Daming pirates

Although the Chinese New Year is about to come, Yu Xiaotian still ordered each fleet to start inspecting the ships under his command. Those that should be maintained and inspected should be inspected immediately, and those that should be replaced should be replaced with sails immediately to ensure that every ship

The ships are in the best condition, and each ship is required to maintain a certain amount of ammunition backup at any time to cope with emergencies that may arise at any time.

In addition, the warehouse management department of the council hall has also begun to inventory the various ammunition supplies and food reserves stored in the warehouse to prepare for emergencies at any time.

And at the same time, additional hidden sentries and hidden cards began to be installed along the coast of Nanyue Island, strengthening the alert situation everywhere on Nanyue Island.

Including the fishermen on Nanyue Island, they have also been notified that when they go out to sea, they must closely observe unidentified ships appearing on the sea around Nanyue Island. Once discovered, they must immediately alert or notify nearby patrol ships and take action against them.

Interception check.

In short, before the Spring Festival came, Yu Xiaotian gradually tightened the string within the Sea Wolf that caused the war, until the people below began to gradually feel this strangeness, and the string in people's hearts also

Gradually it became tense.

And just when Hailang was secretly preparing for war, there were over a hundred ships of all kinds gathered in the Wujiao Bay of Dongshan Island on the southeast coast of Zhangzhou Prefecture in southern Fujian.

These ships range from large to small. The large ones include three-masted Fuchuan and Guangzhou ships with a displacement of about 400 tons, and there are also two three-masted sand ships, but most of them are small ships with a displacement of about 100 tons to 200 tons.

Type ships, mainly bird ships and haicang ships, are more suitable for plundering on the sea. The ship speed is slightly faster, relatively flexible, and has a certain loading capacity.

Therefore, the ships used by pirates are also selected according to their needs. In Wujiao Bay, in addition to these one hundred or ten larger ships, there are also a considerable number of smaller ships, and the number is even greater.

Under the hundreds, most of them are fishing boats with a displacement of 40 to 50 tons or 10 to 20 tons.

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

There is a huge difference in organizational structure between the Chu Cai Lao Group and the Sea Wolf Group. Although the Sea Wolf Group is not small, in fact all power belongs to Xiaotian, and the rest are all personnel under his command.

A tightly structured way of organizing.

However, the Chu Cai Lao Group has 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 groups of pirates with different abilities.

The shopkeepers all have their own subordinates, and their subordinates are not directly subordinate to Mr. Chu Cai, but are subordinate to each shopkeeper and obey the orders of these shopkeepers.

These shopkeepers are more like some shareholders who have invested in shares, obeying the orders of Mr. Chu Cai. In peacetime, they work independently and act in separate areas in the sea area occupied by Mr. Chu Cai. Each does his own thing. Mr. Chu Cai

When something happens, they will be called together to do some big things together.

Like Chu Cailao's previous raid on the coast, at the end of the Wanli year, he attacked Jieyang with hundreds of boats and thousands of people, and then attacked Yangcheng. Later, he attacked Jieyang for the second time. He used this method to gather his tribesmen.

In fact, the number of ships and men directly subordinate to Chu Cailao was not as large as outsiders imagined. There were only seventy or eighty ships and only more than two thousand men under him.

However, because he entered the sea earlier and had already begun to hang out at sea during the Wanli period, he had a great reputation and relatively strong strength, so a large number of pirates gathered under his men and obeyed his orders. This made Chu Cailao's strength

At this time, it looks very huge, and most people really don't dare to mess with this guy.

Even the local officials in the coastal areas of Fujian and Guangdong avoided him and did not dare to provoke this guy for fear of incurring his revenge. With Chu Cailao's current strength, he is really capable of capturing a county. Isn't this right?

What a joke.

So he blatantly gathered people here on Dongshan Island, but the Ming army on Nan'ao Island, which was just around the corner, could only turn a blind eye and did not dare to send troops to suppress it.

In fact, Chu Cai was not arrogant. Although the Ming Dynasty had a deputy commander-in-chief on Nan'ao Island at this time, named Xie Shou Zhangchao and other deputy commander-in-chief stationed in Nan'ao, there were also one battalion of officers and soldiers from Guangdong and Fujian stationed on the island.

, built a water fortress and stationed naval warships.

However, after Wanli, as the Japanese invasion along the coast gradually abated, and the court and government did not pay attention to armaments, by the end of Wanli, the armaments along the entire coast, especially in the south, had basically been depleted. If this had not been the case, the Ming Dynasty would have

If the naval and land armies like those under Qi Jiguang's command were still retained, the Dutch and Spanish would not dare to be so arrogant. A small battle in Penghu could be fought with such virtue.

Therefore, the garrison on Nan'ao Island was actually basically useless by this time. The two battalions of officers and soldiers were seriously short of personnel. In name, the formal establishment of the two battalions of officers and soldiers was more than 4,000 people, but in fact, by this time, the shortage of officers and soldiers had exceeded 80%.

, there are only less than a thousand troops stationed on Nan'ao Island. Although it cannot be said to exist in name only, it has no combat effectiveness.

As for the warships in the water camp of Nan'ao Island, it is said that in Qi Jiguang's era, there were more than 70 warships of various types, and as many as 1,500 sailors. However, after the end of Qi Jiguang's era, Fujian

Basically, Guangdong and Guangdong have not built any new ships here.

The warships left at that time could only rot silently soaked in the sea water. Later, although some ships were built as a last resort for maintenance, these newly built warships were all made of dilapidated old ones.

It was built from the dismantled planks of the ship.

Nowadays, the number of usable warships left on Nan'ao Island is less than ten, and they are all broken ships. They are not able to do any anti-smuggling work, let alone let the deputy commander of Nan'ao lead his army to go to sea to suppress Chu Cai.

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It can be said that after the Tianqi period, the coastal governments of Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong and Guangxi have lost the ability to actually control the sea. The entire sea has basically become a paradise for pirates, and the official army can only guard a limited number of important places, not to mention the coast.

In the open state, it is basically the same. Otherwise, if Longqing opens the sea, it will only open Zhangzhou Yuegang, but maritime merchants from other places will still have direct access to the sea.

And if this were not the case, this time when the Dutch invaded Penghu, they would not have exhausted all the troops and ships in Fujian Province. After fighting for a year or two, Nan Juyi reluctantly "expelled" the Dutch from Penghu. It was really

Sad and awesome.

Therefore, it is not surprising that Mr. Chu Cai regards Dongshan Island as his temporary home. It is not even impossible for him to lead his troops to capture Nan'ao Island.

He is the overlord here. Even if a few official warships come, if he does not see such a formation of masts and sails in Wujiao Bay, he will definitely turn around and leave in fright.

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Wujiao Bay is very lively inside, and it can be said that it is even more lively on the shore. Pirates wearing various costumes have set up messy sheds or huts on the shore, scattered everywhere on the shore without any rules, and those pirates are also scattered

During this period, they were either in small groups, or dozens of people gathered together, or even hundreds of people gathered in one place, shouting and drinking, or gambling, and no one restrained them.

This makes people easily think of the scene in the Monkey Mountain of Flowers and Fruits in Journey to the West. There is no discipline and no one to control them, and they are allowed to have fun on the island.

Women's cries were even heard in some places. Some pirates pushed some of the women they had snatched to the ground in random places and began to vent their anger wantonly.

In some places, there are a large number of ragged people. Their faces are dirty, their faces are yellow and their muscles are thin, and they are dejected. They are imprisoned in some circles. There are men, women, old and young. Among them are people wearing common clothes, and some wearing a small amount of clothing.

They were all dressed in silk and brocade clothes, but they had one thing in common, that is, they were all very weak and looked like they had not had a decent meal for a long time.

And these people are all meat tickets. They were kidnapped by Chu Cai's old men when they ransacked the villages and towns along the coast. After these meat tickets are screened back here, if there is money to be made, someone will be sent according to the contact information of the meat tickets.

, sent someone to deliver a letter to their families, asking them to pay a ransom to redeem the meat tickets.

But some poor people were left on the island to work as coolies for Mr. Chu Cai, doing all kinds of work for Mr. Chu Cai until they died of exhaustion. Sometimes when Mr. Chu Cai needed help,

, he will directly force these meat coupons that were kidnapped and had no money to redeem them to join his gang and serve as his minions.

As for the women among the kidnapped meat tickets, let alone them. They will basically use them as tools to vent their sexual desires, humiliate and destroy them arbitrarily, until they get tired of playing with them, and then find a place to resell them.

Sometimes these women would be sold on land through secret channels, and sometimes they would simply be shipped to Southeast Asia, such as Manila, Batavia and other places.

There are many merchants from mainland China who have settled there to open up wasteland or do business. They are very rich. Although they can also buy some female slaves locally, there are no local black and thin South Asian women.

These women on land are more popular. Once these women are brought there for sale, 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.

If there is no money to be made for the captured children, they will soon be brought to the land and entered into the market, where they will be sold to some wealthy families as servants or maids.

In short, pirates like Chu Cai Lao are basically like locusts wherever they go. They not only rob the property, but also often rob the local population.

However, in addition to some temporary residences built by the scattered shopkeepers on the island, there is also a stockade on the island. This stockade should be an abandoned military camp. In the early years of Dongshan Island, there were also official troops stationed to guard against Japanese pirates.

It was prepared for Japan, but by this time, it had long been abandoned. As a result, it was occupied by Mr. Chu Cai and became his old camp.

It’s the second day of the National Day holiday. Brothers who have monthly tickets in their hands, please help me leave them for me! Thank you very much! Also thank you Ying Zhiwu and Brother Hu Luhulu for the reward! It’s a good start! A good sign! Thank you very much!)