A fleet came, covering the sky and covering the river, and countless silver sails connected the sky.
On the mast of the Dafu ship, which was as tall as a building, there was a yellow general's flag. Under the flag was Jing Lupo, and Huang Binqing, the admiral of the Zhejiang Province Navy, stood on the third deck with a tall body, despite the high winds and rough waves, but remained unmoved.
Behind him, several armored generals stood.
"Unexpectedly, in just two months, we are back again." Huang Binqing sighed.
The man standing on his left looked at the looming land in the distance and did not answer. This man did not look very tall, but if he told his name, he would be able to shake three people in the southeast sea. This man was called
He is a benevolent thief, his surname is Zhou and his given name is Hezhi.
Because of the Ming Dynasty's special maritime policy, there were many pirates in the southeast.
Zhou Hezhi is a native of Fuqing, Fujian. He studied as a boy and dreamed of being named on the gold medal list. In Fujian, a remote place with eight mountains, one water and one farmland, he could change his destiny through his official career. However, from the Song Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty, Fujian was a well-known imperial examination province.
The competition in the imperial examination was also extremely fierce. Although Zhou Hezhi worked very hard, he still failed to achieve success.
At the age of twenty, like many young people from his hometown, he resolutely went to sea and worked on the maritime trade route from Japan to the Ming Dynasty. Because he had read a book, was young and smart, and was also very humble and polite, he quickly made a name for himself.
He was famous. But because he was heroic and righteous, he was jealous and framed by his fellow villagers, and was finally forced to leave Japan. Later, a daimyo valued him and adopted him as his adopted son.
After receiving the support of the daimyo, Zhou Hezhi returned to the sea, owned his own ship, and began to become a pirate, robbing the fellow merchants who had excluded and framed him in the past. However, he was also a good thief, and even if he robbed, he only robbed half of the goods.
, without killing anyone.
Over time, the reputation of benevolent pirates on the sea spread far and wide.
Later, he sneaked back to his hometown, but was reported by his fellow villagers and imprisoned. However, with his reputation as a benevolent thief and his good connections, he successfully bribed the jailer, escaped from prison after three years, and continued to roam the sea.
In the fifth year of Chongzhen's reign, he accepted the title of Commander-in-Chief, but soon after, he became a pirate again.
After Huang Binqing settled in Zhoushan, in order to expand his strength, he recruited troops everywhere, especially pirates. Zhou Hezhi was known as a benevolent pirate on the sea and had been recruited. So Huang Binqing tried every means to win over Zhou Hezhi and finally succeeded in recruiting him.
The position of Navy Commander.
They even relied on Zhou Hezhi's connections in Japan to open up a trade route from Zhoushan to Japan, forcing food from the Zheng family in Fujian.
Huang Binqing was defeated in the Yangtze River and retreated to Zhoushan. He was able to quickly establish a foothold, support his troops on an island, and continue to expand his troops. Zhou Hezhi made great contributions.
Currently, he is also the actual second-in-command of the Zhoushan Navy. Huang Binqing leads the former imperial navy, while Zhou Hezhi leads the righteous forces, which are the pirates recruited from all walks of life.
During the process of Lu Jianguo's appeasement of Zhoushan, Huang Binqing bowed his head so quickly to obey the imperial edict, which also had a lot to do with Zhou Hezhi. He had been persuading Huang Binqing to accept Lu Jianguo as Zhengshuo and accept the recruitment order. Because of Zhou Hezhi's attitude, Huang Binqing could not
Not thinking about it seriously.
With Wang Zhiren's army suppressing the territory outside, Lu Jianguo's attitude being firm, and Zhou Hezhi urging him to accept the imperial edict, he finally obeyed the imperial edict, handed over Zhoushan, and led the navy northward.
Huang Binqing pressed the hilt of the sword on his waist and pointed at Chongming Island that appeared in the distance.
"Chongming has a population of more than 200,000. If we can really control it, it will be no worse than Zhoushan." His smile was a bit bitter. He had made a good plan when he came. Trading Zhoushan for Chongming would not be a loss. But he can come.
On the way, I received a lot of new news.
Lu Jianguo had already arrived in Chongming first.
King Yiyang abdicated and returned to the vassal, and surrendered to Lu Jianguo. Lu Jianguo personally led the navy to attack Chongming. On Chongming Island, which had just experienced civil strife, Huang Wuchang, Gu Rong, and Gao Jinzhong were the three forces, but each had their own agendas and started fighting among themselves.
Both sides wanted to compete for control of Chongming. Gao Jinzhong secretly asked Zhang Guozhu and Li Chengdong of Taicang to surrender. He used his 5,000 troops to ask for titles and official positions from the Qing court and demanded control of Chongming.
Duduo's reply was that as long as Gao Jinzhong led his troops to shave their heads and surrender, he would be welcome to join him and retain his original position, but he did not agree to hand over Chongming to him.
He even didn't agree to confer him a count. Because of this, Gao Jinzhong hesitated.
Just at this time, a brotherhood suddenly appeared on the island. I don’t know when this brotherhood appeared, but they suddenly started to rebel. There were pirates, dock workers, Jianghuai refugees, and even local powerful landowners, farmers, etc.
, in short, there were many responders.
They suddenly started an uprising, which stunned all the three forces on the island. When everyone was caught off guard, the Brotherhood actually captured Chongming County.
Just as the three parties were gritting their teeth and preparing to attack the county town, Ruan Jin led the navy to arrive.
Nine big bird boats went down the river, the cannons fired in unison, the sailing boats, Tongan boats, rice boats, lucky boats, sand boats, and all kinds of navy ships came to kill them. The cannons roared and the killing sounds shook the sky.
Gao Jinzhong, Huang Wuchang, and Gu Rong all had their own agendas, and they accidentally lost the county seat, and were killed by the navy from behind, causing chaos.
Ruan Jin successfully defeated the three of them without any effort.
Huang Wuchang, Gao Jinzhong, and Gu Rong surrendered one after another.
Chongming successfully captured it.
It turns out that this brotherhood is a peripheral intelligence organization established by Chen Qianfu, who is in charge of intelligence. It develops in the south of the Yangtze River in the form of a secret society and attracts members.
The origin of the name of the Brotherhood is what Lu Jianguo said when he preached to the world: All those who fight against the invaders, whether they are gentry, officials or common people, are brothers in the four seas!
Because the Northern Expeditionary Army developed smoothly in the south of the Yangtze River, the Brotherhood also developed very rapidly in various places. It received support from many gentry, officials, and ordinary people, and expanded fissionally. Chen Qianfu sent many backbones to Chongming to form and develop the Brotherhood, especially in Yiyang.
After Wang and others surrendered, they quickly penetrated into all aspects of Chongming Island by using their connections with Shen Tingyang, who was born in Chongming, and Jing Benche's remaining members of the Sihui Camp on the island.
Therefore, Gao Jinzhong and others, who were still busy fighting among themselves, were completely unprepared once the incident broke out.
The Chongming Brotherhood Uprising was also the official debut of the Brotherhood.
Huang Binqing hasn't arrived in Chongming yet, but Chongming has changed hands several times, and now it has fallen into the hands of the Supervisor State. Lu Supervisor State is on the island. He has also issued an edict to set up Chongming Island as the inland river navy of the imperial camp and pro-military navy.
The headquarters of Fubo Town, Zhoushan is the headquarters of Dinghai Town of the Overseas Navy of the imperial camp and pro-military navy.
At the same time, Chongming was also the residence of the Jiangnan Admiral and the temporary administrative seat of the Huaiyang Governor.
In short, although Chongming Island was previously given to Huang Binqing, the admiral of the Zhejiang Navy, it is no longer his exclusive possession, and one of several sand islands can only be assigned to him for garrison.
He had to live with the admiral of Jiangnan, the governor of Huaiyang, the river navy, etc.
But things have come to this, and Huang Binqing can no longer look back.
"When we left, Chongming had a strong army and strong horses. Who would have expected that in the blink of an eye, King Yiyang would abdicate and return to the vassal state, and the former governors, governors, generals, supervisors, ministers, etc. would die and surrender."
Behind him, Zhou Hezhi remained speechless. He knew that although Huang Binqing complained, he actually had no other choice.
He looked at Chongming from a distance, somewhat impatiently wanting to meet His Royal Highness the Supervisor of the Kingdom, and he also thought of his friend Zheng Sen, whom he had met at sea, and who now bears the surname of Cheng Guo.
"The general trend of the world is getting a little confusing." Huang Binqing sighed a few times, and then ordered, "Lower the sails and anchor in the middle of the river. The fleet will be anchored here. The generals will follow me to the island to pay homage to His Highness the Supervisor!"
