It was precisely by understanding the power of maritime trade that Zheng Zhilong understood very well that although he had defeated the Ming Dynasty's official army in a row, it did not mean that he could win like this. Compared to the power he possesses, Da Ming is too huge.

Even if Daming loses dozens of times, he can still make a comeback, because Fujian and Guangdong are not the heart of Daming, but as long as he loses once, then there may be no chance to turn over.

Although there were more than 700 ships that nominally obeyed his orders, it was not so much that these pirates were his subordinates, but that these pirates were maritime merchants who hated the Ming Dynasty's policy of prohibiting the sea.

Although the Ming Dynasty implemented a policy of opening the sea from Longwu, this open sea only allowed people from Zhang, Quan, Fujian Province to conduct overseas trade, and also stipulated the number of ships that went to sea to trade every year. This measure, which was equivalent to allowing the Fujianese to monopolize the overseas trade of the Ming Dynasty, was naturally intended to anger the merchants in other coastal areas.

And Yu Zhigao, the general soldier of Fujian, who was supported by Xu Xinsu and other Quanzhou maritime merchants, strictly implemented the imperial court's maritime ban policy, which naturally made those maritime merchants who could not carry out overseas trade gather under Zheng Zhilong's banner, hoping to use force to force the Ming Dynasty to abandon the maritime ban policy, or at least let the officers and soldiers of the naval divisions along the coast of Fujian dare not strictly implement the sea ban policy.

Moreover, it is not so much that Zheng Zhilong has a strong calling ability among pirates, but that he is a pirate on the southeast coast of China, hoping that someone can attract the wrath of the Ming court, after all, the owners who can own ships in this era are at least people with small assets in the Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, the seemingly powerful Eighteen Zhi, which can really be regarded as the basic strength in Zheng Zhilong's hands, is only 4 or 50 boats.

After Li Kuiqi and Zhong Bin glanced at each other, they also opened their mouths to persuade and said: "Yiguan, although we have won successive big victories, and the officers and soldiers of the naval divisions in Fujian and Guangdong have been defeated and defeated, our losses are not small. Moreover, you vigorously recruited Fujian villagers to come to Taiwan to reclaim, and each household was given a cow and three taels of silver, and now the recruited manpower has almost exceeded 30,000, which is also a big expenditure, and now we have not much money in our hands.

And it's almost the monsoon trade season, and if we continue to confront the government, we will miss this trade season. Those maritime merchants followed us to attack the officers and soldiers, nothing more than to force the imperial court to open the sea ban, once the sea ban was opened and there was no hope, they would definitely leave us. Without the support of these maritime merchants, we would not be able to defeat the Ming Dynasty.

Besides, without the support of trade profits, farming in Taiwan alone would not have been able to feed so many brothers. ”

The statements of several subordinates were completely unexpected by Zheng Zhilong. Zheng Zhilong could only smile bitterly at this. defeated the Ming officers and soldiers in a row, but put them in a predicament. The root cause is that these pirates rely on the overseas trade of the Ming Dynasty to survive, and their destruction of the Ming coast is actually equivalent to digging their own graves.

Unlike other pirates who fantasize that they can force Da Ming to open the sea by force, Zheng Zhilong has always been very sober that Da Ming will not bow to these pirates, there are precedents like Wang Zhi and Lin Feng in front of him, and he wonders why these pirates are still fantasizing that Da Ming will succumb to opening the sea by force.

For Zheng Zhilong, what he wants is an official identity of Zhao'an, and then use this identity to carry out overseas smuggling trade, which is his plan. And Taiwan is the retreat left for himself after the failure of his plan.

But now the Ming Emperor, who has never paid attention to the interests of the sea, actually sent his own attendants to appease them, and there is a faint intention to take Taiwan in his tone. This is completely out of Zheng Zhilong's plan, and it is really difficult to make up his mind to hand over the retreat of his business to the imperial court.

After discussing with several subordinates for a long time, Zheng Zhilong still didn't figure out what Emperor Chongzhen wanted to do when he sent someone. In the end, he decided to listen to what the emperor's representative had to say before deciding how to deal with it.

When the sky gradually darkened, Lu Jiude and the other three and Cai Shanji finally recovered their spirits, and under the leadership of the servants in the mansion, they came to the living room of the Zheng Mansion.

In the large living room that can accommodate 4 to 50 people, a candle stand modeled after Westerners is hung in the middle of the living room, and the living room is brightly lit.

"Hey, this candle is really bright, even in the palace, I have never seen such a good candle." Lu Jiude looked at the bright candles in the room and couldn't help but admire.

The servant who guided Lu Jiude couldn't help but bend down and said with a smile: "This was bought from Westerners, and it is said that it is made of fat from fish like mountains in the sea. Lighting one can burn all night, and the candlelight is so bright that even the wind can't extinguish it, which is a very precious thing. In order to entertain a few VIPs, the head of the family deliberately doubled the amount used in the past. ”

"A lot of mouths, a few candles are worth talking about. You go down and let the kitchen start to prepare the food, and the adults will take a seat. Zheng Zhilong walked down from the hall, scolded the talkative servant with a smile, and then invited Lu Jiude and the others.

The living room adopts a seating system, each person has a small table in front of them, when several people sit on the seats, the top is Lu Jiude, Cai Shanji, on the left side are sitting Zheng brothers, on the right is Lian Shanxiang and a few others.

Zheng Zhilong said to Lu Jiude and Cai Shanji, who were at the top: "In this poor and remote place overseas, there is nothing to entertain the two, only the few sea fish that have just been caught are still fresh, please don't blame the two adults for not being good at hospitality." ”

Lu Jiude took a chopstick fish and tasted it, and suddenly felt that it was unusually delicious in his mouth, and even the poor appetite caused by seasickness during the day was greatly improved at this time. Suddenly, several people from the capital were amazed.

Zheng Zhilong was originally good at communicating, and he persuaded him to drink during the banquet, and he didn't feel unfamiliar with a few people. And Lu Jiude is also accustomed to seeing interpersonal contacts in the palace, and he does not refuse to come to Zheng Zhilong, and the guests and hosts at the table are very happy for a while.

When the wine had passed three rounds and everyone at the banquet was slightly drunk, Zheng Zhilong ordered someone to remove the remnants of the banquet and brew a pot of fragrant tea for everyone to relieve the hangover. Lu Jiude and the others also knew that they were going to get ready to talk about business.

Sure enough, after the servants finished serving the fragrant tea, Zheng Zhilong suddenly said to Lu Jiude: "Father-in-law Lu, since Your Majesty intends to appease us and others, why don't you ask your father-in-law to tell me about Your Majesty's conditions?" But there is one thing I want to say first, we and others make the sea their home and the sea for their livelihood, and let us go ashore to farm, but we can't do it. ”

As soon as Zheng Zhilong's words came out, Zheng Zhihu, Li Kuiqi, Zhong Bin and other henchmen immediately echoed his meaning.