Seeing that the city defenses were crumbling but could not be broken, Zeng Yiben was so anxious that veins on his forehead were throbbing, and he wished he could rush up and fight personally!

Just then, the guard reported that Big Gold Tooth had returned.

"Let him come over." Zeng Yiben stared at the battle situation and said without turning his head.

"Boss." The pale-faced Big Gold Teeth was quickly brought to his side.

"What do you say, old man?" Zeng Yiben asked.

"He, he said..." Da Jin Ya swallowed his saliva and said, "What he said was very unpleasant."

"What?" Zeng Yiben turned around and looked at Da Jin Ya coldly and said, "Speak clearly!"

"Lin Daoqian said that they are now government troops and we cannot stand by and watch them die. He told the leader to withdraw his troops immediately to avoid damaging the relationship." Da Jin Ya said angrily:

"He also said that his fleet is ready. If we don't withdraw, we will have to fight..."

In fact, Lin Daoquan returned the gift, but Da Jin Ya decided not to mention it.

"..." Zeng Yiben remained silent for a long time after hearing this, but his black face gradually turned red, then purple, and finally turned into a piece of white paper.

"Did he really say that?" After a long moment, he asked.

The sound seemed to come from the sky.

"How could a small person dare to make up such a big thing?" Big Gold Teeth said with a wry smile.

"Why?" Zeng Yiben no longer looked at the battle on the city wall, but only looked at the sky without focus, and asked quietly:

"Why did he do this? Doesn't he understand the principle of the lips and teeth being cold?"

"I heard that it was a lobbyist named Xu Wenchang who went to look for him on behalf of the government..." Da Jin Ya told the news he had heard.

"Xu Wei..." Zeng Yiben was obviously not as ignorant as his subordinates, and he had already known in the past few days that the reason why the resistance in Chaozhou City was so determined was because the new Chaozhou prefect, Zhao Shouzheng, had united the scattered Chaozhou military and civilians.

Unexpectedly, the man surnamed Zhao, who had just arrived, was so familiar with the situation in Chaozhou and was able to persuade the shrewd Lin Daoquan.

I thought that the tough guy Hou Bideng was gone, and the new prefect disappeared, Chaozhou City would definitely become a fat sheep without any resistance. Who would have thought that this useless Zhao Sima would appear, and he was even more powerful than Hou Bideng!

Could this be fate? Was it really that I was unlucky and my fate was about to end?

Facing the impenetrable city wall, Zeng Yiben suddenly remembered the words his father often said when he was a child:

"This is fate..."

It was my fate to be born into a poor fisherman's family.

His family was bullied by the dog owner in the village, and his sister was also killed.

When I was sixteen, I killed the entire family of the dog owner and was destined to be exiled to the sea.

I fought desperately with the government, but Lin Daoqian got the upper hand. He successfully went ashore and cleaned himself up, but I became a stray dog, still losing my life.

In Chaozhou City, he once again felt the ruthlessness of fate...

"Damn God, I don't accept it!" Zeng Yiben's expression suddenly became extremely ferocious. He drew out his knife and slashed fiercely towards the top of the city wall:

"He's just talking. Ignore him and continue attacking the city. Once we take over Chaozhou City, I won't take a penny. I'll give it all to you!"

"Ao!" The soldiers encouraged themselves again and attacked towards the top of the city.

"Don't just stand there, lead the team to attack the city! If we can't take the city wall today, you don't have to come back!" Zeng Yiben glared at Da Jin Ya again.

"Oh." Big Gold Tooth cursed his bad luck. If he had known this would happen, he would not have rushed back.

He turned around and was about to look for his subordinates, but saw another person jumping off the boat and stumbling towards him.

"That's Old Ji, right?" Big Gold Teeth couldn't help but wonder, "He was on Nan'ao Island watching over our retreat, so why is he here to join in the fun?"

"Huh?" Zeng Yiben looked in the direction of the voice and saw Ji San, the third in command whom he had left behind on Nan'ao Island, running towards him in panic.

"Third brother, why are you here?" Zeng Yiben frowned, having a bad feeling.

"Master, Master, something terrible has happened!" Ji San said in panic, "Nan'ao Island has been lost."

"What?" Zeng Yiben couldn't help but sway. The news that Da Jin Ya just brought to him didn't hit him so hard.

The reason is that Nan'ao Island is still in his hands. As long as Nan'ao Island is there, no fleet dares to enter Hanjiang!

But if Nan'ao Island was lost, his fleet of ships, which was extremely bulky in the inland river, would be in danger of being caught in a trap...

"Puff..." Thinking of the terrible consequences, Zeng Yiben became so angry that he vomited blood.

"Boss!" The people around him hurried to support the staggering boss.

Zeng Yiben just grabbed Ji San's collar and asked angrily, "Who did this?"

"I don't know..." Ji San shook his head blankly and said, "They launched a night attack and burned all our warships with a terrible rocket. I only saw that they had a large number of Wuwei ships."

"Black-tailed ships?" Big Gold Teeth shouted, "That must be Lin Daoqian! They have the most black-tailed ships, and they are also capable of night attacks!"

"That pretty boy is so cruel!" He was so angry that he kept shouting, "If he wants to turn against us, he will beat us to death!"

Zeng Yiben shook his head slowly. He had a hunch that it was not Lin Daoqian who did it. So many sea masters were in Hanjiang. Did Lin Daoqian really want to capture them all and present them to the court for credit?

If he did that, he would become a public enemy on the waters of Fujian and Guangdong, and his fleet would never be able to go out to sea to trade again!

But there is no need to refute at this time, because no matter who did it, it would seriously threaten their retreat!

"Ming...Jinba..." Zeng Yiben squeezed out these three words from his throat with difficulty.

"Sound the horn?" Everyone was unable to accept it and said, "Boss, we have lost so many brothers, how can we just retreat like that?"

"Yes, Boss." Big Gold Teeth also advised anxiously: "It doesn't matter if Nan'ao Island is occupied. We will naturally increase our strength by taking over Chaozhou City. Then we will work together to kill the guy named Lin. Isn't it like a dragon returning to the sea?"

"What the Second in Command said makes sense." Everyone nodded in agreement.

"That makes no sense!" Zeng Yiben said weakly, "Each family has left people on Nan'ao Island. This news cannot be concealed. Do you think they will still want to fight after hearing this news?"

"..." Everyone was speechless. Indeed, everyone was here to speculate, and the lives of their subordinates were worthless. It didn't matter if they lost a few more people. But they couldn't even sacrifice their own lives.

~~

When the bandits retreated, leaving behind corpses all over the ground, the defenders on the city wall collapsed to the ground almost at the same time.

This battle was so bitter, difficult and dangerous that their energy and spirit had been severely drawn. I don’t know if they will have the courage and strength to stand up again during the next attack.

Pan Jixun also sat down on the arrow stack, but immediately stood up again as if he had been electrocuted, gasping for breath in pain. He was too nervous to feel it during the battle just now, but now he realized that his coccyx seemed to be broken, and it hurt whenever he sat down!

"Minister, do you want to call the brothers to repair the city wall?" His assistant was Zhang Guofu, a first-term student of Yufeng Academy. He was a member of the Nanjing Jinwu rear guard army, but grew up in Kunshan County. After passing the imperial examination last year, Zhang Guofu felt that he was not ready and needed to be tempered, so he did not go to Beijing to take the exam, but followed his master to Lingnan, preparing to assist Old Historian Pan to set up a new academy.

Because his family had been soldiers for generations, Zhang Guofu was influenced by them and had a basic understanding of military tactics, so he was assigned to Lao Pan in this battle to defend the city.

"Let them rest for a while." Pan Jixun shook his head and said slowly, "If we retreat at this critical moment, the pirates will lose their fighting spirit and will not attack again."

After a pause, Pan Butang continued, "Besides, they are not professional. Let the civil engineering team come to fix it later."

"Yes." Zhang Guofu nodded. At this time, he also saw that the pirates retreated to the riverside without stopping, and directly returned to the big ship in batches on small boats. Obviously, at least today, there will be no more attacks.

The officers and soldiers guarding the city were just as relieved as he was. However, they were still worried that the pirates would come back early tomorrow morning.

After spending a night in torment, half worried and half expectant, the soldiers who were resting in the hiding cave suddenly heard bursts of cheers of joy coming from the top of the city.

In a daze, everyone heard something like "retreat" or "withdraw"!

Those who were light sleepers suddenly jumped up, rushed out of the soldier hiding cave, and ran to the top of the city wall to watch.

It was just dawn, and they could barely see the river surface. But this was enough for them to see that the Han River in the early morning twilight was empty. There was no longer the sight of masts and oars like a forest, and sails and masts stretching to the sky...

Zeng Yiben's army disappeared without a trace overnight!

"We won!" Someone shouted the first cheer of victory, and then everyone on the city wall cheered together.

When the soldiers in the hiding cave heard the noise, they all lost all sleepiness and rushed out to join the celebration.

Then the people in the city also heard the noise and went out of their homes to check the situation. When they learned that the bandits had retreated, the entire Chaozhou city turned into a sea of ​​joy.

After celebrating for a while, everyone suddenly realized that the undisputed protagonist, Mr. Zhao Erye, was not there.

So they searched everywhere and finally found him in the city gate tower with a corner missing.

They saw their beloved Sima Zhao, still lying on the bed snoring loudly, and the cheers outside were so deafening that they did not wake him up...

This sleep quality is really enviable.

"Lord Sima is too tired." The soldiers and civilians, who had unconsciously put on a thick idol filter, only felt distressed.

So they tiptoed out of the city gate tower so as not to disturb Sima Zhao who was sleeping.

~~

According to the "Old Ming History•Biographies 113":

'…In the fifth year of Longqing, Shouzheng was transferred to Chaozhou as the Tongzhi. When he first arrived, a big bandit named Zeng Yiben gathered a hundred warships and 100,000 pirates, set up flags and rode the tide into the Han River, about to attack the city. The prefect was in trouble, the Tongpan and the Tuiguan were cowardly and panicked, and the men and women in the city fled.'

'At this time, Shouzheng rode alone into the tide, jumped on the Guangji Bridge, and shouted: "Good man, follow me to kill the bandits and protect your family!" At that time, thousands of people followed him, and the people felt relieved. At that time, there were less than a thousand soldiers in the city, and there was no naan. Shouzheng, as the co-governor, temporarily took charge of the government affairs, calculated the records, built towers and oars, and ordered each household to send one man to guard the city, and the rest of the men would pass on the food. After that, he persuaded the rich to donate. The former governor Liu Zixing was the first to donate 2,000 gold, and the donors gathered.

'He also ordered the construction of battlements to store gunpowder and firearms, and ordered the city to be divided and defended. He led the troops with confidence, and fought fiercely for several days, killing more than 10,000 enemies. One book said: "With Sima here, Chaozhou is as strong as a rock." Then he set sail reluctantly. '

P.S. Yesterday's events took up a lot of my energy today, but I will definitely do what I said I would do in three updates. Everyone go to sleep, and you will definitely see it tomorrow morning!