Chapter 68: General Qi Suppresses the River Bandits

The next day, after roll call.

Lin Qian brought the two men and several guards ashore in a small boat, and climbed Mount Guolao.

This mountain lay east of Nan'ao Island, slightly taller than Dajian Mountain to the west.

The mountain was utterly devoid of human traces, with dense trees and vines so thick that there was almost no path at all.

Fortunately, Lin Qian had previously ordered a lookout tower built on the summit, with someone climbing up daily to stand watch, so the frequent trips up and down had carved out something of a trail.

Lin Qian and the others followed that narrow path up the mountain, walking for nearly four hours before reaching the lookout tower.

The islander on watch was nervous as hell when he heard the noise, and only relaxed when he saw Lin Qian and the others emerge from the woods.

Lin Qian had everyone take out their water and rations to tide themselves over.

Then he also called down the islander on tower duty to eat with them.

When the man came down, Lin Qian handed him a flask of water and a fried flatbread, asking, "Seen anything lately?"

The islander watchman tilted his head back and gulped down several mouthfuls of water, then wiped his mouth and said, "Reporting to the Helmsman, the sea is as usual—nothing out of the ordinary."

Seeing that Lin Qian did not reply, only watched him.

The islander watchman elaborated further: "Every day at dawn, a dozen or so merchant ships of various sizes come in from the shore, and head back before dark.

Every day there are also a few scattered fishing boats in the northern and western waters, but they never stay long.

The catches are better going east to Qing'ao Bay and south to Chishi Bay and Yun'ao Bay—there are more fishing boats there too."

Lin Qian took a fried flatbread from one of his men, sat down casually on the ground, and gestured for the islander watchman to sit and talk.

The islander watchman took a couple of bites of the flatbread and continued: "When fishing is good, there are about a hundred boats out there; when it's poor, still several dozen.

The catch is mostly mackerel, hairtail, and pomfret, with the occasional grouper, golden pomfret, abalone, and the like.

It's a pity the Tanka boats have flat bottoms and can't take the wind and waves of the open sea—if they could go deeper, the catch would surely be much bigger."

When fishermen talk about their catch, it's like farmers talking about their fields—once they start, they can't stop.

To the common folk on the Ming shore, Nan'ao Island was too small and its soil too poor to be worth cultivating.

But to the former pearl divers and the Tanka boat people, the sea here was like the black earth of the northeast—reach out and squeeze, and oil would drip from your fist.

The more the islander watchman talked, the brighter his eyes grew, as if he wished he could finish his flatbread and dive straight into the sea to fish.

Lin Qian's single-masted sailing ship had been designed precisely to make up for the Tanka boats' inability to sail the open sea.

But now was not the time to think about such things.

White Sand Bay and the Santa Ana's anchorage were both north of the island; no matter how many fishermen worked the eastern and southern waters, they could never be mixed in among Li Kuiqi's spies.

Seeing the islander watchman getting more and more carried away on the subject of fish.

Lin Qian quickly pulled the conversation back on track: "Have you spotted any unusual vessels? Like ones that stay anchored in one spot for a long time, or keep circling back and forth?"

The islander watchman thought for a long while, then slowly shook his head.

Everyone felt somewhat disappointed.

Lin Qian smiled and said, "No matter."

With that, he finished his flatbread in a few bites, wiped the grease from his hands on the ground, then cleaned them further with camphor leaves.

Then, using both hands and feet, he climbed up the lookout tower.

The tower stood about ten meters above the ground, built from whatever materials were at hand.

Since the surrounding trees had been cleared away and it sat at the mountain's high point, the view was excellent.

Lin Qian gazed far to the north of the island and indeed saw only a few fishing boats working the vast blue waves—no other vessels besides.

Lin Qian took a telescope from his breast pocket and carefully scanned the sea surface, paying special attention to the blind spots in view of the Santa Ana.

Seeing Lin Qian climb the lookout tower, everyone quickly wolfed down their flatbreads, wiped their greasy hands carelessly on their clothes, and gathered at the base of the tower to wait.

After an hour, Lin Qian suddenly said, "Watchman, come up here!"

The islander watchman was stunned, and Zheng Zhilong gave him a shove, saying, "The Helmsman's calling you."

The islander watchman snapped back to his senses and hurriedly climbed up.

Lin Qian handed him the telescope and pointed at a reef in the distance, saying, "Look through this tube at that spot with one eye—what do you see?"

The islander watchman did as told, then said in utter astonishment, "This must be some immortal's clairvoyant eye—it sees so clearly."

Through the telescope, in the direction Lin Qian's finger indicated, he saw a reef far in the distance. At first glance there was nothing unusual, but looking more carefully, hidden behind that reef was actually a small sampan.

A man sat on the sampan, wearing a bamboo rain hat and a coarse cloth short jacket, dressed like a fisherman. He was eating dry rations, and every few bites he would poke his head out from behind the reef to peer toward the Santa Ana.

There wasn't a single fish on the man's boat, his fishing net wasn't even wet, and it was stacked up neatly—even a slacker wouldn't slack off like that.

"Helmsman, this man is suspicious—he's no fisherman!" the islander watchman declared immediately, without a shred of doubt.

The man was simply too far away, the sampan too small, and it was hidden behind the reef—without the aid of this clairvoyant eye, gazing from afar, one would never have spotted it.

For a moment, the islander watchman felt deeply ashamed, believing he had failed in his duty.

"It's no trouble." Lin Qian comforted him. "Go on down first."

The space atop the lookout tower was very small, barely enough for two people to stand.

After the islander watchman went down, Lin Qian had Zheng Zhilong come up, handed him the telescope, and pointed him toward the spy's direction.

Zheng Zhilong raised the telescope, and after a moment said, "Damn, if it weren't for this barbarian's clairvoyant eye, we'd never have seen someone out there."

He lowered the telescope and said to Lin Qian, "Helmsman, what do we do now—should we go grab him?"

Lin Qian shook his head. Finding just this one lookout so early, acting rashly would only alert the snake by striking the grass.

Even if they caught the man, he might not know the location of Li Kuiqi's lair.

They had finally found a lead, and it couldn't be allowed to break off just like that.

At this moment, Zheng Zhilong's face lit up with sudden realization, and he quickly said, "Helmsman, I just remembered something—it might be connected to Li Kuiqi!"

"Speak quickly."

"I heard it from the elders at home—decades ago, the river bandits on the Yangtze had a skill: they could follow behind a rich man's boat without being noticed, trailing it for hundreds of li, all the way to some wild and desolate spot, and only then strike to rob the vessel."

Lin Qian listened and felt that this was practically identical to Li Kuiqi's method.

Such a thing happening on land would hardly be remarkable, but on open water there was no cover or concealment—following a ship for any length of time was bound to be detected.

And the riverbanks were hard to traverse; trying to ride a horse along several hundred li of shoreline while keeping pace with a ship would inevitably end in losing it.

Lin Qian also considered sending someone to swim after the ship, but a man is not made of iron—swimming a dozen or so li might be sustainable, but swimming several hundred li was sheer fantasy.

Zheng Zhilong continued: "Such incidents had been happening repeatedly for decades, and for a time the people along the Yangtze's banks were gripped by fear. Southerners traveling out of necessity mostly took carts or horses instead.

Even when forced to take a boat, wealthy households no longer dared to board imposing large vessels—they would rent shabby little boats instead.

Strange to say, once these rich households took small boats, the river bandits never targeted them. Even if someone had flashed their wealth on shore, riding a small boat guaranteed safety.

Later, around the tenth-something year of Wanli, Grand Commander Qi was made Governor of Fengyang, overseeing grain transport along the middle and lower Yangtze and the suppression of bandits. When he heard of such matters, he immediately understood the river bandits' trick.

Grand Commander Qi sent officers disguised as wealthy merchants to make a great show of spending in Nanjing, then board a luxurious large vessel and sail downstream with the current.

He himself waited with his men on the bank. After the large ship had passed and gone a good while, a small sculling sampan came by.

After the sampan passed, they waited a long while longer, and then a large river bandit ship came by.

It turned out these river bandits would pick two men with exceptionally sharp eyesight to trail far behind the large ship, sculling along to keep pace with it.

The sampan was small—once the big ship was far enough away, it couldn't be seen at all—but the men on the sampan could see the big ship clearly from afar.

The bandits' own large ship followed behind the sampan, already far beyond the visual range of the fat prey ahead, so naturally no one noticed it.

After Grand Commander Qi saw through this method, he set traps time and again to lure the river bandits in. In just a few months, he wiped out the Yangtze river bandits who had plagued the region for decades, and no one ever used that method again."

After hearing this, Lin Qian felt twelve parts of admiration rise in his heart.

Worthy of a hero written in bold strokes in the history books—catching a few river bandits was practically like reaching into a bag and pulling them out.

If every military commander of the Great Ming had even half of Qi Jiguang's ability, the Jurchens of Liaodong would long ago have gone from fierce warriors to singers and dancers, and Zheng Zhilong would never have become any King of the Min Sea.

Back then, Grand Commander Qi destroyed the river bandits—strategy to break the enemy came first.

Now, Li Kuiqi robs Fujian junks—picking up another's leavings comes second.

If he still couldn't think of a way to counter it, he might as well dash his head against a wall.

At this moment, Lin Qian already had a plan in mind.

Yahei

Fenyuan

Pen