The midday sun causes the sea surface temperature to rise very high.
Mao Wenlong and his entourage stood on the reef, and they could still smell the disgusting pungent smell even though they were several feet away.
Yan Siqi's people told him that it was fish medicine, made from soaked shark offal mixed with rice wine and wormwood juice, mashed into a paste, and thrown into the sea. The sharks nearby would never swim over.
"It really stinks. This pirate's business is just like our frontier soldiers begging for food in the mountains of corpses and seas of blood. It's not done by humans."
Mao Wenlong pulled a bitter face, frowned and muttered.
The brothers beside him also covered their noses.
They were Liaodong soldiers who were familiar with killing. When fighting the Mongols or Jurchens, they were no strangers to the wounded and dead bodies. However, the pure fishy smell of blood and the extremely fermented and rotten stench in front of them were completely inconceivable.
Compare.
Mao Wenlong glanced at the entourage, laughed and cursed: "Coward, look at Miss Zheng, she is such a cute little girl, you don't even think it tastes bad."
The Liaodong soldiers followed Mao Wenlong's hand and saw Zheng Haizhu beside Yan Siqi on the fishing boat under the rocks, also standing tall and straight, with the same look on his face.
The little ladies do not look weak at all, juxtaposed with the tall Yan Siqi, just like green bamboo and sycamore.
With a few "plop, plop" sounds, three strong men wearing fish skins jumped into the water, and then took the rosin torch from the hand of a young man on the side of the ship.
Now, Zheng Haizhu knew that the young man named Li who picked up Mao Wenlong off the coast of Songjiang was Li Dan's eldest son, Li Guozhu.
Li Dan is an older stateless maritime merchant. He has carved a niche in Hirado Port in Japan very early and dominates the route from Japan to Luzon in Southeast Asia. He has a close relationship with the Dutch who have emerged in recent years and are showing signs of replacing Spain and Portugal.
Not bad.
After Yan Siqi arrived in Hirado, he gradually came to be valued by Li Dan due to his ability. Now, Yan Siqi led the fleet to sea, and Li Dan asked him to take Li Guozhu with him to practice and practice, so that the second generation of the Li family's maritime empire could not be destroyed.
"Master Yan, there is really something in the cave, it seems to be a box!"
Yan Siqi's men shined torches through the cracks in the stone slabs, shouted excitedly, and then continued to observe.
Immediately afterwards, they seemed to be discussing something, and they inserted torches into the surrounding rock crevices. All three of them had their hands free, crowded in front of the stone slab, and yelled back their chants at the top of their lungs.
Not long after, one of them swam back and reported: "But there is a strip on the back of the stone slab. It seems to be a reef. It looks thin, but the three of us can't push it together."
"Can't push it?" After hearing the report, Li Guozhu took another look at the cave, turned to Yan Siqi and said, "Brother, this is not easy, can't we just use our turtle dove gun to blast it away?"
Zheng Haizhu looked at him: "Turtle dove gun? Is it a large fire gun loaded with lead bullets?"
"Hey, you know that too?" Li Guozhu was quite surprised.
Zheng Haizhu roughly remembered that the Turtle Dove Gun was a firearm that was widely used by the Ming Dynasty to fight against the Jin Army during the Chongzhen Period. Unexpectedly, in the last years of Wanli, he heard this name from a fleet that was half merchant and half pirate.
As soon as her mind started to spin, she started to make up the story: "There are French missionaries (referring to the Portuguese) in Songjiang Prefecture. They said that the fire blunderbuss in Macao is very big, and the base is like the long legs of a bird, so it is called turtle dove blunderbuss."
Li Guozhu said "hmm" and said proudly: "The turtle dove gun on my boat was bought from the Hong Mao Fan (referring to the Dutch), and it is more powerful than the French gun."
Zheng Haizhu looked at Yan Siqi and said: "The more fierce the firepower, the less likely it is to blast with firecrackers. If the rock above collapses and the entire stone wall topples, the seabed here is not that deep, and the entrance to the cave will be covered by it."
How do you dig it out in the sea if it is buried under big rocks?"
Yan Siqi raised his eyes and looked at the cliff. He felt that what Zheng Haizhu said was reasonable and nodded.
Li Guozhu's face darkened.
He had dealt with Mao Wenlong several times under Yan Siqi before, and he didn't like Mao Wenlong who treated him like a child. He didn't expect that the woman Mao Wenlong sent this time was actually Brother Yan's old sweetheart. And today at noon, Brother Yan told him the news
Even more unexpectedly, this woman actually said that her ancestor had worked for the great pirate Wang Zhi and knew a treasure place.
It's such a good thing to be close to one's body and to be close to one's wealth. No wonder Brother Yan looked at her like he was possessed.
Li Guozhu still did not dare to offend Yan Siqi, his father's right-hand man, so he suppressed his anger and asked Zheng Haizhu coldly: "What do you think we should do?"
Zheng Haizhu walked to the side of the boat and asked the caver: "Brother, how thick are the rocks you see?"
The man in the water gestured: "It's only half a foot wide. How can it not move at all?"
"Most of the stone slab is underwater. Have you dived down to take a look? Can you clearly see the lower half of the stone slab? Is it close to the stone slab?"
"Looking at it, there seems to be a gap below the stone strips and between the stone slabs, but the top is tightly supported."
A smile appeared on Zheng Haizhu's face. She turned around, raised her head and shouted to Mao Wenlong on the rocks: "General Mao, you have to give me back General Ma's chisel!"
…
After half a stick of incense, Mao Wenlong, who had fetched the things, also jumped on the fishing boat.
When he handed over the fine steel chisel that Ma Xianglin gave to Zheng Haizhu for self-defense, he explained to Yan Siqi in a somewhat sarcastic manner: "Master Yan, your wife must be quite capable. You have killed people with this thing in the bandits' den.
So along the way, I was afraid that she would stab me while I was sleeping, so I had to hide the knife, right? Hehe, hehe."
Then he turned to Zheng Haizhu with a smile: "In the end, I went to the island to see you finally able to worship. As soon as I was happy, I forgot about it. I didn't mean to steal people's love. Miss Zheng, I'm sorry, I'm sorry."
Yan Siqi's face darkened.
When he visited Mao Wenlong yesterday, he had already heard about the people and things Zheng Haizhu encountered in the bandit den.
It is inevitable for generals in their fighting years to cherish each other, so when Mao Wenlong mentioned Ma Xianglin, he said a few words about the bravery of the Sichuan army to Yan Siqi, who had been away from home for a long time and was unaware of the country's affairs.
Today, Yan Siqi heard the word "General Ma" again, and a strange feeling that was difficult to resolve passed through his heart. But after all, he had business in front of him, so he pursed his lips and said warmly to Zheng Haizhu: "It's up to you to do tricks."
Zheng Haizhu took the fine steel chisel.
After killing Xu Aliu in the bandit's den, she discovered that Ma Xianglin's dagger-style chisel had a hole in the front of the blade, which was similar to later police melee daggers.
Now, she put a piece of thick iron wire that Yan Siqi had ordered her men to find from the lucky boat through the round hole of the chisel. Recalling her impressions when she just explored the cave, she twisted the wire into an open semicircle and placed it on the back handle of the chisel.
Tie hemp rope around the hollow.
After completing this first step, she said calmly to Yan Siqi: "I have to get into the water and gesture with a few brothers to make it clear."