Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 318 Naval Battle (36) 72 Routes Against the King, [-] Routes of Smoke and Dust
Although the Qing court, which now occupies the north, implements the national policy of emphasizing agriculture and suppressing business, focusing on restoring agricultural production.

However, the northern gentry who recognized the Qing court as Zhengshuo and the Manchu nobles who entered the customs did not give up their struggle for commercial interests in the north.

Especially represented by Shanxi merchants.

The Eight Great Shanxi Merchants back then had sponsored the Qing army in terms of equipment and intelligence, so after the Manchus occupied the northern mountains and rivers, they suddenly became the imperial merchants of the Qing Dynasty today.

These Shanxi merchants had strong financial resources. Although the agricultural production in the north was severely damaged, the Shanxi merchants did not suffer much loss in the commercial scale in the north.

After the Manchu nobles took away most of the former Daming Huangzhuang and government and private industries in Gyeonggi, they also became the northern business giants in the north second only to Shanxi merchants.

Abatai, the current governor of Hedong, is such a character. Almost half of the properties in the entire Hejian Mansion and Baoding Mansion belong to him.

However, whether it is the industry of Shanxi merchants or Manchu nobles and other gentry in the north.

At this time, their main commercial activities were still commercial activities with Daming in the south.

Mountain products and coal mines in the north and grain, silk and tea in the south were the main trade between the Ming and Qing Dynasties between the north and the south.

But now the Ming Navy controls the sea route from Denglai Peninsula to Zhoushan, and also collects protection fees from northern merchant ships along the coast.

You must know that they don't have to pay taxes in their own Qing Dynasty, but they have to pay two taxes when they come to Daming, one is the protection fee collected by Liu Kongzhao, and the other is the customs duty after arriving in Songjiang Mansion.

And if you want to sell the goods to Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi or even Nanyang, you have to pay a tax to Zheng's firm.

This made the northern merchants represented by Abatai and Shanxi merchant Fan Yongdou have to collude with pirates from all over the country in an attempt to destroy the Daming Navy of Liu Kongzhao's department.

Some gentry in the south of the Ming Dynasty also chose to collude with Abatai and Shanxi merchant Abatai because of their dissatisfaction with the imperial court.

These forces with their own plans wanted to annihilate Liu Kongzhao's Ming navy and disrupt the commercial port of Songjiang Prefecture, in order to force the Ming court to stop collecting tariffs.

"My lord, this is a comprehensive brochure of intelligence information provided by our Jinyiwei and Zheng's firm. It is now basically clear that there are nine pirates gathered around Songjiang Mansion:
The largest is Li Wei and Hua Guer's troops, among which Li Wei has more than 60 boats and more than [-] people!
There are about 6000 boats and [-] people in the Huaguduoer Department!
The rest are 3000 boats from Yahaizi, with [-] people!
In addition, the twelve ships of the oriental daimyo Asada Shiro, 2000 people!
Others add up to a total of twenty boats and about 5000 people!It's like the 36 anti-kings in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, and the 72 roads of smoke and dust, gathering from all sides! "

Shen Lian, the commander of Jinyiwei who was in charge of maritime intelligence collection and investigation full-time, reported to Bo Chengyi Liu Kongzhao.

Liu Kongzhao couldn't help but smiled wryly: "According to this, there are nearly 150 ships and a scale of nearly 3 people. I didn't expect that the northern gentry behind this would have such appeal. I'm afraid it will attract all the pirates."

"Not only the northern gentry, but also those in Songjiang Mansion and Suzhou Mansion who are ready to move, waiting to see your jokes!"

Shen Lian replied, but Liu Kongzhao just snorted.

In fact, without Shen Lian's reminder, he could have guessed that there were gentry from the Ming Dynasty involved.

However, now, [-]% of the protection fees collected by the Ming Dynasty Admiralty at sea have entered the pocket of the chief of the Admiralty.

He, Liu Kongzhao, naturally did not want the Ming Navy to be eaten by these pirates.

Therefore, when he thought that so many pirates and gentry were colluding to take away his interests, he would not be in a good mood.

Liu Kongzhao didn't know if he could lead the Ming Navy to fight the first battle well this time.

But he has always kept in mind the words of Chongzhen Zhu Youjian, as a coach, it is not terrible to be not good at commanding. What is really terrible is not being good at commanding and not good at listening.

Therefore, Liu Kongzhao looked directly at Gu Sanmazi, Vice Minister of the Ministry of the Navy:
"Gu Sanmazi, you are also a pirate. Whether at sea or in Taihu Lake, you have suffered a lot from the officers and soldiers. Please tell us your opinion."

"My lord asked this, so let me tell you, the pirates who are going to come to Songjiang Mansion are stronger than our navy, but there is a difference, they are many people, without a backbone, our people are all The people we personally train only listen to your orders, so I feel that we don't care how these pirates come, we just guard the important place of Songjiang Mansion, but we don't just stick to it and wait for them to attack, we can first Hit the one who came first, and then the one who came second!

The younger one has been wandering in this area for many years, and the brothers below are very familiar with this area. The younger one will send them out to investigate the situation first. As soon as the first ship appears near Songjiang Mansion, we will gather all the warships to fight. Fight him all the way, and the other pirates will not dare to act rashly! "

If Gu Sanmazi was not eaten by the pirates of the Zheng Group, and had been making waves in the southeast waters for so long, he naturally had his own means.

Now what he means is naturally to concentrate superior forces to defeat them one by one.

After Liu Kongzhao heard it, after thinking about it carefully, he also thought that what Gu Sanmazi said was reasonable, so he simply ordered all the current forces of the Ming Navy to be concentrated in Baoshan Station!

"Gu Sanmazi, it's up to you to detect the enemy's situation. As soon as the first wave of pirates appears, I will lead all the warships to press on it!"

Gu Sanmazi gave a military salute to Liu Kongzhao.

And Liu Kongzhao also patted him on the shoulder: "This battle is up to you. If you fight well, I will recommend you to His Majesty to become the Earl of the Ming Dynasty like me!"

Gu Sanmazi knew that Liu Kongzhao had a high prestige among Jiangnan's relatives, and he was also a descendant of the founding father Liu Bowen, so he naturally believed in Liu Kongzhao's promise, and couldn't help showing excitement on his face.

……

At this time, the pirates Li Kui and Hua Gu'er also entered the waters around Songjiang Prefecture.

Although Ouyang Rui, the reactionary gentry from the south of the Yangtze River, cut off contact with pirates like Li Wei and Hua Guer.

But Li Kui and Hua Gu'er didn't know about it at this time, and they still started to prepare to land in Jinshanwei and Qingcun Zhongqian according to the information provided by the Jiangnan reactionary squires in advance.

Among them, Li Wei's troops were preparing to land at Jinshanwei.

Hua Gu'er is going to land in Qingcun Zhongqian.

It turned out that these pirates did have their own ideas as Gu Sanmazi said, and they all wanted to let the other pirates go to fight against the Daming Navy first, and when the Daming Navy and the other pirates had a close fight, They reappear.

Of course, if the Ming Navy wins, they will just slip away.

If the Ming Navy was directly defeated before they got involved, they could still get money from the northern and southern gentry.

But the real purpose of these pirates was to grab a fortune in Songjiang Mansion based on the information provided by the northern gentry and the reactionary squires in the south of the Yangtze River.

At this time, the pirates of Li Kui's department and Huagu'er's department thought so.

"Master Kui, according to the blueprint given by Futai, you can go directly to Huangpu by taking the South Bridge after Jinshanwei lands, and you can spare Chuansha's guards, and then you can rob him!"

Li Weiyi's subordinates have already begun to feel elated.

(End of this chapter)