1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 510 Pirates Raid
July 1630, 7, the fourteenth day of June in the third year of Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty, was a major summer heat in the lunar calendar.

Twenty miles west of Danzhou City, at the seaside pier, a group of migrant workers are working together under the command of several Haihan foremen to lift thigh-thick timber to the seaside, preparing to build a trestle on the coastline.They just received this job two days ago. It is said that the Haihan people are going to build a wharf for their own use at Baimajing to dock those huge cargo sailboats.

Although the supervisors of the Haihan people are very strict and there is almost no chance of laziness in the process of doing things, the corresponding compensation is relatively high. One labor force working on the construction site is enough to feed four or five people.Moreover, in order to save construction time, the Haihan people even take care of food on the construction site, which attracts many nearby people to come here to apply for labor.

In addition to building the wharf, the Haihan people also hired more than 300 people and began to renovate the road from Baimajing Wharf in Danzhou Bay to Danzhou City.The original official road was a loess road, which had been dilapidated after years of disrepair, and almost completely lost its traffic capacity in the rainy season.However, the Danzhou government was not interested in spending money to build this road. It couldn't stand it any longer, so it called local gentry to raise donations and make repairs.

As the traffic between Sanya and Danzhou increases day by day, the Haihan people who control the largest share of transportation on this route seem to be unable to sit still. This year, they finally took out the money to expand the wharf and renovate the road.The Danzhou government was naturally happy to see the success, and gave the green light to Haihan, who was in charge of the project, not only allowing them to hire a large number of local people, but also allowing Haihan people’s carriages to freely enter and leave Danzhou City during the road construction period, so as to facilitate their transportation. kinds of supplies.

Of course, even if they cracked their heads, they would never have guessed that the real purpose of Haihan's funding for these infrastructure projects was actually to quickly complete the landing and raid when the army arrived at the city of Danzhou in a few months.

"Look, the boat entering the port!" Suddenly someone shouted loudly at the pier.

A lucky boat sailed slowly into Danzhou Bay, but the situation seemed to be a bit wrong. There was a large piece of burnt marks on the lower edge of the sail, and there were several broken places on the right side of the ship. With a few arrows inserted, it looked as if they had been attacked at sea.

Without too much speculation, as the ship docked, the situation quickly spread among the crowd.This is a cargo ship belonging to Zhan's shipping company, and the route is from Sanya to Danzhou.The Zhan’s boat company is no stranger to the local people. This boat company entered Danzhou almost at the same time as the Haihan people. Every month, several ships arrive in Danzhou Bay for trade.The ship that entered the port today seemed to be very unlucky, because it encountered pirates who had been extinct around Qiongzhou Island for a long time on the sea just over 20 miles away from Danzhou Bay.

Ever since the warships of the Haihan Militia were launched, the pirates around Qiongzhou Island have been in bad luck. No matter how powerful they are, they have all become the targets of the Haihan Militia for training.From 1628 to the beginning of 1630, the Haihan militia dispatched a total of [-] times, destroying more than ten pirate gangs on the coast of Qiongzhou Island and the surrounding areas.Of course, these pirate gangs have basically not yet formed a climate, at most they are at the level of the pirates on Dangan Island, and it didn't take much effort for the militia to clean up.By the beginning of this year, there was basically no news of pirates in the waters near Qiongzhou Island.

However, after this calm lasted for half a year, it seemed to be broken again.The pirates encountered by this cargo ship at sea were even equipped with earth cannons. If the captain hadn’t ordered early on to throw away part of the cheap cargo in the ship’s ballast while escaping, the ship probably would not have had the chance to escape to Danzhou Bay to dock.It was said that several crew members were injured on the ship. Fortunately, there was a doctor arranged by Haihan on the wharf site. After rushing to the ship for rescue, everyone saw several crew members who had bandaged their wounds being carried off on stretchers.

Then the tired and sweaty doctor appeared on the pier and announced the result to the people waiting for the news: "The injuries of the wounded are not serious, but two crew members died of serious injuries before they arrived at Danzhou Port. It can't be saved."

The pirates reappeared in the waters of Danzhou and robbed ships to kill people. The news spread to Danzhou city on the same day. pirate.

The Danzhou government didn't have a good way to deal with this kind of thing, so let's send troops to fight. Danzhou doesn't have an independent naval garrison, so they have to ask for help from Fucheng.However, it is not so easy to ask for reinforcements. First, they will start to gather troops after paying the departure fee.Moreover, the expenses during the period of coming to fight pirates have to be borne by the Danzhou locality. Who will pay for this money?Even if this expense can be raised, the pirates come and go without a trace at sea, where can the navy go to suppress them?If there is no whereabouts in ten days and half a month, should we continue to search at sea or go home?If there is no result and the flag dies down, isn't the money spent on asking for reinforcements in front of it in vain?
So the only thing the Danzhou government can do is to appease the victims, saying that they will definitely track down the whereabouts of the pirates and exterminate them.As for how to deal with it later, it can only be delayed for a day. Unless the pirates landed, the Danzhou government will indeed have nothing to do.

However, as a business partner of Zhan's Shipping Company, the Haihan people took the initiative to jump out at this juncture, claiming that they could assist the government in eradicating pirates.But there is a prerequisite, that is to allow Haihan's warships to enter Danzhou Bay.

The people in the Danzhou government are not fools, so naturally they would not agree to such an unreasonable request—whatever you Haihan people do in the south, it is the people of Yazhou who are responsible for it, and we don’t care and don’t want to care about it, but Don't even think about copying that set of gameplay to Danzhou.

Although the resident office in Dan encountered a snag, it did not express any dissatisfaction. It just claimed to follow the government's opinion, but if the government thinks it is necessary to ask the Haihan militia to help, then Haihan can send troops at any time, and There is no need to spend a tael of silver from the government, and all consumption is borne by oneself.In addition, the Resident Office in Dan also expressed generously that it would not seek any form of compensation from Zhan's Shipping Company for the goods lost due to the piracy incident. The crew are given pensions.This public statement has also won unanimous praise from all walks of life in Danzhou. They believe that the Haihan Executive Committee really understands the general situation and considers the overall situation, and it is worthy of being a model of local gentry.

Of course, there are no pirates in the sea off Danzhou. In Changhua Port, which is only 40 nautical miles away from Danzhou Bay, there are two "explorer-class" warships stationed, which are responsible for the security of Changhua's north and south sea areas.If there are still pirates on the coastline near here, they have probably been used by the militia to gain experience, so there is no chance of going to sea to rob.

The so-called pirate looting is naturally a good show directed by the relevant departments.As one of Haihan's main trading partners, Zhan's Shipping Company, it was a trivial matter for the Executive Committee to borrow a cargo ship from it.As for the various traces of battle on the ship, and the dead and injured crew members, they were all just pretending.But almost no one doubts the authenticity of this kind of trick - it is not a good thing to be robbed by pirates, what good is there to fabricate this kind of scam?

But unknowingly, the officials and people in Danzhou unconsciously received an important message, that is, there were pirates conducting semi-public activities near Danzhou, and they even approached Danzhou Bay.And many people have noticed that the Danzhou government didn't pay enough attention to this matter, or they didn't pay enough attention to this matter even compared to Haihan, an irrelevant outsider.

The Lord Zhizhou in Danzhou probably thought it would be good to delay, maybe the pirates would move out in a few days?After all, Danzhou is not a place rich in oil and water. In the past two years, even the two pillar industries of salt and coal have ceased production. Decline is almost just a matter of time.

However, the incident of pirate looting off the coast of Danzhou was not accidental. Within a few days, two cargo ships sailing from Guangzhou also encountered pirates at sea near Lingao and Chengmai to the east of Danzhou.This time the cargo ship was not lucky enough to escape, and all the valuable cargo on board was looted. When it arrived in Danzhou, there were only some less valuable ores left that were used as ballast.Fortunately, no one took strong resistance measures when the two ships were looted, so only a few crew members were slightly injured and no one was killed.

The ship owner and crew who were robbed this time provided more detailed information about the pirates. It is said that these pirates were not Han Chinese, but came from the area where Daming and Annan were handed over.It is also reported that the lair of this group of pirates is on Weizhou Island in the bay north of Danzhou and west of Leizhou. There are thousands of people, most of whom are deserters and refugees during the Annan Civil War, and have hundreds of ships of all sizes. And there are quite a few standard weapons, which can be regarded as a newly rising pirate force in the Beibu Gulf.

This news undoubtedly had a great impact on the maritime merchants who often operate in this sea area. In order to avoid being looted by pirates at sea, the maritime merchants joined the regular armed escort fleet organized by Haihan.

Since August, there have been more and more news about this mysterious pirate gang, and their activities have become more frequent. In the first ten days of August alone, there were at least five pirate robberies near the coastline in Danzhou.Although it did not cause any major casualties, it has already caused panic among the people in Danzhou. The fishermen in Lingao County dare not even go too far out to sea. Although there is nothing valuable on their small fishing boats, the fishermen are even more worried. He was taken captive at sea, and then forced to become a pirate.

In mid-August, the activities of this group of pirates finally expanded from Danzhou to the vicinity of Qiongzhou Fucheng. Two merchant ships sailing from Guangzhou to Qiongzhou Fucheng encountered pirate ships less than [-] nautical miles from the mouth of the Nandu River. Although they tried their best to escape , but one of the ships was intercepted and captured by pirate ships.The remaining boat fled into the Nandu River in a panic, and the people on board got the chance to spread the news.

It is impossible for Qiongzhou Fucheng to sit firmly on the Diaoyutai like Danzhou. After receiving the report from the victim, Fucheng Shuizhai still sent warships to cruise the Qiongzhou Strait, but no pirate ships and victims were found. Traces of the kidnapped private boat.

Of course, this matter will not end here. During the rest of August, pirate ships frequently appeared near the northern coastline of Qiongzhou Island. Many immigrants witnessed pirate ships with black flags sailing past the nearby sea at dawn.And more and more civilian ships encountered pirates at sea. Almost every two or three days, someone would report to the government office, claiming that they were ransacked by pirates at sea.But Fucheng couldn't come up with an effective solution. It could only keep the navy's ships as patrolling as possible in the Qiongzhou Strait in order to curb the rampant activities of this group of pirates.

At this time, there is gradually a voice among the people that the government is unable to destroy this group of pirates, and the only Haihan militia that has this ability is deliberately suppressed by the government to prevent it from fighting.Most of the people who promote this kind of speech will use the Haihan militia's defeat of the thieves in Panyu and the defeat of the Liuxiang pirate gang in Wanshan Port as examples to prove that the Haihan militia's combat effectiveness is sufficient to wipe out the gang that is currently appearing around Qiongzhou Island. pirates.The government officials suppressed Haihan, just because they didn't want to appear incompetent, and they were worried that Haihan militia would steal the limelight.

This kind of voice undoubtedly has a considerable market in the folks. There are many rumors among the people about the achievements of the Haihan Militia near the Pearl River Estuary in the past two years, and the credibility is quite high. There are no pirates at all, far more peaceful than these places in the north.

However, the people living near big cities like Danzhou and Fucheng would not be particularly alarmed by the appearance of pirates, because no matter how hard these pirates struggled, they were still active at sea and did not go ashore?Even if they landed, could they still attack Fortified City?

However, the situation is deteriorating faster than anyone imagined. At the end of August, there were reports of pirate gangs landing and looting fishing villages in Chengmai County. It is said that hundreds of pirates landed, and their actions were orderly, not mobs.Fortunately, these pirates seemed to only go ashore to find supplies, and did not kill in the fishing village. They just looted the villagers' food and left in a hurry.

But after the first landing incident, follow-ups soon followed.On September [-]th, a certain Zhuangzi [-] miles west of Qiongzhou Fucheng was ransacked by pirate gangs in the early hours of the morning. The owner Huang and his two sons were executed on the spot. It can be described as very arrogant.It's a pity that when the government received the news, the pirates had already finished their plunder and retreated to the sea.

(End of this chapter)