"Artillery, it's amazing, it's amazing."

Someone muttered, Zuo Nianyuan's ears were buzzing, I don't know if he was shocked by the sound of cannons, or because he was too excited, as if all the blood in his body was surging on the top of his head, his mouth was half open, watching the cannonballs sweep through the thousands of troops on the dock. The bombardment lasted for more than two hours, and the shells ravaged groups of pirates over and over again, and from morning until noon, they fled blindly without eating or drinking in constant fear of death, and the spirit of most of the people had been completely destroyed by the shelling, and the pirates did not dare to gather in a group, or even concentrate effective forces to attack the city of defending the sea. Correspondingly, the Song army at the head of the city kept cheering, and the regiments spontaneously shouted and cheered for the sailor.

"Okay!" "One, two! Hit again! ”

"Fly over, Grandma's!"

"It's beautiful!" "Hit again!"

Every time a cannonball fell into the crowd of pirates, the city resounded with cheers, and the soldiers were elated as if they were celebrating a festival.

The cannonballs whizzed into the crowd, sweeping up pieces of flesh and blood, and in an instant the thieves were wailing and rolling all over the ground.

Flesh and blood flying as if it was close at hand, Zuo Nian looked at this scene intently, the shelling was comparable to the might of heaven and earth, he felt a cold air spread from the back of his head all the way down his spine all over his body, this June weather, his skin was a little pimple, and the whole person trembled with shock and excitement. "The artillery is amazing!" The person next to him said loudly again, "Lord Zuo, fortunately, we are not enemies of the water master. Zuo Nianyuan heard Cen Zhibao's voice, he nodded, his eyes were full of eagerness: "The eldest husband should be like this!" ”

When Zuo Nianyuan and many young officers in Quang Nam were enthusiastic, Cen Zhibao was suddenly surprised to see a group of pirates erecting a white flag, which was also called the flag of surrender throughout the ages, which meant that the two armies abandoned their weapons and surrendered during the battle. "Look!" He pointed to the white banner and shouted, "The pirate has landed!" "Less than three hours have passed since the South China Sea Naval Division began shelling and someone erected white flags.

The pirates did not belong to each other, and after some people put up the flags, some people began to follow suit.

Especially when the artillery of the sailor deliberately avoided the surrendered bandits, and bombarded the pirates who had not yet erected the flags, there were more and more white flags on the wharf in Western Australia. Looking from the distance from the city, pieces of white flags are waving in the wind, just like a funeral.

"Damn it, cowards, heretics are cowards!" Famaitu roared angrily, "The warriors of the Sultan would rather die than surrender!" ”

There was silence around him, and Yasin, Abad and other big food officers were all dejected. Their faces were all sallow and puffy, and some of them had burn marks, and because of their heavy hearts, the eyes of the officers were cloudy, their eyelids drooped, and no one spoke except for someone coughing hoarsely.

At this time, everyone wants to leave this hellish battlefield from the heart, and the fear of death has enveloped everyone. It was as if they were in a nightmare from which it was difficult to wake up, their minds were dizzy, their chests were heavy, they were exhausted, they were hungry and thirsty, and their spirits were extremely low. Not far away, the wounded soldiers were placed together like corpses, their bodies emitting a foul smell of blood, and they couldn't last long. Surrender seemed to be the only way out, however, no one dared to say it. Neither the true God nor the Sultan will tolerate surrender. "Is it okay to surrender?" "Will the infidels take it?" "I'm afraid I'll be killed." "If you love to kill, you will kill, and you will never go back anyway." Everyone's heart is struggling.

"Where's Qiu Dongjia?" Famaitu seemed to remember something, and said sharply, "Get him for me!" ”

"He ......," someone stammered, "he disappeared a day ago." ”

"What?" Famaitu's eyes widened suddenly, bursting with the fierce light of a beast that had fallen into a trap.

At this time, the pirates of the Song Kingdom who were trapped on the bank of the river at the wharf in Western Australia put up flags nine times out of ten.

Because most of the pirates fled ashore during the fire attack a few days ago, there were as many as 40,000 or 50,000 pirates who surrendered. Beneath these white flags was the terrible sight of the dead and wounded all over the docks, and the news among the pirates that more than two dozen fierce leaders of the king's hegemony had died under the cannons. There were only two or three thousand people left in the Great Food Navy, almost submerged in a sea of descending flags. At present, the naval division of the South China Sea could not distinguish which was the pirate who was seeking surrender and which was stubbornly resisting, so he could only suspend the shelling and send people ashore to discuss with the Guangzhou government how to deal with the surrendered pirates.

Even Zhao Xingde did not expect the pirates to surrender so quickly, and he was originally going to send personnel to persuade them to surrender after two days of shelling.

Officials in Guangzhou were even more unexpected. In their eyes, these pirates are more like crazy beasts than people. Pirates come and go like the wind, and the offensive is extremely rapid, and if the officers and soldiers do not have an absolute superiority, they will never dare to attack the pirates. During the battle, even if many bandits were mortally wounded, and those who looked close to death at a glance could have slashed and killed several regiments of soldiers. In less than a day of shelling, tens of thousands of pirates entrenched on the wharf of Western Australia were in a state of mental collapse, and a large number of flags were erected and landed without warning, which surprised every Guangzhou official, including Chen Gongju. The flags were lowered everywhere to raise the morale of the regimental training troops to the extreme, but the officials fell into hesitation and dispute.

Some people can't believe it's true, and for no reason, they insist that the pirates are swindling. Some people are resolutely unwilling to accept the surrender of the murderers because of the heavy casualties of the children of Guangzhou some time ago, and advocate that since the army of the sailors has arrived, it is just right to eradicate all these murderers. Some people believe that the heavens have the virtue of a good life, and the pirates have erected banners and killed prisoners ominously. With Guangzhou no longer threatened, everyone was uplifted, and Huang Yuanlong, a scholar and politician, finally found room to play. Whoever leads the surrender will have a higher prestige in Quang Nam. The battle outside the city is over, and the fighting inside the city is raging again.

After a day and a night, Chen Gongju and Huang Yuanlong refused to give in to each other, and finally asked Zhao Xingde, Marquis of Wuchang, to let the pirates fear the South China Sea sailors to accept the surrender of the pirates, but to ensure that those murderers whose hands were stained with the blood of the people of Guangnan were punished. Zhao Xingde had never seen such a strange request, and the official letter expressing the request was accompanied by eight pages of various contradictory conditions, covering the thoughts and demands of various factions in Quang Nam.

"They're going to make people hysterical." Zhao Xingde handed the official letter to Feng Mi and said with a smile, "This is not good." ”

"What are you going to do with that?" Feng Mi asked.

"This is my plan," Zhao Xingde looked at him, picked up another prepared official letter from his desk, opened the cover to confirm it, and handed it to him, "You can inform the Guangzhou Mansion of it." He bit the word "notice" a little harder, handed another case file to Liu Zhijian, and said in a deep voice: "This is a copy, receiving prisoners is not a simple errand, everyone is ready to work." Liu Zhijian nodded and took the case file. Since there was a plan to deal with the prisoners, Zhao Xingde and Guangzhou must have reached a tacit understanding, and it is most likely that Chen Gongju had already agreed to hand over the prisoners to Zhao Xingde for disposal.

Zhao Xingde was deliberately trying to trap tens of thousands of pirates under the city of Guangzhou, and he was afraid that he had the idea of disposing of the prisoners. It's just that there is no banter, no laughter, everything is in the heart. Since Zhao Xingde was unwilling to make the details of the transaction public, Liu Zhijian would not inquire, he was just secretly funny, Guangzhou Xuezheng Huang Yuanlong and Chen Gongju fought for a long time, but in fact, the result was already in the calculation of Zhao Chen and the others in advance. After Feng Mi left, Liu Zhijian opened the case file and skimmed through it roughly.

As long as it is not a special circumstance, the subordinates can put forward opinions and discuss and revise the strategy drafted by Zhao Xingde himself. Officers at the level of military envoys and commanders can also raise objections, Zhao Xingde will take the initiative to ask the opinions of his subordinates, but rarely express his own opinions easily in discussions, he is mostly listening to others' speeches, by listening to the opinions of subordinates, he can not only correct the inappropriateness in the plan, but also understand the situation of his subordinates. Even if he didn't listen to the right opinions at the beginning, Zhao Xingde would regretfully admit his mistakes afterwards, and if he had made the right changes before, the result would have been different. It's not a pretense at all.

Among his subordinates, Zhao Xingde's prestige was not only not damaged by this, but was more popular with the officers and soldiers. Everyone knows that Zhao Xingde is not a person who let his subordinates die in vain because of his stupidity, so they have no complaints when they carry out military orders. The more intelligent and capable officers are, the more willing they are to serve them with all their might, and when they are transferred to other generals, they will be very uncomfortable.

"Jingdong Road selects five thousand reinforcements?" Liu Zhijian was surprised, "They are heading south with General Zhou?" ”

"Exactly." Zhao Xingde muttered, "If the combat strength of the main fleet of the Navy Division is too damaged in order to establish a detachment fleet, the gains outweigh the losses. Lu, Luo, and Deng originally had heroes on the rivers and lakes, and after the experience of many previous wars, most of them were loyal and reliable men who came to serve as officers in the detachment fleet. ”

According to Zhao Xingde's estimate, among the more than 50,000 captives, at least 40,000 people who killed bloody and evil criminals and did not commit crimes to death, and the South China Sea sailors eliminated the weak and retained the strong, and probably could get more than 20,000 to 25,000 usable pawns. The pirate gangs will all be broken up, with Zhao Xingde's old veterans as the backbone, and seven detachments will be formed, each detachment will have about 3,000 to 5,000 people, of which more than 1,000 to 2,000 will be the main force of the detachment, which will be stationed in various important places in the southwest China Sea. As a result, the South China Sea Naval Division has suddenly swelled from more than 10,000 to nearly 40,000 people, and the entire Southwest China Sea will be under the supervision of the detachment fleet.