1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 851 Armed Smugglers

If Ma Ling insisted that he did not know, it would obviously not be credible.At least two-thirds of the various valuable commodities copied from the city of Shipu will be traded in the new Shuangyu Port on Liuheng Island, and he, Ma Ling, has had many exchanges with Liuheng Island in the past few years. Dealing with several heads of the family is not stupid and sweet who knows nothing about it.It's just that these people's backgrounds are too strong, offending them will inevitably cause troubles in the future, Ma Ling hesitated for a moment whether he should tell the Haihan people what he knew.

"Ma Qianhu, the news of your cooperation with us will reach Liuheng Island in a few days. Do you think you can get their trust back by thinking about them here?" Qian Tiandun saw Ma Ling was hesitant to speak, but he had already guessed his scruples, so he opened his mouth to give him a few words.

Ma Ling was startled when he heard that, and immediately came back to his senses.Regardless of whether his current cooperation with the Haihan people is sincere or not, in the eyes of outsiders, he is already in the same camp as the Haihan people.Turning his mind quickly, he probably already connected what happened in Shipu Port with his betrayal.Otherwise, why were all the other Ming army officers imprisoned, and he was the only one who survived?Even if the Haihan people withdraw in the future, he has already offended anyone he can offend or not, and no matter how good he is, he can't undo it.

Then I heard Qian Tiandun continue to say: "You probably don't have a clear understanding of your current situation, so I would like to remind you that you are standing on the opposite side of everyone except us. Helping you, the person protecting you is not the Ming court, nor the East China Sea pirates, but us Haihan! If you cooperate well with us, you can continue to be your Shipu Qianhu, even if you can't get along in Zhejiang in the future, We can also arrange for you to settle in another place. Don't worry, many of our staff were your colleagues in the past."

Qian Tiandun's words are indeed not bragging. From Luo Shengdong in Yacheng Shuizhai at the beginning, to Wei Ping, Li Qingyang, Xiao Yin, Li Jin and others later, Haihan successively accepted at least one high-ranking former Ming official. Row.Of course, the rank of most of them is not high. So far, among the cultural relics officials who have publicly taken refuge in Haihan, the highest rank is only around the fifth rank.However, there are quite a few local officials in Fuguang and Guangxi provinces who have a cooperative relationship with Haihan. Although these people can't be said to be loyal to Haihan, they have deep interest entanglements with Haihan, and their thoughts towards Haihan are even more than that of the imperial court.

Although Zhejiang is not within Haihan's sphere of influence, Ma Ling's official position may not be guaranteed, and Haihan may not be able to use his strength, but there is no problem in keeping his life safe.Haihan has accepted so many officials from Daming, but no one has been settled by the court after autumn. At most, they will be arranged to go to Haihan's overseas colonies. Bureaucrats like Ma Ling who have work experience in professional fields can definitely arrange Go to a certain place to be a county-level sheriff or something, and you can start working without too complicated training.

Being persuaded by Qian Tiandun, Ma Ling also felt that his future seemed to be tied up with the Haihan people. It was indeed not a wise behavior to play smart with the Haihan people at this time.On the contrary, if the Haihan people can really clean up the waters of Ningbo Prefecture, the situation may change differently—the reason why the people in the government connive and even collude with the pirates in the East China Sea is naturally for money on the one hand, and on the other hand because of the lack of official military equipment , There is no way to take the numerous pirate gangs and armed smugglers in the Zhoushan Islands.If there is a foreign armed force strong enough to solve the local pirates and replace them, those local powerful figures may not be unable to accept a new face.

"Forget it, since I have chosen to cooperate with you, then I will resign myself to fate!" Ma Ling sighed and gave up the last line of psychological defense.

Occupying the southern part of Liuheng Island is a group of pirates and smugglers from various countries, who call themselves the "Sea Sand Gang".Its members include Ming, Japan, Korea, Ryukyu and a small number of Western colonists.This group of multinational troops has about 5000 to [-] combat personnel, has [-] or [-] armed sailing ships, and counts other vassal personnel about [-] people.In addition to controlling the two harbors of Cangdong'ao and Tian'ao in the south of Liuheng Island, the "Haisha Gang" also controls more than ten small islands including Liangtan Island and Yuanshan Island in the southeast of Liuheng Island.

This group has three big bosses, Li Luotou from Zhejiang, Shinobu Mogi from Japanese, and Gomez from Portugal.The three people have a clear division of labor. Li Luotou is in charge of dealing with Daming, Motegi Shinobi is in charge of smuggling trade in the direction of North Korea, Japan, and Ryukyu, and Gomez, through his special identity, has networked a group of Western colonists in the local area. Soldiers, mercenaries and adventurers form the most effective firearms unit of the "Sea Sand Gang".

And occupying the Shuangyu waterway in the northern part of Liuheng Island is a group of local pirates of the Ming Dynasty, led by three brothers Lin Xing, Lin De, and Lin Si, known as the "San Lin Gang".The three brothers of the Lin family were all born in Ningbo, and they have a lot of connections in the local government. Many people in the local government have money dealings with them.The soldiers of these three men are only in the early [-]s, but because of their good relationship with the local government, the "Sea Sand Gang" in the south will not easily provoke them.The sphere of influence of the Sanlin Gang is mainly concentrated in the northern area of ​​Fodu Island and Liuheng Island on both sides of the Shuangyu Waterway. Although it is not as large as the rival Haisha Gang, it is closer to Ningbo Mansion. The advantages basically make up for the shortcomings of the small territory, allowing the Sanlin Gang to compete with the Haisha Gang.

These two pirate gangs, or gangs of armed smugglers, are not the largest in the waters of Zhoushan Islands, but their trade volume is definitely at the first level in this circle.Some small groups of pirates scattered on various islands are limited in size and do not have a solid background, so they often can only rely on simple plunder to maintain themselves. In bad times, you even have to return to your old job as a fisherman.Groups like the Sanlin Gang and the Haisha Gang have basically bid farewell to the simple armed robbery model, and their income is more dependent on the huge profits brought by various smuggling trades.

Of course, those who can engage in smuggling trade all year round are naturally not a good kind, and they will inevitably have to face various external competition pressures, and sometimes they have to act as thugs for some big shots and do some shady and dirty jobs.These pirate gangs had no direct conflict of interest with Haihan, whose sphere of influence is far away in Fujian. The detailed information about these people was gradually collected after the coalition forces arrived in Zhejiang. It cannot be said that there is any deep hatred, but Haihan people entered Zhejiang Before, the Zhoushan Islands outside the Hangzhou Bay had already been included in their sphere of influence in advance, and these local armed forces were bound to be cleaned up.

Whether it is pirates or armed smugglers, for Haihan, the composition of the personnel is too complicated, and the possibility of overall acceptance is extremely small.Of course, if you sit down and negotiate conditions slowly, it is not impossible to negotiate a merger, but the cost of time is higher than the cost of money for the traversers of Haihan. Instead of spending a lot of time negotiating slowly, with these greedy smugglers Businessmen bargain, and Haihan hopes to resolve possible conflicts of interest in a simple and clear way.

Compared with the previous plans to infiltrate Zhejiang made by the departments of commerce and civil affairs, the Haihan military's strategy can only be described as crude, that is, to control Zhejiang's maritime trade by controlling the coastline of Zhejiang, especially the Hangzhou Bay area. Purpose.To achieve this goal, it is necessary to clean key areas and eliminate unstable factors like the Sanlin Gang and the Haisha Gang.

Ma Ling didn't understand Haihan's strategy, but since the Haihan people expressed concern about the situation on Liuheng Island, Ma Ling could roughly conclude that the two groups of people on the island were going to be in trouble.Although these two groups of people on the island have long been in contact with the Shipu Guard, and Ma Ling can get a lot of benefits from them every year, but his own future and destiny are at stake, and Ma Ling dare not hide anything for them anymore.

"Since these two groups have backstage support in the government, they must be higher in rank than you?" Qian Tiandun asked, "Tell me, who are behind them?"

Ma Lingying said: "Behind the Sanlin Gang is the Magistrate of Ningbo Prefecture, and behind the Haisha Gang is the Commander of the Zhejiang Metropolitan Government."

Ma Ling originally thought that this news would shock the Han people, but everyone present looked normal and there was no abnormality.Just when he was confused, he heard Shi Diwen ask: "I know that the magistrate is a fourth-rank official, so what rank is the commander-in-chief?"

Qian Tiandun has been dealing with the Fujian Ming Army for a long time in the past half a year, so he knows this better: "The commander is an official of the Zhejiang Capital Division. He is a third-rank official. There should be four people in the same position."

"One level higher than the magistrate, that's a great official." Shi Diwen nodded, but there was not much surprise on his face.

Qian Tiandun said: "The Dusi is a provincial unit, of course it is one level higher than Ningbo's administrative level."

In fact, there was no provincial system in the administrative system of the Ming Dynasty. Instead, the Chengxuanzhengshisi, the Judicial Envoy, and the Commander were respectively in charge of the administration, judiciary, and military affairs of a province. These three departments had no subordinate relationship with each other. , each responsible to the central court.The Commanding and Envoy Division of the Capital is subordinate to the Central Government of the Five Armed Forces and is under the command of the Ministry of War. It is the highest military leadership organization in the local area, and the local guards are all governed by it.Ma Ling's rank is a full level away from the commander of the guards in the middle of the Dusi, and the official rank of the fifth rank is also a full two levels lower than that of the Du Commander.As for the prefect of Ningbo, Ma Ling is not particularly afraid of his identity because he cannot directly control the guard system, but he has also heard that there are actually bigger officials behind the prefect, but that is not his little Qian The news that the household can inquire about.

If it is not a last resort, Ma Ling does not want to offend Du Commander, even if he only offends one of the four Du Commanders, even if there are Du Commander and Du Commander Tongzhi on top of the Du Commander, but at the administrative level The difference is enough to make Ma Ling drink a pot.However, this kind of fear obviously only belonged to Ma Ling himself, and the officers of Haihan didn't seem to take these big men seriously.

After thinking about it, Ma Ling felt relieved. The officials these people dealt with in Fuguang and Guangxi provinces were said to be at the level of governors and general soldiers, and officials of the third and fourth ranks might not be able to catch their eyes.

Although Ma Ling's guess was not correct, the difference was not too big. On the one hand, Qian Tiandun and Shi Diwen really didn't care much about the rank and rank of the so-called backstage figures. I want to get two typical examples for the officialdom in Zhejiang, so as to deter some people with restless minds.

If the level of the party is too low, it is obvious that there will be no waves and the effect of the example will not be achieved.If the level is too high, it is likely to directly anger the Ming court, which will have the opposite effect.The officials of the third and fourth ranks all serve in the localities, which is really a suitable level for the Haihan military's plan.However, there is no way to rely entirely on advance planning on how to operate. It still requires commanders to assess the situation according to changes in the local situation and respond flexibly.

"The pirates don't have many troops, but how to scout is a troublesome thing." Shi Diwen touched his chin and sighed, but his eyes drifted to Xu Ke.The only thing here is that his identity is not so sensitive, and he is more familiar with the situation in the nearby sea.

Xu Ke gritted his teeth, cupped his fists and responded, "I would like to go to Liuheng Island."

Shi Diwen was waiting for his statement, and immediately patted him on the shoulder vigorously and said: "Very well, after the matter is over, I will personally thank you! You set off as soon as possible, and I will send someone pretending to be a sailor to go with you. You don't have to worry, just go to scout around and let my people survey the hydrological conditions of the local port, you don't need to take the risk of using force."

Similar to the special warfare battalion trained by Qian Tiandun, the navy has also formed its own special forces. These small groups of elites, which are similar to the nature of the Marine Corps, are organized in several fleets of Haihan. There is also a squad in the Zhejiang fleet.Although the number is small, all of them are elites in the navy. They have received specialized combat training such as maritime reconnaissance, tracking, and coastal penetration, and they are even more familiar with disguised as sailors.

On April [-]th, Xu Ke left Shipu Port on the fishing boat he had come to head north.At this time, his mood was much lighter than when he came here. The ship sent by the coalition forces to pick up his family in Xiangshan should already be on its way back, and he didn't have anything to worry about.What he saw and heard in the army in the past few days has greatly strengthened his confidence in the strength of the coalition army. Compared with this highly armed professional army, the outlaws on Liuheng Island are indeed just a bunch of mobs.If it wasn't for Shi Diwen's initiative, Xu Ke didn't even think that there was any need for detailed reconnaissance at all, and the fleet would just go straight to Liuheng Island.

(End of this chapter)