April 1, 1629, Sunday, the eighth day of the third month of the second year of Chongzhen in the Ming Empire.

Hundreds of years later, there is always another motive for choosing to do things with great fanfare on April Fool's Day, but in today's Macau, it is a good day to remember. A group of Chinese and American arms was escorted out of the city with great fanfare by a group of Portuguese soldiers to the beating of gongs and drums, and delivered to the team led by Sun Yuanhua, a staff member of the Ming Military Department, who had been waiting for a long time.

This was a batch of Chinese and American arms that came with the Chinese and American expeditionary fleets, and they served as a stepping stone to the ban on Macao. 1,500 Type 21B flintlock rifles and 12 12-pounder iron cannon cannons were sold to Sun Yuanhua at a low price in the name of the Portuguese in Macau, and then shipped to Liaodong in a few months.

In the end, Sun Yuanhua still did not obtain the manufacturing technology of these Chinese military weapons, but at least this was the largest ordnance purchase of the imperial court.

The process of accepting ordnance was extremely meticulous, and this batch of Chinese and American arms that deliberately erased the mark of the producing country made Sun Yuanhua feel a little sad while being happy. He has already made up his mind that in the next few years, he will gradually study the manufacturing techniques of this kind of firearms with the help of Macao Franco machine craftsmen, and one day, let Daming also have such fine weapons.

However, Sun Yuanhua does not know his fate, and his ambition will come to an end in a few years.

……

With the spring breeze blowing, Macao, which has lifted the lockdown, is like a hibernating animal that has just been overcome, and it is active again.

Several Portuguese merchant ships in the port were loaded and eagerly set sail for Malacca or Nagasaki, Japan. On the wharf, there were Daming maritime merchants again, and they chatted with the Portuguese missionaries with pleasant faces, full of confidence in the upcoming Nanyang trade.

In an alley away from the docks, a beggar shrunk and walked slowly with a broken bowl, his eyes constantly looking at both sides of the street.

This alley is mostly inhabited by wealthy Macau families. Many of them were maritime merchants from the vicinity of Guangzhou, who had set up homes in Macau and often lived there when business was booming.

But after more than a year of depression in the sea trade, this perennial alley was suddenly deserted, and only an occasional merchant or resident silently passed through it during the beggars' wandering for half an hour.

Walking to the door of a large mansion, the beggar seemed to be tired, leaned weakly against the base of the wall, stared at a certain mansion opposite, and put the broken bowl in his hand in front of him. Then he lowered his head and began to mumble as if his mouth was blank.

Qiao Xiaomei and Qiao Erwa had just come back from the market, and the vegetable basket was full, in order to make the young master of the master's family happy, Qiao Xiaomei also specially bought a maltose pinched villain. Although these are far less than the exquisite candies brought by the host family from China and the United States, they are more interesting and chic, not only can you eat them, but you may be able to laugh all day just by holding them in your hands.

"Girl, it's all right. Let's have a look......"

As soon as she walked to the door of her mansion, she suddenly heard a begging sound nearby, Qiao Xiaomei turned her head to look, and saw a beggar kowtowing diagonally opposite. One hand was still holding a piece of gray stone and drawing on the ground.

Seeing that it didn't matter, the beggar quietly wrote the word "Yan" on the ground. It seemed that he had deliberately left some time for the other party to read clearly, and after a few breaths, the beggar quickly erased the handwriting. Still kowtowing.

"You...... Wait. Qiao Xiaomei, who had been instructed by her grandfather for a long time, knew at a glance that this person was specially waiting, so she quickly pulled her brother's sleeve and secretly made a look.

"Ahh Okay, I'll just wait! ”

When the beggar heard this, he immediately crawled to the door and knelt down respectfully on the side of the door. The brother and sister hurriedly entered the door, leaving their younger brother Qiao Erwa to observe carefully through the crack in the door, while Qiao Xiaomei quietly walked towards the back hall.

……

In the living room, under the care of Qiao Erwa, the beggar was devouring hot rice, and as soon as he picked up the soup bowl, he saw a young man in short clothes walking out of the side door, followed by several men with similar costumes and indifferent expressions, and even Tessie among them.

The beggar, whose thin body did not have a few pieces of complete fabric, was shocked, put down the dishes and chopsticks and took a few steps, and knelt in front of Yan Xiaosong with a plop, and his bearded face twitched excitedly.

"Yan ...... Mr. Yan, are you back?! The beggar didn't seem to be mentally prepared, and when he saw Yan Xiaosong standing in front of him with a smile, his voice was hoarse.

"Are you...... Wang Ben, right? ”

Yan Xiaosong vaguely recognized the familiar outline from the other party's well-angled face, and the Wang Kuan in front of him was the man who served as a guard in the Yan family's guest house many years ago.

"Mr. Yan still knows the little one!" Wang Ben was overjoyed, wiped the corners of his eyes and stood up, "It turns out that the rumors of the past shippers are true!" ”

"You're here from the big guys, or have you been in the city?"

Thinking that it had been almost half a year since he came to Macau, only someone from the Yan family took the initiative to come to the door, Yan Xiaosong became vigilant in his heart, and quietly gave a look to a few agents who served as guards around him, and Yan Xiaosong walked up to help the beggar.

Now that Mr. Qiao is running errands in Xiangshan County and has not returned, his wife Katerina and her son Yan Shuming are still worshipping at the Convent of St. Paul's in Macau, so Qiao Xiaomei and Qiao Erwa rashly brought the Yan family into the house this time, which must have a very high risk. Several agents were preoccupied at this time, and if the other party did the slightest wrongdoing, maybe several revolvers would fire in the next second.

"Back to Mr. Yan's words, after Liu Xiang and Zheng Zhilong's group occupied Yuanlai Keju and other places at the beginning of last year, the younger one and a few brothers turned into beggars and hid outside the city. On the one hand, he inquired about the news of the big man, and on the other hand, he ......" Saying that, Wang Ben also secretly glanced at a few men beside Yan Xiaosong, and stopped talking.

"You stay on guard in the neighborhood and watch out for anyone approaching." Yan Xiaosong waved his hand, and several agents understood and walked out of the door one after another, and even Qiao Erwa exited the living room with interest.

“…… In order to protect the batch of sea goods and ordnance, Lord Zhou Ding personally led people and Zheng Cai of the Zheng family and a group of people outside the city, and the guest house in the city was attacked by Liu Xiang's dog thieves, and when he returned to help, he was ambushed...... "Wang Benyue said, the redder his eyes became, and the Zhou garrison in his mouth was the husband of Qigu, a core general of the Yan family, who died in the protection of the Yan family stronghold in Macau.

"Well, I know all of that, but I've heard you've hidden everything." Yan Xiaosong listened to this tragic story. couldn't help but be slightly moved, no wonder Qigu cried and fainted on the spot when she heard this bad time.

“…… The little ones were out to find out the news, and they didn't rush back immediately, so they escaped for their lives, but they didn't know where the guards had buried the goods. Wang Ben sighed again and again, with a sad expression on his face, "A few days ago, someone from Dayuan Island came and said that he wanted to take away this batch of goods, and the small ones thought about it. Old Man Qiao and the garrison are usually good friends, so they must know it, so they ......"

Quietly looking at the beggar man in front of him, Yan Xiaosong's smiling expression remained unchanged, and he gently pushed a bowl of tea on the table: "Well, probably I understand the matter, don't worry, drink tea." ”

"Mr. Xie Yan!" Wang Ben was flattered and quickly stood up and held it with both hands.

"How did you know that Old Man Qiao and Zhou Dingping usually had a good relationship?" Yan Xiaosong picked up his teacup. While bowing his head, he asked coldly.

"Ah......" The teacup in Wang Ben's hand fell to the ground suddenly, and before he could fully come back to his senses, a dark shadow passed. I felt a cold thing on my temple.

An agent didn't know when he appeared in the living room, and was pointing a revolver at Wang Ben's head, his fingers pressed tightly against the trigger, as long as Yan Xiaosong said a word. can kill Wang Ben on the spot.

Immediately after, several agents went back and forth, surrounding the stunned Wang Ben.

"You said you've been hiding outside the city for over a year. But apart from your tattered clothes, the rest of the world is clean. I asked Qiao Kuan before, except for a few people such as Zhou Ding and Uncle Seven, no one knew about Old Man Qiao and this mansion...... Maybe you didn't think this was my home, did you? I'm afraid I found something by accident and found it here? ”

"Actually, it's not a big secret, I've been here for almost half a year, if you're really still in the Yan family, why wait until today?" Yan Xiaosong put down the teacup and looked at Wang Ben in front of him with a smile all over his body, his eyes becoming sharper and sharper.

"I ......" Wang Ben's body trembled even more, and suddenly his knees weakened, and the whole person knelt on the ground, "Damn the little one, damn the little one!" The little one was also desperate at the beginning, so Zheng Cai was demoted. The small ones are old, and the ones are small, so I have to compromise them! ”

"Arrange it for him." Yan Xiaosong was not moved, just said a sentence lightly, and then got up and walked towards the back hall.

Several agents lifted Wang Ben, who was paralyzed on the ground, and one of them took out a stainless steel box out of nowhere. After opening it, I saw a silver needle and a bottle of transparent liquid in the middle of the snow-white sterilized cotton yarn.

"What are you going to do...... Let me go! Although Wang Ben didn't understand what it was, he subconsciously told him that these things were definitely untouchable by ordinary people, and he began to scream in a hurry.

"If you move again, you'll be dead." A Chinese agent said coldly, and without saying anything, he rolled up his sleeve, and then carefully wiped the other party's Wang Ben's arm with an alcohol cotton ball, and pricked the needle.

I felt a slight coldness in my arm, and then a slight tingling pain, and the needle was pulled out again.

"I've given you some medicine, and if it weren't for our regular antidote, you'd probably be ...... in a few months," the Chinese agent smiled mysteriously as he cleaned up his things, and the agents around Wang Ben let go of their hands, as if Wang Ben no longer posed any threat now.

This weird smile made Wang Ben's whole body tremble again, thinking of all kinds of folk stories and rumors, and suddenly knew that he had fallen into some kind of hopeless secret poison.

"Spare your life, ......" softened on the ground again, and Wang Ben was already full of regret at this time.

"Mr. Yan asked you to go back, how should you tell those people that you can do it yourself, we have something to contact you, and we will leave a mark on the door wall outside the St. Paul's Monastery, and you will go there at night and wait."

After the Chinese agent finally finished speaking, Wang Ben was taken out of the Yan family's mansion.

……

At night, on the roof of the highest attic of the Yan family's mansion, several dark shadows were carefully propping up the radio transceiver antenna. Inside, large lead-acid batteries and shortwave receivers were removed from wooden cabinets, and several agents armed with revolver shotguns or sniper rifles kept guard at the windows.

“…… It doesn't seem to be safe, the timing is about the same, while your body can still move, we will return to Pearl Island in two days. When the matter is over, we will go back to Macau to pick up Uncle Kuan. ”

Inside the house, Yan Xiaosong was drafting a message while whispering to Caterina beside him.

"But I want my child to be born here! We can get them out of the way! If you're not sure, why don't you go back to the boat together? Caterina shook her head like a rattle, and was still wiping a sniper rifle on one side of her hand, which would have been full of aura if it weren't for an obvious big belly.

"Time waits for no one, you can't let the whole fleet wait for you to have a baby, right?" Seeing that his wife was still the domineering and competitive look she had many years ago, Yan Xiaosong couldn't help but smile, "If you weren't pregnant and your son didn't come with you, we could have some excitement here." ”

Turning her head to think about it, it seemed that what her husband said was the same, and in the end Caterina still respected her husband's choice. After some warm whispering, Caterina went back to the bedroom with the support of Qiao Xiaomei, leaving only Yan Xiaosong still writing her own message.

"The encryption was sent to the General Headquarters of Pearl Island, and General Zhang Chunrui was designated to forward it to China." Yan Xiaosong finally checked it and summoned the agents waiting outside the door, "In addition, if someone comes back with news, tell them that I am back to Pearl Island, and you are responsible for forwarding the letter." ”

"Yes, sir." The European agent didn't even look at the manuscript paper, so he stuffed it into his pocket, then walked to the window a few steps, observed it slightly, and then pointed to the window, "However, I built a different place for you and your wife, the perspective of the interior of this building is easy to be exposed." I'm not sure if a potential adversary has a long-range sniper rifle, but it's my duty to keep you absolutely safe! ”

"Well, just do as you say. During this time, in addition to protecting this place, you also have to try to use that person today to knock out the eyes and ears of the Zheng family in Macau. Yan Xiaosong was a little stunned by the other party's carefulness, and he was also surprised by the Department of Homeland Security's long-term and more professional training level.

"The Zheng family's intelligence base in Macao has basically been figured out, and they can act at any time. I'll give you a detailed report in a week! It seems that the past few months have also been a little boring, and the little leader of the secret service team responsible for protecting Yan Xiaosong has an excited expression on his face.

……

Two days later, after leaving a number of agents of the Asian Intelligence Department and a letter from home, Yan Xiaosong hurriedly boarded the Weiyang Palace flying scissors merchant ship with Sister-in-law Hua, Qiao Xiaomei and Qiao Erwa in advance and headed for Pearl Island.

That night, a bizarre fire broke out in a restaurant in Zheng Cai's secret agent base in Macau, and only a restaurant guy named Wang Ben survived the fire. It is customary for the Macao Shou Macao Yamen to send a copy of an official document to the Yamen of Xiangshan County, but the contents of this letter are really not worth mentioning in this eventful year.

"In the spring of the second year of Chongzhen, on the 10th night of the first month of March, the wine shops in the streets of Macao were on fire all night, and they were all rubble and rubble until dawn, and they also affected the neighbors, and there were many ...... damages" (to be continued......