"Is it the southern commander who attacked the left battalion?"

"That's right, it's Ben Shuai!"

"Is it Nan Shuai who forcibly grabbed the drums?"

"That's right, it's Ben Shuai!"

"Is it the southern marshal who sent troops across Guangzhou Mansion?"

"That's right, it's Ben Shuai!"

The person who came was just a pawn, but Zhou Lang still met the other party in person.

This is the first person to come to serve after he raised his own army.

He represents the three pirate forces, although he is only a small pirate who is not in the stream, but it means that he has a certain appeal in this era. Fighting for the world, sometimes it's the same as starting a business, there are few charcoal in the snow, more icing on the cake, and some people take refuge, which shows that Zhou Lang has now made some people see hope. Once the whole world is looking at you, you have succeeded.

"The three leaders of my family have long admired the prestige of the handsome, and they sent villains to discuss joining the family, no, it is a matter of investment! I don't know if the handsome man is willing to accept it? ”

This is a messenger, and Zhou Lang's name has not been heard for a long time, but there are many rumors. Especially the pirates operating in the Taiwan area have begun to hear of such a figure as Zhou Lang. It's just that I can't believe the rumors, it's just a matter of attacking the left battalion, the Heaven and Earth Society will all go on a northern expedition, which is not a big deal, and it is not a big deal to beat the drum port, but after blocking the counteroffensive of the officers and soldiers many times, it seems to have some strength. The dispatch of troops to Guangzhou was too unbelievable, so they didn't dare to believe it.

This time, there were rumors that Donggang was also defeated by the Nan Shuai of this Heaven and Earth Society, and they were even more shocked, so they came to investigate, and after the messenger personally confronted Zhou Lang, they believed that those rumors were true, after all, he had already seen those huge ships with his own eyes.

Originally, several of their leaders asked him to negotiate the gang, thinking that everyone would team up with a powerful boss, each row a seat, and then cross the world together, after determining Zhou Lang's strength, the gang would be too unreliable, so the messenger immediately changed his words to surrender.

Zhou Lang agreed: "This commander raised troops to fight for the world with the Qing Dynasty, and naturally welcomed the heroes of the world to vote." (Hong Xiuquan also said "I fight for the world with the Qing Dynasty", and the so-called anti-thieves seem to know how to be polite)

The messenger was happy: "The handsome man is really a good belly, and the villain will pass the word back." ”

Zhou Lang said: "Wait! Ben Shuai has a word first, Ben Shuai is not a reckless rogue, Ben Shuai has his own laws under his account, and if the leader of your family wants to come, he must also be restrained. If you can't be constrained, then don't come! ”

In recent years, pirates on the southeast coast have formed very frequent gangs, and small gangs have formed large gangs, and then they have begun to occupy territory, and the way of occupying territory is not Zhou Lang's, directly taking down a piece of land and implementing occupation control. They occupy territory, only on the coast, just a tacit agreement between pirates, they will set up dens in some hidden fishing villages, and then declare their territory to the surrounding fishing boats and merchant ships, and "sell tickets" to them, that is, sell a kind of bill, commonly known as anti-robbery tickets. Those who hold such tickets as they will not be plundered when they go to sea. But only recognized big pirate gangs have this kind of power, small gangs are not recognized at all, others should rob or rob, and they have no reputation, and no one will buy their free robbery tickets.

They came to gang up with Zhou Lang because they saw Zhou Lang's strength and thought that after ganging up with Zhou Lang, they could start to occupy territory and collect sea taxes in accordance with the "pirate tradition" that had been handed down since Zheng Zhilong's time.

But now Zhou Lang wants them to be included in the account, this is to co-opt them, the messenger hesitated. There is also such a situation at sea, killing the leader of the family, annexing the deployment of others, although the rules are broken, but what binding force can the rules of the pirates have, strength is everything.

Zhou Lang didn't force it: "So Mr. has to talk to your leader, so as not to see each other in the future." ”

The messenger said an awkward goodbye.

After that, there was a discussion within the group that would decide their fate.

This is just a group of pirates who are not in the stream, and they are born in the same way as the fishing village of Zuoying, and they used to be fishermen.

However, in recent years, the situation has been bad, coastal disasters have occurred frequently, there is no social welfare guarantee, and there are no reserves in poor fishing villages, so a large number of fishermen cannot survive and can only embark on the road of robbery.

In addition, it is subject to multiple oppressions.

The oppression from the government is the first weight, and the governor of Liangguang during the Jiaqing period, Ji Qing, reported, "The poor people along the east coast of Guangdong have no permanent production, and they all build their own fishing boats, go to sea to fish, get a small profit, and raise their wealth." However, in the past, Binhai Prefecture and County often lent ships licenses to ask for bad regulations, and the fort soldiers and Haikou patrols used to extort money everywhere in the name of inspection licenses. The salt-carrying vessels insisted on fish and shrimp, which caused many disturbances, so that the poor eggs received little fish price, except for the fees payable, were not enough to provide for their livelihood, and they inevitably starved and cold, so they became thieves and competed to go to sea to become bandits. ”

If fishermen want to fish, they have to build ships, and the government has to re-verify it every year, so some officials in coastal states and counties will take the opportunity to ask for it, calling it bad rules; When it was time to go out to sea for fishing or trade, the officers and men of the sailors along the way would check and detain the boats and arrest people if they did not give benefits, and deliberately make things difficult.

Even the Governor of Liangguang has noticed these problems, which shows how serious they have been.

Another layer of oppression comes from the exploitation of the sea powers, that is, the pirate groups.

Some pirate forces will send their representatives on land to extort fishing boats from bad rules in the name of protecting harbor fishing villages, and even collect grain according to the rules of the land. The small pirate forces can only wander around the fishing villages and collect some fish and rice from the fishermen; The powerful pirate forces even levied import and export taxes on merchant ships entering and leaving the port, and each ship paid 400 silver dollars to a tax bill, and then the fate of being robbed was saved at sea.

Some pirate leaders were even so arrogant that they went straight to the ports where the Qing army was stationed. It is rumored that a pirate leader proudly pointed to his big ship and said to a junior officer of the naval division that the grain and grass of our fleet are enough to eat for a year, and there are dozens of heavy guns of several thousand catties. Entering the port is only for the purpose of collecting taxes, and there is nothing else to do. If you want to intervene, you have to think about it.

The exploitation of the government and pirate forces led to the rampant piracy in the southeast during the Jiaqing period of Qianlong. As for the problem of disasters, it is secondary, because disasters in coastal areas are common, but the overpopulation and declining ability to resist risks in the late Qianlong period have exacerbated this hazard.

This pirate force that wants to take refuge in Zhou Lang is nothing more than these three reasons, in the final analysis, one is because of poverty, and the other is because of hatred.

But when I became a pirate, I found that life was not much better, and now I was not exploited by the government, but the peaceful days of the past were gone, and I was still hungry and full, and the income from robbery was more unstable than fishing.

The pirates have a lot of savings, and they, the fishermen-turned-pirates, are miserable. Even in troubled times, which was supposed to be the day of the rise of heroes, they pirates suffered instead. Taiwan's Tiandihui uprising has nothing to do with them, but Donggang and other ports are either controlled by the government or occupied by the Tiandihui, and as a result, they are floating on the sea, and there is no place to buy rice and salt.

In the past few months, life has become more and more difficult, and then I remembered the heart of gang.

As a result, Zhou Lang didn't want to gang up with them, but he wanted them to take refuge.

"It's not necessarily a way out."

One of the leaders said.

"But with the Heaven and Earth Society, how can any brothers be happy at sea."

The other leader said.

"I think that Nan Shuai has a strong ship and a cannon, as well as a red-haired thief to help, he may not be able to succeed in the future. It's time to take refuge at this time. ”

The third leader said.

Two of the three decided to take refuge and decided the direction of the pirates.

So the three of them decided to send someone to contact again and make an appointment.