Ching Shih

In 1805, Cheng I Sao (wife of Cheng) or Ching Shih became the leader of the infamous Red Flag Fleet, a confederation of pirates with over 1500 ships that ranged the whole Chinese coast and South to Malaysia. When Cheng died in 1807, Cheng I Sao took charge as a sort of admiral and placed Chang Pao, formerly her husband’s right-hand man, in command of the operation of the fleet. Shortly, they became involved with each other and later married. The discipline Cheng I Sao imposed was formidable, with punishments much more severe than the pirate "articles" of the Caribbean. Most offences were punishable by beheading. Her battle plans were just as ruthless. Many engagements of the Red Flag Fleet were conducted by hundreds of ships, each with twenty to twenty-five cannons, and upwards of two-thousand pirates. The pirate ships were shallow-hulled junks that had wide sails, but had as many as twenty oars to be rowed up rivers. Not only was her fleet engaged in acts of piracy, they also extorted money as "protection" from the pirates themselves. Chinese officials tried many tactics to bring the Red Flag Fleet to justice, but every expedition to eradicate the pirates failed. The Chinese navy lost sixty-three ships in the attacks. Twice, the Red Flag Fleet was ambushed by citizens of beset villages, only to have their towns burnt to the ground and the men slaughtered. Even the navies of Portugal and Britain could not defeat Cheng I Sao. In desperation, a general amnesty was offered to all pirates in 1810 and Cheng I Sao decided to take advantage of it. She negotiated pardons for almost all of her men, and even managed to get Chang Pao a lieutenancy in the Chinese Army. She retired with all of her fortune, ran a gambling house and had at least one son with Chang Pao before dying in 1844. Some historians say that she was the "best pirate who ever lived." Ching Shih first became known as a Cantonese prostitute called Shih Yang. She married in 1801, to one Cheng I who commanded a pirate fleet and fought in a Vietnamese rebellion on the side of the Tay-son. They adopted a son named Chang Poa. By the time her husband died in a gale in 1807, he had united a pirate coalition numbering 400 ships and over 70,000 sailors. A master of manipulation, Cheng I Sao (wife of Cheng), now also known as Ching Shih, took over the fleet after some political maneuvering. She shortly therafter fell into an affair with her adopted son, having already made him her lieutenant, and married him, cementing the family's hold on the fleet. She developed a code of laws that were strictly enforced. Commands were not to be given by anyone except the leaders of the fleet. That was considered a capital offense along with disobeying orders. If a village regularly helped the pirates, it was a capital offense to steal from them. It was a capital offense to steal from the treasury. Raping female captives was a capital offense. Even if there was fornication with a female captive at her supposed consent, the sailor was beheaded and the female cast overboard with a weight tied to her legs. If a sailor was absent without leave, or deserted and was caught, one of his ears was cut off and he was shown off through the squadron as an example. Her fleet committed many varying kinds of piracy, from the traditional weak merchant ships, to sacking and pillaging villages inland along rivers. The government tried to destroy the pirates in a series of battles in January 1808, however all they managed to do was to give the pirates even more ships for the fleet. The damage was great enough that the Government had to utilize private fishing vessels. The real threat came from other pirates, and a rival called O-po-tae forced Ching Shih's fleet to retreat. Because of his worry about the revenge that could be exacted on him, O-po-tae sought a pardon for his men from the government and it was granted. Ching Shih also sought pardon for her fleet in 1810, now that the government could concentrate on her men and ships, and received it. Chang Poa spent the rest of his life in a comfortable government position, while Ching Shih died at the age of 60 in 1844, running a brothel and gambling house in Guangzhou.