Dozens of warships lined up at the mouth of the Malian Creek continued to fire shells one after another into the battlefield, and thousands of explosive shells exploded on the shore, only to make the river bank fall into the middle of the earth, steel fragments flew in the air, and the shock wave of the shells exploded to blow the Qing troops away, tearing at their limb fragments and twisting in the air.

It's hell!

For Su Ming, who was under fire, in the choking smoke of gunpowder, there was only one thought left in his heart - hell is probably nothing more than that.

Escape!

Looking at the soldiers around him who were constantly being killed, Su Ming no longer had other people's thoughts in his heart, and he thought of escaping.

Surrender?

After he surrendered with certainty, what was waiting for him would be Zheng Chenggong's thunderous anger, he believed that Zhu Mingzhong would definitely hand him over to Zheng Chenggong, at that time, even if he Su Ming wanted to die happily, he was afraid that it would be impossible, and he would not be able to solve his hatred with a thousand cuts!

Looking at the soldiers who were crying and jumping in the smoke of gunpowder, Su Ming didn't even even look at it, and led dozens of personal soldiers to flee towards the other side of the mountain forest, towards the upper reaches of the Yard Refining Creek.

"Perhaps, I can escape to the Rimmuyi......"

Less than half an hour after Su Ming fled to the upper reaches of the Yard Refining Creek, after learning the news of Lord Su's escape. The Qing soldiers who were struggling under artillery fire chose to surrender one after another, and the water of the river had been dyed red. The banks were littered with corpses, thousands of corpses scattered along the banks of the river. And more often than not, the captives who have been blown up and scattered. They all looked around in fear, they were not veterans under Huang Wu's command, many of them were just soldiers recruited by Huang Wu to cope with errands, and they didn't even have much training. They are of all ages, and because of this, they immediately give up their resistance.

"Su Ming escaped?"

When he received the report from his subordinates, Shen Hefei was stunned at first,

"Just ran away?"

"Do you want to send someone to chase after you?"

Then Shen Hefei shook his head and said.

"No, let him go!"

The reason why he said this is because Shen Hefei knew very well what was in the upper reaches of the Yarding River, there was a cannibal tribe that had been driven out because of a conflict with immigrants, and Su Ming fled there, I am afraid that only God knows whether it is a good thing or a bad thing.

And just as Shen Hefei guessed, since then, there has been no news of Su Ming, he has neither fled to Hongmaoyi's stronghold at the mouth of the Tamsui River, nor has he fled back to Fujian, nor has he been discovered by the immigrants in the basin, and the group, as if it had never existed, disappeared into the mountains and forests in the upper reaches of the Yarding River.

"After this battle, the Qingyu Sailor will definitely be frightened, and from then on, he will not dare to go to the sea again!"

Like many people, after witnessing the naval battle of the Loyal and Righteous Navy, Qu Dajun couldn't help but admire, in the sound of the salute, he looked at the warships that sailed into the harbor, most of these warships were full of holes, which shows the fierceness of the previous naval battle, looking at many of them either broken masts, or the appearance of holes in the board, seeing the appearance of those warships. Thinking of the future voyage, he thought worriedly.

"Now that these ships have been beaten like this, can they go to Burma again?"

The reason why Qu Dajun was worried about this was because the fleet's next task was even more arduous, and they had to go to Burma to welcome back the imperial court.

In his opinion, once the imperial court is welcomed back to the southern capital, when the time comes, when the world returns to the heart, then at that time, who can stop this Ming trend?

Just when Qu Dajun had such a thought in his heart, looking at the warship entering the port, he couldn't help but be a little worried, although this naval battle has stabilized the Fujian Sea since then and prevented the Qing Navy Division from intercepting the news when the imperial court returned to the capital, but on the other hand, if the warship was damaged like this, will it affect the next move?

Thinking of this, Qu Dajun's brows were tightly locked as the "special envoy for the escort", and a thick sadness suddenly appeared on his face, and at this moment of celebrating the victory, this kind of sadness should not have appeared, but he was pressed by another major event in his heart, but he had to think about all this, so that on that day, on Keelung Island, at the celebration banquet held for the naval fleet, Qu Dajun, who seemed to be full of laughter, flashed a little sadness between his eyebrows from time to time. Even the smile seemed a little far-fetched, but at this time, no one noticed the change in his face for the people who were celebrating the victory, and for them, all they needed was to celebrate the victory.

Of course, in addition to celebrating the victory, there was also the need to repair damaged ships, and the shipyard in Keelung Harbor was fully effective at this time, with damaged ships being towed into the dock for repairs and wounded sailors being cared for on shore.

For the navy, the reason why they dare to choose to fight a decisive battle here is precisely because there are good logistics facilities in Keelung, and it is these logistics facilities that make it possible for you to recover your combat effectiveness in the shortest possible time after the naval battle is over.

While the surviving sailors were celebrating their victory and the wounded sailors were being treated, on the other side, most of the tens of thousands of captured Qing sailors and infantry were in the concentration camp, waiting for the unknown fate in a dazed and nervous manner.

"Taipei needs these people to build a city!"

As the first magistrate of Taipei, Zheng Xiaru looked at Shen Hefei and put forward his request bluntly - he needed those captives to build Taipei City. After all, the biggest shortcoming for Taiwan now is the shortage of manpower, and in this case, he naturally turned his brains to those prisoners.

"When Xia Guan came, Jing Luo once said that the construction of Taiwan is related to the stability of Taiwan's construction in the future, and it is also related to the next step to compete with the Dutch for Taiwan, so we must complete the construction of the city as soon as possible!"

Of course, there is a more important reason - Taipei will be used to house the imperial court, as the line of the imperial court, it is necessary to prepare a residence for them before the arrival of the imperial court, and even the emperor's palace, although there are rich forest resources here, those huge trees are rare trees in the mainland, but the labor here is scarce, which directly limits the speed of urban construction in Taipei, therefore, almost at the first time when he knew the number of prisoners, Zheng Xiaru moved his mind to the prisoners, and even proposed a large package, Take all the captives away. Only in this way can we complete the urban construction of Taipei in the shortest possible time and complete the tasks that have been explained by the strategy.

"Lead mines, sulfur mines, lumber yards and reclamation, all need manpower, more than 10,000 people, it seems to be a lot, but to these places, it is not enough at all, I know, your side is important, but other places are also the foundation of Taiwan, if Taiwan can not produce something, it will become a burden on the government office, when the time comes, there is no way to maintain the operation here, only after there is output here, can it become the foundation of the government office in the southern sea, to provide materials for the northern expedition of the government office, It is not a loss-making place that is barely maintained by the assistance of the government department! ”

As the governor of Shen Hefei, although he does not know how Western countries colonize, but as the first colonization official of Taiwan, he knows very well that if a place does not produce, it will eventually lead to the government in the face of difficulties, will choose to abandon this place, and because of this, he will do everything possible to make Keelung and the Taipei Basin become a "cow", on the one hand, of course, in order to show political achievements, and on the other hand, it is also to make this place, one day in the future, become a prefecture and county like the prefecture and county in the mainland. Become a part of the Ming Dynasty's territory, and no longer like it is now, but just a piece of land.

Of course, he also knows the future use of Taipei, and he is also well aware of the importance of Taipei. So he spoke comfortingly.

"Of course, Taipei is also important, I don't think so, on the prisoner side, you take away 4,000 people, at most you can only take so much, there is no way, now all places have to use people, and, you know, the navy, it seems that for the prisoners, they also have some plans!"

"Navy? You mean the fleet? What are they going to do with their captives? ”

Zheng Xiaru immediately asked urgently, the most fundamental reason why he was so nervous was that those prisoners were the "assets" of the navy in the final analysis, and if they wanted to, they naturally had the most right to speak.

"Replenish the loss? Can you say yes? Those people are traitors who have forgotten their roots! ”

If it was in the past, maybe Zheng Xiaru would say a few words for those sailors, but now because of the urgent need for manpower, he doesn't care so much, after all, for him, there is nothing more important than building a city now, not to mention anything else, that is, after Taipei is completed, it will be a great achievement in front of Yu Jinglue, if the time comes, and then take the imperial court in his hands, Yu Jinglue's credit is naturally self-evident.

Because of this, he was a little nervous when he heard that the Navy wanted to be captured. Even bluntly called those sailors and soldiers of the Qing Dynasty "traitors", although the government office used to treat the Qing soldiers as the same, unless the rebels, the other rate was "traitors", according to the law of the government office, 3,000 miles of hard labor is the minimum punishment. We must not be soft on those people, and this is a matter of principle that has been briefly mentioned.

"Did you see this naval battle today?"

Shen Hefei glanced at Zheng Xiaru, and then said.

"If this naval battle is not close to Keelung, how will the fleet's warships be repaired after the naval battle is over? How were the wounded treated, and even how did the sailors go ashore to recuperate after the war? These are all problems, because this expedition is very important, considering that it is very likely that it will be necessary to fight the Burmese army at that time, so the fleet admiral will want to set up several naval navigation stations along the coast, first, the fleet can be replenished at the navigation station, the sailors can rest on the shore, and second, the damaged ships of the fleet can also be repaired at the navigation station, of course, this can also open up the territory, after all, in the future, perhaps, more people will need to be exiled, not just rely on one Taiwan! ”

Shen Hefei looked at Zheng Xiaru and said that at the banquet, the idea of Wang Anmin, the commander of the fleet. The navy undoubtedly has a broader and longer-term vision.

"Does the Navy mean that they're going to take all these captives away?"

Zheng Xiaru said a little unwillingly.

"If you take them all away, what's the use of sprinkling a large piece of salt along the way? And how could they build a naval station along the way? ”

In Zheng Xiaru's view, this is simply wishful thinking, and it is unrealistic at all. After all, now for the navy, their focus is not overseas at all, and for a long time to come, their focus will be at home, dealing with the Manchus.

"Even if they find a place and go to build a naval station, every time they build a naval station, they always need to keep people to garrison, now their manpower itself is not enough, if they leave more manpower to garrison, when the time comes, what will their task do?"

Staring at Shen Hefei, Zheng Xiaru said bluntly.

"Don't forget that their mission is to welcome back the court! What's the matter with this Admiral? How can he lose a big because of a small thing, doesn't he know, what is most important now? ”

The most important thing now is nothing more than to welcome back the imperial court, and the rest is not important, after all, the purpose of establishing the navy in the first place is also for this purpose. How can they lose big because of the small?

For the Navy, though, they naturally have some ideas of their own. And these ideas are also based on the needs of the Navy.

"We don't know what kind of resistance we might face when we arrive in Myanmar, or if there will be a fierce battle. But what is certain is that if we can set up a naval station there, the fleet can be repaired after a long voyage, and the sailors can quickly recover their energy. And after the naval battle, it was also possible to be maintained at the naval station, as it is now. ”

As an officer, Shen Hefei will naturally stand on the position of the navy, and even in his opinion, those naval stations are another Keelung in the future, and many colonies in Western countries were such strongholds at the beginning. For the Navy, something should be gained from this voyage, something should be rewarded.

Of course, for Zheng Xiaru, he didn't know Shen Hefei's thoughts at all, and for him, if there was anything more important than Taipei, it was the task undertaken by the Navy on this voyage. Listening to Shen Hefei's explanation, he only thought that this was a necessary support, and immediately spoke out to express his approval.

"If it's for that mission, I can have fewer people on my side, but the navy doesn't need everyone."

There was a hint of tentative smacking in his tone. And then he said,

"After all, they are important there, and I am also important here. Or wait until they bring the people back. Nothing is good here, where will they live then? Do you think that's the truth? ”

Then he asked rhetorically.

"And when will the fleet depart? Can you get as many people as you can to me before they leave? ”