"Bang bang bang~~~Bang bang bang~~~"

As the heavy machine guns sounded on the Thor, the hard sail of a two-masted black-haired ship of the Zheng Red Gang was instantly smashed. Then, the main mast began to catch fire.

The black-haired ship that was shot was a unique type of ship in Dongguan, commonly known as "big-eyed chicken". The entire ship was made of iron wood, with a length of ten feet, a width of three feet, and a plate thickness of seven inches, which was extremely strong. This ship could even withstand the iron bombs fired by the Flang machine cannon. Each ship cost up to seven or eight hundred taels of silver. At the same price, you can buy five lucky ships of the same tonnage in the Minzhe area.

When the Thunder God was just starting to shoot, the Red Flags pirates were unknown. Hearing the loud noise of lightning and thunder from a distance, one by one, one by one, one by one, and I looked up at the sky, and they thought they were hitting thunder in the dry sky.

But as the wooden skeleton on the top of the hard sail was broken, the bamboo crumbs fell off the deck, and the pirates on the big-eyed chicken reacted and frightened to run away on the deck with their heads in their arms, crying for their parents.

At this time, other sea boats raised their anchors and paddled to avoid them, and only a few people on the boat shouted at their subordinates: "Let's go over! Rescue the people on the boat!"

Hearing the continuous explosions outside, Zheng Lianchang and others were still unclear, but Zheng Yi's face changed drastically. He hurriedly rushed to the round porthole and looked out, and saw that it was Zheng Lianchang's boat who was shot and caught fire.

There are only two such strong big-eyed chickens in the entire Red Gang, and the others are all written about white clam boats, storing boats, and even many sloop fishing boats.

At this time, Zheng Lianchang and others also came to the porthole and saw that their boat was on fire, their faces turned pale.

"Master Zhao, Lord Zhao, please stop fire! There are still many people on the boat!" Zheng Yi knelt down to Zhao Xin and kept bowing and begging.

"Ceasefire." Zhao Xin issued an order to the walkie-talkie.

The movement of Thor made the entire bay of Tanzai Island explode again. The crew members who were resting on various merchant ships came to the deck to check the movement. The Dan fishermen who were selling fresh water were frightened and rushed back to the shore.

Among the crew members of various merchant ships, some people often come to Macau. When they see the Zheng family fleet's banner, they understand what's going on, and secretly applauds; if they don't understand, they are confused and ask other old crew members.

Seeing that the Thunder God dared to challenge the order of the Qing Dynasty and Macau and Portugal again, a group of foreign captains were both afraid and jealous; they thought that if they had such a large iron ship, the Humen's fort was a big nostalgic tank, and they dared to drive directly into the Pearl River!

After the gunshots stopped, the people on the Big-eyed Chicken were busy putting out the fire, and several nearby boats also came to help. After a rush, they finally poured out water, but the deck was already in a mess. The top of the cabin between the two masts was burned with a big hole by the sails falling on the fire. The main mast eye on the fire seemed to be ineffective, just like a half-burned matchstick; the upper half was steaming, and it was charred.

Zheng Lianchang and others looked extremely ugly. They turned around and looked at Zhao Xin, who had several gun-carrying soldiers standing behind them, and said, "Master Zhao, I, I agree."

Zhao Xin's expression was still faint, and he looked at Zheng Lianchang coldly and said, "The conditions have changed. Within ten days, fifty boatmakers, one hundred sailors and their families, you send the people, I will pay as much as possible; each person has fifty taels of housekeeping fee."

Zheng Lianchang knew that the other party was slapping a sweet date, but he was under the eaves, so he had to nod helplessly.

"In addition, Zheng Yi and Zheng Qi are still waiting here for a few days now, and everyone is here before leaving. Don't worry, as long as you don't do anything randomly, they won't be missing a single finger." After Zhao Xin said that, he stood up and left the conference room.

Looking at the soldiers who came over to take him and Zheng Qi away, Zheng Yi sighed and said to Zheng Lianchang: "Dad, do you understand? A quick cannon can make us beat us without any power to fight back. In the future, the Pearl River Estuary will change the sky!"

Zheng Lianchang came in a fierce manner and left in shame, but he still left a few boats nearby to monitor.

Zhao Xin stood on the deck and looked at the Hongqi Gang fleet away, and said to a platoon leader beside him: "Notify everyone that starting from today, there will be fishing boats coming to sell goods, and no one is allowed to buy things, and they will be bombarded away. After dark at night, everyone will go back to the ship building to take turns on duty. Some people dare to climb onto the deck, fire the first shot and shoot directly for the second time."

"Chief, what do you mean?"

"The fishermen on this sea are all the Dan family, so we have to be careful."

"Yes! I'll notify everyone right away."

Zhao Xin went to the communication room without looking back. He asked the communication soldiers to connect to Beihai Town and then bombarded the two of them.

"Master, I'm here." The person who spoke opposite was Li Ji.

"Has Katsushiba and Kuzang been here?"

"Master, we are all here."

"Don't leave a word of what I say below!"

"Ha ha!"

Zhao Xin's call lasted for more than an hour.

In the past few days, Zhao Xin was not very interested in anything he was involved in the Jade Pendant. He was thinking about how to survive in the future. In addition, he was also speculating on what reactions those travelers would have if they knew they could not go back.

After experiencing the initial panic, despair and even disheartened, Zhao Xin calmed down and made a decision. He had to start preparing for a backup plan just in case.

Since yesterday, he has been talking to Liji and made some arrangements. After learning about the current situation in Beihai Town, he asked Liji to find Sheng Haizhou, Jiuzang and others. Although Liji received Zhao Xin's order, although it was a little strange, he still followed Zhao Xin's order to find Sheng Haizhou and Jiuzang, and Wan Zao and others had a secret communication.

Today, Zhao Xin explained to Li Ji and the other two again. After Zhao Xin finished the arrangement, Sheng Haizhou and the others began to connect privately that night.

In addition to the seven people who first followed Zhao Xin, Pan Xiucheng, Serdan and his son, Yarha, the old man in charge of the military warehouse, several small leaders of the workshop, a certain nursing department head of the hospital who was second only to Director Liu, Wan Zao's wife, Zhinai and others also received secret notices in the following days. These people finally created a letter of loyalty, and the relevant people pressed their blood fingerprints on it.

This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content later! If Zhao Xin had not controlled the number and level of the people, the platoon leaders of the troops would have to sign according to the blood mark.

Many times, people often do things that deviate from their original intentions in order to survive. If nothing unexpected happens to the jade pendant, Zhao Xin doesn’t care much about many things at all. At worst, he can do it alone and send all these people back, but he is just a little more difficult.

Although Beihai Town is now in its first progress, the living environment is still very severe, and industrial development has only opened up a small step. In history, agricultural society has been industrialized, and it is all about sacrificing farmers to improve industrial development through the gap between industry and agriculture scissors. Zhao Xin avoided this situation with jade pendants. Now jade pendants cannot be used. As large equipment cannot be used in the future, the development of industry will enter a period of delay.

If civil strife occurs at this time, Zhao Xin’s efforts and investment over the past few years will be wasted, and Beihai Town will not be able to get out of the black soil.

Zhao Xin didn't know what kind of "monster" he had put out at this time, but by the time he realized it, it was a few years later.

The next afternoon, Liu Sheng and his group came back, and dozens of Portuguese accompanied him, including men, women, young and old, and several of them were mixed Chinese and Portuguese.

"Your Excellency, my name is Rodrigo Joao Pereira. My colleagues and I are very happy to work for you in the future." The speaker was a middle-aged man in his thirties, with a medium-sized body and a thin body. He was in a not-so-smooth Cantonese language and had a big beard on his chin.

According to Liu Sheng, the man named Pereira is an engineer. He graduated from the College of Sciences of the University of Coimbra, in Portugal. After coming to Macau, he has been engaged in engineering design work in the municipal committee. Pereira has a wife and two children. He lived a good life in his childhood, but he was cheated of being engaged in silk investment. Not only did he lose all his savings, but he also owed a sum of money.

Zhao Xin smiled and shook hands with Pereira and said, "Welcome, Mr. Pereira. But I am ignorant. Is Coimbra University very famous?"

Pereira said respectfully: "Yes, Your Excellency. This is a school with a long history and comparable to that of the University of Paris and Oxford. It has been almost five hundred years since its establishment. The famous Priest Christopher Krau graduated from here."

Zhao Xin blinked his eyes and never heard of it. He didn't know that the University of Coimbra was founded in 1290 and is one of the oldest universities in Europe. The earliest colleges founded include the Academy of Sciences, Law School, Church Law School, Medical School, and Art School. Historically, this school was founded until the beginning of the 20th century and was the only university in Portugal.

As for the Christopher Krau who Pereira mentioned, he lived in the 17th century. He made extraordinary achievements in mathematics, astronomy and other fields. However, this person is also Copernicus's most staunch opponent.

The one who came with Pereira was more than a dozen Portuguese craftsmen with family members. These people had worked in Macau shipyards, including three carpenters, five blacksmiths and four ordinary shipbuilders. Now Macau shipyards can only build some broad boats and fishing boats. Chinese craftsmen are far more skilled than Portuguese and have lower salaries, so some Portuguese naturally became unemployed. After hearing from the Macau Municipal Committee that Liu Sheng was going to recruit craftsmen, they applied for the recruitment with a try. Liu Sheng and Ding Guofeng finally selected these people.

In these days, senior boatmakers in Europe earned a lot of money. In addition to being able to draw design drawings by themselves, they could also draw commissions by taking apprentices; but the income of ordinary boatmakers and apprentices could only maintain basic survival.

Although Liu Sheng mentioned that Beihai Town is far from Macau, the salary he gave is not low. In addition to Pereira's annual salary of 300 yuan in double-column silver coins, the basic salary of others is 150 double-column silver coins, and there are bonuses and residences. The Spanish double-column silver coins in this year are the main currency in Southeast Asian trade, with an average weight of 26.8 grams and a silver content of about 90.3%. If converted to the silver coins in Beihai Town, the 150 yuan double-column silver coins are almost 540 yuan in Beihai Silver coins.

"There can only be recruited by these people. No matter how many of them, the Macau shipbuilding guild will not be happy."

Dozens of Portuguese looked at Thor with different expressions, and from time to time they let out a burst of exclamations. After Zhao Xin greeted these people one by one, the sailors of Thor took these people to arrange accommodation.

“Have you bought the wood?”

Liu Sheng handed Zhao Xin an envelope and said, "I ordered a batch of ironwood and teak, and it cost almost 5,000 taels of silver; there were also some tea, export porcelain, cotton and wool cloth. These matters were handled by the merchant bank, and they paid the export tax on their behalf. They would ship there in three days. This is the contract."

The three of them returned to the cockpit, and then Zhao Xin said to Liu Sheng and Ding Guofeng: "Tell me something to you two, we have to wait here for more than ten days before we can leave."

"Ten days?! What happened?"

Zhao Xin said helplessly: "As soon as you left, you got in touch with the communication point on Sheyang Lake..."

When Zhao Xin finished telling the situation, Liu Sheng and Ding Guofeng asked strangely: "Why are they here?"

Zhao Xin shook his head and said, "How could I know. Now people can't contact each other, we can only wait!"

Then, he told the two of them about Zheng Yi and the others, and reminded them to pay attention these days. Although they are big fists, they are all guys who are more furthy than monkeys.

Liu Sheng slapped his head at this time: "Look at my memory, I almost forgot something. I asked the British opium base, which was in Yanzi Bay on the west side of Hengqin Island."

Zhao Xin said in surprise: "Hey? You can find this! How do you know?"

Liu Sheng said proudly: "I invited everyone to drink at the bar last night, and then I asked out of an Irish sailor for five double-column silver dollars."

Ding Guofeng smiled and said, "Liu is so trembling this time, the governor personally met him. Several Portuguese women were glaring at him, but unfortunately he didn't appreciate it."

Zhao Xin joked: "That's right, Liu is thinking about the little star at the mouth of Heilongjiang."

Liu Sheng ignored the teasing of the two and continued to Zhao Xin: "I did think it was simple before. I have to apologize to you."

Zhao Xin waved his hand with a smile and asked, "There are such changes, what have you seen after going to Macau?"

Ding Guofeng said with a serious expression: "All foreign companies in the city sell opium, and the Portuguese are also smuggling them. Although the Qing Dynasty had a ban, the investigation was not strict. According to what we know in the bar, there are almost two thousand boxes of opium flowing into Guangdong every year."

Zhao Xin nodded and said, "The Qing Dynasty only cares about how much money trade can bring. As for the lives and death of the people, no one cares about it. If you want to manage this matter, you must be punished by sucking and selling."

Liu Shengdao: "We have to come back and we have to come up with a law and shoot it once we find out."

Zhao Xin smiled and said, "Come on, I think I'm wasting bullets, so I send them to the Essay land to dig coal."

Ding Guofeng asked: "What should I do if the opium stronghold on Hengqin Island?"

Zhao Xin thought for a while and said, "It must be eliminated! Let the British know our attitude."

Liu Shengdao: "But what if we go ahead and the British build again?"

Zhao Xin said: "So I said before that this is not a matter of venting anger. It is useless to knock out a stronghold and several ships. The continuous stream of opium will still be transported over. The forces at the estuary of the Pearl River are intertwined, unless we transfer all the forces from the sea. The effect is not great, and the gain is not worth the loss."

Liu Sheng said: "What do you think you should do? You don't know. I was so angry that I almost smashed the foreign company. Guofeng said you must have a solution."

Zhao Xin changed his mind and asked, "How many turrets are there in Macau? Have you both figured it out?"

Liu and Ding nodded and said, "Six turrets, more than 120 small cannons. We also bought a hand-painted map of Macau from a Frenchman."

Zhao Xin nodded and said, "You two first talk about what you have learned in the past two days. I have to think about this for a few days."

Liu Sheng and Ding Guofeng spent more than two hours carefully talking about their experience in Macau, and Zhao Xin gradually nodded, but it was still difficult to solve it.

If you want to use force to control the inflow of opium, you must control the sea outside the Pearl River Estuary, including various islands. This task is too large, and two fleets need to be established to patrol and take duty, and rotate for a long time. Besides, if the Pearl River Estuary is blocked, will these people take the risk to Fujian?

The only way at the moment is to negotiate with the British and Portuguese to see what alternatives can be found. But the question is, in what capacity does Zhao Xin negotiate with others? Guangdong is still the territory of the Qing Dynasty, why should they listen to you?!

In fact, if you really want to make it happen once and for all, you need to send a fleet to defeat Malacca and occupy it, locking down the path of opium in and out of Southeast Asia; and you must strictly control the opium sales business internally, implement a medical monopoly system, and use thunder to prohibit opium-sucking crowds.

Unfortunately, with Beihai Town's current strength, neither of these can be achieved.

Time passed day by day. In the next five days, two merchant ships from Macau sent all the supplies ordered by Liu Sheng and the others. Zhao Xin paid the payment for the goods with the silver notes Ma Bashisan had paid him before.

Seeing the crane on Thor easily lifting heavy wood from the sailboat to the boat, this aroused the surprise of many crew members on the surrounding sailboats; some sailboats also sent people to ask about the price of the marine crane.

During this period, Liu Sheng and Ding Guofeng operated drones and inspected the opium smuggling base on Hengqin Island for more than a dozen consecutive times, determining the location of the other party's cargo warehouse and the number of people stationed. During the investigation, Liu Sheng accidentally discovered the figures of the Eliza and the Trust.
Chapter completed!