Friends who have seen "Pirates of the Caribbean 3" will definitely have a deep impression on one of the female pirates. In Pirates of the Caribbean 3, the female pirate is referred to as "Lady Qing". She does exist in history, and she is very famous in the history of piracy in the whole world, and is recognized as one of the top ten pirates in the world, and even received the canonization of the Qing court. So, what's going on here?
Speaking of this "Lady Qing", her life can be described as legendary. Born in 1775, died in 1844, Inton, Guangdong Xinhui family. Originally surnamed Shi and known as Xianggu, he was a Cantonese prostitute (that is, a "boat prostitute" on a boat in the coastal area of Guangdong). Later, the pirate leader Zheng Yi fell in love with her at first sight and married her. In this way, Xianggu had a new name - Zheng Yiyi. Speaking of this Zheng Yi, it is not simple, it can be described as a generation of pirates, who have dominated the pearl river for many years, unifying large and small pirates to form a large alliance, and Zheng Yi is their general leader. Zheng Yi's sister-in-law is a person in the jianghu in the end, it is not simple, after marrying Zheng Yi, she can be called a virtuous internal helper, and she will take care of a number of large and small affairs in an orderly manner. However, the weather was unpredictable, people had bad luck, in an accident, Zheng Yi was swept into the sea by a sudden typhoon and drowned.
Figure 1 The chinese female pirate leader in "Pirates of the Caribbean 3" "Lady Qing".
At this time, Zheng Yi's sister-in-law did not immerse herself in the grief of the widow, but inherited her husband's zhi and continued to command the big and small pirates. Because Of zheng yiyi's cleverness and courage in handling things, she was deeply loved by her brothers, and everyone called her "Dragon Sister-in-law".
The so-called "three fires for new officials to take office", Zheng Yiyi understands that if she does not strictly discipline, the entire Red Flag Gang will be scattered. So as soon as she took office, she strictly enforced discipline and strengthened the construction of the team. Zheng Yiyi established very strict rules, stipulating: If there is unauthorized dictatorship or disobedience to the orders of the superiors, they will not be pardoned; those who steal public property or steal the property of the villagers will not be pardoned; and no one may hide the captured booty without permission. In addition, desertion, rape of women, adultery between men and women, etc., are not permitted, and if violated, they are severely punished.
Zheng Yijie once kidnapped a British meat ticket, and after being redeemed to Britain, she wrote a memoir " Terrible Pirate " , which recorded the story of the Red Flag Gang. He believes that the Red Flag Gang's strict discipline is no less than that of the regular army, "it is really incredible." Therefore, he asserted that this team will grow in the future, even in the inferior position.
Figure 2 Zheng Yiyi in battle
The Britishman's view was not wrong, under the painstaking management of Zheng Yiyi, the red flag gang's power was soon able to grow, with 500 or 600 large and small ships and 30,000 or 40,000 people. What is even more powerful is that they are very good at learning, and after seeing the foreign guns and cannons of the foreigners, they not only set up their own shipyards, but also equipped with the same cannons and guns as the foreigners. The Hongqi Gang traveled from the mouth of the Pearl River to the Qiongzhou Strait and dominated for a time.
The high-profile behavior of the Red Flag Gang has long attracted the attention of the officers and soldiers, so they have repeatedly sent troops to encircle and suppress it. But this Red Flag Gang had both strict discipline and advanced weapons, and was not a ragtag group, so it inflicted heavy damage on the Qing army. The Qing court had no choice but to let it develop. If it is only a heavy blow to the Qing army, there is nothing to praise. Zheng Yiyi's feat was to inflict heavy damage on the Portuguese-Macao fleet, including American mercenaries, and Zheng Yiyi surrounded Macau, causing the enemy to run out of ammunition and food. In addition, in the face of the British fleet's invincibility on the entire world's oceans, Zheng Yiyi was not afraid. Once, the British fleet rampaged through the inland rivers of Guangzhou, unscrupulously, as if entering no man's land. The move angered Zheng Yiyi, who attacked the British ships, eventually killing dozens of British soldiers and capturing a British ship. The news reached Britain and shocked the whole country.
Figure 3 Zhang Baozai (1783-1822), formerly known as Zhang Bao, was born in Shuinan Township, Jiangmen Town, Xinhui County, Guangdong Province
In addition, in the Red Flag Gang, another person also has to be mentioned, that is, Zhang Baozai. Zhang Baozai was originally the adopted son of the Zheng couple, and after Zheng Yi's death, he quickly rose to the leadership with his outstanding performance. Zhang Baozai, who is capable of handling things, is favored by Zheng Yijie, considering that she is a woman after all, and she is weak, so she marries Zhang Baozai.
In the face of the growing Red Flag Gang, both the Qing court and the British army felt threatened, so the two sides formed an alliance to completely eliminate the Red Flag Gang. In 1809, after learning that the Qing court and the British army had formed an alliance, Zheng Yiyi was not frightened, but personally sat on Lantau Island, on the one hand, desperately negotiating with it, on the other hand, taking the method of "encircling Wei to save Zhao" to raid Guangzhou and behead the general of Humen. The coalition forces had no choice but to retreat, but the Red Flag Gang had already laid an ambush, and after nine days and nights of fierce fighting, the coalition forces were defeated and could not be defeated, while Zheng Yijie's side only suffered more than forty casualties. This move even annoyed the Qing court, so it continued to increase the number of troops to encircle and suppress. In this battle, Zheng Yiyi won the battle, killing Xu Tingxiong, the admiral of the Zhejiang Marine Division, and more than 20 Qing warships and more than 300 cannons near Lantau Bay in Hong Kong, and capturing Sun Quanmou, the admiral of the Guangdong Marine Division. The Red Flag Gang soldier Feng Zhengsheng once approached Guangzhou and killed Lin Guoliang, the chief soldier of Humen, causing frequent changes in the governor of Liangguang.
Figure 4 Qing Dynasty marine division warships
Of course, this battle is not too big, and the biggest one is that the Portuguese water army in Macau fought with the Qing army. In this battle, the Red Flag Gang dispatched more than 300 large ships, more than 1,500 artillery pieces, and 20,000 personnel. In the face of such strong firepower, the Qing-Portuguese coalition army could only look at the ocean and sigh and let the Red Flag Gang fly away.
Later, because of the internal strife of the gang, the Black Flag Gang, as the second largest gang in the Pirate Alliance, defected to the Qing court, which greatly weakened the power of the Red Flag Gang. At this time, Zheng Yiyi wanted to reconcile with the Qing court, and the Qing court also extended an olive branch to them. However, there was a condition that the pirates had to kneel to the Qing army, but in the face of a pile of straw bales of the Qing army kneeling, the Red Flag Gang was reluctant, and the two sides fell into a stalemate. At the critical moment, Fang Showed his true colors, and Zheng Yiyi decided to personally go to Guangzhou to negotiate with the governor of Liangguang, and finally both sides made concessions before reaching an agreement.
The governor of Liangguang was also shrewd enough to guess the mind of Zheng Yiyi's sister-in-law. Therefore, it was proposed that the emperor should marry and allow Zheng Yiyi and Zhang Baozai to become legal couples. He also made Zhang Baozai a Sanpin official, and later changed from Erpin to Fujian and Penghu as a deputy general, and Zheng Yiyi was also named Lady Of commandments. So the pirates suddenly changed and became officers.
Figure 5 Lin Zexu (30 August 1785 – 22 November 1850), courtesy name Yuanfu
It is said that this Zheng Yi sister-in-law lived until 1844, just after the outbreak of the Opium War, she actively advised Lin Zexu to resist the British army.
The story of Zheng Yiyi has become a dusty history, but her feats are still worthy of our praise. It is rare for a woman to be a pirate leader in the whole world, let alone lead such a large team.
Text: Mr. Lu li
The text was created by the History University Hall team, and the picture originated from the Internet and the copyright belongs to the original author