Traveling through history leaving a name

Chapter 393 Pretending to be a Pirate
Among the merchant ships that were robbed, it was not that no one wanted to resist, but they found that there were not only European red cannons on board, but also sophisticated arquebus guns.

For the merchant ships that resisted fiercely, the pirates directly fired cannons and sank them, not even saving those who fell into the water.

Others might not have known this if some hadn't been rescued by If's merchant ship after the pirates had left.

Pirates suddenly became rampant along the entire southeast coast, which no one expected.

"These are not the original pirates at all. The pirates on Pingshan Island were supported by my Zhou family, and the pirate leader is also my Zhou family, but they have all disappeared now, and they are replaced by another group. We don't know who they are. who."

In Quanzhou, in a hall, there are more than a dozen big merchants in the city gathered at this time.

The Zhou family in Quanzhou Prefecture was one of the large merchants, but no one expected that such a merchant would actually support pirates outside.

"Liu Sanmazi, the leader of the pirates on Pearl Island, is my third uncle, and he is also missing now. I sent someone to quietly inquire about the news, and found that the pirates on Pearl Island have all changed. I suspect that this may be caused by the Royal Fleet." , I am robbing under the name of my third uncle." Someone said to others.

"The pirates on Triangle Island were supported by my Lin family, and there is no news about them now. Last month, my Lin family's boat was robbed by a group of pirates. According to people who came back, they didn't know any of these pirates, but the ones they played The name is from Triangle Island." The Lin family also came out and said.

"My Luo family is also..."

"The pirates supported by my Li family have also lost contact."

Afterwards, many people also shared the news that the pirates supported by their families had lost contact.

In Jiangnan, if you want to be a maritime trader, how can you do a good maritime trade business without an armed force of your own?

By supporting a group of pirates, not only can you make some small fortunes through robbery, but you can also ensure that your merchant ships are not robbed.

What's more, pirates can also be used to attack competitors.

Regarding other big merchants supporting pirates, many people are tacitly aware that as long as you don't rob my merchant ships, the pirates I support will not rob you either.

Most of the pirates on the southeast coast robbed merchants who did not have much strength. Ordinary pirates would not dare to rob merchants like these merchants here.

"It's definitely the fault of the Royal Fleet. The pirates we supported lost contact with them as soon as they came, and now they even robbed their own fleet. Who did it?"

Someone said angrily: "I didn't expect that such a royal person would engage in such robbery. It's really chilling."

"There is no evidence. If the Royal Fleet really did something wrong, there is nothing we can do about it." One person said.

"Why is there no other way? We can spread the news quietly and say that the Royal Fleet pretended to be pirates and robbed. When it arouses public outrage, we can ask the court to withdraw the Royal Fleet."

"Not only that, we can also let the Ming Navy destroy these pirates." Someone suggested.

"This is a good way! Isn't the Royal Fleet supporting the pirates? We can let the imperial court send troops to destroy these pirates."

"Then let's get rid of the relationship and let the imperial court send navy to destroy these pirates." Everyone else agreed with Shunfeng.

Subsequently, with the efforts of these southeast big merchants, the entire coastal officialdom felt the pressure.

The official circles along the coast, especially those in the Minzhe area, naturally cannot ignore this situation, because most of the merchant ships that were robbed were organized by powerful people.

In particular, these large merchants not only had people in the local area, but also had many backers in the court.

The Wang family of Dahaishang in Quanzhou was backed by the official minister of the imperial court.

With the pressure from these local officials of the Shang Dynasty, the governor of Minzhe had no choice but to come forward. He invited Yan Siqi of the Royal Fleet to help eliminate the pirates at sea.

For such an invitation, Yan Siqi pretended to agree, charged some expensive fees, and led the fleet to sea.

Although going to sea is going to sea, but God knows what the Royal Fleet is doing.

It is not that the imperial court did not send guides to point out the location of the pirates to the Royal Fleet. However, whenever the Royal Fleet arrived at the pirates' territory, the pirates were already gone.

In this way, after another two months of suppression, the Royal Fleet still hadn't wiped out a bunch of pirates.

Within two months, hundreds of merchant ships were robbed.

These pirates robbed, and it would be fine if the ship owner cooperated obediently. The pirates only took [-]% of the property.

If they don't cooperate, they will be sunk directly. The method is extremely cruel.

Facing the unfavorable suppression of the Royal Fleet, the pressure on Minzhe's official circles is also increasing.

Under pressure, the governor of Minzhe could only dispatch the Southeast Navy, which didn't even have a few artillery pieces, to fight.

On this day, hundreds of ships and tens of thousands of officers and soldiers of the Southeast Navy quietly dispatched to surround an island where pirates were stationed.

On the island, there is a big pirate gang with more than 500 people and more than 30 ships.

When the officers and soldiers arrived, the pirates had not had time to evacuate from the island.

Fortunately, the observation post discovered the fleet of officers and soldiers in advance, so that all the pirates had the opportunity to board the ship and leave the port.

Subsequently, under the encirclement and suppression of the Daming Navy, the two sides soon broke out in a naval battle.

What people never expected is that although there are only more than 30 pirate ships, the artillery on the ship can fire very far.

Moreover, the speed of these pirate ships is much faster than that of the Ming Navy ships.

There is no way to be a pirate ship if you are not fast.

More than 30 pirate ships fought with the Ming army navy for an hour, and sank more than [-] Ming army navy ships.

However, although the pirate ship has sharp artillery and fast speed, it is too difficult to break through when it is surrounded by a naval fleet ten times larger than itself.

In the end, these pirates could only abandon their ships and go ashore under the condition that the space was constantly squeezed by the fleet of the Daming Navy, preparing to fight some officers and troops on land.

In order to prevent the government troops from getting these ships, the pirates opened the sea valve and let all the ships sink into the sea.

The Ming Navy forced the pirates ashore. Many people thought that the eradication of this group of pirates was certain. However, when the landing navy officers and soldiers fell one after another under a burst of intensive musket fire, everyone was confused.

It turned out that the pirates had built many defensive facilities on the island, which were very suitable for musketeers to shoot, and they could also resist artillery fire.

Under the fire of hundreds of musketeers, at least a thousand people died on the coast in just ten minutes.

For such a situation, the officers and sailors can only withdraw to the ship and prepare to land from other directions on the island.

For such a situation, the pirates had no choice but to retreat to their lair.

Fortunately, they have more complete defense facilities in their lair.

They only need to be stationed in one place, and because of the terrain, the officers and soldiers can only attack from two directions, and no matter which direction they attack from, they need to cross many defensive facilities.

(End of this chapter)