Cai Qian

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Cai Qian" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (March 2014) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Cai Qian (

There is very little information about his early life except that he lived a hard life, first working as a peasant and then a fisherman. Due to starvation, he became a pirate in 1794. He was, thereafter, described by fellow pirates as small in stature but quite ambitious, stopping at nothing to rise through the ranks. He was said to have used his own wife to entice a rival into a trap.[2] His cunning and ambition allowed him to thrive in the constantly warring gangs and pirate chieftains in the South China Sea.^[3]

At the height of his power, he and

In 1802, Cai occupied Xiamen's guns bases.

In 1804 and 1805 Cai and Cheung twice attacked Taiwan's provincial capital of Tainan but were defeated. In the battle of 1804, Cheung defeated the Qing fleet from Wenzhou. Within the next four years he fought many battles against Tsai and Cai, vowing to destroy their fleets.

In January 1808, Fujian and Zhejiang admirals nearly destroyed their fleet near Hong Kong through a battle which lasted one day and night. They succeeded in defeating their enemies, causing Qing's navy to begin fearing Cheung and Cai.

In 1809, Wang Delu, now the Captain General of Fujian Navy, surrounded Cai Qian off the coast of Wenzhou (溫州) in Zhejiang. Lacking the strength to escape the encirclement, Cai committed suicide by shooting himself with a golden bullet.^[4] Rumours claim that Cai had a great treasure which was hidden on Matsu Islands: it had never been found to this day.

References