1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 834 Lurkers

Ningbo Mansion is located at the estuary of the Qiantang River and on the south bank of Hangzhou Bay. It is one of the human settlements with the longest history along the coast of Zhejiang. As early as 7000 years ago, the ancestors had created a splendid "Hemudu Culture" here.During the Kaiyuan period of the Tang Dynasty, the state government of Mingzhou was established here, which laid the foundation for the development of the next thousand years.

During the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty, all coastal areas were banned from sea, with the exception of Mingzhou, which continued to open up maritime trade.In the 14th year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang adopted the suggestion of the scholar Shan Zhongyou in order to avoid tabooing the name of the country. He took the meaning of "Haiding Zeboning" and changed the name of Mingzhou Prefecture to "Ningbo Prefecture", and this name has been used until now. In later generations, until the traversers came here, this area still used the place name set by Ming Taizu.

Since it was the only foreign trade port of Ming Dynasty for a long period of time, it became the most prosperous seaport city in the east of Ming Dynasty in the early Ming Dynasty.Of course, along with the merchant ships and wealth, there are also pirates and Japanese pirates who have caused headaches for the Ming court.Under the influence of huge interests, the pirate gang and the trading port have survived with a deformed relationship, and have become a cancer that is difficult to remove in the jurisdiction of Ningbo Prefecture.

But later, as other southeast coastal ports opened up to sea trade openly or secretly, most of the irreplaceable advantages of Ningbo Prefecture were lost, and the ports of Guangdong and Fujian gradually began to divert in the region. Originally, they could only go to Ningbo Prefecture. Maritime merchants who trade.Up to the present time, Ningbo Prefecture in Zhejiang has basically no great advantage in sea trade compared with Zhangzhou, Quanzhou, Guangzhou, Hong Kong and other places in the south, and the trading volume brought to Daming Sea Trade by the appearance of Haihan , and because of the prevalence of local protection in Zhejiang, it failed to have much direct impact on Ningbo Prefecture and other state capitals in Zhejiang.

However, compared with some states and counties in the inland areas, Ningbo Prefecture, which has geographical advantages and a hundred years of accumulation, is still considered a fairly wealthy area. The merchants engaged in sea trade here earn no less than the Jianghuai salt merchants in the area north of the Yangtze River. The words "wealth can rival a country" are met by at least several big families in Ningbo Mansion.Of course, although these big households have somewhat official backgrounds, they are still slightly behind in strength compared to Li Jifeng in Guangdong and Xu Xinsu in Fujian. In fact, their local roots are too deep. These two guys who have violated countless laws and regulations have probably been reported countless times by Jin Yiwei, and they have already been imprisoned in the sky prison to be executed in autumn.

Compared with this kind of rich man who is staring at countless eyes, there are many small wealthy businessmen who are not so conspicuous among the people. Many of them do not directly operate maritime trade, but the industries they are engaged in are driven by the local consumption level. Under the circumstances, these people have also been created to become wealthy businessmen with a lot of wealth.

Xu Ke is one of the many small local tyrants in Ningbo Mansion. The industry he is engaged in depends on the sea for his livelihood, and what he does is seafood trading.Xu Ke has a dozen or so sea-going ships under his command. They routinely go out to sea at least once a month for fishing operations. Occasionally, they also help other merchants smuggle some goods ashore from nearby islands. After a year, tens of thousands of taels of silver are recorded. can be guaranteed.

Xu Ke claimed to be from Wenzhou, but he seldom went back to Wenzhou to visit his relatives these years, because it is said that most of his family members died in a plague in the early years, but they survived but were regarded as an ominous omen by the countryside Xu Ke could only take his family's two fishing boats to Ningbo to settle down.When Xu Ke first arrived in Ningbo, he was only a young man in his early twenties. A few years later, he has already established a family and established a business in Ningbo Mansion.

Except for occasionally leading a team to go fishing in person, Xu Ke usually stays in his own manor in Xiangshan and doesn't go out much, and he doesn't even go to the county town much.And the nearby villagers' impression of Xu Ke was just a reclusive, low-key local tyrant, and he didn't do anything out of the ordinary in the countryside.When encountering things like building bridges and paving roads, Xu Ke will take the initiative to donate 800 taels of silver, and will send some daily necessities to the elderly in the countryside during festivals, and will also release some relief food to help the victims in famine years , can be regarded as a well-known squire in the local area.

On this day, a few strangers came from outside Xujiazhuang, and after asking for directions twice around Zhuangzi, they found the not-so-conspicuous main entrance of Xujiazhuang.After the leader knocked on the door, he said a few words to the gatekeeper, and then these people entered Zhuangzi.

After Xu Ke read the letter in his hand several times, he said to the visitor: "Does the Patriarch have any other orders?"

The person who came responded: "The villain just accepted the errand of delivering the letter, and he doesn't know anything else. The things that the family is mainly responsible for are all written in the letter."

Xu Ke nodded and said, "Okay, then let me think about how to reply to the head of the house. Butler, everyone who brought you from home should go to rest first."

The "owner" that Xu Ke and the visitors talked about is Xu Xinsu. Xu Ke is just a pseudonym. His original name is Xu Keqiang. He is the second son of Xu Xinsu's cousin. A good hand.Back then Xu Xinsu arranged for people to lurk in Zhejiang, and he was one of the chosen candidates.In order not to make people doubt his identity, Xu Xinsu specially packaged his life experience, and even changed his name, almost equivalent to rebirth.

But Xu Ke was able to gain a foothold in Ningbo, and the Xu family did give him a lot of support.Buying ships, buying land, and recruiting manpower in Ningbo basically came from the funds provided by Fujian.And what he needs to do in Ningbo is to play his current identity well and quietly accumulate strength.If one day his hometown in Fujian needs his help, Xu Ke has to let go of everything and do his best for his family.

Of course, with the influence of the Xu family in Fujian today, almost no one can shake it. It is no longer the precarious situation when Xu Ke left Fujian a few years ago.Xu Ke has also gradually stabilized from the uneasiness of the past few years. Not only did he marry a wife and have children, he bought land and property, and he was already thinking about when to apply to the head of the family, Xu Xinsu, to return to the Xu family.

Xu Ke, who is currently an ally and supporter of the Xu family, has also heard of it in Ningbo.Various glassware produced by Haihan have appeared on the market a few years ago, and even Xu Ke couldn't resist buying some to keep at home as a collection.However, Xu Ke did not have a relatively intuitive understanding of the military strength of the Haihan people. He just regularly sent home letters from Fujian, where they often mentioned where the Haihan people fought, and they never failed in attacking cities.By last year, even Shibazhi, who almost drove the Xu family into a corner, had been expelled from the Fujian Strait by the Haihan people.And this time, Xu Xinsu’s personal letter sent by a special messenger from his hometown in Fujian also specifically stated that the Haihan people have already convinced the red-haired people and Fulangji people on Taiwan Island, and the next step will probably be to go to Zhejiang— —The Zhoushan Islands near Ningbo Prefecture are the primary target.

However, if the Haihan people want to enter the Zhoushan Islands, they must face the local armed forces and the partiality of the government.Although Xu Xinsu was already very powerful in Fujian, he couldn't directly intervene in Zhejiang's affairs.If one wanted to find someone who was familiar with the sea conditions around Ningbo Mansion and could be fully trusted, it would naturally be Xu Ke, who was born in the Xu family.But Xu Ke also knew that when Xu Xinsu arranged for the lurkers, he was not the only one who stayed in Ningbo.

Xu Ke knew that there was another Xu family member in the Ningbo Navy who was a lurker, probably about the same age as himself, and he was currently the chief officer.However, although the two were in Ningbo, they had no contact with each other, and he never took the initiative to inquire about each other's identities.

Although the messenger may not know the situation, Xu Ke can roughly conclude that the member of the Xu clan in the navy will also receive the notification from the family.Because he and the lurker have two common characteristics, the first is to rely on the sea to eat, and the second is to maintain some invisible relationship with the pirates in the Zhoushan Islands.Patriarch Xu Xinsu doesn't require them to cooperate with Haihan, as long as they can provide Haihan with enough information and provide necessary guidance during the war, but for the sake of safety, these two lines must be launched together.

In the personal letter, Xu Xinsu asked Xu Ke to write an instruction manual introducing the pirate gang in Zhoushan Islands as soon as possible with the best ability, and express his attitude towards this matter. The next round of discussions will be discussed.

Although Xu Ke's main business is fishing, he is quite familiar with the pirates in the Zhoushan Islands.The so-called fees that Xu Ke paid to the pirates in the Zhoushan Islands exceeded ten thousand taels of silver every year. He knew who would take most of the money and who would divide up the rest.Every year when he leads a team out to sea, he often takes the initiative to go to some local pirate dens to meet the pirate leaders he knows.

Although this kind of scene is absurd to think of, it is actually even more absurd in the case of the navy.With the wealth of Ningbo Mansion, it is impossible to support a decent naval fleet, and in the establishment of the navy, there are quite a few people who collude or have friendship with pirates in private.When it comes to the specific power distribution of the pirates, Xu Ke thinks that his colleague in the navy probably knows the situation better than himself.

Although he already has a family and a business here in Ningbo, but the owner sent a letter in his own hand, Xu Ke still has to abide by the original agreement and do his best for the family.However, he did not inform his family members of his decision, ordered people to guard the door of the study, and began to write the secret letter himself.

After Xu Ke's secret letter was written, it was picked up by the courier who sent it that day, and it was sent to Penghu in the south of Hainan overnight.It takes about [-] nautical miles to travel from Xiangshan to Penghu, and it takes a lot of time to go there.

Just as Xu Ke predicted, the two secret letters sent from Ningbo almost arrived at the Penghu base a few days later.However, Qian Tiandun and Shi Diwen were not in a hurry to open it, after all, the letter was covered with a special wax seal of the Xu family, so it was not easy to fake it.Qian Tiandun immediately ordered someone to invite Xu Xinsu to come over and read the mystery of this letter together.A few days after Xu Xinsu sent the messenger, he left his residence and came to Penghu. While waiting for the news, he kept checking Haihan's attitude.

"You actually even drew a map. You're so thoughtful!" Xu Xinsu praised immediately after opening the envelope.

Although the accuracy of this map was far inferior to the military map used by Hai Han himself, what was valuable was that it marked the main figures of all the pirate gangs.You only need to slowly compare the map drawn by Haihan himself, and you can get an accurate and practical combat map.

The main content of the letter is a brief introduction to the forces of various local pirate gangs. Qian Tiandun and Shi Diwen compared the two revelation letters carefully, and found that although the two narrative methods were different, the key points mentioned were The object and related news are basically consistent, indicating that its authenticity is indeed good.

"General Qian, does the news I sent back from Xu Jiaerlang meet your needs?" Xu Xinsu's tone was not without complacency. It is not a problem for the lurker guards around him to get detailed information about the Zhoushan Islands.

"Convince, capitalized!" Qian Tiandun responded smoothly, but didn't care whether Xu Xinsu knew what "capitalized" was.If Haihan was allowed to collect the information by himself, ten days and half a month might not be able to achieve the current results.Now, in the two whistleblowing letters, [-]% of the pirate gangs have been confessed as targets, and Qian Tiandun also has to admit that the lurker team led by Xu Xinsu is indeed capable.

"General Qian, what should we do next?" Xu Xinsu heard Qian Tiandun's tone that he really appreciated the plan, and immediately hit the snake with the stick.

"We will send people to Fujian and talk to them in person. At the same time, the combat staff will also receive this document, and they will be responsible for formulating a specific combat plan." Qian Tiandun patiently explained: "Master Xu, I think you We can start helping to prepare combat supplies. After the mobilization of troops is completed, we are ready to launch an offensive."

According to the prior agreement between the two parties, Haihan will be the main combat force in the Zhejiang sea area, while Xu Xinsu will be responsible for the operation of the local supply system.However, the preparations this time were quite low-key, and Qian Tiandun didn't want the pirates to run away.If feasible, he was even willing to give the pirates an extra day and a half of preparation time before proceeding.

Xu Xinsu responded: "The matter of material preparations will be handled by the old man himself. General Qian can rest assured. But how much troops you will invest this time, and how many battles are expected to be fought, can you explain it."

Qian Tiandun said: "It's hard to say how many battles will be fought. Maybe when our Haihan army arrives, it's hard to say if the defenders surrender directly."

(End of this chapter)