Imperial forces have trapped

China's largest pirate fleet

in a bay.

The government has 95 ships,

1200 cannons,

18,000 men

and 4 Western vessels.

But the Pirates have something no number of ships will overcome.

Cheng I Sao.

Leader of the Pirate Confederation.

By the time this is over,

she will dictate terms to them.

*intro*

Let's go back a couple years.

Cheng I, the first

the leader of the Pirate Confederation

is dead.

Swept overboard in a typhoon.

The commanders of the six fleets

gather to choose their new leader.

And those are some big shoes to fill.

Cheng had been a good commander.

He'd been with the Pirates in Vietnam where they'd served as privateers in a war that had

transformed them from amateur bandits

to a crack mercenary navy.

And when the Vietnamese dynasty fell and the Pirates were driven back to China,

It was Cheng who founded their Confederation and made them the masters of the coast.

From the Pearl River to the Gulf of Tonkin.

What man could follow that?

But when the fleet commanders opened the floor,

the first to speak is a woman.

Six years prior she had been just another prostitute in the floating brothels of Canton,

but now they know her as Cheng I Sao.

Which translates to Cheng's wife.

And she has a proposal.

She will lead this confederation.

After all, though Cheng had led the fleets,

she managed the business operation.

It was because of her that every salt merchant in Canton

visited a pirate office

to buy a safe passage before setting sail.

Because of her

they were rich

and every one of them knew that Jiang had made strategy with her at his elbow.

The commanders exchanged looks.

The idea isn't absurd.

In Confucian China women were barred from public life.

But these men are all from poor floating villages along the coast.

Things are different out there.

If a fisherman dies,

his widow takes over his boat.

Why should this be any different?

But Cheng already had an heir.

His adopted son Cheung Po Tsai.

And though he was still young,

the lad was a popular and daring captain.

Fearless in attack

and blessed by the gods.

His flagship was a floating pagoda

filled with idols,

priests and oracles.

Madame Cheng had news though.

Cheung Po had agreed to serve her as commander of her

confederation's red flag fleet.

This tipped the scale.

The fleet commanders named Cheng I Sao their leader.

And to solidify her power, she entered another

strategic alliance.

Within weeks,

she and her adopted son were lovers.

Madame Cheng got to work.

Her first act was to strengthen her authority with a new legal code.

The massive confederation,

now numbering

70,000 pirates and over 1200 vessels

had become disorderly.

The pirates needed to remember that they were one organization,

under one leadership.

From now on,

anybody who disobeyed orders

would be beheaded.

And all

stolen property would be brought to a common trust

until it could be distributed fairly.

If a crew made a score,

they would hand it over to an accountant.

The captors would receive a 20% cut

with the rest going to a

confederation fund

for provisions and repairs.

The new code also prescribed death

for raping a captive,

stealing from common funds or

going ashore without leave.

Next, Cheng I Sao turned her attention to her favorite subject;

making the money.

The confederation already had a stranglehold on the salt trade,

but it was time to expand.

She extended their protection racket to all maritime traffic,

including fishing junks and foreign opium ships.

She also dispatched the fleet to systematically threaten villages.

They had a choice;

pay up,

or burn down.

And her treasure

warehouses began to fill.

The government tried to stop her,

but the Qing emperors had neglected

maritime policy for decades,

to the point that China didn't have a modern professional navy.

The government fleet was just garrison troops

loaded onto fishing and merchant junks,

the same vessels the pirates used.

Madame Cheng's fleet, on the other hand,

was a crack ambush force.

Trained to hide until their prey drew close.

Then, the fleet would sweep out of hiding.

War junks opening up with cannons

as small sampan loaded with spearmen rushed into boarding range.

These tactics sent fleet after fleet of government junks to the bottom.

But in January of 1808,

the pirates killed a provincial commander

and Pe King couldn't ignore the problem anymore.

The Emperor dispatched a new official, Bai Ling,

with orders to quell this coastal threat.

And he arrived just in time.

For months, Madame Cheng had been planning an audacious operation.

A full-scale invasion of the Pearl River Delta,

with its rich trading ports of Canton and Portuguese Macau.

In July 1808

Cheng Po baited Kenton's defensive fleet into battle,

and annihilated it.

Now the path to Canton lay open.

For a full year,

Madame Cheng sacked the Delta.

Pirates extorted villages and slaughtered whoever resisted,

dragging off women and children as captives.

Each depredation was bloodier than the last.

The Black Flag fleet killed

10,000 people in a single expedition.

Soon, citizens of Canton could hear pirate cannons on a daily basis.

But the campaign was taking a toll on Madame Cheng's fleet.

Raids were getting more costly.

Their opponent, Bai Ling, had sent soldiers to train the village militias.

He'd also clamped down on their supply lines on shore,

forcing them to live on

caterpillars boiled with rice.

And the military was getting tougher, too.

Then, a British ship appeared, alongside

60 brand-new Chinese war junks.

Bai Ling had stooped to recruiting foreign aid.

Usually Madame Cheng had no problem outmaneuvering Western ships,

but in river fighting, there was no room to operate.

Within a week,

she'd been driven away from Canton.

With her personal squadron heavily damaged,

she left Cheang Po in charge

and went back to her base at Lantau to make repairs.

And that is where Bai Ling caught her.

In November 1809,

Madame Cheng looked out to see sails on the horizon.

Four Portuguese ships.

Her squadron had only a few vessels, largely

boarding and scouting craft.

Worse, most of her junks had beached for repair.

She sent an order to every ship in the fleet.

"Send help."

Three days later,

Cheang Po arrived with the Red Flag fleet.

He brought bad news though.

The Black Flag fleet wasn't coming,

and the enemy fleet had grown.

60 war junks,

35 fishing boats and four western ships.

The pirates only had seven junks

which they moored bow to stern,

blocking the mouth of the bay.

This was a trap.

The government had wanted Cheang Po here.

By threatening Madame Cheng,

they had forced the pirates to withdraw from Canton entirely

and gather all in one place.

The Imperial Fleet began its first attack,

circling in to fire,

then retreating to reload.

The barrage lasted two hours,

until finally a pirate sampan got close enough to hurl torches onto a war junk,

detonating its magazine and forcing the enemy to withdraw.

For days, Cheang Po burned incense and prayed for a southerly wind.

Twice the pirates marshalled for a counter-attack,

and twice, the breeze turned against them.

And then the fire ships came.

43 of them, two-by-two.

Each vessel loaded with straw and explosives.

The pirates, all moored together, were an easy target.

It was a night of fire and gunpowder.

Crackling ships drifted into the fleet,

throwing sparks as barrels of powder exploded.

But Madame Cheng and her captains kept calm,

methodically staving off each vessel and towing it safely ashore.

And then,

a miracle.

The smoke changed direction;

a southerly wind

sprang up,

driving the last two fire ships

back into the Imperial fleet.

Madame Cheng ordered the beached junks towed out and made ready for sail.

The next morning,

they slipped the blockade with the wind behind them,

using older vessels to shield the fleet from gunfire.

In nine days of siege,

Madame Cheng had lost only 40 men

and completed her repairs without losing a single junk.

It was a stunning victory.

But it exposed a fault line in the confederation.

The Black Fleet had taken a pardon and defected.

Over the next few months,

the Red Fleet would find itself simultaneously fighting imperial forces, old allies and western ships.

Madame Cheng realized that the confederation had reached its zenith.

From here her power could only weaken.

So she decided to take a pardon while she still had a strong negotiating position.

She sent the government her terms:

Her pirates would get full amnesty and keep their spoils.

Her men would also have the option to join the army

and receive funds to establish themselves.

Finally, she and Cheang Po, now married, would retain a squadron of junks for use in the salt trade.

The government balked.

No punishment...

for anyone?!

They refused to allow that,

and talks began to break down.

So Madame Cheng ordered one last sweeping pillaging expedition to teach them the wisdom of compromise.

Then, she landed at Canton and demanded to negotiate with Bai Ling in person.

Her terms had not changed.

Bai Ling caved on every point,

but he refused to let the couple keep a personal squadron.

How could he allow infamous pirates to maintain a fleet of ships?

For days, he negotiated, begged and wheedled.

But Madame Cheng just threatens to go back to sea.

So he gave in.

Two weeks later, the red flag fleet surrendered at Macau.

It consisted of 17,318 pirates,

226 junks and

1315 cannons.

But, the rot remained.

Madame Cheng went straight, or at least, as straight as an ex pirate can go,

running a gambling house in Canton.

But the Emperor failed to see the warning sign her career represented.

He continued to neglect

maritime policy,

and showed no interest in creating a more capable navy.

But what the Emperor ignored,

others saw with perfect clarity.

As Cheng's life waned,

the British stepped up to the fault line she had exposed.

29 years after her surrender,

a mere handful of British ships brought China to its knees,

and the opium wars began.

*outro*