Chapter 83 83 Battle

The Japanese pirates actually existed since the Yuan Dynasty.

The first Japanese pirates were sent by some coastal daimyo of Japan to retaliate against the Yuan Dynasty at that time. As for what they retaliated against, it was of course the two expeditions to Japan by the Yuan Dynasty.

At the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, a large number of Zhang Shicheng's remnants fled overseas and became pirates. Even after Japan knew that China had changed dynasties and no longer sent troops to retaliate, these remnants and some bankrupt warriors they gathered still engaged in robbing and looting.

In the Ming Dynasty, these pirates were no longer collectively called Japanese pirates, but the Japanese pirates at this time were actually more accurately pirates, because most of them were Han people, and the Japanese were just small leaders or mercenaries.

In the next hundred years, pirates were more focused on maritime trade. Of course, part of the source of goods was still smuggling. Although they also robbed merchant ships on the sea, the scale of robbery on land has always been small and has not formed a climate.

When the time came to the second year of Jiajing, the Ningbo tribute dispute incident broke out. Two Japanese daimyo came to the Ming Dynasty to pay tribute for the Kanhe trade. The dispute over the authenticity of the Kanhe caused a conflict, and a violent killing broke out in Ningbo, Zhejiang.

Emperor Jiajing thought that the door was closed, the Shibosi was abolished, and the Kanhe trade was no longer played.

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

Although the sea border was calm and nothing happened for more than 20 years, in fact, a large number of smuggled goods were smuggled by the people, which greatly strengthened the close connection between smugglers and pirates.

Huge commercial interests, countless people were involved, especially the families of coastal officials and gentry, who were heavily involved in the smuggling business.

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

In this year, in Yuyao County, Shaoxing Prefecture, there was a large house in the county, which was burned down by a group of thieves overnight. It was a tragic case of extermination.

The owner of the house is the descendant of Xie Qian, the cabinet minister of the previous dynasty, that is, Xie Yuqiao, the eloquent and eloquent in the Hongzhi Dynasty.

In fact, behind this tragic case of extermination is the internal struggle of the smuggling group. It is said that it was a revenge act caused by the Xie family's lack of morality and embezzlement of wealth.

But since the case happened, it is natural to give an explanation to the court. This is the cabinet minister's family. Although he has been dead for more than ten years, his connections in the officialdom are still there.

The Japanese pirates were taken out as scapegoats.

After that, the Ming Dynasty once again launched a vigorous campaign to suppress the Japanese pirates. The smuggling sites of the Japanese pirates in the Ming Dynasty and surrounding islands were swept away. The sea merchants and pirates had no place to live, and most of them fled to Japan.

The Japanese pirates who fled to Japan gradually gathered under the most powerful Wufeng ship owner Wang Zhi. It was naturally not possible to eat up all the mountains and rivers. 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 make a living, and the other side wanted Ming Dynasty goods. Naturally, they hit it off.

This time, for these pirates, and also for the Japanese pirates, it was a chance to fight to the death.

The Japanese pirates worked hard, went ashore to rob the property, and resold it to the Western merchants, and a perfect trade chain was formed.

It was also because of such a business model that the entire coast of the Ming Dynasty was constantly harassed by Japanese pirates since then.

"I said that those guys were so scared that they dared to come and die. Could it be that the people of Linshanwei came?"

Hearing his subordinates report that the flag was not from Guanhaiwei, the leader of the Japanese pirates immediately thought of Linshanwei in Shaoxing Prefecture. They were the nearest Ming garrison here.

But there was still some doubt. According to the system of the Ming Dynasty, the territory of Linshanwei was in Shaoxing Prefecture. How dare they run to the territory of Ningbo Prefecture.

"Maybe they got the order from above. Only when they got the order, these Ming troops would come across the prefecture."

A subordinate next to him interrupted and said.

"If that's the case, there will probably be a steady stream of government troops coming behind them."

The Japanese pirate leader also thought of this, but he was more worried about the reinforcements sent by the court.

The Ming Dynasty had more than two million soldiers on paper, which was still very intimidating.

"Pass the message to the eldest brother and ask them to move the money and goods onto the ship as soon as possible."

Thinking of this, the Japanese pirate leader immediately ordered a soldier beside him, and then said to the man who just interrupted: 'Go down and call everyone up, get ready, and test the weight of this group of government troops. '

When the man was about to turn around, the Japanese pirate leader called him again and ordered: 'Let the Japanese take the lead, they are the most capable, tell them that they will be paid after the fight. '

"Yes, boss."

Soon, the Japanese pirates who were originally strolling around the village were startled by the sound of the gong, and they all ran to a small square in front of the village with their weapons to gather. From time to time, people ran back and forth in the distance, reporting the things of the Ming army in the distance.

"There are several thousand people, all the people from Linshanwei are here."

The Japanese pirate leader was shocked when he heard his subordinates report that the Ming army had already deployed and there were several thousand people.

This is not the case before. Although he faced thousands of people from Guanhaiwei and Dinghaiwei before, what kind of soldiers were they? Moreover, they also had about 3,000 people at that time. They were not afraid of the Ming army at all. At most, they could not win and fled back to the ship.

But now it is different. We have robbed a lot of things along the way. Many of them have not been sorted and transported, and we encountered a large group of Ming army.

The key is that there are really many people, and it is a bit difficult to fight.

"Do you know what kind of people they are? Are they from Linshanwei?"

"We can't read a few words. We know that there is a flag with a mountain character on it in front, and we don't know the rest.

Oh, by the way, there is a flag with the word nine on it. I wonder where these troops came from. "

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

If the Japanese pirates were really well-trained and could gather their troops in a short time, and took this opportunity to charge, the Ming army, which was already in low morale, would definitely disperse. However, they encountered the Japanese pirates, a brave but undisciplined team, so they did not suffer a disastrous defeat at the beginning of the battle.

The Ming army had more troops, so it took a little longer to deploy the formation, while the Japanese pirates completed the gathering first.

A group of people gathered in the small square, and there were also several hundred people.

The team was assembled , the Japanese pirate leader led them out of the town and headed directly towards the direction of the Ming army.

The Japanese pirates had no idea of ​​a battle formation, they usually charged and retreated in a swarm.

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

In the front were dozens of short and strong warriors wearing armor, but only a few of them had samurai swords on their waists, and most of them held spears that were longer than the standard spears of the Ming army, and some held weapons such as bamboo bows of astonishing length. The Japanese pirates following behind them were obviously taller, and the weapons they held were also varied.