Chapter 818: How dare you not take me when you travel the Qinhuai River
In the past, the Tang Dynasty Navy was unable to deploy a large number of warships to eliminate pirates because of its heavy other tasks. Of course, this was also related to the fact that the navy did not pay much attention to it. How many achievements can be made by eliminating pirates? If you want to make achievements, you have to go to the Northern Expedition.
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Some time ago, the top brass of the navy actively discussed with the top brass of the army in an attempt to implement jump-point tactics. A simple tactic is for the army to advance forward, while the navy would carry marines or army units to conduct landing operations on the rear coastline of the Ming army.
Although there cannot be too many troops logged in, as long as a few thousand troops are sent to the rear of the Ming army, it will be enough to have a great impact on the battle situation.
Of course, it is reasonable to use the navy to transport supplies for the army.
The above-mentioned strategies related to the Northern Expedition are the focus of the Tang Navy. As long as there are pirates, the Datang Navy does not pay too much attention to them. Anyway, they will escort large fleets, and those pirates will not give them a hundred courages.
Have the guts to attack a convoy escorted by naval battleships.
However, they had overlooked one point before. What Li Xuan wanted was not just the safety of a large fleet, he wanted the safety of the entire coastal waters, so that a large number of merchant ships could travel safely, so that he could better stimulate maritime trade.
develop.
Maritime trade security must be guaranteed!
If we can't guarantee maritime security at our doorstep now, how can we go abroad and trade further afield in the future? We can't just be a simple supplier of goods, sitting at home and waiting for foreign merchants to come to our door.
Your own merchant fleet will eventually go out!
Within a few days of the first fleet's attack, it had wiped out several small-scale pirate strongholds and gained a lot!
Because after capturing these pirate lairs, the Tang Dynasty Navy would move away all the property in the lairs and the trophies of the ships on the spot. At the same time, in order to prevent the port from being reused by subsequent pirates, it would completely burn the port!
As for those pirate prisoners who were lucky enough to survive, they were escorted back to various ports and then dried!
During this process, some people said that they were not Japanese pirates, but Chinese people, good people, don't kill them, etc., and they spoke in authentic Mandarin or with provincial accents. In response to this, the officers and soldiers of the Tang Dynasty Navy were often on the spot.
Just give them a bayonet!
As a Chinese, robbing Chinese people is an even greater crime!
Regardless of whether they were real Japanese pirates or fake Japanese pirates, it actually made no difference to the Tang Navy. As long as they were pirates, they should all die!
The operation to eradicate pirates went very smoothly in the first few days. The pirates were caught off guard, and several strongholds were captured by the Tang Navy.
But of course those pirates will not sit still and wait to be killed!
Chen Sipan, a big pirate who has been operating in the waters of Zhejiang and is no less powerful than Wang Zhi, has even joined forces with Lu Qi, Shen Jiu and other pirates to gather more than a hundred ships and try to resist.
When Wang Zhi, another big pirate, found out about this situation, he laughed at him and said, "These idiots actually tried to confront the Tang army head-on. They are so impatient!"
The subordinates on the side asked him: "Master, if this continues, I'm afraid there will be no place for us in Zhoushan. If we don't join forces with Chen Siman, what will we do next?"
Wang Zhi said: "We can't stay in Zhoushan any longer. Send the order down, collect the ships, and let's go south!"
"Going south, where are you going?"
Wang Zhidao: "Let's go to Ryukyu first, but I don't think we can stay in Ryukyu any longer. Let's go directly to Fusang. We can't afford to offend the Tang army, but there is a lot of chaos in Fusang, but no one can control us!"
"Go to Fusang, this is a good idea!"
Wang Zhi, the two major pirates in the Zhejiang waters, saw that the Tang army was approaching fiercely, and they showed that they would kill all the pirates regardless of which group they were. He simply oiled the soles of his feet and directly led his direct subordinates and
Dozens of ships crossed the sea to the east, preparing to go to Fusang.
However, Chen Sipan and others did not give up. Being a pirate was such a promising job, and he did not want to change his career. Moreover, Zhejiang was adjacent to the prosperous place in the south of the Yangtze River. He had made a lot of money through robbery, so he did not want to change places, so
He plans to join forces with other pirates to make a hard trap.
He didn't believe it. Although the Tang army's warships were powerful, there were only a dozen in total. After his alliance, the number of ships was more than a hundred, and there were tens of thousands of pirates.
Chen Sipan confidently united with the pirates to prepare for a confrontation. When the Tang Navy learned the news, they were overjoyed. The First Fleet even did not continue the raid in order to avoid alerting the enemy, but instead launched an attack.
Penghu and the Second Fleet that were sweeping up Taiyuan Island were also called over.
As a result, when the two fleets of the Tang Navy merged, they continued to sweep the waters of Zhoushan, and then headed straight for Chen Sipan's home base.
On July 28, a total of more than 60 ships of the Tang Dynasty Navy launched a large-scale cleanup in the Zhoushan waters. On August 4, some of the main fleets of both sides encountered and a large-scale naval battle broke out.
In this battle, Chen Sipan's fleet lost more than half. It was sunk on the spot, half of them were captured, and the rest fled one after another.
In this naval battle, the Tang Dynasty Navy completely destroyed the pirates' last vestige of confidence in resisting, so they began to break into pieces. Some continued to hide and plunder, while some went south to Dayu Island, Fujian, etc.
At the same time, some of them crossed eastward to Fusang.
What's interesting is that when Chen Sipan led the remnants of his troops to cross east to Fusang, they were attacked by Wang Zhi. Wang Zhi, who was well prepared, was defeated by Chen Sipan's remnants in one breath, and then annexed them. Then Wang Zhi specially
He sent someone to deliver Chen Sipan's head to the Tang Dynasty Navy.
On the other hand, Lu Qisuo, who fled to Taiyuan Island in the Fujian waters, had a large number of troops. Because the second fleet had already gone north, their journey south was relatively smooth. They first ran to Penghu, but were followed later.
The Tang Navy caught up with them, and in the end, they panicked and continued to flee eastward to several strongholds on Da Yuan Island. However, the fleet of the Tang Navy pursued them closely, and they could no longer stay on Da Yuan Island, so they lost their teeth.
With one bite, he took a large group of pirates directly to the waters of Southeast Asia.
It is said that when Lu Qi fled south, he also annexed the remnants of Shen Jiu and some pirate gangs in the Fujian waters. Not only did his strength not weaken, but he had more ships and more people than before.
After running to Southeast Asia, he first went to Luzon Island to settle down, and then fought a few more battles with the Spanish and French people who were trying to colonize Luzon. Of course, this was an afterthought and had little to do with the Tang Dynasty Navy.
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After clearing out the large-scale pirates in the waters of Zhoushan and Dayuan Island, the main force of the navy began to return. However, in order to prevent the resurgence of pirates, the Tang Navy still left some warships to conduct daily patrols in the above-mentioned waters, and to conduct daily patrols on the remaining sea areas.
The scattered pirates continued to be eliminated.
However, the main battleships have already returned to defend the estuaries of the Pearl River and Yangtze River respectively.
After all, these two places are important areas. If the main force of the navy is absent for a long time, it is easy for the enemy to take the opportunity to attack.
Taking advantage of the opportunity of the navy to expel a large number of pirates, Li Xuan formally issued an order to set up an administrative agency on Da Yuan Island and establish Da Yuan Mansion, which was directly under the jurisdiction of the Fujian Chief Envoy. The government governed Penghu County, Keelung County, Dongning County, and
Governing Keelung County.
It also mobilized Fujian and other coastal provinces to move more landless people to Taiyuan Island for settlement, and provided extremely preferential policies: Anyone who goes to Taiyuan Island for settlement will have free travel expenses, and the official will also provide free farm tools upon arrival.
For seeds, everyone can get ten acres of land for free, with five tax exemptions and five tax reductions, and a tax exemption period of up to ten years.
In order to enrich the local population and turn Taiyuan Island into the latest place of exile, all criminals who have committed crimes and are exiled and meet the regulations will be given priority to be exiled to Taiyuan Island.
Today, the Tang Dynasty often exiles criminals to remote places in Qiongzhou Prefecture, Guizhou, and Yunnan. The purpose is of course punishment, but more importantly, it is also to enrich the local population.
Otherwise, it will be difficult for the population to grow. These places are now remote areas, and there is a lot of miasma. How long you can survive here depends on God's will. If a hundred people move there to colonize, half of the remaining people will be
It's a high probability, so most people are unwilling to take the initiative.
Although the historical significance of setting up the Da Yuan Mansion and formally bringing this place that had always been outside the Central Dynasty of China under the rule was of great historical significance, it actually did not have much positive effect on the current Tang Dynasty.
These days, Taiyuan Island is not a good place. The miasma is extremely serious, and there are no special products. It is very difficult to develop. Otherwise, the Chinese dynasties in the past dynasties would not have turned a blind eye to Taiyuan Island, which is close to home.
But Li Xuan also knows that the geographical location of Taiyuan Island is very important. It is not an exaggeration to say that it guards the central coast of China. If nothing else, the Taiyuan Strait (Taiwan Strait) is important enough.
Using Taiyuan Island as a springboard, it is also more convenient to go south to Luzon Island. For Li Xuan, who has long been regarded as a back garden by Luzon and other Southeast Asian islands, controlling Taiyuan Island is even more important.
After setting up Da Yuan Mansion, Li Xuan basically did not need to worry about the subsequent management of Da Yuan Island. Anyway, Li Xuan did not expect to be able to develop Da Yuan Island in a short time. As long as Da Yuan Island could serve as
It is enough for the navy to leave the base.
Throughout July and even August, Li Xuan's energy was focused on preparing for the Northern Expedition and stabilizing the south of the Yangtze River.
Needless to say, preparations for the Northern Expedition were the top priority of the Tang Dynasty!
Stabilizing Jiangnan and even other provinces is also an extremely important matter. The prosperous Jiangnan is currently the core area of the Tang Dynasty. Not to mention other things, as long as Jiangnan is managed well, its tens of millions of silver income will be taxed.
It was enough for Li Xuan to spend a lot of time on this.
After working hard for several months, Li Xuan suddenly realized that he had never seen Jinling City properly, especially the Qinhuai River, even though he had been in Jinling City for so long.
Damn, this can't work. Why are you working so hard? It was just to drink from the Qinhuai River and set foot on the land of Jinling City. It was so tiring that you were like a dog practicing military affairs and handling government affairs. Now Jinling is here, but
But I haven’t been to the Qinhuai River yet. This is simply intolerable!
However, from some impeachment excerpts, he already knew that many officials had visited the Qinhuai River many times.
These ministers are so lawless that they dare not take me with them when they travel along the Qinhuai River!