"Reinforcements from the imperial court are coming!" "We're saved!" "The officers and sailors are firing cannons to fight thieves!"

In the three cities of Dongcheng, Xicheng and Zicheng, the gentry and the common people rushed to tell each other. Bamboo sheds were erected along the streets in the city, and people from all over the country were living in flight, and everyone passed it on by word of mouth, and in less than a stick of incense, the news of the arrival of the naval reinforcements spread all over the city! The news is ecstatic! Ordinary people rushed through the streets and alleys, or in groups of three or five to talk to each other, or in groups of three or five cheering, and more people listened to the sound of cannons outside the city in their own yards. In order to calm the hearts of the people in the city, Chen Gongju simply asked the officials to invite the respected Qingliu to the city to watch the battle.

The sub-city of Guangzhou is slightly higher than the surrounding terrain. Standing at the head of the city, the movement of pirates near the wharf of Western Australia and the battle of the naval army on the river can be seen clearly. The state government informed everyone in advance that the cannibal artillery was powerful, and the battle at the head of the city might be in danger of life. However, under the excitement of the crowd, most of the gentry did not flinch from the battle, and went to the city one after another.

This group of people stretched out their necks to look at the battlefield from afar, and in the gossip, exaggerated exclamations were heard from time to time.

"Not bad! Sure enough, it's an officer and army sailor! ”

"Do you want to cooperate with the sailor inside and outside, and come to a center to bloom?"

"There are broken wooden planks floating on the river, and they are broken thieves' boats!"

"Zhao Yuanzhi's use of soldiers is really powerful, it can be called talking and laughing, and the canopy is in ashes!" ”

"Ouch! Moved, moved, thieves moved again! ”

"There are many thieves, although the officers and soldiers can fight, they are only afraid of being outnumbered!"

Since the implementation of the school election system, the local officials and gentry have been one, and these gentry were originally figures with heads and faces, and the pirates who climbed to the top of the city for the first time after committing the border naturally had to pull familiar officials to talk, especially those whose sons and nephews were outside the city, and asked this and that with a concerned face. The scene was a little chaotic for a while, and Huang Yuanlong, a scholar and politician, had a straight face, and he couldn't say anything, so he only stared at Zhizhou Chen Gongju. "Lord Chen, the battle is dangerous," Liu Yu said in a low voice, "Let's let the gentlemen leave first?" ”

"It's okay," Chen Gongju shook his head, "Shi is the head of the four people, today's victory over the thieves and thieves is just right for them to go back and inform the people, one is to calm the people, and the other is to let the people know that the officers and soldiers are fighting to kill the enemy." He lowered his voice, "Heaven sees itself as the people, so that we will be more popular with the people!" Destiny! The arrival of the Nanhai sailors as scheduled made Chen Gongju feel relieved. In order to guard against the mole, he conspired with Zhao Xingde to set up a situation to invite the king into the urn, and he has been hiding it from most people. When the pirates attacked the city in a hurry, the Guangnan Shi suffered heavy casualties, and the people in the city were panicked, Chen Gongju preferred to bear the pressure himself rather than confide in others about his plan to lure the enemy.

Liu Yu nodded, he was one of the few people who knew about the plan to lure the enemy. It was only today that I let go of a boulder in my heart.

"Everyone, listen to me!" Chen Gongju said in a deep voice, and the gentry stopped talking and looked at Lord Zhizhou.

"In this last battle, we must annihilate all the thieves between the city of Hanhai and the coast, and do not let them wander all over the world. In order to raise all the money, in addition to the regimental training camps stationed in the three cities, I also plan to recruit local strong men over the age of 14 and under the age of 50 to help in the battle, and the strong ones will form a regimental training camp to supplement the city of Hanhai, and the thin and weak will be transferred to the baggage to maintain local law and order. According to a rough estimate of household registration, the state government can levy more than 217,500 strong men according to the rule of one household and one ding. Chen Gongju paused for a moment, looked at the expressions of the gentry, and no one jumped out to oppose it at this moment, which made him feel a lot more assured, and said more and more calmly, "The days of conscription and distribution of strong men are not long, it only takes fifteen days." The counties will implement the levy of the head of the wife to the township, li, management, senior, capital, fang, and bao, and the husband needs to prepare his own dry food for five days, and the township must prepare another ten days of grain and grass. Everyone, within two days, the strong men and grain and grass will be ready, no problem, right? ”

As soon as they heard that they were going to levy people's husbands, the gentry looked solemn, and someone whispered: "Limit two days, will it be too eager?" ”

"One household, one ding, such a levy of the people, the burden of the people is too heavy!"

"Yes, even though it's only been fifteen days, I'm afraid the people will be unbearable."

"My lord, it's okay that the levy has only been issued for fifteen days, but I'm afraid that the war will drag on, and the people will not be able to go home on time, and they will complain."

"Two days is already a grace period." Chen Gongju pointed to the continuous pirate warships outside the city, and raised his voice slightly, "You are all well-read and sensible people, and you should know that the trapped beast is still fighting. Now that the official army and sailors have cut off the retreat of the thieves, for the people of Guangzhou, I am also happy and worried. The good thing is that the thief is difficult to last, and the worry is that the thief and the dog jump over the wall in a hurry, and the thief will desperately attack the city of Hanhai in order to survive. And once the city of defending the sea is lost, the pirates will be unrestrained, and they will become rogues, burning and looting everywhere, which will be a catastrophe for the people near our Guangzhou! Under the so-called covered nest, there are no eggs, and the land of the gentlemen, the tombs of the ancestors, and the relatives of the clan may not be preserved! ”

Chen Gongju's tone was a little flat, but the expressions of everyone in the city changed greatly.

In this era, almost the vast majority of scholars lived in the countryside, and some bought houses in the city, even if they were officials in other places, their parents and clans always stayed in their hometowns, even if they were famous ministers in the court, they would not stay in Beijing and die of old age. The countryside is where the ancestral tombs are located, the foundation of the gentry. The Haikou attacked in a big way, some gentry near Guangzhou rushed into the city to hide, but the monks could not run the temple, the city of Guangzhou was overcrowded, a large clan often only had one or two rooms to hide in the city, and most of the clansmen still stayed in the countryside to resign themselves to fate. A few days ago, there seemed to be a huge difference in strength between the official army and the thieves, and the gentry were also ready to be devastated in their hometowns, but now that the official army and the sailors came to help, the officials and soldiers had the strength to defeat the pirates, and the gentry's minds changed somewhat. However, Chen Gongju's words still shocked them.

"What does Master Chen mean?" Someone asked in anticipation.

At this time, on the surface of the Pearl River, the pirate warships were sailing towards the South China Sea Naval Division with great momentum, and the large group of warships almost covered the river. Some people couldn't help muttering in their hearts: "If the officials and soldiers are like this, who is the sword and who is the fish?" Is it possible that you want to use the flesh and blood of my Guangnan disciples to consume the strength of Haikou? ”

"Lord Zhao's Nanhai sailor is a hammer, and my Guangzhou Hanhai City is an anvil," Chen Gongju looked at the river from afar, "snapped" a palm on the battlements, and said coldly, "Let these thieves all be destroyed under the city of Guangzhou." At this time, there was another roaring cannon sound on the river, and everyone's hearts sank, and they no longer discussed, and their eyes fell on the river where the battle was raging.

The Pearl River flows out of Guangzhou and has a bend in the river, which has become wide and narrow, and there are many wrecks of warships floating.

The water here is unfavorable, and the officers and sailors are waiting for the downstream, and all the pirates are well aware, however, the sea ships must pass through this section of the river when they go to sea from Guangzhou. They were all outlaws, thinking that their own forces were more than ten times greater than the officers and soldiers, and there were thousands of ships large and small, and they could always rush through the ships in front of them if they suffered some losses. As long as the melee is together, then it can rely on more ships and more soldiers to overwhelm the officers and sailors.

The pirate warships came across the river, and as the river narrowed, large ships and small boats were crowded together, and the speed slowed down to avoid the wreckage of the sunken ships. Although the formation of the South China Sea Naval Division is thin, the firepower of the ships far exceeds that of the pirates. As soon as the ships were within range, the commanders of the ships ordered the opening of their guns and concentrated their fire on the bow of the large ship.

Cannonballs rained down on the pirate ship, piercing through the ship's planks like a devastation.

The cannonballs landed in the crowd of pirates crowded on the bow of the ship, and flesh flew everywhere, leaving stumps and severed arms everywhere they went.

The pirates were about to jump ship and fight hand-to-hand as soon as they got close, but they had to dodge with their heads in their hands. Because the Song artillery shells were so fierce, the guns on the pirate ships were destroyed almost without firing. Under the fierce artillery fire of the Song army, the pirate ships could not get close to the gunboats of the naval division at all, and only some small boats became fish that slipped through the net.

However, although the pirate's boat was close to the sailor's gunboat, it was more difficult to climb onto the sailor's side than to go up the knife mountain and down to the sea of fire. In less than a single stick of incense, the large and small pirate ships that rushed ahead were destroyed, and many wrecks and corpses were added to the river. The tragic scene in front fell into the eyes of the pirates behind, and the pirates were too afraid to come and die again. Other vessels simply turned around and retreated towards the WA terminal.

"Cowards on the battlefield!" Famaitu said with a gloomy face, "It's damned!" ”

"The Song people's artillery is too fierce," Abad shook his head, "and they can't be relied on, warriors and cowards are the same." ”

The big food officer looked at the gunboats of the Song army with red eyes, but no one wanted to die in vain.

At this moment, Qiu Darui, who had been silent, said in a deep voice: "It's not that there is no way. ”

"What's the solution?" Famaitu asked, staring at him.

"The artillery bows and crossbows of the Song army have always been very powerful, and in the north, the cavalry usually charges intensively, and no matter how fierce the artillery fire is, there is always a limit," Qiu Darui muttered, "As long as the attacking army is numerous and dense enough, it will definitely be able to rush in front of the artillery, and that is the time to collect debts." He pursed his lips and looked at Famaitu, leaving half of his words unspoken.

In the north, the Liao people dealt with iron cannons and crossbows, which was a way to do no way, and it was also an effective way. However, if the big cannibals count on using the Song pirates as the signing army to consume the Song army's cannonballs, I am afraid it is unlikely, braving the impact of cannonballs and arrow rain is a great test of the army's morale, Qiu Darui does not think that any Song pirates can rush in front of the sailors' gunboats.