Chapter 205: Accepting Surrender

Ran Yao originally felt that it was not worth it for him to risk his life for twelve ships, but now he had brought back more ships and was still alive and well. He couldn’t help but be happy for him from the bottom of his heart.

Li Di was busy for a while, directing the ships to move their anchorages to make room for these nearly eighty ships. Then Wu De also came: for more than a thousand people, “purification,” distribution of clothes and food, and arrangement of accommodation were originally not a big deal for the quarantine camp, which was already familiar with the business. But this group of people was not like the refugees transported from Guangzhou, but a group of pirates, and they had to be dealt with carefully. Wu De was afraid that Yang He was young and inexperienced, so he decided to personally take charge.

“Do we need to transfer another company to reinforce?”

“No need,” Wu De said. “There are already two companies of marines here, and a riot control infantry company. If the regular army that has been trained for several months can’t handle a thousand pirates, old and young, we might as well just run away to Australia.” He paused, “Besides, don’t make it too tense, people will think we are playing black eat black.”

So the tone of being relaxed on the outside and tense on the inside was set. But “what if they want to see Ren Fu or He Xin?” These two people had arrived in Lingao earlier, and their whereabouts and treatment could obviously be seen as a model.

“Don’t let them see them for the time being. Xiao Wei, this Ren Fu is up to you to train well.”

“Isn’t the training supposed to be Ran Yao’s job? At most, I can only be considered brainwashing.” Wei Aiwen pressed down on his big-brimmed hat that was about to be blown away by the sea breeze, and then touched his cartridge belt.

“He Xin is actually easy to talk to—this guy has no opinion of his own, he’s just a spineless person, a wallflower, he’ll do whatever you ask him to do. Ren Fu is not okay. He feels that we are not righteous, not selling grain and still detaining his ship…”

“Did you tell him that Zhu Cailao is going to be finished?”

“How can we say that? If we say it, won’t it become that we deliberately framed Zhu Cailao?”

“We have to enlighten him well and let him know that our Lingao represents the correct direction of historical development,” Wu De said, thinking that this matter was still a bit tricky. He took Yang He and went to the quarantine camp.

Here, telegrams were constantly being sent back and forth. Le Lin had already reported the approximate number of people on the ship. The kitchen in the quarantine camp immediately got busy. The air door of the newly renovated briquette stove was opened to blow air into it, and in a short while, the newly added honeycomb briquettes were burning red. In the pot was the usual first meal of the quarantine camp: thin porridge.

Wu De looked at it and shook his head: “Add another half of the rice, and add more vegetables.”

“Didn’t you say that people who have been hungry for too long can’t eat a full meal…”

“They are not refugees. Even if they have eaten less and worse recently, they can’t be compared with the refugees who haven’t eaten or drunk for many days—add more vegetables, there are no vegetables to eat at sea.”

The dormitories, clothing, and the medical personnel who were preparing to conduct physical examinations and treatment for them arrived one after another. All preparations were made. In order to add to the atmosphere, Ding Ding had already hired the only band of folk musicians in the county to wait at the wharf, ready to play to welcome them. He also planned to have the students of the national school line up to welcome them.

Chen Haiyang, however, said, “It doesn’t have to be too grand. We can’t be too respectful to these pirates, lest they become arrogant and conceited!”

After exchanging information with Le Lin, Lin Baiguang returned to Shi Shisi’s flagship. The entire fleet, escorted by the patrol fleet, sailed towards Bopu.

Before long, they saw four strangely shaped ships with colorful flags hanging on their masts, breaking through the waves. The waves were rolling, and the momentum was very amazing. Shi Shisi was taken aback. These ships had no sails or oars, but they sailed so fast. They were probably the Australians’ “iron fast boats.” In a moment, these four iron fast boats rushed to the front of the fleet. Just as Shi Shisi was about to tell the helmsman to be careful, the bows of the four ships split to the two wings, and they had already avoided the fleet and circled to the two wings.

As if for a performance, these four iron fast boats constantly changed formations around the entire fleet, sometimes fast and sometimes slow, sometimes guarding the rear and sometimes leading the way, and from time to time they shuttled back and forth in the fleet.

“So fast!” Shi Shisi was an old pirate, and of course he knew what this terrible maneuverability meant. The other party not only did not need to consider the wind direction, but also could adjust the sailing direction at any time, as flexible as a fish. No wonder the Australians, with only a thousand or so people and seven or eight ships, could gain a foothold in Lingao, and both Liu Xiang and the great shopkeeper were helpless against them!

The sailors and their families on each ship, hearing that the Australians’ “iron fast boats” were coming to welcome them, all flocked to the deck to see these “iron fast boats” that they had long heard of, which did not use sails or oars, were made of iron but would not sink, and had the “power of ghosts and gods.”

“It’s really made of iron! My goodness. Iron doesn’t sink in water!”

“It’s probably not Chinese iron.”

“Who knows! It has no sails, but it runs so fast.”

“Monster! Monster!” some sailors shouted in terror, and were knocked to the ground by a slap from the leader. They were immediately dragged into the cabin and locked up. If the Australians knew about this, they would be in big trouble.

The leaders knew very well in their hearts that this was both a courtesy and a warning from the Australians, and their feelings were very complicated. After all, except for Shi Shisi, no one knew the situation in Australia.

After escorting for a while, the fishing boats suddenly accelerated and soon disappeared from their sight, coming and going as quickly as they came. At this time, the buoy outside Bopu Port had already appeared in Lin Baiguang’s line of sight. Then, a puff of white smoke came out from the towering Bopu beacon tower, followed by a thunderous roar of cannons.

“This is a salute to welcome you all,” Lin Baiguang said.

Seventy-eight sea ships of all sizes, the largest being more than three hundred tons and the smallest being more than forty tons, were all common Guangdong and Fujian ships on the southeast coast. Now they were lined up along the natural breakwater made of rubble on Lingao Cape, and dropped their anchors. This naturally formed rubble embankment had been transformed into a real sea-blocking dyke. A road was built on the dyke, a lighthouse was built, a battery was built, and a gangway for personnel to land was also built. The pirates on the ships thus landed on the dyke from the gangway, supporting the old and carrying the young.

At the wharf, the band that Ding Ding had found was playing “Joyful Encounter” and “Flower and Branch” in turn.

Shi Shisi and a dozen or so main leaders, had already changed into their best clothes and were being led by Lin Baiguang to have an audience with the “Australian big boss.”

The place where Chen Haiyang chose to receive the defecting pirate leaders was in front of the customs building in Bopu. Although the customs building was only a three-story red brick building, there was a large open space paved with coal cinders in front of it. There was no clock in the clock tower yet, but it looked quite imposing. Especially when standing in the square in front of the building, one could clearly see the huge shadow of the Fengcheng ship across the bay behind the customs building, which was enough to leave a deep impression.

Chen Haiyang had someone place a high-backed navy captain’s chair on the steps in front of the customs building. He had transferred naval non-commissioned officer students from the military and political school to serve as guards. They were all wearing navy uniforms and carrying the latest issued navy non-commissioned officer swords. The non-commissioned officer students lined up on his two wings, their backs straight and very imposing.

From the bottom of the steps to the entrance of the square, there were sixty men from the army and navy on each side serving as guards, their bayonets polished to a shine and arranged in a straight line.

The pirate leaders followed Lin Baiguang cautiously. Except for Shi Shisi, the others were all visiting Lingao for the first time. The momentary shock when the huge iron ship appeared in their field of vision had not yet subsided. Seeing the other side of the bay, tall pavilions stood, stretching out long arms. From time to time, puffs of white smoke came out, accompanied by rumbling sounds.

“It’s turning, it’s turning!” someone whispered in amazement.

Sure enough, the long arm on a huge pavilion was slowly rotating, with long ropes below, hanging some huge cargo. Suddenly, a high-pitched and impassioned scream came from afar, the sound passed over the bay and shot straight into the sky, scaring them all into a shiver.

“Damn it, what the hell is that screaming…”

“Don’t talk!” Shi Shisi said in a low voice.

Shi Shisi had originally thought that the big boss of Lingao would be somewhat polite and would meet them at the wharf, and they would just cup their hands in greeting and be done with it. Then everyone would drink and eat meat together—in these years, whenever someone brought a team to defect to the big boss, this was usually the routine. He didn’t expect that Lingao would be so full of official airs. He couldn’t help but feel a little awkward in his heart.

A cordon was pulled up outside the square, and the servants and personal soldiers of the crowd were not allowed to enter. Their swords were also left outside. From the entrance to the bottom of the steps, there were two rows of soldiers, heavily guarded, and the entire square was silent, except for the sound of the flags fluttering.

Lin Baiguang led them through the cordon to the bottom of the steps. Without anyone ordering, these people all knelt down with a whoosh.

Chen Haiyang could now speak a few words of Cantonese and Minnan dialect of this time and space, but he didn’t say a word. He only ordered them to get up in standard Mandarin and said that there was no need to kneel. Xiong Buyou, who was serving as a translator on the side, took a step forward and said it once in Cantonese and then in Minnan dialect.

This kind of etiquette was the result of the discussion of the few people present. Chen Haiyang did not speak dialect in order to show the status of Mandarin as the “national language,” and he had Xiong Buyou translate in the popular dialect to show respect for the surrendering people.

Shi Shisi and the others quickly stood up. They saw that the big boss sitting on the steps was only in his early thirties. He was sitting on a high-backed rattan chair, wearing only a blue cloth jacket with buttons down the front that the Australians liked to wear, with a cloth belt around his waist—this outfit was really simple to the extreme, almost no different from the young personal soldiers around him.

It was the first time that everyone had seen such a simple big boss, and they were a little at a loss.

It was still Shi Shisi who had dealt with the transmigrator group more. He hurriedly took a step forward, cupped his hands in a salute, and said some words of “long admiring your great name, willing to come and serve, and from now on we will work together with one heart and one mind” and other “docking” words of defection. After saying these, he presented the booklet he had brought—this was the roster and the account books of the ships, grain, weapons, and gunpowder that had been transcribed on the sea these past two days, as a sign of submission.