Chapter 495: Codename: Calm Waves and Clean Seas

Chen Tiande, as a Great Ming maritime inspection patrol—Liaoshan—actually found it very difficult to understand. The "Absolute Freedom" faction described sea pirates as unrestrained, free, unbridled, fighting against towering waves and chaotic storms, brave in fighting heaven and earth. After experiencing hurricanes and countless hardships, as well as lighthearted plundering, they obtained massive wealth.

The "Absolute Freedom" faction packaged it as adventure, and then included adventure under freedom.

It was completely casting aside the facts and not talking about them. The fact was that sea pirates were a group of robbers.

Were sea pirates like this? The sea pirates Chen Tiande saw were people doing illegal business, robbing houses, bloodily washing villages, plundering with sails without labor, and lawless people who deserved to die. This was Chen Tiande's only cognition of sea pirates.

Did fighting heaven and earth have any connection to sea pirates? Besides drawing knives against the weak, what else could these sea pirates do?

The cargo of the two ships had been completely counted.

On the first ship, there were twenty boxes of opium—that is, the opium strictly prohibited by the Great Ming. The Great Ming had specifically cultivated poppies, used to extract anesthetics and painkillers for surgery, and had strict circulation channels and supervision. And these twenty boxes of opium paste were the most valuable cargo on these two ships. There were also 1,200 bags of tobacco—"Danba Gu." This was tobacco from Luzon; clearly, this was also a hot commodity.

The maritime inspection patrol needed a brick to knock on the door, and Yao Guangqi was that brick. Even without the opium, the cargo on the ship when they set off was enough.

If it were truly Chen Lin, that would be a disaster that would collapse the sky and overturn the earth.

The atmosphere immediately became tense. These villagers were about to step forward, but were scared back by the firelocks and dozens of bird guns.

Playing with it might be fresh, but this was used to execute missions, one of the violent forces maintaining the Great Ming's maritime security and order. These were two completely different meanings.

Yao Guangqi was making a deal with Li Anrui. Because Yao Guangqi brought big goods, Li Anrui waved his hand and exempted the tariff, and also let the young man from Li Village who had been beaten come to kowtow and apologize. Li Anrui's intention in doing so was very obvious: to let Yao Guangqi bring more and more opium to this place.

"Of course, the possibility is minimal," Chen Tiande shook his head. "Because I have been Liaoshan, the thing I do most on weekdays is to persuade Chen Lin not to charge into the front lines. A person who doesn't take his own life seriously—would he take silver seriously?"

"Nonsense, so much." Yao Guangqi brushed the flintlock gun that had already been fired and said sternly, "Do you still want to board the ship? I'll have your village razed!"

"Rules?" Yao Guangqi walked forward two steps, his face almost touching the young man's face, and suddenly roared, "Screw your rules!"

Yao Guangqi finally understood why Li Anrui was listless—it was entirely because his addiction was acting up, but he had no medicine, so he was struggling to support himself.

Before the words fell, the sound of a firelock rang out. Yao Guangqi fired a shot into the sky, and then another hand-gun aimed at the villagers present. He looked fierce and said sternly, "Who else wants to collect tariffs!"

Chen Tiande liked to discuss public and private matters. He separated public affairs and private affairs very clearly. As a comrade-in-arms who fought back-to-back, Chen Tiande didn't believe that Chen Lin had betrayed the Great Ming.

Yao Guangqi had seen it with his own eyes in the capital's "Dissection Institute."

"This is completely different from the imperial court's ship permit system. The court's is one ship, one permit, one-to-one correspondence. If they can't correspond, it's impersonation. This private market, however, only recognizes the ship permit. As long as there is a ship permit, one can enter? Doesn't this give the maritime inspection patrol a chance to mix in?" Yao Guangqi couldn't understand this way of ship permits; such a loophole was truly too big.

After waiting for half an hour, Li Anrui came out from inside, looking several times more spirited.

Yao Guangqi finally figured this matter out and nodded, saying, "Indeed, it's not used for playing."

Borrowing the afterglow of the sunset, Yao Guangqi kept looking through his telescope. He confirmed again the excellence of this port's conditions, because it had enough area to dock ships. Being ice-free and silt-free were the necessary conditions for a natural good port. By the sea, there was a large piece of flat land to serve as a stacking yard. The boundary between the sea and the land was a cliff, which clearly couldn't serve as a port.

"Drunken dreams and death," that was what the current Li Anrui was. Opium had now changed from raw food to cooked food—that is, using an opium pipe to heat and ignite it. It appeared among the scholar-officials and powerful families as a high-class enjoyment, and had a trend of rapidly expanding and becoming popular.

This represented that the Great Ming's prohibition was effective. Because of the expensive price of opium, it didn't spread rapidly downward. Even for middle-class families, if they wanted to buy this thing, they could only look and sigh. It also brought new challenges: the high price of opium made many people take risks and break the law, planting it in large quantities.

"Such good stuff—why won't the Emperor open it up?" Li Anrui said somewhat unfulfilled.

The role of the nest was to be able to recover quickly after the navy was completely sunk. The biggest requirement was to be easy to defend and hard to attack. With the Great Ming's strong productivity and numerous population, as long as the nest was not destroyed, the navy could exist forever.

The entire Ningde private market, with over 300 ships every day—even if only a small portion carried such "precious" cargo, it was an astronomical figure.

The two-masted ships slowly set sail from the bay, passing through that estuary only four li wide. At the moment of passing, Yao Guangqi frowned and said, "This is a natural good port, the best natural good port in the entire Great Ming!"

Chen Tiande was checking a navigation logbook left behind by a dead captain. The content recorded the places where this pirate ship had stopped. This was important intelligence. This ship had actually stayed in over a dozen private markets within the Great Ming's actual control waters. Of course, the scale of these private markets was far smaller than the Ningde County private market.

The firepower of the sea pirates on this ship was too fierce.

"Bang!"

He only had forty-three maritime inspection patrols; the manpower was too small, so he could only decide this way. In Chen Tiande's eyes, the Japanese pirates were never human.

"If you smoke too much, you become neither human nor ghost, and you can't quit. This damn thing—is it really that precious?" Yao Guangqi was very disdainful of Li Anrui. This kind of disdain came from the inside out. Don't look at Li Anrui's hypocritical appearance now; once his addiction acted up, he would be even more disgusting than a ghost.

"Actually, you get used to it after using it, and it's not that dizzy. Going ashore, on the contrary, makes you dizzy." Chen Tiande and Yao Guangqi chatted about his maritime inspection patrol life. Many things became habit through familiarity. After getting used to it, it wasn't that scary.

Using redundant information and endless nonsense to make people believe that things were just like this, distorting the truth, covering up the facts, and using a seemingly reasonable and logically self-consistent proposition to deceive people living in the hinterland, or even those who hadn't seen the sea, telling them that this was the right way.

"Yes! This is the rule!" A young man who looked somewhat capable stepped forward and shouted loudly.

And the Great Ming's maritime inspection patrols, breaking into parts, started wandering around the Zhangwan private market. They didn't ask questions; they just listened and watched, listening to the sea pirates' boasting and looking at all kinds of cargo. The inconspicuous maritime inspection patrols became more and more familiar with this private market and even learned that in the entire Sanduao Gangwan, there wasn't just one private market like Li Village, but seven.

The maritime inspection patrols arrived at the private market and couldn't open their mouths. Once they opened their mouths, they would be exposed, because their words and actions were truly too different from the sea pirates. So gathering intelligence could only be passive, but Yao Guangqi was different. One look, and he was the look of a sea pirate.

Without a doubt, this place was truly, truly very appropriate! It was suitable for a naval port, not a civilian port, because in terms of transportation, compared to the big rivers of Yuegang, Songjiang, and Dianbai, this place was a bit worse. Moreover, Fujian had been a place not contested by military strategists since ancient times, because there were truly too many mountains in Fujian, so land and river transportation conditions were both a bit worse. Sea transportation could only make up for a part.

"Ah!!" Yao Guangqi pointed at the flying sea birds, furious, and pointed several times before wiping the bird droppings off his face, still feeling indignant.

"It is possible," Chen Tiande said plainly.

The Great Ming's prohibition—anyone who privately sells opium or sells it to outsiders, regardless of the amount, will be beheaded.

"Are you going to board the ship to collect tariffs?" Yao Guangqi asked calmly.

Arrogant, doing whatever one wants, lawless—Chen Tiande was very satisfied with Yao Guangqi!

In a certain sense, a capital city playboy and a sea pirate were actually the same kind of creature. That was why Chen Tiande wanted Yao Guangqi to accompany him. Yao Guangqi, by his very nature, had already displayed the kind of evil of sea pirates to the fullest. The maritime inspection patrols nodded frequently; it was truly like it!

"It's just that the Great Ming is all like this, isn't it? Having a bit of power in hand, regardless of size, everyone wants to cash it in. This is very normal. That constable, when passing by a tea stall, steals two snacks—will he pay? It's very normal, a very common thing. If it's truly Chen Lin, don't be surprised."

"I don't believe this kind of rumor as an individual; it still needs careful investigation."

This was the difficulty of the prohibition. The more it was prohibited, the higher the price. The higher the price, the more people planted it. Only by using heavy punishment could this self-destructive behavior be stopped. In the matter of prohibition, one must never relax for a moment; otherwise, it would be a failure of all previous efforts.

A battle of "Calm Waves and Clean Seas" that would affect the sea areas controlled by the Great Ming could already be expected.

As a result, Chen Tiande's ship visited seven private markets, and nothing happened, successfully sailing out of the estuary.

Chen Tiande didn't untie the Japanese pirates, nor did he prepare to take them back to sell for bells. He directly tied them to stones and sank them into the sea. The remaining thirteen Han people were placed together with those women and children.

Messing up his hair like a chicken nest, rubbing some fish oil on it to make it even messier, and then rubbing some dirt on his face—not washing it too clean, and changing into the sea pirates' clothes—only then did it have three parts of similarity. As long as they didn't appear collectively, they wouldn't look so eye-catching. On the beach, there was the joyful mockery of the maritime inspection patrols toward each other.

"Is there good cargo?" The old man asked, stunned.

Distorting crimes into freedom, distorting evil into justice—this was the process of domestication.

Since Yu Dayou started building in Songjiang Prefecture, the Great Ming Navy had been looking for a place like an old nest. Mixing military and civilian ships easily exposed the movements of the Great Ming army and easily caused losses in trade. After all, if the army moved, the port had to be blocked. If the port stopped for one day, the loss would be massive.

The price of opium was soaring, at a speed that was astonishing. A box of opium had eighty opium balls, each weighing one catty. A box of opium had soared from the original 600 silver to 2,000 silver. This represented that the supply was getting less and less, while the demand was vigorous, which was why the price was soaring so much!

Calculating slightly, each black opium ball was as high as 25 taels of silver. One opium pipe required one opium ball or even two to three a year.

After organizing, they finally found the ship permit to enter the private market. What surprised Yao Guangqi was that this private market ship permit only recognized the ship permit, not the ship—that is to say, anyone who got the ship permit could enter the private market for trade.

Li Anrui leaned on a soft couch, curling his legs, trembling as he placed the opium on the opium pipe. After igniting it, he took a heavy puff. His whole body shook several times. That kind of pleasure from the inside out Ma Deli Anrui curl his body like a cooked shrimp, and then slowly stretch out.

"This is my territory. Once you arrive in my territory, you must listen to me!" The old man's mouth twitched. The young people of today truly didn't understand the word "respect."

Chen Lin couldn't wait to grab him back and interrogate him properly: Where was the possibility!

However, Chen Tiande provided sufficient intelligence. These private markets and the navigation logbooks on these sea pirate ships were the end of all smugglers in the Great Ming's entire sea area.

The hydrofoil sailing ship was very fast. There were many waves on the sea, and it wasn't flat. Even because of the two wings, the hydrofoil sailing ship could maintain its posture, but after a big wave, the hydrofoil sailing ship would disappear without a trace. Yao Guangqi truly didn't know how to use this thing. After riding it once, he swore he would never ride it again for the rest of his life!

He didn't know how the maritime inspection patrols operated such sailing ships day after day on the sea.

Yao Guangqi laughed playfully, leaned out half his head, and said, "Which old dog is barking?"

"This place is truly wonderful! And it can also be used to plant seaweed." Yao Guangqi said sincerely.

Chen Tiande opposed these domestications. Sea pirates were a kind of pirate, and they were evil.

The Great Ming's prohibition—the Great Ming court was very clear about the harm of opium. There were many specimens in the Dissection Institute, all of whom died from opium poisoning.

A battle of "Calm Waves and Clean Seas" that would affect the sea areas controlled by the Great Ming could already be expected.

Chen Tiande didn't untie the Japanese pirates, nor did he prepare to take them back to sell for bells. He directly tied them to stones and sank them into the sea.

Messing up his hair like a chicken nest, rubbing some fish oil on it to make it even messier, and then rubbing some dirt on his face—not washing it too clean, and changing into the sea pirates' clothes—only then did it have three parts of similarity.

"It's just that expensive." Li Anrui leaned on the chair, his eyelids drooping, and stretched out four fingers, smiling: "I won't hide it from you. We take these opium balls and cut them into slices. This batch of goods can earn this much."

The ship permit not corresponding to the ship—rather than calling it free trade, it was a compromise under the name of freedom. If they could manage it, they would definitely manage it.

"You, speak—don't, don't pant!" Yao Guangqi was almost scared to death!

Yao Guangqi recalled the days when he was a playboy in the capital and picked up the arrogance he had back then. This flavor was immediately right!

With long guns and short cannons pointing at the villagers, a firefight was on the verge of breaking out.

"The hydrofoil sailing ship is not used for playing." Chen Tiande thought for a moment and answered Yao Guangqi's question.

Moreover, the ship traffic in the private market was increasing. Because of the monsoon, this time was originally the time for a large number of merchant ships to arrive in the Great Ming. And because of the frequency and popularity of the trade, every year the seven private markets would unite to hold a large-scale auction to trade goods. The trading day was approaching, and there were more and more sea pirate ships.

"It's not that I don't want to, it's that there's no way. For the private market to operate, there must be a large number of ships docking for trade. But the sea pirate ships are also constantly attacking each other—you sing and I appear. Today the ship permit is issued, tomorrow the ship changes hands, the ship sinks, or it is wiped out by the Great Ming Navy. And other ships can't enter because they don't have ship permits. So the private market can't be run? It can only be left alone. It can't be done," Chen Tiande was very knowledgeable about the management of the private market and had extremely rich experience in anti-smuggling.

"This place is truly wonderful! And it can also be used to plant seaweed." Yao Guangqi said sincerely.

Chen Tiande opposed these domestications. Sea pirates were a kind of pirate, and they were evil.

The Great Ming's prohibition—the Great Ming court was very clear about the harm of opium.

The price of opium was soaring, at a speed that was astonishing.

After organizing, they finally found the ship permit to enter the private market.

Li Anrui leaned on a soft couch, curling his legs, trembling as he placed the opium on the opium pipe.

"This is my territory. Once you arrive in my territory, you must listen to me!" The old man's mouth twitched.

Chen Lin couldn't wait to grab him back and interrogate him properly: Where was the possibility!

However, Chen Tiande provided sufficient intelligence.

The hydrofoil sailing ship was very fast.

If the ship's maritime inspection patrol had an accident, then Chen Lin inevitably had a problem;

If the ship traffic in the private market dropped sharply, or even if people in the private market started to flee, it meant that Chen Lin or part of the maritime inspection patrol had a problem.

In the Fujian area, the surveying and mapping of the terrain was very slow. There were many mountains here, and the roads were very difficult to walk. From the land, this was a mountain; from the sea, this was a small bay. Only four li wide, no one would think this was a good port. But as long as you entered, it was a different world.

"Hydrofoil sailboats are not for playing." Chen Tiande thought for a moment and answered Yao Guangqi's question.

"He reported to the Emperor, but in the specific execution, he still had to handle it himself. As long as the wind was secretly released, the sea pirate ships would slowly stop coming. This group of poisonous insects in the private market—if they really bit the Navy Regional Commander, could they bite him? Who would believe it?"

By the morning, the ships set sail smoothly. Chen Tiande received all the intelligence from the maritime inspection patrols. Besides the opium business, the biggest business was slaves—not only Japanese, but also Great Ming people. The sea pirates had bloodily washed the Great Ming's coastal fishing villages and brought people to the private market for trade.

And the sea area outside Ningde County completely met all the requirements of a good port.

Chen Tiande had not rested. He was busy, disguising the maritime inspection patrols as pirates. The maritime inspection patrols' lean, strong, and rigid facial lines, the determination in their eyes, their straight spines, and their steel-like spirituality—physiognomy comes from the heart. This made it truly very, very difficult to disguise them as real sea pirates. As long as anyone with eyes looked, they could tell their identity at a glance. So they needed to disguise. On the beach, there was the joyful mockery of the maritime inspection patrols toward each other.

Li Anrui didn't suspect the identity of this ship at all, because Yao Guangqi's performance was exactly the same as those sea pirates.

"Which old dog is barking?" Yao Guangqi said somewhat impatiently.

"It is suitable to be a naval port." Chen Tiande thought for a long time and was convinced that this place was the most excellent place to serve as a naval port. From here, it could radiate to the Penghu Inspection Office, the entire Chicken Cage Island, Ryukyu, Japan, and the Great Ming's long coastline. The navy stationed in Yuegang could consider moving its base here, becoming the key place for the Great Ming Navy!

This was completely an unexpected joy.

The Great Ming's prohibition—anyone who privately sells opium or sells it to outsiders, regardless of the amount, will be beheaded.

"You are going to board the ship to collect tariffs?" Yao Guangqi asked calmly.

Arrogant, doing whatever one wants, lawless—Chen Tiande was very satisfied with Yao Guangqi!

In a certain sense, a capital city playboy and a sea pirate were actually the same kind of creature.

"It is very normal. That constable, when passing by a tea stall, steals two snacks—will he pay? It is very normal, a very common thing. If it is truly Chen Lin, don't be surprised."

"I don't believe this kind of rumor as an individual; it still needs careful investigation."

This was the difficulty of the prohibition.

A battle of "Calm Waves and Clean Seas" that would affect the sea areas controlled by the Great Ming could already be expected.

Chen Tiande didn't untie the Japanese pirates, nor did he prepare to take them back to sell for bells.

Messing up his hair like a chicken nest, rubbing some fish oil on it to make it even messier, and then rubbing some dirt on his face—not washing it too clean, and changing into the sea pirates' clothes—only then did it have three parts of similarity.

"It's just that expensive." Li Anrui leaned on the chair, his eyelids drooping, and stretched out four fingers, smiling: "I won't hide it from you. We take these opium balls and cut them into slices. This batch of goods can earn this much."

The ship permit not corresponding to the ship—rather than calling it free trade, it was a compromise under the name of freedom.

"You, speak—don't, don't pant!" Yao Guangqi was almost scared to death!

Yao Guangqi recalled the days when he was a playboy in the capital and picked up the arrogance he had back then.

With long guns and short cannons pointing at the villagers, a firefight was on the verge of breaking out.

"The hydrofoil sailing ship is not used for playing." Chen Tiande thought for a moment and answered Yao Guangqi's question.

Moreover, the ship traffic in the private market was increasing.

"It's not that I don't want to, it's that there's no way. For the private market to operate, there must be a large number of ships docking for trade. But the sea pirate ships are also constantly attacking each other—you sing and I appear. Today the ship permit is issued, tomorrow the ship changes hands, the ship sinks, or it is wiped out by the Great Ming Navy. And other ships can't enter because they don't have ship permits. So the private market can't be run? It can only be left alone. It can't be done," Chen Tiande was very knowledgeable about the management of the private market.

"This place is truly wonderful! And it can also be used to plant seaweed." Yao Guangqi said sincerely.

Chen Tiande opposed these domestications. Sea pirates were a kind of pirate, and they were evil.

The Great Ming's prohibition—the Great Ming court was very clear about the harm of opium.

A battle of "Calm Waves and Clean Seas" that would affect the sea areas controlled by the Great Ming could already be expected.

Chen Tiande didn't untie the Japanese pirates, nor did he prepare to take them back to sell for bells.

Messing up his hair like a chicken nest, rubbing some fish oil on it to make it even messier, and then rubbing some dirt on his face—not washing it too clean, and changing into the sea pirates' clothes—only then did it have three parts of similarity.

After Chen Lin summarized the intelligence, he sent it to the capital. The Great Ming Navy is already prepared and can set off at any time to capture all the sea pirates and smugglers in the entire Great Ming maritime territory in one fell swoop!

Codename: Pacify the Waves and Clean the Seas.

(End of chapter)