Ching Shih

The sly and shrewd pirate queen Ching Shih - "The Terror of South China" as she was called - managed to negotiate that she would keep all her loot ill-begotten from piracy. has found it impossible to beat her, with sixty-three ships lost in the latest attacks, so amnesty was offered to all pirates and Ching Shih took advantage of this. Ending her career a wealthy woman, she retired with her husband Chang Pao. There are those who say that her fleet consisted of over 300 junks manned by 20,000-40,000 pirates, while others claim that she had 1,800 ships with a crew of about 80,000 men, women, and even children. Ching Shih used to be a prostitute until she was captured by pirates and married Jihng Yat, one of the most notorious pirates before she took control of his fleet after his death. The Red Flag Fleet was a coalition of several competing Cantonese pirate fleets gathered by Jihng Yat using military assertion and his reputation. He died in Vietnam and Ching Shih maneuvered her way into his leadership position by cultivating personal relationships. She managed to make herself essential to the captains and united the fleet by issuing a code of laws. The first law was that anyone giving their own orders or disobeying those of a superior were beheaded immediately. The second law forbade theft from the public fund or any villagers that supplied the pirates. The third law was that all goods taken as booty had to be presented and registered by a purser and then distributed by the fleet leader. 20 percent was given to the original seizer and the rest was placed in the public fund. The fourth law was that all actual money was to be turned over to the squadron leader and used to purchase supplies for unsuccessful ships. The fleet robbed towns, markets and villages from Macau to Canton, even establishing hegemony over many coastal villages, in some cases imposing levies and taxes on settlements.