Nan'an County Cheng and the chief bookkeeper fled in a panic because the murder was exposed, and they couldn't take much care of it at this time, so they took a smuggling boat moored in the Jinjiang River and fled to the open sea in a hurry. Although it was discovered by the patrol ship, there was no artillery on the ship, only some old bird guns, which were too far away to hit, so they could only chase closely. However, the Tuan Yong on the patrol ship was not as experienced as the sailors of the smuggling ship after all, and the level of the sail was too much worse, and after a while, the smuggling ship fled far west and disappeared on the sea.

Although the two murderers were not caught, other smugglers in Nan'an County were greatly deterred. The county clerk and the master book have always been their backbones, these two people ran away, what should they do? Do you want to keep consuming?

Xiong Rulin took this opportunity to post a notice at the entrance of the county office. One is to make the criminal acts of the two public, and accept the scolding of the people of the county; The second is to tell other smugglers that now is the last chance. As long as they are registered with the city ship immediately, even if the ship has gone out to smuggle, it will not be guilty of the past, and it will still be able to trade normally in the future. Otherwise, there will be no mercy.

These smugglers gathered together to discuss, once the ship returning to Nan'an was caught by the city ship, the loss was too great, and the county and the master book were a lesson from the past. Besides, the merchant ship has been parked at home for more than half a month, and this loss is much more than registering with the city shipping department, and then paying taxes according to the regulations and normal trade. Although it is still reluctant, but the lesser of two evils, it is better to register first, let the ship go to sea first.

At this point, the city port office finally opened up the situation, and smuggling merchant ships in Nan'an County began to come to register one after another. According to Xiong Rulin's estimates, under normal circumstances, there are at least a dozen merchant ships coming to Nan'an every month, and if each ship pays a tax of 150 taels, this is 3,000 taels, which can completely support the militia group. Of course, using the tax money from the market to pay Tuan Yong's salary is only an expedient measure, and it is also specially approved by Zhu Youzhen. Because the imperial court is now unable to manage the sea frontier, it has to reuse Tuan Yong. When the sea is not in the peaceful season, after everything is on the right track, the tax and silver will naturally have to be handed over to the state treasury.

Of course, Xiong Rulin recruited so many regiments and paid so many salaries every month, but it was not for them to patrol in Nan'an County. Now the militia has confiscated seven seagoing ships, procured some weapons, and trained a group of sailors. The next major task is to take the initiative to search for and eliminate the pirates!

Fujian's coastal areas are dotted with large and small islands, and there are many bandits. Zheng Zhilong is of course the biggest pirate force, but he is now focusing on Taiwan, and most of the smuggling ships from Fujian belong to the Zheng family, so he can't rob himself, so he doesn't have much activity in this area.

But in addition to Zheng Zhilong, there are also many small groups of pirates. These pirates were generally entrenched on the islands, and they did not dare to rob Zheng Zhilong's armed merchant ships, but they often plundered the fishing boats of the coastal people, and from time to time they went ashore to raid their homes and houses. As soon as the officers and soldiers on land came, they immediately went out to sea by boat and returned to their old nest at sea.

Although these little pirates are not as powerful as Zheng Zhilong, they are also very harmful. Zheng Zhilong is mainly smuggling, with the purpose of making money, and others can't afford to mess with him, so he rarely kills people. The little pirates are different, and their favorite thing to do is to land at night and wash the village with blood. During the Jiajing period, the Japanese were rampant, and there were also Japanese in the coastal areas of Fujian, but in fact, there were very few real Japanese, most of them were these local pirates, commonly known as "fake Japanese pirates".

The scourge of false widows has never ended. Nan'an County is also often attacked by fake widows, and the people hate it to the core. Therefore, when Xiong Rulin was ready to exterminate the fake widows, there was no need to mobilize at all, and all the regiments were willing to fight to avenge the murdered fathers and villagers.

However, there are two major difficulties in cracking down on counterfeiters. One is that the fake widows take the island as their home, and it is difficult to catch them when they hit and run on land; The second is that they are all outlaws, and their combat effectiveness is very strong, and the general guards and servants are not opponents at all.

However, after careful analysis, Xiong Rulin found that the fake widow also had several obvious weaknesses. First, the number of people is small, and each time a fake widow commits a crime, there are as few as seven or eight people, and at most only a few dozen; the second is that there are few ships, and there is generally only one ship; The third is that they are too bold, and some of them have already settled on some islands, and they are not afraid that the government will know.

Among them, the nearest group of fake widows to Nan'an is entrenched on a small island called Lin Zhenyu. This small island is sixty miles southwest of the Jinjiang estuary, but it is actually only more than ten miles away from the nearest coast. There are more than 30 fake widows on the island, and the leader is nicknamed "Dragon King", who often lands to rob homes and houses, and the government has no way.

Xiong Rulin believes that the "Dragon King" is a good target for attack, and can allow the militia to practice their hands. After three days of meticulous preparation, Xiong Rulin personally led the team, and the seven existing ships of the militia group were dispatched together. Each ship carried forty regimental warriors, and in addition to the birds, they were also equipped with a large number of bows and arrows and torches.

The fleet departed from the Jinjiang estuary and slowly sailed southwest along the coast. When you are about to reach Lin Zhenyu, turn due south, cross the island far away, and then wait until after sunset, and quietly approach from the south. In this way, it can paralyze the false widow and make it difficult to detect; Second, it also cut off the route of the fake widow to flee south, after all, it will be farther and farther away from the land if you go south, and Xiong Rulin's confidence is not enough.

At this time, the "Dragon King" didn't know anything about the attack of the militia. These pirates don't usually have any hobbies, just drinking, playing with money, and playing with women. Today they were pushing Pai Gow on the island, leaving only one pirate to stand guard on the heights, and the ship moored on the shore was empty.

It just so happened that the sentry was also very drunk, and he didn't notice that the militia fleet was getting closer and closer. Xiong Rulin forcibly suppressed his excitement and ordered no one to make a sound, until he was less than thirty paces away from the fake boat, and then shouted: "Release the rocket!" ”

Before departure, the militia had already prepared a large number of rockets. In fact, a small piece of linen soaked in oil was tied to the shaft of the arrow, and at this time, at this time, the regimental brave with a bow and arrow set the sackcloth on fire, and then shot the arrow at the ship of the false widow. There were also many regiments who did not have bows and arrows, but they had great strength, so they threw their lit torches directly at the enemy ships.

No matter how big the ship is, it is also made of wood, and the sails are even more flammable, and they are most afraid of fire attacks. If there are people on board, it would be better, because after all, it is a sea ship, and the ship is still relatively slippery, whether it is a rocket or a torch, it will not be so easy to ignite the ship, and it can be extinguished in time. But now there was no one on the ship at all, hundreds of rockets and dozens of torches were nailed to the ship, and in a short time they burst into flames.

It was only then that the "Dragon King" realized that something was wrong and rushed out of the house with his men. But their ship had been engulfed in flames, and they couldn't get up at all!