Cao Muyun said silently, and after a while, he said: "This kind of sword fight is meaningless. I am a mortal man. What's the difference between giving in and not giving in?"
Sima Rulan said: "You don't want to hurt me now, why did you kill my father in the first place! If Mr. Hua hadn't been willing to vouch for you with his life, I would have killed you with one sword now!"
When Cao Muyun heard this, he looked surprised and looked at Hua Bushi outside the iron gate.
Hua Bushi coughed lightly and said: "Three days ago, hundreds of pirate ships from the Black Dragon Palace surrounded Okura Island. The Dragon Palace tribe came out in full force this time. The city lacked food and military skills. Little brother I proposed to the eldest lady of the city lord that I would like to invite Brother Cao to go to Guangdong and mobilize the imperial navy fleet to rescue Okura City. For the sake of the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in this city, Miss Laner has forgiven Brother Cao for assassinating the lord of Sima City. Got it!"
Sima Rulan gritted her teeth and said: "Who said I have forgiven him! My martial arts is not as good as his for now, so I can't kill him today. When Lan'er's martial arts improves in the future, I will definitely fight with him again. I want to kill him with my own hands and avenge my father!"[
Hua Bushi smiled softly and said: "Anyway, Miss Lan'er won't kill Brother Cao for the time being. Is Brother Cao willing to go to Guangdong to move troops to relieve the siege of Okura City?"
Only then did Cao Muyun understand the cause of the matter. He was silent for a moment and then said: "Thank you, Brother Hua, for interceding for me. The 'Black Dragon Palace' is also my enemy. This time they besieged Okura City. We can't let them succeed. I'm willing to go to the deployment of troops."
He turned his eyes to Sima Rulan and said: "Miss Lan'er, it was indeed my fault for assassinating Sima City Lord that day. If you don't kill Cao today, if you want revenge in the future, you can come to me at any time. Cao Muyun is ready to be killed. that is."
Sima Rulan said: "Who wants you to wait for death! We, the Sima family, have always acted openly and aboveboard. If you can bring reinforcements from the mainland this time to relieve the danger of our Dakang City, Sima Rulan will seek revenge from you in the future. You must be fighting alone, you can resist with your own strength, and if your swordsmanship is stronger than mine, you can kill me with one sword!"
Sima Rulan is less than twenty years old, and has already mastered several of the "Seventy-two Special Skills of Shaolin". Her qualifications can be said to be extremely high. Of course, Cao Muyun is also a person with outstanding talent and martial arts. In the future, the two of them will When fighting again, it is indeed difficult to predict who will win and who will lose.
Cao Muyun looked at Sima Rulan and saw a look of determination on her face. After a long while, he said, "Okay, then let's make it a deal."
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Okura Island is located in the South China Sea, two thousand miles away from the mainland. It takes twenty days to take a boat from the island to the Guangdong border. Cao Muyun is going to the Guangdong border, and he can immediately mobilize troops as soon as he reaches the mainland. , it will take at least about one and a half months.
Reinforcing troops is like putting out a fire and cannot be delayed for a moment, so Cao Muyun decided to leave that night.
Nowadays, the channel out of the island has been blocked by the pirate ships of the "Black Dragon Palace". It is impossible for large ships to break out, but it is still possible to take a small speedboat, and taking advantage of the dark night, the chance is even greater.
The helmsman, Fu Ao, was good at naval warfare and had been on Okura Island for a long time. He was very familiar with the undercurrents around the island, so he immediately made a plan. He personally led ten ships of the "Wanjintang" out of the harbor to feint attack, as a cover to attract The attention of the pirate ship allowed a small sailboat, controlled by his disciple who was proficient in sailing, to sail along an undercurrent on the sea from the other side, allowing Cao Muyun to sneak out of the encirclement quietly.
This plan was perfect and was executed quite smoothly. Although Fuao's ten ships were not many, they fired artillery attacks on the ocean in the dark night, which also created a lot of momentum. The pirate ships hurriedly responded to the challenge, and the sea surface There was artillery fire everywhere, and the cannons from the ships on both sides fired at each other. The fight was very lively for a while.
When the pirates of the "Black Dragon Palace" mobilized a large number of ships and formed a battle array to fight the incoming enemy, they found that Okura Castle's ships had retreated into the harbor bay. And in this half In the melee at night, the speedboat Cao Muyun was riding in had slipped out quickly along the undercurrent, without being noticed by the pirates at all.
Cao Muyun, who has gone out to move troops, is Okura City's only hope now. But even if he can move the Daming Navy to relieve the siege of Okura Island, it will only be thirty or forty days later.
After this night's feint attack, Fu Ao also tested the strength of "Black Dragon Palace". The opponent's large ships have more than 200, and the firepower of the ship's cannons is stronger than that of Okura Castle's ships, not to mention the other ships. There are five enemy giant sharks on the sea.
From this point of view, even if all the ships of various merchants in the city are mobilized, they will not be able to resist the opponent. If the "Black Dragon Palace" attacks with all its strength, it will be very difficult to defend Okura Port.
Of course, if the other side attacks the bay, it will also suffer considerable losses. After all, there are hundreds of red cannons on the forts on both sides of the bay, and the terrain is extremely unfavorable to the attacking side. If a large number of pirate warships swarm into the canyon of the bay, the cannons on both sides of the bay will Most of them will be sunk in a single salvo.
I believe that if they had no other choice, the "Black Dragon Palace" would not use such a forceful attack method regardless of the loss of the ship.
To capture the city, the "Black Dragon Palace" had a better way, which was to use a large number of indigenous people to bring down Okura Castle.[
In the next few days, just as Hua Bushi expected, more Baba natives flocked to the gate of Okura City. They were all driven away by pirates who had destroyed their homes and fled.
How to deal with so many "refugees", the eldest lady of the city has already made a decision. The indigenous Babas who came were counted by the leaders of each tribe, and were put into Okura City after strict interrogation. And in the city The "Wanjintang" came forward and spent money to rent ordinary people's houses and resettle these people.
Most of the residents in the city originally opposed opening the city gates to allow the indigenous people to enter the city, but as soon as the move to rent houses came out, many people changed their attitudes. The price for renting private houses in "Wanjintang" is not low, and is roughly the same as that of an ordinary inn. Being able to rent out the empty house at home and make a lot of money is what many residents dream of, and even if they live in a more crowded place, they are still willing to do so.
At the same time, businessmen such as Gu Zhengyuan, Zhu Zi, Gongola and other merchants in the city launched a silver donation from all the merchants and shipping companies engaged in ocean trading in the city to help "Wanjintang" defend the city.
Whether Okura City can be defended is related to the interests of all merchants and the life and death of everyone in the city. At this time, even if these merchants are greedy for money and stingy, they all know the principle of "laying the eggs under the cover of the nest". Within a few days During this period, Gu Zhengyuan and others had raised more than 300,000 taels of silver, which was more than enough to cover the cost of renting private houses for "Wanjintang" to house the indigenous people.
Compared with finding a place to live, solving the problem of food is naturally more difficult. However, the city lord and the eldest lady have already made arrangements to take out food from the warehouse and supply the needs of these indigenous people for free.
In addition to the granary of "Wanjintang", some merchants in the city also stocked some grain. The city lord's palace issued a decree that all rice shops in Okura City could only sell grain at the specified price, and as long as there was grain in the stockpile, they must sell it. Anyone who violates this order will have their property confiscated immediately and be driven out of Okura Castle.
At the same time, the food that each household in the city can purchase is also limited based on head count, and no more purchases are allowed. The food reserves in Okura City were not very sufficient to begin with, but under strict orders, price gouging and private practices were put to an end. Due to the lack of sales in the village and the fact that "Wanjintang" itself controlled most of the grain reserves, there was no problem with the food supply for the time being.
At least before the food reserves in the city are exhausted, the people in the city will not cause chaos by grabbing food.
Although the sea outside the port is full of pirate warships, and thousands of indigenous people continue to pour into the city every day, Okura City is still safe and orderly, and private houses are rented to resettle the indigenous people. The statistics and distribution of grain harvesting and other matters were all done in an orderly manner. Hua Bushi was indispensable for the progress of all this.
The enemy is at hand. The leaders of "Wanjintang" such as Yao Yuanxiao, Chai Lin and Fu Ao have been busy mobilizing ships and setting up defenses for the city these days. However, Deng Ran, the elder who was originally in charge of the city's affairs, has died, and Sima Rulan has just taken control of the sect. He doesn't have much experience in managing a city. Without Hua Bushi's help, it would be difficult to cope with it.
Although Hua Bushi does not know martial arts, he is very good at arranging personnel and handling various complicated affairs. Back in Wuyang City in western Hunan, his father Hua Tianxiong had been in seclusion for many years and ignored the affairs of the sect. The "Evil Dog Gate" The young master is responsible for all operations and management of the business, so he has rich experience in business planning.
It was Hua Bushi who proposed the law to control grain storage in the city. Sima Rulan obeyed the young master and even asked him to help allocate manpower in the sect and manage various affairs in the city. For a moment, Hua Bushi seemed to be the leader of the city. He became a part-time elder of the "Wanjin Hall", and his power was even greater than that of the original outer hall elder Deng Ran.
Hua Bushi did not have any position in the "Wanjin Hall". To the disciples within the sect, he was just an outsider. However, the scandal about him and the city lord's eldest lady had already spread throughout the city, and everyone Everyone knew that this "evil dog son" had an unusual relationship with Miss Lan'er, and there were even rumors that he would become the future city lord, so Hua Bushi dispatched people to handle various matters, and the disciples in the "Wanjin Hall" Everyone obeys orders and people dare to disobey.
As the saying goes, "a blessing in disguise is a blessing in disguise." The rumors and slanders from the idle people in Okura City originally gave Hua Bushi a headache, but he didn't expect that he would gain the support of many gang members in the "Wanjintang" at this time. , but it turned out to be a good thing.