Region
South China Sea
2 pirates in the codex documented as operating here.
The South China Sea and adjacent Pearl River Delta were the theatre of the largest documented pirate operation in history: the Cantonese confederation under Zheng Yi and, after his death in 1807, his widow Zheng Yi Sao. At its peak in 1808–1810 the confederation mustered some 1,800 vessels and a personnel between fifty and seventy thousand, organised under colour-coded squadrons. Its economic model rested on protection rents extracted from coastal villages and the salt trade rather than on conventional prize-taking. The Qing government, the Portuguese navy from Macau, and the British East India Company together failed to suppress it militarily; it ended in April 1810 with a general amnesty negotiated at Guangzhou.
Pirates of this region
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Zheng Yi Sao
c. 1775 – 1844Cantonese pirate confederation leader who commanded the largest pirate fleet in history — by contemporary Qing estimates, between 50,000 and 70,000 sailors across some 1,800 vessels — at her peak in 1808–1810, before negotiating a general amnesty with the Qing dynasty.
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Cheung Po Tsai
1783 – 1822Cantonese pirate; adopted son and later second husband of Zheng Yi Sao; operational commander of the Red Flag Fleet, the largest squadron in the confederation, 1807–1810. After the amnesty he served as a Qing imperial naval officer.
