Chapter 2009

Gong Shiqi's actions were much faster than those of the local salt merchants. Before Lu Kangtai and others could reach an agreement, the two salt ships had already left the dock and headed south along the canal. This team was assigned a special task.

For the action team, the most dangerous part of the return journey is the dozens of miles from the Yangzhou section of the canal to the Yangtze River. Once they are intercepted in this narrow river, the possibility of their escape from the waterway is very small.

The other originally planned route to retreat to the coast via land was too far away from their location, there were several prisoners on hand, and the route of action was completely in an unfamiliar area. There were too many uncertain and dangerous factors, so Gong Shiqi decided to

In the end, they decisively gave up this alternative retreat route and chose to return via the waterway. As long as they could successfully enter the Yangtze River, it would be difficult for the two ships to be intercepted by the pursuing troops at the speed of these two ships.

When Lu Kangtai rushed to the canal with the people gathered by Shanxi salt merchants, he found that the two cargo ships had disappeared. According to people staying nearby, the two ships had already sailed to the south, and it seemed that they were planning to

He fled Yangzhou overnight.

If the other party really "escaped", Lu Kangtai might feel a little better, but he soon noticed that all the dead and wounded on his side who could not escape from the battlefield and the weapons they used were missing. It was obvious that they were all taken away by the other party.

.

The other party took all these people away, dead or alive, which shows that they were relatively calm when evacuating. Moreover, it was not just a matter of beating this time. The purpose of taking people away must be to collect evidence and come back for liquidation in the future. This made Lu Kangtai more and more worried.

, the trouble that will follow from this incident will be beyond their ability to cope with.

At this time, several ships that were deployed to intercept the opponent arrived at the dock. Lu Kangtai gritted his teeth and ordered to board the ship and chase south. This time, he did not intend to sit in the rear again. Anyway, the opponent would know soon after they captured the prisoner.

He is the commander behind the scenes and hides his whereabouts

It doesn't make much sense. It's better to attack in person. This can at least give immediate command to the men gathered from various families. Otherwise, let these people chase south on their own. Even if they catch up, they will still be scattered and it will be difficult to form a formation.

Fighting ability intercepts the opponent.

Although it was the middle of the night, various salt merchants still mobilized a total of sixteen large and small sailboats to rush to this dock in a short period of time. Probably only these local salt merchants with good hands and eyes could achieve such efficiency.

Coupled with the hundreds of young men who had gathered on the dock, the pursuit force was not weak, and Lu Kangtai finally regained a little confidence.

Of course, considering that the opponent may be equipped with a large number of muskets, if they really want to fight head-on, these hundreds of people are still not enough. This made Lu Kangtai couldn't help but think of his destroyed muskete team. He was in this

The armed forces invested too much effort and financial resources, but now they were wiped out overnight. While he felt distressed, he also understood that the gap in strength between the two sides was too big, and it was difficult to truly complete the task with just the temporarily assembled manpower.

Effective interception.

Therefore, Lu Kangtai's hope is to catch up with the opponent before they enter the Yangtze River and use these boats to block the canal. Then the next thing he can only hope for is that He Huan can quickly move in the army, so that he can really defeat the opponent.

Cut off in Yangzhou.

Although the pursuers led by Lu Kangtai set off a little late, their advantage was that they were very familiar with the water conditions of the canal, and their speed at night was much faster than the target they were chasing. The forty-mile canal waterway from the dock to the Yangtze River,

If he can move forward at full speed, there is still hope that he can catch up with his opponent. As for whether he can suppress his opponent after catching up, Lu Kangtai really doesn't have even the slightest confidence now, so he can only take one step at a time and wait and see.

The Yangzhou section of the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal is relatively narrow, so ships traveling here, especially cargo ships with larger hulls, generally do not rush at night to avoid collisions with other ships on the river. This is a good thing for Gong Shi, who evacuated Yangzhou.

The seventh class of people provided a lot of convenience. When they passed through this section of the canal two days ago, they often had to stop and queue up in the narrow section of the canal. But now they were free of these troubles. Although it was nighttime, they were traveling at a faster speed.

Much faster than when we arrived.

"At our current speed, we should be able to reach Guazhou before dawn." Ji Yuanqing determined his traveling speed through the Wenfeng Tower on the shore, which made him feel a little more relaxed. As long as he passed Guazhou, it meant escaping.

Soon, even if the local salt merchants came after them, it would be difficult to stop the two ships on the wide Yangtze River.

Gong Shiqi, who was next to him, responded: "I hope they won't cause trouble. I don't want to stop and fight again."

Of course, what Gong Shiqi feared was not fighting against the salt merchants' armed forces, but being dragged down by the other side and unable to escape. If he couldn't get away, even if his force was much stronger than the other side, he might still be killed alive.

They are very clear about their mission, which is to bring as much evidence as possible back to Zhoushan, rather than to kill in Yangzhou. Therefore, even though the armed forces commanded by Gong Shiqi have considerable combat effectiveness, they cannot deal with ordinary people.

The civilian armed forces are more than sufficient, but he is still not willing to fight at all, but his first priority is to lead the team to escape as soon as possible.

But the local salt merchants were not so slow as to wait until dawn before taking countermeasures. Shortly after they drove past Wenfeng Tower, a red flare suddenly shot into the air and exploded in the direction of Yangzhou City. They could also see it from several miles away.

It's clear as day. This is the signal sent by the hidden stakes near the dock after confirming that the other party's organization is pursuing them.

"You really dare to chase!" Gong Shiqi couldn't help but sigh as he watched the fireworks slowly burning out in mid-air.

"They are probably not willing to give in! After all, the Musketeers team that they worked so hard to build was just eaten by us!" Ji Yuanqing's tone revealed a bit of pride. According to the information they had in advance,

The size of the musketry team dispatched by the opponent today even exceeded the previous operations. They have reason to believe that this is basically a situation where all the musketeers are dispatched. And after this battle, even if a few people escape by chance, it will be difficult for this musketeer team to return.

The organization and combat effectiveness will be restored in a short period of time.

"Give me the order to unload all the salt on the two ships into the river as much as possible, reduce the weight and speed up!" Gong Qiqi now has no particularly good means, so he can only reduce the cargo capacity as much as possible in exchange for faster transportation.

speed.

As a result, while the two ships were moving, there was a constant sound of heavy objects falling into the water on both sides of the ship. A bag of about fifty kilograms of refined salt became waste and was pushed into the river by the crew. Even if it cost a lot of money to do so,

It was huge and did not necessarily have an immediate effect, so they kept carrying the salt onto the deck and throwing it into the river from the side of the ship.

This approach is naturally very uncommon, and probably only the wealthy Haihan can do it. However, in Gong Shiqi's view, this is just a trivial matter. The Ministry of Security never thinks too much about funding issues. As long as the purpose can be achieved, the budget will allow it.

There is no problem in taking any measures within the scope. As for the salt on the ship, in Gong Shiqi's eyes, it is no different from other tools. It can be used for fortifications when needed. Naturally, it can also be thrown into the canal to reduce the weight of the ship.

However, the two cargo ships have larger hulls after all, and the Yangzhou section of the Grand Canal is known for its many bends. A large ship must slow down when passing corners to ensure an accurate course. It is difficult to go faster at this speed. When it is halfway through the voyage

By the time we got there, we could already see the dotted lights on the boats that were chasing us.

Most of the ships temporarily mobilized by local salt merchants are light speedboats with smaller hulls. Their speed may not be much faster than the two ships of Gong Shiqi, but the boats are small and easy to turn around, so they are much more flexible when sailing in this canal.

, so we can quickly close the distance between the two parties.

If we continue to escape and chase at the current speed, the two ships Hai and Han will definitely be overtaken by the ships behind them before they arrive at Guazhou. This is not difficult to calculate.

"Looks like it's not that easy to leave Yangzhou!" Gong Qiqi put down the telescope and was not too optimistic about the current situation.

"When necessary, our boat will increase its speed and drag them along." Ji Yuanqing also realized that the current situation might not allow him to escape smoothly, so he reminded Gong Qiqi to consider alternative plans.

When they left, they had already made a simple division of labor between the two ships. The front ship carried all the prisoners and captured weapons, while the two of them and the main combat force were on the latter ship. If the pursuers from behind caught up,

The ship they were on had to take on the task of covering the rear, so that the ship in front could escape pursuit as quickly as possible.

This arrangement is naturally to ensure that the evidence that was finally obtained can be returned to Zhoushan smoothly. As for whether they can evacuate safely, that is secondary. After all, completing the task is the first priority. Where is the duty, even if there is another

Big risks must also be taken.

Lu Kangtai was on one of the ships coming from behind. He had also seen the silhouette of the ship ahead, and immediately ordered a full-speed pursuit to catch up with the ship in front as soon as possible.

Although his musketry team is gone, his long-range firepower output capability will be greatly reduced, but on this narrow river with a width of only thirty or forty feet, as long as the boat is close to the opponent, there are still many offensive methods available. The ones summoned tonight

Many of them were veterans who had been running on rivers for many years, and also had a lot of experience in fighting on the water. Now they all started to prepare tools.

All kinds of ropes, iron chains, long-handled grappling hooks, incendiary bombs filled with kerosene, pumps, long bows and short crossbows, long guns and short knives, as well as a temporary weapon made of stock muskets and blunderbuss stored in various houses.

Beggar's version of the Musketeers Team, to be serious, this pursuit team should not be underestimated, but because it was temporarily summoned from various families, it was difficult to maintain a unified pace, so the scene inevitably seemed a bit chaotic.

Lu Kangtai offered a very high reward for this temporary operation. He could get 500 taels of silver for killing one person, and 1,000 taels for capturing someone alive. If he could capture the leader named Gong on the ship, he could get 5,000 taels of silver.

A heavy reward of two taels of silver. As for the tens of thousands of kilograms of salt loaded on the previous ship, the discounted price will be equally divided among all those involved in the operation after the event is completed. On average, there will be at least a dozen or twenty taels of silver guaranteed.

There must be a brave man under a heavy reward, and most of the people present did not know the result of the previous battle. They only knew that Lu Kangtai offered a sky-high price to catch the foreign salt merchant on the boat in front. This was definitely worth them.

Go give it a try. If you are lucky and catch the leader of the opponent with your own hands, then tomorrow you can return to the countryside and buy hundreds of acres of fertile land, and the local owners will enjoy a happy life.

To these people, the first two ships carried not salt, but white money. As for who the other party was and what weapons they had in their hands, no one told them in advance.

Seeing that the boat behind was getting closer and closer, Gong Shiqi finally ordered to slow down the boat and let the boat in front go first. In the eyes of the people behind, no matter what the reason for slowing down the boat in front, this was absolutely

It was an excellent opportunity to attack. No need for Lu Kangtai to issue any further orders, the two ships at the forefront had already caught up with each other, one on the left and the other on the right.

When they were still two or three feet away from the target, the people on the bows of the two clippers threw grappling hooks towards the big ship. In this way, they wanted to connect their own ship with the big ship in front, and then they could get off.

The anchor drags the big ship, allowing the ships behind to catch up and surround the target.

But at the same time, several gun muzzles were protruded from the side of the big ship, aiming at the decks of the two ships diagonally behind. As a burst of gunfire rang out, there was a sudden roar on the deck, and people crowded on the bow of the ship, ready to fight for the lead.

Almost all those who succeeded were spared and fell victim to this wave of close-range firepower. Immediately afterwards, several long knives stretched out from the side of the ship and cut off the ropes and chains attached to the grappling hooks that had been thrown onto the ship.

.

The intensity of the firepower on the big ship far exceeded the imagination of these people. At this time, they seemed to realize why Lu Kangtai offered such a high reward. Compared with the danger they encountered now, this

In fact, the standard of selling one's life for money cannot be said to be that high.

However, the allure of the high bounty made others quickly ignore these casualties. At that moment, some people raised their crossbows and muskets and started shooting at the people on the big ship. However, such a firefight was undoubtedly quite disadvantageous for them.

The people on the big boat not only had the side of the ship as a cover, but also used high ground to attack the low ground. The people on the small boat were basically completely exposed to the opponent's shooting field of view. Coupled with the gap in the performance of the weapons between the two sides, the firefight was actually one-sided.

The active forces on the two small boats were quickly wiped out by the intensive firepower from the larger ship. The survivors at the helm at the stern quickly moved the boat to the shore to make way for the ships behind them.

Lu Kangtai's face was ashen. He had a panoramic view of the previous battle from a distance, and finally understood why his musketeers were easily killed by the opponent. The intensity of the firepower output was far beyond what his own musketeers could compare to, plus the opponent was at the dock.

He had built fortifications and waited for work, so it was natural that he could not defeat the opponent. But this also strengthened his suspicion that the opponent was not a salt merchant at all, but an army pretending to be a salt merchant.
Chapter completed!