Seeing the flames rising into the sky in Lucheng, Liu Xikun knew that his plan was successful.
But he thought it would be best to confirm again, so he came to greet the 'hero' in person.
Unexpectedly, the greatest hero actually died, and dozens of natives appeared inexplicably.
Liao Neng introduced the situation to him very rudely, and then Liu Xikun just glanced at Fang Linsun's body and called Liu Jianming over for questioning.
"Are you Fang Linsun's subordinate? How did things go? Have they been burned clean? Tell us what happened today in detail!"
"It's burned, it's absolutely burned. All the food has been doused with kerosene. There's no way it can survive. In addition, we also burned an ordnance warehouse..."
Liu Jianming calmly recounted the action process in detail.
After hearing this, Liu Xikun was very satisfied, "Very good. Without food, let's see how long the city can last! Liu...Liu Jianming, right? You have made such a great contribution, I will definitely reward you heavily!"
Liu Jianming waved his hands solemnly, "I don't dare to take credit. Everything was done by Chief Fang. I only helped because Chief Fang treated me well in the past and out of loyalty, so there is no need for a reward. I only hope to retain Lang." For the sake of Master Fang's service, Jun Neng will treat his family well."
These words made Liu Xikun very angry and angry. He was so angry that he wanted to kill this disrespectful person on the spot, but then he was horrified.
oops! I have just prepared to achieve great things, and now I am continuing to win over people's hearts. How can I make others think that I am mean and ungrateful? ?
This man surnamed Liu was probably trying to wake himself up on purpose. Fortunately, he had a superb mind and woke up in time!
Well, although Mr. Liu is just a small official, he seems to be very knowledgeable and courageous. He is also a talented person who should be put to his own use.
With such a change of mind, Liu Xikun walked to Fang Linsun's body with a sad face and bowed respectfully.
I couldn't squeeze out my tears, so I had to beat my chest and say, "The death of Master Fang is extremely heartbreaking. His achievements will be remembered forever by Liu. Liu will definitely give him a good burial and treat his family well and make them happy." No worries about food and clothing..."
After performing such a performance seriously, Liu Xikun walked back to Liu Jianming, pretended to be a courteous corporal, took the initiative to bow his hands, and said sincerely, "Liu is not a cold person. I just cared about my own concerns and did something wrong." It was an oversight, but fortunately my husband gave me some advice and I was able to make up for it. If you don’t give up, I would like to treat you as a mentor and friend and invite you to create a great cause together!"
Liu Jianming pretended to hesitate, and seemed to have thought about it for a long time before sighing, "My husband is so wise and generous, and he thinks so highly of me. I will die for my confidant as a scholar and serve you wholeheartedly."
"Haha, okay, okay, Liu got a talented person today, it's really like adding wings to a tiger..." Liu Xikun acted coyly again.
Then Liu Xikun invited Ma Huo to besiege Lucheng together. Ma Huo immediately agreed, but said that he would go back to the tribe to gather the tribe first. Liu Xikun also knew the situation of the Pabra tribe, so he expressed his understanding. In fact, he didn't really expect it. What role can the Pabra tribe play now?
Afterwards, Ma Huo left with dozens of tribesmen, and no one noticed in the night that there were five or six Song people dressed as natives among them, as well as Wan Sheng.
After returning to his own tribe, Ma Huo did not do anything wrong and cooperated with the Song people honestly and renovated the ships.
The boats of the Pabra people first use a whole piece of wood as the bottom, and then use many wooden boards to piece together the hull. The boards are connected with mulberry nails and filled with kapok and tree pulp to prevent leakage. There are no partitions in the boat. It can carry six to eight people and moves by paddles.
I picked the largest one, spent a day adding a stern rudder, and installed a mast that was only over a foot high to hang the sails, turning it into a paddle-sail boat.
On the morning of the fifth day of September, three Pabras and three Song people, plus Wan Sheng, who was in charge of communication, a total of seven people took a boat out to sea. They first headed north to avoid the pirates, and then headed west. If they were lucky, I can get to Quanzhou in four or five days. If I'm not lucky, I might get to Dragon Palace at any time.
At the same time, a large fleet arrived at the sea off Fuzhou, preparing to stop to replenish some water before continuing south. Zhao Mengqi also led a fleet from Quanzhou to Liuqiu.
At noon on the sixth day of the lunar month, Zhao Mengqi's fleet arrived in the sea about a hundred miles away from Lukang. Because they knew there was a pirate group in the waters of Liuqiu Island, they always had lookouts to check the sea conditions.
Suddenly the lookout on the Shenzhou noticed something unusual in the sea to the east. He immediately used a telescope to observe carefully and found that it was a strange-looking boat with seven people on board, all of whom were natives judging from their clothes.
After the news was reported to Zhao Mengqi, he immediately sent an order to the Clippers to go up and see the situation.
The clipper is smaller in size, only about 500 pieces of material. It is equipped with oars and is relatively flexible. It is the main combat ship type in the coastal navy. However, it is now used by Zhao Meng for reconnaissance and communication.
Immediately after his order was issued, two speedboats opened the portholes on both sides, stretched out their oars, and flew away in the designated direction like centipedes on the water.
About half an hour later, the clippers returned to the fleet that had lowered their sails. One of them got close to the Shenzhou and sent seven people and a wax-sealed bamboo tube onto the Shenzhou through a rope ladder.
Zhao Mengqi opened the bamboo tube and took out the request for help letter inside to read it carefully.
There is not much content in the letter. It briefly describes the situation in Liuqiu and requests emergency rescue from the imperial court. It is also stamped with the official seal of Liuqiu Prefecture, the seal of the left-wing military command, and the private seals of Lin Yingjia, Zeng Ba, and Fu Yixin, which are enough to prove the authenticity. .
After reading it, Zhao Mengqi breathed a sigh of relief, "Fortunately, it's not too late."
Seeing him speak, Wan Sheng, who had been watching eagerly, couldn't help but said excitedly, "Are you His Highness King Yan? Aren't you supposed to be in Lin'an City thousands of miles away? No matter, the general is saved now. Lucheng has been saved, and so have my people..."
Geng Zhi was about to scold Wan Sheng for his rudeness, but Zhao Mengqi waved his hand to stop him, and then looked at the young native curiously, "What's your name? You speak Chinese quite well. It's only been a long time. It's really rare."
"Wan Sheng! My name is Wan Sheng. I was given the name by the Lord. I also learned Chinese in the military school. The Lord is indeed right. His Highness is the most powerful and magical person in the world. He can know us from so far away. When we were in danger, he came to save us personally..."
Previously, when two clippers appeared in front of their boat, everyone was panicked and desperate, thinking that they were stopped by pirates. After all, they had only left Liuqiu Island not far.
Fortunately, one of the three Song people on board was an officer, that is, the real messenger. He saw clearly the flag flying on the incoming ship, and this prevented everyone from acting rashly.
However, the other six people still seemed to be dreaming until they boarded the Shenzhou. It was normal for Wan Sheng to be so excited.
Perhaps worried that Wan Sheng's rudeness would offend King Yan, the officer added, "Your Highness, Wan Sheng is the first tribal person we met after arriving on the island. Commander Zeng saw that he was smart, so he was recruited into the army to teach him personally. , treat him like his son and apprentice."
Zhao Mengqi laughed, "Old Zeng, who is almost thirty years old, didn't know how to get married and have children early, but now he recognizes his godson. Could it be that he likes to pick up ready-made things?"
After joking, he looked at the officer and recalled for a while, "Are you... Luo Qian?"
The officer was full of surprise, "Your Highness, do you remember the general?"
"Haha, you have been released from me. How could you not remember this? When we get to the island, I will invite everyone to drink and reminisce about the past... Now let's talk about the current details first."
After Zhao Mengqi finished speaking, he asked someone to fetch a simple map of Liuqiu Island. This map was the latest drawn by Uncle Xie Fang based on the information obtained from previous explorations and the development team's arrival on the island.
Luo Qian first added some information obtained later on the picture, and then recounted what happened in the past month.
When we were in Quanzhou, based on the prisoners' confessions, we already had some understanding of the situation of Liuqiu Island, and now it is much clearer.
Zhao Mengqi went through the compiled intelligence in his mind and murmured, "So, the native tribe should have gathered at least 20, 30,000 people near Luding County? Well... this seems to be a good thing... …”
After sketching on the map for a while, he made a decision, "Luo Qian, I need you to return to Lucheng as soon as possible..."
Soon after, Luo Qian and Wan Sheng transferred to a fast boat and returned to the Pabra tribe with the mission given by Zhao Mengqi. As for the boat they took, they had completed their "temporary" mission and sunk gloriously. Into the bottom of the sea.
Another clipper ship also turned around and returned to Quanzhou with Zhao Mengqi's personal order, and the fleet raised sail again and turned to the north.
At this time, outside Lucheng, there were pirate ships wandering on the sea to the west, tribal troops in the woods in the north, south, south, and east, and a camp was built five miles away from the city.
Several powerful young men led their own escorts out of the camp and swaggered close to fifty feet to persuade them to surrender.
This is the third time to persuade every day. The first two times, they only sent out a few minions, and they were cautious, but they just ignored them and did not shoot.
Today, thinking that the city must have been hungry for three or four days and probably unable to hold on any longer, Su Jia Chang, Wu Xunji, and Cai Qicang began to think of grabbing the credit.
And even if the persuasion to surrender fails, there is no danger, especially the deeds of intimidating a city are enough to brag about for a lifetime, so the three of them took the initiative to ask Liu Xikun for help.
For this highlight moment of their lives, the three of them even took care of their appearance, wearing pink hairpins and looking very elegant.
After reaching the city gate, the three of them pretended to be humble to each other, and finally Su Jiachang, who won the guessing game, got the qualification to shout to persuade them to surrender.
Su Jia took three steps forward, looked at the city with his head held high, cleared his throat, and shouted with all his strength.
"Listen, people in the city, you are surrounded by my army and have run out of food. Why bother fighting with trapped animals anymore? Only those who understand the current situation are heroes. Only by recognizing the reality quickly can you have a way out..."
"Get the fuck out of here."
There was a loud roar from the top of the city, and more than a dozen feather arrows were fired, directly hitting Su Jia Zhang.
Su Jia was so shocked that he just stared at one of the arrows falling on his head with his mouth open.
Then he felt a chill on the top of his head, and Yujian pulled off his scarf to reveal a large bald spot, and finally inserted itself into the thigh of a guard not far behind Su Jiazhang.
Seeing other scattered arrows far away from him, Su Jia Chang was just congratulating himself on his luck, but he immediately saw dense crossbow arrows flying from the top of the city.
Wu Xunqi, Cai Qicang and others, including the Su family guards, all ran away, leaving Su Jiazhang alone and standing there stupidly.
The crossbow arrows came down like a torrential rain, turning you into a giant hedgehog no matter what kind of person you were.
The others ran fast, and a dozen of them were hit by the crossbow bolts, but the distance reduced the power of the crossbow bolts, so they probably wouldn't lose their lives.
After a while, a second round of crossbow bolts was fired from the top of the city, but it was not uniform and there were many fewer arrows.
Liu Xikun in the camp watched this scene and jumped in anger, "Why! Why do they still have the strength to shoot arrows after being hungry for three or four days!? Do they still have food!!!"
Liu Jianming beside him quickly advised, "Don't be angry, sir. Although the granary was burned, there are always other scattered grains. In addition, the natives who were moved into the city also brought some grain with them. In addition, there are It’s normal for big animals like cattle, donkeys and horses to last a few more days.”
Liu Xikun was stunned, "What you said makes sense, but I was wrong. No wonder you said you should be more cautious before. Hey, it was Master Su who didn't listen to the advice and cost your life. But if this continues, it will take a long time." when?"
"Actually, Mr. Lang, you don't have to worry too much. There are more than 12,000 and nearly 3,000 people in the city. With that little food, they can't hold it for long no matter how much they save. And the person who yelled at the top of the city just now should be Zeng Ba. His voice He was obviously a little weak. In addition, with his previous level, how could the arrows he shot be inaccurate and weak? This means that he was starting to run out of food. The other sergeants should also have little strength, so the bows and arrows were sparse and the crossbows were firing. It took so long to pretend..."
Liu Jianming talked about the analysis, and Liu Xikun nodded repeatedly, "Sir, you are really talented. He can deduce hidden secrets from just a few details... Hehe, then, they were actually bluffing just now, trying to bluff We are here to cheer up other people in the city." 33
"Of course, the more they act like this, the more they can no longer keep their composure. It doesn't matter if we wait a few more days." Liu Jianming looked like a dog-headed strategist.
Liu Xikun laughed, "Just as Mr. said, let's wait a few more days!"
Some people died, but not completely...
