Great Song Super Scholar

Chapter 523 The Second Fire
That night, Fan Ning summoned several generals to deploy follow-up bandit suppression arrangements,

On a hand-drawn map, Fan Ning pointed to two red dots and said to Zhou Mi and Wei Cheng, both commanders: "This is the location of the other two aboriginal lairs they gave. There is nothing to be pitiful about. Don't kill them all." Exterminate, our Ryukyu Mansion will suffer serious setbacks sooner or later, the two generals will each be in charge of a lair, and I will give you a month to wait until I return from Kunzhou, and I hope that there will be no bandits in the Ryukyu Mansion by then."

The two bowed together and said, "Follow the order!"

At this time, Zhou Mi asked again: "I would like to ask the envoy, will the captured chief be sent to the capital?"

Fan Ning shook his head, "They are not important people, and the imperial court will not pay attention to them. I am afraid that some ministers who are full and panic will say that we kill innocent people indiscriminately and persuade the imperial court to take back our military power. It’s better to just do it than talk.”

Both generals felt the same way. Many court officials did not understand the situation and interfered indiscriminately. They had already suffered from the pain of being tied up and did not want to experience it again.

Fan Ning instructed the two of them again: "The target this time is Pingyuan Fan, Gaoshan Fan and Yu Fan will not move for the time being, what's going on will be discussed after I return from Kunzhou."

Early the next morning, Fan Ning led five hundred soldiers and left Liuqiu County on ten thousand-stone ships and headed north.

Three days later, the fleet arrived in Xiaoliuqiu. Xiaoliuqiu was later the Ryukyu Islands. At this time, the Three Mountain Kingdom of Ryukyu had not yet begun, and there were only a very small number of natives on the island. A transit supply station was built here, and 500 troops were stationed here.

In addition, the government moved [-] fishermen from Penghu County to live in Liuqiu Island. These [-] fishermen became the first generation of residents of Xiaoliuqiu Island and built a small town named Liuli Town.

Five Wanshi large ships slowly docked on the pier outside Liuli Town, and the commander of the local garrison hurried over with a few soldiers.

The command envoy stepped forward and knelt down on one knee and said, "Lie Ying, a lowly post, see the envoy!"

Fan Ning smiled and said, "General Li has worked hard, please get up!"

The Little Liuqiu Islands are composed of more than 460 large and small islands, and the area is twice as large as that of Danzhou. The army and fishermen live on the largest Liuli Island. In fact, they only use a small piece of land. The soldiers opened up three The ten hectares of rice fields were set up as military settlements, which solved the problem of food and vegetables for the soldiers and civilians on the island. The main meat diet was fish, and Quanzhou regularly replenished some daily necessities.

Life on the island is very boring, and half of the soldiers are generally replaced every two years.

Liuli Town is on the wharf. It consists of more than 200 wooden houses, and there are more than a hundred fishermen. Because the soldiers stationed overseas have relatively high military salaries, they have ten pennies a month. In order to earn money for the soldiers, some small businessmen He opened some businesses in the town, including a grocery store, two restaurants and two brothels, and recruited more than a dozen Japanese ship prostitutes to do skin and meat business here.

Fan Ning was concerned about the pirates that appeared near Xiaoliuqiu. According to Zhang Ying's guess, the pirates might have something to do with the garrison, which made Fanning extra vigilant. He came to Xiaoliuqiu this time to solve this problem.

Accompanied by Commander Li Ying, Fan Ning inspected the barracks, chatted with some soldiers, and asked about their living conditions. For the soldiers, it was their common wish to fight and make meritorious service.

Fan Ning smiled at Li Ying: "Since brothers all want to find something to do, I think you also have dozens of warships, why not go out to patrol the sea and maintain sea security. I heard that the route from Ryukyu Prefecture to Japan recently There are three pirates in the world, two are in Japan, and one is near you, why not wipe out this pirate, it can be regarded as a credit."

A flash of panic flashed in Li Ying's eyes, and he said for a while: "It's not that I didn't do my best. There are hundreds of islands in the Xiaoliuqiu Islands, and there are mountains on many islands. I really don't know where this pirates will hide? We have also searched many times. patrolling, but in the end they all returned in vain.”

Fan Ning nodded, "In this case, you can provide escort for the merchant ships along the way to ensure the safety of the merchant ships in the Xiaoliuqiu area. I think maintaining the safety of the waterway is very important."

"Humble post obeys orders!"

After saying some more words, Fan Ning got up and went to the town to inspect. The envoy is not only in charge of the army, but also has the right to interfere in government affairs, but he is slightly more inclined to the army.

Liuli Town belongs to Liuqiu County, and there is no mayor or other officials. The village elders' association is composed of the five oldest elders to conduct daily management and mediate the relationship between neighbors. In addition, there is an elder who leads a few younger generations to maintain law and order. .

The town is very quiet, the doors are not closed at night, the roads are not picked up, and it is full of peaceful atmosphere. When the weather is good, the fishermen will go fishing together, and when the weather is bad, they stay at home. There is no pressure in life. .

After walking around the small town, it was dusk, and the soldiers on board the ship had a day off. The restaurants and brothels in the small town were full of soldiers, staying up all night, and extremely lively.

Fan Ning returned to the big boat, and immediately asked Zhu Long to take a few men down to bring the secret of the elder.

The senior's surname is Zhang, a middle-aged man in his forties. He seemed a little nervous, and he knelt down to salute when he entered the door. Fan Ning asked after a moment of pondering, "How much do you know about the pirates off the coast of Xiaoliuqiu?"

Chief Qi trembled all over, and said in a panic: "Little man. Little man doesn't know anything."

Fan Ning slapped the table heavily, and said angrily, "Nonsense! How dare you say you don't know?"

The elder was too frightened to speak, and said in a low voice for a while, "Everyone in the town knows it, why should the officials ask me?"

Fan Ning sneered, "I know, you are also a part of that pirate team, am I right!"

Chief Qi waved his hands in shock, "Your official, the pirate has nothing to do with the villain. Although the villain knows a little bit about the situation, he never participated in it."

At this point in the interrogation, Fan Ning already understood a lot in his heart, and he said coldly, "How many troops are involved?"

After a while, Elder Qi said: "Everyone in the town knows that it is related to Commander Li, but no one knows how many soldiers are involved."

Fan Ning waved his hands to send the elder ashore. He paced back and forth with his hands behind his back, feeling extremely annoyed in his heart. Now he understood that Zhang Ying must have known that Li Ying was pretending to be a pirate to block the way and robbed the money, but his words were very vague. This damned Li Ying deserves death.

The next morning, the soldiers returned to the ship one after another, and Fan Ning was about to leave. Li Ying finally breathed a sigh of relief. He was very afraid that his affairs would be revealed, and that Fan Ning was coming against him. Now that Fan Ning was leaving, it meant that he He just passed by Xiaoliuqiu and didn't discover his secret.

Li Ying also triggered his greed by accident. When he was patrolling the open sea, he encountered a cargo ship that capsized due to wind and waves. The owner and sailors fled in small boats and disappeared. Tens of thousands of taels of silver.

After he hid the property for a period of time, he found that no one was looking for him. Only then did he realize that he had found a way to make a fortune. Relying on the height of the mountains and the emperor's distance, he led his confidantes to pretend to be pirates to rob merchant ships and robbed a lot of wealth.

In order to minimize the bad influence, he only asked for money and did not hurt others, and indeed he did not attract the attention of the Jinglue Mansion. As a result, his courage grew and his appetite grew. In just one year, he robbed Looting fifteen merchant ships finally caught Fanning's attention.

Li Ying didn't know that some of his subordinates had already taken advantage of the fishermen's opportunity to go to Liuqiu County to report to Liuqiu County, and that's why Zhang Ying hinted at Fan Ning.

Fan Ning pretended not to know anything, and bid farewell to Li Ying on the pier.

"General Li, you have to remember what I told you yesterday, and don't ignore it!"

"You must remember that you are humble, and you will never disappoint Fan Shijun's expectations."

Seeing that there was no one around, Li Ying took out another wooden box and quietly handed it to Fan Ning, "This is a local product, please accept it with a smile!"

"Hehe! General Li has a heart, but it's not convenient for me to pick it up. I beg General Li to give it directly to my subordinates."

He winked at Zhu Long on the boat, Li Ying understood, and Fan Ning wanted to give Zhu Long directly!It's really hypocrisy, thinking about something, but pretending to be arrogant, Li Ying cursed inwardly, had no choice but to get on the boat and stuff things to Zhu Long.

Zhu Long and Zhu Hu are waiting for him to board the boat!

Just as Li Ying got on the boat, the two pressed Li Ying on the board, one left and one right, 'Crack! With a sound, his arms were dislocated, and he cried out in pain.

At this time, Fan Ning stepped onto the boat without any haste. Li Ying was already firmly tied up, and he shouted anxiously: "Mr.

Fan Ning said coldly: "You are not guilty of giving gifts, but what should I call you? Should I call you Commander Li, or King Li Hai?"

Li Ying's face turned pale. He knew that his being a pirate had been exposed, and he immediately collapsed on the deck.

Fan Ning immediately summoned the army to assemble, and in a short while, 23 people were captured from the army, all of whom were Li Ying's confidantes. Together with Li Ying, they formed the pirates off the coast of Xiaoliuqiu.

Fan Ning immediately ordered Li Ying and other 24 officers and soldiers who pretended to be robbers to be robbed by pirates to be beheaded on the pier, and then sent people and ships to a cave on an island to take out a large amount of money and goods that Li Ying hid here. The goods were all expensive. The spices, together with gold and silver, amounted to more than one million taels of silver, and all this wealth was confiscated.

Fan Ning just needed a lot of money to recruit labor in Japan, no, Li Ying prepared for him.

Fan Ning immediately appointed Jiang Hong, the team leader who had previously reported Li Ying, as the commander of the Xiaoliuqiu garrison, responsible for protecting the safety of Xiaoliuqiu's shipping lanes. He then left Xiaoliuqiu and led the fleet to continue sailing towards Kunzhou.

(End of this chapter)