Chapter 244: Nanyang Sea King (Part 2)

After becoming a pirate, Zhang Baozai quickly became Zheng Yi's right-hand man with his superb martial arts and familiarity with maritime affairs. After Zheng Yi's death, he colluded with Zheng Yi's wife, and secretly restrained the sea gang members under Zheng Yi's command, and established the Five-Sew Sea Gang, plundering merchant ships from all over the place.

By the middle of Jiaqing, Zhang Baozai's sea gang had become the largest maritime force in the South China Ocean. He had 800 large ships, more than 100,000 small ships, and more than 100,000 gangs. His forces were spread throughout the South China Ocean, and as far as the Indian Ocean. At that time, not only the Qing Dynasty navy was very afraid of it, but even the British East India Company fleet had to avoid its edge. He was also respected as the Sea King of the South China Ocean at that time.

Although Zhang Baozai had a huge maritime power, he was an official fan like Song Jiang in Water Margin. In the 15th year of Jiaqing, the Qing court sent someone to invite him. He agreed without hesitation. In order to take full advantage of him and the Qing court, he also claimed to the outside world that the Qing court had proper tactics and cut off his food, which forced him to surrender.

Even though Zhang Baozai had a very high prestige among the pirates under his command, not everyone was willing to surrender to the Qing court. A large number of people did not leave with Zhang Baozai and continued to be pirates in the Nanyang area under the banner of the Five-Color Sea Gang. At that time, the Qing court was already extremely corrupt. The shipping companies of Britain, Portugal, Western, and Netherlands, led by the East India Company, bribed officials from Guangdong and Guangxi, and asked them to send the Qing navy to clear out the pirates of the South China Sea on the grounds of clearing the sea transportation, and the person who served as the commander of the navy was Zhang Baozai who had just surrendered.

Since Zhang Baozai was very familiar with the sea tactics of the Five Color Sea Gang and all the supply bases, he would go to every battle and do everything. In a short period of time, the Yellow Banner, Qing Banner, Lan Banner and other sea gangs in the Five Color Sea Gang were destroyed one after another. The remaining two flag sea gangs gave up their sea ships and entered the inlands of various continents in the South China Sea, part of which became bandits, and part of which became local farmers.

After this battle, although the South China Sea Transportation was cleared, the Qing Dynasty navy lost all the losses, so that the South China Sea Transportation Line was completely in the hands of foreigners and merchants such as the East India Company. From some aspects, Zhang Baozai was both a hero and a sinner, and often the characters in history were full of contradictions.

Xu Changqing was surprised when the Western woman in front of him asked Zhang Baozai, but soon thought of a clue, frowned, and said coldly: "The reason why you asked Zhang Baozai was for his treasure?"

Although Zhang Baozai's character is still to be discussed, no one can doubt his way of plundering treasures. During his decades as a pirate, the East India Company lost hundreds of thousands of taels of gold in his hands. In addition, other treasures plundered, some people estimated that the total value of the treasure was more than two million taels of gold. Perhaps it was this treasure that made Zhang Baozai not treated as a bird's bow and hiding, and Zhang Baozai himself was well versed in the way of protecting himself, so he never mentioned anything related to the treasure during his tenure as an official. It was not until shortly after Zhang Baozai's death that there was a rumor in the Nanyang area that rumored that Zhang Baozai's treasure was hidden in a cave in a mountain in Hong Kong.

At that time, the Qing court, the East India Company and other forces had searched in Hong Kong, but unfortunately they had always returned without success. Despite this, the search for treasure has never stopped. Some people even believed that the main reason for the British demanding the small fishing village of Hong Kong from the Qing court after the Opium War was to Zhang Baozai's treasure.

Xu Changqing's master's book also mentioned the treasures of Zhang Baozai. At that time, there were rumors in the cultivation world that Zhang Baozai's treasures contained some top-grade magical instruments and spiritual treasures, which belonged to the lost Theravada Mahayana Buddhism in Southeast Asia. Therefore, many practitioners at that time also went to Hong Kong to find Zhang Baozai's treasures. However, whether in the secular world or the cultivation world, the final result was all gone without success. Therefore, the nine-rate idle people at that time believed that the so-called Zhang Baozai's treasures were purely false in Hong Kong.

"Zhang Baozi's treasure?" Hearing what Xu Changqing said, the Western woman was stunned and immediately smiled: "Indeed, the matter I want to cooperate with Mr. Xu has something to do with Zhang Baozi's treasure, but it's just a little bit of it."

"How do you say this?" Xu Changqing asked in confusion.

A Western woman took out two wine glasses and a bottle of red wine from the small cabinet next to her seat, poured one for herself and Xu Changqing, and then told her everything: "It starts a hundred years ago. At that time, an adventurer in my family found a statue of a local indigenous civilization in South America. It was a feathered snake god with extremely exquisite workmanship. Its material looks like gold, but it is much heavier than gold."

"Whatever you say, I'll just plunder it!" Xu Changqing smiled coldly disdainfully.

The Western woman smiled and did not refute, and continued: "The adventurer was about to send this statue back to Europe at that time, but unfortunately the news leaked. A large number of pirates gathered around the Caribbean Sea to intercept his ship. For this reason, he had to change his plan and take a detour to the Pacific route. Everything went very smoothly at the beginning, but when the ship arrived in the area of ​​Malacca, he encountered the Blue Flag Gang fleet of the Five Color Sea Gang. The ancestor of the family died in the naval battle, and the golden statue of the Feathered Snake God also fell into the hands of the Blue Flag Gang fleet."

Xu Changqing said expressionlessly: "The Five Color Sea Gang is Zhang Baozai's direct power, so what kind of snake god statue do you think is still in Zhang Baozai's false treasure now?"

"No!" The Western woman shook her head and said, "The Blue Flag Gang at that time had already escaped from Zhang Baozai's control, so the statue of the god finally fell into the hands of the leader of the Blue Flag Ship Gang. Later, the Blue Flag Gang was annihilated by Zhang Baozai. After Zhang Baozai captured the Blue Flag Gang, he secretly released it and asked him to take away a large amount of treasures plundered by the Blue Flag Gang. As far as I know, there is the golden statue of the Feathered Snake God. At that time, the leader of the Blue Flag Gang changed his appearance and hid. It was not until last month that my family found some clues through the help of some friends and found that the Blue Flag Gang Gang was the ancestor of the He family, the Justice of Peace you went to recently."
Chapter completed!