A Stroll Through the Jianghu to Cure Boredom
Jiang Hao's fleet set out for Ryukyu in grand force. It now had thirteen warships: four five-masted vessels, seven three-masted warships, and the two Dutch sailing warships they had just seized.
Jiang Hao ordered a group of veteran sailors aboard to familiarize themselves with the Dutch warships as quickly as possible so they could be put into combat. Though sailing ships differed from Great Ming seagoing vessels, these old sailors were experienced, and with Jiang Hao's guidance, it was not difficult for them to learn.
The sea stretched endlessly before them. The fleet cleaved through the waves, yet even thirteen ships were merely a tiny speck upon the vast ocean. Jiang Hao stood on deck as seabirds occasionally flew down and landed on his hand.
The journey to Ryukyu could not be wasted. They could investigate the gathering places of the Japanese pirates along the way. The Japanese pirates who plagued the southeastern coast during the Ming Dynasty had no official headquarters; they merely formed their own strongholds and gathering points.
The places with the most such strongholds were Shuangyu Island in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, the Zhoushan Islands, Songjiang, Hangzhou, and places in Fujian such as Hengyu, Niutian, Xinghua, and Pinghai.
Putuo Garrison was located in the Zhoushan Islands. Jiang Hao had already raided more than a dozen pirate strongholds there. Of course, they had only been coastal strongholds, where he could make full use of his cannons. He had not bothered with those deeper inland.
As he investigated, Jiang Hao pondered the matter of the Japanese pirates. They were mainly samurai defeated in Japan's civil wars—in modern terms, remnants of anti-government forces. Yet even more of them were actually Great Ming people. To put it bluntly, they were pirates. Calling them