Forty-eight years of Qianlong

Chapter 504 Mo Dao Miasma Sea is the End of the World

After the fleet of the Northern Navy left Ryukyu, it took two days to cross the sea off Fujian and Guangdong.In order to avoid alarming the enemy, Deng Fei did not intend to go to the sea off the Pearl River and the Qiongzhou Strait.The fleet first passed the Dongsha Islands in the south, and then arrived in the vicinity of Wanli Changsha in the southwest.

When the fleet sailed to the shallow water area in the northern part of the Zhongsha Islands, Deng Fei ordered the ship to stop and anchor, and called people on other ships to come to the Raytheon for a meeting and arrange the tasks ahead.

Because of the scorching heat on the deck, the meeting room on the Thundertheon, which only accommodated a dozen people, was so full that it was difficult to find a place to stay.Deng Fei, Wang Yuanfang, Hong Tao, Jiang Fan, Zhong Huai, Hai Pingzhi, Zheng Wenxian, Guo Xuexian, Lin Daosheng, and officers from the Marine Battalion and the Special War Battalion were all present.

At the beginning of the meeting, Deng Fei explained the plan to exterminate the pirates in Jiangping Town.

"Our next plan is that the fleet will pass through the northern part of Wanli Changsha, replenish fresh water at Ganquan Island in Xisha for a day, then quickly enter the Beibu Gulf, take Nightingale Island in half a day, and then go straight north to Jiangping. Don't give the Xishan Pirates a chance to breathe!

Raytheon, Beihai No. [-] and No. [-] blocked the access to the sea in Jiangping Town and Bailongwei from the east and west directions respectively.

What I need to remind you is that the coastline in this area is tortuous, there are many large and small islands, and the seabed situation is unknown, so the fleet can only stop ten nautical miles away from Jiangping Town. The marine battalion and special warfare battalion need to take kayaks to land at night .The members of the Hongqi Gang will send a guide to accompany them.

Now everyone can raise their hands to discuss, express their opinions, and speak freely! "

This is the first time for Jiang Fan and Zhong Huai to participate in the combat meeting.However, based on the understanding of the two of them, the military discussion means that the commander and staff plan in advance, and then issue tokens to dispatch the generals, and everyone will take orders to fight.Now Deng Fei even asked the officers below to discuss and raise their opinions. Isn't this a mess? What is the prestige of the coach?
While the two were thinking about it, Guo Xuexian raised his hand, then stood up and asked, "Will the Qing army in Guangxi be dispatched when our army attacks Bailongwei?"

Wang Yuanfang nodded and said, "Good question." After finishing speaking, he began to tell everyone present about the situation in Jiangping Town. A lot of information in it was provided by Zheng Wenxian's father, Zheng Lianchang, and several old people from the Red Flag Gang.

If the Bahamas were a pirate's lair in the early [-]th century, then Jiangping Town, located in Wanning Prefecture on the Qingyue border, was a pirate's lair at the end of the [-]th century.Historically, the Bahamas Pirates Den had only been rampant for three years before declining, while the Xishan Pirates, which were mainly entrenched in Jiangping Town, had been rampant for more than ten years.

In the history of another time and space, with the demise of the Xishan regime, the Xishan pirates who were expelled from Jiangping eventually evolved into "South China pirates" with 7 sailing boats and more than [-] gang members. It has plagued the coastal areas of Fujian and Guangdong for more than ten years.

People in later generations will always say that Zhang Baozai or Shi Xianggu "travel across the seven seas". The shitty seven seas are in the area from Leizhou to the Pearl River! In 1810, under the encirclement and suppression of the Manchurian coastal regiments, the Manchurian and Macao naval forces, all South China pirate gangs went ashore and surrendered.

Another point that needs to be explained is that whether it is a party or a pirate, they have never had anything to do with anti-Qing and restoring Ming Dynasty.

In the official archives of the Qing Dynasty from the late eighteenth century to the 90s, there was never any party or pirate who took "anti-Qing" or "restoring the Ming Dynasty" as their slogan and goal. The main activity of these people was robbery and kidnapping, plus kill.Once the government is serious, there is no one who will not hesitate!

So, all the Tiandihui, Hongmen, Gelaohui, and the Five Patriarchs are going to cool off!Some traversers thought they could rely on these people to rebel, so wake up!

The reason why Jiangping Town can be called a pirate's lair is mainly because it is located on the Qingyue border, far away from the political center of Annan, and has been in a state of anarchy for a long time.

After the Xishan regime was established, Ruan Guangping and his son connived and conspired to plunder the coast of Guangdong to enrich the treasury, which made Jiangping Town a paradise for pirates.The whole town is prosperous because of pirates. There are more than 2000 households in the town, and almost every family is engaged in the business of selling stolen goods. They resell the things looted by pirates to merchants in Guangdong and Guangxi, and sell food supplies to pirates.

As for the Qing Dynasty, which is only separated by a water, their control over the Bailongwei Peninsula is not much stronger than that of the Annan people.Because of the long-term conflicts between locals and Hakkas in Guangnan area, bloody battles occurred from time to time, which would cause traffic interruptions.As a result, Gaozhou, Leizhou, Lianzhou and Qiongzhou in southern Guangdong have almost become a legal vacuum.

".So, even if there is something wrong on the Bailongwei Peninsula, when will Lianzhou Mansion, three hundred miles away, know about it? It's not certain!"

When everyone present heard this, smiles appeared on their faces.

The battalion commander of the special warfare battalion raised his hand and asked, "What if someone resists at Bailongwei?"

This is Serdan's son Erlu, the former deputy captain of the Northern Navy's reconnaissance brigade.After the battle of Hunchun, Wang Yuanfang planned to form a special warfare battalion mainly composed of Ewenki and Daur people; the candidates for the battalion commander were chosen, and Zhao Xin finally decided to choose Erlu.Because of his old age, his father, Seldan, has retired to the second line since the end of last year, and is currently in charge of training wild survival skills at the training base.

Wang Yuanfang said: "The staff department will send you the mission statement later. This time we are going to completely cut off the navy of the Xishan Dynasty. Bailongwei is separated from Jiangping Town by a river, and many people there are helping to sell stolen goods. Yes, if someone dares to resist, they will be directly suppressed!"

Deng Fei said again at this time: "In this battle, all land and sea troops must be quick and accurate in their actions, and they must not be muddled! After we have finished fighting Jiangping, we will turn around and head south, clearing all the water in Haiyang, Shannan, and Donghai along the way." Then take Hue directly from Lingjiangkou, and teach Xishan Ruan a good lesson! We only came this time with less than 1000 people, and we don’t have time to fight a protracted war, so we don’t want prisoners in this battle, do you understand? !"

Hong Tao, Jiang Fan, and Zhong Huai couldn't help feeling chills in their hearts when they heard Deng Fei's "murderous" words.What it means to take no prisoners, they all know it in their hearts.

However, Jiang Fan and Zhong Huai were very excited when the North Navy crossed the sea to teach Annan who despised China.In this way, the prestige of the Northern Navy is bound to spread to Guangdong, Guangxi and Yunnan, which will be of great benefit to its recovery in the future.

A day later, the fleet arrived at Ganquan Island and began to go ashore for fresh water replenishment.At this time, outside Ganquan Island, there are seven or eight ships with thousands of materials coming back from Nanyang moored, all of which are waiting to supply fresh water.The arrival of the Raytheon and the Beihai No. [-] and No. [-] made the merchants and sailors on each ship startled and frightened.

Ships that take Qing to Nanyang usually depart from three places in this year, Guangzhou, Qiongzhou Prefecture, and Yazhou Prefecture.Because of the strong winds and waves in the ocean and the danger of sailing, all merchant ships follow the coastline to Hainan, Paracel Islands, and Kunlun Island, and then either go to Siam, or turn to Java and Batavia.

Hainan's merchant ships usually depart for Siam in January each year, while Guangzhou's ships are relatively later.All merchant ships had to wait until September of that year to return home, and only then would the south and west winds blow in the South China Sea.It is already the twelfth lunar month, and it is the time when the westerly wind is at its strongest, so it is normal for Ganquan Island to have so many boats.

Some of these people have heard of the big iron ship in the North Sea, but they have never seen it.However, the reputation of Beihai goods has spread in the south after these years, so some people have the courage to send a firewood boat to inquire.Deng Fei and the others brought a lot of goods to the south this time, the purpose is to sell them in Nanyang, so as to show the industrial strength of Beihai Town.

Right now, Beihai Town's most famous product is matches, not to mention cigarettes that sell well in the northern provinces and Jiangnan.Others such as large pieces of plate glass, horse lanterns, aluminum products, animal hides and ginseng are also in high demand.

After several years of development, there are many types of cigarettes produced in Beihai Town, such as Changbai Mountain, Ginseng, Saibei, etc., ranging from a pack of [-] Wen to [-] Wen. Meet the needs of different groups of people.

So two clerks from the Ministry of Trade came forward and started doing business while fresh water was being supplied.With the first one, the second and third ones came one after another. What the merchants wanted most were matches, cigarettes, animal skins and ginseng.For a while, the deck of the Thor became a small market.

Basically, from 1780 onwards, the nautical trade in Southeast Asia reached its peak, and Chinese merchants monopolized the product trade of countries around the Strait of Malacca, which lasted until the early nineteenth century.Among the commodities they brought back to Taiqing from all over Southeast Asia were rice, timber, copper, lead, coconut oil, brown sugar, pepper, cardamom, shellac, indigo, rhino horn and ivory.

Of course, these are also the favorite cargo of pirates.Whether it's in Jiangping or Bailongwei, as long as the boat docks, someone will pick it up.

Although the pepper and cardamom of this year are good things, they are cheaper in another time and space, and Beihai Town does not need them.After reading the list of goods, people from the trade department were more interested in rhino horn, indigo, and hardwood. After hearing the news, Hong Tao added shellac to the goods he bought.

Before the appearance of polyacrylic acid, shellac has always been a commonly used packaging auxiliary material for enteric-coated drugs.In addition, it can also be used in industry, such as polishing compounds, adhesives, insulating materials and molding materials.

In the process of doing business with these merchant ships, the people in the Ministry of Trade learned that the pirates in Xishan had been very rampant in the past two years. If a merchant ship with a thousand materials like them did not travel with them, it would be easy to be robbed in the Beibu Gulf.Moreover, the Xishan pirates not only robbed goods, but even kidnapped merchants and bows for ransom.

Hong Tao asked curiously: "Who are these pirates?"

A businessman said angrily: "Who else can they be, isn't it just those Dan people? On the other side of the Inner Sea, as long as you see a small fishing boat with seven or eight people, it is likely to be a pirate!"

The Beibu Gulf in the Qing Dynasty was called the "Inner Sea". The coastline in this area is winding and uneven, and harbors for small fishing boats can be seen everywhere.Its most notable feature is the dotted islands along the coast, and there are more than 700 of them in Guangdong alone.Westerners call those small islands entrenched with pirates "the ladrones", which was first designated by the Portuguese, and later followed by the British and French.

However, Hong Tao got different information from several sailors who carried the cargo.

There are people from the Hongqi Gang accompanying them to help communicate, and the obscure Cantonese dialect is no longer an obstacle.The sweaty sailors took the cigarettes and water cups from Hong Tao with joy on their faces, and expressed their opinions.

"Master, to be honest, those people are forced to die. If they can live a stable life, who would want to raise their heads and rob houses? If they are caught by the government, they will be beheaded or exiled for three thousand miles!"

"Yeah, those Dan people are always looked down upon by others, life is too hard!"

The other sailor just listened silently, and when Hong Tao asked, he found out that this man was a Danmin, and it was bitter to talk about his own affairs.

The Dan people in the Qing Dynasty belonged to an extremely poor group. Because they were regarded as "untouchables" for a long time, they often received discrimination if they wanted to go ashore to make a living.And they can only make ends meet by fishing at sea, and they have to endure the exploitation of the government and even fishmongers. It is impossible for even the most industrious people to make a fortune.For most fishermen, fishing is only a 120-150-day seasonal activity. In summer, fishermen who are under pressure from their livelihoods will take risks.

In fact, the crux of the proliferation of pirates in southern China in the [-]th century boiled down to the fact that the material output of the fields and coastal areas could not satisfy the rapid growth of the population.However, land annexation and official corruption forced many farmers to leave their fields, go fishing in the sea to make a living, and then turned into pirates.

During the Qianlong era, the population of China more than doubled from 1.3 million to more than 3 million due to the absence of wars in the inland areas for many years.Even the remote areas in the south are increasingly populated and overcrowded.Among the provinces, Guangdong, Fujian, Henan, Shandong, and Zhili are the provinces that bear the heaviest population pressure.As of 1787, the per capita arable land area in Guangdong Province was only 1.67 mu, and even the average land could not support a family of several people.

In the past 100 years, despite the "Dalun Mountain Massacre" by the Spaniards in Luzon first, the Hollanders massacred the Chinese in Batavia, and the Ming and Qing governments took different measures to deal with the fate of immigrants overseas. The contemptuous attitude of indifference, but the tide of immigration has never stopped.The boat fare from Guangdong to Penang in Java in this year is 20 Spanish silver dollars, which is almost 18 taels of silver, but even so, many people along the coast would rather borrow usury to go.

After Hong Tao chatted with several merchants and sailors separately, he felt more and more that Beihai Town just dealt with Xishan pirates and Ruan Guangping this time, and could not solve the problem of pirates.So he went back to find Deng Fei and Wang Yuanfang and expressed his opinion.

"What kind of prosperity is this called! A prosperity for the rich, but a nightmare for the poor! I think that if we want to solve the problem of piracy from the root, we must recruit poor fishermen on a large scale in Guangdong."

Deng Fei nodded and said: "Going south this time is a package plan, teaching the Xishan Dynasty a lesson is only the first step. After the Xishan pirates are dealt with, especially Mo Guanfu and Chen Tianbao's gang, Zheng Wenxian's father can go back to Liyumen to help us recruit people with peace of mind. .Secondly, we need to set up a transit base in Ryukyu, so that from the mouth of the Pearl River to Ryukyu, and then to South Kyushu, Jeju Island, and Beihai Town, the entire transportation line for immigrants can be connected.”

Wang Yuanfang patted Hong Tao on the shoulder and said, "Doctor Hong, if immigrants from the south continue to go north, the pressure on your medical staff will be severe."

Hong Tao said in relief: "Don't worry, it's all trivial. When I need something, I'll ask Prince Zhao for it, hahaha."

(End of this chapter)