The guards walked out of Liberty Hill and headed west along the north bank of the Shiroku River. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 Along the way, we passed through the construction site of the Qianmu Tian River embankment, and entered the lower reaches of the Shiroku River through the stone wall that had been separated from Freedom Mountain and Chahe Village by a tunnel blown by gunpowder. The river is getting wider and wider, and there is no way to distinguish between cattle and horses. There are also more and more sandbars in the river, and some sandbanks are overgrown with green trees over time. Liu Yao thought with a headache that if he wanted to regard Shilu Port as an important commercial port, the cost of dredging the river would be great. Thinking of the boats I saw on the river more than ten meters long, I couldn't help but worry about the river's water transportation capacity.

The team stopped and stopped, and when it was close to noon, they finally walked into Shiroku Port, or rather, came to the mouth of the Shiroku River. Last time, a group of people from Meijia Village came to Shilugang for a hike, and they walked to the south of the estuary, which is close to the direction of the salt pan. Looking to the south, there is a vast cloud of water, only a large area of birds flying between the sky and the earth.

The Shilu River comes from the east and forms a west-facing opening in the western part of Hainan Island. The southern side of the opening, the left bank of the river, is dotted with sandbars and reefs. Only the right bank of the river, the northern part of the entire estuary, has an ideal stony shoreline for mooring ships in the harbor, and this is where the Ishoroku Harbor is stationed. The west-facing opening is crossed by a north-south ridge across the horn of the port, which is integrated with the north shore and becomes a good natural breakwater, enclosing a calm water surface of the port area. Although the width of the water is only about 400 meters, it is already a wide enough port for ships in this time and space. The guard is located on a hill on the north bank of the port, overlooking the entire delta of the estuary, which is 5 or 6 kilometers wide.

Yao always set up a grand picnic on the hill. The huge iron pot was tumbling with large pieces of meat, which looked like a whole pig. Next to the cauldron is a door panel, surrounded by a circle of chairs of different shapes, which is probably a table. Stir-fried dishes made with pig offal, chicken, sheep, etc., and some marine fish. Liu Yao was not polite at all, and after giving a salute, he pulled Zhao Fei, Huang Fatzi and others to sit down around the door panel. Yao also took two of his men and sat down. Liu Yao saw that everyone was sitting together, picked up the cup and said: "See the president, congratulations for the president!" With that, he tilted his head and drank a large glass of rice wine. Yao picked up the general manager and accompanied him with a drink. Liu Yao's congratulatory message was quite casual, and it looked like he was thirsty and wanted to drink to deal with it. In fact, it is in this way that he hopes to establish an atmosphere of casualness and self-centeredness. The banquet in this world is also a place to establish relationships, and Liu Yao, who has been instructed by experience in the world when he came, is naturally familiar with this kind of occasion.

Yao saw that Liu Yao took a drink happily, pondered the taste, and said with a laugh: "Mr. Liu is so refreshing." There is no good wine in this barracks, not as good as the spirits on the Mountain of Liberty. Liu Yao wiped his mouth and praised: "This wine is also good, clear and cold, and relieves the heat." Putting down the glasses, the two of them arched their hands again. Mr. Yao poured wine into the empty cup and said, "Thank you Mr. Liu for not being afraid of hardships and dangers to help defend Shilu Port." Toast under as a token of appreciation. Liu Yao smiled and pressed Yao Jiao's hand to hold the wine glass and said, "You have to drink three glasses of this wine." ”

Looking at Yao Jiang's thoughtful expression, Liu Yao said with a straight face: "First cup, please salute all the members of Freedom Mountain, including the villagers of Meijia Village and Chahe Village. It was with their consent and support that our gang could come here to defend against the pirates. Zhao Shilu, Huang Fatzi, Jiao Huang and other civilians stood up and picked up their cups and made a representative. Yao raised his head quietly and toasted, put down the cup and asked, "Oh? That is, the two villages were merged? The fat man wiped his mouth and said with a grin: "Yes, yes, there are many people, there is great power, and this Mr. Liu is resourceful, we all followed him." ”

"This second cup, please salute all members of the guard. Most of the main force of the Liberty Mountain Guard is here. In the future, everyone lives and dies together, and they will be comrades-in-arms. Yao didn't say a word, picked up the cup and drank with Zhao Fei and Zhong Laosi. asked Zhong Laosi: "Dare to ask Deputy Platoon Commander Zhong, but this person from Shilugang?" Zhong Laosi raised his head and laughed: "Exactly! Precisely! I am the fourth Zhong who has fought several times with you for trivial matters such as fishing and chopping firewood. However, now that he is the deputy platoon commander of the third platoon of the Liberty Mountain Guard, he will no longer argue with you about chopping wood and fishing. The two shook hands and laughed, and had another drink.

Since the establishment of Shilu Port, the Wei Institute has had many disagreements with the villagers of the port over these trivial matters of cutting firewood and fishing, and it is often Zhong Laosi who takes the lead. After the attack of the pirates, Shirokugang saw the hard fighting of the guard, and also felt the real threat of war, and the relationship with the guard suddenly improved. Many of the children of the villagers of Shilugang joined the guard and put on soldiers' uniforms. There are also some people who followed Zhong Laosi to Freedom Mountain to sign up, and are now training in the first row.

"This third cup ......" Yao picked up the cup and looked at Liu Yao, in his opinion, the first two cups were in the name of everyone to salute, and this third cup should be given to Liu Yao himself. Liu Yao picked up the cup, stood up and said, "This third cup, everyone holds it, salute all the young people who died in this port!" May their Spirits in Heaven bless us with eternal victory! With that, he raised his head and drank the wine from his glass.

Everyone was stunned and drank the wine in their glasses. Liu Yao put the cup down and said loudly: "When the wine is here, even if it is drunk." The big war is coming, today is not the time to drink, now everyone eats, and then immediately set up camp. My request is that the guards sleep in the barracks tonight. A cup and plate sounded, and the people of Freedom Mountain quickly served the meal, and Hula Hula ate it. Liu Man took the opportunity to go to the cauldron and fished out a large piece of pork, pulled out the knife he carried with him to cut it into two pieces, and regardless of the surprised eyes of others, he picked a small piece and handed it to his father.

Liu Yao took the pork and gnawed it, not caring about the image at all, and asked Mr. Yao while gnawing: "May I ask Mr. Zong, how to defend this Shilu Port?" ”

Yao also brought a bowl of rice and ate it in a big gulp, pointed to the estuary with chopsticks and said: "This estuary is full of sandbars and reefs, except for the port water in front of you, it is difficult for ordinary ships to enter. The mouth of the river is extremely wide, at least more than twenty miles. If the enemy ship breaks anchor far away and lowers the soldiers to wade into the water, I am afraid that they will be tired when they come to it. Therefore, my soldiers are only to guard against the area on the north bank of the estuary where boats can be anchored and landed. It's a pity that there are no cannons, otherwise the enemy ships would not dare to come in the harbor. ”

Liu Yao groaned: "It should be good." The landing of enemy ships 10 or 20 miles away from the mouth of the river is like landing in other ports, and it is indeed difficult to guard against it, and it is not a general defense area. If you land somewhere else and then detour back up the Shiroku River, that is also the defense of Freedom Mountain, and it is beyond the reach of you and me. But I thought that we should set up a lookout and observe day and night, so that no thieves would sneak into the mouth of the river without knowing it. ”

"Makes sense. The defense area is limited, but the enemy's situation must be investigated. I will build an enemy tower and arrange for soldiers with good eyesight to be on duty day and night. I wonder what Mr. plans for this common defense? ”

"The guards are good at guarding, and if the enemy is attacking head-on, they should be able to take charge alone. However, the Guards do not currently have long-range firepower, so they still need to use the archers and the like to deal with the enemy. In addition, the pirates have returned, and most of the next attack will have artillery, so I don't know how to deal with it. ”

"I think the guards are well-armed, and they can definitely play a mainstay role. I also have some archers here, which can be used behind the spearmen, so that the enemy archers will not take advantage. In this way, it is difficult to separate the forces of your two families, and I think that in the future, we will fight together, and how about commanding me to take charge of the left flank, and my husband to take charge of the right flank? ”

"You can too. Later, I will discuss with Zhao Fei, Zhou Laosi and others, and then I will reply to you. Liu Yao said naturally, scooped up a fish and bit it, and asked inarticulately: "How to deal with the cannon?" ”

Mr. Yao was stunned for a moment. He had heard that there was no leader in the Freedom Mountain who really said everything, but Liu Yao had to discuss with Zhao Fei and Zhong Laosi before he could decide, which was really unexpected to him. Liu Yao also noticed it, spit out a bunch of fish bones and said with a smile: "This battle still depends on them to fight at the front, of course, we have to discuss it together." This sea fish tastes good. I've eaten all the dried fish in Liberty Mountain, and if there are any, please pack two for me and I'll take them back. Mr. Yao laughed, nodded and said, "Yes, discuss it with the person at the front." I don't have much to do with the artillery. What are you going to do? ”

Liu Yao fished out another piece of fish, looked at it, put it on his daughter's plate, put down his chopsticks and said: "To deal with artillery, one is to defend and the other is to attack." This cannonball is most afraid of it jumping, and jumping all the way is a dead man. I do know a way to do this, and that is to use sandboxes and sandbags, and when this cannonball hits it, it sinks in, and the defense cannonball works well. ”

Yao thought about it for a while and slapped his thigh: "This method is simple, but why hasn't anyone thought of it?" It is said that Mr. Liu is resourceful, and sure enough. Liu Yao waved his hand: "Don't shoot the fart." This is also what I was told. You have to make more sandbags and sandboxes, put them on the front of the troops, put them on the walls of the barracks, and put them wherever you don't want to be hit by shells. ”

"The method is good, but blindly defending is really boring." Mr. Yao said fiercely.

"That's going to attack. As for attacking, I also have some ranged weapons in the works. I wonder how far the average artillery can hit? ”

"Four miles. This is the farthest that the Hongyi cannon can reach. Yao said with confidence.

"That's still not going to work. My long-range firearm can hit up to a mile. Liu Yao smacked his lips and said regretfully. The range of the catapult is still not comparable to that of artillery, but he does not plan to cancel the catapult troops, one of the original plans is to shoot large grenades to deal with dense infantry, and the lethality is expected to be good. The second is also of great significance for the training of artillery units. "Then I don't usually take out this long-range firearm and use it, so as not to leak the news. I first practiced in the Freedom Mountain, and trained to be stationed in the nearby mountains and forests. When the enemy ship approached the shore and the pirates landed intensively, they suddenly unleashed it, taking it by surprise and catching it off guard. ”

After the discussion, the meal was ready. Jiao Huang led the team to do surveying and mapping, and Zhao Fei and Zhou Laosi went to determine the camp with Mr. Yao. Zhao Shilu took the construction team to the port to move things on the ship of the yellow fat man. Liu Yao walked to the side of the guard barracks, which is where the highest peak near the port is located, looked up at the vast sea and sky, and said softly: "According to historical records, the sea bandit Li Mao in Hainan died ten years ago. Ten years ago, they were just robbing Changhua City, but now they are going to occupy Shilu Port, what do they want Shilu Port to do? ”

******

Li Chenglin was lying in the shadow of the coconut tree with his eyes slightly closed, and the two hands on the armrests of the bamboo recliner were scarred and bruised, as if he was not listening to the chatter of the person in front of him. Wang Quan stood in the sun and spoke dryly, but he never heard an echo, and he couldn't help but feel at a loss, so he had to keep talking.

"As I said earlier, I asked you to go to Shiroku Port this time, one is to offer you a good port, and it is always beneficial to have more ports. The second is also to avenge the beating of Liu Yao's mother-in-law. A female streamer beat me in front of the public, and I couldn't swallow this breath. ”

"Hey, why don't you call back?" Li Chenglin asked with a smirk, his eyes still not open.

Wang Quan slapped his thigh and said, "How dare I." The whole Meijia Village is his Liu Yao's employees, and his property is everywhere, who doesn't listen to him? ”

"Then you're going to let my brother be cannon fodder?" Li Chenglin patted the armrest of the recliner and sat up, and the bamboo recliner made a creaking sound.

"Don't dare, don't dare, the so-called wealth is in danger. The brothers took a risk, and the wealth was naturally in hand. It's just that I don't know why the person surnamed Yao in the guard is so desperate. I really don't know about this guardhouse. In order to avenge the beating of the woman in front of everyone, Wang Quan led a group of pirates to attack Shilu Port, but encountered stubborn resistance from Yao Jiang. The appearance of this guard was a sudden thing, coupled with the lack of understanding of Yao Jiang's total combat effectiveness, Li Chenglin's team suffered a big loss. Li Chenglin hated this royal power in his heart, but he didn't show it on the surface. This is the only informant he can get at the moment, and he can't afford to waste it. As the son of Li Mao, a great pirate in Hainan, the city still has this.

"It's a good fortune and danger. Well, my brother is going to cut with a knife, and don't be idle. You go back now, find out the news of Freedom Mountain, what are the preparations, how many troops there are, and three days later, find the green-eyed fishing boat in Shiroku Harbor, and tell me well. Three days after I got the news, I pulled up the gunboats and set foot on its small guard. Li Chenglin said lightly. He must take this Shilu Port, if nothing else, even the dozens of brothers who died there need to be explained. As he spoke, he gritted his teeth hatefully: "Order!" Capture Shilu Port, three days without sealing the knife. (To be continued.) )