"Are you saying these pirates don't care about us?" In the main hall, Zhao Qiang looked at Yan Qian as if he had lost something.【】
"Well... this..." Yan Qian, who was standing below, didn't know how to report to the commander, because some words were really hard to say.
Seeing him like this, Zhao Qiang chuckled, "Tell me the truth, what are you doing hesitantly? Could it be that the commander-in-chief can't tell the difference between good and bad?"
"Yes, Marshal."
Yan Qian said hurriedly: "These pirates said that our prince was the sinner who led the Qing army into the customs and was the number one traitor in the Ming Dynasty... The subsequent actions were for his own benefit and were definitely not sincere to restore China. So our Wu army is not on the same page as them."
Yes, and the prince did not establish a descendant of the Zhu family of the Ming Dynasty, but established himself as the emperor. It was... a wolfish ambition. Such a virtue is not worthy of their service. What's more, we are no longer the glory we used to be. We are just a group of remnants. When they come, we
Guan Ning's army will never succeed... My subordinates have been in contact with them for half a month and met with several big leaders, but to no avail. Only some minions followed me because of the money." He felt a little bit in his heart when he said these words.
Ashamed, because he only brought back a few dozen pirate minions from his trip south, and not a single heavyweight or sea ship. This was far from what the commander expected of him. It can be said that he brought back nothing but a few pirates during his trip south
Nothing got done.
Zhao Qiang didn't mean to blame Yan Qian, but just said with a "haha" smile: "Interesting, I didn't expect that these pirates are still following the Yongli orthodoxy of the Southern Ming Dynasty. Tsk tsk, but they are a bunch of lonely people of the Ming Dynasty. They are really good thieves.
"
The biggest pirate in the Ming Dynasty was undoubtedly Wang Zhi, followed by Zheng Chenggong’s father Zheng Zhilong. However, after Zheng Zhilong, Zhao Qiang knew very little about who the pirates were in the South China Sea. He knew that the South China Sea refers to the northern part of the ring.
The Gulf region is located on the border between China and Vietnam. This area has a complex sea area and is rich in pearls and seafood. It is an important sea area for fishermen and fishermen to make a living. The ruling power of the government in the past dynasties was relatively weak and out of reach, and pirates often appeared. In the Ming Dynasty, Ye
Later, Japanese pirates moved southward from the Zhejiang and Fujian waters to the Guangdong Sea, and the waters along the East and West Routes of Guangdong became an active center for pirates.
After the Qing troops captured Beijing and Emperor Chongzhen hanged himself on Meishan Mountain, the Ming Dynasty clan ministers supported the crowd and retreated to the southeast. Later, they established Nanming Hongguang, Luwang, Longwu, Yongli and Shaowu in Nanjing, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong and Guangxi.
regime; the Southern Ming forces fought a war with the Qing Dynasty on the southeast coast for more than 30 years. The waters of Taiwan and the northern Gulf of Guangdong were the sea bridges for the Southern Ming Dynasty to maintain communication and the stronghold against the Qing Dynasty.
The Yan family has been a maritime merchant for generations. This maritime merchant is actually a combination of merchants and pirates. If you can do business, you will do business, if you can't do business, you will steal. Yan Qian's father bet his treasure on Wu Sangui after Wu Sangui rebelled against the Qing Dynasty. As a result, Wu Jun
The army was defeated, the family was ruined, and the only son Yan Qian was also sent as a slave outside the customs. However, the century-old experience of a pirate family taught Yan's father the principle of "cunning rabbits in three burrows", so when the defeat of the Wu army became apparent, Yan's father sent the other two members of the family to
The branches were sent to the South China Sea, either in various countries in the South Sea, or directly stationed on a certain island, and continued to cooperate with the major pirates across the South China Sea. On the one hand, they preserved the family bloodline, and on the other hand, they waited and watched.
After Yan Qian, Duncan and others went to sea via Japan and transshipped to Macau, they contacted old members of the Yan family. After many twists and turns, they finally contacted their cousin Yan Guang, and under Yan Guang's introduction, they met Wang Zhihan and Wang Zhijian, the four great thieves in the South China Sea.
Deng Yao, Yang Er.
Four people are responsible. Wang Zhihan and Wang Zhijian are brothers. They have more than 300 large and small ships and more than 16,000 pirate sailors. They occupy the waters between the southwest of Qiongzhou and Vietnam in the West Sea area. The two brothers were both Li Ding in their early years.
After Li Dingguo's death, they dispersed to the South China Sea and persisted in resisting the Qing Dynasty. They contacted the old troops and integrated local pirates. After more than ten years of development, they finally became the largest pirates in the South China Sea, and they were clearly the dominant force in the South China Sea. In the tenth year of Shunzhi,
They even defeated the fleet of Li Yangzhi, the commander-in-chief of the Qing army. From then on, the Wang brothers became the leaders of the bandits in the South China Sea and the most troublesome thieves for local officials. Guangdong officials of the Qing court and Shang Kexi both sent
People were recruited to appease them, but they were rejected by the two brothers. Originally, Yan Qian thought that since the two brothers were righteous soldiers fighting against the Qing Dynasty, in his eyes, these people were not pirates, but he didn't want to be driven away just after he said their purpose.
Come out. His younger brother Wang Zhijian threw a sentence to Yan Qian: "What nonsense do you want us to help you Guan Ningjun? You just bring the late emperor back to life!"
Yan Qian didn't know which "first emperor" Wang Zhijian was talking about. After asking his cousin Yan Guang, he found out that the first emperor Wang Zhijian mentioned was the "Yongli" Emperor of Nanming who was strangled to death by Wu Sangui. Yan Guang told Yan Qian
The Wang brothers have been using the Yongli reign title on the island for many years, so it is impossible for them to cooperate with the Guan Ning Army, which is composed of Wu Jun's old troops.
As a last resort, Yan Qian had no choice but to give up the idea of wooing the Wang brothers, because Wu Sangui had strangled Guo Yongli to death back then, and the debt could not be settled. Seeing his brother's disappointment, Yan Guang kept saying that he could not live up to the commander's trust, so he
He then took him to find Deng Yao and Yang Er. But the result was the same as that of the Wang brothers. They were either rejected or kicked out by cold words. Yan Guang wanted to help his brothers, but was dissuaded by other elders in the family.
, had no choice but to politely comply with Yan Qianxiang’s request to invite Bei.
Yan Qian knew that his cousin was thinking about the Yan family. There were not many descendants of the Yan family scattered in various places. If he took the risk of following him north to join the Guan Ning Navy, once the Guan Ning army was defeated again, the Yan family would be in trouble.
Falling into a place of no return.
In the end, Yan Qian returned to Macau in disappointment with dozens of minions who were attracted by the huge sum of money. It happened that Duncan and the others had already completed the things Zhao Qiang had told them, so they took a Spanish merchant ship to Japan together, and then hired local people there.
The fishermen's boats smuggled themselves to Sakhalin Island, and then contacted the vanguard division of the Kwanning Army stationed there, and with their help returned to Yask.
"If you can, my subordinate, please punish me, Commander-in-Chief!"
After talking about everything he had experienced, Yan Qian suddenly knelt down and apologized to Zhao Qiang.
"What are you guilty of?" Zhao Qiang stood up and helped Yan Qian up. He still liked this young man very much and was ready to reuse him. How could he blame him? He had done his best, and there was hard work without credit.
"If the world is willing to follow our Guan Ning army after listening to a few words, then why should we work so hard? If we find a few eloquent people to go to Guan, won't the world change its color?"
Zhao Qiang smiled and comforted Yan Qian, who was a little embarrassed: "I have been busy with other things for so many days since I came back. I haven't called you here, so I feel a little neglected."
Yan Qian felt warm in his heart and said hurriedly: "I have never had any complaints in my heart."
"I came to you this time. In addition to asking you about the harvest of this trip, I also want to give you a big thing, which is related to my Ning army's southward strategy!" Zhao Qiang suddenly looked serious.
Yan Qian frowned, cupped his hands and said, "Just give me the commander-in-chief's orders. I will not hesitate to go through fire and water without hesitation!"
Zhao Qiang motioned Yan Qian to follow him to his table, pointed to the map on the table and told him: "This is the area controlled by my Guan Ning army, and across the sea is the Japanese country, and this protruding part is the Korean country. I, Guan Ning
If the army goes south, in addition to the land route, it can also take the sea route. But I'm afraid you also know that in addition to the North Korean navy ships snatched by the vanguard division, our Guan Ning army only has one more warship, so we can go south by sea.
It’s absolutely impossible.”
Yan Qian looked at Zhao Qiang in confusion, not understanding what the commander meant when he told him this.
"Now I want to expand our Guanning Navy. In the future, we can advance both by land and water. You, land and our Guanning Army can enter from Shanhaiguan or Shanxi and other places, and from the sea, our navy can penetrate directly into Tianjin, Shandong, and even go south to the southeast.
The provinces cut off the Manchu and Qing water transportation. Several provinces in the south of the Yangtze River are the granaries of the Tatars. Once there is police in the southeast, the money and food available to the Tatars will be tight. In this way, Kangxi will be attacked on both sides. Of course, now the water carriers are still going south.
Shui Jingyue, with the few broken ships we have, they will be exploited by others, so I decided to expand the navy immediately, and you, Yan Qian, will be the commander of the navy!"