Although the Chinese New Year is approaching now, Yu Xiaotian still ordered each sub-fleet to start inspecting the ships under his command, starting to overhaul the maintenance and overhauling immediately, and replacing the sails immediately to ensure that each ship is in the best condition, and requires each ship to keep a certain amount of ammunition backup at any time to deal with emergencies that may arise at any time.

In addition, the warehouse management department of the council hall also began to count all kinds of ammunition and food reserves stored in the warehouse, so as to meet the needs at any time.

At the same time, additional posts and checkpoints were set up along the coast of Nanri Island, and the security situation in various parts of Nanri Island was strengthened.

Fishermen, including those on Nanri Island, have also been informed that when they go out to sea, they must closely observe the unidentified boats that appear in the sea around Nanri Island, and if they find them, they will immediately warn them or report them to nearby patrol boats to intercept and inspect them.

In short, before the arrival of this Spring Festival, a string that was pulling the war inside the sea wolf was gradually tightened by Yu Xiaotian, until the people below began to gradually feel this strangeness, and the string in people's hearts gradually tightened.

And just when the sea wolf side secretly began to prepare for war, far away in Wujiao Bay on Dongshan Island on the southeast coast of Zhangzhou Prefecture in southern Fujian, there were more than 100 ships of all kinds gathered at this time.

These ships are large and small, the large ones have a displacement of about 400 tons of three-masted ships, Guangzhou ships, and also two three-masted sand ships, but most of them are all kinds of ships with a displacement of about 100 tons to 200 tons, among which the bird boats and sea boats are the mainstays, which are more suitable for the use of plundering at sea, the speed is slightly faster, and it is relatively flexible, and there is also a certain loading capacity.

Therefore, the ships used by the pirates are also selected according to their needs, and in Wujiao Bay, in addition to these 100 relatively large ships, there are also a considerable number of smaller ships, and the number is not less than 100, most of them are fishing boats with a displacement of forty or fifty tons or one or twenty tons.

These ships are nominally under the jurisdiction of Chu Cailao, but in fact things are much more complicated.

There is a huge difference between Chu Cailao Group and Seawolf Group in terms of organizational structure, although the scale of Seawolf Group is not small, but in essence, all the power is in the hands of Xiaotian, and the rest of the people are all subordinate to him, which is a well-structured organizational method.

However, the Chu Cai old group belongs to a relatively loose organizational structure, the main body is headed by Chu Cai Lao, but there are many shopkeepers under him, these shopkeepers are actually a group of independent pirate groups, each shopkeeper has its own subordinates, and their subordinates are not directly subordinate to Chu Cailao, but belong to each shopkeeper, obey the dispatch of these shopkeepers.

And these shopkeepers are more like some shareholders into the way of shares, obey the dispatch of Chu Cailao, in peacetime they fight separately, in the sea area occupied by Chu Cailao, each doing their own thing, when Chu Cailao has something, they will be called together, do some big things together.

Like Chu Cai's old attack on the coast before, at the end of Wanli, he gathered thousands of people to attack Jieyang in a row, and then attacked Yangcheng, and later committed Jieyang for the second time, which was the way to assemble the troops.

In fact, the number of ships and subordinates that are really directly subordinate to Chu Cailao is not as many as outsiders imagine, and the number of ships that are really directly subordinate to him is only seventy or eighty, and there are only more than 2,000 people under him.

But because he went to sea earlier, he had begun to mix on the sea during the Wanli period, and his fame was very big and his strength was relatively strong, so a large number of pirates gathered under him and obeyed his commands, which made Chu Cailao's strength very huge at this time, and ordinary people really didn't dare to provoke this guy.

Even the local government in the coastal area of Fujian and Guangdong avoided it, and easily did not dare to provoke this guy, for fear of incurring the revenge of this guy, with Chu Cailao's current strength, he really has the ability to capture a county seat, this is not a joke.

So he blatantly gathered people here on Dongshan Island, but the Ming army on Nanao Island, which was close at hand, could only turn a blind eye, but did not dare to send troops to suppress it.

In fact, it is not Chu Cai's arrogance, although the Ming Dynasty has a deputy general army on Nanao Island at this time, called the deputy general army of Zhangchao and other places stationed in Nanao, and there are also a battalion of officers and soldiers in Guangdong and Fujian on the island, and there is a water village built and a naval division warship stationed.

However, after Wanli, as the coastal area gradually alleviated, and the imperial court and the government did not attach importance to military equipment, at the end of Wanli, the entire coastal area, especially the southern armament, was basically abolished.

Therefore, the garrison of Nanao Island, in fact, was basically abolished at this time, and the two battalions had a serious shortage of officers and soldiers, nominally the two battalions had more than 4,000 officers and soldiers, but in fact by this time the shortage had exceeded eighty percent, and only less than 1,000 troops were left to garrison Nanao Island.

It is said that in Qi Jiguang's time, the number of warships of all kinds was as high as more than 70, and there were as many as 1,500 officers and soldiers, but with the end of Qi Jiguang's era, Fujian and Guangdong basically did not build any new ships here.

At that time, the warships left behind could only soak in the sea water and decay silently, and although some ships were built as a last resort to maintain them, these newly built warships were also built with the dismantled planks of the old ruined ships.

Now the number of available warships left on Nanao Island is less than ten, and they are all broken ships, and they are not able to do some anti-smuggling work, let alone let the deputy commander of Nanao lead the army to go to sea to suppress Chu Cailao.

It can be said that after the Apocalypse, Zhejiang, Fujian, Liangguang and other coastal governments have lost their actual control over the sea, and the entire sea has basically become a paradise for pirates, and the official army can only hold a limited number of important places, not to mention that the coast is in an open state, it is basically the same, otherwise Longqing opened the sea, only opened a Zhangzhou Yuegang, but the maritime merchants in other places still go straight to the sea.

And if this is not the case, this time the Dutch will occupy Penghu, and they will not exhaust the troops and ships of the whole province of Fujian, and after a year or two of fighting, Nan Juyi will barely "expell" the Dutch from Penghu, which is really sad.

Therefore, it is not surprising that Chu Cailao regards Dongshan Island as his temporary lair, and even it is not impossible for him to lead his troops to capture Nanao Island.

Here he is the overlord, even if a few warships of the official army come, when he doesn't see such a battle with such masts and sails like clouds in Wujiao Bay, he will definitely turn around and leave in fright.

The inside of Wujiao Bay is very lively, and it can be said that it is even more lively on the shore, pirates dressed in various costumes set up messy sheds or huts on the shore, scattered all over the shore without any rules, and those pirates are also scattered during the period, or in groups of three or five, or dozens of people together, or even hundreds of people gathered together, shouting at five or six to drink, or gamble, no one to restrain them.

This makes people easily think of the scene of Journey to the West's Sun Monkey's Huaguo Mountain, where there is no discipline, and no one disciplines them, allowing them to be lively on the island.

There were even the cries of women in some places, and some pirates pressed some of the women they had snatched to the ground and began to vent wantonly.

In some places, there were a large number of ragged people, these people were covered with dirt, yellow and thin, and dejected and confined in some circles, men and women, old and young, among them there were people in cloth clothes, and a small number of people in silk brocade clothes, but they had one thing in common, that is, they were very weak, and they looked like they had not eaten a decent full meal for a long time.

And these people all belong to the meat tickets, which were kidnapped back by Chu Cai's old men when they ransacked the coastal villages and towns, and after these meat tickets returned here for screening, those who had oil and water to fish would send people to send letters to their families according to the contact information of the meat ticket confession, and let them pay a ransom to redeem the meat tickets.

But some poor people who jingle the poor were left on the island, and Chu Cai Lao was used as coolies, doing all kinds of work for Chu Cai Lao until they were exhausted to death, and sometimes once Chu Cai Lao needed manpower, he would directly force these meat tickets that were tied up and had no money to ransom into the gang and act as minions for him.

As for the women in the kidnapped meat tickets, not to mention, they will basically be used as a tool for venting their desires, wantonly humiliating and ruining, until they get tired of playing, and then find a place to resell, sometimes these women will be sold to the land through secret channels, and sometimes they will simply be loaded and fainted in the South Seas, such as Manila, Batavia and other places.

There are many merchants from the past of the mainland, who have settled in the local area, or opened up wasteland or business, and they are very rich in their hands, although they can also buy some female slaves locally, but the local black and thin South Asian women are not as popular as these women in the land past, and once these women are pulled there to sell, they can often be sold for a pretty good price.

Therefore, selling women is also a way to make money for pirates like Chu Cailao.

And those children who were caught, if there was no oil and water to fish, would soon be taken to the land and entered the market, and sold to some wealthy families to use as small servants or maids.

In short, pirates like Chu Cailao are basically like locusts everywhere they pass, scraping the ground not only to rob goods, but also to loot the local population in many cases.

But on the island, in addition to these scattered shopkeepers built some temporary residences, there is also a stockade on the island, this stockade should be an abandoned barracks, Dongshan Island also had officials and soldiers stationed in the early years to defend against the Japanese, but at this time, it has long been abandoned, and it was occupied by Chu Cailao and became his old camp.

On the second day of the National Day holiday, the brothers who have the monthly pass in their hands will help me leave the monthly pass! Thank you very much! In addition, thank you Eagle Zhiwu and Hu Lulu brothers for their tips! It's off to a good start! Good sign! Thank you very much! ）