Chapter 456
Female Pirate
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A few days ago, when Ye Shiyun and Qian Youniang were studying math problems, Ye Shiyun gave Qian Youniang several difficult questions, but none of them stumped her.
Ye Shiyun felt that her authority had been challenged, so she shamelessly threw the Twenty Trees Problem, one of the three great unsolved problems in mathematics, to Qian Youniang.
This time, Ye Shiyun finally stumped Qian Youniang, causing Qian Youniang to not appear in front of Ye Shiyun for several days.
On this day, Ye Shiyun and Zhao Yu's other concubines were playing Werewolf with Zhao Yu.
Just as the judge finished shouting "It's dark, please close your eyes," and Zhao Yu, the wolf king, was considering "who to kill," Qian Youniang ran over with a stack of Xuan paper in her hand.
Then, the game of Werewolf became unplayable.
Qian Youniang ran straight to Ye Shiyun's side and asked, "Your Highness Ye, do you think my calculations are correct?"
The witch Ye Shiyun was considering who to poison if she were to be stabbed when she heard Qian Youniang come to ask her without any regard for the consequences. She had no choice but to open her eyes and then saw Qian Youniang, who looked anxious and somewhat unkempt, placing the result she had calculated in front of her.
At this moment, Zhao Yu also opened his eyes.
Seeing this, Zhao Yu couldn't help but sigh, 'How could this woman be so proficient in arithmetic? Besides being a genius, her immense enthusiasm is a natural advantage.'
Zhao Yu spoke to Ye Shiyun, who seemed somewhat embarrassed, and said, "Take a look at it for her. I also want to know if she can answer this question."
When Zhao Yu was in school, he also encountered this problem and even tried to solve it without thinking.
The results are obvious.
Zhao Yu could only say, "It truly lives up to its reputation as one of the world's three great unsolved problems. Even with the answer in hand, I still couldn't figure it out."
Since Zhao Yu had said so, Ye Shiyun had no choice but to take a look at the result Qian Youniang had calculated.
After reviewing it, Ye Shiyun didn't answer but instead asked, "Do you think your calculation is correct?"
Qian Youniang said confidently, "I am right."
After saying that, Qian Youniang added uncertainly, "But I always feel there are more rows..."
At this moment, Zhao Yu asked from the side, "How many rows did she calculate?"
Ye Shiyun replied, "Sixteen lines."
Upon hearing this, Zhao Yu gasped in shock.
According to Zhao Yu, it wasn't until the 16th century that ancient Greece, Rome, and Egypt completed the arrangement of the sixteen lines and widely applied the beautiful patterns to elegant decorative architecture and magnificent arts and crafts.
But Qian Youniang accomplished this five or six hundred years earlier.
"What kind of monster is this?!"
Zhao Yu couldn't help but scrutinize this genius who was no different from other women in bed.
Unexpectedly, Qian Youniang didn't even look at Zhao Yu; she just stared at Ye Shiyun and asked, "Are there more rows?"
Seeing Qian Youniang's eagerness to learn, Ye Shiyun couldn't bear to keep her in suspense any longer and directly told her the answer: "There are still eighteen lines."
Upon hearing this, Qian Youniang was not discouraged by her incomplete calculation, but rather overjoyed. She immediately asked Ye Shiyun, "Are there really eighteen lines?! Lady Ye, could you teach me?"
Ye Shiyun nodded and said to Qian Youniang, "Not only are there eighteen lines, but also twenty and twenty-three lines."
This time, Qian Youniang was truly shocked. She had only intuitively felt that there should be eighteen more lines, but unexpectedly, there were so many more!
Qian Youniang couldn't wait to ask Ye Shiyun for guidance: "Please enlighten me, Your Highness!"
Ye Shiyun gave her seat to Zhao Yuannu and went to the side to help Qian Youniang solve one of the three great mathematical problems of later generations.
Just then, Zhang Bangchang suddenly came to Zhao Yu's side and said in a low voice, "Your Majesty, pirates have been rampant lately and may come to Hangzhou. Would it be better for Your Majesty to move to a safe place?"
Pirates have always existed in the Song Dynasty, and their activities are quite frequent, mainly concentrated in the southeastern coast and southern sea areas of the Song Dynasty.
These pirates were a diverse group, including bankrupt fishermen and unemployed vagrants from the coast, as well as armed gangs of smugglers. Some of them even colluded with the forces of neighboring vassal states. They not only plundered merchant ships and coastal villages, but also disrupted the Grand Canal and overseas trade routes, becoming a major threat to the Song Dynasty's coastal defense.
During the reign of Emperor Taizong of the Ming Dynasty, in the coastal areas of Mingzhou and Taizhou in eastern Zhejiang, fishermen, burdened by exorbitant taxes and drastically reduced catches, resorted to banditry. They operated small fishing boats, hiding during the day and venturing out at night to plunder salt fields and merchant ships along the coast, and even raiding patrol stations and fortified villages.
At that time, the imperial court initially used the naval forces of the patrol and inspection offices to suppress the pirates, but they suffered repeated defeats due to their small boats and inferior weapons. Later, the court changed its policy to appeasement and selected their leader as "pirate-suppressing patrol inspector," ordering him to lead his troops to defend the sea frontier. Thus, this group of pirates was transformed into the Song Dynasty's coastal defense force.
During the Tiansheng era of Emperor Renzong, pirates in the coastal waters of Chaozhou and Quanzhou, bordering Fujian and Guangdong, were mostly armed merchants smuggling spices and ivory. They colluded with officials in Lingnan to monopolize overseas trade routes, resisting arrest when encountering official ships and plundering civilian vessels.
In the early years of the Qingli era, pirate leader Chen Da Liao gathered a thousand men and occupied the Penghu Islands as his lair, repeatedly harassing Quanzhou Port.
At that time, the imperial court ordered the Fujian Circuit Transport Commissioner to lead the navy to besiege the enemy, but due to the collusion of officials with the enemy, the siege could not be completed after a long period of attack.
Even during Zhao Yu's reign, there were pirates. At their most rampant, they even went as far as the waters off Dengzhou and Laizhou in Shandong and the waters off Japan, where they collaborated with Jurchen spies to plunder Song Dynasty grain transport ships and deliver the grain to the Jurchen camp in Liaodong.
Zhao Yu was furious and sent the Song Dynasty's navy to besiege and annihilate the pirates. He then hanged the pirates at various docks in Dengzhou, Laizhou, and Jidi.
Furthermore, Zhao Yu established patrol offices and formed a maritime prohibition army to patrol and defend important ports and waterways, while also dispatching the Song Dynasty navy to wipe out all pirates within the Song Dynasty's territory.
After the pirates were captured, they were all hanged in Qiongzhou Port and Guangzhou Port, which were notorious for their piracy.
Passing caravans were full of praise upon seeing this, feeling that the Song Dynasty truly deserved to be the greatest dynasty of its time. Although the Song Dynasty's maritime trade tax was relatively high, there was a reason for it.
Look, the pirates, who were repeatedly suppressed by the previous dynasty, were almost completely wiped out by Zhao Yu in one reign, which was a very significant result.
What pleased the traveling caravans most was that as long as they had a complete record of paying customs duties with the Maritime Trade Office of the Song Dynasty and could prove that the goods were indeed lost by them, the stolen goods recovered by the Song Dynasty would be returned in full.
Zhao Yu's governance of the seas undoubtedly greatly helped the development of maritime trade.
However, piracy is something that cannot be eradicated.
Merchant ships traveled between coastal ports and overseas vassal states, carrying goods such as silk, porcelain, spices, ivory, and light and heavy industrial products, often worth tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. Such huge profits were enough to drive countless desperados to take risks.
Bankrupt fishermen and displaced people along the coast, already struggling to make a living, are easily tempted to band together and plunder when they see that maritime merchants are making huge profits. Some maritime merchants, in order to make huge profits, will also secretly collude with pirates, passing off inferior goods as superior ones to pass off as superior ones to pass inspections by the Maritime Trade Office, and smuggling high-quality goods through pirates, further fueling the piracy trend.
Many maritime merchants were merchants when they laid down their weapons, and pirates when they picked them up. They engaged in maritime trade while simultaneously robbing other maritime merchants.
Some pirates were actually fishermen along the coast. When they received news of a "big fish," the entire village might turn into pirates.
Furthermore, the sea area is vast, with ports and waterways scattered throughout, making it difficult for the imperial navy to establish patrol offices and form a maritime prohibition army even if it did.
Pirates were accustomed to operating at night and hiding during the day, fleeing to remote islands or vassal states after their raids. Naval forces, limited by range and supply constraints, often found it difficult to pursue them. Furthermore, some coastal officials were corrupt and accepted bribes, providing intelligence and protection to the pirates, which repeatedly hampered anti-piracy operations.
More importantly, the more prosperous the maritime trade became, the more covetous people there were. With collusion between internal and external forces, the scourge of piracy was naturally impossible to eradicate.
Most importantly, when the Song Dynasty cracked down hard, these pirates would flee out of the Song Dynasty's waters and go to operate in the waters of the Indochina Peninsula, where they could still plunder.
Some pirates were even pirates from vassal states.
For example, pirates from the vassal states of the Joseon Dynasty and Champa frequently sailed large ships into the waters off Guangzhou and Qiongzhou. They not only plundered merchants but also abducted coastal residents and sold them overseas as slaves.
This time, pirates from foreign countries joined forces with pirates within the Song Dynasty to harass the outer port of Guangzhou. They have already seized dozens of merchant ships, causing shockwaves in Guangdong and Guangxi.
Nie Shan, then the Pacification Commissioner of Guangnan East Circuit, urgently mobilized the navy to resist, but failed because someone tipped him off.
Recently, these pirates have been wandering around Fuzhou and Liuqiu, seemingly heading north.
It was for this reason that Zhang Bangchang advised Zhao Yu to hide, in case these pirates came to Hangzhou, Zhao Yu would be in danger.
According to Zhang Bangchang and some ministers, Zhao Yu should not go south to the south for now, but return to the capital first, because a wise man does not stand under a dangerous wall.
Zhang Bangchang and others also knew that Zhao Yu was an emperor who rode on horseback and would not be afraid of these small pirates.
Furthermore, Zhao Yu also had the most powerful military force in the world, the Divine Machine Army, by his side. If those pirates were to plunder at sea, that would be one thing, but if they actually landed in Hangzhou, they would only face certain death.
Although they knew this, as subjects, Zhang Bangchang and others still did not want Zhao Yu to take any risks.
Zhao Yu ignored the advice of Zhang Bangchang and others. Just as they knew, if Zhao Yu was scared away by these petty thieves, how could he be the emperor?
However, since the piracy problem showed signs of resurgence, especially during Zhao Yu's southern tour, Zhao Yu certainly had to deal with it and couldn't ignore it.
Zhao Yu waved Zhang Bangchang away, then summoned Yuwen Xuzhong and asked him, "Do you have a plan to deal with the pirates?"
Yuwen Xuzhong had worked with Song Jiang to clean up the gentry and landlords in Jiangnan and had deployed a large number of spies there. Over the years, he had been helping Zhao Yu keep an eye on Jiangnan.
—In fact, the other three intelligence agencies also extended their reach into Jiangnan, but none of them had as deep an operation as Yuwen Xuzhong.
This is also why Zhao Yu sought advice from Yuwen Xuzhong instead of others.
Yuwen Xuzhong did not disappoint Zhao Yu. He remained silent for a while and then said, "I recommend someone who may be able to resolve this matter for Your Majesty."
Two days later, Yuwen Xuzhong brought a woman to Zhao Yu.
The woman was wearing the palace dress commonly worn by women in Zhao Yu's harem. Without careful observation, she was no different from any of Zhao Yu's countless palace maids.
But upon closer inspection, one can see that this woman is different.
Not to mention their beauty, the young women brought before Zhao Yu were rarely unattractive.
What makes this woman different is that she has a wild nature, and she should also have a well-built physique—although Zhao Yu did not undress her to see her body, based on his experience with tens of thousands of women, Zhao Yu was absolutely confident in his judgment.
Moreover, Zhao Yu was certain that the woman's muscles were not acquired through exercise or sports training, but through martial arts.
Of course, Zhao Yu made this judgment because he knew her identity.
On the surface, she was a maritime merchant, but in reality, she was a pirate—a major pirate.
China has a unique pirate group since ancient times – the Tanka people.
The Tanka people of later generations all lived on boats, drifting across the seas and making a living by fishing.
In this era, fishing was merely a sideline for the Tanka people; their true profession was maritime plunder. Therefore, those who knew them called them "Tanka thieves."
The Tanka bandits, centered around the four major surnames of Zheng, Shek, Ma, and Tsui, occupied the Lantau Island area. They not only had fortified camps but also their own shipyards, and their sphere of influence extended from the Pearl River Estuary all the way to the Qiongzhou Strait.
They also have their own set of rules for conduct:
Anyone who abuses their power, acts arbitrarily, or disobeys orders shall be executed without pardon.
Anyone who dares to humiliate a woman shall be killed without mercy.
Those who steal public property or arbitrarily disturb rural areas are guilty of unforgivable crimes.
Those who conceal spoils of war or harbor accomplices shall be convicted according to the amount of the concealed property;
Those who deserted or were absent without cause were punished by having their ears cut off and were then dragged in front of the brothers as a public spectacle.
As for those who engage in immoral private lives, they are also severely punished—for adultery, men are beheaded, and women are tied with heavy objects and drowned in the sea.
It is easy to see that this was a disciplined and well-managed pirate group, not just a mob that only knew how to burn, kill, and plunder.
This also made their pirate gang a very powerful force among pirates.
—The combined forces of Zheng, Shi, Ma, and Xu numbered over ten thousand, with one or two hundred warships of various sizes. They even possessed three treasure ships of the Song Dynasty and Li Lin cannons, making them a formidable force.
This female pirate was named Shi Honggu. The reason she was able to become the leader of the Tanka pirates was firstly because the man she was about to marry was Zheng Long, the head of the Tanka pirates; secondly because she came from the Shi family, the second largest family among the Tanka pirates; and thirdly because, among the Zheng family members of this generation, only Zheng Long was qualified to be the head of the family, and no one else was cut out for it.
So, after Zheng Long was accidentally killed by Li Lin's cannon of the Song army, the Zheng family and the Shi family discussed it and decided that the benefits should not go to outsiders, so they joined forces to elect Shi Honggu as the leader of the Tanka bandits.
After Shi Honggu took over the Tanka bandits, she strictly enforced their rules.
Under Shi Honggu's leadership, the Tanka thieves grew rapidly, striking fear into the hearts of all merchant ships.
This allowed Shi Honggu to quickly make a great name for herself among the pirates.
At one time, Shi Honggu was the overlord of this waterway in the southeast. In order for merchant caravans to trade safely in this sea area, they had to pay a considerable amount of protection money to the Tanka thieves.
The name "Hong Gu" became a nightmare for passing caravans.
It wasn't until Zhao Yu sent men to wipe out the pirates within the Song Dynasty's borders that Shi Honggu and the Tanka thieves were forced to change professions and become maritime merchants.
However, "Red Sister" still enjoys considerable prestige among the pirates.
Yuwen Xuzhong had already investigated everything about the Tanka thieves led by Shi Honggu and wanted to use Shi Honggu to eliminate these pirates.
Shi Honggu also wanted to accept the imperial court's offer of amnesty, whitewash the Tanka bandits, and then work as a lucrative maritime merchant, preferably with an official background and the protection of high-ranking officials.
Yuwen Xuzhong and Shi Honggu hit it off immediately.
So, Shi Honggu was brought before Zhao Yu by Yuwen Xuzhong...
...(End of chapter)