The Guangdong Pirate ConfederationAntony, Robert J. "Piracy, Empire, and Sovereignty in Late Imperial China." In Piracy in World History, edited by Stefan Eklöf Amirell, Bruce Buchan, and Hans Hägerdal. Amsterdam University Press, 2021. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv21r3j8m.11, p. 188. was an alliance of pirate fleets active in late-18th- and early-19th-century China, around the Pearl River Delta. At its height, the confederation had an estimated 400 to 2000 vessels and as many as 50,000Antony, Robert J. "The Suppression of Pirates in South China in the Mid-Qing Period." American Journal of Chinese Studies 1, no. 1 (1992): 95–121. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44289182 p. 96. or 70,000 pirates. Faced with determined opposition by official Qing forces and the Portuguese Navy however, it was gradually dismembered until its last members surrendered on April 15, 1810.
History After the Manchu Qing had displaced the Ming as the ruling dynasty of China, restrictions placed on maritime trade and draconian rules on coastal populations led certain pirate leaders to the Gulf of Tonkin, where they established a number of bases and resisted Qing rule under the banner of Ming loyalism.Antony, 2021, pp. 184-185. When the Tay Son Rebellion broke out in Vietnam, the rebel forces sought the support of the pirates by offering them weapons, ships, safe harbours and a share of spoils.Antony, 2021, p. 186. Every year the pirates set out to raid southern China and supported the rebel cause until its defeat in 1802. By that point several large pirate alliances had formed and they dominated the coast of northern Vietnam up to Zhejiang.
With tens of thousands of followers by 1801, the leading pirates of the Confederation issued a proclamation challenging Qing rule and stating that "We should follow Heaven’s will and rise up to restore the Ming dynasty. […] On May 1, 1801, the following order has been distributed to our brothers on the sea in Guangdong and Guangxi: we will gather together all the ships on April 15, 1802, and move to conquer the two provinces.”
After Zheng Qi died in 1802, Zheng Yi took over and created a pirate fleet manned by over 10,000 men. By the time Zheng Yi died at the age of 42, he was the most powerful commander in the confederation and its de facto leader. His widow, known as Zheng Yi Sao, seized control of the confederation. Within weeks of her husbands death, Zheng Yi Sao had selected Zheng Yis adopted son and protegé Cheung Po Tsai as her new partner and second-in-command. Though Zheng Yi Sao was acknowledged as supreme commander of the Red Flag Fleet and of the alliance, Cheung Po Tsai was its de-facto leader. Taking the local monks under his protection, Cheung Po Tsai, asserted himself as the leader of a sect to which the pirates adhered. The Macanese rumoured that he even aspired to becoming Emperor of China.
Zheng Qi, Zheng Yi and Cheung Po Tsai were among those criminals considered "great bandits" by Qing authorities, and beyond redemption or leniency in their punishment.Antony, 1992, p. 98. The group also included numerous petty chieftains and innumerable gang leaders.
On February 21, 1805, Emperor Jianqing appointed Nayancheng as governor-general of Guangzhou, tasked with eradicating piracy in the region.Antony, 1992, p. 100. Nayancheng however found the military conditions in Guangdong to be deeply inadequate for the task at hand, with less than 20,000 naval officers and men and only 83 warships available. These were poorly-armed, poorly manned and larger and less maneuverable than the pirate vessels.Antony, 1992, p. 101. He therefore requested 33 more ships, cannon and coastal fortifications to be made and instructed the local gentry and village elders to form militias for self-defense.Antony, 1992, p. 102. He also sought to suppress those on land who willingly collaborated with the pirates. In the summer he published throughout the coastal villages and harbours a public appeal for pirates to kill their leaders and surrender.Antony, 1992, p. 103. In spite of many problems, by September 1805 Nayancheng was able to muster over 80 ships for a campaign against a pirate stronghold on Guangzhou Bay, which lasted for a month but only a dozen pirate vessels were sunk and 600 pirates killed with a little over 200 taken prisoner. Though this important base was destroyed, the overall strength of the pirates had hardly changed. By December of that year over 3000 people had surrendered to the authorities. The use of redeemed pirates in the army however displeased the Emperor and other high-ranking Guangdong officials, while Nayancheng was found to be overstepping his bounds. He was therefore dismissed in that month.Antony, 1992, p. 104. He was replaced with Wu Xiongguang, who was ordered to renew an aggressive "sea war" against the pirates with disastrous consequences, as state forces suffered defeat after defeat without the necessary naval build-up.
By 1807, the Confederation had achieved self-sustenance, with 2000 junks and 50,000 to 70,000 pirates divided into six fleets, each identified by and named after their coloured banners: Red, Black, Blue, Yellow, White and Green. For the followint three years, the Confederation acted like a state unto itself as it levied duties, extracted taxes, issued passes, authorized executions, engaged in trade and defended its territory. After defeating a Qing fleet by the mouth of the Pearl River in late 1808, the rich Guangzhou delta was opened to almost unchecked pirate attacks.Antony, 1992, p. 105.
In early 1809, the Emperor appointed Bai Ling as governor of Guangzhou and he enacted harsh measures to try and starve the pirates, organizing convoys, blocaking the supply of gunpowder and recruiting irregulars. The response was immediate and violent as the pirates erupted into the inland waters and countryside searching for food, plundering villages, towns and markets from Macau to Guangzhou. For ten weeks in the summer of 1809 the region remained in a state of siege by the pirates.Antony, 1992, p. 108. Bai Ling ordered General Xu Tinggui to engage the pirates directly but he was routed, with over 1000 killed in one encounter, and the rest scattering to engage in plunder also.
Powerless to fight the pirates, the Qing authorities turned in desperation to the Europeans. The Mandarin of Qianshan had requested military assistance from the Portuguese at Macau as early as 1791. The Portuguese and had already been attacked by the pirates several times. They had captured a Portuguese ship in 1793 and killed all but four crewmembers, and again in 1796, in which they killed everyone on board.Robert J. Antony (2022). The Golden Age of Piracy in China, 1520–1810. A Short History with Documents, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2022, p. 39. In 1804 pirates occupied the Taipa anchorage, threatening the city, and later that year disrupted communications between Macau and Lantau, which caused difficulties in supplying foreign ships anchored by the island. In the middle of 1807, a pirate squadron had attacked a Portuguese brig but its captain Pereira Barreto not only repulsed the pirates but also captured their flagship in a boarding action with 70 men. In early 1809 the mandarin of Qianshan Peng Zhaolin renewed his request to the Portuguese for aid. Later that year in September 5, the pirates captured a Portuguese brig and killed all its crewmembers. The Portuguese therefore agreed to help the Qing. The Senate of Macau had three ships armed and commanded by José Pinto Alcoforado de Azevedo e Sousa, who was ordered to conduct a punitive expedition against the pirates.Monteiro, Saturnino. Portuguese Sea Battles, volume VIII (2013 ed.). Lisbon, p. 29.
The Battle of the Tigers Mouth
The flottila under Alcoforado set out to engage the pirates in early September 1809, and they Portuguese were successful owing to the superiority of their armaments, which included rifled cannon and explosive shells.Monteiro, 2013, p. 30. A typhoon then overcame the region and while it raged Portuguese prisoners kept aboard the captured brig managed to break free, and escape from the Red Flag Fleet with their ship to Taipa amid the storm. After weeks of negotiations, on September 15, the British East India Company agreed to help the Qing against the pirates with the frigate Mercury, then anchored at Macau.Luís Gonzaga Gomes: "The destruction of the fleet of Kam-Pau-Sai" in Review of Culture, October/November/December 1987, at icm.gov.mo. That same day, the Portuguese set out to meet the pirate fleet once again, but the Mercury remained in harbour and took no further action against the pirates. Further engagements then took place between the Portuguese and the pirates.Monteiro, 2013, p. 31
The prestigious ouvidor (chief-magistrate) of Macau Miguel José de Arriaga Brum da Silveira convinced governor Bai Ling not to accept any further help from the British, and instead cooperate with Portugal against the pirates. The governor dispatched emissaries to Macau to negotiate a joint operation.Luís Gonzaga Gomes: "The destruction of the fleet of Kam-Pau-Sai" in Review of Culture, October/November/December 1987, at icm.gov.mo. Portuguese authorities agreed to supply 6 ships, while the Qing would provide a fleet for the duration of six months, a sum of 80,000 taels to pay for the outfitting of Portuguese ships, and to restore certain former privileges of Macau (none of which they would fulfill). The agreement was laid out in a document with seven articles, signed on November 23 by the Portuguese magistrates Miguel José de Arriaga, José Joaquim de Barros, and the Chinese plenipotenciaries Shing-Kei-Chi, Chu and Pom."Convenção entre o Vice-Rei das duas provincias de Quantong e Quangu, e o Governador de Macau, para acabar com as invasões dos piratas da China, feita em Macau em 20 de Novembro de 1809." in Julio Firmino Judice Biker: Supplemento a Collecção dos Tratados, Convenções, Contratos e Actos Publicos Celebrados Entre a Corôa de Portugual e as Mais Potencias Desde 1640, book XVII, Imprensa Nacional, 1878, pp. 31-32.
A larger Portuguese flottila made up by the frigate Inconquistável, the brigs Indiana, Belisário, Conceição, São Miguel and Princesa Carlota engaged the pirates on November 29 and December 11.
Shortly after the engagement on 11 December, the Senate of Macau delivered an ultimatum to Cheung Po Tsai threatening to pursue hostilities until his demise if he didn't surrender. Cheung Po Tsai instead proposed a separate peace but the Portuguese authorities refused to break their commitments with the Chinese government."Resposta do Apó-Chá ao Commandante Portugues" in Biker, 1878, p. 33. On 26 December 1809, Cheung Po Tsai wrote another letter in which he declared his ultimate goal to be the Imperial throne and he offered two or three Chinese provinces if the Portuguese would help him with four ships."Outra carta ao mesmo Commandante em Chefe da esquadra de Macau" in Biker, 1878, p. 33."...Chang Pao, anxious to secure a little military aid of his own, proposed to the commander of the Portuguese fleet at Macao that in return for the loan of three or four men-of-war he would hand over to them two or three provinces to govern, after he had toppled the throne and conquered the empire." in Murray, Dian. "One Woman's Rise to Power: Cheng I’s Wife and the Pirates.” Historical Reflections / Réflexions Historiques 8, no. 3 (1981): 147–61. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41298765, p. 157.