The Prosperous Era of Longwan

Japanese pirates have actually existed since the Yuan Dynasty.

The first Japanese pirates were troops sent by some coastal lords of the Japanese country to retaliate against the Yuan Dynasty at that time. As for revenge, of course it was the Yuan Dynasty's two eastern expeditions to Japan.

At the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, a large number of Zhang Shicheng's remnants fled overseas and became pirates. Even after the Japanese knew that China had changed its dynasty and no longer sent troops to retaliate, these remnants and some bankrupt warriors they gathered were still engaged in robbing families and homes. .

In the Ming Dynasty, these pirates were not collectively called Japanese pirates. However, the Japanese pirates at this time were actually more accurate pirates, because most of them were Han people, and the Japanese were just small leaders or mercenaries among them.

In the next hundred years, pirates mainly focused on sea trade, and of course part of the source of goods was smuggling. Although they also robbed merchant ships on the sea, the scale of robberies ashore has always been small and has not developed.

When the time came to the second year of Jiajing, the Ningbo Tribute Incident broke out. Two Japanese famous names came to the Ming Dynasty to pay tribute for the Kanhe trade. The dispute over the authenticity of the Kanhe trade triggered a conflict, and an armed killing incident broke out in Ningbo, Zhejiang.

Emperor Jiajing thought that the door was closed, the Shipping Department was cancelled, and the exploration and cooperation trade was no longer allowed.

Because official trade was cancelled, merchants in the south also needed to expand trade routes, and the smuggling trade flourished, and a climate soon formed.

Although the waters have been peaceful and quiet for more than two decades, in fact a large number of goods are smuggled by the private sector, which has greatly strengthened the close relationship between smugglers and pirates.

Huge business interests, countless people are involved, especially the families of coastal officials and gentry, who are heavily involved in the smuggling business.

But everything came to an abrupt end in the 26th year of Jiajing.

This year in Yuyao County, Shaoxing Prefecture, there was a large house in the county. It was completely burned down by a group of thieves overnight. It was a tragedy that destroyed the whole family.

The owner of the house is a descendant of Xie Qian, the former pavilion elder, that is, the eloquent Xie Yuqiao of the Hongzhi Dynasty.

In fact, behind this tragedy was the internal strife of the smuggling group. It was said to be an act of revenge caused by the Xie family's unethical behavior and embezzlement of property.

But when a case happened, it was natural to give an explanation to the court. This was the old Ge family. Although they had been dead for more than ten years, their official connections were still there.

The Japanese pirates were taken out as scapegoats.

After that, the Ming Dynasty once again launched a vigorous campaign to suppress Japanese pirates. The smuggling sites of Japanese pirates in Daming and surrounding islands were wiped out. The maritime pirates had no place to live, and most of them fled to the Japanese country.

The Japanese pirates who fled to the Japanese country gradually gathered under the most powerful Wufeng captain Wang Zhi. Naturally, it was impossible to sit still and have nothing to do. It happened that some Western merchants also came to the Japanese country because they could not trade with the Ming Dynasty. One side wanted to find a way to survive, and the other side wanted the Ming Dynasty products. Naturally, they hit it off. .

But this time, for these pirates and Japanese pirates, it is an opportunity to fight to the death.

The Japanese pirates came ashore to rob the goods and resell them to Western merchants. A perfect trade chain was thus formed.

It is also because of such a business model that the entire Ming Dynasty coastal area has been constantly harassed by Japanese pirates since then.

"I just said that those guys are so scared, how dare they come to die? Could it be that the Linshan Guards are here?"

After hearing the report from his subordinates that the flag was not from the Guanhai Guards, the Japanese pirate leader immediately thought of the Linshan Guards in Shaoxing Prefecture. They were the nearest Ming Dynasty garrison here.

But I'm still a little confused. According to the Ming Dynasty's system, Linshan Guard's territory is in Shaoxing Prefecture. How dare they come to Ningbo Prefecture's territory.

"Perhaps they got orders from above. Only after getting orders will these Ming troops come across the government."

A subordinate next to him interrupted.

"If this is the case, I'm afraid there will be a steady stream of officers and soldiers coming behind them."

The Japanese pirate leader also thought about it, but he was more worried about the reinforcements sent by the imperial court.

The Ming Dynasty had more than 2 million troops on paper, which was still a lie.

"Send the news to Big Brother and ask them to carry the goods on board as soon as possible."

Thinking of this, the Japanese pirate leader immediately gave an order to a soldier next to him, and then said to the person who just interrupted: "Go down and wake up everyone, get ready, and test the strength of this group of officers and soldiers." ’

When the man was about to turn around, the Japanese pirate leader stopped him again and said, "Ask the Japanese to take the lead. They are the ones who can fight best. Tell them that after the battle, you will be given money." ’

"Yes, the boss."

Soon, the Japanese pirates who were walking around the village and town were alerted by the sound of gongs. They took weapons and ran to a small square in front of the village to gather. From time to time, people ran back and forth in the distance, reporting the Ming army in the distance.

"Thousands of people, including the Linshan Guards, are here."

The Japanese pirate leader was also startled when he heard from his subordinates that the Ming army had set up its battle array and that there were thousands of troops.

This is not like before. Although they faced thousands of Guanhaiwei and Dinghaiwei troops before, what kind of soldiers were they? Moreover, they also had a small number of three thousand troops at that time. They were not afraid of the Ming army at all. They could not win and fled back. Get on the boat.

But things are different now. I grabbed a lot of things along the way. Many of them were not sorted out and moved when I encountered the Ming Army brigade.

The key number of people is really large, which is a bit difficult to defeat.

"Do you know who this centaur is? Are they from Linshan Guard?"

“We don’t know a few characters, but we know that there is a flag in front of us with the character “山” on it, but we don’t know the rest.

Oh, by the way, there is a flag with the character nine on it. I don’t know where the people came from. "

At this time, the Ming army's military formation was taking shape, and the flags of several guard posts were also displayed. However, the literacy rate in the Ming Dynasty was not high at this time, and most people only knew a few dozen common words.

If the Japanese pirates were really well-trained and could assemble their troops in a short period of time and take advantage of this opportunity to charge, the already low morale of the Ming army would definitely be dispersed. However, what they encountered were Japanese pirates who were brave but lacked discipline. The team did not suffer a disastrous defeat as soon as the battle began.

The Ming army had more horses, so it took a little longer to form the formation, but the Japanese pirates completed their assembly first.

A group of people gathered in the small square, numbering several hundred.

After the team was assembled, the Japanese pirate leader led them out of the town and ran directly towards the direction from which the Ming army came.

Japanese pirates don't have any fighting formation at all. They usually charge and retreat in a swarm.

However, this time the Japanese pirates' troops were obviously divided into two groups, with five or six hundred people in the front and nearly a hundred people led by the Japanese pirate leader in the back.

The first ones were dozens of short, strong, and armored warriors, but only a few of them had samurai swords hanging on their waists, and most of them were holding long spears that were longer than the standard long spears of the Ming Army. Some people were holding bamboo bows and other weapons of astonishing length in their hands. The Japanese pirates following behind them were obviously taller and held a variety of weapons.