The Reborn Duke of Ming Dynasty

The two carriages drove towards the port of Quanzhou quickly. Under the clearing of a large group of guards, the people on the street gave way one after another and did not cause any harm.

In the carriage, Zhang Fan was talking with Zhu Yijun who was also sitting in the carriage.

"Teacher, why are you talking about those two foreign devils, you must go with them," Zhu Yijun was a little puzzled.

Before everyone set off, Zhu Yijun also heard the news. Since the day he was sensible, even in the current Emperor Longqing, in the almost completely closed situation of King Yu's mansion at that time, he would always hear that the coast was often surrounded by people. The news of Japanese pirates' intrusion, and now that he heard about the robbery of a seagoing ship, he naturally wanted to take a look.

What Zhu Yijun couldn't figure out was naturally Richard and Joanna from Portugal. When they heard the news, they seemed to be more anxious to take a look than he, the Ming prince.

"These two people are not aimless or have any curiosity," Zhang Fan said, "their country also has a large number of seagoing ships going out to sea, so they will naturally be harassed by pirates, and this time they will come to Quanzhou with us. Because I heard that I will come here to inspect the coastal defense, and now something has happened, so I naturally want to see what happened, "

"So they came here to see a joke," Zhu Yijun, who hadn't thought about it, made this kind of reasoning arbitrarily, looking a little annoyed.

"That's not true," Zhang Fan said hastily, "these two people have no conflicts with me, Ming Dynasty, and they are both a country that has seagoing ships and has to worry about being robbed by pirates all the time. I'm afraid they feel the same way. Well, but this time they mainly want to see my Ming army, "

"So that's how it is," Zhu Yijun felt relieved after hearing Zhang Fan's explanation, "Then, teacher, please don't lose my reputation, Daming, lest they think we are easy to bully."

"Of course," Zhang Fan had planned for a long time. Before he left, he had asked Liang Chao to send someone to inform He Kuan, asking him to show off his best men, horses and warships, as well as bluffing. Fan.

It is also strange to say, perhaps it is no different to Zhang Fan who is not very familiar with history, but it is very strange to people of later generations.

Portugal should have leased Macau more than ten years ago, to be precise, in 440, and began to rule over Macau for [-] years. However, this did not happen. When Zhang Fan met Richard Afterwards, De and Joanna asked people to investigate and found that Macau was not leased to the Portuguese, but some Portuguese settled there to preach there, and there was no Portuguese army stationed there. He thought it was time It didn't arrive, so I felt relieved, but I didn't know that some things had been changed in the history I was in, but I'm afraid Zhang Fan knew it well, and he wouldn't understand why, he traveled over here. The days were later than that, and things that he had no influence on before had changed.

The port of Quanzhou had long been blocked by He Kuan's soldiers. Ordinary people surrounded the outside with three floors and three floors, but they couldn't enter. The carriage of Zhang Fan and others stopped at the checkpoint to show their identities. let go.

The carriage stopped after entering the port, and Zhang Fan, who got off the car, immediately noticed that the three ships docked on the pier, especially one of them, was really riddled with holes, and there were many cracks on the hull. However, because the wood used to build the ship is very thick, the bed only has holes and there is no danger of the ship falling apart. However, the ship is already in a precarious situation, and it is still dangling even when it is docked in the port. It seems that it may sink at any time.

Seeing Zhang Fan's arrival, Wen Ruchun and He Kuan rushed forward to greet him, but He Kuan still kept an eye out, and pulled Zhang Fan aside and started whispering.

"My lord," He Kuan looked at Richard and Joanna who were looking at the ship in the distance, and whispered to Zhang Fan, "I will follow my lord's instructions and send all the best men and horses under my command. Bring it here." He Kuan was originally an extremely honest and honest official. When he just heard the news from Liang Chao's people to him, he was quite disdainful. Not to mention that the situation along the coast has been stabilized for so many years because of Qi Jiguang, and He Kuan would not be willing to destroy it in his own hands. Besides, He Kuan felt that Zhang Fan was also a little vain. Your Majesty is here in person, you, Zhang Fan, are the biggest here. Now that you are here, you still want to show this kind of pomp and circumstance. But He Kuan immediately changed his mind after hearing the detailed explanation of the reason from the visitor. It is an idea in every official's mind to strengthen our country's military power in front of foreigners, not to mention people like He Kuan, but he has been very confident in the soldiers he leads from the beginning to the end, and has not let other teams replace them. It is to let the subordinates inform them that they must show their energy and show their best side.

Zhang Fan looked at the soldiers around him. Although it was not the time when any war was approaching, all of these terracotta warriors were in high spirits, and there were also many soldiers with muskets. Apart from the machine battalion, Qi Jiguang's Qi Family Army is the one who can hold muskets. Although there are some other armies, many of them are at best just pretending to be a show, but He Kuan's men are not. Maybe they are under Qi Jiguang's care or The imperial court attached great importance to switches, and there are quite a few terracotta warriors holding muskets here. Although they didn't make any movements, judging from their solemn expressions, they were all very satisfactory.

"Master He has a heart," Zhang Fan complimented, "These two people insisted on coming with me at the beginning, that is, they had such a thought, now that they have the opportunity, it is natural to let them see me for a while. Da Ming's prestige must not be underestimated by them, thinking that I, Da Ming, are easy to bully."

He Kuan nodded seriously, and Zhang Fan said again: "Lord He, to tell you the truth, their country has already set their sights on India to the south of Daming, and they are planning to send troops to occupy it. No, in addition, my Ming Dynasty sells to them the things they need very much every year, which makes them feel that my Ming Dynasty has something to gain. Although my Ming Dynasty is not afraid of going to war with the invading aliens, the war is a waste of money and people, even if it wins in the end , it is the people who are suffering, and I think it is very cost-effective to avoid wars in this way,"

He Kuan listened to Zhang Fan's words, nodded his head, and said, "My lord thinks that these barbarians are quite ambitious, and I have to pay attention to it." Richard and Joanna in the distance.

After the two finished speaking, they returned to the front of the crowd.

"My lord," Wen Ruchun said, "As you can see, the ship in the middle is about to die, and all the goods on the three ships have been transported down now, except for a few people who died during the Japanese pirate attack, and Aside from the kidnapping of several ship owners, no one else is in danger of life,"

"Several ship owners have been taken away. What do these pirates want to do?" Zhang Fan frowned, as if talking to himself, "Could it be that these pirates want to kidnap and blackmail?"

"My lord," He Kuan said after hearing Zhang Fan's words, "this kind of thing is rarely encountered before. The Japanese pirates in the past just went ashore to plunder. At that time, they never kidnapped anyone to threaten them. At most, women were taken into captivity. Going to be insulted by them, but the incident of the man being taken into captivity has never happened, and even the incident of Japanese pirates robbing ships at sea is only after a switch, and the number of times can be said to be very small, "

Zhang Fan frowned even more when he heard this. These pirates are outlaws, and they only want money that is immediately available, but they have never heard of kidnapping. The risk of kidnapping is very high. If the Ming army takes this opportunity to catch them all, they will lose more than they gain. Secondly, it is not so easy to get money from kidnapping. Even if the family members of the kidnapped people are eager to redeem them, it is not easy to go on the road with so much money. Easy.

"Besides, there is another very important point," He Kuan said, "If you kidnap the ticket for money, those Japanese pirates will definitely let the people who stay on the ship bring the news back, but the people on the ship have no news about this at all. It's very suspicious," He Kuan's words made the point.

Zhang Fan thought so too, if you don’t tell others what you want, what’s the use of kidnapping someone, this whole thing is really weird, if it’s not kidnapping for money, then the pirates must have a purpose, But what is the purpose, Zhang Fan has no clue.

"Is there any news for the family members of those kidnapped?" Zhang Fan asked.

Both Wen Ruchun and He Kuan shook their heads, Wen Ruchun said: "My lord, the family members of the kidnapped ship owner were all sad and painful after hearing the news. The officials also asked about it, but they have no news at all."

"How could this happen?" Zhang Fan couldn't help thinking in his heart, the whole thing happened for no reason at all.

When Zhang Fan was distressed, He Kuan at the side said, "My lord, I have some opinions."

"Oh, tell me quickly," Zhang Fan said quickly after hearing this.

"From the returned crew members, the Japanese pirates seem to know several ship owners," He Kuan said, "Although most of these Japanese pirates do not understand my Ming language, there are a few who can speak it. However, according to the returned crew members, this After helping the Japanese pirates board the ship, apart from robbing their belongings, they recognized the ship owners who were hiding in the crowd without asking anyone else, and kidnapped them directly."

"Could it be because several ship owners are dressed differently from ordinary crew members," Zhang Fan asked.

"No, I have also asked this point," He Kuan said, "Although the ship owners are very rich, it is cumbersome to wear those clothes when sailing at sea. The clothes they wear are the same as those of ordinary sailors. However, the Japanese pirates still recognized them at a glance, which is really doubtful,"

When Zhang Fan heard He Kuan's words, the doubts in his heart were resolved. This shows that the Japanese pirates already knew the situation on these three ships before they robbed them, but Zhang Fan didn't know whether they relied on their own investigation or Someone else tipped off the news, and if it was the latter, Zhang Fan had to consider whether some villains were bought or some officials did evil, and Zhang Fan really couldn't figure it out, no matter who they were, what was the reason for kidnapping these ship owners? Why, at least so far, Zhang Fan can't see any clues about this matter.

But Zhang Fan is not without clues. The three seagoing ships have been sailing for half a year. No matter who tipped off the news, it is impossible to follow them for more than half a year. Even if they have their eyeliner on board, the news can only come from one place It is said that it is naturally the last place where these three ships stopped before they will return to Quanzhou Port, Jilong Port,