Cao Duyun was silent, and after a long while, he said: "This kind of sword fighting is meaningless, I am a mortal person, what difference does it make if I let it or not?"

Sima Rulan said: "You don't want to hurt me now, why did you kill my father in the first place! If it weren't for Mr. Hua's willingness to vouch for you with his life, I would definitely kill you with a sword now!"

When Cao Duyun heard this, his face showed surprise, and his eyes looked at Hua Bushi outside the iron fence.

Hua Bushi coughed lightly and said: "Three days ago, hundreds of pirate ships of the 'Black Dragon Palace' surrounded Okura Island, and the people of the Dragon Palace poured out this time, and the city was short of food and soldiers and could not defend it for a long time. The younger brother proposed to the city lord that he wanted to invite Brother Cao to go to the Guangdong realm and mobilize the imperial navy fleet to rescue Okura City, and Miss Lan'er had forgiven Brother Cao for assassinating Sima City Lord for the sake of the lives of tens of thousands of people in the city!"

Sima Rulan gritted her teeth and said: "Who said that I have forgiven him! My martial arts are not as good as him for the time being, so I can't kill him today, and when Lan'er's martial arts have improved in the future, I will definitely find him to fight with the sword again, and I must kill him with my own hands to avenge my father!"

Hua Bushi smiled lightly and said, "No matter what, Miss Lan'er won't kill Brother Cao for the time being." Brother Cao is willing to go to the Guangdong border to move troops to relieve the siege of Okura Castle?"

It was only at this time that Cao Duyun understood the reason for the incident. He was silent for a moment before he said, "Thank you Brother Hua for interceding for your younger brother." The 'Black Dragon Palace' is also my enemy, this time they besieged Okura Castle, and they couldn't let them succeed, and the little brother was willing to go to the matter of transferring troops. ”

He turned his gaze to Sima Rulan and said: "Miss Lan'er, it was indeed my fault to assassinate Sima City Lord that day, if you don't kill Cao today, if you want to take revenge in the future, you can come to me at any time, Cao Duyun is waiting to be killed." ”

Sima Rulan said: "Who wants you to lead the neck and wait to be killed! Our Sima family's people have always acted above board, if you can move reinforcements from the mainland this time to solve the danger of our Okura City, Sima Rulan will find you to take revenge in the future, you must be fighting alone, you can resist with your ability, if the swordsmanship is stronger than me, you can also kill me with a sword!"

Sima Rulan is not yet twenty years old, and she has already practiced several unique skills in the "Shaolin Seventy-two Stunts", and her qualifications can be described as extremely high, and Cao Duyun is of course also a person with outstanding talent and martial arts.

Cao Duyun looked at Sima Rulan and saw that her face was firm, and it took a while before she said, "Okay, then we'll make a decision." ”

※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※ Okura Island is in the middle of the South China Sea, separated from the mainland by 2,000 miles, and it takes 20 days to travel from the island to Cantonese by boat. Cao Duyun went to the Guangdong realm, even if he could immediately transfer troops to come as soon as he arrived on the mainland, it would take at least a month and a half or so.

Saving soldiers is like fighting a fire, and it can't be delayed for a moment, so Cao Duyun decided to leave that night.

Now the channel out of the island has been blocked by the pirate ship of the "Black Dragon Palace", and the big ship cannot break out, but it is still possible to take a small speedboat, and take advantage of the dark night, the opportunity is greater.

The helmsman Fu Ao is good at naval warfare, and he has been on Okura Island for a long time, and he is very familiar with the underwater channels around the island, so he immediately settled on a jihua. He himself led the ten ships of the "Wanjintang" out of the harbor to make a feint, as a cover, to attract the attention of the pirate ship, and let a small sailing ship be controlled by a disciple who was proficient in boat steering, and sail along an undercurrent on the sea from the other side, sending Cao Duyun quietly out of the encirclement.

This jihua is perfect and the execution is quite smooth. Although the ten ships of Fuao were not many, they also caused a lot of noise when they fired artillery attacks on the ocean in the dark night. The pirate ship rushed to the battle, and the sea was full of artillery fire, and the rows of guns on the ships of both sides fired at each other, and the fight was very lively for a while.

When the pirates of the "Black Dragon Palace" mobilized a large number of ships and lined up to fight the incoming enemy, they found that the ships of Okura Castle had retreated into the harbor bay. In the middle of the melee for half a night, Cao Duyun's speedboat had slipped out of the undercurrent at high speed, completely unnoticed by the pirates.

Cao Duyun, who went out to move troops, is the only hope for Okura Castle today. However, even if he could move to the Daming Water Division to relieve the siege of Okura Island, it would be thirty or forty days later.

After this night's feint, Fu Ao also tested the strength of the "Black Dragon Palace", the opponent's large ships have more than 200, and the firepower of the assembled ships is also stronger than that of the ships in Okura Castle, not to mention the five giant shark ships that are invincible at sea.

In this way, even if all the ships of the merchants in the city were mobilized, they would not be able to compete with each other at all. If the "Black Dragon Palace" makes every effort to attack, it will be very reluctant to hold the port of Okura.

Of course, if the other side storms the bay, it will also suffer a lot of losses, after all, there are hundreds of Hongyi cannons on the batteries on both sides of the bay, and the terrain is extremely unfavorable for the attacking side. If a large number of pirate warships flocked to the gorge of the bay, more than half of them would surely be sunk under the cannon fire from both sides of the strait.

I believe that if it weren't for the lack of choice, the "Black Dragon Palace" would not have used such a strong attack method regardless of the ship's losses.

In order to capture the city, the "Black Dragon Palace" already has a more haode way, that is, to use a large number of indigenous people to drag down Okura Castle.

In the days that followed, as Hua Bushi had expected, more Baba natives flocked to the gates of Okura, all of whom had been driven away by the pirates, who had destroyed their homes and fled the city.

How to deal with so many "refugees", the city lord has already made a decision. The number of indigenous Baba who came to the city was counted by the chiefs of the various tribes and placed in Okura Castle after a strict examination. In the city, the "Wanjintang" came forward and rented the houses of the common people for two taels of silver to resettle these people.

Most of the city's residents were opposed to opening the city gates to allow the natives to enter the city, but the move to rent houses caused many to change their attitudes. The price of renting a private house in "Wanjintang" is not low, it is roughly the same as the upper room in an ordinary inn, and it is a lot of money to rent out the empty house at home to make a lot of money, which is something that many residents can't ask for, and even if they live a little more crowded by themselves, they are also willing.

At the same time, merchants such as Gu Zhengyuan, Zhu Zi and Gonggola launched a silver donation to help the "Wanjintang" defend the city among all the merchants and ships in the city that were engaged in ocean trade.

Whether or not Okura Castle can be held is related to the interests of all merchants, and it is also related to the life and death of all the people in the city. Within a few days, Gu Zhengyuan and others had raised more than 300,000 taels of silver, which was more than enough to pay for the "Wanjintang" to rent a house to resettle the indigenous people.

The problem of food is more difficult to solve than the problem of housing. However, the eldest lady of the city lord had already arranged to take out the grain from the warehouse and supply the needs of these natives for free.

In addition to the granary of the "Mankintang", some merchants in the city also had some grain, and the castle lord's office issued a decree that all rice shops in Okura Castle could only sell grain at a specified price, and as long as there was grain in the castle, they must sell it, and those who violated this order immediately confiscated their property and drove them out of Okura Castle.

At the same time, the amount of grain that can be purchased by the residents of the city is also limited by the number of people, and it is not allowed to buy more. The grain reserves in Okura Castle were not very sufficient, but under the strict order, the price gouging and private non-sale were eliminated, and the "Wanjintang" itself controlled most of the grain stocks, so there was no problem with the food supply for a while.

At least until the city's food stock is exhausted, the people of the city will not cause chaos by looting food.

Although the sea outside the port was full of pirate warships, and thousands of natives poured into the city every day, the city was still safe and orderly, renting houses to resettle the natives, and counting and distributing grain in the city were all done in an orderly manner. And all this is carried out, but Hua Bushi has contributed to it.

At present, Yao Yuanxiao, Chai Lin and Fu Ao and other leaders of the "Wanjintang" are busy mobilizing ships and defending the city these days, and the elder Deng Ran, who was originally in charge of the affairs of the city, is dead, and Sima Rulan has just taken control of the sect, so he has little experience in managing the city, and if there is no help from Hua Bushi, it will be difficult to deal with it.

Although Hua Bushi does not know martial arts, arranging people and handling all kinds of complicated affairs is what he is very good at. At the beginning of Wuyang City, Xiangxi, his father Hua Tianxiong had been in retreat for many years and ignored the affairs of the sect, and the operation and management of the "Evil Dog Gate" were all in charge of this young master, because he was very experienced in handling and planning.

The city issued a decree to control grain storage, which was proposed by Hua Bushi. Sima Rulan obeyed the eldest young master, and asked him to help allocate the manpower in the sect to manage various affairs in the city. Suddenly, Hua Bushi became a part-time elder of the "Wanjin Hall", and his power was even greater than that of the original Outer Hall Elder Deng Ran.

Hua Bushi did not have any position in the "Wanjin Hall", and for the disciples in the sect, he was originally just an outsider. But the slander between him and the eldest lady of the city lord has already spread throughout the city, everyone knows that the relationship between this "evil dog boy" and Miss Lan'er is extraordinary, and there are even rumors that he will become the future city lord, so Hua Bushi dispatched people to deal with various affairs, and the disciples in the "Wanjin Hall" also obeyed the order, and no one dared to disobey.

The so-called "Sai Weng lost his horse, but he knew that it was not a blessing", the rumors and slander of the idlers in Okura City were originally a headache for Dehua Bushi, but he did not expect that at this time, he would be supported by many gangs in the "Wanjintang", but it became a good thing.