After returning from the capital at the beginning of the year, Zheng Zhilong seized the time to start the construction of Xiamen Island and Beigang. In terms of geographical conditions, Xiamen Island is much more advantageous as a port than Beigang.

The large number of impoverished people along the coast of Fujian has also provided a large number of cheap labor for the construction of Xiamen Island. Not to mention, there is an abundant supply of all kinds of materials needed for shipbuilding.

However, the North Harbor also had another advantage, because it was separated from the mainland by a strait, so it was difficult for the local officials who had the right to supervise him to obtain his actions in the North Harbor, but it gave him the freedom to develop.

Therefore, when Zheng Zhilong built the foundation of his own fleet, he put the bulk of Xiamen Island, but Beigang did not give up. Even his Taiwan Strait Patrol Mansion has built a yamen in each of the two places.

Although this two-headed approach greatly expanded his control over the Taiwan Strait, it also caused him a lot of economic pressure.

After Zheng Zhilong was knighted, the construction of the mansion in Anping's hometown had to be temporarily stopped. The main resources were concentrated on the construction of two ports and the Xiamen shipyard.

After more than a year of construction, the North Port has changed, and the appearance of Xiamen Island has completely changed. Xiamen Island used to be a paradise for birds, and there were not many inhabitants on the island, so it was also known as Heron Island.

Since the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the population that migrated to the island began to flourish. However, before Chongzhen ordered the opening of the port, the largest population of Xiamen Island, except for some fishermen, was sergeants.

Xiamen Island is surrounded by the mainland on the west, south and north, and faces Kinmen Island across the sea in the east. The islands near Xiamen Island are dotted, surrounded by mountains on the island, and the two natural harbors are wide and deep, and they are not frozen all year round, which is not only a natural harbor, but also the sea barrier of Tong'an County.

The west and north shores of the island are close to the mainland, and the near shore is a small undulating hill. On the east and south coasts, the water is narrow and deep, making it difficult for ships to approach. Therefore, the Ming Dynasty set up a guard here to prevent pirates, that is, the center left office.

The ancient name of the seaport between the west of Xiamen Island and the Haicang Peninsula was Lujiang. Although it claims to be a river, it is actually a sea trench. The water is open and difficult to reach by wind and waves, and it is the best harbor.

The Lujiang River is connected to Yundang Port in the southwest of Xiamen Island, and it is also the port that Zheng Zhilong prioritized to build. To the south of Yundang Harbor, there is also a small island that acts as a barrier. This small island called Gulangyu Island is only separated from the main island of Xiamen by more than one mile, but this island has been eroded by the waves for many years, forming many valleys and cliffs, sandy beaches, reefs, cliffs, rock peaks, contrasting with each other, is a place with excellent scenery.

However, in Zheng Zhilong's hands, this beautiful island has become a place for soldiers. The southwest of Xiamen Island is steep, but the northeast is relatively flat.

Therefore, in order to defend the newly established port of Xiamen, Gulangyu became an outpost barracks. To the north of Yundang Harbor, a large area of flat land was developed for the construction of warehouses and markets.

When the Xiamen Port was completed, the Moon Port, which was not far away, was immediately impressed. Compared with the port of Xiamen, where the size of ships is not limited, the small port of Yue is obviously no longer able to meet the needs of maritime merchants.

Xiamen Island has no scorching heat in summer and no severe cold in winter. It soon attracted many European merchants, who found Zheng Zhilong, hoping to buy land on Xiamen Island or Gulangyu Island to build a residence and live there.

Compared to the hot Southeast Asian region, Xiamen can be regarded as a paradise. And the living conditions here are much better than in Southeast Asia, and there are not so many deadly tropical diseases.

At first, Zheng Zhilong did not realize how good these foreign merchants' demands would be for him, but as some of the warehouses and houses that had been built were sold at a staggering price, he immediately realized how valuable the land on the island was.

Xiamen Island was originally inhabited by fishermen and sergeants, and the land here is basically worthless because it is not suitable for farming. But now that the port has been built, the land around the port is worth more than the finest farmland.

Zheng Zhilong calculated a little that if he occupied all the land on the island and then used part of it to build warehouses and houses for sale, then the proceeds from the sale of the property alone would be able to recover his investment in building the port and shipyard.

However, when Zheng Zhilong remembered to inquire about the owner of the land on the island, he realized that in addition to the land where he built the port and shipyard, the other land on the island, including Gulangyu Island, had fallen into the name of the inner government.

Unlike Zheng Zhilong's sale of the built warehouses and houses, the Inner Government only rents and does not sell the built warehouses and houses. With the increasing number of merchants coming to the port of Xiamen, these warehouses and houses under the name of the inner government became the most important property on the island after the port and shipyards.

Although Zheng Zhilong came to his senses, he also began to stop selling the island's products. But he was stunned to find that after the construction of the port, the biggest benefit was actually the inner government and not him, the person who worked hard to build the port. If the other party is not the emperor behind him, he will definitely not give up.

In addition to this annoying thing, what bothered him even more was that with the opening of the north and south ports, Sino-Japanese trade, which was originally monopolized by Fujianese, has now shown a trend of competition among provinces.

Shanghai, Ningbo, Xiamen, and Guangzhou, the major ports in the south, export basically the same types of goods, with raw silk, silk, porcelain, tea, cotton cloth and ironware as bulk goods. In addition to iron and tea, Fujian does not have an advantage over other goods.

In particular, the most profitable raw silk, silk, and cotton cloth are mainly produced in the Taihu Lake Basin, and after the two ports of Shanghai and Ningbo, those merchants are obviously more willing to go through the convenient ports of Shanghai and Ningbo, rather than laboriously transporting them to Fujian first, and then shipping them overseas.

Although the Maritime Association reached an agreement with the emperor to set up a raw silk market, everyone shared the benefits of raw silk. But for Zheng Zhilong, he can only share part of the benefits of overseas trade, which obviously cannot satisfy him.

Trade with Japan was very unprofitable due to fierce competition, and the desire to open up trade markets in Manila and Southeast Asia was blocked by Dutch and European merchants. Zheng Zhilong suddenly realized that the Taiwan Strait, which used to make him feel extremely wide, is now as narrow as a small ditch.

And since Xu Xinsu went north, Yang Tiansheng, Liu Laoxiang, Zhong Bin and others went south, and the leaders of the Eighteen Zhi families who had gathered together in the past have now gone their separate ways.

The Cantonese maritime merchants returned to Guangzhou and established a small port town on Hong Kong Island off the mouth of the Pearl River. The Fujian maritime merchants who had been good friends with him also returned to the mainland one after another, either in Fuzhou or on Xiamen Island to start a new business.

And the most uncalm and restless pirates in the Eighteen Zhi, either followed his adventurous brother to explore the continent across the ocean, or ran under the banner of Yang Tiansheng, Zhong Bin and others, wanting to rely on their own courage to fight a situation.

When these people gathered together, Zheng Zhilong was on guard all day against these sworn brothers, for fear that they would stab him in the back. After all, Yan Siqi and Li Dan, the two pirate kings, had the biggest inheritance, and it fell on him, the most junior leader in the Eighteen Zhi.

However, after Zhao'an, under the auspices of the emperor, from Japan to the sea area of Malacca, three large regions and several small regions were divided, and they were distributed to the leaders of the Eighteen Zhi families, so that the leaders of the Eighteen Zhi pirates, who had been intriguing, finally had a division of influence that everyone recognized.

In this situation, the leaders of the various families naturally have nothing to fight for. After all, if this agreement is broken, it will inevitably be encircled and suppressed by the court and other leaders. For now, no pirate group is able to resist such a huge force.

On the contrary, it is developed according to the area planned by the imperial court, which can not only get the support of the imperial court behind it, but also greatly expand the scale of trade under their name. The most important thing is that the leaders of the pirates can take advantage of this opportunity to get a half-official position from the imperial court, and go home to retire in the future, without worrying about the revenge of the enemy.

When he was first recruited by the imperial court, Zheng Zhilong was divided into the maritime area within the strait between Taiwan and Fujian.

It should be said that Zheng Zhilong was still very satisfied with his harvest at the beginning. The Taiwan Strait holds the passage between Fujian, Guangdong, and Southeast Asia to and from Japan, and on the island of Taiwan there is a sea base centered on Beigang that Yan Siqi painstakingly operates.

Guarding this place, just by taxing ships to and from Japan, he and his men could make a lot of money.

However, the emergence of the Maritime Association bankrupted Zheng Zhilong's dream of occupying the strait to collect taxes. And Shanghai, Ningbo, Tianjin and other central and northern ports, make him unreachable.

Therefore, in the end, he can only drool over the Taiwan Strait, where wealth is most frequently exchanged in the world, but he cannot stretch out his hand to the ships passing through the strait at will, which is really the saddest thing in the world.

And the bad news is not limited to this, the sea area north of Taiwan Island belongs to Xu Xinsu's East China Sea Patrol Office. The sea area south of Taiwan Island was divided by Liu Laoxiang, Yang Tiansheng and others.

Although his subordinates Zhong Bin and others occupied Palawan, they began to ignore his orders.

Zheng Zhilong suddenly found that the area under his jurisdiction as a patrol envoy of the Taiwan Strait was really a bit embarrassing, and he was unable to expand his influence to other places except for the vast Pacific Ocean to the east.

Although at the time of the Maritime Association in the capital, His Majesty the young Emperor boasted that the continent across the Pacific Ocean was a rich land where rivers of gold and silver flowed.

But with the exception of his younger brother, who was bent on taking risks, believed the Emperor's words, everyone else took them as wind in their ears.

These pirate leaders, who were begging for a living at sea, could not believe that such a rich land could exist across the ocean. After all, those Europeans who came from the opposite continent were like a bunch of hillbillies who had never seen the world.

In addition to their eagerness for Chinese goods, they were also mean like misers for the exploitation of the natives of the colonies they occupied. Therefore, these leaders never believed that the Europeans would have to take great risks to cross the vast Pacific Ocean after taking possession of such a rich land.