Late Tang

When the fleet entered the port, a row of nine lanterns was hoisted up on the watchtower of the first [-] stone ship, and nine lanterns were also hung on a lighthouse on the side of Shimen Wharf.

On the deck of the ship, a burly man was leaning on a two-handed sword, wearing a green round-neck robe, black leather boots on his feet, and a veil on his head.There would have been something of a libertine in his appearance were it not for the black patch over one eye.

"The people on the pier are our own people, signal light, and the fleet enters the port and lands!"

The person at Shikou Wharf was Wang Jin's family leader, Wang Fu, and it was he who had gone to Liaodong Duli Town to contact Cyclopedic Jiao earlier.However, after he contacted the Cyclopedic Jiao, he returned to Dengzhou first, and sneaked into Salmonella Island with a few people.Shikou Wharf is still under the secret control of the Wang family at this time. Since Li Jing took over Shamen Town, he has been busy building the city and training troops, and has not come in time to take over the wharf.

Hearing that the Cyclops' fleet had arrived, Wang Fu rushed to the pier to greet them in person.

Wang Fu was very surprised when he saw that Cyclops had brought ten boats this time, and there were also three big boats of [-] shi.

"Master Zheng brought so many boats, how many people did they carry?"

One-eyed Jiao's surname is Zheng, he is only around forty years old, and he is at the prime of his life.But at the beginning, he abandoned his post and plundered Dengzhou to be free and easy on the sea, until Wang Jin's navy destroyed his fleet and shot him blind in one eye with an arrow, he became more restrained.In these years, although he has risen again, he always has a kind face on the surface. No matter who sees him, it is hard to believe that he is the one-eyed jiao Zheng Balang who roams across the Liaohai Sea.

Zheng Balang chuckled, "How dare I not do my best for the prince's dispatch? I heard you said earlier that although Li Jing's soldiers were recruited by the group, they still have a lot of troops. If he fights desperately, two to three thousand soldiers It is also very troublesome to pack up. This thing is not visible, and we only have one night. For the sake of safety, this time, I brought half of my men and horses, 3000 seagoing ships, except for the sailors. Besides the boatman, there are a thousand brothers."

While the two were talking, the fleet docked one after another, the bridge decks were lowered piece by piece, and the pirates began to disembark.Looking at the pirates who got off the boat, Wang Fu couldn't help but wonder inwardly.Although these thousand pirates are all dressed in various styles and colors, some even wear women's dresses directly.But with his experienced eyes, he could see at a glance that these people were real desperadoes.These people are basically young and strong at the right age, and their gestures are full of unruly and sturdy taste.

Wang Fu was taken aback, Zheng Balang was also an official in the Dengzhou Navy with him at the beginning, and later Zheng Balang committed a crime and fled to sea to become a pirate.A few years later, he gained a great reputation. When he followed Wang Jin and led the navy to encircle and suppress Zheng Balang, he easily wiped out the team he had built up in a few years in just one battle.Later, Zheng Balang became Wang Jin's dog, and he took his life.He didn't expect that in just a few short years, Zheng Balang would train such a sturdy team without making a sound.

Although there have been some rumors of the one-eyed dragon in Liaohai in the past few years, he and Wang Jin didn't take it seriously, thinking that it was just as vulnerable as when they were in Dengzhou.But now, after seeing these pirates with his own eyes, Wang Fu knew that he was wrong, this pirate was totally different from the original one.The servants he brought with him are the elite among the elite that Wang Jin's subordinates spent countless money to pile up, but compared with these pirates, the equipment is much better, but there is always a little less desperation and tough temperament. .

Wang Fu carefully looked at these pirates, number one thousand pirates, not many of them were wearing armor, only those leaders were wearing iron armor, about [-]% of the rest were wearing leather armor, and the rest were not wearing armor at all.The weapons that the pirates carry are also relatively miscellaneous. They are basically short weapons, with horizontal knives and round shields being the most, accounting for half of them.Many of the rest were holding long forks, and some were holding long knives, spears, and hammers.

But what surprised him more was not these, but that these pirates actually possessed a large number of bows and arrows.He found that basically every pirate leader carried a bow, and the ratio of those pirate minions equipped with bows and arrows was also very high, basically half of the pirates were equipped with bows and arrows.In addition to bows and arrows, they actually have nearly a hundred individual crossbows.

This force is too powerful, according to what Zheng Balang said, this is only half of his force.How powerful is that with all his troops added up?Wang Jin's Dengzhou navy has only one thousand soldiers and a dozen ships, and Zheng Balang's strength has far surpassed that of the Dengzhou navy.Wang Fu secretly warned in his heart that he must report to the general when he returned to Dengzhou. He had to find a way to get rid of Zheng Balang and replace him with someone else to manage the army.It is not a good thing to raise a tiger, and the dog is stronger than the owner.

The one-eyed jiao didn't know that his intention to show his strength to Wang Jin had aroused Wang Fu's vigilance and murderous intent.He pointed proudly at the pirates who were lining up and said: "With these brothers here, the world can do anything. Didn't you hear that Li Jing is good at training soldiers? This time I want to see if he trains." The army is strong, but my brother is brave. When the castle is broken, all property in the city will belong to General Wang, and I just need to take all those people from Li Jing on the island away."

Wang Fu knew what Cyclops meant by taking them away. It meant taking them to Liaodong and selling them as slaves to the Khitan or Bohai people, or even the Goguryeo people who had already destroyed the country in Liaodong.Liaodong is vast and sparsely populated, and all ethnic groups are in desperate need of manpower. The slave trade is a very hot business.Transport thousands of people on the island to Liaodong, and you can sell them for a lot of money in a blink of an eye.This business is more profitable than selling horses, grain, and salt.No wonder Cyclops drove eighteen ships all at once, and there were three large ships that could hold 800 people, so it turned out that the idea had been made long ago.

"Li Jing has to leave it to me, and the rest of the people, after selling, they will be [-]% off, and you will be three of my generals."

One-eyed jiao laughed loudly, nodded in agreement, but when he turned around, his face darkened, and a trace of displeasure flashed in his eyes.

Wang Fu saw the expression in his eyes, but pretended not to see it, first he smiled for a while, and then said: "Come, I will introduce some friends to Master Zheng."

He introduced the people behind him one by one, but they were the two captains of Wang Jin's family in Dingdu, and the other was a steward who had been arranged by Wang's family on Shamen Island.

Zheng Balang just snorted at the two housekeepers as he had seen him before, but after hearing the introduction from the steward Zhang An, he nodded and said, "Has steward Zhang been on this island all this time?"

Zhang An nodded: "I have been on Salmon Island for five years, and I have been in charge of the Shikou Wharf. I know Salmon Island very well, but the Zheng family can rest assured that no one on the island knows that I am from the Wang family."

Zheng Balang said: "Since you are so familiar with Salmon Island, how can we take it?"

He waved while talking, and immediately a few pirates came over. Those pirates were dressed as literati, as if they were his staff.Several people spread out a map on the pier, which was the map of Salmonella Island.This map was also given to him by Wang Fu before, and the docks, castles, etc. are marked in great detail.

Several people gathered around the map, Zheng Balang pointed to the map and said: "Although Salmon Island is not big, it has three mountains and four docks, and there are four dock villages, two exile villages in the south and one north. At the foot of Phoenix Mountain in the middle is the original garrison. Li Jing is entrenched in the garrison now. I asked about this garrison. Although it is broken, it has four complete walls. It will be very large."

Zhang An pointed to the map and said with a smile: "What Mr. Zheng said is outdated news, then Li Jing started to toss non-stop as soon as he arrived on the island. He just recruited craftsmen a few days ago and is building a new city. The original east wall It’s almost the same as the southern wall city.”

Wang Fu's eyes lit up: "Then we will go around the west gate and enter the city from the east or south gate. As long as we can enter the city, no matter how many Li Jing's people are, they are just a group of newly recruited farmers. With the thousand brothers of Zheng's family, it doesn't take half a day to take down the castle."

Zheng Balang has been paying attention to Zhang An, seeing that he doesn't agree with him, he quickly asked: "What does Brother Zhang mean?"

When Zhang An asked about him, he thought for a while and said, "General Wang's proposal is good, but it doesn't need to be so troublesome. I went to the castle to check it out in the evening. The new city wall has only laid the foundation, and the south wall Although the east wall and the east wall have been demolished, only half of it has been demolished, and it is still as tall as a person. And because the walls on these two sides have been demolished, recently Li Jing has sent a lot of people to patrol the night every night. From there If you touch it, it is likely to alarm the people in the city."

"Then you've been talking for a long time. It's not for nothing. Why did you say that the east wall of the south city was torn down?" Wang Fu gave Zhang An a dissatisfied look.

Zhang Xiao smiled flatteringly: "What I mean is that because the city walls of the south city and the east city were torn down, Li Jing focused on defending that side, so the defense on the west side is actually weaker. And what you don't know is that this garrison The fort has been an old city for many years. It has not been repaired for many years. Anyway, nothing has happened in the past, so it has always been like that. There are several gaps in the west wall, and the gap is more than two feet wide. The narrow one is nearly ten feet high, and it is only two or three feet high. Although the west gate will be closed at night, the gap is actually an undefended breach. We only need to touch through the gaps, and we can easily enter the castle."

"Are you familiar with the positions of those gaps?" Zheng Balang asked.

"Familiar, I remember it clearly."

"That's right." Zheng Balang laughed and said, "Since there is such a gap, then we don't have to worry about it. Let's take the castle completely before dawn."

(To be continued)