Chapter 834 Lurker

Ningbo Mansion is located at the mouth of the Qiantang River and on the south bank of Hangzhou Bay. It is one of the oldest human settlements along the coast of Zhejiang. As early as 7,000 years ago, our ancestors had already created the splendid "Hemudu Culture" here. Tang Kaiyuan

During this period, the state government of Mingzhou was established here, laying the foundation for the development of more than a thousand years.

By the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty, all coastal areas had implemented maritime bans, with the exception of Mingzhou, which continued to open to maritime trade. By the 14th year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang adopted the suggestion of the scholar Shan Zhongyou and named it "Hai Ding" in order to avoid tabooing the country's name.

The Mingzhou Prefecture was renamed "Ningbo Prefecture" with the meaning of "Zebo Ning", and this name was still used in later generations. Until the travelers came here, this area still used the place name set by Ming Taizu.

Since this was the only foreign trade port in the Ming Dynasty for a long time, it became the most prosperous seaport city in the eastern part of the Ming Dynasty in the early Ming Dynasty. Of course, along with the merchant ships and wealth, the Ming Dynasty also

Pirates were a headache for the imperial court. Under the influence of huge interests, pirate gangs and trading ports actually coexisted in a deformed relationship, and became a cancer that was difficult to remove within the jurisdiction of Ningbo Prefecture.

However, later on, as other southeastern coastal ports openly or covertly opened up maritime trade, Ningbo lost most of its original irreplaceable advantages. The ports in Guangdong and Fujian gradually began to be diverted within the region. Originally, they could only go to Ningbo.

Maritime merchants who carry out trade. At this time, Ningbo Prefecture in Zhejiang has basically no big advantage in maritime trade compared with Zhangzhou, Quanzhou, Guangzhou, Hong Kong and other places in the south. However, the emergence of Haihan gave Daming Sea Trade

The transaction volume brought about was also due to the prevalence of local protection in Zhejiang, but it did not have much direct impact on Ningbo Prefecture and other state capitals in Zhejiang.

However, compared to some prefectures and counties in inland areas, Ningbo Prefecture, with its geographical advantages and century-old accumulation, is still considered a quite wealthy area. The merchants engaged in maritime trade here earn as much as the Jianghuai salt merchants in the area north of the Yangtze River.

The four words "wealth is as great as that of the country" are true for at least several large households in Ningbo Prefecture. Of course, although these large households have some official backgrounds, compared with Li Jifeng from Guangdong and Xu Xinsu from Fujian, their strength is still slightly behind. After all, they can own private

Wealthy businessmen with armed backing are still an anomaly in the Ming Dynasty. If the mountains and emperors were not far away, and their local roots were too deep, these two guys who had committed countless violations would have been slapped with numerous reports by the Jin Yiwei and had been imprisoned in the sky prison.

I will be beheaded in the autumn.

Compared with the wealthy people with countless eyes staring at them, there are many small wealthy businessmen who are not so inconspicuous among the people. Many of them are not directly engaged in maritime trade, but the industries they are engaged in have been driven by local consumption levels.

As a result, these people have become wealthy businessmen with huge wealth.

Xu Ke is one of the many small local tycoons in Ningbo Prefecture. The industry he is engaged in relies on the sea to make a living, and what he does is the seafood trade. Xu Ke has more than ten sea-going ships under his command, and he regularly goes to sea for fishing at least once a month.

As a job, I occasionally help other merchants smuggle some goods ashore from nearby islands. I can guarantee that I will earn tens of thousands of taels of silver in a year.

Xu Ke claims to be from Wenzhou, but in recent years he has rarely returned to Wenzhou to visit relatives, because it is said that most of his family members died in a plague in the early years, and those who survived were regarded as an ominous sign by the countryside.

Xu Ke could only take his family's two fishing boats and settle down in Ningbo. When Xu Ke first arrived in Ningbo, he was only a young man in his early twenties. A few years later, he has already established a family and started a business in Ningbo.

In addition to occasionally leading a team to go fishing in person, Xu Ke usually stayed in his own manor in Xiangshan and rarely went out. He even rarely went to the county town. The nearby villagers also had a bad impression of Xu Ke.

He is just a wealthy man who lives in seclusion and acts in a low-key manner. He doesn't do anything out of the ordinary in the countryside. When there are things like building bridges and paving roads, Xu Ke will take the initiative to donate 1,800 taels of silver. He will also donate 1,800 taels of silver during the holidays.

He distributes some daily necessities to the elderly in the countryside, and also releases some relief food to help the victims in times of famine. He is considered a country squire with a good reputation in the local area.

On this day, several new faces came from outside Xujiazhuang. After asking for directions twice near Zhuangzi, they found the front door of Xujiazhuang, which was not too inconspicuous. The leader knocked on the door and said a few words to the gatekeeper, and then these few

The man then entered Zhuangzi.

After Xu Ke read the letter in his hand several times, he said to the visitor: "Does the master have any other instructions?"

The visitor responded: "I just accepted the errand of delivering the letter. I don't know anything else. All the things that the master wants to do are written in the letter."

Xu Ke nodded and said: "Okay, let me think about how to reply to the head of the family. Butler, take everyone from my hometown to rest first."

The "head of the family" mentioned by Xu Ke and the visitors was Xu Xinsu. Xu Ke was just a pseudonym. His original name was Xu Keqiang. He was the second son of Xu Xinsu's cousin. He grew up at sea since he was a child and became a captain on the ship at a young age.

A good hand. Back then, Xu Xinsu arranged for people to lurk in Zhejiang, and he was one of the selected people. In order to prevent people from doubting his identity, Xu Xinsu specially packaged his life experience, and even changed his name, almost

It's like being reborn.

However, Xu Ke was able to gain a foothold in Ningbo, and the Xu family did give him a lot of funding. The initial expenses for buying ships, land, and recruiting people in Ningbo basically came from funds provided by Fujian.

All he needs to do in Ningbo is to play his current role well and quietly accumulate strength. If one day his hometown in Fujian needs his help, Xu Ke will have to put everything aside and do his best for his family.

Of course, with the influence of the Xu family in Fujian today, almost no one can shake it. It is no longer the precarious situation it was when Xu Ke left Fujian a few years ago. Xu Ke has also changed from the worry of the past few years.

Slowly settling down from the uneasiness, he not only got married and had children, but also bought land and real estate, and was already planning to apply to the head of the family, Xu Xinsu, to return to the Xu clan.

As the Haihan people who are currently allies and supporters of the Xu family, Xu Ke has also heard about it in Ningbo. Various glassware made in Haihan have appeared on the market a few years ago, and even Xu Ke himself has

I couldn't help but buy some and put them at home as collections. However, Xu Ke did not have a relatively intuitive understanding of the military strength of the Haihan people. He only mentioned the whereabouts of the Haihan people in letters home regularly sent from Fujian.

They have never failed in battles and sieges of cities. By last year, even Shibazhi, who had almost forced the Xu family to despair, had been expelled from the Fujian Strait by the Haihan people. This time, Xu Xinsu was sent a special messenger from his hometown in Fujian.

In the handwritten letter, it also specifically stated that the Haihan people had already made the red-haired people and the Folangji people on Taiwan island docile, and the next step would probably be to head towards Zhejiang - the Zhoushan Islands near Ningbo Prefecture is the primary target.

But if the Haihan people want to enter the Zhoushan Islands, they must face the local armed forces and the favoritism of the government. Although Xu Xinsu is already powerful in Fujian, he has no way to directly intervene in the affairs of Zhejiang. If you want to find the right people around Ningbo Prefecture,

The person who is familiar with the sea conditions and can be fully trusted is naturally a member of the Xu family like Xu Ke. However, Xu Ke also knew that when Xu Xinsu originally arranged for lurkers, he was not the only one who stayed in Ningbo.

Xu Ke knew that there was another son of the Xu family working as a lurker in the Ningbo Navy. He was probably about the same age as himself and currently held the post of chief officer. However, although the two were in Ningbo together, they had no contact with each other, and he never

I didn't take the initiative to inquire about the other party's identity.

Although the messenger may not know the situation, Xu Ke can roughly conclude that the Xu clan member in the Navy will also receive notification from the family. This is because he and the lurker have two characteristics in common. The first is that they rely on the sea to eat.

The second is that they all maintain some invisible relations with the pirates of Zhoushan Islands. The head of the family, Xu Xinsu, does not require them to cooperate with Haihan, as long as they can provide sufficient intelligence to Haihan and provide necessary guidance during the war.

, but for the sake of safety, these two lines must be activated together.

In a handwritten letter, Xu Xinsu asked Xu Ke to write an introduction to the Zhoushan Islands pirate gang as soon as possible and express his attitude towards this matter. After writing the letter, the messenger immediately took him back to Fujian to discuss with the Haihan people.

Next round of discussions.

Although Xu Ke's main business is fishing, he is also quite familiar with the pirates of Zhoushan Islands. The so-called fees Xu Ke pays to the pirates of Zhoushan Islands every year exceeds ten thousand taels of silver. Who takes the bulk of the money?

He knew exactly which families would divide the rest. Every year when he led his team to go to sea, he would often take the initiative to go to some local pirate lairs and visit the pirate leaders he knew.

Although this scene seems ridiculous when you think about it, what is actually more ridiculous is the situation of the navy. With the wealth of Ningbo Prefecture, it can't afford to raise a decent navy fleet, and among the navy's establishment, it secretly communicates with the pirates

There are quite a few people who collude or have friendships. When it comes to the specific distribution of pirate power, Xu Ke thinks that his colleague in the navy probably knows the situation better than he does.

Although he already has a family and business in Ningbo, Xu Ke still had to abide by the original agreement and work hard for the family after receiving a handwritten letter from the head of the family. However, he did not inform his family of his decision and ordered someone to guard the study.

At the door, he began to write a secret letter.

After Xu Ke's secret letter was written, it was picked up by the courier that day and sent to Penghu overnight. The voyage from Xiangshan to Penghu is about 500 nautical miles, and it takes a lot of time to go there.

.

As Xu Ke expected, the two secret letters sent from Ningbo arrived at the Penghu base almost immediately. However, Qian Tiandun and Shi Diwen were not in a hurry to open and read them. After all, the letters were stamped with the name Xu

It is not easy to fake the special wax seal of the clan. Qian Tiandun immediately ordered people to invite Xu Xinsu to come over and study the secrets of the letter together. A few days after Xu Xinsu sent the messenger, he left his station and came to Penghu while waiting.

The news continues to verify Haihan's attitude.

"You even drew a map, that's really thoughtful!" Xu Xinsu immediately praised it after opening the envelope.

Although this map is far less accurate than the military map used by Haihan himself, it is commendable that all the main figures of the pirate gang are marked on it. You only need to slowly compare it with the map drawn by Haihan himself to get an accurate and practical map.

Battle map.

The main content of the letter is a brief introduction to the various local pirate gangs. Qian Tiandun and Shi Diwen carefully compared the two revelation letters and found that although the two narrative methods were different, the key points mentioned

The objects and related information are basically consistent, indicating that their authenticity is indeed good.

"General Qian, is the news sent back by Xu Jiaerlang this time meeting your needs?" Xu Xinsu's tone was quite complacent. After all, when he was interviewing Shi Diwen a few days ago, he boasted about Haikou, saying that as long as he was transferred

It is not a problem for the lurker guards around him to obtain detailed information about the Zhoushan Islands.

"Convinced, convinced in capital letters!" Qian Tiandun responded smoothly, regardless of whether Xu Xinsu knew what "capital letters" meant. If Haihan was allowed to collect this information on his own, it would not be possible to achieve the current results in ten and a half months.

Now that 80% of the pirate gangs have been revealed as targets in the two informant letters, Qian Tiandun has to admit that the team of lurkers led by Xu Xinsu is indeed capable.

"General Qian, what's next?" Xu Xinsu heard Qian Tiandun's tone that he really appreciated the plan, and immediately followed the stick.

"We will send people to Fujian and talk to them in person again. At the same time, the combat staff will also receive this document, and they will be responsible for formulating a specific combat plan." Qian Tiandun explained patiently: "Master Xu, I think you

We can start to help prepare combat supplies. After the troop mobilization is completed, we will be ready to launch an offensive."

According to the prior agreement between the two parties, the Haihan side will serve as the main combat force in the Zhejiang sea area, while Xu Xinsu will be responsible for the operation of the local supply system. However, the preparations this time are quite low-key, and Qian Tiandun does not want pirates to flee.

situation. If feasible, he would even give the pirates an extra day and a half to prepare before proceeding.

Xu Xinsu responded: "I will personally take care of the material preparation, so General Qian can rest assured. However, how many troops will you invest this time and how many battles are expected to be fought? Can you explain it?"

Qian Tiandun said: "It's hard to say how many battles we will fight. Maybe our Haihan army will arrive and the defenders will surrender directly."
Chapter completed!