Chapter 83 83 Battle

The Japanese pirates actually existed since the Yuan Dynasty was still there.

The initial Japanese pirates were sent by some coastal daimyos in Japan to retaliate against the Yuan Dynasty at that time. As for what to retaliate, of course, the Yuan Dynasty twice expeditions to Japan.

By the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, a large number of Zhang Shicheng's remaining troops fled overseas to become pirates. Even after Japan knew that China had changed its dynasty and no longer sent troops to retaliate, these remaining troops and some bankrupt warriors they had gathered were still engaged in robbing families.

In the Ming Dynasty, these pirates were not collectively called Japanese pirates, but at this time the Japanese pirates were actually more accurate, because most of them were Han people, and the Japanese were just small leaders or mercenaries.

In the following century, pirates were more dominated by sea trade. Of course, some of the goods were still smuggled. Although they also engaged in robbing merchant ships on the sea, the scale of robbery on the ashore has always been very small and cannot form a climate.

When time came to the second year of Jiajing, the Ningbo tribute dispute occurred. Two Japanese daimyos went to the Ming Dynasty to pay tribute for the sake of the Kanhe trade. The conflict caused by the debate on the authenticity of Kanhe, and a forceful killing broke out in Ningbo, Zhejiang.

Emperor Jiajing thought that the door would be closed, and the Maritime Bureau was abolished and the Kanhe trade was no longer played.

Because official trade was cancelled, merchants in the south also needed to expand their trade routes, and smuggling trade flourished and a climate soon formed.

Although the seaside has been quiet for more than 20 years, the number of smuggled goods among the people has greatly strengthened the close connection between smuggling merchants and pirates.

Numerous people are involved in huge commercial interests, especially the families of coastal officials and gentry, who are involved in smuggling business in large quantities.

But everything came to an abrupt end in the 26th year of Jiajing.

This year, in Yuyao County, Shaoxing Prefecture, there was a large mansion in the county. It was burned by a group of thieves overnight, which was a massacre of family death.

The owner of the house was a descendant of Xie Qian, the former chief minister of the former dynasty, who was eloquent in the Hongzhi Dynasty.

In fact, behind this massacre is the internal strife of the smuggling group. It is said that the Xie family is retaliatory due to the unethical and embezzled wealth.

But when the case happened, we naturally had to give the court an explanation. This is the family of the Pavilion Master. Although he had been dead for more than ten years, his connections in the officialdom were still there.

The Japanese pirates were taken out as scapegoats.

Later, the Ming Dynasty launched a vigorous anti-Japanese campaign again. The Japanese pirates were swept away in the smuggling sites on the Ming Dynasty and surrounding islands, and the maritime pirates lost their shelter and most of them went to Japan.

The Japanese pirates who ran to Japan gradually gathered under the strongest Wufeng ship owner Wang Zhi. It was natural that they could not sit in the empty house. It happened that some Western merchants also came to Japan because they could not trade with the Ming Dynasty. One side wanted to find a way to survive, and the other side wanted Ming Dynasty goods, so they naturally hit it off.

And this time, for these pirates, it is also an opportunity for the Japanese pirates to fight to the death.

The Japanese pirates went to the shore to rob the goods and resold them to Western merchants. A perfect trade chain was formed.

It is also because of this business model that the entire Ming coast has been harassed by Japanese pirates since then.

"I just said that those guys were all broken, why did they dare to come and die? Could it be that the people from Linshanwei came?"

After hearing the news that the subordinates said that they were not the ones who watched the flag, the Japanese pirate leader immediately thought of Linshan Guards in Shaoxing Prefecture, and they were the ones who were the nearest Ming garrison here.

But they were still a little confused. According to the Ming Dynasty system, Linshanwei's territory was in Shaoxing Prefecture, so how could they dare to run to the territory of Ningbo Prefecture?

"Perhaps they got the orders above. Only when they got the orders could these Ming troops come across the palace."

A subordinate next to him interrupted.

"If this is the case, there will be a continuous stream of official troops behind them."

The leader of the Japanese pirates also thought of it, but what he was more worried about was the reinforcements sent by the court.

The Ming Dynasty had more than two million military quotas on paper, so it was still very intimidating to say it.

"Transfer the news to the elder brother and let them carry the goods on board as soon as possible."

Thinking of this, the leader of the Japanese pirate immediately ordered a soldier beside him, and then said to the person who interrupted just now: "You go down and call everyone up, prepare for it, and try the weight of this group of officials."

Seeing that man was about to turn around, the Japanese pirate leader called him again and ordered: "Let the Japanese take the lead, they can fight the best, tell them that they will pay the money after the battle."

"Yes, the head of the family."

Soon, the Japanese pirates who were originally walking around the village and town were alarmed by the sound of gongs. They ran to a small square in front of the village and town with their weapons. People ran back and forth from time to time in the distance to inform the Ming army in the distance.

"There are thousands of people, and all the people from Linshan Guards are here."

Hearing his subordinates informed that the Ming army had set up a formation and there were thousands of people, he was also shocked by the leader of the Japanese pirates.

This is not before. Although they faced thousands of Guanhaiwei and Dinghaiwei's troops, they were all soldiers. And at that time they had three thousand troops, so they were not afraid of the Ming army at all. They could not beat the battle and fled back to the ship.

But now it’s different. I snatched a lot of things along the way, and many of them had not been sorted out and moved, but I met the Ming army brigade.

The key number is really large, and it is a bit difficult to fight.

"Do you know what kind of people it is? Are you from Linshanwei?"

"If we don't know a few words, we know that there is a flag in front of us with a mountain character on it, and we don't know the others.

Oh, by the way, there is a flag with nine characters on it, I don’t know where the people came from.”

At this time, the Ming army's formation was taking shape, and the flags of several wards were also lit up. However, the literacy rate of the Ming Dynasty was not high at this time, and most people only knew a few dozen common characters.

If the Japanese pirates were really well-trained and could gather the team in a short time and take advantage of this opportunity to fight, the Ming army, which was already in a low morale, would definitely be dispersed. However, they encountered Japanese pirates, brave but undisciplined teams, and they suffered a crushing defeat before the war began.

The Ming Dynasty had more soldiers and horses, so the time it took to expand its formation was a little longer, while the Japanese pirates completed the assembly first.

A group of people gathered in the small square, with hundreds of people.

After the team gathered, the Japanese pirates led them out of the town and rushed directly to the direction where the Ming army came.

The Japanese pirates had no idea about fighting formations, and they usually rushed forward and retreated in a swarm.

However, this time the Japanese pirates were obviously divided into two groups, with five or six hundred people in front and nearly a hundred people led by the Japanese pirate leader.

The first one was dozens of short and strong warriors, wearing armor, but only a few had samurai swords hanging on their waists. Most of them were holding spears that were longer than the Ming army's standard spears. Some of them were holding weapons such as amazingly long bamboo bows. The Japanese pirates following them were obviously taller and the weapons they were holding were also of various types.
Chapter completed!