Chapter 1437 Privateering Letter

However, Lin Feng did not receive all five-star praise. The Police Department was furious that she had allowed the troops to rob without waiting for orders after capturing the Gareles. They believed that their bandit nature was hard to change and that they could be used but not absorbed, otherwise it would affect the purity of the Coast Guard.

This was also what Zhao Hao had promised Jin Ke and the others.

But there are always exceptions. After weighing the pros and cons, Zhao Hao still hopes to at least absorb Lin Feng and her men into the coast guard team.

Queen Elizabeth can make Captain Drake her Vice Admiral and Deputy Commander of the Great Ying Fleet. How can Mr. Zhao be worse than an old maid?

Moreover, the Coast Guard has now formed a solid system, a relatively complete training model, rules and regulations, and most importantly, a firm belief! I don't believe that it can be assimilated by a group of pirates, instead of assimilating the pirates!

In response to this, Zhao Hao convened a high-level police meeting to persuade everyone to accept this challenge and see if the coast guard force, as a melting pot, can transform a group of pirates with bad habits into loyal, reliable, militarily competent, well-mannered and disciplined coast guard officers and soldiers!

Now that the young master had spoken, conservatives such as Jin Ke and Ma Yinglong could only reserve their opinions and actively cooperate.

~~

After making three rules with Lin Feng, Zhao Hao finally agreed to her request and asked Lin Daoqian, "What about you?"

"I will resolutely obey your arrangement. I will do whatever the group needs me to do! The same goes for my subordinates!" Lin Daoqian immediately put on a higher profile. In terms of loyalty to his master, even his own sister could not compare to him.

"Okay, then you can continue to be your official appointed by the court." Zhao Hao nodded with satisfaction and said, "Then, as we said before, move to Tuen Mun before the end of the year and return Xiawei to Chaoyang County."

"Yes, sir." Lin Daoqian agreed readily. In fact, if he hadn't run into the Portuguese fleet halfway, he would have settled down in Tuen Mun by now. However, he asked with some concern: "But now that the Portuguese and pirates have been wiped out, will the provincial capital regret it and not want an unreliable person like me to occupy the Pearl River Estuary?"

He was very clear-headed and knew that if he wanted to maintain his position, he had to have someone above him, a place under his feet, and brothers around him. If he didn't have anyone to rely on and lost his territory, his life would be miserable. Let alone becoming a deputy general, what would it matter if he became a general? Wouldn't he still be a civil servant and a dog? And he was a dog that had lost its home...

"Who said the red-haired devils and pirates have been wiped out?" Zhao Hao smiled faintly and said, "There is still a long way to go, General Lin!"

"Yes." Lin Daoquan's mind moved, and he thought of the four words 'raising the enemy to protect oneself'.

"This is not a case of keeping the enemy at bay! It's a fact. The Portuguese Far East Fleet was completely annihilated, and they lost two large sailing ships. They will not give up." Zhao Hao said righteously, "And those pirates are like leeks. They grow again after being cut. They can't be killed. So we must always be prepared to fight to defend Guangdong's sea borders!"

"Yes, sir!" Lin Daoqian responded loudly and hurriedly, thinking that he was worthy of being the master, and his shameless spirit was more handsome than others.

"Besides, you can rest assured that I will do the job." Zhao Hao smiled and reassured him, "To tell you the truth, Yin Butang and Lin Zhongcheng have jointly submitted a petition to the court, requesting the division of the southern coastal area of ​​Dongguan County and the establishment of a new Xin'an County, in which Tuen Mun will be located. If nothing unexpected happens, it will be done before the end of the year. The role of this county is just like the establishment of Chenghai County in Chaozhou, which was specifically designed to protect the provincial capital. Now you know how determined the province is, right?"

"Is that so? Then I can rest assured." Lin Daoquan breathed a sigh of relief. It was good that the young master had an overall plan. What he feared most was that after Zhao Hao returned to the north, no one would take care of him.

He quickly expressed his position, "Please rest assured, even if we cannot become official marine police officers for the time being, I will still require my brothers to follow the three major disciplines and eight points of attention. I will make sure they are loyal and reliable to you!"

"You are very good. I am very confident in you." Zhao Hao nodded approvingly and encouraged him, "But it is always right for you to train your troops well. You will be very useful in the future. A real man should expand the territory and go down in history, so as to live up to this unprecedented great age of navigation!"

"Yes, sir!" Lin Daoquan felt that his whole body, inside and out, had been completely sublimated by his master.

"Is there nothing else?" Zhao Hao smiled and picked up his helmet, then stood up and said, "I won't disturb you two siblings talking..."

"Sir..." Lin Daoqian hesitated and said, "There is one more thing. I don't know if I should tell you or not."

"Oh, tell me about it?" Zhao Hao stopped and asked with a smile.

"The guys captured by our company are indeed guilty of a thousand deaths," Lin Daoqian said with all his courage, "but many of them are our brothers who escaped death from Nan'ao Island. I would feel bad if I don't plead for them."

Then he lowered his head and whispered, "If you have already made up your mind, just pretend you didn't say anything."

"Oh..." Zhao Hao looked at Lin Daoqian with a smile, thinking of Xu Wei's evaluation of him:

'He values ​​profit over his own life, and still has a sense of righteousness; he is resourceful and decisive, but lacks courage.'

Single clove of garlic is spicy, you can see through it.

"Then what do you want to do with them?" Zhao Hao asked without comment.

"I haven't thought about it." Lin Daoqian hurriedly denied it.

"Then think about it now." Zhao Hao said lightly.

"Yes." Lin Daoqian responded quickly, wiped his sweat, and asked tentatively: "Sir, are you willing to let them join us?"

"Impossible." Zhao Hao shook his head slowly and said, "The group will only consider those who fight on equal terms with me. The last thing my Ming Dynasty lacks is people, so there is no need to recruit surrenders or traitors."

"That's right!" Lin Feng also nodded vigorously and said proudly: "We can fight and bleed for the group! We don't want those useless people!"

She was afraid that those people would join the gang and bring bad reputation to her brothers...

"Then I can't think of it." Lin Daoqian knew that Zhao Hao would not agree, so he said that on purpose. Although he wanted to recruit those sea lords and their subordinates, Lin Daoqian's intelligence did not allow him to do such a stupid thing, and he didn't even dare to mention it.

So I kicked the ball back to the young master to see where he would kick it.

But Zhao Hao did not do as he wished and throw all those rotten fish and shrimp to him. Instead, he made other arrangements: "I can ask for their pardon, but they must first undergo labor reform on Taiwan Island to see the effect."

"As they should. They dared to confront the group, so they must be severely punished to serve as a warning to others!" Lin Daoqian nodded quickly.

"Of course, if they reform well, the group can return their subordinates and ships to them under certain conditions." Zhao Hao said in a deep voice.

After annihilating the Portuguese army that day, the 30,000 pirates fled in panic, trying to board the ship and leave this hellhole. But before they reached Shen'ao Bay, they ran into their accomplices who had escaped from the ship and wanted to join them.

Upon asking, we found out that Shen'ao Bay had been blocked by the Jiangnan Group's fleet and not a single ship could escape.

Now that's a problem. Thirty-five or six hundred people have no food and no way to leave the island. If they don't want to die, they can only either fight them or surrender.

How could the pirates have the courage to fight to the death? Moreover, there were a bunch of guys like Lin Zhiling and Lin Zhiying stirring up trouble, so a large number of pirates surrendered that afternoon.

As for the remaining half, Zhao Hao distributed secret weapons to the Marines and security guards stationed at the wall - meat buns and barbecued meat on bamboo skewers... and they were freshly grilled and sprinkled with cumin.

The team members asked the pirate who surrendered first to hold the trumpet and shout loudly into the forest. "Brothers, the master is calling you back for dinner. If you are late, there will be nothing left..."

Soon, the pirates, who were already hungry, dropped their weapons, raised their hands, rushed to the wall, and surrendered without exception.

~~

"But then they will no longer be pirates, but privateers bound by the group. They can no longer operate along the coast of the Ming Dynasty, but must go to Southeast Asia! And they will operate in specific waters according to orders, attacking merchant ships and coastal cities of one or several countries. If they violate orders, their privateering licenses will be revoked! Those with serious offenses will even be wanted and eliminated by the Coast Guard Fleet, and their families left in Taiwan will be executed!"

"Privateer license?" Lin Daoqian was greatly shocked. He thought that the master is the master, and even pirates can talk about robbery in such an elegant way.

This is not Zhao Hao's invention; it has been common in Europe many years ago.

During the Age of Exploration, armed civilian ships were generally considered to be part of a country's maritime armed forces. Therefore, coastal countries and city-states in Europe issued privateering licenses, authorizing individuals to attack or plunder ships of other countries in order to disrupt the enemy's maritime trade lines and weaken the enemy's strength. This can be described as unrestricted warfare during the Age of Exploration.

The most prominent representatives are naturally the British pirate captains and the Dutch sea beggars. In the rise of these two maritime empires, the privateer captains were not just supporting roles, but the protagonists who played a decisive role, at least in the early stages!

Without privateering captains like Captain Hawkins and Captain Drake, there would be no British Royal Navy, and naturally no British Empire.

Without the beggars of the sea, how could there be the coachman of the sea who truly defeated Spain, suppressed Britain to the point of being unable to raise its head, and dominated the ocean for a hundred years?

So although privateering is not honorable, it is absolutely necessary in the Age of Exploration. After all, this is an era where glory and dirt, civilization and blood coexist.

However, the Coast Guard fleet, which adheres to the strategy of elite troops and has strict discipline, is actually targeting the main navies of various countries and is obviously not suitable for undertaking dirty privateering missions.

In the north, the Tamra Garrison issued a privateering license to the Amago family, which was protected by the Water Police, allowing them to cruise in the Tsushima Strait, attack all smuggling ships that did not belong to the Tamra Chamber of Commerce, and even attack the smuggling ports of the Joseon Dynasty. They could keep half of the spoils, but they had to drive the captured ships to the Onsenjin Water Police Station first, and only after the Water Police Station confirmed that they were smuggling ships could they be divided.

Zhao Hao originally planned to let Lin Fenglai play the role of Kanosuke in the Tsushima Strait and carry out privateering in the South China Sea.

However, plans cannot keep up with changes. Who would have thought that Lin Feng would become his female apprentice and was determined to join the Coast Guard. As a teacher, Mr. Zhao must respect his apprentice's ideals. Especially for female apprentices...

So it's a good deal for those sea masters.

But it depends on their performance. If they don’t reform themselves, forget about going back to the sea. Just go back to Chaozhou and play the finale of a thief!

ps. Post first and then revise.

(End of this chapter)