Forty-eight years of Qianlong

Chapter 505

At dusk, on the pier of Jiangping Town, rivers, ships and sea ships meet each other, with masts like forests, and the noise on the pier has never stopped these days.

After the fully loaded pirate ships docked, the big bosses walked off the plank with smiles on their faces, and surrounded by their subordinates, they yelled and walked towards the town.Behind them, businessmen from Guangdong and Guangxi, who had been waiting for a long time, rushed to the side of the ship and talked about business with the deputies on board who were in charge of managing supplies.

Beginning in 1788, the Chinese pirates recruited by Nguyen Quang Binh not only helped the Xishan court to fight against Nguyen Phuc Anh in the south, but also sailed eastward with the southeast wind to plunder the coasts of Fujian and Guangdong when they had no combat missions.

For those pirates from Guangdong, Fujian, and even Zhejiang and Jiangsu, although Chen Tianbao and Mo Guanfu were the "big brothers" who recruited them, Ruan Guangping, the king of the Xishan Dynasty, was the real big boss.All the pirates worship the "Emperor of Light". Every time the goods they plunder are sold off, the pirates themselves can get [-]% to [-]% of the rebates, and the rest must be handed over to the Xishan regime.

Beginning in the late eighteenth century, after more than two centuries of continuous expansion of the Later Le Dynasty, the accumulated social contradictions eventually triggered the most brutal civil war in Annan's history.This war destroyed two regimes at the same time - the Zheng regime in the Tokyo area and the Nguyen regime in the Guangnan area, and destroyed the commercial prosperity created by relying on huge maritime wealth for more than two centuries.

30 years of war and famine turned two-thirds of Annan's people into bandits, while the other third lived in dire straits.The Dong Nai area in the Mekong Delta has changed hands eight times between the Nguyen Phuc Anh Army and the Tay Son Army, and countless villages and towns have been looted repeatedly. At this time, Annan has become the most severely damaged area in Asia.

Different from the war-ravaged parts of the south, Jiangping Town, with more than 2000 households, has shown a deformed prosperity because it is located on the northeast border, far away from the battlefield, and pirates are flourishing.

At the wooden gate at the entrance of the town, several Xishan soldiers on duty sat on rattan mats under the shed, leisurely making tea and drinking tea.And all the houses along the street in the town are tile-roofed and white-walled, with a view of Cen floors, several miles from east to west, and three streets in a row.Business and travel gather together on the main street, paved with white stone brick roads, blue brick roads in the alleys, clear water gurgling in the diversion ditches on both sides of the road, just like a small town in the south of the Yangtze River in poetry and painting.

On the streets under the afterglow of the setting sun, passers-by are either dressed in silk brocade or gauze lichen, but there is no one in linen clothes; while the women who go out are all wearing silk scarves and wearing The gauze ramie silk of the large round neck, the clothes are embroidered with colorful colors, so rich and romantic!
Because it's cooler after dark, the streets and docks are still brightly lit, and people come and go.Due to the noisy voices on the street, no one noticed that a few black objects with faint red lights were flying around in the sky above Jiangping Town, giving a clear view of the whole town.

Looking down from the sky at this time, the compound where the pirates lived was very easy to identify, especially Mo Guanfu's General Military Mansion. There would never be so many men with swords and guns inside and outside the ordinary rich family.

At around 2 o'clock in the morning, Jiangping Town finally calmed down from the hustle and bustle, and on the invisible sea, several black boats quietly arrived at a position several hundred meters away from the port under the cover of the sound of waves.Afterwards, a dozen figures dived into the water from several small boats, and then swam towards the pier.After they climbed up the pier from the sea, all wet, they were divided into groups of three or two, and started attacking the watchtowers on duty at night on the pier.

There were a few soft "da da" sounds, and the two Xishan soldiers standing on the high place suddenly tilted their bodies, but the sound of their fall alarmed a group of night patrol soldiers below. sounded in the dark.After the rain of bullets, all eight Xishan soldiers were shot and killed, and none survived.

The beating of the waves made the boards and masts of the black boats on the port creak.Neither the sleeping pirates on the deck nor in the cabin noticed any movement on the land.

Subsequently, these people cleared the defenders on the two forts near the port one by one.After this, soldiers from a battalion of marines came to the beach and flashed their flashlights into the dark sea.

After a while, more black boats emerged from the darkness, and the Beihai Marine Battalion's night attack on Jiangping Town began.However, with the landing of hundreds of marines, the pirates living on the black boat in the port were also awakened.

"Who? Uh"

A pirate who was awakened sleepily got up from the deck, rubbed his eyes and walked to the side of the ship and asked casually. Unexpectedly, two crossbow bolts suddenly pierced the night and nailed into his chest almost at the same time.

The four companies of the Marine Corps have their own missions. The first company is responsible for taking down the large ships in the port and controlling the artillery on the ship to prevent the pirates from escaping.

The sound of chaotic footsteps resounded on the street. When the team attacking the General Military Mansion advanced to the cross street, they were finally spotted by the patrolling Xishan Army. Lin Daosheng, who led the team, knew that time was running out and couldn't care less about anything else. The nearest Xishan Army is a shot.

"Bang!" The harsh gunshots pierced the night sky, and the tranquility of Jiangping Town was also broken.

"What happened?!"

Mo Guanfu, who was awakened by the gunshots, didn't even have time to put on his coat, grabbed a knife and rushed out of the room shirtless.

"Mo Da, Da, Big Brother, it's not good, someone sneaked up on me!"

"Who? Where did it come from?!"

"From, from the cross street!" The pirate ran all the way from the cross street in the center of the town, even dropping his shoes. "This group of people is too ruthless. When they came up without saying a word, they raised their hands and fired shotguns. Many brothers were killed and injured."

As soon as the words fell, Mo Guanfu heard a familiar voice not far away shouting: "Brothers! There are only dozens of thieves, kill them!"

"Kill! Kill!" With the sound of the horn, there was a sound of shouting and killing outside the commander's mansion. The originally dark night sky was illuminated by fire like day, but the shouts of the pirates were drowned in the howling In the sound of gunshots and deafening explosions.

Although Ruan Guangping gave the Xishan pirates a lot of equipment in the past two years, they were mainly warships and artillery used in naval battles. In addition, there were also some carrying guns, matchlock guns and shotguns.However, the quality of those muskets was really not that good. Many of them were imitated by private blacksmiths from the Portuguese in the 16th century, so the pirates often asked those European captives to help repair the guns.

Compared with firearms, Xishan pirates usually prefer to use bows and arrows, spears, broadswords and shields.However, because Mo Guanfu was trapped in the General Military Mansion and couldn't get out, the armory in the town couldn't be opened either.As a result, the pirates who rushed to the battle suffered heavy casualties, and the knives, guns, bows and arrows in their hands could not pose a threat to the Northern Navy at all.

"How many people are here?" In the uncertain light and shadow, Mo Guanfu's expression changed, he couldn't think of anyone who would dare to come to Jiangping Town to cause trouble.

Qing government?Impossible, this is Annan's territory.

The Xishan Army unloaded the grind and killed the donkey?It's impossible, Ruan Guangping still has to point at himself and others to fight Ruan Fuying's navy!In the past two years, Ruan Fuying hooked up with the French in Siam, asked instructors and bought weapons, and even built a Bagua city in Jiading with the help of the French.

Unless Ruan Guangping doesn't want to be an emperor anymore, he'll have to cut his own wings when he's full.

Infighting?Neither.The pirate leaders here in Jiangping are all under the command of him, the "General Soldier of Wujiao". He knows the equipment of all the people under his command very well, and no one has so many muskets!

Suddenly, he seemed to have guessed something, and then he said angrily: "Damn it, someone must have been bought by Ruan Fuying! I must kill him alive!" After that, he said to the next President Qian: "Send someone to Ask whose team it is!"

After a while, Mo Guan, who had already retreated into the General Military Mansion, hid behind the door and shouted loudly: "People outside, everyone is brothers on the same boat! It's easy to discuss! Which family are you from? ? Sign up for a name!"

At this moment, someone shouted loudly in Danjia dialect: "Who the hell is your brother, I am the Beihai Navy, and it is your Xishan Army who are fighting!"

"Bei Haijun, where did this come from? I've never heard of it."

The hundred or so pirates who fled into the general military mansion in a hurry heard the familiar dialect, and felt extremely panicked, and they were sure that other pirates came to attack them.Judging from the previous battles, these people outside are vicious and equipped with a lot of firearms. It only takes a short time to go from Cross Street to General Military Mansion.

When all the pirates were hesitating, they heard a few "dang clangs", and a few black objects were thrown in from the outside through the wall, and they seemed to be emitting green smoke.One of them was curious, and was about to go forward to pick it up, when suddenly a fire appeared in front of his eyes, and then he heard a series of "boom, boom", and there were dead and wounded in the gate of the General Military Mansion, and the other pirates who were still alive suddenly scattered.

"Blast the door!" Following Lin Daosheng's order, several soldiers rushed up and pressed the grenade against the gap under the gate.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!" The wooden gate was blown to pieces, and before the smoke from the explosion cleared, a group of soldiers rushed in with their guns in hand.

At this time, Mo Guanfu had already led several of his men to the back door of the house. Hearing the sound of explosions from the front yard, he didn't care to let his men go out to explore the way first. There was a burst of gunfire from the side, and Mo Guanfu was shot several times, killing him on the spot.

If he could express his dying emotion, Mo Guanfu would probably say that there was a time. Bah!It's time to play.It should be that he shouldn't have provoked that kid Zheng Yi when he was killed.

At the same time, the sound of gunfire and explosions in Jiangping Town also alarmed the residents of Bailongwei Town in the east.In the past two years, Jiangping has become more and more prosperous by selling stolen goods to pirates, and Bailongwei in the east has also gained a lot of glory.Not to mention helping sell stolen goods in the town, many people even joined the Xishan Pirates.

However, when hundreds of pirates rushed to the pier with weapons in hand, planning to cross the river to support them, they were suddenly attacked by the special warfare battalion who had been waiting for a long time.Under the hail of bullets, the pirates who escaped by chance turned around and ran into the town, and did not dare to come out until dawn.

The gunfire in Jiangping Town continued until dawn, and all the pirate gathering spots and houses in the town were surrounded by the Marine Battalion, and all those who resisted were killed.After identification by several pirates who surrendered, Mo Guanfu and Wu Shier, the commander-in-chief of the Xishan Shui Army, were killed, but the other leader, Wu Shida, was never found.

Under the trembling eyes of thousands of people, the Beihai Navy spent half a day first blowing up the armory of the Xishan pirates, destroying all the muskets and gunpowder inside, and posting notices everywhere in the town, leaving " Those who acted as minions for the Xishan Ruan family and plundered the coast of Guangdong will be severely punished by the Northern Navy." Warning.

The soldiers of the Marine Battalion first blew up all the large artillery on the ships with grenades, and then set the napalm bombs made by Beihai Town everywhere on the ships, and set the pirates' warships on fire one by one.When the soaring fire ignited and burned all the ships into coke, the marine battalion evacuated in small boats.

Until this time, someone finally discovered the three big ships moored on the sea several miles away, and was even more shocked.Since then, although there were still small groups of pirates in Jiangping, until the Ruan clan of Xishan was destroyed, there were no large groups of pirates gathered.

In the ten days after the Jiangping pirates were wiped out, the Northern Navy fleet went south along the coast of Annan, successively conquering water villages in Haiyang, Shannan, and Donghai. The ship landed and fled, and did not dare to fight the Beihai fleet.

During the attack on Donghai village, Deng Fei and others learned from several captives that although the capital of the Xishan Nguyen Dynasty was in Hue, Ruan Guangping set his base camp in Nghe An camp, where construction was being carried out, and a building was built on the mountain. A fortress with two floors inside and outside is named "Phoenix Central Capital".And Chen Tianbao, who was canonized by him as "Marquis of Baode of the Chief Soldier", was stationed in Lingjiangkou Water Camp in Hue.

It is said that Annan has a proverb since ancient times, Qinghua depends on the world, and Yi'an stands on the gods.The ancient book "Yu Di Zhi" from the [-]th century also said that the power of Qing, the god of Yi, the water of Xingtai, and the demon of Gaoliang are all to be feared.

It means that everywhere in Annan, Qinghua takes the situation as the most dangerous. It is located at the hub of the north-south transportation and the eastern mountains and the western seas. It is easy to separate in times of war.Nghe An is located in the central part of Annam, [-] miles away from Thanh Hoa in the north and Hue in the south. According to the theory of Fengshui, it is considered to be the best place to be protected by the four great beasts.

After Deng Fei heard the news, he lost his mind. He was not familiar with Annan's history. Should he fight Nhean or Hue?If he turned around and went to fight Nghe An, Chen Tianbao would probably run away.He had no choice but to send a telegram to ask Zhao Xin for help.

On the day he received the telegram, Zhao Xin found an opportunity to return to another time and space. After consulting the relevant information, he quickly called Deng Fei back and called Hue.

He told Deng Fei that although Ruan Guangping made great efforts to build the Phoenix City in the central capital during his reign, the construction was not completed until he kicked his legs. When his son succeeded to the throne, the construction stopped.In addition, Hue is the ancient city of Annan, where the Northern Navy can effectively deter all parts of Annan.

At this time, Ruan Guangping had just returned from Zhennan Pass, and the emergency report of the attack from Haiyang and other places had not yet reached him.This trip to celebrate Qianlong's birthday was very fruitful, and in order to stabilize the situation on the border between Guangdong and Guangxi, Qianlong extended his favor to Ruan Guangping on the way back to China. Big and small purses, etc.

However, this guy is already mentally prepared to invade again, intending to send troops to seize Liuzhou in Xinghua Town and Sangang in Xuanguang Town in southern Yunnan.Ruan Guangping stepped out of Zhennan Pass with his front foot, and said to his accompanying subordinates with his back foot: "Leave me for a few years to build up strength, why should I be afraid of him?"

(End of this chapter)