The strongest devouring system in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 671 Main Force

After only two rounds of cannon fire, Fang Sheng collapsed. How could their fleet possibly withstand such powerful artillery?

Just then, shouts of "Surrender and you will not be killed" rang out from the opposite ship. Well then, let's surrender.

Fang Sheng was stunned by the beating, and the people on the other ships were terrified. If the beating continued like this, how could they possibly survive?

Fang Sheng's ship lowered its sails and anchored first. Pang Huaiyi was not in a hurry. He supervised all five ships to lower their sails and anchor before moving towards Fang Sheng's ship.

Any vessel that fails to obediently stop for inspection will be confiscated, along with its cargo. This was a rule set by Chen Er.

Is there any possibility of compromise with these guys? Yes, but first you have to beat them until they're terrified, otherwise they'll never sit down and listen to you properly.

When Fang Sheng and his ship approached, they could see that the ship not only had twelve cannons, but also that after the enemy had jumped onto their ship, there were still people coming out of the cabin.

If it weren't for the shouts of "If one person resists, the whole ship will be killed" coming from the ship, and if it weren't for the five dark cannon barrels pointed at his ship, Fang Shengzhen... wouldn't have wanted to resist at all.

I really didn't kill anyone.

Pang Huaiyi, on the contrary, found it very satisfying, even more so than when he was killing indiscriminately. He used to find it more satisfying to watch these Hui merchants' servants, who had run rampant in the Ming Dynasty, slink away onto the firewood boats.

The boat was only a dozen or twenty miles from the shore. This was still within the territory of Haizhou. It would only take seven or eight days to walk back to Yangzhou from here.

It turns out that when a ship is hijacked at sea, the cargo owner can only confirm that their ship will not return after five or six months, and they still don't know whether it was capsized by a storm or was hijacked.

Just thinking that in only eight or nine days, this salt merchant surnamed Fang would find out that all five of his ships had been robbed filled Pang Huaiyi with indescribable pleasure.

Yes, it wasn't overturned by the wind and waves; it was stolen by Pang Huaiyi.

These five ships, along with their cargo, are worth at least 60 taels of silver. The CEO said that, apart from the reward, all the remaining silver would go into the public account and be used to purchase supplies for the opening of the base, build ships, cannons, and increase troops.

Looking at my ship and cannons now, it's really exhilarating.

Before Fang Sheng and his five boatmen were driven to the firewood boat, they were all told one thing: from now on, any boat that does not pay taxes to the Huaxia Group will only be charged its cargo, not killed, unless it escapes or resists.

It was only then that Fang Sheng and the managers of the five ships noticed that the words "Huaxia Group" were written on a flag atop the mainmast of the pirate ship.

He knew about China, but what did "group" mean? He didn't dare to ask.

Although their cargo was confiscated, Fang Sheng and the others didn't take it seriously. They were just unlucky to have run into you. Did you think they would run into you every time?

By September, both northern and southern Zhili were in an uproar. Of the fleets that had set out since June, only two returned unscathed, one in the north and one in the south.

The fleet returning from the south was Chen Bi's fleet, while the group of merchants from Shuozhou came from the north. They were able to return because they had paid taxes to a force called "Huaxia Group".

Most of the people on the other boats have returned, but all their cargo is gone. This is terrible!

Since meeting Xu Xinsu and Chen Er last October, Chen Bi has been keeping a close eye on things. Li Dan is not someone to be trifled with. After fighting for more than ten years, the Ming Dynasty has not even managed to touch a hair on his head.

But ever since that meeting with Xu Xinsu, there has been no response from them until the first half of this year. Disrupting supply and raising prices were tactics the Huizhou merchants had agreed upon.

Li Dan hadn't returned to the Ming Dynasty for several years, and the Huizhou merchants wanted to test his approach to the distribution of profits from maritime trade, to see if they could open up the market even further.

Before setting sail this time, Chen Bi specifically instructed his manager that he knew about the taxes being levied on Liangshan merchants and told the manager to be careful.

The merchants in Shuozhou received a letter from Wang Jiuluo, the nephew of the Wang family who was serving as a judge in Liangshan Prefecture.

Who has the capability to intercept all the ships traveling between North and South Zhili? Only one family—the Li family.

Or rather, only this one force could accomplish this: the Zhangzhou and Quanzhou maritime merchants led by Li Dan.

The imperial court became lively as reports of Japanese pirates harassing various coastal prefectures and counties in Southern Zhili were sent over one after another.

Some censors also submitted memorials impeaching that some Fujian gentry were colluding with Japanese pirates, intending to invade the Ming Dynasty's coastal borders. In short, there was a prevailing sentiment throughout the court that action was to be taken against Fujian's maritime merchants.

On September 23, a memorial from the Fujian governor caused an uproar in Beizhili, saying that notorious pirates Chen Er, Xu Xinsu, and Dong Xian, under the auspices of Fujian governor Nan Juyi, intended to surrender to the imperial court.

The Fujian governor intended to accept the surrender offer, but submitted a memorial to the court requesting a decision on how to proceed.

The gentry and nobles who had suffered great losses in the northern and southern Zhili regions naturally instigated their familiar officials and censors to submit memorials advocating for the suppression of the pirates. However, the bigwigs in the court all knew why the Fujian governor had recruited the pirates.

In May, the governors and generals of Fujian and Guangdong jointly submitted a memorial to the throne, claiming that the "red hairy men" had occupied Penghu and blocked Zhangzhou, making it impossible to transport and pay the spring tax.

After the cabinet meeting, it was concluded that the occupation of a small island by the Taiwanese was a trivial matter, but the fact that it prevented the timely payment of spring taxes in Guangdong and Zhangzhou was a major issue.

Most of the grain tax from Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong was transported by sea to Southern Zhili, and then this money and grain would be transferred to Northern Zhili via the Grand Canal.

After the cabinet submitted its memorial and the Directorate of Ceremonial approved it, the emperor issued an edict ordering the Fujian governor to expel the Taiwanese invaders who were occupying Penghu.

However, memorials from Fujian and Guangdong mentioned that the Dutch had fast ships and powerful cannons, and requested the court to allocate funds for shipbuilding and cannon casting.

The implication was that the cabinet and the Directorate of Ceremonial Affairs understood that the current strength of the Guangdong and Fujian navies was insufficient to expel the Dutch.

The emperor's decree only ordered Fujian to expel the "red-haired" people, without mentioning any funding. Fujian understood that there was no money and they had to find their own solution.

When the memorial from Fujian requesting the pacification of the pirates arrived, the cabinet leaders understood that Nan Juyi had reached an agreement with the pirates.

We don't need the imperial funds, but these few are the main force we'll use to drive out the red-haired barbarians. Whether to allocate funds or give them official positions is up to the imperial court to decide.

The court truly had no silver, but it had plenty of official positions, especially military ones. The cabinet made a swift decision and submitted a memorial, stating that as long as the silver was not involved, it was no problem. The Directorate of Ceremonial Affairs issued a red edict, and the emperor issued another decree.

The Fujian governor has made great contributions by pacifying the coastal areas by persuading the powerful pirates to surrender, but with the Japanese invaders at hand, the priority should be expelling them. The merits can be attributed to them after the Japanese are expelled.

The Fujian government, having received the imperial decree, understood that since the court had granted them official positions, their priority was to drive away the "red-haired barbarians." If they succeeded, it would be a merit; if not, things would be uncertain.

Once the bigwigs have made their decision, things will be much easier.