The strongest devouring system in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 668 Pirate Paradise

Pang Huaiyi was filled with hatred. He secretly slipped back to his hometown to investigate and found that his family had been reported for forcibly buying raw silk from a widow at a low price. In the end, he was convicted of the serious crime of colluding with Japanese pirates and his entire family was exterminated.

The family's farmland was quickly sold off by the government, and all the buyers were Huizhou merchants.

If you destroy my clan, I will ruin your wealth.

When Pang Huaiyi got angry, he even robbed his own people. Of course, unlike Li Kuiqi, who actually robbed his own people, Pang Huaiyi specifically targeted ships in Nanzhi and Zhejiang.

Because he also hated the Zhejiang Party for being useless; his family had been running a business in Zhejiang and Huzhou for generations, but in the end, they didn't even have anyone to lend a helping hand.

Having exhausted his sexual desires, Pang Huaiyi caused a great deal of trouble in Zhejiang and the coastal areas of southern Zhili, and simply transformed into a Japanese pirate.

This is the kind of pirate the Ming Dynasty fears most. Because Pang Huaiyi doesn't care about profits at all, yet the more he does so, the greater his gains become.

Pang Huaiyi once ravaged the area surrounding Haizhou. Although he never actually entered the prefectural city, he plundered the wealthy households in the surrounding area.

This is not a good situation. Pang Huaiyi's relatives and family members have all been slaughtered by the imperial court, and they are no match for him in a fight. There is absolutely no way to control Pang Huaiyi.

In the end, the Hui merchants came up with a solution: they offered Li Dan a bargain by providing him with goods at low prices.

How could the old Dragon King not know the Huizhou merchants' intentions? You want to destroy Pang Huaiyi? I won't. So I simply sent Yan Siqi to subdue Pang Huaiyi.

You all watch out. I have a vicious dog here, so you'd better behave, or I'll release Pang Huaiyi.

Although Pang Huaiyi was wreaking havoc in the waters off Jiangsu and Zhejiang, he was also confused. He had too many enemies, and most of the people he killed were just lackeys. He couldn't even touch the masters.

Pang Huaiyi was a well-educated young man, and he knew that his venting was not very useful, especially since his actions had broken the rules of the old Dragon King.

After all, many merchants from Jiangsu and Zhejiang also transferred their goods to Li Dan according to the rules. When Yan Siqi sent someone to talk to him, Pang Huaiyi immediately agreed.

In just a few years, Pang Huaiyi made a great name for himself in the waters off Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Merchants there would pray that they would not encounter Zhong Yanwang before setting sail.

Although restrained by Li Dan, Pang Huaiyi would occasionally retaliate by taking things from him. As long as he did it cleanly, Li Dan and Yan Siqi would turn a blind eye.

Pang Huaiyi agreed almost immediately when he heard Chen Er's proposal, because it meant that he could rob as much as he wanted again in the short term.

The CEO said that those who refused to pay taxes could only be robbed of their valuables, not killed. Pang Huaiyi wasn't inherently bloodthirsty; he simply couldn't suppress the deep-seated hatred of his clan's extermination.

Among the maritime merchants, Pang Huaiyi was the most particular about food, clothing, and daily necessities. His family had been wealthy for generations, and he was used to such luxuries. No one else had as many extravagant tastes as him.

At first, Pang Huaiyi seemed somewhat out of place in Li Dan Group, not only because he was not from Fujian, but also because he came from a wealthy family.

Fortunately, Pang Huaiyi was a learned and sensible person, and gradually became friends with Yang Tiansheng and Chen Zhongji, which led to his acceptance by the other merchants.

Ancient scholars had a bad habit, which was particularly evident in the Ming Dynasty. After reading a few military books, they thought they were both literate and skilled in martial arts. That's why Pang Huaiyi often boasted to the maritime merchants about the military tactics he used when he robbed ships.

Until he saw Chen Er training troops.

Chen Er knew nothing about military training. He had simply seen a lot of modern military training, which boiled down to a few key elements: information, training, equipment, and logistics.

In this day and age, doing these things well will not guarantee victory in every battle, but it should at least help avoid major defeats.

Pang Huaiyi also entered the Naval Academy. He didn't need to learn to read; he was placed in an advanced class to learn arithmetic, pinyin, and drawing.

Chen Er thought highly of Pang Huaiyi; he had a solid foundation. He could recite the Four Books and Five Classics from memory—wasn't that impressive?

Pang Huaiyi also admired Chen Er very much. He came from a merchant family, so arithmetic was naturally a subject he had to learn, but the arithmetic taught here was really too useful.

Pencils have been made for a long time, and Chen Er brought a batch this time. Using wooden strips to clamp them was too time-consuming, so they were all tied with cloth strips. Now officers of platoon level and above are supplied in rations.

Pang Huaiyi carried two sticks in his pocket, which was very convenient; he could take them out and use them anytime. He also had a small notebook bound with paper.

But that wasn't all; the flag signals truly astounded Pang Huaiyi. He'd always wondered what the point of learning those convoluted phonetic symbols was.

When Chen Er took out the pre-printed flag signal codebook and began to operate it on this voyage, all the former merchants were stunned.

In the past, sending messages at sea was such a troublesome affair. Now, all you have to do is look over here with binoculars, wave a flag, and then check your notes to know what it means.

Although it could not be put into use immediately, the generals saw the key to commanding naval battles in the future.

The literacy rate is too low. Even among generals, very few can recognize 3000 commonly used characters.

Along the way, Dong Xian and Pang Huaiyi frequently used flags to communicate. After more than a year of study, Dong Xian was already proficient in writing commonly used characters. The generals each had a copy of the *Chinese Dictionary*.

By all accounts, Chen Er, Dong Xian, and Pang Huaiyi are all from Zhejiang. Chen Er is a fabrication, and Dong Xian's family has only been in Zhejiang for a little over 200 years. But these days, people from the same hometown have a natural sense of closeness.

Pang Huaiyi and Dong Xian quickly became acquainted.

Among the various maritime merchants, three groups had their own strongholds. The deceased Li Kuiqi had a base on a small island in the Ryukyu Islands.

If Chen Er hadn't made his move suddenly, and if everyone hadn't been close acquaintances, finding Li Kuiqi's lair on this vast island would have been virtually impossible.

Liu Xiang also had a stronghold, yes, it was modern-day Hong Kong Island, his hometown.

Pang Huaiyi's stronghold is on an island in the Zhoushan Archipelago, and Chen Er is going there to check it out and redeploy his forces.

Logically, shouldn't Pang Huaiyi and Liu Xiang have been wiped out after establishing their stronghold on Ming territory? They were wiped out several times.

But the pirates were too rich and powerful. If too few ships came, they couldn't defeat them; if too many ships came, the Ming government, with its leaky and ineffective system, would send the pirates away before the army even set out.

Since it's not productive anyway, we can just abandon the house and rebuild it.

When the government troops landed on the island and burned down the pirates' stronghold, the pirates retaliated by looting the coastal prefectures and counties.

After this happened two or three times, the Ming Dynasty couldn't hold out any longer. They hadn't caught a single pirate, and their own prefectures and counties were frequently reporting the attacks. They also had to spend money and resources to appease the attacked areas.

How can we possibly suppress pirates like this?

Unless someone provides money or effort, the government will never mention suppressing bandits again.

Pang Huaiyi's stronghold was on Qushan Island, which faces Hangzhou Bay. Most ships sailing from Zhejiang have to pass through this area.

Qushan Island was originally inhabited, but all of them were relocated inland during the Hongwu era. With the current naval strength of the Ming Dynasty, this sea area is practically a pirate paradise.