"What?"
The sailors were startled.
Among these sailors, there were retired soldiers from the Ding Navy, as well as villagers recruited by Wang Erbai back to Wandu Village in Haizhou after he started his career. The villagers are related to each other, and one of the elders is even Wang Erbai's elder.
At that moment, the elder said: "My dear nephew, you are still alive! Could it be that the remaining poison has taken over and you are talking nonsense?"
He reached out and touched Wang Erbai's forehead: "Isn't it hot?"
Wang Erbai took a short knife from the hands of others and put it in his arms: "I have thought about it. There is a problem with the fleet's needle path, there is a problem with the route through Heishuigou, and there is a problem with the private port where it will be anchored. , it happened to be a live broadcast, there is a problem! This is all settled! We were deliberately led here! Someone wants me to die, and maybe everyone on our ship also wants to die!"
He curled up in the hammock and rolled his eyes several times: "So, I will die first. If you stop the boat and cry a few times, it is best to make a fuss on the deck, quarrel and curse each other, and pretend to disagree." "
"Then what?" the subordinates asked.
"Since these people have a plan, they must have left people at the mouth of the river to secretly monitor our movements. Just wait and see. If any ship comes out of the Zhuo River to catch up, the people on that ship are planning something evil... They think If I'm dead, I'll pretend to be on the boat to investigate, and I'll take the opportunity to take control of the whole boat. Be prepared, wait for them to get on the boat, and kill them all!"
The poison attached to the raw short spear was not trivial. Even if the ship's doctor dealt with it promptly, Wang Erbai still felt dizzy and nauseated. He cheered up and said this, but his whole body became weak and he could only wave his hands: "You go and prepare yourself, hurry up!"
There have always been many cases of murder and robbery at sea, and the sailors have seen blood before, but no one has suggested fleeing with the wind, or similar suggestions. At that moment, everyone laughed ferociously: "Just do it!"
"Go!"
In the blink of an eye, everyone on the lucky boat got ready.
Last spring, the Duke of Zhou in the north, now the emperor of the Zhou Dynasty, Guo Ning, and the right prime minister of the Southern Song Dynasty, Shi Miyuan, secretly joined hands to form a maritime trading company. With the establishment of the trading house, the maritime trade of the Song Dynasty, which was originally mainly directed towards the Southeast Asian countries and islands, became integrated with the Zhou Dynasty and Goryeo in the north. Both trade volume and profits doubled.
Not to mention the rich and powerful merchants in the south who are making huge profits, the more than 300 Tongzhou-style ships in the north are completely inadequate for use. Not to mention, most of those ships have been used since the reign of King Hailing until now. Ten years old.
In order to maintain the balance between the north and the south within the Shanghai Bank, on the one hand, the Shipbuilding Institute was set up in Tianjin Prefecture, Fuzhou and Dengzhou to hire shipwrights from the Southern Dynasties with large sums of money to restore the shipbuilding industry; on the other hand, Zhou Keshan established the shipbuilding industry through Qing Dynasty. Zhang Kai, a wealthy merchant in the Yuan Dynasty, ordered two batches of forty sea-going ships in Fujian.
What everyone is moving now is one of the two batches of sea ships.
These two batches of lucky ships were made of four hundred materials, so in the Southern Dynasties, they were really inconspicuous.
In the last years of Shaoxing, the East Zhejiang Appeasement Department added main warships for the last time, and used sixty empty names as funding to build forty warships, each with official specifications of one thousand. On top of the forty thousand-material warships, there are also larger two-thousand-material warships and five-thousand-material warships, which are still rampant on the sea today.
Despite the severe losses during the Kaixi Northern Expedition, with reports from various places that armaments were lacking and the military and administration were in ruins, the number of large and small ships under the direct jurisdiction of the Coastal Construction Department of the Song Dynasty still remained at more than a thousand.
The number of ships kept by the people of the Song Dynasty is even greater and cannot be counted. Two years ago, Zhang Kai's family fell into decline and he claimed to be impoverished. He still had a ship with thousands of materials to rely on for traveling at sea. According to the folk data, it was one thousand yuan, which was converted into official data to be five hundred yuan, which was much larger than the ship Wang Erbai was in.
But this batch of new ships is much better than the Tongzhou-like ships of the Northern Navy. Regardless of the comparison of load capacity, speed, sturdiness, and resistance to wind and waves, the navy and maritime merchants in the north were stunned and fell into admiration.
At this time, the ship manpower placed by Ding Haijun in the trading company was gradually peeling off the influence of the old people, and more new people with upright roots and talents trained by Ding Haijun were used. For example, Wang Erbai's boss Zhao Bin is currently assisting in preparing the navy under the Bohai Sea System, while Wang Erbai has become the bow of a large ship.
After Wang Erbai and his party took over this lucky ship, it was their second trip to Guangzhou. Because the crew's familiarity with star-finding techniques, water depth detection methods, and many needle paths is far less than that of the sailors from the south, and the Heishui ditch between Fujian and Liuqiu is famous for its turbulent currents, so the people above They were arranged to follow two lucky ships that were accustomed to traveling by sea.
Who would have thought that they happened to run into the black water ditch and fell into a trap?
"Ship bow, what you said is absolutely correct. Someone really set off a firework signal in the fjord!"
"I saw it, it's Wang Ziqing's boat! They have been waiting at the mouth of Zhuoxi River, and they rushed out! Brothers, don't show your whereabouts, keep making noise when it's time to make trouble!"
"They are approaching and are signaling us to stop the boat!"
Wang Erbai raised his voice and said, "As we agreed, let them board the ship!"
After saying that, his whole body went rigid, and except for the weak rise and fall of his chest, he never moved at all.
Wang Ziqing is a powerful leader and private businessman in Quanzhou. He has strongholds in Nanxiao Mountain and Nanni Village near the junction of Fuzhou and Xinghua armies. He has a reputation as a ferocious barbarian. Many people know that he was also a powerful pirate who once set fire to people in Zhangzhou, Quanzhou and other places.
Last winter, Hu Ju, a close aide of Prime Minister Shi Miyuan, went south to serve as the prefect of Fuzhou and worked hard to recruit people from the sea. Wang Ziqing followed Hu Ju's path and obtained the title of Zhengjiu Baoyilang. He traveled around Shanghai as a minor envoy.
There is nothing to say about the skills he has developed at sea. In less than a year of serving, no one from Denglai in the north to Shitang Qianli in the south did not praise him.
At this time, the two ships were approaching, both had their sails lowered, and were sailing side by side several feet apart.
Wang Ziqing's ship was a full-sized eight-hundred-year-old ship. There are more than sixty sailors on board. He left his deputy on his own ship, picked out a dozen of his fierce men with swords in hand, took two small boats, rowed across the sea, then climbed the rope ladder and stepped onto the ship's plank.
After a brief glance, he saw Wang Erbai standing upright in the hammock. Looking at it again, Wang Erbai's face was gloomy. Wasn't he dead?
Wang Ziqing was overjoyed, but there was a sad look on his face: "My dear nephew! What's wrong with my dear nephew?"
He jumped off the side of the ship and took a few quick steps towards the hammock at the bow, wanting to confirm the life and death of this man again. Only two or three steps away, a sailor suddenly blocked the way and said in a cold tone: "We are about to collect the body on the bow of the ship, so it is not convenient for outsiders to disturb us!"
"Why am I an outsider? His surname is Wang, my surname is Wang, and I am his uncle!" Wang Ziqing sneered twice, stretched out his thick and hairy arms, and wanted to force the sailor away and check his breathing.
When he reached halfway with his arm, he smelled a very faint smell from the ship, mixed with the fishy smell of the sea breeze. It was clearly the snake venom commonly used by Liu Qiu Sheng Fan, as well as the strong smell of blood!
This kid Wang Erbai was indeed hit by a poisonous spear. How powerful the poisonous spear was. He was dead!
This job is a bit complicated. Those students were all stupid. They put on such a big show, but failed to finish the matter on the spot. Fortunately, Wang Erbai can't escape this disaster after all. If I handle things properly, I will definitely satisfy my superiors. Taking the opportunity to seize this ship at this time will also be beneficial to your own pocket, haha!
Thinking of this, Wang Ziqing felt good. He lost some of his strength and slapped the sailor on the cheek humiliatingly, causing the sailor to stumble away.
There was no obstacle in front of him, so he was not in a hurry to see Wang Erbai's body. Instead, he turned around and shouted at the other sailors who were still making trouble on the board: "Stop making a fuss! Tell me, what are you making a fuss about? It's because of the boat." Your head is dead, don’t you know who to listen to next?”
All the sailors looked at each other, and Wang Ziqing shouted again: "No need to argue! This ship belongs to me now! If anything happens, I will make the decision for you! Now, all of you, please kneel down!"
Following his shout, more than a dozen of his subordinates drew out their daggers and sharp swords at the same time and advanced quickly, the blades only making shadows in front of the sailors' eyebrows.
There was a sailor who was about fifty years old and had a weathered face. Not only did he hold his neck and refused to kneel down, he even shouted loudly: "This is not your ship! It's not your turn to speak on this ship!"
Wang Ziqing's face darkened. He recognized that this old man was a veteran of the Northern Ding Navy.
There is a vague surveillance function on the ship. He intended to intimidate, so he immediately flicked his chin and snorted through his nose, signaling to kill this key figure first.
Unexpectedly, several subordinates who were holding swords and pointing at the old soldier suddenly stared at Wang Ziqing's position, and they were all dumbfounded.
What is this for? Scared? Don't dare to take action?
Wang Ziqing's face darkened again, and he shouted: "Do it! Kill him!"
Several subordinates were obviously slow to react, but the expressions on their faces ranged from surprise to horror. Only then did Wang Ziqing think of a possibility. He hurried forward, but it was already too late.
His back hurt, and then the cold and hot touch penetrated through the skin and bones of his back, penetrated deep into his organs, and then passed through the bones and skin of his chest. Lowering his eyes, he saw a sharp blade emerging from the gap in his ribs.
Wang Ziqing opened his mouth to curse, and blood poured out of his throat like a fountain. When he was about to breathe, blood poured into his trachea along the blood vessels in his throat and chest, causing him to choke violently. He raised his hand to grab the blade and tear out his own throat, but his hand had no strength.
In his sight, the sailors gathered on the deck burst into revolt at the same time.
It turned out that each of them had hidden a sword, and half of them were wearing armor. It turns out that all of these people have undergone rigorous combat training and must have been on the battlefield.
The dozen or so people who followed Wang Ziqing on board the ship were fiercely attacked by multiple sailors and were instantly defeated. Only a few scattered people jumped into the sea to escape, and the rest died cleanly in a matter of seconds. The blood they shed gathered in a small area called the official hall in the middle of the deck, forming a pool of blood.
The prince's eyes were all cracked, but he could not fight or move. If it weren't for the knife on his back supporting him, his legs would have become weak and he would have fallen down long ago.
His vision gradually blurred, his breathing gradually became weaker, and he heard someone behind him giving the order: "Lower the sails! Turn the rudder!"
Damn, that’s Wang Erbai’s voice! This bastard is not dead!
Following Wang Erbai's order, the sailing speed of the entire ship suddenly dropped. The hull tilted violently to one side and leaned towards Wang Ziqing's thousand-material fortune ship.
The distance between the two ships was only a few feet. After they suddenly came closer, the water flow between the two ships accelerated, as if a huge suction force was generated, causing the two ships to approach faster and faster, like a horizontal collision.
Wang Erbai's subordinates all stood on the side of the ship, everyone yelling and making gestures. On the Qianliu ship, there seemed to be ghosts crying and wolves howling.
"The bow of the ship! With this collision, half of our ship's side will be shattered!" Someone shouted at Wang Erbai.
"No, I'll find something to put on it." Wang Erbai replied calmly.
After all, his thigh was seriously injured and the toxins could not be removed. Just now he was killing people with a knife, which consumed a lot of energy, so his movements were inevitably a little slower now. Fortunately, after sweating a lot, he finally managed to throw Wang Ziqing, who was bleeding from the mouth and nose, over the side of the boat before the collision, and accurately got stuck into the gap where the two boats were in contact.
The next moment, there were subtle cracks of heavy planks deforming and muffled sounds of shattering bones and flesh. The impact of the two ships closing together crushed Wang Ziqing's torso like tissue paper, and the pieces fell into the sea one after another.
Wang Erbai nodded with satisfaction: "I said the side of the ship won't be broken! Everything is fine!"
