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in the middle and late ming dynasty, a large number of pirate groups with complex origins appeared in the southeastern provinces. among them were local poor people who took risks, early explorers from the west, and even members of neighboring countries from japan, southeast asia, india and jeju island. they cooperated with each other, competed with each other, or chose to become the typical examples of official appeasement.

in contrast, the pirates from vietnam are less well-known. not only because of their smaller scale and destructive power, but also because of their shorter duration and relatively remote areas. however, they did attack the ming dynasty, which regarded itself as the suzerain, until they received relatively satisfactory policy adjustments.

three aspects of vietnam

ancient vietnam was divided into three parts: north, middle and south.

if readers want to understand this period of history, they must first understand the local structure of vietnam during the ming dynasty. from the time zhu yuanzhang ascended the throne to the time zhu youlang was hanged in kunming, the entire vietnam can be roughly divided into three major areas:

first, the red river basin, where the agricultural economy is most developed, often becomes a breeding ground for incompetent rulers and tyranny. local elites generally tend to be scholar-officials, like to regard themselves as "little china", and are committed to building a regional empire with the indochina peninsula as the core. the side effect is that they tend to emphasize agriculture and suppress commerce, economic development stagnates, and the overall concept is the most conservative. it is just because of its attractive size that it always attracts conquerors to try to get involved.

annan, which considers itself a small china, is mainly an agricultural production area in the red river basin in the north.

secondly, champa, located between saigon and the mouth of the mekong river. because it has always worshipped hinduism and was not good at river farming, it was always called barbaric by the incompatible northern regime. in addition, the crazy expansion of islam in the southeast asian region compressed the international space on which it depended for survival, thus giving rise to a climate of poverty and weakness. it was even completely occupied at one point, and the entire royal family led their people to exile to hainan island for temporary refuge. later, with the help of the ming dynasty, it was barely restored, but it still remained in a half-dead state.

finally, the central vietnam region sandwiched between the two was the driving force behind the frequent changes of dynasties. most of the local nobles were members of the colonization group that went south. they always had to fight against the barbarians for their own interests, and they were more resistant to the excessive centralization of power in the agricultural areas. therefore, their economic skills were more flexible, their cultural preferences were relatively open, and they were recognized as the orthodox annan by the suzerain most of the time. however, due to the small territory and low population limit, they could not form a crushing advantage over both the north and the south.

because of this, the vietnamese pirates who attacked the ming dynasty came from many sources. they were often not subordinate to each other, and even had a long-standing tradition of hostility. the civil officials in the central plains often roughly divided them into annan and jiaozhi.

since the three parts of vietnam were not subordinate to each other, they could send looting fleets.

intermittent

the first vietnamese pirates to attack the ming dynasty may have come from champa rather than annam

according to the historical records, the first attack by vietnamese pirates on the territory of the ming dynasty took place in 1409. it was the fourth northern domination period in vietnamese history. the hu dynasty, which had just usurped the throne, was conquered by zhu di, the emperor of the ming dynasty, and the former chen dynasty lived in the central region and plotted a revival. therefore, the target of the war was in their own land, and they were unable to organize a large-scale long-distance looting fleet. the pirates who arrived in qinzhou were classified as jiaozhi people, that is, champa, which was not affected by the war. due to the large scale, the government troops finally needed to send 10,000 people on hundreds of ships to drive them away.

in fact, the champa people have had a tradition of piracy since ancient times, but such blatant and large-scale actions are still rare. it may be that they chose to take risks because they lost their original space for activities due to the influence of zheng he's voyages to the west. although the eunuch sanbao visited jiaozhi and established a small base there, the ming dynasty strengthened the maritime ban for the purpose of maintaining the interests of the official business. many private trades in western guangdong that were originally connected with champa were affected, so a magnificent backlash occurred.

as time went on, the number of vietnamese pirates attacking the ming dynasty increased.

after that, similar pirate activities turned to small-scale ones. it is entirely possible that the voyage to the west was stopped and the ming dynasty's occupation of annan failed. but the frequency was more than before, which made the border officials who had few troops very uncomfortable.

from 1459 to 1463, the ming dynasty could only issue two edicts to the newly established le dynasty, asking it to control smugglers and other pirate groups. it can be seen that in addition to the champa people in the southernmost part, the vietnamese who successfully restored their country also participated in large numbers. however, considering that the two regimes were not subordinate to each other, such a unified and crude appeal would probably not be effective. the ming dynasty also sympathized with the champa situation and provided some help more than ten years later.

in the 15th and 16th centuries, the ships and weapons of vietnamese pirates gradually surpassed those of the local armies of the ming dynasty.

by the beginning of the 16th century, vietnam was unable to implement its southward strategy with malacca as its target due to the decline of the central imperial power. so it turned its main conflict facing the ocean to the north and began to tentatively harass the coast of qinzhou. in 1513, four annan pirate ships suddenly visited and killed the ming army, which had only two warships. moreover, similar attacks increased day by day, and the number of participants also increased.

fortunately, the ming dynasty was on guard. first, in 1516, it killed hundreds of pirates who attacked the salt fields, and then in 1519, it repelled the looting fleet that occupied fangjiagang.

the destructive power of vietnamese pirates during the unified period was relatively weak

climax

vietnam was in the midst of a civil war between the north and south dynasties throughout the 16th century.

soon, the north vietnam region was occupied by the usurper mac dynasty, and the former le dynasty fought against it in thanh hoa and nghe an, forming the first northern and southern dynasties in vietnamese history. the ming dynasty continued the old system and recognized the southern faction as authentic, refusing any unnecessary contact with the northern faction. it even almost sent troops to fight in 1538, but later gave up due to financial difficulties and difficulty in getting military pay. however, the traditional land border trade was cut off, so the mac dynasty tried to take the sea robbery route.

for example, in 1548, a group led by the fan brothers invaded and occupied longmen port in the south of qinzhou. the local ming army was killed, and it was only when general yu dayou personally stepped in to deal with it that the north vietnamese pirates were driven away.

the destructive power of vietnamese pirates increased greatly during the period of division

unable to withstand the gradual counterattack of the later le dynasty, the mac dynasty of north vietnam did not have the energy to organize more looting fleets. however, according to some other historical materials, they provided refuge for the fujian and chaoshan pirates who fought against the ming dynasty officials as a roundabout way to save the country in the face of difficulties.

for example, in october 1565, wu ping, a pirate leader born in zhao'an, fujian, was defeated and forced to flee from his old nest, nan'ao island. he then took 80 ships to wanqiao mountain in annan to rest, hoping to make a comeback after the storm. the following year, the ming dynasty navy came to track him down and completely annihilated the last 400 people with fire ships released in the wind. it should be noted that there were many places for private merchants along the coast at that time, most of them drifted rapidly along the sea breeze and concentrated in traditional ports such as champa, siam, pattani and brunei. wu ping chose to risk crossing the qiongzhou strait and went to a place rarely mentioned in documents. obviously, they had communicated with each other long ago.

the wu ping pirate group in chaoshan was finally destroyed in annan

of course, the coastal areas of western guangdong represented by qinzhou were not prosperous, and transportation with the inland areas was quite troublesome. therefore, the frequency and scale of pirates' looting were always at a relatively low level, and it was impossible to be as grand as in guangdong, fujian and zhejiang provinces.

a similar situation also occurred in hainan, which was also a favorite area for annan plundering ships to visit. unfortunately, the island was underdeveloped and could not provide sufficient raw materials, so it was easily overlooked by historical records. the mo dynasty in north vietnam had a grain-producing area but could not use other economic means to supplement it, and finally perished completely in 1592.

qinzhou is the favorite place for vietnamese pirates

calm down quickly

after the fall of the mac dynasty, the two-power rivalry in vietnam still existed

ironically, the later le dynasty, as the orthodox annan dynasty, could not effectively control the north, allowing the zheng family, who had their own army, to divide the land and establish their own states. the original pattern of the northern and southern dynasties remained.

the butterfly effect that followed was the large-scale looting raid in 1607. there were about several thousand pirates who went straight from longmen port to qinzhou city, causing serious damage to nearby counties and prefectures. the local garrison fought desperately, but was only able to save the capital city, and suffered heavy losses in the attack. finally, the court in the capital was alarmed and was forced to launch a series of rescue measures.

pirate base in northern vietnam

in terms of strengthening defense, the ming court sent an additional 900 garrisons to qinzhou. of these, 500 were to defend the main urban area, 100 were assigned to the estuary stronghold, and 300 were used to increase the size of the navy. other counties around also received reinforcements, but the total number did not exceed 10,000. this was mostly due to the local financial difficulties, and the frequent use of troops at home and abroad during the wanli period had long been unable to take care of those secondary areas.

therefore, what really worked was the selective reopening of border trade. trade income was given in the name of rewards through the chieftains appointed by the imperial court. the condition was to restrict the behavior of the residents in north vietnam and replace the original fangchenggang market. therefore, the trade that once relied on private merchants and pirates was quickly taken over by the inland people with a solid foundation.

the zheng family of north vietnam almost became the victim of the ming dynasty in western guangdong

some people may ask: why didn't the le dynasty, which occupied central vietnam, do similar things?

the answer is very simple: they have never been seriously resistant to international trade, and they welcomed visitors from all over the world in hoi an near da nang. from southeast asian neighbors to muslims, from portuguese adventurers to representatives of japanese generals, they negotiated and cooperated with almost everything. why take the greater risk of sending ships to plunder the ming dynasty? !

in the 17th century, hoi an became the largest trading hub in the far east.

even during the transition from ming to qing dynasties, hoi an replaced macau as the largest commercial hub in the east. it was not until the situation on the mainland calmed down that the other side regained the leading position.

what’s more interesting is that the different treatments of north and south vietnam towards piracy broke out in the middle of the qing dynasty. especially when the pattern of the north and south dynasties reappeared, one of them would definitely become the nightmare of the central empire’s maritime borders…