Chapter 138 Returning Home
"General Zhao!"
Zhao Xiao didn't recognize this man as An Feng at first, the change was too great. In his memory, An Feng had always been a handsome and shy man, but now he had a beard, a scar on his face and an eye patch.
"Anfeng?"
"Why are you here? No, you are back?!"
Zhao Xiao nodded: "Now is not the time to talk, let's finish the battle first and then we can reminisce about the past."
"Yeah!" Zhao Xiao and his team seemed like a surprise attack from heaven, giving An Feng a reassurance. With them around, no matter how difficult the battle was, they could win!
"What's going on here now?"
An Feng stood straight and reported the results of his men's investigation to him.
Zhao Xiao asked: "How many people did you bring with you?"
"There are more than 1,500 people on the shore and more than 400 people on the boat."
"That's enough, prepare to attack!"
"Yes!" An Feng ordered his subordinates to blow the horn of attack. The soldiers ambushed in the mountain stream rushed out one after another, and together with the soldiers led by Zhao Xiao, they rushed down.
The soldiers from the Xietu tribe had not gone far yet, but upon hearing the sound, they immediately returned to resist.
How could they be a match for the Daqi Navy? These soldiers were carefully selected elite troops. They could easily defeat ten enemies at a time, let alone these indigenous people.
After more than a year at sea, the soldiers on the ship were almost going crazy. They did boxing and ran circles every day, but they had no chance to show their skills.
Now that they had finally encountered the enemy, everyone was like a chicken with its blood pumped up, rushing forward and starting to hack and chop. In less than half a minute, more than 500 people were all killed on the spot.
War is a bloody thing. To be kind to the enemy is to be cruel to yourself.
These indigenous people do not understand the language of Daqi and cannot be subdued by words, so it is better to kill them to eliminate future troubles.
After clearing out the more than 500 people blocking the road, Zhao Xiao led a group of people and marched straight into Xietu City.
Before entering the city, Zhao Xiao shouted, "All soldiers, listen up! Once you enter the city, only kill the soldiers, do not disturb the civilians!"
"Yes, sir!" The soldiers worked together to break down the door, and the people on the street screamed in fear.
Several native soldiers on guard tried to drive them away with bows and arrows, but unfortunately the arrows were too crude and could not penetrate the armor of the Daqi soldiers.
The tribal leaders in the city sent people to resist, but unfortunately they were no match for this group of people and were defeated by the army almost instantly. Seeing that the situation was hopeless, the leaders simply abandoned the city and fled.
The vegetation in this place was too lush, and it was too difficult to search for a person in the jungle. Zhao Xiao gave up the capture and ordered people to search for the captured descendants of Chen Hainiu in the city.
Soon the soldiers found Chen Hainiu's daughter-in-law Laguo from the harem of Leader Xietu.
From her we also found out that Chen Hainiu’s eldest son Chen Dayong and two grandsons Chen Jun and Chen Mei were imprisoned in the water dungeon.
The three of them were so thin that they looked like human beings, especially the youngest one, Chen Mei, who was only nine years old. After being detained for three months, he could only eat a few fruits every day to fill his stomach. He was so thin that he was just a skeleton and could not even walk on his own.
When Laguo saw her sons whom she had been missing day and night, she burst into tears. She held her youngest son in her arms and comforted him, and even took out boiled bird eggs from her arms to feed him.
Zhao Xiao quickly stopped La Guo: "He is too weak. He should eat some rice porridge first, which is easy to digest. He can eat the bird eggs after he recovers."
When Chen Dayong saw Zhao Xiao, he knelt down and kowtowed while crying: "General, you really came to save us! Before my father left, he said that Daqi would not ignore us and would definitely send someone to save us. I didn't expect you to really come!"
Zhao Xiao helped him up and said, "I'm sorry, we're late."
Chen Dayong shook his head and said, "It's not too late. As long as you come and remember us, it's not too late!"
After a few pleasantries, Zhao Xiao could see that he was very tired. After being detained for so long, he had suffered a lot both physically and mentally.
He asked the soldiers to help Chen Dayong and his family find a place to stay: "It's getting late, go change your clothes and have a good rest, we'll talk tomorrow."
"Why."
After seeing them off, An Feng stepped forward with a joyful look on his face and said, "General!"
Zhao Xiao looked him up and down and asked, "What's wrong with the wound on your face?"
An Feng couldn't help but smile: "You asked exactly the same question as the emperor."
Zhao Xiao's heart skipped a beat when Song Yuzhu was mentioned, and he even lowered his voice: "He also asked you the same question?"
"Well, before I set off, I went to the palace to see the emperor, and he asked about the wound on my face. This wound was caused by an accidental cut on my eye while fighting the Japanese pirates." An Feng lifted up his eye patch, revealing the hideous scar on his eye.
"Your Majesty...is he okay?"
"You mean ..."
"Is he well?"
"That's good. At least I haven't heard that the emperor is ill."
Zhao Xiao's ears turned red and he nodded hurriedly. His appearance was in stark contrast to the general who could call the wind and rain in the past. He looked more like a young man who was just beginning to fall in love.
An Feng was an experienced person and had guessed the relationship between him and the emperor. However, as a subordinate, he did not dare to ask about such things rashly, so he had to change the subject and said, "General, when did you come back? Why didn't we see you when we came?"
"I arrived last night and saw the warships you left behind. I found the survivors on the shore and asked them about them. I hurriedly marched to catch up with you."
"No wonder, it's a good thing you're here, otherwise I wouldn't dare to rush into the city."
Zhao Xiao was a little confused: "How do you know there is a Johor state here?"
An Feng took out the sea map from his arms and said, "This is what the emperor gave me. He said that this is the territory of Daqi and it was invaded. He asked me to lead the troops to support it."
Zhao Xiao looked at the map and guessed that Yuzhu must have seen this place on the map, and maybe he was looking at him at this moment.
Thinking of this, his heart beat faster with excitement, and he wished he could fly back to Daqi immediately, hug him tightly, and tell him in his ear how much he missed him.
Seeing that he was in a daze, An Feng didn't dare to disturb him and found Ge Zhongshun and Chen Jing to chat with them.
"Xiao Ge, where have you been for so long?"
When talking about these things, Ge Zhongshun had a lot to say: "Hey, don't mention it! I have seen a lot in my life!"
If he really were to talk about it, it would take three days and three nights to finish, so he just picked out the important things and started talking about them incessantly.
When they sailed to Johor, they discovered that the leader of the local indigenous people was actually the Daqi people. The general recaptured the place and made the leader a princess.
An Feng said: "No wonder they can speak Chinese."
"We sailed on the sea for several months from here. Those days were the most difficult. We did the same thing every day and the soldiers were almost tired of looking at the sea."
An Feng had a deep understanding of this. When he set out from Daqi, he sailed for more than three months before finding Johor. During the journey, the soldiers on the ship wanted to go home and he almost couldn't stop them. It is conceivable how much pressure General Zhao had to endure along the way.
"Later, we arrived at the country that the barbarians mentioned and met many white-skinned and blue-eyed people. We couldn't understand a word they said. It was just a babble that sounded like birds chirping."
“Hahahahahaha!”
Ge Zhongshun spoke in a funny and loud voice, and soon a large group of soldiers gathered around to listen to the fun.
When he mentioned the Western women, whose skin was as white as snow and whose breasts were as big as steamed buns, many of the soldiers blushed.
Someone shouted, "Captain Ge, the barbarian girls are so good, why didn't you bring one back?"
Ge Zhongshun waved his hand and said, "Those girls may look pretty, but they smell really bad. You can smell the stinky salted fish from a distance of ten feet!"
"Hahahahahaha..." Everyone couldn't help but burst into laughter again.
After he finished speaking, An Feng urged Chen Jing to say a few words. Chen Jing was a steady person, and although his words were not as funny as Captain Ge's, they were more real, which attracted everyone to be quiet and listen to his voice.
"When we arrived at the port of Massa, the local government wanted to rob our ship. At that time, hundreds of small boats came to the sea and almost trapped the Hope. There were also thousands of soldiers surrounding the shore. Once we got off the ship, there would be a big battle."
The soldiers around held their breath and stared at Chen Jing intently.
"What would General Zhao do when he saw this situation? He turned the ship around and ordered the soldiers to bombard the port with artillery, flattening it to the ground!"
"Well done! We should let them taste the power of the cannon!" The soldiers cheered and applauded.
"What happened next?" An Feng asked.
"Later, our firearms became famous in the West. They all knew that the Hope had cannons with amazing power, so they were all polite to us."
An Feng said with emotion: "It is precisely because of our strong military force that those barbarians dare not underestimate us. If there were no artillery deterrence, they would definitely rob the Hope."
Chen Jing nodded repeatedly. He agreed with this point very much. Even though there were artillery deterrents on the ship, they still encountered an assassination. He was even stabbed and almost died.
No one slept that night, and we chatted and laughed until dawn.
The next morning, after a night's rest, Chen Dayong felt much better. He took the initiative to find Zhao Xiao and told him everything that had happened during this period.
It turns out that a long time ago, their tribe was a branch of the Xietu tribe.
Later, the tribal leader died and passed the position to Chen Hainiu. Their tribe then separated from the Xietu tribe and has been living near a small island in the west.
Originally, the two tribes had been living in peace until the arrival of Zhao Xiao and his group broke the peace.
After Chen Hainiu was named princess, she sent people from the tribe to collect rubber nearby according to Zhao Xiao's orders.
After harvesting all the rubber trees around, they started harvesting rubber trees in other places. As a result, some people broke into the territory of the Xietu tribe.
The leader of the Xietu tribe detained people. In order to exchange for his people, Chen Hainiu gave the Xietu leader a set of tea sets. It was precisely because of this set of tea sets that the entire tribe was harmed. Zhao Xiao could guess what happened later without saying it.
"Your father has passed away. You will take over the position of the county lord from now on. Bring all the people from your tribe here and you will be in charge of the two tribes."
Chen Dayong said excitedly: "Thank you...thank you, General! I will definitely lead the people to collect rubber!"
"While collecting rubber, we must also ensure the livelihood of the people and build an army that can protect themselves. We don't want to experience something like this again."
Chen Dayong nodded carefully and said, "I understand."
After clearing out the rebellious soldiers in the city, Zhao Xiao, An Feng and his party took a boat back to the place where they first landed.
There is a rubber tower here, which is the harvest that Chen Hainiu and the people in the tribe collected in a year. They rolled the rubber into balls and piled them into a small hill.
With the help of the navy, everything was loaded onto the Hope in less than half a day.
After everything was arranged, they finally went home!
(End of this chapter)
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