Late Tang

A group of people entered the largest wooden house, and the guests and hosts sat down.

White Beard looked at Li Jing carefully again, and said with a smile: "Seeing that General Li is still in good spirits, it seems that the entire army of the One-eyed Jiaoshamen Town was wiped out, and even his own head was cut off by the general himself. It is not a rumor. , but true."

"Don't be so polite. It's fine for the boss to call me brother or Ji Yu." Li Jing sat at the chief seat on the left, which was the most honored VIP seat. "I also want to thank the leaders of the family for sending troops for me." Li Jing stood up, picked up the flagon on the table, poured a glass of wine, and offered a toast to White Beard.

"Haha, you said don't be polite, you will be polite immediately." White Beard happily bent down to take the wine glass, and said with a smile on his face, "I believe that if we were to ask the general for help, the general would definitely agree to it." I won't refuse."

"This is natural. Our brotherly covenant is witnessed by the heavens. If you need me to take action, it is naturally obligatory!"

Whitebeard nodded, and said solemnly: "It's about our brotherly covenant, we have no choice but to send troops! Those who dare to rob our friends in Zhendonghai will be punished and pay the price in blood, so they can't even think about getting out!"

"Brother's side!" The red beard smiled heartily, "Brother's enemy is our enemy. Feng Zhang dares to rob your goods secretly, that is our enemy."

"Thank you very much for the generosity and help of the masters. I really appreciate it." Li Jing stood up and toasted a few people including White Beard. , the wine is cloudy yellow, full of a fermented taste.Although the degree is not high, but the taste is very strong.He couldn't help but miss the high-grade baijiu he had just brewed in Shamen Town.He was originally preparing to brew a batch of high-grade liquor to make medical alcohol for first aid disinfection and debridement on the battlefield.However, as soon as the wine came out, Lin Wu, Wang Zhong and other wine drinkers fell in love with it. Although the wine was extremely strong, these people enjoyed it.In the end, Li Jing had to open two wineries, one specialized in brewing ultra-alcoholic wine, which was used to make medical alcohol.The other is used to brew liquor with a slightly lower alcohol content, which is used as a supply for senior military officers. On the other hand, it is also planned to sell the wine to create a revenue channel for Salmonella Island.

Seeing several big pirates drinking such bitter wine with great joy, Li Jing waved quickly, and Zhang Chengzong immediately got up and took out two five-jin small altars from the backpack he brought in with him.

Li Jing took it, stretched out his hand to pat the Kaifeng mud, and suddenly a mellow fragrance rushed out of the altar, permeating the entire tent.

White Beard and the others couldn't help sniffing hard, their expressions shocked.

"Masters, this is a little gift from me to you all."

Several pirate leaders were overwhelmed by the aroma of the wine, and hurriedly called a pirate guard to come forward and pour the wine.When the wine was poured into the bowl, it was extremely clear without any turbidity.Looking at the wine, which is clearer than the spring water, and the strong fragrance, several people were amazed.Taking a sip, the wine entered his throat, and suddenly a hot feeling surged up, and his whole blood seemed to be ignited.Whitebeard drank a little too much at the first sip, and he almost couldn't bear the strong spirit, and his red face became even redder.Taking a long breath of alcohol, White Beard shook his head lightly and sighed loudly: "It's cool!"

"What kind of wine is this? I have never tasted or tasted it before. It is so delicious. The wine is clear and mellow, with stronger sex. This kind of wine is the kind of wine that we, the gangsters who lick blood with the tip of a knife, should drink. "The red beards were also full of praise.

"For 3000 years in the world, five grains have been made into jade liquid." Li Jing said with a smile, "This wine is called Wuliangye wine, a typical representative of Luzhou-flavored Daqu wine. It combines the aura of heaven, earth and people. It is brewed from five kinds of high-quality sorghum, glutinous rice, rice, wheat and millet. It has a unique style of "long-lasting aroma, mellow taste, sweet taste, clean and refreshing throat, harmonious flavors and just right". A masterpiece of excellence.”

"I often call myself a drunkard, but why have I never heard of the name of Wuliangye?"

"To tell you the truth, this wine is actually a new specialty of my Shamen town. The jar of wine you drank is the first batch of fine wine in the winery. Now others want to drink it but have no chance. New wine Cheng Cheng, I happened to come to pay a visit to some masters, so I brought it to them to taste first."

Several people couldn't help but drank a few glasses in a row. Although the wine was stronger than ordinary wine, they showed their capacity for alcohol.

"This wine is really good. The best wine I've ever had is Jiannan Shaochun wine, a fine wine in Sichuan. The second should be salamander, a fine wine from the Western Regions. And what Persian grape wine, It's not bad. But after drinking this Wuliangye today, I will know what is called the best wine in the world, and what is the best wine in the world. Brother Li, if you let your brother drink this wine today, how can you drink other wines in the future?" Huang Hu Zi knew Li Jing best, so he immediately asked for it.

Li Jing smiled, "This time, my brother came in a hurry, and only brought a hundred jars of Wuliangye. Each jar is five catties and five taels, which is exactly a bucket of wine. From now on, I will definitely present this fine wine to you brothers regularly, how about it!"

"Okay, it's refreshing enough, you really deserve to be my brother. Come on, let's have another bowl." A pot of good wine immediately brought the friendship between Li Jing and Zhen Donghai's leaders a big step closer.

One jar of five jin five taels of Wuliangye was drank up within a short while, and the other jar was quickly opened, and then it was completely drunk again after a short while.Apart from the four masters in Donghai, Wuzhong Town, there are also two literati who look like dog-headed military advisers. On Li Jing's side, the Xiao family's children are left outside, and only he, Wang Zhong, Liu Shouqian, Wang Chengzong, Li Wei and Wang Shi are left.Twelve people drank almost eleven catties of wine.This batch of wine is all high-alcohol wine with a degree of [-] degrees.On average, each person drank almost a catty and had more than enough.

Li Jing was a little dizzy from drinking, but looking at the white beards and the others, their faces were flushed, and their eyes became brighter.Wang Shi simply drank and got down on the ground. Fortunately, Liu Shouqian and Zhang Chengzong both had extraordinary drinking capacity, and Li Wei should not be underestimated, and he was still full of energy.

Seeing that they wanted to drink more, Li Jing hurriedly stopped them.

He traveled more than 120 miles by sea, but he didn't really come here just to fight for wine.

"Heads, let's drink another day. After our business is successfully completed, I will give up my life to accompany the gentleman. How about not getting drunk? Now, let's talk about that batch of goods. What happened?"

The red beard who answered Li Jing, "So far everything is going well. As soon as we received the letter from the second brother, we immediately sent scouts first, and we arrived later. We have checked according to the information you said, and the batch of goods is in the Cat Island."

According to Hongbeard, the southernmost tip of the Liaodong Peninsula is Duli Town.Duli Town is not a military town, but a place name.Li Jing knew that this place was named "Mashijin" in Jin Dynasty, "Duli Town" in Tang Dynasty, and "Shizikou" in Yuan Dynasty. It was changed to Lushun in Ming Dynasty, and then it has been inherited from generation to generation.

Duli Town is an important place, and it is the landing point of Dengzhou sea route into Liaoning.It is also an important supply point for the largest sea route in the north of the Tang Dynasty, Dengzhou Koryo, entering the Bohai Sea.To cross the sea from Dengzhou to Liaodong, you must pass through Duli Town to land, and from the coast of Dengzhou to Silla and Japan, Duli Town is also a must pass.Duli Town is very prosperous and is a real free trade port.Especially after the Anshi Rebellion, because the Hebei feudal towns were surrendered and judged at different times, and they were almost in a state of separatism, the imperial court had to move the Pinglu Festival in Yingzhou, which was isolated outside the pass, to Qingzhou, Shandong.

Later, the Bohai Kingdom rose, and Khitan and Xi also continued to rise. Although the Tang Dynasty had Liaodong, it could not be governed, and the Du Andong Dufu was finally abolished. land.

After the Tang Dynasty withdrew from Liaodong, the feudal towns in Youzhou, Hebei, had repeatedly competed with the Khitan people for the Liaoxi Corridor for a long time, and they were also unable to take care of the Liaodong Peninsula.The Bohai Kingdom has the strongest power in the east of Haidong, and even once crossed the sea to attack Dengzhou. However, later on, the Tang Dynasty and Bohai had friendly exchanges for generations. The Bohai Kingdom took into account the power of the Tang Dynasty, and made a long-term plan to expand eastward and compete with the Heishui Mohe people for territory. Never stop the expansion of Liaodong, the people of Bohai are the most powerful to occupy Liaodong, but they take the Tang Dynasty into consideration, and take the initiative to stop in the east of the Liaodong Peninsula strategically, and regard this land as a land with Tang, Khitan, Shiwei, Xin The buffer zone of Luo and other tribes.

The Silla people south of the Yalu River took advantage of the Tang Dynasty in the early years. After destroying Baekje and Goguryeo with the help of the Tang Dynasty, they took advantage of the war between the Tang Dynasty and Tubo to invade the entire Sanhan Peninsula.After seizing the Sanhan Peninsula, the territory of the Silla people increased greatly for a while, but it reached the limit of expansion. In the north, they could only continue to build the Great Wall to resist the powerful Bohai Kingdom in Haidong, and they were unable to touch Liaodong at all.

It is under such a complicated situation that Liaodong, the old land of Goguryeo, which had been ruled for 700 years, has become a vacuum that no one cares about in the past hundred years.Gradually, although the surrounding countries did not openly occupy this territory, various factions continued to infiltrate in secret. Up to now, there are Han people who have not moved south in the early years, as well as Goguryeo nobles who died and surrendered to Tang Dynasty, as well as Shiwei people and Khitan people. People, Xi people, even Sumo Mohe, Heishui Mohe, Silla people, Baekje people, Turkic people, Tiele people, and various ethnic groups are fighting each other.In the end, dozens of large and small forces were formed, occupying territories of different sizes.

Duli Town is a piece of land occupied by the Tang people. To be precise, Duli Town is a force formed by the alliance of many Tang maritime business groups, and a force formed in this important place at the southern end of the Liaodong Peninsula.They joined forces to occupy this site with armed guards, and built a huge and strong fortified port city on the basis of the original old port city. Up to now, Duli Town has a population of more than [-] people all year round. Become a super coastal port city like Guangzhou.

To the west and north of Duli Town, there are five islands of different sizes, called Cat, Snake, Ox, Tiger and Pig Five Islands.Further north, there are islands of deer, rabbits, ants, and camels.However, no matter which island it is, due to the prosperous free trade port in Duli Town, these islands have now become the private islands of many super large business groups.

And Cat Island is the private island of the Bohai Feng family, the second largest family in Ziqing Town.

Cat Island is also known as Sea Cat Island and Bird Island. The locals call seabirds Sea Cats. Sea Cats are not cats but birds, so Cat Island is also called Bird Island.Cat Island is only six miles away from the port of Duli Town by sea, and the entire island has an area of ​​only [-] mu.The island is overgrown with vegetation, the climate is suitable, the rainfall is abundant, and there are many insects.Every spring and autumn, flocks of migratory birds fly south or north to rest and supplement food here. Year after year, this small island has become a must-stop rest stop during their migration.The most common bird on the island is the seagull. It is a resident bird, that is, it stays on the island for a long time. Because the sound of this seagull is like a cat, the locals call it a sea cat, so the name of the island comes from this.

The water depth in the south of Cat Island reaches more than 40 meters, which is a natural dockable port.And because it is very close to Duli Town, this island is extremely valuable.The Feng family had already occupied this island decades ago. After decades of continuous construction, this island has already become the private island of the Feng family.The island is not only full of warehouses, but also has a fortress with a circumference of 300 paces.And there is a private guard of [-] people stationed all year round.

Every time the Feng family's fleet came to Duli Town, they would stop at Cat Island first and rest on the island.

"The batch of ordnance that Fengzhang robbed you is now hidden in the warehouse of Cat Island." White Beard said, "But Cat Island is well-defended, with a strong fortress and a guard of 300 people. These people are not The most troublesome thing is that there have been countless pirates who have tried to take over Cat Island for decades. But so far, no one has successfully captured Cat Island. 20 years ago, there was a group of famous pirates near Duli Town It is called Zhensanjiang. On a dark and windy night, they gathered seven or eight nearby pirate fleets, more than 200 ships, and nearly [-] pirates attacked Cat Island. In that battle, the guards of Cat Island were beaten Nearly half of them died in battle, and only a few returned to the castle."

"But under such circumstances, the guard team of less than a hundred people insisted on relying on the castle, ballista catapults and strong bows and crossbows to resist the repeated attacks of thousands of pirates. Then they set fire to signal and summoned After capturing the combined fleet in Duli Town, all Zhensanjiang died in battle, and most of the thousands of pirates sank to the bottom of the sea, only a small number of them escaped like birds and beasts."

Li Jing frowned and said: "In this way, it is almost impossible to capture Cat Island. I can't let a few masters and brothers go to die for me. I think we should have another way with Nianfeng."

Blackbeard said with red eyes: "I don't know, but Zhensanjiang is me, the first master, and the father of the second master. If the third master hadn't rescued us with a few brothers, we would have died on Cat Island long ago. Yes. After surviving that time, the three of us became brothers with the third brother, and led the remaining dozens of brothers to fight under the banner of Zhendonghai. Up to now, 20 years have passed, but this bloody feud has always been engraved In my heart. This battle is not for our brothers, but for ourselves. After waiting for 20 years, it’s finally time for us to take revenge. We can’t wait any longer. !"

(To be continued)