Chapter 68: Marshal Qi Suppresses The Water Bandits
After the morning roll call the next day.
Lin Qian took the two along with several guards in a small boat to shore, climbing Guo Lao Mountain.
This mountain is on the east side of Nan’ao Island, slightly higher than Da Jian Mountain on the west side.
There were no human traces on the mountain, with trees and vines extremely dense, almost no path to walk.
Fortunately, Lin Qian had previously had people build a watchtower on the mountaintop, with people climbing the tower daily for vigilance, frequently going up and down the mountain, which had cleared a path.
Lin Qian and the others followed that small path up the mountain, walking for nearly two hours, arriving beside the watchtower.
The islander responsible for watch duty heard the noise and was extremely nervous, but upon seeing it was Lin Qian and the others emerging from the woods, he finally relaxed.
Lin Qian had everyone take out water and food to pad their stomachs.
Then he called the islander guarding the tower down to eat together.
After that person came down, Lin Qian handed him a jug of water and an oily cake, asking in his mouth, “Have you seen anything unusual lately?”
The watchtower islander threw back several gulps of water, then wiped his mouth and said, “Reporting to the helmsman, the sea surface is as usual, nothing special.”
Seeing Lin Qian not responding, just staring at him.
The watchtower islander then said in detail, “Every day at dawn, a dozen or so merchant ships of various sizes come over from the shore, and before dark they successively return to shore.
Every day the northern sea area and western sea area also have a few scattered fishing boats, which do not stay long.
The fish catch heading to Qing’ao Bay in the east and Red Stone Bay and Cloud Bay in the south is abundant, with more fishing boats there too.”
Lin Qian took an oily cake from one of his men, sat casually on the ground, and beckoned the watchtower islander to sit and talk.
The watchtower islander chewed two bites of the cake and continued, “When there are many fishing boats, there are about a hundred, and when few, there are still dozens.
The fish catch is mainly mackerel, hairtail, and pomfret, occasionally also catching grouper, golden pomfret, abalone, and such goods.
It’s just a pity that Tanka boats have flat bottoms and cannot withstand the waves in the outer seas, otherwise if they went farther out, the fish catch would definitely be more.”
Fishermen talking about fish catch is just like farmers talking about farming; once they start, they can’t stop.
For the people on the Great Ming shore, Nan’ao Island has narrow land and poor soil, with no value for reclamation at all.
But for the former pearl commoners and Tanka people, the sea here is simply like black soil; reach out and grab, and you can squeeze out oil.
The more the watchtower islander talked, the brighter his eyes got, wishing he could go out to sea fishing right after finishing the oily cake.
Lin Qian’s sloop was designed precisely to compensate for Tanka boats’ inability to voyage in the deep sea.
But now was not the time to think about these things.
White Sand Bay and the Santa Ana anchorage are both in the north of the island; no matter how many fishermen in the east and south of the island, they could not mix into Li Kuiqi’s informants.
Seeing the watchtower islander chatting more and more about the fish catch.
Lin Qian quickly pulled back to the main topic: “Have you discovered any abnormal ships? For example, ones that stay motionless in one place for a long time, or repeatedly loiter?”
The watchtower islander thought for a long time, then slowly shook his head.
Everyone was somewhat disappointed.
Lin Qian smiled and said, “No matter.”
With that, he quickly finished the oily cake in his hand, rubbed the oil on his hands on the ground, and then wiped his hands clean with camphor tree leaves.
Then, using hands and feet, he climbed up the watchtower.
This watchtower was about ten meters from the ground, built using local materials.
Because the surrounding trees had been cleared and it was on a high point of the mountaintop, the view was excellent.
Lin Qian gazed far toward the north of the island, indeed seeing only a few fishing boats working on the vast blue waves of the sea, with no other ships besides them.
Lin Qian took out a telescope from his bosom and carefully searched the sea surface, paying special attention to the blind spots in the view of the Santa Ana.
Seeing Lin Qian climb the watchtower, everyone quickly finished their oily cakes, haphazardly wiped their oily hands on their bodies, and gathered below the watchtower to wait.
After waiting half an hour, Lin Qian suddenly said, “The one guarding the tower, come up!”
The watchtower islander was stunned; Zheng Zhilong pushed him and said, “The helmsman is calling you.”
The watchtower islander came to his senses and hurriedly climbed up.
Lin Qian handed him the telescope, pointed to a distant reef, and said, “Use one eye, look through this tube toward there—what do you see?”
The watchtower islander did as told, then said in utter astonishment, “This must be the immortals’ far-seeing eye; it looks so clear.”
Through the telescope, toward the direction Lin Qian pointed, he saw a reef very far away; at first glance nothing unusual, but upon closer look, behind that reef was actually hidden a sampan.
A person sat on the sampan, wearing a bamboo hat and coarse short shirt, dressed like a fisherman, eating dry rations; every few bites, he stuck his head out from behind the reef, gazing toward the Santa Ana.
This person had not a single fish catch on his boat, his fishing net not even wet, neatly piled together; even if slacking, it wouldn’t be done this way.
“Helmsman, this person is suspicious; he’s not fishing!” the watchtower islander immediately said decisively.
This person was really too far away, the sampan small and hiding behind the reef; without this far-seeing eye, from afar it would be impossible to spot.
At that moment, the watchtower islander felt especially guilty, thinking he had not fulfilled his duties.
“No matter.” Lin Qian comforted him. “You go down first.”
The space on this watchtower was very small, only enough for two people to stand.
After the watchtower islander went down, Lin Qian had Zheng Zhilong come up and gave him the telescope, telling him to look toward that informant’s direction.
Zheng Zhilong raised the telescope; moments later, he said, “Good grief, without this foreigners’ far-seeing eye, you really couldn’t see there was someone there.”
He put down the telescope and said to Lin Qian, “Helmsman, what now? Shall we go catch him?”
Lin Qian shook his head; having just found this one informant, acting rashly would easily alert the enemy.
Even if they caught the person, he might not know Li Kuiqi’s lair location.
Now that they had finally found a clue, it could not be broken off just like this.
At this time Zheng Zhilong showed a look of realization and hurriedly said, “Helmsman, I just remembered something that might be related to Li Kuiqi!”
“Speak quickly.”
“I also heard it from the elders at home: decades ago, there were river bandits on the Yangtze who had a trick to follow behind a wealthy merchant’s ship unnoticed, for several hundred li all the way, until remote wilderness areas, then strike to rob the ship.”
Lin Qian upon hearing felt it was exactly the same as Li Kuiqi’s methods.
Such things happening on land were not unusual, but on open water surfaces, long-term ship-following would definitely be detected.
Riverbanks are hard to traverse; following a ship for several hundred li on horseback would inevitably lose it.
Lin Qian had also thought perhaps send people to swim and follow, but people are not made of iron; they might persist swimming a dozen li, but several hundred li was pure fantasy.
Zheng Zhilong continued, “Such incidents kept happening over several decades, causing panic along the Yangtze River shores; even southerners traveling mostly took carriages instead.
Even when forced to take ships, wealthy households no longer dared use grand large ships but rented shabby small boats.
Strangely, once these wealthy households took small boats, the river bandits would not target them; even if they showed wealth on shore, taking a small boat ensured safety.
Later, in the Wanli era around the teens, Great Commander Qi was appointed governor of Fengyang, overseeing Yangtze mid- and downstream grain transport, bandit suppression, and such matters; upon hearing of this, he immediately understood the bandits’ method.
Great Commander Qi sent officers disguised as rich merchants to spend lavishly in Nanjing, then took a luxurious large ship downstream.
He himself led people waiting by the shore, and saw that long after the large ship passed, a sampan rowing oars passed by.
After the sampan passed and waiting a long time, a large river bandit ship also passed.
It turned out this gang of river bandits selected two people with extremely good eyesight to follow far behind the large ship from afar, rowing oars to keep up.
The sampan was small, invisible from the distant large ship, but the people on the sampan could see the large ship from afar.
The bandits’ own large ship followed behind the sampan, already beyond the plump sheep’s visual range ahead, naturally undetected.
After Great Commander Qi saw through this method, he repeatedly set traps to lure the bandits, clearing out the Yangtze river bandits that had plagued for decades in just a few months, and no one used this method again.”
Lin Qian finished listening, feeling twelve parts admiration in his heart.
As expected of the heroic figure prominently featured in history books; catching a few river bandits was effortless.
If the Great Ming’s generals all had half of Qi Jiguang’s abilities, the Jurchens in Liaodong would have long changed from fierce warriors to fine singers and dancers, and Zheng Zhilong could not have become any king of the Fujian seas.
Back then, Great Commander Qi eliminated the river bandits, with the strategy to defeat the enemy coming first.
Now, Li Kuiqi robs Fuchuan ships, merely copying others’ wisdom afterward.
If he still could not think of a way to crack it, he might as well crash his head and die.
At this moment, Lin Qian already had a plan in mind.
Friendly reminder: the story of Qi Jiguang eliminating the river bandits is something I made up.
