Between Zhejiang and Fujian, the mountains are horizontal, and only the Xianxialing Road connecting Quzhou and Jianzhou is the shortest and straightest by land, and there are mountain roads since ancient times.

However, the situation of Xianxia is dangerous, from south to north, Liling, Fengling, Daganling, Xiaoganling, Chaling, Yaoling six mountains are connected, the towering peaks and peaks, although there is a mountain road, but to the dangerous place, only allow one horse to pass. After crossing the Xianxia Mountains, there are waterways on both sides, but the dry source of Jianxi in Jianzhou in Lingnan and the water of the Oujiang River in Quzhou in Lingbei are also shallow for a long time, and they can only be navigated by small boats, and their navigation capacity is limited.

It is such a dangerous road, but it has been the most important pass between Zhejiang and Fujian since ancient times.

Before the war between Zhejiang and Fujian, Quzhou and Jianzhou on both sides of the Xianxia Mountains had thousands of porters working for the merchants. A piece of 100 catties of goods is carried from Quzhou to the wharf in Pucheng or from Puma to the Oujiang wharf in Quzhou, and twenty or thirty copper feet are collected.

The goods carried by thousands of porters on Xianxialing Road in a year are not even as good as a large sea ship going back and forth.

In the past, the flow of goods between Zhejiang and Fujian was very small, the sea route was difficult and dangerous, and there were Haikou blocking the road, so Xianxialing Road could barely meet the needs of Zhejiang and Fujian business travel between the two counties. However, the luxury family occupies the land of Zhejiang and Fujian, and needs a large number of rice and grain from Mingzhou and Huiji to be transported to Jin'an, and the iron from Jian'an and Jin'an is transported to Mingzhou and Huiji.

Although the focus of the extravagant family's military use shifted from the sea to the land, and they wanted to find an opportunity to break through into Jiangxi and southern Huizhou from the western front, the main passage connecting northern Fujian and southern Zhejiang was mainly by sea, supplemented by the land route of Xianxialing.

Three 300-stone bird's head boats descended from the wharf of Minqing, went down the clear water of the Minjiang River after autumn, bypassed the majestic Jin'an Fucheng, and entered the Bailongjiang River in the lower reaches of the Minjiang River.

The Minjiang River is divided into two rivers in the north and south from the Nantai Island on the east side of the city of Jin'an, the south is wide and shallow, the sand is turbid, and it is called the Wulong River; The North Reservoir is narrow, about seventy or eighty zhang wide, but the water is rapids and deep, and it is the main channel for ships going to sea.

Hu Axiang, the shopkeeper of Chunfutang, stood on the boat armor, looking at the lush Nantai Island in the south, the river was the same as them, there were still twenty or thirty bird-headed boats ready to go to sea, looking at the flags hoisting on the mast, most of them went to Mingzhou Mansion, and some went to Quanzhou Mansion, but they did not see the ship to Fuso Kagoshima.

Hu Axiang thought in his heart, although the sea journey to Kagoshima is difficult and dangerous, and in the eastern part of the sea, pirates are frequent, but it is really profitable. If ordinary people have the courage to carry ten quintals and eight quintals of raw silk to the ship and transport it to Kagoshima to sell, they will not have to worry about eating and drinking in this life.

Most of the sea ships in Jin'an are two-masted birds' head ships, with a carrying capacity of 300 to 500 stones. The ridge-building long and narrow bird's head boat and the flat-bottomed and wide-headed loach boat are the most mature ship types along the coast of eastern Fujian. The bird's-headed boat has a deep draft, but it sails fast by the wind; The loach boat has a shallow draft and can directly dock the shallows, which was very popular with pirates in the early years.

In the past, there were only thirty or fifty merchant ships at the mouth of the Minjiang River. In the past two years, the demand for sea ships going to Mingzhou has increased, and now there are as many as one or two hundred sea ships that go to Mingzhou and Jin'an, and the sea ships that go to Quanzhou are mainly bird head ships with a load of three or five hundred stones, but the sea ships that go to Yizhou, Liuqiu and Fuso Kagoshima, and even go far away from the Nanyang Islands have almost all been changed into three-masted ships, but the number is relatively limited.

The sea is treacherous, and the ability of a sea ship to resist wind and waves is far from being comparable to that of a small sea ship; The Metropolitan Governor's Office also repeatedly ordered families to build more large sea vessels. Compared with previous years, the quality of ships going to sea in Jin'an Mansion has improved by several grades.

There are two warships patrolling the estuary, and the ships are full of battle flags in the wind, and the accompanying man Wei Afu came over, and said with some anxiety: "Shopkeeper, I heard that the situation in the north is tight, and Huaidong has officially declared war on this side, will it be that as soon as we go out, there will be Huaidong's warships going around to the south?" ”

Hu Axiang glanced at his guy Wei Afu coldly, if he hadn't relied on his hands and feet to do things quickly, and said such bad things, he would have slapped him in the face a long time ago. I don't know where Wei Afu knew about the ban on the sea of the Huaidong Military Division, Hu Axiang snorted coldly and said: "I have 20,000 elite sailors in Mingzhou Mansion in Jin'an, and the Huaidong navy is full, and the total is not more than 10,000, even if there are one or two small boats leaking over, you are scared?" ”

Not to mention Hu Axiang, the vast majority of the generals of the Zhejiang and Fujian Metropolitan Governor's Mansion are still stuck in the thinking of land warfare in the battle line. Nowadays, Zhejiang, Fujian and Huaidong form a clear and distinct defense line between the Daishan Islands and the Shengsi Islands, and the Zhejiang-Fujian Naval Division is behind the Daishan defense line, from Changguo to Mingzhou Mansion and the eastern coast of Mingzhou Prefecture, forming a broad strategic depth of four or five hundred miles, and then to Jin'an Mansion, it will be nearly a thousand miles away, even if the Huaidong Naval Army will have a deep invasion of warships, it must be small-scale.

As one of the eight surnames in Eastern Fujian, the Hu clan has been in Fujian for more than 200 years, and there are as many as seven or eight thousand Hu clans living in the Fujian and Qing clans, which is second only to luxury and Song.

Zhejiang-Fujian army occupied southern Zhejiang, cut off the road of Jiangxi porcelain into Zhejiang, the porcelain produced by the Hu family, became a sought-after thing in southern Zhejiang, and there were as many as eight bird's head ships dedicated to transport porcelain to the north. With such a large amount of goods, you have to take the sea route, take the Xianxialing Road, and it is great to be able to ship out eleven a year.

Hu Axiang led three bird-headed boats to the north this time, all of which were filled with porcelain. Warned by the Metropolitan Governor's Office, the three ships were accompanied by more than 100 military guards to resist ordinary harassment. However, according to the requirements of the Metropolitan Governor's Office, it is recommended that ships going to sea form a convoy, and the navy will even send warships to escort them according to the situation.

Hu Axiang felt that the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion was too much, there were two thousand miles from Huaidong to Jin'an, and the Huaidong envoy took mad medicine and sent a ship around Jin'an to rob him.

The ship traveled to the lower island of Nantai Island, where the Zhejiang-Fujian Navy Division had a wharf, according to the rules to berth at the port, or to accept inspection, or wait for other merchant ships to come and sail in formation, Hu Axiang muttered in his heart, but did not dare to openly disobey the edict of the Metropolitan Governor's Office, and ordered the ship to come over.

At this time, several tall masts were exposed on the sea level, and several sea ships were coming towards the mouth of the Bailong River. It is also common for sea ships to haunt the estuary, but Hu Axiang didn't care. On the contrary, the two military ships that were patrolling the estuary suddenly adjusted their direction and sailed to and fro, perhaps to check the identity of the incoming ship. After a while, the incoming boats approached the mouth of the river by taking advantage of the returning tide, and Hu Axiang saw clearly that the five boats that came over were all loach boats, full of battle flags, fluttering in the wind.

Before these five ships suddenly attacked the patrol ship, Hu Axiang thought that it was the warship of the Zhejiang Fujian Water Battalion, and probably the two patrol ships also thought so, so they approached the inspection unsuspectingly!

The battle at the mouth of the Bailong River broke out so suddenly that the two patrol ships were unsuspected, and almost in the blink of an eye, they covered themselves with the pouring arrows and special incendiary canisters filled with fire oil. The five enemy ships that launched a surprise attack were obviously not only targeting the two patrol ships at the mouth of the river, but also throwing off the two patrol ships that had caused a fire and taking advantage of the resurging tide to attack the docks on Nantai Island!

"It's an enemy ship, it's an enemy ship coming in!" Most of the men on the finch boat had never seen any occasion, and they saw five enemy ships rushing towards them in a rage, and they screamed in panic.

Hu Axiang couldn't wait to slap Wei Afu, who was crow's mouth, what did he say, he was also shocked in his heart, he didn't know why five loach ships could bypass the outer cordon and sneak in, and more than a dozen merchant ships stationed on the dock were all panicked and wanted to escape.

There were only more than 100 soldiers on the dock, and they were all scattered soldiers, panicking, but they just took bows and arrows and weapons and poured up the dock, but in fact, they couldn't help as soon as possible. The beacon smoke burned in time at this time, but it would take a while to wait for the water camp warship of the island water village to come over.

Hu Axiang first wanted to keep the goods on the ship, but he didn't dare to rely on the ability of more than 100 military guards on the ship, shouting loudly, and letting the boatmen change their sails and turn around and flee upstream!

The guards on the ship all took out bows, crossbows, knives and spears one after another, and more than a dozen leaders, with the help of others, put on their armor with all hands and feet. If the merchant ships can't escape, and the reinforcements can't come in time, they will have to resist them for a while.

Hu Axiang was still lucky, he had just left the anchorage and the sail was only half lowered, and the shipwrights and sailors were all in their respective seats. After the initial panic, the three bird-headed boats quickly turned around and headed upstream.

Most of the merchant ships stationed at Shimoshima were not so lucky, and as soon as they pulled up the big anchorage from the water, they killed five enemy ships in close range. Although the merchant ships were somewhat guarded, the enemy ships did not have the intention of robbing the ships when they approached, and when they were still some distance from the side, they threw a large number of burning oil canisters.

The oil canister smashed on the deck, and the fire suddenly spread with the splashing of fire oil, bows and crossbows and arrows overlapped, and the sails and masts of the ship were all easy to ignite, and the ship's guards lacked bows and crossbows to fight, so they were suppressed and unable to put out the fire.

Merchant ships could not be compared with warships, with thin decks, uncooked cowhides, poor fire resistance, and no parapets on the side sides, which made it difficult to resist the fire of bows and crossbows. I don't know what kind of oil is in the clay pot thrown by the enemy ship, the fire is extremely strong, there is a faint blue light in the daytime, and there is a crackling explosion, a little longer, the fire burns through the deck, and the oil is soaked into the cabin, and the fire cannot be saved......

Seeing that more than a dozen merchant ships on the dock of Xia Island fell into a sea of flames in a short period of time, Hu Axiang was shocked in his heart: these five loach ships were warships disguised by Huaidong to sneak attack, and they were replaced by ordinary pirate ships, which should be mainly looting, how could they directly set fire to the ships?

The warships of Shangdao Shuizhai were not slow to dispatch, and at this time, five or six fast pulp boats came first. The Bailongjiang River in the north of Nantai Island is only sixty or seventy zhang wide, the water surface is narrow, and the oars are not conducive to sailing boats.

Hu Axiang looked at the more than a dozen merchant ships burning on the left and right of the dock on the lower island, he broke out in a cold sweat on his back, and secretly said that it was dangerous: if he came a moment earlier, most of them would have to lower the sail and not be able to get out.

Most of the merchant ships in Jin'an Mansion that can go to sea for profit are closely related to the eight surnames, or they are directly ships under the names of the eight families. Seeing that so many ships were set on fire, many sailors and guards were forced to jump into the water to escape, Hu Axiang couldn't see death without help, seeing that the water camp warships here were dispatched to drive away the enemy ships, and more than a dozen ships went to sea to chase after him, he ordered his subordinates to turn around and lean over to the dock of the lower island to help save people and put out the fire, and he couldn't help but sigh in his heart: The war is burned to Jin'an Mansion!