The news soon spread back to the wolf's den on Nanri Island, and the important people of the sea wolves gathered in the council hall, all of them looking gloomy and indignant.

"You can't be polite to these merchant ships, if this continues, who will be willing to pay us tolls in the future? According to the opinion of his subordinates, send a boat to block the Nanri waterway, if anyone does not pay the money, they will be directly detained, and those who dare to resist will be directly confiscated with the ship and goods! Lao Tzu is not powerful, really our sea wolf is a weak wolf! Beat them hard and see who the fuck dares not to pay the money! Wang Hong couldn't bear it anymore, stood up and waved his hand to Xiaotian and said.

After hearing Wang Hong's words, several people in the council hall also agreed, and many others thought that they should really knock on these merchant ships, otherwise they would lose a lot of money every month for this, and the council hall was the last thing to want to see, so Li Gouzi and Zhao Mazi were also very positive.

"No! Inappropriate! Now our biggest trouble is not whether these merchant ships can pay or not, but how we deal with Chu Cailao's bad move!

Now we don't know how many people and ships Chu Cai sent to us, and now there are passing ships being robbed almost every day.

The top priority is that we still have to find a way to solve the matter of Chu Cailao first, and then it is not too late for those merchant ships to pay the money! Liu Lao Liu maintained a relatively sober understanding, got up and said to Wang Hong and the others.

"But there's no way to go on like this! It's March now, and it's time to ask for money at Tamsui Village, but the toll is less than 30% of what was collected in the past, and the merchant fleet has stopped a lot during this time, and the business has been greatly affected. Zhao Mazi said to Liu Lao Liu with a worried face.

Liu Lao Liu looked at Yu Xiaotian and said: "Big boss, if it doesn't work, let's scatter our fleet!" It is best to clear the ships sent by Chu Cai Lao in Fuzhou as soon as possible, so that the channel is safe, and the passing ships will naturally be willing to pay! ”

Ma Xiao got up and said, "Hall Master Liu! I'm afraid it's not right! I thought that the reason why Chu Cailao did this was probably because he wanted us to send the ship out! In this way, our brothers and ships have left the wolf's den, Chu Cai Lao must have an eyeliner on the island, if they find that this place is empty, and take advantage of the weakness to enter and attack in a big way, I am afraid that it will be difficult for us to take back the ships that we scattered in time, and then Nanri Island may be dangerous! ”

Liu Lao Liu sighed after hearing this, looked at Yu Xiaotian and said angrily: "This damn Chu Cailao, I didn't expect this guy to be so shady and would come up with such an idea!" ”

Yu Xiaotian raised his hand to stop everyone's argument, let everyone sit down, got up and walked to the middle of the meeting hall with his hands behind his back, looked outside the door, turned around and said, "This time, we all underestimated Chu Cailao!" There must be a master under Chu Cai's old subordinates, who gave him this idea, so let's be in a dilemma now!

His move is indeed a brilliant move! It just knocked on our numb bones, so that we couldn't use our strength, and we were uncomfortable! It's really a clever trick to draw salary!

You have all the right words! Chu Cailao and his subordinates saw our weaknesses and came up with such a solution! The water surface along the coast of Fuzhou is so big, even if our ships are scattered, it may not be able to clear the ships sent by Chu Cai soon, as long as the water surface of Fuzhou is not quiet one day, then we can't expect the passing ships to pay us money to buy a road with peace of mind!

Therefore, what Lord Yuezhang said makes sense, the top priority is not to force those merchant ships to pay money, but to find a way to solve this matter!

For now, I'm thinking that if that's the case, we might as well stop collecting all tolls for the time being! Let's find a way to solve this trouble first! ”

"How can this be? Although we don't all count on the income of tolls at the moment, this piece accounts for a large part of our income after all! How can you just stop? In this way, I am afraid that the financial resources of the immigration and the construction of the village on the side of Tamsui Village will not be able to support it!

Chu Cailao's move is probably to make us cut off this financial road, if we stop, wouldn't it be just what he wanted? What's more, God knows when Lu Dao will be able to solve the trouble of Chu Cailao, if this stops for a long time, I'm afraid that the financial resources will not be able to hold it! Li Gouzi was anxious when he heard this, and immediately jumped up and said.

Yu Xiaotian glanced at Li Gouzi, thought for a while, and said: "But if we don't suspend the collection of tolls, we will collect money, but we can't guarantee the safety of the ship that pays the money, wouldn't this be self-defeating?"

My sea wolf has a foothold here, and it is simply a letter! Since we can't guarantee the safety of passing ships, we can't take any more money from them! Chu Cai's old thoughts are to let us destroy our reputation, once this letter is lost, it will be difficult to find it back!

Instead of smashing our own signboards, I think it's better to suspend the collection of tolls! It doesn't hurt to pause the matter of immigrating people to build a village over there in Tamsui Village, now in the past few months, two or three thousand people have been immigrated, this number is already a lot, it doesn't hurt to stop for a while, just let Fang An take a breath, and you can also let them shrink the strength and concentrate on the strength to ensure the safety of Tamsui Village first!

Now we still have soap and glass and other businesses to support, plus the silver taels in stock, enough for us to survive for a long time! ”

Li Gouzi heard that Yu Xiaotian had made up his mind, so he had to sit back in his seat and no longer speak, because Yu Xiaotian was telling the truth, and now their sea wolf's financial situation has not yet reached the point of suspending the collection of tolls and is on the verge of collapse.

And a lot of the business that the sea wolf is doing now is a huge profit, in addition to their self-produced soap and glass, which can earn them a lot of profits every month, they are also very profitable in their business, even if it is not safe to go to the sea in southern Fujian for the time being, which affects their business, but they can also dump the goods to Dayuan and Manila and other places, and they will not be affected too much, these incomes are enough to support their daily expenses, but they make less money for the time being.

Now that Yu Xiaotian has made up his mind, then the council hall has nothing to say, it's a big deal to tighten the money bag and suppress the expenses that can be saved first, they can still persevere.

Yu Xiaotian's words also reassured the others, as long as they are not short of money for the time being, then everything is easy to say, what they are most afraid of is that when it is time to pay the salary, the salary and reward money will be released, in that case, it will undoubtedly be a great blow to the morale of the people, as long as this can be guaranteed by the council hall, then there will be no big mess below.

"But after stopping to collect tolls, our strength is not enough to quickly clear out the old Chu Cai's subordinates in this area of Fuzhou, and there are only so many boats we can send out, in order to prevent Chu Cai from taking advantage of the emptiness here to attack, we must leave considerable strength on Nanri Island! Otherwise, once this place is emptied, it will be dangerous! Wang Hong also put away some anger at this time, and after thinking about it carefully, he asked Xiaotian from a holistic perspective.

Yu Xiaotian nodded and said: "This is the cleverness of Chu Cailao, he first cut off a financial route for us by doing this, and also forced us to be exhausted, he used a small number of ships and subordinates, he can contain a large number of our strength, if we scatter all the fleet, it can be said that it is exactly what he wants!" At that time, he can take advantage of our unpreparedness and directly lead a large number of troops to attack Nanri Island! It's not easy to do!

In this way, send the Feizi Clipper detachment out first! In addition, tell the fishermen to continue to help us keep an eye on those suspicious ships that appear at sea, and report them immediately as soon as there is something, and sweep away these men and boats sent by Chu Cai as soon as possible!

Although the fleet can't all be scattered, it must also be as much as possible to pull out the manpower and ships to release the wolf, and as soon as possible to clear these ships sent by Chu Cailao! Also this area of the waterway a peaceful! ”

Everyone in the council hall, for a long time to discuss this matter, but still did not come up with a better solution, after all, Chu Cailao's trick is really ruthless enough, just poked at the soft underbelly of the sea wolf, to find these Chu Cailao sent attack ships at sea, it is easy to say, but in fact, it is like looking for a needle in a haystack, to completely eliminate them, theoretically almost impossible.

They are tired of consuming a lot of manpower and material resources, and it is not easy to catch a few, but Chu Cailao can easily send a few more and continue to do it, so that if this continues, the sea wolf's energy will be completely consumed in such a vicious circle, and it will eventually be exhausted.

Faced with such a situation, Yu Xiaotian also felt a sense of frustration and powerlessness for the first time, seeing that the time was getting late, he waved his hand to let everyone disperse first, and then after he thought of a solution, he would discuss it separately.

But in the end, they still decided that the collection of tolls would not stop for the time being, after all, it is still the passing ships that trust the sea wolf and are willing to pay the toll money, at least buy a psychological comfort, for these old friends who trust the sea wolf, Yu Xiaotian decided to set up two temporary escort fleets, which are stationed in Nangantang and Cormorant Island.

In the past, Nangantang and Cormorant Island were card points set up by the sea wolf, and the passing ship only needed to pay or report here first, and receive the pass flag to hang on the mast, and the sea wolf patrol ship saw this order flag, and it would no longer harass it, and let it pass freely through the sea and the channel under the jurisdiction of the sea wolf, but for the ships that did not have this kind of pass flag, they would be intercepted, either to detain the goods on board, or to take down the ship together.

However, since Yu Xiaotian laid down Shuangfeng Island and destroyed Chen Jiu, the mixed river dragon, he has pushed the territory of the force to the north to the area of Funing Prefecture, so the strategic position of Nangantang has dropped significantly, and most of the personnel and ships stationed here have been transferred to the side of Shuangfeng Island, and Nangantang Dazhai has also been deserted, leaving only a small number of personnel to take turns stationed here to maintain the wharf and Dazhai here.

This time, Chu Cailao used such a trick and sent his subordinates to infiltrate the Fuzhou area to pretend to be sea wolves, and wantonly plundered and slaughtered the passing merchant ships, so that the navigation channel in Fuzhou, which had been calm for a long time, became no longer quiet again, but so far, Yu Xiaotian and they found that these attack ships sent by Chu Cailao were basically limited to activities in the coastal area of Fuzhou, and did not extend to the sea surface of Funing Prefecture.

Therefore, this time he remembered Nangantang again, and ordered to send a small escort fleet to Nangantang to garrison, all the merchant ships that came from the north and paid money, after entering the waters of Fuzhou, they first went to Nangantang to assemble, and after forming a fleet, the sea wolf sent escort ships to escort the convoy south through the coastal area of Fuzhou, so as to ensure their safety.

Ships also coming from the south, as long as they paid the toll to Cormorant Island, were also required to temporarily stay at Cormorant Island and wait for other merchant ships to form a fleet, and the sea wolf sent escort ships to escort the fleet north through the waters of Fuzhou.

In this way, to a certain extent, the safety of those ships who take the initiative to pay tolls can be guaranteed when passing through the waters of Fuzhou, and as for those who refuse to pay money, the sea wolf is no longer responsible for their safety for the time being, but at the same time, it also temporarily stops the inspection of passing ships, and concentrates on the search for those attack ships of Chu Cailao who disguised themselves as their sea wolves.

(Thank you to the brothers who rewarded the monthly pass, if anyone has it, I hope to stay!) In addition, thank you to the two brothers Hulululu and Eastflowing for their tips! ）