That night, Fanning gathered several generals and deployed follow-up arrangements for suppressing bandits.

On a hand-drawn map, Fanning pointed to two red dots and said to the two commanders, Zhou Mi and Wei Cheng: "These are the other two natives nest positions they confessed, there is nothing to pity, if we don't kill them all, the expansion of our Ryukyu Province will be hit hard sooner or later, the two generals are each in charge of a nest, give you a month, and when I come back from Kunzhou, I hope that there will be no bandits in Ryukyu Province at that time." ”

The two bowed together and said, "Obey!" ”

At this time, Zhou Mi asked again: "May I ask the envoy, is the captured chief going to be sent to the capital?" ”

Fanning shook his head, "They are not important figures, and the imperial court will not pay attention to them, I am afraid that some ministers who are full of food and panic will say that we kill innocents indiscriminately and persuade the imperial court to withdraw our right to use troops, so it is better to only do this kind of thing." ”

Both generals felt the same way, many court officials did not understand the situation and interfered indiscriminately, they had already suffered from the pain of being tied hands and feet, and did not want to go through it a second time.

Fan Ning instructed the two again: "This time, the goal is Pingyuanfan, Gaoshan Fan and Yufan will not move for the time being, and I will talk about what the situation is after I come back from Kunzhou." ”

........

Early the next morning, Fanning left Ryukyu Prefecture with 500 soldiers in 100,000-stone ships and sailed north.

Three days later, the fleet arrived at Xiaoliuqiu, which was later the Ryukyu Islands, at this time the Ryukyu Sanshan Kingdom had not yet begun, and there were only a very small number of natives on the island, a few years ago, the Song army occupied Xiaoliuqiu Island and built it into a transit supply depot with a garrison of 500 people.

In addition, the government moved 100 fishermen from Penghu County to live on Ryukyu Island for a long time, and these 100 fishermen became the first generation of residents of Xiaoliuqiu Island and built a small town named Liuli Town.

Five large ships of 10,000 stones slowly docked on the dock outside Liuli Town, and the commander of the local garrison hurried with a few soldiers.

The commander stepped forward and knelt down on one knee and said, "Humble Li Ying see the envoy!" ”

Fan Ning smiled and said, "General Li has worked hard, please get up!" ”

The Xiaoliuqiu Islands are composed of more than 460 large and small islands, the area is twice as large as that of Tanzhou, the army and fishermen live on the largest Liuli Island, they actually only use a very small piece of land, the soldiers open up 30 hectares of rice fields to implement the military cantonment, solve the problem of food and vegetables for the soldiers and civilians on the island, and the meat is also mainly fish, and Quanzhou will regularly replenish some daily necessities.

Life on the island is boring, and half of the soldiers are generally replaced every two years.

Liuli Town is on the wharf, there are more than 200 wooden houses, living more than 100 fishermen, because the soldiers stationed overseas are relatively high, there are ten yuan per month, in order to earn the soldiers' money, some lively small businessmen have opened some businesses in the town, including a grocery store, two restaurants and two brothels, and recruited more than a dozen Japanese ship prostitutes to do leather and meat business here.

Fan Ning was concerned about the pirates that appeared near Xiaoliuqiu, according to Zhang Ying's guess, this pirate may have something to do with the garrison, which made Fanning extra vigilant, he came to Xiaoliuqiu this time to solve this matter.

Accompanied by commander Li Ying, Fan Ning inspected the barracks and chatted with some soldiers to inquire about their living conditions.

Fan Ning smiled at Li Ying and said: "Since the brothers all want to find something to do, I see that you also have dozens of warships, it is better to go out to sea to patrol and maintain sea security, I heard that there have been three pirates on the route from Ryukyu Province to Japan recently, two are in Japan, and one is near you, why not exterminate this pirate, it can be regarded as a meritorious achievement." ”

A trace of panic flashed in Li Ying's eyes, and he said for a while: "It's not that I don't do my best, there are hundreds of islands in the Xiaoliuqiu Islands, and there are mountains on many of them, I really don't know where this pirate will hide?" We also searched many times, but in the end we were all in vain. ”

Fanning nodded, "In this case, you can provide escort for the merchant ships along the way to ensure the safety of the merchant ships in this area of Xiaoliuqiu, I think it is very important to maintain the safety of the shipping lane." ”

"Obey the order!"

After saying a few more words, Fanning got up and went to inspect the town, and the envoy was not only in charge of the army, but also had the right to interfere in government affairs, but with a slight emphasis on the army.

Liuli Town belongs to Ryukyu County, there are no officials such as town mayors, and the five oldest elders form the Township Elders' Association, which conducts daily management and mediates neighborhood relations, and there is also an elder who leads several juniors to maintain law and order.

The town is very quiet, the night is not closed, the road is not forgotten, it is full of peaceful atmosphere, when the weather is good, the fishermen go out to sea to fish, when the weather is bad, they stay at home, there is no pressure in life, just day by day, year after year.

After walking around the town, it was dusk, and the soldiers who accompanied the ship followed the day off, and the restaurants and brothels in the town were crowded with soldiers, sleepless all night, and it was very lively.

Fan Ning returned to the big ship, and immediately asked Zhu Long to take a few of his men down to bring the elder secretly.

The elder surnamed Zhang, a middle-aged man in his forties, seemed a little nervous, knelt down and saluted when he entered the door, Fan Ning groaned and asked: "How much do you know about the pirates off the coast of Xiaoliuqiu?" ”

The elder trembled all over, and said in a panic: "Villain..... The villain doesn't know anything. ”

Fanning slapped the table heavily and said angrily: "Nonsense! Do you dare to say you don't know? ”

The elder was too frightened to speak, and said in a low voice for a while: "Everyone in the town knows about it, why do the big officials ask me?" ”

Fanning sneered, "I know, you also have a part in that pirate, I'm not wrong!" ”

The elder was so shocked that he waved his hand again and again, "The big official, the pirate and the villain have nothing to do with each other, although the villain knows a little about the situation, he is by no means involved. ”

At this point of interrogation, Fan Ning already understood seven or eight points in his heart, and he said coldly: "How many troops are involved?" ”

After a while, the elder said: "Everyone in the town knows that it is related to Commander Li, but no one knows how many soldiers are involved." ”

Fan Ning waved his hand to send the elder ashore, he paced back and forth with his hands in his hands, he was really annoyed in his heart, he understood now, Zhang Ying must have known that it was Li Ying who pretended to be a pirate to block the road and rob the money, but he said it very vaguely, this damn Li Ying, the death penalty is unforgivable.

.........

The next morning, the soldiers returned to the ship one after another, Fanning was about to leave, Li Ying finally breathed a sigh of relief, he was very afraid that his affairs would be revealed, worried that Fanning was coming for himself, and now Fanning was leaving, indicating that he was just passing by Xiaoliuqiu and did not discover his secret.

Li Ying's greed was also triggered by chance, when he was patrolling the open sea, he encountered a cargo ship that was tilted by wind and waves, the owner and sailors fled in small boats, and he did not know where to go, and he received a large amount of spices and tens of thousands of taels of silver from this cargo ship.

After he hid his wealth for a while, he found that no one had tracked him down, and he realized that he had found a way to make a fortune.

In order to minimize the bad influence, he only sought wealth without hurting people, and indeed did not attract the attention of the Jingluo Mansion, which caused him to become more and more emboldened and appetite, and in just one year, he plundered fifteen merchant ships, which finally aroused Fanning's attention.

Li Ying didn't know that some of his subordinates had already taken advantage of the opportunity of the fishermen to go to Ryukyu County to report to Ryukyu County, and only then did Zhang Ying hint at Fanning.

Fanning pretended not to know anything and said goodbye to Li Ying on the dock.

"General Li, you have to remember what I explained yesterday, and you must not turn a deaf ear!"

"You must remember to live up to Fan Yuanjun's expectations."

Seeing that there was no one left and right, Li Ying took out a wooden box and quietly handed it to Fan Ning, "This is a local product, please Fan Yuanjun smile!" ”

"Huh! General Li has a heart, but it is inconvenient for me to take it, so please ask General Li to give it directly to my subordinates. ”

He glanced at Zhu Long on the boat, Li Ying understood, Fan Ning wanted to give Zhu Long directly! It's really hypocritical, and he wants to think about things, but he pretends to be high, Li Ying scolded secretly in his heart, so he had to get on the boat and stuff things to Zhu Long.

Zhu Long and Zhu Hu are waiting for him to get on the boat!

As soon as Li Ying got on the boat, the two pressed Li Ying to the board of the boat, one left and one right, 'Click! With a bang, his arms were dislocated, and he screamed in pain.

At this time, Fan Ning hurriedly walked onto the boat, Li Ying had already been firmly tied, and he was so anxious that he shouted: "Fan Yuanjun, there is no crime in giving gifts from humble duties!" ”

Fan Ning said coldly: "You are not guilty of giving gifts, but what should I call you?" Do you call you Commander Li, or do you call you King Li Hai? ”

Li Ying's face turned pale, he knew that his matter as a pirate had been revealed, and he suddenly collapsed on the deck.

Fanning immediately summoned the army to assemble, and in a moment he captured twenty-three people from the army, all of whom were Li Ying's henchmen, and together with Li Ying, they formed the pirates off the coast of Xiaoliuqiu.

Fanning immediately ordered Li Ying and other 24 officers and soldiers who pretended to be pirates to be beheaded on the dock for public display, and sent people and ships to a cave on an island to take out a large amount of money and goods hidden by Li Ying here, the goods were all expensive spices, together with gold and silver, a total of more than one million taels of silver, and this wealth was confiscated.

Fanning just needs a lot of money to go to Japan to recruit laborers, no, Li Ying has prepared it for him.

Fan Ning immediately appointed Jiang Hong, the team leader who had previously denounced Li Ying, as the commander of the Xiaoliuqiu garrison, responsible for protecting the safety of the route of Xiaoliuqiu, and then he left Xiaoliuqiu and led the fleet to continue sailing in the direction of Kunzhou.