In addition to the three relatively large groups of pirates along the southeast coast, the other pirates are dozens or hundreds of people. They often occupy a small island and can become a den. In recent years, Yu Cheng has moved the fishing village inland. Ten miles, they need to go a lot to loot the villages and towns, so they usually pay for March.

Because there are few people and few ships, they don’t have much food in storage. Since Fan Zijin went to sea and disappeared, they haven’t come ashore since the large-scale search by the Guangdong Navy. By now, the rice jars at home are almost bottomed out.

's already anxious thoughts rested again when he saw the corpse hanging on the pole of the boat. Within two days, the patrolling navy brought back a dozen pirates who had defected, all of them from Daqi.

Zhou Zhou immediately stepped up his patrol, and then brought the confession of the defecting pirates to see Qi Haoran, "They are running out of food, my lord, I think the situation of other pirates should be similar. Do you think they will go ashore?"

Qi Haoran knocked on the table and said: "Strengthen the patrol, tell General Wang that the coastal area of ??Guangdong is on level 3 alert, and send another person to inform the navy in Quanzhou and Fuzhou, and let them also be on guard and beware of pirates rushing to them. crime."

Qi Haoran looked solemn and said, "In the end, we still have too few people, and many of our defenses cannot be used."

Zhou Zhou was excited and asked, "Your Highness, do you want to recruit troops?"

"It's easy to recruit soldiers, can you afford them?"

Zhou Zhou bowed his head, it was obviously impossible for the Ministry of Household to allocate money to recruit troops a few years ago.

Qi Haoran went home and discussed with Mu Yangling, "Or let Zhou Zhou lead his troops out to sea to suppress the bandits, as long as he wins again, it will shock them for at least half a month."

"What if you lose," Mu Yangling said: "The mystery that you tried so hard to create will disappear, not only those small pirates who lack food and clothing will go ashore, but also those large pirates who wait and see. ashore."

"But if we can't defend the coastline and let those small pirates succeed, those people can also guess that our troops are insufficient and will go ashore at that time." Qi Haoran was annoyed, "How can I know that they don't even have enough food for half a year? It's almost New Year's Eve, the people don't have a happy birthday, and it's not easy for my grandfather and eldest brother."

Seeing his bitter face, Mu Yangling was also anxious for him, and thought about him with a bitter face. When Qi Haoran turned her face, she saw that her little face was wrinkled together and her brows were drawn together, so she reached out and smoothed her brows. "Don't worry, the boat will naturally go straight to the bridge. Master Ming'er will call all the people from the Navy Yamen over to discuss it. We can always find a solution by working together."

Mu Yangling nodded and smiled at him: "Then don't think about it, go to sleep."

Qi Haoran turned over, found a comfortable position, turned his back to Mu Yangling and snored softly after a while.

However, Mu Yangling couldn't sleep. She always felt that there was a better solution than confrontation. In the end, they were understaffed and inexperienced, so they couldn't eradicate those pirates. Next year or the year after, when the strength increases greatly, they will be wiped out.

But they can't drag it on, why can't they drag it on?

Because those small pirates ran out of food, if they wanted to starve, they had to go ashore to grab food if they wanted to survive, while those big pirates waited for them to move to see the situation.

But if the small pirates stop moving, will the big pirates dare to move?

Mu Yangling thought of the information that Qi Haoran had brought back. There were only three groups of pirates. One was Pedro's group of Westerners. They had just fought, and they would definitely not dare to attack them again in a short period of time. Moreover, their target It has always been a merchant ship on the sea, not the fishermen of Daqi.

The other two groups are composed of Dongying people and Korean people. The former is roughly twice as many as the latter, but whether it is the former or the latter, they have been operating in the southeast coast for more than ten years. The scale is large and the number of people is large, so they have to be cautious. If they cannot find out the specific circumstances of the navy, they will definitely not dare to act rashly.

Because, Pedro's strength is the strongest among them, Pedro lost to them, and now there are corpses hanging on the warship, so the key is not to ask them to check the situation of Guangdong and Guangdong navy , that would not allow a small group of pirates to come ashore or succeed.

Then how can we keep them from going ashore?

Food!

How to make those small stocks of pirates have food, Mu Yangling thought of Yu Cheng who colluded with the pirates.

Mu Yangling hurriedly woke up Qi Haoran and said, "How about we colluded with pirates and exchanged food for their treasures?"

The dazed Qi Haoran woke up suddenly, he stared at Mu Yangling, "Are you crazy?"

Mu Yangling said: "Didn't you say that you delay the time? Let people do business with them to ensure that they will not go ashore and loot this year. Next year, you will train your sailors and then go to suppress the bandits."

Qi Haoran frowned and said disapprovingly, "But they are pirates."

"Didn't you do business with bandits before?"

"That's my Daqi people. They are bandits who are officials who force the people to rebel. Those pirates outside are all foreigners. They came to kill my Daqi people for no reason. I still do business with them?"

"Able to bend and reach out to be heroes, aren't you incapable of suppressing bandits now? Is it possible to watch them land on the shore and loot the people?"

Qi Haoran glared at her with puffed cheeks.

"You don't have to come forward in person, ask your subordinates to go, or find a businessman to connect with them and raise the price a little bit. They have been pirates for so many years, and they must have a lot of treasures in their hands, and selling them is a different experience. No matter where you come to recruit troops or buy military equipment, it will all be useful." The more Mu Yangling said, the more he felt that this idea was a good idea, saying: "This matter is best done in secret, don't call too many people. Know."

Qi Haoran didn't want to listen with his back turned and pouted, "Ye is the king of Da Qi, so he ran to collude with the pirates? Don't go!"

Mu Yangling was lying on his back and continued: "When the time comes, ask people to pay attention to their numbers. The food will only be enough for them in June next year, and they will be stuck to death..."

Qi Haoran lifted the quilt to cover his head, and said vaguely, "Master doesn't agree, they are not from my Daqi."

Mu Yangling lay on the pillow and said, "It doesn't matter who it is, don't think that we are colluding with pirates, but think that we are fighting a war, and this is also a way of war, this war It started when we arrived in Guangdong, and it will continue until all pirates are wiped out."

Qi Haoran hid in the quilt and thought.

Seeing that he was quiet, Mu Yangling quietly lifted the quilt, leaned on his back and said, "And you can use this to send detailed work to the pirates to get more information about them, Haoran, it's not just about lining up on the battlefield. Fighting is the only way to set up a formation with real swords and real guns, and we are also fighting a war now."