Cao Duyun ordered the assembly, leaving a hundred soldiers to guard the ship, and the brigade left the port and headed inland.

On this expedition to the sea, there were not many horses brought by the warship, and it was impossible to carry too many mounts when landing on a small eagle boat, so it was only brought to the island about a dozen war horses, and Cao Duyun, Hua Bushi and other principals and masters were allowed to ride, and most of the officers and soldiers of the sailors and the disciples of the two factions were on foot.

Outside the port was a bluestone road, and after walking along the road, after walking five miles, and turning a corner, the scene unfolded in front of them made everyone hardly believe their eyes.

In front of their eyes, a very bustling street market appeared. I saw that on both sides of the bluestone road, there are many houses and buildings, even the walls are one after another, and there are many signboards hanging outside the door, there are restaurants, restaurants, brothels, gambling houses, and all kinds of shops, all of which are readily available.

It would not be surprising to see such a scene in an ordinary town, but it is unbelievable that it would appear in a pirate lair like Black Dragon Island. At first glance, the prosperity of this street market is almost no less than the most lively "Orchid Street" in Okura Castle!

If there were no half people in the port just now, there were many people in this street market, just from their clothing and appearance, it can be seen that these people are not pirates, but ordinary people.

Seeing Cao Duyun and the others approaching, although these people were also quite frightened in their eyes, they did not flee, as if they were not surprised by the person with the sword and sword.

Cao Duyun and Hua Bushi glanced at each other, and they could both feel each other's confusion, obviously neither of them understood why there was such a street market on Black Dragon Island.

Cao Duyun said immediately: "Brother Hua, Miss Lan'er, let's go into the restaurant in front and have a look!"

The restaurant he refers to is located in the middle of the market, the three-storey small building carved wall is very magnificent, and the signboard in front of the building is inscribed with the words "Taibaiju".

"Taibaiju" is a time-honored restaurant in Suzhou and Hangzhou, and there are many branches in the prosperous cities of the Ming Dynasty, but I didn't expect to open a branch on this Black Dragon Island.

The soldiers of the water master and the disciples of the two sects stayed on the street outside the door, while the principals of the three parties and a group of masters got off their mounts and walked into the restaurant together.

As soon as he entered the door, Cao Duyun gave Qiu Hengbo a look, and the master of the flower robe immediately went upstairs, and flew down after a while, but there was one more person in his hand.

Qiu Hengbo threw the man to the ground and said, "He is the owner of this restaurant, and the son can ask him if he has something to say." ”

The owner of the restaurant who was brought downstairs was a young man in his twenties, wearing a purple robe, a scribe's scarf, and cotton shoes. He has a slender physique and a very delicate appearance, but his demeanor is very clumsy, and he obviously does not know martial arts.

Cao Duyun looked this person up and down and asked, "What's your name?"

"Xiao Ke Wu Yixuan, I have seen this son. The restaurant owner got up from the ground, and although there was a frightened look on his face, he was quite polite in his words.

Cao Duyun asked again, "What is here?"

The restaurant owner named Wu Yixuan said: "This is Black Dragon Island, don't you know that this town is called Longtoe Town." ”

Cao Duyun stared at Wu Yixuan's eyes, his face suddenly sank, and he shouted: "Of course I know that this is Black Dragon Island, and I also know that this is the lair of the pirates of the 'Black Dragon Palace', if you open a restaurant in this place, you must be the same party of the pirates!

Wu Yixuan was shocked, his feet were weak, he fell to his knees, and said loudly: "Son, spare your life! The villain is not a fellow pirate, I am also a good citizen of the Ming Dynasty, and I was arrested by them!"

Cao Duyun ordered the killing, in fact, it was just to scare this Wu Yixuan, and at this time, with a wave of his hand, he stopped the soldier who stepped forward with a knife, and said: "Okay, you can tell me what's going on, if there is half a lie, you will be killed with a knife on the charge of colluding with pirates." ”

Wu Yixuan hurriedly kowtowed and said: "The villain doesn't dare to tell lies, he is really a good citizen, the son must not wronged a good person!"

This Wu Yixuan's speech was very clever, and under his words, Cao Duyun and Hua Bushi and others quickly understood the situation here.

This town is called Dragon's Toe Town. There are four more such market towns on Black Dragon Island, and Dragon Toe Town is the closest to the port, and it is also the largest of them.

The Dragon Palace is full of outlaws, in addition to killing and plundering, they also need to drink, gamble and play with women, and the Black Dragon King built these market towns on this island to provide a place for his pirates to eat, drink and have fun.

There are seven or eight hundred to more than 1,000 inhabitants in these market towns, and the population of Longtoe Town is more than 1,500, and all these ordinary people, including this Wu Yixuan, were captured by the pirates of the "Black Dragon Palace". Some of them were plundered at sea and brought to the island, while others were captured by pirates from the Black Dragon Palace who went directly to the villages and towns along the coast of Middle-earth.

Wu Yixuan originally lived in Zhejiang, and was also the shopkeeper of the restaurant, after the pirates caught him on the island, they asked him to return to his old business and opened this "Taibaiju" hotel, which has been three years now.

These people were plundered to the island, and they were oppressed on a daily basis, but the pirates would not kill them easily. Wu Yixuan came here relatively late, that is, among the residents of Longzhi Town, there are many people who have been on this island for seven or eight years, or even longer, and some of them have already married and had children here.

In this section, Black Dragon Island and Okura Castle are also somewhat similar, both of them have migrated a large number of people from various realms on the Middle-earth Continent to live on the island, but the difference is that Okura Castle's prosperity depends on ocean trade, while Black Dragon Island obtains wealth by plundering merchant ships at sea.

After listening to Wu Yixuan, Cao Duyun said: "Boss Wu claims to be from Zhejiang, do you know Wu Jingde, the shopkeeper of Suzhou's 'Taibaiju'?"

Wu Yixuan said: "That's Xiao Ke's uncle, it turns out that the son knows my family's big shopkeeper." ”

"Taibaiju" is one of the best restaurants in the Ming Dynasty, operated by the Wu family in Suzhou for generations, Wu Jingde is the head of the current generation, and is called "the big shopkeeper" by the younger generations of the family.

When Cao Duyun heard this, he dispelled his suspicions, his expression softened, and he said, "It turns out that you are the young proprietor of the Wu family. In Xia Cao Duyun, he is not too familiar with Uncle Ling, and he has only drunk a few times in Suzhou 'Taibaiju', and he has known each other. ”

Wu Yixuan's face showed a look of surprise, and said: "Zunjia is the famous 'Duyun Gongzi' of the famous Jingshi! The villain really has eyes and doesn't know Mount Tai," he said and kowtowed again and again, and said: "Ask Gongzi Cao to pity the villain and take me back to the Middle-earth Continent, Wu Yixuan is grateful, even my uncle will be grateful to Gongzi!"

Cao Duyun said: "Master Wu Shao doesn't have to be polite, stand up and speak first." Now that the imperial army is here, they are here to exterminate the pirates of the 'Black Dragon Palace', and when the pirates are cleared, there will be no problem in bringing you back to Middle-earth. ”

Wu Yixuan was overjoyed, and he repeatedly thanked him, and kowtowed more than a dozen times before he got up.

When Wu Yixuan stood up straight, Cao Duyun asked, "Boss Wu, do you know where the pirates of the 'Black Dragon Palace' are now?"

Wu Yixuan said: "Back to Cao Gongzi, those pirates all went to the dock yesterday, and they passed by the door of the villain's restaurant, thinking that they all went to sea by boat. ”

Cao Duyun said: "How many people have gone to sea?"

Wu Yixuan said: "Those pirates are all fierce and vicious, and the villains don't dare to look at it much, there are probably five or six thousand people." ”

Cao Duyun frowned slightly, and said, "Do you know how many pirates there are in the Dragon Palace?"

Wu Yixuan said: "How can the villain know the specific number." A few months ago, I heard that they were going to attack Okura Island, and I lost a lot, and now I can't say for sure what they estimated at 58,000. ”

Cao Duyun said: "In this way, even if the pirates of the 'Black Dragon Palace' did not all go to sea, at least most of them left?"

Wu Yixuan said: "Yes." If there are still some who haven't gone to sea, they are probably also in Black Dragon City, anyway, I haven't seen a single one in Dragon Toe Town in the past two days. ”

Cao Duyun's expression moved, and he said, "What is Black Dragon City?"

Wu Yixuan said: "Black Dragon City is the castle built by that group of pirates, in the middle of the island, it takes more than ten miles of mountain roads to get there, and the pirates of Pingsuri are not allowed to approach us civilians, otherwise we will be killed." During the Chinese New Year last year, they had instructed the restaurant to send wine over, and the villain took a look at it from a distance, and it was a black stone city. ”

Cao Duyun said: "Since you have been there once, you must know the path, can you take us there?"

Wu Yixuan's face showed a look of fear, and he said after a while: "If Duyun Gongzi agrees to take the villain back to Zhejiang, Yixuan should obey his orders, otherwise the pirates will know that I am leading the way for Gongzi, and they will definitely come to take my life later." ”

Cao Duyun stretched out his hand and patted Wu Yixuan's shoulder, and said with a smile: "Boss Wu, don't worry, this son promised to take you back to the mainland, and he will not break his promise, and our trip is to exterminate the 'Black Dragon Palace', as long as today's pass, those pirates' own lives can't be saved, where can I go to you again." ”

After asking Wu Yixuan, Cao Duyun instructed his subordinates to call several residents in the town to ask, and what they said was roughly the same as Wu Yixuan, yesterday thousands of pirates did pass through this place and went to the port.

It seems that the Black Dragon King has really laid down an empty plan on the island, preparing to fight them at sea. Cao Duyun was not worried that the water village outside the bay would be attacked, with 8,000 people stationed there, plus Peng San, who was proficient in naval warfare, he would definitely not lose. Now what he wants is to take advantage of the Dragon Palace's people to leave the island and take down their lair.

According to Wu Yixuan, the fortress called "Black Dragon City" is the lair of these pirates on the island, as long as this city is occupied, this battle is already invincible, and no matter how strong the fleet of "Black Dragon Palace" is at sea, it will not last long. For Cao Duyun, the purpose of this battle was not to eliminate the pirates of the "Black Dragon Palace", but to seize their treasures, and occupying their lair was undoubtedly the primary goal.