with the sound of a gunshot, more than 20 Japanese fell down, and the remaining seven or eight Japanese escaped into the reeds, and then jumped into a small boat and rowed downstream. In this case, Xu Detian didn't care about chasing after these more than ten would-be robbers, and hurriedly ran towards Lord Zhou's sedan chair......

Two days later, the news of the encounter of Lord Zhou, the salt patrol, spread all over the streets and alleys of Yangzhou, and everyone knew about it. Another day later, there was news that Lord Zhou was seriously injured and unconscious.

In the Lu Mansion, Lu Jie's father and son gathered again in the study to talk secretly.

Lu Shaowen said proudly, "Father, this time we won a big victory, although we didn't ask for the life of that kid Zhou Fulai, but after this heavy blow, it is estimated that he will never dare to attack our Lu family again." ”

"Hmph, it's good that he can save his life. Now you can take care of us! ”

After Lu Shaowen was proud, he said worriedly, "But this time the loss on Takeda's side is not small, only eight of the fifty samurai went back, and the losses are all kendo masters." Hearing such a big loss, Takeda was very angry and blamed us for not telling him the news of the musket in advance. Takeda also demanded 500,000 taels of silver from us as compensation. ”

"What? 500,000 taels! Why didn't he go and grab it! Lu Jie was taken aback when he heard so many silver taels, and shouted loudly. But think about it, they will really rob it, as for who to rob, I don't know, anyway, they can't grab their heads. Then he said, "I said that I would kill 100,000 taels of silver, but this time he just got a serious injury, and he still has a face to ask for 500,000 taels of silver, he really dares to speak!" ”

Later, he asked his son, "How did you reply to him?" ”

"I told him, I told them I told them they were all carrying firecrackles." Lu Shaowen replied.

"It's just that they are too light on the enemy, what do they have to do with us." Lu Jie said contemptuously.

However, this time, the guards brought by Zhou Fulai were not more than a dozen people, but a whole general flag. This is also the reason why Takeda is angry. Lu Shaowen then said.

"A general flag? All of them have muskets? This time it was Lu Jie's turn to be surprised.

"Yes, I heard from the Japanese who went back that in addition to their long guns, they also had a short gun each. And it hits a long way, and it can be hit accurately at a distance of more than seventy paces. Lu Shaowen said worriedly.

"So the combat effectiveness of this army transferred by Zhou Fulai is not weak!" Lu Jie twisted his beard and thought again. Fortunately, Zhou Fulai was seriously injured this time, otherwise if his own family fought with their guards, he would rely on his family's combat power to destroy the family in less than a round. It seems that it is better to let Takeda rush ahead, thinking of this, Lu Shaowen said, "Go and tell Takeda, for the sake of their heavy casualties this time, give him another 200,000 taels of silver." ”

"We agreed so quickly?" Lu Shaowen said painfully. According to his idea, he would give another 100,000 taels of silver at most, but he didn't expect his father to be so generous this time, and he would be 200,000 taels of silver as soon as he made a move.

"You know, this is called breaking the fortune and avoiding disasters! Now that we have completely torn our faces with Zhou Fulai, we can no longer settle grievances with Takeda and them, and we will still use him when it is critical. Lu Jie said to his son.

"Father's lesson is right, I'll do it right away." Lu Shaowen replied cautiously, and then said, "Father, why don't we take this opportunity to restore the accessibility of salt sales, make a few big votes, and earn back the money spent." ”

Lu Jie thought for a while and said, "Yes, but be careful in everything." There is also another 10,000 taels of silver sent to the prefect, so that they can drag You Qi's case back for a while, and after we have done a few business, we will close the case depending on the situation. ”

"Okay, I see."

"Also, how is the sea ship that I asked to be built in secret last time?" Lu Jie asked.

It turned out that the treacherous and slippery Lu Jie had secretly built a sea ship on an uninhabited island in Chongming County, Qidong Prefecture since last year, and also recruited 2,000 dead soldiers to train there. He had long thought that there would be a day when things would be revealed, so he prepared in advance, and once he found out that things were not in his favor, he was ready to take a boat to a desert island at sea to join Takeda and them.

"Four have now been completed, and four more are under construction."

"Let them speed up, maybe in a month or two we will need it." Lu Jie commanded.

"Father, are you so pessimistic about the situation? Now that Zhou Fulai is unconscious, it is very beneficial to us now. Lu Shaowen asked puzzled.

Lu Jie shook his head and sighed, "I'm too young to know the danger here." How could the imperial court allow an unconscious imperial historian to occupy such an important position for a long time. I don't know if I'm going to send a new one to take over in three months, and I'm going to send a big man to investigate the case. At this time, we must be fully prepared, and as soon as we notice that something is wrong, we will immediately take a boat to the sea. ”

Only then did Lu Shaowen understand his father's foresight, and felt that he was not thoughtful, so he said respectfully, "The child understands." Then he got up and left.

"Also, this time I went to Qidong, and by the way, I also brought my younger brothers and sisters with me, and settled down there. Go ahead! Lu Jie then commanded.

"The child is commanded!"

After Lu Shaowen left, he called the housekeeper and said to him, "Is there any news from Duan Xiushan?" ”

The housekeeper Liu Cai shook his head and said, "No, during this time, he has no news as if he has disappeared." I sent someone to inquire, and there was no trace of him in the salt courtyard. ”

"Where's Xiangmei? What about Xiangmei? Lu Jie asked.

"Xiangmei has now become Lord Zhou's personal maid, which is normal."

Lu Jie nodded with satisfaction, and then said, "Send someone to try to get in touch with Xiangmei, I urgently need Zhou Fu's situation now, so that she can transmit the news at any time." ”

After Liu Cai got the order, he walked out of the study.

After this arrangement, Lu Jie was settled. Everything is going according to his plan, although Zhou Fulai has not been eliminated, but he can't manage the government now, as for sending the new imperial historian, it will take at least three months, and with these three months, he just has everything ready. Things were moving in his favor, and his heart was suddenly much lighter. If Xiangmei's line can be connected, and news keeps coming, it will be even more icing on the cake.

However, this is just his assumption, and in fact all the news he got is fake news released by Zhou Fulai.

At this time, Zhou Fulai was sitting in his study reading leisurely! Where there is a little bit of hurt look. In fact, Zhou Fulai was not in the sedan chair at all that day, but pretended to be an ordinary soldier with Xu Detian's team. In the sedan chair was a guard wearing Zhou Fulai's official robe, and it was the same guard who was injured. All this was a strategy that Zhou Fulai discussed with his long-term entourage.

This trick was calculated and concealed from everyone, including Zhou Fulai's personal maid Xiangmei, this was not because Zhou Fulai deliberately hid it from her, but he felt that it was really unnecessary to let her know, but his fake injury did not hide it from her.

Through this incident, Xiangmei gradually understood that Lu Jie was not Zhou Fulai's opponent at all, and this trick made Zhou Fulai take the initiative, and if Lu Jie took the opportunity to smuggle salt again, he would definitely not be so lucky to escape......

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