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 were members of Zhu Cai Lao. Zhu Cai Lao's activity area was in Guangdong. Yangmian, 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 Cai Lao already had There were two fleets from the north and the south, and they attacked Jieyang three times in February, April, and July of that year, and Chenghai in September. They attacked Jieyang again in the first year of Tianqi, and they were a very active maritime group during the Tianqi year.
From the mouths of the prisoners, the travelers learned about the organizational form of these maritime groups on the southeast coast that were both merchants and pirates. Although they had a unified organization and leaders, in actual activities they basically operated in "units". The middle-level unit between the upper level and each individual ship. The leader of the "unit", the "shopkeeper", plays an important role in the command link. 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, it may reach 40 ships. Depending on the close relationship between them and the gang leader, the responsibilities and obligations between each share and the gang leader are inconsistent. , each group that is not the direct lineage of the gang leader can usually move freely, but must obey the rules within the group and pay a certain proportion of profits to the gang leader - whether it comes from robbery or trading activities. Once the gang leader calls each group to gather for action, each group will All must participate unconditionally.
These three ships belong to a "shopkeeper" under Zhu Cai Lao, who is a core member of Zhu Cai Lao's group. The reason why they were sent to Lingao has a great relationship 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 pirate be willing to suffer a loss? If you report it yourself, you will definitely not be able to pass the test without a large bloodletting compensation, and you may lose your fortune. This is another time, Zhu Cai Lao Di If he gets something, he will retaliate against Shorthair. As a native of Lingao, doesn't he have to be a pioneer? He can'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 retribution Zhu Cai Lao will naturally find trouble with Short Hair after getting the news about his eldest brother. It is much more reliable to take advantage of the big pirate than to a toubob like himself who has lost power.
In this way, Mr. Zhu Cai was completely kept in the dark. It was not until the people sent to contact him recently found that the Goujiazhuang had been reduced to ruins, and a new fortress was built on top of the ruins, that he knew that the Gou family was finished. He sent people to They searched for Gou Er in the county seat, but there was no trace of him. After further inquiries, they roughly learned what had happened.
The news that the nest family was destroyed and the stolen goods were gone 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 the time when he needed to build ships and recruit troops to prepare for war, but he suffered such a blow. A heavy blow destroyed many years of savings, not only losing money, but also seriously shaking the confidence of his subordinates - the pirate group is a community of interests. When the resources of the big boss are destroyed and the interests of everyone cannot be guaranteed, the various franchisees will naturally He became more active. People from all walks of life who originally were eyeing him also took the opportunity to win over his "shopkeepers". For a time, his subordinates left without saying goodbye, and there were dozens of ships that could not be attracted, and hundreds of ships. many.
The travelers themselves 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 turned out to be the Zheng Family Group, which they had 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 boat was an anecdote often mentioned by fishermen in Guangdong in recent months. Gou Da mentioned in the letter He had seen these weird short-haired men who called themselves Australian sea traders. He also knew that the short-haired men had very powerful firearms, and all the brave men from Lingao were defeated by them.
Mr. Zhu Cai was once worried about the appearance of these "Australian pirates" - maritime merchants and pirates were the same thing in this era - in his sphere of influence, but this group of people has stayed there since they landed in Lingao. Even though he had no intention of carrying out trade, he also did not send people to rob or plunder. In Lingao, he also maintained an attitude of "if you don't offend me, I won't offend others". He had the Zheng family to deal with, so he had been Have a tacit attitude towards the existence of shorthaired people.
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 were in the past, he would not hesitate to do this. But now Zheng Zhilong is eyeing him, and Short Hair is also He is not a kind person. If there is a trouble, both sides will be hurt, 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 has lost a large amount of supplies accumulated in the Gou family, and he cannot raise them again for a while. got so much wealth.
While hesitating, the spies reported that Shorthair had some speeding ships. These ships were about the same size as the large Guangzhou ships. Their speed was faster than any ship they had ever seen, including around here. There are various Western sailing ships floating on the ocean. Clipper ships have no sails, so they don’t need to worry about being burned by the enemy in naval battles. With such a ship, one’s own fleet has a great upper hand on the sea.
In this way, Mr. Zhu Cai made up his mind to attack Shorthair. To this end, he sent many spies to Lingao to investigate. He also learned from the fishermen in Lingao that the other party had occupied the fishing grounds. Those fast boats circled the bay every day to investigate. Private arrest. Mr. Zhu Cai 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 fired continuously.
2. Compared with their sharp muskets, the Shorthairs have no cannons. Even the speedboats are equipped with strange and large crossbows.
3. There are four clippers in total. Usually only one patrols the fishing ground. The other ships are hiding in the bay. It seems that they also value these ships. The huge iron ship has always been parked.
4. There are not many short-haired people. The spies estimated 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 are divided into two parts, one is in Bairentan, and the other is in Bairentan. Bobu Port. Both places are fortified. There are fewer people in Bobu 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 can be used to obtain the greatest benefits - he is essentially a businessman, and obtaining the best cost-effectiveness is the key to success. The truth is to understand.
After comprehensive judgment, Zhu Cailao made a wise decision: not to launch 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 muskets.
Although the short-haired men are powerful with cannons, they do not have enough manpower and cannons. Zhu Cai Lao happened to have enough of these two things. After discussing with his main leaders, he sent his capable generals to carry out the task. Ship capture mission.
The strategy was clever enough. Under the long-term observation of the fishermen acting as spies, they discovered the activity 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. To this end, all the cannons were loaded with shotgun pellets to prevent the pellets from being too large and causing damage to the "clipper". There were even two types of ropes prepared on the ship, one The thick one is used to tow the "clipper", and the thinner one is used to tie up the captured shorthairs - the bosses have orders: the captured shorthairs must be treated preferentially, after all, only they can use clippers and cannons. Know how to use it.
All of this was planned in an orderly manner. If it had been any ship, Zhu Cailao's plan would have succeeded. Fortunately, the fishing boat was beyond the technological level of this era and the combat organization consciousness formed by the travelers over the past few months destroyed this plan. It was a perfect plan, but the manager responsible for it also lost his life in the battle.
Although the victory is worth celebrating, hidden dangers still exist - no one knows whether Mr. Zhu Cai has any follow-up plans. If so, how big a battle he is prepared to launch. No matter how the security team tortures these people, they will say no. The reason was revealed. 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 a gunpowder 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."