The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 414: The Zhejiang Pirates' Crazy Counterattack
Wanli originally thought that there would be no problem in letting Li Yuansheng go find Xu Xinsu.

Who would have thought that Li Yuansheng went to Dongfan and found no trace of the pirates.

Yu Zigao blocked the waters of Zhangzhou and Quanzhou prefectures, but did not find any trace of pirates.

Where did Xu Xinsu hide?
Wanli would not be able to sleep or eat unless this group of pirates was found.

Because he is preparing to attack the Japanese mainland.

Japan is an island country. It would be impossible to attack Japan without enough naval ships. Not to mention anything else, the supply of food and supplies may also be a problem.

If he wants to launch a war to destroy Japan, he will have to mobilize at least a million troops. With so many people, the amount of food and supplies consumed will be quite terrifying. Without thousands of naval ships, it will be impossible to transport them.

If he mobilizes navy ships to attack Japan before the pirates in the southeast are wiped out, there will definitely be chaos in the southeast.

So, no matter what, this group of pirates must be wiped out.

Wanli was also furious. He sent naval speedboats to search for him in Zhejiang, including the waters of Guangdong and Guangxi.

In the end, it still wasn’t found!

They searched for more than a month, and it was already deep autumn in the capital.

The biting cold wind blew, and fallen leaves flew all over the sky, some of which even drifted towards Kunning Palace.

It was already getting dark around 3 p.m. that afternoon, and it felt a bit depressing to stay in the palace.

Wanli felt inexplicably annoyed. He said something to the concubines and walked alone to the steps in front of the main hall of Kunning Palace. Facing the cold wind, he looked at the falling leaves flying in the sky, frowned and fell into deep thought.

Where did this group of pirates go?

Did he run away to the Ryukyu Kingdom?

This should be unlikely. This group of pirates robbed the merchant ship of the Ryukyu Kingdom. If they went to the Ryukyu Kingdom, the King of Ryukyu would definitely order people to row the speedboat as fast as possible to report the news.

Could it be that he ran away to Japan and hid?
He was just frowning in thought when Shen Li suddenly came running over, holding up a memorial and panting, "Report, Your Majesty, Governor Zhu Guozuo of Zhejiang and Fujian is forwarding an urgent report to Taizhou Prefecture!"

what?
When Wanli took the urgent report and read it, his face became even gloomier than the sky.

Taizhou Prefecture urgently reported that tens of thousands of Japanese pirates suddenly landed in Linhai and Huangyan areas, burning, killing and looting crazily, causing countless casualties among coastal civilians!
The Japanese invasion in the southeast is coming again.

This was the case during the Jiajing period.

This was still the case during the Wanli period.

No matter what the reason, if the imperial court touches the interests of overseas trade, there will definitely be Japanese rebellion in the southeast!

The same thing happened during the Jiajing reign. Zhu Wan poked the hornet's nest, and the pirates and Japanese pirates went ashore like crazy, burning, killing, and looting.

If we look at it from the perspective of robbing money, the pirates and Japanese pirates who went ashore like crazy to burn, kill and loot were mentally ill.

Even if they paid thousands of casualties to capture a county town, it would be better to make more money by transporting goods to Japan or Southeast Asia.

What's more, pirates and Japanese pirates rarely break into county towns. Most of the time, these guys just burn, kill and loot outside the city.

What kind of money can be robbed outside the city?
The reason these pirates and Japanese pirates did this was purely to go against the Ming Dynasty court, or to go against him as the emperor.

The fact that Li Yuansheng was recruited by him was most likely exposed, so the Zhejiang Party began to launch a crazy counterattack regardless of everything.

As for the Japanese pirates, Toyotomi Hideyoshi clearly wanted revenge, or to use this method to weaken the national strength of the Ming Dynasty.

The chaos in the southeast required the Ming court to spend countless manpower, material resources and financial resources to suppress the pirates and Japanese pirates. The southeastern coast was also devastated and the people were living in misery.

The Zhejiang Party and Toyotomi Hideyoshi were indeed not easy to deal with. They actually used pirates and Japanese pirates to launch a crazy counterattack.

Wanli frowned and pondered for a while, then said decisively: "Send an order, order Yuan Jing to return to the capital as soon as possible to see me."

At this time, Qi Jiguang was in Liaodong, in charge of developing military farms along the Liaohe River.

Fortunately, the Liaohe River also connects to the inland sea, and the navy's fast boats can reach the inland sea quickly by rowing there day and night.

In less than four days, Qi Jiguang returned to the capital.

He arrived at the palace around noon that day.

When Wanli heard the news, he immediately dropped his bowl and chopsticks and walked towards the Grand Council Hall.

Qi Jiguang had already entered the Grand Council Hall and was reading the urgent news from the southeast.

During these four days, several urgent reports came from the southeast, saying that Yueqing and Ruian in Wenzhou Prefecture were also burned, killed and looted by pirates and Japanese pirates.

When Deng Zilong received the news and led the navy fleet to the area, the pirates and Japanese pirates had vanished without a trace. It was clear that these pirates and Japanese pirates were well aware of the navy's movements. Most of their speedboats had gone to search the waters of Southern Zhili and Guangdong and Guangxi. With the Fujian waters blockaded by Yu Zigao's fleet, the pirates and Japanese pirates had no choice but to land along the Zhejiang coast.

After the emperor and his ministers exchanged greetings, Wanli asked directly, "How is it, Yuan Jing, have you figured out the clues?"

Qi Jiguang slid his hand across the map and pondered, "The wind is blowing from the north right now, so the pirates and Japanese pirates should be coming from Japan.

They bypassed the navy's base in the southeastern waters of Songjiang Prefecture and went directly to Taizhou Prefecture and Wenzhou Prefecture, where they went ashore to burn, kill, and loot.

At this time, it should be impossible for them to continue moving south, because Ke Mai led his fleet to cruise in the waters of Fujian, and if they ran over there, they would be seeking death.

They should have turned southeast, turned northeast of Dongfan, followed the Kuroshio Current, crossed the Ryukyu Sea, and returned to Japan."

Well, that’s right. When it comes to familiarity with Japanese pirates, no one in the Ming Dynasty can compare with Qi Jiguang.

Wanli nodded slowly and said, "I also think they are taking this route. Last time they must have also followed the Kuroshio tide to Japan, so the navy's clippers couldn't find any trace of them.

They must have looted several batches of goods, prepared some goods of their own, and then sent them to Japan, sold the goods to Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and then took the Japanese pirates under Toyotomi Hideyoshi's command south from Kyushu Island and ran to the southeast coast to burn, kill and loot.

They may continue to use this tactic until the beginning of next spring, because the north wind and the Kuroshio Current form a circle, making it very convenient for them to go back and forth."

Upon hearing this, Qi Jiguang nodded solemnly and said, "Yes, I estimate they will continue to harass us for the entire winter. It is almost impossible for the navy fleet to completely blockade the thousands of miles of coastline along the southeast coast.

Moreover, when they went south to plunder, they had favorable winds and favorable currents. Our navy's sailboats and speedboats could not outrun them. If they could escape for a day or two, our navy's ships would have no chance of catching up."

It seems that they have no way to stop the pirates and Japanese pirates from playing this way, but there is a fatal point in playing this way.

Wanli thought for a moment, then asked, "How's the situation in Liaodong? Have the captured Japanese pirates completed the construction of the garrison compound and the various levels of garrison offices?"

Why are you asking this again all of a sudden?

Qi Jiguang nodded repeatedly and said, "We've finished the work in the past few days. It's almost snowing over there. Once it's covered in ice and snow, we won't be able to do anything and will have to stay home."

Why should we let those Japanese pirate captives stay at home and rest for a whole winter?

Wanli shook his head slightly and said, "You should quickly mobilize all the centipede ships that the navy can mobilize, at least 10,000 ships to Liaodong to bring the more than 300,000 Japanese pirate prisoners and 200,000 Sichuan soldiers to Dongfan.

Also, you can go and take a look at the garrison troops gathering for training in Jinling City. You and Zhaolong can take all those who have almost completed their training to Dongfan. Whether they join the navy or serve as infantry and charioteers, this is a rare opportunity to get hands-on training.

This winter they were taking captured Japanese pirates to the eastern barbarians to open up wasteland and build houses. At least tens of millions of acres of arable land had to be reclaimed, and if the courtyards for farmers to live in were calculated at 40 acres per household, 500,000 households would be built.

Also, Dongfan has only built a port terminal on its east side. This time, you must also build at least one port terminal on the north, west, and south sides of Dongfan."

Uh, does this have anything to do with suppressing pirates and Japanese pirates?
Qi Jiguang was puzzled and asked, "Your Majesty, what about the pirates and Japanese pirates?"

Wanli pointed to the northern part of Dongfan and the Ryukyu Sea on the map and said, "If they want to return to Japan, they must pass through this sea area.

We frantically summoned the navy's express ships to head north, and the Zhejiang Party would definitely see it. Therefore, during the time when the navy's express ships went to Liaodong to recruit people, they would definitely not dare to leave Japan and come to the southeast coast of Ming Dynasty, because they were afraid that we would block the navy's express ships in the waters north of Nanzhili to encircle them.

After you have brought the Japanese pirates and Sichuan Army officers and men to the Dongfan Sea, you can order half of the navy's speedboats to go back, and the remaining half to go to the north of Dongfan and deploy defenses in the Ryukyu Kuroshio area.

The Zhejiang Party could only see that we sent out the navy's speedboats and sent them back. They certainly didn't know how many were sent out and how many were sent back. When they saw a large number of navy's speedboats going back, it would definitely encourage pirates and Japanese pirates to take action again.

At that time, Yun Qing's naval warships will only need to wait at the naval base near Songjiang Prefecture. You will use the naval express boats to search for pirates and Japanese pirates in the northern waters of Dongfan. Once you entangle the pirate and Japanese pirate fleets, the naval fleet will arrive quickly with smooth sailing."

This doesn't seem to be a big problem.

The problem is that the Japanese pirates would first go to the southeast coast to burn, kill and loot before going back.

Upon hearing this, Qi Jiguang cautiously said, "Your Majesty, are we just going to sit by and watch them burn, kill, and loot along the southeast coast?"

Wanli shook his head slowly and said, "We certainly can't let them burn, kill, and loot along the southeast coast.

Now that there is Kemai's fleet in the waters of Fujian, they certainly won't dare to go there. If we send some speedboats to cruise around Taizhou and Wenzhou, they won't dare to go to these two places.

In this case, they had no choice but to go to Ningbo Prefecture, Shaoxing Prefecture and Jiaxing Prefecture.

Jiaxing Prefecture is too close to the navy's port base, so they probably won't go there.

Shaoxing Prefecture is too far inside, and they may not be able to escape if they go in, so they probably won’t go there.

They have no choice but to go to Ningbo Prefecture. We just need to send some secret guards in advance to secretly observe with telescopes near the coastline of Ningbo Prefecture.

When pirates and Japanese pirates came, they would immediately set off signal smoke signals using old oil drums. After setting off the signal smoke signals, they would immediately call on the people in the coastal villages to flee inland. If the pirates and Japanese pirates were more than ten miles behind, they would most likely be out of reach.

It seems that this is the only way. If we want to lure pirates and Japanese pirates into taking the bait, we cannot defend all coastal areas.

Upon hearing this, Qi Jiguang nodded slowly and said, "Your Majesty is wise."

(End of this chapter)