GBP Chapter 89 Franky
Chapter 89 Franky
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Sun Yuanhua laughed loudly, "How laughable that the censors of the court impeached me for believing in and employing barbarians, yet now that the Liaodong troops are in rebellion, it is the barbarians who are fighting to the death. How laughable!" After laughing, he shook his head and said to the rebel officers, "Do you think that you can seize Dengzhou and declare yourselves kings? Judging from your actions, you are all short-sighted fools. You can only be proud for a while, but in the end, you will not escape defeat. I am waiting for the good news of your defeat."
Li Jiucheng remained silent, his face grim. Sun Yuanhua's words had actually struck a chord with him. He could eliminate Sun Yuanhua and his civil officials by force, but without them, he didn't know how to govern the country. Since joining the army in Dongjiang Town, all he knew was killing and looting. Now that Sun Yuanhua refused to be his puppet, he was uneasy about what to do after plundering Dengzhou.
Hiding behind the crowd, Liu Ye saw Sun Yuanhua, his clothes disheveled and covered in blood, the imposing presence he had displayed upon their first meeting completely gone. He couldn't help but sigh. Sun Yuanhua was a rare technically minded official among the Ming Dynasty bureaucrats, believing in and willing to embrace science and technology. Whether he died at the hands of the rebels or was beheaded by Emperor Chongzhen, it was a great pity. Now, the rebels had already embarked on their original historical trajectory, and Sun Yuanhua's fate wouldn't affect their course. If he could spare his life, their acquaintance wouldn't have been in vain; if he could be recruited, that would be even better.
Thinking of this, Liu Ye couldn't help but glance a few more times at the dozen or so Portuguese men. These must be the Portuguese instructors hired by Sun Yuanhua. According to Liang Xiaoming before their departure, these men were familiar with artillery structure and firing techniques, making them the most suitable candidates for artillery instructors. They were far more professional than Liang Xiaoming, who was a self-taught artilleryman, and were all rare talents. If they could be recruited into his ranks, they would be a great help and could relieve Liang Xiaoming of a lot of burdens. At least in the future, when the team expands, training artillerymen would be a piece of cake.
After pondering how to phrase it, he stepped forward from the crowd and said to Sun Yuanhua, "Lord Sun, how have you been?"
Sun Yuanhua recognized him and was extremely surprised. Pointing at him, he said, "You, aren't you Brother Liu? How come..."
"This is a long story," Liu Ye quickly interrupted him, turning to Li Jiucheng and Kong Youde and saying, "I have met Lord Sun once, and he has been kind to me, calling me 'brother.' If you two generals trust me, I am willing to help persuade Lord Sun."
Kong Youde was overjoyed. He didn't want to harm Sun Yuanhua, but the other party was so adamant that he couldn't back down. It would be best if someone could persuade Sun Yuanhua to become a puppet of the rebels. "In that case, I'll trouble Brother Liu!"
Li Jiucheng tilted his head and thought for a moment. Although he didn't particularly like Liu Ye, he couldn't deny that the man was quick-witted and eloquent. Letting him persuade Sun Yuanhua would be good if he succeeded, but if he failed, there didn't seem to be any real loss. Kong Youde was very protective of Sun Yuanhua, so he couldn't really do anything to him. He decided to give this guy surnamed Liu a try, as a last resort.
He nodded and said, "Then it's up to you. Lord Sun, I won't make things difficult for you. You can stay at your governor's office. I guarantee no one will bother you. Just think carefully about my proposal."
Sun Yuanhua didn't want to waste any more words with him, so he snorted and turned to walk back to the governor's office.
"As for these Frankish people..." Li Jiucheng's expression turned ferocious. They fired cannons last night, killing many rebels. Since they refused to surrender, it was better to kill them all to prevent them from being used by the court in the future. He and Kong Youde were both from the new army trained by Sun Yuanhua and were very familiar with the power of the Hongyi cannons.
"Since you refuse to surrender to me, then I have no choice but to send you to your deaths!"
Liu Ye was shocked. Were they going to kill these people so soon? He quickly called out to stop them: "Wait!"
Li Jiucheng turned to stare at him, his gaze somewhat cold: "Are you giving me orders?"
"Of course not, I'm only thinking of the two generals!" Liu Ye's mind was racing as he spoke, pondering a reason to spare the lives of these Portuguese: "May I ask, generals, what do these Portuguese do?"
"He was the instructor who taught our battalions how to fire the Hongyi cannons," Kong Youde replied.
“That’s right. Their hometown is far in the west. Why would they travel thousands of miles to Dengzhou?”
"Naturally, Lord Sun hired him with money..."
Having found a starting point, Liu Ye quickly continued the conversation: "Since you want to serve Lord Sun as your master, you can only use soft tactics, not hard ones. This Francois is an artillery instructor he hired at great expense, so naturally he values him highly. If we just kill him like this, won't Lord Sun be furious?"
“That’s true, but didn’t these Francois say they didn’t want to surrender? Are we going to keep them around so they can be used by the court to train troops to fight us?” Li Jiucheng couldn’t help but interject.
"The Francois' principle is this: they are mercenaries and cannot betray their employers. But what if their employers are willing to cooperate with you? Then they are not considered to have betrayed their employers and can still be used by you!"
Kong Youde slapped his forehead. "That's right! How come I didn't realize that? If Lord Sun is willing to be our leader, these Franks, who pledge allegiance to Lord Sun, will naturally become our people!"
"And if we kill these Francois, Lord Sun will be even less likely to agree to your proposal in his anger!" Liu Ye added at the opportune moment, seeing that they had taken the bait.
Even Li Jiucheng nodded in agreement. As long as they could serve him, these Frankish people would be very useful. In the future, when dealing with the imperial army's suppression of the rebellion, having cannons would be like adding wings to a tiger.
Ultimately, through Liu Ye's mediation, the dozen or so Portuguese men escaped the rebels' slaughter and were placed under guard at the governor's office along with Sun Yuanhua. Liu Ye volunteered to persuade Sun Yuanhua, and as an envoy, he naturally ended up staying at the governor's office as well.
These Portuguese men, prepared to die, were overjoyed to have escaped death. One of them said to Liu Ye, "Thank you, you saved our lives. You Ming people have a saying, 'Great kindness needs no words of thanks!'"
Liu Ye said with a smile, "We also have a saying: saving a life is better than building a seven-story pagoda."
The man didn't quite understand the meaning of the sentence, but guessed it was a compliment, and smiled, saying, "My name is Wu Ruowang. It's a pleasure to meet you. May I ask your name?"
“My name is Liu Ye, and I come from a remote island. If we can leave Dengzhou City, perhaps we will meet again in the future.” Liu Ye whispered the last part in Wu Ruowang’s ear. After all, walls have ears, and there were rebel soldiers guarding the door; some things couldn’t be said to Li Jiucheng and the others. Wu Ruowang listened thoughtfully.