This naval battle that broke out in Xiamen Bay lasted from sunrise to sunset, from the Lujiang River to the Xunjiang River.
Ten armored fishing boats severely ravaged hundreds of wooden sailing boats.
The pirates once thought of taking advantage of their large numbers of men and ships to attack them closely, or even directly join forces and join forces to seize these coveted iron ships.
However, the speed of their ships was greatly affected by the current and wind direction, making them as slow as a snail.
The fishing fleet using diesel generators, under the unified command of a walkie-talkie, can easily control the distance and jump out of the encirclement, destroying enemy ships one after another.
When the pirates from all walks of life were frightened and wanted to run away, knowing that they could not defeat them, the sunken ships everywhere, the poor formation, and the completely shameless current and wind direction gave them a fatal blow.
Li Yunze divided the armored fleet into two and drove the pirate ships to squeeze in from the channels on both sides of Xiamen Island.
The narrow sea area between Xiamen Island and Tong'an County was suddenly filled with ships scurrying around.
They were running around and colliding like headless flies, even attacking each other in order to fight for a way out.
When they were sure they couldn't run away, they all washed up on the beach in Tong'an County or on the island.
What greeted them were the officers and soldiers from the Beijing camp who had been waiting for a long time.
At the end of the war, the pirates were destroyed and captured, and more than 200 large and small ships were stranded on the beach and even surrendered.
There were more than 10,000 people lost and captured.
Because Li Yunze specifically targeted large ships to fight, many of the well-known big shopkeepers on the southeastern sea were basically wiped out here.
As for the leaders of various walks of life, they are countless.
"General." Li Yunze, who had slept in, just got up in the afternoon of the next day, and Jia Ping, who was in charge of statistics, showed his teeth and happily reported the results of the battle, "We made a lot of money this time."
Every sea-going ship that can run on the sea is very valuable.
Moreover, there was also the private property of the shopkeepers on the ship, which undoubtedly belonged to Li Yunze.
"General." An excited Jia Ping rubbed her hands. "Several shopkeepers have expressed their willingness to pay huge sums of money to redeem their lives."
Bandits and pirates are bound to die if they are caught.
If you don't want to die, you have to spend money to buy your life.
"These people have blood on their hands. They don't have any good things, and they still want to survive?"
Li Yunze sneered, "Ask them to deliver the goods first, and then send someone to escort them to Shenjing City."
Jia Ping was shocked: "General, this is against the rules."
It is undoubtedly against the rules to ask for someone's life after receiving money to buy it.
"What I said is the rule." Li Yunze raised his eyes and looked at Jia Ping, "Are you accepting their benefits?"
Jia Ping knelt on the ground with a frightened "Plop!" "General, I am very loyal to the general. How dare I accept the property privately? I am just worried that it will affect the reputation of the general~~~"
"I'm not a gangster trying to get a bad reputation."
Putting down the thick statistical document in his hand, Li Yunze said, "I can't explain it to you. Go and call Xue Biao first."
Jia Ping has a flexible mind, but lacks the necessary experience. There are some things that he really doesn't understand.
The young and handsome Xue Biao came in and saluted, "Second brother, are you calling me?"
Li Yunze didn't talk nonsense. He just arranged the work directly. "This time we have arrested a group of shopkeepers. Go and talk to them about tricks. Let them pay money to redeem themselves. By the way, they will hand over their behind-the-scenes financial backers and correspondence."
"
"It's not difficult to get money." Xue Pan frowned, "But if you ask the backers, you still need evidence."
"You can just find someone to handle simple things, why should I use you?"
Xue Biao was embarrassed for a moment when he said this, while Jia Ping beside him also lowered his head and smiled secretly.
"Can it be done?"
"able."
Li Yunze nodded and told Jia Ping, "When the money and correspondence evidence arrive, you can pay three thousand silver for travel expenses, lead a team of elite soldiers to deliver witnesses and evidence to Shenjing City, or hand them over to Xia Shouzhong."
"You said this was against the rules." Li Yunze suddenly became serious and pointed to Jia Ping, "I don't want any rules. What I want is the market they have vacated. How can I take over their market share without killing them completely?"
Jia Ping was awe-inspiring and hurriedly bowed and apologized.
"We also captured a lot of ghosts, right? Bring the leaders here." After giving instructions, Li Yunze motioned to Xue Biao, "Go and do some work."
In a short time, a group of embarrassed ghosts were dragged into the tent.
In these days, the people of the Zhou Dynasty considered themselves to be the supreme ruler of heaven, and there was absolutely no such thing as worshiping foreigners.
The so-called foreigners are all natives from barbaric countries.
If a girl from Huating County throws herself into the arms of a foreign ghost and says, "He is from such and such a country, you can't touch him," etc., she will definitely be thrown into the pond, and the whole family will never be able to hold their heads high.
It was obvious that these ghosts with scars all over their bodies had suffered a lot.
What surprised Li Yunze was that these ghosts could actually speak the official dialect of the Zhou Dynasty. Although they were stumbling, they could at least understand it.
To put it simply, we have money and we want to pay for our redemption. Please don't chop off our heads or anything like that.
Li Yunze was too lazy to talk nonsense with them and directly called Xue Pan, "Just pick half of them and go out and chop them."
Xue Pan, who was excited as soon as he entered the battlefield, immediately rushed up with his guards and dragged half of them out.
After a short time, he held a row of heads and reported back.
Those who were still alive were all frightened to the point of peeing, and they kowtowed and begged.
Nowadays, those who can drive thousands of miles to do business here are not good people, they are all scum and scum.
When there is an opportunity to rob, they will never let it go. Doing business along the way is also plundering along the way.
The so-called Age of Discovery is essentially the Age of Piracy.
If they weren't still useful, Li Yunze wouldn't keep any of them.
After the process of killing the chicken to scare the monkey was over, Li Yunze slowly made his request.
"From now on, if you want to buy porcelain, tea, silk, etc., you must come to the Zhongzuo Institute. Anyone who dares to do business elsewhere will be disposed of."
"Give you a ship to go back and inform all your companions. Whether they are big Frankies or small Frankies, whether they are red-haired or golden-haired, they must come here to do business. Of course, the ransom is still
You have to pay first.”
He pointed at the heads of those unlucky people. "If their families want to take back the bodies, they have to pay them. They can give less than half. Remember, I only accept gold and silver for business. Do you understand? Listen."
Get out of here if you understand!"
After simple repairs, statistics of military achievements and rewards, the fleet of armored fishing boats began to attack in turns, sweeping all the merchant ships along the way south.
When encountering merchant ships from the Great Zhou Dynasty, if they do not have the documents from the Shibo Division to go to sea, they will all be seized and brought back to Zhongzuo Suo.
Encountering the ghosts' ship, they all forced them to go to Zhongzuo.
If any ship dares to resist, no matter whose ship it is, they will all be special.
Li Yunze's actions undoubtedly touched the hearts of many big merchants, gentry and sea owners in the southeast.
It has been proven that people cannot be defeated by force, and Li Yunze has been in the military camp for a long time, and the heroes were killed before they could even get to the island.
Then we can only use the power of the court.
Locally and in the court, countless memorials to impeach Li Yunze flew towards the emperor.
At this time, the emperor was holding Li Yunze's memorial and checking the local products he had sent.
Looking at the boxes of silver in front of him, the emperor, who was breathing a little quickly, asked Xia Shouzhong, "What is the total?"
"Long live, the total is seventy-seven thousand three hundred and eighty taels."
Seeing so many local products, the emperor fell into silence.
According to Li Yunze's memorial, this is only the first batch.
Xia Shouzhong said more, "Long live the money. Last year, the silver taels handed over by various municipalities were only over 50,000 taels."
The emperor, who squinted his eyes, raised his eyes and glanced over.
Needless to say, Si Si must have received the benefits from Na Lian Er.
"Send the internal funds." Returning to the throne and sitting down, the emperor opened Li Yunze's memorial again.
The content of the memorial is actually very brief.
First of all, he boasted about his achievements, saying how capable he was in fighting and how many pirates he had wiped out.
The key point is that Li Yunze said that he wanted the maritime trade franchise on the southeast coast.
There is not much time limit, only five years is required.
Then he said that he would pay at least one million taels of tax to the emperor every year, and wait until five years later all the business would be handed over to the inner government.
If Li Yunze still cannot control the Zhou Dynasty in five years, he will lose face as a time traveler.
As for silver, the emperor was really, really short of money.
During the period of the Supreme Emperor, the entire Zhou Dynasty was already in a state of chaos, and all kinds of taxes and taxes were drastically reduced.
Now there are natural and man-made disasters, internal and external troubles.
People everywhere reached out to him for money, but Lian Er was the only one who really gave him a large sum of money.
Even if it was Jia Yuanchun's money, it was given by Lian Er.
After careful consideration, the emperor finally wrote a reply to Li Yunze.
Five years is too long, so he seizes the day. For sea trade franchises, he can only give four years at most.
One million taels per year is too little, it must be at least 1.5 million taels.
Perhaps because he felt that he was too greedy, the emperor also said that he was also under tremendous pressure. Even the Supreme Emperor specifically intervened in the matter of sea trade ships. It was he who helped Li Yunze withstand the pressure.
The emperor's imperial edict failed to pass the cabinet because the interests behind the cabinet elders were complicated and complex, and naturally the southeastern merchants and sealords were indispensable.
Moreover, the Supreme Emperor came forward to specifically express his attitude on this matter.
After all, among the filial piety received by the Supreme Emperor, those from the southeast are indispensable.
Without the cabinet's signature, the effectiveness of the imperial edict will naturally be greatly reduced.
But it doesn't matter, what Li Yunze needs is such a righteous reputation.
Next, not only the fleet of armored fishing boats launched a full-scale attack, but even the soldiers and horses of the Beijing camp also sent out large-scale troops on land.
The sea lords entrenched everywhere were directly attacked and destroyed after being surrounded by officers and soldiers.
Big businessmen from all over the country were directly broken into, branded as pirates, and their homes were ransacked.
Their business, sources of goods, channels, etc., naturally fell into Li Yunze's hands.
The resistance of these people was also very fierce, and they even mobilized the southeast garrison to fight with the officers and soldiers of the Beijing camp.
For this reason, Li Yunze even attacked several Haigang County towns in the name of wiping out bandits. He annihilated thousands of officers and soldiers, and punished many civil and military personnel, from generals to county magistrates, on charges of collaborating with bandits.
His iron-blooded tactics led to countless impeachment memorials. Every day in the court, ministers shouted for beatings and killings. Jia Zheng was so frightened that he even took sick leave and did not dare to go to court again.
The emperor took advantage of the large amount of silver that was delivered every month, especially when the emperor took the initiative to ask him to take charge of Li Yunze, which aroused his rebellious psychology and took the pressure without saying a word.
Li Yunze also responded quickly. Not only did he intensify the attack on the gentry and civil servants who attacked him, he even openly turned against the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang and sent troops to surround the city!
The reason is still the same, saying that the governor is acquainted with pirates.
Of course the governor will not communicate with the pirates, he only accepts their tribute.
But Li Yunze got the letters between him and the pirates, and also hired professionals to forge several letters, so he wanted to use him to scare the monkeys and chickens.
Finally, the imperial envoy was sent by the imperial court, and they first reprimanded Li Yunze, saying that he was so audacious that he dared to besiege the imperial palace, and ordered him to be fined and demoted. The noise was loud, but the board was raised high, but it fell gently.
Then the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang was dismissed from his post and put into a prison car and transported back to Shenjing City for interrogation.
After this battle, Li Yunze's reputation became so great that almost no one in the southeast dared to confront him openly.