Daming pirates

Only then did Xiong Wencan realize that the information he had heard about the situation in Fujian before coming here was completely nonsense and not reliable at all.

Xiong Wencan was able to become the governor of Fujian. Although he had the factor of secretly running for office, he was still somewhat competent. What's more, he was not a capital official who parachuted to Fujian, but was promoted from the local area. He had been an official in the local area for a long time.

He is very familiar with the little tricks used by local officials to deceive superiors and deceive subordinates.

Therefore, he could not listen to all the information reported to him by Fujian officials. As soon as he arrived at the Fuzhou Governor's Yamen, he immediately arranged for servants and staff to start moving around to help him collect first-hand local information in Fujian.

, Xiong Wencan still has considerable experience in this aspect.

After just a few days of inquiring, Xiong Wencan basically understood the situation in Fujian. The official news and the market news were completely different.

Don't look at the gossip in the market, sometimes it is unreliable, and some news is obviously exaggerated, but after a lot of news is gathered together, the real situation can be basically analyzed.

When all these situations were gathered together and carefully studied and analyzed by Xiong Wencan and his staff, Xiong Wencan couldn't help but take a breath. He never expected that the situation along the coast of Fujian would be so corrupted.

Nowadays, the entire coast of Fujian can be said to be completely defenseless. The guards and fortresses set up along the entire coast of Fujian have been affected by the sea to varying degrees in the three months between last year and this year.

The wolf's attack was either completely destroyed or was beaten into pieces. Hundreds of powerful manor villages along the coast of the gentry were also raided.

There were as many as 100,000 people abducted in each prefecture. Of course, some took advantage of the chaos and ran away from home, while some were kidnapped by sea wolves, leaving blank areas along the coast.

What's more serious is that the huge Fujian Province once claimed to have thousands of naval warships, but now after taking stock, the total number of usable naval warships probably does not exceed 200, and most of them are small boats, which is slightly maintained.

The only ones with any combat effectiveness left were the dozens of warships controlled by Zhang Jiace, the deputy commander-in-chief of Fujian.

Such a small number of warships would be of little use in Fujian. Let alone deal with pirate attacks, they might not even be able to protect themselves.

In a province that is close to the sea and has a very long coastline. Most of the state capitals are close to the sea. It is simply unimaginable that there are only so few naval vessels left.

It was originally thought that Haichengyue Port had only been harassed, but after questioning, Xiong Wencan found out that Yuegang was not just attacked once. The entire Yuegang has now been completely destroyed by sea wolves, and there is not even a trestle in the entire pier.

Stay.

Even an acropolis protecting Yuegang was completely destroyed by the sea wolf, leaving only some ruins. It can be seen to what extent the sea wolf destroyed Yuegang this time. Xiong Wencan was not an idiot, and he immediately figured it out.

The whole story, Sea Wolf didn't just want to knock it down, but to fundamentally destroy Yuegang, the only seaport in the Ming Dynasty, and make it impossible to recover.

What surprised Xiong Wencan was not just these things. After careful inquiring by his men outside, he also learned that this time the sea wolves not only attacked various places along the coast, but even landed deep into the land.

Thousands of soldiers and horses transferred by Yanping Prefecture to Tong'an County were all devoured by Sea Wolf's thieves, with almost no scraps left.

Moreover, the Sea Wolf also surrounded Tong'an County, and then the warship sailed directly into the Jinjiang River and bombarded Quanzhou City. However, I don't know why, shortly after the Sea Wolf bombarded Quanzhou City, it voluntarily evacuated Quanzhou City and sailed out of the Jinjiang Estuary.

, and soon the entire war between Hailang and Fujian began to end. Hailang immediately retreated from the Quanzhou area, and the war was declared over.

A person like Xiong Wencan can certainly guess that Cai Shanji must have reached some kind of compromise agreement with Yu Xiaotian of Sea Wolf at a critical moment, but what exactly was reached between them?

For such an agreement, few outsiders know the details.

Xiong Wencan only secretly guessed that Cai Shanji most likely agreed to some conditions of Sea Wolf, which made Sea Wolf call a truce and stop attacking the coastal areas of Fujian.

What is certain at present is that Cai Shanji agreed to allow Hailang's Maoshengyuan business on land to resume operations, and also secretly compensated Hailang with some money. The specific amount cannot be found out, but it is basically certain that there will be such a sum of money.

What troubles Xiong Wencan the most is that although Sea Wolf has stopped its military operations, it seems that all of Weitou Bay has not been taken back by the government. Now, there are a large number of merchant ships gathered in Weitou Bay, including many that are dumping goods on land.

Many merchants also gathered in Weitou Bay instead of returning to Yuegang to rebuild Yuegang.

Faintly, Weitou Bay has now replaced Yuegang's status and become a new distribution center for maritime trade. In this way, although Xiong Wencan cannot find out the specific situation yet, he can roughly guess that Cai Shanji's

The first time we were able to persuade Hailang to call off the war, it must have been at the expense of Weitou Bay. It is estimated that Weitou Bay is actually controlled by Hailang now.

Xiong Wencan was quite unhappy about this, but he also knew the way of being an official. Now that this kind of agreement had been reached, as the trusted governor of Fujian, he could only acquiesce. Otherwise, he would offend many people, including Cai Shanji.

, although Cai Shanji did not succeed as governor of Fujian this time, the energy behind this person is also quite large. If he does not let go of this matter, he may touch the interests of too many people.

Therefore, Xiong Wencan can only pretend not to know about this. Otherwise, not only will he offend many people, but if he wants to forcibly terminate the agreement reached between Cai Shanji and Sea Wolf, he might immediately end up with another problem.

This led to Sea Wolf launching a massive retaliation against Fujian.

When taking stock of Fujian's current military strength, Xiong Wencan also shook his head. Fujian is a prosperous province, but after this war, it suffered heavy losses and its financial resources were depleted. Needless to say, its military strength was wiped out. Tens of thousands of officers and soldiers were wiped out.

Fujian's current total military strength is only 30,000 to 40,000 people. These troops are stationed in various places, and it is impossible to recruit them all.

Even if troops and horses are forcibly mobilized, the number of troops that can be mustered in Fujian as a whole is only about 10,000. Such a small number of troops and horses may not be enough to drive Sea Wolf out of Weitou Bay.

Zhu Yifeng had used so much manpower and material resources before, but in the end he was killed like a torrent in front of the sea wolf. With this small force, he would simply not feel comfortable if he wanted to use force against the sea wolf again.

Xiong Wencan knew very well why the first two Fujian governors fell. Zhu Qinxiang wanted to take action on Hailang, but he was so disgraced that he went home to retire. Zhu Yifeng wanted to avenge Fujian Yifeng's shame and bring Hailang to the throne.

The poisonous thorn of the wolf was removed, but the end result was even worse. Now he was even caught and questioned in the capital. This time, he could not even save his head.

He, Xiong Wencan, has just taken office, and he resorts to violence against Sea Wolf again. The consequences can be imagined. As long as he takes action, he will definitely follow in the footsteps of the previous two terms. He will be dismissed from office, or even his head will be moved.

.

So what should we do next? You must know that the imperial court sent him to Fujian this time, but made it clear that he must solve the problem of Sea Wolf. If he can't do it, who knows how many people are waiting to see.

His joke.

But now that Fujian has insufficient troops and financial resources, what can he do? Is he forced to petition the imperial court to invite Guangdong, Zhejiang, even Guangxi, Jiangxi and other provinces to come and suppress them?

But as soon as Xiong Wencan mentioned this idea, he was immediately discouraged by his staff.

None of his staff are vegetarians. This time Zhu Yifeng was arrested and questioned. Some of Zhu Yifeng's staff before could only break up the trees and find other ways out. Now these people are looking for opportunities everywhere. Xiong Wencan is here.

After that, it naturally became their best choice.

These people have been in Fujian all year round, helping Zhu Yifeng with work, and are very familiar with the local situation in Fujian. Xiong Wencan has just arrived, and naturally he also knows the principle of strong dragons not overpowering local snakes. Therefore, in order to make things smoother in the future, he sent people

Some of Zhu Yifeng's more capable staff were brought under his command.

Now when these staff members mention using force against Sea Wolf, every one of them shakes his head like a rattle, and every one of them keeps saying that it is unwise to do so!

Seeing that all the staff expressed opposition and very few supported it, Xiong Wencan also felt very depressed, so he asked the staff about the reason.

"Dong Weng, the student thinks that it is not easy to mention the matter of suppressing the emperor in several provinces now! There are only three reasons.

First, when Dong Weng came to Fujian this time, he was responsible for resolving this matter. If Dong Weng did nothing, and instead asked the Holy Lord to suppress the provincial capitals, there is no guarantee that some elites in the capital would not take this as an excuse.

Therefore, impeaching Dong Weng is not good for his work! This is one of them.

Secondly, if the imperial court really launches a campaign to suppress the capitals of several provinces, then a large number of guest troops will flow into Fujian. Now that the Fujian vassal is running low, how can it afford the food and wages of such a large number of guest troops?

If Fujian cannot afford the food and wages of such a large number of guest troops, there is no guarantee that the guest troops will not wander around in Fujian and eventually make the world angry and resentful! They will definitely be scolded by the people! Even before the war, I am afraid that the place has already been corrupted. This will lead to suppression.

It’s better not to suppress them!

In the past, the sea wolves only harassed the coast, but once the guest troops came, the situation along the coast became corrupt! I am afraid that the whole of Fujian will never have peace again! This is the second part!

Thirdly, now that the wolf thief has stopped fighting, the coast has finally been able to breathe. If we use force again, I am afraid that the gain will not be worth the loss. This wolf thief is not easy to deal with!

It is said that the wolf thieves now have over a thousand warships and tens of thousands of troops. In the battle of Nanri Island a few years ago, although the officials mobilized hundreds of ships to attack the sea wolves, they were still no match for them. It can be seen that the wolf thieves are indeed

Difficult to deal with.

If the capitals of several provinces are to be suppressed, the number of warships in Fujian will never be able to confront them head-on. Even if we add the warships of the Guangdong Navy and the warships from Zhejiang, we may still be unable to defeat the warships of the wolf bandits.

Students recently heard that the wolf thieves not only defeated the navy this time, but even a fleet of large plywood boats sent by the red-haired people had been wiped out by sea wolves before!

Although we have never seen the red-haired people's large plywood fleet, we all know that the red-haired people's ships are strong and powerful. We have all seen how powerful the red barbarian cannons are. The red-haired people's large plywood boats are often

Equipped with dozens of red barbarian cannons, they were still destroyed by sea wolves. It is obvious that these wolf thieves are by no means easy to destroy!

Therefore, I hope Dong Weng will think twice before taking action. It is better not to bring up the matter of suppressing these provincial capitals lightly!" An aide stood up and said to Xiong Wencan.