During the Jiaqing period, piracy was very rampant, and the imperial court had not been suppressed for ten years, so why did it turn itself in
Introduction: With the advent of spring, the temperature gradually rises, the fish in the ocean also begin to float, greedily breathing the warm air in the spring, the fishermen along the coast of Guangdong are also busy at this time, to seize this excellent fishing opportunity to make a fortune; fishermen always get up early in the morning, pull up the sleepy-eyed son, take tools to drive the family's fishing boat to the sea; in the evening, the fish are full of warehouses, and when the old Zhang father and son are in a good mood, two boats rush from afar. Immediately after jumping from above five fierce and vicious knife-wielding men, old Zhang suddenly felt bad, this is to meet the pirates; the result is not only the fruits of the day's hard work were all snatched away by the pirates, his own son was also taken away as a hostage, the pirates asked for a huge ransom before they were willing to release people, Lao Zhang thought to himself, this time the guy who ate by himself- the fishing boat, I am afraid to sell it, otherwise his son may be buried in the sea.......
During the Qing Jiaqing period, the pirate activities along the southeast coast were very rampant, they robbed merchant ships passing by, seized hostages for ransom, and privately collected commercial taxes from the sea, which not only seriously affected the normal life of local fishermen and merchants, but also challenged the Qing Dynasty's control over the sea; the Qing court encircled and suppressed this for ten years, but it was not until the fifteenth year of Jiaqing that the pirates of two large gangs were destroyed, but then many other pirates took the initiative to surrender to the Qing court, those who used to rob houses, Why would a pirate who does nothing evil voluntarily turn himself in? Did their conscience find out or did they have something else to hide? Listen to the editors slowly interpret it for you.
According to statistics, more than 30,000 pirates surrendered themselves to the Qing court in the fifteenth year of Jiaqing, and the Qing court confiscated more than 2,000 cannons and more than 100 large ships; the well-equipped pirates took the initiative to surrender themselves to the Qing court, which was for a reason.
First, the pirate leader was wiped out.
From the perspective of the internal organization of the pirates, once the leader is destroyed, the rest of the gang will be scattered; for example, Zhu Tao, the largest gang in southern Fujian, is the top pirate group in the local area; on December 27, 13, Jiaqing, Zhu Meng was surrounded by Qing court sailors, and finally Zhu Lian was unable to defeat the Qing army, he was wounded by a shell and died of throat; three months later, Zhu Tao's brother Zhu Wo led more than 3,000 pirates and surrendered to the Qing army with 42 sea ships and 800 copper cannons It can be seen that the central role of the leader within the pirates can not be replaced, even if it is the brother of the gang leader, it is difficult to revive the bandit gang; then most of the pirate leaders were captured and killed by the Qing army, and the rest of the gang also collectively defected like Zhu Lian and his gang, and surrendered to the Qing army.
Second, pirates are afraid of implicating their families.
The Qing court's method of cracking down on pirates has always been that one person broke the law and implicated the whole family, and the pirates were difficult to capture for many years at sea, so the Qing army tried to capture the pirates' families and force them to surrender; for example, in the thirteenth year of Jiaqing, the inspector of Zhejiang learned that the great pirate Zhang Azhi was a person from Hui'an County, so he sent people to Zhang Azhi's hometown to arrest his mother and brother, Zhang Azhi learned that his mother and brother were arrested and was anxious, leading a gang of 160 pirates and 86 artillery pieces to surrender to the Qing army; then Zhang Azhi also emphasized in his confession. The only wish was that the imperial court would release the mother and brother; the Qing court also kept its promise that as long as there were pirates who voluntarily surrendered, they must forgive their families, otherwise they would immediately execute the captured pirate families; therefore, most of the pirates whose families were captured could only be forced to surrender, in exchange for the peace of their families.
Third, the pirate profession is too risky.
Most of the pirates in the Qing Dynasty were from poor fishermen in the surrounding areas, and most of them were lazy and lazy, who wanted to obtain wealth through unearned gains, so they embarked on the criminal road of robbery and redemption; although this method was highly profitable, it was extremely unstable, and it also had a very large risk, and not every time they risked going to sea, they could meet the right target of robbery; even if they encountered a rich ship, the other side would also have armed protection, so it was not necessarily successful; on the other hand, pirates were illegal occupations, and the Qing court cracked down on it for a long time. Pirates are encountered by the Qing army sailors with strong guns, and there is a high probability that they will die; in addition, the sea is mysterious, often because of extreme weather, they will put themselves in danger, and there is a danger of being swallowed up by the sea;
It can be said that pirates are an outlaw profession that pins their heads to the waistband of their pants, so after they have experienced the bitterness of it, as soon as they have the opportunity to turn to normal occupations, they will immediately abandon their pirate status; and the Qing court also encouraged pirates to go ashore, ensuring that the pirates who surrendered to the mainland were not blamed in the past, incorporated into the local security team, transformed from pirates into the protector of the sea, and the stubborn resisters would be pursued to the end by the Qing court; so in the face of such coercion and inducement, a large number of pirates dropped their weapons and surrendered to the Qing court For example, the pirate leader Guo Po belt, after leading more than 5,000 people of the headquarters black flag gang to surrender to the Qing army, was entrusted by the Qing army with a heavy responsibility and sent to requisition the former ally Hongqi Gang; as a result, Guo Po belt, who changed his identity, killed a large number of Red Flag Gang pirates and was rewarded by the Qing army; the case of Guo Po belt triggered a domino effect, after which the pirates were afraid of surrendering and did not make wedding clothes for others in time, and in just four months, the bandit gangs that could rank high in Guangdong waters surrendered to the Qing army one after another.
To sum up, in the Jiaqing period, the pirate gangs turned themselves in, mainly because after the death of the leader, the gang went to disintegrate, the family members were arrested and forced them to surrender on their own initiative, and the Qing court's severe crackdown and pacification, under the joint catalysis of these points, the pirates all laid down their weapons and changed their faces and became people again.
[References: Records of Emperor Renzong of the Qing Dynasty, Exploration of the Problem of Piracy in Guangdong in the Qing Dynasty]