Although he was a little puzzled by Chen Wu's decision to sell the iron ore mining rights in exchange for short-term gold coin gains, Chen Wu had already established his prestige with his wise decisions in the past two years. Because of this, this deal on the Crooked Mountain Iron Ore did not arouse any opposition.

The few discussions were only to discuss the deep meaning of Chen Wu's decision in doubt.

On the side of the city guards, as well as Han Sangui, the governor of Yuanshan County, naturally did not know the true situation of the iron mine. All they knew was that the information they had gathered from all sides, including the sporadic leaks from the Songjiang County government, showed that the Crooked Toushan Iron Mine was a rich and easily exploited bonanza, and its value was immeasurable. Because of this, after the deal was concluded, they couldn't wait to hold a celebratory banquet after the Songjiang army slowly retreated.

On top of this banquet, all the forces of Yuanshan County who had information channels or thought they were qualified to participate came one after another and began to eagerly distribute the relevant benefits. Despite the need to apportionment of the 600,000 gold paid for the mining rights four years in advance, everyone agreed that it was worth it.

After fierce quarrels, deals, and compromises, the shares of the various parties at the Crooked Head Mountain Iron Mine were set.

The city guard of Hongyuan Mansion, who originally wanted to monopolize it, was almost completely kicked out, and he had to face subsequent accountability. As the governor and mediator of Yuanshan County, Han Sangui deservedly occupied 30% of the profits. As the main force to compete with the Songjiang Army, the city guard army occupied a full forty percent of the share. The remaining 30% will be divided by the remaining forces.

Although the iron ore has not yet arrived, these people have already regarded it as their own plate and bag!

No one knew that after just over a year, all these things they were fighting for would become worthless scrap mines!

However, it was precisely because they felt that the iron ore would be their own in a year, that the city guards and the local forces of Yuanshan County did not destroy it. After the slow retreat of the Songjiang Army, they also withdrew as agreed. The county seat of Shanxian County has become a buffer zone between the two sides. Without the interference of other forces, the mining of the iron ore in Crooked Head Mountain was restored in a short period of time.

Since the matter has been exposed, there is no need to consider the issue of secrecy, and the Songjiang Army has increased its efforts to mine iron ore a lot.

It's a good idea to be sure that all the open pit and shallow iron ore will be mined in just one year!

Baron Huang, who had suffered a lot in this turmoil, was soon rewarded for his efforts and wise decisions afterwards. Not only did the Ankang Chamber of Commerce on the table increase its cooperation with the Huang family, but even Huang Chen, who served as a clerk in the criminal investigation file of the Internal Affairs Bureau, was promoted to a level and became a clerk.

This undoubtedly strengthened the Huang family's determination to follow the Songjiang Army!

………

As the county seat of Shanxian regained calm, a possible major battle disappeared. The impact of this turmoil has also been minimized by the joint efforts of vested interests of all parties.

For the current empire, it is undoubtedly a pleasure to see that this battle can be avoided. After all, since Chen Wu crossed, the movement of troops from all parts of the empire has not stopped, and the financial pressure has almost reached the limit. But for the Songjiang Army, not fighting also has the advantage of not fighting. This means that after a month's delay, Chen Wu can restart the plan to attack Ninghai County, without worrying about the loss of troops after the battle, so that the Songjiang army will miss this rare opportunity.

End of September!

When the more than 20,000 city guards drawn from Yuanshan County officially arrived in the southwest of the empire and joined the battle against the Wudou Midao rebels, the main force of the Songjiang Army, which had withdrawn to the Guannai, also moved to the border between Songjiang County and Ninghai County after a short rest. Among them, some of the elites drawn from the First Division of the Songjiang Army disguised themselves as Haikou bandits, infiltrated Ninghai County into pieces, and joined the Black Shark Regiment newly founded by Zhang Jiade.

This Haikou leader, who was named Zhang Shun before defecting to Chen Wu, had a rapid expansion of his power due to the all-round assistance of the Military Intelligence Department and the Songjiang Army, including weapons, gold coins, and intelligence. In a short period of time, the Black Shark Regiment was managed to the point of having four or five hundred pirates. For some inconspicuous small pirate gangs, they also began to buy and annex.

Although the combat effectiveness of these vassals is not guaranteed, the victory is enough in numbers.

Because Zhang Jiade could afford to support them, and because those who did not refuse, it snowballed to the point that the total number of people reached thousands in a short period of time.

With his request and the intelligence support of the Military Intelligence Department, these pirates unscrupulously caused chaos everywhere, stirring up panic among the people of Shazhou, Quanzhou, and Hualien, and even the Ninghai County Garrison Brigade, which had twice sent troops to encircle and suppress, suffered a great loss. However, this is basically the limit of what the Black Shark Group can do. If they want to attack the largest port of Quanzhou in Ninghai County head-on, and force the three prefectures of Ninghai County to ask for help from the empire, they still can't do it.

After all, in addition to the infantry army, Ninghai County also has the Ninghai Division.

Even if the strength of the Ninghai Division was far inferior to the main force of the Imperial Naval Division in Donghai County, it was still an army with thousands of people and dozens of large and small warships. In addition, although the port of Quanzhou has declined a lot compared to before, there are still a few maritime merchants with amazing power. If the forces of these two parties also make a move, the situation of the Black Shark Group will be even more worrying.

However, the regular army of the Matsue Army was different once it joined.

The influx of soldiers from an entire wing suddenly caused the number of Black Shark regiments to skyrocket to two thousand. These soldiers are all elite soldiers who have been fighting for a long time, and they may not be as cruel and vicious as the Haikou Bandits, but they are arrayed in formation, and their combat effectiveness is at least several times that of the latter. With them joining, the Black Shark Regiment has become the most powerful pirate gang in the entire Ninghai County.

This first, well deserved!

For these new partners who have joined in just a few days, their style and temperament are incompatible with ordinary sea coars, the old men of the Black Shark Regiment are not without doubts, and even secretly provoke. But with all those who dared to come forward to express their dissatisfaction being suppressed by iron and blood, there was no longer any opposition in the entire regiment.

This brutal and ruthless tactic may provoke backlash and dissent elsewhere, but it is the most effective method among the pirates. In a short period of time, Zhang Jiade's prestige in the Black Shark Regiment reached an unprecedented peak.

After a short run-in, the Black Shark Regiment began its first operation after expansion.

This will also be the prelude to the strategy of Ninghai County!

First of all, a small group of pirates harassed the towns near the port of Quanzhou, and deliberately released rumors and left traces. Once the soldiers of the garrison brigade of Ninghai County chase them out, the main force of the Black Shark Regiment can wait for work and fight a beautiful ambush.

The plan is simple, but simple doesn't mean it's not easy!

Soon, a force of about 200 Haikou appeared near Wanghai County with a swagger. The real combat effectiveness of this vassal who was absorbed by Zhang Jiade is very average, and many people have not even been Haikou for a long time, and they have not even committed a decent case. However, relying on the large number of people, they still succeeded several times in the vicinity of Wanghai County.

Although he didn't grab anything of value, this arrogant behavior did not surprisingly anger the officials and soldiers of Ninghai County.

Although their combat effectiveness is not strong, no matter how they are, they are not something that two or three hundred pirates can despise. A big reason why the pirates in Ninghai County are so arrogant is because the pirates are well-informed, and they will flee immediately after they succeed, or even retreat into the sea, so that the officials and troops of Ninghai cannot catch up or fight.

This time, the soldiers of the Ninghai County Garrison Brigade who chased them out should have been the same.

After receiving the information, they quickly sent thousands of soldiers to search separately, but based on past experience, these officers and soldiers did not report much hope. Many people feel that after they received the news and rushed over, the Haikou who committed the crime had already fled without a trace. But the on-site investigation made them very excited. After committing the crime, not only did they not flee immediately, but continued to swagger around Wanghai County, and even inadvertently left a lot of clues that could be tracked.

The officers and soldiers who were ordered to come out to search were suddenly pleasantly surprised.

There are hundreds of pirates, which is definitely a great credit, but they seem to have little experience and are easy to deal with. Wing Commander Nie Xin, who was ordered to lead the army out to chase and kill, immediately ordered his subordinates to follow and kill all the way, and be sure to annihilate this daring sea bandit!

However, the pirates who were sent to act as bait were supported by the intelligence of the Military Intelligence Service throughout the process. Nie Xin and his subordinates only felt that the gang of pirates was not far in front of them, and they were about to leave several times, but they were always a little short of catching up, but they didn't lose them.

This made the officers and soldiers always hold expectations, but also couldn't help but feel a little more upset and irritable.

However, after three days of chasing in vain, the pirates seem to have finally slowed down. With the increasingly obvious traces left in front of them, Nie Xin and several skilled tracking soldiers were sure that they were getting closer and closer to the gang of pirates.

White Village!

This is a village located on the very edge of Wanghai County, with about three or four hundred households, which is quite large in the vicinity. In the eyes of Nie Xin, who was tracking behind, the new target of the pirates was undoubtedly this village, and he couldn't help but hold back his strength, wanting to exterminate the pirates before they could plague the place again.

The impetuousness of the past few days, and the joy that the prey was at hand, made the officers and soldiers of this wing lose their basic vigilance.

When the soldiers of the 1,000 garrison brigades were unsuspecting from the Yili slope in front of Baizhuang, the Black Shark Regiment suddenly rushed down from the slope and cut off the panicked officers and soldiers from the middle. Although Nie Xin and his subordinates also tried to resist, as more soldiers in ambush came out and gradually completed the encirclement, the officers and troops who were caught off guard began to gradually disintegrate after resisting for half an hour.

Although the main force under Zhang Jiade's command was difficult, it was not difficult for the officers and troops to assemble an array and block them. What really dealt a fatal blow to Nie Xin was the wing of the Songjiang Army mixed with the Black Shark Regiment.

These elites of the Songjiang Army, who fought with the Emperor ** and the Omani army at the same time, do not seem to be as exaggerated as the pirates, but they are much better than the pirates in terms of physique, strength, courage, and tacit understanding. Under the onslaught of these calm-looking soldiers, the defensive line hastily established by the officers and soldiers of Ninghai County was quickly cut open.

More Black Shark Regiment "Sea Bandits" poured in, constantly tearing Nie Xin's defense line more into pieces, and then dividing, surrounding, and destroying!

"The strength of the pirates, when did it become so strong!"

Nie Xin, who was surrounded by the guards in the center, looked around at the situation before and after, and his heart was panicked and surprised. However, his subordinates have been cut off from it, and each of them has been divided into several pieces, fighting each other separately. Unable to work together, these soldiers, who fought independently in small circles, only felt that they were surrounded by enemies, and the outcome was already doomed.

In the end, except for a few dozen officers and soldiers who escaped by chance, the remaining soldiers were killed or captured.

The only garrison brigade in Ninghai County lost a quarter of it at once!

When the news spread, the entire Ninghai County was in an uproar.

Before this, although the pirates did all kinds of evil, they were still limited to looting places, kidnapping and ransom, and they were the only ones who dared to directly do anything to the officers and soldiers of a wing. The news of the near-total annihilation of Nie Xin's army not only shocked the officialdom and ordinary people in Ninghai, brought them great panic, but also caused unprecedented repercussions in Haikou's circle.

The Black Shark Regiment, a newly rising pirate, has become the star of the entire Ninghai County pirate overnight.

Even a few veteran pirates, such as the Nandao pirates, Siping pirates, and even the Fusang group, which was composed entirely of Dongyi people, had to face up to this sudden accomplice and competitor. However, before these pirates could figure out the true details of the Black Shark Regiment, Zhang Jiade had already sent someone to come to the door in person and sent them an invitation to join forces.

Therefore, there is no trust between each other, and the division of the spoils of war is a problem, and the pirates of Ninghai County have always fought on their own. But this time, Zhang Jiade of the Black Shark Regiment took advantage of the prestige of the official army to send a request to the seven or eight largest Haikou gangs, such as the Nandao Haikou, Sipingkou, and Fusang Regiment, to play a big vote!

If Zhang Jiade was still the leader of the previous Sea Dragon Regiment, although he was also quite famous, if he wanted to invite these veteran Haikou to come out for a face-to-face interview, almost no one would give him this face. But with the great record of completely annihilating a Ninghai County official army unit, no one dared to despise him.

Moreover, these Haikou are also very interested in Zhang Jiade's mention.

After communicating with each other in private, it was determined that Zhang Jiade did not play tricks, and all the Haikou families gathered on an unnamed island off the coast of the East Ocean with one or two hundred elites.

This island cannot be found on the charts of the Imperial Mariners. But the pirates, who have been active in this vicinity all year round, are well aware of the existence of this nameless island. It's not big, but it's a secluded location, just right for families to meet here.

As the initiator of this initiative, Zhang Jiade was naturally the first to arrive here. In order to prove that he has the strength to take the lead, and to deter other pirates from dissent, Zhang Jiade not only dragged all the big ships he could collect, but also brought six hundred elites. Among them were the main force of the Haikou army that they had recruited and bought, as well as no less than 300 soldiers of the Songjiang Army.

Due to the replacement of the armor of the Songjiang Army and the careful decoration, the military temperament of these soldiers has faded a lot, but the courage shown in their gestures has not diminished at all.

With such a power, it is enough to make the Haikou recognize the reality, and it will also strengthen their confidence in agreeing to cooperate with the Black Shark Regiment!