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1. 1 2021-02-18T09:48:40-05:00 Weiting Guo 08b125beef921c47ad1de3c337b8d14abd2713ab "Merchant Boats Loaded with Timber Logs Met Bandits on the Sea," part 1 Weiting Guo 1 plain 2021-02-18T09:48:40-05:00 Weiting Guo 08b125beef921c47ad1de3c337b8d14abd2713ab
2. 1 2021-02-18T09:48:54-05:00 Weiting Guo 08b125beef921c47ad1de3c337b8d14abd2713ab "Merchant Boats Loaded with Timber Logs Met Bandits on the Sea," part 2 Weiting Guo 1 plain 2021-02-18T09:48:54-05:00 Weiting Guo 08b125beef921c47ad1de3c337b8d14abd2713ab

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• 1 2020-09-23T14:36:56-04:00 "Smuggling Prevention Corps Mistaken as Pirate Ship" 33 plain 2021-02-18T15:06:58-05:00

  As the previous page demonstrates, merchant boats around the Wenzhou water either equipped themselves with weapons for self-protection purposes or resorted to governments and influential organizations if they were robbed or attacked by pirate boats. Yet, in some cases, local governments could only take limited measures and even failed to intervene in piracy incidents. Moreover, while both police boats and pirate boats were armed with ammunition and kept suspicious of other boats, many boats misrecognized each other and the cases of mistaken identity happened in the vast water space. 
  
  In May 1906, a merchant boat filled with iced yellow croakers passed by Wenzhou’s port. The Smuggling Prevention Corps was waiting there, already aiming to capture salt smuggling boats. When they saw the merchant boat sailing in the nighttime, loaded down with heavy cargo, they thought that the boat was shipping smuggled goods. The Corps then turned off their lights, paused their telegram signals, and followed the boat. When they failed to catch the boat in time, they opened fire in a threatening manner. Their subsequent attack made the merchant boat believe that the Corps was actually a bandit boat. The merchant boat was heavily armed with weapons, so it fired back aggressively at the Corps’ boat. In the end, one Corps member was killed and one was injured. No one on the merchant boat was killed.
  
  In October 1916, nine boats loaded with timber logs sailed from Fuzhou, Fujian Province, to Shanghai. Having been aware that the water police force usually did not dare to combat pirate boats, these boats sailed together in an attempt to help each other. Yet, when they passed by Wenzhou's Dayuguan water, they still encountered pirate boats.
  
  
  這個1916年［運木商船在洋遇盜］有連續４篇報導！　
  of the risk of being robbed, these boats 
  When the boat
  
  2. Add discussion: 台州 pirates + 浙江&上海官商關係不能work: use this: [19161018_運木商船在洋遇盜續誌 (comment超經典!! 通過官商關係都無法解決_只能與匪簽約_與匪同鄉的人則贖回)]
  3. Move the original [3. Piracy at the Ou River] to here: because of 台州!!! (1926)
  4. 可能寫 [19310212_廣濟昨已返滬 (good!!!)] (一系列報導) (台州幫, 在溫州設有據點)
  5. Add discussion: smugglers use water policemen's flags: use this: [19381021_海盜冒懸水警旗幟 (good!)]
   

• 1 2021-02-18T15:01:23-05:00 "Even the Robbers Could Release the Hostages Who Were from the Same Home District" 23 plain 2021-02-22T05:27:10-05:00 The previous pages showcase the incidents of robbery and piracy around the Wenzhou water. Many pirates were based in Taizhou or the surrounding regions. They robbed, killed, and looted ordinary people along the coast. They stole boats and weapons, and kidnapped passengers and sailors. In the case of kidnapping, they usually requested ransom or even forced the owners of the boats to reach agreements. As the 1923 Shen Bao report suggests, the water police lacked sufficient boats and soldiers, and hence were unable to investigate these cases. Similarly, the navy cruisers also lacked sufficient quantities of coals for conducting coastal patrol. As a result, piracy continued to be rampant, and the vast water space provided the pirates a good platform for extracting resources and extending networks. 
  
  Several Taizhou pirates had their own bases in Wenzhou. According to the 1930 Shen Bao report, some Taizhou pirates boarded the boat in Wenzhou, while aiming their major target passenger on the steamer. In October 1916, nine boats loaded with timber logs sailed from Fuzhou, Fujian Province, to Shanghai. Aware that the water police force usually was not able to combat pirate boats, these boats sailed together in an attempt to help each other. Yet, when they passed by Wenzhou's Dayuguan water, they were surrounded by hoards of pirate ships and robbed. After looting, the pirates were still not satisfied and they kidnapped one sailor from each merchant ship, asking each to pay 1,000 or 1,400 dollars of ransom. The victims soon informed the Wenzhou Native-Place Association in Shanghai requesting the latter to notify the Zhejiang provincial authorities. Yet, despite the provincial military commander and the Wenzhou-Taizhou regional water police deputing their troops to combat the pirates, they could not arrest any robbers and were able to recover only two hostages. After the government's failed attempts, the pirate head, Mr. Xiang, reached out to the victim boats and negotiated the price of ransom. The ransom was now dropped to 400 dollars each, and the boats signed a contract with the pirates. While the negotiations and the ransoms resolved the problems the problem of kidnapping, most of the sailors in the merchant boats were injured during the fighting. The only exception was a boat from Taizhou, which is also the hometown of the pirates. The pirates did not injure most of the sailors from this boat, who they deemed as their fellow Taizhounese. They also released the Taizhou hostages as they were from the pirates' home district.