Global colonization began with Ming Dynasty pirates.

The man known as the Third Leader is none other than Li Kui, the Third Leader of the Gangtang Island pirates.

Yesterday, he led his men to the vicinity of Dongluo Island, but because Dongluo Island had placed many fishermen on the perimeter as a warning, he immediately discovered the problem, so he pretended to be a passing merchant ship and left.

But then they went around to the fishing village on the other side to gather information.

It was only after this investigation that they discovered that many people on the mainland had actually been to Dongluo Island and had praised the Lin family there.

They then found out more, but Li Kui only remembered one thing: the other party gave out several thousand taels of silver as a reward at once, and would give out another 20,000 taels before the end of the year!

They're easy prey! Absolutely easy prey!

Faced with such a fat sheep, Li Kui was excited. He resisted the urge to immediately send someone back to report the news and decided to personally infiltrate Dongluo Island to investigate.

After all, according to these villagers, people can go to Dongluo Island whenever they want and leave whenever they want, with no restrictions on their freedom.

Since that's the case, why not go up and take a look? If I'm lucky, I might be able to overthrow the Lin family this time.

But little did he know that he was almost recognized as soon as he arrived on the island. At that moment, Li Kui was almost ready to make a run for his life, but luckily he managed to hold back.

Wiping the sweat from his face, Li Kui exclaimed how lucky he was.

"Let's go check how well this village is defended. If there aren't many people here..." Li Kui touched the sharp blade in his arms. Although there were many people here, if things got chaotic, these people would actually be his helpers.

These ignorant people are like lambs. As long as you show your knife and cut a few people, the blood will terrify them and they will run around in all directions. The guards in the village will collapse instantly when they are attacked by this crowd.

Then all they had to do was find the opposing leader amidst the chaos, put a knife to his neck, and it was done. They knew this trick all too well.

The gate of Dongluo Village was wide open, and a large crowd was entering the village through the gate.

Li Kui and his group of five followed the crowd toward the gate. He had already planned to draw his sword and start fighting once they entered the village, creating chaos.

When the enemy leader came out to stop the chaos, the five of them rushed up and beheaded him.

Having decided on his strategy, Li Kui led his men step by step toward the gate of the stockade. He was incredibly excited because he hadn't seen any guards on the stockade walls yet.

If I just charge through, this incredible achievement will be my for the taking. Of course, the achievement isn't the most important thing; the most important thing is the tens of thousands of taels of silver in this village, which will all be mine.

However, just as Li Kui and his group were about twenty steps away from the gate, the crowd in front of them suddenly dispersed to both sides.

Li Kui and the others were confused, but they still dispersed to both sides of the crowd.

A moment later, a strange-sounding song came from the village gate.

"Unity is strength, this strength is as strong as iron, this strength..."

Countless loud voices gathered together in unison, carrying a chilling majesty.

The ground began to tremble slightly from the pebbles, and then the sound of synchronized footsteps accompanied by singing came from the village gate.

Then, under the watchful eyes of Li Kui and others, two groups of people in neat formations jogged forward from the village gate.

At the very front was an excessively young boy, followed by a line of two people each.

The leader of the group ran out of the village gate and passed by Li Kui, who was dumbfounded. Meanwhile, people were still running out of the village gate.

Everyone's steps were pressed to the same rhythm, which Li Kui found incredible.

What a strong army! They're so well-organized. It must be government troops.

Li Kui's head was spinning, and he didn't even know when the team left.

He only snapped out of his daze when his subordinate rubbed his back.

"Who...who are they?" Li Kui asked, stunned.

"You don't even know where this is? Then what are you doing here? This is what a combat soldier is like. We came here to join the combat soldiers, right? Hehe, how about five taels of settlement money?"

Someone nearby laughed and said, his gaze still fixed on the direction in which the group had disappeared.

"Warriors... are all the guards on the island this strong?" Li Kui smiled wryly. What was the point of fighting? The enemy was like this, and there were so many of them. They could wipe them out even with their bare hands.

"That's different," someone replied with a smile.

"I knew it, these must be the elite..."

"These are just the newcomers. The truly skilled ones are all staying in the village. Some have gone out to sea and won't be back for several months," the man added.

"..." If it weren't for the inappropriate location, Li Kui would have strangled the other person. How could anyone talk like that?

However, at this moment, Li Kui had completely given up the idea of ​​taking over the village by his own strength. With just a few people, it was almost impossible to succeed. Since that was the case, he could only wait for the main force.

With thousands of warriors under his own brother's command rushing forward, these people probably couldn't withstand it... right?

......

In the village square, Li Kui led the group to receive their food.

Looking at the large bowl of white rice in his hand, topped with several fragrant chunks of meat, Li Kui fell into deep thought.

"Does Dongluo Island serve this kind of food to everyone who signs up? They must be incredibly wealthy." Li Kui recalled the meal he had with his older brother before coming here, which consisted of just a bowl of pickled vegetable porridge and a salted fish.

Although the leaders were not short of money, one lacked a qualified chef, and the other came from a poor background. Eating like this was already a luxury for them; they would never have dared to dream of it before.

But here... even outsiders on Dongluo Island eat better than he, the third leader, usually does. Is there any justice in this world?

Could it be that the Lin family on this island are the kind of people who are foolish and rich, as the legends say?

His mind was racing with thoughts, and he couldn't figure out what the Lin family was up to until his subordinate tugged at him again.

"What are you doing?" Li Kui asked unhappily.

"Hey, Third Brother, we should go line up to register." Li Kui then noticed that his subordinate had finished eating his food and even neatly returned the bowls to the collection point on the street. He was now pointing at the crowd queuing in the distance and saying to him.

"Queue up? What are you going to do with that?" Li Kui said with a dark face.

"Sign up to be a soldier! I just asked, and if you pass, there's a five-tael silver settlement allowance and a one-tael silver referral fee. Why don't we give it a try?" the man said excitedly.

Li Kui turned his head angrily and saw that the others also looked eager to try.

"You bastards, have you forgotten who you are?! Joining the Lin family's army? Do you want to die?!" Li Kui shouted.

The group trembled with fear, shrinking back and avoiding Li Kui's gaze. After a long pause, one of them stammered, "Third Brother, but we're here to register. If we don't go, won't we stand out too much? We can just take that damn referral fee and not become soldiers."

"How about we go over there and sign up for work? I heard it pays a few cents a day, paid on the same day without delay. We're just idling around anyway, why don't we go and get some work?" Another person pointed to another place in the distance, where there was also a long queue of people registering for work.

That seemed to make sense; the fact that these people weren't doing any work or signing up for combat made them quite conspicuous. Li Kui thought for a moment and said, "You guys go ahead, I'll go check out other places."

After the group left, Li Kui sighed and decided to take them away after a short walk.

If they stay here any longer, it's hard to say who they'll be loyal to.