After fleeing the fire range of the Weiyuan Fort, Braga and Viseu leaned towards the flagship Prince Enrique where Dagama was located. The two captains angrily took a small boat to the flagship and complained loudly to Dagama.
"Sir, those Ming smuggling merchants deceived us! At the beginning, they said that the Ming army at the estuary of the Pearl River was not prepared, and there were only a few ordinary small warships without artillery. But now? This artillery fortress alone injured our two ships!" Pereira, captain of the Viseu, complained.
The most unlucky captain of the Braga, Joao, frowned:
"Master Dagama, the side of the Braga was damaged by a very deadly shell. If there is no overhaul, it will be easy to sink the ship if it goes to the deep sea area and encounters great storms! Please help me think of a solution. The Braga must overhaul the side of the Braga!"
Dagama was helpless:
"How to overhaul? We don't have a port in Ming Dynasty, and the Ming people's port will not allow us to dock. This is obviously impossible. If you return to Malacca Port, you will be afraid that the Braga will sink in the middle of the journey..."
Captain Pereira interjected:
"I want to know now how many artillery fortresses in Ming Dynasty? If it is everywhere, we can't attack at all! I just looked at it. There seems to be a similar artillery fortress on the west bank of the river estuary. I don't know how many artillery cannons are there, and how much firepower is..."
Dagama thought for a while and said:
"Then I will send several warships to test the firepower of the artillery fortress in the west..."
Then, three Portuguese warships leaned against the Dingyuan Fort on the west coast and fired fire. However, out of caution, the three ships did not stop sailing, but instead fired fire while sailing to avoid artillery attacks.
The West Bank Fort commanded the Qianhu Liu Feng, and the soldiers of the fort also commanded the counterattack - the Portuguese tested it out, with 10 large-caliber artillery... Moreover, during this test, despite the maneuvering evasion, the warship Seitubar, which went to test, was also injured by an iron ball shell on the side and needed repairs.
"Where did the large-caliber artillery come from the Ming Dynasty? I must figure it out!" Dagama frowned. What he was most worried about was that there were many artillery fortresses like the Ming Dynasty, so that the Portuguese fleet would not dare to go deep into the Pearl River Estuary and march into Guangzhou Port.
"Sir, why not go to the dock to catch a local noble and interrogate it and ask about the situation in Guangzhou?"
At this time, Dagama no longer believed the news provided by the Ming smugglers from the Port of Malacca, so he also agreed with this method. In his opinion, the local nobles must have known some inside information.
So, the entire Portuguese fleet retreated and stopped at a seaside fishing port in Nanlang Town, Xiangshan County (later Zhongshan City), on the south west coast, and sent people ashore to surround the house of a wealthy family in Cuiheng Village.
"Is this the most powerful Sun family here? He knows the news from Guangzhou?" Benardo, a translator who knows Chinese, asked Wu Ren, a restaurant clerk who had been arrested from the town.
The timid restaurant clerk Wu Ren nodded and said:
"Yes, Lord Yi, this Sun Wei, the master of the Sun family, is a juren. He has gone to Guangzhou City many times to take exams and often attend cultural gatherings. Therefore, the one who knows Guangzhou best in the local area is probably Mr. Sun."
"Okay, come here, rush in and capture that Master Sun!" Benardo waved his hand, hundreds of Portuguese sailors brought big stones, smashed open the door of the Sun family, and captured all the juren Sun Wei and his family who were fighting stubbornly.
After Benardo grabbed the sixth family of Sun Juren, he ordered someone to put the knife on the other people's necks, and directly asked Sun threateningly:
"Mr. Sun, tell us what you know about Guangzhou. Otherwise, if my hands shake, your family will go to hell..."
Sun Wei is about 35 years old and has a good appearance. He is one of the only two juren in Nanlang Town. However, another juren from Nanlang Town has moved to Xiangshan County, and he is the only one who is still in Cuiheng Village. Unfortunately, he was caught by the Portuguese.
Seeing the sword on the neck of his eldest son Sun Bin, Sun Wei was a little worried. As a scholar, he was not afraid, and at worst he could kill himself. However, if the whole family of six fell into the hands of the enemy, there would be a problem.
In ancient times, scholars emphasized "family, country and the world", among which family was ranked first. Scholars shone their families and honor their ancestors, but to put it bluntly, it was for the family. If his only son Sun Bin died and he was doomed, his family would be invincible...
"Or what if I make up a lie to fool these barbarians?"
After making up his mind, Sun Wei bowed:
"Please give your hands up and let my family go, and I will tell you everything."
Seeing that he was so "uper" he did not talk nonsense, Bernardo asked directly:
"We want to know, for example, there are two artillery fortresses on the left and right sides of the Pearl River Estuary, how many artillery are there near Guangzhou? How many artillery fortresses are there? Are there such artillery fortresses in other places?"
Sun Wei was shocked. As a juren who often traveled to Guangzhou and Nanlang Town, he happened to know this situation. Because he had a staff member in the Guangzhou Government Office in the same year and knew some inside information.
According to his in the same year, the court built a total of 107 "Pinglu cannons" this time, 50 of which were transported to Guangzhou for city defense. Among them, the court built two forts at the Pearl River Estuary. Subsequently, the court built two forts in Huangpu Port outside Guangzhou to protect Guangzhou. As for the other 57, it seemed that they were sent to Hu Jian's Quanzhou and Fuzhou to build forts.
However, the forts in Huangpu Port are still under construction. Therefore, the only ones that have been built and put into use are actually two forts in the Pearl River Estuary.
However, this did not prevent Sun Wei from fooling the Portuguese. So he bowed to Benardo and said:
"Zhun, I happen to know some inside information about this..."
"Tell me quickly!" Benardo said happily.
"It's like this. I'm in Guangzhou City. I heard that the 'Pinglu Cannon' that can fire 10 kilograms of shells was cast in a total of 214 doors..." Sun Wei directly doubled the number to achieve the goal of scaring the Portuguese and making them dare not attack Guangzhou.
This chapter is not over, please click on the next page to continue reading! "214 Doors? God, so many?" Benardo was shocked.
"Yes, it is said that these 214 'Pinglu cannons' are all used to deploy in Guangdong and Hujian provinces for coastal defense. Among them, there are 107 doors in Guangzhou, used to build 10 turrets, and the other 7 extra doors are deployed at the head of Guangzhou..."
Benardo's face changed - 107 12-pound cannons, more than 12-pound main cannons in the entire fleet! Moreover, it was deployed in 10 artillery fortresses... This is terrible...
So Benardo quickly reported the situation to Dagama. Dagama was a little disbelief and asked:
"You're serious about this? Don't be him lying to you..."
After learning from Bernardo's suspicion, Sun Wei raised his hand with a righteous face and said:
"My Sun Wei swore to the sky that if there is any lie, he will definitely go to hell after death!"
"Swear to the heaven?" Benardo was also shocked. Benardo was a Catholic. In his eyes, swearing to the heaven is swearing to God. Such a solemn oath is definitely correct. After all, in the eyes of Catholics, no one dares to joke about God...
But he didn't know what Sun Wei was doing at this time. As a Confucian child, his chief classic "The Analects of Confucius" says that "the son does not speak strange powers and confuses the spirits."
Although there were Confucian scholars who believed in gods and Buddhas in ancient China, most Confucian scholars actually did not believe in ghosts and gods. The so-called swearing is just to deceive these strangers. Anyway, if you don’t believe in ghosts and gods, Sun Wei did not believe in hell and was not afraid of any retribution. Therefore, he also fooled him casually and saved his family’s lives first...
But unexpectedly, the Portuguese respected God too much, and when Benardo was learning Chinese, he mistakenly confused God with God. Therefore, he believed Sun Wei's "vow" so much...
Dagama didn't doubt that he was there. He also thought that no one dared to joke with God casually. So both believed Sun Wei's oath and thought that Guangzhou Port was ready...
So, Dagama gave up his plan to forcibly break through the fort blockade and march into Huangpu Port to loot...
Before leaving Nanlang Town, Dagama forced local carpenters to find a lot of wood and repair the side of the injured warship. Before leaving, the Portuguese colonists also looted all the gold, silver and food from many families on the shore, including the money and food of Sun Wei's family...
Chapter completed!