Since the death of Wang Zhi, Xu Hai also died. After the death of the leaders of the two factions of Japanese pirates, the trading faction and the plundering faction merged, which the Ming Dynasty called the new Japanese pirates.
The new Japanese no longer had a Japanese pirate leader in the previous sense. It was an alliance composed of various groups of Japanese pirates and pirates who agreed to work together to attack the coastal areas of the Ming Dynasty.
However, although there is no nominal leader, there are still several relatively influential forces, among which the Japanese pirate gang led by Lin Daoqian and Zeng Yiben is one of the larger ones.
Lin Daoqian was a native of Chaozhou Prefecture. It is said that he was a branch of the Lin family, and was originally just a landowner in the Chaozhou area.
Later, when he saw that the smuggling business along the coast was profitable, he led the villagers to smuggle at sea and made a lot of profits.
Someone in the village wanted to report Lin Daoqian for smuggling, so Lin Daoqian killed the villager with his own hands, threatening everyone to make a bloody oath not to betray.
Lin Daoqian's maritime "business" is getting bigger and bigger. Relying on smuggling from Chaozhou Prefecture, Lin Daoqian also joins Wang Zhi's command.
After Wang Zhi's death, Lin Daoqian accepted most of Wang Zhi's remnants and became the largest force on the sea.
However, on this offensive goal, the Pirates had a dispute.
Nowadays, the Feilong army in the border area between Fujian and Vietnam is powerful, and they also send envoys to unite with the Japanese pirates and invite them to attack Chaozhou Prefecture together.
Chaozhou Prefecture is the hometown of Lin Daoqian, but the Chaozhou Prefect is a capable person in fighting against Japanese invaders. Neither the Feilong Army nor the Japanese pirates have been able to conquer Chaozhou Prefecture for the time being.
It is impossible for the Feilong regime to bypass such a key area as Chaozhou and go south. If it wants to attack Guangfu, it must capture Chaozhou.
However, Lin Daoqian was not very interested in attacking Chaozhou Prefecture.
Doesn’t Lin Daoqian still know what his hometown is like?
The Feilong Army was already poor before the uprising, and now they are still poor. Attacking Chaozhou Prefecture is completely thankless.
Moreover, the Feilong Army is based on land. If they conquer Chaozhou Prefecture, they will naturally take the majority. At most, they will give the Japanese pirates a few docks and make no money at all.
Today, Japanese pirate warships gathered in the South China Sea to hold a meeting to discuss where to attack.
However, after Wang Zhi's death, the Japanese pirates carried out a bloody internal merger, so each family did not trust the other and refused to go to any party's territory for meetings.
That’s why I came up with the idea of having a meeting at sea.
Even so, the Japanese pirate leaders of each family refused to leave their ships, and only let small boats go to and from each family's ships to send messages.
Naturally, communicating messages in this way is extremely inefficient, but this is the only way the Japanese pirates can only use this method if they don't trust each other.
After a day and night of discussions (most of the time on boating to convey messages), Lin Daoqian's opinion prevailed.
Let’s fight Fujian!
During the Ming Dynasty, Fujian was still richer than Guangdong.
More importantly, after Su Ze's intervention, Fujian is now a port for foreign trade.
Lin Daoqian's proposal is very bold, attack Fuzhou City, the provincial capital of Fujian!
Lin Daoqian's reasons also made other Japanese pirates unable to refuse.
Because of the sea blockade last year, the Fuzhou Shipping Department still had silk worth 300,000 taels of silver that had not been sold.
These silks were originally going to be sold to the Ryukyu Tributary Mission, but due to the Japanese rebellion, they were backlogged in the warehouse in Fuzhou.
As long as you attack Fuzhou, you can get this silk worth 300,000 taels of silver!
This temptation is naturally something that all Japanese pirates cannot refuse.
Just when the Japanese pirates were planning to attack Fuzhou Prefecture, Qi Jiguang came to Fuzhou in person and held joint military discussions with Su Ze.
During this time, Su Ze sent people to help Qi Jiguang train the navy in Xinghua Mansion and resist the attack of the Feilong Army.
When there were no Japanese pirates, Qi Jiguang continued to train the Feilong Army and sent his troops to attack Tingzhou. He pinned the Feilong Army to the southern Fujian area and was unable to go north.
After the founding of the Feilong Kingdom, Zhang Lian indulged in pleasure and conferred the title of a large number of marshals and princes.
The rebel army, which has a large number of people, often collapses in a single battle when faced with an army that is far smaller than its own.
Qi Jiguang fought steadily and took back all the big cities in Tingzhou Prefecture, cutting off the connection between the Fujian Guangxi Army and the Jiangxi Rebel Army.
Such a series of officials awarded by Zhang Lian would naturally not receive salary in the Feilong court.
But these people either follow Zhang Lian's old brothers to fight for the "kingdom", or they have positions bought with money. They all use the name of Feilong Court to plunder places wantonly.
Qi Jiguang had already seen that the so-called Feilong Rebel Army was nothing to worry about, so he directly used the Feilong Army to gain experience.
But Xinwo is different from the Feilong Army. This group of pirates is really desperate.
Qi Jiguang also had eyes and ears at sea. When he heard the news that the Japanese pirates were going to attack the southeast again this time, he quickly contacted Su Ze to join forces to fight against the Japanese.
Qi Jiguang personally went to Fuzhou Prefecture and boarded Chuanshi Island to discuss military affairs with Su Ze.
This is the first time Qi Jiguang has landed on Chuanshi Island.
The cooperation agreement with Su Ze also included that Su Ze helped Qi Jiguang train grassroots officers.
In less than half a year, all the junior officers in Qi Jiguang's army had gone to Sichuan Shidao and participated in short training courses taught by Su Ze himself.
Qi Jiguang was also pleasantly surprised to find that the officers who had "received training" in Chuanshi Island were indeed much easier to use than before.
Qi Jiguang lamented that Su Ze was indeed a master in the art of war.
Today he finally landed on Chuanshi Island in person. Looking at the neat barracks, Qi Jiguang finally understood why every officer who went to Chuanshi Island for training said that Chuanshi Island was good.
"General Qi!"
Su Ze stood in front of the New Navy Academy and welcomed Qi Jiguang into the campus.
Qi Jiguang looked at the carefully tended lawn. Two teams, one red and one blue, were playing Cuju?
Cuju is originally a military drama, and Qi Jiguang is no stranger to it. After watching it for a while, he was attracted by this wonderful game.
"Cum! Came in!"
Qi Jiguang did not pay attention to the result of the game, but looked at the players who had been running on the field and couldn't help but said: "Xiangong Su, you are really an elite soldier!"
The rules of Cuju are to kick the ball with your feet. Su Ze expanded the venue for Cuju. The players need to run within the scope of a football field. After watching it for a while, Qi Jiguang knew how much exercise there was in such a game.
Almost all the team members were running non-stop. Qi Jiguang knew that elite soldiers who were not raised with polished rice and meat would not be able to bear such an amount of exercise.
Sure enough, as he got closer, Qi Jiguang saw the tendon flesh on these team members, and Qi Jiguang knew that these were first-class elites.
Su Ze smiled and said: "It's just a military drama. General Qi invites you."
Everyone came to the lecture hall where Su Ze taught. Qi Jiguang didn't understand why Su Ze wanted to discuss things with him here. He only saw a huge sand table being carried into the lecture hall.
Twenty young officers in military uniforms also stood behind Su Ze.
Qi Jiguang approached the sand table. This would be a detailed sand table of Fujian and the outer sea. Even the islands on the sea were marked.
Qi Jiguang had never seen such an exquisite sand table. He raised his head and looked at Su Ze in surprise.
"This is a sand table made based on Western charts. After Su sent people to survey and map one by one, he compiled the sand table. Su can say that this is the most detailed sand table in Fujian."
Naturally, this sand table was made by Su Ze himself. In addition to the land in Fujian, the sand table also marked more than fifty large islands in the outer sea. This was all data obtained by Su Ze's students of the New Navy Navy's surveying and mapping using theodolite.
Just by making such a map, Su Ze upgraded his newly learned [Cartography] skill to Lv4.
Su Ze said: "General Qi, based on the information you sent and combined with the dynamics at sea, we conducted a sand table simulation."
"Lin Liangjun, please tell me the results of the sand table deduction."
"Yes! Chief Shan!"
Lin Liangjun stepped out, picked up a putter used for weapons deduction and said:
"According to the deduction results of our staff team, the most likely target of the new Japanese invasion this time is Fuzhou Prefecture!"
Qi Jiguang knew that Su Ze also had his own maritime information channels, but it still surprised Qi Jiguang that the Fuzhou Navy New Army was so sure that the Japanese pirates would attack Fuzhou.
Qi Jiguang was not afraid of confrontation with Japanese pirates, but Japanese pirates attacked at sea and often came and went like the wind. Sometimes when the officers and soldiers arrived at the battlefield, the Japanese pirates had already robbed and escaped by boat.
Even if Su Ze had an informant within the Japanese pirates, could it be false information?
Lin Liangjun said confidently: "This is the result of our deduction. General Qi, please listen."
"The result of our deduction is that the Japanese pirates are going to attack Fuzhou Fucheng. This is based on the following judgments."
"First of all, it is impossible for Japanese pirates to invade directly from the Japanese country. They must find temporary nests on the sea as a springboard for attack. This time, there are more than 10,000 new Japanese invaders, so the island that serves as a springboard must have fresh water. of."
Lin Liangjun said: "The clipper ship of the New Navy Army has been patrolling the outer sea for ten days, and there are signs of Japanese pirates landing on this island."
I only saw a Japanese pirate sign placed on an island to the north of Damuan Island, but Qi Jiguang said:
"I know this island. This island is located in the north of Da Yuan Island. It is called Shihaizi Island. Japanese pirates often use this island as a springboard to attack Fujian. However, this island can also attack Xinghua Prefecture and Zhangzhou Prefecture, and it may also be used with the Feilong Army. Let’s attack Chaozhou together, why are we so sure to attack Fuzhou?”
Lin Liangjun said: "Because of the wind direction."
"wind direction?"
"As far as we know, Hu Butang burned many Japanese warships in Zhejiang last year, so the Japanese pirates are very short of ships."
"This time, the Japanese invaders basically used Japanese ships in their fleet."
"Japanese ships are lagging behind those of the Ming Dynasty. They can only use fixed hard sails. Hard sails can only sail with a downwind. With the current wind direction, starting from Shihaizi Island, the final destination is Fuzhou Port!"
Qi Jiguang's expression changed, and he said, "According to your intelligence, the Japanese pirates are going to completely plunder Fuzhou City this time?"
Lin Liangjun nodded and said: "That's true. Most of the Japanese pirates used Japanese boats this time, which means that they can't retreat before the monsoon changes. The Japanese pirates' plan is to capture Fuzhou City and use Fuzhou City as a base to plunder. The surrounding counties should wait until autumn before retreating."
Qi Jiguang stood up, looked at the model of Fuzhou City on the sand table, pondered for a moment and said:
"No wonder it's Fuzhou City. Only Fuzhou City is taller and the Japanese pirates can hold it until the monsoon changes!"
Qi Jiguang was convinced now and said to Su Ze: "Mr. Su's temple is unparalleled!"
Su Ze shook his head and said, "This was not calculated by my temple, but by them."
"The staff team simulated the Ming Dynasty and New Japan respectively, and conducted weapons drills twenty times. Finally, they believed that this was the most likely attack plan for the Japanese pirates."
"One more thing, I have asked Ryukyu merchants to spread the news at sea, saying that there is silk worth 300,000 taels of silver in the treasury of the Shipping Department of Fuzhou Prefecture that has not been traded out. The Japanese pirates are bound to do something big if they mobilize forces like this. Yes, the target must be Fuzhou Prefecture!"
When Su Ze said this, Qi Jiguang believed in his judgment even more.
Qi Jiguang said: "Then I will secretly mobilize my troops to the north and ambush them outside Fuzhou Prefecture. When the Japanese pirates land, I will attack them head-on!"
"No."
The students placed the ship symbol representing the Japanese pirates on the sand table, then placed the symbol of the Fujian Navy New Army, and finally placed the symbol of the Qi Jiajun.
Su Ze said firmly: "I will personally lead the navy to intercept and defeat the Japanese pirate fleet at sea! General Qi only needs to set up defenses on the coast to intercept the Japanese pirates who fall into the water and land on the beach!"
Qi Jiguang didn't expect Su Ze to be so loud. After he watched Lin Liangjun's sand table drill, he said sincerely:
"I finally saw the method of temple calculation in "The Art of War"! This war game is so exquisite!"
Qi Jiguang studied war games until lunch time. After eating with Su Ze, he reluctantly left Kawaishi Island.
After bidding farewell to Qi Jiguang, Su Ze came to the classroom again. At this time, several other sand tables were spliced onto the Fujian sand table, which turned out to be maps of Zhejiang, Guangzhou and Jiangxi.
However, these maps have not been surveyed and are just simple models made by Su Ze based on the collected maps.
The students in the lecture theater were all Su Ze's most trusted students. They were all civilians with innocent backgrounds. They were also the students who Su Ze had been personally teaching.
Su Ze looked at Lin Liangjun's face and said:
"What are the results of the deduction after the war against Japan?"
Lin Liangjun said: "The new ships of the New Navy can sail even when the wind direction is not right. According to our plan, we can control the prefectures along the coast of Fuhai within a month."
"The Jiangxi government's army cannot even stop the Feilong Army, and the Guangdong defenders can only protect themselves. The only variable is the Zhejiang army."
"Hu Zongxian's prestige in the Zhejiang New Army is not low. If he takes over the New Army in Taizhou immediately, he can immediately go south to Fujian."
Su Ze waved his hand and said: "Hu Zongxian is nothing to worry about, Yan Song is about to fall."
Su Ze's judgment naturally relied not only on [history], but he had already received information from Lu Er from the capital. The day when Yan Song's downfall was getting closer and closer.
With the fall of Yan Song, Hu Zongxian, who was training troops in Zhejiang, must be liquidated. Who will let him have soldiers?
Su Ze felt the same way. Once the Japanese rebellion in Fujian was resolved, the strength of the new navy army that could defeat the Japanese pirates would inevitably be noticed by the capital. The imperial court would definitely not tolerate Su Ze continuing to control this new army.
The fate of Hu Zongxian and even Xu Wei in history illustrate this judgment.
Su Ze stood up and said: "As soon as the Japanese rebellion is over, we will immediately start preparations to build a good situation in Zhejiang and Fujian."
"From Zhu Wan to Zhang Jing, and then to Hu Zongxian, those who presided over the anti-Japanese war have never had a good end. This is the result of the rampant sycophants and constant party strife in the court."
"As the saying goes, 'The emperor has the Way, and the conquest of rituals and music comes from the emperor. The emperor has no way, and the conquest of rituals and music comes from the princes.' Since the emperor has no way, the mutual protection between Fujian and Zhejiang is to accumulate strength to deal with the traitors in the DPRK!"
Su Ze's words were absolutely treasonous, but the students present said enthusiastically: "If students risk their lives, they will not let the imperial court do what Qin Hui did again!"
(End of chapter)
