Half a month passed in a flash, and in the early morning of this day, a small boat of 300 stones slowly anchored in the south of Hu Tuzhou, which is a large island formed by the accumulation of sediment, with a radius of dozens of miles, the island is full of forests and weeds, and there is a small fishing village of more than a dozen families in the easternmost part, which is deserted beyond that.

This small boat is the exploration ship of the Jiangnan Society, that is, to see if the Qingzhou cargo ship has arrived on time, several spies on the small boat looked at the south for a long time, did not see the Qingzhou ship, and continued to drive eastward, about ten miles, it arrived at the easternmost part of Hu Tuzhou, in front of the boundless sea, but at this time, a spy pointed to the north and shouted: "There!" ”

When everyone turned around, they saw nine huge transoceanic boats moored in the north, lined up along Hu Tuzhou, which was magnificent.

The boat hurriedly sailed forward, approached the giant ship, and shouted for the lead spy: "We are sent by the Shen Gong of Jiangning!" ”

After shouting a few times, he threw a soft ladder from the big ship, and the first spy hurriedly climbed up, and after a while, he was also brought to a thin and tall young civil official, and the first spy saw him, it was Li Shenjun, who had been to Jiangning.

He hurriedly bowed and saluted, "See Li joining the army!" ”

Li Qingming said coldly: "I said that I would trade today, why don't you come now?" ”

"Qi Li joins the army, our fleet is a little slow, we have now passed Jiangyin, we can arrive here in an hour at most, Shen Gong asked me to report first, please join the army Li and wait."

Li Qingming nodded, "Fortunately, there is no specific time, otherwise I will turn around and leave, and quickly go and tell you Shen Gong, I will wait for him for half a day, and before noon, I will turn around and go back." ”

"Will definitely come! Will definitely come! ”

The leader of the spies said yes again and again, and then hurriedly took his leave. Sail a small boat into the Yangtze River.

At this time, a general slowly walked up to Li Qingming and asked, "Does Li Senjun think they will come?" ”

"Of course it will come!"

Li Qingming sneered, "Apart from us, who else can provide them with war horses?" ”

Another hour passed, and at this time, a Sui army speedboat came at a speed from the north. Approaching in front of the Hengyang boat, the Sui army scouts on the boat were taken to the big boat, and the scouts stepped forward and knelt down on one knee and saluted, "Report to Li to join the army, Jiangdu is urgent!" ”

The scout presented a piece of information to Li Qingming, Li Qingming opened the information and looked at it, snorting his nose, and sure enough, it was expected by the military advisor.

At this moment, the lookout from the mast pointed to the west and shouted, "Li joins the army." They're coming! ”

Li Qingming walked quickly to the bow of the boat, crossed the top of a forest, and saw a fleet of ships coming from the west on the river, there were as many as 100 boats, all of which were large flat-bottomed sand boats, coming down the river.

Li Qingming immediately ordered: "Order the fleet not to act rashly, wait for my order." ”

He boarded two small boats with a dozen retinues and headed for the opposing fleet. Hundreds of large sand boats have been moored to the south of Hu Tu Chau, about ten miles away from them. Two small boats also came up to meet them, as is customary for large transactions, where each other must first inspect the goods and then discuss the specific delivery method.

In a moment, the four small boats on both sides met on the river, and Shen Jian stood at the bow of the boat and smiled: "I'm sorry." Let Li join the army for a long time. ”

"It doesn't matter! May I ask Shen Gong, have all the goods arrived? ”

Shen Jian pointed to the big sand boat behind him, "Our cargo has arrived!" ”

Li Qingming nodded, "Then let's inspect the goods first!" ”

"Good! Business belongs to business, and love belongs to love. You're welcome. ”

He turned around and waved his hand, and a small boat behind him headed towards the big ship in Qingzhou, Li Qingming also gave a few instructions, and his other small boat also headed towards the other party's sand boat, which was to inspect each other's goods.

At this time, Shen Jian asked with a smile: "Has Li joined the army all this time in Jiangdu?" ”

"I went down to the Huai River, visited a few old people, and later got on the boat at the mouth of the Huai River."

"I see, I said, how can Li join the army be on the big ship?"

After a short time, the ships on both sides came back and reported the situation separately, and the goods met the trading conditions, Shen Jian smiled and said: "There is another thing I want to discuss with Li Senjun." ”

"Shen Gong, please speak!"

Shen Jian turned around and pointed to the sand boat and said: "General Li also saw that our ships can't transport war horses, of course, we won't bother you to go to Jiangning, can we deliver the goods in Changshu County on the other side, and directly unload the war horses on the shore, and we can take them away from the land." ”

Changshu is on the opposite bank of Hu Tuzhou, about fifty miles away from here, Shen Jian's request is reasonable, after all, it is a war horse, not an ordinary cargo, it is not safe to put it in Hu Tuzhou, and at the same time they do not have a large transport ship like a transverse boat.

Li Qingming sighed for a while and said with a smile: "Just go to Changshu to deliver the goods!" ”

Shen Jian was overjoyed, and hurriedly clenched his fists: "Then there will be labor." ”

Changshu is about 50 miles away from Hu Tuzhou, the water surface along the coast is wide and deep, can moor large ships, in the afternoon, the fleets on both sides have arrived in Changshu, because the ships of the Jiangnan will be sand boats, the speed is slower, the Hengyang boat fleet in Qingzhou arrived at the Changshu river bank first.

Li Qingming stood at the bow of the boat with his hands in his hands. Looking solemnly at the river ahead, but in his heart he secretly admired the military division's strategy, he got Jiangdu's intelligence to confirm the military division's guess, Lin Shihong's fleet had crossed Jiangdu under the cover of night last night, and Jiangnan would betray them.

Li Qingming listened to **** talk in detail about what happened when transferring pig iron, and he also knew very well what the nine national treasure-like transoceanic boats meant to Lin Shihong, a bandit who started with a water war, but whenever there was a glimmer of opportunity, Lin Shihong would be desperate to get these nine transoceanic boats, and Jiangnan would give Lin Shihong such an opportunity.

It's just that the meanness of the Jiangnan Society is intolerable, they not only betrayed Qingzhou, but also got Qingzhou war horses and armor.

Li Qingming's eyes were firmly fixed on a black line that appeared in the distance, that is, the south bank of the Yangtze River estuary, and it was also the delivery point designated by the Jiangnan Association, Changshu County, Wu County.

But when it was about ten miles away from the river bank, there was no need to look at the soldiers and shout, Li Qingming saw at a glance the warships lined up on the riverbank, there were about more than 100 of them, mainly the thousand-stone warships, and sure enough, they were Lin Shihong's warships, which had been waiting for them for a long time.

"The ship turns around!"

Li Qingming immediately gave the order, and the fleet began to make a difficult turn on the river.

The thief warship has been waiting for nearly five hours, they arrived in Changshu County in the middle of the night along the river, patiently waiting for the prey to fall into the trap, the main general of this more than 100 warships is still the master beggar, he took the initiative to ask Lin Shihong to seize these nine cross-ocean boats that make them haunted by their dreams.

"Two kings, they're coming!"

There were soldiers on the mast shouting, and the eyes of the master slowly narrowed into a slit, and his eyes flashed with a fiery light, and he also saw that the huge size was the long-awaited Hengyang boat, Jiangnan would cooperate very well, and they really came.

"Second king, the fleet is turning around!"

The drill sneered, since he came, could he still run away?

He shouted, "Attack, catch up with them!" ”

The rumbling drums of the sortie sounded, and a hundred warships swooped down on the Qingzhou Hengyang boat ten miles away like arrows from the string.

At the same time, the Jiangnan will be behind the 100 sand boats also changed the formation, they use iron cables to connect the sand boats end to end, every ten sand boats are connected into a team, a total of ten sand boats, this is why Jiangnan will choose the sand boat to transport goods, this kind of sand boat shape is flat, the chassis is wide, it is difficult to be knocked over, connected with iron chains, it can become a powerful weapon to hinder the navigation of the transoceanic boat.

On the sand boat, Shen Jian's face became hideous, Lin Shihong's secret visit to Jiang Ning made them reach an agreement to share the spoils, all the goods in the Hengyang Boat belonged to the Jiangnan Society, and the Hengyang Boat belonged to Lin Shihong, so Shen Jian was desperate to intercept these nine Hengyang boats.

There were pursuers behind the boat and interceptions in front, and it seemed that there was no way out, but at this moment, countless Sui warships suddenly appeared on the river in the east, as many as two or three hundred, and they sailed towards this place at high speed.

The sudden change caught Jiangnan Hui and Lin Shihong's fleet off guard, Shen Jian's face turned pale with shock, and he suddenly shouted: "Retreat!" Fall back! ”

He had already realized that he had fallen into the trap of the Qingzhou Army, and the Qingzhou Army had obviously seen through their intentions a long time ago.

"Shen Gong, the ship is locked in chains, and it can't be untied for a while!"

"Untie it for me right away!"

The crew of the sand boat desperately knocked on the iron chain that had just been locked, panicked, several teams of sand boats easily untied the iron chain, but it was too late, dozens of ships full of sailors and soldiers sailed in front of them, arrows rained down, and the crew and soldiers of the Jiangnan Society were hit by arrows and fell into the water with screams.

Shen Jian was angry and anxious, seeing a warship heading towards the sand boat where he was, in desperation, he had to jump on the boat and flee westward, Shen Jian's heart was like a knife, 200,000 stone grain and 100,000 pieces of cloth! It's lost in vain.

(To be continued.) )