Chapter 54: The Ship from Liaodong

Flipping through the urgent document to read, Xu Qing was terrified:

"Three big ships suddenly came down from the sea, more than 1,000 thieves came down, slaughtered several villages, plundered their women's food, and returned to the sea"

A thief from the sea, could it be a robber? But where did the widows come from now, or the sticks? I haven't heard that the Tang Dynasty also has a threat from the sea, what's going on...... However, there were three large ships and more than 1,000 thieves written on the emergency document, and there must have been eyewitnesses.

What kind of person can make a big boat that can carry hundreds of people and sail to the edge of Cangzhou to make trouble. Xu Qing's first thought was, who could build such a big ship?

China's shipbuilding industry is well developed, and during the Han Dynasty, there were building ships that could carry hundreds of soldiers. In the Three Kingdoms period, it was even more incredible, and Soochow, which had a developed shipbuilding industry, was able to build the largest upper and lower five floors, which could carry 3,000 soldiers. At that time, the state of Wu could also volunteer from the sea to the Gongsun clan in Liaodong. This shows the long-distance sailing ability of the ships at that time. When the state of Wu was destroyed, there were more than 5,000 official ships captured by the Jin Dynasty, which shows the prosperity of the shipbuilding industry.

By the time of the Southern Dynasties, Jiangnan had developed to the point where it could build large ships of 1,000 tons. In order to improve the speed of navigation, especially the great scientist Zu Chongzhi, built a ship equipped with paddle wheels, and used manpower to push the ship forward in the way of pedal wheels.

When he arrived in the Sui Dynasty, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty wanted to visit Yangzhou in the future, and ordered officials to supervise the construction of dozens of dragon boats and miscellaneous boats. The big dragon boat he himself rode in was 45 feet high and 200 feet long, with the main hall, the inner hall, and the east and west halls on the upper floor, and there were as many as 120 rooms. It can be seen from this that a large ship with hundreds of people was built with conditions.

But at the end of the Sui Dynasty, there was a great chaos, and until the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, all industries withered, how could this pirate be created? Xu Qing was puzzled, and mobilized 3,000 elite soldiers to be stationed in the coastal area in case the pirates came again. And he himself took the guards and Huanghua County Ling Zhan Zeng to investigate one or two

The looted villages, the corpses have been cleaned up, and there are still traces of burnt and blood, and the sea breeze blows, whirring, as if the ghosts are wandering here.

Zhan Zeng found witnesses, who turned out to be an old fisherman. The old fisherman said that he was fishing in the sea from afar that day and was spared. When the thieves gradually retreated, they dared to come out to check, and saw three big ships, dozens of small kes, and more than a thousand thieves retreated into the sea like a tide. In less than half a day, the large and small ships on the sea have disappeared. When Zhan Zeng rushed over, only the burned village remained.

The old fisherman only remembered the Qing boat and many, many pirates, and asked him about the clothes and equipment of those pirates, and the old fisherman couldn't tell. I vaguely knew that the comer was dressed in tatters and had weapons such as axes.

Xu Qing went to the nearby village and asked all the old people, all of whom said that they had never seen or heard of any pirates since they were children.

This is strange, this group of pirates came suddenly and left quickly, so what's the matter? Cows grazing is a veteran, and he uttered a conjecture:

"This group of people has looted all the food in the village, and there must be a shortage of food. Now at the end of spring, it is almost the time of green and yellow, and there is definitely not much food in the village. In this way, the food obtained by those pirates will not last long, but in a few days, it is very likely that they will come ashore again. ”

"This is reasonable, but this big ship travels hundreds of miles a day, and the next time it goes ashore, it may not be in Cangzhou." Zhan Zeng also thought of it.

Xu Qing wished that he wouldn't appear, but when he thought that the people of several villages were killed and plundered by the group of pirates, he was unwilling in his heart, he said:

"There are many mangrove forests along the coast of Haixing, which are several miles wide, and pirates will not go ashore. If they go ashore, the pirates will still choose Huang Hua. If the pirates flee and go north to Liaodong, where it is not my Tang Tu, and go south to Shandong and other places. No matter which state or county is plundered, it will be a loss for my Datang......"

Xu Qing groaned for a while, and asked Zhan Zeng to write a notice document according to his meaning, and sent cavalry to expedite and inform the coastal states and counties that there was a group of pirates raiding along the coast.

In Cangzhou, Xu Qing divided 3,000 troops into garrisons, forming a mutual support for each other, and dropped Huang Hua, the united soldiers of Haixing County, patrolling and guarding. is like facing a great enemy, Xu Qing is both unhappy and helpless. If only he had a few big ships in his hands, he would go to sea and fight him directly.

Three days passed, and there was no waiting for the pirates to come ashore. Xu Qing waited for a letter from Liaodong and Xu Qi.

This letter, after various greetings and concerns, revealed the identity of the three ships of pirates, it turned out that Xu Qi and Duan Hongchen destroyed a small country in Liaodong and recaptured a place, and the monarch of the small country drove a big ship and fled overseas.

But how can a small country have three big ships that are so advanced? Xu Qi's letter also mentioned it. These warships were actually dropped when Yang Guangsan was conquering Goryeo.

After Xu Qing learned that these three big ships were almost ownerless, he couldn't help but regret it, and hoped that those ships could go ashore in Cangzhou again. In the past few days, he has already drawn up several strategies to deal with the enemy, as soon as those pirates appear, they can all be annihilated. This ship can naturally belong to someone Xu.

If you have such a big ship, you can play it all over the sea.

Maybe Xu Qing's thoughts were too powerful, and one evening, the sentry suddenly came:

The history of assassination, the pirates are coming!

Xu Qing jumped up with joy and said to the visitor: "Plan to act!" ”

Xu Qing has already received the report here, you don't need to mention the cattle grazing and others who have been stationed on the beach for a long time.

The seaside village has long been cleared, and it has been replaced by 500 soldiers hiding in the seaside village, which is an ambush. Another 500 soldiers pretended to be villagers and slowly retreated when the pirates came ashore, which was to lure the enemy deeper.

Just wait for the pirates to come ashore, and someone will scuttle their boat first, so that the pirates will have no escape, and wait to be killed. In addition, Xu Qing also looked for a lot of good swingers, took other soldiers on a fishing boat, rocked into the sea, and captured the big boat.

The battle by the sea, as Xu Qing envisioned, was almost done, and there was no suspense about winning. When the pirates came ashore, they saw the fleeing villagers and wanted to chase them, but they were caught off guard by the soldiers who were lying in ambush in the village and the soldiers who were pretending to be in the village. In addition, most of the weapons of the pirates are short axes and the like, with or without armor, and after a few rounds of arrow raindown, half of them lie down.

On this side of the battle, Xu Qingguan didn't care, and went straight to participate in the ranks of the big ship.

"Lord Thorn Shi, please get on the boat......" A soldier helped Xu Qing onto a half-canopy fishing boat. There were six sergeants in the fishing boat, all with oars.

"Get on board and go!" Xu Qing gave an order, and the soldiers present took three steps and walked in two steps, got on the boat, and started rowing with their arms thrown off.

When I rowed closer, I saw that the boat was five or six meters high, swaying up and down with the water. The people on the boat basically went ashore, and the rest were not on guard, and they couldn't drive the big boat, and the sky was dark, which made Xu Qing take advantage of a good loophole.

Five or six meters, it's just a second floor. When I was in middle school in later generations, I had to climb up to the third floor after the night was over......

Holding his breath and concentrating, he got on the big boat, and Xu Qing's feet suddenly slipped:

"Yo!"

"Bang!"

"Thorn Shi be careful!"

The soldiers didn't have time to protect it, so Xu Qing had to fall and eat. Xu Qing turned over and fixed his eyes to see what he stepped on, it turned out to be a pile of human dung. Looking around the ship again, there is more than one place, and it should be one step at a time*. Even if this ship is obtained, I am afraid it will take a lot of time to clean up these artificial "caches".

These pirates are also bold, and there is no one on this deck. Knowing that Xu Qing killed the people on the first and second floors, and only after catching did he realize that there was a foreign enemy. Speaking of which, it's just a simple killing. Xu Qing secretly scolded: It's not exciting at all!

Mourning is greater than heart death, the king of a small country has become the king of a dead country, he must have died in his heart, right?

A sneak attack and slashing, unremarkable, needless to say.

The three big ships were taken one after another, and when they took the main ship, they also seized a pile of gold, silver and jewels, which they thought the king of the small country had brought out when he was in a panic. It's just that Xu Qing didn't find the monarch of the small country, otherwise it would be better to catch it and give it to Xu Qi. Later, it was learned from the captives that there had been a rebellion on board the ship a few days earlier, and that their monarch had long since sunk into the sea.

made a small fortune, and Xu Qing's dislike and unexciting depression was swept away. Although the women who were plundered from the seaside village were rescued, they were ......

Alas......

After winning meritorious and being a foreign enemy, Xu Qing reported to the imperial court and gave his state soldiers and generals a small reputation.

Such a pirate battle is just a small episode. The three big ships were driven back by Xu Qing and put aside. Later, you can also recruit sailors and go to the sea.

Now the task is to get the engraving printing technology out.

Although the last printing was successful, the use of stereotypes is not high, and after a dozen times, there will always be some bloated fonts.

Xu Qing experimented several times, only to find out that it was pine wood that absorbed water and expanded. After a few more printings, the pine wood absorbs a lot of ink and swells up in the same way, making the characters bloated. Xu Qing also tried to re-dry, but the words did not change back to the original, but became more distorted.

Is it a problem with wood?

Xu Qing changed several kinds of wood for experiments, but found that only pine wood could still print more than 40 sheets, and other woods could not even print this 40 sheets.

Pine absorbs water and expands, but if it is soaked in advance, will it not swell? That's right, it really won't swell, but the printed words are pitch black, and the ghost draws peach symbols.

After another failed experiment, Xu Qing walked on the way back to the study in despair, and sighed heavily: "Alas, ......"

Suddenly, the figure flashed, and came straight behind Xu Qing!

A voice that could barely be considered rough sounded:

"Well, hand over your life, uncle will spare you from death?"

Xu Qing was startled, but he understood in an instant that this was Huang Shimei screaming and messing with him......

"Give up your life or don't die if you don't die? How can you be such a stupid thief? Xu Qing touched it, hugged Huang Shimei into his arms, kneaded it vigorously, and said, "Why don't you let Uncle I teach you how to rob?" ”

"Bad guys, robbing money or robbery?"

"How about not asking for more, just robbing you of your clothes?"