This seemingly unremarkable Shipu Port actually has such a function, but the Haihan military did not expect it at all when formulating the battle plan, including the decision-makers of the military's top level only thought that Shipu was a fishing port and did not have more hope for it. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 However, there are many harbors in the coastal areas of Zhejiang, and it is indeed uncertain where there are such smuggling warehouses. And this creates a paradox - can this maritime trade, which is run entirely by official personnel, still be called smuggling?

After reporting to Qian Tiandun, Gao Qiao Nan and his people successively cleared out a large number of porcelain and other goods from the warehouse, and roughly estimated that the value of the goods in these warehouses in the city was nearly 100,000 taels of silver. Later, the soldiers found a batch of official silver from the treasury of the official office of the city guard, totaling 6,600 taels, and according to the account office of the treasury, most of this silver was needed for the military salary and daily expenses of the local garrison in the first half of the year, and a small part was the private property of the officers stored in the treasury.

The seizure at Shipu was a great surprise to the commanders of the coalition forces, who originally thought that it would be good if they could copy two or three thousand taels of silver from this place, but they did not expect that this place would still be a hidden cargo transit port. Even Xu Ke, the leader of the way, was shocked when he learned the truth, he had been to Shipu at least two or three times a year in the past few years, but he never realized that such a big secret was hidden here. This Shipu office is still like this, and the two guards of Juexi and Qiancang under the rule of Changguo Wei are afraid that the situation will not be too bad.

He was not the only one who thought of this, Shi Diwen was already excited after hearing the report of his subordinates: "Old Qian, it seems that this errand in Zhejiang is going to dig up a few gold mountains! I have to send a telegram back to Penghu, and let a few more cargo ships over there come over to pull the loot!"

Qian Tiandun was not carried away by this windfall, shook his head and said: "We don't plan to start a war with the Ming Dynasty, do we want to sweep these guards one by one? These cargo owners are all local people in Zhejiang, and if we offend all these people, how can we do business here in the future?"

Shi Diwen said disapprerovingly: "If we offend, we can support a group more, what we do in Qiongzhou can be copied here." ”

Qian Tiandun said: "That's true, but it took us four or five years to straighten out all kinds of relationships on Hainan Island, do you think the Executive Committee can have the patience to spend so long in Zhejiang?"

Shi Diwen retorted: "Hainan Island is our own base camp, of course, everything has to be under our own control, and we don't plan to take down this Zhejiang immediately, so we need to spend a few years to run it." The people here see the money, as long as they realize the benefits of cooperating with us, they don't have to worry about not changing their attitude. ”

"Even if some people change their attitudes, there will still be some people who are hostile to us because their interests are damaged. Qian Tiandun persuaded: "Although we are not afraid of anyone, there is no need to take the initiative to make enemies. ”

Shi Diwen thought about it, and his attitude finally softened: "Then what should I do if I get these goods now? Do you have to return them one by one?"

"How can you spit out the meat you ate in your mouth!" Qian Tiandun shook his head and said: "Of course, it is impossible to return what has already been received, otherwise the people below will think that we have something to fear about the Zhejiang government." First seal them all, and when the next batch of ships returns to Fujian, they will be transported back. ”

At the same time, Ma Ling, Zhang Qian, and others, "escorted" by Haihan soldiers, appeared in the fishing villages around Shipusuo and asked the people not to panic because of the previous war, which was officially a daily drill conducted by the garrison to combat pirates. As for the strange fleet that appeared in Shipu Port, it was the Haihan militia sailors who came from Fujian specifically for this purpose.

This is also the first time that the coalition fleet has officially displayed its flag since it entered the territory of Zhejiang. The reason why this time was chosen was that Qian Tiandun and others considered that the coalition forces were going to set up this place as an advance base, and it was necessary to set up a garrison in Shipu at least in the short term, and it was necessary to appease the emotions of the local people. Moreover, the large amount of goods found in the city of Shipu also proves that this is one of the transit ports for the smuggling trade of Ningbo Prefecture, and there must be pirate gangs among the fishermen living in the nearby area, and it is impossible for such a large fleet to hide its true identity for a long time. At present, all that can be thought of as having a small psychological impact on the local people can only be confirmed by official personnel that this is a partner of the government.

Ma Ling really wants to cry without tears about the arrangement of the Haihan people, and he helps to publicize it like this, which basically confirms the relationship between him and the Haihan collusion, if the boss is held accountable afterwards, Ma Ling will not even have a chance to wash his name. But he could not refuse the Haihan people's request in a righteous and awe-inspiring manner, because several of his hundreds of households were all imprisoned by the Haihan people, and he was given a multiple-choice question with no alternative answers-either to cooperate, or to choose one person from the hundred households to replace him.

Ma Ling didn't want to disappear so inexplicably, so he could only cooperate to save his life first. As for the few colleagues who might betray him afterwards, Ma Ling also asked the Haihan people to deal with it on their behalf, so that they would not appear in public again.

On 15 April, all the temporary bases originally set up on Beiyushan Island were transferred to Shipu Port. The coalition forces designated the eastern part of the port of Seokpo as a military control zone, prohibiting fishing boats from entering and leaving the port in this direction. All the captured guards were moved to a small island in the harbor and placed under house arrest temporarily, and the castle of Ishiura was naturally taken over by the coalition forces and became the seat of the headquarters. The commanders planned to let the soldiers who had been fighting for many days here for a short period of recuperation, and by the way, wait for the supply of war materials from Fujian before continuing their march north.

At the combat readiness meeting held on this day, in addition to the high-ranking officers of the coalition forces, there were also two more people outside the establishment, one was Xu Ke, a secret pile planted by the Fujian military in Xiangshan, and the other was Ma Ling, a thousand households of Shipu who had thought about the cause and effect and decided to take refuge in Haihan last night.

Of course, for Ma Ling's defection, the coalition forces will not immediately give him 100% trust, after all, this guy is from the Zhejiang government, and he has no intersection with Haihan in the past, so he will make such a choice, which is completely forced by the situation to save his life. If the situation changes another day, it is difficult to guarantee that this guy will not go back on his word.

The purpose of this meeting is to start preparing for the next stage of the meeting. Further north from Xiangshan County, you have entered the waters of the Zhoushan Islands, which is also the area where piracy in the Middle East Sea is said to be most frequent. The first is Liuheng Island, located at the southern tip of the Zhoushan Islands.

This island with an area of more than 100 square kilometers is the third largest island in Zhoushan, the topography of the island is high at both ends and low in the middle, the deep-water coastline is long, and the hinterland of the port is wide, especially the Shuangyu waterway between Fodu Island in the west, which has always been a good port favored by maritime merchants. However, the most information about this place is not Xu Ke, the leading party, but one of Haihan's current partners, the Portuguese.

Liuheng Island nearly 100 years ago, that is, during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, after the Fujian Deng Fang escaped from the prison of the Fujian Judge, he colluded with the Portuguese who had just been expelled from Guangdong by the Ming Dynasty at that time, and built a port on the side of Liuheng Island in the Shuangyu Waterway to set up a smuggling market, and this port was called Shuangyu Port. More than ten years later, the four Xu brothers introduced the Portuguese into Shuangyu Port, and colluded with the pirate king to attract Japanese pirates to the local area.

By 1542, the twenty-first year of Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty, the number of Portuguese living in Shuangyu Port for a long time had reached 1,200, and the total number of people from various countries outside the Ming Dynasty exceeded 3,000, and the annual trade volume exceeded 3 million Portuguese dollars. A simple comparison can be made of this trade volume is that the Portuguese navigator da Gama, who discovered the Far Eastern route in his time, had an annual salary of 1,000 Portuguese dollars, and he was already known as the richest man in Portugal.

The Portuguese Fernán Méndez Pinto wrote in his book Travels Chronicles of a Long Journey that he saw and heard while traveling with Jesuit missionaries to Japan, passing through the port of Shuangyu. According to Pinto's records, the port of Shuangyu could accommodate hundreds of sea vessels, and the port was managed by Portuguese colonists, with government officials such as city magistrates, judges, and town mayors, and a complete urban administrative structure, as well as public facilities such as hospitals, churches, and charity halls. At that time, the Portuguese not only operated trade with the Ming here, but also opened the door to entrepot trade with Japan, and the vast majority of the trade here was exchanged for silver ingots from Japan. It was the richest of the Far Eastern colonies owned by the Portuguese at the time.

However, the harm caused by the Chinese pirates, Portuguese colonizers, and Japanese pirates who colluded with each other due to the huge interests of the smuggling trade in the eastern coastal areas of the Ming Dynasty has become more and more serious, and incidents of foreigners harming the Ming people have occurred from time to time. In the twenty-seventh year of Jiajing, Zhu Kun, the right deputy capital of Yushi, served as the governor of Zhejiang, supervised the military affairs of Zhejiang, Fujian and Fujian, and appointed Lu Bo, the commander of Fujian, and Wei Yigong, the deputy envoy, to lead Liu Enzhi, Zhang Siwei, Zhang Han and other generals to assemble 480 warships and more than 6,000 people from both land and water armies to encircle and suppress the bandit nest in Shuangyu Port.

After several days of fierce fighting, the Ming army captured the bandit leaders Li Guangtou, Ji Tianpo, Gu Liangyu and others, destroyed dozens of pirate armed sailing ships, and killed hundreds of enemies. The Portuguese Pinto's account in his book is even more striking, saying that the Ming army executed as many as 10,000 Christians on the island, including 800 Portuguese, and the total value of destroyed property amounted to 2.5 million Portuguese dollars.

After the war, Zhu Kun personally visited the island to inspect, and originally wanted to garrison the army, but in the end he chose to use wood and stone to sink into the sea to block the Shuangyu Pass, completely abolishing this pirate port. In the following three months, Zhu Kun commanded his troops to continuously conquer the Japanese in the surrounding areas such as Nanji Island and Panshiwei, and quelled the banditry in this area that lasted for 20 years. However, Zhu Kun's actions greatly damaged the interests of the local gentry and some officials to sit on the ground and share the spoils, and inevitably aroused hatred, and the imperial historian Chen Jiude, Zhou Liang and others impeached Zhu Kun for "taking obedient measures and killing and provoking", and impeached Lu Bo and others for "the party kills without permission, and it is appropriate to put it in place", and the confused Jiajing Emperor ordered Zhu Kun to be investigated for capital crimes, and finally Zhu Kun committed suicide unjustly, and Lu Bo and others were dismissed from their posts and imprisoned, and were condemned to death.

After this battle, the Portuguese were so devastated that they had to leave Zhejiang for the coast of Fujian, and were later expelled several times, traveling from place to place, and finally settled in Macao. Before the fleet set off from Sanya, the Portuguese heard that Haihan was going to march into Zhejiang, and they also took the initiative to provide a lot of information. Of course, their purpose is also very clear, that is, they hope that after Haihan takes a base in Zhejiang, they will be able to repay the favor and let them reextend the trade route to Zhejiang.

From the late Wanli period to the Apocalypse, the eastern coastal defense was gradually abandoned, and this area once again became a paradise for adventurers. Although the original Shuangyu Port has been abandoned due to siltation, this island, which is facing the outlet of Xiangshan Port, still attracts financiers to invest again in opening and building a port. According to Xu Ke's description, there is still a port on the south and north of the island that is engaged in smuggling trade all year round, and these two ports are also controlled by two groups of pirates. These two groups may not be the most powerful pirate group in the entire Zhoushan Islands, but their financial resources are definitely the strongest. Xu Ke estimated that the annual smuggling volume of Liuheng Island was at least one million taels of silver, which was comparable to that of Penghu, which was previously controlled by the Eighteen Zhis.

Of course, in order to run such a large industry, it is certainly not enough to rely on a group of pirates, and there must be local gentry on the shore who arrange supply and marketing channels for them, and people in the government who provide shelter for these gray industries. How many people will be involved in this network, Xu Ke is not clear.

"Ma Qianhu, do you have anything to add?" Qian Tiandun asked Ma Ling, who was dumbfounded.

He didn't know where the Haihan people had gathered so much news about Liuheng Island, and a considerable part of it had not even been heard of by him, a native of Zhejiang. However, it can also be seen from this that the Haihan people have made very full preparations for this operation in Zhejiang, and they have collected so much information just from the background information of Liuheng Island, so the battle plan will naturally not be bad.

Ma Ling replied: "General Hui, there is a small thousand households under the Xia, and his position is humble, and he usually can't get in touch with the big people above. The goods in and out of Shipu Port are also based on the warrant of the commander of Chang Guowei, and as for how to dispatch and coordinate in other places, I really don't know. ”

"Xiangshan is so close to Liuheng Island, you always know the situation of the two groups of pirates on the island, right?" Qian Tiandun didn't let Ma Ling go, and continued to ask him.