If Ma Ling insists on saying that he doesn't know, then there is obviously no credibility. Pen ~ fun ~ Pavilion www.biquge.info at least two-thirds of the various valuable commodities copied out of the city of Shipu will be put into the new Shuangyu Port of Liuheng Island for trading, and he Ma Ling has not dealt with several masters on Liuheng Island in the past few years, and he is not a stupid white sweet who knows nothing about it. It's just that the backstage of these people is too hard, and offending them will inevitably cause trouble in the future, Ma Ling was a little hesitant for a while whether he should tell the Haihan people what he knew.

"Ma Qianhu, the news of your cooperation with us will reach Liuheng Island in a few days, do you think that if you think about them here, you can regain their trust?" Qian Tiandun saw Ma Ling's appearance of wanting to speak and stopped, he had already guessed his scruples, and nodded to him twice.

Ma Ling was shocked when he heard this, and suddenly came back to his senses. Regardless of whether his current cooperation with the Haihan people is sincere or not, in the eyes of outsiders, he is already in the same camp as the Haihan people. The quicker turn of his mind has probably connected the situation that happened in Shipu Port to his apostasy. Otherwise, why were all the other Ming army officers imprisoned, and he was the only one who survived? Even if the Haihan people withdrew in the future, all the people he could and could not offend would have already been offended, and no matter how obedient he was, he would not be able to recover.

I heard Qian Tiandun continue: "You probably don't have a clear understanding of the situation you are currently in, then I would like to remind you that you are now standing on the opposite side of everyone except us, and the person who can help you and cover you in the future is not the Ming Dynasty, nor the pirates of the East China Sea, but our Haihan! You cooperate with us well, and you can continue to be your Shipu Qianhu, even if you can't get along in Zhejiang in the future, we can also arrange for you to settle elsewhere." Rest assured, there are many of us who have been your colleagues in the past. ”

Qian Tiandun's words are indeed not bragging, from Luo Shengdong in Yacheng Water Village at the beginning, to Wei Ping, Li Qingyang, Xiao Yin, Li Jin and others later, Haihan has successively accepted at least one platoon of high-grade former Ming officials. Of course, the grade of most of them is not high, and among the cultural relics officials who have openly surrendered to Haihan so far, the highest level is only about five grades. However, there are really a lot of local officials in Fuguang Province who have a cooperative relationship with Haihan, although these people cannot say that they have taken refuge in Haihan, they have a deep entanglement of interests with Haihan, and their thoughts towards Haihan are even more than that of the imperial court.

Although Zhejiang is not Haihan's sphere of influence, Ma Ling's official position cannot be guaranteed, and Haihan may not have the strength, but there is no problem in keeping his life safe. Haihan has received so many officials from the Ming Dynasty, but there has never been anyone who has been settled by the imperial court, the big deal is to arrange to go to Haihan's overseas colonies, and bureaucrats like Ma Ling, who have work experience in professional fields, can be arranged to be a county-level sheriff in a certain place, and they can take up their posts without too complicated training.

Ma Ling was persuaded by Qian Tiandun like this, and he also felt that his future seemed to be tied to the Haihan people, and it was indeed not a wise behavior to play tricks with the Haihan people at this time. On the other hand, if the Haihan people can really clean up the waters of Ningbo Prefecture, then the situation may change differently -- the reason why the people in the government connived at or even colluded with the pirates in the East China Sea was naturally for money on the one hand, and on the other hand, it was also because the official armament was lax, and there was no way to take advantage of the numerous pirate gangs and armed smugglers in the Zhoushan Islands. If there is a foreign armed force strong enough to deal with the local pirates and replace them, the local powerful people may not be unable to accept a new face.

"Well, since I have chosen to cooperate with you, then I will leave it to fate!" Ma Ling sighed and gave up the last psychological line of defense.

Occupying the southern part of Liuheng Island is a group of pirates and smugglers from many countries, calling themselves the "Haisha Gang". Its members included the Ming Dynasty, Japan, Korea, the Ryukyus, and a small number of Western colonizers. The multinational force numbered about 1,500 to 2,000 fighters, fifty or sixty armed sailing ships, and about 5,000 other vassals. In addition to controlling the two harbors of Cangdongao and Tianao in the southern part of Liuheng Island, the "Haisha Gang" also controlled more than 10 small islands, including Liangtan Island and Yuanshan Island in the southeast of Liuheng Island.

There are three big leaders in this group, namely Li Luotou from Zhejiang, Shinobu Motegi from the Japanese, and Gomez from the Portuguese. The three of them have a clear division of labor, Li Luotou is responsible for dealing with the Ming side, Shinobu Motegi is responsible for the smuggling trade in Korea, Japan, and the Ryukyus, while Gomez is through his special identity, a group of Western colonists, mercenaries and adventurers in the local network, forming the "Haisha Gang" The most effective firearms unit.

The one who occupies the Shuangyu waterway in the north of Liuheng Island is a real group of local pirates of the Ming Dynasty, led by the three brothers Lin Xing, Lin De and Lin Si, known as the "Three Forest Gang". The three Lin brothers were all born in Ningbo, and they have a lot of local connections, and many people in the local government have money dealings with them. These three men have only a little more than 1,000 soldiers to fight, but because of their good relationship with the local government, the "Haisha Gang" in the south will not easily provoke them. The Sanlin Gang's sphere of influence is mainly concentrated in the northern area of Fodu Island and Liuheng Island on both sides of the Shuangyu Waterway, although it is not as large as the territory of its rival Haisha Gang, but it is closer to Ningbo Prefecture, and the advantage of location basically makes up for the shortcomings of the small territory, so that the Sanlin Gang can compete with the Haisha Gang.

These two gang of pirates, or armed smugglers, are not the largest in the waters of the Zhoushan Islands, but their trade volume is definitely the first level in this circle. Some small groups of pirates scattered on various islands are limited in size and have no strong background, so they can only rely on simple raids to survive, and sometimes even have to play the role of running errands or waving flags for large pirate gangs, and even have to return to their old jobs as fishermen when it is not good. Groups such as the Sanlin Gang and the Haisha Gang have largely moved away from the simple model of armed robbery, and their income is more dependent on the windfall profits brought by various smuggling trades.

Of course, being able to engage in the smuggling trade all year round is not a good kind, and it is bound to face all kinds of external competitive pressures, and sometimes they have to act as thugs for some big people and do some dirty work that is not visible. In fact, there was no direct conflict of interest between these pirate gangs and the Haihan whose sphere of influence was far away in Fujian, and the detailed information about these people was gradually collected after the coalition forces arrived in Zhejiang, so there was no deep hatred, but before the Haihan people marched into Zhejiang, they had already included the Zhoushan Islands outside Hangzhou Bay into their own sphere of influence in advance, and these local armed forces were bound to be the targets of cleanup.

Whether it is a pirate or an armed smuggler, for Haihan, its personnel composition is too complex, and the possibility of receiving it as a whole is extremely small. Of course, if you sit down and negotiate the terms slowly, it is not impossible to negotiate the possibility of a merger, but the cost of time is higher than the cost of money for Haihan's traversers, and instead of spending a lot of time negotiating slowly and haggling with these greedy smugglers, Haihan hopes to resolve possible conflicts of interest in a simple and clear way.

Compared with the previous plans made by the departments of commerce and civil affairs to infiltrate Zhejiang, the strategy of the Haihan military can only be described as rude, that is, to achieve the goal of controlling Zhejiang's maritime trade by controlling the coastline of Zhejiang, especially the Hangzhou Bay area. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to clean the key areas and eliminate unstable factors such as the Sanlin Gang and the Haisha Gang.

Ma Ling didn't know the strategy of the Haihan, but since the Haihan people took the initiative to express their concern about the situation on Liuheng Island, Ma Ling could roughly conclude that the two groups of people on the island were going to be unlucky. Although these two groups of people on the island have always had dealings with Shi Puwei, and Ma Ling can get a lot of benefits from them every year, but it is related to his own future and fate, and Ma Ling does not dare to hide anything for them anymore.

"Since these two groups of people have backstage support from the government, they must be at a higher level than you, right?" Qian Tiandun asked, "Tell me, who are the people behind them?"

Ma Lingying said: "Behind the Sanlin Gang is the prefect of Ningbo Mansion, and behind the Haisha Gang is the commander of the Zhejiang Metropolitan Division. ”

Ma Ling thought that this information would shock the Han people, but looking at the people present, their faces were as usual, and there was nothing unusual. Just when he was confused, he heard Shi Diwen ask: "I know that the prefect is the fourth rank, so how many rank officials are the commanders?"

Qian Tiandun has been dealing with the Fujian Ming Army for a long time in the past half a year, so he knows more about it: "This is the commander of the Zhejiang Metropolitan Division, Zheng Sanpin, and there should be four people in the same position." ”

"One level higher than the prefect, that's a big official. Shi Diwen nodded, but there was not much surprise on his face.

Qian Tiandun said: "Dusi is a provincial-level unit, of course, one level higher than the administrative level of Ningbo. ”

In fact, there is no provincial system in the administrative system of the Ming Dynasty, but the Department of Political Envoys, the Department of Procuratorial Envoys, and the Department of Command Envoys are in charge of the administration, justice, and military of a province respectively, and these three divisions have no subordinate relationship with each other, and each is responsible for the central court. The Metropolitan Command and Envoy Department is subordinate to the central government of the Governor's Office of the Five Armies, obeys the orders of the Ministry of War, and is the highest military leadership body in the locality, and the local guards are under its control. Ma Ling's rank is still a full level away from the middle of the Du Division, and the rank of Zheng Wupin is also a full two levels lower than that of the Du Commander. As for the prefect of Ningbo, because he can't directly control the health system, Ma Ling is not particularly afraid of his identity, but he has also heard that there are actually bigger officials behind the prefect who are operating, but that is not the news that he can find out from his small thousand households.

If it weren't for the last resort, Ma Ling didn't want to be guilty of commanding the servants, even if he was only one of the four servants, even if there were commanders and commanders above the affairs, but the difference in administrative level was enough for Ma Ling to drink a pot. However, this kind of jealousy obviously only belongs to Ma Ling himself, and the officers of Haihan don't seem to take these big names seriously.

Ma Ling was relieved when he thought about it, these officials who dealt with Fuguang and Guang provinces were said to be at the level of governors and commanders, and officials of the third and fourth grades might not be able to enter their eyes.

On the one hand, Qian Tiandun and Shi Diwen really didn't care much about how high the rank of this so-called backstage figure was, on the other hand, they also had plans to knock on the mountain and shock the tiger, and wanted to get two examples for Zhejiang officialdom, so as to deter some people who were unstable.

If the level of the parties is too low, it is obvious that it will not stir up any waves and will not achieve the effect of the example. If the level is too high, it is likely to directly provoke the Ming court, thus having the opposite effect. These third-grade and fourth-grade officials are all serving in the local government, which is really a very suitable level for the plans of the Haihan military. However, how to operate it cannot rely entirely on advance planning, and commanders still need to judge the situation and respond flexibly according to the changes in the local situation.

"This pirate doesn't have a lot of troops, but it's a problem to scout. Shi Diwen touched his chin and sighed, but his eyes drifted to Xu Ke. Only here is that his identity is less sensitive, and he is more familiar with the conditions at sea nearby.

Xu Ke gritted his teeth and clenched his fists in response: "I am willing to go to Liuheng Island." ”

Shi Diwen was waiting for him to make this statement, and immediately patted him on the shoulder vigorously and said: "Very good, when the matter is over, I will personally give you credit! You set off as soon as possible, and I will send someone to pretend to be a sailor to go with you." You don't have to worry, just go and reconnoiter and let my people survey the hydrological conditions of the local port, and you don't need to risk using force. ”

Similar to the special operations battalion trained by Qian Tiandun, the navy has also set up its own special forces, and these small elite units similar to the nature of the Marine Corps are organized in several fleets of Haihan, and there is also a squad in the fleet that came to Zhejiang this time. Although the number of people is small, all of them are elites in the navy, and they have received special combat training such as maritime reconnaissance, tracking, and coastal infiltration, and they are even more familiar with disguised as sailors.

On 16 April, Xu Ke left Shipu Port on the fishing boat he had come from and headed north. At this time, his mood was much lighter than when he came, and the ship sent by the coalition forces to pick up his family in Xiangshan should have been on the way back, and he had nothing to worry about. And what he has seen in the army in the past few days has greatly strengthened his confidence in the strength of the coalition army, compared to this highly armed professional army, the outlaws on Liuheng Island are indeed just a group of rabble. If it weren't for Shi Diwen's initiative, Xu Ke would have even thought that there was no need for detailed reconnaissance at all, and the fleet would have sailed to Liuheng Island and pushed it over directly.