Ching Shih – the most successful pirate in history

Ching Shih was a powerful pirate lord who lived between 1775 and 1844. This woman is considered to be the most successful pirate in history. Under her command her fleet engaged in conflict with the major nations of the time including the British Empire, Qing dynasty and Portuguese Empire. Yet how did this woman who started life as a prostitute rise to such power?

Unfortunately, not a lot is known about Ching Shih’s early life. We do know she was born in Guangdong province China in 1775 under the name Shih Yang. She worked in a floating brothel as a prostitute in Canton under the nickname Shih Heang Koo. It was while working here a pirate captain Zhèng Yi who commanded the notorious Red Flag Fleet noticed Ching Shih’s beauty and desired to be with her. There is some debate as to how Zhèng Yi and Ching Shih came to be married which has sadly been lost to history. Some believe it was as a result of Zhèng Yi ordering a raid on the brothel, while others believe it was a formal proposal on the condition Ching Shih would have some power within his fleet and obtain a share of the plunder. However, it happened, Ching Shih and Zhèng Yi began to lead the Red Flag Fleet together as husband and wife.

Under the couple’s leadership the Red Flag Fleet grew from 200 ships to more than 600, then growing even further under the Cantonese Pirate Coalition with former rivalling pirate fleets. Upon Zhèng Yi’s death on the 16^th November 1807 in Vietnam, only 6 years after their marriage presented Ching Shih an opportunity to rise to become a pirate lord herself. She could have stepped down allowing Zhèng Yi’s second in command to take control, however not wanting to return to a life of prostitution and herself craving glory took charge by obtaining the support of her husband’s most powerful family members. 

Once Ching Shih has taken control of the fleet she began the task of uniting the fleet by issuing a code of laws. This included all plunder having to be presented to the fleet before it could be distributed. Disobeying orders was punishable by beheading on the spot and no one was allowed to steal from villages that supplied their fleet. Furthermore Ching Shih set strict rules regarding the treatment of captured prisoners especially female ones. Any female captives who were considered “ugly” were to be released unharmed. But any pirate who wished to take a captive as his wife was free to do so as long as he remained faithful. Unfaithfulness and rape were both punishable by execution under her command.

Ching Shih and the Red Flag Fleet took control over many coastal villages stretching from Macau to Canton. Ching Shih was nicknamed “the Terror of South China” as she robbed towns, abducted people and executed others. She even had cruel punishments for those who resisted her, such as nailing rebels feet to her ship’s deck and beating them. The Chinese government in an attempt to defeat her engaged in a series of battles which ultimately led to Ching Shih taking over the government ships. Ching Shih’s reputation was growing as people believed she could not be defeated by the Qing dynasty, British or Portuguese.

Due to the appearance that they could not be defeated, the Chinese offered amnesty to all pirates in a hope of ending Ching Shih’s reign. In 1809 Ching Shih finally began to suffer a series of defeats at the hands of the Portuguese Navy at the Battle of the Tiger’s Mouth. In their final battle in 1810 at Chek Lap Kok the Red Flag Fleet surrendered to the Portuguese and took the amnesty offered by the Qing Imperial Government, which also allowed her to keep any loot they had obtained over the previous year.

Ching Shih gave birth to a son in 1813 and a daughter later on. In 1822 Ching Shih moved the family to Macau and opened a gambling house and brothel while also joining the salt trade. Later in her life she served as advisor to Lin Zexu during the First Opium War in battling the British Military in 1839. She reached the end of her life in her bed surrounded by her family in 1844 and the age of 69 having lived an extraordinary life in a very rags to riches story.

 

(Disclaimer – I do not own the images used in this article, they are purely for educational purposes and the rights belong to the original artists)

Battle of Kunyang 23AD

By the end of the Xin Dynasty, peasants all over China rebelled against the Xin Emperor Wang Mang for years of his incompetent rule. There were calls for the reestablishment of the Han Dynasty which had been over thrown by the Wang Mang. These voices were heard and the leaders of the rebellions Lulin supported Liu Xuan to be emperor of the new Han Dynasty.

The current emperor Wang Mang decided he must destroy the newly constituted Han regime before it could gain momentum. He sent his cousin Wang Yi and his prime minister Wang Xun with several hundred thousand men to attack the Lulin forces.

The Lulin forces were split into two. The first led by Wang Feng, Wang Chang and Liu Xiu while the other was led by Liu Yan. The first part of the Lulin forces were able to take the castles of Kunyang, Dingling and Yanxian, while the other part of the Lulin force had begun to attack Yangguan. However, after hearing of the arrival of the main body of the Xin forces, Liu Yan decided to retreat his forces to Kunyang.

The 9000 strong Lulin force in Kunyang were vastly outnumbered by the Xin armies. Many of the Lulin rebels wanted to scatter and retreat to Jingzhou but Liu Xiu opposed it. He advocated that they guard Kunyang securely as a scattered army would be easily picked off. Liu Xiu also promised to gather all other available troops in the surrounding areas and would attack the Xin forces outside the castle. With the Xin forces approaching, Liu Xiu led 13 horsemen out of Kunyang during the night to rally reinforcements from Dingling and Yanxian.

The Xin commander Wang Li was confident in his overwhelming numbers and stated his army would “annihilate all in his path, massacre the town and dance in its blood” and laid siege to Kunyang. Faced with siege towers and tunnels under the castle walls, the Kunyang defenders fought hard and held on until Liu Xiu returned with reinforcements of 10,000 footmen and cavalry.

By this point the Xin force’s morale was dropping while the Lulin force’s morale was at its peak with Liu’s return. Liu Xiu took a chance to lead 1000 men to engage the Xin forces while another force of 3000 men marched around to the rear of the Xin army and attacked their main camp.

Wang Li still underestimated the Lulin forces and led 10,000 men with Wang Xun to meet the enemy, while the rest of his men were ordered to stand their ground unless ordered to attack. Once Wang Xun was engaged in battle the other Xin forces as ordered were hesitant to assist them. As a result, Liu Xiu killed Wang Xun in battle, as of this moment the Lulin forces burst from the city and attacked the rest of the Xin units. Although having a much larger force, the Xin army suffered a total collapse and broke into retreat.

Unable to gather most of his men, Wang Yi had to withdraw with the remaining several thousand men back to Luoyang. The news of the battle of Kunyang spread throughout the empire and people simultaneously rose everywhere, often killing the local government officials and claiming to be officials under the new Han regime. Within a month, almost the entire empire had slipped out of Xin control. Eventually Liu Xiu managed to bring China back under Han Rule.

The Battle of the Ice 1242

The Battle of the Ice took place on the 5^th April 1242 during the Northern Crusades in Europe which were directed against Pagans and Eastern Orthodox Christians. This battle was fought between the Republic of Novgorod and the Livonian Order of the Teutonic Knights, and marked the end of the Crusaders campaigns against the Orthodox Novgorod Republic for the next century.

In the wake of the Mongol and Swedish invasions of the Novgorod Republic, the Teutonic Knights, in an attempt to exploit the nations weakened state, attacked in 1240 and occupied Pskov, Izborsk and Koporye. As the Teutonic Knights advanced deeper into the Republic’s territory, the local citizens called to the City of Novgorod itself the 20 year old Prince Alexander Nevsky who had been banished earlier that year.

Throughout his campaign in 1241 Alexander managed to retake Pskov and Koporye from the crusaders. In spring 1242 the Teutonic Knights defeated a detachment of Novgorodians before they met with Alexander’s forces at Lake Peipus (between modern day Estonia and Russia).

On April 5^th 1242 Alexander, intending to fight in a place of his choosing, retreated in an attempt to draw the over confident Crusaders onto the frozen lake. The Teutonic Knights charged across the lake at the Novgordian militia. The Novgordian force caused the crusader attack to slow, and successfully held the enemy force. A little after two hours of close quarter fighting, Alexander ordered the left and right wings of his army to enter the battle.

The crusader army by this time was exhausted from the fierce fighting on the icy surface and began to retreat in disarray further onto the ice, then the appearance of the fresh Novgorod troops and cavalry made them retreat in a panic.

The battle ended in a decisive victory for the Novgorod Republic. It halted the eastward expansion of the Teutonic Order and established a permanent border between Eastern Orthodoxy and Western Catholicism. The crusaders defeat at the hands of Alexander’s forces prevented the crusaders from retaking Pskov and leaving a lasting mark which made the crusaders never mount a serious challenge eastward again.

 

(The images used are artist’s interpretations of events and we do not own the rights to them, full credit to the owners of the images)

Battle of Okehazama 1560

During the 1500s Japan was in Civil War with local warlords seeking control of the country. Imagawa Yoshimoto a leading warlord in the Tōkaidō Region of Japan, led 25,000 men to march on Kyoto. On the march they entered Oda territories belonging to the much weaker warlord Oda Nobunaga.

Imagawa Yoshimoto took the border fortresses of Washizu and Marune before setting up camp in the wooded gorge known as Dengaku-Hazama. Oda’s scouts reported all of this to Oda who then moved his own forces of 2000-3000 men into a temple called Zebshio-ji.

Oda Nobunaga’s force was heavily outnumbered and his own generals urged him to surrender. Oda however had a reputation for being reckless and unpredictable even thought of by some as being mentally unstable, he ignored the advice from his generals instead ordering a dummy army be constructed at Zensho-Ji with a large number of banners to give the impression this was to be the location of his main force.

Meanwhile Oda ordered an attack and led his main force of 2000 men through the forest undetected to the rear of the Imagawa Army camped at Dengaku-Hazama. The Imagawa samurai were celebrating their recent victories at camp and did not expect and attack. A thunderstorm that took place that night shielded Oda’s men’s advance.

As soon as the storm passed, Oda’s men charged into the camp onto the drunk and unprepared army who lost all discipline with large numbers fleeing from their attackers. They left the commander’s tent largely undefended and the Oda warriors closed in. Yoshimoto unaware of what was happening heard the noise and came outside to order his men to quit their drunken activities and return to their posts. By the time he realised that the samurai in front of him were not his own it was too late to organise a defence. Yoshimoto was attacked and although deflected their initial attacks was killed by two of Oda’s samurai Mori Shinsuke and Hattori Koheita.

With Imagawa Yoshimoto dead and only two senior officers left alive, the remaining Imagawa force joined Oda’s army. Soon after the Imagawa faction was no more and Oda Nobunaga was at the front of military power.