Damn it, I'm in the garbage book I wrote

Chapter 747 What are you mumbling about? Get two shots from me!

When it comes to fighting pirates and Japanese pirates, it's either about not being able to find their hideouts or about bombarding them relentlessly. There's no middle ground. None of these mountain bandits and river pirates are good people. Just kill them all and that's it. It doesn't matter if they're forced into this situation or not. If they really don't want to do it, they can die. They're just afraid of death and took this path. If we release them or persuade them to surrender, then where can the people who were killed by them go to seek justice?

Yes, that's right. Buddhism does say that one can become a Buddha by laying down the butcher's knife, but Xia Lin doesn't buy into that. He's practically wiped out all the Buddhas. Now all the ancient temples and famous monasteries in the world have to charge admission fees. If Buddha had a spirit, he would have struck Xia Lin dead with lightning long ago and reincarnated him as a fat rat.

The continuous attack from over a hundred cannons, regardless of whether it was a cave or not, although the power was not enough to flatten the mountain, the continuous burning inside the cave would kill even a dog, as they would all suffocate inside. As for those river pirates and Japanese pirates, they didn't even have a chance to surrender. If they could avoid such a saturation attack, they would be lucky; if they couldn't, they would be blessed by heaven.

When it was fully light, the soldiers were about to land. These veteran soldiers were all eager to avenge their fallen comrades. When they saw any survivors, they would first ask if they were Han Chinese. If they spoke Japanese, they would cut off their heads and stuff them into fishing nets like picking coconuts in Hainan.

If they heard someone speaking Chinese, they would break both legs and drag them away like a pig. They wouldn't bother asking about the half-dead people on the island; they would just chop off their heads and drag their bodies into the sea to feed the fish.

This area of ​​the sea was stained red with blood, and when the morning sun shone on it, the pink color was quite beautiful...

There were quite a few people in this place, roughly estimated to be several thousand, but the vast majority were killed in the bombing, some even unrecognizable, their height and weight indistinguishable.

"Has the bandit leader been found?"

"General, we haven't found him! The captured men said that when we approached yesterday, the bandit leader escaped in a small boat under the cover of night."

Xia Lin frowned upon hearing this: "What are you all doing?"

After he finished speaking, he got off the big ship and looked at the prisoners chained together on the shallows. There were probably about two hundred of them, who should be the Han Chinese who had surrendered to the bandits.

At this moment, Xia Lin turned to the messenger beside him and asked, "How do you usually deal with bandits in Chang'an?"

"What else can we do? Skin them alive, cut off their heads, and hang them on the city wall. I can't stand the strong bullying the weak." The messenger curled his lip: "The evil they've committed is countless. Killing them is not an exaggeration."

"Let them experience extreme torture?"

"For example?" the messenger Erfeng asked curiously, "What kinds of extreme punishments are there?"

"Fry them in oil until golden brown on both sides? But that's too much trouble. Let's interrogate them first. We can use different methods on the high-ranking ones, and just behead the ordinary ones."

“Beheading doesn’t look good.” Erfeng waved her hand. “Think of another way.”

Xia Lin stroked his chin, his eyes sweeping over the people in front of him: "Let me think about how to make the beheading look better."

These people weren't Han Chinese; they could understand what Xia Lin and his group were saying. They came right up to them and started debating whether to skin and dry the meat or deep-fry it. Any of these bandits with weaker mental fortitude would have fainted on the spot.

After those who came to the island discovered the place where the hostages were being held, Xia Lin thought it best to just send all these pirates to be executed by slow slicing. If they didn't know how to cut them, they could use a shrimp or chicken butcher to do it, or let the local people experience the execution firsthand. In any case, letting them die cleanly would be too good for them.

They rescued about 120 people from the cave where they were holding hostages. Almost all of them were women, and a large portion of them had already gone insane. Anyway, I won't go into detail about how cruel these bandits were. After all, they were a mixed organization of bastards and their mothers' puppet troops. How normal could they be?

In their warehouse, a large quantity of dried meat was also found. According to their confession, this dried meat was made from human flesh. Some of the more elaborately made dried meat, which was even seasoned, was made from children's flesh. Hearing this description almost made Xia Lin vomit, and Li Er next to him was grinding his teeth.

They are considered to have strong resilience. Those with slightly weaker resilience would have their sanity level drop to zero during the trial. It's hard to imagine that in this day and age, there are still people who can do such heinous things.

"What a pity, that female bandit leader escaped." Xia Lin raised his hand: "Issue a portrait and issue a warrant for her arrest. Mobilize the entire Investigation Division; bring her out at all costs!"

Watching the pirates being taken away in droves, and after the island was thoroughly searched inside and out to ensure that no one had escaped, Xia Lin ordered his men to plant explosives in all the caves.

With a tremor, almost all the caves on the island that could accommodate people collapsed, and dust rose like mist.

"As the saying goes, a cunning rabbit has three burrows. Interrogate the people here and see which other islands around here are their branch bases. Raze them all to the ground."

Xia Lin's order was a devastating blow to the pirates, as all their escape routes, hiding places, and supply depots were exposed.

Well, thanks to a self-righteous guy who took full responsibility, the problem that had been giving Xia Lin a headache was solved. As a staunch materialist, Xia Lin never believed in the concept of national destiny. He always believed that the so-called national destiny was achieved by each individual working diligently and laying a solid foundation step by step.

But after all these years of ups and downs, Xia Lin now secretly burns incense in secret, because some things are just too bizarre to explain. Like this guy who was held fully responsible, he might have been fine a day earlier, but a day later, the thieves lying in ambush at the casino owner's house had already leaked the news.

But on that very morning, he caught everyone off guard. Because of this one person, the bandit leader's meticulous plan was ruined in an instant. This also served as a reminder to Xia Lin that the detailed management of combat troops probably still needed to be strengthened.

Similarly, messenger Li Erfeng also included this point in his naval experience.

To be honest, Xia Lin genuinely believed that Li Shimin had the makings of an emperor. He wasn't joking about being a messenger; he was truly doing his job conscientiously. Although he would occasionally make some harmless alterations to orders, he personally participated in every aspect of communication, whether it was as a messenger, lookout, helmsman, or gunner... he would work in every position for a while.

Practice is the root of all problems. His status is no lower than Xia Lin's, but he is able to calm down and learn from the basics step by step. If such a person were to go on to do revolution, he might really achieve great things.

The only regret this time was that the female bandit leader escaped; otherwise, it would have been a perfect operation.

When the fleet returned, the local people lined the streets to welcome them. Many people came forward with tears in their eyes to greet their kidnapped relatives, but in the end, most people could only wait in vain for a response.

Xia Lin was unhappy and couldn't possibly wear a big red flower and parade around town, so he had his men put the flower on for him. He returned to his resting place early via another route. He was really exhausted from the past few days of running around, and now that he had finally won a great victory, his anxiety naturally eased a little.

He slept for a full day and night. When he woke up, there were about forty people waiting for him outside. He looked up and saw that they were the various levels of officials from the Jiangnan and Jingji Circuits.

These are just the ones that are closer; the ones further away are probably still on their way. Xia Lin quickly washed up, ate something, and then held an internal work meeting with these people. The main purpose was to give a progress report on the bandit suppression work. Of course, everyone also needed to be extremely careful about the "all-responsibility guy" incident to prevent similar foolish individuals from appearing in their own teams.

Of course, capturing the bandit leader was also a key task. Xia Lin said he wanted to torture her by slow slicing, and he couldn't sleep until the torture was over in a day.

Meanwhile, the bandit leader Haizhu had already arrived in Ningbo Prefecture. At the moment of the encirclement, she fled in a fast boat with her gold, silver and valuables as quickly as possible. Her instincts, honed by years of survival at sea, told her that this encirclement was something they could not withstand. And the result was as she expected. Those bandits were indeed quite capable in combat, but under the systematic attack of the navy, they were nothing but a fart. The news of their complete annihilation had spread everywhere in just a few days.

Her wanted posters were plastered all over the streets and alleys of Ningbo Prefecture, but she wasn't worried because her ability to navigate the world was unmatched, and disguising herself was a piece of cake for her.

In addition, she was naturally beautiful and charming, and her voice was delicate and soft, so no one would have thought that she was the ruthless female bandit leader who would devour people without spitting out the bones.

So when she arrived in Ningbo, she felt no psychological pressure whatsoever. She even brazenly used her fake identity to buy a small house facing the street and settled down, starting a small business.

"Why don't you sell the goods to them at a lower price?"

As soon as Haizhu made her sweet, coquettish noise, the silk shop owner's bones melted. Taking advantage of the fact that no one was paying attention, he pinched the waist of this young widow who claimed to be from Quanzhou: "I can give you a discount, but you can't buy goods from other places in the future."

Most women would scream and back away if they were treated so lightly, but Haizhu was no little girl. She even stepped forward to meet him, and even placed the silk shop owner's hand on her chest: "Then we certainly can't treat you badly, sir."

Just as they were getting into their tangle, the sound of deerskin boots suddenly came from outside. The farm owner immediately pushed Haizhu forward and stood up to greet them: "Gentlemen, what would you like to order?"

The newcomer was dressed in the uniform of the Inspectorate. The shopkeeper immediately became extremely obsequious upon seeing him. The newcomer looked the shopkeeper and Haizhu up and down, then slapped the wanted poster on his shop: "This person is extremely dangerous. Report to the authorities immediately if you see him."

"Yes, yes, I've got it."

"Yes, that's it."

The scouts from the Investigation Department were about to leave when one of them suddenly looked at Haizhu, frowned, and went back into the shop.

"You, your name, where do you come from, and what brings you here?"

"This humble woman takes her husband's surname, Huang, and her given name is Zhenzhu. She comes from Quanzhou and originally came here with her husband to do business, but her husband's ship was kidnapped by Japanese pirates. Even after she gave away all her wealth, the pirates still killed her. Now she is using the money as dowry to open a clothing shop in this area..."

"Take out your travel permit."

Haizhu quickly handed over the travel permit and identification she had prepared beforehand. She was no fool; she had prepared this backup plan long ago and was just waiting for this day.

After verifying her travel permit, the officers from the Investigation Department didn't make things difficult for her anymore. However, the ambiguous atmosphere from before was completely ruined, and she hurriedly paid the deposit and rushed back to her small house.

Although she was prepared, her heart was still pounding. This was because the Investigation Department was personally involved, and she didn't dare to imagine what would happen to her if she were really found out.

Before she could fully calm down, there was a knock at the door. She quickly straightened her clothes and adjusted her expression, then went downstairs to open the door with a seductive and alluring air.

Standing outside the door was the original landlord who sold her house, and two agents from the Investigation Bureau were with him. When Haizhu saw these two people, her heart skipped a beat. With just one look, she knew that these two agents in front of her were not comparable to the two agents she had encountered before. Their hawk-like eyes were truly terrifying.

"Miss, may we come in and have a seat?"

"Of course, may I ask what brings you two gentlemen here?"

Two guards entered the house and began to patrol back and forth. One of them said, "Madam Huang, I heard that you only arrived here a few days ago?"

"That's right, sir."

"Hmm, where did it come from?"

Quanzhou.

“Quanzhou.” The foreigner nodded, and then the two men exchanged a glance, nodded, and retreated to the doorway: “We are currently investigating the leader of the Japanese pirates. If you have any information, you must report it to the authorities immediately.”

"Yes, sir."

The two guards walked out the door, and as they stood on the street, they turned back to look at the entrance to the precious pearl. One of them whispered, "Senior brother, what do you think?"

"Suspicious, very suspicious. It would make sense if she were a widow, but why would a widow from Quanzhou buy property here instead of returning to Quanzhou?"

"Maybe he doesn't want to go back?"

"Heh..." The hawk-like man narrowed his eyes: "This woman makes me feel very uncomfortable; she has no humanity in her eyes."

"What do you mean, senior brother?"

"A woman, around thirty years old, good-looking, with a Quanzhou accent. Ha... Send a letter to Quanzhou, investigate! If no such person is found, arrest her! Get some people here to keep a close eye on her."

(End of this chapter)