It is said that poor mountains and bad waters come out of the people, and there is still some truth in this. After all, everyone has to live, and they are forced to do everything in a hurry.

Since ancient times, Jian'an has been a poor mountainous and remote land, from the pre-Qin to the Sui, the population has been wandering in 10,000 households, and it has always been rare to have any great development. In history, it was not until the end of the Tang Dynasty that the population began to rise rapidly, reaching hundreds of thousands of households. After the Song Dynasty, Fujian Road made a real leap with the help of sea routes.

However, at this time, Fujian was still backward, and after two large-scale rebellions and repressions in the early Sui Dynasty, Fujian was even more sparsely populated and economically backward. The shipbuilding industry, which was once relatively strong, was also completely destroyed.

Some of the local powerful clans either died or fled, or they were forcibly relocated to the Central Plains, so Fujian became even more wild.

In the last years of the great cause, Fujian experienced another round of turmoil, even if it has been a little more stable in recent years, but it has been completely closed.

It is said that relying on the mountains eats the mountains, and relying on the sea to eat the sea.

The people of northern Fujian began to gather in the mountains and forests, and many people became bandits. Many of the people along the coast of eastern Fujian were originally fishermen, but Shen Faxing controlled Jiangdong and faced the powerful threat of Great Qin in the Central Plains, so he could only maintain a very large army, so the taxes below were very high.

It is difficult for fishermen to make ends meet, and there are many typhoons along the coast, which are often affected by disasters. If you can't get by, you can only be a thief. If you are against the mountains, you will be a bandit, and if you are close to the sea, you will be a pirate.

The fishermen of the past were transformed into pirates who drove small boats along the coast to impress passing merchant ships.

Compared with the hard work of farming and fishing, the result is that they can't feed their wives and children, and although the robbery is very dangerous, it obviously has more opportunities to support their families, so more and more people become pirates.

These pirates are not afraid of death, anyway, they have a bad life, and they can only rely on robbery to make a living.

Shen Faxing's control over Jian'an County was actually very weak, and only a few soldiers and horses were stationed in the four counties.

The people of the Central Plains discriminated against the Min people, calling them snake people, saying that they were good ghosts and witches.

Cheng Mingzhen reminded everyone.

"The purpose of our East China Sea Fleet is to maintain the security of the Maritime Silk Road in the East China Sea, but now these snake and pirates in Jian'an County are rampant and tightly threatening the shipping route. The royal merchant fleet is fine, and there are armed escorts who are not afraid, but ordinary merchant ships are very easy to be robbed by them. ”

Now although the imperial court has recovered Hunan and Jiangxi, it can cross the five mountains to Lingnan by land, but the two places have just recovered, the original passage has been closed and blocked for many years, and it will take time to repair it to reopen, not to mention, now the three roads of Lingnan and the Central Plains are very exchanged, and more need sea traffic, and even Yunnan sometimes has to borrow Guangnan.

"Taishou, are we going to start a war with Shen Faxing?" An officer said excitedly.

The three feudatories in the south of the Yangtze River, Hunan and Jiangxi have been recovered by the imperial court successively, and now only one Jiangdong Shen Faxing is still trying to resist stubbornly, but the whole of Great Qin does not take Jiangdong in his eyes.

Everyone believed that as long as the emperor was willing, with an order, Jiangdong could be pacified in March.

"No, the imperial court has no plans to start a war against Jiangdong for the time being, but we can't tolerate the Jian'an pirates continuing to wreak havoc in the East China Sea. The imperial court issued several decrees to reprimand Shen Faxing for not being able to govern the local area, but Shen Faxing used the remoteness of Fujian and inconvenient transportation, and the people of Fujian were fierce and disobedient to the king. Therefore, the court decided that we should do it ourselves. ”

"How's that for a treat? Send troops to occupy Jian'an? ”

Cheng Mingzhen shook his head.

"In any case, Jian'an County is now under the control of Shen Faxing of Jiangdong Province, he is still a feudal town of the imperial court, and the imperial court still maintains a peaceful relationship with him for the time being, so it is not appropriate to directly send troops to capture Jian'an. There are other ways to maintain routes. ”

An officer shouted, "There are only four counties in Jian'an County, and there are 10,000 households below, so it is convenient to destroy them directly." ”

"It is true that there are only four counties in Jian'an, but except for the coastal counties, the rest of the places are all mountainous areas, and there are no roads at all.

The topography of Fujian is indeed a very peculiar place, it can be said that although Lingnan is remote, it is only remote, but at least Lingnan still has many plains, and there are not so many mountains. However, the mountains in Fujian are called overlapping, not only many, but also lack traffic holes.

"Our goal now is to control the East China Sea Route, especially the Jian'an section."

Of course, Cheng Mingzhen also wanted to fight Jian'an, but the court didn't let him fight, so he was very honest and didn't think about it.

He pointed to the vicinity of Longxi County, Jian'an County.

"See this?"

"Jiulongxi Haikou, do you want to hit Longxi County?"

Cheng Mingzhen was helpless, "I have long said that if you don't attack the city and don't grab the land, it's not Longxi County, but these two big islands in the sea at the mouth of the Jiulong River, one of these two islands is Ludao (Xiamen) and one Xianzhou (Kinmen). ”

The Jiulong River, also known as the Liuying River, is the second largest river in Jian'an County after the Min River. The Jiulong River is confluent by the main stream Beixi and its tributaries Xixi and Nanxi, and flows into the Liuqiu Strait on the opposite bank of Ludao through Longxi County. The Longxi Plain in the lower reaches of Jiujianglong is also one of the four rare plains in Fujian.

The upstream water flow is turbulent, the downstream river is wide and stable, navigable, and has a total length of more than 500 miles.

"These two islands are very large, and since the Jin Dynasty, people have begun to cultivate and fish on them, but now, they are full of pirates."

An officer said, "I know this Egret Island, there are many small islands outside the big island, and there is a deep-water harbor on Egret Island, the harbor is deep and wide, even the largest sea ships can enter and exit freely without being affected by the tides, this is a natural harbor with superior conditions." That's why the pirates like to gather on the island. ”

"It's more than that." Another officer said, "Because there are many pirates on this island, it has become an important black market, and many pirates sell their loot directly on the island, and many merchants will go to the island to collect the stolen goods." ”

Cheng Mingzhen said with a smile, "Ludao and Xianzhou Island are now in the hands of pirates, and there are neither officials nor garrisons of the Jiangdong Shen family here, so let's take down these two islands first this time." ”

His plan is very simple, take Egret Island, and then establish a harbor and wharf on the island, and then the East China Sea Fleet will garrison here, and at the same time establish a port here, which will not only serve as a garrison for the East China Sea Fleet's naval division, but also a supply port for the maritime Silk Road merchant ships in the East China Sea, and even trade with the land people of Jian'an Longxi, buy native products, and sell commercial goods.

Of course, when these two islands are controlled, it also means that when the imperial court really wants to deal with Jiangdong, then it can go up the river at any time and directly take the small county seat of Longxi.