General Anton's Mansion is located on Guangwu Street in Liaoyang City. It has blue bricks and white tiles. It does not win by its grandeur, but is layered on top of each other. It looks beautiful and quiet. There are many black beams and pillars in the mansion.

Every beam and column shows the traces of time.

Most people in Liaoyang City know that today's General Anton's Mansion was once the residence of Emperor Wuzong in Liaodong a hundred years ago.

Emperor Wuzong personally conquered the Bohai Sea, and the headquarters was located here. It was from here that one decree after another was issued, and the Bohai Sea was finally conquered.

When Emperor Wu Zong returned to the court, he left a force of troops to garrison in the northeast. He ordered one of his beloved generals to be named General Anton, and even gave his residence as the General's Mansion.

Since then, the palace has been transformed into the General's Mansion, and all the great generals of the past dynasties, Anton, have lived here.

Although the General's Mansion is not grand, and you may even feel that it is too elegant and lacks the majesty when you enter it, no one will deny that for hundreds of years, the owner of this mansion has been the real master of the Northeast.

Every order of the emperor is more useful than the emperor's will.

In early February, although the climate in Liaodong could not be said to be getting warmer, it was not as cold as before.

The winter in Northeast China lasts for a long time, and even in March and April, the weather may not get warmer. The original people in Guan Nei may not be able to adapt to it, but for people who live in the Northeast all year round, the weather in early February is already considered good weather.

The weather is fine and the sun is shining.

When Zhou Lie, commander of the Liaodong Navy, arrived at the General's Mansion, it was already dusk, and the sun was setting in the west. The afterglow of the setting sun shone on the blue bricks and white tiles of the General's Mansion, making it mottled and quiet.

Sitting in the elegant room of the side hall of the General's Mansion, Zhou Lie's body was straight and erect, as if he had an expression on his face. His bronze skin made it obvious at a glance that he had lived by the sea all year round. The clear and powerful outline of his face also made it possible to see

Guess he is not an easy person to get in touch with.

Zhou Lie was over forty years old and was one of the few generals in the Liaodong Army who was good at water affairs. Compared with most Liaodong generals, he had never occupied an inch of land, and he prohibited his naval generals from participating in horse racing and land encirclement.

, and therefore became an anomaly among the Liaodong generals.

If the water is clear, there will be no fish.

Zhou Lie was too incorruptible and had a withdrawn temperament, so he had very few friends in the Liaodong Army. Even the navy generals under his command, many of them were transferred from the navy by various means. After all, the Liaodong Navy had no oil or water.

For most generals, a division is more uncomfortable than a prison.

As a result, the Liaodong Navy became increasingly weak in fighting for its own interests, and it had to spend a lot of effort every year to obtain funding for the maintenance of warships.

Fortunately, Wang Xingchao admired Zhou Lie quite a lot. Although the Liaodong Navy could not bring any useful benefits to the entire Liaodong Army Group and spent a lot of money to maintain it every year, Wang Xingchao still allocated a lot of money every year and would also pay attention to it.

The navy's equipment has been updated, but the existence of this navy has been maintained in name.

But that's all.

Zhou Lie was almost unable to attend the important military meetings within Liaodong. He was stationed at Changsheng Port all year round, making people almost forget that he existed.

And this time the general summoned him urgently, it was something that had not happened in many years.

Zhou Lie was well aware of this summons.

As a naval general, he didn't pay much attention to things on land, but he was extremely sensitive to everything that happened at sea.

The Liaodong Army was stationed at Changsheng Port, and its most important task on weekdays was to maintain order at the seaport. However, the entry and exit of people and goods were all controlled by the Haipo Division under the Cleaning Department of the Ministry of Household Affairs.

Naturally, Zhou Lie would not continue to profit from maintaining the seaport, but he set a rule that all merchant ships entering Changsheng Port must hand over a logbook. In other words, there must be one person on the ship to record the voyage.

What he saw and heard along the way, if he concealed anything, he would certainly be punished, but if he made it up, Zhou Lie would not show mercy after it was found out.

Several ships were once removed from the list by Zhou Lie because their logbooks were found to be false. Those ships could no longer enter the port. Even though many people came to plead for mercy, Zhou Lie remained unmoved.

Zhou Lie also used this method to master intelligence information at sea.

A few days ago, a shocking case occurred at sea.

Three merchant ships loaded with cargo were robbed by a group of pirates in the waters about three days away from Hangzhou Bay. Although there were no casualties, this incident shocked Zhou Lie.

There are two reasons.

First, in the past ten years, the route from Hangzhou Bay to Changsheng Port has been considered very safe. Although there are many rogue bandits in the four northeastern counties, there are almost no traces of Haikou along the coasts of the four counties. A powerful force suddenly appeared on the sea.

The pirates are really shocking.

Secondly, there were three plundered merchant ships, all of which were fully loaded with goods. It is said that the cost of these goods was hundreds of thousands of taels of silver, and the three cargo ships themselves were also worth a lot of silver. Whether they were merchant ships or goods that fell into this sea,

The hands of the pirates will naturally greatly increase the strength of this group of pirates. What's more, Zhou Lie learned from the merchants that these goods must be sent to Fucheng urgently and will be delivered in the near future to those who have already paid the deposit.

For the grassland tribes, if the time limit is up and they are unable to deliver the goods in full, there will inevitably be a lot of trouble.

At noon yesterday, the messenger sent by the general arrived at Changsheng Port and ordered Zhou Lie to rush to Liaoyang City immediately.

Although Zhou Lie has a withdrawn and arrogant temperament, he still has a sense of awe for General Wang Xingchao. After receiving the military order, he immediately set off and traveled non-stop, day and night. He finally arrived at Liaoyang City at 10:00 this evening. After entering the city, he came directly

I went to the General's Mansion to see him and was taken directly to an elegant room in the side hall of the General's Mansion.

Not long after waiting, when he heard the sound of footsteps, Zhou Lie immediately stood up and faced the door. Then he saw the general Wang Xingchao in casual clothes walking in. He took two steps forward and knelt down on one knee: "I'm humble general Zhou Lie, my greetings."

General!"

"Get up, get up!" Wang Xingchao stretched out his hand to help him up and said with a smile: "Ziyang, I haven't seen you for a while, how are you always?"

Zhou Lie and Wang Xingchao are both from pure Liaodong origins. They have known each other since they were children. Wang Xingchao is more than ten years older than Zhou Lie. When they are alone, Wang Xingchao always calls Zhou Lie by his nickname to show his closeness.

"Thank you, General, for your concern." Zhou Lie stood up, and with a straight-forward attitude as a soldier, he got straight to the point and asked, "The General has urgently sent word to the general to come, but is it about those three merchant ships?"

Wang Xingchao, however, was neither impatient nor impatient. He sat down at the main seat first, and then motioned Zhou Lie to sit down and talk. Immediately, a servant came to serve tea.

"Ask Ziyang if you are unsure about maritime affairs!" Wang Xingchao said with a smile: "I have long told others that if I leave matters at sea to Ziyang, I can sit back and relax. No matter what happens over there, Ziyang will always be able to solve it."

Solve it." He picked up the teacup, stared at Zhou Lie and asked, "What is the origin of that group of pirates? Can Ziyang find out?"

Zhou Lie said simply: "Currently, I know nothing about their origins."

"Oh?" Wang Xingchao was calm, "I heard that there were hundreds of pirates in that group, and they had more than a dozen ships. As far as I know, even when the pirates were most rampant in the East China Sea, there were such powerful pirates.

They are rare and rare.”

Zhou Lie nodded and said: "The two most powerful pirates at that time were the Skeleton Horse, which had more than thirty ships, and more than a thousand men, and the other was Yan Qiniang, who also had more than a dozen ships.

Hundreds of people. However, the imperial court had already wiped out these two groups of pirates, and both Skeleton Horse and Yan Qiniang were executed by Lingchi. As for the other pirates, they were all difficult to come by, and most of them had disappeared. Even if there were still survivors, they would never be seen.

There is no such strength."

"That's right." Wang Xingchao's expression was calm, but his eyes were as sharp as knives, and his whole person had a majestic aura that showed no anger and self-respect. He said slowly: "Being able to have such strength at sea cannot be achieved overnight.

, and it’s impossible to do it silently.”

Zhou Lie said: "Exactly, if there has always been such a group of pirates on the sea, it is impossible for me to know nothing about it." The tone of this sentence was very firm and full of confidence. He paused and then continued: "We must feed him.

Naturally, there is no way for hundreds of people to just sit there and plunder supplies from time to time. But let’s not talk about the past, just say that in the past two years, there has not been a single incident of a ship being robbed. If this group of pirates is really

If you make a living by looting, you will starve to death long ago, and you will not be able to survive until today."

A smile appeared on Wang Xingchao's lips and he asked: "Ziyang, what do you think of this ship hijacking incident?"

"After thinking about it, I feel that this is not a simple pirate robbery incident." Zhou Lie looked serious and said seriously: "I think that this is probably a move specifically targeting Liaodong merchants, and its purpose is very serious.

Maybe it’s aimed at Fucheng Trading Ground.”

Wang Xingchao smiled and said: "I said Ziyang would not let me down. It really hit the nail on the head."

Zhou Lie asked: "General, do you also think that the purpose of that group of pirates is to come to the Fucheng Trade Center?"

"Almost certain." Wang Xingchao said: "Zi Yang should know that Qin Xiao used insidious means to seize control of Yuguan and manipulated the opening of the Heishan Trade Center behind the scenes. Not long ago, the Zhao family's caravan

They were framed by the Yuguan garrison, who accused them of hiding ordnance, and seized all the goods. In this way, the land trade route of Fucheng Trading Ground was completely cut off." After a pause, he raised his hand to stroke his beard and said: "It didn't take long.

, three merchant ships were robbed at sea, and anyone with a little brain can figure out what happened."
Chapter completed!