A few days later, Zhou Huai'an was already standing on the bow of a large sea ship, looking at the endless sea level and the distant horizon, which was the boundary between Hainan Island and the Leizhou Peninsula.

Today's Sanjiang Patrol Army/Fury Battalion, with the improvement of economic conditions and the steady increase in output associated with Guangfu, has actually expanded to 10 battalions; It's about the ratio of six to eight households raising one soldier. Therefore, it is possible to dispatch the five battalions of men and horses that are relatively fully equipped to do the act of crossing the sea and attacking to aid Annam.

In fact, during this period of time, Zhou Huai'an, in the name of his authority and convenience and the left-behind division, the barbarian forces located in the Pearl River Valley and the Chaoshan Plain have been cleared up by the rebel army who have taken turns to train their troops; Dozens of villages and settlements living in remote and dangerous areas have been burned and destroyed or forcibly relocated to specific administrative areas, contributing at least 20,000 or 30,000 cheap laborers.

In addition, there were probably more powerful and smaller mountain villages with limited influence or mixed Yi and Han villages, which showed their obedience and obedience to the rebels in the general situation; According to the proportion, some young men and women were sent to work in the workshops, mines, and granges at the foot of the mountain, and they were used as paid labor in exchange for salt, iron, and other people's biological use; It can be regarded as controlling the lifeblood of daily life in disguised control in the simple economic system of the rebel army.

Therefore, in the north of Fujian, there is no time to take care of anything else, as long as the Shaoguan Pass and the narrow road on the Jiangxi side are in danger; Relying on the remaining five battalions that are not yet fully formed, plus more than 20 regiments of lightly armed garrisons, the basic situation can be completely controlled. Moreover, even the ships used to carry troops are ready-made, and they were originally intended to train the reserve of sailors, and there was an exclusive inshore shipping team.

Despite this, it took Zhou Huai'an several days to get to the sea in preparation and get limited help from the left-behind department.

It's just that not long after going to sea, Zhou Huai'an regretted it a little; After all, compared with the stable, comfortable and well-equipped cruise ships of later generations, most seagoing ships in this era are still dark, damp and leaking everywhere in the cabins; Not to mention the obvious swaying and shaking caused by the limited floating load capacity of the hull; This is true even on the seemingly calm sea.

Therefore, the volunteer soldiers on these dozen or so large sea ships have all experienced some kind of seasickness to varying degrees. There are also some people who have vomiting and diarrhea symptoms because of the unadjusted diet, at this time, the emergency medicine prepared by the whole city of Guangzhou, all kinds of pill powder ointment (panacea, marching powder, wound white medicine, etc.) can come in handy.

In addition, the senior bow of Zhou Huai'an's ship, nicknamed "Old Crab", also presented him with an earthwork that could relieve the symptoms of navigation. It is to use the translucent juice squeezed out of the body of a live fish and drink it with ginger slices; Although the strange taste was almost disgusting, many people insisted on or were forced to vomit, and after vomiting several times, the nausea and dizziness that was difficult to walk on the ship really disappeared naturally.

Then eat some porridge and pastry, and it is easy to recover from your appetite.

In the course of this relatively monotonous voyage at sea, the only pleasure on board was to hang a rod on the side of the ship, or to practice shooting with the seabirds hovering above the whirlpool at the stern, or to do the corner fight and fight on the swaying deck, and to do chronic acclimatization training.

Fortunately, the journey from Guangzhou to Annam is itself a fairly mature route that has been navigable since the Qin and Han dynasties, and there are also some tall towers built by the people, which can provide direction guidance through the faint lights at the top at night; So in most cases throughout the year, this route can be made once every two or three days.

Despite this, while passing through Luzhou, the easternmost part of Annam (near present-day Dong Hung City, Vietnam), there was a considerable torrential rain and wind tide; The kind of human power is insignificant between the power of heaven and earth, and the emptiness and powerlessness that resemble a rootless wanderer is simply despairing.

Therefore, Zhou Huai'an and his subordinates immediately understood why these people on the sea would worship Mazu and Dragon King of Upper Middle Earth, the sea monarch and water god of the outer regions in the special shrine set up at the stern of the ship, and all kinds of worship objects.

Then, after the wind and rain suddenly stopped, many towering and steep on the sea, the big ones were like strange peaks, the small ones were cut into the sword, and the large and small islands on the forest green and lush on them began to appear in front of Zhou Huai'an's fleet; Judging by his experience and insight in later generations, this should be the vicinity of Ha Long Bay, which was later called "Guilin on the Sea"; It took more than half a day to wait until it deviated from the direction due to the wind and rain, and it took some effort to return to the other big ships on the Hengchang route.

It's just that Halong Bay in this era obviously lacks the hustle and bustle of yachts as a tourist attraction in later generations, but it has a lot of original flavor; Of course, it is also a place where all kinds of pirates, smugglers, and fishermen hide in it.

Therefore, when the daily business traveler is sailing, there will always be some unexplained snooping and tailgating; Even the small fleet that Zhou Huai'an was in was no exception; He can sometimes even use his eyesight to see faint traces of smoke rising inexplicably on an island. But while appreciating the primitive scenery along the way, Zhou Huai'an couldn't help but think of some of the deeds of pirates in the Tang Dynasty that he heard in later generations.

Among them, the most famous is the great pirate in the Kaiyuan period, known as Feng Laolong, a strange man of the generation Feng Ruofang. He was also the chief of Wanzhou on Hainan Island under the imperial court, the largest slave owner in the region, and the pirate leader in the vicinity. He even made offerings to the famous monk Jianzhen who drifted to Yazhou because of a shipwreck, and sponsored his sixth successful trip to Japan to preach the Dharma.

Therefore, in the Tang Dynasty, the Japanese real person Wukai said in the "Biography of the Tang Dynasty and the Expedition to the East": "Ruofang often robbed two or three Persian ships (referring to the ships from Persia that is, present-day Iran to the East in ancient times) every year, taking things as his own goods and plundering people as slaves. That is to say, this guy specializes in robbing foreign Hu people, and has nothing to do with the Tang ships in Dongtu.

"The slaves and maids live in the north and south for three days, and the east and west travel for five days, and the villages and villages are secondary, and they are always the (residence) places of the slaves and maids." , "If Fang meets guests, he often uses ** incense as a lamp and candle, and burns more than 100 catties. Behind his house, if the fragrant wood is like a mountain, the rest of the property is also called this Yan. This shows where its wealth and extravagance lie.

In addition, there was later Chen Wuzhen, a wealthy man and pirate from Zhenzhou (reigned 827-840) during the reign of Emperor Wenzong of the Tang Dynasty (reigned in Yacheng Town, Sanya City). History said that he "has a lot of money, is a big man in the sea, and has hundreds of rhinos, elephants, and tortoiseshell warehouses", and even the highest military and political officials of Hainan Island at that time - Qiong, Ya, Dan, and Wan'an recruited Wei Gonggan to do things as brothers.

Its wealth was looted from merchant ships in the Western Regions (referring to central and western Asia, the Indian Peninsula, eastern Europe and the United States, and northern Africa) that were drifted into Zhenzhou by storm. However, after that, with the decline of the Tang Dynasty, it seems that there is no more such a well-known pirate force.

On the contrary, there are pirate miscellaneous streams from Nantianzhu, Biguo, Shuilu Zhenla, Sri Buddha, Heling, Poqi, Zhuran, Linyi and other pirates, and there are sporadic words that have been heard in the world through the victims. However, each of these forces had its own sphere of activity, and there was not much chance of running to the coast of Annam, which was subordinate to the Tang Dynasty's sphere of influence.

However, it is like the crow's mouth wish of "saying Cao Cao, Cao Cao" in a certain sense has come true, just after sailing through the iconic coastal reference of Annan - the Eastern Han Dynasty, the general Fubo Ma Yuan pacified Jiaozhi, and the battalion soldiers piled up over the military cliff of "Jingguan"; Soon the ship ahead heard the words of flags and flashes of lenses that had noticed something unusual.

Then after sailing over the next large headland of the tortuous coastline, Zhou Huai'an also saw smoke marks faintly rising in the distance, as well as thin black spots looming on the surface of the sea like swimming fish. According to his doubled magnified field of view to the extreme.

It was a Kunlun ship under siege, and there were at least a dozen smaller ships clinging to it; And there are ant-like people who are shirtless and short-crotched, and they use knives, axes, bows and arrows to attack and kill endlessly. Well, this way of fighting the gangs is obviously the norm and mainstream in naval warfare in this era.

Before Zhou Huai'an could react, there were several similar strip-shaped clippers on the edge of the headland, rowing with all their might, towards the sea boat at the front; There were also a few bells and whistles shaking desperately on it, and some people were holding knives and blades leading the high side of the ship and the sail mast, making all kinds of waving gestures.

"What does that mean?"

Zhou Huai'an asked knowingly.

"Could it be that they are intimidating and expelling us?"

"As Shangguan said, there are quite a lot of arrogant and arrogant people in this generation."

Nicknamed "Old Crab", there are some black thin boats with wrinkled faces that are not old and decrepit.

"Or some kind of bluffing, I don't know."

According to the old ship's bow, such gestures of intimidation and intimidation were intended to make the passing ships not to get involved in the fight, otherwise they would not die endlessly.

If the sea ship passes by normally, it may still be difficult to retreat; But it happened to be the division under Zhou Huai'an, how could there be a reason to retreat easily when encountering a threat, which was a sign of hurting morale and the beginning;

"Hang the flag and order each ship to belong to the men and horses, and prepare the ground to fight the enemy."

Immediately, he ordered to Mi Bao, the Marquis on duty and the flag officer beside him.

"The ships in the rear team are following closely, and the ships in the front are the first to start the sea to meet them."

"The ships of the Chinese army followed me to the rear of the open sea. We're going to get off to a good start."

And Qu Chengyu, who was on standby, flashed a complicated expression on his face.

(End of chapter)