Section 2010 The First Failure of the Suicide Ship

The sailors drove the ships over one by one. They were attacked by these pirates before, and they know that they don't kill people very much. As long as they are obedient, if they don't even look down on your ships If you don’t, I’m sure they’ll tell you to leave. They didn’t come with a merchant ship, and there wasn’t anything valuable on board, so they probably just came up to have a look and then left. m

Sure enough, a few ships came over, and they didn't fire any guns. A small boat was lowered from the ship. Some inexperienced sailors and businessmen were all scared to death, but some old sailors were not so scared. , They hurried to the side of the ship, ready to pull those people up, which is also strange, damn, how can this be so enthusiastic with pirates, several cargo owners are a little bit like a monk at this time, and they can't figure it out. Could it be that a few people on this ship have colluded with these people.

But this matter seems to be a bit unreasonable. They are all temporarily recruited. If they really colluded, this place is not far from the port. If they go further, there may be a lot of people. Guaranteed, it would be better to come to work at that time. Seeing the dozens of people coming up, the cargo owners on this ship thought that there were only a few people coming up, if they could be made into their hostages Maybe it will be better, maybe they will win this time, but their thoughts may not be so good, and the sailors may have seen the thoughts in their hearts.

"I told you guys it's better not to act foolishly. Have you seen the thing they are carrying on their backs? They can shoot out ten crossbow bolts in an instant, and just a few of us are not enough for the first round of attacks. , if possible, they can kill us all in a minute, besides, if you detain them, the people on the boat over there will be angry, what will happen in the end? We may all be killed Yes. You haven’t seen their cannons, but I have, and I don’t want to die in this place.” A sailor said, they are very familiar with such things, these merchants only have money in their minds , who knows that sometimes money is not of much use, but one's own head is more important.

Several wealthy businessmen stopped talking. They glanced at each other, and went to greet them with the other sailors.

"Several military lords, please come here, please come here." Li Cong brought about twenty people over, and his subordinates were not very worried about this, as they were all under his control, and Li Cong himself had The strength of a ninth-level fighter. If these people in Bei could be caught in such an environment, then they would just find a piece of tofu and crash themselves to death, and it wouldn't take so much effort.

"Hehe, you guys really understand the rules. That's right. Our leader came here with us this time. Let's talk about it. Tell us what's on your top and what you're doing. If that's the case, we'll I will consider letting you go. After all, it’s not easy for you. Everyone makes a living at sea. We can’t handle natural disasters. Although you think we are all ****. But as long as you all Cooperate well, this matter is nothing, we are not poisonous snakes and beasts, and we have no fun in killing people, what we want is just some things,

Right, it's not worth losing your head for these things. "A soldier said with a smile. Indeed, this time these people hung up the white flag without waiting to fire. Once Bei Li Cong gave a commendation. Judging from the expressions on their faces, it seems that the profession of pirates still feels very promising.

"What the military master said is, how could we not understand the matter? Just now, we relied on the mercy of several military masters. If you think we are not pleasing to the eye, why would you tell us so many things? Just let the artillery Just kill us, we don't have many thoughts, all we want is to save our own lives, and many times we don't have other thoughts, to save our lives is the best thing, this The few of you are the owners of the goods on the ship, and they will tell you all of these things.” The boss of the ship led the soldiers to the rich merchants, wondering if these guys would be because of themselves These people in the north of the goods were robbed, and I felt very uncomfortable. What kind of retaliation measures would be taken against Li Cong and the others? If you get killed, it’s okay to implicate your own life, but if it takes our lives, then it won’t work.

"How many of you know what's in this box?" The soldier himself was considered a working class in the past, and he didn't have much to say to these rich people. He didn't speak in the same tone as the crew members on the ship just now. Well, those crew members are naturally not troublesome. These gentlemen have often ordered me around, just like the big belly in front of me. Just now I disliked how difficult the conditions on this ship are. In fact, these are misers. It is said that merchants will not follow their own goods, especially in this more dangerous time, they will spend a lot of money to hire some people to follow, but now the reason why they follow by themselves is that they want to save money. It is right to save them from their hearts. The goods on this ship are only worth less than 10,000 taels of silver. If you hire a person, it will cost at least 1,000 taels of silver, which is one-tenth of the cost. For one thing, when it comes to things like settling accounts, most people can't keep up with businessmen, they are the most powerful, but now everyone is a little bit regretful, and one-tenth of the money made me pay for my life. It's really not worth it.

"Back to the military lords, this place belongs to us, and all our goods are inside, which are all worthless things." This guy brought a silver ingot of fifty taels of silver with a smile, hoping This stuff can be useful.

"Hehe, there is still silver. Yes, I know that you are definitely not some cheap goods here. I will give you a chance. If you can automatically take out your silver, I will not say anything. If If you don't take it out, it won't be that simple for me to take it out later. I don't know what you mean?" The guy said with a smile, and the guy who was going to give the gift was dumbfounded. How could this happen? As for the matter, the purpose of taking out these money is to bribe you, now it’s all over, and it has directly become the root of my own troubles, such a thing is really uncomfortable.

"This soldier is also. What is transported on the ship is really not silver and the like. We have a few hundred taels of silver at most on the entire ship. What we transport are sails and canvas and other goods, which are all short-distance transports. Yes, from the province of re to the province of gh, we can get there in one day. There are not many valuable things." Another businessman said honestly, in fact, what they said is correct, don't look at this There are a lot of people in the fleet, but these things are not very good at all.

"Sails and canvas?" The officer glanced at Li Cong, but Li Cong didn't say anything. He glanced at the soldiers behind him again, and two soldiers ran over immediately. They wanted to open it to see if it was the same as what this guy said. After five minutes, they randomly checked the contents of several cabins, and it was exactly as this guy said. They were all canvas and the like, and there was really nothing Valuable things, that's what the sailors over there said, but they didn't know if there was anything in these boxes. At this time, they are also mud bodhisattvas who can't protect themselves when crossing the river. Naturally, they don't care about these things. of.

"As far as I know, there should be such things in your coastal areas. Why do you want to transport these things to that gh province? Is there something wrong there? There haven't been any big storms recently, why should you You transported." The vigilance of the officers was not half high, half of their news was sent by the spies of the Eastern Empire, and the other half was told by these people. Generally speaking, the news of these people is still very accurate, much more accurate than those so-called guys. Of course, this is also related to their lives being threatened at the moment, and they dare not talk nonsense.

"If you go back to Lord Jun, we don't know about the above things. We just know that the Northern Court has confiscated the things over there, and the price over there is more than 20% higher than ours. We will ship them to you. Local businessmen, they give us 10% of the profit, and then they resell the other 10% of the profit.” The businessman said honestly, they really don’t know what it means, they just know that they can get 10% The profit is already quite a lot. Of course, they also thought about the possibility of encountering these pirates at sea, but the money is earned too fast. It only takes a day to run. Besides, It's been a long time since I saw these pirates. It is said that there are some new things in the navy, and these guys are afraid to come out. Under such a background, this guy rented a fleet with a few merchants and went on the road I didn't expect them to come so soon...

The officer didn't say anything, and walked towards Li Cong quickly, and told Li Cong the news. Maybe they should change the route. Go to this gh province to have a look. Maybe that's where these new warships are built. If you can find this place, it should be no problem. Even if you make a mistake in your calculations, it will take at most an hour longer to get there. Their speed is so slow, but ours is not slow. Attacking anywhere is not an attack Besides, they are just a test fleet, and they can do anything. The top leaders on the ship are here, and they can change orders at any time.

"Your speculation is completely justified. Ask them about the situation at that port, ask everyone on our warship who has been to that port to describe the specific situation there, and quickly change our battle plan. Of course, we have to Be careful, let these guys be interrogated separately. If there is nothing wrong, put them all on one of the ships, and sink the others directly. Although there are not many supplies, this is also from the Eastern Empire anyway. Lost." Li Cong thought for a while and said, now he also feels that this matter is a bit strange, Li Cong has never known the construction site of the Southern Empire, and Linghu didn't know this place, so he didn't expect to send it to him now. We are here, this must pass.

Soon the interview transcripts of several other people came up. Their words were similar to what the guy just said. It seems that the Southern Empire really concentrated this matter in that place. There are two sailors in that county. Born and raised here, it's just because of some incidents in the local area, this brother is a fugitive. The two brothers had no choice but to dawdle on the boat, and they had to be careful when they got on land. They heard that they were going to attack the court of the Eastern Empire, and the two brothers were very happy.

"It is said that you two are from the Eastern Empire, why are you two so happy when I am going to rob your hometown?" After returning to the warship, Li Cong looked at the two cheerful brothers and asked, How can there be no reaction at all?

"My lord, I think you should be one of their bosses. In fact, I'm not afraid to tell you that the biggest rich man in our county occupied our family's field back then and forced our grandfather to death. , his son later used the same method to kill my father and two uncles. The two uncles were about the same age as us. Later, when our two brothers grew up, they tricked our two brothers Signing, signing a contract that I don’t know what it is, you know, we are all from poor families, how can we read those so-called words, we can only sign honestly, only later did we know that it was us The two brothers gave them a lifelong contract to sell themselves as slaves. We were angry, we resisted, and we beat them all over the body. If they didn’t work, they would be beaten like this every day. I heard that they have Beihuo jobs there. We have no choice but to be obedient to the person who was killed, but we are not fools, and we are also looking for opportunities to take revenge. Just by chance, we got the chance to deliver medicine to the old man, and I and The eldest brother strangled this old guy directly, which is considered revenge for my grandfather, and the two of us have caused trouble. People in their family are looking for us day and night. Familiar. Our two brothers became wanted criminals directly. We had no choice but to board the ship. Since then, we seldom go back. Even if we received a job to go there, we would never disembark Yes, my lord is here to rob, how can we be unhappy." The guy said happily, Li Cong nodded, it is not surprising that there is such hatred and such a reaction, the two brothers forbear time It's really long enough.

Although some other sailors didn't say whether they support or not, it can be seen from their eyes that they don't feel much about pirate robbery, because they don't have anything in their hands. If you come to rob us, the impact on us is not very big. The biggest ones are those rich businessmen. Pirates, they don't rob the homes of ordinary people, and they will drop some silver when they pass by the door of some ordinary people.

"In fact, there is oppression everywhere. Our life was not very good in the past. Being pirates is not what we thought. We came to rob for the purpose of living. Of course, the main target is these big families. It's gone." Li Cong said a few more words to the two brothers and then left. The two brothers could agree to be guides, and they were very familiar with that big family. After a while, these two guys actually wanted to Joining the gang, such a thing is still not allowed to them for the time being, who knows what is going on with this story, the faces of the two brothers are still very simple, but this matter is not that simple. Let’s just talk about it, let’s take a few of them in now.

Two hours later, Li Cong and the others had already arrived in the province of gh. This speed made the two brothers feel a little proud. They had been at sea for a long time, but they definitely didn't have such a fast speed, especially for them. The speed of some ships in China is simply incomparable compared with this one. They don’t seem to have those sails on their ships. There is a machine that keeps ringing. What is this thing? How can it be so powerful? No wonder The empire that people can fight can't find the north.

The GV port in the province of GH can be said to be the largest port within hundreds of miles around. Li Cong's staff officers also thought that this might be the gathering place for those suicide ships, but later put this The place was rejected. Although the port here is relatively large, there are not so many people here. If so many soldiers come suddenly, they may not even be able to solve their food problem, so I chose another place Now, it seems that their commander is not a fool. People also understand what it means to make a fool of themselves. If they release a false news for you, the rest is your business. If the guess is right, you have won, and if the guess is wrong, you are out of luck.

Li Cong looked at the port with a telescope. This is a natural port, but it is not enough to use it as a military port. Some protruding places behind it are too close to the coast, and there is no way to form a defensive posture with the ship. Want to It is still very easy to attack here, Li Cong continued to look over. The population on the shore is not very large, there are not too many ships here, and the economy is considered medium. It seems that I made a mistake in my calculations. There are not so many ships here, which means that it is not the location of those suicide ships. for ten minutes. Everyone on the shore found them, but it was a pity that they hadn't seen those modified ships. Li Cong asked the artillery to start bombing some targets on the shore. Everyone came, and they couldn't just go back. When it was time to go down, things came, and the main event came.

"Master Cao. Look, there are a large number of small boats over there. Their speed is very fast. Is this a so-called suicide boat? It seems that their speed is already half of our speed, and they are all scattered. Yes, even if we use cannons to kill them, it will be more difficult." An officer said, pointing to the sea to the west. These boats all seem to have rushed out of the ground, each boat is about four meters long, and there are two people on it, and some three people. Some of these bastards have already ignited some of the sulfur on the ship. What a fool. When you come over such a long distance, you will probably burn yourself to death. Such a stupid thing can be done. , How is it possible not to fail?

Everyone on the boat seemed to have lost their minds, and they were all yelling. These guys thought they could come here with their current speed? Don't be delusional, just when Li Cong was about to order the firing, another soldier reported that about two hundred ships of this kind appeared to the east of them, and the speed was also very fast. Li Cong took a look, flanking left and right, Such an old trick, if you have the ability to appear behind Lao Tzu, this is your ability, if you don't have this ability, you should die earlier.

Of course they have no way to appear behind Li Cong, because behind Li Cong is Dahai. It seems that I looked up to them a little bit before. These guys have no skills, so there is no need to be afraid of them. .

"Do you want to shoot them?" The adjutant stood up and said, their speed has reached 80%, it is impossible for these people to rush over, they can attack them within five minutes, and only five minutes It's time to attack. The speed of these suicide ships has indeed brought a lot of oppression to Li Cong and the others. In the past, they could attack these people calmly, but now the attack time must be accurately calculated. , otherwise, it would be a big loss.

"Hehe, of course I have to. Don't we have to wait for them to come over, so that all the warships are ready and will enter the attack range soon, tell the captains, don't fight too fiercely later, let's go out slowly Let them catch up. Now they are still too scattered. Even if we shoot very accurately, it is estimated that a lot of shells will be wasted. We are testing them, and they are also testing us, let them know that this thing has If it works, there will definitely be more problems in the future, and now we have to let them know that this kind of suicide ship is not our opponent." After Li Cong finished speaking, the semaphore soldiers began to convey orders, and several warships around It immediately became a straight line and began to move forward slowly from north to south.

These suicide ships on both sides of the east and west are also coming out to fight for the first time. Their requirement is to rush up quickly after discovering these pirate ships. There is no need for any tactics at all. The distance is already very close at the beginning. Why is it so short? These guys started running after 10 hours, are they scared? The prisoners on these ships were so happy. This was the first time they drove these pirates away. They were not regular troops, but just temporary troops, but they did what the regular army did. How could this not be allowed? They were happy, it seemed that they were also scared, and one by one took advantage of this opportunity to work harder to get their boats closer to them, and they were not very far away. At this time, they all started to turn with Li Cong's fleet, and the artillery on the ship was about to fire, but because of the relatively long distance and their relatively fast speed, the hit rate was not high. Very high, many people on board were shouting loudly, saying that these pirates had nothing to do with them. The military camp on the shore also started to blow the trumpet to cheer them up, which really cheered up these people's hearts.

Li Cong's ten warships were divided into two teams. One team continued to be their target and began to take these ships around, while the other five ships were changing their formation. into a penetration facing east. Because their artillery is on both sides of their own, that is done when they are going to attack, these suicide ships will naturally not feel this, because they see that the five ships are already too far away, they don't even know what to do. It is impossible to catch up, but these five ships are relatively close to them, so they should be able to catch up. At this time, some of them also felt that something was wrong. For example, the suicide ships coming from the east and west seemed to be getting closer and closer, and the density was getting higher and higher. Because they all wanted to take the nearest channel, In addition, there is no one to command them, and they are very close together, and they are not regular troops. There is also no idea of ​​cooperating with each other. All they want is to rush up, so everyone wants each other. The sound of beating and scolding can be seen everywhere. The East Emperor officer on the shore is also a little puzzled at this time Now, what do these pirates want to do, why don't they all run out.

When the five ships that led them to scurry began to tell the speed. Those who observed on the top of the mountain finally understood. At this time, he immediately ordered his subordinate Ming Jin to withdraw, otherwise these guys might all die there. Unfortunately, the distance is too far now. Even if they withdraw troops, they don't have time. These fools continue to move forward without knowing it. They don't listen to the order to withdraw troops later. They still think that they may be the first to kill and wound them. This is a great reward.

The five ships in front of me quickly threw them away. Some people with brains also understood at this time that they were in gear, but it was easy to enter this trap, but it was not easy to continue to go out. The five ships are already waiting for them.

Boom... The cannons started to roar, and the thousands of artillery on the five ships began to fire violently. The distance between them was very close. Generally speaking, if a shell came down, or if they were unlucky, they would be bombed directly. It is fragmented. If it doesn’t work, they may lift up the surrounding water and capsize several small boats. This kind of thing is also very normal. Your small boat can make you go faster and turn around easily. , but your weight is also very small. Big ships are nothing in front of the water column, but your small boats are different. Thousands of shells came overwhelmingly, and each of these suicide boats became human beings. Hell, just now I was thinking about how to go back after winning, but now I don’t have that kind of thought anymore, all I think about is how to survive, damn it, why didn’t I think of this just now, so rushed What did you do before, is there something wrong with your brain, you are really a fool, it is too late to regret it now, it is not that simple to go back.

These prisoners began to regret one by one. They did not expect that the war would be so cruel. At the beginning, everything went smoothly. Of course they would not have thought of this, and even thought that they would be able to save their lives by rushing up this ship. One's own life, what is a suicide ship, is to exchange one's own life for the enemy's ship, they all want to be the lucky one, but how can there be so many lucky ones in this world? They saw that the surrounding ships had already started to enter the water, or they had just turned over. There were some dead people and some wooden fragments everywhere on the sea. Now they don't want to fight with others anymore? What I think about is how to go back and how to save my own life, even if it is sympathy, or being a coolie for the rest of my life, as long as I can live, I can do anything.

The senior generals in the army on land were also dumbfounded. They only sent a total of about 600 such ships, but in the end they found that there were less than 20 ships that could sail on the sea. The few boats that got off were also overturned by those people in the sea. They didn't have any so-called collective consciousness at all. This place is not far from the coast at all. If some people with good water skills can swim back by themselves , But they didn't think about swimming back by themselves, but when they saw those unsinkable boats, they asked for them. If you want to climb up by yourself, the result is that this kind of ship, which is still fast, slows down. The pirate artillery over there is not just looking at this, as long as it finds a large number of people gathered around these ships, it will be fired immediately. The cannonball is coming, that's fine, none of you need to pull it, all of you will be reimbursed by this cannonball.

About 3,000 people were dispatched, and it was estimated that even 30 people would not be able to return. This is the so-called new tactic of the Eastern Empire, the so-called suicide ship. Now they understand that this tactic may have failed, but there are also some farsighted people among them. They saw that the pirate ship did not attack immediately but made some deployments. If they were not observing on the shore at this time If it is another team that uses this time to rush forward, it is likely to achieve some results. Anyway, people on both sides have their own reasons for arguing. The Eastern Empire has no other good solution now, and this can be regarded as a non-solution solution. It can only be slowly exhausted with the enemy. Otherwise, what else can it do? The failure of the suicide ship plan was strictly blocked. They couldn't let the people of the entire empire know that the way they came up with was stupid.

If the citizens of the entire empire know that what they have spent a lot of manpower, material and financial resources in the end is still the enemy's cannon fodder, this will undoubtedly make things worse for the people of the entire empire. They have no hope for this war. up. So many people die every day, but there is no good news from the front line. In addition, what happened on the southern coast makes him feel like the empire is under attack. Is the Thunder Gate really that important? Now even if they can bring back the people from the Thunder Gate, their losses will not be small. The high-level people in the Eastern Empire have also said that they want to give up the Thunder Gate, but the families that have huge interests in the Thunder Gate don’t know how they can give up. Besides, if the Thunder Gate is given up after suffering huge losses, the Eastern Empire may even be reduced to a dilapidated situation with the other three empires at that time. Not only can't hold back the face, but the safety of the entire empire has also become a problem.

Li Cong led his own fleet to return, and now he also understands the capabilities of these suicide ships. It can be said that as long as they are used properly, these suicide ships are still as non-threatening as before. Of course, Li Cong He's not a fool either, he's also noticed that the other party is also testing him, if the other party puts a larger number of suicide boats. Let them lie in ambush in some areas, and your team is likely to suffer losses. The return of ten warships intact has made the entire Cao's navy happy for a long time. Although less than 3,000 enemies were eliminated, and there was no robbery, some of their fear disappeared. The fear of suicide ships disappeared, and they no longer feared such ships in their hearts. They think they can beat these ships.

The court of the Eastern Empire began to gather around the suicide ship and waited for me to get up. This kid from the Linghu family also got the battle report. He also has his own right to speak in the court, although he himself cannot speak normally in the court. , but there are quite a few people who can speak on his behalf. At this time, the Minister of the Ministry of Justice stood up and said that he is the spokesperson of this kid, "Your Majesty, my lords, although the exercise of this new type of tactics failed this time, However, compared to the past, we have achieved considerable results. In the past, these ships would definitely bomb some of our shore facilities, leaving nothing, but this time it is different, we There is no loss of any facilities on the shore, even if the ships are all smashed, the dead are only some prisoners, they really deserved to die to keep our property, what do you think?"

The words of Shangshu of the Ministry of Justice have a certain weight in the court. Many people look at him and think of the Linghu family behind him. In fact, what he said is correct when they think about it. These prisoners are usually locked in prison Here, the food of the empire was wasted for no reason, and now I can point out a way out for them, and they are all eager to sign up. After they die, the empire can save some food, and use the lives of these people to exchange for the property of the empire. It's worth it. If these pirates bombarded the sea in the same way as before, the entire port may be turned into ruins. At that time, hundreds of thousands of people may have to work for a year to make the port After returning to the current state, many people nodded and thought that this plan is possible, and those who sacrificed relatively small got more.

"Your Majesty, the old minister thinks that this matter cannot be done in this way. Practice has proved that these so-called suicide ships are useless at all. Those pirates just changed their formation and killed all these suicide ships. They died very They carried a lot of inflammables on board. Once that kind of thing comes over, it can directly set the surrounding ships on fire. The people who go to work will naturally die. This is just a trial and we will lose. Thousands of people were killed, and the cost of these ships is not cheap. Compared with their number, the final data obtained is also very huge. We should find other ways to resist these pirates. If we continue like this, it is not The gospel of our empire." The prime minister stood up and said.

The words of the prime minister also made many people think about this question. Are they doing the right thing? Although it is possible to contain the opponent if this continues, it is impossible to achieve some results. These people are not fools. Now it is time to express their views. In the past, these pirates were nothing , but now they have to deal with these pirates. It can be said that sometimes the losses caused by pirates are much more severe than those on the northern battlefield.

"Since the Prime Minister thinks that this matter cannot continue like this, I wonder if the Prime Minister has any good solutions?" Doctor Yu Shi is naturally a member of Linghu, and they have already received the notice, so this matter has to be done in this way Yes, they must make the empire enter such a state, a state where they can spend money but can't get any results. This is what they have to do. Only in the future hegemony can he survive smoothly. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to come to Qidian to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets. Your support is my biggest motivation. Mobile phone users, please go to m. to read.)