"If there are just a lot of pirates, I think it won't be difficult. My officers and soldiers in Huangyan Town have been strictly enforcing military discipline since I took office. If I personally lead the troops, I won't be afraid of those many pirates. But... pirates have always been there.

The traffic on the seaside is irregular. I don't know when and where, they will suddenly come ashore and plunder villages and towns. The number of officers and soldiers is small, so they can't seal the entire sea so that the pirates can't get in at all? This has been the case last year.

"The pirates seem to have an understanding of the movements of the officers and soldiers, and they attack places where there are no officers and soldiers. The people often have no choice but to be slaughtered by them because they have no fists and no courage." Yue Xi added.

"Yue Zhentai, actually, I came to Zhejiang. One of my top priorities is to rectify Baojia. Now the emperor has agreed to let the four coastal provinces purchase shotguns and diligently repair their weapons. If Baojia can be trained properly, then the government and the people will work together to resist.

The pirates should be able to avoid their wanton rampage." Ruan Yuan remembered the matter of Baojia and told Yue Xi.

"Ruan Zhongcheng, the government and the people are united to train to protect the armor and fight against the pirates. I have thought that if it can be done, it should be effective. But... Sir Zhongcheng, this matter among the people is easier said than done. Hu Zhentai,

Do you have anything else to say?" Listening to Yue Xi's words, it seems that there are still difficulties in protecting the armor, and it is not something that can be accomplished.

"My lords, I actually remembered what Yue Zhentai said just now. Zhentai said that for some reason, the thieves seemed to know the movements of our army in advance. In fact, I often hear about these troubles. Most of those pirates are pirates.

They are all fishermen on the seaside, so relying on this relationship, they always deceive the fishermen in Zhejiang. Many fishermen think that everyone has the same origin, so they are willing to be close to them. What's more, some are greedy for financial gain.

, secretly prepared grain and gunpowder and sold them to the pirates. It is said that in Fujian, there were people who secretly dismantled the artillery of the fort and sold them. But they did not know that the people who were robbed were also fishermen like them.

But having said that, among the common people, there are many people who are friends with the pirates. When we capture the pirates, we are hiding from the enemy. It is not easy to even find the location of the pirates." Hu Zhensheng also said.

Express your concerns.

"In your opinion, there are three difficulties in suppressing bandits at the moment: insufficient ships and cannons, unprepared armor, and help from traitors. Is what I say not bad?" Ruan Yuan asked. The four generals sounded reasonable and agreed.

Responded: "Not bad!"

"In that case, these three things..." Ruan Yuan wrote these things on the paper one by one. Looking at the words, he couldn't help but think about it and said: "From my perspective, the protection and relief seem to be two different things, but in fact they are two different things.

On the one hand, if the defense is fully prepared, the relief will be cut off. As for blocking relief, we should discuss it in detail and strictly prohibit it. These two things are done step by step, and it is not that there is no clue at all. It’s just..."

"Zhejiang can handle both the protection and relief work on its own. It's just about building ships and cannons. If the emperor doesn't give permission, there's no way to talk about it," Cang Bao said.

"Yes, especially now, I'm afraid that the imperial court is too tired to deal with the Sichuan-Chu war, and there won't be much money to allocate to us. This ship and cannon matter, according to my rough calculation, will cost one hundred thousand taels of silver. Ruan Zhongcheng, this

You may not be able to raise the money?" Yue Xi also has her own worries.

"What the two generals said makes sense. However, according to the current situation, if we don't inform the emperor of the actual situation of Zhejiang's coastal defense, we can't build ships and cannons. Then won't it be impossible to eradicate these pirates? So, I'm here to say

As for your proposal, why don't we jointly submit a petition to the emperor to seek military expenditures of one hundred thousand taels for the ship's cannons? Even if the emperor does not allow it, this proposal was initiated by the emperor. Naturally, you will not allow your lords to be accepted by the emperor.

Do you still have any objections to the accusation?" Ruan Yuan asked.

Everyone nodded to show that there was no need to worry anymore. Thinking about the distribution of the gangs, Ruan Yuan also continued to ask: "Looking at the current situation, among the four gangs of thieves, the Ruohuang Gang is the closest to us and has the smallest number of people.

, it seems that we may be able to attack first and annihilate them in one fell swoop. But I don’t know the current situation at sea. What is the current situation in Yue Zhentai, Hu Zhentai, and southeast Zhejiang? If we take the initiative, we may have a chance of winning.

?”

"In my opinion, it is somewhat difficult to attack now." Yue Xi said: "Although the Ruohuang Gang seems to have a small number of people, they have been moving around the sea erratically in the past few years. According to the information I have gathered, they have no fixed settlement originally.

Most of the pirates here live on ships, but they don't stick to one city or one place. They are very different from bandits on the road. So either they come out on their own initiative, or... even if they find their location, it will cost a lot of troops and food.

"

"Besides, it's still the first month of the year and the south wind is blowing. It's not a good time for these pirates to go north." Hu Zhensheng said: "It's just... this Ruohuang Gang has also had some dealings with me. I dare not say that I am familiar with them."

, but the bandit leader Jiang Wenwu had also heard a little about it. That man was brave by nature, but he was greedy for money. If there were any merchant ships passing by on the ocean in eastern Zhejiang, he would be the first to be alert, but the ships coming and going in this area were also

Quite a few, if we can grasp this weakness of his, we may be able to come up with a strategy to defeat the enemy."

"Are you greedy for money and gain..." Ruan Yuan thought, since Jiang Wenwu is eager for quick success and quick gain, then if he goes in the opposite direction and releases bait to lure him to attack, it may have the effect of turning his back on guests. It's just a matter of Zhejiang's foreign affairs, and he also

Although he was not familiar with the layout, he still needed more time to think about it, so he said: "In this case, the four generals don't have to worry about this matter for now. I will wait for it to go down here and return to the government office in a while, so I will jointly submit a letter.

, explain the situation of the Zhejiang Navy, and hope that the emperor will see our memorial and allow the allocation of funds to build ships and cannons, so that future naval battles will be much more beneficial." The four generals responded in unison, and Ruan Yuanfang called the soldiers below,

He put the ladder up again. However, after the four people stepped down, Ruan Yuan did not leave immediately. Instead, he asked Wang Chang: "Mr. Lan Quan, you have also served as a government official before. Now you are practicing armor protection and cutting off the relief work, but you are still doing it."

It’s up to you, sir, to give you some advice.”

Wang Chang nodded and said: "Boyuan, actually what I just heard you said is that the three tasks of ship artillery, armor protection and relief are indeed the three most important tasks of coastal defense at the moment. As you said, if the armor and armor are in order, relief will be cut off.

It's just a specific way to block relief, but I have to wait until I get downstairs to consider it one by one. You have already written a memorial to the emperor about the shotguns needed to protect the armor. It is not difficult for the villagers to defend themselves. The biggest difficulty remains.

, it’s the appointment of the Chief of Security and Chief A.”

"What's the problem with this security officer and armor commander?" Ruan Yuan asked.

"According to the old practice that I have seen, the system of Baojia is that ten men establish one armor, ten armors establish one general armor, one village establishes one general security, and one mountain and one tower establishes one chief. In this way, only the four provinces in eastern Zhejiang The government needs at least dozens of chief security guards and hundreds of general armors. So, Boyuan, how do you select these security chiefs and armor chiefs?" Wang Chang was quite experienced in the matter of protecting armor, and he said smoothly: "Most of them are The simplest way to appoint a village community is to find people who are famous and wealthy in the village, commonly known as village sages, and appoint them as chiefs of protection. This may seem orderly, but in fact, many of these village sages are based on A man who seemed loyal and honest, but was actually selfish and treacherous, formed Baojia. The first thing he did was not to strengthen the defense of villages and towns, but to use it for self-defense. In the end, many firearms and weapons became his own private property, and he even used it to bully the people and privately Increasing land and renting is not uncommon. The people worked in vain and in the end only protected the properties of those big families. What about their own property? It is not easy to avoid being plundered by these big families. What's more, if some people A big family formed Baojia, but for personal gain, they did not hesitate to liaise with the pirates and sell all the firearms to the pirates privately, which would be more than worth the loss. So Bo Yuan, this so-called country sage, and the evil gentry bully are actually just a matter of thought. , but it’s not something you can tell clearly just by looking at your wealth.”

"In this case, why has it been difficult for the government to conduct strict investigations before?" Ruan Yuan asked.

"It's just because the government is deceiving at every level and deceived at every turn." Wang Chang said: "I have told you that most of these security chiefs and chiefs have wealth in their families. Since they are rich, they will double down on the villagers. What's the difficulty in bribing the county government? If the county officials accepted the bribe, they would conceal it from the superiors. When they got to the magistrate, they would be safe and sound. It was difficult for the magistrate to distinguish the truth from the false. What's more, what about the Taoist priests above, the vassals, and even you, Ruan Zhongcheng? There are many shameful places in this huge Zhejiang Province. I'm afraid you haven't heard of it yet, right?"

"Are the officials in the government easy to be bribed by these big households?" Ruan Yuan seemed to see a chance to break the situation.

"There are not many government officials, except for a few squires who have extremely rich families and are very powerful in the villages and towns. After all, many villages and towns are far away from the government, so it is not easy to interact with the officials in the government. Mainly county officials, who usually We have the most connections with big business owners, so naturally we are prone to collusion." Wang Chang said.

"If it is true as Mr. said, I do have some methods that may prevent those evil gentry from hiding. But after all, I have no experience in personally deciding the general affairs. I hope Mr. will discuss the specific matters with me. If Baojia can be eliminated, we can completely If you cut off any aid, I will naturally ask for credit in front of the Emperor." Ruan Yuan bowed to Wang Chang.

"Boyuan, I have been with you for a long time, and I have already known that you are always serving the people sincerely. In this case, why are you so humble? I am almost eighty years old, so what kind of merits and achievements do you have? , I have long since stopped caring. If Boyuan really thinks about me, the Yunnan Copper Mine is now ordering old employees to compensate for the shortfall, and I happened to have been the chief envoy of Yunnan, so... the amount of compensation for the copper mine's shortfall is quite large. I would like to ask the emperor for some reduction." Wang Chang said with a smile.
Chapter completed!