In short, it has been almost three months since Admiral Anne from the Li family of the Ming Dynasty and voyage to the West.

At that time, she took away a fleet of five battleships, including the flagship "Xiang Feihu" super battleship, but left behind a bearded East China Sea Admiral plus fifteen ships of the same size and a whole Tamsui Fortress city with complete shipbuilding and cannon-making firearms.

So, a bearded man started to operate in the Daming Sea.

During this period, there were certainly a lot of good news coming from Nanyang, such as: Admiral Anne defeated the Portuguese, subdued the Dutch, recovered the entire Nanyang from the hands of those Westerners, and seized nearly 100 merchant ships and warships of all sizes and countless rare treasures and other legendary deeds?

Although no one knew how their great admiral did that feat with just five warships, the bearded men and the others already knew that the news was true and had been verified.

Because, until now, a steady stream of merchant ships are transporting a large number of spicy ingredients, medicinal materials, gold, silver, sugar glue, pearl coral and other valuable and intimidating goods from Nanyang to Daming, making the Li family, which was originally a little struggling due to expansion, richer.

However, due to the wars in the Ming Dynasty and the incompatibility of government orders in various places, the Li family's goods can basically be sold in the coastal areas such as Hangzhou, Quanzhou, and Silla and Japan in the Li family's controlled areas. However, the northern part of the Ming Dynasty was in chaos, and there was basically no room for the sale of Nanyang goods.

After all, compared to those luxury goods and condiments, the north is currently in a war and turbulent state, what is needed is rice, wheat or all other staple foods that can be eaten, rather than those spicy ingredients or luxury goods that can only be seen and not eaten!

Moreover, although the north needs food very much, there is no trading environment in the face of war. Therefore, in addition to mainly conducting trade with Japan, the Li family caravans are more likely to transport refugees and move the Ming people who are unattended to starve to the Xiaoliuqiu island and their Tamsui fortress city to open up the land.

During the more than three months when Annie was away, the huge port fortress city had already lived in nearly 50,000 Ming people, as well as the Ming Dynasty Princess Changping Zhu Mai and her followers.

Three months ago, when the old eunuch who was frightened by the riots followed the Li family's bearded admiral Donghai, a warship with a strong ship and a cannon, came to Tamsui, and saw the fortress city that was even more burly than the capital of the Ming Dynasty. After seeing the strong soldiers, terrifying cannons and more warships, they said they were unwilling to leave this safe place again.

Moreover, in order to repay them, they also appointed Dawang as the Ming Dynasty's naval admiral and the East China Sea admiral in the name of Princess of the Ming Dynasty. Then, they stayed in the palace-like governor's mansion in the city and refused to leave.

But for the poor Princess of the Ming Dynasty, the Li family's Donghai Admiral, the bearded man did not make things difficult for the other party.

After all, for the Li family, which is now a big family and has countless money and food, supporting an old eunuch, a Ming princess and the few palace maids he brought with him is not a big deal. After he persuaded him once, he found that the other party refused to return to Hangzhou easily, he had to let it go, and just ordered the officers stationed in the fortress to try their best to meet the other party's requirements and send people to strictly ensure his safety.

Until now, the Li family has grown and grown!

The Li Family Chamber of Commerce controls countless ships and strong soldiers, strong ships and cannons, a port fortress city as a logistics base, and even "controls" the only surviving legal and authentic princess of the Ming Dynasty royal family. At the same time, it firmly controls the coasts of Quanzhou and Hangzhou and radiates its influence to the inland provinces, making the merchants and bureaucrats who have been secretly involved in smuggling and maritime trade jealous and hateful, but they are helpless.

However, although the Li family is very strong now, there are still some obstacles.

For example, today, Li Dahuzi, who had just finished handling some defense in Hangzhou, had not had time to go for lunch when a guy who claimed to be the Yangzhou Metropolitan Master came to the door.

The bearded man didn't know the other party, but the other party pointed out that he was going to see him. As a last resort, he had to meet him in his admiral's mansion that was leaning against Jiang.

“Hmm?”

"Admiral Li, why don't he respect me when he sees me?"

The Yangzhou governor Shi Kefa took his men to the hall of the Admiral's Mansion. He first glanced at the strong sailors guarding around him, then turned to look at the ten very huge warships in the Qiantang River outside the window. Finally, he still lowered his face and said in a bad tone, as if he was going to give the Bearded Man a warning?

"salute?"

"strangeness……"

"I am the Li family's Admiral of the East China Sea and the Admiral of the Ming Dynasty. Why do you salute you?"

The bearded man was a little confused, so that he had put away his hands that he wanted to invite the other party to sit, and then looked up and down at the uninvited guy in front of him with a puzzled look on his face.

"you!"

"presumptuous!"

"I am the commander of the army, the Grand Secretary of Jianji Palace, the Minister of War, and the governor of the military affairs of Jiangsu and Zhejiang by the emperor's order. He is the second rank. Why is the navy admiral who has no rank and is in charge of the commander-in-chief of the head of the capital so ruthless to me?"

Shi Kefa was a little angry and directly blew his beard and stared at the bearded man with disdain.

You should know that the Ming Dynasty did not have the official name of the Navy. The so-called Admiral of the Ming Dynasty's Navy or the Admiral of the East China Sea were not serious at all. Shi Kefa did not know it. Before that, the boats and ships of the Ming Dynasty were just managed by the Shibodiju.

Just like his Yangzhou, the person in charge of boat sailors was just a small promotion from the fifth rank. The so-called Ming Navy Admiral and East China Sea Admiral in front of him was probably the highest rank of about the third rank. Now, when the other party saw him, the Minister of War, how dare he be so rude?

"this……"

"Shidushi, you are the Minister of War appointed by the Emperor of Southern Zhili. I am the Admiral of the East China Sea appointed by the Master Daming Princess of Northern Zhili. We are not subordinate to each other, why should I salute you?"

Shaking his head, seeing the old man in his forties who was in his forties with a beard in front of him, the bearded man sighed, and then he didn't intend to continue to quarrel with the other party about this issue. Instead, he directly signaled the other party to take his seat and walked back to his own master seat first.

“Bold!”

"You dare to say such a ruthless thing, do you... do you want to rebel?!"

Hearing the bearded man's words, Shi Kefa couldn't help but take a breath, and then his refuting tone became even more severe.

"rebel?"

"No!"

"You are the ones who want to rebel?"

"The descendants of Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty are still there, but you support King Fu as the emperor. I want to ask, what are you trying to do?"

Shaking his head, the bearded man ignored the other person, but just looked at the other person with a smile and asked in a bad tone.

He was also a little confused, and he didn't know what confidence the other party had. How could he want to use the tone and attitude of Shangguan to the lower-ranking officials to speak to him, the East China Sea Admiral who held heavy troops as soon as he came to the door?

"It's ridiculous!"

"She is just the princess of the late emperor of the Ming Dynasty, not the prince!"

"Will we not support King Fu, can we support her, Zhu Mei, and let her do the hen, and the hen, and the hen, do the Chenchen?"

Shi Kefa angrily laughed and scolded him with a angrily smile, like an angry tiger, staring at the bearded man who was still very rude and dared to ignore him, so he took the lead in sitting back on the chair.

If it weren't for Hangzhou, not his Yangzhou, and if it had been controlled by thousands of soldiers under the other party, and if there were any giant ships in the Qiantang River, he might have ordered the arrogant man who had no king, father, no respect for elders in front of him to be imprisoned and questioned.

"Why not?"

"Didn't the Tang Dynasty even have Wu Zetian?"

The history of the bearded man was not good, and he had not read many books, but he only knew that the female emperor had not published it. Therefore, looking at the old man in front of him who wanted to be domineering to him as soon as he met, he also had some idea in his heart.

"you!!"

"Forget it!"

"I won't tell you those!"

"This time I came here just to ask you, what do you mean by gathering heavy troops in Hangzhou, dispatching boats, hoarding arms, weapons and food?!"

Yes, Shi Kefa took the risk to Hangzhou in person this time, just to ask what the Ming Navy Admiral, who had a princess in his hand and seemed to want to do the ridiculous thing of "carrying the princess to command the princes"!

At the beginning, he actually wanted to slowly test and ask about the truth, but since the two sides are having a breakup now, he can't take care of that much for the time being.

You should know that Hangzhou is not too far from Yangzhou and the Jingji area of ​​Nanzhili, and it also has waterways and canals. The bearded man in front of him controls heavy troops and giant ships and cannons, and is also ready to fight here. At the same time, he has been ignoring the orders of the new emperor supported by Nanzhili. How can they be at ease and how can they not come to ask about the situation?

If the other party suddenly sends troops north and uses force against Nanzhili and Yangzhou, I am afraid that the fragile defense lines they have been hastily arranged during this period to fight against the thieves and Jiannu going south will collapse immediately!

"ah!"

"So you are here to ask about this?"

After a slight moment, the bearded man finally understood why the guy in front of him who had no friendship suddenly came to visit, and when he came, he would whisper at him, and even speak ill of him. It turned out that this was the case.

"Please rest assured!"

"Shi Governor, I'm not trying to deal with you. I'm going north to Zhili to find trouble for those traitors and Jiannu!"

As he was talking, the bearded man suddenly started to laugh.

That's right, he planned to use ten battleships and some armed merchant ships to serve as troop transport ships and go north to Tianjin and Shanhaiguan to see if he could block Shanhaiguan and attack near the capital, and then recover the capital.

"you……"

"You want to recover Beizhili?"

"That……."

"How many soldiers do you have?"

Unexpectedly, the bearded man really wanted to recover the capital, and Shi Kefa was stunned in an instant. So, he opened his mouth first and hesitated for a long time, and finally asked with a gloomy face.

"If it's not counted as logistics assistants and sailors..."

"About 15,000 soldiers, are there about 10,000 soldiers?"

"And they are all musketeers!"

The bearded man thought about it and finally said the number he thought was more accurate.

Anyway, he could only dispatch about 15,000 musketeers at most, and there were no more. At most, he could only transport hundreds of newly cast cannons from Tamsui's artillery workshop and then recruit some assisted artillery soldiers.

At that time, he was going to divide the fleet into two teams, with more than 5,000 people in a team of more than 5,000 people taking five battleships to attack Shanhaiguan, landing from Lao Longtou, and see if he could win the world's first level.

The other 10,000 people landed from Tianjin and then headed straight to the capital by land!

In fact, the bearded man himself didn't know whether he could beat him or not, but anyway, no one could beat him. If he could beat him, he would continue to fight. If he just retreated to the sea, there would be no loss on both sides.

In short, his main purpose was to not let those Jiannu who violated the pass and invaded the pass and knew that the reason why the savages outside the pass could break through the capital was just luck, and the loyal souls of the Ming Dynasty had never been afraid of them!

"laugh!"

"What's the use of just 15,000 combat soldiers, and all with muskets?"

"Listen to my advice..."

"Admiral Li, although you are so brave, the Northern Expedition is not the time to go to the north, and Jiannu is very energetic. I advise you not to seek death at this time!"

Shi Kefa couldn't believe that the bearded man in front of him had gathered more than 10,000 people and wanted to counterattack Jiannu, and also attacked the Jingji area directly, which made him not know what to say.

"ha!"

"That's not an ordinary musket, it's a rifled flintlock Minnie rifle!"
To be continued...