prosperous age

Chapter 1025 1116 The Army Arrives

"Sir, do you really trust Lin Fengchun and the others?"

In the Ming army camp north of Daimao City on Luzon Island, in the central military tent, Wang Wanggao, Lin Baihu and several other generals were discussing important matters with Deng Zilong.

After several days of secret contact, Deng Zilong was more convinced that Lin Fengchun, Yan Youqian and others had truly surrendered and wanted to exchange for a chance to save their lives.

Moreover, Lin Fengchun had already persuaded several leaders in the north of the city, so they could so unscrupulously deliver letters via arrows.

However, Deng Zilong believed it, but several of his generals were concerned, fearing that it was a false surrender.

"In the current situation, do you think Lin Fengchun and his men have any other way to survive except surrendering?"

Deng Zilong said calmly, “The question we need to consider now is whether we need to tell the barbarians about our invasion of the city.

With only a few thousand of us now, we always feel that our military strength is still a little insufficient.

Although there are only two or three thousand soldiers in the city, we don’t have many troops with real combat effectiveness. As for the recruited soldiers, they are good at waving flags and shouting, but they are really bad at marching and fighting. "

During this period, Deng Zilong also observed the vassal army recruited by himself and the barbarians. His overall impression was that they had poor discipline and could not be considered an army at all.

Deng Zilong was not sure whether he could defeat Lin Feng's remaining pirate force by rushing into Daimao City with such an army.

Unless the message is passed to the barbarians, after the Ming army breaks through the north gate, they will seize the east gate as soon as possible and let the barbarians lead their troops to attack.

But the same thing goes, Deng Zilong wants to monopolize Daimao City and doesn't want the barbarians to get involved.

"Sir, urgent military information, the Marshal has arrived with the navy."

While the discussion was still going on in the military tent, the tent door curtain was opened and a figure rushed in.

The man who came was a centurion who was out on patrol today. He was patrolling north of Luzon with two ships. One was to guard against any foreign fleet making small moves behind them, and the other was to contact the navy fleet.

You know, although Luzon Island is not very big, it still takes a lot of time to find them, especially now that they have set up the pier in a bay.

So instead of waiting for the navy to come and look for them, it is better to send out a fleet to take the initiative to respond.

After waiting for so long, news from the navy finally came. Deng Zilong stood up immediately after hearing the news.

"Admiral, you have come at the perfect time. That's great."

Deng Zilong smashed his left fist into his right fist and shouted.

"Haha, the Marshal has finally arrived. Our problem of insufficient troops has been solved."

Wang Wanggao also shouted excitedly at this time.

With the addition of the South China Sea Navy, their previous concerns can be said to have disappeared.

By drawing soldiers from various ships of the navy, they could easily gather more than a thousand people, and they also carried a large number of firearms. Even if Lin Feng organized the pirates to resist stubbornly in the city, in the end it would be like a mantis trying to stop a chariot, and they would not be able to overcome their own strengths.

Just as everyone in the room was discussing enthusiastically with delighted expressions, Deng Zilong looked at the centurion and asked, "Has the admiral arrived yet?"

"I encountered the Marshal's fleet. After I made contact with the vanguard, I sailed back to report the news and left a boat behind to lead the way. I think the Marshal will be here soon."

The centurion hurriedly clasped his fists and said.

"In that case, there is no need for us to discuss it. Let's go to the beach and wait for the admiral to come. Everything will be decided by the admiral."

Deng Zilong said with a smile.

"Yes, the Marshal has arrived at the right time."

"Go to the beach to greet them."

"Now that the Marshal is here, stealing the city will be more secure and there won't be any mistakes."

"I have the same worry. I'm afraid that this is a trap set by Lin Feng, and the soldiers were surrounded in the city. Now that the commander's troops have arrived, there is no need to worry about a shortage of troops.

If they dare to open the city gate, they will never be able to close it again."

The people below followed Deng Zilong towards the seaside pier, talking in low voices as they walked.

Soon, everyone arrived at the bay dock, but at this time the entire bay seemed unusually calm and there were no ships.

In fact, the Ming army now has fishing boats going out to sea to fish every day to replenish the food consumed in recent days.

However, these boats were brought by the locals, and they all sailed out to the bay to fish. Only those ships that were lucky enough to catch a large amount of seafood in advance would return early.

Seeing the empty dock, there were only a few Ming army warships docked here, and the entire bay was empty.

After finding a shade under a tree, Deng Zilong and his generals hid under it, and the soldiers brought them various fruits picked from the forest.

"This Luzon has so many fruits, except for the other ones."

Deng Zilong peeled a banana and ate it in big bites, then said to the generals.

"Yeah, I heard from the locals that if you have nothing to eat, just go for a walk in the woods and you'll always find something to eat, hehe."

"In fact, the land here is not bad. I heard that there are fertile fields cultivated by the Han people, which can grow three crops of rice a year. In Lingnan, there are only two crops."

"Why, do you want to cultivate some land here?"

"It's too far from Ming Dynasty, and it's hard to transport the output back."

Several people were talking in low voices about the fields in Luzon, but although it was good here, the journey was still a problem.

Although land development in Luzon produced output, it was indeed difficult to transport it back to Ming Dynasty.

If the transportation problem cannot be solved, even if the Ming Dynasty develops Luzon, the output here will hardly be truly used.

"You guys, since you can't get the land in your country, just look here, haha."

Deng Zilong just smiled and said something to them.

"Sir, you have never farmed before, so you don't know how fertile the land here is. It's even better than our land in western Guangdong."

"Your Excellency is from Jiangxi, so you should know."

Captain Lin spoke.

“Yes, although I am not good at farming, my family still has a few acres of land, and I can see the advantages of the land here.

As for what you said about the harvest grown here, it is difficult to transport it back to Ming Dynasty, do you plan to stay here?"

Deng Zilong smiled and asked casually.

"Of course not. It's ok to be here for a short time, but forget about being stationed here for a long time."

"I don't want to come here."

After hearing his words, someone quickly took over.

"What if we stay here for a year or two?"

Deng Zilong continued to ask.

"If it's two years, I can barely accept it."

Wang Wanggao next to him glanced at Deng Zilong and said something.

A few people chatted casually, waiting for the navy brigade to appear.

However, more than an hour later, the large number of warships they expected to see did not appear. Instead, six or seven warships sailed into the bay and headed towards the dock.

Leading the way, of course, was the familiar warship, a medium-sized Fujian ship that had come with Deng Zilong, but behind it, there were two large Fujian ships and other vessels.

"Here we go. Maybe they're worried that we can't moor a large number of ships here. The others are moored outside the bay."

Wang Wanggao saw the approaching ship and immediately spoke loudly.

Deng Zilong stood up and walked out of the shade of the trees and headed towards the pier.

Soon, the large Fu ship was steadily docked on the shore. The soldiers set up the gangplank and Yu Dayou appeared on the deck.

"Your humble servant greets the admiral." As Yu Dayou led his men off the boat, Deng Zilong immediately led all the generals in paying their respects.

"Everyone, get up. I've heard from Captain Zhou that you have joined forces with the barbarians to besiege Lin Feng. What's the situation now? When can you take over Daimao City?"

Yu Dayou waved his hand, signaling everyone to stand up, and then began to ask questions.

"Sir, this matter is a bit complicated. Please follow me to the camp and I will explain it in detail."

At this time, several warships had already docked, and people got off the ships one after another. Most of them were captains, deputy generals, or guerrillas of the South China Sea Navy.

After everyone came down and gathered at Yu Dayou's place, Yu Dayou said to Deng Zilong, "Lead the way ahead and send someone to settle the people on the boat."

"Don't worry, sir. We have prepared delicious food from Luzon. I guarantee that everyone will like it."

Deng Zilong laughed hurriedly.

“Is there any delicious food in Luzon?”

Yu Dayou asked casually.

"Yes, some fruits that we don't have in the Ming Dynasty, and sweet potatoes, which were planted by Lin Feng's people, but they are already ours..."

Deng Zilong said this as he led everyone away from the dock and walked towards the military camp.

"This is sweet potato. It tastes really good. It is indeed a little sweet and tastes good. Everyone should try it."

When they arrived at the Ming army camp, the layout of the central military tent had been changed, with many small tables placed on both sides, and everyone was sitting behind the small tables, which were filled with local dishes and fruits.

Yes, although they were on the battlefield, with the arrival of the Ming Dynasty’s South China Sea Navy, Deng Zilong was no longer worried about anything else, so he directly prepared a welcoming banquet to welcome Yu Dayou and others.

Yu Dayou invited Deng Zilong to sit next to him and asked in detail about the current situation of the Ming army.

"You said the King of Sulu has also joined the army?"

When Yu Dayou heard Deng Zilong say that they had actually gathered thousands of local troops in Luzon to participate in the siege of Daimao City, he was surprised and kept asking questions. Only then did he know that the main force recruited this time came from the Sulu Kingdom south of Luzon.

"Yes, sir. King Baker of Sulu received Captain Lin, whom I sent out to gather troops. He knew that the Ming Dynasty was suppressing pirates, so he sent soldiers to help.

However, King Bakr also wants to wait for our army to return and send him to Ming to meet His Majesty the Emperor."

Deng Zilong whispered what Baker wanted, "The reality is that the barbarians in Luzon seem to be eyeing Sulu as well. King Baker is worried that Sulu will follow the path of Luzon, so he wants to obtain protection from the Ming Dynasty."

"You went to see their governor. Do you think the barbarians have ambitions towards the Nanyang countries?"

After listening to Deng Zilong's introduction, Yu Dayou asked him expressionlessly about his opinion on the barbarians.

"Let's not talk about other things, but the fact that the barbarians banned the importation of sweet potatoes into the Ming Dynasty shows their evil ambitions."

Deng Zilong replied in a low voice: "As far as I know, sweet potatoes are highly adaptable and can be grown in many places with a good yield.

The barbarians seem to have no restrictions on the spread of sweet potatoes in the Southeast Asian countries, but have banned their introduction into the Ming Dynasty. This really makes me suspect there is another conspiracy.'

“Does Sulu have sweet potatoes?”

Yu Dayou asked with a slight frown.

"The King of Sulu once bought sweet potatoes, but the price was quite high. They didn't know how to grow them, so they never planted them."

Deng Zilong answered immediately.

"Is this sweet potato easy to store? I mean, how long can it last?"

Yu Dayou asked again.

"I don't know about that. I don't think so."

Sweet potatoes were still a novelty to the Ming Dynasty at that time, so naturally people knew very little about them.

In fact, even if Wei Guangde came here, he would not be able to explain it, because he did not understand the technology in this area.

The reason why everyone who traveled through the Ming and Qing dynasties knew about sweet potatoes and knew that sweet potatoes could save the country was actually all due to the Kangxi and Qianlong eras a hundred years later, also known as the Sweet Potato Era.

Due to the large-scale promotion of sweet potato cultivation, China's grain output at that time increased significantly, feeding hundreds of millions of people and causing China's population to explode.

Although the heyday of sweet potatoes is somewhat ironic, it is also an indisputable fact.

In fact, if the Ming Dynasty had been able to obtain sweet potatoes in advance and promote their cultivation on a large scale, perhaps the widespread peasant uprising in the north at the end of the Ming Dynasty would not have broken out.

After all, the Chinese people are simple and honest, and no one would take the path of rebellion if they have a chance to survive.

“If the sweet potatoes are to be sold at a high price, then they must be safely transported to Ming.

And according to what you said, as long as there are raw sweet potatoes, they can be planted directly, and they can't prohibit the Ming Dynasty from spreading sweet potatoes."

Yu Dayou couldn't understand the reason for the ban on the barbarians, and didn't know how to talk about it.

"By the way, sir, in the past few days, leaders such as Lin Fengchun and Yan Youqian, who are under Lin Feng's command in Daimao City, have contacted our army privately, wanting to open the city and surrender."

Deng Zilong knew that it was not a good idea to continue the topic of sweet potatoes, so he talked to Yu Dayou about their current situation.

"What conditions did they offer?"

Yu Dayou was not surprised that some people in the pirate group wanted to surrender. In a dead city surrounded by enemies, continuing to follow Lin Feng would only lead to death.

"To stay alive, they want to be pardoned by the court."

As soon as Deng Zilong said this, he felt Yu Dayou's expression in front of him become serious.

"You agreed?"

"Without the imperial court's order, I would never dare to agree to such a thing."

Deng Zilong expressed his opinion immediately.

"You are not confused yet. Hu Zongxian was impeached by the censor because of this.

If the court had not remembered his contribution in suppressing the Japanese, he would have been imprisoned and sentenced to death."

Yu Dayou said, "What do they say now?"

Deng Zilong waved his hand to call the personal soldier behind him and asked him to take out a box from under the desk next to him and hand it over.

"Sir, these are the letters sent from the city these days."

Deng Zilong handed the box to Yu Dayou with both hands and continued in a low voice: "They may also know their life and death. The power is not in my hands, so I only ask this general to report the truth to the court and plead for them."

Yu Dayou said nothing, but opened the wooden box, took out the letter and read it carefully.

After a while, Yu Dayou, who had finished reading the letter, put it back into the box. He lowered his head and thought for a while before saying, "It seems that they are reasonable people and have not raised any unreasonable expectations."

"Sir, I just found out that before you arrived, we were still discussing whether they were really willing to surrender."

Deng Zilong said in a low voice.

"It should be true. If it was a false surrender, he would definitely ask for a meeting with you.

These people are used to the trick of capturing the thief and the king."

Yu Dayou analyzed.

In fact, whether they were Japanese pirates or pirates, their overall strength was not strong, but they posed a huge threat to the Ming Dynasty. In addition to their secret whereabouts, "beheading" was also their usual tactic.

The raid was aimed directly at the local chief official, and if successful it would leave the local government leaderless.

This method was not only used on the battlefield to kill the main generals of the Ming army, but was also used in the offensive and defensive battles in prefectures and counties.

"Contact them and confirm the time for the surrender of the city. I will allocate a thousand soldiers to participate in the attack on the city."

Yu Dayou said finally.