Chapter 51: Pirates of the Ming Dynasty
At this point, it is likely that someone is going to say that those are all big pirates, and they are armed forces that are against the government, how can they not be manufactured because the imperial court does not allow them. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info
Moreover, the pirates of that meeting were basically powerful squires on the shore, and the Ming Dynasty who went to the countryside under the imperial power was a figure like a local emperor.
Indeed, the social atmosphere at that time was indeed like this, and it was impossible for the pirates to obey the laws of the Ming Dynasty.
However, although it is not wrong for the Ming Dynasty to be the imperial power and not go to the countryside, the big guy like the sea ship is not a rake for plowing, a kitchen knife for cooking and other objects, and it is not at all capable of being made by a small workshop in the poor countryside.
In this era, sea vessels, even small offshore sea vessels with a displacement of more than ten tons, are also in the category of "high-tech", and they can only be customized by specialized shipyards and skilled craftsmen.
Shipyards that can manufacture seagoing ships generally have many restrictions, and the transportation of food, drinking water, wood, iron and other materials requires good transportation conditions.
Dry wood plants need to have good ventilation conditions.
The manufacture and production of various accessories requires specialized personnel and technology to manufacture.
These problems forced agrarian societies to build factories in or around prosperous cities.
Although the Ming Dynasty paid attention to the imperial subordinates going to the countryside, there was really nothing to say about the ability to control the city.
Not to mention those spy agencies such as Jinyiwei, Dongchang, and Xichang, just the officials of the yamen at all levels, and even the lowest level of white servants, they are simply a group of inquirers, and they can monitor every corner of the city.
If someone wants to violate the ban around the city of Daming and privately make "big sea ships" that exceed the standard, then just from the source of shipbuilding, the "keel wood that exceeds the standard", these guys who want to violate the ban can be stuck.
Even if we have worked hard to find the "keel wood that exceeds the standard", the obstacle of shipbuilding is far from over.
Daming's shipbuilding technology has a corresponding inheritance, there is already a scientific "standardized" construction method, which ship can be built how big, how much wood to use, there is a set of detailed data records.
It is very troublesome to manufacture such a large sea ship, at least a few months, and at most more than a year.
Shipyards are built in cities, and it is really impossible to quietly build ships that exceed the standard.
The sea boat is placed on the slipway, whether it exceeds the standard or not, and those who know a little bit about it can see it at a glance.
Therefore, the super forces in the Ming pirates, such as Li Dan, Yan Siqi, Zheng Zhilong, Liu Xiang and other figures, can easily pull out hundreds or thousands of ships and form their own fleet.
But in terms of tonnage, there are really few companies that dare to openly build "big ships" that exceed the standard.
In this way, the kingdom's fleet of "sea ships" with a total displacement of more than 200 tons and a large part of it with a displacement of 300 tons is really an extremely powerful force.
What's more, even with a large ship, the pirates could not get enough artillery.
Those ordinary small Franco cannons and the like, the pirates can indeed make them privately, but all the cannons with a barrel weight of more than 200 pounds are not something that ordinary blacksmiths can make.
This is a more high-tech thing than a sea ship, there are basically all ships without guns, and pirates without national backgrounds are a common problem.
Without artillery, the pirates could only use the jump gang to fight, this backward way of fighting, the casualty rate is very high, and it is a lose-lose situation at every turn, leaving the pirates with both men and money.
Moreover, this kind of pirate ship that does not have enough artillery is basically in a state of beating when it encounters a gunboat.
This is why, in a slightly later era, the most important reason why British pirates with state support and privateer licenses were able to overwhelm the pirates of other countries and plunder the world, they could buy a sufficient number of artillery from the state.
That big parade wiped out several pirates who had crooked their brains about the kingdom's merchant ships, and by the way, helped the kingdom's operators in Daming eliminate some maritime merchants who robbed business.
With so many ships with artillery, it really frightened those pirate forces in the Daming Sea.
That armed parade was a complete shock to the pirate forces in the Ming region that had not been eliminated, and promoted the kingdom's maritime force.
In fact, that time, Chen Xin's original intention was to completely eliminate all the pirates in the Daming Sea.
However, when he began to parade with arms, eliminated several pirate gangs, and obtained some information, Chen Xin no longer dared to dream of such a dream.
Although the kingdom's fleet has such a strong combat power, basically even the smallest kind of armed merchant ship has the combat power to crush a single pirate ship of pirates.
However, the number of ships in the kingdom is too small, and the total number of warships, transport ships, fishing ships, merchant ships, etc., is only about 200.
With such a small amount, it is no problem to deter along the way, but if you want to completely eliminate the pirate ship of more than tens of thousands of Daming, it is really a fool's dream.
Therefore, such an expensive armed parade can only be a deterrent in the end.
Fortunately, the fleet has done a good job, and since then, for several years in a row, although piracy in Asian waters has not completely stopped.
The kingdom's sea transports were occasionally raided by some new pirates, but none of the pirates dared to cross the Yellow Sea to operate in the kingdom's waters.
This continued until an unexpected conflict six months ago.
Half a year ago, the Dutch United became the East India Company, and Peter Noiz, the commander of Formosa (the Dutch's old name for Taiwan) (I don't know how to translate, I can only be regarded as the supreme governor in Taiwan), because of some disputes with the United Kingdom of China, in order to maintain his position in the United East India Company, he tried to recruit a fleet of 20 ships with a displacement of more than 500 tons, and prepared to come to the kingdom to attack and harass.
At that time, although the United Kingdom of China was in the midst of internal and external troubles, Chen Xin still did not hesitate to give the order to attack. And ordered that those Dutch people must be exterminated as soon as possible and completely, why?
It is because they are afraid that the surrounding area of the Ming Dynasty has been shocked, and those pirates who dare not attack themselves will have any bad thoughts because of the big action of the Dutch.