Late Ming sea owl

Chapter 318: The Cunning Huang Mingzuo

On the seventh day of March, after Li Zhongguo completed the mobilization of his leaders, Lin Hai ordered the joint fleet to leave Lantau Island in an orderly manner.

Two days ago, He Rubin led his troops to Nantoucheng, the Haiphong Department's headquarters, to deal with the remnants of Li Meiyu who had abandoned their ship and gone ashore. Shi Shude, the Guangdong Haidao, had also received a message and returned to his own headquarters from Dapeng Station.

Lin Hai asked He Rubin to take away all the boats that were powered solely by oars, including captured enemy ships and warships of Li Zhongguo's troops, all of which were counted as spoils of war captured in this battle.

After all, it is a 1,600-mile journey from the Pearl River Estuary to Yazhou Yulin Port. If we take these boats without sails, it will take an indefinite amount of time to get there.

Fortunately, a large number of sailboats and galleys were captured in the battle of Jishuimen, enough to accommodate Li Zhongguo's 3,000 troops and their families.

After leaving Tai O, the joint fleet split into two parts. Zheng Tingqiu led most of the ships of Huiyou Company to return via the Tai Ho waterway, while Lin Hai led the rest of the people westward to Haojing.

On the same day, Li Kuiqi, who was in Haojing, also contacted his adopted son Li Meiyu. He was surprised to find that after this great defeat, he still had 3,000 remnants.

"Second brother, let's set off now to meet Mei Yu." Li Kuiqi was very excited after hearing the news. He had already gathered the remnants of the soldiers who escaped from the Atlantis Channel, and now he still had five large ships.

"Brother, we don't have enough boats!" Chen Shengyu stopped the confused Li Kuiqi in time, "Master Meiyu doesn't have a single boat right now. If we lose the battle with the Guangdong soldiers, we won't even have a way to retreat!"

"Aren't there still five boats?"

"How can five boats hold three thousand people? Lin Hai is too strong. It's understandable for us to leave the brothers behind and go first. But if we fight with the Guangdong soldiers and officers and soldiers and do the same again, how can you convince the others in the future, big brother?"

"You're right." Li Kuiqi quickly calmed down. "Then what do you think we should do? Buy a few more big ships? Anyway, we still have plenty of silver in our hands."

"I'm afraid we won't be able to buy a suitable boat for a while, which will delay things." Chen Shengyu continued, "I think it's better to borrow a few boats from Mr. Huang. After all, the young master of the Huang family is still in our hands."

"Haha, you are worthy of being called Second Brother. Go and call that old monk over to me." Li Kuiqi was in a good mood. He lived not far from Huang Mingzuo, so he immediately asked Chen Shengyu to go and get someone.

As a result, not long after Chen Shengyu left, he returned with Huang Mingzuo in a monk's robe. It turned out that this old man had developed spies around Li Kuiqi, and he got the news as soon as possible and hurried to see Li Kuiqi.

"Old man, how come you are here so quickly?" After Li Kuiqi calmed down, his IQ returned and he immediately became alert.

"Isn't this a coincidence? I was just about to visit Mr. Li and happened to run into Mr. Chen... I already know the whole story. It's not difficult for you to borrow the boat. You just need to agree to one condition of mine."

Huang Mingzuo was willing to take the risk of exposing his spies to meet Li Kuiqi as soon as possible, for fear that Li Kuiqi would run away after learning the news about Li Meiyu. However, he lied and said that he got the news from Chen Shengyu.

This old man has had quite a lot of experiences in recent months. Before the Battle of Xiamen, he took out the certificate of ordination he had prepared long ago, shaved his head and became a monk, and quickly transferred his family, floating wealth and merchant ships from Wuyu to Haojing by water.

Afterwards, Huang Mingzuo went to Jinhua Lutian Temple alone to meet Zhu Dadian, the former Fujian sea governor who was in mourning at home. The reason why he went to see Zhu Dadian was because the old man did not want to give up his business. Huang Mingzuo's foundation was in the Fujian officialdom. He was well versed in the way of the cunning rabbit having three burrows, and knew that the officialdom was treacherous, so he prepared a way out for himself early on.

In addition to Huang Hexing, Huang Mingzuo secretly controlled another foreign company, called Jin Shengming. The general manager of this company was his distant cousin, but he changed his surname from Huang to Jin in the early years. The household registration and road permits were all fake, and he had no relationship with his Huang family on the surface.

Jin Shengming's overseas channels were all controlled by Huang Mingzuo himself, so he was not afraid that this distant nephew would betray him. In this way, when he needed to escape, he only had to reluctantly give up Huang Hexing and continue his overseas trade.

Of course, he also needed to find a new umbrella of protection in the officialdom, so the first thing he did was to find Zhu Dadian, whose period of mourning was about to end.

Zhu Dadian had received a lot of benefits from Huang Hexing in the past, and he was very ambitious and needed a sponsor like Huang Mingzuo to pave the way for his career. So after understanding the whole story, he not only did not expose Huang Mingzuo, but promised to protect Jin Shengming in the future.

After dealing with Zhu Dadian, Huang Mingzuo immediately came to Haojing, trying to find a way to save his only son from Li Kuiqi...

When Li Kuiqi heard Huang Mingzuo negotiating with him, he knew that he must be asking him to release the son of the Huang family, so he refused directly and said, "Old lord, your son is living comfortably here with me and doesn't want to come back to you. How about asking him to come and talk to you in person?"

The life of the young master of the Huang family is in Li Kuiqi's hands. The latter can make him whole or flatten him as he pleases...

Li Kuiqi had played the same trick several times before, so Huang Mingzuo naturally didn't believe his lies. Hearing this, he angrily said, "Li Kuiqi, you are so unreasonable! I have always treated you well, and now I have taken the initiative to lend you a boat. Why do you have to play tricks on me like this?"

The old man was so excited that he forgot to call himself a poor monk. Li Kuiqi was still pretending to be stupid: "Old man, I have always been very respectful to you. Where did you get this from?"

Huang Mingzuo was extremely angry, but he had no way to deal with Li Kuiqi, a scoundrel. He forced himself to calm down and continued to reason with him, "Donor Li, why are you holding on to my son? After the Battle of Xiamen, most of my Huang family's sailors have dispersed. Now I only have a few people who can sail. I need you to sell goods for me. Are you afraid that I won't cooperate with you?"

Seeing that he had said so much, Li Kuiqi also said bluntly, "Your son is not allowed to see the light of day now. He has been well fed and well-fed here, and there are several beauties serving him. Why are you in such a hurry to let him go back?"

Chen Shengyu also advised: "Old man, it's easy for you to find a sea merchant to sell goods, but it's too difficult for us to find a good source of goods. My eldest brother has thousands of people to support, so we have to keep some of them. You can relax, your son will never suffer any grievances on our ship."

When Huang Mingzuo heard that Chen Shengyu, who had taken his money, said this, he knew that he would not be able to get the person today, and Li Kuiqi was about to leave Haojing. It seemed that it was time to use his last trick.

"Since you two say so, then that's it..." Huang Mingzuo sighed and continued, "Now you and I are one family, and Lin Hai is our common enemy. I have a plan to get rid of that dog official named Lin. I wonder if Mr. Li is willing to listen to it?"

This sentence hit Li Kuiqi's weak spot. He stood up and said, "Old official, what's your plan? If you can really get rid of Lin Gouguan, I am willing to worship you as my foster father and return your son immediately."

Huang Mingzuo uttered four words slowly: "Join hands with the red-haired people!"

(End of this chapter)