The ship lost its spinnaker at the bow, and the deck was in disarray, and almost all of the sailmen on the first mast fled, so that the speed of the ship immediately slowed down.

Zheng Du still had the courage to fight at this time, and hurriedly looked around, trying to find a gap to get out, but there was another artillery roar behind the side - Shao Wu caught up.

The pirate ship trembled, and a twelve-pounder gun was fired in the stern and starboard side, and although it did not destroy important facilities such as rudders or masts, it caused no small casualties.

These pirates are bloodthirsty, but in fact they are a rabble, and when they are suddenly struck, they will only shout in fear and scream, and they will have no unified command at all.

Due to the fact that there were Ming warships on both sides, the gunners of the Xuwei were also like headless flies, with one cannon on the port side and one cannon on the starboard side. But it was helpless that neither the Zhangzhou nor the Shaowu could be dealt with by the cannons it was equipped with.

Shi Lang saw that the Haikou who suddenly appeared was still "resisting to the death", frowned and ordered: "Let the Fuzhou and those few light frigates also surround it, and destroy the enemy ships as soon as possible." ”

"Yes!"

A chain bullet flew over Zheng Du's head and accurately smashed the main mast of the Xuwei.

Zheng Du looked at the six Galen warships around him in a daze, as if he had lost his soul, and there was only one question in his heart—which immortal did I offend?

Seeing this, his guard hurriedly pulled his arm and shook it, "Big boss, what should I do now?" ”

"What else can I do? Raise the white flag and beg for ......"

More than an hour later, on the Shao Wu, Shi Lang's adjutant came to him and said, "General, the last escaping Haikou ship has been captured by the Ji'an. ”

Shi Lang nodded, but the result of this unexpected encounter was not unexpected, the sailor cleanly sank two enemy ships and captured three alive.

But what he cared about the most was that these pirates actually had a 2670-ton Galen warship, could it be that they were Helan?

He said to the adjutant, "Can the thief be caught?" ”

"Back to the general, captured. Or an 'old acquaintance'. ”

"Oh? Who is it? ”

"Zheng Du. and Hong Xu. ”

"Interesting, bring it to me."

"Yes!"

……

Nanking.

Forbidden City, Wenhua Palace.

"Nine hundred and twenty thousand taels?" Zhu Linmiao looked at Shi Lang and said happily, "This trip has made such a huge profit!" ”

Shi Langyi said: "Your Majesty doesn't know that on the way home, the last general encountered an eyeless pirate on the way home, and he broke it in a moment, seized three boats, and raised 180,000 taels of silver in his lair. If you hadn't bought a lot of copper ore from the Wa Kingdom, you would have been able to bring back more than one million taels! ”

Maritime trade is indeed a lucrative industry! Zhu Linmiao sighed in his heart, it was only three months of work, and the ocean-going caravan that had just been built had earned more than 700,000 taels, not counting the profits after the goods brought back from Japan were sold.

With these more than a million taels, at least the consumption of the Northern Expedition does not have to worry about for the time being.

This is only trade with Japan, and in the future, trade with North Korea, Southeast Asia, and even European countries will be fully rolled out, and the silver will not flow into the treasury of the Ming Dynasty like white water?

He immediately thought of an important matter, so he asked Shi Lang: "Marquis, what did Tokugawa Iemitsu say?" ”

The latter hurriedly said: "Back to Your Majesty, the Tokugawa clan is arrogant and arrogant, and does not take the last general in his eyes at all.

Not only did he refuse to pay the 300,000 taels of compensation, but he also snubbed the general very rudely, and there were many wild words. If it weren't for one monk who was always on the sidelines, I am afraid that he would have driven the last general out of the Wa kingdom at his first meeting. ”

Last time, Zheng Chenggong led the sailors to attack Tianjin, and on the way he touched the porcelain of the Japanese Shimazu family in Ryukyu, pretending to be dead, and the ship was also damaged, so as to "extort" Tokugawa Iemitsu 300,000 taels in compensation.

Shi Lang went to Japan with the caravan this time, and he happened to go to negotiate this matter with the shogunate. The more he spoke, the more angry he became, and continued: "In addition, the goods shipped to the Wa Kingdom had to be bought and sold under the control of the Tokugawa clan, and they forcibly lowered their prices, causing the ocean-going caravans to lose a lot of profits. He also sent people to threaten the caravan several times, although he did not say it explicitly, but the meaning of his words was that if the Ming were not satisfied with the deal, they would turn to buy Hongyi's goods. ”

Zhu Linmiao smiled slightly when she heard this, "Okay, arrogant and arrogant!" I'm afraid that he will bow his head, but there will be some trouble. ”

Shi Lang said again: "By the way, Your Majesty, although the king of the Japanese people ...... Ah, it's a shogun, and he doesn't want to pay the money, but it is said that Tokugawa Iemitsu was furious when he received a 'letter of complaint' from Cai Jin, a doctor in the Ryukyus. Subsequently, he recruited the head of the Shimazu family and severely accused him of trespassing on Ryukyu and attacking the ministers of the Ming Dynasty.

"The Tokugawa clan wanted to make Shimazu Mitsuhisa commit suicide and apologize, but in the end, under the persuasion of the monk, he cut off a large piece of the Shimazu clan's fief and confiscated its gold mines, which is considered a matter of nothing."

"Mitsumi Shimazu hasn't died for a long time?" Zhu Linmiao seemed to be a little regretful, "But the Shimazu family is already extremely poor, and this time the stone height was reduced and the gold mine was confiscated, so this anger should be enough." ”

He asked Shi Lang again, "Is there any news from Dai Xiuyuan?" ”

"Back to Your Majesty, Lord Dai sent someone to contact the last general, and only said that the people who should be found have been put on the line, and everything is as Your Majesty expected."

"Okay." When Zhu Linmiao heard this, he took out a handwritten edict that had already been prepared, and ordered, "The sailor sent the ship to Dai Xiuyuan as soon as possible, there must be no mistake!" ”

"The Last General's Order!"

Shi Lang took the edict, suddenly remembered something, and arched his hand: "By the way, Your Majesty, there is still something important to be done in the end." ”

"Say it quickly."

"Your Majesty, do you remember what General Fang just said about meeting Haikou on the road?"

"Well, so what?"

"The last general captured the leader of the Haikou Bandits, and it turned out to be two traitors, Zheng Du and Hong Xu. In the end, people will be severely tortured, and Hong Xu can't stand the punishment, and he actually said something big. ”

Shi Lang glanced at the Son of Heaven and continued: "He confessed that Hongyi on Dongfan Island had colluded with Jianyu and made an appointment to attack our sailor together.

"After the Hongyi and our dynasty negotiated peace on the surface, Dolgon asked the Hongyi about this matter, and the Yi people said that he and our dynasty were only making peace, and secretly transferred a large number of warships from a certain territory on the sea, wanting to sneak attack me.

"Judging from the time he said at the time, most of those warships are now approaching Dongfan. The Yiren may be launched after half a month to a month. ”

Zhu Linmi's eyes narrowed slightly, although he expected that the Helan people would not give up easily, but he didn't expect that he would gather the fleet so quickly and prepare to make a sneak attack.

If there was no news that Shi Lang brought back this accident, although the sailor would not have been defeated, it was very likely that he would have fallen into passivity.

"These Helan people!" He said coldly, "I haven't gone to trouble them yet, but they want to stir things up." Okay, you can take this opportunity to wipe out its fleet and take advantage of the situation to recover Dongfan! ”

Shi Lang said quite solemnly: "Your Majesty, that Hong Xu also confessed that among the warships transferred by Hongyi, there is a one called 'Duo What Thunder', which is equipped with nearly fifty cannons. According to his description, it is estimated that the ship may be eight or nine hundred tons, but it should not be underestimated. ”

"The people of Helan are going to work hard." Zhu Linmiao was not very surprised, but smiled and said, "Do you know that during your trip to the Wa Kingdom, our Shaoxing has also been launched. Eight hundred tons, fifty-four guns, nine inches of hull. Da Mu personally led hundreds of sailors to practice near Chongming for a long time, and at this time he was able to control it smoothly.

"If the Helan people have the courage, even if they attack, I will teach him that there is no return!"