readx;?“ me, what are these guys doing? Zeng Zhigang held a telescope and looked at the crowd of people who were walking all the way in the distance, the people walking in front held signs of avoidance in their hands, and the first few people were still holding gongs and knocking on them while walking, "Is this singing?" ”

"This should be the county master, right?" A Marine soldier next to him muttered, "Chief, look at those people beating the gong, it's for the county magistrate to sound the gong to open the way." Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo”

"This is the gong to open the way?" Zeng Zhigang couldn't help but be curious, there were about 100 people walking in the distance, and in the front were two people carrying a gong, the diameter of the gong was almost one meter, and the people walking on the side were holding a wooden stick tied with red silk cloth in front of them, and they were walking and knocking on the gong, and they would stop for a short time every seven strokes. The sound of the gong was loud, the echo was very long, and someone could be faintly heard shouting, "Everyone in the army and civilians should get out of the way."

"Meow, it's a matter of driving with a police car." Zeng Zhigang was a public eater in the old time and space, and he saw a lot of this kind of elegant thing, but he didn't expect that one day he would be able to see the ancient "gong and open the way" in ancient times. He couldn't help but laugh secretly, this kind of thing is really a face-saving matter, you must know that this place is simply a poor country of poor country, they knocked on the opening gong all the way and didn't know how many people they met, I'm afraid they can count it on one hand. Why is it not to satisfy vanity if the gong is sounded in such a place?

"Niu Jinxing," Zeng Zhigang laughed slightly. shouted at Niu Jinxing, who was not far away, "Come here, we'll meet these people." ”

"Chief," Niu Jinxing asked in his Annan Mandarin, "will there be any deception if we go like this?" What if they flare up? We're going to be in danger! Why don't I take a platoon and beat them all to death? ”

"Nonsense!" Zeng Zhigang glared at him involuntarily, "It's the county master who came, no matter how bad it is, he will eat the national food, and if he dies, isn't it a war with the Wu Dynasty?" ”

"I'm sorry! Heads! Niu Jinxing hurriedly said loudly, and at the same time stood upright. Zeng Zhigang shook his head slightly, he really didn't dare to compliment the quality of the officers of these Foreign Legions, they were the new army from the beginning of the princess of Zhancheng Gangyi, although it was said that Qian Longzhou was trained by himself, but because the cultural level was too low, he was simply a group of guys who only knew how to fight and rush, and they rarely paid attention to strategy when fighting. Especially this Niu Jinxing, it is simply a tendon in the brain, no matter what the situation, rush up and say, when he was crushed under the ruins of the city tower when the port of Zhancheng was attacked, he could still dig himself out, and he can be regarded as a good hand, but the disadvantage is that he doesn't like to use his brain very much, and then he has an Annan accent, which makes Zeng Zhigang often hear the unclear meaning of the clouds and mountains and fog.

It was the county magistrate of Xin'an County, Mingzhou Prefecture, who came in a sedan chair, and he heard a few days ago that someone had come to report that a group of people had come to Xiangdao, driving a huge iron boat, and raising a big sky lantern, I don't know if they were doing it. He was not afraid of this matter, but he was afraid of the huge iron ship.

Although it is said that Xiangdao in Xin'an County at this time was not as the vanguard of China's economic development as Hong Kong in the old time and space, it is still worth reading as an official of the Wu Dynasty. At the end of last year, he had seen the news of the Great Iron Ship that a group of pirates had arrived from overseas and landed in An Yun County, Annam Province, at the end of September. At the beginning of the landing, not only did they not plunder inland, nor did they burn and loot, but they only buried themselves in building the city. Anyun County ordered Zhou Jinfeng to organize thousands of people and officials to attack the pirates, but they were all defeated by the pirates relying on the newly built city within a few days. Later, although the newspaper no longer talked about the pirates, he knew very well that this must be the money paid by the big gentry of Anyun County, presumably this group of pirates had retreated to the sea, right?

Although the newspaper never mentioned the whereabouts of the pirates, in recent months, his cousin, who was in business, told him a strange story: the Medenor people had recently stopped buying rice or their favorite products from them, and had only lowered their heads to buy all kinds of inconspicuous raw materials, from cotton and sugar cane to hardwood, and at the same time the Medeno people began to sell a wave of seafood called "Chinese goods". These seafood are mainly groceries, which are exquisitely made and easy to use, but the price is not particularly high. Dumped by the Medenor people, many local grocery stores have had a dismal business, and many have even closed down. His cousin told him that a former acquaintance of the first mate of Medeno told him that he would take him to make a fortune with him, and asked him to prepare a cargo ship to go to the port of Orient to buy goods.

The county magistrate didn't know where Dongfang Port was, but after listening to his cousin's explanation in the clouds, he suddenly understood that this Dongfang Port was actually in An Yun! It turned out that the group of pirates didn't leave at all after defeating the Wu Dynasty army, and continued to stay in An Yun and established a new port, and at the same time was able to produce a lot of groceries.

When he heard that there was an iron ship as big as a mountain anchoring near Xiangdao, he guessed that these people must be the group of pirates who tossed An Yun. Now that this group of pirates has come to Xiangdao, will the next step be to build a city? With this in mind, he sent dozens of spies over there to find out the information.

It didn't take much effort for the spies to break into the pirates—they were buying a staggering amount of food, and they needed a lot of manpower to carry it on the makeshift docks every day, and most of the fishermen and stumpers from the nearby small fishing villages were hired to work, and they were paid a lot of money, and they could get three hundred dollars a day. The influx of these fishermen naturally provided sufficient manpower for the food buying teams, but at the same time created an embarrassing problem, which was the reduction of fish production. Therefore, after discussion, the command of the Hong Kong Grain Purchasing Team decided to detach a part of the fishermen who had come to carry the fish to continue fishing, so as to ensure the food supply of the whole group. In such a messy situation, the spies quickly found out a lot of information, and now the county magistrate knows that this group of people is An Yun - the pirates who are now called Dongfang Harbor, they came here to collect food, this is the first time they have come, but maybe not the last. This group of pirates came not only from grain dealers, but also with about one hundred and sixty or seventy pirate soldiers, all of whom looked very strong, and many of them had fierce eyes in their eyes, they should be veteran oils.

From the information he received, he also learned that these pirate soldiers were all carrying firearms equipped with short swords, but he had never seen them shoot, and he didn't know how powerful it was, but the short swords were cold and shiny, and the lethality was definitely not bad. As for the power of the firearms, he didn't have much of an idea, but just with the strength of hundreds of people at the beginning of the landing, he was able to defeat thousands of besieging Xiangyong soldiers, and presumably the power of these firearms should be higher than the firearms of the Wu Dynasty army.

Although he had already understood that this group of pirates had only come to Xiangdao to collect grain, who could guarantee that they would really leave after collecting the grain? Besides, grain is not a joke, grain has always been prohibited from being exported by the imperial court, and these grain merchants are rushing to transport grain to this fragrant island, isn't it smuggling grain? If the above is held accountable, I will be unlucky with it. After thinking about it for a while, he decided to personally bring people to this fragrant island to see what was going on.

When it comes to risking his own life, he is not afraid that it is impossible, but as a magistrate, it is his duty to defend the land. There is a very good sweet spring on this Xiangdao Island, the stream is sweet and delicious, it is called Xiangjiang by the locals, and the ships that come and go to the sea like to stop at the mouth of the Xiangjiang River to get water, if this place is occupied by these pirates, with the nature of the pirates, they will definitely block the Xiangjiang River and prohibit others from taking water. Then the news of the fall of Xiangdao will definitely spread throughout the coastal cities soon, and he will definitely not be able to cover it up when the time comes, and he will definitely not be able to escape if he is held accountable. Instead of being tortured by Jinyiwei at that time, it is better to be brave and go directly to Xiangdao now to ask what this group of pirates wants, anyway, now An Yun's Zhou Jinfeng is still in front of his county master, presumably this group of pirates is not a murderous person, and he will not be so unlucky to be killed by pirates, right?

"It's so fragrant......" "It's so fragrant, who's preparing dinner?" "It's not rice, it's porridge!" The county magistrate was still thinking about it, and he heard someone whispering outside, he couldn't help but feel curious, opened the sedan curtain and looked out, and sure enough, a fragrance of porridge came to his nose. "Stop the car!"

In fact, the county commander was also a little hungry in his stomach, and after the sedan chair stopped, he got off the sedan chair, looked around and saw that there were no outsiders, so he walked to the side of the bushes, lifted his official uniform, found a place and began to release water. When the water was released, I suddenly felt that there seemed to be something wrong with the bush in front of me, there were not many such shrubs around, but this bush was abruptly on the side of the road, and it seemed that something wrong could be seen in it from the gap between the leaves, and I was about to get closer to observe, when I saw a person suddenly jumping out of the bushes.

This man was covered with a net, the net was covered with branches and leaves, at first glance it looked like a large bush, this appearance made him think of the ghost mandrill for the first time, so frightened that the county commander forgot that he was still releasing water, and hurriedly put away the faucet, and ran back, not caring at all that his official robe was drenched by the faucet that had not yet been closed, and shouted, "There are ghosts!" Ghosts! ”

The officials on both sides were frightened by the people who suddenly jumped out, and they threw down the things in their hands and ran in the other direction, the county order was originally to run to the sedan chair, who knew that several sedan chair drivers also threw the sedan chair and ran away, leaving him there instead. Fortunately, it was afternoon, although the sun was not vicious, but it was also considered a good lighting condition, and the county commander was shocked, but he saw the mandrill scolding while slapping the things on his body, "Neurotic! Don't pee in so many places, but you want to pee on Lao Tzu, you belong to the dog? You can't pee without a tree, huh? ”

Hearing the monster speak, the fear in the heart of this county order suddenly decreased a lot, and if he can speak, he must be a human, as long as he is not a ghost. Turning his head and looking again, I don't know when a lot of people suddenly appeared on both sides of the path left and right behind him, these people were wearing uniform clothes, either wearing bright red clothes or blue clothes, with a wide belt wrapped around their waists, and several pockets hanging on the belt, which were bulging and I don't know what to pack. The officials who ran away just now also stopped their feet at this time, not because their conscience found that they wanted to protect the county order, but because they had been surrounded. The red-clad or blue-clad soldiers, with their bayonets in their hands, just stood on both sides of the road, staring at them silently, and the momentum was so overwhelming that they could barely breathe.

This county order is not a fool, this posture must be those pirates, but since he knew that the guy covered in leaves was a human, he was not so afraid, he took a deep breath at the moment, and said loudly as smoothly as possible: "This official is the Xin'an County Commander of Dawu Ming Prefecture, who are you waiting for?" Why are you threatening the imperial court here? Although this style is still a little bit, but the momentum of his speech is not at all, and the officers and soldiers of the Foreign Legion and the Marine Corps next to him tremble when they hear the words in their ears, and they have no confidence at all.

"Lord Prefectural Order," someone on the side spoke, and the Prefectural Commander looked back in amazement, but he didn't know when there were already a few people standing on the road, walking slowly, the first one was extremely relaxed, wearing a set of blue cardigan coats, with a small vertical sign on his shoulder, decorated with three stars, and the same wide belt around his waist, walking towards him empty-handed. The man was followed by two men, one wearing a red cardigan and a star on his shoulder. Seeing this, the county order also came to this conclusion, and the small cards on the shoulders of these pirates should be the status level.

But the man behind them couldn't understand it, this person was not good-looking, he looked like an ordinary Cantonese man, he was not wearing a cardigan like those two pirates, but a thin linen robe, from the outside, he was completely an ordinary Wu Dynasty person.

This person stepped forward and respectfully saluted him and said, "Caomin Zhaoqing Chen Li, meet the county commander," the county commander was about to speak, when he saw Chen Li grab it twice in his sleeve, took out a piece of paper, and handed it over with both hands, "This is the warrant of the governor of Liangguang, Wang Zunde, and hereby allows China to use this Xiangdao to load and unload grain, and leave immediately after loading and unloading." With that, he handed the paper over.

...