This "Hanjiangkou Sea Battle" started at sunrise and ended at noon. It really fulfilled the saying that those who are good at fighting are in a dangerous situation and have a short period of time.

In fact, it is not accurate to say that it was a naval battle, because the pirates did not fire a single shot from beginning to end, they were just busy escaping. So it is more appropriate to say that it was a farewell.

Seeing the pirate warships in front of him, who had no intention of fighting and were struggling to cross the Han River, Zhao Hao suddenly remembered the "Animal World" he had watched in his previous life, and the magnetic and deep voice of Teacher Zhao naturally rang in his ears:

'Spring is here, and it's the season of ** again...'

No, it should be 'On the endless African savannah, thousands of wildebeests are running non-stop. They have to complete their annual migration before the dry season arrives...'

At that time, he was puzzled. Why would thousands of wildebeests with strong hooves and sharp horns be so panicked by a few crocodiles that they could only flee? Wouldn't they rise up in resistance, knock down those ugly guys with short legs and long mouths, and then trample their soft bellies into pulp?

I didn't realize until I grew up that it was because the basic nature of genes is selfish. Compared with collective defense and each individual bravely fighting against carnivores, it is obviously more cost-effective to run faster. Because you don't need to be faster than the predator, you just need to be faster than your companions.

At the genetic level, there is no difference between humans and animals, so the essence of life is selfish. Even altruistic behavior is actually driven by selfish psychology.

Zhao Hao clearly remembers that after reading The Selfish Gene, his kind inner world was devastated. He felt that life was empty and hopeless for a long time, and lost interest in interacting with people.

Until he finally realized that there was nothing wrong with this. If you don't have too high expectations of others, you will naturally not be hurt in interpersonal relationships.

So, otakus and otaku girls are the advanced form of human evolution...

~~

He shook his head, letting these messy thoughts blow away with the river wind. Zhao Hao looked at the river in the distance and saw that it had returned to calm. All the boats had fled from the mouth of the Han River. The bodies of the sailors who were killed or injured in the explosion and drowned were also drifting away with the river water, along with the masts and wood chips.

There were only dozens of abandoned large ships, crowded together on the river, completely blocking the waterway, just like fat wildebeests abandoned by the group and becoming prey for a group of crocodiles.

"Go and inform Lin Daoquan to take these boats back to Xiawei Port and tell him that I sent them to him." Zhao Hao instructed Tang Baolu behind him.

"Yes." Tang Baolu hurriedly responded respectfully, feeling distressed. It would be great if these large ships were given to him. Jiangnan Commerce had always wanted to build its own fleet, but it always relied on the Royal Shipping, which was too inconvenient and limited.

But he also knew that was impossible, because the young master advocated that during the start-up phase, the companies in the group should try their best to cooperate, rather than being greedy and seeking perfection and developing their own mountaintops. That would lead to serious internal friction...

"Give these ships to Mr. Lin. He will probably feel embarrassed to keep Mr. Qingteng." Tang Baolu suppressed the regret in his heart and said with a smile.

"Oh, yes, Old Xu is still being held hostage by him." Zhao Hao patted his forehead, almost forgetting about this. "Tell Lin Daoqian that I have written to Lin Zhongcheng, asking him to inspect ** Prefecture. I will stop by Xiawei when the time comes."

"Wow, they praise him so much?" Tang Baolu couldn't help but said enviously.

"Of course, he is the man chosen by me." Zhao Hao laughed and said, "I will love him even more in the future."

Seeing the wicked smile on the young man's face, Tang Baolu suddenly felt a chill down his spine and no longer envied the young man Linzi at all.

In fact, including those large ships, none of the pirates' broken guns and cannons could catch the eyes of the Coast Guard Fleet. When did the US military clean up the battlefield? Mr. Zhao's Coast Guard Fleet, at least in terms of equipment and treatment, has been on par with the first-class US military in later generations. Naturally, it is inevitable that they will be stained with their bad habits of living a hard life.

Of course, it would be a hassle to really get that pile of junk back. It would be unusable and would have to be sent back to Suzhou for recasting, and the cost would be much higher than directly making new ones.

So after counting the results of the battle, the task force did not clean up the battlefield, but went directly upstream and headed towards Chaozhou City.

Fortunately, the wind was blowing from the south, and by raising the sails we could get a lot of wind. In addition, with each boat's four oars rowing constantly, the boat's speed could barely reach four knots, and we could reach Chaozhou City by midnight.

This "knot" is a Chinese knot set by Mr. Zhao. One knot is one kilometer per hour, not one nautical mile.

In the measurement units formulated by Mr. Zhao, there are no long tons, short tons, ounces, pints, or anti-human units such as nautical miles. The metric system is adopted uniformly, and its full name is "scientific measurement units", also known as the Ming system.

Since they couldn't enter the city today, Zhao Hao didn't urge the police to speed up. He asked someone to put up a parasol, sat on a rocking chair, drank soda, and looked at the scenery on both sides of the Han River.

This river, named after the great writer Han Wengong, has a very gentle flow, with green fields on both sides, crisscrossing canals, and fragrant rice flowers. There are white-walled and black-tiled fortresses hidden in the thick shade, and there are exquisite stone bridges across the canals, which is a beautiful scenery of the land of fish and rice in Lingnan. No wonder Zeng Yiben was so greedy for this place.

But in the eyes of Mr. Zhao, the problem here is too serious. The dense river network divides the entire small plain into pieces. Thus, independent small villages are formed. Under a series of survival pressures such as bandits and pirates, conflicts between natives and immigrants, and clan struggles, people have to live together in clans and unite against the outside world, which makes each village an independent small kingdom.

How can there be any efficiency in such a relationship full of hostility and contradictions? Such a powerful clan power is naturally a stumbling block to the development of industry and commerce.

Young Master Zhao was thinking seriously about how to break the impasse when he suddenly heard a shrill siren from the mast. It was a signal from the lookout that the enemy had been spotted.

The coast guards who were collecting ammunition, maintaining artillery, and cleaning the deck immediately took their positions reflexively, reopened the shell boxes, and quickly loaded them and prepared to fire...

At the request of the guards, Zhao Hao left his beloved rocking chair, and walked into the command room wearing only his trousers, a vest and wooden clogs.

"What's going on?" he asked bluntly.

"There are unidentified ships blocking the way ahead." Wang Rulong peered into the distance through a telescope and grinned, "Don't worry, sir. They are not coming for us. I think it's probably those villages along the river, trying to collect bribes from passing merchants!"

"Traffic bandits and road bullies, are they so rampant?" Zhao Hao couldn't help but laugh.

"They dare to collect tolls from the imperial navy, so what else can they not dare to collect?" Haierge sneered and said, "General Yu sent a fleet to escort supplies to suppress bandits, but because they refused to pay tolls, they used sunken ships to block the waterway. They blocked the Han River for six days, which delayed the general offensive. So even after the great victory on Nan'ao Island, he was dismissed from office."

Master Zhao couldn't help but smile when he heard this. He really was worthy of being called 'Unlucky Yu'.

Yu Dayou was the last of the three people Zhao Hao wanted to meet when he came to the Ming Dynasty. The other two were Zhang Juzheng and Qi Jiguang...

Compared to the sinister Zhang idol and the compromising Qi Dashuai, the upright old boy Yu Dayou is obviously more lovable.

But Yu Dayou's life can be summed up in four words: "bad luck in various ways". Although he was invincible in battle, after each battle, someone would claim his military achievements or frame him up. He would be demoted and fined, or even thrown out of office and imprisoned. His hereditary official position was stripped three times, which is rare in history.

For example, when Guangxi suppressed the rebellion, Yu Dayou, the general commander of Guangxi, won every battle and conquered every siege, which was a great achievement. However, all the credit went to his superior Yin Zhengmao, and he was also blamed for Yin Zhengmao's corruption of military pay. Fortunately, everyone knew what happened, and in the end, his merits and demerits were offset, and he returned to his hometown to wait for orders.

After hearing that Yin Zhengmao was promoted to the Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi, he wanted to recall him to serve as the General of Guangdong to continue to work for him. Yu Dayou was terrified and wrote to him, saying, "I know that the Ministry values ​​me, but you can't always take advantage of me. Please let me go."

Yin Zhengmao was so angry at this upright old man that he had to ask Zhang Juzheng to transfer Zhang Yuanxun to Guangdong and no longer use Yu Dayou.

But speaking of it, the old darling will soon become the commander-in-chief of Fujian, and we should have a chance to meet him then. Mr. Zhao is looking forward to seeing him.

~~

"Sir, the people on the besieged ship seem to be military personnel." Wang Rulong suddenly put down the telescope and said, "Their ship should be the smallest Cangshan iron ship among the navy warships. Although the people on the ship are wearing civilian clothes, their equipment and tactics are all from the ranks."

Zhao Hao took the telescope from him and took a while to aim at the target. He saw that the smallest ship in Haicang, Cangshan Iron, was surrounded by more than ten red-headed ships commonly seen in Chaoshan. Although the number of people on the red-headed ships was ten times that of the Cangshan Iron, they were always suppressed by the enemy's bows and muskets. Even those who occasionally ventured to board the ship were stabbed off the ship by the enemy's spears.

At Wang Rulong's reminder, Zhao Hao noticed that when the spearman attacked, there was a shieldman to block the arrows for him. It was obvious that he was well-trained and it took time to achieve this.

"This method is probably related to the Qi Family Army." Haier Ge beside him also said: "But it is more fierce. I think they are the subordinates of Marshal Yu."

"Not like, definitely." Wang Rulong nodded and said, "Marshal Yu served as the general commander of Fujian and Guangdong. He has many subordinates in these two provinces. It's not surprising."

"Then give them a hand." Zhao Hao's mind moved, and he gave an order: "After all, it is under my father's rule, we have to take care of it."

"Okay!" Haierge responded and immediately ordered the rowers to row at full speed and approach the battle group!