Since the other party has something to ask, then everything has to be discussed, and Shi Diwen's mood immediately relaxed: "Our Haihan and Lord Xu have always cooperated happily, if there is something that can help, we will definitely be happy to help." Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info but this also requires you to provide us with a little more information, the more detailed the better. Together, our two families want money and money, and there are soldiers and soldiers, and there is nothing in the world that cannot be done!"

Xu Yuchou didn't dare to take his words casually, if the wall had ears and was heard, Shi Diwen, a foreign military attaché, would be unobtrusive, he Xu Yuchou was a court official with an official position, and daring to say such things was a rebellion. Although the emperor of Fujian Tiangao is far away, and the court officials who are all focused on quelling the chaos may not care about these things, as subjects of the Ming Dynasty, the awe of imperial power is still deep-rooted. Using the power in his hands to do some smuggling with the Haihan people, protect the rights and interests of the Haihan in Fujian, and even let the Haihan garrison in the territory that originally belonged to the Ming Dynasty, these measures are harmless, but if he wants to erect a flag to rebel against the imperial court, even if Xu Yuzhuo does not openly oppose it, he will definitely immediately draw a clear line with the Haihan and put aside the involvement.

Shi Diwen saw that Xu Yuzhuo didn't answer this, and after thinking about it, he understood what was wrong, and immediately smiled: "I lost my words! Although we have money and soldiers, we still need to respect the rules and laws of the Ming Dynasty." We are legitimate businessmen, of course, we must use legal means to achieve our goals, General Xu can rest assured that we will not have any unfavorable actions against Daming. ”

Xu Yuzhuo barely squeezed out a smile at the corner of his mouth: "I naturally believe this, otherwise I wouldn't have cooperated smoothly with you for so many years." It's just that you have to be careful with this kind of talk, if it is listened to by people with ulterior motives, it will inevitably cause wind and rain. ”

"General Xu reminded me!" Shi Diwen has dealt with these Ming officials a lot, but he can understand their mentality. No matter how high the official position of these people is, the awe of imperial power in their hearts cannot be completely erased. Even those former Ming soldiers who took refuge in Haihan could not change this concept that had been deeply implanted in their minds since childhood for a long time. Although Shi Diwen will not identify with their values, he will not deliberately try to change their minds.

Xu Yu laughed dryly, and then turned back to the topic: "To the north of Fujian is Zhejiang, to say that the situation of the state capitals in Zhejiang is really a bit complicated......"

From Funing Prefecture in Fujian Province to the north, there are Wenzhou, Taizhou, Ningbo, Shaoxing, Hangzhou and Jiaxing under the rule of Zhejiang. The garrisons of each state and government all acted independently, unlike Fujian, which was under the unified command of Xu Xinsu, and a piece of paper could pass through the coastal areas of Fujian without hindrance. Zhejiang is a thriving place for maritime trade, and all coastal states attach great importance to maritime trade rights, and even between the provinces and states, there is extremely obvious competition and local protectionism. The Zhoushan Islands, located off the coast of Ningbo, have a very important strategic position because they control the Qiantang River estuary and the key shipping lanes from the East China Sea to the south, so the pirate gangs entrenched here have all kinds of complicated interests entangled.

Merchant ships paying pirates to buy roads to keep them safe was nothing new along the coast of Daming. In the heyday of the Eighteen Zhi, all the merchant ships passing through its territory had to spend silver to buy Zheng Zhilong's order flag, with this flag in order to sail unimpeded in the Fujian Strait, a big ship of 400 materials, the annual purchase fee had to be 3,000 taels of silver, Zheng Zhilong just relied on this income, at least hundreds of thousands of taels of silver could be entered every year.

The pirates in the waters of the Zhoushan Islands also adopted a similar way of making money, but their strength was limited, and not every maritime merchant would pay for it. For example, in the past two years, almost all of the ships under Xu Xinsu's name have been converted into armed sailing ships, and the ships are equipped with small-caliber cannons and arquebuses purchased from Haihan. Many of the sailors on the ship were veterans who had retired from the sailors, or armed guards who had been specially sent to Guangdong to train in the Golden Shield Escort, and they were not at the same level of strength as ordinary pirates. Moreover, the fleet under the name of the Xu family rarely goes to sea alone, and generally acts in groups, and the kind of small pirates with only a dozen ships can only watch dryly even if they encounter it, and they can't gnaw on this hard bone at all. After a long time, these pirates saw the fleet of ships with the flag of Xu Zi on the sea, and they no longer took the initiative to make up.

The stronger pirate gangs are often inextricably linked to the interests of the government, and they are not willing to offend the maritime merchants with official backgrounds too much. After all, sea raiding is no longer the main part of their income, and the annual road purchase fees, protection fees, and gray income of various names collected from various maritime merchants are the bulk of their income. In addition, some trade items that are monopolized in whole or in part by these armed gangs that are also merchants and thieves still have considerable income, and it is very common for the leaders of such gangs, military advisors, and other key figures to receive six figures of silver a year.

However, after all, there are very few fleets equipped with armed escorts like Xu's, and most of the merchant ships that pass through this sea area still have to obediently pay tribute to ensure safety. Even some of the merchant ships that are currently transporting migrants from the north for Haihan are also unable to escape the fate of paying road fees. According to information gathered by the Penghu side, migrant boats returning from the north generally pay a single purchase fee ranging from 100 to 300 taels of silver, depending on the size of the boat, before they are allowed to pass. Of course, this additional cost was naturally included in the freight cost by the shipowner, and then accumulated to the Haihan people. This means that regardless of whether Haihan is willing or not, he is actually passively paying a toll to the pirates in the Zhoushan waters every month.

Neither the Executive Committee nor the Haihan military could endure this kind of treatment, although this amount of money is only a drop in the bucket for today's Haihan, but only Haihan has always collected money from others to ransom the city and the body, how could anyone dare to break ground on the head of Tai Sui, who has the strongest combat effectiveness in the South China Sea? The last person to try to do such a thing was Zheng Zhilong, who has now been driven to the Pacific Ocean with his men to work as fishermen. No matter how rampant the pirates along the coast of Zhejiang are, they are no match for Eighteen Zhi, who once had tens of thousands of troops, in terms of strength, and they are indeed the wrong target if they want to suck the blood of Haihan.

The military has long been holding back its strength to find an opportunity to teach these blind thieves a lesson, but the Zhoushan Islands have a complicated terrain and are too far away from Haihan's sphere of influence, so they have not started until now. However, since the Executive Committee has set the tone to develop northward, the pirate gangs entrenched in the Zhoushan Islands are naturally included in the target. However, in order to accomplish this task beautifully, it is still a little troublesome to rely on Haihan's own strength, and if you can find some help on the Fujian side, or collect some more valuable information, it will be much easier for the military to act.

Qian Tiandun suggested that Shi Diwen come to the center left to find Xu Yuzhuo, this move was indeed the right move, Xu Yuzhuo's identity is a naval officer, and he is more familiar with maritime affairs. Although he did not directly participate in the maritime trade operations under the name of the Xu family, the armed transformation of these merchant ships was arranged by him, and he also knew something about the situation in the waters of Zhejiang, and had at least much more information than an army officer like Xu Jiaqi.

Xu Yuzhuo did not elaborate on the distribution of armed forces in the waters of Zhejiang, but only analyzed and explained the general situation, and he spoke for more than an hour. Shi Diwen knew that these news might play a role in future combat operations, and he listened very carefully. The information that the Ministry of Security may not be able to collect with all its efforts, but it came one by one here in Xu Yuzhuo, saving Haihan a lot of things.

Xu Yuzhuo said with a dry mouth, picked up the cup and drank it, and found that the tea was already cold, so he beckoned his subordinates to make another pot of hot tea. Shi Diwen took the opportunity to ask: "What kind of role does the Zhejiang sailor play in the local area?"

"Zhejiang Sailor?" Xu Yuzhuo showed a slightly disdainful look on his face: "There are really a lot of wine bags and rice bags in Zhejiang Sailor, and I visited the sailors in Ningbo and Taizhou for official business two years ago, and both the equipment and training level are far inferior to my Fujian Sailor." Seriously, even if they had the heart to kill the thieves, they probably wouldn't be able to kill the pirates. What they are doing now is to collude with the pirates, do some smuggling business, and help the pirates wipe their butts when something happens, or sit on the ground and sell the stolen goods, and share some of the silver from them. ”

"Won't the imperial court care about it, won't they organize military operations such as suppressing bandits?" Shi Diwen asked puzzled. Local pirates are rampant, and this kind of thing must have been reflected in the court a long time ago, and the task of suppressing bandits has reached the locality, and the first to bear the brunt is the sailor.

"Yes, as soon as the sailors set out, there was no trace of piracy on the sea, and when they went around the sea and went back, they wrote a report and claimed that they had killed a number of enemies and captured a number of prisoners, and asked for credit from the military department and the imperial court. Xu Yu snorted and said: "Anyway, if you hand in the head, you can't tell whether it is a pirate or an ordinary person when you test the gong!"

This kind of thing happens in every dynasty and every generation, and it is not a rare thing. Although Shi Diwen was a little embarrassed when he heard it, he thought that the current period was in the late Ming Dynasty when the society was in turmoil, and the world was in turmoil, and it was inevitable that this kind of thing would happen. It is no wonder that Changguo Prefecture, which had a population of more than 100,000 at the beginning, was downgraded to a county, and in the end even the county was abolished.

"Then there is no way to count the number of pirates along the coast of Zhejiang?" Shi Diwen asked with some unwillingness. If there is no approximate estimate, it will be more troublesome for the Haihan side to draw up a battle plan, and the estimate will be less, and after the war counts the results of the battle, it is inevitable that some people will question the military's lies; if the estimate is too much, if so many pirates are not exterminated at that time, they will not be able to replace them with the heads of the common people like the Ming army, right?

Fortunately, Xu Yuchou's answer did not completely disappoint him: "The specific number is certainly impossible to count, but according to the known situation, it is roughly estimated that there are between 20,000 and 30,000 pirates operating along the coast of Zhejiang, especially in the waters centered on the Zhoushan Islands." ”

"That's about the same as Eighteen Zhi. Shi Diwen nodded in response.

Around 1628, the pirate gang led by Zheng Zhilong was at its peak, with thousands of ships under its command and claimed to have 30,000 sailors. Of course, the actual number may be less, but the population living in the area controlled by Shibazhi at that time was already as high as 200,000. It was not until Haihan intervened in the war in Fujian that the generals of the Ming army led by Xu Xinsu gradually gained confidence and slowly recaptured the coastal areas occupied by Shibazhi, gradually compressing the living space of pirates. By the time the Haihan organized an attack on Penghu last year, the population of the area under the rule of Shibazhi was less than 50,000, and its war potential had almost been squeezed out, so in the face of the Ming army composed of Haihan and Fujian sailors, Shibazhi could not organize a decent frontal resistance at all, and could only rely on waves of death squads to slow down the offensive rhythm of the coalition army and seize the time to evacuate Penghu.

In Haihan's view, the organizational structure of Eighteen Zhi is already very loose, more than a dozen leaders are fighting on their own, and some of the enemies want to fight and some want to escape, and it is difficult to unify their actions. However, compared with the 18 Zhi, Zhejiang's pirate gangs are more loose, and even if several of them have reached an agreement on joint cooperation or non-aggression, they are often only in words, and they cannot even set up a joint command or something like the 18 Zhi. Even if there were twenty or thirty thousand people in total, it was just a plate of scattered sand, and Shi Diwen would not really think that their combat effectiveness could be compared to eighteen zhi.

Sure enough, Xu Yuzhuo's opinion was the same as Shi Diwen's: "The strength is about the same, but the strength is far behind! Eighteen Zhi also bought a lot of weapons from the red-haired people and the Franc machine man one after another, and even hired the mercenaries of the Franc machine, the pirates in Zhejiang are not as rich as him, and it is not bad to have a few earthen cannons." In the past two years, there have even been people from Zhejiang who have come to the door to ask for help, hoping that we can sell the old guns that have been eliminated, and the courage is really not small. ”

"You mean to buy the cannon from our Haihan?" Shi Diwen asked in amazement.

"That's right, these rabbit cubs probably heard about the power of Haihan's artillery, so they wanted to buy a few and go back to strengthen the façade. However, how could this kind of battlefield killing weapon be easily sold to these thieves, my father rejected them all. Xu Yu replied. According to the agreement between the two sides, the weapons sold by Haihan to the Fujian Ming Army, especially heavy weapons such as artillery, could not be resold to a third party at will.