The city of Dengzhou was silent at night.

Downstairs of the famous Eight Immortals, I saw Ruan Xiaoer wearing his hair, wearing a sweatshirt and rags, holding a cane in his right hand and a bowl in his left hand.

In fact, he had been begging downstairs for two whole days.

The entire Dengzhou City was seen by him, and the strange changes in the city were also taken into his eyes.

What's changing?

That is, there seem to be more and more rich and noble characters in the city. It is the rich and noble, not the ordinary gentry and wealthy families. The former are all well-known families and local wealthy families in various state capitals.

In the case that Liang Shanbo has already taken Laizhou, in the case that Ma Zheng has lost all the main force of the official army, and even lost his son's life in Qingzhou. Shouldn't the rich and noble families who originally gathered in Dengzhou City hide out early? A few days ago, it was like this, and many wealthy gentry and wealthy families fled south. But according to Duchenne's reaction, there are still many people who are rich and wealthy in official eunuchs and do not move.

That's weird. Ruan Xiaoer then went into the city for a trip, not to mention, it was really like this.

Take the Eight Immortal Towers behind him, this one of the most luxurious places in Dengzhou Mansion has already been filled with people, and it can be said that all of them are rich and wealthy in the land of Qilu, and every family has a head and a face. So much so that there are dozens of beggars begging outside this building all day long, and this is still the number after a period of 'survival of the fittest'.

Ruan Xiaoer knows how greedy those rich and noble people are for life and fear death, and the 'frightened bird' and 'fleeing when they hear the wind' are portrayals prepared for them. Now Liangshanbo is close at hand, and these people are still wandering around without panic. If there is no quirk in it, how can it be?

Ruan Xiaoer blended into the beggars and did not show any obtrusiveness, his bronzed skin is a sign of inferiority in the eyes of today's rich and noble, and there are often people in the city who are in charge of the Eight Immortals Tower, so no one can see through him.

Although the Tai Sui is tall and healthy, the old Zhao family does not stipulate that those who are physically fit cannot be beggars, look at those beggars, who is thin? Without a good physique, how can you be competitive among beggars?

Evading the night patrol, Ruan Xiaoer hurriedly rushed towards the Liuhe Temple not far from his left hand. There is a Liuhe pagoda in this temple, which is six stories high, which is the highest place on the left and right, and it is also the easiest not to alarm others to climb to the top.

Ruan Xiaoer spends most of his night here to watch the changes in the city at night. There are many people in the daytime, and there is no guarantee that there will be a special harvest at night.

But what he saw was still the night patrol in the city, and the key points where the fire was lit in the night, even the fire outside the city.

Since Ma Zheng fled back to Dengzhou from Qingzhou, he has been crazy to train soldiers and prepare troops, and even the Dengzhou sailors have been transferred to the shore by him from Daoyu Village.

Now, Lu Qian will soon be sent to Dengzhou. He had already sent down an order, telling the Ruan brothers to be on guard, and Hugh was going to release the big fish on the sea. This gathering of top rich and noble people in Dengzhou City is not normal. But neither he nor Duchenne could find anything wrong.

You must know that the Ruan brothers have been active on the sea for many days, intercepting and capturing many sea ships, and deliberately releasing a few small sea boats, so that the whole Dengzhou knows that the pirates are fierce, and none of the remaining sea ships dare to go to sea.

In this case, it is normal for those wealthy and noble families to flee to Jiaozhou Bay one after another. Why are you still here? The reason for this is that the Ruan brothers and the local Liangshan Bo probe leader Grimace Du Xing are all worried.

The Ruan brothers thought about it and thought that the biggest possibility was the Dengzhou sailor in the knife fish village.

If they escorted ...... along the way, the so-called pirate threat would not be a problem.

The combat power of the team led by Er Ruan is not weak, but it depends on who they fight with.

It's just that the highest military governor in Dengzhou is Ma Zheng, who has just died of his son, and a large number of Dengzhou sailors in the swordfish village have been transferred into the city by him. Looking at the posture is to fight to the death with Liang Shanbo. In Dengzhou City, even the prefect and the king can't be the master of the house, so who can errand Dengzhou Sailor?

The Ruan brothers and Du Xing, who was squatting in Dengzhou, had several contacts, but they had no clue about each other. So much so that Ruan Xiaoer personally came to Dengzhou City, and the fleet at sea was handed over to Ruan Xiaowu to command.

There is not a single colorful cloud in the clear sky head, and in the distance of the moon ring, there are three or five sparse stars to match. Ruan Xiao held on to the railing, looking around, the night in the distance covered the earth, surrounded by black shadows, blurred, only three or five places with bright firelight, but it was a forage field, a grain depot, a barracks, etc., all of which did not change much.

There are five fiery snakes in the city, and they are repeated along the wide roads of the main street, but there is no change.

Ruan Xiaoer was very depressed, it had been two days, and he had not seen the discovery he expected.

But at this moment, there is a fire in the large number of dwellings on the right hand in front of him, the roof ridge is scaled, the black shadow is heavy, and the whole city is sleeping, this light is very dazzling, and it is not far from the Liuhe Temple. Ruan Xiaoer was curious in his heart, and in two days and nights, it was the first time he saw a fire in the residential area around Liuhe Temple at night.

"There are also bold people in Dengzhou." Ruan Xiaoer only thought so.

The lights of this man's house flickered on and on. In this way, from the fourth watch to the fifth watch, it was weird, and it made Ruan Xiaoer have a trace of visitation. But before he could get down the tower, the sudden light suddenly turned into a cluster of flames, and the whole house burned. And no one came out.

Ruan Xiaoer hurriedly went down to the tower, and the monks in the province were startled and saw his traces. As soon as I climbed out of the high walls of the temple, I heard the noisy cries of the residents. The sea breeze was blowing, and the fire burned down half of the alley. After the fire was extinguished, the number of casualties was counted, and there were 17 people who died in the fire. A family of six at the source of the fire did not survive.

Ruan Xiaoer, who knew more about things, was more inclined to the family of six, which was wiped out before the fourth watch. Looking at it this way, the city of Dengzhou is not very peaceful.

On the same day, Ruan Xiaoer changed his clothes at a certain safety point and left Dengzhou City. found his brother Ruan Xiaowu on the beach.

There were four large ships moored on the sea, one four-masted, two three-masted, and one two-masted.

The masts of Chinese-style seagoing ships are far less tall than those of later Western sailing ships, so it is impossible to compare the current three-masted and four-masted seagoing ships with the three-masted and four-masted sailing ships of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and the cargo capacity of these four seagoing ships tied together may not be as good as a Western-style three-masted sailing ship a few hundred years later.

But in this day and age, such a fleet can no longer be underestimated, especially in the northern seas.

The two-masted ship named Beihai No. 1 was the first sea ship that Liang Shan Bo had, and its load was 1,500 materials, that is, 1,500 stones. If it is converted into a metric ton for future generations, it is less than 100 tons. According to the valuation of the deadweight to displacement ratio of 1:3, the displacement of this two-masted sea vessel is between 250 tons and 300 tons. Approximate estimate?

However, such a sea vessel is already quite impressive. When Magellan made his first round-the-world trip, the largest ship was the 120-ton San Antonio and the smallest was the 75-ton Santiago. The whole fleet was taken together, and the five ships were not as great as the tonnage of the tallest four-masted sea ship in front of them.

The two-masted ship had a load of 1,500 materials, while the two three-masted ships had a load of only 2,000 materials, and when it came to the four-masted ships, the load increased dramatically, to 3,500 materials. However, this is not the biggest, not long ago, the Song Dynasty wanted to send an embassy to visit Goryeo, and ordered the dockyard to build two huge ships, one named "Ding Xinli Shehuai Yuan Kangji Shenzhou", and the other named "Follower Tranquility Tongji Shenzhou". At the same time, the supervisors of Fujian and Zhejiang were entrusted to recruit six passenger boats to accompany them. The passenger boat is more than ten zhang long, three zhang deep, two zhang and five feet wide, and can carry 2,000 husks. 2,000 is equal to 2,000 materials.

The "Kangji" and "Tongji" are three times as long and tall in length, breadth and height, and the number of people used in various objects and numbers are also three times that of passenger boats. In other words, the loading capacity of a Shenzhou is at least 6,000 materials. 2,000 is 120 tonnes, in other words, the "Kangji" and "Tongji" can carry up to 360 tons, and the displacement is definitely 1,000 tons. It is no wonder that the Song people described the two Shenzhou: towering like mountains, floating on waves, with the head of a brocade sail and a cockroach. A big blow wave.

The four sea ships placed in Dengzhou can not be underestimated, which is the commercial port on the Jiaodong Peninsula - Banqiao Town in Jiaozhou Bay, which is also a powerful force. Dengzhou Port is a military port, and Jiaozhou Bay in later generations is a commercial port.

Not to mention that there were seven or eight hundred young men on the four sea boats, and at least three hundred of them were from Liangshanbo.

"The city of Dengzhou is full of rich and nobles, and the city is not peaceful, and my Liangshan army is getting closer and closer, and in the last few days, they are about to act." These characters are all wealthy gentry and wealthy families in the state capitals of Shandong, and there are several families. Which one is not rich? If you run a boat, you may lose hundreds of thousands. Ruan Xiaoer felt distressed when he thought about it.

The corners of Ruan Xiaowu's mouth twitched, "Second brother, there are twenty or thirty large and small sea ships in the port of Dengzhou, as well as many foot ships and cargo ships. As I saw it, I sneaked over and burned it clean. No matter what the hell they are having, they are burning the ship, and without the sea ship, will it be possible for them to swim across the sea? Even the warship of the swordfish village was burned down as soon as possible. ”

Then it may be hundreds of thousands of dollars to let go of a ship, and with money, how many warships can't be built? Why bother with that.

The plan to burn the swordfish village was formulated by the two brothers at the beginning, but Ruan Xiaoer saw that Ma Zheng pulled most of the soldiers of the swordfish village to Dengzhou City, and the warships stayed in the swordfish village, like decorations. He thought of it again.

- Ruan Xiaoer really feels sorry for those warships. This is a ready-made warship. Whether it is workmanship or materials, they are first-class. Because the Dengzhou Navy Division is facing the threat of the Liao army.

At the beginning of their establishment, the combat target was the Liao state in the north.

It's easy to burn them, but it's hard to rebuild them. Time is one thing, wood is another. Ruan Xiaoer knew Lu Qian's next move.

Sado Island, Japan. It's hard to believe that there would be so much gold and silver on a small overseas desert island, but is there really gold and silver in that place?

As a rough man who has never been out of Shandong, he was surprised and at a loss when he looked up at the overseas Dongying. Ruan Xiaoer didn't know anything about Japan or Sado Island, but he believed in Lu Qian. That's enough.

From this point of view, Ruan Xiaoer hopes to be able to keep the warship of Daoyuzhai, even the sea ships in Dengzhou Port, he is reluctant.

……

The wind blew in and the waves crashed against the reef, splashing white.