Late Ming sea owl

Chapter 67 Chongming Sand

In the afternoon of that day, the Bowang followed Shen Tingyang's large sand ship and sailed to Chongming Zhusha.

Lin Hai distributed money to the sailors participating in the war as agreed, and handed it to them one by one personally.Then, together with Shi Bi and Zheng Tingqiu, he interrogated the prisoners in the official hall.

After finishing these tasks, he went to the bumpy forecastle alone and watched the turbid waves rolling at the mouth of the Yangtze River.

This place has always been a graveyard of ships in the age of sailing. The mighty river surges day and night, bringing endless silt and sand, resulting in clouds of sandbanks and dense shoals on the Yangtze River Estuary.

What's even more frightening is that the winds and waves in this area are strong, and the sandbanks rise and fall suddenly. The originally safe channel may become dangerous at any time.For example, Chongming was not the third largest island in China at this time, but dozens of disconnected sandbanks.

The size of these sandbars changes at any time, and may even collapse suddenly overnight. This is a unique hydrology formed in the Yangtze River Estuary due to the combined action of sediment, river currents, monsoons, tides, Coriolis force and other factors. Chongming As a result, the county seat was moved five times in the Ming Dynasty.

Some keyboard warriors in later generations believed that the reason why the Ming Dynasty implemented a sea ban was because it was afraid that the sea power would not be able to lose its power. Once a climate was formed, it could threaten the security of the capital by simply going up the river. It could even cut off water transportation with its powerful maritime fleet and cut off the capital and Jiangnan's wealth. Give important connections.

The keyboard warrior who made this conjecture certainly did not understand the dangers of the Yangtze River Estuary. In fact, he had to lead a huge fleet from the sea into the river. This matter was far from being as simple as imagined.You may not have seen it, but Shen Tingyang was born in a Chongming shipping family. In the end, he was captured by the Qing court because his boatman ran aground, let alone others.

In the late Ming Dynasty, in addition to Shen Tingyang, Zhang Mingzhen, Zhang Huangyan, Zheng Chenggong and many other heroes dreamed of crossing the Yangtze River Estuary.These people tried many times to go up the river to restore Nanjing. In the end, they were either trapped in the shoals or encountered hurricanes. They killed 10,000+ Ming troops here one after another.

This march route is almost a tragic charge that is almost suicidal, because the only military advantage of Nanming lies in the navy, and the political significance of restoring Nanjing is too great. These heroes of Nanming knew the dangers of the Yangtze River Estuary but could not resist the temptation, and rushed there one after another. This cemetery.

Therefore, except for the Nanming Dynasty, almost no one chose to march from the Yangtze River Estuary until the British devils during the Opium War. That was because they had replaced their guns with cannons and replaced wooden sailing ships with steam paddle steamers.

It can be said that when the Ansa bandits came and went freely on the Yangtze River, the Qing Dynasty had already been choked by the foreign devils, and there was nothing we could do except lie down and be beaten.Hu Linyi, a famous official of a generation, was so worried that he vomited blood and died because he saw British warships speeding along the Yangtze River.

Lin Hai stood in the wind of Lielie River, thinking about the present and the past, and he had a lot of thoughts.Fortunately, he only has one ship now, and the difficulty of sailing is far less complicated than that of a large fleet. In addition, with the landlord Shen Tingyang leading the way, he encountered no danger along the way.

Shenji Shipyard is located in Changsha, southeast of Chongming. This sandbank only emerged from the water during the Zhengde period and has grown continuously after hundreds of years of sedimentation.In the 16th year of Wanli, due to the continuous collapse of Pingyangsha where the county seat is located, the county magistrate Li Dajing moved the county seat to Changsha. Now this young sandbank has become the political center of Chongming Zhusha.

Because of Lao Ruan's plea, Lin Hai left Ruan Jin on the Bowang and handed over the remaining prisoners to Shen Tingyang.After interrogation, it was found that there were two groups of water bandits involved in the robbery, each with no more than 60 or [-] people. They mainly wanted to kidnap Shen Tingyang for ransom.

Shen Tingyang had a big headache and said to Lin Hai: "Most of the water bandits at the Yangtze River Estuary consist of dozens of people, and at most there are no more than a hundred people. These bandits are entrenched in the Chongming sands. The Han family's merchant ships have been attacked many times. I didn't expect this time." Actually came for Shen." Lin Hai reminded: "Since it is a joint operation between two groups of water bandits, this must be premeditated. There is probably a mole around Brother Shen, otherwise how would the water bandits know your whereabouts? I just said We have already interrogated him, but unfortunately we have not caught the bandit leader. These prisoners are all clueless."

Shen Tingyang said helplessly: "This is troublesome. There are many people who know my itinerary. In addition to my people, there are also people from Hong Daozun. Water bandits in Chongming often roam around Zhoushan. It is difficult to guarantee that there are no eyes and ears in Zhejiang Haidao Yamen."

Lin Hai heard this and said, "Brother Shen is going to Ningbo this time. Do you want to ask Hong Daozun to send troops to suppress the bandits?"

Shen Tingyang said: "Yes, Shen has asked Suzhou Prefecture to send troops many times, but these water bandits often flee to Chengsi and Zhoushan, both of which are trust areas of Zhejiang Sea Route. Without the help of Zhejiang Navy, it is impossible to suppress the bandits. It’s as difficult as ascending to heaven.”

Lin Hai nodded. Chongming Zhusha is under the jurisdiction of Suzhou Prefecture in Nanzhili, while Zhoushan Islands is under the rule of Ningbo Prefecture in Zhejiang Province. The suppression of bandits must be done by the joint efforts of Zhejiang Haidao and Suzhou Coast Guard.

And Shen Tingyang is just an Imperial College student. Since he can mobilize the coastal defense yamen across Zhejiang and Zhejiang provinces, he must be a figure like a local emperor in Chongming, a small Shazhou county. I am afraid that even the county magistrate will give him three point.

Even so, these water bandits were a big headache for him.There is also the Chengsi Islands between Chongming Zhusha and Zhoushan Islands. There are more than 2000 large and small sandbars and islands. Most of them are uninhabited desert islands. Just want to find the lair of these water bandits. It's like looking for a needle in a haystack.

What's more, who knows how many nests these water bandits have, maybe they are cunning rabbits wandering around.Especially for a small group of dozens of water bandits, it is likely that there are only a few fixed backbones. The peripheral members are usually fishermen or sailors, and they gather only when they are in action. A gang like this has no base at all.

Ruan Jin, Lao Ruan's eldest son, is a ready example. He usually works as a helmsman on a merchant ship, and occasionally works part-time in a water bandit gang. For a gang like his, the government simply doesn't know where to start.

When Lin Hai heard Shen Tingyang talk about the difficulties of local water bandits, he secretly thought that he had just returned from Hong Chengchou, so the two must have discussed it.It seems that there is no good way for the traitors. This bandit suppression operation will probably be difficult to achieve obvious results for a while.

This is also an opportunity for him. If he can wipe out the water bandits from Chongming to Zhoushan in one fell swoop after taking office, he will not only be able to show his face in front of Shen Tingyang and Hong Chengchou, but also have some other unspeakable benefits. This matter is worthy of careful planning.

That night, Shen Tingyang invited Lin Hai to have dinner, but he politely declined.

Shen Tingyang had just escaped from danger and was still frightened, so it would be better for him to go see his family first.Secondly, Shi Bi's face had been looking bad this afternoon, and Lin Hai felt it was time to have a serious talk with him.

(End of this chapter)