Looking at the more than thirty broken ships in front of him, as well as more than three hundred pirates who were also in tatters, Zhou Lang really didn't know what to say, this pirate's life is too hard, no wonder the Chinese don't want to be pirates, the status of pirates can't even catch up with mountain thieves, Shandong, a province near the sea, has an old saying, "I'd rather go up the mountain to drive a donkey than go down to the sea to feed the fish."

The three leaders are also not good-looking, black and thin, although there is a kind of toughness on their bodies, after all, they are people who go to sea to be pirates, they must have passed some kind of psychological barrier, and after breaking through that rule, people's temperament will change, but their eyes are full of confusion, obviously after becoming pirates, they can't control the future at all and make them feel lost.

"The three masters, the ugly words are in front of me, and if they enter my account, they must be forbidden. However, I also said in advance, that I will pay you a monthly salary, at least 150 silver dollars per month for the three men, and 30 silver dollars for the small soldiers. ”

As soon as they heard that there was so much money to take, the eyes of the three of them suddenly lit up, this grandmother is faster than robbing money, if there is such a good livelihood, a fool will become a pirate.

After listening, I was a little unhappy in my heart, but it immediately disappeared, and the three of them knelt down together.

"Dare to disobey!"

Zhou Lang was really a little disappointed in his heart, he thought that he would have to work hard to promise them a great future, but he would impress them with just a little money, and it was really useless.

Then follow the rules with them, the military salary is paid monthly, but robbery is not allowed in the future, and you must follow orders and act blindly.

What worries the three of them the most is that Zhou Lang asked to reorganize their manpower, not to let them go to sea for the time being, but to let them go ashore for training, as for their broken ships, Zhou Lang didn't like any of them, and it was better than the captured Penghu Sailor Division's warship.

After telling them the rules, Zhou Lang didn't care about these people in particular, sent them all ashore, and asked Fischer to arrange training, train them for a few months, sharpen their temperament, go to sea to become pirates, break the instinct of abiding by the rules, and the discipline is poor, and they have to be re-cultivated.

Zhou Lang is more concerned about other matters.

The construction of the fort in the East Port has already begun, and the engineers sent by the East India Company last time were very professional.

At the head was an architect named Johansen, who was a real architect, licensed in England, lured by the high salary of the East India Company, came to work in India, and was then sent to Taiwan. He had already helped the left battalion build two forts, and redesigned the fort in Tagu Harbor, and now he has come to Donggang to build the fort. In fact, what he is best at is building ports. The East India Company's original intention was to let him come to Taiwan to improve the port facilities and then open this commercial base as soon as possible.

He saw the favorable geographical conditions of the East Port, and in addition to helping Zhou Lang build the fort, he also suggested dredging the channel and building a wharf. Then attract large sea ships to trade. Zhou Lang agreed, and officially hired him as the chief architect of the China (East India) Company. Let him be in charge of specific port construction matters.

In the past few days, Donggang has gradually become active, there are no ocean-going merchant ships from Europe, and there is no sea from the mainland, but trade with nearby fishing villages has resumed, fishermen bring seafood, buy rice and salt, merchants send homespun cloth, or textiles blended with wool and linen by women of local feudal communities, which are special products, but only so, the original economic pillar, the grain trade because the upper plains have not yet been occupied, so it cannot be carried out, and the current prosperity here is at most a bazaar.

How much tax can be collected in the bazaar, and Zhou Lang can't find a knowledgeable tax officer, so he simply announced a temporary tax exemption, so as to attract merchants to trade as soon as possible.

In this case, the plan to march into the Pingtung Plain must also be put on the agenda.

I just don't know if Wang Fuqian can win the support of the local landlords.

It's a pity that Wang Fuqian has been active for half a month, and his face is very ugly after coming back.

"The well water does not interfere with the river water? That's not bad already! ”

After Zhou Lang communicated with Wang Fuqian, he learned that the local landlord forces were not willing to accept Zhou Lang, but only said that they did not want to be an enemy of Zhou Lang, and they would not send troops to fight Zhou Lang.

Obviously, they are aspiring, or intellectually believe that the Qing army will come back, and they dare not and are unwilling to help Zhou Lang, so now at least they can win their neutrality.

Wang Fuqian also had some gains, for example, he found out the situation of the Qing army in the hinterland of Fengshan County, basically there was no large Qing army, after all, under the sweep of the Heaven and Earth Society, the grassroots flood pond in the past was either breached, or the soldiers fled, so the interior was very empty, and the order was maintained by the landlord's regimental training.

However, there are more bandits in various places, but the composition of the bandits has changed, the bandits in the past were some poor peasants who could not survive and rebelled in the mountains, but most of those old bandits took refuge in the Heaven and Earth Society, and some even followed Chen Zhouquan's Northern Expedition, and the current bandits are composed of fleeing routs.

"Then in the next step, we will take the suppression of bandits as the priority, and at the same time send troops to attack Fengdanxun and rescue Fengshan County."

Some fishing boats were requisitioned from Donggang fishing village, and at this time, at least in the fishing village, Zhou Lang had already won support, because the fishermen found that Zhou Lang not only did not collect fish taxes from them and apportioned all kinds of bad rules like the government in the past, but also did not extort their boats and pay back the money.

The captured warships of the Penghu Naval Division, plus the requisitioned fishing boats of the fishing villages, and the pirate ships that served the pirates, a total of 80 large and small ships, along the lower freshwater stream, can sail all the way to the Fengshan hills, the hills are composed of a number of hills, the highest is less than 100 meters, the largest of which is Fengshan, Fengshan County is named after this, a hill in the north of Fengshan is called Fengdanshan, Fengdanxun is named after this, and it is Fengdanxun to turn over the mountain. Facing Feng Dan Xun is Fengshan County, Fengshan County used to be called Xia Pi Tou Street, "Pi" literally means the low wall on the city, Pi Tou means close to the low wall of the city, the existing Feng Dan Xun, there is Pi Tou Street after it, Fengshan County is built in Pi Tou Street, so Pi Tou Street and Feng Dan Xun are almost connected.

On this expedition, Zhou Lang still appointed Zhao Wen, who he valued, as the commander, Ma Dalei as the vanguard, and Chen Zhizhi led the artillery support. They will approach Fengdanxun and rescue Fengshan County.

On the other hand, Wang Fuqian assisted Chen Xiaoshou to clear out bandits from all over the country. Clearing out these bandits that endanger the township is also an important way to obtain local support, and even Zhou Lang specially explained that in the process of suppressing bandits, it is best to cooperate with the landlords' armed forces and build trust by the way.