Before dawn the next day, more than a dozen fishing boats quietly set off without attracting anyone's attention. They set off two hours earlier than the usual fishermen. This was to prevent anyone from noticing them and alerting the pirates. After setting off, these fishing boats scattered around Seagull Island and waited for dawn to set off. In order to hide their tracks, they were at least 30 miles away from Seagull Island. Such a long distance was already the limit of visual range. In broad daylight, it was questionable whether the pirates could even see them. The soldiers on the ships could only see the fishing boats with the help of binoculars.
Just after more than a dozen fishing boats set off, several pirate scouts also appeared. They also chose to set off earlier. However, they were still an hour later than the Tang dynasty soldiers but an hour earlier than the other fishermen.
Because there was still an hour before dawn, no matter if it was the fishing boat from before or the fishing boat of the pirate scouts, no one could see each other. They could only rely on their experience to navigate. The fishermen who had been at sea for a long time naturally had rich experience in this aspect. Even if there was no sunlight, they would not easily get lost. Even if they used their nose to smell, they could roughly determine their location. This was their strength.
However, with the speed of the fishing boats, they would definitely not reach Seagull Island within an hour. In other words, these pirate scouts could not enter Seagull Island before dawn. Once they entered Seagull Island after dawn, they would definitely not be able to escape the surveillance of the Tang dynasty soldiers. After all, all the directions around Seagull Island?
There were already Great Tang soldiers hiding in the area.
Half an hour later?
The sun had begun to rise on the horizon. Would the day be here soon?
And the fishing boats driven by the pirate scouts had not reached Seagull Island yet?
This made the scouts very anxious. Did they not want to attract attention?
They deliberately left the port an hour earlier to enter Seagull Island before dawn?
But the sky was already bright?
They had not reached Seagull Island yet, so they were naturally very anxious. If they took the risk to enter Seagull Island during the day, what if the waterway was discovered?
That would not be good.
"Don't worry?
There are only five li left before we reach Seagull Island. There is not a single boat within a radius of 20 li. Now, we can only vaguely see the shadows of two medium-sized fishing boats. We are so far away. Are we small fishing boats?
These two medium-sized fishing boats definitely can't see us. What's there to be nervous about? "
A pirate scout said.
"It's better to be careful.
Let's not take the waterway. Should we go straight to the shore and enter the island through the forest?
Just one person is enough. Once the fishing boat docks, leave immediately. "
Another pirate scout said.
"Entering the island through the dense forest?
There was no need to be so careful! If you want to go, you go. "
A pirate scout said unhappily.
Is it more convenient and easier to enter the island through the waterway?
If they were to enter through the dense forest, they might encounter poisonous insects. It would be quite troublesome. Anyway, no pirate was willing to enter the dense forest of Seagull Island for no reason. They didn't want to suffer.
"Forget it, I don't think there's a need to be so careful. Look at how far those two fishing boats are from us. Those are medium-sized fishing boats, but they look so small. We're a small fishing boat, and we've even disguised ourselves. If they can see us, then they're really seeing a ghost."
A pirate scout said.
"Alright, alright. Maybe I'm being too careful. Then let's go through the waterway."
The pirate scout finally compromised. He didn't want to suffer in the dense forest. There were too many poisonous insects in the dense forest outside Seagull Island. These poisonous insects were parasitized on a special kind of tree. This kind of tree was specially planted by the pirates to drive away the fishermen who accidentally entered the island and to ensure that the secret of the island would not be discovered.
When the fishing boat approached the waterway of Seagull Island, it was quickly discovered by the soldiers of the Tang dynasty in the distance. Naturally, they couldn't discover such a small fishing boat with their naked eyes. They quickly locked onto it with the help of binoculars.
"The waterway is open. They're entering Seagull Island through the waterway."
A soldier said excitedly.
"Boatman, come over and see if you can find out the details of this boat."
Another Tang dynasty soldier adjusted the binoculars with a 50x magnification and asked the boatman to come over and observe.
On the swaying sea, it was very stressful to use a high-power binoculars because the swaying of the distant scenery could easily make people feel nauseous.
However, after adding a stabilizing mechanism, this situation would be greatly improved. Even if the binoculars were magnified with a 50x magnification, there wouldn't be too much swaying.
"Yes, yes. I can only see the fishing boat clearly. I can't see the three people on it clearly. However, there are three of them. They should be the fishermen of Tianguang Port. However, these three guys are not qualified fishermen. They don't fish for three days and dry their nets for two days. They've been criticized by others."
The old fisherman easily recognized the fishing boat in the distance and guessed that the three people on it were the owners of the fishing boat.
The three pirate scouts naturally didn't know that they were being watched. At this moment, they had already entered the interior of Seagull Island through the waterway.
After coming ashore, the three pirate scouts soon met the small captain stationed here and saw the surprised look in his eyes.
"Why are the three of you here? What happened? Did the 3,000 soldiers of Tianguang Port make a move? "
The small captain asked in fear.
"Not yet. However, we heard that when a whaling ship passed by Seagull Island yesterday, several soldiers got off the ship and quietly entered the island. Although they didn't say that they found anything, it's better to be safe than sorry." "That's right.
"That's right. They might be able to fool a three-year-old child by coming to Seagull Island to look for herbs, but they won't be able to fool us. I'm afraid that they have already discovered something. It's just that they can't confirm our identities, but as long as they follow the clues, we will be exposed sooner or later."
"Let's retreat! Seagull Island has been exposed. I'm afraid we can't stay here any longer. If the soldiers really encircled us last night, we won't be able to inform you in advance. "
The pirate scouts said. "Okay, we'll leave immediately.
"I see. We'll evacuate right away. It seems that we can't stay here any longer. However, I'm curious about how these soldiers found out that there was something wrong with Seagull Island and where did we expose ourselves. After all, these soldiers have just arrived at Tianguang Harbor. How could they find out about Seagull Island so quickly? It doesn't make sense!"
The small captain looked puzzled.
Ang Lee and his companions had only arrived at Tianguang Port for a few days. How could they find out that there was something wrong with Seagull Island in such a short time? How was it possible? The small captain couldn't figure out what was wrong with Seagull Island no matter how hard he racked his brains. In the past half a month, he and the pirates under his command hadn't robbed anyone. All the pirates under his command had gone out to look for fat sheep before dawn and would only come back after dark. There were even a few days when they stayed on the island and didn't go anywhere. How could they have exposed themselves?
"Could it be that they were just blind cats running into a dead mouse?"
A pirate said.
"Lucky? How could it be so coincidental? There's nothing special about Seagull Island. How could they think of sending people to investigate the island? If they didn't find anything, why didn't they investigate other pirates?"
The small captain said with a frown.
"Seagull Island is the largest island! They must have started their investigation from the largest island. Maybe they'll investigate other islands tomorrow. "
The small pirate said.
"There's another possibility. They must have guessed it. After all, the places where we attacked are not far from Seagull Island. We've attacked everywhere except for the central Seagull Island. Isn't it a little too obvious that they're trying to hide something?"
A pirate said.
The small captain patted his head and said regretfully, "How could I forget about this? It's indeed too obvious! Forget it. It's meaningless to think about this now. Let's evacuate quickly! Let's disperse and go to other strongholds. There's no need to leave anyone here. "
The three thousand Tang Dynasty soldiers brought great psychological pressure to these guilty pirates. They didn't dare to take any risks. Even if they might be exposed, they wanted to evacuate as soon as possible lest they would be encircled and annihilated by the Tang Dynasty's soldiers.
The pirate lair on Seagull Island was just a small lair. There were less than 200 pirates and less than 20 pirate ships. Most of them were small fishing boats, and there were only six medium-sized fishing boats. It was obvious that their strength was still very weak. Since they had decided to evacuate, they naturally had to take all the important resources. They couldn't let the Tang Dynasty's soldiers take advantage of them.
They quickly carried the important materials and then quickly left Seagull Island. After leaving the waterway, they carefully closed the waterway again. Then, nearly 30 pirate ships were divided into six groups and went in different directions. They were going to hide in different lairs. Two of them were still on Seagull Islands, while the other four were on other islands and continents.
Just when they thought they could get rid of them, they didn't expect that they had already been targeted. The Tang Dynasty's soldiers were following these pirate ships from a distance. In order to avoid alerting these pirates, the Tang Dynasty's medium-sized fishing boats were very far away from them. They couldn't even be seen clearly at a visual distance. They could only see clearly with the help of binoculars. Such a long distance naturally dispelled the pirates' doubts.
Since they were all in the same lair on Seagull Islands, they were naturally very close to each other. Soon, they finished following. Of the four fishing boats, two stayed nearby to continue monitoring, while the other two took the opportunity to return and report the situation to Ang Lee. They let Ang Lee know the basic situation.
The other four groups were still following the pirates. At night, two more groups reported that they had found new pirate lairs, but there was no news from the other two groups.
This meant that some of the pirate lairs were very far away from Seagull Island and would take a long time to reach them. If they couldn't reach them by nightfall, it would be very dangerous to continue following them. They would be easily discovered.
"What should we do? It's getting dark. Should we continue?"
A fisherman who was in charge of following the pirates asked the soldiers of the Tang Dynasty.
As the sky got darker, it became more and more difficult to follow the pirates. Everyone knew that as long as the sky was completely dark, it would be much more difficult to continue following the pirates. Not only would it be easy to lose them, but it was also very likely that they would be discovered by the pirate ships.
"The task given by Assistant Minister Li must be completed, but we can't be discovered by the pirates! This is indeed very difficult. Do you have any good ideas? "
The soldiers of the Tang Dynasty asked the fisherman for advice.
The fisherman looked at the night sky, then looked at the surrounding environment and said, "The weather tonight is not bad. There shouldn't be any wind at night. In this case, there really is a way."
"Just say it. What's the way? If you do it well, you will be rewarded."
The soldiers of the Tang Dynasty said.
"We have a few small boats on our ship that can only accommodate three people at most. They are usually used for fishing in the distant sea. Such small boats are very small targets, and we won't be discovered even if we chase after them. It shouldn't be a problem to let the small boats follow them. We just need to follow behind the small boats. After a while, we can let the small boats send a signal."
The fisherman said.
The soldiers of the Tang Dynasty said happily, "This is really a good idea. The smaller the fishing boat, the less likely it is to be discovered. Come on, there are several flashlights. Let each small fishing boat take one. Several small boats will send signals in turn. Even if our big ship is a little far away, we can still see the signal."
Soon, three small boats went into the sea. Six fishermen and three soldiers of the Tang Dynasty appeared on the three small boats. The fishermen were responsible for driving the small boats, while the soldiers of the Tang Dynasty were responsible for sending light signals to the rear, so that the fishing boats behind them could see their position. The last small boat would send a signal to the medium-sized fishing boats behind, so that they could finally follow the pirate ships and not be easily discovered by the pirate ships.
It had to be said that this method was very useful. The three small boats successfully followed the pirate ships. Because the targets were very small, they were never discovered by the pirate ships in front. Of course, the first of the three boats was equipped with binoculars. Even at night, the binoculars could be used. Although the binoculars were far less effective than the binoculars during the day, they were not useless. They were very suitable for tracking the pirate ships.
The soldiers of the Tang Dynasty used the method of connecting the small boats and successfully followed the pirate ships. They followed the pirate ships for a whole night. In the early morning, the pirate ships still did not have a destination. The three small boats also appropriately retreated and finally returned to the medium-sized fishing boats when half of the sun was out. At this time, the medium-sized fishing boats were 30 miles away from the pirate ships. Beyond the visual range of the pirates, even if the pirates opened their eyes to the maximum, they could not see the medium-sized fishing boats of the Tang Dynasty soldiers, but the soldiers of the Tang Dynasty could clearly see the pirate ships in the distance.
Then they continued to follow the pirates for half a day. It was not until the afternoon that the pirate ships finally arrived at their destination, thus exposing a large island, which was also an important pirate nest hundreds of miles away.
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