On the tenth day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar, it is a sunny day, and the Pearl River is even calmer. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

In a certain body of water above the Pearl River, few merchant ships usually pass through here, and even the most active pirates on the sea are too lazy to patronize this place, let alone the larger place in this water, Shilin Island. There are many strange rocks on the stone forest island, and the area is only a few thousand square meters. The trees are abundant, all made of stones, mud and sand, and nothing else.

At this moment, there was a sound on the deserted stone forest island, followed by the sound of whispering and whispering.

"Hey, captain, it's all this time, why haven't you seen a single figure yet, do you think they will come? Is the message reliable? ”

"Don't worry, there will be nothing wrong with the news, the information is obtained by our own people, it is absolutely reliable, it will definitely come, wait patiently!"

At this moment, another voice sounded, interjected, and took over the conversation.

"By the way, brother, you said that the above let us hijack the ship, what is on it? It actually made our thunder go through so much trouble, and it also alarmed the head of Qi and the chief of staff, Mr. Zhuge . ”

"I don't know, the things above should be very important, otherwise I wouldn't have attached so much importance to sending so many brothers to ambush here."

......

At the same time, a head emerged from behind the stone, carefully probing his brain, constantly looking around, with the help of the telescope in his hand, to inspect the situation on the surface of the Pearl River, and the other hand held a bird gun, which was the Lianzhu gun that Yang Lin ordered people to transform.

Soon, the man who was holding a telescope to observe shouted: "Platoon commander, platoon commander, look, a ship is coming this way, you see, is it our target?" ”

A man dressed in camouflage uniform, completely in tune with the surrounding stones, took the binoculars and looked in the direction pointed by the little soldier, with a thoughtful look on his face, solemn and serious, moving the telescope slightly from time to time to look between the two ships.

I saw that in the southeast direction of Shilin Island, a merchant ship was approaching, and there was also a cargo ship slowly coming in the direction of one thousand meters to the right of it, both in the direction of Shilin Island.

Seeing that the canvases of the two ships had long been put away, and there were no flags hanging above the masts, and the people on them could only faintly see their heads, or yellow, or black, the platoon commander could not be sure for a while, so he could only wait, and the ships were getting closer, so that he could be sure that out of prudence, he still gave the order.

"Whether it's a target or not, get the other brothers on alert, always be ready, and enter the attack mode. Once it was confirmed that it was the target, listen to my command, and when the order sounded, immediately push the prepared small boats into the river, quickly approach the two boats, and fight hard to control them. ”

The soldier immediately walked in cats, weaving through the stone forest, delivering a message to the others, trying to make the half-human-high stone cover and prevent it from being exposed, although no one would pay attention to the inconspicuous stone forest island.

The merchant ships to the southeast had the faces of Westerners and Orientals, but they were more like the inhabitants of the islands in the South China Sea, with yellow, thin complexions and short statures.

At this moment, a man came out of the cabin, dressed in horse clip shorts and dressed as a Westerner, and shouted to a sailor beside the ship: "Are you sure?" Is that cargo ship the one who traded with us? ”

Hearing the question, the familiar voice, the sailor in charge of the lookout immediately knew who it was, immediately turned around, put down the binoculars in his hand, sweated profusely, and hurriedly replied: "First mate, according to their reply and the tokens they took out, they are all in line with the way you confessed. ”

It didn't seem to be surprising, the sailor's wait-and-see and confirmation only proved the guess in his heart, the first mate calmly looked at the cargo ship in the distance, and said somewhat casually: "Then let them get closer, meet in the waters near Shilin Island, and make a deal." ”

"Okay, first mate, I'll have people spread the flag and pass your words to them."

"Well, it's really hot, you can do it, I'll go back to the cabin first, and when I get to the place, call me before their people come up."

On the cargo ship, more than two dozen porters dressed everywhere, a lazy color, the hot light made these people's eyes squint slightly, only the flag bearer was receiving the message from the merchant ship, and soon, the flag bearer quickly ran to the cabin and stood in front of a middle-aged man.

"Brother Zhou, the people over there replied, it was the Luzon merchant who traded with us who asked our ships to meet in the waters of Shilin Island."

Despite the hot weather, the scorching sun, and the sweat soaking his clothes, the middle-aged man was still wearing a long shirt, maintaining an elegant color, and his expression was unwavering: "Okay, just do what they say, go and reply." ”

However, the standard-bearer did not leave, his eyes were a little shrewd, and he said in a thief's head: "Brother Zhou, this place is sparsely populated, and we have many brothers, if you ....."

The middle-aged man surnamed Zhou had a gloomy gaze, looking at the standard-bearer who was talking half and leaving half and half, making a killing gesture, how could he not understand what he meant?

Black eats black, and does business without capital.

The middle-aged man shook his head, and when the standard-bearer was excited to persuade again, he preemptively said: "I know what you mean, and I understand your kindness, our elder brother's association does not earn much in the hall in Guangzhou, if you grab this batch of goods, you can save a lot of money, use it as another way, and expand your strength." ”

"Moreover, the other party is still a foreigner, the owner of the goods is a Westerner, it is really black and black, and other underground forces in Guangzhou will not say anything about our elders, and they will not scold us for treachery."

"However, once you do that, it will be difficult to buy nitrate in the future. Once the news spreads, and the other Westerners know that our elder will behave like this, let's not even think about buying bird guns from them. The Qing court controlled gunpowder and bird guns very strictly, and if there was no very tough backer, it would not be possible to get it at all, not to mention that there was a Hongmen who was eyeing the tiger? ”

"If there is no bird gun as a weapon, our elder brother will not be able to compete with Hongmen at all, and this rich Guangzhou Mansion will always be constrained, and it will not be able to let go of its hands to develop its power."

The standard-bearer understood, no longer had that kind of idea of buying and selling without capital, and left with a sudden realization, and the middle-aged man sighed and muttered to himself.

"Hey, if it weren't for the fact that I was really uncertain this time, and I couldn't compete with the other two major forces, my brotherhood wouldn't have made such a move, colluded with foreigners, risked the imperial court's suppression, and bought gunpowder birds~"

On Shilin Island, the platoon commander was still watching, as an all-round military personnel, he was not only proficient in various military skills, but also knew the words of the flag, which was why his platoon was responsible for detecting the enemy.

Looking at the flags between the two ships, although I didn't understand the meaning of their code words, I was already very sure that these two ships were the target of this trip. Immediately stealth down, bent down, and walked in a certain direction with quick broken steps, trying not to make a sound, completely out of the habit of ordinary training.

In a certain woods and grass, near the river side of Shilin Island, it can be seen from the sky, large and small boats, and rafts are mixed in, and there are some people waiting for an order.

At this moment, a man ran from the left rear of these people, and the cat body entered the grass, and it was the platoon commander who walked to the front, the side of a man wearing a straw hat, and reported back.

"Company commander, the two ships ahead, one of them is our target, the ship with nitrate. Moreover, the place where they gathered to trade was the waters of Shilin Island. ”

The man in the straw hat took the telescope without turning his head, just glanced at it twice, threw the telescope back, and ordered in a low voice: "All the personnel listen, change into the prepared clothes, wait until the two ships are close to each other, stop, make a transaction, act immediately, all the rafts and boats are pushed into the river, and travel at the fastest speed, so that the two big ships cannot pull the anchor, we will control it!" ”

Soon, the platoon commander left, and several soldiers marched in other directions, all with a cautious look, maintaining the standard military combat posture.

Soon after, in the grass, in the woods, and on the edge of the stone forest, there was a burst of rustling and changing clothes, which was inaudible, like the sound of a fresh breeze blowing through the grass and trees. (To be continued.) )