The Black Sails of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 57 Drowning
Just then, another barrage of artillery fire interrupted Li Qin's thoughts.

He felt the ground tremble slightly for a moment, and all around him were the loud noises of houses collapsing, mixed with chilling screams.

A shell landed nearby, collapsing three houses in a row.

The rising dust obscured the sky, making it impossible for people to open their eyes.

Li Qin suddenly realized what was happening and ordered his eunuchs, "Where is our ship? Prepare it quickly and load it with all the gold, silver, and valuables!"

"Yes, Godfather!" the little eunuch replied, and hurriedly went to prepare.

The patrolman stopped him: "The main gate of the water fortress has been surrounded by the Zhu people, and there are also those gunboats and ships. There is no way to get out. Now we can only go over the back mountain and take a boat to the west."

"Does the Inspector have a boat on the west bank?" Li Qin asked hopefully.

The inspector nodded: "It's a small boat, it can't carry too much stuff, and the mountain road is difficult to travel, so Eunuch Li can only bring some personal belongings."

Li Qin was heartbroken. Looking around the room, he saw coral ornaments, a sandalwood desk, a blue and white porcelain piece from the Sheng Guo period, and a jade ewer. Every piece was a treasure, and he felt his heart would bleed if he had to give up even one of them.

"Fine, I'll just take the Shengguo blue and white porcelain with me," Li Qin said dejectedly.

"Yes," the little eunuch responded, holding the blue-and-white porcelain vase in his arms.

Li Qin thought for a moment, and since the vase seemed to hold some more, he wrapped a few jade artifacts in silk cloth and put them inside.

With some space still available, Li Qin stuffed in a few more strings of Hetian jade prayer beads.

Before the box was full, Li Qin opened another box that was half a person tall. It immediately glowed with fluorescence and was filled with top-quality pearls the size of longan seeds.

Li Qin ordered a young eunuch to bring the bottle over, and he began stuffing handfuls of pearls into the blue-and-white porcelain bottle.

He grabbed too many at once, and the pearls slipped through his fingers, rolling all over the ground with a clatter.

The inspector was both anxious and angry.

The worry is that his soldiers are all skilled fishermen, but they are utterly useless in battle. Once the barbarians land, he will surely be unable to resist them.

What's infuriating is that he used all his strength to suck the blood of soldiers, but in the end, he earned less than the dirt under the fingernails of that dead eunuch.

"My dear father-in-law, don't take it! Keep your body and your money, you'll have plenty more!" The inspector was so anxious he was jumping up and down, pleading with him repeatedly.

Upon hearing this, Li Qin was stunned and tears streamed down his face: "Our family has worked so hard to accumulate this little bit of wealth, and it's all gone to these barbarians!"

Before he could finish speaking, another barrage of shells came flying in.

Smoke and dust billowed into the room through the door, choking the people inside and causing them to cough.

"Cough cough cough... Eunuch Li, don't take it... We, cough... hurry up and leave, it will be too late if we don't leave now."

"Alright!" Li Qin stood up and resolutely walked towards the back mountain.

The inspector led the way, with the young eunuch following closely behind. However, he accidentally stepped on a pearl and fell backward on the spot.

The blue-and-white porcelain vase fell to the ground, shattering the jade objects carefully wrapped in silk cloth.

Countless pearls bounced and tinkled on the ground.

The fall nearly knocked the little eunuch unconscious. After a long while, he managed to get up.

Li Qin stared blankly at the mess on the ground.

"Godfather, it's me!" The little eunuch was terrified.

"Slap!" Li Qin slapped the little eunuch across the face, saying, "Useless piece of trash!"

The young eunuch immediately knelt down, reaching out to pick up the porcelain and jade shards and stuffing them into his robes, oblivious to the fact that his hands were bleeding profusely from the cuts.

Li Qin, feeling soft-hearted, pulled him up: "That's enough, as long as we're alive, there's always a way out! Let's go, let's escape together!"

"Yes!" The little eunuch's eyes were filled with tears.

Since I didn't bring any valuables, I was able to leave faster.

The three of them left the room, and everywhere they looked, there were broken walls and ruins.

After walking a few steps, they saw a soldier lying on the ground, seriously wounded, groaning in pain.

When the soldiers saw the inspector arrive, they all reached out for help, but the inspector opened their swords with his scabbard. As far as the eye could see, there was hardly a single person standing around.

It was clear that the patrol officers had all fled.

The distant barbarian warships, filled with an unknown amount of resentment, continued to bombard the area relentlessly.

The three of them carried no valuables and traveled light, and soon they reached the top of the mountain.

Li Qin turned around and looked around. He saw that outside the ruins of the water fortress, the boats of the Pearl People were surrounding him, seemingly blocking his escape route.

"You worthless bastards!" Li Qin cursed in a low voice, his face full of resentment. "You should all drown in the sea!"

The inspector urged him to hurry on his way so that he could escape before the natives landed on the island.

Li Qin withdrew his gaze and focused on his footing.

The sun was already high in the sky, and the intense sunlight made it hard to breathe.

Li Qin, who usually lives a life of ease and comfort, was already panting and sweating profusely after walking just a few steps in the mountains.

On the other hand, the patrol inspector, a military officer, wasn't in much better shape. He was so out of breath that he was barely holding on and was only able to keep going by sheer willpower.

We finally reached the halfway point of the mountain, before we could even catch our breath.

But the surrounding trees were swaying.

The inspector, as if trying to squeeze every last breath out of his lungs, asked, "Who is it?"

He pulled the knife out with difficulty.

Li Qinxin also mentioned that she was in a very bad mood.

More than ten figures appeared around them. The leader held a Japanese sword, his face was frosty, and his eyes were sharp. It was Bai Langzai.

Li Qin was terrified when he saw that the group of Zhumin people who came out were armed with weapons.

He forced a smile and said, "Brave warriors, if you let me go, I will definitely report to the Guangzhou Prefecture and reward you all."

None of the people answered; each of them seemed to have a burning flame in their eyes.

Only then did Li Qin realize that all the people of Zhu were wearing white cloths wrapped around their arms.

Thinking back to half a month ago, when hundreds of elderly and weak people from Zhuhai jumped into the sea, he was secretly pleased that the deaths of the elderly and weak people from Zhuhai would save some food.

Now, however, I don't want these bastards to come and collect their debts.

Li Qin was terrified.

The patrolman seized the opportunity and suddenly swung his knife at Bai Langzai. Killing the gang leader first might give him a chance to survive.

Bai Langzai merely dodged slightly, and the inspector missed his strike with his knife, lost his balance, and fell to the ground. The knife slipped from his hand, and when he got up, his face was covered in blood from his nose.

The inspector kept kowtowing and begging for mercy from the villagers, pointing at Li Qin and saying, "He forced me to do it. Every wrong has its perpetrator, and every debt has its debtor. You should seek revenge on him..."

Before he could finish speaking, Bai Langzai swung his knife.

The inspector grabbed his neck, his face full of surprise, blood gushing from between his fingers, and he collapsed to the ground moments later.

Li Qin was terrified; it seemed that neither force nor persuasion would work.

He was filled with rage, thinking that it was bad enough that the barbarians were causing trouble, but these lowly bastards were also taking the opportunity to rebel. They had really gone too far.

He roared angrily, "How dare you...!"

He was speaking when a blade flashed, he felt a burning sensation on his neck, and then he could no longer make a sound, spitting out blood bubbles.

Li Qin looked horrified as he knelt on the ground, struggling with his hands and making gurgling sounds as if he were drowning.

After struggling in vain for a long time, Li Qin gradually collapsed into a pool of blood and stopped moving.

Bai Langzai's knife had just cut open his throat, and blood flowed back into his trachea, causing Li Qin to drown in his own blood.

(End of this chapter)