The sailors drove the ships over one by one. They have been attacked by these pirates before and know that they don't kill people very much. As long as they are obedient, they will not even look down on your ship.
If they do, they will probably tell you to get lost. They didn't bring a merchant ship, and there aren't any valuables on board. They probably just came up to take a look and then left.
Sure enough, several ships came over, and they didn't fire any cannons. They lowered a small boat from the ship. Some inexperienced sailors and businessmen were scared to death, but some old sailors were not so scared.
, they hurriedly ran to the side of the ship, preparing to pull those people up. This was strange, damn, how could they be so enthusiastic with pirates? Several cargo owners were all a little monks and confused at this time.
Could it be that several people on the boat were in collusion with these people?
However, this matter seems a bit unjustifiable. These people were recruited temporarily. If they really colluded, this place is not far from the port. If you go further, there may be many
Guaranteed, it would be better to come to work at that time. Seeing the dozen or so people coming up, the cargo owners on the ship thought that there were only a few people coming up. If they could make these people their hostages
It might be better, maybe they could win this time, but their ideas might not be that good, and a few sailors might have seen what they had in mind.
"I say you guys better not act recklessly. Did you see that thing they are carrying? They can launch ten crossbows in an instant. Just a few of us are not enough for the first round of attacks.
, if possible, they can kill us all within a minute. Besides, if you detain them, the people on the ship over there will be angry. What will happen in the end? All of us may be killed.
Yes, you haven't seen their artillery, but I have, and I don't want to die in this place." A sailor said. They are all very familiar with such things. These businessmen only have money in their minds.
, who knows that sometimes money is not of much use, and your own head is more important.
Several wealthy businessmen stopped talking. They looked at each other and went over to greet him with other sailors.
"Several military masters, please come here. Please come here." Li Cong came with about twenty people. His subordinates were not worried about this. They were all under his control, and Li Cong himself had
The strength of a ninth-level warrior. If Bei can catch these people in such an environment, then he can just find a piece of tofu and kill him, and there is no need to go to so much trouble.
"Haha, you guys know the rules very well. Yes, our leader came with us this time. Tell us, tell us what is on your clothes and what are you doing there. Tell us clearly. If this is the case, we will
I will consider letting you go. After all, it's not easy for you either. We all make a living at sea. We can't control the natural disasters. Although you think we are all **, as long as each of you can
If you cooperate well, there is nothing wrong with this. We are not venomous snakes and beasts, and we do not enjoy killing people. All we want is some things, right? We won't lose our heads if we fall for these things." A soldier smiled.
He said, indeed, this time these people hung up the white flag without waiting for the gunfire. Their faces were really very honorable. Li Cong has praised them several times. This is the first time for these brothers to visit Li Cong.
As for the awards, looking at the expressions on their faces, it seems that they still feel that the profession of pirates is very promising.
"What the military master said is, how could we not understand things? Just now we relied on several military masters to be merciful. If you don't like us, why would you tell us so many things? Just let the artillery
Just kill us. We don’t have much thought. All we want is to save our own lives. Many times we have no other thoughts. Saving our lives is the best thing. This
These few are the owners of these goods on the ship, and they will tell you everything." The ship boss led these soldiers to the wealthy businessmen, wondering if these guys would be guilty of their own crimes.
Bei's goods were robbed by these people, and I felt very uncomfortable. What retaliatory measures would they take to Li Cong and the others? If this was really the case, don't wait for these soldiers to take action, they would go up and kill this guy directly.
It's okay if your life is implicated in being killed, but it's not okay if our lives are implicated.
"Do you guys know what's in this box?" The soldier himself was considered a working man in the past. He didn't have anything to say to these rich people. He didn't speak in the same tone as the crew members on the ship just now.
, those crew members are naturally not troublesome, these gentlemen are always bossing me around, just like the big belly in front of me, I just thought that the conditions on this ship are so difficult, in fact, these are misers, generally speaking
It is said that merchants will not follow their own goods by themselves, especially in this more dangerous time, they will pay a lot of money to hire some people to follow them, but now the reason why they all follow them by themselves is that they want to use the money
To save money, it is right from their hearts. The goods on this ship are worth less than 10,000 taels of silver. If you hire a person, it will cost at least 1,000 taels of silver. This is one-tenth of the success.
Now, when it comes to things like settling accounts, most people can't keep up with businessmen. They are the most powerful, but now everyone is a little regretful. One-tenth of the money cost them their lives.
It's really not worth it here.
"To tell you a few military lords, this place belongs to us. All our goods are in it, and they are all worthless things." This guy smiled and brought over a fifty-tael silver ingot, hoping that
This thing can be useful.
"Haha, there is still money. Yes, I know that you are definitely not buying cheap goods here. I will give you a chance. If you can take the initiative to take out your money, I won't say anything. If
If you don't take it out, it won't be that simple for me to take it out myself later. What do you mean?" The guy said with a smile. The guy who was about to give the gift was dumbfounded. How could it be like this?
What about the matter? The purpose of taking out the money was to bribe you. Now it's fine, it has directly become the cause of my own trouble. This kind of thing is really uncomfortable.
"Commander, what is transported on the ship is really not silver. We only have a few hundred taels of silver at most on the whole ship. What is transported is some cargo such as sails and canvas. They are all short-distance transportation.
Yes, we can get there from Re Province to Gh Province in just one day. There are not many valuable things." Another businessman said honestly. In fact, what they said is right. Don't look at this.
There are many people in the fleet, but these things are not very good at all.
"Sails and canvas?" The officer glanced at Li Cong, who never said anything. He glanced at the soldiers behind him again, and immediately two soldiers ran over. They wanted to open it to see if it was with this guy.
They said the same thing. Five minutes later, they randomly checked the things in several cabins. It was exactly what this guy said. They were all canvas and the like. There really wasn't anything valuable. A few sailors over there
That's what they said, but they don't know if there is anything in these boxes. At this time, they are also unable to protect themselves. Naturally, they will not care about these things. If they don't handle it well, they may
It's natural that I can't do anything like this if I risk my own life.
"As far as I know, you should have such things in your coastal areas. Why do you want to transport these things to that province? Is there any problem there? There have been no big storms recently. Why do you want to transport these things to that province?
You have transported it." The officers were not half as vigilant. Half of their information was transmitted by spies from the Eastern Empire, and the other half was told by these people. Generally speaking, the information from these people is still
It's very accurate, much more accurate than those so-called guys. Of course, this is also related to the fact that their lives are threatened at the moment, and they don't dare to talk nonsense.
"Going back to Master Jun, we don't know anything about this. We just know that the things over there have been taken away by the Northern Court. The prices over there are more than 20% higher than what we have here. We will transport them there.
Local businessmen, they give us 10% of the profit, and then they resell it and earn another 10% of the profit." The businessman said honestly, they really don't know what it means, they just know that they can get 10%
The profit was already considerable. Of course, they had also thought about the possibility of encountering these pirates at sea, but the money was earned so quickly. It only took a day's work. Besides,
I haven't seen these pirates in a long time. It is said that there are some new things in the navy, and these guys are afraid to come out. Under this background, this guy took a few businessmen and rented a fleet to set off on the road.
, I didn’t expect them to come out so quickly...
The officer didn't say anything, walked quickly to Li Cong, and told Li Cong the news. Maybe they should change the route and go to this province to have a look. Maybe that's where these new warships are being built. If
If you can find this place, it should be no problem. Even if your calculations are wrong, it will only take an extra hour to get there. Their speed is so slow, but ours is not slow. Attacking anywhere is not an attack.
, besides, they are just a trial fleet, they can do anything, the top leaders on the ship are here, and they can change orders at any time.
"Your speculation is completely reasonable. Ask them about the situation at that port, ask those on our warships who have been to that port to describe the specific conditions there, and quickly change our combat plan. Of course, we also have to
Be careful and let these guys be interrogated separately. If nothing happens, just put them all on one of the ships and sink the others directly. Although there are not a lot of supplies, this is the Eastern Empire's after all.
Lost." Li Cong thought for a moment and said. Now he also felt that this matter was a bit strange. Li Cong had never known the location where the Southern Empire was built, and Linghu didn't know about this place either. He didn't expect it to be sent to him now.
Now that we are here, this will definitely pass.
Soon the interrogation transcripts of several other people came up. What they said was very similar to what the guy just said. It seemed that the Southern Empire had really concentrated this matter in that place. There were two sailors in that county.
He was born and raised here, but because something happened in the local area, this brother was the one who escaped. The two brothers had no choice but to hang out on the ship. They have to be careful when they get to land. I heard that they are going to attack Dongfang.
The imperial court and the two brothers were extremely happy.
"Normally, you two are from the Eastern Empire. Why are you two so happy when I'm going to rob your hometown?" After returning to the warship, Li Cong looked at the two cheerful brothers and asked,
How could there be no reaction at all?
"Master, I think you should be one of their bosses. In fact, I'm not afraid to tell you. The biggest rich man in our county occupied our family's fields back then and forced our grandfather to death.
.His son later used the same method to force my father and two uncles to death. The two uncles were about the same age as us. Later, when we two brothers grew up, they tricked us two brothers.
I signed a contract that I didn’t know what it was. You know, we all come from poor families. How could we read those so-called words? We could only sign it honestly. Later we found out that it was our brothers.
The two gave them a life-long contract to sell themselves as slaves. We were angry and resisted. They were beaten until they were covered with bruises. If they didn't go out to work, they would be beaten like this every day. I heard that they were beaten to death there.
We have no choice but to obey first, but we are not fools. We are also looking for opportunities to take revenge. Just by chance, we got the opportunity to deliver medicine to the old man. My eldest brother and I directly
By strangling this old guy to death, it can be regarded as revenge for my grandfather. The two of us have also caused trouble. People in their family are looking for us day and night. They, uh, the old men in the government are all very familiar with it.
, we two brothers immediately became wanted criminals. We had no choice but to get on the ship. From then on, we rarely went back. Even if we received a job to go there, we would never get off the ship.
I'm here to rob, how can we be unhappy?" This guy said happily, Li Cong nodded, it's not surprising to have such hatred and such a reaction, these two brothers can't hold back for a long time.
Long enough.
Although some other sailors did not say whether they supported it or not, it could be seen from their eyes that they had no feelings about pirate robbery because they had nothing in their hands.
If you come to rob us, it won't have a big impact on us. The biggest ones are those wealthy businessmen and so on. If it's nothing, the most they can do is break some things in their homes, and then they can live a good life, especially those in front of them.
Pirates don't rob people's homes, and they will also drop some money when they pass by the door of some people's homes.
"Actually, there is oppression everywhere. We didn't live a very good life in the past. We didn't want to be pirates. We came to rob just to survive. Of course, the main targets are these big business owners.
He's here." Li Cong said a few more words to the two brothers and then left. The two brothers could agree to be guides. They were very familiar with that wealthy family. After a while, these two guys actually wanted to
Joining the gang, they still can't agree to such a thing for the time being. Who knows what this story is about. The faces of the two brothers are still very simple, but this matter is not that simple. In the future, slowly
That's all. Now let's take a few of them in.
Two hours later, Li Cong and the others had arrived at the gh province. Such speed made the two brothers feel a little proud. They had been at sea for a long time, but they were definitely not that fast, especially them.
The speed of some ships is simply incomparable to this one. They don’t seem to have those sails on their ships. There is a machine that keeps beeping. What on earth is this thing? How can it be so powerful? No wonder
The empire that others can conquer is nowhere to be found.
The gv port in gh province can be said to be the largest port within a radius of hundreds of miles. Previously, Li Cong's staff also thought that this might be the gathering place for those suicide ships. But later this
The local government rejected it. Although the port here is relatively large, there are not that many people here. If so many soldiers suddenly came, they might not even be able to solve their food problem, so they chose another place.
Well, now it seems that their commander is not a fool. He also understands what it means to make false news for you. The rest is your business. You guessed it right. You win.
If your guess is wrong, you are out of luck.
Li Cong used a telescope to look at the port. It was a natural port. However, it still had some shortcomings when used as a military port. Some of the protruding places at the back were too close to the coast. There was no way to follow it.
The ships have formed some defensive postures. It is very easy to attack here. Li Cong continued to look over. The population on the shore is not very large, there are not many ships here, and the economy is considered medium. Look
I thought I had made a miscalculation. There were not that many ships here, which meant that they were not where those suicide ships were. Ten minutes later, people on the shore discovered them. Unfortunately, they had not seen those modified ships yet. Li
From the time when the artillery began to bomb some targets on the shore, they had come, and they couldn't just go back. Just when Li Cong was about to go down, something happened, and the main event came.
"Master Cao, look, there are a lot of small boats over there. They are very fast. Are they so-called suicide boats? Their speed is already half of our speed, and they are relatively scattered.
Yes, even if we use cannons to kill them, it will be difficult." An officer pointed to the sea to the west and said, these ships seemed to have rushed out of the ground. Each ship was only about four meters long.
Some two people, some three people, some of these bastards have already ignited some sulfur on the ship. What fools you are. You will probably be burned to death by the time you come over from such a long distance.
If you can do such a stupid thing, how can it be possible without failure?
The people on the boat seemed to have lost their minds, and everyone was shouting. Can these guys come over at their current speed? Don't be wishful thinking. Just when Li Cong was about to order the cannon to fire, another one
The soldiers were reporting again. About two hundred such ships appeared to the east of them, and they were also very fast. Li Cong took a look and attacked from both sides. This is an old trick. If something happens, you can appear behind me.
This is your business. If it hadn't been for you, you would have died earlier.
Of course, they had no way to appear behind Li Cong, because behind Li Cong was Dahai. It seemed that he had looked down upon them a little before. There was nothing wrong with these guys, so there was no need to be afraid of them.
.
"Are we going to fire at them?" the adjutant stood up and said. Their speed has reached 80%. It is impossible for these people to rush over. They can attack them within five minutes, and that's only five minutes.
The attack time has expired. The speed of these suicide ships has indeed brought a lot of pressure to Li Cong and the others. In the past, they could attack these people calmly, but now the attack time must be accurately calculated.
, otherwise, the losses will be considerable.
"Haha, of course. Do we have to wait for them to come over? Let all the warships be ready. They will enter the attack range soon. Tell the captains not to fight too fiercely later. Let's go out slowly.
, let them catch up. They are still too scattered now. Even if we shoot accurately, we will probably waste a lot of shells. We are testing them, and they are testing ours. Let them know that this thing has
If it works, there will definitely be more problems in the future. Now we have to let them know that this kind of suicide ship is not our opponent." After Li Cong finished speaking, the flag soldiers began to convey the order to several surrounding warships.
It immediately became a straight line and began to move slowly from north to south.
These suicide ships on the east and west sides came out to fight for the first time. Their request was to rush up to these pirate ships quickly after discovering them. There was no need for any tactics. The distance was already very close at the beginning, so why was it so short?
After a while, these guys started to run away. Were they scared? The prisoners on these ships were so happy. This was the first time they had driven away these pirates. They were not regular troops, just temporary soldiers.
They are just an army, but they did what the regular army did. How can this not make them happy? It seems that they are also afraid. One by one, they took this opportunity to work harder to get their boats closer to them. They were not even close.
Very far away, at this time they all started to turn along with Li Cong's fleet, and the artillery on the ship was already about to fire, but because of the long distance and their speed, they were also relatively fast.
Therefore, the hit rate was not very high. Many people on the ship were shouting loudly, saying that these pirates could not do anything to them. The military camp on the shore also began to blow trumpets to cheer them up. This made these people really excited.
Li Cong's ten warships were divided into two teams. One team continued to be their target. They began to take these ships around, while the other five ships were changing their formations. They wanted to change from penetrating to the south.
They penetrated and faced east. Because their artillery was on both sides of them, that was done when they were about to fire an attack. Naturally, these suicide ships would not feel this, because they saw that the five ships were already in the distance.
It was too far away, and there was no way they could catch up with them. However, these five ships were relatively close to them, so they should be able to catch up. At this time, some of them also felt something was wrong. For example, from the east and west sides, they could catch up.
The suicide ships that came over seemed to be getting closer and closer, and the density was getting higher and higher. Because they all wanted to take the nearest channel, and there was no one to direct them, they were all getting closer. They were very powerful.
None of them are regular troops, and they have no idea of cooperating with each other. All they want is to rush forward, so everyone wants each other. It can be said that beatings and scoldings can be seen everywhere, including the East Emperor's official on the shore.
At this time, I was a little confused. What did these pirates want to do? Why didn't they all run away?
When the five ships that were leading them began to speed up, the observer on the mountain top finally understood. At this time, he immediately ordered his men to withdraw their troops, otherwise they might all die.
There, it's a pity that the distance is too far now. Even if they withdraw their troops, they don't have time. These fools continue to move forward without knowing it. They don't even listen to the subsequent orders to withdraw their troops. They all still think that they may be the first.
A person who kills or injures will be rewarded heavily.
The five ships in front of them quickly threw them away. Some people with brains also understood at this time that they had shifted into gear. However, it is easy to enter this trap, but it is not easy to continue to get out.
Five ships were already waiting for them.
Boom...the cannons began to roar, and the thousands of artillery pieces on the five ships began to fire fiercely. They were all very close to each other. Generally speaking, once a shell came down, or if you were unlucky, you would be blown up directly.
It's broken into pieces. If that doesn't work, they may lift up the surrounding water and capsize several small boats. This kind of thing is also very normal. Your small boat can make you faster and easier to turn around.
, but your weight is also very small. A big ship is nothing in front of the water column, but your small ship is different. Thousands of shells came over overwhelmingly, and each of these suicide ships turned into a human being.
Hell, what I was thinking about just now was how to go back after winning. Now I no longer have such thoughts. All I think about is how to survive. Damn it, why didn't I think of this just now? I was so rushed.
What did you do in front of me? Is there something wrong with your brain? You are really a fool. It's too late to regret now. It's not that easy to go back.
These prisoners began to regret one by one. They did not expect that the war would be so cruel. At the beginning, everything went smoothly. Of course, they would not have thought of this. They even thought that they could save their lives by driving the ship.
Their own lives, what is a suicide ship, is to exchange their own lives for the enemy's ships. They all want to be the lucky person, but how come there are so many flukes in this world? They looked at the ships around them
They have all begun to flood, or they have just rolled over. There are some dead people and some fragments of wooden boards everywhere on the sea. Now they no longer want to fight with others? What they are thinking about is how to go back and how to save their own lives. Even if
Whether it's sympathy or working as a coolie for the rest of your life, you can do anything as long as you live.
The senior generals in the army on land were also dumbfounded. They only dispatched a total of about 600 such ships. But in the end they found that there were less than 10 ships left that could sail on the sea. Even the remaining ones
Those boats were also overturned by those people in the sea. They had no so-called collective consciousness at all. This place is not far from the coast. If some people with good water skills can swim back by themselves,
But they never thought about swimming back by themselves. Instead, when they saw those unsinked ships, they reached out for them and wanted to climb on them. The result was that the ships, which were still coming very fast, slowed down, and the pirates over there
The artillery doesn't just look at this. As long as it finds a large number of people gathered around these ships, it will directly fire a cannonball. Okay, no one of you has to pull it, all of them will be wiped out by this cannonball.
About 3,000 people were dispatched. In the end, it was estimated that not even 30 people could come back. This was the so-called new tactic of the Eastern Empire, the so-called suicide ship. Now they understood it. This tactic may have failed. But there are some among them.
People with more foresight. They saw that the pirate ship did not attack immediately but made some arrangements. If they were not observing from the shore at this time, but another team used this time to rush up, they would probably have achieved some results.
Yes, anyway, people on both sides have their own reasons for arguing. There is no other good way in the Eastern Empire now. This is not a way. It can only be slowly consumed by the enemy, otherwise
What else could they do? The news of the failure of the suicide ship plan was strictly sealed. They couldn't let the entire empire know that the idea they came up with was stupid.
If the citizens of the entire empire knew that what they spent a lot of manpower, material and financial resources to create in the end was cannon fodder for the enemy, this would undoubtedly make things worse for the people of the entire empire. They would not have any hope for this war.
There are so many people dying every day, but no good news has come from the front line. In addition, what happened on the southern coast makes him feel like the empire is being attacked from both sides. Is the Thunder Gate really that important? Even now.
If they can bring back the members of the Thunder and Lightning Sect, their losses are not small. The senior people in the Eastern Empire have also said that they will give up the Thunder and Lightning Sect, but the families with huge interests in the Thunder and Lightning Sect don't know how they can give up.
Besides, if we abandon the Thunder Gate now that we have already suffered huge losses, the Eastern Empire may even be reduced to a dilapidated situation like the other three empires. At that time, not only will it be embarrassing, but the safety of the entire empire will also be in question.
Li Cong led his fleet and began to return. Now he also understands the capabilities of these suicide ships. It can be said that as long as these suicide ships are used properly, they will still have no threat as before. Of course, Li Cong
He is not a fool. He has also seen that the other party is also testing him. If the other party puts a larger number of suicide ships and lets them ambush them in some areas, his team is likely to suffer losses. Ten warships are intact.
Coming back made the entire navy of the Cao Family Trading Company happy for a long time. Although less than 3,000 enemies were wiped out, and there was no looting, some of their fear disappeared. They were afraid of this kind of suicide ship.
The fear disappeared, they no longer feared such ships in their hearts, they believed that they could defeat these ships.
The court of the Eastern Empire began to focus on the suicide ship. This boy from the Linghu family also received the battle report. He also has his own right to speak in the court, although he himself cannot stand in the court and speak normally.
, but there are many people who can speak on his behalf. At this time, the Minister of Punishment stood up and said that he was the spokesperson of this boy, "Your Majesty the Emperor, my lords, although this new tactic exercise failed,
However, we have achieved considerable results compared to before. In the past, these ships would have bombed some of our facilities on the shore, leaving nothing behind. But this time it is different. We
No facilities on the shore were damaged. Even if all these ships were smashed into pieces, the only ones who died were some prisoners. They really deserved to die because they could save our property. Do you agree, sir?"
The words of the Minister of Punishment had a certain weight in the court. Many people looked at him and thought of the Linghu family behind him. In fact, it was correct to think about what he said. These prisoners are usually locked up in prison.
Here, the empire's food was wasted for no reason. Now we can point out a way out for them. They have all signed up enthusiastically. If they die, the empire can save some food. Use these people's lives in exchange for the empire's property. This is
It's worth it. If these pirates carry out wild bombings on the sea in the same way as before, the entire port may be turned into ruins, and hundreds of thousands of people may have to work for a year to build the port.
After returning to its current state, many people nodded and acknowledged that this plan was feasible, and the sacrifices would be relatively small, but the results would be greater.
"Your Majesty the Emperor, I believe that this matter cannot be handled this way. Practice has proven that these so-called suicide ships are of no use at all. The pirates just changed some formations and killed all these suicide ships. They died very badly.
They also carried a large amount of flammable materials on the ship. Once that kind of thing comes over, it can directly set several surrounding ships on fire and the people working at work will naturally die. This is just a test and we will lose money.
Thousands of people were killed, and the cost of building these ships is not cheap. Compared with their number, the final data obtained is also very huge. We should think of other ways to resist these pirates. If we continue like this, it is not
The gospel of our empire." The Prime Minister stood up and said.
The Prime Minister's words also made many people think about this question. Is what they did right? Although they can contain the opponent if they continue like this, it is impossible to achieve some results. These people are not fools.
Yes, now is the time to take a stand. In the past, these pirates were nothing, but now they have to deal with these pirates. It can be said that sometimes the losses caused by pirates are higher than those in the northern battlefield.
Much more powerful.
"Since the Prime Minister believes that this matter cannot continue like this, I wonder if the Prime Minister has any good ideas?" The imperial censor is naturally a member of Linghu, and they have all been notified that this matter must be done like this.
Yes, they must make the empire enter such a state, where they spend money but cannot achieve any results. This is what they must do. Only in this way can the combat effectiveness of the Eastern Empire royal family be weakened to the greatest extent.
Only then can he successfully survive the future competition for hegemony. (To be continued...)