Lu Ming

Chapter 574

Fangcheng is located on the border coast of Guangxi.

As you can guess from the place name, the so-called Fangcheng must be the border gate.The reason why the ancients named this place Fangcheng is that it has the meaning of defending and defending against enemies outside the country.

It was the end of the Ming Dynasty, the imperial court was decadent, and the troops in the defense city were slack, unable to maintain the situation on the sea.

This resulted in the vigorous development of pirates traveling between Daming and Annan coasts.

Especially in the past two years, a large number of pirates from the Ming Dynasty have moved south for some reason, disturbing the coast of Annan, and the environment in the Beibu Gulf is getting worse.

Until the arrival of a certain army.

Time: noon.Location: Off the coast of Fangcheng.

The dense clouds all over the sky make everything on the sea seep into gray and black tones.The gray air and rain and fog, the black waves, and even the flying seabirds and the ships below all seem to be painted with ink, hidden in the darkness, indistinct, unable to see their true colors.

Suddenly, a bolt of lightning pierced through the clouds and struck down in the air.

Accompanied by the thick blue electric light, it is the golden sun that follows.At this moment, the thick cloud layer was split open, revealing a huge crack, and the golden sunlight that followed, stained everything it went with a layer of gold: the rain stopped.

It is not uncommon for the wind and rain on the sea to stop suddenly.However, things that "surge" from the sky with the sun are not so common.

The three white-sailed warships that broke away from the large fleet opened the large triangle sails at the bow, with their backs against the golden sun, facing the monsoon blowing from the direction of the Philippine Sea, and rushed towards the coast like sharp arrows.

At this time, a large group of thirty or forty indigenous ships that were originally hidden in the darkness and sailing along the coast had just caught sight of the incoming ship.

Unexpectedly, the indigenous fleet immediately exploded, and at least [-]% of the ships made various tactical maneuvers immediately: some sailed on the spot and turned around, some left their companions and went south and north, and even more Those who didn't care about the possible reefs and shoals on the coast plunged into it, and seemed to ignore it when they ran aground and hit the bottom.

The rest of the large troops who didn't know the situation were in a hurry in the face of the sudden chaos: the boatman desperately turned the rudder to avoid the crazy ship, and a large number of crew members rushed out from below the deck when they heard the movement, speaking in an unintelligible Annan language, jumping their feet. The boss who cursed at the bow.

In short, the scene was chaotic.

Time waits for no one.Just as the big fleet was adjusting its formation, the white-sailed battleship that rushed towards it flashed a dazzling red light from a distance of one and a half miles away, and then, the black spots flying from afar turned into iron balls , smashed into the big fleet.

The three sail warships are composed of one Youguang class and two Taijiang class.In other words, on average, about 15 shells were fired in each round of artillery fire.

On the swaying sea, even if it is a neat row of artillery, the final landing point will become elusive.And the reason why the attackers fired shells at the furthest distance was because the large fleet was crowded together at the moment, so there was no need to worry about the hit rate.

The next moment, with the dull "dong dong" sound, the ship's plank was smashed, the boatman was thrown into the air, the sail was torn, and the bits and pieces on the ship were splashed everywhere by the bouncing iron balls, leaving a mess of blood and flesh.

Immediately afterwards, there were loud wailing sounds.The sailors whose arms and thighs were severed would not die for a while, their screams mixed with the frightened roar of the ship's boss, flying over the fleet.

Soon, the rumbling cannons covered up the shouts of the natives.The rapidly approaching fleet made the interval between the sound of the guns and the shells shorter and shorter. Now as long as you see a row of red dots on the incoming ship, you can hear the sound of the guns coming soon.

The vicious blow left the victim dumbfounded.

Round after round of cannonballs hit their heads, followed by broken ship plates and flying human body parts, all of which made the pirates fall into hell, and the large fleet suffered heavy casualties.

At this time, no matter what the indigenous ships thought before, everyone instantly unified their thinking: run away, so a large number of terrified sailors began to jump into the sea.

However, the nightmare was far from over.The three fast boats rushing straight forward, about to rush two hundred steps away from the brigade, turned a corner lightly and gorgeously, and circled around the big pirate fleet—during the whole process, no matter how the fleet maneuvered, The artillery fire never stopped, and the artillery shells were fired at a precise time interval. This kind of mechanical coldness especially made the natives collapse.

The ferocious blow lasted for an entire hour.After that, the surface of the sea was full of ship planks and floating humans, among them were the dead and the living who rose and fell with the waves.

The previous large fleet has already fallen apart at this moment.Except for the slowly sinking ship floating alone on the sea surface, most of the rest have sunk.

Only a few old acquaintances who recognized the opponent's escape in advance successfully saved the lives of themselves and their subordinates.They ran away with infinite terror of the traversers, and soon, these people will also become voluntary propagandists, spreading the bad news to every corner of Beibu Gulf.

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"This can be regarded as Li Ting sweeping acupuncture points!"

An hour is enough to catch up with the transport fleet behind.So the passengers on the passenger ship watched the final battle of the [-]th-century Caribbean Pirates Trilogy for free.

Seeing the tragic situation of the pirate gang, the investors from the north on board all smiled.

Even if it is a servant sent by a certain gentry, it is a servant dressed in silk and satin, an agent of the ruling class.And the ruling class is born to be deadly enemies with all kinds of bandits, so at this moment, none of the audience on the boat showed any embarrassment, but they all praised and praised Mr. Cao for his hard work in maintaining peace in the Beibu Gulf.

If the guests are so supportive, the host will naturally come out to thank the guests.One of the traversers of the Nanxia Group who was in charge of escorting the boat, a former Meituan delivery boy named Shang Qi, hurriedly stepped forward.

After the business exchange, Shang Qi immediately stood at the bow of the boat and made a solemn statement regarding the current harsh environment in the Beibu Gulf: This place has already left the country of Ming Dynasty, so the set of gentle policies in Ming Dynasty has been discontinued.According to the latest spirit of the Zongbing Yamen: For Annan and the Annan coast, we must drop ten meetings at once!To "clean up the demon atmosphere", let the barbarians know the pros and cons!

In view of the fact that Wang Shi has no time to distinguish Annan fishermen from pirates, there will be ships in the future that will continue to "pull the net to clean up" this area. Note that the cleanup is a sweep, not a cleanup. The ultimate goal is: the Beibu Gulf Do not go to sea!

Shang Qi’s final statement: The above-mentioned “Beibu Gulf clean-up” policy to protect the safety of investors’ business routes will continue until the Annan coast is completely “cleared”.

Faced with such a murderous investment promotion declaration, the passengers on the passenger ship expressed their emotional stability.That's right, no matter what, this place has already left the gate of the Ming Dynasty, and no matter how serious the killing karma of the surname Cao is, it's not up to them, officials of the Ming Dynasty, to intervene.

Besides, getting rid of these foreign "fishing bandits" who are neither fishing nor bandits is definitely good for everyone's future transportation environment, so why not support it?

After the rain, the sea was blue and the sky was blue. Accompanied by the boastful talk of the passengers, was the flotilla hurrying south, and the wrecks and bodies left behind by the flotilla.

By the morning of the next day, the huge and slow transport fleet had traveled the remaining 200-mile sea route and berthed in Halong Bay.

It was nearly August, and the Annan rainy season was at its peak.However, in the misty rain and fog, Halong Bay, which was originally barren, is now full of vitality and popularity.

After more than half a month of frantic construction by outsiders, Halong Bay and even the seaport, Hon Ki Fort, etc. are already crowded with large construction sites.

With generous remuneration of money and food, a large number of local farmers who heard the news, braved the endless rain, fought against the sky, and forcibly changed the original appearance of nature into planned man-made buildings.

At this moment, from time to time, Halong Bay will appear a soaring water column blasting the reef.On the shore there is a wall of people flowing through it. The aborigines are shouting to pull the big stones and throw them into the wire cages deep into the sea. This is the foundation for laying a large trestle bridge.

The surrounding construction site was busy. As for the core building, Hongji Fort——in just a short period of time, the walls of the fort have already been built.

In fact, the most difficult part of building a city wall during the rainy season in Annan was laying the foundation.Once the foundation is repaired and the waterproofing is in place, the speed of adding bricks is still very fast.

The walls of Fort Honji are still far from being completed.The side facing the inland is the highest priority and its height has reached 1.5 meters.Although the height is not enough, the thickness of this wall is quite good, which is half a meter thick. You can see that there are protruding circular fortresses being built at intervals.

Inside the castle, there are now a few brick houses anyway.The largest one is being used to receive guests today.

Among the guests who came this time, the two most prestigious were undoubtedly Ma Min, the head of the household department representing the emperor and the court, and Du Shangbao, the deputy eunuch of the inner treasury.

Below these two, there is a vote of retired senior cadres in the capital and south of the Yangtze River, and further down, there are "little" people such as the brother-in-law of a certain country, the brother-in-law of a certain marquis, and the housekeeper of a certain uncle.

Shao Qiang, who was the temporary owner of the castle, heard the arrival of the Ming gentry investment group and the supply fleet, and hurried out to greet him.In a short while, the real bigwigs in the investment group were welcomed into the castle by Shao Qiang.

"Set the wine, cut the noodles, kill the chicken, master, I will treat the distinguished guests well today!"

In Hongjibao right now, the seafood is worthless, and the most expensive ones are the pasta from the north.

So, this time, Master Shao also showed his sincerity to entertain the distinguished guests. To invest, you always need to invest some capital. Who would let people bury money in the cellar?Rather than being dug up by Li Zicheng and given to the Tartars, it would be better to invest in planting some mangoes in Annan.

The host is enthusiastic, and the guests naturally have to show their affection.Those who can travel thousands of miles to come to a foreign country like Annan must not be some Taoists, and all of them are people with clear eyebrows.

So in the newly built big brick house with a back hall, everyone was in harmony, the wine was drained, and the guests and hosts looked forward to the future of Annan Development.

I don't want to be at the moment when the atmosphere is warm, but there is a message outside the door: "Report~~~ There is an Annan county magistrate outside asking to see him!"

"What? The county magistrate?" Shao Qiang was a little surprised, and then he explained with strange smiles from left to right: "My lords don't know something, but a few days ago, the Annan government sent two small officials to harass me, and I kicked them out. I don’t want to leave sesame seeds and mung beans again.”

After thinking about it for a while, Shao Qiang decided to meet the magistrate Annan: "Then invite Annan people to come in. Thanks to the presence of all the adults today, you can count as supporting me."

"Master Shao is just a fun-loving, mere magistrate of Annan County, an ant-like character"

(End of this chapter)