"Then I'll pick him up too!" Zhao Youcai is very decisive.

"Yes, sir!" Seeing that Zhao Youcai was so decisive, Lin Heshui calmed down and led the group to the cell behind the yamen. Since he was a child, he has traveled across the oceans to earn a living in foreign lands, and has experienced ten times more risks and hardships than ordinary people. Therefore, I have long understood a truth: the success or failure of a group is of course related to the environment it faces, and it is also closely related to what kind of person the leader is.

The straw on the floor smelled of urine, there were no beds, no windows, not even a wooden bucket for dung and urine, except for a head-sized vent near the ceiling, and a pillar of light came in from the outside, shining on the rammed earth wall, showing red and black.

Silva lay on the ground, where time seemed to freeze, and the only thing he could do was try to remember the past: he and his companions were stabbed in the back with guns, slapped in the thighs and buttocks, and rushed into the dark cell, where he could briefly look around by the light of the light when he was locked in, but when the door was closed, it was dark, and only a little light could be seen every day when it was close to noon. Here, he is limited in strength than the blind. Or rather, he is no different from a dead man, he has been buried in the ground, but he still has a breath.

"Father Juan, Paul!" Silva muttered the names of everyone that crossed his mind, reached out and stroked the uneven rammed earth walls, carving names into them with his fingernails. He remembered the sea breeze on the deck, the church in Manila's castle, the castle on the steep rock walls of his hometown of Grenada, and finally Juan in his mind. Governor DeSalcedo's stern and resolute face, and the conversation in the governor's office: "At the final judgment, these people will face God for themselves, and now we must do what we are supposed to do." The corners of his eyes moistened.

"Lord Governor, if I don't finish what I'm supposed to do! How should we face God? ”

When footsteps came from the hallway, Silva was half-asleep. At first he thought it was a hallucination, for he hadn't heard anything other than the footsteps of the guards during the daily meal delivery. His mouth was dry and his body ached, and when the wooden door creaked open, the sudden light stung his eyes. Let him instinctively reach out and cover his eyes.

"Get up!"

Silva could already make out simple Chinese, curled up, rolled over from the straw pile, and stared with a wary gaze at the few people who came in, talking to the jailer who brought him food every day, he was dirty and thin, like a bamboo pole, with a black cloth wrapped around his head and a messy beard on his chin. He bowed his waist and said respectfully to a few people behind him: "Mr. Lin, Master Zhao, the thief is here!" ”

"Good!" Zhao Youcai stretched out his hand to cover his nose, the smell in the room was terrible, he took out two silver coins from his sleeve and threw them to the jailer: "You go out, I want to talk to him, and then mention someone!" ”

"Yes, sir!" The jailer quickly took the coin and made out the pattern on it. Finally, he stuffed the suspicious letter into his mouth and bit it down with his teeth, and when he found that there were obvious tooth marks on it. Only then did he happily owe Zhao Youcai a debt: "Thank you for the reward!" ”

Zhao Youcai waved his hand impatiently, and the jailer hurriedly withdrew from the house, at this time he nodded to Lin Heshui, who took a step forward and said to Silva in Spanish: "Your Excellency has decided to give you one last chance, and you must answer every question he asks honestly." Otherwise you're going to be locked up here and rot, like these straws on the ground! As if to emphasize his threat, he paused vigorously and stepped on the straw on the ground.

"Water, water!" Silva's mouth came with a hoarse, low sound. Lin Heshui turned around and shouted outside, and soon the jailer came in with a clay pot and placed it on a pile of straw beside Silva. He snatched the crockpot and gulped it down, water running from the corners of his mouth into his tousled beard, and drank it until his stomach twitched.

"Tell me, what are you here for?" Lin Heshui asked.

"Buy raw silk and tea, we are merchants, encounter a storm!"

"Lie!" Lin Heshui interrupted Silva's answer: "The boat is full of soldiers, the bilge is full of weapons, what tea and raw silk do you use?" With arquebuses and spears? ”

Silva glanced at Lin Heshui: "The soldiers are there to defend against pirates, and weapons are commodities to be exchanged!" ”

"Use cannons to exchange raw silk tea, is there such a bold businessman in Daming?" Lin Heshui sneered: "Major Silva, the purpose of your trip is the Fujian Zhongzuo Institute, and the object of your transaction is the guerrilla general Zheng Zhilong, I already know everything from your subordinates, whether you want to rot here, or to be honest, you choose!" ”

Silva looked at Lin Heshui and Zhao Youcai, to be honest, he couldn't quite tell the difference between these two Ming people, in his eyes, all Ming people looked exactly the same, with a low nose, sallow skin, and long, narrow and slender Mongolian eyes, which always flashed with a sinister and cunning light. But one thing he was sure of was that if he refused, they would have no mercy on the threat they had threatened him—that the confinement in this cell would rot like straw, and of course the orders of the Governor, and the safety of the kingdom would rot with him.

"Okay, I say!" Silva bowed his head: "But if I tell the truth, can you release me and my men?" I can pay the ransom for everyone! ”

"Major, standing in front of you is a noble lord, not a pirate who extorts ransom!" Lin Heshui raised his voice and turned sideways to let Silva see Zhao Youcai's figure clearly: "Your fate will be decided by this adult, the only thing I can promise is that if you tell the whole truth, you will be able to leave here and go to a place where you can see the sun and be more worthy of your identity!" “

Silva looked at Lin Heshui, and then turned his gaze to Zhao Youcai, who raised his chin slightly, with an arrogant expression on his face. Finally, Silva lowered his head: "Okay! ”

After about a meal, Zhao Youcai and Lin Heshui walked out of the cell with Silva, and he was surprised to see that there were still Father Juan and ten subordinates in the courtyard. They were tied in a string with ropes, and next to them stood seven or eight guards with weapons in their hands.

"What about the others?" Silva asked Lin Heshui in surprise.

"Shut up, if you don't want to go back!" Lin Heshui's voice suddenly became fierce, and the two guards stepped forward to string Silva together. Father Juan turned his head and smiled, "I'm glad to see you again!" ”

"Me too!" Silva whispered, "It's a pity that it's in this situation!" ”

"Mr. Major, I don't think things are as bad as you think!" Father Juan laughed and said, "God always guides us in his way!" ”

"I hope it's as you say!" Silva smiled wryly, and the words just came out. It was pitch black - a black cloth bag was over his head.

When Zhao Youcai escorted this group of captives to Wulinmen, Du Gu had been waiting for a long time with more than ten ox carts, and they rushed to the dock where "Queen Mary" was docked, and took out the weapons in the bilge, such as armor, swords, arquebuses, and light weapons, each of which only took two or three pieces as samples for the reference of the craftsmen in Liu Cheng's arsenal, only the twenty-four-pound cannon and the sixteen-pound cannon, even Zhao Youcai, a layman, could see that it was very well-made, and such a large artillery. The craftsmen may not be able to imitate it in a short time, so they took four doors each, loaded them on ox carts and pulled them away. Du Gu and Zhao Youcai had already discussed, and they had already hired two flat-bottomed sand boats, which would be loaded and set off early tomorrow morning, and then go north along the canal, and then turn into the Yellow River in Shandong and go upstream. Transported westward to Shaanxi, such militaristic weapons may be a little cumbersome in field warfare. But if defending the city is a first-class artifact, Liu Cheng will definitely use this thing when he is rebuilding the naturalization city.

When Silva arrived at his new quarters, he was taken out by two soldiers, who were given hot water, large wooden barrels, clean, soft clothes, and well-fitting shoes. After getting rid of the fleas and dirt on his body, a shaver enters. The crisp feeling almost made him moan as the sharp razor slashed across his chin and shaved off his stray beard, and straightened his hair again. When he had done this, a servant led him through a beautiful corridor. As he walked into a spacious and bright house, Silva was surprised to see the two men who had threatened him with confinement not long ago, sitting at a round table with a military member, looking at him with a smile on their faces.

"Mr. Major, please be seated!" Lin Heshui stood up politely and pulled out a chair next to the round table, which was in stark contrast to Fang Cai's arrogance in the cell. Silva looked at the other party suspiciously, and finally did absolutely what the other party said.

"Allow me to introduce you to these two!" Lin Heshui turned around and walked to Zhao Youcai's side: "This Mr. Zhao is the special envoy of Lord Liu, the chief soldier of Ningxia Town in the Ming Dynasty, who is one of the most powerful princes under the command of the emperor, and not long ago won a glorious victory over the Tatars, capturing more than 40,000 Tatars. Mr. Zhao himself was a wealthy merchant with a charter to trade with the Tatars of the steppe. And this Lord Du is the captain of General Liu's guard! ”

"It's an honor to meet you! The contempt was the Don of the Spanish Empire in the Viceroyalty of Manila. Gonzalez. Major Silva, commander of the expedition and captain of the Queen Mary! Silva bowed to Zhao and Du, and then asked, "If possible, can I meet the warrior who defeated me on the island?" ”

Hearing Lin Heshui's translation, a contemptuous smile appeared on the corner of Du Gu's mouth: "Mr. Lin, you told him that it was one of my subordinates who defeated him, and he had another task that he couldn't attend!" “

Silva looked at Du Gu in surprise and suspicion, he wanted to say something, but in the end he still didn't say it, and when the guest and host were seated, Lin Heshui slapped his palm twice, and the maid outside brought the wine and food like water. Silva was surprised to find that although the dishes of the Ming people were quite strange in terms of ingredients and methods, they were very delicious, which made him almost forget that the person who was at the same table with him was his mortal enemy a few hours ago, and Zhao Youcai and Du Gu only moved a few chopsticks, and then they looked at each other's meals with a smile, and drank a few sips of wine from time to time.

If there was anything that displeased Silva about this sumptuous dinner, it was that the wine in the glass tasted too light, and he didn't know how much water these treacherous Ming people mixed in it, and his tongue could only feel a little bit of wine. Zhao Youcai's reason for doing this is very simple, he doesn't want this Hongmaoyi who has just been released from the cell to get drunk, then what they want to do next will not be done.

The wine has passed three rounds, and the dishes have passed five flavors. The speed at which Silva waved the utensils gradually slowed down, obviously he had almost eaten, Zhao Youcai glanced at the servant girls on the side, and soon the attentive maids removed the dishes, cleaned the table, served fragrant tea, and then withdrew from the house. Silva took two sips of tea and thought to herself: "Our Lady is here, how comfortable these heretics are, even the Most High Father cannot compare with them, compared to the tea they drink, what they sell us is nothing more than muddy soup!" ”

"Mr. Silva!" Zhao Youcai raised his voice: "I can answer your question not long ago now, please forgive me, we can't release you and your men, as well as your ships and weapons, at least not for a short time!" “

"What?" Silva's eyes widened in surprise, and the courtesy he had just received gave him the illusion that Zhao Youcai would easily release them, because he had already told them the true purpose of the trip - to go to Fujian to fight for Zheng Zhilong and the Dutch. In Silva's opinion, Zheng Zhilong was a high-ranking and powerful man in the Ming Kingdom, and Zhao Youcai did not dare to risk angering such a big man to continue to detain them.

"You can't do this, we are here to serve Lord Zheng Zhilong, and he will make you regret all this after he knows this!" Silva's voice was not loud, but his expression was very serious, in stark contrast to the relaxed expression on his face when he had just had a full meal.

Zhao Youcai listened to Lin Heshui's translation, but he was very relaxed, he casually picked up the teacup in front of him and said with a smile: "Mr. Silva, you are a guest from afar, I don't know the inside story of my Daming, and I don't blame you for saying the wrong thing." Let's put it this way, then Zheng Zhilong is just a guerrilla general, under the generals, at most he is just a fifth-grade official, and the general of my family is the general of Ningxia, but a first-class officer, don't say that Zheng Zhilong will not know that you are in our hands, even if Zheng Zhilong knows, he will not dare to say anything! (To be continued.) )