prosperous age

Chapter 83
Japanese pirates, in fact, have existed since the Yuan Dynasty was still there.

The original Japanese pirates were sent by some famous coastal names of the Japanese country to retaliate against the Yuan Dynasty at that time. As for the revenge, of course, the Yuan Dynasty conquered Japan twice.

At the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, a large number of Zhang Shicheng's remnants fled overseas and became pirates. Even after the Wa Kingdom knew that China had changed its dynasty and no longer sent troops to retaliate, these remnants and some bankrupt warriors they recruited were still engaged in robbing houses. .

In the Ming Dynasty, these pirates were not collectively called Japanese pirates, but the Japanese pirates at this time were actually pirates more accurately, because most of them were Han Chinese, and the Japanese were just small leaders or mercenaries among them.

Over the next hundred years, pirates mainly focused on maritime trade. Of course, some of the sources of goods were smuggled. Although they also engaged in robbery of merchant ships at sea, the scale of robbery ashore has always been small, and it has not formed a climate.

When the time came to the second year of Jiajing, there was a tribute dispute in Ningbo. Two Japanese lords went to Daming to pay tribute for the sake of the joint trade. The conflict was caused by the dispute over the authenticity of the joint trade, and a violent killing broke out in Ningbo, Zhejiang.

As soon as Emperor Jiajing thought the door was closed, the Shibo Department was abolished, and the survey and cooperation trade was no longer in play.

Because the official trade was cancelled, merchants in the south also needed to expand their trade routes, and the smuggling trade flourished, and a climate soon formed.

Although nothing happened in the sea area for more than 20 years, in fact, a large number of people smuggled goods, which greatly strengthened the close relationship between smugglers and pirates.

Huge commercial interests, countless people were involved, especially the families of coastal officials and gentry, who were involved in a large number of smuggling business.

But everything came to an abrupt end in the 26th year of Jiajing.

This year in Yuyao County, Shaoxing Prefecture, there was a big house in the county, which was burned to the ground overnight by a group of thieves. It was a tragic case of extermination.

The owner of the house is the descendant of Xie Qian, the elder of the former court, that is, the eloquent Xie Yuqiao from the Hongzhi Dynasty.

In fact, behind this massacre is the internal struggle of the smuggling group. It is said that the revenge behavior caused by the Xie family's immorality and embezzlement of goods.

But when the case happened, it is natural to give an explanation to the court. This is the old Ge family. Although it has been dead for more than ten years, the contacts in the official circle are still there.

The Japanese pirates were taken out as scapegoats.

Afterwards, the Ming Dynasty launched a vigorous campaign to suppress Japanese pirates again. The smuggling sites of Japanese pirates in Daming and surrounding islands were wiped out.

The pirates who went to the Wa country gradually gathered under Wang Zhi, the most powerful captain of the Wufeng ship. Naturally, it was impossible to sit and eat. It just so happened that some Xiyi merchants also came to the Wa country because they could not trade with Daming. .

But this time, for these pirates, also Japanese pirates, it is a chance to fight to the death.

The Japanese pirates worked hard, went ashore directly to rob goods, and resold them to Xiyi merchants, and a perfect trade chain was formed.

It is also because of such a business model that the entire coast of Daming has been continuously harassed by Japanese pirates since then.

"I just said that those guys were all gutted, how dare they come to die? Could it be the people from Linshanwei?"

Hearing the report from his subordinates that he was not from Guanhaiwei, the leader of the Japanese pirates immediately thought of Linshanwei in Shaoxing Mansion, and they were the nearest Ming garrison here.

But still a little puzzled, according to the system of Ming Dynasty, Linshanwei's territory is in Shaoxing Mansion, how dare they go to the territory of Ningbo Mansion.

"Perhaps it was the order from above. Only after receiving the order, these Ming troops would come across the mansion."

A subordinate next to him interjected.

"If that's the case, I'm afraid there will be a steady stream of government troops behind them."

The leader of the pirates also thought about it, but he was more worried about the reinforcements sent by the imperial court.

The military size of the Ming Dynasty on paper was more than 200 million, and it is still very bluffing to say it.

"Send the news to Big Brother and let them move the goods onto the ship as soon as possible."

Thinking of this, the leader of the Japanese pirates immediately gave instructions to a small soldier beside him, and then said to the person who interrupted just now: "Go down and wake up everyone, get ready, and try the strength of this group of officers and soldiers." '

Seeing that the man was about to turn around, the leader of the Japanese pirates stopped him again and ordered: "Let that group of Japanese take the lead. They are the best at fighting. Tell them, after the beating, the money will be given out." '

"Yes, head of the house."

Soon, the Japanese pirates who had been walking around the village were startled by the sound of the gong, and they all took their weapons and ran to a small square in front of the village to gather. From time to time, people ran back and forth in the distance, announcing the things of the Ming army in the distance.

"Damn thousands of people, all from Linshanwei are here."

Hearing the news from his subordinates that the Ming army had set up a formation, with thousands of troops, this Japanese pirate leader was also taken aback.

This is not the past. Although they faced thousands of soldiers from Guanhaiwei and Dinghaiwei before, what kind of soldiers were those? Moreover, they also had a small three thousand troops at that time. They didn’t fear the Ming army at all. go on board.

But it's different now. They robbed a lot of things along the way, and many of them encountered the Ming army before they were cleared and moved.

The key number is really large, which is a bit difficult to fight.

"Do you know who it is? Is it from Linshanwei?"

"We don't know a few words, but we know that there is a flag with a mountain character on it in front of us, but we don't know the others.

Oh, by the way, there is a flag with the word "nine" on it. I don't know where it came from. "

At this time, the formation of the Ming army was taking shape, and the flags of several guards were also displayed, but the literacy rate of the Ming Dynasty was not high at the moment, and most people only knew a few dozen common characters.

If the Japanese pirates are really well-trained and able to gather their troops in a short period of time, and take advantage of this opportunity to charge and kill, the already low morale of the Ming army will definitely disperse, but what they encountered were Japanese pirates, brave but not disciplined The team of the team did not suffer a disastrous defeat as soon as the battle started.

There were more soldiers and horses in the Ming Dynasty, so it took a little longer to form the formation, but the Japanese pirates completed the assembly first.

A group of people gathered in the small square, and the number was also several hundred.

After the team was assembled, the leader of the Japanese pirates led them out of the town and ran directly to the direction where the Ming army came.

The Japanese pirates don't have any battle formation at all, they usually charge and retreat in a swarm.

However, this time the Japanese pirates were obviously divided into two groups, with five to 600 people in the front and nearly a hundred people led by the Japanese pirate leader in the back.

And the first ones were dozens of short and strong warriors in armor, but only a few of them had samurai swords on their waists, and most of them held long spears that were longer than the standard spears of the Ming army. Some of them held amazingly long bamboo bows and other weapons in their hands. The Japanese pirates behind them were obviously taller, and they held various weapons in their hands.

(End of this chapter)