prosperous age

Chapter 1026 1117 Nervous Baker

"Dacheng, you are in charge of the barracks. Make sure the other sentries stay in the barracks and don't let them come out."

"Don't worry, big brother. I will keep a good eye on the camp and will never let them come out to delay our important matter."

In a wooden house inside the north gate of Daimao City, Lin Fengchun, Xu Yingmei and four others gathered here again to arrange important events for the evening.

"I went to the boss' place this morning, and they were still discussing how to break out."

Lin Fengchun spoke again.

"We're surrounded like this, and we don't even have our boats anymore. Do you still want to break out?"

Yan Youqian asked in surprise, "Shouldn't we consider how to fight a decisive battle at this time? Although the chances of winning are slim, it is better than continuing like this."

"The boss plans to break out to the east, first to the interior of Luzon Island, and if that doesn't work, then he will go to the east coast to get a ship and find a way to return to Ming.

Once we get to Ming, it won’t be difficult to get some ships.”

Lin Fengchun spoke.

Although they were despised for being pirates, in the Ming Dynasty, the maritime merchants all had more or less connections and friendships with them.

Apart from anything else, their merchant ships sailing on the sea could be targeted by pirates.

As long as they have a good relationship with each other, they generally won't take action against them.

To put it bluntly, if you can get some free money without risking your life, why not do it?

As for cases of black-eating black, it does happen, but you can only blame yourself for your bad luck.

However, big pirates generally have some credibility, and as long as they receive money for safety, they will not attack their ships.

That is to say, some small pirates do not follow the rules very much, but these pirates may not necessarily win when they rob a ship.

There are few simple people who go out to sea. There are many desperate criminals on the ship, and there are also cases of people being killed in return.

With these connections, if Lin Feng could really escape, it would not be a delusion to return to the Ming Dynasty and regroup.

Of course, the prerequisite is that he has people under him.

As I said before, on the sea, strength is everything, and only those with big fists are qualified to continue to order people around.

"No wonder there are other people's soldiers on the city walls now, and his own are guarding around his mansion."

Yan Youqian sneered, "He should have made up his mind to preserve his strength from the beginning, and he wanted to take this opportunity to weaken our strength."

"Okay, what he is planning has nothing to do with us. Before nightfall tonight, all the families of all people must be quietly handed over to North City for settlement. Youqian, you have to do this well, otherwise the brothers below will have some opinions."

Lin Fengchun continued to assign tasks and said to Yan Youqian.

"Don't worry, big brother. I have already made all the arrangements in the past few days. They will come to North City from time to time, and I will let them go back to their residence very late. Nothing will go wrong."

Yan Youqian laughed hurriedly.

"Tonight, Ying Mei and I will lead the patrol of the city. You will watch for any movement. The tokens we discussed earlier should be hung out immediately after any movement is heard, to avoid accidental injuries to the Ming army."

Lin Fengchun reminded Yan Youqian and Wu Dacheng again that the Ming army had told them how to avoid being attacked by the Ming army. That was to hang a red cloth in front of the camp gate or the courtyard gate. The Ming army would not attack when they saw the red cloth.

Of course, the doors of these places must be closed and no people are allowed to move around, otherwise they will be killed without mercy.

After all, if they were not in the house at night, they might be pirates helping Lin Feng to resist. The Ming army would definitely not show mercy to these people.

Being able to get here must be related to the pirate group in some way, otherwise he would not have followed Lin Feng here.

"I just hope the Ming army can keep its promise."

Yan Youqian only said in a low voice.

Although the voice was small, everyone in the room could hear it clearly. Xu Yingmei and Wu Dacheng both lowered their heads.

Now they are just gambling that the Ming army will keep its promise.

"It should still be credible. The Ming army outside the city is the subordinate of Yu Dayou, the commander of the South China Sea Navy. We may not trust other Ming generals, but Yu Dayou is a man of his words. He also recruited several Japanese pirates and was not beheaded in the end.

Some who are familiar with the sea were even called into the navy to serve as officers.”

Seeing that everyone was in a low mood, Lin Fengchun immediately spoke.

"If they weren't Yu Dayou's men, I wouldn't have agreed when Big Brother first proposed it."

Yan Youqian opened his mouth to explain. He was not a thoughtless person. He was very clear about the Ming Dynasty's attitude towards the Japanese pirates, so naturally he would treat each case differently depending on the person.

Yu Dayou and Qi Jiguang were very famous in the southeast back then. Now that Qi Jiguang has been transferred, Yu Dayou has become the patron saint of the people in the southeast, and his reputation has naturally spread to the ears of the pirates.

Pirates naturally need to find out more about their opponents.

After all, when Yu Dayou became famous, most of these people were just ordinary people and had not yet become bandits.

Therefore, the person who knows you best is often your opponent.

In the past few years, Yu Dayou has been in charge of the anti-Japanese war since he returned to the southeast, and has destroyed several relatively powerful forces. The Lin Feng pirate group was not outstanding before, but it emerged after everyone else was wiped out and became the largest pirate group on the sea.

Such strength naturally attracted other small pirate groups to join them for self-protection. In this bad period, sticking together for warmth is a good idea.

In this way, the pirate group led by Lin Feng naturally became the target of elimination by the Ming Dynasty government.

Therefore, whether you are strong or not depends entirely on the support from your peers. If there is no one around you who can fight you, you will become the one who stands out.

As the sky gradually darkened, Lin Fengchun and others in the city had already begun to prepare.

Standing on the top of the city wall, Lin Fengchun couldn't help but sigh as he watched the soldiers who had just been relieved from their posts line up in a loose formation and walk towards the military camp under the leadership of Wu Dacheng.

Although surrendering to the government was a move away from darkness and joining the light, everyone was worried and didn't know what the future would hold.

Moreover, the rebel pirate group is actually considered a traitor, and even in this day and age, their character is questioned.

No one will treat them well or think they are good people just because they surrender to the government.

However, the arrow has been put on the string and has to be shot. Now that it has come to this, they can no longer turn back.

"Brother, what are you doing?"

Yan Youqian couldn't help but ask when he heard a sigh behind him.

Lin Fengchun simply pointed at his men below the city and said, "Look at these people, their morale is nowhere to be seen.

If we don’t make a decision today, I’m afraid they will make their own choice tomorrow.”

"Brother, everyone in the city is like this now. We have been surrounded in the city for more than a month. How can we have morale? Everyone is just muddling through the rest of the time."

Yan Youqian understood that the morale of the defenders in the city was low.

If it were on the sea, this would never happen. Everyone would just hope to encounter a passing merchant ship and rush up to rob it.

But now they are surrounded in Daimao City, and they all know that it is a dead end, so naturally they have lost their fighting spirit.

"If we wait a few more days and the city can't get any more food and grass, I'm afraid Boss Lin will ask us to leave the city and fight the Ming army."

Lin Fengchun said in a low voice.

"Why?"

Yan Youqian asked in surprise.

"Let's attract the attention of the government troops outside the city so that he can run away with his men." Lin Fengchun whispered, "I noticed these two days that many of the people originally assigned to the city walls have been replaced, and his trusted aides have all been transferred back.

As long as there is no food in the city, what choice will he make? Being trapped in an isolated city with no reinforcements, plus what he said before about breaking out, you can figure it out by combining the two. "

"Fortunately, we are guarding the north gate, and the Ming army is outside."

Yan Youqian said with some relief: "Outside the other city gates are all barbarians, I'm afraid it will be even more difficult to communicate."

Soon, the soldiers who were on duty left and the sky became darker. Lin Fengchun ordered torches to be lit, then turned back and said to Yan Youqian, "Hurry up and sort things out over there to see if there are any missing people."

While the city was making orderly preparations, the Ming army camp outside the city had already quietly taken action.

In the past few days, Yu Dayou has drawn nearly a thousand soldiers from various ships of the South China Sea Navy to form a team of 1,200 people as the main force to break the city, and there are also 3,000 people selected from the Sulu army.

The reason why the Luzon islanders were not chosen was because they were just a group of rabble and lacked fighting power.

Although the fighting power of the Sulu soldiers was not much stronger, they were still an army after all and had received certain training. They were able to obey orders when following the Ming army into the city.

He has been very busy during the preparations these days.

Because they were worried that the barbarians would discover that the Ming army reinforcements had arrived, they were still hiding and had not informed the barbarians.

The warships of the South China Sea Navy naturally did not enter the bay to dock. Instead, small boats gathered the withdrawn soldiers onto several ships and then transported them into the bay for landing.

Because he was worried that foreign ships might enter the bay and it had been difficult to quickly capture the Daimao City before, Deng Zilong also ordered a batch of food from the city of Manila.

If the reinforcement ships were sent into the bay and happened to be encountered by the barbarian transport ships, wouldn't the news be leaked?

Because of the sweet potato embargo, both Yu Dayou and Deng Zilong had already felt the hostility from the barbarians.

In the Ming army's central military tent, the main generals of the South China Sea Navy gathered here, waiting for Yu Dayou's orders, including the Sulu King Baker.

The Ming reinforcements arrived, and such a big thing naturally could not be hidden from him, not to mention that his troops had to be drawn into the city to fight.

After Baker learned that the admiral of the Ming Navy had arrived in Luzon, he rushed to pay his respects as soon as possible.

A small country is still a small country after all. Although he enjoys the treatment of a prince in the Ming Dynasty, those are all courtesies given by the Ming Dynasty, and it does not mean that he is really a prince of the Ming Dynasty.

These two days, he almost stuck to Yu Dayou and tried his best to please him.

Yu Dayou also knew that his behavior was for the sake of his country.

The Sulu Kingdom continues to maintain the current situation, believing that once the follow-up forces of the barbarians arrive, they will definitely take action against them.

Just like what happened to Luzon, the country was destroyed directly.

"Admiral, the troops have already started cooking, and the supplies needed for tonight's night battle have been prepared."

One of his deputy generals came forward to report that he was one of the main generals in this siege, and the other one was naturally Deng Zilong.

No one else can take away this credit.

"Well, very good. Restrain your men and take a rest after dinner to gather your strength and prepare to capture the city tonight."

Hearing his subordinates report that everything was ready, Yu Dayou just nodded and gave an order.

His subordinates are all experienced generals who have participated in the suppression of Japanese pirates in the Ming Dynasty before. They are rich in combat experience and do not require him to interfere too much. He can just let them do what they want.

However, after he finished speaking, his brows were still furrowed, as if he was still thinking about something.

"My Lord, is there anything else that is troubling you?"

Deng Zilong on the side asked in a low voice with concern.

He didn't know what Yu Dayou was thinking, but he still wanted to ask. If there was something wrong with their arrangement, there was still time to correct it.

"I'm thinking about tomorrow."

Yu Dayou shook his head and said, "The chances of successfully capturing the city tonight are very high. As long as we start the action, we can send a message to the barbarians according to the previous agreement and ask them to strictly guard the defense line outside the city to prevent Lin Feng from escaping.

But my Ming Dynasty has exclusive control over Daimao City, and tomorrow the Baitian Yi people will definitely ask to enter the city."

As he spoke, Yu Dayou tapped the table lightly with his fingers, as if he was calculating something.

Deng Zilong knew that Yu Dayou was considering how to respond tomorrow. He would never hand over the city to the barbarians, but he had to have a way to respond.

"My lord, what you mean is"

Deng Zilong asked carefully.

"Tomorrow morning, the navy will enter Pengaslan Bay. What do you think?"

Yu Dayou said directly, and it was obvious that this was what he had been thinking about before.

Deng Zilong also roughly guessed Yu Dayou's thoughts. If he didn't fight with the barbarians, he could only use force to suppress them.

When the barbarians wanted to enter Daimao City, the Ming Dynasty would definitely refuse, and then the appearance of the navy fleet would surely give the barbarians a great shock.

At this juncture, the barbarians would certainly not dare to ask to enter Daimao City again.

Don't break up right away. As for the rest of the matter, we can talk about it slowly.

While the two were communicating, the King of Sulu looked at them with curiosity.

Although I have been studying Chinese hard these days, the two people spoke in very low voices, so I couldn't understand them.

I glanced at the Chinese teacher who came behind me, and found that he was a Han Chinese who fled to Southeast Asia during the previous dynasty.

He turned around and asked a few questions in a low voice, and the Chinese teacher kept talking in his ear.

Although the two did not mention the garrison in Luzon during their conversation, Baker still heard that the Ming army wanted to occupy Daimao City alone.

However, when he learned the news, he felt no surprise but shock.

The Ming army wanted to stay in Luzon. Could it be that they wanted to learn from the barbarians and grab territory in Southeast Asia?

People in different positions naturally think differently.

Although Baker showed his obedience to the Ming Dynasty in every way, if the Ming Dynasty really wanted to annex his country, Baker would naturally not surrender and would fight for his life.

At this moment, he felt completely unwell.

He pulled the Chinese teacher's sleeve and said a few words to Yu Dayou.

At this time, he didn't care about the impoliteness of interrupting the communication between Yu Dayou and Deng Zilong.

He must figure out whether the Ming Dynasty is interested in the Southeast Asian countries.

Neither Yu nor Deng noticed Baker's actions before, but at this time, Baker's words reached Yu Dayou's ears through the translator.

"King Baker, the Ming Dynasty has not changed its attitude towards the Nanyang vassal states.

As for your question about the Daimao City and the garrison in Luzon, I can answer you here that the Ming Dynasty will station troops in Luzon."

Baker directly asked whether the Ming Dynasty had any ideas about Luzon, and Yu Dayou gave a direct answer.

"We stationed troops in Luzon only because the barbarians came here, and there is no other reason."

Yu Dayou blamed the barbarians for the reason of Ming Dynasty's garrison, and he did not have the slightest awareness of lying, and he did it without blushing or feeling nervous.