On the vast sea, a lone cargo ship hung its sails and sailed desperately eastward. A few miles behind it, a pirate ship of about three thousand stones was chasing after it. This scene is very common in the South China Sea, as long as there is a cargo ship
If you are alone, you will definitely be targeted by pirates.
Therefore, cargo ships must sail in groups, and if necessary, the Quanzhou Navy must be invited to escort them.
In the past two years, in order to build up a navy, the imperial court has requisitioned a large number of large-scale civilian ships. As a result, fewer and fewer merchants are going south. Life is also not easy for the pirates. It is so easy to encounter a lone ship. How can the pirates let it go?
The pirate ship speeded up and was gradually catching up with the cargo ship. The people on the cargo ship were so frightened that they started shouting.
At this moment, a fleet suddenly appeared more than ten miles to the east. There were ten large ships. The large ships were equipped with wooden paddles and sailed by human power. They did not need sails and were not affected by the wind. They were extremely fast.
quick.
When the merchants on the cargo ship saw this fleet, they all cheered together. The pirates turned pale with fear and turned around to escape. This fleet with wooden wheels has become famous in the South China Sea in recent months and has been easily killed.
There were more than a dozen pirate gangs.
Needless to say, this fleet was the Nanyang expedition team led by Liu Dajiang. His appearance made the small Nanyang countries that had suffered from pirate attacks overjoyed and provided them with information about the pirates. With accurate information, within a few months,
Liu Dajiang led his men to exterminate fourteen groups of pirates, maintained the safety of the trade routes, and made a lot of money for himself.
This time, Liu Dajiang led the fleet to return to Quanzhou. Unexpectedly, he encountered another pirate ship near the Luzon Islands.
The pirate ship could not escape. Within a moment, it was surrounded by Liu Dajiang's fleet. More than a dozen burning kerosene tanks were thrown at it. The pirate ship immediately burst into flames. Dozens of pirates had no choice but to jump into the sea to escape, but they could not escape the soldiers.
Their crossbow arrows rained down like lightning. In just a moment, all the pirates were killed and no one survived.
The Western Army has adopted a tactical approach to dealing with pirates. They first use fire to force the pirates to jump into the sea, then shoot them with arrows, and finally clear the ship. As for the pirates' lairs, they have discovered that pirates in Southeast Asia have no lairs. After the robbery is successful,
, sell the goods at a low price, use the money to live and drink, and put the valuable belongings on the boat and hide them on the desert island. It would be safer to put them on the boat.
"There are no more alive!" the soldier shouted.
Commander Han Xiaowu waved his hand and said, "Clear the ship!"
The soldiers hooked the pirate ship over, and fifty soldiers wearing iron armor and holding shields and short spears boarded the ship. Although the deck was on fire, it would be at least several hours before it was completely burned down. There was no fire in the bottom cargo hold.
Fifty soldiers entered the bottom cabin. After a while, they found several pirates hiding in the bottom cabin. Without any explanation, they stabbed them to death with spears and threw them directly into the sea.
Soon, they found five disheveled women. They were all women who had been raped by pirates to let off steam. The five people were rescued and couldn't help crying. They were picked up on the big ship and the treatment was simple. Give them to them.
Each person paid a sum of money and then handed it to the rescued cargo ship, ordering the cargo ship to take them home when it returned.
Liu Dajiang will also ask the ship owner to write a written statement. If these women are harmed by them, the ship owner and crew will stop messing around in the South China Sea.
Not long after, the inspection team found the secret warehouse where the treasure was stored, and quickly delivered the large boxes to the big ship. Every soldier smiled when they saw these large boxes. Liu Dajiang was very generous, leaving half to hand over to King Yong, and the remaining half to everyone.
Evenly divided, everyone was the same, including himself and the commander Han Xiaowu, which made all the soldiers feel grateful and work extra hard.
An hour later, the five women were put on the merchant ship. The merchant ship followed Liu Dajiang's fleet and sailed towards Quanzhou. The pirate ship was destroyed by fire and gradually sank.
After half a month of sailing, the fleet arrived in Quanzhou. This was Chen Qing's second visit to Quanzhou for inspection. Last time he inspected Quanzhou and Ryukyu Island, but this time he wanted to inspect the entire Fujian Road.
The ship arrived at the dock. Civil and military officials such as Hu Yantong, the envoy of the Fujian Road Troops, Wang Feng, the governor of Quanzhou, Chao Kun, the commander of the Overseas Trade Administration, Zhang Jing, the commander of the Municipal Shipping Administration, greeted the arrival of His Highness King Yong at the dock.
After everyone saw the ceremony, Hu Yantong arranged for Sima to send the three thousand escort troops to the military camp to rest. Chen Qing then took everyone to stay at a VIP hotel near the pier. The VIP hotel was built on a low mountain with a panoramic view of the sea and port. The blue sky,
In the blue sea, flocks of seagulls fly in the sky, making crisp calls, and the sea breeze blows on your face, which is refreshing.
In a pavilion, Chen Qing and Zhou Kuan were sitting opposite each other drinking tea. Zhou Kuan smiled and said, "I heard from the Crown Prince yesterday that His Highness has gained a lot of insights in the past two days. I wonder what he has gained?"
Chen Qing smiled slightly and said: "Actually, it's not much of an insight. It's just that I haven't experienced it myself before, so I can't understand it. I've always been surprised. Since the Tang Dynasty, our shipping has been very developed. We go to Nanyang, Tianzhu, and Dashi, but...
There are large tracts of land overseas that are unclaimed, with dense forests and rich resources. Why don't we occupy it and expand our territory?"
"Does Your Highness understand the reason?"
"I couldn't figure it out before, but now I understand."
"Your Highness, tell me why?"
"We went all the way south from the coast of Wenzhou, and there were basically no other houses. When we got to the coast of Fujian Road, it was even sparsely populated. On Guangnan East Road and Guangnan West Road, there were even large areas of land without habitation. Our own land was all empty.
There is no one to live in, and we can’t even live on our own land, so how can we consider going overseas?”
"Your Highness is right. We do have a large area of land that is empty and uninhabited. In this case, overseas land will not be considered. The key is insufficient population!"
Chen Qing shook his head and said: "I don't think about it now, but what about three hundred or five hundred years from now! The population is growing, the land is scarce, and dynasties have changed in history. Except for foreign invasions, it was all because of land annexation that the people could not survive, and finally a peasant uprising broke out.
, used by ambitious people to seize the country, but if we have a large area of land overseas and farmers cannot survive at home, they can completely move overseas and own their own land. I can even grant overseas land to heroes and let them go overseas to do their own work.
Lord of the vassal, this can solve many problems that have been insurmountable by previous dynasties."
Zhou Kuan pondered for a while and said: "I think your highness's idea is very good. It is easy to occupy the land, but it is difficult to move the people. However, we can take two steps. First occupy the unowned land, arrange for troops to be stationed, and move the criminals to develop it.
Build a county first, wait for the population to grow in the future, and then move out the people who are willing to live overseas. After a hundred years, there may be millions of people living overseas."
The reason why Chen Qing brought Zhou Kuan along for the inspection was because Zhou Kuan had an open mind, could understand himself, and would support him in the court. He needed to use this inspection to reach some consensus with Zhou Kuan.
There is also his son Chen Ji. He also wants to cultivate his son's overseas awareness. After his general inherits his career, he can continue to expand outward and win more land for his descendants.
Chen Qing smiled slightly and said, "I'm going to Ryukyu Island for patrol in two days. Come and have a look with me!"
