Chapter 889 Official Reaction
The situation on Zhoushan Island gradually returned to calm under Haihan's strong control, but the conflicts of interest caused by Haihan's arrival in the coastal states of Zhejiang did not end there. The investment fair held on Zhoushan Island at the end of May created a group of vested interests, but at the same time, some people who relied on Zhoushan's original trading system for income suffered heavy losses. For these people, the arrival of the Haihan people was tantamount to a disaster, and the new trading system organized by the Haihan people completely cut off their opportunities to gain profits from trade in the East China Sea.
As the saying goes, cutting off a person's financial path is like killing his parents. In the eyes of these people who have suffered financial losses, Haihan is their biggest enemy. Although the powerful force displayed by Haihan in the Battle of Zhoushan shocked all onlookers who were ready to take action, it did not make the hatred born of profit completely disappear. There are still many people who are trying to find ways to give Haihan Take some pains.
In the 20th year of Hongwu (1387), Xin Guogong Tanghe was appointed by Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang. When inspecting the coastal defense in Zhejiang, he selected the Haikou stronghold in the north of Yuyao and Shangyu counties in Shaoxing Prefecture to build an acropolis. He named it after the nearby temple mountain. Linshanwei. In the thirty-sixth year of Jiajing's reign, Ningshao General Qi Jiguang led troops to Linshan to defend against the Japanese. He once again reinforced and built more than five miles of city walls, beacon towers, forts and other military facilities, and achieved the famous "Great Victory at Longshan". In one fell swoop, the situation of the anti-Japanese war in eastern Zhejiang was reversed.
However, since the Tianqi period, piracy and plundering activities in the East China Sea have gradually decreased, and have evolved into a new way of profit-making, mainly armed smuggling. The defenses of Jinshan Guard, Haining Guard, Linshan Guard, Guanhai Guard and other guard posts on both sides of Hangzhou Bay The pressure has been reduced accordingly, and many military attaches from the guard have also joined the smuggling trade openly or covertly, using their official status and even using official ships and docks for personal gain.
However, this situation has fundamentally changed after the arrival of the Haihan people. More businessmen have participated in this profit game and chosen to join the Haihan side. The monopoly agreement formulated by the Haihan people makes it impossible for the military to directly participate. This is indeed an unacceptable change for the military, which has been accustomed to collecting cash in the past few years. However, they also knew that it would be difficult to suppress this powerful foreign dragon, so they could only keep their resentment in their hearts for the time being.
That day, a awning boat came to the dock near Linshanwei. After docking, the people on the boat threw a token. Not long after, a covered carriage drove up from the dock. After parking, a few people got off the boat. He got into the car without stopping. After the coachman drove away from the dock, he did not go to nearby towns, but drove directly into Linshan Acropolis. The commander of Linshan Acropolis, Wei Shan, personally came to welcome these mysterious guests into his official residence.
Being able to help Wei Shan come forward, the identities of these people are indeed extraordinary. The team was led by Zhejiang Dusi Commander Qian Shi Yu Pingfeng, who was the official backer behind the Zhoushan Boat Gang. It took three days after the Haihan people attacked Zhoushan Island before he received the news. By the time he could respond, the war on Zhoushan Island was over. Yu Pingfeng was naturally unwilling to have his share of the industry taken away by a group of outsiders so easily. He used his authority to send an official document to Guanhaiwei and Changguowei in Ningbo Prefecture, asking them to expel the Haihan people who invaded the Ming Dynasty with arms. .
However, after these official documents were sent out, there was no reply at all. After waiting for more than ten days, the Ningbo government responded and said that due to the recent poor sea conditions, the navy's ships were seriously damaged and they were currently intensifying repairs and could not be repaired for the time being. Go to sea on a mission. As for what happened to the Haihan people there, the local health department said it is still under investigation. It is currently suspected to be a private fight caused by pirates robbing merchant ships. A few days later, an official document reporting merit from Ningbo was also sent to the Zhejiang Dusi in Hangzhou, stating that the war in the East China Sea was actually an action by the Haihan people to cooperate with the guards to kill local pirates, and that several of the bandits' heads were captured as a result of this incident. evidence of action.
Yu Pingfeng was so angry that he tore up all the official documents copied to him and threw them away. He had been in the military for many years and he also had many eyes and ears in the East China Sea. How could he not see that the people below were making up excuses to excuse him? The Changguo Guards and Dinghai Guards of Ningbo both had this attitude, which only shows that the local commanders have most likely reached some kind of tacit understanding with the Haihan people. And the benefits they will gain from this tacit understanding are probably due to the fact that Yu Pingfeng was tricked by the Haihan people.
Although Yu Pingfeng has the power to issue orders to the local guard post in the name of Zhejiang Dusi, the real command power still lies with the commander of the local guard post. Yu Pingfeng has nothing to do with the uncooperative attitude of the garrison in Ningbo. Official means can be used immediately to suppress it. Even the Nanjing Ministry of War is not qualified to directly appoint and remove guards commanders. If you want to make a snitch, you still have to submit it to the northern capital. Moreover, when it comes to personnel appointments and removals, it is difficult for impeachment to really have an effect without bleeding to open up the joints. Even if Yu Pingfeng is willing to spend this money, the operation will not be completed within two or three months, and the day lily will be cold by then.
The debt with the Ningbo garrison must be settled, but not at this time. Yu Pingfeng's priority is how to expel the Haihan people from Zhoushan, and other issues are secondary issues. And because of his identity, he could not directly launch the entire province's army to attack Zhoushan in the East China Sea. He could only adopt other methods - such as finding some allies with similar interests, and then work together to deal with these outsiders who did not know how to live or die.
It is not difficult to find people in this field. After all, there are many people who rely on the smuggling trade market in the East China Sea, and many of them are powerful people in the local area. After Yu Pingfeng used his contacts to do some activities, he also attracted a group of like-minded people and planned to take action against Haihan. It was two of them who came to Shanwei with him this time.
The identities of these two people are also from the officialdom. One is Liao Xun, a member of Jinyiwei Baihu, and the other is Guo Zheng, Zhejiang's envoy for punishment and inspection and Zhejiang's military Taoist Taoist. Before the arrival of the Haihan people, they were also related to each other and profited from smuggling trade in the East China Sea. The appearance of the Haihan people directly cut off their source of income, so they also hit it off with Yu Pingfeng and prepared to cooperate to deal with the Haihan people.
Although these three people are all military attaches, they don't have many troops that they can directly command and mobilize within their scope of authority, so in the end it is up to the generals who lead the troops to be found by the first-line guards. So the three people agreed on a date and quietly sailed from Hangzhou Prefecture to Linshanwei, Shaoxing Prefecture. In order to prevent the matter from leaking to the public prematurely, they did not bring any ceremonial guards. The three of them took a boat together. After landing, they entered the Linshan Acropolis without even bringing their entourage.
The reason why they came to Linshan Guard to find Wei Shan was because they knew that Wei Shan was also one of the beneficiaries of the smuggling trade in the East China Sea. Wei Shan was also involved in the business previously run by the Zhoushan Ship Gang. However, the Zhoushan Islands are geographically under the jurisdiction of Ningbo Prefecture. This makes it inconvenient for the Linshan Guards located in Shaoxing Prefecture to send troops to interfere in Zhoushan affairs, so Weishan did not take any action before this.
"Master Wei, I don't need to elaborate on the purpose of the three of us coming here, right?" After sitting down, Yu Pingfeng took the lead in introducing the main topic: "The Haihan people secretly hid weapons, organized armed forces, and captured the territory of the Ming Dynasty. , this kind of behavior is tantamount to rebellion and must be put down as soon as possible.”
Wei Shan held the tea cup with one hand and did not respond immediately. Although the other party's official position is slightly higher than his, Wei Shan knows very well that he has the initiative now, and the other party has his own needs. If he wants to use this kind of official tone to fool him, he is looking down on Wei. The human mind. Next to him, Guo Zheng saw that Wei Shan did not express his position, so he also advised: "Master Wei, guarding the territory is our bounden duty as warriors. Now that foreign enemies have invaded and the people are suffering, how can we ignore the imperial salary and pay? We should send troops as soon as possible." , just kill the Haihan gangsters.”
Wei Shan then responded: "What the two gentlemen said is true, but Zhoushan is under the jurisdiction of Ningbo Prefecture. Without the military order of Zhejiang Dusi, how dare I leave at will and cross the prefecture to fight. Of course, protecting the territory and the people is It is my duty. If there is an order from the commander, I will send troops to defend against the enemy.”
It's not that Wei Shan didn't want to deal with the Haihan people, but he also didn't want to be blamed for disobeying military orders and using weapons without permission. These guys don't have to go to the battlefield to fight. Of course they can talk fast for a while, but they are the ones who have to do things and take the blame afterwards. It would be easy to defeat the Haihan people. It is said that the Haihan people are as rich as the enemy, and they will surely capture a lot, at least they can use the money to deal with the aftermath. But if the battle is defeated, these three guys will just slap their butts and leave. They will have to bear all the responsibilities themselves, and they may end up being dismissed from their posts and losing their official positions. From his perspective, the risk of provoking the Haihan people was not small.
Yu Pingfeng thought to himself that if I have the commander's order, I don't have to sneak to Shaoxing to find you. I have already given the order through official channels. The difficulty of this matter is that the internal opinions of Zhejiang Dusi are not unified. Some have benefited from it, so they take a wait-and-see approach or side with the Haihan people. Others, like him, suffered huge losses in the change of ownership of the East China Sea. He jumps up and down unavoidably and must teach the Haihan people a lesson. The commander's attitude is very clear. If we want to fight, we should first plan the military expenditure. When we have enough money, we will send out troops.
It is said that the Haihan people gathered thousands of people and hundreds of ships to capture Zhoushan Island. If the Ming army wanted to capture Zhoushan, the number of troops they needed to dispatch would probably not be less than this number. If an army of 10,000 people is dispatched, the soldiers will need to be rewarded and supplies and food must be prepared. The departure cost alone will cost tens of thousands of taels of silver. In addition, such a large-scale cross-sea operation will definitely require a large-scale deployment of the navy, and the Yangtze River Navy is under the jurisdiction of the Nanjing War Department. This matter must be approved by Nanjing. The commander's meaning was very clear. Whoever wanted to attack should first mobilize the Nanjing Military Department, and by the way, he would also bear the cost of managing the Military Department.
This is not because the commander is timid, but he does have lessons learned from the past. During the Jiajing period, Zhu Wan and Lu Tong wiped out the pirates and smugglers in Shuangyu Port, and it took them three months to pacify the entire Zhoushan. However, they were impeached by the Ministry of Officials and the Censor for infringing on the interests of the landlords and gentry. In the end, Zhu Wan committed suicide unjustly, and Lu Ti was also sentenced to death.
If the Haihan people fight with the Zhoushan locals, no matter what the reason is, it is a private fight between the people. Whoever wins and who loses is a private matter. But if the government and the army intervene, the nature of the matter will change, and the commander will not be willing to go there. This is a pool of muddy water, so as not to be impeached later on with charges such as "acting in a clever way, specializing in killing and provoking provocations."
With the commander in the middle, Yu Pingfeng and others were naturally unable to order the border defense stations to send troops to attack Haihan in the name of Zhejiang Dusi. What Wei Shan said was reasonable, but to Yu Pingfeng's ears, it sounded like he was bargaining with himself on terms.
"Master Wei, we are all our own people here, so let's open the skylight and speak frankly. The Haihan people have taken over Zhoushan, and everyone has lost their way of making money. Only by driving them away can we return to good times." Yu Pingfeng was unwilling to do so. After talking in circles with Wei Shan, he simply explained what he said.
Wei Shan put down the teacup in his hand and responded in a deep voice: "Since Mr. Yu said it so straightforwardly, I should also say it bluntly. With the strength of the Linshan Guards, there is no way to fight against the Haihan people. Even if you bite the bullet and fight, , can’t beat them.”
Guo Zheng asked: "Why did Mr. Wei say this?"
Wei Shandao: "You only think that the Haihan people are a group of armed merchants, but this is not the case. They came all the way from Fujian. Do you think that with just a few merchant ships, they can capture Zhoushan Island, which Wang Jialin has been operating for nearly 20 years?" According to what the official knows, the Haihan people came with a large-scale armed fleet. This fleet was made up of warships rather than merchant ships as you imagine. There were even giant gunboats with more than a thousand materials in them. There are currently no navy warships stationed, and the largest troop transport ship only costs 200 pieces. How can they compete with the Haihan people? The commanders of Guanhaiwei and Changguowei in Ningbo are not fools. They really have an advantage. They are afraid. We’ve already been there, why do we need to wait for orders from Zhejiang Dusi!”
Wei Shan's words are indeed very straightforward. The Ming army in the Linhai prefectures did not turn a blind eye to what happened in the East China Sea, but they knew that they were not strong enough and could not change the direction of the situation even if they wanted to intervene. And maybe even if you don’t eat the meat, you’ll be in a mess. When it is obvious that the Haihan people cannot be defeated, pretending to be deaf and dumb is actually a wise way to protect themselves. These three people all came from Hangzhou and did not know much about the situation in the East China Sea, so they inevitably had the illusion that they could use force to drive away the Haihan people and regain the Zhoushan Islands under their control. .
"Then what Master Wei means is that by gathering the power of Shaoxing and Ningbo, we may not be able to defeat the Haihan people?" Yu Pingfeng also realized that the matter might not be as simple as he thought, and it would not be able to be solved smoothly with simple and crude means. of.
(End of chapter)