Li Shengjie didn't have the same worries as Qiu Yizhi. He was still excited to see his old friend and heard him ask, "Does the lord know how I got here?"
This question touched Qiu Yizhi's heart, and he immediately said, "Yes, my brother's arrival here is like a divine soldier descending from the sky. I'm afraid the word 'coincidence' is not enough to explain it, right?"
Li Shengjie smiled proudly: "Of course it's not a coincidence, brother, do you still remember Yin Tai?"
Yin Tai and his father Yin Chengliang had an irreconcilable feud with Qiu Yi, so of course he remembered these two people.
Seeing Qiu Yizi nodded, Li Shengjie continued, "I came back to Han from Japan this time, half of the reason was because of the old man's order to inspect the business here. The other half -" he deliberately dragged out his voice, "the other half was to hunt down Yin Tai!"
Why did Yin Tai have a grudge against Li Shengjie again
Qiu Yizi seemed to have some impression, but couldn't remember it, so he asked again: "What do you mean?"
Li Shengjie replied indignantly, "After returning to Japan, I sent people to track down the bastard Yin Tai, who was the mastermind behind the Japanese pirates boarding the ship to collect people and sending assassins to poison my father. I have made many inquiries about his whereabouts in the past two years, but there is no clear news. I only found out a few months ago that he actually ran back to the Han Dynasty and helped the King of Lingnan to cause chaos. He even took down Mingzhou Prefecture."
Li Shengjie took a breath and said, "Taking Mingzhou Prefecture means that my Li family's route from the Han Dynasty to Japan is cut off. Yin Tai must be dealt with. So I gathered 16 elite warships under my command and immediately crossed the sea to Mingzhou with the east wind. But when I arrived at Mingzhou Port, I found that the port had been completely destroyed and Yin Tai was nowhere to be found. I asked my family's comprador who stayed in Mingzhou, and then I learned that my brother was fighting fiercely with the King of Lingnan, and Yin Tai also sailed to Nanjing to help. Needless to say, when I heard the news, I immediately headed north, entered the Yangtze River estuary and drove all the way to Nanjing City."
Qiu Yizi interrupted and asked, "Have you met Yin Tai?"
"Of course I did!" Li Shengjie replied, "Not only did I meet him, I even fought him!"
Qiu Yizi saw the smug expression on Li Shengjie's face and knew that he would definitely win the battle against Yin Tai, so he didn't rush to ask about the battle situation.
But Li Shengjie was a young man, and he couldn't hide his secrets. He said with a happy face, "I went upstream along the Yangtze River and arrived in Nanjing early this morning. As expected, I saw several ships flying the flag of Yin Tai. How could those small broken ships withstand my attack? Sir, just look at the cannons on my ship and you will know. I spent tens of thousands of taels of silver to ask English craftsmen to modify them. If one shot can't sink it, I will fire two shots. No ship can survive the third shot. Look, the small fishing boat that Yin Tai was riding on was sunk by me, and the people were also rescued by me..."
"What?" Qiu Yizhi couldn't quite believe her ears. "Yin Tai was captured by you?"
Li Shengjie nodded with his eyes wide open, "Yes, this kid wanted to die at first, and he hugged an old man's body and dived into the water. What a joke, how could I let him die so easily? At that time, I sent two sailors to knock him unconscious and fish him out, and now he is thrown into the compartment at the bottom of the boat. Maybe he has woken up?"
After listening to him, Qiu Yizi finally understood the general situation: it turned out that after he burned most of Yin Tai's ships in Mingzhou Port, Yin Tai was chased by Li Shengjie all the way to the Yangtze River outside Jinling City, and his entire army was finally wiped out under the sharp attack of Li Shengjie's artillery. Li Shengjie learned that he was fighting with the King of Lingnan in Jinling City, and came to help.
Qiu Yizhi breathed a sigh of relief: "My dear brother, you have really made a great contribution. This Yin Tai is an important criminal ranked among the top in the court, and the old man who died is his father Yin Chengliang, a corrupt official who fled for fear of punishment. If you capture one of these two men and kill one, not only will the court reward you heavily, but I, your foolish brother, will also thank you greatly!"
After hearing this, Li Shengjie blushed and said timidly, "Since you mentioned it, I have something I would like to ask for your help..."
Seeing that he looked a little embarrassed, Qiu Yizi smiled and said, "You have made such a great contribution. If you need me to do anything, just tell me. I might as well make a promise here. No matter what the matter is, I can do it for you!"
Li Shengjie was young after all, and he was delighted on the spot. He asked with a smile: "Brother, your words must be counted!"
After listening to this, Qiu Yizi pursed his lips and nodded solemnly - Li Shengjie's contribution was far more than just capturing Yin Tai and killing Yin Chengliang. He was able to use his fleet to block the entire army of the King of Lingnan south of the Yangtze River, which meant that the scale of this vigorous rebellion of the King of Lingnan was completely limited - with such a contribution, even if he was appointed as the Left General in the court, it was not completely impossible to negotiate.
Qiu Yizi was about to agree when he heard hurried footsteps coming from under the side of the ship. From the sounds, there were at least a thousand people gathered under the ship.
When Qiu Yizi stuck his head out to look again, he saw that it was King of Lingnan Zheng Gui himself, leading more than a thousand soldiers under his command, standing at the Yanziji Wharf, looking up at the boat.
But then the King of Lingnan said loudly, "My dear nephew, the whole city of Nanjing is now under my control. I have also taken over the Jiangnan Road. I have seized a large part of the money and grain supply of the court. The court is now doomed. As the saying goes, 'a man of insight is a hero.' My dear nephew, it is useless for you to hide on this broken ship. Why don't you get off the ship and surrender? Every word I said before counts."
Qiu Yizhi found it a little funny that Lingnan King Zheng Gui was still persuading Li Shengjie to surrender even though his face was covered in dust from the cannonballs fired from Li Shengjie's ship. He said, "Your Majesty, I think you must have made a mistake. I think it would be better for you to lay down your weapons, disband your troops, and surrender immediately. Otherwise, it would be bad to kill these soldiers in vain."
"Hard-mouthed!" Lingnan King Zheng Gui scolded, "It's not a bad thing for young people to be arrogant, but you have to look at the surrounding situation. Look carefully, the three gates of Jinling City have been broken by me, and the defenders in the city are either dead or surrendered. In the Jiangnan Road outside the city, except for Shanyin County, which I don't bother to trouble, the rest of the places are under my control. Among the other roads, Lingnan, Yunnan, Guizhou, and Bashu have all been conquered, and I have occupied half of Huguang. Zheng Xin of Shanxi and Shaanxi can only hide in the north of Qinling Mountains. You are so powerful in martial arts, but you want me to surrender? Did I beat you so hard that you lost your mind?"
Qiu Yizhi sneered and said, "Your Highness, you conquered Jinling City relying on the explosives that Tianzun Sect Leader Wen Honghui gave you. Speaking of your martial arts prowess, I'm afraid it's not just your ability, right?"
"The ancients said: 'A gentleman is not born different, but is good at making use of things.' I have accomplished great things, so naturally I will not be fussy about small details. Wen Honghui is just a small pawn on my chessboard, and I can use him however I want." Zheng Gui said.
"Well, the King of Lingnan is a rare hero in the world, both civil and military!" Qiu Yizhi said confidently, "But speaking of explosives, I also have such weapons, but I don't want to hurt innocent people, so I use them with caution. I wonder if Your Majesty believes it or not?"
Zheng Gui had heard from Wen Honghui that the reason why Zheng Rong, who was still the King of Youyan, was able to conquer countless strong cities in the "Anti-Rebellion Campaign" was not because of the so-called divine power from heaven, but because of the explosives from the Western Regions. Since the emperor had such a powerful weapon for attacking cities, it was not unimaginable that his confidant Qiu Yizhi knew about it. Moreover, when Zheng Miao escaped from the base in the hinterland of Lingnan Road, he had already seen the power of explosives...
But he also knew that things like explosives were very inconvenient to make and store. In just a blink of an eye, even if Qiu Yizi had great skills, he would not have the time to make these things. Even if he had explosives, he would have used them long ago when the battle was so intense and fierce. Why did he wait until now when he was forced into a corner and had no place to stand before using them
Zheng Gui was sure that Qiu Yizi was just bluffing, so he laughed loudly and said, "My dear nephew, please hold your chin when you speak, or you may get your tongue stuck if you talk nonsense!"
Qiu Yizhi had already guessed that the King of Lingnan did not believe it, so he whispered in Li Shengjie's ear: "Brother, did you see the stone tablet on the road?"
At this moment, the smoke and dust raised by the explosion had dissipated and landed on the ground. Li Shengjie looked far away and saw a stone tablet more than half a person's height standing on the bumpy ground. He just couldn't see what was written on it. He asked, "Of course I saw it. What do you mean, brother?"
Qiu Yizi smiled slyly: "Let me ask you, is there any way to accurately hit that stone tablet?"
Li Shengjie answered without thinking: "How difficult is that? This stone tablet is only five or six hundred steps away from here. I guarantee that one shot will smash it to pieces."
Qiu Yizi was happy to hear this, but suddenly he thought of something else and asked again, "The power of this shell cannot be too great, or it can't kill the people under the boat."
Li Shengjie was puzzled and asked, "What's the big deal about these people? They are against my brother, so it's not a pity to die. I'll just beat them to death..."
Qiu Yizhi immediately interrupted and said, "My dear brother, look at the old man in golden armor and red robe below. He is the King of Lingnan himself. Although he rebelled against the court, he is still the emperor's brother, a real royal relative. Whether he lives or dies depends on the emperor. If we blow him to pieces now, it will be difficult to explain to the emperor."
Li Shengjie listened halfway and muttered impatiently: "Just beat him, why are you so particular? Since my brother said so, I will pay attention to it."
As he spoke, Li Shengjie stretched out his hand and called over two sailors on the boat - one of them had red hair and blue eyes, and seemed to be neither Han nor Japanese - and whispered something in their ears.
The two men nodded hurriedly, then quickly ran to a cannon on the deck and began to fiddle with it in an orderly manner.
Qiu Yizi then discovered that the iron cannon was not fixed, but installed on a rotating base. The two gunners carefully visually estimated the position of the stone tablet, carefully rotated the base, and fixed the base with two wooden plugs. They then used a scale to weigh out some powder, which was obviously gunpowder, and stuffed it into the barrel, plugged the cannonball, and lit the fuse. Then they heard a muffled sound, saw a flash of fire from the muzzle, felt a gust of wind in front of them, and the cannonball in the barrel was fired.
However, in the blink of an eye, the street where the stone tablet originally stood was shrouded in smoke and dust after a loud bang. As the smoke and dust dissipated, the upper part of the stone tablet, which was half a person's height and extremely heavy and solid, had been blown into powder, leaving only half of the broken tablet at the root still alive in the ground.