From a son-in-law to a favorite of the empress

Chapter 447

The foreign pirates had guns, but they were few in number. Once they were approached, the advantage of the muskets was not great, because the government soldiers would not give them the opportunity to load gunpowder.

The shieldmen and spearmen were in front, pushing their way in, and the big knife team behind them began to charge frantically.

One thousand people rushed against four hundred people, and they were attacked from all sides. At such a narrow crossroads, the opponents could be said to have no way up or down.

"Destroy them all at the fastest speed! Quick!"

The leader of the government soldiers also went into battle in person. At this moment, time was life. Once the enemy's reinforcements arrived, the situation would be reversed.

But Zhou Yuan still had a bottom line in his heart, after all, there was a team to fight the reinforcements.

At this moment, on the main streets east of the crossroads, the foreign pirates were rushing towards the direction of the gunshots.

But there were more than ten big trees across the road ahead, each of which was as thick as three or four people hugging, with ferocious branches. At first glance, they were the most common banyan trees in the local area, completely blocking the way.

It was too much trouble to turn around and take a detour, so they could only climb over.

Knowing that time was running out, the Portuguese climbed up without hesitation.

At this moment, the soldiers who had been ambushing on the second floor poured dozens of barrels of tung oil one after another.

A flaming arrow suddenly shot over.

So the fire burned fiercely, and the Portuguese retreated frantically with screams.

They were destined to be blocked on this road.

A group of people hurriedly turned back and passed through another street.

But there were more than 500 palace soldiers deployed here, holding shields and waiting in formation, roaring.

This momentum frightened the Portuguese, but they still raised their muskets and fired.

The shields were too dense, and the effect was not ideal. Even if they fired three rounds, they could not really break the formation of the palace soldiers.

So they took another detour and happened to meet the Portuguese coming from the west. There were more than 600 people in total. They gathered together, and the gun-wielding team cleared the way and passed through another road.

But when they saw this street, they suddenly had a headache.

There were no ambushes here, but the streets were full of broken tables, chairs and benches, so dense that it would take at least two quarters of an hour for these soldiers in armor to clean them up.

The key point was that at this moment, a Portuguese scout ran over again and shouted: "Damn Orientals, they are attacking our warships at the dock! Go back and support! There are at least more than a thousand of them!"

There were not many combat forces left on the ironclad ship, and there were not many guns. Facing the charge of more than a thousand people, it was difficult for them to resist.

Of course, they could leave the dock, but what about the friendly forces on the shore?

Between the two dilemmas, time slipped away moment by moment.

The battle on Zhou Yuan's side had entered its final stage, and the 400-man foreign pirate squad was almost killed.

Seeing that only 70 or 80 people were left struggling to death, Zhou Yuan shouted: "Catch them alive! Don't kill them! Catch them alive!"

He quickly ran downstairs and shouted in English: "Surrender! Surrender! No killing for surrender!"

The mentality of these dozens of remnants had long collapsed, so they quickly threw down their swords and raised their hands.

Zhou Yuan said: "Tie them all up and take them back!"

"Send 200 people to escort, and the rest follow me to the dock!"

At this time, the dock is the top priority.

In order to cut off the fire from the bottom, Zhou Yuan sent 1,500 people to charge the ironclad ship.

Although his order was clear, this was a feint attack, and the shieldmen moved forward, but these palace soldiers were not of strong quality after all, and might not be able to execute it well, and there might be heavy casualties.

The key is that there are more than 600 Portuguese in the other two teams, and they should withdraw to the dock.

If they are blocked, the palace soldiers will be in trouble.

"Guanlu! Signal flares! Let them retreat!"

Zhou Yuan couldn't help shouting and led his men to run towards the dock.

The signal flares were launched, and the army at the dock quickly evacuated.

During this interval, the remaining 600-odd foreign pirates finally arrived at the dock. Seeing the retreating soldiers, they raised their guns and shot.

"Shieldmen! Block!"

The formation could not be reversed immediately in a short period of time. This round of shooting fell dozens of soldiers.

In such an open area, even if the number of people was more than twice, the soldiers could not threaten the other side, so they fled for their lives.

The shieldmen followed and tried to withstand the second round of shooting, but because the formation was messed up, the shieldmen could not protect the entire team, so dozens of people fell down.

At this moment, Zhou Yuan finally led his men to kill, and did not dare to hesitate, and shouted directly: "Kill! Stab them in the back!"

Thousands of people rushed up together, and the Portuguese screamed in fear, and did not dare to fight, and hurriedly fled to the warship.

Many soldiers in the palace laughed and cursed when they saw this scene.

"Don't run if you have the guts! You are a bunch of bastards!""Get off the boat and fight! I'm not afraid of you anymore!"

While roaring, Zhou Yuan fired a shot directly into the sky to stop the noise.

He shouted: "Retreat! Quick!"

Everyone woke up from a dream and retreated in a hurry.

The Portuguese returned to the boat, and dozens of Portuguese cannons fired at the same time.

In the huge explosion, countless people were drowned, and there were heavy casualties for a while.

Seeing this scene, Zhou Yuan really couldn't help cursing. The individual quality of these palace soldiers was really too poor. If they strictly followed his orders, there would be no such heavy casualties.

Other people's soldiers got on the boat, they must fire, don't run away, are you waiting to die!

The large army pulled to a safe area, Zhou Yuan looked back, and the corpses on the ground were broken. The biggest casualties in this battle were caused by mocking the enemy?

Isn't this just a waste!

"Count the casualties, collect the bodies of the brothers, and bury them properly."

"Detain the prisoners, I want to interrogate them personally."

After Zhou Yuan finished speaking, he left.

He couldn't wait to interrogate the Portuguese prisoners, especially the officer who understood English.

When the imperial soldiers returned in triumph, the remaining people of Xiangzhou came to greet them. The fastest thing in this world may be the news itself.

Zhou Yuan did not mobilize or publicize this matter, but the people knew that they were fighting and they won.

Cheers like a tsunami came, and countless people surrounded the imperial soldiers, shouting, praising, and celebrating, obviously igniting their confidence in protecting this city.

The commander of the imperial soldiers hurried over and said to Zhou Yuan: "Sir, say a few words to stabilize the situation."

Zhou Yuan nodded, waved his hand, and the imperial soldiers stopped.

He looked at the people around him and shouted, "Fellow villagers! The foreign pirates were defeated and fled to Haojing. If they dare to come again, we will let them lose hundreds of lives again!"

"Xiangzhou! We are here to protect you! You don't have to leave your hometown! You don't have to be homeless!"

There were cheers and applause everywhere.

These people surrounded the palace soldiers all the way back to the Palace of the Southern Prince, and finally stopped.

The noise also alarmed everyone in the palace. The Southern Prince came out in person wearing a dragon robe, his face flushed, and his energy was simply unspeakable.

Zhou Yuan knew that this guy was going to show off, so let him play the role.

He smiled helplessly and strode into the palace gate.

"Zhou Yuan!"

Princess Qinshui couldn't help but rush up, threw herself into Zhou Yuan's arms, and hugged him tightly.

She said excitedly: "Zhou Yuan, you succeeded, you defended Xiangzhou, you are the hero of the people of Xiangzhou, and also my hero!"

She couldn't help but kiss Zhou Yuan fiercely on the face, and her eyes with tears were as gentle as water.

"Hey, hey, hey!"

Guan Caixi ran over and pulled her away, anxiously saying: "What are you doing! How can you do this! This is my sister Cai Ni's man!"

Zhou Yuan touched the saliva on his face, glared at Princess Qinshui, and said: "Nonsense, don't do this again in the future, go and pour me a cup of tea, I'm thirsty."

"Yeah, I'll go now..."

Princess Qinshui ignored Guan Caixi and went to pour tea.

Guan Caixi looked at her back, frowning more and more, and then pouted and said: "Why has she changed her temper? She used to be very irritable!"

She looked at Zhou Yuan and continued: "Hey, Zhou Yuan, don't mess around. Sister Qinshui is a princess consort."

"You are so intimate with her now, how can you be worthy of sister Cai Ni?"

"Men should observe male ethics, you'd better be honest!"

Zhou Yuan scratched his head and frowned, "It's inexplicable, go cool off."

He was in no mood to talk nonsense with this girl, he just wanted to fill his stomach and then quickly interrogate the captives.