Chapter 44: Commander of the Flotilla

After getting the captives on the big ship, Liu Yun and Li Zhi came over, and Li Zhi said that he would interrogate them first, and then let Zhang Zhimu come forward. Zhang Zhimu was right to think about it, let's understand the situation first. It seems that these brothers have entered the role. After Liu Yun and Li Zhi went out, Zhang Zhimu and Chen Yufeng looked at each other, Chen Yufeng also nodded with satisfaction, and Li Mao said beside him: "Beside the virtuous brother, the hidden dragon and the crouching tiger." In this battle, small against big, less against more, the brothers are really heroes. Zhang Zhimu said half-jokingly: "Brother Li, we will always be together in the future, so let's call me Zhimu with everyone." This is just the beginning, we haven't left Shanxi yet, the brothers are just practicing, those who have not seen blood, this time even make up for it. At this time, Li Jing happened to come back, took over the conversation, and said: "Those who have seen blood and those who have not seen blood are really different on the battlefield. There are a few performances that are really different. Zhang Zhimu said that everyone should have an account, remember the good and the bad, and after going back, the reward will be rewarded.

At this time, Li Yunhe Li Zhi came in and said, "Mr. Zhang, just now we interrogated the prisoners and learned that there is another warship like this one downstream. But this time, because there were too many goods, I didn't come. The anchorage of that ship, if you go down the river, you can reach it in half a day. It turned out that when Zhang Zhimu and the others arrived at Lingshui Wharf, Li Zicheng's informant knew about it, and their every move was under the watchful eye of others. Fortunately, Zhang Zhimu's weapons were all wrapped and no one found out. After finding out Zhang Zhimu's accurate departure time, they flew the pigeon and reported it. When people knew that it was still the ship of the Huwei Dart Bureau, they set up an ambush in advance and played out the banner of breaking the word.

When Zhang Zhimu heard this, he was shocked into a cold sweat, he was calculated by others, and he didn't know anything. He said, "Settle the matter of the captives first, and then go and settle the ship as soon as possible before the ship is discovered." ”

Zhang Zhimu came to the deck and took a look, startled, and saw that there could be seventy or eighty prisoners, and the black pressure was overwhelming. Liu Yun said to Zhang Zhimu: "A total of ninety-two people have been arrested. ”

Zhang Zhimu stood in front of the captives and said, "Brothers, don't be afraid, since everyone has laid down their arms, then we are not enemies. I know that everyone rebelled against King Chuang because they couldn't eat. In fact, we have no hatred or resentment, and it is a very unreasonable thing for us to fight here today, and it is something that should not happen. Now, brethren, there are several ways to choose: one is to go home, if you are tired of these days and want to go home, we will give you the money in a moment, and you can go on your own; Second, if you think that you must be loyal to the king and want to go back to the king, you can also go to the Yellow River with us, and if you go ashore again, you can go to the king again. There is another one, if you want to live a dignified life, you can join our Yaogang Trading Corporation, become our employees, with your own labor, earn a wage, that is, wages, our minimum wage is, ten taels of silver per year, fifty yuan per month. If you have any expertise, you can be higher, such as carpenter, blacksmith, etc., and if there are capable people in the family, you can also come together. If you make meritorious contributions, there are special contributions, and there are rewards. I'll give you half a pillar of incense to think about it. Those who want to stay, come over here, those who don't want to stay. Sit still. After a buzz, the captives came over. None of them had to leave. Zhang Zhimu thought that he must be scared, afraid that the one who was going to leave would be killed, so he passed it all. Zhang Zhimu waved at the captives. The captives were silent. Zhang Zhimu said: "Everyone must be afraid that they will be disadvantaged if they say they want to leave. Please rest assured, I assure you in my name that if you are willing to go, I will guarantee his safety. At this time, a bold captive said: "We don't want to go, and there is nowhere to find such a good thing when we leave." Besides, we can't go. If you leave and have nowhere to eat, you will be caught by the officers and soldiers, and you will have to be beheaded, and your family will be implicated. King Chuang can't go back, and when he goes back, he knows that we have been captured and will be beheaded. Zhang Zhimu said: "Today's matter is urgent, so I won't say more." Since you have decided to follow me, then you will be our brothers, and we will share difficulties and blessings in the future. But one condition is to follow our rules. I will change everyone's clothes in a while, and I will never say it again in the future, I have worked in King Chuang, and the officials and soldiers will kill their heads if they know it. Later, when someone asked where he had gone during this time, he said that in Yaogang, we in Yaogang can testify for everyone. Good no good? "Good!" The captives were jubilant, thinking that this time they would definitely die, and after a while, good things fell from the sky. They are in the ranks of the king, that is, they are in charge of food, and they may not be full. There is no military salary at all, and it is said that the king of Yichuang can afford to raise hundreds of thousands of troops. Today, there are still good things that can earn money, and they all feel like a dream. In this way, Liu Yun led the people to divide the personnel back into two boats. Zhang Zhimu called several cadres over and held a meeting. Zhang Zhimu said: "Now, the situation is urgent, I will make a long story short, in a while, we will drive two big boats to solve the big boat." Li Jing took people ashore, according to the number of people, to buy some clothes, for these prisoners who had just come to wear, their uniforms can no longer be worn, otherwise it will be troublesome, by the way, buy more. On the next boat, there will be captives. I took two boats up first to solve the boat, and Uncle Chen stayed behind and led the fleet to follow slowly. When we're done with the next boat, drop anchor at the nearest pier downstream. Li Jing and others, after buying clothes, chased us down the river. No outsiders were allowed to board the ship until the captives had changed their clothes. The two small boats followed the flotilla and sent two boatmen to operate the boats. After saying it in one breath, Zhang Zhimu asked if there was anything else to add.

Everyone admired Zhang Zhimu for arranging everything so rigorously in such a short period of time, which benefited other future generals. In particular, this kind of democratic style of holding meetings and discussing matters has also slowly taken shape. No opinion, everyone went their separate ways.

Two large boats, lifting anchor and raising half sails, reached the center of the river, one after the other, and lowered the sails and went down the river. Seeing that the two big ships were far away, Chen Yufeng also asked the fleet to anchor and follow up.

In fact, Zhang Zhimu didn't know that the ship that didn't go to the interception was the command ship, and the reason why he didn't go was indeed that he loaded too much cargo, and there was another reason, that is, carelessness. They believe that the robbery of those shallow ships usually only needs to shout a few voices, and at most they can scare them with one shot, and they will be done. After several ships of the Ming army were sunk, the ships of the Ming army ran away when they saw the warships, not to mention these civilian ships. Just wait to finish the robbery of these ships, go back together, and ask the boss for a reward.

When the sun was setting in the west, lookouts on the mast cranes reported that the warship had returned. After a while, it was reported that only two ships had returned. The commander didn't care, it must be, the two cargo ships were walking slowly behind, and the two warships were going faster, coming back to report the news, and they had to go down the river anyway. The hapless leader continued to drink tea in the cabin that had been snatched a few days earlier. The place didn't move. After a while, I suddenly felt as if my ship had been hit by some great force, and the water in the cup shook out. Suddenly, I heard the sound of a firebolt, but it wasn't like a firebolt, and it couldn't have been so loud, and it couldn't have been so loud. At this moment, the sound of fire finally woke up the confused officer, and he took the knife and rushed out of the cabin. The sound of muskets outside the cabin was terrifying, and he shouted a few times to ask what was going on, but no one paid attention to him. There was also the sound of gunshots in his ears. He felt that it was not possible to go on like this, and just as he wanted to look up, half of his head left him, and he took half of his face with him. I felt that I couldn't see anything in my left eye, so I stretched out my hand and didn't rub it, and found that half of my face was gone, so I fell straight down. The gunfire quickly thinned out.

It turned out that the two warships, going down the river, walked for half a day, Fan Song, who was looking out on the bucket, first discovered the warship and notified the following, Zhang Zhimu ordered to raise half a sail, and the warship behind saw that the ship in front had raised its sails, and knew that it had found a target, so it also raised its sails. When the two ships slowly approached, the command ship didn't pay much attention. It's just that the officers and men who are all right came over and stood on the side of the boat, looking at the two boats, wanting to see what they had gained today. However, when the ship got closer and closer, it felt that it was wrong, and when it was usually at anchor, such a large ship generally did not get too close, but the two ships approached one after the other, because there was no change in the clothes of the officers and men on the ship, and the officers were also familiar with their faces, so they did not pay much attention. But when the ship came up, I heard an order, and dozens of muskets on both ships stretched out from the side of the ship together, and before I could see clearly, a row of guns rang out. After a firelight, smoke and deafening gunshots, the soldiers in front of them all lay down, and Liu Yun rushed over with everyone, this time it was not so troublesome, what kind of round shooting, but free shooting. After the sound of gunfire softened out, Liu Yun ordered, put away the gun and take out the knife, and make up for the seriously injured, don't waste bullets. As a result, the battle was resolved with zero casualties. Thirty prisoners, including the paddle hands.

is still the same set, cleaning the battlefield and collecting prisoners, Zhang Zhimu preached again, and as a result, all of them participated in the gang. Zhang Zhimu ordered the anchor, three warships, and went downstream, and the boatman said that there was a small pier not far away. Zhang Zhimu ordered to drop anchor near that small pier, waiting for the fleet behind and Li Jing and them. After dropping anchor, when the fleet behind arrived, Zhang Zhimu first touched Chen Yufeng, and then found the cadres together for a meeting. Zhang Zhimu said: "Today, the brothers have won consecutive battles, and those who have not flinched or participated in the war have also been tempered this time. Cadres at all levels must sort out the performance of each commander and fighter on the battlefield and use it as the basis for rewarding them when they go back. I hope that everyone will not have the mood of underestimating the enemy because of the continuous victory. Our journey has just begun, and there will be difficulties and obstacles ahead, so I hope you will guard against arrogance and rashness and continue to remain vigilant. Here are a few things to settle down. Let's talk about it. First, I discussed with Uncle Chen, these three ships are all good ships, but they can be used as war ships or cargo ships, and in the future, we will go back and forth on the Fen River, these three big ships and two small boats of forty stones, we will set up a fleet, which is called the Yaogang fleet. The leader of this flotilla I am going to call the commander. The candidate for the commander, everyone depends on who is suitable, this person must be able to take charge of himself, be able to read a few words best, have the ability to take on this important responsibility, and not affect the strength of the caravan too much after leaving. "There was a lot of discussion, and there was no unanimous opinion. In fact, Zhang Zhimu and Chen Yufeng already have candidates, and the reason why we want everyone to discuss it is also to let everyone develop their brains, participate in management, make the company's business everyone's business, and establish the consciousness of the protagonist. As soon as Zhang Zhimu saw that the fire was gone, he said, "I propose one person, how about everyone take a look?" Everyone knows this person, it is Fan Chengkun. His performance during this time, I, like everyone else, have seen it in my eyes. This person is serious, calm and mighty, and can read and break words, and can write and martial arts. I think he's up to the job. What do you think? ”