Chapter 16 Pirates
"My dear nephew, please pay more attention to safety in the future." Tang He said, "His Majesty has high hopes for you. If your boat capsizes in the gutter, it will be passed down as a laugh to future generations. It doesn't sound good."
He Xi said, "Thank you Uncle Tang for your teaching. My nephew will definitely not dare to act like this again in the future."
Tang He said: "That's good."
Speaking of which, Tang He had nothing to say. Tang He came to Ningbo earlier than He Xi and has already started working. However, if something like this happened to He Xi, I still want to express my condolences. More words. There is nothing more to say.
He Xi spoke up and said, "Uncle Tang, how is the situation of pirates in the southeast?"
Tang He was stunned and said, "Why are you interested in this?"
He Xi said: "There are too many things related to pirates. No matter what you do at sea, you can't do without them. I didn't pay much attention to it before. I want to ask today."
Tang He sighed and said, "It would be nice if I knew."
He Xi was stunned. He never expected that Tang He would say such a thing. After all, He Xi didn't doubt Tang He's abilities at all. Tang He, who could command thousands of troops and followed Zhu Yuanzhang from the bottom to the present, may be lacking in handsomeness. But the determination is not comparable to that of ordinary generals.
And in He Xi's impression. The piracy situation during the Hongwu period was not serious. How could Tang He be left helpless?
He Xi said: "But the pirates are so powerful?"
Tang He said: "It's okay to be huge. The bigger the noise, the better to deal with it. The problem is that all the really big pirates have escaped. I can't find who the pirate leader is at all. It's also impossible to talk about the location of the pirate lair. I guess combined Battle reports and news from all parties. I estimate that there are more than a dozen or more groups of pirates on the islands along the southeast coast. As many as a few hundred people. As few as a few dozen people. They live in seclusion at sea and take time to go ashore to commit crimes. For the big city . Naturally, I dare not touch it. But when I encounter it in an ordinary village, it is extremely tragic."
"But send a large army to search. It is difficult to find. This group of people can hide on a reef. The army is at sea, but it consumes a lot of money every day. The delay is too great."
"But we can't dare. Not to mention that they go ashore and plunder the sea. In fact, this is not a big problem. But, you have to know that more than ten years ago, there were many stragglers from the southeastern princes, wandering in all directions. These People. These people did not dare to stay on the coastal islands for fear of being wiped out by the army. Instead, they traveled far away to Southeast Asia. The problem is that some may have taken root in Southeast Asia and will not come back. But some people are not. These wanderers are just stragglers. Their spy. Maybe at some point, he will lure pirates from the South Seas and become a big player along the coast. I don’t know how to explain it to His Majesty."
"Hey, it's a headache, not as easy as Japanese pirates."
He Xi also felt a headache for Tang He after hearing this. The army encircled and suppressed them, which was to use anti-aircraft guns to kill mosquitoes. But sending a small team to encircle and suppress the enemy mainly requires intelligence support. To put it bluntly, on top of that. The Ming army was at a disadvantage.
There is no other reason than the shrinkage of ocean trade in the early Ming Dynasty.
You must know that ocean trade was very developed in the Yuan Dynasty. There are many reasons for this. The Mongols have very little control over it, and they don’t care much about the sea. There were also a large number of Hui Semu people who served as officials in the Yuan Dynasty, and even this faction was far more powerful than the Han people.
The fight between the Han faction and the Semu faction. Almost to the point of fighting each other.
Among them are grievances, political differences and fighting. Enough to write a volume thicker than this book.
And Huihui not only comes from the northwest, but also comes from the sea. Huihui's maritime trade was even more prosperous. But after the Ming Dynasty, the Ming court controlled the ocean and expelled Huihui merchants. Let ocean trade decline. Among them, the destruction of the Pu family may be a standard event.
In the Yuan Dynasty, the Pu family was appreciated by the Yuan court for betraying the Zhao and Song royal families. In addition, the Yuan Dynasty had always had a rule that sex and eyes were higher than those of the Han people. As a result, the Pu family became the tycoon in the southeast, controlling the water power along the southeast coast. It can be said that maritime trade at this time was in the hands of the Huihui forces headed by the Huihui Pu family.
The rise of the Ming Dynasty turned everything upside down. The Pu family was naturally liquidated. Under Zhu Yuanzhang's order, the main line of the Pu family was exterminated, and the others were renamed and resettled in various places. The Pu family is gone. Hui Hui Haishang's strength was severely damaged.
Speaking of which, it only happened more than ten years ago.
The one who took action might be Tang He. Because Fujian was conquered by Tang He.
Under such circumstances, it is strange that Nanyang Huihui merchants have a good relationship with Ming Dynasty.
The Han maritime merchants were all dependent on the coastal princes. For example, Zhang Shicheng, Fang Guozhen, Chen Youding and others. After the destruction of these princes, many maritime merchants did not dare to stay in the Ming Dynasty.
No matter how you look at maritime merchants, or pirates. But I have to admit one thing. That is one thing that cannot be solved no matter what method is used. No matter how hard it is, it will always come back again. There must be economic factors behind this.
That's what maritime merchants are like.
No matter Zhu Yuanzhang admits it or not. There have been a large number of maritime traders on the southeast coast since the Tang Dynasty. Many people rely on this for their livelihood. Even though the imperial court used its strong administrative capabilities to suppress the pirates into this child. But as long as the people in the southeast still want to make a fortune at sea, they still want to engage in ocean-going trade. It is impossible to clean up these pirate courts.
Even Tang He can't do it.
After all, this is no longer a military issue. It's a political issue, an economic issue.
For political and economic reasons, many people secretly support pirates. Even if the Ming Dynasty had countless naval forces but did not have enough intelligence support, there was nothing they could do about this situation.
He Xi felt something in her heart.
"Perhaps the matter of pirates can be ignored." He Xi thought to himself.
It sounds a little helpless. But in fact, for thousands of years, until the founding of New China in later generations, bandits and water thieves existed in most parts of China. The same is true at sea. That is to say, there is no room for sand in Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes. We will vigorously promote the suppression of bandits in the country. The same is true at sea.
In fact, it is quite good to calm down the pirates to this situation.
I want to make the ocean clean. It is almost impossible. In fact, the biggest threat to pirates is not the pirates themselves, but their connection with pirates in Southeast Asia.
He Xi said: "Uncle Tang, who is the leader and the strongest among the Nanyang pirates?"
Tang He said: "Chen Zuyi is the leader of the Southeast Pirates. He only emerged in the past few years. I didn't know whose old group it was before. I heard that in the past two years, several pirates in Nanyang were merged and integrated. There are thousands of ships and over ten thousand people, and there are hundreds of thousands of Han people who depend on him."
"Every businessman who goes to Nanyang must listen to Chen Zuyi. He even intercepts and kills tribute envoys. The imperial court offered a reward of more than 100,000 taels of silver for his head. Unfortunately, it was of no use. I estimate that the price of this reward will increase in the next few years. .”
He Xi listened and murmured silently in her heart. He thought to himself: "Chen Zuyi, why does this name sound a little familiar?" He Xi suddenly felt something in his heart and said to himself: "That's right. It turns out to be him."
Zheng He's voyage to the West was a peaceful expedition. But in many places, force was also used. Among them was Chen Zuyi, and the Ming Dynasty Jiugang Xuanwei Division was based on the pacification of Chen Zuyi and the surrender of Chen Zuyi's Shi family.
But He Xi didn't expect that Chen Zuyi was not a new thief, but an old thief. During the Hongwu period, it had already emerged. It is possible that he has been undefeated for more than twenty years and can be considered a figure. Finally it was taken down by Zheng He.
He Xi's heart moved and he said: "Uncle Tang, it is better to remove the roots and stop the boiling pot than to draw fuel from the bottom of the cauldron. Since the problem on the southeast coast lies in Nanyang, why not send troops to Nanyang to wipe out Chen Zuyi and pacify the bandits in Nanyang. In this way, the southeast coast will be more peaceful. It’s just some petty thieves, so there’s no need to worry too much.”
Tang He sighed and said: "War is never an easy thing, you children. You have always taken war too lightly. You have completely forgotten that soldiers are the chance of life and death, the place of survival. Send out troops at every turn, and don't Talk about how many casualties there will be when the troops and horses move, and how much the court will have to pay. Just ask, do you think the court can win?"
He Xi was stunned and said, "Can't we win?"
