However, Zheng Zhilong also found that his prestige in the loose group "Eighteen Zhi", which was a combination of maritime merchants and pirates, seemed to have begun to decline sharply.

After all, the "Eighteen Zhi" was not originally a closely united organization, but a temporary alliance for the purpose of breaking the sea ban.

When the Maritime Association included these leaders of the "Eighteen Zhi", the group of "Eighteen Zhi" was dispersed.

Since its establishment, the Maritime Association has consciously or unconsciously dissociated itself from the group "Eighteen Zhi", lest it be reminded that they were once a group of pirates.

Especially when Zheng Zhilong was canonized as a man in Chiayi County, many of his subordinates who were originally close to him now began to alienate him. Because these pirates think that Zheng Zhilong accepted the official position of canonization by the imperial court, it is nothing, anyway, this is also the inevitable result of accepting the imperial court's recruitment.

But when he was canonized as a Chiayi County man, it was different, and these pirates suddenly realized that they and Zheng Zhilong were not from the same world at all. Although the Ming Dynasty was in decline at this time, the difference between a knighted lord and an ordinary military attache was as great as the difference between an official and a pirate.

No matter what they thought in their hearts, in the face of this sudden and expensive Zheng leader, they suddenly lost a little bit of closeness. Zheng Yilong became the leader of the "Eighteen Zhi", originally not because he was the most powerful among pirates, but because he was the most popular among pirates.

If after Zhao'an, with this official position given by the imperial court, plus his many brothers, relatives and friends, Zheng Zhilong would really be able to sit in the position of this southern Fujian pirate and maritime leader.

But now, with the Maritime Association, a maritime coordination organization that replaces the "Eighteen Chi", he, the leader of the "Eighteen Chi", has lost his position as a merchant in charge of overseas trade.

As for those pirates, they are now slowly accepting the commissions of the imperial court. It can be said that Zheng Zhilong can only rely on his own relatives and family now. In this way, Zheng Yiguan, the pirate leader who once commanded the pirates of the entire southeast coast, was greatly reduced in strength after Zhao'an.

But in this way, there is also an advantage, the forces that remain with him now are all the most loyal and reliable personnel.

Zheng Zhilong, who once worked as an interpreter for the Dutch Merchant House, naturally knew that in order to develop a maritime force, maintaining and guaranteeing several maritime trade routes was the most fundamental foundation.

Assisting Li Kuiqi, Yang Tiansheng and others to establish a route is not to let these people get out of his control and become bigger. But Zheng Zhilong did not pin his roots on this route.

When Zheng Zhilong left Macao to seek a living in Japan, his experience at sea over the years not only allowed him to meet many outstanding people at sea, but also greatly increased his knowledge.

Especially during the two years when he worked as a translator at the Dutch Merchant House, he knew very well that the Dutch strategy in Asia was nothing more than to exchange Chinese goods for Japanese silver, and then use Japanese silver to buy Chinese goods, and then ship them back to Europe.

In this case, why can't he, who occupies a favorable position, cut off the Hu of the Dutch East India Company? As a Chinese, and now a nobleman, he could organize the supply of goods from the interior and transfer them to Japan on his own, without having to let these Dutch interfere in the most lucrative Sino-Japanese trade.

Zheng Zhilong thinks so and does so. But his vision was half thwarted before it could be realized. Compared with Fuzhou and Xiamen, the two ports of Ningbo and Shanghai are obviously more advantageous to Japan. The monopoly of the maritime association on the raw silk trade has also greatly reduced the number of raw silk exports from Fujian and Guangdong provinces this year.

Zheng Zhilong obviously did not have the confidence to challenge the entire Maritime Association and the Ming Emperor, not to mention that although he did not eat alone in the trade with Japan, he still obtained a great benefit from the Sino-Japanese trade hosted by the Maritime Association.

The failure of the Sino-Japanese trade plan had to make Zheng Zhilong turn his attention to Southeast Asia. Although the Philippines occupied by the Spaniards was another source of silver for Asian trade, Zheng Zhilong did not have a good impression of the Spaniards, regardless of the atrocities committed by the Spaniards against the Chinese or the hatred of the Spanish Kingdom instilled in him by the Dutch when he served as the interpreter of the Dutch Merchant House.

Alert to the Spaniards, Zheng Zhilong set his sights farther away than Manila. That's why he agreed with his brother to organize a voyage across the Pacific Ocean to see the silver continent across the ocean.

Before that, he also tried to establish two shipping routes, accommodating several ports with the highest concentration of Chinese in Southeast Asia.

One is from Xiamen to Beigang, then to Manila after sorting the goods in Beigang, and then to Makassar and Surabaya via Zamboanga. The most troublesome part of this route is Zamboanga, a port in the western part of Mindanao, which has been a key area of contention with the Spaniards in the southern part of the Philippine archipelago because of its proximity to the Basilan Strait and across the sea from the Sulu Islands.

Whether it is the pirates in the Sulu archipelago or the forces in Mindanao, the attitude towards the Chinese is like the local climate, and it is difficult to distinguish between rain and shine.

They were sometimes willing to trade fairly with Chinese merchants, and sometimes they openly plundered passing Chinese merchant ships, but with a slight preference, they rarely executed captured Chinese merchants, but only took away their goods. However, this usually happened when they were fighting fiercely with the Spaniards, and once they had eased up, they turned to a welcome stance towards trade.

After passing through the Basilan Strait, there is the Suhuila Sea, the most chaotic sea in Southeast Asia, which is bordered by the two major passages of the Makassar Strait and the Maluku Strait. From the former, there is access to Makassar, the trading center of the whole of Southeast Asia.

Because the king of Makassar adopted a policy of religious tolerance, allowing the followers of all nations, nationalities and religions to trade freely here. As a result, since the beginning of the last century, Makassar has become the largest city and port in Southeast Asia, and merchants from the Middle East, India, Europe, Southeast Asia and East Asia can find their traces in this city.

Makassar, which borders the Maluku Islands, has never lacked spices, and the spice trade is also an important attraction for traders from all over the world. However, with the Dutch occupation of the Maluku Islands, Makassar's trade began to suffer greatly.

Below Makassar is the most populous island of Java, while Surabaya is the city with the largest concentration of Chinese on the island, followed by Batavia under Dutch control.

The best products of Java are, of course, cattle and rice. For Taiwan now, the sudden increase in population and the reclamation of wasteland require a large amount of grain and cattle import.

In addition, due to the large number of volcanoes on the island, volcanic ash and sulfur are good potential development commodities. However, with the current poor traffic situation on Java Island, only sulfur mining is still valuable, after all, the price of sulfur in the country has been rising.

What excites Zheng the most is that the captain in charge of the voyage accidentally discovered that the source of the Portuguese merchants' trafficking of sandalwood is on the island of Flores, east of Bali, where it is said that the place where sandalwood grows is on a small island called Timor below this island.

Since the island had been occupied by the Portuguese, and the natives had become Catholics, the Portuguese did not do anything unfriendly towards the Chinese merchants, but their coldness and wariness were evident from time to time. In order not to exacerbate the conflict between the two sides, the captain returned.

The other route is simpler, departing from North Port to Luzon on the eastern detour, passing through the port of Davao in southern Mindanao, smuggling across the Maluku Strait to the Maluku Islands for spice trade. As the Dutch continued to tighten their grip on the Maluku Islands, it was clear that the value of spices was starting to rise.

Although Chinese have little demand for spices such as nutmeg and cloves, the large-scale hunting of elk on the island of Taiwan now requires a large amount of spices to marinate jerky.

After opening these two trade routes, Zheng Zhilong suddenly found that these two routes were now in a small trouble. That was his former boss, the Dutch East India Company.

Both the Maluku Islands and Makassar are now considered by the Dutch to be in their pockets. The former was the production of spices, while the latter was the most important trading port in Southeast Asia, and it was only by controlling these two places that the Dutch had a real monopoly on the spice trade.

No matter how conceited Zheng Zhilong was, he would not be able to get past the Spaniards and natives to fight the Dutch for the Spice Islands, after all, those forces were not his allies.

He was very interested in the war between the Mataran Kingdom on the island of Java and Batavia, but if he wanted to intervene in a war of this magnitude, he obviously needed the emperor's approval, otherwise he would not be able to replenish it due to the consumption of weapons and personnel.

The main purpose of his visit was to find out the emperor's true attitude towards the Dutch East India Company, the Spaniards, the Portuguese, and the indigenous kingdoms of Southeast Asia. After all, now the Dutch East India Company has just driven away with the Ming Dynasty, and the Spaniards who are entrenched in the north of Taiwan, after all, the two sides are now allies.

In the courtyard not far from Zheng Zhilong's residence, after several days of intense negotiations, the envoy sent by the Spanish governor of the Philippines, Severcos, under the pressure of Waldes and Garcia, finally reached a peace agreement and a temporary trade treaty with Xu Xinsu.

Several requirements put forward by Daming were basically approved by Sevikos, such as the judicial issue of personnel on both sides; Regarding the poll tax and rental fees that the Ming merchants needed to pay were changed to a fixed amount, which was collected by the Ming people themselves and paid directly to the Governor of the Philippines; In addition, the Philippine Governor's Office guaranteed the free movement of Ming merchants to and from Manila for trade, among other things.

Severcos insisted that there were only two things that he refused to accept: the Chinese could freely trade and plant throughout the island, and the berthing fees for Chinese merchant ships should be the same as those for Spanish ships.

And Valdes, Garcia, and Sevikos, who represented the governor, also signed an agreement with Xu Xinsu to establish a shipping company. In this agreement, the new shipping company, Waldes owns 15 percent, Garcia and Severcos each have 5 percent, and someone who cannot appear in the agreement holds 25 percent, and Xu Xinsu has 50 percent of the shares.

After the establishment of this shipping company, it will carry out the Sino-American shipping business, the Spaniards will be responsible for providing navigators and captains who are familiar with the routes, as well as the port handling and cargo sales in Mexico and Peru, and Xu Xinsu will provide the Chinese goods that are needed in the American market.

To put it simply, it was a smuggling company that specialized in smuggling to the Spanish American colonies. Severikos was a little shaky when he signed his name, but Valdes and Garcia couldn't wait to sign their names.