1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 831 Zhejiang Pirates
Now that the other party has something to ask, everything has to be discussed, and Shi Diwen's mood immediately relaxed: "We Haihan and Mr. Xu have always cooperated happily. If there is anything that can help, we will definitely be happy to help But this also requires you to provide us with more information, the more detailed the better. Together, we need money and soldiers, what else in the world can't be done!"

Xu Yuzhuo didn't dare to take his words casually. If someone listened to him through the wall, Shi Diwen, a foreign military attache, would be fine with his speech. Xu Yuzhuo is a serious official with official positions, so he dared to say such words It is treason.Even though the Fujian sky was high and the emperor was far away, and the court officials who were all focused on calming the chaos might not care about these things, but as subjects of the Ming Dynasty, their awe of the imperial power was still deeply rooted.Use the power in your hands to do some smuggling business with the Haihan people, protect Haihan's rights and interests in Fujian, and even let Haihan station troops in the territory that originally belonged to Ming Dynasty. Even if Xu Yuzhuo didn't object openly, he would definitely draw a clear line with Hai Han immediately and put aside the relationship.

Seeing that Xu Yuzhuo didn't answer the question, Shi Diwen realized something was wrong after thinking about it, and said with a smile: "I made a slip of the tongue! Although we have money and soldiers, we still need to respect Ming's rules and laws. We They are legal businessmen, of course they must use legal means to achieve their goals, General Xu can rest assured that we will not do anything unfavorable to Daming."

Xu Yuzhuo forced a smile from the corner of his mouth: "I naturally believe this, otherwise I won't be able to cooperate with you for so many years. It's just that you have to be careful with such words. If someone with ulterior motives listens to it, it is inevitable that they will Make wind and rain."

"General Xu reminded you right!" Shi Diwen had dealt with these Ming officials a lot, so he could understand their mentality.No matter how high the official positions of these people are, the awe of imperial power in their hearts cannot be completely erased.Even those former Ming soldiers who took refuge in Haihan could not change this concept that had been deeply implanted in their minds since childhood for a long time.Although Shi Diwen does not agree with their values, he will not deliberately try to change their thoughts.

Xu Yuzhuo laughed dryly before turning back to the main topic: "To the north of Fujian is Zhejiang. The situation of the prefectures in Zhejiang is really complicated..."

From Funing Prefecture in Fujian Province to the north, there are Wenzhou Prefecture, Taizhou Prefecture, Ningbo Prefecture, Shaoxing Prefecture, Hangzhou Prefecture and Jiaxing Prefecture under the rule of Zhejiang.The garrisons in each prefecture and prefecture acted on their own, unlike Fujian where Xu Xinsu was under the unified command, and a piece of paper could pass unimpeded along the coast of Fujian.Zhejiang is a place where maritime trade is prosperous. All coastal states attach great importance to maritime trade rights. Even among states in the same province, there are extremely obvious competition and local protectionism.The Zhoushan Islands, located off the coast of Ningbo Prefecture, have a very important strategic position because they control the estuary of the Qiantang River and the key waterways that go south and north in the East China Sea. Therefore, the pirate gangs entrenched here have various complicated interest disputes with all parties.

Merchant ships pay tolls to pirates to keep them safe, and this is nothing new along the coast of Daming.In the heyday of Shibazhi, all merchant ships passing through its territory had to spend money to buy Zheng Zhilong’s command flag. With this flag, they could sail unimpeded in the Fujian Strait. A large ship with 3000 materials would cost 10 yuan a year to buy the toll. For the taels of silver, Zheng Zhilong can earn at least several [-] taels of silver every year just by relying on this income.

The pirates in the waters of the Zhoushan Archipelago also adopted a similar method of making money, but their strength was limited, and not every sea merchant would buy it and pay for it.For example, the ship company under the name of Xu Xinsu has almost all been refitted into armed sailing ships in the past two years. The ships are equipped with small-caliber artillery and matchlock guns purchased from Haihan. The earth cannon and bird gun are much more powerful.Many of the sailors on board were veterans retired from the navy, or armed guards who were specially sent to Guangdong and trained in the Golden Shield Escort. They were not at the same level of strength as ordinary pirates.Moreover, the fleet under Xu's name rarely goes to sea alone, and usually operates in groups. Even if a small group of pirates with only a dozen ships encounters them, they can only watch them, and they can't chew such a hard nut at all. .After a long time, these pirates no longer took the initiative to join the fleet when they saw the fleet with the Xu character flag on the sea.

The stronger pirate gangs often have inextricably linked interests with the government, and they don't want to offend maritime merchants with official background too much.After all, maritime plundering is no longer the main part of their income. The tolls, protection fees and gray income of various names collected from various maritime merchants every year are the bulk of their income.Coupled with the fact that some trade projects that are wholly or partially monopolized by these armed gangs that are both merchants and thieves, their income is still considerable. Key figures such as leaders and military advisers in such gangs receive six figures of silver a year. Very normal level.

But the fleet equipped with armed guards like Xu's is very few after all, and most of the merchant ships passing through this sea area still have to obediently pay tribute to keep them safe.Even some merchant ships currently transporting immigrants from the north for Haihan cannot escape the fate of paying tolls.According to information collected from Penghu, immigrant boats returning from the north will usually be allowed to pass by paying a single toll ranging from 300 to [-] taels of silver depending on the size of the boat.Of course, this extra cost was naturally included in the shipping cost by the ship owner, and then added up to the Haihan people.This means that no matter whether Haihan is willing or not, he is actually passively paying a toll to the pirates in Zhoushan waters every month.

Neither the executive committee nor the Haihan military could endure this kind of treatment. Although this amount of money is only a drop in the bucket for Haihan today, Haihan has always been the only one who collects city and body redemption fees from others. How could anyone dare Breaking ground on Tai Sui, the most powerful fighter in the South China Sea?The last person who tried to do this kind of thing was Zheng Zhilong, and now he and his men have been driven to the Pacific Ocean to become fishermen.No matter how rampant the pirates along the coast of Zhejiang were, their strength was no match for Shibazhi, who once had tens of thousands of troops. It was indeed the wrong target to suck Haihan's blood.

The military has long held back their energy and wanted to find an opportunity to teach these blind thieves a lesson. It's just that the Zhoushan Islands have a complicated terrain and are too far away from Haihan's sphere of influence, so they have been dragging their hands until now.However, since the executive committee has set the tone to develop northward, the pirate gangs entrenched in the Zhoushan Islands are naturally included in the attack targets.But to accomplish this mission well, it would be a bit troublesome to rely solely on Haihan's own strength. If we can find some help from Fujian, or collect some valuable information, the military will be much easier to operate. up.

Qian Tiandun's suggestion that Shi Diwen come to Zhongzuo to find Xu Yuzhuo is indeed the right move. Xu Yuzhuo is a naval officer and is familiar with maritime affairs.Although he did not directly participate in the maritime trade operation under Xu's name, he arranged for the armed transformation of these merchant ships. He also has some understanding of the situation in the Zhejiang waters, and the information he has is at least better than that of Xu Jiaqi. Army officers are much more numerous.

Xu Yuzhuo didn't go into detail about the distribution of armed forces in the Zhejiang sea area, but just analyzed and explained the general situation, and he talked for more than an hour.Shi Diwen knew that these news might be useful in future combat operations, so he listened very carefully.The information that the security department could not possibly collect with all their efforts, was gathered here one by one by Xu Yuzhuo, which saved Haihan a lot of trouble.

Xu Yuzhuo said that his mouth was dry, he took a drink from the cup and found that the tea was already cold, so he asked his servants to make another pot of hot tea.Shi Diwen took the opportunity to ask: "Then what role does the Zhejiang Navy play in the local area?"

"Zhejiang Navy?" Xu Yuzhuo showed a little disdainful look on his face: "The Zhejiang Navy has a lot of wine bags and rice bags. Two years ago, I visited the navy in Ningbo and Taizhou for business, no matter in terms of equipment or training level. , are far inferior to my Fujian Navy. Seriously, even if they intend to kill thieves, they probably still can’t do pirates. What they are doing now is to cooperate with pirates, do some smuggling business, and help the pirates when something goes wrong Ass, or sit on the ground and sell the stolen goods, and get some money from it."

"Does the imperial court just ignore it? Won't they let them organize military operations to suppress bandits?" Shi Diwen asked puzzled.The local pirates are rampant, and this kind of thing must have been reflected in the court. When the task of suppressing bandits is assigned to the local area, the navy is the first to bear the brunt.

"Yes, as soon as the navy is dispatched, there is no trace of pirate activity on the sea. Go around the sea and write a memorial to report, claiming how many enemies have been killed and how many prisoners have been captured. Just ask the Ministry of War and the court for credit." Xu Yuzhuo He snorted and said, "Anyway, if the head is handed in, you won't be able to tell whether it was a pirate or an ordinary person during the test!"

Such things as killing the good and taking the meritorious deeds happen in every dynasty, and it can't be said that it is a rare thing.Although Shi Diwen was a little bit embarrassed when he heard this, but thinking about the current period of social turmoil in the late Ming Dynasty and the world in chaos, it is inevitable that such things will happen.It’s no wonder that Changguo Prefecture, which had a population of more than [-], was downgraded to a county. In the end, even the county was abolished. It’s not because the number of people is getting smaller and smaller. How many of them were arrested and killed by the surrounding garrisons on the charge of “banditry” The injustice case probably cannot be verified anymore.

"Then there is no way to count the number of pirates along the coast of Zhejiang?" Shi Diwen asked unwillingly.If there is no rough estimate of the number, it will be more troublesome for Haihan to formulate the combat plan. If the estimate is too small, and the results of the battle will be counted after the war, it is inevitable that some people will question the military’s lie; There are so many pirates, you can't replace them with the heads of ordinary people like the Ming army?

Fortunately, Xu Yuzhuo's answer did not disappoint him completely: "The exact number cannot be counted, but based on what we know, there are roughly two to three pirates operating along the coast of Zhejiang, especially in the waters centered on the Zhoushan Islands. Between ten thousand."

"That's about the same as Shibazhi." Shi Diwen nodded in response.

Around 1628, the pirate gang Shibazhi led by Zheng Zhilong was in its heyday, with thousands of ships under its command, and it claimed to have 20 sailors.Of course, the actual number may be lower, but at that time the population living in the Shibazhi control area was already as high as [-].It wasn't until Haihan intervened in the Fujian war that the generals of the Ming army headed by Xu Xinsu gradually gained confidence, and slowly took back the coastal areas occupied by Shibazhi, gradually reducing the living space of pirates.By the time the Haihan organization attacked Penghu last year, the population of the area under Shibazhi's rule was less than [-], and its war potential had almost been exhausted. Therefore, facing the Ming army composed of Haihan and the Fujian Navy, Shibazhi couldn't organize a decent frontal resistance at all, and could only rely on waves of death squads to slow down the offensive rhythm of the coalition forces and hurry up to evacuate from Penghu.

In Haihan's view, Shibazhi's organizational structure is already very loose. More than a dozen leaders are fighting independently. Some of the enemies want to fight while others want to escape. It is difficult to unify their actions. It is difficult to compete with a professional army like Haihan's militia. Immediately after that, the disadvantages were apparent.However, compared with Shibazhi, the pirate gangs in Zhejiang are more loose. Even if several of them have reached an agreement to join forces or not to invade each other, it is often only verbal, and even the establishment of a joint headquarters like Shibazhi Organizations like this can't do it.Even if there are 3 or [-] people in total, it's just a mess. Shi Diwen doesn't really think that their combat effectiveness can be compared with Shibazhi.

Sure enough, Xu Yuzhuo's opinion was the same as Shi Diwen's: "The strength of the troops is similar, but the strength is far worse! Shibazhi bought a lot of weapons from the red-haired man and the Flang robot one after another, and even hired Flang The pirates in Zhejiang are not as rich and powerful as him, and those who have a few local cannons are not bad. In the past two years, people from Zhejiang have even come to our door through connections, hoping that we can sell the old cannons that have been eliminated In the past, I was quite courageous."

"You mean to buy the guns produced by our Haihan?" Shi Diwen asked in astonishment.

"That's right, these bastards probably heard that the Haihan artillery is so powerful, so they wanted to buy a few to go back to the strong front. But how could such a battlefield killer be sold to these thieves so easily, my father refused all of them. " Xu Yuzhuo replied.According to the agreement between the two parties, the weapons Haihan sold to the Fujian Ming Army, especially heavy weapons such as artillery, cannot be resold to a third party at will. Opinions can only be resold after obtaining permission.

(End of this chapter)