Chapter 263 The Magistrate's Concern

So Lu Wenheng began to pay attention to this group of sea wolves, which made people pay attention to collecting some relevant information about sea wolves. The more he knew, the more Lu Wenheng was curious about this group of sea wolves, because he found that this group of sea wolves was indeed very different from other pirates.

First of all, he heard that the big leader of the sea wolf surnamed Yu is not very old, that is, in his twenties. He is very good at governing all kinds of restraining the masses. One of the most important things is not to harm the people without authorization, let alone plunder * without authorization, and I heard that this surname Yu is very good at training. Next, under his **, the sea wolf department gradually changed from a group of ferocious people to a group of rules-abiding guys.

Moreover, this surnamed Yu is very good at doing business, organizes many ships, runs from south to north on the sea, buys a large number of raw silk, tea, lacquerware, ceramics, brocade, cloth, etc., and then resolds it to Macao where the franc machineman is located or Manila where the dry wax people are located, and even as far as Bada where the Dutch are located. Via and other places, and then bought spices, seasonings, Indian cotton cloth and some wonderful gadgets made by the Thai people from Nanyang, and sold them to Daming land. The business is quite large.

Lu Wenheng also dispelled a lot of hostility to sea wolves. He believed that although this group of pirates were not necessarily good people, at least compared with other pirates, it was more important than other pirates. Although they disobeyed the imperial government and opened the sea without authorization, it was much better than relying on attacking the coast to feed themselves.

In addition, since the sea wolf controlled the coastal area of Fuzhou, the bandit situation in the coastal area of Fuzhou has been significantly reduced. The sea wolf also secretly killed several fishermen who even had a headache, solved some troubles for him, and saved him a lot of worry. Lu Wenheng was happy to see this.

In addition, Lu Wenheng is also very clear about the current situation of Fujian officers and sailors. This time, Nanjuyi's attack on Penghu can be said to be full of Fujian's elite soldiers and navy warships, but he knows better than anyone what the result is. Nanjuyi has invested a lot of troops in this battle, but the results achieved However, it only forced the red-haired people of Helan away from Penghu and knocked down. Even the red-haired city of Penghu could not be broken, but suffered heavy casualties. For this reason, in recent months, all parts of Fujian have been wiping their buttocks for this matter, trying to tear down the east wall to mend the west wall, and plug the hole.

So if you want Fujian to re-enter the army and attack Nanri Island in a short period of time, it is basically unrealistic. With this military resources alone, they can't raise it in a short time, and those officers and soldiers and sailors will definitely open their mouths. If you want this and that, it will be the civil servants who will be embarrassed at that time. They will not give If so, those martial artists will definitely not fight well in this battle. If they give it, they will have no place to make money.

And once defeated, whoever takes the lead will be unlucky. The example of Fujian government attacking the Shark Gang on Nanri Island is still fresh in everyone's memory, so Lu Wenheng is not interested in provoking them after seeing these actions of sea wolves.

Now in his opinion, as long as the sea wolf does not mess around and make money, he only needs to turn a blind eye. What's more, the bigger the sea wolf's business is, the more land merchants in Fujian will make money, and the richer the place will be. It can be said that it is the best of both sides. Fortunately, it is best to maintain this state and be safe.

And Lu Wenheng also heard the news that the sea wolf has been working hard to reclaim the wasteland of Nanri Island in the past two years and get a lot of immigrants from the coast of Fuzhou, but they are not like the previous pirates, relying on plundering the coastal area and forcibly wrapping the coastal people to emigrate. Instead, it secretly uses various means to attract some landless people to settle down, or even deceive or use strong means to get rid of some exiles wandering from other places to Fujian.

In this way, although it is illegal for sea wolves to do so, it is undoubtedly a good thing for them, helping them solve a lot of trouble.

You should know that farmers who do not have land often have to donate to those rich people to beg for food. Now the powerful and rich people everywhere wantonly annex the land, causing people in many places to complain that something will make something from time to time, which is a headache for local officials.

In addition, the exiles are a headache. Their local officials have never seen their attitude towards the exiles. In the past two years, because of the chaos in Yunnan and Guizhou, Zhejiang and Jiangxi will also have some floods or droughts from time to time, causing many people to make a living and have to take their families to escape. The road flooded into Fujian, scattered in various prefectures and counties in Fujian.

Even if these local officials are good officials, they are also a headache for these exiles and want to relieve them, but they don't have enough surplus grain and money on hand, and once they help a large number of exiles, they will attract more exiles to the land under their jurisdiction and create more trouble.

But if there is no relief, these exiles can't live by begging alone, so many exiles are beggars during the day and petty at night, which makes many places very big. Even some strong people take the opportunity to recruit these exiles to fall grass in the mountains as bandits and rob houses, which is even more uncontrollable.

In the past two years, the sea wolf has continuously recruited exiles from the Fuzhou area, Funing, Xinghua and even Jianning and Yanping prefectures to settle in Nanri Island to settle in the wasteland. The biggest benefit is his Fuzhou and Xinghua government. A large number of exiles have been taken away by sea wolves, which has saved them a lot of places. The trouble.

They don't have to think about rehabilitate these emigrants, and they don't have to worry about these emigrants doing mischief in various places, so for him, he is even more happy to see the sea wolf do this, not to mention turning a blind eye. He even raised his hands to welcome the sea wolf to take away more immigrants.

Therefore, Lu Wenheng has changed his attitude towards the sea wolf during this period. For the sea wolf's actual control of the sea of Fuzhou, he has taken a countermeasure of closing his eyes and allowing the sea wolf to tosss around on Nanri Island. As long as this surname Yu is not sitting on Nanri Island and reigning the coast of Fujian, nominally Nanri Island is still Xinghua Prefecture. The court will not ask too much about the territory, and they can continue to be at peace.

Now I heard that this sea wolf has greatly offended Chu Cailao, a tough bandit, and attracted the news that Chu Cailao vowed to retaliate against the sea wolf, which made Lu Wenheng secretly worry.

Because he knows very well what this old Chu Cai is, he has long been notorious in the coastal areas of Fujian. He has been living by plundering villages and towns along the coast all year round. Although he also did business in the sea during this period, his main business relies on robbery and raised thousands of people. , gathering on the sea without a trace, tens of thousands of pirates can be gathered at any time to do great things along the coast together.

This person is very powerful among pirates, and ordinary people dare not provoke at all. Even the officials of Guangdong and Fujian are deeply powerless when they mention this, and the people have changed their conversation. Over the years, tens of thousands of fishermen and ordinary people have died in their hands. After many people were abated, they either sold to others. The place was either tortured to death by them or followed him as a pirate.

During the Wanli period, this scorpion even led the crowd to attack Yuegang, and attacked Jieyang twice in a row. He was bold to the extreme. It was a great threat to the coastal areas of Fujian and Guangxi. The government has attacked it many times. However, this cunning rabbit three caves has never confronted head-on with the officers and army. Over the years, it has become more and more powerful, and the officials The army's discipline is abolished, and the sailors' warships are not repaired, and they are even more powerless to destroy them.

So over the years, the government along the southern coast has been helpless. They just take precautions and just listen to it and let it be free at sea.

But this time, somehow, this sea wolf actually ate the bear-heart leopard and stabbed Chu Cai's nest. It is reasonable that there was a conflict between pirates. As the magistrate of Fuzhou, as the parents and officials of ordinary people, he should not care about or worry about anything.

In the eyes of many officials, the conflict between pirates is their internal conflict. Whoever bites to death is a good thing for the government. However, because Lu Wenheng has a deep understanding of the behavior of sea wolves recently and also knows the style of Chu Cai's behavior, so in his opinion, he would rather harm the two powers lightly. Let the sea wolf continue to stay in the area of Fuzhou, and I don't want to see Chu Cai Lao kill the sea wolf, and then reach out his hand to Fuzhou. At that time, this part of Fuzhou will not be peaceful.

So these days, Lu Wenheng has been sending people to pay close attention to the situation at sea, especially the situation on Nanri Island. Although he is inclined to the sea wolf in his heart, as an official of the imperial court, he can only do this kind of thing and can't help. If he secretly helps the waves Once the news is revealed, he will be charged with a thief.

In this way, he is not even as simple as losing his official dismissal. Once he is impeached, he may even lose his head and behead all over the door. And now, Wei Zhongxian is in power, and the Dongchang's raid has become his minions. He is very dissatisfied with this. Once Wei Zhongxian is asked to grab his handle again. That's even more troublesome.

So when he heard it, he could only be anxious in his heart, but he could not help the sea wolf. He could only secretly make people pay more attention to the news of Nanri Island.

Just a few days ago, Lu Wenheng received a message from his men that a large number of old ships appeared on the sea of Fuzhou, blocking the Nanri Waterway and cutting off the north-south traffic on the sea. Moreover, it is said that near Nanri Island, the sound of artillery from Nanri Island can be heard day and night.

It can be seen that Chu Cailao is leading his troops to attack the sea wolf village on Nanri Island, but because the sea is full of Chu Cai Lao's ships, no one can approach Nanri Island to inquire about the news. The specific situation of the battle between the two sides is unknown.

After listening to this, Lu Wenheng immediately sent someone to report the news to Nanjuyi, who was visiting Tingzhou Prefecture at this time, and ordered all parts of Fuzhou to strengthen precautions and send people to the seaside to inquire about the news.

A few days later, Lu Wenheng received the news that Chu Cai's old fleet on the sea suddenly disappeared from the coastal areas of Xinghua Prefecture and Fuzhou Prefecture, and in exchange, many sea merchants who had fled to the land took ships to sea one after another. It is said that these sea merchants have received news that Chu Cailao's attack on Nanri Island and was beaten by sea wolves this time. The big defeat was lost and fled south with his tail between his legs.

After hearing the news, Lu Wenheng was first happy, and then had a worry in his heart. The happy thing is that Mr. Chu Cai did not destroy the sea wolf and was beaten away by the sea wolf. In this way, the coastal areas of Xinghua Prefecture and Fuzhou Prefecture can still calm down for a while, and these local officials can still be a few days. In a comfortable life, you don't have to worry about banditry in the coastal areas under your jurisdiction.

But what he was worried about was that he felt a little underestimated by this group of sea wolves. Such a big pirate as Chu Cai was unable to take down this group of sea wolves. On the contrary, he was defeated by sea wolves and fled. This shows that the strength of this group of sea wolves has been quite large. If it continues to develop, I'm afraid it will really become a big trouble for the government in the future. Now the surname Yu is still relatively mild for the time being, but one day if his temperament changes greatly and he begins to do something wrong, it may be difficult for the government to contain him.

So after Lu Wenheng learned the news, he was quite conflicted. For a while, he didn't know how to deal with this group of sea wolves. He wanted to discuss with Nan Juyi about how to deal with sea wolves, but he was a little worried. Now this group of sea wolves has not gone too far. Sending troops to suppress it may cause himself trouble. However, if you sit back and watch this group of sea wolves sit down, once this group of sea wolves have the intention to make trouble in the future, I'm afraid it will be as difficult to deal with them as Chu Cai.

For a while, Lu Wenheng couldn't make up his mind. After thinking about it again and again, Lu Wenheng wrote a letter describing the situation of the sea wolves in detail, and sent someone to Nan Juyi, who is still the governor of Fujian, and asked Nan Juyi to consider it.

As for what decision Nan Juyi will make after reading his letter, it depends on Nan Juyi. He has no right to make a final decision to do such a thing.