The blue sky is like a wash, the sun is high, and the warmth is melting.

A huge battleship with dense artillery on the side of the ship raised its sails, belching black smoke and waves at the front, followed by four steamers, hoisting the yellow unicorn flag. The pure yellow feather yarn flag, inlaid with a fire unicorn strutting its head, the unicorn is leisurely, like a leisurely stroll, but there is a faint trend of dominating the world.

On the bow of the first steamer Yongbo, Ye Zhao stood in the wind, staring at the naval flag fluttering in the wind, the flag was hunting, Ye Zhao suddenly rose a wave of pride, and finally there was a day when the unicorn flag would look down on all continents and seas, making all countries avoid.

The footsteps are soft, the fragrant wind is coming, you don't have to look back to know that it is Jiner's grandmother, this to Vietnam, there are more than a dozen businessmen accompanying her, only two women, one Jiner's grandmother, the other is her personal maid.

"Grandpa, the concubine doesn't know how to thank you." Grandma Jin Er has a beautiful bun, a soft body, and a touching style. Standing beside Ye Zhao at this moment, he was really indescribably grateful in his heart, although he knew that the wicked would never decide a major military matter because of his request, but he could drive troops to Vietnam and take himself with him, which was already a great grace.

Jin Er's grandmother has been arrogant since she was a child, but since she met Ye Zhao, she has tasted the hardships of encountering walls everywhere, but this wicked person has defended her in many ways, and she has a faint fear of Ye Zhao in the depths of her heart, but she also knows what unimaginable power this wicked person has, and a light word can send people to heaven or throw them into hell. For her, who is already obsessed with power, this is tantamount to a moth in the fire, knowing the danger, but unconsciously wanting to get closer to the past and find out.

At this moment, Grandma Jiner's gratitude to Ye Zhao is sincere.

Ye Zhao said indifferently: "It's not too late to thank you when you find Gongzi Rong." ”

Grandma Jinji lightly paled her cheeks and turned her head to look south.

Dozens of steps away on the side of the boat, Ruan Bozhai wanted to go to Tongguo's grandfather to say a few words, but seeing that the female dependents were on the side, it was difficult for him to pass. I heard that this noble lady is a Cantonese businessman, because she is the only woman who goes to sea this time, she will put the shiphouse next to the grandfather's shiphouse for safety, but who knows the hidden secret? Look at this noble lady, she is very familiar with the grandfather of the country.

Ruan Bozhai really didn't expect the Guangdong Navy Division to be equipped with a huge artillery ship, and when he first saw it, he was really shocked, the gunboat looked like it should be made by a red-haired ghost, but it was captured by the grandfather of the country, and he couldn't complain, on the bank of the Pearl River, he couldn't see the ships of the British and French Zhuyi showing off their might.

What Ye Zhao was thinking about at this time was another matter, a few days ago, the three battalions of Zhenwu, Zhenjiang, and Zhenhe broke through more than 10,000 bandits near Nan'an City and recovered Nan'an Mansion, and their own forces had actually infiltrated into the southwest of Jiangxi. Only when they control Nan'an Prefecture, Jiangxi and even Fujian's tea merchants and silk merchants will they give up the distance and seek the near, and slowly re-regard Guangzhou as the first tea port. What's more, if you don't put pressure on the Taiping Army, you think it will also attract criticism.

If you go all out on the Northern Expedition, you don't have this plan, not to mention that there is no benefit, when you meet Shi Dakai and other elite generals of the Taiping Army, the battle will not be so easy, the civil strife in Tianjing has not started, and the elite combat power of the Taiping Army cannot be underestimated, which is completely different from the three battalions of firearms soldiers who almost effortlessly wiped out more than 10,000 bandits in Nan'an Mansion.

Before going to sea, he received a letter from the Zhenwu battalion management and Shenbao, and the Cantonese soldiers entered Jiangxi and contacted Zeng Guoquan's Jizi battalion, and Zeng Guoquan wanted to go to Guangzhou to kowtow to his grandfather and ask for instructions.

If it weren't for the imminent trip to Vietnam, I really wanted to meet Zeng Wenzheng's younger brother, the first fierce general in the Hunan army.

However, it has long been heard that most of Zeng Guoquan's subordinates are outlaws, and every time a city is broken, they give their subordinates three days to burn and kill the carnival of destroying silver, although this most primitive method of stimulating the courage and fighting spirit of soldiers is effective, but after all, it can not cultivate a dignified and upright division, and the idea of commanding the army is still in the primitive stage, although it has to be done, but it runs counter to the general trend of today's world, not to mention that this is a civil war, burning and killing the people of silver, and finally the people of China.

When Li Xiaocun mentioned Jiziying, Ye Zhao commented lightly: "The rabble! Li Xiaocun was stunned for a long time.

Zeng Guoquan or Zeng Guofan, in terms of power and status, he is several orders of magnitude worse than himself, even if he asks himself to send troops to cooperate with his combat qualifications, Zeng Guoquan wants to come to see him, he wants to hear his own point, how to attack the Jiangxi battlefield, and then why not have the heart of fame? Now his own folds are better than those of any prince and minister.

If you want to be a powerful person in the Qing Dynasty all the time, you don't need to care about them at all, no matter how high he and others climb, it is not worth mentioning in front of him. And he has a side mind, but he naturally has to spend some time observing and measuring this Zeng word.

"Handsome! There are drifters in the east! A sailor fell to one knee far away and shouted loudly, interrupting Ye Zhao's thoughts.

Ye Zhao stretched out his hand, and the guards a few steps away hurriedly handed over the clairvoyant mirror.

Looking through the binoculars, I turned around, and sure enough, about a few nautical miles away, there was a black thing floating, and if I looked closely, it was a wooden plank, like the wreckage of a ship's side, and there was a man lying on it, not moving, not knowing whether it was life or death.

"Save people." Ye Zhao commanded lightly.

"Help!" As soon as the order went down, on the mast observation platform of the steamer, the flag soldier immediately signaled, and the Dinghai at the front slowly pulled out the arc and took the lead to sail east.

A few hundred meters away from the drifter, the ships lowered their sails, and the sailors on the Yongbo lifted the dinghy, rowed quickly, and soon dragged the drifter on the plank onto the dinghy.

When the drifter was helped onto the deck of the Yongbo, he had already woken up, a middle-aged scribe in his thirties, with long braids, and a Chinese. His face was pale, and he had no strength to stand, but when he heard that it was the general of Guangzhou and the Duke of Fuguo who saved him, he struggled and bowed to the ground: "Grandpa, villain Wang Ji, thank Grandpa for saving his life!" He kowtowed again and again.

Ye Zhao waved his hand and asked, "How did you fall into the water?" But there are also companions? ”

Wang Ji immediately came from sadness, kowtowed and said with sorrow: "Grandpa, the little companions were killed by the pirates, and the villain escaped while the pirates were unprepared?" Grandpa, there are still a few ladies on Pirate Island, please have mercy on Grandpa and save them! ”

"What Pirate Island?" Wang Ji couldn't say it clearly, and Ye Zhao couldn't help frowning.

At this time, Ruan Bozhai also approached and cautiously interjected: "Grandpa, the pirates in this area should be the leper king's subordinates." ”

Ye Zhao had a calm face: "What is the leper king?" "Even in this troubled world, the thought of the tragic fate of the lonely and helpless woman falling into the hands of pirates makes me feel very depressed.

Wang Ji kowtowed and said: "Grandpa, the small one is a Lianzhou trader, because he and a few partners have been doing business in the Xialong area of Annan all the year round, and this time he brought the small family members to go with him, who knows, who knows, yesterday I met a pirate ......, God, I, what is the use of my life in this world?" But he gradually remembered the tragic experience of the past two days, and beat his chest suddenly, looking for death and life.

Ruan Bozhai condensed beside Ye Zhao and said: "Grandpa, the leprosy king is a bandit in this area, my officers and soldiers have been encircled and suppressed several times, his people are extremely fierce, and the people's hearts are treasured, I heard that he likes to chop the hearts of bloody people to eat, he gathered on the island, most of his subordinates are outlaws, once attacked the harbor, killed me a general military officer, this area of the sea border is thirty miles, mention the leprosy king, children dare not cry at night. ”

Ye Zhao turned to Wang Ji, who was still beating his chest, and frowned: "What's the use of crying!" Remember how to get to Pirate Island? ”

Wang Ji's eyes were dull and he shook his head slowly.

More than a dozen steps away, a sturdy young man looked at the water, stretched out his hand to probe the direction of the wind, frowned and thought for a while, walked up two steps, and said a thousand words: "Grandpa, there is something to say about humble duties." ”

He is Pei Tianqing, the chief leader of the Yongbo sailors, who was born in the Tanhu on the Pearl River, and the Tanhu dynasties were a kind of untouchables, living on the water for generations, and the registration of untouchables was abolished in Yongzheng, which allowed these Tanhu to live ashore.

Pei Tianqing is proficient in the water surname and brave in battle, and he is the head of the flag guard battalion, while the right wing of the original flag guard battalion is organized as a sailor, and he is the general leader of a ship of sailors. In fact, several steamships such as the Yongbo were mainly loaded for land warfare, and Pei Tianqing was also the captain of the Yongbo Marine Corps, with more than 200 marine sailors under his command.

Ye Zhao knew him, nodded and said, "Tianqing!" You said. ”

Ye Zhao likes to call these soldiers by their names, but he is affectionate, just like their parents.

The grandfather could call his name, Pei Tianqing was inexplicably excited, and lowered his head and said: "Yes, yes, the direction of the small wind has not changed since last night, and look at the current, since Brother Wang escaped in the morning and came with the water all the way, then the pirate island should be due east!" ”

Ye Zhao groaned slightly, waved his hand, and said, "Turn to the east!" ”

Soon, several ships slowly turned, Pei Tianqing stood more than a dozen steps away from Dashuai, both excited and worried, Dashuai adopted what he saw, and he was happy in his heart, but if he was wrong, what if he was wrong?

...... "Here, here, I remember!" Wang Ji suddenly shouted loudly, pointing to a few raised reefs in the sea, "Right, right, hurry, almost there!" ”

Ye Zhao raised the clairvoyant mirror and looked at the "right" that Wang Ji said, faintly, and sure enough, he could see several islands floating on the sea.

"There's someone on the island!" After the meal, the sentry on the mast observatory shouted loudly.

It seems that the owner has been found!

Ye Zhao held up the clairvoyant mirror to look, but he really wanted to go to the next level, he could only see the reefs on the edge of the island, but he couldn't see the people mentioned by the sentry on the observation platform.

Ruan Bozhai stood beside Ye Zhao, but he was full of excitement, the leprosy king's gang of pirates was afraid that they would not be able to please this time, but they couldn't make the grandfather too lightly, these pirates were the best at seizing ships with white knives, but they couldn't be approached by him.

"Grandpa, I know the surname of these pirates, how to attack, how to round up the lower officials, or you can refer to one or two." Ruan Bo Zhai was full of expectations, but he wanted to see the military deployment of the military conference of this legendary young commander.

Ye Zhao smiled freely: "Bo Zhai is too worried! Turning his head sideways, he said lightly: "Who went to cut off the head of this leprosy?" ”

"The last will go!" Pei Tianqing came out of the queue and knelt down on one knee.

Ye Zhao waved his hand: "Go, pay attention to the safety of the captive woman!" ”

"Wow!" Pei Tianqing commanded loudly.

Seeing that Pei Tianqing only led twenty or thirty people to row a few small boats and slowly sailed towards the island, the Dinghai took the lead in turning around, and several ships slowly sailed away to the southwest. Ruan Bozhai was shocked.

Ye Zhao knew very well that even though the leper king and others had been ravaging this sea area for a long time, as pirates, there would definitely be things like Western clairvoyant mirrors, even if the multiples were not as good as their own naval army, but the sea and sky were connected, and it was difficult to ensure that they would not be discovered, and if they stayed near it for a long time or put on an offensive formation, it would be extremely tricky for this nest of pirates to be scattered.

It is the best policy to give it a fatal blow by surprise.

Ruan Bozhai finally couldn't help it, and said carefully: "Grandpa, this, this ......" but he didn't know how to phrase it, in his opinion, Grandpa's order was really inexplicable, sending soldiers to death, and the fleet sailed away again, I really don't know what the intention is, it's incredible.

Ye Zhao patted him lightly on the shoulder, but did not speak.

After a while, Ye Zhao finally made a gesture, and the flag on the mast sentry platform was sent, and the Dinghai was in front again, breaking through the waves and heading east.

Faintly, there seemed to be a gunshot in the east.

The Dinghai puffed up its sails, spewed puffs of black smoke, and broke away from the brigade.

Ye Zhao smiled at Ruan Bozhai and said, "The Dinghai is here to purge the bandits who want to escape. ”

Ruan Bozhai smiled bitterly, and said in his heart, Could it be that the officers and soldiers landing on the island are suspicious soldiers? At this moment, the sentry on the observatory shouted: "The thief has been executed!" ”

Ye Zhao laughed, stretched out his hand to take the clairfront mirror from the guard, and said with a smile: "Bo Zhai, how is it?" ”

Ruan Bozhai was dumbfounded, took the clairvoyant mirror handed by Ye Zhao in a daze, and looked towards the island, at this time the island was getting closer and closer, but he saw the pirates on the island with open breasts and fat pants running in all directions, and from time to time blood holes burst out of their bodies, and they fell softly. On the other side, more than a dozen Chinese bayonet soldiers forced a circle of nearly 100 people to crush the heads, and those hideous-looking pirates were like sheep waiting to be slaughtered at this time, not daring to move.

Ruan Bozhai sighed and said: "China is really a lot of romantic figures, in ancient times, the Gong Wen wine beheaded Huaxiong, and now there is Jing Gong to take the enemy chieftain. "In my heart, I really admired.

sighed, but listened to Jing Gong beside him say coldly: "No one is left!" ”

Ruan Bozhai trembled in his heart, a cold air rushed from the soles of his feet to his heart, and in the Qianli Mirror, there was blood, and those bayonet soldiers stabbed the pirates who surrendered on their knees one by one, and finally, some pirates jumped up and fled, but they were immediately chased by people and stabbed to the ground like a scarecrow.

"Boom", the huge cannon roared, a large wave was stirred up near the dozen or so pirate ships moored on the shore of the island, the side of a small sailing ship was blown to pieces, and the pirates who had just run on the ship screamed and splashed countless blood spots.

The steamer got closer and closer, and the rows of guns fired from the side of the ship, and the pirates who fled to the shore fell one by one.

A bloody massacre.

And when Pei Tianqing returned to the Yongbo and said: "The people who were robbed by the thieves were humiliated, or tortured to death, or committed suicide, and only one survived", the fate of the remaining pirates who were still scattered and fleeing on the island can be imagined.

Ye Zhao's face sank like water, just silently watching this brutal killing.

(To be continued)