Celebrating more than two years of peace in the world

Chapter 181

On the shore of the sandbar, there are no fishermen fishing on the lake in the cold winter. This is a bad season for the people of the sandbar.

The people here have not developed any technology for irrigating and planting rice, so rice, which needs to be channeled, has not been developed for large-scale planting, and there is no legendary thing like hybrid rice, so what they eat is stored grain. and imported food.

There are a large group of wild workers sitting on the mooring boats that enter the sea. What the wild workers said is very simple. At that time, there was no such thing as a contractor or a coolie company at the bow, and it was impossible for a single gang to load and unload cargo. people to complete.

Wealthy big households will keep some part-time workers, such as Mingjia or Neiku, and there will be special loading and unloading workers, of course, they also have multiple jobs.As for the other merchants, it is these wild workers to maintain, and the wages are paid as they go, and there is no such thing as arrears.

At this time, a group of wild workers are holding tea cakes in their hands and drinking the cheapest tea for three Wen. They imitate the literati, inkmen, officials and big households in the Jiangnan water town, standing, sitting, squatting, and climbing on the pier in strange postures, waiting. It was three days ago since the last time.

There are few people going out to sea during this period, it’s not that no one is doing business, it’s just that the big households on the big river and waves have already set off according to the point, while the idle small households are afraid of the power of the Jiangnan water village, so they don’t dare to go out to sea alone, so they simply contact Together, those who come early wait for a few days, and those who come late catch up a few days earlier. They can get together and go out to sea with dozens of ships to try their luck. Pirates can only stop one ship, and the others just run away.

There are policies at the top and countermeasures at the bottom. This is where the wisdom of human beings has a long history.

The field workers on the bridge were stunned.

At a glance, everyone has never seen such a mighty fleet.

The estuary of the Jiangnan waterway where the big river flows into the sea is the river road of Shazhou City. At this time, many ships sailed out of the river road, because recently retail merchant ships are traveling in groups, which is very similar to a fleet.

But the shapes are different, big and small, fast and slow, and the departure time is basically fixed, so it is rare to see such a large-scale fleet going to sea at the same time. In addition, the shapes of the ships are almost the same. Everyone thinks it is the fleet of the Jiangnan Navy.

In fact, Shazhou City and Yingzhou City are not the places where the governors of Liangjiang are located. To put it bluntly, these are two places that are bigger than the county seat, and there is still a huge difference between the truly prosperous Jiangnan Prefecture.

The top officials here are all very small officials in the Jiangnan navy, such as the garrison of the Shazhou in Shazhou City, and the Yingzhou pacifier, these are all top officials.

The officialdom in Jiangnan Road is very chaotic, and it is very special because of the existence of the navy.

If it is calculated according to military rank, the first to bear the brunt is the governor of Liangjiang, and the next is the admiral of Jiumen. There is nothing special about it. The generals of the Kyoto garrison are similar to the generals of the Qin family.

One is the duty general, who is in charge of the commander-in-chief of the Liangjiang navy, and the other is the general of the Beijing office or the director of the Jingdu City office in Jiangnan City. Such a person has a great responsibility and can directly communicate with the emperor. say.

To put it simply, one fights and the other informs, and usually no one provokes anyone.

But in terms of official rank, the governor of Liangjiang is a serious first-class. To be honest, speaking in Jiangnan, except for the prime minister and His Majesty the emperor, if he confronted the prince, the prince would not be as good at speaking as the governor of Liangjiang.

At first I thought it was over, but who knew that His Majesty the Emperor of the Qing Kingdom had a whim, and it might be because of the internal treasury that he was in this Jiangnan Road 18 years ago.

Or maybe because of worrying about the dominance of the family, a prefect came unexpectedly, Jiangnan prefect, it sounds like it is not the name of a dynasty, maybe it was something Ye Qingmei came up with, and a second grade was also brought in.

One mountain cannot accommodate two tigers.

What I didn't expect was that these two people got along very well, but they got along well, and the world is in chaos. There must be someone who stands in line, right?

It's not that the people below can play with whomever they want to play with if they get along well in the first day. The Ming family has occupied the team of the Jiangnan prefect, and the Jiangnan water village has stood on the team of the Governor of Liangjiang.

And the garrison of the Shazhou Inclined Office in Shazhou is under the Jiangnan Navy, of course it is under the management of the Governor of Liangjiang, so when this mighty navy sails past, there are no official missions to stop it, and no navy to intervene. People with a discerning eye It's clear at a glance.

This is not some naval patrol, but the pirates from the Jiangnan water village came out.

The Ming family does not have the strength to drive a fleet of this size directly out of the sea in just a few days. Perhaps the Jiangnan water village is not as powerful as the Ming family when it comes to shore, but in terms of the rivers and lakes alone In the four places in the sea, the Ming family is not worth mentioning in front of the Jiangnan Water Village.

After all, for things like fighting, a businessman would definitely not be able to be a bandit.

Only the Overwatch Council has the ability to find out that Xia Qifei, the leader of the Jiangnan Water Village, is the Seventh Young Master of Ming Dynasty, and no one else knows.

But they knew that if the civil service road in the south of the Yangtze River needs the influence of the Ming family to deal with in the upper class, then the people at the bottom rely on the Jiangnan water village.

In this place where the people's livelihood is prosperous, it would not be a good thing without the evil forces. Earlier, there were many evil forces entrenched and co-existing in the market.

Setting up a stall in Jiangnan Road, at least seven or eight shopkeepers will come up to ask for money in a month.

"Jiangnan Jiangdao, rivers and related waters twelve consecutive docks." After the establishment of this, all kinds of matters in Jiangnan are considered to be less.

Nowadays, the Jiangnan water village basically unifies the underworld, so people only need to pay the protection fee this time.

People are also happy to do so, and the Jiangnan water village is also very comfortable.

After all, being able to become a gangster recognized by everyone is also a kind of ability.

Afterwards, the Jiangnan water village has his influence in the streets and alleys, from the initial cargo transportation, shipping, and berthing fees, to the smuggling of official salt and official tea, and now covering the sky with one hand, and the navy The admiral calls himself a brother, growing bigger and bigger.

Now Xia Qifei can be said to have become a well-known character on the Jiangnan waterway, and he has become a black and white character, but later he began to reduce the business on the underworld. This made Xia Qifei interested in Neiku's recent bidding.

In the middle and late March, the door of the inner treasury will be reopened. This is a brand new door. No one knows this inner treasury where Cui and Ming used to hold power separately.

What will Fan Xian look like after taking office this year?
Xia Qifei also wanted to take advantage of it. If he could monopolize one or two industrial chains, it would not be a small amount of income. At least it would be a business worth tens of thousands, which was not something he could imagine.

Leading all the people under his command, Xia Qi flew out to sea and started the pursuit.

When the Jiangnan water village finally decided to go to sea, it was already in the afternoon. Xia Qifei was sitting on the tiger-headed boat, which was a huge boat.

The ship has a long and narrow body, with two cabins high and low, and the space on the deck is not very spacious, but its strength lies in its sailing speed. The speed of this ship is three to four times faster than that of other ships.

A man dressed in black with a scimitar at his waist and dressed like a sailor walked straight from the side of the ship and came to the deck quickly.

He stood up, there were only three people on the deck, and the two women were dressed very coolly. In this winter, they tried to expose as much skin as possible, as long as they were not frozen to death, they could be exposed.

The two sat on the armrests on both sides of the reclining chair, one on the left and the other on the right. The reclining chair was also very elegantly made. Although the gold texture was not known whether it was carved with real gold or plated with a layer of gold on the outside, in short, it was shining brightly under the sun. Hui, envy others.

A man with tanned skin was sitting on the recliner. The man was lying on the recliner, eating the fruit handed over by the girl on the left, and spitting out the fruit core on the ground. Hearing that someone was coming, that man was a human being. He didn't stand up, he didn't turn his head, he just said indifferently, "Talk."

"Yes!" The sailor knelt down on one knee, put his hands forward, and said sharply, "The letters from the three major wharves in Shazhou have arrived, and the letters indicate that no big ships have landed, and there is no sign of anyone on the entire wharf." , it must be still at sea. According to my subordinates’ speculation, a ship of that size may be heading to Yingzhou, and it will take about ten days to sail at sea.”

"Yingzhou?" Xia Qifei said indifferently, "It will take a few days to catch up."

"According to the time, we can catch up before sunrise tomorrow. The speed of that merchant ship is incomparable to ours. If we try our best to catch up, we will meet in a few days." The sailor continued.

Xia Qifei's dark skin rose and fell quickly, and then he said, "Chasing, take three boats to chase with all your strength!"

"Yes!"

Xia Qifei stood up straight away, ignoring the sailor who turned to leave, but stood at the bow of the boat. At this time, no one knew how anxious and frightened his heart was under this steady appearance.

This was a critical year, and just after the end of the year, it was the last and most important step for him to successfully cleanse his Jiangnan water village and go ashore.

Jiangnan Road has an imperial envoy this year.

Thinking of this, Xia Qifei shuddered. With the hand holding the wine glass, he forcibly grabbed the crystal clear glass and smashed it to pieces.

……

When night came, Fan Xian was still sitting peacefully on the boat, playing a few games of chess with the third prince.

Fan Xian didn't hold back the slightest bit. On the surface, he pretended to teach His Royal Highness to understand the truth of life and understand the pressure of the impermanence of the world, but in fact it was for the complete pleasure.

But the third prince didn't get angry at all, he seemed to know what the teacher was venting, and he let the teacher kill him, and in the end, no one was left behind.

Qu Han, who watched the chess from the sidelines without saying a word, was slightly distorted when he watched the last game of chess.

He glanced distressedly at the third prince beside him, only those near the lower left eye that were killed by the third prince could be counted, and the other places were completely defeated.

Thinking about it, if I were a historian and others, if I recorded this moment and gave Fan Xian the first reference article, it would give Fan Xian a few slaps.

After Fan Xian stood up, he said, "If you lose, take the chess." Then he turned and left.

Qu Han was taken aback, she never thought that Lord Fan Xian, who is usually bold and reckless, would be unequivocal in front of the prince.

The third prince also seemed willing to admit defeat, and immediately began to clean up the chess booth in front of him, but Fan Xian went out directly and stood on the deck. He looked around, and the sea breeze was blowing.

"The water village in the south of the Yangtze River has moved." Wang Qinian walked over and said to Fan Xian.

Fan Xian raised his eyebrows, "Moved?"

"Yes, it's moving." Wang Qi said in a young voice, "The four ships left the port, and they should be chasing after us. They patrolled before and found that the surrounding waters were fine, so they came out to pursue them."

Fan Xian nodded, "What ship?"

"Two three-winged sails and two six-winged sailing ships. The speed is very fast. It is estimated that they will arrive at night." Wang Qinian said, "Should I arrange night duty?"

Fan Xian waved his hand, "At night, it's just to cover people's eyes and ears. Now it's new to find a second person in this vast sea. Naturally, there's no need to cover people's eyes and ears. They will choose to do it at dawn and sunrise. That's the best time for pirates. Good times, and…”

"Since Mr. Ming Qi is able to sit in his current position, it must not be because of his strength. He is probably a ruthless character. He will not make that kind of sudden whim attack strategy."

Fan Xian said, "Since the decision has been made, he knows more about the Ten Thousand Years Ship than you and I."

Wang Qinian nodded inexplicably.

After Fan Xian'an fell asleep peacefully, he was not disturbed. It seemed that Xia Qifei was more calm than he had imagined, and he did not choose to act at dawn on this day.

Fan Xianyao looked at the nearby sea and saw no waves. He hadn't seen a single drop of rain during the three-day voyage. It seemed that it was really a good day to go out to sea with calm weather recently.

But on the sea on this good day, there is only one merchant ship that does not go to merchants.

Fan Xian walked out of the room after washing up, looked at the door of the Third Prince's room, and seemed to have woken up.

After walking through the cabins, I came to the third floor for dining. When I came in, Qu Han had already arranged everything, and the dishes were just out of the pan before they were placed on the table.

"Your Highness has already had his meal, so he should be on the deck at this time." Qu Han said, and he arranged the chopsticks for Fan Xian, poured tea and water, and then turned to call the people behind him.

After a while, Deng Ziyue came out from behind.

When Fan Xian saw Deng Ziyue, he knew it already.

"Brother Wang looked at it all night, and I let him rest." Deng Ziyue said, "There are some things that you need to decide."

"Yangzhou arrived?" Fan Xian asked.

This Yangzhou is not the other Yangzhou, it is a county, its size is only about the same as that of Shazhou, and it is also comparable to that of Yingzhou.

However, the strength of Yangzhou lies in the fact that the main rudder of the Twelve Links is here.

To put it bluntly, it is the bandit's cottage, the base camp of the military camp.

"We can arrive before nightfall." Deng Ziyue was not surprised. Fan Xian's ability to sell the world's affairs like this did not happen once or twice.

He said, "Brother Wang and I agree that with our current military strength, it should have caused quite a stir in the Jiangnan water village. Without expressing our intention, the other party does not know our identity, which will cause a lot of trouble. There are a lot of unnecessary troubles, if we continue to sail at sea, we will suffer."

"By land?" Fan Xian asked.

"Exactly." Deng Ziyue said, "If we switch to the land route, we can save a lot of trouble, and the capabilities of the Jiangnan water village on land will be reduced by at least half."

Fan Xian understood, took a mouthful of Baihua Gao, and then said, "Baihua Gao is delicious."

"Yes, it was specially purchased from a passing merchant ship." Qu Han said, "It was still yesterday afternoon."

"Merchant ship?" Fan Xian was taken aback.

"Yeah, yesterday afternoon, a merchant ship passed by, and the merchant ship came to borrow some drinking water. I saw this hundred flower ointment on the other party's ship, so I bought some back." Qu Han asked, "What's the matter?" ?”

Fan Xian smiled, "It turned out to be so..."

.........

In front of Yangzhou Port, the overcrowding of the sandbar is no longer there, only some sporadic field workers are still waiting for the work to appear, and there are many more ships here than the sandbar.

After all, this is the base camp of the Jiangnan Water Village, and those who can dock here are of course the ships of the Jiangnan Water Village or people involved with it.

A few people stepped off the ship that had traded with Fan Xian's merchant ship. They looked gentle, like scholars and merchants, but they were not as vicious as the sailor and pirate next to Xia Xifei.

It's just that the people who came up to greet them were all young women in revealing clothes.

Seven or eight women came up to meet them, and the leading young master hugged him from left to right. He laughed and said to the people beside him, "Send the order, the things have already boarded the boat, and they seem to be docking near Yangzhou. If you enter the inner sea, you will do it directly, and if you don’t enter the inner sea, you will directly notify the higher-ups, and you will do it after crossing the current. I and the other four leaders are already waiting here."

"Understood." A subordinate next to him immediately started to write, and the pigeon skipped across the river.

Flying across the sky and the earth, he arrived at the fast sailing six-winged sail.

Sitting on the bow of the boat, Xia Qifei grabbed the exhausted sea pigeon and sent him to raise it.

The woman next to her hand picked up some feed and fed it, while Xia Qifei opened the letter paper directly.

After a while, he calmly looked at the sea.

"It's almost Yangzhou." A woman said, "This section of the sea is still quite dangerous."

"People from the Ming family will show up, I know that." Xia Qifei looked at the woman and slapped her on the buttocks. The woman was just laughing, not angry.

Xia Qifei said, "I haven't seen people from the Ming family who would make a deal. If it were me, I wouldn't dare to do it lightly. The disappearance of my subordinates has a close relationship with them. Otherwise, I wouldn't want to be easy on others in this sea." If something happens, no one will end well."

Xia Qifei's worry is not unreasonable. The entire river, not to mention the sea, often has tragedies that hurt both sides. If those pirates don't control the ship in the first place, it is very likely that the other party will fight you to the death regardless of anything.

No matter how high your martial arts are here, even if you are a grand master, without a floating boat, it is impossible for you to reach the shore with your light skills.

There are always times when you run out of energy.

So Xia Qifei was cautious and methodical.

But what he didn't know was that Fan Xian had more rules, and this rules was the way to lure snakes out of their holes.

.........

After noon, the distant small fleet caught up with the large merchant ship, and the merchant ship did not undergo any processing.

What it was like when it left the port is what it is still like now, it doesn't make any difference.

The six-winged fast boat went out first, and when the boat arrived, it had already entered the waters of Yangzhou.

Seven or eight ships came from all directions, plus the previous three ships, a total of eleven ships, large and small directly surrounded the merchant ships in the middle.

There were only three ships that were directly close to the merchant ship and forced to stop. Even if the huge merchant ship stopped, it drifted for a distance of several nautical miles. When the big ship stopped, the distance began to shout.

The person who called out earlier was a scholar, and he was one of the leaders of the Jiangnan water village that sold the goods to Fan Xian's boat.

He straightened his back and shouted sharply, "Listen, people in front, you are already surrounded, now immediately discard the weapons in your hands, lower the cabin ladder and let us board the boat, otherwise don't blame Jiangnan Water Village for being rude!"

No one answered.

There was no movement on the quiet merchant ship, but because of this situation, many onlookers were attracted to the shore of Yangzhou Ferry.

The people lined up on the small shore were terrified and exclaimed. Although they had seen the Jiangnan Water Village robbing officials and people, they had never seen this battle, which was quite magnificent.

The crowd of onlookers certainly alarmed the local Yangzhou navy, but the navy stationed here was only a captain's navy, and the number of them was not too large. There were no more than a few hundred people at full strength, and only a few dozen boats.

But even so, they still led two large ships and three small boats to the current at the mouth of the sea.

The people in the Jiangnan water village are not worried. As the officials at the door, they have already taken care of everything, and there will be no problems at this time.

On the surface, these officials are here to maintain law and order, but in fact they are protecting the Jiangnan water village, and they are also restricting the Jiangnan water village from being in front of so many people, which is too much.

The navy had just walked halfway, and the leader of the Jiangnan water village in the distance had already yelled the same words no less than three times.

In the end, the iron rope was pulled horizontally, and more than a dozen hands were locked on the chains at the same time. The leader of the Jiangnan Navy shouted to the boat Xia Qifei was on, "I sold them some food yesterday, and it seems that they can't get up today!"

Xia Qifei lit a flare on the cabin, and as the blazing flare fell below the surface of the sea during the day, the pirates began to move.

There were more than a dozen iron chains on the three ships leaning against the merchant ship, and they were directly hung up, and went up around the merchant ship. The slanted iron chains were carried by the flying claws, and more than a dozen ladders appeared.

Those chains were sent directly through certain equipment in the cabin. Firstly, they were used in pursuit to prevent the opponent from escaping, and secondly, they were used to board the ship. Above the chains were trembling ladders and ropes.

In the training of pirates, of course boarding is a very big project. They can climb the slanted chains with bare hands without any problems.

When the pirates on the three ships were basically chained, the first batch of teams had almost arrived on the merchant ship.

The height of the boat is visible.

But at this moment, a group of black-clothed guards suddenly appeared, took out a large can of tung oil in their hands, and poured it down along the iron chain.

No one reacted at this moment, because of the slippery reason, those pirates seemed to have no chance to react, and half of them fell directly.

Then the burning torches gushed out and burned down along the tung oil, and suddenly the sea was on fire wantonly!
The merchant ship did not neglect, it started directly, unbiased, and rushed towards the fleet of the Yangzhou navy, as if it had no intention of docking at all, the navy was also taken aback, but he did not let go reason.

The merchant ship escaped from the fire, but Xia Qifei suffered disaster here. They never expected that the three ships would disappear in such a simple situation.

In desperation, Xia Qifei immediately ordered the pursuit.

Of course, the merchant ship couldn't outrun the hexaplanes and triplanes, and within a few nautical miles, they had already chased them up. The pirates pulled the hooks and tried to climb up, but the fifty guards above directly started to draw bows and shoot arrows. .

The water pirates here are not vegetarians either, since they want to fight like this, then they will fight to the end.

Dozens of tung oil barrels were also brought out. According to Xia Qifei's intention, if the other party stubbornly resisted, they would burn down the bottom warehouse first.

Wait for the boat to come down slowly, and when the time comes, the iron chain will be connected, and more than a dozen boats will be clamped at the same time, so that they don't drown.

But obviously the merchant ship did not give them such an opportunity.

Just as the tung oil spread out from the sea and surrounded the merchant ship, a voice sounded from behind.

"Stop it! Stop it! Commander Xia! Stop it!" The shout came from the Yangzhou Navy, and the captain among them shouted loudly.

Xia Qifei sneered, "Don't worry about these chores, be careful when I get angry and bury your sailor here!"

"Stop talking!" the captain yelled, "Take a look behind you!"

Xia Qifei turned his head to look.

More than [-] mighty Jiangnan Navy warships drove directly over, and many people stood on top of the leading fleet, among them were the generals and deputy commanders of the nine admirals of the Jiangnan Navy.

On the side, Xia Qifei knew the clothes of those people no matter how stupid he was.

If he is said to be the person who frightens the people in Jiangnan, then those people are the existences who make the people in the whole world frightened.

Cold night flying fish robe, Overwatch Council!
(End of this chapter)