Lord of the House

Between Zhejiang and Fujian, mountains lie across, and Xianxialing Road, which connects Quzhou and Jianzhou by land, is the shortest and straightest. There have been mountain roads since ancient times.

However, Xianxia is in a dangerous situation. From south to north, Liling, Fengling, Daganling, Xiaoganling, Chaling and Yaoling are connected with six mountains. , allowing only one horse to pass. After crossing the Xianxia Ridge, there are waterways on both sides, but the dry source of Jianxi in Jianzhou in Lingnan and the water in Oujiang in Quzhou in Lingbei are also dry and shallow, and only small boats can be navigable. limited ability.

Just such a dangerous road has been the most important pass between Zhejiang and Fujian since ancient times.

Before the war between Zhejiang and Fujian, there were thousands of porters in Quzhou and Jianzhou on both sides of the Xianxia Mountains to carry the work for the business travelers. A piece of cargo weighing 100 catties is carried from Quzhou to Pucheng pier or from Puma to Quzhou's Oujiang pier, and a fee of 20 to 30 coppers is charged.

Thousands of porters take the Xianxia Ridge Road to carry the goods in one year, and it is not even as good as a large sea ship going back and forth.

In the past, the flow of goods between Zhejiang and Fujian was very small, the sea route was difficult and dangerous, and there were pirates blocking the road. Suixianxialing Road could barely meet the needs of business travel between Zhejiang and Fujian between the two counties. However, the luxury family occupies the land of Zhejiang and Fujian, and needs to transport a large amount of rice and grain from Mingzhou and Kuaiji to Jin'an, and transport the iron from Jian'an and Jin'an to Mingzhou and Kuaiji. The exchange of resources between the two places has greatly increased, and the risk is narrow. The dangerous Xianxia Ridge Road is completely unable to meet the needs.

Although the focus of the She family's use of troops has shifted from the sea to the land, and they want to find opportunities for breakthroughs into Jiangxi and southern Huizhou from the west, the main channel connecting northern Fujian and southern Zhejiang is mainly by sea, supplemented by the land route of Xianxialing.

Three sparrow-headed boats with a capacity of 300 stone descended from the pier in Minqing, down the clear Minjiang River after autumn, bypassing the towering Jinanfu City, and entering the Bailongjiang River in the lower reaches of the Minjiang River.

The Minjiang River is divided into two branches, the north and the south, from the Nantai Island on the east side of Jin'anfu City. The south branch is wide and shallow, and the sand is turbid. It is known as the Wulong River; main waterway.

Hu Axiang, the shopkeeper of Chunfutang, stood on the armour of the boat and looked out at Nantai Island, where the grass and trees were green. Most of the boats went to Quanzhou Prefecture, but I didn't see any boats going to Fusang Kagoshima.

Hu Axiang thought in his heart that although the journey to Kagoshima is difficult and dangerous, in Haidong, there are frequent pirates, but it is really profitable. The so-called “seeking wealth and wealth at risk”, if ordinary people have the courage to take ten load and eight load of raw silk on a ship and transport it to Kagoshima for sale, they will not have to worry about food and drink in this life.

Most of Jin'an's sea-going ships are mainly brigs, with a capacity ranging from 300 to 500 shi. The sparrow-headed boats with long and narrow ridges and the loach boats with flat-bottomed and wide-headed heads are the most mature boats along the coast of East Fujian. Sparrowhead boats have a deep draught, but they sail fast and sail fast. Loach boats have a shallow draught and can go directly to the shoal. In the early years, they were very popular with pirates.

In the past, there were only 30 or 50 sparrow-headed ships in the Minjiang Estuary. In the past two years, the demand for seagoing ships to Mingzhou has increased. Now there are as many as one or two hundred seagoing ships going to Mingzhou and Jinan. The seagoing ships going to Quanzhou are mainly sparrow heads with a capacity of three to five hundred stone. Ships are the main ones, but the ships that go to Yizhou, Liuqiu, Fusang Kagoshima, and even the Nanyang Islands have almost all been changed to three-masted ships, but the number is relatively limited.

The storms at sea are dangerous, and the ability of large ships to resist wind and waves is far from that of small ships; Compared with the previous years, the quality of ships going to sea in Jin'an Prefecture has improved by several grades.

There are two warships patrolling in Jiangkou, and the ships are full of battle flags with the wind and the wind. The accompanying guy, Wei Afu, came over and said a little uneasy: "Shopkeeper, I heard that the situation in the north is tight, and Huaidong has officially declared war on this side. , will it be possible that Huaidong's warships will circle to the south as soon as we go out?"

Hu Axiang glanced coldly at his friend Wei Afu. If he hadn't relied on his quick work and said such unlucky words, he would have slapped him in the face long ago. I don't know how Wei Afu knew of the Huaidong Military Division's ban on the sea, Hu Axiang said with a cold snort, "I have 20,000 elite navy soldiers in Mingzhou Prefecture in Jin'an, and Huaidong's navy army is full of plans, adding up to no more than one. Wan, if one or two boats leaked over, you are scared?"

Not to mention Hu Axiang, the vast majority of the generals of the provincial governor's office in Zhejiang and Fujian still remain in the land battle mentality of fighting for the front line. Today, Zhejiang, Fujian and Huaidong form a clear and distinct line of defense between the Daishan Islands and the Shengsi Islands, and the Zhejiang-Fujian Navy Division is behind the Daishan line of defense, from Changguo to Mingzhou Prefecture and the eastern coast of Mingzhou Prefecture. The broad strategic depth of four or five hundred miles, and then to Jin'an Mansion, is still nearly a thousand miles away. Even if the Huaidong Navy will have warships intruding deeply, it must be on a small scale.

As one of the eight surnames in East Fujian, the Hu clan has been living in Fujian for more than two hundred years. There are as many as seven or eight thousand Hu clans living together in the Qing Dynasty, and they are the largest clan after the She and the Song Dynasty.

The army of Zhejiang and Fujian occupied the south of Zhejiang and cut off the way of Jiangxi porcelain to enter Zhejiang. The porcelain produced by the Hu family became in demand in southern Zhejiang. There were as many as eight sparrow-headed ships dedicated to transporting porcelain northward. For such a bulk cargo exchange, it is necessary to take the sea route and Xianxia Ridge Road, and it is not a big deal to be able to transport 11 a year.

This time, Hu Axiang led the three sparrow-headed ships to the north, all of which were made of porcelain. After being warned by the Grand Governor's Office, there were more than a hundred military guards accompanying the three ships to **** the ships, which was enough to resist general harassment. However, according to the requirements of the Grand Governor's Office, it is recommended that ships going out to sea form a fleet, and the navy will even send warships to **** them according to the situation.

Hu Axiang felt that the Governor's Office was superfluous. It was two thousand miles away from Huaidong to Jin'an. The Huaidong Administration took mad drugs and sent a boat around Jin'an to rob. , will let them escape safely?

The ship sailed to the Xia Island of Nantai Island. The Zhejiang and Fujian Navy had a pier here. According to the rules, they would dock at the port, or accept inspections, or wait for other merchant ships to come and form a formation. The order of the governor's office ordered the ship to be pulled over.

At this moment, there are several tall masts protruding from the sea level, and several sea ships are coming towards the mouth of the Bailong River. It is also common for ships to come and go in the estuary, but Hu Axiang didn't care. On the contrary, the two military ships, which were more closely guarded by Jiangkou, suddenly adjusted their direction, and the passing ships sailed away, perhaps to check the identity of the incoming ships. After a while, the incoming boat approached the estuary by the surging tide, and Hu Axiang saw that the five boats that came over were all sea loach boats, full of battle flags and fluttering in the wind.

Before these five ships suddenly attacked the patrol ship, Hu Axiang thought it was a warship from the Zhejiang-Fujian water camp, and probably the two patrol ships thought so too, so they approached the inspection unsuspectingly!

The battle at the mouth of the Bailong River broke out suddenly, and the two patrol boats were unsuspecting. Almost in the blink of an eye, they were covered by the pouring arrows and the special burning cans filled with kerosene. The target of the five enemy ships that launched the raid was obviously not only the two cruise ships in Jiangkou, but the two cruise ships that had been hit and caused a fire, took advantage of the surging tide to go down to Nantai Island. Island Pier is coming!

"It's the enemy ship, it's the enemy ship coming in!" Most of the guys on the Quetou ship had never seen anything before, and they shouted in panic when they saw five enemy ships rushing aggressively.

Hu Axiang couldn't wait to slap Wei Afu, who was crow's mouth, what he really said, he was also horrified, and he didn't know why five loach boats could bypass the outer cordon and infiltrate. The merchant ships were all panicking and trying to escape.

There were only more than a hundred garrison soldiers on the pier, and they were all stray soldiers. Feng Yan was on fire in time at this time, but it would take a while for the water camp warships from Shangdao Water Village to arrive.

First of all, Hu Axiang must protect the goods on the ship, but he dare not rely on the hundreds of military guards on the ship to show his strength, shout loudly, and let the boatmen turn around and flee upstream!

The guards on the boat all took out bows, crossbows, knives and spears, and a dozen leaders, with the help of others, put on their armors with all their hands and feet. If the merchant ships could not escape and the reinforcements could not arrive in time, they would have to hold back the military guards for a while.

Hu Axiang was lucky. He just hadn't left the big anchor to moor, and the big sail had only been lowered halfway, and the boatmen and sailors were all in their respective seats. After the initial panic, the three sparrowheads quickly turned around and headed upstream.

Most of the merchant ships stationed on the lower island were not so lucky. As soon as they pulled up the big anchor from the water, they killed five enemy ships nearby. Although the merchant ships were somewhat guarded, when the enemy ships approached, they had no intention of hijacking the ship.

The kerosene tank was smashed on the deck, and the fire immediately spread with the splashing kerosene~www.wuxiamtl.com~ bows and arrows overlapped. The sails and masts on the ship were easy to ignite, and the guards on board lacked bows and crossbows. Confrontation is suppressed and unable to put out the fire.

Merchant ships are incomparable to warships, with thin decks, not covered with cooked cowhide, poor fire resistance, and no protective walls on the broadsides, making it difficult to withstand the shot of bows and crossbows. I don't know what kind of kerosene was in the clay pot thrown by the enemy ship. The oil soaked into the cabin, and the fire could not be saved...

Seeing the dozens of merchant ships at the Xiadao Wharf plunged into the sea of ​​flames in a very short period of time, Hu Axiang was horrified: These five loach ships were war ships disguised to attack by Huaidong, and they should be replaced by ordinary pirate ships. It is mainly looting, how could it be possible to directly set fire to the ship?

The speed of the warships in Shangdao Shuizhai was not slow. At this time, five or six fast-paddle boats came first. The Bailong River in the north of Nantai Island is only 60 to 700 feet wide. The water surface is narrow, and the sharp oars are not good for sailboats. The five enemy ships that were attacking saw that the warships were dispatched here, so they gave up the opportunity to land and attack the dock of Xiadao. Just turn around and flee to the sea!

Hu Axiang looked at the dozens of merchant ships that were burning on the left and right of the Xiadao Wharf. A cold sweat broke out on his back, and he secretly said that it was dangerous: If he had come a moment earlier, he would probably have to lower the sails and be unable to escape.

Most of the merchant ships in Jin'an Prefecture that can go out to sea for profit are closely related to the Baxing Dazu, or are directly ships under the name of the Baxing Dazu. Seeing that so many ships were set on fire, many sailors and guards were forced to jump into the water to escape, and Hu Axiang couldn't help but see death. Seeing that the water camp warships were dispatched to drive away the enemy ships, more than ten more ships went to sea to chase , he ordered his subordinates to turn around and go to the Xiadao Pier to help people put out the fire. My QT room is open! More vulgar official QT room number [9167] Click to enter