"Shi Lin, that old puppet clearly wants to borrow a knife to kill people, it is said that there are five or six thousand people this time. There are only four or five hundred people who can really fight, and it is not the kind of environment where we are put to death, how can we be the opponents of those murderous pirates. Even if we win, we will inevitably expose our warships and guns, and even if Huang Daozhou doesn't say anything at that time, Zhang Cai's old horseman will definitely go to the court! Ma Gaocheng, the cousin who rushed to the news, said angrily.

"Yes, Third Young Master, Young Master Cousin is right, no matter how we do this time, we will not be able to fall behind in the end, so it is better to go back to the governor!"

"Yes, Third Young Master, it's not that we don't dare to fight. Here is on land, there are 26 guards in Nanzhili, and there are also Yangtze River water divisions, and the hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses in the 3 guards in Zhejiang can all be deployed in place as long as they are seven or eight days a day, and it is always okay to slow down for ten days. ”

Yang Hongzhang looked at his relatives and friends who had been born and died, and he also had a trace of regret in his heart, if he didn't go back to Hangzhou directly, but chose to live in seclusion in Zhoushan, or other islands...... Immediately, Yang Hongzhang shook his head, once upon a time, he was so proud that he actually wanted to be a pirate?

"Cousin, Yang Sheng, you don't need to say it, I promised to send troops to intercept the Japanese Kou is not entirely because of the governor, this time the Japanese are very fierce, maybe they will act together with the northern Jiannu through Qi, although the Japanese are cruel, we are also unpredictable to go to sea, but I Yang Hongzhang has read the sage book for a few years, as the so-called life and death of the country has been profitable, how can it be avoided because of blessings and misfortunes! The situation was eroded due to the invasion of the Japanese invaders, and the ineffective encirclement and suppression of the officials and troops led to the erosion of the villagers. Don't say that we have experience in fighting at sea, and even ordinary young people should take up arms to defend their homes and their fathers and fellow villagers. Prepare well, inform the elderly, the only son in the family will not follow this time. ”

Bang bang, just when Ma Gaocheng, Yang Sheng and others were preparing to go to sea early the next morning with the people of the governor's yamen, applause rang out at the door of Yang Hongzhang's study, and then a hearty laughter came: "The life and death of a good profit-seeking country has been avoided because of blessings and misfortunes!" is a good Yang Shilin, people say that a showman can't resist the temptation of copper smell after all before going to sea to do business, today it seems that the Shilin brothers' blood and heroism are enough to shut up these people. I think that someone who thinks of himself as a great Confucian in Jiangnan is also ashamed of himself, right? It is estimated that there are too many visitors to the Yang family in the past few days, and every Yang Hongzhang and these people are talking and laughing, and they seem to be very familiar, so that no one informed Yang Hongzhang when they arrived at the door of the study.

Yang Hongzhang was stunned for a moment after seeing the people coming clearly, he was just used to pretending to be in front of these illiterates, but he didn't expect to meet Gu Jiang and Gu Yanwu, who lived in Hangzhou! This time, the forced value immediately increased by more than 100 and directly exploded. Yang Hongzhang let Gu Yanwu into the study and said with a smile: "Brother Zhongqing, don't laugh at me, I won't tell you, Hongzhang is just forced to be helpless, and he just pretends to be generous in order not to worry his relatives and friends." Besides, the governor has a Linghongzhang, and he can't refuse it. ”

Even so, it is more chic than some officialdom old fritters and celebrities who only know how to calculate and drill camps all day long. It's just that I don't know how sure the Shi Lin brothers are about dealing with the murderous widows, can they let the brothers also board the ship to take a look? Gu Yanwu was obviously very well-informed, and pointed out that Sang scolded Huai for taking Huang Daozhou and Zhang Cai together.

"No, no, not to mention the danger of the battlefield, Brother Zhongqing can't stand the bumps of the sea alone. When Hongzhang first got on the boat, he vomited so much that he was ...... the sky was confused," Yang Hongzhang was startled when he heard this, he thought it was Gu Yanwu who heard that his hometown was in trouble, and then got the news from the governor that he was going to sea, and came to comfort himself. I didn't expect this person to want to go to sea with him. Although he is also a scholar, he is still a soldier in his bones.

"Not negotiable?" Gu Yanwu looked at Yang Hongzhang seriously. Yang Hongzhang nodded and looked at the other party.

"Well, actually, I'm worried that I won't be able to bear it. So I wrote this letter in a hurry, and now the Shanghai County Commander of Songjiang Prefecture had some friendship with Yanwu, and if he had difficulties in supplies at sea, he could go to him. He and you and I are the same kind of people, and they shouldn't be in the same league as those over there. Gu Yanwu took out the letter and pointed in the direction where the governor's yamen was located.

Yang Hongzhang's eyes were fixed on Gu Yanwu, this Jiangnan celebrity who was five years older than himself trusted him so much. To be honest, his friendship with this person before the last time he went to sea was average, and he was even more unattainable in terms of fame, and now he actually uses a class of people to describe it. Of course, although Huang Daozhou agreed to allocate a certain number of bows and crossbows and swords to himself, he did not mention the matter of sea supplies at all, which was clearly to make him self-sufficient. If you can really get the support of Songjiang Prefecture at a critical moment, it will be a relief in the snow.

As everyone went separately to prepare, Yang Hongzhang also left a letter to his father in the study, mainly to explain that the Yang family must take care of those Western monks, saying that he would be of great use at that time.

Yang Hongzhang was ordered to go to sea overnight to contain the Japanese invaders, and the news spread throughout Hangzhou the next day. For some reason, the news that Zhang Cai, a great Confucian in Jiangnan, reported that the former Xiucai of the Yang family might have hidden swords and firearms. Naturally, some people think that Zhang Cai's gas volume is too small, and some people don't believe that the report letter came from Zhang Cai. Of course, more people praised the governor for his knowledge and good deeds. Using Yang Hongzhang, a disciple of Taishang Laojun, to block the sea passage of the Japanese Kou is a stroke of genius.

Yang Hongzhang didn't have the heart to care about these, he was less than one percent of Zhang Cai in terms of fame, and even less than one ten-thousandth of Huang Daozhou in terms of power. In order to protect himself and support his family, he must first agree to send troops, and then find a way. In order to reduce casualties, Yang Hongzhang immediately led people to Zhoushan to join up with the three Spanish warships anchored there and began to distribute guns.

Yang Hongzhang was lucky enough to lead people to win the pirates who sent gold, silver, jewelry and other precious goods to the Netherlands in the Atlantic, but he stayed in Madeira for nearly half a month, and exchanged most of his goods for the most advanced muskets and artillery in the inventory of Western countries. Although he also consumed a lot of money on the way, in the face of the murderous Japanese robbers, Yang Hongzhang would not do the kind of stupid thing that would rather sacrifice his subordinates than give up guns.

In the vast sea, if you don't know the route of the retreat of the Japanese invaders, it is impossible to pursue, so in order to be safe, Yang Hongzhang decided to get in touch with Songjiang Mansion as soon as possible, and then wait for the rabbit at the mouth of the Yangtze River. Huang Daozhou doesn't supply himself, and he doesn't need to be really stupid to go around looking for widows. To love the country and the people, you must also have your own strength. Of course, Yang Hongzhang still has a guess, in fact, Huang Daozhou did not expect him Yang Hongzhang to come in handy, it is estimated that the Zhejiang guards are too useless, so they can shake a shot and organize the people to resist the Japanese from the moment Yang Hongzhang left Hangzhou, it is estimated that Huang Daozhou wrote on the chapter, and in the future, if the situation gets out of control, it is good to explain to the imperial court.

What Yang Hongzhang didn't expect was that he had just brought the fleet out of Zhoushan and encountered the enemy before he arrived in Songjiang, to be precise, they were surrounded. In the night, more than a dozen clippers appeared one after another from three sides. There were countless torches on the boat, and those people were struggling to operate the boat, and at the same time shouting loudly to put pressure on Yang Hongzhang and the others. But apparently they were disappointed, because from the moment they appeared, the five warships immediately began to change positions, putting on an offensive formation before the encirclement on three sides was complete.

Then the pirates, who had come to receive the goods in high spirits, suddenly noticed that there were fire dragons constantly spewing out from the five ships, and then, when they came to them, they realized that these five ships were not the two merchant ships they had followed earlier to join the other merchant ships, but real warships. The ship is not big because it needs to carry a lot of goods, but because it can hold enough cannons! The number of guns on the five warships is more than double the total number of guns on the clippers who came to besiege, and the key is that the guns are big enough and the firepower is fierce enough! Long enough!

Of course, the hit rate of these gunners under Yang Hongzhang was also outrageously high, just three rounds of shelling, at least three pirate ships due north were sunk, two of them caught fire, and countless people were either shocked into the water or jumped into the sea in order to extinguish the fire on their bodies. After two more rounds of shelling, the encirclement was completely ineffective. The five ships turned around and headed east, startling several pirate ships to the east who had been trying to take a detour for hand-to-hand combat. Because Yang Hongzhang's warships were several times larger than these pirate ships, cannonballs rained down, and when they finally approached, the pirates were greeted not with imaginary bows and arrows, but with flintlock guns. A flintlock pistol with a rate of fire several times faster than the bow and arrow. Hundreds of flintlock pistols!

Then, as the pirates watched, five warships passed directly to the east, and then did not leave, but turned around and swung away, and then beckoned the pirate ship with more intense shells. At this moment, the entire two dozen pirate ships were completely in chaos. Originally, these pirate ships also had artillery, but they always raided with speed. The Clipper is small in size, has a small number of guns, and has a small caliber.

"Haha, those turtle grandsons surrendered. Haha...... "Yang Sheng and others, who have experienced hundreds of days and nights of drifting at sea, are also the same as Yang Hongzhang, and they have been very calm from the contact between the two sides to the present. Without encountering the same number of Dutch warships, they don't have to worry about the outcome of the battle at all, the only thing they worry about is how to replenish the consumed ammunition!

"Ignore them and keep banging me!" Yang Hongzhang didn't even bother to pick up the clairvoyance and take a look. Dealing with these pirates whose largest ships carry less than one-fifth of his own warship, Yang Hongzhang really didn't pay attention to it, but he was a little distressed about his shells, and he was now thinking about how to make up for these losses. At the same time, he is also ready to sprinkle all his anger on these widows, and he will have an explanation when he goes back to see Huang Daozhou in the future.

"Shi Lin, these Japanese speaks Chinese quite well, listen to them desperately shouting for help, where did my mother go when she robbed the people in the first place?" Ma Gaocheng stood next to Yang Hongzhang with a calm face.

"Young Master, Young Master, these don't seem to be pirates, they should be ordinary pirates in the East China Sea." Yang Sheng added after observing for a long time.