"The villain's surname is Lin, his name is Heshui, and he is from Quanzhou, Fujian. The land over there is narrow and thin, and if the people are poor, they will go to Nanyang to make a living, and the villain went to Luzon with his uncle when he was five or six years old, and stayed there for more than ten years. ”

"Luzon? I just heard that the Hongmaoyi said that they came from Luzon, and that it is not the homeland of these Hongmaoyi? “

"It's not!" Lin Heshui shook his head: "Luzon is a big island in the South Sea, thousands of miles away from my Ming Dynasty, with fertile land, lush forests, and abundant products. Originally, there were only some natives, but since the Tang and Song dynasties, there have been people in my hometown who have traveled back and forth, some have been merchants, and some have settled there, and the eunuchs of the Three Treasures have also passed through this place when they went to the West. Those Hongmaoyi are said to come from the far west, tens of thousands of miles away from Luzon, even if they take a fast boat to run for a year, more than 100 years ago they Luzon Island, they built a fortress, rampant expropriation, all kinds of evil! Zhao Youcai didn't notice the other party's emotions, and said: "Tens of thousands of miles, then these Hongmaoyi still abandoned the ancestral mausoleum?" Sure enough, it's a barbarian without a king and a father! “

"That's what Master Zhao said! These Hongmaoyi are mercenary, rude, righteous and shameless, whether it is the natives or the Ming people living there, as long as they see that you have something good, they will force them to come, if you don't give it, they will draw their swords against each other, it is really the most vicious! Speaking of this, Lin Heshui's voice trembled slightly, obviously he was already extremely excited at this time.

Zhao Youcai looked up and down at the interpreter, and saw that the other party was of medium height, about twenty-four or five years old, looking ordinary, but his eyes were smart, obviously a capable character, and he secretly thought that if he wanted to open a way on this side of the red hair, he needed a person who knew the inside story. This Lin Heshui not only knows the language of the Yi people, but also has been in Luzon for more than ten years, and knows the situation of the Yi people very well, so he is a rare candidate. Thinking of this, a kind smile appeared on his face: "Mr. Lin, I am quite interested in the affairs of this gang of red hairymen. After this incident, can you give in here, and ask for benefits sooner or later? ”

Lin Heshui was overjoyed when he heard this, he coincided with a great change in Luzon, almost only escaped with one life, and after returning to China, he didn't even have the money to go back to his hometown, so he had to stay in Hangzhou to work as a translator to make a living, but he didn't want this Hangzhou to be different from southern Fujian, and most of the merchant ships were going to Japan. Even a small number of people who go to Southeast Asia are mostly monopolized by the Dutch, and his fluent Spanish is not useful, and he can barely mix a round belly, and he doesn't know when he will be able to get the fare home. And Zhao Youcai is not only dressed luxuriously, but Ke Congwen, who is the capital of a province, also has a very respectful attitude towards him, in Lin Heshui's opinion, he must be either rich or expensive, maybe he is still the domestic slave of a certain family, if he is up. Don't talk about the cost of going home, you don't have to worry about chewing and wrapping in the second half of your life.

"Master Zhao is polite. Although the villain knows little, as long as you open your mouth to ask, you will naturally know everything, and there is no end to it! ”

"Good, good!" Seeing Lin Heshui agree, Zhao Youcai laughed: "Since that's the case." Then you're welcome! He pointed around: "You said this is the place where the artillery is placed, why are there none at this time?" ”

Lin Heshui looked around, lifted the lantern and walked to a deck by the window, paused vigorously, and listened to the sound below. Pointing to Zhao Youcai, he said: "Master, here is the bilge, I estimate that they encountered a strong wind at sea, in order to prevent the ship from being silent, they put all the cannons here in the bottom compartment to ballast, so as not to capsize." ”

"And a bilge?" Zhao Youcai was stunned when he heard this, he walked to Lin Heshui's side, and sure enough, he saw a handle on the ground, Lin Heshui leaned over and pulled up the handle hard, revealing a big black hole on the ground, and suddenly a pungent musty smell came to his nose, Zhao Youcai couldn't help but turn his head, covered his mouth and said, "It stinks!" ”

"Hmmm! It is estimated that the bilge has entered the water, and the goods inside have broken a lot! Lin Heshui didn't have a different color, he didn't look strange, he waited for a while, put the lantern down first, and made sure that there was no problem with the air, so he walked down first. Zhao Youcai hesitated for a while, but finally couldn't hold back his curiosity, covered his nose with his sleeve and followed Lin Heshui down, with the help of the light of the lantern, Zhao Youcai quickly found the figure of the cannon, a total of twelve sixteen-pounder cannons, and four 24-pounder cannons, which were gifts from the Spaniards to Zheng Zhilong. Zhao Youcai stretched out his hand and touched the hard and cold cannon body: "There are so many cannons!" “

"Hmm!" Seeing these weapons, Lin Heshui's face became solemn, he walked to a well-packed wooden box, picked up an iron drill from the ground, and pried open the wooden box in three times and two times, and when the light illuminated the objects in the wooden box, his face suddenly changed greatly.

"Master Zhao, come and take a look!"

Zhao Youcai, who was watching the cannon on the side, heard Lin Heshui's shout, and hurriedly turned around and walked over, and when he saw the goods in the wooden box, his face became ugly.

"Bird? Is this actually a bird? Zhao Youcai picked up the bird gun from the wooden box, and immediately felt a slippery feeling on his fingertips, and he reached out and rubbed it, it should be anti-rust grease. He knew the situation in Liu Chengjun very well, and compared with this Spanish bird, the general structure was similar, but the weight was lighter.

Lin Heshui opened a few more wooden boxes, and sure enough, there were either bird guns or armor and weapons inside, at that time, it was commonplace for merchant ships to have weapons for self-defense, but it would not be like this, there were no goods and silver to exchange with the Ming Kingdom, all of them were weapons, obviously the purpose of this Hongmaoyi ship to the Ming Dynasty was definitely not trade.

Lin Heshui and Zhao Youcai glanced at each other, and they both saw surprise and fear in each other's eyes. At this time, there was a soldier's shout from above, and it turned out that Ke Congwen couldn't find Zhao Youcai and sent someone to find them. The two hurriedly climbed onto the deck, and Ke Congwen asked, "Mr. Zhao, where have you been, I'm just looking for it!" ”

"Toji-sama! There's something wrong with this gang of red hairs! Zhao Youcai said in a low voice.

Ke Congwen saw Zhao Youcai's serious face, and couldn't help laughing: "Mr. Zhao, this gang of Hongmaoyi kills people and crosses goods, and it is naturally a problem to harm one party!" “

"Your Excellency, come with me!" Zhao Youcai pulled Ke Congwen and led the other party to the bottom cabin, letting him look at the goods in the wooden box, Ke Congwen's face suddenly became ugly. After a while, like a child who didn't want to admit the truth in front of him, he whispered, "Maybe it's for their own use." ”

"Toji-sama!" Zhao Youcai's voice was not loud, but it was extremely serious: "This group of red-haired people is only about a hundred people, where did they use so many armors?" And these armors are brand new, and they have anti-rust grease on them. How could it be that they used it themselves?

"Then, that's used to exchange food and water specialties with the natives along the way!"

"Toji-sama!" Zhao Youcai's voice was already full of regret that hatred of iron could not become steel: "These are all high-grade fine iron!" He picked up a pair of cuirasses from the ground, flicked them with his fingers, and a buzzing voice echoed in the cabin: "What native can afford to use such good armor?" ”

"So, what do you say you're for?" Ke Congwen replied reluctantly, according to his mind, he didn't want to make so many extraneous things, and with the experience of his ancestors in the officialdom for generations, not to expose the scars is the first priority for officials, otherwise sooner or later there will be a pot of on his head.

"I don't know!" Zhao Youcai: "But this must be for a big man." The armor here is enough to arm five or six hundred men, which is not a small number! Those Hongmaoyi must be strictly interrogated to find out the inside story! “

"Okay, okay!" Ke Congwen nodded helplessly, after all, Zhao Youcai was not his subordinate, and he still had a lot of things to ask him, and this matter must not be able to cover up the past.

Back at his residence, Zhao Youcai was not sleepy. Although he hadn't slept well for two days, he didn't feel sleepy at all. He knew very well that there must be a great danger lurking behind this matter. If he hadn't met Liu Cheng a few years ago, his reaction would probably be the same as that Ke Dusi, just turning a blind eye and fooling the past, but after meeting Liu Cheng, Zhao Youcai realized that he was likely to live a life that no one had ever dreamed of before, and the whole person would have completely changed. A blind man who was born blind is just that. If this blind man had regained his sight and seen this colorful world with his own eyes, he would not want to return to that dark world. At this time, Zhao Youcai's mind was only thinking about one question: "If Liu Cheng is in his position, how will he deal with it?" ”

"Mr. Zhao. There is a man named Lin Heshui outside, who said that he has something important to see you right away! A soldier outside the door announced.

"Quick, invite him in!" Zhao Youcai almost jumped up from his chair, and the soldier looked at him with some surprise, and bowed with his hands crossed. After a while, Lin Heshui was led by the soldier to the door, and before he could bow down and salute, Zhao Youcai rushed to him with an arrow step, grabbed his arm and pulled him into the house: "Mr. Lin, is it about that matter?" “

Lin Heshui was taken aback by Zhao Youcai's actions and nodded dumbly. Zhao Youcai hurriedly pressed it on the chair, turned back to the soldier and said, "You go to the courtyard to guard, and no one should let him in!" “

Zhao Youcai walked to the door, closed the door, returned to Lin Heshui's side, and asked in a low voice, "Did Hongmaoyi say what they were doing?" "If he wants to interrogate those Spaniards, he must be inseparable from Lin Heshui as an interpreter.

"No, that guy has a hard mouth, but he doesn't speak, Lord Dusi is afraid that the governor will not be able to explain it, so there is no need to torture!" Lin Heshui shook his head.

"Well, that's a lot of trouble!" Zhao Youcai sighed, he knew that as the highest military and political governor of Zhejiang Province, the governor with the title of imperial history was the one who held the final decision, and if it was handed over to that adult, it would be difficult for him to get up and down.

"But the villain got a few pieces of news from the sailors and soldiers!" Lin Heshui showed a smug smile on his face: "First, the final destination of their trip is the Thousand Households Guarded by the Left in Fujian; Second, their leader was called Don. Gonzalez. Silva was on a special mission under the special orders of the Governor, the details of which were known only to Silva himself. “

"So they're going to send these weapons to that Rausch Zhongzuo Shou Qianhu House? But to whom is it given? Zhao Youcai smiled bitterly.

"Mr. Zhao, if it is really the center left guarding the Thousand Households, then there will only be one person who will receive this batch of weapons!"

"Alone? Who? ”

"Coastal defense guerrilla, five tiger guerrilla general, Zheng Zhilong!" The sound of Lin Heshui was not loud, but it was categorical.

"Zheng Zhilong? Why must it be him, but he is just a guerrilla, why can't it be someone else, such as the Fujian General Army? Zhao Youcai looked inexplicable. Seeing this, Lin Heshui had to explain in a low voice.

Whether it is a modern scholar who studies the history of China's maritime trade, the history of the Ming and Qing dynasties, or the history of the navy, there is no one person who cannot avoid it: Zheng Zhilong. If it must be regarded as a novel in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, and find a protagonist template among many historical figures, it must be Zheng Zhilong. At the age of seventeen, he went to Macau to join his father-in-law because of his family's poverty, and at the age of nineteen, he went to Japan, but in just one year he made a breakthrough, not only practicing swordsmanship, many Chinese, trade, but also being received by Tokugawa Hidetada, the great imperial palace (the honorific title of the abdicated general) who was living in seclusion in Sunfu at that time, and was already the leader of overseas Chinese in Japan. At the age of twenty-one, he went to Penghu to take charge of himself, and at the age of twenty-one, he succeeded the leader Yan Siqi, organized the "Eighteen Zhi" group, which became the most powerful maritime group on the southeast coast, and at the age of twenty-three, he crossed the sea, repeatedly defeated the attack of Yu Zhigao, the supreme general of the Ming Dynasty in Fujian, and also won the conflict with the Dutch, and in 1628 forced Xiong Wencan, the governor of Fujian, to appease himself, and whitewashed his huge strength, and he was only twenty-four years old at the time. Started from scratch at the age of seventeen, in just seven years, tens of thousands of troops, more than 1,000 ships, and became a guerrilla general appointed by the imperial court. In the next few years, with the help of the Ming court, he eliminated many pirate groups distributed along the southeast coast one by one, and actually became the de facto overlord of the sea.

"In this way, although this Zheng Zhilong is just a coastal defense guerrilla, the strength of his subordinates is even greater than that of the chief soldier and the governor?" After listening to Lin Heshui's explanation, Zhao Youcai asked in disbelief.

"Yes, don't say anything else, after Zheng Zhilong dominates the sea, those who can't command the flag of the Zheng family can't travel to and from the East and the West. If you want to make a flag, you need to pay three thousand taels of silver per ship a year, how many taels of silver can you calculate for him? (To be continued.) )