Nowadays, there are three kinds of people who seek a living at sea.

There were maritime merchants who engaged in smuggling trade, pirates who relied purely on plunder, and there were both merchants and thieves.

Wang Zhi, the pirate king, is inclined to ocean trade, and recruiting him can be described as killing two birds with one stone.

First of all, Wang Zhi surrendered, and the two countries traded, and the imperial court not only did not have any losses, but also obtained a large amount of maritime taxes.

Secondly, after accepting Wang Zhi, his subordinates can change from thieves to merchants, even if there are a small group of pirates and pirates who continue to do evil, it will be much easier for the sailors to clean up.

Hu Zongxian understood this truth, so he believed that the treatment of pirates and pirates should be used at the same time, and the main thing should be appeased.

In order to recruit Wang Zhi, the pirate king, Hu Zongxian also did enough work, not only released Wang Zhi's mother and wife from prison, but also gave birth to support, and then took trade as a condition, and tried his best to obtain Wang Zhi's approval.

Things in the world can never be empathized, they are all like people drinking water and knowing themselves.

Hu Zongxian is very rational, and his method of dealing with pirates and pirates is also the best, but not everyone agrees.

Those coastal people who were separated by pirates and pirates, whose families were ruined, and those honest officials who were dedicated to serving the people, in their hearts, there was only one way to deal with these pirates who did all kinds of evil!

Just when Li Nan was eating and drinking in the Drunken Immortal Building with his three daughters, the jealous and hateful patrol Wang Bengu of Zhejiang Imperial History had already led his troops to arrest Wang Zhi, who had come ashore, into prison.

Hu Zongxian, who learned of this, did everything possible to explain the benefits of recruiting Wang Zhi to Wang Bengu and others, but Wang Yushi said to him: "The people along the coast say that you Hu Zongxian colluded with Wang Zhi's officials and businessmen, but is there such a thing?" ”

Hearing this kind of heart-wrenching words, Hu Zongxian immediately did not dare to say more, and instead supported the killing of Wang Zhi.

A few days later, at the mouth of the palace alley in Hangzhou Province, there were bustling crowds everywhere, the restaurants and teahouses on the street near were all full, the rooftops were full of people watching the excitement, and countless Ming soldiers stood in array on both sides of the street, waiting for the battle.

"It's coming!" Hearing someone in the crowd shouting, Li Nan and the others, who were sitting at the window on the second floor of the restaurant, looked at the end of the street.

I saw two black horses pulling a prisoner cart, slowly driving towards this side, surrounded by heavily armed Ming troops, and the person on the cart was Wang Zhi, the pirate leader who claimed to be the king of Hui.

There are several high-ranking officials in charge of supervising the beheading today, and the person in the middle who is wearing a red robe official uniform, with a lion portrait pattern on it, and a black gauze hat on his head, is Hu Zongxian, the left attendant of the military department and the left servant of the Imperial Inspectorate.

Hu Zongxian's face was gloomy, and his current mood could be described as extremely complicated.

Since Hu Zongxian, the governor of Nanzhi, Zhejiang, Fu and other military affairs, responsible for the southeast coast of the anti-Japanese heavy task, first the envoy Jiang Zhou Chen Keyuan went to Japan to negotiate with Wang Zhi's godson Wang Ao, and then won Wang Zhi's own trust, under the pretext of the imperial court's surrender, his blood relatives as hostages, and the resumption of maritime trade as a bargaining chip, and finally lured him to come to negotiate, but he did not expect that several years of hard work were in vain today.

The prisoner cart walked slowly on the bluestone-paved road, and the people on both sides of the road, who had been deeply victimized by the Japanese robbers, shouted angrily and threw stones, rotten vegetables, sludge, feces and urine and other objects in their hands at Wang Zhi in the prisoner cart.

Li Nan looked at Wang Zhi, who was covered in filth and his hair was scattered, and sighed with emotion: "Greed is a double-edged sword, it can become the driving force for your success, and it can also become the seed of your defeat." ”

The prisoner car drove to the square at the end of the street, and Wang Zhi was escorted to the execution table that had just been built.

Wang Zhi, the pirate king who once roamed the seas, is now on his knees, with a death card on his back, and two executioners with horizontal flesh on their chests ready to stand beside him, and the terrifying guillotine knife in his hand is shining.

Before the time of execution came, Wang Zhi, who was kneeling on the ground, raised his head, looked at Hu Zongxian, who was sitting behind the prison beheading platform, and shouted in a hoarse voice: "Master Hu, why is this so?" ”

Now, with Wang Bengu and other colleagues and thousands of onlookers around him, even if Hu Zongxian regrets Wang Zhi, he doesn't dare to say what he really thinks in his heart.

Hu Zongxian pointed to Wang Zhi, who was kneeling on the ground, and shouted and scolded: "Wang Zhi, you ignore my Daming sea ban, openly smuggle commerce, collude with Japanese criminals, brutalize coastal compatriots, and pretend to be the king, it is really a great crime!" I am the official of the Ming Dynasty, and I am responsible for suppressing bandits, and now I will kill you here, which is also a matter of clear justice! ”

"Good! Good! Good! Wang Zhi listened to Hu Zongxian's words, and immediately laughed wildly: "Hahaha, what a good Tianli Zhaozhao, what a Lord Hu, I didn't expect that I, Wang Zhi, would die here!" ”

Seeing Wang Zhi appear crazy, Wang Bengu, the imperial historian of Zhejiang, frowned and said: "The hour is almost there, hurry up and do it, otherwise the night will be long and dreamy." ”

"Then it's up to Lord Wang to announce the execution." Hu Zongxian also wanted to understand this matter earlier, so he nodded in agreement.

Wang Bengu, who hated the pirates deeply, did not shirk, and of course said unyieldingly: "Okay, then this official will come!" ”

Wang Yushi stood up, picked up the holy decree on the table, and read aloud with a solemn expression: "Fengtian carrier, the emperor said, Wang Zhishi went to the sea in violation of the ban with the heart of shooting, and then forgot the righteousness of China, and entered the country as a traitor." Seduce the Japanese people, attack and rob the year, the sea is shaken, the southeast is deduced, the national policy is done, the poison is left in the living beings, the evil is monstrous, and the gods and men are angry...... This person betrays China, sins deeply, and his life is revealed! ”

Seeing that the pirate king's head was cut off by the executioner, Li Nan got up and sighed: "As soon as Wang Zhi dies today, the sea islands have no leader, and the chaos is about to start, let's hurry back and prepare." ”

The course of the matter was just as Li Nan estimated, after learning the news of Wang Zhi's killing, his godson Wang Ao also sent a hostage sent by Hu Zongxian to command Xia Zheng to unload eight pieces and sacrifice his deceased father.

The Ming Dynasty and the pirates have completely torn their faces, and no matter how stupid the pirates are, they will not be recruited at this time, so the sailors of the Ming Dynasty all dispatched to point directly at Wang Ao of Zhoushan and the tributary fleet of the island country Dayou's family.

The sound of artillery bombardment and fighting sounded on the islands of Zhoushan, and the fiercest battle was in Shuangyu Port, where Wang Ao and others were located.

The warships of both sides of the sea are attacking each other, and a large number of Ming Dynasty officers and soldiers have also landed on the island, and are fighting with those pirates in caves everywhere, and the battle is extremely fierce.

After Wang Zhi's death, although Wang Ao nominally took over the position of leader, the bandits under his command were unwilling to obey his orders.

At this time, the Ming army's naval divisions attacked on a large scale, and these pirates and pirate leaders, some advocated fighting to the death, and some advocated escaping, and Wang Aoneng's command was only his own subordinates.

Because the pirates did not have a unified command, in the melee, they couldn't figure out how many people they were left, how many people the Ming army came, and whether they should hold on now or evacuate, and as time went by, the pirates who slowly lost their fighting spirit began to flee in all directions.

In the past, these pirates and pirates were invincible against the people of the Ming Dynasty and the local officers and soldiers with poor military discipline, but this time it was different.

Although the individual combat effectiveness of these Ming armies was not as strong as those of the real widows and pirates, at this time, dealing with these pirates who were leaderless and in chaos, although it took some effort, they still locked the victory.

Seeing that the situation was not good, Wang Ao and the tributary fleet of the island nation Otomo family hurriedly gathered together and forcibly broke through the Ming army's warship encirclement.