Smuggling Daming

In the meeting hall of Dinghaiwei, a welcome banquet was being held, in which Zhou Zhong sat at the head, and on the left was the pale-haired Shenying. He did not come alone this time, but brought a 3000 people were carefully selected from the Beijing camp, and at Zhou Zhong's request, 1000 of the 2000 were musketeers from the Shenji camp, and the remaining [-] were also selected elite soldiers from the Beijing camp. The experience of cooperating with the Shenji Battalion can be said to be the elite of the Jingying Battalion.

On Zhou Zhong's right side, there is a young eunuch, and this young eunuch is Zhou Zhong's acquaintance Wang Gui. When he met Gu Dayong for the first time, he happened to meet Zhang Zhong. I came to ask Zhou to ask for the Bai sisters, but Gu Dayong punished him severely. Later, Zhang Zhong was dismissed. It was this letter that Wang Gui ran to Zhou Zhong to report, and Zhou Zhong returned it to him before leaving. 1000 taels of silver, but later whenever there was something wrong in the palace, Wang Gui would take the initiative to report to Zhou Zhong and exchange some pocket money by the way, so Zhou Zhong and Wang Gui were old acquaintances.

Both Shenying and Wang Gui were sent to assist Zhou Zhong this time. Among them, Shenying was appointed as the deputy commander-in-chief as Zhou Zhong's assistant, and Wang Gui was the supervisor this time. The commander-in-chief of the military affairs of the admiral just formed a fixed model of the Ming Dynasty's dispatched troops, in which Zhou Zhong was in charge of the overall situation, Shenying commanded the army and provided professional military advice to the admiral, and Wang Gui, the supervising army, played a supervisory role to prevent Make chaos with the soldiers.

It can be said that this mode of leading troops has a clear division of labor, with civil servants, generals, and eunuchs each performing their own duties, and no one can control the army alone.It greatly reduces the possibility of the army losing control, but the disadvantage is also obvious, that is, the three parties check each other, and the power of the military commander is also compressed to the limit. A major military disadvantage of the Ming Dynasty could not be resolved until the end of the Ming Dynasty.

"My lord, old general. We used to be acquaintances in the middle of the capital, but now we meet in Ningbo, which is thousands of miles away from the capital. It's a kind of fate. Come on, let's drink this cup!" Seeing Zhou At this time, Zhong raised his wine glass and toasted the two of them.

"Master Zhou is right. Our family did not expect His Majesty to send me to supervise the army. However, this is the first time our family has gone out of the palace to handle business. We hope that Master Zhou and the Shenzongbing will give us more advice in the future!" At this time, Seeing Wang Gui also raised his wine glass and smiled.Speaking of which, he was also credited with a good relationship with Zhou Zhong, otherwise there were so many eunuchs in the palace, how could he, a little eunuch, be talked about.

"Hahaha~, Lord Admiral and Eunuch Wang are too polite, and Shen is a rough person. He will not say polite words, if the two of you have something to use Shenying, Shen will definitely do his best! "Shenying said very excitedly at this time, especially for Zhou Zhong, he was full of gratitude in his heart. It was because of Zhou Zhong's words that he was able to make military achievements in Bazhou's suppression of the rebellion, thus saving himself. Earl of Jingyang, this time he has the opportunity to lead troops to sea to fight.If it is successful, I am afraid that rewards from the court will be indispensable in the future.

After the three of them finished speaking.They drank all the wine in their cups together, and Qu Lie and his companions also drank a cup, and then Zhou Zhong asked Wang Gui if their journey was smooth, etc., and the other party answered them one by one. Shenying is also very concerned about Dinghaiwei's situation, but Zhou Zhong asked Qu Lie to report to Shenying more about these issues. After all, they are both military generals and they will cooperate with each other in the future. It would be better to have more exchanges now.

After the welcome banquet, Zhou Zhong arranged for Wang Gui and Shenying to stay. In the next few days, he would take them to visit Dinghaiwei, and arrange for the three thousand capital camps brought by Shenying to participate in the naval drills. At least they should be able to do You don't get seasick when you go out to sea, and you can even fight on the undulating deck like sailors. Of course, this can't be done in a day or two, so Zhou Zhong is not in a hurry, and according to their plan, the aid The main method of combat in Malacca was land warfare.

On the third day after Shenying and the others arrived, the navy from Guangzhou also rushed over. Speaking of which, the navy from Guangzhou is stronger than the navy from Ningbo. There is only one guard in Ningbo that maintains a complete organizational system, but There are two fully-organized guards in Guangzhou, namely Guanghai Guard and Nanhai Guard. However, because the tribute teams in Guangzhou are constantly coming and going, people are usually guarded, so only one of the two guards came, Guanghai. Wei, Zhou Zhong already knew this.

The guard commander of Guanghaiwei was surnamed Chang and his name was Xiao. It is said that his ancestor was Chang Yuchun, the famous founding general of the Ming Dynasty. Unfortunately, Chang Yuchun died early, and the Chang family was on the wrong team in the Jingnan battle. As a result, the title was not passed down. , the descendants only got some military positions in the guards. This Chang Xiao is the descendant of Chang Yuchun's third son Chang Sen.

It is said that Chang Yuchun is tall and arms long and has boundless strength. The advantages of this family are well reflected in Chang Xiao.When Zhou Zhong saw this regular commander, he was startled at first. He was in his 30s, with a beard all over his face, definitely over two meters tall, and his arms were thicker than the thighs of ordinary people. If it were longer, it would be comparable to a gorilla.

"Subordinate Chang Xiao has met the admiral!" On the pier of Ningbo Port, Zhou Zhong took Shenying and others to welcome the Guanghaiwei Marine Division from Guangzhou. Among them, Chang Xiao was the first to disembark and salute Zhou Zhong. He is tall and rough, but his words and deeds are extremely polite, which is in sharp contrast to his appearance.

"Commander Chang, you don't need to be too polite. This admiral has been waiting for you for a long time. Today, Commander Chang is finally here!" Zhou Zhong didn't show the slightest happy expression when he saw Chang Xiao. Said.

In fact, Zhou Zhong is not to be blamed. The military order to call Guanghaiwei to Ningbo to meet up has been issued long ago. Guangzhou is not too far away from Ningbo, and Chang Xiao and the others may be faster by sea, so Chang Xiao and the others should have been earlier. They arrived a few days ago, but now they waited until Shen Ying and Wang Gui, who came from the capital, arrived before Chang Xiao arrived with the navy. How could Zhou Zhong not be angry?

Hearing the tone of Zhou Zhong's words, Chang Xiao was not a fool, and immediately understood that the admiral was blaming him for being late, and he saluted again and said, "My lord, forgive me, this subordinate should have We should have arrived in Ningbo six days ago, but when our fleet passed Penghu, we found that there were pirates entrenched there and robbed the ships passing by. The gang of pirates have been wiped out, and now the head of the pirates is on board, please inspect it, Lord Admiral!"

After Chang Xiao finished speaking, he waved his hand, and immediately Guanghaiwei's soldiers dragged things down from the deck, and after a while, they saw them dragging several big fish from the boat, which contained some hideous-looking fish. Human heads, because it is already winter and the temperature is relatively low, so the human heads are not rotten, and there is no big smell.

Looking at the heads piled up in the fishery, there are at least one or two hundred people. This is already a big group of pirates, but Zhou Zhong still looked at Chang Xiaodao with some doubts: "Commander Chang, not this admiral. Be careful, although there are indeed many pirates in the South China Sea, do you have any evidence to prove that these people are pirates and not ordinary people?"

Zhou Zhong's doubts are not superfluous. It is not uncommon in Daming's army to kill good men and take meritorious service. It is easier for the navy to do this kind of thing. I went down, so I finally ventured out to sea. A small number of these people, like Zhou Zhong, became members of the smuggling team, and most of them chose to settle overseas. For example, there are many ordinary people living on islands such as Penghu and Ryukyu. .

Of course, the composition of the people who settle overseas is also very complicated. Some of them even serve as civilians. When they really can’t survive, they will go to sea to become pirates. In addition, some smuggling fleets will occasionally act as pirates. Therefore, in this era, for pirates The definition is very vague.Like Chang Xiao, he himself said that he wiped out a group of pirates, but who can guarantee that these heads must be pirates?Maybe they just killed a bunch of ordinary people living overseas to pass themselves off as pirates.

Seeing that Zhou Zhong suspected that he had committed suicide, Chang Xiao, who was originally very polite, seemed a little angry. He blushed and argued, "My lord, as the No. 11 great-great-grandson of King Kaiping, how can you The faces of the ancestors were discredited because of a small military exploit, these heads are indeed pirates, and the pirate den that we destroyed is still there, adults can send people to investigate at any time!"

The king of Kaiping is also the posthumous title of Chang Yuchun after his death. Unexpectedly, Chang Xiao is still a person who attaches great importance to the honor of his ancestors. It is a pity that Zhou Zhong is from a later generation, and he does not value the so-called honor very much. What he values ​​is evidence, so Zhou Zhong sighed and said, "Commander Chang, this admiral didn't mean to embarrass you, it's just that this matter is related to the military achievements of the navy, and Penghu is far away from here, so it's really hard to investigate, so I don't know if you have any other Evidence to prove the identity of these pirates?"

If it was another general, he might not care much about the killing of his subordinates, but Zhou Zhong, who came from later generations, is very disgusted with this kind of thing, so if these heads are really pirates, then Zhou Zhong will not blame Chang Xiaowan has been here for a few days, but he will be rewarded greatly.

But if these heads are ordinary people killed by Chang Xiao and the others, then don’t blame Zhou Zhong for being cruel. Last time he let Cheng Quan, the commander, because of some things, but this time, no matter what the reason is, Zhou Zhong They will never let a butcher who kills the good and pretends to be a meritorious butcher be spared! (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets. Your support is my biggest motivation.)