Daming Crazy Emperor

Chapter 269 Weird situation
Looking at the fishermen lying on the ground, Taichang couldn't help but sigh in his heart.

These are also the people of Daming, they have been living alone overseas for so many years, not to mention not having enough food and clothing, and worrying every day, for fear that pirates and Japanese pirates will come and ruin everything for them.

What a day!

These people don't have any requirements, they just ask that the navy can be stationed so that they don't have to worry about it every day.

Is this asking too much?
I can't even protect my own people, so what face do I have!

In any case, this Penghu must be defended first, not only for the fishermen, but also for the safety of Dongfan.

Otherwise, the Dutch have gone east to build castles and fortresses, and no one knows it!
Thinking of this, he solemnly nodded and said: "Okay, I will send troops to garrison here to guard this territory and protect your safety. Don't worry, the soldiers and horses of the imperial court will never leave again!"

When the fishermen heard the words, they kowtowed excitedly: "Thank you, Your Majesty, thank you, Your Majesty."

Many people have already burst into tears, sobbing hard.

Now they finally don't have to live in fear anymore!

Seeing this, Taichang quickly raised his hand and said, "Okay, let's all get up."

When the fishermen heard the words, they got up gratefully.

Taichang immediately asked: "Which one of you is the most familiar with this place, I want to ask about the situation here."

When all the fishermen heard the words, they all looked at an old man with a tanned face.

The old man stood up without hesitation and cupped his hands and said: "Your Majesty, the little old man has been fishing here for decades, and he is quite familiar with this place."

Taichang nodded slightly, and then asked: "During these years, have you seen pirates or Japanese pirates pass by here, or come here to repair and avoid sea storms."

The old man recalled: "Pirates and Japanese pirates have never been here in these years, but there are always merchant fleets coming here to escape the storm."

Taichang then asked again: "Does the fleet of maritime merchants have many ships?"

The old man nodded without hesitation and said: "They have a lot of ships, at least there are dozens of ships, and there are hundreds of ships!"

Looks like those pirates!
These days, sea merchants are actually pirates, so meeting sea merchants at sea is not something to be thankful for.

If they feel that there is nothing to snatch, then they are maritime merchants. If they feel that there is something profitable, they will become pirates in an instant!
Obviously, those sea merchants or pirates felt that these fishermen had nothing to snatch, so they didn't do anything.

Taichang thought for a while, then asked again: "Do you know where they are going? Or, do you know where they are going?"

The old man was a little scared and said: "It's not bad if they don't come to snatch our things, how dare we go up and ask them, every time we see these messy people coming, we hide away and dare not approach, Even if they leave, we dare not follow them to see where they have gone!"

Uh, well, these fishermen actually know in their hearts that sea merchants sometimes become pirates.

It seems that the lairs of these pirates are likely to be in Dongfan, otherwise they would not pass by here often.

Taichang nodded slightly, and then asked again: "Old man, if I want to send troops to garrison here, there must be enough fresh water. How many people can drink enough fresh water on this island? Have you calculated this?"

Unexpectedly, the old man shook his head again and again and said: "Your Majesty, it doesn't matter. In fact, as long as you dig more wells, thousands of people will have enough water to drink. If it doesn't work, you can go to Dongfan to fetch water. Then There are many rivers along the side, and they have all the water they need. The sea merchants never fetch water from us, because it is too troublesome to fetch well water, and it is much easier for them to sail directly to Dongfan to fetch river water.”

That's right, it's less than a hundred miles away from Dongfan, so it's no problem to send a boat to fetch water directly!

From the looks of it, it would be no problem to station several thousand troops here.

Taichang thought for a while, then nodded and said: "Okay, I will send thousands of people to guard here at that time!"

He is not perfunctory these fishermen.

Next, he ordered the navy officers and men to find a suitable place to dig a well under the leadership of the old man.

At the same time, he also ordered people to start building warehouses near the pier in preparation for stockpiling grain.

There is no shortage of water, but there is no way for food, because there is no food to grow here, and it is definitely impossible to produce food in Dongfan for a year or two.

After he arranged everything, he called Yuan Keli, Shen Yourong and others back to the ship, and began to discuss matters concerning searching the pirate's lair.

The north-south length of Dongfan is more than [-] miles, and the east-to-west width is more than [-] miles. How can you find the pirate's lair in such a large place?

Taichang was really confused, because he hadn't been to Dongfan yet.

He frowned and pondered for a while, then asked: "Shihong, you have been to Dongfan, how do you think we should find the pirate's lair?"

Shen Yourong thought for a while, and then pondered: "The general thought that since these pirates have so many warships, there must be harbors and wharfs where their lairs are located, otherwise, their ships would not be able to avoid sea storms .”

Hearing this, Taichang couldn't help nodding his head and said: "Well, we can start with the harbor and dock first."

Shen Yourong then pointed to the map and said, "Your Majesty, there are three harbors that the general will know. One is the Dayuan near Penghu. The Japanese pirates built a pier in Dayuan's harbor. The other two are the chickens in the north. Cage and fresh water, our naval fleet has also docked in those two harbors before. These three harbors can dock a large number of warships, we can send a fast boat to search first."

Hearing this, Taichang nodded without hesitation and said: "Okay, we will send the Clippers to the nearest senior officer tomorrow to have a look."

In this way, the Daming navy fleet stationed in Penghu.

Every day, Taichang and Yuan Keli will decide the day's action according to the weather conditions.

If the weather is fine and the sea is calm and windless, a clipper ship will be sent to search along the coast of Dongfan or to transport grain to Quanzhou and other places.

If the weather is bad and the sea is clouded, order all warships to stop in Penghu Bay to avoid possible storms, and at the same time build food stores and barracks on the shore.

Fortunately, during this period of time, there were mostly sunny days, and they were able to search for Dongfan relatively quickly. Penghu also quickly stocked up enough food for thousands of people for a year.

However, what is strange is that they almost searched all the coastlines on the east and west, but they didn't find any pier built by pirates in any harbor, and they didn't even see a large merchant ship!
What is going on here?
Could it be that their judgments are all wrong, the pirate's lair is not in Dongfan at all!
It shouldn't be, there is enough fertile land on the southeast coast for pirates to farm!
Taichang was considering whether to send a fast boat to the coastline east of Dongpan to search for it. Yu Zigao suddenly sent an urgent report that pirates landed and plundered along the coast of Zhejiang. Not just one place, but many places. Almost all the pirates went up and plundered the Weisuo and Qianhusuo.

Fortunately, the weather was clear and the sky was cloudless, so there was no possibility of any sea storms.

When Taichang received the news, he left a thousand musketeers and more than a dozen chariots stationed in Penghu. Immediately afterwards, he led the fleet to go straight to the coast of Zhejiang.

Unexpectedly, they rushed to nothing!

This is a little strange.

Although their news was a bit late, and the pirates ran away after plundering, but they are sailing ships, and they are all ships.

Sailing boats can't run as fast as they want, even if they run, they can't outrun them!

Besides, even if they can run, unless the pirates are running to the north, otherwise, no matter whether they are going east or south, they will not be able to find a pirate ship!
You know, they rushed there from the southeast, and they sent fast boats to disperse the search along the way. It is impossible for the pirates to just miss them!
This situation is too weird.

The pirates seem to be playing tricks on them on purpose!

Do these pirates know their movements like the back of their hands?
To be honest, Taichang was careful enough. In order to prevent the southeast coastal interest groups from taking precautions, he never stopped at the southeast coast after leaving Ninghai.

Moreover, very few people knew about the Navy's actions. When they discussed, apart from Yuan Keli, Shen Yourong and other cronies he brought over, there were only a few main generals of the Fujian Navy!

How could these pirates know their movements like the back of their hands?
(End of this chapter)