Chapter 163 - Captured Pirates
Chapter 163 – Captured Pirates
Three years ago, after the incident at the Jinzhen escort agency, Jiang Zhen became more and more strict in managing of his subordinates, intruding into completely militarized management.
His men also didn’t let him down.
Yabian Village now has a complete set of ways to deal with danger, depending on the situation, the method would also differ.
Now..
The sound of the horn showed that a large number of people were coming.
Jiang Zhen’s expression was a bit gloomy, then he quickly give various orders to his men. Then paying attention to defense he went to the dock himself.
“How many people and ships have come? Did you find out.” Jiang Shen had boarded a large ship near the dock and looking into the distance he asked.
“Boss, there are several big ships coming, but we don’t know the exact number. The people who went out to check also didn’t come back yet.” Someone came down from the mast and then said to Jiang Zhen.
Jiang Zhen nodded and had the rock throwers and guns set up again.
Yes, there was already artillery at this time. Jiang Zhen didn’t know about this at first, but after hearing Wen Ming mention ut he spent a lot of money to equip his fleet.
Of course, these guns were of little use, all guns of this time were not as good as the stone-throwing machine.
But although they were not very useful, sometimes if you are lucky enough you could blow the other people’s ship. When two ships were close to each other it was also more effective if you had them.
There were no binoculars at this time, so Jiang Zhen could only look at the distance as he let his men evacuate all the people near the dock.
At this time, the people who went out to investigate finally came back.
They rowed a small boat, escaping quickly before telling Jiang Zhen all about incoming attackers: “Boss, those people should be Cheng Yongzhen’s old troops, they have a total of five long-distance ships and a dozen of large ships. The number of people could not be seen clearly.”
The so-called long-distance ships were just another name for the largest Daqi ships at this time. Jiang Zhen only had 11 of them and at this time two of them were still at the dock.
This time, that fleet of ships first attacked the people patrolling the nearby waters arranged by Jiang Zhen making Jiang Zhen subordinates blow the horns. Making it obvious that the other side was aggressive.
“Set sail and welcome them.” Jiang Zhen looked at the ships that had already appeared in sight and said directly.
“Yes!” Jiang Zhen’s men responded, and then immediately set off sails to meet them. Once the big ships moved, some of the smaller ships around also moved.
Soon, several ships on the opposite side appeared in their line of sight, not only that the opposite side also immediately fired their cannons.
” Launch the cannon.” Jiang Zhen took a look at the firearm that landed in the sea without hitting his own ships and gave the same order.
The battle was about to start.
In the past six years, Jiang Zhen and his men experienced many battles, most of which were fought with pirates making them very familiar with the pirate routine. The people who come to attack them this time acted exactly the same way as pirates.
Jiang Zhen stood on the deck and commanded, while his men methodically did their own things. Once someone was injured he would quickly be sent to the cabin for protection.
At this time, the gunfire was much less powerful than in the later generations so battles mostly depended on hand-to-hand combat. When the two ships drew closer the two sides instantly started the battle.
Jiang Zhen has experienced a lot of life and death situations and he has even died once so he was not afraid of what was in front of him. He remained calm, but many of his men were afraid.
But quickly their fear disappeared.
Seeing pirates wound their brother and damage their ships, their blood stirred. For a moment, they forgot their fear, and then rushed up with theirs swords.
Jiang Zhen just stood behind them and did not move.
He was still good at fighting but during such battles a general who rushed in front was needed, but rather a general who could stabilize the rear.
Jiang Zhen was accompanied by some people, and from time to time asked these people to help others. Soon he stabilized the situation on his ship and rushed to their ships.
Wars in ancient times lasted generally for a very long time but battles were not t particularly long …… after all human beings needed to eat and shit.
When Jiang Zhen fought the pirates for the first time a few years ago, one of his men fought for a while before suddenly leaving the battlefield to pee before going back… this action really stunned him.
The battle lasted for about two hours.
Two hours later, the pirates who came to attack them begin to surrender after that more and more people surrounded.
These people were Cheng Yongzhen’s old army, but in the beginning, they surrendered to Cheng Yongzhen after being defeated by Cheng Yongzhen. To them, it was really nothing to surrender after losing the battle.
“Carry all our wounded to the rear and tie up all those who surrendered.”Jiang Zhen said.
At this time he should meet the leaders of pirates who come to attack him and ask them for the reason of attacking him, but for Jiang Zhen wounded subordinates were more important.
Jiang Zhen in recent years opened school in Hexi and Yabian villages to teach reading and writing. He also arranged for some people to study medicine, and personally taught them the treatment of external injuries.
Many doctors at this time were reluctant to use or admit to using some of the first aid knowledge provided by Jiang Zhen, but for these doctors trained by Jiang Zhen himself it was not the case.
They hadn’t received too much formal education in Chinese medicine so they were able to accept what Jiang Zhen taught them very quickly. When Jiang Zhen went to see the wounded, these people were sewing up people’s wounds.
After they have stitched a person’s wound with a needle and thread, they would immediately throw the used needle and thread into the boiling water nearby. Then, after changing the needle and thread they continued to stitch up the wound of the next patient.
But there were so many wounded now that it was obvious that there was no enough doctors….
Jiang Zhen washed his hands and asked asked someone to carry out the seriously injured while he personally bandaged their wounds. Then he sends his man to investigate, trying to understand the circumstances of the whole matter as soon as possible.
After Jiang Zhen stitched up the wounds of three people, someone came to report: “Boss, the matter is clear.”
These people were indeed Cheng Yongzhen’s old army and they come to attack Jiang Zhen for several reasons.
They came here after chasing Wang Rucheng and his group, but while they were chased him they themselves were chased by imperial court soldiers.
Cheng Yongzhen was very powerful and even had the ability to claim the title of kind but the imperial court was actually even more powerful.
Although there was a sea ban, Daqi still had navy, not to mention that there were plenty of people in the world who were willing to work for the imperial court. At the beginning, even Cheng Yongzhen helped the imperial court fight pirates.
These people have been chased by officers and soldiers for a long time, unable to get any supplies while they were still unable to capture Wang Ruicheng and others…
So, instead of finding a place to resupply they soon realized that the best way was to get a few more ships to make up for their losses caused by imperial court soldiers who sank several of their ships… Then they come near Yabian village and found out that Wang Ruicheng and others come to see Jiang Zhen.
Without hesitation, they chose to attack the Yabian village.
For such a small sea merchant, they thought it would be easy to fight against him. When they occupy the Yabian village, no matter if they wanted to resupply or get a new ship, they could have it all. If they capture Wang Ruicheng, they may even get the treasure left by Cheng Yongzhen.
Cheng Yongzhen once hid a lot of gold and silver on a desert island, which was known by many people but no one knew where that deserted island was.
The people planned very well but they didn’t expect that this small dock would be such a hard bone to chew, making them choke to death.
“They are followed by the government soldiers?” Jiang Zhen smiled, but his heart jumped.
“Yes.” Jiang Zhen subordinates said.
“Send someone to take care of the battlefield, and then let all the patrol rest, leave only sailors on the ships. By the way, the leaders of the pirates have been found out and killed by me.” Jiang Zhen said.
With Cheng Yongzhen’s previous experience, Jiang Zhen was planning to hide his strength. For this reason, over the last three years, he has transferred a lot of his power underground.
At this moment, he naturally had to be careful as well.
iang Zhen’s men immediately went to work, Jiang Zhen who was not at ease followed them out.
It was not easy to do something at this time, it was getting dark so sea visibility was getting worse and worse. Jiang Zhen only finished putting the battlefield in order when another fleet of ships came.
The government soldiers come.
Jiang Zhen, as the person in charge here, got down from his big ship and then went over to the smaller ship with a torch to meet the officials who came over.
“You are the one in charge here?” A military officer in his thirties came to meet Jiang Zhen.
When the man looked at Jiang Zhen, there was inquiry and disdain in his eyes. “Yes.” Jiang Zhen nodded.
“Why don’t you kneel when you see me?” The man spoke again, looking at Jiang Zhen with dissatisfaction.
“Sir, I have made a little merit before and received the reward of not kneeling when I see an official.” Jiang Zhen said.
“Not kneeling before an official?” The man sneered and was about to say something when an officer suddenly shouted: “My lord, they have captured those pirates!”
Hearing the words, the man looked at Jiang Zhen with some fear, then stopped talking with him and left quickly.
Since it was autumn now, the sea was windy and quite cold but Jiang Zhen still stood on the deck.
The officials of the Wexing Province because he was rich and had close relationship with Zheng family had grown to respect him, but it was clear that the rest of the local officials, still didn’t take him seriously.
Jiang Zhen knew enough to not be dissatisfied with this so he continued to wait quietly, while at the same time government officials and soldiers were frightened.
They have been chasing Cheng Yongzhen’s old troops for a long time so the two sides even fought a few times but every time they were not able to gain any advantage.
But as result, a group of pirates who they couldn’t deal with was captured by other people! It seemed that even pirates on the ships were captured by them!
Who on earth were these people?!