These officers and soldiers were not from Wexing Province, so they knew nothing about Jiang Zhen, but they no longer dared to underestimate him.

“These sea merchants are really bold and even brazenly organized such a large fleet!” The military officer who had meet Jiang Zhen before, frowned.

There must be a big fleet of ships here to be able to capture the pirates!

“As long as they have money, what wouldn’t they dare to do?” Another man said.

“They disobeyed imperial court orders and fought with others for profit! They should be all arrested and put into jail!” Someone else said.

They looked aggrieved, but in fact, they all know very well that such things as competing with the people for profits have absolutely nothing to do with sea merchants.

This didn’t affect what they said.

They were all jealous of those sea merchants. After breaking up just a few small groups of Cheng Yongzhen’s old troops, they were able to gain a large amount of profit. They could only imagine how much Cheng Yongzhen and his men had really earned…

“All right, let’s not talk about such things anymore!” The leader of navy said.

The commander of the navy was named Sun Qiyun and he was a middle-aged man in his forties. After reprimanding his subordinates he said: “The person in charge of the dock here is named Jiang Zhen? Isn’t he already here? Call him here!”

Jiang Zhen was soon invited to the ship of the officers and soldiers to meet Sun Qiyun.

Jiang Zhen could feel that these officers and soldiers were not very friendly to him, but at least they didn’t show much malice. After entering the cabin, Sun Qiyun smiled and said, “Mr. Jiang caught the pirates we chased all the way here. This was a great help to us!”

“No, I was just lucky. If those pirates were not chased by my lord, forced to flee and then ran out of supplies, how could I have caught them?” Jiang Zhen said.

When it was time to act smooth, Jiang Zhen could still act very slick. He praised the officers and soldiers in front of him and said time after time, it was just a  fluke that he was able to catch the pirates.

Sun Qiyun and others were reassured after hearing this.

“My lord, the pirates and their ships we didn’t dare to touch, so I ask my lord to accept them,” Jiang Zhen said.

When Sun Qiyun heard his words, he immediately became delighted. Jiang Zhen said “please” as if it was a burden him to take over these pirates and ships, but in fact this was a great thing!

They have been chasing this group of pirates, not for the pirates themselves, or their ships, but for their money.

Now they didn’t need to fight and all the ships and money would be returned to them.

“Haha, then you are welcome! “Sun Qiyun also did not push back. Once he heard Jiang Zhen’s words he immediately ordered: “Come and let the others know to be ready. Let our little brats help Master Jiang deal with those pirates!”

They didn’t have to wait until later that night, they would receive the spoils of war so quickly! Jiang Zhen felt a little helpless, but he was still wearing a smile on his face.

Sun Qiyun glanced at Jiang Zhen. Jiang Zhen, who stood upright, neither humble nor arrogant, made him feel more friendly towards him.

Even those officials who were previously hostile to Jiang Zhen, now looked at Jiang Zhen with much milder and friendlier expressions.

The officers and soldiers who were getting ready to rest were called up to gather together.

Then, they lit torches and went to the ships that were captured by Jiang Zhen.

The minds of the officers and soldiers were all on the ships and their goods. Seeing this situation, Jiang Zhen breathed a sigh of relief.

Jiang Zhen had already asked his men to withdraw from the ships full of pirates so these officers and soldiers took control of the ships very quickly.

Then, something that Jiang Zhen did not expect, but later found could not be avoided, happened.

The officers and soldiers began to slaughter the pirates.

They quickly cut off the heads of the pirates who were tied up by Jiang Zhen’s men after they surrendered, then they directly threw their bodies into the sea.

The pirate’s head would be brought back for military merit.

There were bursts of screams from the pirates’ ships, begging for mercy and cries drifting in the night sky, making the night gloomy.

Jiang Zhen frowned slightly. He was in a bad mood.

Those pirates were not good people and many of them deserve to die, but such a one-sided massacre was still a little difficult for him to accept.

However, in this day and age, no one in society thought that there was anything wrong with doing so.

That night, none of the people in Yabian Village slept, nor did Jiang Zhen and his men, let alone those officers and soldiers.

Wang Ruicheng and his men also didn’t sleep. They were under supervision in a very poor environment, but this was not the reason why they couldn’t sleep.

They couldn’t sleep, mainly because of worry and fear.

The screams coming from the sea made their hair stand on end, and made them afraid that they would be treated the same way.

“Uncle Wang, if they hand us over…” The teenager in Wang Ruicheng’s group was full of worry.

“It won’t happen.” Wang Ruicheng said comfortingly, but he himself wasn’t that sure.

Jiang Zhen was a good person, but who could guarantee that he won’t hand them over for money or something else?

Even if Jiang Zhen rejected him and didn’t ask for the treasure left by Cheng Yongzhen, Wang Ruicheng wasn’t able to be completely at ease.

They whispered about their situation, but couldn’t do anything about it. Finally, they could only squeeze together and comfort each other.

When the sun slowly rose from the sea, many people who had been worried all night felt some sense of relief.

The rising sun always made the sea look more blue, making sunrise a very beautiful time, but today the situation was different.

Today the sea was not blue but red, emitting a strong smell of blood.

The number of the pirates that were captured was very large, which caused them to run out of supplies. Which was the reason why, for the sake of supplies and ships, without even checking the situation first, they tried to attack Yabian Village.

Now, the large number of pirates were all killed. Even their families and children living on the ship were also killed.

Among the bodies floating in the sea, there were many female corpses.

Fortunately, the officers and soldiers left after dawn.

Taking back the ships and the heads of the pirates, they left the beach in Yabian Village stained with blood.

The beach wasn’t left like this for long.

The smell of blood attracted a lot of flesh-eating fish, so it didn’t take long for the bodies to be gnawed clean. Then the waves rushing towards the beach washed it down with bright red seawater, leaving the beach clean.

By noon, it was no longer evident that thousands of people had died there.

However, the people of Yabian Village were still very silent.

There were more than 10,000 people living in Yabian Village, including many children. Most days there were many children playing at the seaside, but today, they’re all detained by their families and weren’t allowed to go near the beach.

Jiang Zhen stood on the dock for a while, then said to Jiang Ming: “Go and make arrangements. I’m going to Qinghua Island tomorrow.”

Qinghua Island was an island that could be reached in two days after taking a ship from Yabian Village and going south.

There were many islands over there, and Qinghua Island was one of them.

The island did not have a name at first, so it was only after it was occupied by Jiang Zhen that it was given the name, Qinghua Island. In fact, he also had the idea of cultivating talents on this island.

The people who lived there now were all young people.

They were all selected by Jiang Zhen and sent to the island, and many of them are orphans. They were learning how to write, read and various other crafts. Little by little, he was improving the island and making it better and better.

Today, there were about 2,000 people living on this island. The existence of these people was kept hidden by Jiang Zhen. This island was where Jiang Zhen arranged to retreat to.

It was only a possible place to retreat, since he was living well in Wexing Province. However, he always vaguely felt that he wouldn’t be able to live peacefully forever.

Thinking of this, Jiang Zhen’s mood inevitably deteriorated.

The next day, Jiang Zhen went to Qinghua Island.

In the meantime, Sun Qiyun wrote a letter praising himself openly, saying that he had beheaded 10,000 enemies and captured many rebel ships.

In this letter, he didn’t mention Jiang Zhen at all, but in addition to this letter he sent another secret letter telling the whole story. Then he asked someone to send this secret letter to his “Master”.

When Sun Qiyun asked someone to deliver the letter, Jiang Zhen had already arrived at Qinghua Island.

The island on which he used to settle Zhu Erlin and others was large, but because of its geographical location, not many people used to live there. Now there were houses all over it.

“Boss!” The people on Qinghua Island all came to the beach when they saw a ship approaching. When they saw Jiang Zhen coming down, they all called out in unison.

The people living on this island were all very young so their  faces were full of vigor and vitality. When Jiang Zhen saw them, his mood become better.

After he looked around Qinghua Island, he became even more satisfied with this place.

The person who was in charge of this island was Zhu Erlin.

Zhu Erlin used to be illiterate, but in the past few years, he had learned a lot of things. He took the account book to report its contents to Jiang Zhen, but without even looking at it, he already knew everything about the island like the back of his hand.

“Boss Jiang, this island is now self-sufficient!” Zhu Erlin looked at Jiang Zhen with some satisfaction. Not only was it self-sufficient, they were even starting to raise more chickens and ducks!

“You’re doing very well.” Jiang Zhen said.

After Jiang Zhen looked around the island and ordered some things, he left. He felt very uneasy about Yabian Village, so he intended to go back and observe more.

He had a vague feeling of unease, so he specifically came to see this retreat he had prepared. What he didn’t expect was that he would need this retreat much earlier than he thought.

 

Edited by: Antiope1

 

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