Cai Qian

According to Antony, "The decimation of several major Fujian and Zhejiang gangs, as well as the demise of the Tâyson pirates, between 1800 and 1802, gave Cai Qian a chance to gain dominance in the region.

He quickly moved to absorb the scattered remnants of the Phoenix Tail, Bamboo Yellow, and Water Bay gangs, whose leaders had been killed in 1800, and then strengthened his own position by murdering a renegade subordinate named Hou Qitian in 1801.

[3] His cunning and ambition allowed him to thrive in the constantly warring gangs and pirate chieftains in the South China Sea.

They predated others on the seas of Fujian, Guangdong and Taiwan Strait and came to be considered a major threat to Chinese political stability.

In 1809, Wang Delu, now the Captain General of Fujian Navy, surrounded Cai Qian off the coast of Wenzhou (溫州) in Zhejiang.