A few days later, Zhou Huaian was already standing on the glyphed bow of a sea ship, looking at the endless sea level and the looming horizon in the distance, which was the dividing line between Hainan Island and Leizhou Peninsula.
Today’s Sanjiang Patrol/Storm Camp, with the improvement of economic conditions and steady increase in output as one of the Canton Company, has actually expanded to the tenth battalion of soldiers; there are almost six to eight households raising one soldier. proportion. Therefore, it is quite possible to mobilize the five battalions that are relatively full and complete to do the rescue of Annan by crossing the sea.
In fact, during this period of time, Zhou Huai'an took advantage of his authority and the name of the left-behind division. The barbarians located in the Pearl River Basin and the Chaoshan Plain have been suppressed by the rebel forces who took turns to train the army. There are dozens of remote and dangerous stockades and settlements that have been destroyed by burning or forced to relocate to specific management areas, contributing at least 20,000 to 30,000 cheap labor.
In addition, there are probably more powerful and smaller mountain villages with limited influence or a mixture of Yi and Han, taking pictures of the general trend to show obedience and compliance to the rebels; and some young and strong men and women were sent out in proportion. , To work in the factories, mines, and farms below the mountain, temporarily as paid labor in exchange for salt, iron and other civilians; it can also be regarded as controlling the lifeline of daily life in the simple economic system of the rebel army.
Therefore, in the northern part of Fujian, he has no time to take care of, as long as he guards the Shaoguan Pass and the narrow road in Jiangxi. With the remaining five battalions of dissatisfaction, plus more than 20 regiments of lightly-equipped garrisons, they can be completely controlled. Live the basic situation. Moreover, even the ships used as carrying forces are readily available, originally for the purpose of training the navy's reserve, and there is an exclusive inshore shipping team.
Nevertheless, it took Zhou Huai'an several days to get the trip to go to sea and get limited help from the left-behind department.
Only not long after going out to sea, Zhou Huaian regretted it a little; after all, compared to the smooth, comfortable and well-equipped cross-sea cruise ships of later generations, the cabins of most sea-going ships of this era are still typical representatives of dark and wet water leaks everywhere; let alone Because of the limited buoyancy capacity of the hull, the obvious swaying and shaking was caused; even on the seemingly calm sea.
Therefore, the volunteer soldiers on the dozens of sea-going ships all suffered from seasickness to varying degrees. There are also some people who have symptoms of vomiting and diarrhea due to the unbalanced diet. At this time, we collected various pills and ointments (Wanjin Oil, Xingjun Powder, Wounds Baiyao, etc.) prepared by Guangzhou City. Emergency medicine can come in handy.
In addition, Zhou Huai'an's senior bow of the "Old Crab" on the boat also presented him with an earthwork that could relieve the symptoms of sailing. It is the translucent juice squeezed out of the body of a live fish, and it is drunk with ginger slices; although the smell is so fishy that it makes the mouth nauseous, many people persist or are forced to drink and vomit and vomit. After drinking it a few times, the nausea and dizziness that had been difficult on the boat really disappeared naturally.
Then I eat some porridge, water and pastry, and my appetite is easy to recover slowly.
In this relatively monotonous and dry voyage at sea, the only pleasure on board is fishing on the gunwale, or practicing shooting with seabirds hovering above the stern vortex, or being there non-stop. On the swaying deck, I did that corner fight and fight, and I did some chronic adaptation training.
Fortunately, from Guangzhou to Annan, it is a fairly mature route that has been navigable since the Qin and Han dynasties. It also has the mainland border close to the shore as a reference. There are also some high towers built by civilians that can pass through the top at night. The faint lights provide direction guidance; therefore, in most cases throughout the year, this route can only travel once in two or three days.
Despite this, when passing by Luzhou, the easternmost tip of Annan (near Dongxing City, Vietnam), there was still a heavy rain and turmoil; that kind of manpower is far from the power of heaven and earth, but it has no roots. Piaoping's emptiness and powerlessness are simply desperate.
Therefore, Zhou Huai'an and his men immediately understood why these people on the sea would enshrine the Mazu and Dragon King of Middle-earth, the sea kings and water gods of the Outland, various beliefs in the shrine specially set up at the stern of the ship. Object.
Then, after the wind stopped and the rain subsided suddenly, many towering high above the sea, the big ones were like strange peaks and the small ones were pierced with swords and knives. The large and small islands on which the green forests were all began to appear in Zhou Huaian The fleet is in front of him; according to his experience and insights in later generations, this place should be near Halong Bay, which is called "Guilin on the Sea". It took some effort to return to the other big ships on the Hengchang route.
However, Halong Bay in this era is obviously less touristic than later generations. The hustle and bustle of yachts and boats has a lot of originality. Of course, here is also a variety of sea bandits, smugglers and fishermen. Households, where they are hiding.
Therefore, when daily business travelers are sailing, they will always encounter some unexplained prying and trailing people; even Zhou Huaian is in the small fleet of ships; there is no exception; he can even use human eyesight sometimes. , I saw a faint trail of smoke rising inexplicably on an island somewhere. However, Zhou Huaian could not help but think of some deeds about the pirates of the Tang Dynasty he heard about the pirates of the Tang Dynasty while he was appreciating the original scenery along the way.
One of the most famous is the great pirate in the Kaiyuan period, Feng Ruofang, a strange man called "Feng Laolong". He was also the chief of Wanzhou of Hainan Island under the imperial court, and the largest slave owner in the area and a nearby pirate leader. He even supported the famous monk Jianzhen, a famous monk who drifted to Yazhou due to a shipwreck, and funded his sixth successful eastward journey to Japan to spread the Dharma.
Therefore, in the "Tang Da and Shangdong Zheng Zhuan" by the real Japanese in the Tang Dynasty, it said: "Ruofang often robbed Persian ships (referring to the ancient ships from Persia and now Iran to the East) two or three ships every year, and took things for himself. Cargo, looting people are slaves." That means this servant specializes in looting foreign husbands, and has nothing to do with Dongtu's Tang boat.
"His slaves and maidservants live in the north and south for three days, east and west for five days, the villages are the same, and they are always Ruofang's slaves and maids." More than a hundred kilograms. Behind his house, Ruofang wood is piled up like a mountain, and the rest of his belongings are also called this Yan." This shows the luxury of his wealthy jade.
In addition, later there was Chen Wuzhen, a rich man and a pirate from Zhenzhou (ruled in Yacheng Town, Sanya City) in the reign of Tang Wenzong (827-840). History called him "a wealthy family and a great man in the sea, hundreds of rhinoceros, elephants, and tortoiseshell warehouses." Even the highest military and political officer of Hainan Island-Qiong, Ya, Dan, and Wan'an five states recruited Wei Gonggan as brothers. It.
Their wealth was looted from merchant ships in the Western Regions (referring to the central and western parts of Asia, the Indian peninsula, eastern Europe, and northern Africa) in Zhenzhou in the wind on the sea. However, after that, with the decline of the Tang Dynasty, it seems that there is no more pirate power that is known to the world.
On the contrary, there are pirates from Southern Tianzhu, Piao Kingdom, Shuilu Zhenla, Shili Buddha, Heling, Poqi, Zhunian, Linyi and other pirates. There are sporadic self-talking words that are occasionally heard in the world through the victims. . However, each of these forces had their own spheres of activity, and there were not many opportunities to travel to the coast of Annan, which belonged to the Tang Dynasty’s sphere of influence.
However, in a certain sense, "Speaking of Cao Cao, Cao Cao to" the crow's mouth-like thoughts became common, just after sailing past Annan’s iconic coastal reference point—General Fubo in the Eastern Han Dynasty Ma Yuanping Ding Jiaozhi , The established battalion piled over the Junshan cliff of "Jingguan"; the ship in front soon sent a semaphore and a flash of lens to find something unusual.
Then after sailing past the next big headland on the tortuous coastline, Zhou Huaian also saw the faint smoke trails rising in the distance, as well as the thin black spots that faintly appeared on the sea like a swimming fish. According to him, he doubled his vision to the extreme.
It was a Kunlun ship that was under siege, and at least a dozen smaller ships were attached to it. Ant-like people gathered in it with shirtless and short hips, and attacked and killed endlessly with swords, axes, bows and arrows. Well, this way of fighting with the side jump to the gang is obviously the norm and mainstream in naval battles in this era.
Before Zhou Huai'an could react, there were several similar strip-shaped clippers on the side of the headland, all sailing and paddling and rushing towards the foremost ship; there were still several bells and whistles swayed desperately above There are also people holding knives and blades that stand tall on the sides and masts of the ship, making various waving gestures.
"What does this mean..."
Zhou Huaian asked some questions knowingly.
"Could it be that you are intimidating and expelling me."
"As Shangguan said, there are quite a few arrogant and arrogant people in this generation..."
He was nicknamed "Old Crab," but some crease-faced black bow said.
"Or some kind of bluffing posture, I don't know yet..."
According to the explanation of the old bow of the ship, this kind of gesture of intimidation and intimidation is to make the passing ships not to be too involved in the fighting, otherwise it is an endless attitude.
If it is a passing sea-going ship, perhaps it will retreat when it is difficult to be troublesome; but at the same time as Zhou Huaian’s team, there is no reason to retreat easily when confronted with threats. That would hurt morale and start. Omen
"Hang the flag to order that the ships belong to the centaur and the horses, and they will be equipped to fight against the enemy..."
Immediately he gave an order to Mi Bao, the guard Yuhou and flag officer beside him.
"The ships of the rear team stepped up to keep up, and the ships went out to start the sea first.."
"The ships of the Chinese army followed me to the back of the open sea... We are about to make a good start."
But Qu Chengyu, who was on standby, flashed a complex expression on his face but hesitant to speak. (End of this chapter)