Looking at the smoke rising from the burning wood in the harbor, Qin Gao's heart was not very happy, although there were too many wood in Nanyang today, but the consciousness of the previous era was still extremely unsuitable for this kind of behavior.

However, thinking that when night fell, even the smoke could no longer be seen clearly, Qin Gao's mood was refreshed again. If it weren't for the noisy shouts of those aliens and the refreshing sea style that were incompatible with each other, making people a little anxious, Qin Gao didn't feel too much discomfort.

According to the natives who had fled into the fortress, they were dressed as Sulu nationals, and that they must have come via the Northeast Sea Route, but unfortunately on the other side of Borneo, there was still a small detachment in Chinatown, but it was too far away from the main shipping route to find the 'maritime merchants' passing hundreds of miles northwest of them.

The other team of the working group to the Chinabaru Mountains is by land, should still be in the ancient Tamaolu Bajau tribes to observe the people's feelings, relying on the virtue of the Department of Health and Welfare over there, the tribes around the Chinabaru Mountains are now very obedient, it is estimated that as long as the road to the northeast is opened, the local people of the various departments must be eating pot pulp to welcome the road, Li Xiao of the Ministry of Education and Culture has been there twice last month, and it seems that the form of work there is indeed gratifying.

However, as you go too far inland into the mountains, the situation by the sea is not easy to say. The Sulu gang went west, and the last stop must have been to supply at Kota China Baru, but it will definitely pass through the open sea of Guta Maolu, but Li Xiao Whether they can receive the news in time should be another matter, otherwise there is no reason not to notify the headquarters, at least the last time it was still relied on the warning of the East Road team to find out the movements of the Spaniards in time.

Unlike the pleasure of repelling the two tentative attacks, Qin Gao still had some hidden worries in his heart, there were no decent heavy weapons in the fortress, and the only available trial cannon was dragged by the army from Port Silly to the east of the capital, and it seemed that it would drag it further at present. Cannons are no better than muskets, and they can only rely on limited tools for manual restoration, and for more than two months, the Ordnance Superintendent has only built this one suitable one, and it will take until mass production to really establish the arsenal.

Although the automatic weapons in the hands are combined, it is because of the combination that there are not many bullets left. If the thieves were really determined to rush to another wave, Qin Gao was ready to fight with bayonets in the ship's anti-stabbing suit, which was the reason why he asked the headquarters for help. If he can fight, who doesn't want to get a single credit, but in the face of merit and human life, Qin Gao has never been greedy, safety first is his purpose, which is also the root of his ability to get this post of guarding the back road.

Half an hour has passed since the last satellite call, but fortunately there is still such a set of equipment, and it is better that the satellite has already been in the sky, and the headquarters of Labuan is not far from here, plus the time for preparation and mobilization, if reinforcements are sent from Labuan, it will be full, and it will be there in another hour.

If you are in Brunei City or Port Slime, there will be at least one cannon salute during this hour, reminding the soldiers and civilians that the hour of waiting has passed. Nowadays in Nanyang, such things are not uncommon, Matalan and Aceh both use cannons to remind people to carry out religious activities, but not as often as the ports of the Great Song Dynasty today.

The reason why I thought of this section was that the cannons that were collected, the Spanish ships, the pirates, and the original royal city, gathered together a lot, but because they were not very useful, they were all placed in the treasury on Labuan Island to be reforged, and the government hall was too lazy to transfer them to other strongholds.

Among them, the most depressed is Xiao Shanguang, who is in the fort, even though he has enough skills in the military industry, but like Qin Gao, he is now facing a thorny problem, and there is no artillery ...... And there are not many bullets left, semi-automatic rifles are easy to fight, but the last time the naval battle of Labuan Island was used too fiercely, afterwards the Ministry of War controlled the rationing of bullets, and the two temptations of the pirates have consumed a lot, and now the places where the Sulu people are camped are still within the effective range, if the bullets are enough, they can also be suppressed, but it is really difficult to ensure the hit rate at this distance for this group of 'recruits'.

More than a mile away, in the harbor, the red stripes of people are driven to carry supplies, and when it gets darker, bonfires are lit there.

And now, the focus of controversy rises in the hearts of the senators like a bonfire about to be lit - whether to save people or not.

If you put it in this day and age, what is the least valuable? It is undoubtedly human life, and standing in the historical narrative compiled by the Chinese sages, human life is the most valuable, and the sentence that the people are the state is the foundation of the state is not known how many times it has been mentioned in the training.

These people followed the banner of the Great Song Dynasty to this place, and the time was not long. But the obedience of the people's hearts is not by force alone, and this has become the consensus of all the patriarchs.

And the difficult choice lies in this, at most an hour, the reinforcements from the headquarters will arrive, relying on the remaining bullets, relying on this small fortress, how can I be confident that I can hold it until night. Under such circumstances, it is really a difficult choice to consider whether to save the captives or not. Qin Gao felt that if he waited a little longer, as long as the rescue from the headquarters arrived, at least half of these barbarians would be left. The speedboat that can reach this place in an hour must be fast, although the speed is fast, but it is also inconvenient to fight, but as long as the clipper arrives, the pirates will inevitably be scattered.

Twenty-year-old 'Chengguan' Yang Weixun is strong, but he doesn't think so, he has already rushed twice, how can the firepower advantage on his side be unclear? As long as the goods piled up in the harbor for the north are almost moved, most of these barbarians will run away with men and ships, and even if the speedboats of the headquarters can catch up, the tonnage is too small, and the sea is bumpy, and it is not so easy to hold them all. With the speed of the fishing vessel, it is after dark if you want to catch it, and without the support of the searchlight of the port, it is really not very realistic to rely on the lights of the fishing ship to seek the enemy in the vast sea.

The most important thing in the Senate is to subdue the hearts of the people, if you can't even protect the people in your own power, how can you make people willing to obey you.

Therefore, Yang Weixun came up with a twist, and he had the urge to go out to save people.

"Lao Qin, it's not me who said, you stay behind, divide half of my people, and promise to snatch people back."

Qin Gao also wanted to save people, but Yang Weixun's words made him quite uneasy, "Why are you so confident?" It's the 17th century, and there's no turning back from the bow, so you don't expect this to happen here. ”

"As long as you win, it's okay, and besides, there is still Lao Xiao." Yang Weixun looked at Xiao Shanguang on the side indifferently.

Born as an engineer, less than thirty years old is already considered an advanced age among the veterans of Zhangjiagang, if it comes to how to solve technical problems with limited materials, Yang Weixun is not unreasonable to count on him.

Xiao Shanguang has a scruffy beard, maintaining the same style as always, not asking him, not talking, when he asks, he can talk the truth.

"If there are enough bullets, there will be no problem, but we don't have much ammunition left at the moment."

"If you really want to save people with an iron heart, you can't promise you to take all the bullets, the people who stay behind always want it."

"Also, although Xiao Qin said this, he must ensure that safety comes first."

"Just do your best."

"So, pick five people to come out, one magazine each, no more."

…………

Ujuman now felt that this place was much better than the port to the north, and that the food provided to the people in the harbor alone was the envy of everyone, and that the kind of place where birds did not poop in Princesa could not be compared to this place.

The whole of Palawan, or the large island as it was called Zheng Ho Island according to the custom of Chinese merchants, neither the pagan immigrants of the four tribes of Misayas, Tagalo, Ilocano, and Bicolano to the northeast, nor the Moro Hui to the south of the island, did not have much interest in this port in the middle of the island, and even if the name of Princesa was still taken by the Spaniards, there was neither spice nor gold, and the occasional black oil that could be burned from the seashore did not mean much to the locals.

I am afraid that the governor of Manila at this time would not have had much impression of this wild place, which has the beautiful name of 'Puerto Princesa', and the prisoners exiled from Luzon and Cebu are as unpopular as the local pig dragons. Princesa was like a natural wall separating tribes of different races and creeds, and only the constant demand for manpower from the Sulu pirates could make it seem to flourish.

However, in the last 20 years, the road to the north has been blocked, and the strong military presence of the Spaniards has made the tribes attached to Manila less and less buy the pirates, and the transaction between the two still exists, but to say that the natives are afraid of pirates, it is not half a point, the tribes of Luzon can choose to take refuge in too many objects, and the last time they killed tens of thousands of Han people in Manila, this is not only the credit of the Spaniards, and the time has not passed many years.

Even though Wu Zhuman knew that the annual plywood ship would send a boatload full of silver, no one would bother with this idea, and it was clear that no one would do the deal of sending them to death, and the revenge of the Spaniards was always very fierce, and less than fifteen years had passed since the Chinese in Manila were slaughtered, and even the emperor of the Ming Kingdom did not say a word.

In recent years, pirates have focused on the declining kingdom of Sulu in the east and Borneo further south, and have not even ventured north.

Several people knelt in front of Wu Zhuman, their eyes were blank, they thought that the chiefs were coming, and they finally had a peaceful life to live again, but now their hands were tied again.

The leader named Uwang is fierce and vicious, and there are a few beads inlaid on his tattooed face, and there are more inlaid in the invisible private places, which is intimidating at a glance, and if there is no fear, look at the two people who were cut down next to him to wake up.

"Still using murderous methods to intimidate?" The man who spoke was in his thirties, and the Han people's appearance looked peculiar in the crowd, and he was very disdainful of Wuwang's approach. On one side is the employer who gives money, and on the other side is the thief who robs the money, even if from the heart, which side should be helped, do these people have no idea in their hearts? What's more, these people really don't seem to know much about shorthair.

Of course, after all, they are all a gang, and if they say demeaning words, there must always be some compensation, not to mention that they are still in front of the big gang, otherwise it will be difficult to get along. The gift Feng Wusi brought was a Sulu man, twenty-four or five-year-old, black and thin, with a pair of big feet that did not match his body type, and he looked old enough to beg for a living on the water. was arrested along with the prisoners in the harbor, and was picked out by the sharp-eyed Feng Wusi, which was really useful.

"The villain's name is Wembala, and he was originally mixed up in Zamboanga's Sura gang."

"If you don't do it, why did you come to work for Shorthair? When did the Sulu people like to work as coolies? ”

In the country of Sulu between Borneo and Luzon, the people like to do business the most, whether it is fishing, salt or spices, they can do profitable business and trade, and if they can't do it, they will use robbery, but they have never heard of any boy willing to work as a coolie with peace of mind, that is what only slaves do.

"Wherever the villains want, they are all arrested." Wen Bara immediately called out to the sky, half exaggerated, half real state of mind.

Uzhuman disagreed, "When did Shorthair run to Sulu to arrest people?" "If there is such a thing, as a big gang, he should be the first to know.

Wen Bara was slightly embarrassed, but he still told the story of how they followed the Zhang family gang to rob Labuan, and finally how they were killed by the Song people and there were only three left. As long as they can escape and live, the Song people treat the captives no better than the people, it is really a heaven and an underground, and all kinds of methods are full of 'creativity'.

But all Uzhuman wanted was an answer.

"How many more people are there in the fort?"

"There are more than a dozen people who are called chiefs, and there are always dozens of people who have fled in, and the total number should not exceed 60."

"How many can fight?"

"Just these more than ten leaders can fight."

"Do you want to join the gang?" Wu Zhuman's words changed.

"The king lifts up, how can the villain refuse." Wen Barat seems to see a life-saving straw, as long as he is not allowed to attack the city, he will do anything to save his life.

"Okay, tell me what we're going to do next?"

Everyone was shocked when they heard this, when did they talk about a foreign minions who had lost a battle to guide the country? But looking at Wu Zhuman's face, several leaders were no longer ready to speak.

At this time, Wen Barat felt that this king was really too much to talk about than the leader he had just brought over, and every question was so simple, what question was the most reassuring? Naturally, the answer to this question has been known for a long time.

Hearing this, Wen Barat no longer had to hesitate, thinking to himself, 'You are really looking for the right person'.

A simple answer then blurted out, just one word.

"Run—"