Although the Qing court, which now occupies the north, pursues a national policy of emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce, it focuses on restoring agricultural production.

However, the northern gentry, who had recognized the Qing court as Zhengshuo, and the Manchurian nobles who entered the customs did not give up the competition for the commercial interests of the north.

Especially represented by Jin merchants.

At that time, the eight Jin merchants had funded the Qing army in terms of equipment and intelligence, so after the Manchu Qing occupied the northern rivers and mountains, they became the imperial merchants of the Qing Dynasty today.

These Jin merchants had strong financial resources, and although agricultural production in the north was seriously damaged, the scale of Jin merchants in the north did not suffer much loss.

After taking away most of the former Ming Emperor's Mansion and government and private industries in Gyeonggi, the Manchurian aristocracy also became the northern commercial magnate second only to the Jin merchants in the north.

Now the governor of Hedong, the king of Doro County, Abatai, is such a figure, and almost half of the property in the entire Hejian Province and Baoding Mansion belongs to him.

However, whether it was the Jin merchants or the Manchurian aristocracy and the other gentry in the north.

At this time, their main business activities were still with the Ming Dynasty in the south.

Mountain goods and coal mines in the north and grain, silk and tea in the south were the main trades between the Ming and Qing dynasties in the north and south.

But now the Ming navy controlled the sea route from the Denglai Peninsula to Zhoushan, and also collected protection fees from northern merchant ships along the coast, which caused extreme dissatisfaction among the northern Manchu nobles and Jin merchants and other northern gentry engaged in commercial smuggling.

You must know that they don't have to pay taxes in their own Qing Dynasty, but they have to pay taxes twice when they come to Daming, one is the protection fee collected by Liu Kongzhao, and the other is the customs duty after arriving in Songjiang Mansion.

Moreover, if you want to sell goods to places such as Liangguang in Fujian and even Nanyang, you have to pay a tax to Zheng's firm.

This forced the northern merchants, represented by Abatai and Jin merchant Fan Yongdou, to collude with pirates from all over the world in an attempt to eliminate the Ming navy of Liu Kongzhao's troops.

And some of the gentry in the south of the Jiangnan in the Ming Dynasty also chose to collude with Abatai and the Jin merchant Abatai because of their dissatisfaction with the imperial court.

These forces with different intentions all wanted to annihilate the Ming navy of Liu Kongzhao's army and disrupt the Songjiang Fu commercial port, so as to force the Ming court to stop collecting tariffs.

"Sir, this is a comprehensive booklet of the intelligence information provided by our Jinyi Wei and the Zheng Clan's firm, and now it is basically clear that there are nine pirates gathered in the area of Songjiang Mansion:

The largest is Li Kui and Hua Guer's department, of which Li Kui has more than 60 boats and more than 10,000 people!

There are about 30 boats and 6,000 people!

The rest are fifteen boats of Yahaizi, three thousand people!

In addition, the twelve boats of the Oriental daimyo Shiro Asada have two thousand people!

The others add up to a total of about 20 boats, about 5,000 people! It's like the thirty-six anti-kings in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the seventy-two roads of smoke and dust, all parties gathered! ”

Shen Lian, the commander of Jinyiwei, who was full-time in charge of maritime intelligence collection and investigation, reported to Liu Kongzhao, the sincerity uncle.

Liu Kongzhao couldn't help but smile bitterly: "According to this, there are nearly 150 ships and a scale of nearly 30,000 people, I can't imagine that the northern gentry behind this have such appeal, I am afraid that all the pirates have been recruited." ”

"Not only the northern gentry, but also those in Songjiang Mansion and Suzhou Mansion who are ready to move, waiting to see your jokes!"

Shen Lian replied, and Liu Kongzhao just snorted.

In fact, without Shen Lian's reminder, he could guess that there were gentry from the Ming Dynasty involved.

However, now three percent of the protection fees collected by the Admiralty of the Ming Dynasty at sea have gone into the pockets of him, the chief of the Admiralty.

He, Liu Kongzhao, naturally didn't want the Ming Navy to be eaten by these pirates.

Therefore, the thought of so many pirates and gentry colluding together to take away his interests naturally made him feel bad.

Liu Kongzhao also didn't know if he could lead the Ming Navy to fight this first battle this time.

But he has always kept in mind Chongzhen Zhu Youzhen's words, as a coach, it is not terrible to be good at commanding, and what is really terrible is not good at commanding and not good at listening.

Therefore, Liu Kongzhao looked directly at Gu Sanmazi, deputy minister of the Admiralty:

"Gu San Mazi, you are also a pirate, whether it is at sea or in Taihu Lake, you have made the officers and soldiers suffer, tell me your opinion."

"The lord asked, the little one said, now it seems that the pirates who are going to come to Songjiang Mansion are stronger than our navy, but there is a difference that they are many people, there is no backbone, our people are all people we personally trained, only listen to you and me, so the little one thinks that we don't care how these pirates come, we just guard the important place of Songjiang Mansion, but it is not a dead guard, waiting for them to fight, we can fight the first one, and then the second one!

The small one has been wandering in this area for many years, and the brothers below are very familiar with this area, so the small one will send them out to find out the situation first, as long as the first one is near Songjiang Mansion, we will gather all the warships to fight and repel him all the way, and the other pirates will not dare to act rashly! ”

Gu San Mazi was not eaten by the pirates of the Zheng Group, and he had been making waves in the southeast sea for so long, so he naturally had his own means.

Now what he means is naturally to concentrate superior forces to break each one.

After hearing this, Liu Kongzhao also thought that Gu San Mazi was reasonable, so he simply ordered all the current forces of the Ming Navy to be concentrated in Baoshan!

"Gu San Mazi, it's up to you to detect the enemy's situation, as long as the first pirate appears, Benjue will lead all the warships to press up!"

Gu San Mazi gave a military salute to Liu Kongzhao.

And Liu Kongzhao also patted him on the shoulder: "This battle depends on you, if you fight well, I will guarantee to Your Majesty that you will become the count of the Ming Dynasty like me!" ”

Gu San Mazi knew that Liu Kongzhao's prestige among the Jiangnan Xun relatives was very high, and he was also a descendant of the founding father Liu Bowen, so he naturally believed in Liu Kongzhao's promise, and his face couldn't help but show excitement.

……

At this time, the pirates Li Kui and Hua Gu'er also entered the waters around Songjiang Prefecture.

Although Ouyang Rui and the reactionary squires of Jiangnan have severed ties with pirates such as Li Kui and Hua Gu'er.

However, at this time, Li Kui and Hua Gu'er did not know about it, and still began to prepare for the landing at Jinshanwei and Qingcun Zhongqian according to the information provided by the reactionary squires in Jiangnan in advance.

Among them, Li Kui's troops were preparing to land at Jinshanwei.

Hua Gu'er prepares to land in front of the green village.

It turned out that these pirates did have their own minds as Gu San Mazi said, and they all wanted to let other pirates fight with the Ming Navy first, and then they would appear when the Ming Navy and other pirates fought almost or even inseparably between victory and defeat.

Of course, if the Ming Navy wins, they will just slip away.

If the Ming navy was directly defeated before they could participate, they could still get the silver from the northern gentry and the southern gentry.

And the real purpose of these pirates is to grab a fortune in Songjiang Mansion based on the information provided by the northern gentry and the reactionary squires in the south of the Yangtze River.

At this time, the pirates of Li Kui and Hua Gu'er thought so.

"Master Kui, according to the drawings given by Futai, after the landing of Jinshanwei, you can go directly to Huangpu by taking the South Bridge, and you can also spare the guards in Chuansha, and then you can rob him well!"

Li Kui's subordinates have already begun to be excited.

(End of chapter)