"Huh?" Yang Hongzhang took the clairvoyance in Yang Sheng's hand and looked at it for a while, and hurriedly said, "Stop, don't waste the shells, these are the thieves who came out of nowhere, wasting so many shells from Lao Tzu!" ”

These people are indeed not pirates, they are pirates. But when Yang Hongzhang saw a pirate leader-like person on a ship constantly pleading with him, hoping that Yang Hongzhang could let his men save the pirates who fell into the sea because of the sinking ship, Yang Hongzhang smiled. These guys are quite righteous and not afraid of death. Knowing that his firepower was so fierce, he didn't scatter and flee. When did pirates become so tall?

Of course, what surprised Yang Hongzhang even more was behind. Yang Hongzhang decided to adopt Ma Gaocheng's advice, capture and cut down several main leaders of this group of pirates, and then let those minions go. In this way, it is good to have an explanation of the zodiac Zhou, and it may have a certain effect on clearing the hidden dangers of pirates in the East China Sea. However, Yang Sheng resolutely opposed this, thinking that it should be all clicked like a red-haired devil. Because pirates are pirates after all! The third young master often said that cutting grass does not remove the roots, and the spring breeze blows and grows. It's just that Yang Hongzhang can't bear it, after all, they are all compatriots. So the order was quickly passed down, and several people who looked like pirate leaders were tied up and pushed to Yang Hongzhang.

Yang Sheng had no choice but to vent on these leaders, so he pretended to start interrogating and preparing to educate those pirate minions by the way. Soon Yang Sheng found that these pirates were almost all Hokkien, and sighed in his heart, didn't all the pirates on the sea discuss coming to Jiangsu and Zhejiang to plunder? It's really a decoration to be a great water master. However, what made Yang Sheng even more depressed was that the pirate leader seemed to be about the same age as the third young master of his family. He also looks like a talent, and he doesn't look like a pirate who robs houses and houses for a living, could it be that he met the third young master when he came out to mix for the first time?

Yang Sheng picked up a broken rope from the deck and began to interrogate him like a red-haired devil. "Grandpa asked you what your name was!"

The pirate leader glanced at Yang Sheng with disdain and said, "Phew! A certain line does not change its surname, sits and does not change its name, Quanzhou Shi Lang! ”

"Grass, that place in Fujian specializes in pirates. Zheng Zhilong is a big pirate. But it's really not good to mix with you, it's much worse than Zheng Zhilong. You won't be Zheng Zhilong's subordinate, will you? Hey, Shi Lang is it, grandpa Yang Sheng, don't be a pirate in the next life. Someone pulled down and cut it down! Yang Sheng still wanted to continue to show his superiority, but found that this guy looked down on him at all, and he was unhappy, so he wanted to ask someone to kill him directly.

"Wait a minute!" Yang Hongzhang, who was still watching the excitement, hurriedly stopped Yang Sheng, looked at Shi Lang, who was tied up with five flowers, and said, "You say you are Shi Lang?" ”

Shi Lang is also a very discerning person, and when he saw that this Yang Sheng, who was more powerful than the fox and the tiger, his status was obviously much higher, so he nodded slightly: "In Xia Quanzhou Shi Lang, it is not a pity to become a king and defeat a king, and it is not a pity to die in Xia, and I hope to let my brothers go." If possible, I also implore this brother to save his brother who fell into the water. ”

"Fujian Navy Master Zheng Zhilong's subordinate Shi Lang?" Yang Hongzhang ignored Shi Lang's request, but continued to ask, "Since you are a sailor of the imperial court, why do you want to appear here and do something to us?" Has Zheng Zhilong been so arrogant? ”

Hearing this, Shi Lang lowered his head, and after a long time, he said, "We have already separated from the Fujian Sailors, and ...... And I don't know that you are the sailors of the imperial court. We are just cargo ships coming and going. ”

"Well, if I'm not a court sailor, you can pretend to be a pirate to rob, it's really lawless and deadly, and you said that you have broken away from Zheng Zhilong, and you still want to defend him when you are dying." As far as Zheng Zhilong's bastard thing is concerned, my young master will bring someone to level him sooner or later! Young master, don't be soft-hearted, these guys are all damned! When Yang Sheng heard that these people were really Zheng Zhilong's subordinates, he immediately interjected.

Shi Lang glanced at Yang Sheng, and originally wanted to explain, but after thinking about it, whether he broke away from Zheng Zhilong, what he did today was a pirate's business, since the other party agreed to kill only a few leaders, why bother to explain.

Yang Sheng was already angry, he heard that he was Zheng Zhilong's subordinate, and now he pouted and didn't speak, so he said to Yang Hongzhang: "Third Young Master, don't waste time with him, we moved so much here just now, it wouldn't be good if we ran away." ”

"Yes, Shi Lin, although the battle just now was short, it was not small. It's better to be early. Ma Gaocheng also persuaded beside him. Hearing this, Shi Lang closed his eyes.

"Tell me to go down, stop the boat, and save people! Fire! Yang Hongzhang glared at Yang Sheng, and then turned to Shi Lang, "Since you are Zheng Zhilong's person, I won't embarrass you." However, you pretended to be pirates and tried to attack us, and we lost a lot of shells, so we went back and let our Admiral Zheng take the silver to ransom us. It doesn't take much, 1 hundred taels for 1 person, and the ship is calculated according to the market price, plus the loss of shells, well, it's 200,000 taels. You write a letter, and I will ask your men to bring it back, and as long as they see the silver, I will release the people and the ship. Otherwise, even if I am bankrupt, I will go to the capital to sue the emperor, accusing him that Zheng Zhilong, as a naval commander of the Ming Dynasty, connived at or deliberately allowed his subordinates to plunder passing merchant ships at sea. ”

Hearing this, Yang Sheng, Ma Gaocheng and the others all had their eyes lit up, especially Yang Sheng was impressed, and said in his heart that the third young master still had the potential to be a pirate. Go back and wait for this matter to end, and persuade the third young master to go to the sea to be a professional pirate.

And Shi Lang, who had already closed his eyes and was waiting for death, opened his eyes again and said with a wry smile: "I am no longer a Fujian sailor, and I have a grudge against Zheng Zhilong, so don't bother!" ”

Hearing this, Yang Hongzhang's face was blank: "How do you say this?" ”

So Shi Lang briefly talked about how he had a grudge with Zheng Zhilong, how he escaped from the Fujian Navy, and how he came here. It turned out that the history was similar to that of Yang Hongzhang, Shi Lang was originally a general under Zheng Zhilong, who was good at fighting and strategizing. At the age of 22, he became a thousand households of Fujian sailors. It's just that with the promotion of his position, he has a better understanding of what Zheng Zhilong did, and Zheng Zhilong was originally very dissatisfied with Shi Lang's disobedience to the imperial court, and in recent years, Zheng Zhilong has openly colluded with the Dutch, who gave Zheng Zhilong 150,000 francs a year, and then looted in Southeast Asia and even East Asia unscrupulously. It is even entrenched in Dachen Island. This made Shi Lang unacceptable, and many protests were not accepted, and later led his men to attack the Dutch entrenched in Dachen Island. turned out to annoy Zheng Zhilong, Zheng Zhilong is also a ruthless person, in order to appease the anger of the Dutch, he actually arrested and killed all Shi Lang's family, and even the families of several hundred households under Shi Lang were not spared. Shi Lang, who got the news, naturally couldn't go back, so he left the Fujian Navy Division with his subordinates. Because there is no ferocity of ordinary pirates, life is very miserable, and the southeast coast is Zheng Zhilong's sphere of influence. That's why I wanted to take my men to try my luck near the East China Sea.

They also followed Yang Hongzhang all the way to here. Originally, they were considering whether to do anything to the several big ships parked in Zhoushan, but they were afraid that they would be official ships. As a result, Yang Hongzhang and their arrival were discovered today, and they determined through clairvoyance that there were no artillery on the two ships, that is, both were large merchant ships, and then followed them all the way to Zhoushan, only to find that they had converged with the sea ships they had attempted to attack earlier. So a bold plan unfolded among Shi Lang and his men.

In their opinion, after this vote is successful, there is no need to go out for at least four or five years, and they can even use this to establish a base in Zhoushan.

But Shi Lang's luck was really bad, he actually met the nosy Yang Hongzhang, who was born in Fujian, he knew that even if he met the same number of Yangtze River sailors or even more, he would not worry, so they rushed in.

Of course, Shi Lang was also lucky, because he met Yang Hongzhang, who was also in an embarrassing situation. If Yang Hongzhang is a sailor, then Shi Lang and his men will die today, and if Yang Hongzhang is a pirate, Shi Lang will not survive. But Yang Hongzhang is neither. It's a traverser who was forced to fight the Japanese Invaders.

A naval battle with a huge disparity in strength and no more than two quarters of an hour took nearly two hours to clean up the battlefield, because Shi Lang and Yang Hongzhang both demanded that all the ships that could be used be put out and repaired. After counting, Shi Lang brought out 21 large and small warships and more than 700 sailors, but 6 were sunk, and 2 sails were completely destroyed and temporarily unusable. On the personnel side, nearly 50 people died on the spot. Most of them were caught off guard by the first wave of shelling, and even people and boats fell into the sea. More than 100 others were wounded by flintlock pistols in close combat. It is estimated that some of these people will die in the future. This result did give Shi Lang a new understanding of the combat effectiveness of Yang Hongzhang and others.

Yang Hongzhang asked Yang Sheng to take Gu Yanwu's letter to Shanghai County to find Ye Kaitai, the magistrate of the county, and the injured ones of Shi Lang's men were also transported to Songjiang.

And Shi Lang temporarily became Yang Hongzhang's subordinate, and the two parties agreed that Shi Lang and his subordinates needed to make money to pay off their debts! The lives of his subordinates were bought with money from Yang Hongzhang. The same is true for the warship, as well as the ammunition fee for compensating Yang Hongzhang, Yang Hongzhang gave him a discount, 150,000 taels of silver! Although Shi Lang was reluctant, the pride in his heart made him unwilling to owe favors, and in the end, it was more beneficial for him to survive with Yang Hongzhang in the current situation.

Of course, Yang Hongzhang wanted to subdue Shi Lang in his heart, but he also knew that Shi Lang was arrogant and eager for revenge, and he was just a young master from a large family with a few warships. It has not yet been decided what will happen after the Japanese retreat this time. So they also have an agreement, if Yang Hongzhang can enter the imperial court in the future, Shi Lang will join Yang Hongzhang's command, and if both sides are pirates, they will become allies.

Of course, Yang Hongzhang also properly showed his strength, especially his experience in the past year was bragged by Yang Sheng. If it weren't for the fact that there were really five Spanish warships and countless cannons to corroborate it, Shi Lang would never have believed it. Shi Lang estimated in his heart that if all of them were Spanish warships, and he would lead them, he would only need 15-20 ships to directly fight Zheng Zhilong, as long as the sailors were full of shells, the chances of victory were very large.

Of course, there is another point that makes Shi Lang moved, that is, Yang Hongzhang also hates Zheng Zhilong very much, and he knows that this kind of hatred of being cut off from wealth is actually similar to killing his parents. And after Yang Hongzhang shouted out the bold words of giving me ten years and destroying Ya, Shi Lang was really a little envious of Yang Hongzhang, his foundation was much stronger than himself, especially the Yang family, which had a big family as the backing.

After merging Shi Lang's team, he used the speed advantage of the warships brought by Shi Lang to extend the patrol line to hundreds of miles, and the entire direct waterway to the sea from Zhoushan to Songjiang to the north was all within his monitoring range. The arrival of the first wave of pirates came two days later, and when Shi Lang stood next to Yang Hongzhang and saw only four clippers similar to his own, he suggested letting them go, and then followed them to find their lair near the East China Sea.