The Black Sails of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 68 Commander Qi Suppresses Water Bandits
After roll call the next day.

Lin Qian led the two men and several guards ashore in a small boat and climbed Guolao Mountain.

This mountain is located on the east side of Nan'ao Island, and is slightly higher than Dajianshan Mountain on the west side.

The mountain was completely deserted, with dense forests and vines, making it almost impossible to walk.

Fortunately, Lin Qian had previously had a watchtower built on the mountaintop, and people climbed the tower to keep watch every day, frequently going up and down the mountain, which could be considered as opening up a path.

Lin Qian and the others walked up the mountain along that path for nearly two hours until they reached the watchtower.

The islanders on lookout duty were on edge when they heard the commotion, but they were relieved when they saw Lin Qian and the others emerging from the forest.

Lin Qian asked everyone to bring out their water and food to fill their stomachs.

Then they called the islanders guarding the tower to come down and eat with them.

After the man came down, Lin Qian handed him a pot of water and a fried dough stick, asking, "Have you seen anything lately?"

The islander guarding the tower tilted his head back and gulped down several mouthfuls of water, then wiped his mouth and said, "Reporting to the captain, the sea is as usual, nothing special."

Seeing that Lin Qian didn't reply, but just stared at him.

The islander guarding the tower explained in more detail: "Every day at dawn, more than a dozen merchant ships of various sizes would come from the shore and return to the shore before dark."

A few fishing boats can be seen sporadically in the northern and western waters every day, but they don't stay long.

The better the catch is from Qing'ao Bay in the east, Chishi Bay and Yun'ao Bay in the south, where there are also more fishing boats.

Lin Qian took a fried dough stick from her subordinate, sat down casually on the ground, and invited the islander guarding the tower to sit down.

The islander guarding the tower took a couple of bites of his biscuit and continued, "When there are many fishing boats, there are about a hundred, and when there are few, there are still dozens."

The catch mainly consists of mackerel, ribbonfish, and pomfret, with occasional catches of grouper, golden pomfret, abalone, and other similar items.

It's a pity that the Tanka boats have flat bottoms and can't withstand the rough seas; otherwise, if they had gone deeper, the catch would definitely have been even greater.

Fishermen talk about their catch just like farmers talk about farming; once they start, they can't stop.

For the people on the shore of the Ming Dynasty, Nan'ao Island was small and poor, and had no value for cultivation.

But for the former Zhumin and Tanka people, the sea here is like black soil; you can squeeze oil out of it if you reach out and grab it.

The more the islander guarding the tower talked, the brighter his eyes became, as if he couldn't wait to go fishing in the sea after finishing his fried dough.

Lin Qian's single-masted sailboat was designed to compensate for the inability of the Tanka people's boats to sail far out to sea.

But now is not the time to think about these things.

Both Baisha Bay and the Santa Ana anchorage are located in the north of the island. No matter how many fishermen live in the east and south of the island, they cannot possibly be detected by Li Kuiqi's informants.

The islanders guarding the tower were talking more and more about their fish catch.

Lin Qian quickly steered the conversation back to the main topic: "Have you spotted any unusual vessels? For example, those that have been stationary for a long time, or those that have been repeatedly loitering around?"

The islander guarding the tower pondered for a long time, then slowly shook his head.

Everyone was a little disappointed.

Lin Qian smiled and said, "It's alright."

After saying that, he finished the fried dough in his hand in a few bites, wiped the grease off his hands on the ground, and then wiped his hands clean with camphor leaves.

Then, using both hands and feet, they climbed the watchtower.

The watchtower is about ten meters above the ground and was built using local materials.

Because all the trees around it have been cut down, and it is located at a high point on the mountain, the view is excellent.

Lin Qian looked north towards the island and saw only a few fishing boats working on the vast blue waves, with no other vessels in sight.

Lin Qian took out her binoculars and carefully searched the sea, paying particular attention to the blind spots of the Santa Ana.

Seeing Lin Qian climb the watchtower, everyone quickly ate their fried dough cakes, rubbed their oily hands on their bodies, and waited around the watchtower.

After waiting for half an hour, Lin Qian suddenly said, "Tower guard, come up here!"

The islander guarding the tower was stunned. Zheng Zhilong nudged him and said, "The captain is calling for you."

The islander guarding the tower snapped out of his daze and hurriedly climbed up.

Lin Qian handed him the binoculars and pointed to a reef in the distance, saying, "Use one eye to look through this binoculars at that spot. What do you see?"

The islander guarding the tower did as instructed, and then exclaimed in astonishment, "Is this some kind of divine eye? It sees so clearly." Through the telescope, in the direction Lin Qian was pointing, he saw a reef in the far distance. At first glance, it seemed normal, but upon closer inspection, a sampan was hidden behind the reef.

A man was sitting on the sampan, wearing a straw hat and a coarse cloth shirt, dressed like a fisherman. He was eating dry rations, and every few bites he would stick his head out of the reef to look in the direction of the St. Anna.

The man had no fish on his boat, and his fishing nets were dry and neatly piled up. Even if he was being lazy, this was not the way to steal.

“Boatman, there’s something wrong with this man. He’s not a fisherman!” the islander guarding the tower said immediately and decisively.

The person was too far away, the sampan was small, and it was hiding behind the rocks. Without the help of this all-seeing eye, it would be impossible to see it from a distance.

The islanders guarding the tower felt extremely guilty, realizing they had failed in their duty.

"It's alright," Lin Qian comforted him. "You can go down now."

The space on this watchtower is very small, only enough for two people to stand in.

After the islanders guarding the tower went down, Lin Qian asked Zheng Zhilong to come up again, gave him the binoculars, and told him to look in the direction of the informant.

Zheng Zhilong raised his binoculars, and after a moment, he said, "Good heavens, if it weren't for these people's keen eyesight, we really wouldn't have been able to see anyone there."

He put down the binoculars and said to Lin Qian, "Captain, what do we do now? Should we go and capture him?"

Lin Qian shook her head. They had only discovered one informant so far, and taking any rash action would only alert the enemy.

Even if they capture him, he might not know the location of Li Kuiqi's hideout.

Now that we've finally found a clue, we can't just let it die out.

At this moment, Zheng Zhilong suddenly realized something and quickly said, "Master, I just remembered something that might be related to Li Kuiqi!"

"Speak quickly."

"I heard from the elders in my family that decades ago, the river bandits on the Yangtze River had a skill: they could follow a wealthy man's boat undetected for hundreds of miles, all the way to a remote and desolate place, before robbing the boat."

Upon hearing this, Lin Qian felt that it was exactly the same thing Li Kuiqi had done.

Such a thing would not be surprising on land, but on water, where there is no cover, following a boat for a long time would inevitably lead to detection.

The riverbanks are difficult to traverse; traveling hundreds of miles on horseback or by boat would inevitably lead to losing track of the other side.

Lin Qian had considered sending someone to swim alongside, but people aren't made of iron. They might be able to swim a dozen miles, but swimming hundreds of miles was simply a pipe dream.

Zheng Zhilong continued, "Such things have happened repeatedly over the decades. For a time, people along the Yangtze River were in a state of panic, and most people in the south started to travel by carriage."

Even when forced to travel by boat, wealthy people dared not ride in grand, imposing ships, but instead rented humble, small boats.

Strangely enough, once these wealthy people boarded a small boat, they would not be targeted by river bandits. Even if someone displayed their wealth on the shore, they could remain safe as long as they boarded a small boat.

Later, more than ten years into the Wanli era, General Qi became the governor of Fengyang, in charge of the transportation of grain and the suppression of bandits in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Upon hearing about this, he immediately understood the methods of the river bandits.

Commander Qi sent his soldiers to disguise themselves as wealthy merchants, spend lavishly in Nanjing, and then travel downstream on luxurious ships.

He and his men waited on the shore. After a long time, a small sampan with oars passed by.

After the sampan passed, we waited for a long time before another large pirate ship sailed by.

It turns out that these river pirates simply selected two people with excellent eyesight to follow the large ship from a distance, rowing alongside it.

The sampan is small, and the large ship is completely invisible from a distance, but the people on the sampan can see the large ship from afar.

The bandits' own large boat followed behind the sampan, long past the sight of the fat sheep in front, so naturally no one noticed them.

After Commander Qi saw through this method, he repeatedly set traps to lure the river bandits, and in just a few months, he wiped out the Yangtze River bandits who had plagued the area for decades. After that, no one used this method again.

After listening, Lin Qian felt a deep sense of admiration.

As expected of a heroic figure who is prominently featured in history books, capturing a few river bandits was a piece of cake for him.

If all the military generals of the Ming Dynasty had half the skill of Qi Jiguang, the Jurchens of Liaodong would have long since transformed from warriors into singers and dancers, and Zheng Zhilong would never have become the King of Minhai.

Back then, when Commander Qi quelled the river bandits, his strategy for defeating the enemy was already in place.

Now, Li Kuiqi has robbed the Fuzhou ship, picking up scraps of others' ideas.

If you still can't think of a solution, you might as well just kill yourself.

At this moment, Lin Qian had already made up her mind.

　Friendly reminder: the story of Qi Jiguang suppressing river bandits is a fabrication of mine.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)