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!)]