Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 150

The captured pirates were interrogated by the security team, and it didn't take long for them to confess everything.Surprisingly, they are not subordinates of the famous Liu Xiang, but belong to Zhu Cailao.Zhucai Lao's activities were located in the ocean of Guangdong. This group was not as famous as the Zheng family, Liu Xiang, Li Kuiqi, and Zhong Lingxiu among the sea heroes at that time, but it started much earlier than Zheng Zhilong.In the 48th year of Wanli, when Zheng Zhilong was still under Yan Siqi, Zhu Cailao already had two fleets, the north and the south, and attacked Jieyang three times in a row in February, April, and July of this year, and Chenghai in September.In the first year of Tianqi, it attacked Jieyang again, and it was a very active maritime group during the Tianqi period.

From the mouths of the captives, the traversers learned about the organizational form of these maritime groups that were both merchants and pirates along the southeast coast.Although they have a unified organization and leader, they basically operate as "units" in actual activities. He played an important role, and the boss of each ship was appointed by him, who conveyed the instructions of the gang leader to the boss of the ship and was responsible for the actions of his subordinates.The number of ships in each share is different, as few as 2 to 3 ships, and the number of ships in a large share may reach 40 ships.According to the relationship between them and the gang leader, the responsibilities and obligations of each unit and the gang leader are inconsistent. Units that are not direct descendants of the gang leader can move freely at ordinary times, but they must obey the rules within the group and pay a certain amount to the gang leader. Proportional profits - whether from looting or trade.Once the guild master calls all the units to gather for action, all units must participate unconditionally. (Note: The conditions are limited, and the organizational form of the major maritime groups in the Ming Dynasty could not be found. This organizational form was the Guangdong pirates in the early 19th century.)

These three ships belonged to a "treasurer" under Zhucai's old hands, and this shopkeeper was a core member of Zhucai's old group.The purpose of their being sent to Lingao has a great relationship with the Gou family.

The Gou family whose pigs were killed by the traversers is the big nest owner of the Zhucai Lao Group. Many stolen goods of the Zhucai Lao Group are transported to Lingao for temporary storage, and then sold in batches through the Gou Family’s line in Qiongshan. I went to the border of Guangdong.

It took almost half a month for the demise of the Gou family to reach Elder Zhucai's ears. Gou Er from Lingao County disappeared the day after Goujiazhuang was destroyed. He didn't even go to Elder Zhucai Announcement - Gou Er's mind is clear: This kind of big bandit is not willing to suffer.If you report it by yourself, you will definitely not be able to pass the test if you do not have a big bloodletting compensation, or you will go bankrupt.This is the next time, when Zhucai lost his things, he would retaliate against Shorthair. As a native of Lingao, wouldn't he still have to be a pioneer?He couldn't afford to offend either of these two families, so he simply kept it secret and didn't get involved for the time being.As for taking revenge on Big Brother, when Zhu Cai got the news, he would naturally find Shorthair to trouble him, and he would be more confident in using the Big Pirate than a lost toubob like himself.

In this way, Zhu Cailao was completely kept in the dark. It wasn't until the people sent to contact them not long ago found that the Goujiazhuang was in ruins, and a new fortress was built on top of the ruins. Gou Er was found in the county seat, but there was no trace of him.In the subsequent inquiries, they also roughly understood what happened.

The nest family was destroyed and the stolen goods were gone. This news was a blow to Zhu Cailao.He got the news that Zheng Zhilong, who had just been appeased by the court, was about to attack him. It was the time when he needed to build ships and recruit soldiers to prepare for the war, but he was hit so hard. His savings for many years were destroyed, not only losing money, but also seriously shaking his subordinates. Confidence——The pirate group is a community of interests. When the resources of the big boss are destroyed and the interests of everyone cannot be guaranteed, the franchisees from all walks of life will naturally become active.People from all walks of life who had been eyeing him also took the opportunity to win over the "treasurers" under him.For a while, his subordinates left without saying goodbye, and there were dozens, hundreds of ships that could not be recruited.

The traveler himself didn't expect that the killing of the Gou family purely for "improving the food" set off a chain reaction along the southeast coast.And the biggest beneficiary is actually the Zheng Family Group, which they have always regarded as their biggest enemy in the future.Desperate and furious, Zhucai elders immediately sent multiple ships to Gao to inquire about the news - who is so bold to break ground on Taisui.

Soon, the situation of Short Hair reached his ears one after another.He had heard about this group of people for a long time—the strange big iron boat was an anecdote often mentioned by Guangdong fishermen in recent months.Gou Da mentioned these weird short-haired ones in his letter—they claimed to be Australian maritime merchants.He also knew that the short-haired people's firearms were very powerful, and all the Xiangyong in Lingao were defeated by them.

Mr. Zhucai used to worry about these "Australian pirates"—maritime merchants and pirates are the same thing in this era—appearing in his sphere of influence, but since they landed in Lingao, this group of people has stayed there. That is to say, there was no intention to start trade, nor did they send people around to rob and plunder.In Lingao, there is also an amiable existence with the attitude of "don't offend me, I won't offend".He has the Zheng family to deal with, so he has always held a tacit attitude towards the existence of short hairs.

Elder Zhucai now has two choices, one is to mobilize troops immediately to crusade against Shorthair, regain the lost money and materials, and restore his prestige.If it was the past, he would not hesitate to do so.But now that Zheng Zhilong is staring at him, and short hair is not a good kind, if there is a trouble for both sides, Zheng Zhilong will take advantage of it.The second is to ignore it and concentrate on preparing for the battle to deal with Zheng Zhilong.The problem is that he lost a large amount of supplies accumulated in Gou's house, and he couldn't raise so many goods for a while.

While hesitating, the spies reported that Shorthair had some fast-moving boats.This kind of ship is comparable in size to the large Guangzhou ship.The speed is faster than any ship they have ever seen, including all kinds of western sailing ships gliding on the nearby ocean.Clippers have no sails, so there is no need to worry about being burned by the enemy in naval battles.With such a ship, his own fleet has a great upper hand at sea.

In this way, Zhu Cai made up his mind to attack Short Hair.For this reason, he sent many spies to Lingao to investigate, and learned from the fishermen in Lingao that the other side had taken over the fishing ground, and those fast boats were circling around the bay every day to check for private catches.Elder Zhucai learned the following from the spies:

1. The short-haired bird guns are the sharpest, with a long range, high lethality, and can be fired in bursts.

2. Compared with their sharp bird guns, the shorthairs have no cannons.Even those clippers are equipped with strangely shaped large crossbows.

3. There are four Clippers in total, and only one patrols the fishing ground at ordinary times, and the other boats are hiding in the bay. It seems that they are also very valuable for these boats.The huge iron ship has been moored all the time.

4. There are not many short-haired people. The spies estimate that there are about a thousand people.There are two types of real kun and fake kun, but they can't tell the exact number of each.They are divided into two parts, one part is in Bairen Beach and the other part is in Bopu Port.Both places have fortifications, and Bopu has fewer people and weaker defenses.In addition, the former Goujiazhuang and a place called Yanchang Village are also their sphere of influence.

Mr. Zhucai has never read military books, and he doesn't know anything about strategy and tactics, but he has enough wisdom to judge which method to take to get the most benefits-he is a businessman in essence, and getting the best price-performance ratio is a must. The reason is to understand.

Based on a comprehensive judgment, Elder Zhu Cai made a wise decision: not to launch a full-scale war against Shorthair, and the scale of the battle is limited to capturing Shorthair's "fast ships" to increase the combat effectiveness of his fleet. If possible, Then take some of their bird guns.

Although the short-haired men are powerful, they don't have enough manpower, and they lack cannons.These two points happen to be sufficient for all the elders.After consulting with his main leaders, he dispatched his own capable generals to carry out the task of seizing the ship.

The strategy is clever enough. Under the long-term observation of the fishermen who acted as spies, they discovered the movement rules and action patterns of the traversers, and took targeted measures: using private fishing to lure the "clip boat" to take the initiative to check with help. Then guns and hand-to-hand combat were used to clean the "short hair" on the ship. For this reason, all the cannons were loaded with shot, so that the bullets would not be too large and cause damage to the "fast ship".There are even two kinds of ropes prepared on board, one thick one is used to tow the "fast boat", and the other thinner one is prepared to bind the captured short-haired people-the bosses have an order: the captured short-haired ones must be Preferential treatment, after all, only they can know how to use the Clippers and Bird Guns.

All of this was planned in an orderly manner, and if it was replaced by any ship, Zhu Cailao's plan would be successful.Fortunately, Yulun's technological level beyond this era and the combat organization consciousness formed by the traversers over the past few months destroyed this perfect plan, and the manager in charge of the stock also died in the battle.

The victory is certainly worth celebrating, but hidden dangers still exist—no one knows whether Mr. Zhu Cai has any follow-up plans.If so, what scale of battle is he planning to launch.No matter how much the security team tortured these people, they couldn't explain why.The leader who was captured alive swore and swore that he knew the plan to seize the ship, and he knew nothing else.

"In this way, everyone will be busy again." He Ming thoughtfully took out a cigarette, was about to light it, and then paused, "I'm sorry, this is an arsenal, I'm so confused." He patted his head.

"It doesn't matter, you smoke it, we are not a Zha pharmaceutical factory, those cannons are just lumps of iron, nothing will happen."

"It's better not to break the rules." He Ming said, "Tomorrow the executive committee will hold a response meeting, and the leaders of all professional groups must participate. Your artillery team should go to a few more people. Recently, the focus is on the fortification of Bopu engineering and arming of naval vessels.”

"The problem of producing cannons is not big, but the supply of raw materials is relatively scarce," Zhan Wuya said, "Coal is very scarce."

(End of this chapter)