The captured pirates were interrogated by the security team and it didn't take long for them to confess everything. Surprisingly, they were not subordinates of the famous Liu Xiang, but men belonging to Mr. Zhu Cai. Zhu Cailao's activity area was on the ocean in Guangdong. This group was not as famous as the Zheng family, Liu Xiang, Li Kuiqi, and Zhong Lingxiu among the maritime heroes at that time, but it started much earlier than Zheng Zhilong. In the forty-eighth year of Wanli, when Zheng Zhilong was still under Yan Siqi, Zhu Cailao already had two fleets in the north and south, and he attacked Jieyang three times in February, April and July of that year, and Chenghai in September. In the first year of Tianqi, they attacked Jieyang again. They were a very active maritime group during the Tianqi year.
From the mouths of the captives, the travelers learned about the organizational form of these maritime groups on the southeast coast that were both merchants and pirates. Although they have a unified organization and leader, in actual activities they basically operate as "units". As the middle-level unit between the upper level and individual ships, the leader of the "units" and the "shopkeeper" are in the command link. Playing an important role, he appoints the ship boss of each ship, conveys the gang leader's instructions to the ship boss and is responsible for the actions of his subordinates. The number of ships in each share is different, as few as 2 to 3 ships, and in large shares, there may be as many as 40 ships. According to the close relationship between them and the gang leader, the responsibilities and obligations between each branch and the gang leader are inconsistent. Each branch that is not a direct descendant of the gang leader can usually move freely, but must obey the rules within the group and pay a certain amount to the gang leader. Proportional profits - whether from looting or trading activities. Once the gang leader convenes all units for collective action, all units must participate unconditionally. (Note: Due to limited conditions, the organizational form of major maritime groups in the Ming Dynasty could not be found. This organizational form was that of Guangdong pirates in the early 19th century.
These three ships belong to a "shopkeeper" under Zhucai Lao, who is a core member of the Zhucai Lao Group. The purpose of their being sent to Lingao has a lot to do with the Gou family.
The Gou family who were killed by the time-travelers was the big owner of the Zhucai Lao Group. Many of the Zhucai Lao Group's stolen goods were transported to Lingao for temporary storage, and then sold in batches through the Gou family's route in Qiongshan. I went to the border of Guangdong.
It took almost half a month for the demise of the Gou family to reach the ears of Mr. Zhu Cai. Gou Er, who lived in Lingao County, disappeared from the county the day after Goujiazhuang was destroyed. He did not even go to Mr. Zhu Cai. Report - Gou Er has a clear mind: How can such a sea pirate be willing to suffer losses? If you report it yourself, you will definitely not be able to pass the test without a large bloodletting compensation, and you may lose everything. This time again, Zhu Cai Lao lost something and would retaliate against Short Hair. As a native of Lingao, didn't he have to be a pioneer? He couldn't afford to offend either of these two families, so he might as well hide it and not get involved for the time being. As for avenging his eldest brother, Zhu Cai Lao would naturally go find trouble with Short Hair after getting the news. He would be much more sure of taking advantage of the big pirate than a toubob like himself who had lost power.
In this way, Mr. Zhu Cai was completely kept in the dark. It wasn't until the people sent to contact him not long ago found that the Goujiazhuang was in ruins and a new fortress was built on the ruins. Then he realized that the Gou family was finished and sent people to I searched for Gou Er in the county seat, but there was no trace of him. After subsequent inquiries, they also roughly learned what happened.
The nest family was destroyed and the stolen goods were gone. This news was a blow to Mr. Zhu Cai. He got the news that Zheng Zhilong, who had just been recruited by the imperial court, was preparing to attack him. It was exactly the time when he needed to build ships and recruit troops to prepare for war, but he suffered such a heavy blow. Years of savings were destroyed in one fell swoop. Not only did he lose money, but he also seriously shook his subordinates. Confidence - The pirate group is a community of interests. When the big boss's resources are destroyed and the interests of everyone cannot be guaranteed, the various franchisees will naturally become more active. People from all walks of life who were originally eyeing him covetously also took the opportunity to win over his "shopkeepers". For a time, the men left without saying goodbye, and there were dozens or hundreds of ships that were unable to come.
The time traveler himself did not expect that killing the Gou family purely for the purpose of "improving food" would 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. The anxious and angry Zhu Cai Lao immediately sent many ships to Gao to inquire about the news - who was so bold to break ground on Tai Sui's head.
Soon, the short-haired situation reached his ears one after another. He had heard about this group of people for a long time - the strange big iron ship was an anecdote often mentioned by fishermen in Guangdong in recent months. Gou Da mentioned these weird short-haired animals in his letter - claiming to be Australian maritime merchants. He also knew that the short-haired men were very powerful with their firearms, and all the local warriors in Lingao were defeated by them.
Mr. Zhu Cai was once worried about the appearance of these "Australian pirates" - in this era, maritime traders and pirates were the same thing - appearing in his sphere of influence, but this group of people has been hiding there since they landed in Lingao. Even if they moved, they had no intention of carrying out trade, and they did not send people to rob or plunder. In Lingao, there is also an ambiguous attitude of "If you don't offend me, I won't offend others." He has the Zheng family to deal with, so he has always had a tacit attitude towards the existence of shorthairs.
Mr. Zhu Cai now has two choices. One is to immediately mobilize his troops to attack Short Hair, regain the lost money and materials, and regain his reputation. If it was in the past, he would have done so without hesitation. But now Zheng Zhilong is eyeing him, and short-haired people are not kind. If there is a trouble, both sides will lose, but Zheng Zhilong will take advantage. The second is to ignore it and concentrate on preparing for war to deal with Zheng Zhilong. The problem is that he lost a lot of supplies accumulated in Gou's family, and he was unable to raise so many goods at once.
While hesitating, the spy reported that Shorthair had some speeding boats. This kind of boat is comparable in size to the large Guangzhou boat. The speed was faster than any ship they had ever seen, including the various Western sailing ships that were floating on the nearby ocean. Clippers have no sails, so they don't need to worry about being burned by the enemy in naval battles. With such a ship, his fleet has a great upper hand at sea.
In this way, Zhu Cai Lao made up his mind to attack Short Hair. For this reason, he sent many spies to Lingao for investigation, and learned from the fishermen in Lingao that the other party had occupied the fishing ground. Those fast boats circled the bay every day to check for private fishing. Zhu Cai Lao learned the following from the spies:
1. The short-haired bird's gun is the sharpest, with a long range, high lethality, and can be connected.
2. Compared with their sharp muskets, shorthairs have no cannons. Even the speedboats were equipped with large and strange-looking crossbows.
3. There are four clippers in total. Usually only one patrols the fishing ground, and the other boats are hiding in the bay. It seems that they also value these boats. The huge iron ship has always been moored.
4. There are not many people with short hair. The spies estimate that there are about a thousand people. There are two types of true kun and false kun, but they can't tell how many they are. They were divided into two parts, one in Bairentan and the other in Bobu Port. There are fortifications in both places. There are fewer people in Bopu and the defense is weaker. In addition, Qiangoujiazhuang and a place called Yanchang Village are also within their sphere of influence.
Zhu Cai Lao has never read a military book, and he doesn't understand anything about strategy and tactics, but he is wise enough to judge which method to take to obtain the greatest benefits - he is essentially a businessman, and he wants to obtain the best cost-effectiveness. The truth is to understand.
After comprehensive judgment, Mr. Zhu Cai made a wise decision: not to engage in a comprehensive war against Shorthair. The scale of the battle was limited to capturing Shorthair's "clippers" to increase the combat effectiveness of his fleet. If possible, Then capture some of their blunderbuss.
Although the Shorthairs are powerful with cannons, they firstly do not have enough manpower, and secondly they lack cannons. Zhucai Lao happened to have enough of these two points. After consulting with his main leaders, he sent his best men to carry out the task of seizing the ship.
The strategy was clever enough. Under the long-term observation of the fishermen acting as spies, they discovered the movement patterns and actions of the traversers, and took targeted measures: using private fishing to lure the "fast boats" to take the initiative to help check, Then artillery and hand-to-hand combat were used to clear the "short hair" on the ship. For this purpose, all cannons were loaded with shotgun pellets to prevent the pellets from being too large and causing damage to the "clipper". There are even two kinds of ropes prepared on the ship, one thick one is used to tow the "clipper", and the other thin one is used to tie up the captured short-haired people-the bosses have orders: the captured short-haired people must be Preferential treatment, after all, only they know how to use the Clippers and Guns.
All this was planned in an orderly manner. If it were any ship, Zhu Cailao's plan would succeed. Fortunately, the fishing boat was too far ahead of the technological level of this era and the combat organization consciousness formed by the time traveler over the past few months ruined this perfect plan. The responsible shopkeeper also lost his life in the battle.
Although the victory is worthy of celebration, hidden dangers still exist - no one knows whether Mr. Zhu Cai has any follow-up plans. If so, what scale of battle is he prepared for? No matter how 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 that no one else knew anything about it.
"This way, everyone will be busy again." He Ming thoughtfully took out the cigarette and was about to light it when he paused again. "I'm sorry, this is an arsenal. I'm so confused." He patted his head.
"It doesn't matter, you have done it. We are not an explosives factory. Those cannons are just lumps of iron and nothing will happen."
"It's better not to break the rules." He Ming said, "The executive committee will hold a response meeting tomorrow, and the leaders of each professional group will participate. Please add a few more people to your artillery team. The focus recently is on the fortification of Bopu Engineering and naval vessels were armed.”
"The problem with cannon production is not big, but the supply of raw materials is relatively scarce," Zhan Wuya said. "Coal is in short supply."
