Jin'an Town is located at the place where Lanxi enters the sea, because of the advantages of river transportation, and because of the beautiful scenery by the mountains and the sea, many wealthy businessmen in Quanzhou have chosen to build houses in Jin'an, which can not only live, but also hoard the goods transported through Lanxi.

By the time of Chongzhen, the sea ban policy had long existed in name only, but there was no gentry and wealthy household with some strength who did not participate in sea trade. Jin'an Town is surrounded by mountains and seas, with the advantages of river transportation and a deep-water seaport to moor large ships, which is naturally favored by large households in Quanzhou.

In the morning, the town wakes up from its sleep, the smoke rises, and the people begin their busy day.

A fisherman was mending his nets on the beach when he suddenly looked up and saw countless sails on the sea in the distance, and dozens of large ships were heading towards the harbor outside the town.

He rubbed his eyes vigorously, and when he looked closely, he did not see the official flag on the ship, but the skull flag was hung.

"The pirates are coming!" The fishermen immediately threw down their tattered nets and ran towards the town, shouting as they ran.

Suddenly, the whole town was in chaos.

"Pirates, where did they come from?" In the largest house, Huang Deyuan, the manager of the Huang family in Quanzhou in the town, exclaimed.

"It's like a skull flag." The fisherman who reported the news shouted.

"Skull Banner, Li Kuiqi's centaurs? It shouldn't be! Huang Deyuan muttered.

Li Kuiqi is a big thief entrenched in Penghu, but he has a close relationship with the Huang family, and the two sides are in a cooperative relationship, how can he come to fight Jin'an Town?

"Steward, what should we do?" Someone asked.

"Send someone to contact Li Kuiqi and ask him what he wants to do?" Huang Deyuan said in a deep voice, "Beat the gong, gather us and all the men in the town, take weapons, and prepare to meet the enemy!" Send someone to Shipu Qianhu again, and let Lin Qianhu quickly bring reinforcements! ”

With Huang Deyuan's order, the men in the town quickly moved, and a large number of men with knives, guns and weapons gathered in the square at the entrance of the town.

The town is close to the sea, and most of the villagers live by the sea, and many of them have gone to sea. Now it's about protecting their family and property, and if they really want to fight with pirates, it's hard to say who wins and who loses!

There are more than 1,000 men in the whole town, which is a powerful force, and the small pirates dare not come to rob at all, while the big pirates are mostly related to the gentry and maritime merchants, and it is impossible to rob them. Moreover, there are officers and soldiers stationed nearby, and the town has always been very safe. Who knew that Li Kuiqi, who should not have come to rob the most, went crazy!

"Steward, Lao Qi's ship was overturned by a pirate ship!" Someone came running to report the news.

The seventh is the one who was sent to contact the pirates, which shows that the pirates have no intention of negotiating at all.

"Rush over with me and beat them to a foothold!" Seeing that more than a thousand men were all assembled, Huang Deyuan shouted angrily and rushed to the beach with them.

The pirates numbered dozens of large ships, numbering at least thousands, and could only win if they attacked while they landed.

However, when Huang Deyuan just led people to rush to the beach, "boom, boom", suddenly there was a cannon sound, and countless water columns rose in the offshore, and the men in the town stopped one after another, looking horrified.

The pirates turned out to have artillery, and so many!

The cannon was still roaring, and the shells were getting closer, and one of the shells landed in front of them, bounced off the stony ground, and grazed the arm of a man, who immediately threw away his weapon and clutched his arm and screamed.

As soon as there was a "buzz", the team immediately dispersed, and all the villagers retreated and fled, even Huang Deyuan couldn't stop it.

Amid the roar of artillery, the pirates docked one after another in small boats, lined up on the shore and began to assemble.

Seeing that the pirates were in a neat queue, and many of them were holding firearms, Huang Deyuan knew that the town could not be defended, and even if the officers and soldiers of Shipu Qianhu came over, they were not the opponents of these pirates.

......

"What? Li Kuiqi sent someone to rob the town? ”

In Quanzhou City, Huang Wei said angrily, "How is it possible? Why did Li Kuiqi attack Jin'an Town, just for the goods in the town? When did his eyelids become so shallow? ”

Although Huang Wei is only famous for his talents, he is the leader of the Quanzhou merchant gang, more than a dozen gentry in Quanzhou Prefecture, and dozens of maritime merchants, all headed by him, because the Huang family has the greatest influence in Quanzhou, Huang Wei's uncle is the deputy envoy of Zhejiang, and the Huang family even has people in the court.

The benefits of maritime trade are very great, the competition is also very fierce, maritime merchants not only have to compete with their peers, but also to fight with pirates, in order to survive, in order to make money, they form many merchant gangs according to the region, and watch and help each other.

Maritime merchants naturally go to sea for the purpose of making money, and do not want to do useless fights, but there are many pirates at sea, in order to avoid trouble, the merchant gang will come out to negotiate with the pirates, or pay some protection money, or simply partner with the pirates to do business and supply the pirates. And if the merchant gang is in trouble, they can also ask the pirates to help solve it.

Therefore, the merchant gang and the pirates are actually very deeply involved, and the pirates who are familiar with each other will not attack the merchant gang base at all, because if they provoke the merchant gang, they will inevitably be surrounded and killed by the officials and soldiers, and it will not be beneficial to the pirates at all.

"Brother Huang, my family was robbed of three hundred loads of raw silk in Jin'an, but you can't just forget it!"

"You were robbed of 300 loads, and my family was even worse, a full 20,000 pieces of porcelain were robbed clean, and it took a lot of effort to transport it from Jiangxi!"

"Don't say it, my family is even more miserable, 500 loads of raw silk, 20,000 pieces of cotton cloth, all gone!"

Other gentry and maritime merchants came one after another, complaining to Huang Wei, there was only one purpose, to severely punish the pirates and recapture the goods!

Seeing that it is almost summer, when the southeast monsoon is together, it can be loaded on ships to Japan for trade, at this time the goods were robbed by pirates, and there was no time to re-get the goods, and the loss was too great!

"Everyone, don't be impatient, this matter is quite strange, it is said that Li Kuiqi should not do anything to us?" After Huang Wei was angry, he had calmed down.

"What shouldn't we, we have so many goods hoarded in Jin'an, who wouldn't be red-eyed?" Someone shouted.

"It must be Li Kuiqi, many people have seen the skull flag, and in the whole sea, there are no other pirates except Li Kuiqi who are playing the skull flag!"

"Pirates are ruthless and unjust, they can do anything, Brother Huang, we have to find a way quickly, otherwise Li Kuiqi will run away with the goods, where can we go to find him!"

Everyone was shouting, and Huang Wei's head was big for a while.

"Okay, okay, I'll write to Governor Xiong and ask him to send troops to encircle and suppress Li Kuiqi!" Huang Wei said.

"Brother Huang, you'd better write a letter to Uncle Ling, asking him to put pressure on Governor Xiong, Governor Xiong is a smooth person, I'm afraid he doesn't want to fight with pirates at all." Someone suggested.

Huang Wei nodded: "I'll write a letter to my uncle, and in addition, you will also mobilize your own relationship to put pressure on the governor's yamen." In addition, I wrote letters to the Lin family, the He family, and the Wu family, and asked them to come forward as well. ”

The Lin family, the He family, and the Wu family were the leaders of the other Shang gangs in Fujian, and although there was competition between the Shang and Shang gangs, they had always acted together in the face of a common threat.

Now, Li Kuiqi has destroyed the tacit understanding between the merchant gang and the pirates, and has become an unstable factor in the Fujian sea, and the families definitely do not want to see this situation continue, and they are definitely willing to join forces to eliminate Li Kuiqi.