Landlord of the Tang Dynasty

Chapter 154 The Ship from Liaodong

Turning over the emergency document to read, Xu Qing was terrified:

"Suddenly three large ships came from the sea, and a thousand bandits descended. They slaughtered and burned several villages, plundered their women's food, and returned to the sea."

Thieves from the sea, could they be Japanese pirates?But where did the pirates come from now, or the stick?I didn't hear that there was also a threat from the sea in the Tang Dynasty. What's going on... But the emergency document stated that there were three large ships and more than a thousand bandits. There must be witnesses.

Who is it that can make a big ship that can carry hundreds of people and drive it to the edge of Cangzhou to make trouble.Xu Qing's first thought was, who can build such a large ship?

China's shipbuilding industry is considered to be well developed. During the Han Dynasty, there were large ships that could carry hundreds of soldiers.In the period of the Three Kingdoms, it was even more serious. Soochow, with a well-developed shipbuilding industry, was able to build the largest five-story ship that could carry 3000 soldiers.In the state of Wu at that time, it was still possible to volunteer from the Gongsun family in Liaodong by sea.This shows the long-distance sailing ability of the ships at that time.When the state of Wu fell, there were more than 5000 official ships captured by the Jin Dynasty, which shows the prosperity of the shipbuilding industry.

By the time of the Southern Dynasties, Jiangnan had developed to be able to build large ships of 1000 tons.In order to increase the speed of sailing, especially the great scientist Zu Chongzhi built a ship equipped with paddle wheels, and used manpower to push the ship forward by means of pedal wheels. According to historical records, he "built a thousand-mile ship and tried it on the Xinting River. Traveling more than a hundred miles", it is called "vehicle and boat".

In the Sui Dynasty, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty wanted to visit Yangzhou in the future, and ordered officials to supervise the construction of dozens of dragon boats and miscellaneous boats.The big dragon boat he was riding on was 45 feet high and 200 feet long. On the upper floor, there were main hall, inner hall, east and west halls, and there were as many as 120 rooms.It can be seen from this that a large ship with hundreds of people can be built conditionally.

However, there was chaos at the end of the Sui Dynasty, and until the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, all industries were in decline. How could this pirate be created?Xu Qing was puzzled, so he mobilized [-] elite soldiers and stationed in the offshore area in case the pirates came again.And he himself took his guards and Huanghua County Magistrate Zhan Zeng to investigate one or two

In the ransacked village, the corpses have been cleaned up, and there are still traces of burnt and blood. When the sea breeze blows, there is a whirring sound, as if innocent souls are wandering around here.

Zhan Zeng found a witness who turned out to be an old fisherman.The old fisherman said that he was fishing far away that day and survived.When the thieves gradually retreated, they dared to come out to check. They saw three big ships, dozens of small boats, and more than a thousand thieves retreating into the sea like the tide.In less than half a day, the large and small ships on the sea had disappeared.When Zhan Zeng rushed over, only the burned village remained.

The old fisherman only remembered the clear boat and many, many pirates, asked him about the clothes and equipment of those pirates, and the old fisherman couldn't tell clearly.It is vaguely known that the visitor is dressed in rags and has weapons like an axe.

Xu Qing went to the next village and asked all the old people. They all said that they had never seen or heard of pirates since they were young.

This is strange, this group of pirates came suddenly and left quickly, so why?The cow eating grass is a veteran, and he made a conjecture:
"These people have looted all the food in the village, and there must be a shortage of food. Now at the end of spring, when it is almost the time of the harvest, there must not be much food in the village. In this way, the food obtained by those pirates must not last long, but it is very likely that it will be a few days. Go ashore again."

"That's reasonable, but this big ship travels hundreds of miles a day, and the next time it goes ashore, it may not be in Cangzhou." Zhan Zeng also just thought of it.

Xu Qing wished that he would not show up, but when he thought about how many people in several villages were killed and plundered by those pirates, he felt reconciled, he said:

"There are many mangrove forests along the coast of Haixing, and the width is several miles. Pirates will not go ashore. If they go ashore, pirates will still choose Huanghua. If the pirates escape, go north to Liaodong, which is not my land in Tang Dynasty, and go south to Shandong and other places. No matter Any state or county that is looted will be my Tang's loss..."

Xu Qing pondered for a while, and asked Zhan Zeng to write down the notice document according to his intention, and sent cavalry to rush to inform the coastal prefectures and counties that a group of pirates were plundering along the coast.

In Cangzhou, Xu Qing stationed 3000 troops separately, forming a supportive posture for each other. He also lost the united soldiers of Huanghua and Haixing counties to patrol and guard.Xu Qing was both unhappy and helpless as he was facing a formidable enemy.It would be great if he had a few big ships in his hand, and he would directly fight him when he went out to sea.

Three days passed before the pirates landed.Xu Qing actually waited for a letter from Liaodong Mohe people and Xu Qi.

This letter, after all kinds of greetings and concerns, revealed the identities of the three pirates. It turned out that Xu Qi and Duan Hongchen destroyed a small country in Liaodong and took back a piece of land. flee overseas.

But how could a small country have such advanced three large ships?It was also mentioned in Xu Qi's letter.These warships were actually left behind during Yang Guang's three expeditions to Korea.

After Xu Qing learned that these three big ships were almost ownerless, he couldn't help but regret it, and hoped that those ships could land in Cangzhou again.Over the past few days, he has already drawn up several strategies to deal with the enemy, as long as those pirates show up, they can all be wiped out.This boat, of course, can also belong to someone Xu.

If you have such a big boat, you can play around in the sea.

Maybe it was because Xu Qing's thoughts were too strong, one evening, riding a sentry suddenly came:

Report to the governor, the pirates are coming!
Xu Qing jumped up with joy, and said to the visitor: "Plan to act!"

Xu Qing's side has already received the report, you needless to say that the cattle and others who have been stationed by the sea have already been garrisoned.

The villages by the sea have already been cleaned up, and the five hundred soldiers hiding in the seaside villages are ambushes.Another [-] soldiers pretended to be villagers, and when the pirates came ashore, they retreated slowly, this is to lure the enemy deep.

Just waiting for the pirates to go ashore, someone scuttled his boat first, so that the pirates could not escape and waited to be killed.In addition, Xu Qing also found a lot of good jerks, took other soldiers on a fishing boat, swung into the sea, and seized the big boat.

The battle by the sea was almost as Xu Qing imagined, and there was no suspense in winning.The pirate went ashore, saw the fleeing villagers, and wanted to chase them, but was caught off guard by soldiers lying in the village and pretending soldiers.In addition, most of the pirates' weapons are hatchets and the like. With or without armor, after a few rounds of arrow rain, half of the people will lie down.

Xu Qing didn't care about the battle on this side, and went straight to join the ranks that seized the big ship.

"Lord Inspector, please get on board..." A soldier helped Xu Qing onto a half-capped fishing boat.Inside the fishing boat, there were six sergeants, all holding oars.

"Get on the boat and set off immediately!" Xu Qing gave an order, and the soldiers on the scene walked three steps at a time, boarded the boat, threw off their arms and started rowing.

When I rowed closer, I saw that the boat was five or six meters high, bobbing up and down with the sea water.Most of the people on the boat went ashore, and the rest were neither alert nor able to drive the big boat. The sky was dark, which allowed Xu Qing to take advantage of a good loophole.

Five or six meters, just climbing the second floor.When later generations were in middle school, they would spend the night outside and climb up to the third floor...

Holding his breath and concentrating on boarding the big boat, Xu Qing's feet suddenly slipped:
"Yo!"

"boom!"

"Inspector, be careful!"

The soldiers didn't have time to protect him, so Xu Qing had to fall and eat shit.Xu Qing turned over and looked closely at what he had stepped on. It turned out to be a pile of human feces.Looking around the boat, there are more than one place, it should be a landmine step by step.Even if this ship is obtained, I am afraid it will take a lot of time to clean up these man-made "cache".

These pirates are so courageous, there is actually no one on this deck.Knowing that Xu Qing killed and caught people on the first and second floors, he realized that there were foreign enemies.Speaking of it, it was just a simple killing.Xu Qing cursed secretly: It's not exciting at all!

There is no greater sorrow than heart death. The king of a small country has become the king of subjugation. He must have died of heart, right?
A sneak attack, slashing and killing was unremarkable, needless to say.

Three large ships were captured one after another, and when the main ship was captured, a pile of gold, silver and jewels were also seized, probably brought out by the king of the small country when he was in a panic.It's just that Xu Qing didn't find the monarch of the small country, otherwise it would be better to catch him and give it to Xu Qi.Later, I learned from the captives that there had been a rebellion on the ship a few days ago, and their king's body had already sunk into the sea.

After making a small fortune, Xu Qing's depression of being disgusted and unexciting was swept away.The woman who was looted from the seaside village was rescued, but...

Ugh……

The capture was meritorious, and it was a captured foreign enemy, so Xu Qing reported it to the imperial court, earning a decent reputation for his state soldiers and generals.

Such a pirate battle is just a small episode.The three big boats were driven back by Xu Qing and put aside.In the future, you can also recruit sailors and go for a stroll in the sea.

The task now is to get the engraving and printing out.

Although the last printing was successful, the usage rate of stereotypes was not high. After a dozen times, there would always be some bloated fonts.

After several experiments, Xu Qing discovered that the pine wood had absorbed water and swelled.After several times of printing, the pine wood absorbs a lot of ink and also swells up, making the characters bloated.Xu Qing also tried to re-dry it, but the characters will not return to the original, but become more distorted.

Is it a wood problem?

Xu Qing changed several types of wood for experiments, but found that only pine wood can print more than 40 sheets, and other woods cannot even print [-] sheets.

Pine wood absorbs water and swells. If it is soaked wet in advance, will it not swell?That's right, it's true that it won't swell, but the printed characters are pitch black, ghostly peach charms.

The experiment failed again, Xu Qing walked back to the study in desperation, and sighed heavily: "Alas..."

Suddenly, a figure flickered and came straight behind Xu Qing!

A voice that could barely be considered rough sounded:
"Hey, hand over your life, and the uncle will spare you?"

Xu Qing was taken aback, but immediately understood that it was Huang Shimei who was screaming at him to make trouble with him...

"Give me your life and still keep me alive? How can there be such a stupid thief like you?" Xu Qing turned his hand to touch, hugged Huang Shimei into his arms, squeezed it vigorously, and said, "Why don't you let me teach you how to do it?" robbery?"

"Bad guy, robbing wealth or robbing sex?"

"Don't ask too much, just rob you of your clothes, how about it?"

(End of this chapter)