Li Tao went ashore with nine fighters from his guard squad.

For this reason, he was still a little worried, and taking the soldiers away would inevitably affect the level of guards on the big ship, but under Chen Yiming's strong request, he still took people ashore.

Chen Yiming was right, after all, the "Longsheng" was moored outside the harbor, and any small boat that tried to approach it was in the field of vision of the sailors on duty, and it was enough to have the sailors' armed guards.

And it is really dangerous to go ashore alone and go to the territory of the Portuguese, the Portuguese in this era, the attitude towards the Chinese, is already very arrogant and rude, who knows if there will be any trouble, it is always right to be cautious.

However, the Portuguese and Macao authorities did not care about the Chinese big boats, and Li Tao and his small boats were not stopped and inspected when they entered and left the bay, and after they went ashore, there was nothing unusual about the meeting process.

This Jack Li, the shopkeeper of a trading firm named "Baotai", is a native of Xiangshan County.

Since their ancestors, their family has been engaged in the trade of goods with foreigners, and after several generations of hundreds of years of operation, their family has become one of the most famous indigenous people in the local area, both in terms of economic strength and personal connections, they are quite strong.

Nominally, the "Bao Tai" firm was exclusively engaged in foreign business, and there were more than a dozen small clippers plying the coast of Guangdong, bringing local silk, porcelain, medicines, and handicrafts to Macao, which were then sold to the Portuguese.

However, he also had another business, which was to provide all kinds of necessities for ships at sea, the so-called necessities, from wood, iron, grain, and vegetables for repairing ships, to firearms and gunpowder.

Naturally, another lucrative business that followed him was the acquisition of pirates' spoils.

Of course, Macau is not a pirate port, and it is illegal to sell stolen goods or sell goods to pirates, except for the authority of the Portuguese governor, Macau itself cannot protect him from the laws of the Ming Dynasty.

However, Jack Lee had been running the business there for many years, and the reason for his peace was that he himself had already joined the Catholic Church, and in Macau, the Church had almost the same power as the Governor.

Of course, there was only one reason for his safety, and that was that he had money, and that he had married a Portuguese wife, which brought him into disrepute in his clan and nearly expelled him from the clan.

In this era, although the number of believers in Catholic missionary activities in China was far less smooth than in Manila, Japan and other places, through the efforts of Matteo Ricci and others, a number of Chinese officials and intellectuals were still won over, and they also successfully entered the Chinese capital and participated in the astronomical revision and ordnance manufacturing of the imperial court.

Through the mediation of missionaries, Jack Lee had some contacts with Qu Shiyun, Jiao Lian and other Ming Dynasty officials who also became a Christianity a few years ago, and for this reason, in the war against the Qing Dynasty and the restoration of the Ming Dynasty, the Southern Ming court also asked him to help a little.

Just three years ago, when Qu Shiyun was ordered to stay in Guilin, it was through this person's connection that the Macau Church came forward and hired a foreign gun team of hundreds of people, carrying advanced Franc machine guns, to help the Ming army hold Guilin.

This time, when the "Longsheng" went to the Americas to buy rubber saplings, it was through this person's relationship that it hired a team of Western sailors, which played a considerable role.

Because Li Tao thanked him for his help and brought a little silver and gifts as a thank you gift, Jack Li was very happy and insisted on leaving Li Tao and others for dinner.

Li Tao was not very refusal, and happily stayed as a guest to drink, because his trip was not as simple as a pure return visit, he heard that Jack Li could get a lot of saltpeter......

……

Early the next morning, Li Tao, who had not woken up from a hangover, came to the dock with the guards, but when he arrived at the appointed time, there was no trace of the lifeboat, so he waited patiently with the soldiers.

As a result, after waiting for more than an hour, there was no shadow of the lifeboat, and Li Tao was a little puzzled.

After hesitating again and again, Li Tao, who was faintly uneasy, hired a small boat in the port to send them out of the port, but as soon as they got on the big ship, they found sailor Li Zhixian lying in a pool of blood as soon as they boarded the port side.

The frightened Li Tao immediately rushed to the cockpit and found the bodies of the third mate, Gao Yubao, and the boatswain Zhu Tieying......

Subsequently, Li Tao found that all the guns were missing, even the four "javelin" launchers were gone, so he called Lin Xiao in a panic.

……

Before Lin Xiao arrived, Li Tao didn't let the soldiers move the scene, and as soon as Lin Xiao and the others got on the boat, he took Lin Xiao to survey the scene together.

Captain Chen died outside the door of the captain's lounge, and the rest died in the crew rest cabin, only electrician Yang Ming and a marine engineer fell outside the safety hatch......

Obviously, they were on duty in the bilge when they heard a little movement, and when they noticed that something was wrong, their first reaction was to want to go to the safety cabin to hide......

There was not a single survivor of the whole ship, and all eleven people were killed, and all of them died from the cold weapon cutting their throats.

"Strange ......"

Lin Xiao squatted beside Chen Yiming, withdrew his slightly trembling hand, and said in a dry voice: "It seems that it was an unexpected assassination......

"Yes,"

Li Tao responded hoarsely, "Can you do this, kill everyone quietly, only a martial arts master can do it, right?" ”

"However, Lao Chen seems to have heard something and took the initiative to get out of the cabin......"

Li Tao pointed to a line of blood in the aisle not far away, which was obviously caused by the corpse or the wounded being dragged away.

"Yes,"

Lin Xiao found the bullet hole in the bulkhead and hesitated to respond, "Perhaps, the other party also has casualties......"

He knew that Lao Chen had a pistol for self-defense, and if he noticed something unusual in the middle of the night and went out of the cabin to inspect, there was no reason not to bring a gun, judging from the scene, Lao Chen had fired.

"It should be, our people, the corpses are ......"

Li Tao said sadly, "It was their people who were dragged away......"

"Are there any other losses?"

"Strange is strange here...... All the ammunition boxes were there, even the Javelin missiles were not missing, and the few launchers were missing. ”

"Huh?"

Lin Xiao's face was solemn, and he subconsciously said, "What do you mean...... The murderer does not understand modern weapons? ”

"I guess so." Li Tao said dejectedly.

“……”

Lin Xiao didn't answer again, he got up and walked to the side of the ship, stretched out his hand against the bulwark, and looked fixedly in the direction of the port of Macau Island, his face was as gloomy as the canopy before a storm......

After a long time, he gritted his teeth and said coldly: "Let's go, let's go to the island!" ”

……

Macau, whose original name is "Ho Ho King", also known as Ho Ho Kom Macao, is located on the west bank of the Pearl River Delta, and Hong Kong Island is across the sea to the east.

The area of Macao is very small, until later generations are only a dozen square kilometers, at this time Macao has not expanded its territory, just "built on the mountain, vast four or five miles".

In fact, Macao is composed of several islands such as the Macao Peninsula, Taipa and Coloane, among which the Macao Peninsula in the north is a land island in the sea, and there is a narrow land connection between the islands and the mainland, which resembles a lotus flower.

On the stem of the lotus, there is a city gate building, this is the gate, from the land to Macao, must pass through this gate, theoretically speaking, the gate is equivalent to crossing the border.

The Macao Peninsula is five or six miles from east to west, half from north to south, there are two bays in the north and south, the rules are round like a mirror, you can park a boat, there are mountains facing each other like a door, so it is also called Macao.

Macao is very close to Guangzhou, and strictly speaking, Macao and Hong Kong can be regarded as the outer harbors of Guangzhou, and their territorial jurisdiction belongs to Xiangshan County, Guangzhou Prefecture.

(Question, who is Li Tao going to meet when he goes ashore?) ）

Thank you: "Brilliant" and "Quasi-Proposed" tips! Thank you dear! Thank you for your recommendation vote support! Thank you!

(End of chapter)