Ming Dynasty man

Chapter 469 Sea Hegemony
It was a test for Li Jing to entrust him with such an important matter. Whether he could be truly appreciated and reused by Li Jing in the future depends on this. Therefore, Zong Chao must be cautious and never dare to take any risks.

It was in this situation that Zong Chao asked Luo Yangxing for help.

Luo Yangxing joined Li Jing when he was rectifying Jinyiwei. Like Zong Chao, he was also a newcomer.

However, the rookie Luo Yangxing is different from the rookie Zong Chao. Although Luo Yangxing is also a rookie, most of Luo Yangxing's subordinates are members of Jinyiwei. These people are his old subordinates. They would never dare to order Luo Yangxing Do not listen.

And just because Luo Yangxing is also a rookie, he must want to perform well in front of Li Jing, so he will definitely go all out to help Zong Chao get things done.In this case, using people from the Ministry of Security is of course more reassuring than using people from the Ministry of Intelligence.

Zong Chao used people from the security department to help him, and Li Jing naturally knew that Luo Yangxing would definitely report such things to Ma Wu, and Ma Wu would definitely tell Li Jing.

Li Jing also knew Zong Chao's difficulties, so he didn't say anything, and not saying anything was actually tantamount to acquiescence.

In addition, Li Jing also had a thought in his heart. He wanted to see how well this once frightening Jin Yiwei was able to handle affairs.

Now Li Jing asks Luo Yangxing to praise the people who work with Zong Chao, which shows that Li Jing is very satisfied with the abilities of these people.

It is impossible for Li Jing to be dissatisfied. This group of people spent more than half a year almost investigating Zheng Zhilong and his capable subordinates.Within Zheng Zhilong's sphere of influence, it can be said to be quite remarkable to be able to do this without alarming Zheng Zhilong.

Seeing the materials Zong Chao sent back, Li Jing admired these people a little.Li Jing knew that even if he went in person, he might not be able to do better than these people.

It was also based on these materials that Li Jing decided to first order Zheng Zhilong to obey the court's order out of righteousness. If Zheng Zhilong did not obey the court's order, he would take action against Zheng Zhilong.

Because Zong Chao said in the letter that although Zheng Zhilong is domineering and arrogant, disobedient to his superiors, he seems to be the local emperor in Quanzhou and Fuzhou, but Zheng Zhilong treats the local people very well and is very popular there, especially the people in Quanzhou. support.

To be honest, Li Jingzhen couldn't believe it when he first saw the news.In Li Jing's imagination, Zheng Zhilong and his gang of pirates would be fine if they didn't rob the common people, and could they still treat the common people well?

But when Li Jing learned that Zheng Zhilong's team is mainly from Quanzhou and Fuzhou, Li Jing felt relieved.

Zheng Zhilong has tens of thousands of people, who doesn't have three relatives?In fact, the local people are related to Zheng Zhilong's subordinates.Zheng Zhilong's kindness to the local people is actually kindness to his subordinates.It is to win over people's hearts and unite subordinates.

If Zheng Zhilong didn't win over his subordinates, how could anyone work for him?I'm afraid it was swallowed by other pirates long ago, how could it be possible to reach this point today?

And according to the information Zong Chao sent back to Zheng Zhilong, Zheng Zhilong can be called a legend.

Zheng Zhilong was born in a small official family in Shijing Township, Nan'an County, Quanzhou Prefecture in the 32nd year of Wanli. His original name was Yiguan, and his character was Feihuang.

When Zheng Zhilong was 17 years old, he took his two younger brothers to join his uncle Huang Cheng in Xiangshanao (Macau) of Guangdong Province due to the difficult family livelihood.

Huang Cheng is a maritime merchant, engaged in overseas trade in Macau.After Zheng Zhilong arrived, Huang Cheng kept him by his side as a helper.

Zheng Zhilong is very smart, and soon learned to do business with his uncle, and learned Portuguese and Spanish in the process of doing business.

In dealing with the Portuguese, he was baptized by the Catholic Church, given the given name of Jasper, and received the name of Nicholas, and foreigners called him Nicholas.an official.

Seeing that Zheng Zhilong was very capable, Huang Cheng asked him to escort a batch of goods with Li Dan (from Quanzhou) to Japan for sale.During his stay in Japan, Zheng Zhilong stayed under Li Dan's family, helped Li Dan do business, and became the most powerful subordinate of Li Dan at sea at that time.

Li Dan felt that Zheng Zhilong was capable and reliable, so he adopted him as a adopted son, and gave him some assets and ships for him to do business in Annan (Vietnam). Within a few years, Zheng Zhilong became a wealthy businessman.

When Zheng Zhilong lived in Japan, he was received by the Japanese shogunate general Tokugawa Ieyasu, and he was highly valued. Later, Zheng Zhilong married a Japanese woman as his wife and gave birth to a son named Zheng Sen (Zheng Chenggong).

At that time, the Netherlands was extremely powerful at sea. The East India Company they established often robbed Portuguese and Spanish merchant ships at sea, and once occupied Penghu.

During this period, Zheng Zhilong was sent to Penghu by Li Dan to serve as an interpreter for the Dutch.However, since the Netherlands was in a confrontation with Daming, it was impossible for the two sides to have trade relations, so Zheng Zhilong was not of much use.

But it was precisely because of this opportunity that Zheng Zhilong got in touch with the Dutchman, and the two sides began to cooperate. Zheng Zhilong was officially on the pirate ship and became a pirate.

It may be that it is not interesting to cooperate with the Dutch, or it may be that under the orders of his foster father Li Dan, Zheng Zhilong left the Dutch and started working alone after less than a year of cooperation with the Dutch.

A few months later, Li Dan passed away, and Zheng Zhilong accepted Li Dan's property and influence, and then Zheng Zhilong recruited generals from Fujian, such as Zheng Xing, Zheng Ming, Zheng Cai, Yang Geng, and Chen Hui, to become the leader of the pirates.

After Li Dan's death, there were three largest pirate forces in the southeast coast, one was Li Dan's son Li Guozhu who was entrenched in Japan, the other was Yan Siqi who was entrenched in Taiwan, and the other was Xu Xinsu, whose headquarters was in Fujian.

Zheng Zhilong abandoned Zheng Sen's (Zheng Chenggong) mother and married Yan Siqi's daughter as his wife. Yan Siqi had no children. After his death, Zheng Zhilong acquired his property and ships.

After Yan Siqi's death, Zheng Zhilong reconnected with the pirate leaders and became Eighteen Zhilong. He changed his name to Zheng Zhilong from then on, and Zheng Zhilong was promoted by everyone as the leader of the alliance.

The members of Shibazhi are: Zheng Zhilong, Yang Tiansheng, Shi Daxuan (Shi Lang's father), Yang Liu, Yang Qi, Zhong Bin, Li Guozhu, Liu Xiang, Li Kuiqi, Hong Xu, Gan Hui, He Bin, Zheng Zhihu, Zheng Zhibao, Zheng Zhi Wan, Zheng Zhifeng, Guo Huaiyi, Chen Zhongji.

Among them, Li Tiansheng and Chen Zhongji later died at the hands of Li Kuiqi, while He Bin and Guo Huaiyi later defected to the Dutch.

Because Zheng Zhilong is well aware of the reality of the interior and is familiar with overseas trade, the pirate alliance is unrivaled in the coastal areas and has become the largest armed group in the southeast coast.

In the sixth year of the Apocalypse, there was a severe drought in Fujian. Zheng Zhilong took advantage of this opportunity to lead a fleet to attack various places along the coast of Fujian, and defeated the officers and soldiers of Jinmen and Fujian, as well as the Xu Xinsu pirate group. This made Zheng Zhilong even more powerful.

During the famine in Fujian, Zheng Zhilong also recruited tens of thousands of hungry people from Quanzhou to Taiwan for reclamation.

Seeing that Zheng Zhilong could not be eliminated, Ming Ting had no choice but to appease him.

But Zheng Zhilong's younger brother felt that the court was not sincere after meeting with the Quanzhou magistrate, so he encouraged Zheng Zhilong to leave Quanzhou. The court failed to appease Zheng Zhilong for the first time.

In fact, Zheng Zhilong was not only an enemy of Ming, but also the Dutch. He repeatedly robbed Dutch merchant ships. In the seventh year of the Apocalypse, the Dutch army stationed in Taiwan fought against Zheng Zhilong, and the Dutch were defeated.

After Chongzhen came to the throne, he recruited Zheng Zhilong again. This time, Fujian governor Xiong Wencan finally succeeded in recruiting Zheng Zhilong.Zheng Zhilong was awarded the title of Haiphong Guerrilla and served as the General of the Five Tigers.

In the first year of Chongzhen, Fujian suffered another severe drought. With the support of Xiong Wencan, Zheng Zhilong gave each of them three taels of silver, and the three of them gave a cow, and once again recruited tens of thousands of hungry people to Taiwan, and resettled the hungry people in Taiwan.It should be said that Zheng Zhilong is No.1 in organizing large-scale immigration in Taiwan's history.

After Zheng Zhilong accepted the recruitment, Liu Xiang and others, who had been with him through life and death, felt unwilling, and dragged their own people out to continue working as pirates.

And Li Kuiqi, the most powerful pirate leader in Shibazhi, Zhong Bin, Yang Liu, Yang Qi and others also turned against Zheng Zhilong.

After several defeats against Li Kuiqi, Zheng Zhilong agreed to the conditions of the Dutch and asked the Dutch to help him deal with Li Kuiqi and others. With the help of the Dutch, Zheng Zhilong defeated Li Kuiqi, Yang Liu and other minions successively, and integrated these pirate forces .

However, due to Zheng Zhilong's inability to reach a privately negotiated treaty with the Dutch, the Dutch turned against Zheng Zhilong and colluded with Liu Xiang, which posed a great threat to Zheng Zhilong for a period of time.

In the fifth year of Chongzhen, Zheng Zhilong's fleet and Liu Xiang's fleet encountered near Fuzhou. There was a fierce battle between the two sides, and Liu Xiang was defeated.

In the following year, the Dutch tried to force the Ming Dynasty to open up trade, and attempted to occupy the southeast coast by force. With the help of Liu Xiang, they launched a surprise attack on Zheng Zhilong's Department in Xiamen and wiped out more than [-] main battleships of Zheng Zhilong.

After the failure of the Xiamen naval battle, the officials of the Ming court adopted an attitude of calming down the matter and finding someone to communicate with the Dutch, hoping that the Dutch would stop harming the people, but the Dutch refused and planned to attack Zheng Zhilong again.

After hearing the news, Zheng Zhilong reorganized his fleet and swore to set off. Soon after, he encountered the Dutch army in Penghu, burned a Dutch ship, captured a general alive, and drowned hundreds of Dutch troops.

Afterwards, the two sides fought in Liuluowan, Kinmen. Zheng Zhilong was eager for revenge and took the lead, defeating Liu Xiang and the Dutch coalition forces.

After this battle, Zheng Zhilong gained momentum, and the Dutch army had no choice but to abandon the cooperation with Liu Xiang, and instead repaired with Zheng Zhilong, and said that he would not go to Fujian to seek trade with Ming Dynasty, and Zheng Zhilong would send ships to Taiwan for trade.

Zheng Zhilong didn't want to make enemies for a long time, so he quickly agreed to the conditions of the Netherlands.

In March of the seventh year of Chongzhen, Liu Xiang was dissatisfied with the Dutch's reconciliation with Zheng Zhilong, so he led his troops to attack the Dutch castle (the city of Zeelandia) at night. The attack failed because of being discovered by sentries, and Liu Xiang fled Taiwan overnight.

The following year, Liu Xiang was defeated by Zheng Zhilong in Guangdong, and Liu Xiang set himself on fire.In this battle, Zheng Zhilong's most beloved younger brother, Zheng Zhihu, died in battle.

After Liu Xiang's death, the southeast coast finally returned to calm. Chinese merchant ships who were afraid of pirates' ambush began to sail to Taiwan in a steady stream. Twenty or thirty merchant ships arrived in Taiwan every month.

After Zheng Zhilong obtained the command of the sea, he immediately used his official status to legally control the trade between the East and the West. All merchant ships from various countries passing the southeast coast must obtain Zheng Zhilong's consent before they can trade.

(End of this chapter)