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Chapter 309 Banditry in the South China Sea 8
In Li Ruzhang's reverie, the sky in the east showed a faint blue. It was about to dawn, and the battle of Shenglong Mansion was coming to an end.King Le Duy Tan of the Le Dynasty, his concubines and more than 20 left-behind officials were captured, and more than [-] elephant carts were packed with gold and silver in the imperial city.

The Marines injured more than 20 people, no one was killed, and the ammunition consumption was not very large.After a simple inventory and reorganization, the Marines retreated along the original road to Ninh Binh County, leaving behind an abandoned city with thick smoke and a legend destined to be passed down for a long time.

While the Marines were attacking the inner city and the imperial city, Mo's guides were not idle either. They deliberately got close to the local people and talked in local dialect, revealing only one piece of information.

These men in black wearing strange armors and using unknown weapons are not the Mo army or the Li rebels, but bandits from the sea and have nothing to do with the Ming Dynasty.

That's not right, it has something to do with it, because the origin of this group of bandits is the Japanese pirates who harassed the southeastern coast of the Ming Dynasty.After they were defeated by the Ming Dynasty army, the remnant troops ran somewhere in Southeast Asia and accumulated strength for decades before they came back again.

The purpose of attacking Thang Long Mansion was for nothing else but to gain wealth. They wanted to use the wealth to build bigger ships and recruit more men, and then fight back to the Ming Dynasty to avenge their ancestors!
Whether such rumors can confuse people, Li Ruzhang doesn't know, Yuan Keli doesn't know, and even the omniscient staff officers don't know either.But it doesn't matter. After Hue City is also captured, several Annan officials who understand Chinese, including individual members of the royal family, will be released and bring these remarks to Zheng Song.

Believe it or not, if you have a hostage in hand, you can always sell it for a good price.If you want to redeem King Le Dui Xin, the royal family members and ministers, go to the designated place at the appointed time to discuss the price with the pirates.

It doesn't matter if you don't go. Anyway, in any dynasty, the old and new kings are a big trouble.If you dare to establish a new king, the pirates will dare to release the old king and ministers back. It will not be finished until the Annan court is mixed into a pot of glutinous rice.

If Annan is described as a silkworm, the northern area where Thang Long Palace is located is the head of the silkworm, which is the widest.It becomes narrower as you go south, forming a wasp-waist shape in the middle, and gradually widens in the south, like the belly of a silkworm.There is a Hengshan Mountain in the middle, which geographically separates the northern and central parts.

Hue City is located in the waist of the river south of Hengshan. It is the largest city in central Annam. It is more than 1000 miles away from Thang Long Province. It is also built on the bank of a river, named Xiangjiang.

Although they all belong to the rule of the Annan Li Dynasty, they have been divided into two factions, the north and the south, with Hengshan as the boundary since ancient times.In the north, Thang Long Palace is respected and is the capital in name, but most of the power is not in the hands of King Le Dui Xin and the royal family. Basically, it is the King of Ping An, Zheng Song, who has the final say.

The south is dominated by Hue City, which is controlled by the Nguyen family.The patriarch Ruan Huang is respectfully called Lord Ruan. He is a minister of the Li Dynasty in name, but in fact he is a separatist regime and neither listens to the tune nor the propaganda.

Why is this happening? The reason is exactly the same as during the Three Kingdoms period.Brothers Zheng Song and Ruan Huang were officials in the same dynasty. Zheng Song controlled the king with military power. Emperor Xiao ordered the princes to kill Ruan Huang's brother.

Seeing that the situation was not going well, Ruan Huang quickly pretended to be ill and refused to go to court, and ignored the government affairs. After Zheng Song relaxed his vigilance, under the guidance of an expert, he took the initiative to request to be guarded in Hue to relieve the country's worries.

At that time, the Guangnan and Hue areas had just experienced war, and the Cham people in the south took advantage of the inextricable fighting between the Le Dynasty and the Mo Dynasty to move northward.Although they were defeated, they caused great damage. Many people fled into the mountains and even went to Chenla in the west to escape the war.

It is estimated that Zheng Song felt that Ruan Huang was not a threat and that killing him directly would be too detrimental to his character. It would be better to throw him to the sparsely populated Hue to fend for himself, which would be equivalent to exile.Otherwise, the first requirement for being a politician is not to have character. It is best to throw everything away without leaving a trace behind.It was because of this mistake that he saved Ruan Huang's life, but also left Zheng Song with a serious problem.

The seemingly barren Quang Nam area of ​​Hue suddenly became a hot spot after the fight between Zheng Song and Mo. A large number of northern refugees went south and settled across the mountains to escape the war, and the population gradually increased.

Ruan Huang discovered iron ore and gold mines in the mountains to the west. Now the three elements of rebellion were food, population, armor and weapons.From then on, he never took more than half a step across the mountain. He paid some symbolic money and goods every year and became the emperor of the country by guarding this treasure land.

Even though Zheng Song knew in his heart that Ruan Huang wanted to separate his kingdom, there was Mo family in the north, so he couldn't spare the strength to go on an expedition. He could only watch Ruan Huang's strength growing day by day, and there was nothing he could do.Fortunately, Ruan Huang was a relatively low-key person and never publicly announced his separation from the Li Dynasty, so he just made do with it in a face-to-face and discordant manner.

However, Ruan Huang's good luck ran out this time. Less than ten miles east, more than ten large ships were entering the lagoon at night.Then he lowered the boat and quietly landed hundreds of soldiers from the village near the lagoon.

In order to complete this raid, Yuan Keli led the fleet to wander around the sea off Hue for a full day, specifically arresting nearby fishing boats and conducting surprise interrogations of fishermen. It was not until the landing point was confirmed that a reconnaissance force was sent ashore, and the people unknowingly took the fish ashore. This small fishing village was used as a landing ground for large troops.

If you want to ask why we have to attack the Nguyen family in Hue City, this is not his idea, but the emperor's insistence.The emperor believed that attacking the Zheng family's forces in Thang Long Mansion was not enough to disrupt the domestic situation in Annam. If the Zheng family did not have the advantage of Emperor Niao to control the princes, Baobuqi would be annexed by the Nguyen family.

Ruan Huang has already married his daughter to the leader of the Cham people further south. When the north and the south communicate, all the territory of the Ruan family will be taken over. The remaining small imperial court of the Mo family, who is still living on the run, will definitely not be able to defeat them.

The Ming court would certainly not allow the emperor to meddle in Annan's domestic affairs, which were out of his reach, and there would be no troops to dispatch.As a result, the navy was busy for a long time, probably because it stole the chicken and lost the rice. It did not mess up Annan, but promoted the unification of others.

Therefore, in order for the Champa people to move north smoothly, the Ruan family, which occupied the wasp's waist position, must also be weakened. Zheng Song and Ruan Huang both had a guess in their hearts: Are the pirates colluded with the other party coming to attack?

As long as you have this idea, the two major forces that have been in confrontation for a long time have already had deep grievances, and now they have new hatred. There is basically no possibility of easing except for continuing to confront each other. They must fight to the death.

In order to make the opponent die as soon as possible, finding foreign aid has become a top priority. The one who is closest and most capable of becoming a foreign aid is naturally the Ming Dynasty.Until then, only if the Navy steps in to get things done can it reap profits.

(End of this chapter)