Chapter 1255: Misfortune Leads to the East

For a long time, the Jurchen pirates have been engaged in the cause of robbing houses and houses at sea, and even if Wanyan Aguta led the Jurchens to establish the Jin Dynasty, there are still many people who choose to devote themselves to the sea to be pirates. However, with the rise of the Mongols and the fall of the Jin Kingdom, the Jurchens became vassals of the Mongols, and these traditional pirates were dealt a heavy blow and collapsed for a while.

In the early years of the Yuan Dynasty, there was indeed a period of naval strength. Due to the war with the Southern Song Dynasty and the absorption of the naval forces attached to the Southern Song Dynasty in the process of destroying the Song Dynasty, the Yuan Dynasty inherited the naval superiority of the Southern Song Dynasty. The Mongol assault on the Goryeo samurai regime, and the two subsequent conquests of Japan, caused great harm to the powerful forces along the Goryeo coast, so that the landlords could no longer afford to continue investing in piracy.

However, piracy did not disappear because of this, but turned into a low ebb, and the Mongol war led to the rise of another group of pirates. The Yuan Dynasty's war against Japan bankrupted the already declining Kamakura Shogunate, and plunged into the Northern and Southern Dynasties era, and a large number of samurai became evil parties and ronin, who went to sea to gather a large number of Japanese pirates to harass the Yuan Dynasty's coastal areas. Large-scale Japanese activities began to appear in the history of Asia.

Their familiarity with the coastal areas of Goryeo led to the incorporation of pirate forces abandoned by the powerful coastal forces of Goryeo, and the famous pirates began to show their fangs and claws. It stands to reason that since the Yuan Dynasty inherited the advantages of the Song Dynasty's naval army, it should be able to effectively punish these Japanese robbers, right? Not really! Due to the long-term financial situation of the Yuan Dynasty, the naval army was repeatedly defeated in the battle with the Great Song Dynasty naval army led by Zhao Yu, coupled with the heavy losses in the war against Annam and Zhancheng, the Meng Yuan could no longer build a powerful maritime force, and could only let the Japanese come and go freely.

The attacks of the Japanese invaders were seen not only in Fujian and Zhejiang, but also in Jiangsu, Shandong, Hebei, Liaoning and other places, covering the entire coastal area of the Yuan Dynasty. There were more than 50 invading Japanese ships, and more than 200 ships, and every time they reached Goryeo, they were burned down. The ships also became the main target of the Japanese raids, forcing the Goryeo Dynasty to finally switch to land transportation.

In the face of the rampant Japanese robbers, Meng Yuan is not afraid to say that he is unable to clean up at the moment, and it is estimated that he will find it quite useful, and even secretly support it. The harassment of pirates forced the Song naval forces that occupied Jiangnan to send warships to protect the sea trade routes and escort merchant ships during the trade season, thus containing the Song army's forces and preventing them from taking military action against their own inland hinterland through sea operations. And they have always attached importance to maritime trade in the past, but now that the shipping routes are controlled by the Song army, they cannot participate in it, so they are naturally more happy to see the pirates increase their aggression against the Song Dynasty and destroy the economy of the coastal areas south of the Yangtze River......

For the ancient profession of banditry, Zhao Yu knows that it has tenacious vitality, and it has accompanied human history like a maggot on the tarsal bone since ancient times, and it still exists in the era he traveled over, and I am afraid it will continue to exist until the extinction of mankind. And its harmfulness is undoubted, small can cause panic among the people, cause social unrest, property loss; If it becomes bigger, it can subvert a sovereign state, cause damage to the regional economy, and even endanger international security and economic development.

So the dangers of bandits have long been known to the world, so why is the vitality so tenacious? The answer is also very simple, the main reason is that natural and man-made disasters have forced people to not eat, so they get together to do business for thieves. And Zhao Yu knew that he did not have the ability to liberate all mankind, realize world harmony, meet everyone's needs, and build a society where 'the road is not left behind, and the night is not closed', the result is that he cannot completely eliminate the banditry and fulfill this grand wish that no one has ever come before.

In this case, Zhao Hao could only retreat and try his best to ensure that his one-third of an acre of land was less disturbed by bandits. And to do this, he still feels that it is a long way to go, and it is quite a headache. But this matter cannot be left out, the frequent invasion of bandits will inevitably cause panic among the people, attacking the state and plundering the government and killing officials is also a challenge to the bottom line of a sovereign country, and their raiding of merchant ships on the sea trade line is a threat to the economic lifeline of the Great Song Dynasty, and he cannot tolerate it in any case.

Zhao Yu still has some experience in suppressing bandits, and he also wanted to enter the industry. When he first entered Qiongzhou, he was faced with a serious banditry, and he used the method of appeasement to exterminate the pirates entrenched around Qiongzhou, and subdued the slang people who were united in the soldiers and bandits, thus eliminating the pirates who were rampant in the waters near Qiongzhou.

After that, with the growth of the Song army, the navy army was even stronger, and even the Mengyuan navy hid, and the pirates fled away from Qiongzhou. Zhao Yu also used pirates and bandits and salt lords to harass the Fujian and Guangzhou areas occupied by the Meng Yuan, and gradually took them for his own use, and eventually developed into a force that could compete with the Yuan army, played a great role in the war to recover Jiangnan, and was incorporated into the regular army of the Song army.

After entering the south of the Yangtze River, Zhao Yu had to rely on sea trade to make money, and he spared no effort to crack down on the pirates, driving away the pirates on the southeast coast, and using the navy division to escort and open up new waterways. However, the bandits' attack on Haizhou made him find that the bandits were not willing to give up this piece of fat, and took advantage of the war between the two countries to get a piece of the pie. What worries Zhao even more is that the bandits have a tendency to converge and try to cooperate with each other.

You must know that a plate of loose bandits is far more difficult to deal with than a group of outlaws. Small groups of bandits only dare to do small cases such as road robbery, ticket kidnapping, and extortion. And once several bandits unite, they will be emboldened, and they will be able to occupy the mountains as kings, attack weakly defended states and counties, rob warehouses, and plunder populations. If it cannot be eliminated in time, the strength will also increase, and then form a separatist force.

However, Zhao Yu also understood that bandits on land were relatively easy to deal with, because a country would not let the bandits within its borders grow, even if they could take advantage of the war to grow, but after the war, they would be exterminated regardless of victory or defeat. In addition, the economic base is the economic base that restricts the development of the bandits on land, and in order to avoid being attacked, they can often only dig into the ravines and enter the lakes, and most of those places are poor and remote areas, and there is no big oil and water.

In addition, the economic basis of the bandits is to wander around, violent speculators, and it is the product of the grouping of retail investors, otherwise how to call it banditry? Then there are them who are begging for a living on the knife edge, and the concept is more realistic, who will follow you if you have no money. Therefore, what are the rules of the rivers and lakes, the spirit of the contract is nonsense, they believe that if there is milk, it is a mother, and whoever has the money will go with whom.

But their counterparts at sea are different, the main business of pirates is not to plunder merchant ships, their profit model is a steady stream of maritime protection fees and huge profits through their own trade. Once it grows to a certain scale, there will be consortia, wealthy and large investors to invest, and then collect huge franchise fees from maritime merchants to make money. As a result, pirates with deep pockets can build more ships and recruit more people.

At the same time, it is very difficult to eradicate pirates, and some small countries simply cannot afford to raise naval armies, let alone suppress them. Even countries that have the ability to eradicate piracy will not be 'nosy' as long as they do not infringe on their own interests, and are more willing to use pirates to suppress commercial competitors. And there is no need to fight on land at sea, the sea is vast, there are many islands, and it is very difficult to find their traces, and even if they do, they may not be able to catch up.

In addition, pirates are fighting guerrilla warfare, and the coastline is long, so it is impossible to fortify every place, but they can choose to land and raid in any location, so you can't be caught off guard. Therefore, many countries suffer from the high cost of dealing with pirates, and in addition to severe punishment and deterrence, most of them adopt a policy of appeasement, and then use them to deal with pirates after collecting them for their own use.

Zhao Hao didn't particularly care about these bandits on land, with the establishment of local power, after the formation of local armed forces, with the assistance of the forbidden army, the bandits would soon be suppressed. After the border defense system is perfected, it will become more and more difficult for the rogues from the Mengyuan side to carry out cross-border attacks, and at the same time, the Mengyuan will not trigger a military conflict between the two countries because of the frequent attacks on the Song border by the rogues, and will severely crack down on the rogues in the territory.

However, dealing with pirates requires a lot of manpower and material resources, not only to combat pirates, but also to strengthen the defense of coastal states and counties, build cities and garrisons. At the same time, forts were built at the mouth of the river along the coastline to prevent pirates from invading the interior, and lookout posts were set up to strengthen the monitoring of the sea surface so that timely warnings could be given.

However, passive defense is not Zhao Hao's style, and it is unrealistic to solve the piracy problem once and for all, so there is only one way to try to use it for yourself. The use of pirates for maritime trade and against competitors was not created by him, and there was a precedent in the world. He suspected that now that pirates have suddenly become rampant, someone must be manipulating behind the scenes, and the most suspicious ones are Zhu Qing and Zhang Xuan.

The two men made a lot of money by monopolizing grain transportation and trade, and with ready-made warships and soldiers, and they knew how piracy worked, it was easy for them to re-enter the industry. And it is easy to subdue those Han Kou and Wakou who are not close to their grandmothers and uncles, and have lost their backers. But his current opponent is Zhao Yu, no matter how rich they are, someone is just a scum in front of him, and he has become vulnerable.

In the past, when Zhao Yu was in Qiongzhou, he also instructed the bureau to disguise himself as pirates and plunder merchant ships in the strait, so as to turn Qiongzhou into a transit point in maritime trade, so as to obtain profits. Now that he has entered the industry, it will not take long for him to become the boss of this sea area, leading this disaster to Meng Yuan, and scourging the Goryeo stick and little Japan......

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