The sun was still rising on the fourth day, which heralded another day of good weather, and if you were working for the day today, there was only some finishing work left, and the most important masts had been replaced, which meant that even if there was danger, it could be removed at any time.

At this time, even Zhou Lang, who still insisted on being cautious, was not so strict, turning a blind eye to the work attitude of the workers who talked and laughed, and only gave a little advice or two to the soldiers who gathered together to chat with rifles in twos and threes, for these soldiers, I am afraid that their current work is more to prevent those hired workers from stealing, and more to guard against possible dangers.

Zhou Lang stood on the side of the ship, looking at the clear sky, much clearer than the air of later generations, from the ship to the port at a glance, and even could see the city gate of Zuoying three miles away.

It is a natural harbor formed by a lagoon, which refers to a sea area formed by natural conditions of sand spouts, sand bars or corals that divide the coast from the open sea. The Oriental Dawn was in the lagoon at this time, with a series of sandbars behind it, and a sand bar piled up on the shore, and the sand bars formed by the lagoon were all straight, and at this time it looked like a white line by the sea.

Relying on the sand bar, the fishermen of Zuoying built a wharf, and the wooden berths went deep into the water, and the shallow shore could not support large boats, and the fishing boats docked on the wharf. The Oriental Dawn ran aground on a beach south of the dock, almost next to the pier, so that it could easily get supplies from the fishing village on the pier.

The fishing village is not large, most of them are uneven thatched houses, only the closest to the wharf is a whole row of brick houses, which are some warehouses built by businessmen, and there are occasionally one or two brick houses in the middle of the thatched houses, which are said to be the ancestral halls and temples of the villagers, the ancestral halls are dedicated to the ancestors, and the temples are dedicated to Mazu Niangniang.

Straight west along the fishing village, there is a straight road leading to Zuoying City, the road is quite wide, because this is the former official road. Unfortunately, as Fengshan County moved away from Zuoying, no one rested on the official road, and the port was gradually abandoned, and there were fewer and fewer people doing business, leaving only some fishermen to support themselves.

On the beach between the fishing village and the Oriental Dawn, there are traces of imprints, which are the traces of people and chariots and horses walking in the past few days, and other than that, everything is calm, this calm state makes people feel peaceful and relaxed.

Zhou Lang was disturbed by a sudden noise, and two soldiers were scuffling a worker, who was begging for mercy.

Zhou Lang walked over quickly, the soldier did not understand Chinese, the two sides could not communicate, and only from the perspective of the nation, Zhou Lang felt that the picture of two white soldiers beating a yellow artificial man was extremely dazzling.

"What's going on?"

Zhou Lang stopped the soldier, and then asked the reason,

"We saw him stealing from the cabin."

"I ran out of materials, and I went to the ship to move materials, but the road was unfamiliar and forked."

Both sides have their own opinions.

This man was a carpenter who had been hired for a large amount of money, and under the command of the carpenter's head carpenter on the ship, he had helped to change the mast and carry out the final resting work. The daily salary for these people is a silver dollar, and if you don't spend a lot of money, you can't recruit them, and you may be lazy. Therefore, spending a high price is also a last resort.

Zhou Lang looked at the carpenter, a middle-aged man with a thin figure and a dark complexion, and the wrinkles on his face seemed to show his loyalty.

"We saw him go to the lowest cabin."

The two soldiers went on to explain that the lowest cabin contained the most important supplies, that is, boxes of silver coins, and the hatch was kept closed, with two locks, one each for Zhou Lang and the captain.

This carpenter ran to the bottom cabin, which is indeed a little unreasonable, because he still has to go through the middle cabin, and most of the materials used for maintenance are stacked directly on the deck, and a small part is placed in the middle cabin, but the other party goes to the bottom cabin, which is indeed suspicious.

But Zhou Lang still waved his hand: "Forget it, let him go." ”

In fact, he also believed in his heart that this carpenter might really have the idea of stealing, but he didn't want to care. Especially in front of two white people, he didn't want to punish his compatriots, but couldn't wait to blow him away, which made him feel like he had stolen something and was discovered.

This incident made Zhou Lang's good mood disappear all of a sudden, and after patrolling around the ship, scolding a few lazy soldiers, and urging the working craftsmen, he returned to the cabin. He suddenly found that the deepest national self-esteem in his heart was so fragile, was it because of the faint discrimination he was subjected to when he was studying abroad, or the inferiority complex accumulated in the recent history of the Chinese people?

Even in the 21st century, the reputation of Chinese in the international community is still not good, of course, there are reasons for the bad performance of Chinese people after going abroad, but Zhou Lang always believes that this is still a prejudice. Some Chinese do have some vices that they do not want to restrain after going abroad, such as spitting, taking advantage of small advantages and stealing free equipment from hotels. But people in other countries also have some different vices, but the Chinese are subjected to a lot of trouble, and they will often make the headlines of local newspapers, and it is obvious that the vices of the Chinese have been infinitely amplified intentionally or unintentionally.

Zhou Lang believes that at least compared to Americans, Chinese do not appear to have more vices. He has seen many times at the airport that there are American families in public, and when there are no seats in the waiting room, they can take off their shoes and sit on the floor, while the Chinese prefer to stand. Zhou Lang also found that on buses and subways, French and Italians equally like to talk loudly. Drunks in Germany defecate in the open on the streets. Football hooligans in the UK will smash down shops near the stadium after a match. But the Americans, Germans, French, Italians and Britons have suffered far less criticism than the Chinese.

has always held this kind of worldview with national self-esteem, which makes it difficult for Zhou Lang to accept the criticism of white people with colored glasses, but a Chinese carpenter is suspected of stealing and was caught by two white people, which makes Zhou Lang's self-esteem suffer.

Maybe the carpenter didn't intend to steal, maybe he really went in the wrong direction, but Zhou Lang knew that this kind of argument was very pale. But he did not want to blame the carpenter, because he knew that the life of the Chinese in this era was far harder than that of the later generations, and the Chinese in the 21st century could not correct all the vices, let alone the Chinese people of this era.

With a sense of depression, Zhou Lang actually fell asleep in broad daylight, and he was really tired in the past few days, not physical exhaustion, but purely psychological torment. He had been worried about accidents, and the strings in his heart had been tightened, but he was actually more tired than those workers who worked hard but didn't need to be tired.

I don't know how long I slept, a gunshot suddenly woke Zhou Lang up, and he couldn't wake up after waking up, because he was confused, he had been nervous, and he had just relaxed, but suddenly there was a real accident, and the drastic psychological changes made him difficult to accept for a while.

Soon the crackling gunshots rang out, Zhou Lang's heart sank, he knew that the last thing he wanted to happen still happened, and Murphy's Law, a very disliked rule, really couldn't escape, "The more worried you are about something happening, the more likely it is to happen." ”。

Zhou Lang took a deep breath, with a sigh of anger in his chest, and strode out of the cabin.

The deck was busy, but not flustered, and the well-trained Hessian mercenaries were all in action, leaning against the cabin, reloading and firing.

The attack came from the north, on the fishing village and the pier, and the length of the boat was only forty meters, while the number of soldiers defending it was forty, so that an average of one meter per person was more than enough. Not to mention the fact that there were quite a few other crew members helping, so the side of the ship was quite crowded.

Zhou Lang found a gap to lie on the side of the ship to check, the number of attackers was not large, it seemed scattered, and from the beach to attack the Oriental Dawn, the speed was greatly affected. But they came one after another, in twos and threes. They were greeted by a burst of gunfire, and each time someone fell, the screams were incessant.

Colin also stood on the side of the ship as an officer, he did not participate in the attack, just standing, holding a sword in his hand, wearing a neat uniform, like a flagpole, he can indeed only play the role of a flagpole, now this level of attack, there are not many means used, the performance of the other party is obviously a group of rabble, this side naturally cannot attack with a dense array of guns, can only let the soldiers attack freely, and the cannon is not used. Not only did the other side not have many people involved in the attack, but they also attacked sporadically, as if adding fuel, and they could not capture the ship at all.

Harald, who was also on board, commanded his men to participate in the defense, but his men did not perform very well. As an old captain, Harald did not join Zhou Lang's company alone, but brought in a whole team, including the first mate, boatswain, etc., which is why he can easily overhead Zhou Lang, not just because of the practice that the captain at sea is responsible. This is a bit like the kitchen contract system of the later hotels, the entire kitchen is often contracted by a head chef, and if he leaves, he will take a whole team of chefs with him.

The attack from an unknown opponent could be easily dealt with by Colin's mercenaries, so Harald did not participate, but just asked his men to help cooperate, bringing barrels of gunpowder and bullets from the cabin. And his subordinates are really not good at using muskets, among Harald's men, there are more than a dozen gunners, all of whom are Europeans, and he has trained them for decades, but the rifle is not used much in naval warfare, although they can be used, but they are still relatively rusty.

The crackling gunshots stopped after about half an hour, of course, Zhou Lang felt that the time was very long, but the pocket watch did only go through half an hour.

The enemies who had come to attack the Oriental Dawn were no longer on the beach, but fled from the beach to the pier in droves, and those who did not escape were lying on the beach, some motionless, some wailing. The muskets of the smoothbore gun era were indeed not very reliable, and this crackle could confirm that there were only seven or eight enemies who fell to the ground, and the most of them wailed were about ten, and thousands of bullets were fired.

Seeing that the other party has stopped attacking, maybe they will be frightened after seeing the protective ability of the merchant ship, and maybe they will not give up and attack again, no one can say. Zhou Lang, Pitiful and Harald temporarily gathered together to discuss.

"I suggest that it would be more advantageous to send ten men off the boat, to line up on the beach, and to flank each other with the soldiers on deck. If possible, dismantle the two cannons. ”

Colin spoke his advice.

Zhou Lang thought about it and vetoed: "The enemy is unknown, the light is not good, let's rely on the geographical advantage on the deck to defend, and drag it until dawn to see." ”

Zhou Lang's conservative suggestion, Colin thought about it and did not object.

Harald has been silent, obviously he is the one who is responsible for repairing the ship here, and Zhou Lang has been opposing, and now Zhou Lang's words have come true, and he really encountered danger, which made him psychologically shocked, and he had no confidence to argue with Zhou Lang.

But he didn't give his opinion, but Zhou Lang began to see the stitches, using his psychology to directly arrange work for him.

"Captain Harald, you can get the crew in order to survive tonight. I don't ask them to fight with guns, as long as they don't mess up, they can help a little. If it's like the last storm, it can only help. ”

Harald nodded in acquiescence.

The expected second wave of attacks has not arrived, and the other side is really a rabble, if they have the ability to continue attacking, and they intend to continue attacking, they should not be interrupted, but should take advantage of the advantage of numbers, and continue to attack; If they want to wait for a better moment, they shouldn't rush into attacking and let the enemy start. Or they are more clever and wear down their enemies with a constant stream of attacks. But they didn't do anything, as if they had given up the attack.

But Zhou Lang didn't dare to relax here, and everyone was waiting for him. He bought two hundred rifles from the East India Company, more than enough to equip everyone, but there were not enough people to make them, so only fifty rifles were issued, and only ten sailors received rifles, except for Colin's forty mercenaries. But the two hundred rifles are all loaded, this is a very mature smoothbore gun made in the UK, the accuracy is really criticized, but the performance is stable, the power is not bad, the hit is basically over, in this era without antibiotics, after the lead pill drilled into the human body, it is almost hopeless.

After an hour the enemy did not attack, and the wailing enemies on the beach under the boat gradually fell silent, apparently dead.

The suffocating calm lasted for three hours, by which time it was late at night, close to the early hours of the morning.

In fact, the enemy was equally suffocated.

Just like Zhou Lang thinks, Gao Peng and the others are indeed a group of rabble, the Manchu green battalion soldiers of this era have long been decayed, and Taiwan's green battalion is even more corrupt. Not long ago, five or six years ago, Lin Shuangwen's uprising swept almost the whole of Taiwan, and counties such as Changhua and Fengshan were captured. The peasant uprising was just a rabble, but not only was it able to capture the state capital, but even the prefect of Taiwan was killed, which shows that the green battalion was a rabble more rabble than the peasant army. Later, the Qing government transferred troops from Fujian to quell the rebellion.

Gao Peng himself also knew how many catties and taels his subordinates had, so Gao Peng didn't plan to do anything after seeing the arms of the merchants, but Huang Lao Er intervened and forced him to Liangshan. But even so, he didn't take the initiative to attack, and the shrewd Gao Lao Er didn't send his men to death, and it was a group of ruffians and hooligans they pulled from Zuoying City to attack the merchant ships before, as well as gang thugs and other characters.

Of course, they are not so stupid, their purpose is to kill people and sell goods, not to send ruffians to send them to death, and the reason why the attack ended hastily is because the fish gang that said good did not arrive. Originally, everyone agreed, the fish gang outflanked from the other side, and here let the ruffians feint, but the feint attacked, but the outflanking did not appear.

Gao Peng and Huang Lao Er were furious, there were not many dead, and there were more than a dozen gang thugs and ruffians, the key was to let the merchants have guarded, and their anger was all sprinkled on the fish gang in the fishing village, but the fish gang's boat had already set off and was to outflank them, and they now felt that the fish gang people were clever, and they obviously planned to let them work hard and finally pick up the ready-made.

"Arrest Wei Chief's family and send someone to the sea to inform Wei Chief, telling him that he can't see them take the ship of the Fan merchant before dawn, and he is Tongfan! His little wife and girl don't need it, Lao Tzu will take good care of it. ”

Gao Peng has been a powerful man in the Zuoying area for a long time, and he knows how to tame these ground snakes, and in front of these people, he has his majesty.

"Lao Gao, don't push it tight. Tell Boss Wei that it's okay to say that everyone is fighting at both ends, but this time they have to do it first, we will send someone up when we hear the gunshot, and they will have a share of the benefits. ”

Huang Lao Er persuaded on the side, and at this time he began to believe Gao Peng's words, this group of merchants did have two brushes, which were very prickly.

But even so, he didn't regret touching this hot potato, because something happened to Gao Peng's territory, and he didn't have to take the risk, but the benefits were equally shared.

Another hour passed, and it was already ugly, and Gao Peng and the others finally heard the sound of gunfire on the boat, and knew that Boss Wei had made a move.

"Lao Gao, it's time for someone to go up."

Huang Lao Er reminded Gao Pengdao.

Gao Peng looked at a short and fat black-faced man next to him.

This black-faced man looked displeased, he was the sixth master of the Guanmiao Casino, known as the ghost hand six.

Gao Peng didn't take any benefits from the Ghost Hand Six, but the Fish Gang was a group of poor ghosts, and the filial piety to him was much less, and after tonight, he still had to mess around in the left camp, and he couldn't force a local snake like the Ghost Hand Six too much.

"Waiting, in case we go up, Boss Wei and they will withdraw again, but they will trap us. Let everyone wait, recuperate, and strive to win the merchant at once. ”

Now they are all from Zuoying, and Huang Lao Er can't say anything, but he secretly despises Gao Peng in his heart for not being able to make a big deal.

After the gunshots crackled for half an hour, Gao Peng, under the urging of Huang Laoer, reluctantly let the six ghost hands send his men to rush.

But the ghost hand six, who had already suffered a loss, kept an eye on it, and the people sent out only rushed a few dozen steps, and it was very slow, and after the other party found out, he put the machine gun, and fled back howling, and even said that the Fanzi bird gun was powerful, one hit and one accurate, and he also focused on the head, and the brothers couldn't rush up.

After another half an hour, Gao Peng's side had not yet discussed, no matter what pressure was used, the six ghost hands begged hard and said that they couldn't rush up, but suggested that the two generals should send soldiers up, and before they could finish arguing, the gunfire stopped.

Gao Peng scolded angrily, and even slapped the ghost hand Liu. Huang Lao Er sneered, thinking that Gao Peng was acting.

The two generals finally discussed whether to let their subordinates go up and rush, and before they could figure it out, the sky in the distance was already a little bright.

The two blamed each other and even got into an argument.

"No, it's not dawning, it looks like it's on fire!"

The two generals standing on the dock stopped bickering, and looked at Kui Si's pointing, and the two Guang on the side of the boat flashed and flashed, and it really looked like it was on fire, not dawn.

Gao Peng suddenly laughed: "Boss Wei is really a man!" ”