1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 889 Official Response
The situation on Zhoushan Island has gradually returned to calm under Haihan's strong control, but the conflicts of interest caused by the arrival of Haihan in the coastal states of Zhejiang have not yet ended.The business promotion meeting held in Zhoushan Island at the end of May created a group of vested interests, but at the same time, some people who relied on Zhoushan's original trading system for income suffered heavy losses as a result.For these people, the arrival of the Haihan people was nothing short of a disaster, and the new trade system led by the Haihan people completely cut off their chances of gaining benefits from the trade in the East China Sea.

As the saying goes, cutting a person's wealth is like killing his parents. In the eyes of those who have suffered financial losses, Haihan is the biggest enemy.Although Haihan's powerful force displayed in the Battle of Zhoushan shocked all the onlookers who were about to move, it did not completely disappear the hatred born of profit, and there are still many people who are still trying their best to give Haihan Make some trouble.

In the 20th year of Hongwu (1387), Tanghe Xinguo was appointed by Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang to inspect coastal defense in Zhejiang. He chose Yuyao and Shangyu counties in Shaoxing to build an acropolis in the north of Haikou. mountain guard.In the 36th year of Jiajing, Qi Jiguang, the general of Ningshao, led his troops to Linshanwei to fight against the Japanese. He reinforced and built more than five li long city walls, beacon towers, forts and other military facilities, and achieved the famous "Longshan Victory". The anti-Japanese war in eastern Zhejiang at that time.

However, since the reign of Tianqi, pirates and looting activities in the East China Sea have gradually decreased, and have evolved into a new profit-making method based on armed smuggling. The pressure has been reduced a lot accordingly, and many military attaches in the guards have joined the smuggling trade either openly or covertly, using their official identities, and even using official ships and docks to seek personal gain.

However, this situation has fundamentally changed after the arrival of the Haihan people. More businessmen participated in this game of interests and chose to join the Haihan side.The monopoly agreement formulated by the Haihan people makes it impossible for the military to directly participate. This is indeed an unacceptable change for the military that has been used to collecting money and harvesting in the past few years.However, they also knew that it would be difficult to suppress this powerful dragon from outside, so they could only temporarily suppress their dissatisfaction in their hearts.

This day, a black-covered boat came to the pier near Linshanwei. After it docked at the pier, the people on board threw out a token. After a while, a covered carriage drove up to the pier. People, without stopping, got into the car directly.After the coachman drove away from the pier, he did not go to the nearby towns, but drove directly into Linshan Weicheng.Wei Shan, the commander of Linshan Weicheng, came out to welcome these mysterious guests into his official residence.

Being able to work for Wei Shan to come forward, the identities of these people are indeed not ordinary.The leader of the team is Yu Pingfeng, the commander of Zhejiang Dusi, who is the official backer behind the Zhoushan Ship Gang.It was three days after the Haihan people attacked Zhoushan Island before he received the news. By the time his side could respond, the war on Zhoushan Island was over.Naturally, Yu Pingfeng was not willing to let his own property be taken away by a group of foreigners so easily, so he used his authority to send official documents to both Guanhaiwei and Changguowei in Ningbo Prefecture, asking them to expel the Haihan people who broke into the Daming sea area with arms .

However, after these official documents were sent out, they all disappeared without even the slightest reply. After waiting for more than ten days, Ningbo Mansion replied that due to the recent bad sea conditions, the navy ships were seriously damaged, and they are currently undergoing intensive repairs. Go to sea to perform missions.As for what happened to the Haihan people in the local area, the local guard said it was still investigating, and it is currently suspected that it was a private fight caused by pirates plundering merchant ships.A few days later, the official document of Ningbo's tribute was also sent to the Zhejiang Capital in Hangzhou, saying that the war in the East China Sea was actually an action by the Haihan people to cooperate with the guards to kill the local pirates, and some of the heads of the bandits were captured as part of the attack. Evidence of action.

Yu Ping was so angry that he tore up and threw away all the official documents that were copied to him. He had been in the army for many years, and he had many eyes and ears in the East China Sea. How could he not see that the people below made up excuses to prevaricate him?The Changguowei and Dinghaiwei in Ningbo have such an attitude, which can only show that the local commanders have probably reached some kind of tacit agreement with the Haihan people.And the benefits they will gain from this tacit understanding probably lie in the fact that Yu Pingfeng was tricked by the Haihan people.

Although Yu Pingfeng has the right to write to the local guard in the name of the Zhejiang capital, the real command is still in the hands of the commander of the local guard. Yu Pingfeng has nothing to do with the non-cooperative attitude of the garrison in Ningbo. Official means can be used immediately to suppress. Even the Nanjing Ministry of War is not qualified to directly appoint and dismiss the guard commander. If you want to make a small report, you still have to submit it to the northern capital.Moreover, when it comes to the appointment and removal of personnel, it is difficult to get through the joints without bleeding. It is difficult for impeachment to really play a role.Even if Yu Pingfeng is willing to spend the money, plus the time for activities in the capital, it won't be able to handle it in two or three months, and the daylily will be cold by then.

The debt with the Ningbo garrison must be settled, but not at this moment, Yu Pingfeng's priority is how to drive the Haihan people out of Zhoushan, and other issues are secondary issues.With his identity, it is impossible to directly launch the whole province's army to attack Zhoushan in the East China Sea, so he can only adopt some other methods - for example, find some allies with the same interests, and then try to deal with these desperate outsiders together.

It is not difficult to find people in this area. After all, there are quite a few people who rely on the smuggling trade market in the East China Sea to support them, and many of them are powerful figures in the local area.After Yu Pingfeng used his contacts to move around, he also attracted a group of like-minded people and planned to take action against Hai Han.The ones who came to Shanwei with him this time were two of them.

The identities of these two people are also people in the officialdom. One is Liao Xun, a hundred households of the Jinyiwei, and the other is Guo Zheng, the Zhejiang Tixing Envoy Si Qianshi and Zhejiang Military Preparation Taoist.Before the arrival of the Haihan people, they were also related to each other and profited from smuggling in the East China Sea. The appearance of the Haihan people directly cut off their source of income, so they hit it off with Yu Pingfeng and prepared to cooperate against the Haihan people.

Although these three are military officers, they don't have many troops who can directly command and mobilize them within the scope of their authority, so in the end they have to be handled by the generals who lead the troops from the frontline guards.So the three of them agreed on a date, and they quietly went out to sea together from Hangzhou Mansion Shun the day before yesterday, and arrived at Linshanwei, Shaoxing Mansion.In order to prevent things from leaking out too early, they did not carry guards of honor. The three of them took the same boat and entered Linshanwei City without even bringing their entourage after landing.

The reason why they came to Linshanwei to find Wei Shan was because they knew that Wei Shan was also one of the beneficiaries of the smuggling trade in the East China Sea. Wei Shan was also involved in the business run by the Zhoushan Ship Gang before.However, the Zhoushan Islands are geographically under the jurisdiction of Ningbo Prefecture, so it is inconvenient for Linshanwei located in Shaoxing Prefecture to send troops to interfere in Zhoushan affairs, so Wei Shan did not take any action before that.

"Master Wei, I don't need to elaborate on the purpose of the three of us this time, right?" After taking his seat, Yu Pingfeng took the lead in introducing the main topic: "The Haihan people hid ordnance privately, organized armed forces, and captured the territory of the Ming Dynasty. , this kind of behavior is tantamount to rebellion and must be quelled as soon as possible."

Wei Shan held the teacup with one hand, but didn't respond immediately.Although the other party's official position is a little bit higher than his, Wei Shan is very clear that he has the initiative now, and the other party has demands from himself. If he wants to use this kind of official tone to fool himself, he is underestimating Wei. The human mind is gone.

Seeing that Wei Shan didn't make a statement, Guo Zheng persuaded him, "Lord Wei, defending the territory is our bounden duty as warriors. Now that foreign enemies are invading and the people are suffering, how can we ignore it when we are living on the imperial salary? We should dispatch troops as soon as possible. , to kill the Haihan bandits."

Only then did Wei Shan respond: "What the two adults said is not bad, but Zhoushan is under the jurisdiction of Ningbo Prefecture. Without the military order of Zhejiang Dusi, how dare I go out at will and go out across the government. Of course, it is important to protect the environment and the people. It is my responsibility, if there is a warrant from the commander, I will send troops to defend against the enemy."

It's not that Wei Shan doesn't want to deal with the Haihan people, but he also doesn't want to bear the crime of disobeying military orders and using weapons.These guys don't have to go to the battlefield to fight, of course they can show off their tongues for a while, but they are the ones who have to come forward to do things and take the blame afterwards.It would be okay if they could beat the Haihan people. It is said that the Haihan people are as rich as a country, and they must have captured a lot. At least they can spend money to deal with the aftermath.But if the battle is lost, these three guys will pat their buttocks and leave, and they will have to bear all the responsibilities themselves, or they will be dismissed from their posts.From his point of view, the risk of provoking the Haihan people is really not small.

Yu Pingfeng said in his heart that there is a warrant from the commander, and I still need to sneak to Shaoxing to find you. I have already issued the order through official channels.The difficulty of this matter is that the internal opinions of Zhejiang Dusi are not unified. Those who have benefited from it will wait and see or stand on the side of the Haihan people. There are also those who suffered huge losses in the East China Sea change of ownership like him. I can't help jumping up and down, and I must teach the Haihan people a lesson.Commander-in-Chief's attitude is very clear, if you want to fight a war, you should plan military expenses first, and send troops when you have enough money.

It is said that the Haihan people gathered thousands of people and hundreds of boats to capture Zhoushan Island. If the Ming army wants to take Zhoushan down, the number of troops it needs to dispatch will probably not be lower than this number.If an army of [-] people is dispatched, it is necessary to reward the soldiers and prepare supplies, food and grass, and tens of thousands of taels of silver are required for the cost of the deployment alone.In addition, such a large-scale cross-sea battle will definitely require a large-scale dispatch of naval forces, and the Yangtze River Navy is under the jurisdiction of the Nanjing Ministry of War. This matter must be approved by Nanjing.The meaning of the commander is very clear, whoever wants to fight anyone should first go to mobilize the Nanjing Ministry of War, and by the way, also bear the cost of managing the Ministry of War.

This is not that the commander is timid, but that there are indeed lessons learned from the past.During the Jiajing period, Zhu Wan and Lu Tong wiped out the pirates and smugglers in Shuangyu Port, and it took three months to pacify the entire Zhoushan. In the end, Zhu Wan committed suicide with injustice, and Lu Tong was also convicted of death.

The fight between the Haihan people and the Zhoushan locals, no matter what the reason, is a private fight among the people, whoever wins is a private matter, but if the government and the army intervene, the nature of the matter will change, and the commander is not willing to go there This is a pool of muddy water, so as not to be impeached later with the crime of "acting well, killing and provoking".

The commander was in the middle of the mud, so Yu Pingfeng and others naturally couldn't order the border defense posts to send troops to attack Haihan in the name of the Zhejiang capital.What Wei Shan said was reasonable, but from Yu Pingfeng's ears, he should be bargaining with himself.

"Master Wei, here are all our own people, so let's open the skylight and speak plainly. The Haihan people have taken over Zhoushan, and everyone has lost their money. Only by driving them away can the good days come back." Yu Pingfeng was unwilling. After going around in circles with Wei Shan, he simply explained what he had said.

Wei Shan put down the teacup in his hand, and replied in a deep voice: "Since Mr. Yu said it so bluntly, then I should say it bluntly. With the strength of the Linshan Guard, it is impossible to fight the Haihan people. Even if you bite the bullet and go , can't beat them."

Guo Zheng asked, "Why did Master Wei say that?"

Wei Shandao: "You only think that the Haihan people are a group of armed maritime merchants, but they are not. They came all the way from Fujian. Do you think that with just a few fleets of merchant ships, they can take down Zhoushan Island, which Wang Jialin has managed for nearly 20 years? As far as we know, the Haihan people came with a large-scale armed fleet, which is composed of warships rather than merchant ships as you imagined, and there are even giant gunboats with more than a thousand materials. This Linshanwei is currently There are no naval warships stationed, and the largest troop carrier is only [-] materials. What are they going to use to compete with the Haihan people? The commanders of Guanhaiwei and Changguowei in Ningbo Prefecture are not fools. They really have advantages to take advantage of. Let’s go, why do we need to wait for the order from Zhejiang Dusi!”

Wei Shan's words are indeed very straightforward. The Ming army in the capitals of Linhai are not completely blind to what happened in the East China Sea, but they know that their strength is not enough, even if they want to intervene, they can't change the situation. And if they didn't eat the meat, they might even make a fuss.In the situation where it is obvious that the Haihan people cannot be dealt with, pretending to be deaf and dumb is actually a wise way to deal with it.And these three people all came from Hangzhou Mansion. They don't know much about the situation in the East China Sea, so they inevitably have the illusion that they can use force to drive away the Haihan people and bring the Zhoushan Islands under their control again. .

"Then what Master Wei means is that if you gather the strength of the two governments of Shaoxing and Ningbo, you may not be able to beat the Haihan people?" Yu Pingfeng also realized that the matter might not be as simple as he expected, and it could not be solved smoothly with simple and rude means. of.

(End of this chapter)