The leader of the group chasing the foreigners spotted Zhu Lin and Xingxing at a glance. Despite their understated attire, they still exuded elegance and nobility, clearly the sons and daughters of a wealthy family.
However, neither of them brought any attendants. This sea area is far from the inland, far from the East and not close to the Central Plains. The two men's clothing was obviously from the Central Plains, which made them stand out.
They couldn't possibly be here for sightseeing; who would believe that?
"Who are you? Why are you here? Who sent you?" the Japanese leader asked loudly, his tone unfriendly.
Although neither Zhu Lin nor Xing Xing understood what the other was shouting, they could roughly guess the meaning behind it.
Xingxing replied in the Central Plains dialect, "Who we are is none of your business. I can be wherever I want, it's none of your concern."
"Damn it, what is she saying? She must be saying something unpleasant," the Japanese leader cursed.
Several burly Japanese men were fighting fiercely with the foreigners nearby. The foreigners knew some self-defense techniques, but because they had been badly beaten, they were too weak to fight back. Sui quickly fell into a disadvantageous position.
The group of Japanese men consisted of about twenty strong and burly men, all of them fierce-looking and carrying large knives. The leader pointed at Xingxing and Zhulin and shouted incoherently. Then, seven or eight burly men jumped toward their ship.
Zhu Lin's eyes narrowed, and he drew his sword, instantly killing two people. At the same time, he kicked the two men into the sea.
"Go to hell." Xingxing swiftly killed a Japanese man, splattering blood all over his face and staining the ship red. The man hung from the ship's edge, his legs in the seawater and his upper body dangling inside the ship.
Because of the added gravity, the ship suddenly tilted to one side, causing the people on board to sway. Xingxing hurriedly tried to flip the people hanging on the edge of the ship into the sea, but as soon as she reached out, someone else attacked, so she had to raise her sword to deal with it.
"Damn it, they look so weak and helpless, how come they both know kung fu?" The little leader was a little surprised that the two were so good at kung fu, but then he thought about it and realized that it made sense. If they didn't have something to rely on, how could they dare to come to such a far sea area without a single follower?
The little leader had just finished cursing when he was suddenly startled to see a blur before his eyes. A large amount of water, accompanied by a powerful sword aura, rushed straight at him, and in an instant, the little leader and the few people standing next to him were shaken into the sea.
"Ahhh!" Screams echoed all around.
Zhu Lin swiftly dispatched the remaining Japanese in a few breaths, throwing those hanging on the ship's edge into the sea. The smaller leaders, who fell directly into the water, choked on some water and then frantically paddled away.
However, Zhu Lin's sword energy directly stunned them, and the unconscious Japanese could no longer swim and sank to the bottom of the sea.
Finally, only three foreigners remained. Zhu Lin pointed the tip of his sword at them and said coldly, "Hand over the grain seeds."
They looked like bandits. I couldn't even look at them. I stepped forward to smooth things over. "Brother Phosphorus, look at them. They're all dressed in tattered clothes. They didn't bring anything. Even if they had any seeds, they were on an island."
Zhu Lin paused, sheathed his sword, looked towards the island, and frowned, saying, "The Japanese are not good at farming. I'm afraid they'll cook and eat all the seeds, and we won't be able to get the seeds we want even if we go to the island."
If there are no food crops on the island, then it's really not worth the risk. Maybe we should just leave?
The foreigner who could speak the Central Plains language digested the information and understood the meaning of Zhu Lin's words. He quickly shouted, "The grain is on the island. There's still some left. We didn't finish eating it all, so we planted it on the island. There's a lot of it, a whole lot."
Looking at the large circle drawn by the foreigners with their outstretched arms, it seemed that they had indeed planted a lot of food on the island, but this season was clearly not the time to harvest the food, so there would be no harvest even if they went to the island.
Zhu Lin told Xingxing her idea: "If food is really grown on the island, our navy can take it directly when they come."
"We have potatoes, a variety that your Great Jin Dynasty doesn't have. We've never brought them before. They're delicious. The potatoes are ready to harvest. You've never grown them before. Since you saved our people, I can teach you how to grow them." The foreigner pleaded with a mixture of words and gestures.
After a moment's thought, Zhu Lin asked calmly, "How many Japanese are on the island? How many of your people are there in total? Tell the truth. If you conceal anything, we will leave immediately, and we will kill you before we leave."
After struggling to process Zhu Lin's words, the foreigner said sincerely, "There are more than 500 Japanese and more than 100 of ours, all of whom are mining on the island."
Originally, there were three hundred foreigners when they came out. Later, they were robbed by the Japanese, and half of them were lost in the battle. In the end, only a little over a hundred people were left to do hard labor on the island.
"Besides you foreigners mining, who are the other miners?" Zhu Lin asked coldly.
The foreigner was taken aback, then added, "There are serious criminals from Japan and Korea, as well as able-bodied men captured from the Great Jin Dynasty. There are more than 500 miners, and the largest number of able-bodied men were captured from the Great Jin Dynasty."
"How could this be? When were the able-bodied men of our Great Jin Dynasty captured? How come the government doesn't know? Could it be that they were captured during the massacre of the fishing village? But didn't Hengshan have a falling out with the Japanese? What's the connection between the two?" Xingxing was shocked and couldn't believe it at all.
According to this foreigner, there are more than 500 miners on the island. If we exclude the more than 160 foreigners and the more than 60 Japanese and Koreans, then there are more than 200 people who are subjects of the Great Jin Dynasty. Why is the government not responding at all when so many people have gone missing?
She dared not think about it any further. Xingxing's face suddenly darkened, and her anger was about to overflow.
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