What associations do you have when you hear the word “pirate”? A single-eyed man with a poppy on his shoulder and a wooden leg? Now take a look at the KDPV – Zheng Shi, a Chinese naval robber who earned the fame of one of the happiest pirates in history. Under her command was a fleet of 2,000 ships and more than 70,000 sailors. This low, fragile woman, leading the battle, held a veil in her hand instead of a sword. She was a contemporary of Napoleon and Admiral Nelson, but in Europe no one had heard of her. But in the Far East, in the vast South China Seas, her name was known by the last poor man and the first rich man. You probably thought what "wealth" she inherited from a father with one eye and a wooden leg? Well, it’s partly true, but there’s one “but”...
Zhen Shi was 26 years old when she was taken from a public house in Canton by Chinese pirates in 1801. The pirate leader Zhen Yi offered the beauty a hand and a heart, and she agreed, but, as the legend says, only on the condition that she will participate in both the management of operations and the section of the prey. The pirate accepted the conditions.
Over the course of six years, they killed all competitors on the coast of the South China Sea, increasing their fleet to 400 ships. When Zhen Ying died in 1807, a widow who went into history under the name Zhen Shi (the widow of Zhen) took the bats of rule entirely into her own hands.
The new captain imposed very strict laws and managed to turn the robbery troops into a disciplined army. The pirates tried to rebel, but a series of demonstrative executions forced them to reconcile, and the seaside villages began to massively pass under the power of the sea robbery (under her protection lived peacefully) and voluntarily supplied the Zhen Shi fleet with everything necessary.
In January 1808, the entire Chinese Imperial Navy was thrown into a battle against pirates. Ms. Qin tricked the squadron sent against her into a clever trap she invented, and... won the battle by capturing more than 60 ships. The commander of the squadron Admiral, unable to withstand the shame, later committed suicide. Then China tried to infest the robbers of Western adventurers, but they were unsuccessful. Realizing that Zheng Shi could not overcome, the authorities offered her a peace agreement, and in April 1810 it was adopted.
The pirates (according to various estimates, from 17,000 to 80,000 people) received full amnesty, retained plundered property and passed on to the imperial service. This was the end of piracy in Chinese waters.
Zhen Shi lived to the age of 69, being the legal keeper of a hotel (which had a gambling house and a bordel) and having made the most brilliant pirate career in human history.