The bright moon hung high in the sky, the brilliance of the stars was obscured by the brilliance of the round and bright full moon, and the waves of the sea breeze beat against the beaches and reefs, stirring up layers of white foam, scattering the moonlight, spreading it on the sea like silver dust, which was extraordinarily beautiful and quiet.

"What a beautiful night, it reminds me of my hometown, the beautiful beach night view of beautiful Morecambe Bay." Hong Kong foot merchant Sharka? Ben Dière stood on the bow of the ship and looked up at the wonderful night sky.

From the end of the seventeenth century to the middle of the nineteenth century, the trade between India, the East Indies and China was called the port trade, and these merchants were called port merchants, mainly private merchants who were licensed by the East India Company to engage in trade.

They were mostly opium smugglers, and they were the first free traders to bring British cotton textiles to the Chinese market. Their trading activities gradually changed the monopoly Sino-British trade pattern consisting of the East India Company and the Canton Trading Company, and made it develop in the direction of free trade.

Before the Opium War, they actively advocated war against China and opened the door to China in order to expand Sino-British trade, especially the opium trade among them. The British political axe's China policy was deeply influenced by them. The British army's operational plan in the Opium War and important provisions of the Treaty of Nanking were determined on the basis of their recommendations.

And Sharka? At present, at least half of the opium smuggled by the East India Company to the Qing Kingdom flows into the interior of the Qing continent through his hands.

Eventually, through a friend, he received the East India Company's opium trading rights, and from a small merchant with a small boat, he became the East India Company's main trading partner in opium sales.

Now he is no longer like the original smuggling of a boat, a box, two boxes, or even twenty or thirty hundred, the small-scale way of smuggling opium three years ago, Charka? Ben Diai already felt that he could not satisfy his appetite, since the year before, he used the wealth obtained from his trade, and purchased three new armed merchant ships, in the past two years, every time he went to the Qing country, he would carry about 2,000 to 3,000 boxes of opium, except for a part of the transaction with the Qing merchant Zhao Fengbao here in Xin'an, the rest of the goods, he had to continue to go north, in the waters of Fujian and Zhejiang, with another group of Qing smuggling merchants.

This time, however, his five armed merchant ships were loaded with 3,600 containers, which was almost half of the output of the entire East India Company in the past three months.

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"Look, Mr. Charka, there's a fire on that beach." At this time, the captain came over and reported the latest situation to Sharka.

Charka picked up the monoculars and looked towards the firelight on the coast, and after observing it for a while, a satisfied smile appeared on his face: "Don't worry about my captain, it's them, the caravan of our dear Qing friend Mr. Zhao, besides, as for those Qing sailors, do you think they will have the energy to patrol the coastline at night?" ”

"Of course not, those Qing sailors are the laziest and most greedy army I have ever seen, I really don't know how this huge empire has managed to maintain to this day." The captain shrugged his shoulders with a relaxed expression. "I doubt that if the East India Company could send a small fleet or a thousand, no, five hundred soldiers, it would be able to occupy Canton, that beautiful city."

"You think the same as I think, you know, I have never seen a country more corrupt and greedy than this vast empire, as long as you give enough money, those officials can protect our smuggling ships, and even let the official ships in charge of anti-smuggling duties escort my merchant ships. This is the privilege I obtained when I spent 100,000 silver dollars in Zhejiang last year. The corners of Charka's mouth curled, haughty and reserved.

"But Mr. Charka, you really have the means to buy even their officials to this extent." The captain couldn't help but smack his tongue. It was the first time this year that he had worked under Mr. Charka, and he could never have imagined that the charkar smuggling business would be able to do this.

Sharka laughed: "Dear captain, this is nothing, the officials of this empire, as long as you give enough money, they can even sell the interests of the country at any time. The gray pupils looked at the fire on the shore, and the laughter was full of contempt and contempt for these Qing people.

"Captain, tell the ships in front of you to let the Kitty Hawk and the Cherry dock to unload, and we will anchor here to be on guard, damn it, it's the middle of the night to unload the cargo, it looks like we can't sleep peacefully tonight."

Sharka's order was quickly implemented, and three armed merchant ships laden with opium anchored more than a mile from the coast, while Sharka's right-hand man, Carter, and another were speeding toward the improvised dock.

At this time, they could already see that the Qing people next to the bonfire on the shore were standing on the shore, waving and cheering desperately.

"Look, they're like heroes who welcome back victorious." The captain made a witty remark, which immediately provoked the laughter of the sailors. Shalka couldn't help laughing, as if remembering something, and took out a small cardboard box from his bosom, which revealed a few Chinese characters on it under the moonlight: Baiyunshan brand cigarettes.

Sharka took a deep breath of the cigarette, which he bought in India and was said to have been made by the Qing people of Guangzhou.

While Sharka was leisurely sipping a cigarette, suddenly a bonfire was lit on the shore, and almost the entire coast was lit in daylight. Seeing the strangeness on the shore, Charka's eyes widened, his mouth opened wide, and his heart couldn't help jumping. He didn't even notice that the cigarette in his hand slipped through his fingers and into the sea, for he could see clearly that there was a swarthy cannon beside the pile of blazing bonfires.

Charka's right-hand man, Carter, who was standing on the side of the armed merchant ship at the front, was also completely stunned by the sudden change on the shore.

Just when the attention of all the British was focused on the coast, what they did not expect was that not far behind them, nearly twenty warships, large and small, like vicious wolves that had entered an ambush, quickly outflanked them. Their guns were all loaded and rolled out of the gun window, like a vicious wolf baring its fangs.

The Brits, who had approached the dock, felt their hulls tremble violently, and then let out a tooth-aching creak, and slowly came to a halt less than fifty yards from the dock.

Whatever the panicked Britishmen on the armed merchant ship played, the ship seemed to take root, and stood still, like a sheep caught in a hunter's trap, powerless to resist.

"What the fuck is going on?" Charka roared loudly in disgust. Around him, the subordinates who had been leisurely smoking cigarettes and bragging and farting also became nervous, hurriedly picked up their weapons, and ran around the deck shouting loudly.

"Sir, look at the back, look at the back. There are boats! One of the sailors suddenly ran over, gasping for breath and nervously screaming at Charka.

"My God, Our Lady Mary......" Charka turned his head, his gray pupils almost shrunk into the eye of a needle, his heart almost stopped, and behind him, more than twenty warships, large and small, had already sailed to a distance of less than five hundred yards from his armed merchant ship.

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Liang Pengfei stood on that rock, looked at the British who were rushing around on the armed merchant ships, and waved his hand behind him with a cold face: "Open the cannon, first blow up these two ships to Lao Tzu and then say, let those British guys stop being lucky." ”

"Yes!" Wu Liang nodded, turned around, and looked at the more than fifty cannons ranging from twelve to eight pounds, or even six pounds that had already entered a state of readiness on the beach, and his heart was also full of fighting passion. "The garrison gives the order, open fire!"

Dozens of sudden flames erupted, brilliant and deadly, like the blazing white lightning that tore through the dark clouds, almost made the bright moon in the sky lose its brilliance, almost illuminating the entire night sky, the deafening roar, like the gods in the sky suddenly became angry, and the two armed merchant ships, which were already less than a hundred yards away from the dock, almost in an instant, let the cannonballs sprayed by the dozens of cannons smash into a pile of broken pieces.

Carter clutched his head tightly and lay on the deck, desperate as if he had been choked by the throat of his fate, and the roar of that roar, every time the merchant ship was hit, there was a violent and terrible shiver.

"Get out of here, damn it, let's get out of here!" Sharka screamed with all his might, his hands waving aimlessly, the corners of his eyes jumping, and he was almost terrified by the horrific artillery fire.

"We're trying, but the damn anchor seems to be stuck." The captain's loud reply was almost no different from the crying.

Getting closer and closer, on the warships, on the high mast, a big beam flag is spreading in the wind, on the deck, there are countless strong men with brutal and blood-devouring eyes, they are naked and bare, revealing their rock-solid chests, as if the turbulent sea breeze can not blow out the fierce fighting passion in their chests.

In their hands, the snow swords were already unsheathed, and on their waists, there was a loaded firearm with a handle. Wu Qianjin stood on the bow of the warship at the front, letting the sea breeze blow on his chest, he took a deep breath, it seemed that this dark night, this beautiful bay, had been full of blood and killing that intoxicated him.

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(To be continued)