When the night outside the house was dark and silent, the Eighteen Zhi Gathering Hall was still full of people, and the various pirate leaders were asking questions energetically. It wasn't until Cai Shanji saw that Lu Jiude, who was a little mentally poor because of seasickness, and his physical strength was a little exhausted, that he opened his mouth to stop the conversation.

The conversation was just the beginning, and in the days that followed, as the conversation spread about the night, pirates from the nearby area rushed over.

Since most of the questions raised were repetitive and similar, Lu Jiude and Cai Shanji discussed it, and simply posted the nearly 40 questions sorted out on the high platform in front of the mansion, and let several literate pirates read them all day.

When pirates from afar arrived, they would be led to the top of the platform and listened to the people above read out what had been discussed these days, and then the pirates would enter the hall inside the mansion and ask their own questions.

This unheard-of way of recruiting security has a surprisingly good effect. Originally, all along, the people who asked for Zhao'an were the upper echelons of the pirate gang, and as ordinary pirate members, they didn't care about Zhao'an's conditions at all, they just had to follow their leader.

Besides, even if the Ming Dynasty is Zhao'an, it is only for the leader of the pirate gang, and even ordinary leaders will not appear in the eyes of the court, let alone ordinary members.

Therefore, whether they accept the court's recruitment, or follow the leader to rebel again, their lives have not changed much, and they still obey the leader's orders.

However, everything has changed in today's Ganggang, and the recruitment of the imperial court is no longer a private matter of those high-ranking leaders, but a matter closely related to the future life of ordinary people.

After a few days of discussion, the discussion shifted away from the main topic of Zhao'an, and instead focused on how to regulate overseas trade and how the imperial court should support maritime merchants to open up trade routes to the Indian Ocean that had been blocked by European merchants.

The pirates' questions have gone far beyond what Zhu Youzhen explained to him when Lu Jiude left Beijing. As a last resort, Lu Jiude sincerely admitted to everyone that the questions they raised had exceeded the content of His Majesty's explanation, and he could not answer them now, so he could only record them and report to His Majesty when he returned to Beijing.

Lu Jiude's approach not only did not cause dissatisfaction among the pirates, but was seen as the court's determination to open the sea this time. In this way, the eighteen Zhi pirate gang on the island of Taiwan, the pirate members of the middle and lower classes, all approved of the matter of Zhao'an.

These pirates also had a much better impression of the envoys sent by Lu Jiude and other emperors. Daming's factory guards can be so popular, which is also the first time for Lu Jiude, Lian Shanxiang and others. Even Cai Shanji, who has always had prejudices with the factory guard, praised Lu Jiude in his spare time.

"It's just that Your Majesty has prescribed the attitude of doing things for me, and the ministers don't dare to be greedy for Your Majesty's merits." Lu Jiude replied modestly.

"Oh? What kind of tricks did Your Majesty give to your father-in-law to make you so capable? Cai Shanji asked with some curiosity.

"Your Majesty only asks me to do four words, to be realistic. If you know, you will say that you know, and if you don't know, you will say that you don't know, and if you can agree to the conditions, you will refuse the conditions that you can't agree, and if you don't understand, you will record them, and hand them over to Your Majesty for decision after returning to Beijing. In fact, there is no secret, just honesty. Lu Jiude said honestly.

At the same time, in a certain courtyard in the backyard of the mansion, the three Zheng Zhihu brothers were sitting around the stone table in the courtyard, drinking and talking.

Zheng Zhibao said with some resentment: "Big brother, the eunuch next to the emperor is really not a thing, doesn't this make it clear that he is digging into our corners?" Even that Zheng Cai, in the past few days, seems to have lost his soul, his father-in-law is long and his father-in-law is short, and he really can't wait to worship others as godfathers when he looks like that. ”

Zheng Zhilong listened to his brother's complaints, feeling as if something had been snatched away. He drank the wine in the cup with a gloomy face, and then asked Zheng Zhihu, who had been silent, "Ah Hu, what do you think?" ”

Zheng Zhihu looked at the wine glass in front of him for a long time before he said hesitantly: "I think what Gonggong Lu said is right, if our Ming maritime merchants can unite, those Western merchants will not be able to monopolize the trade routes to the south like today." Maybe we can go across the sea and see what the hometown of those Western merchants is like. ”

"Second brother, you're not drunk, are you? Do you want to go to the other side of the sea? According to those Western merchants, there are monsters as big as mountains in the middle of the sea, and only one out of ten ships can cross this sea unharmed. Why are you so interested in such a dangerous thing? Big brother, don't talk about second brother, don't let him have this kind of strange daydream again. Zheng Zhibao anxiously persuaded his brother.

Zheng Zhihu immediately retorted: "What a monster in the sea, you take this kind of lie seriously." Since only one out of ten ships can pass, why are these merchants running back and forth every year, it can be seen that there must be a safe passage in the sea, but these Western merchants are unwilling to tell us. ”

Seeing the two younger brothers discussing things, they were able to get involved in the rumors of irrelevant sea monsters, Zheng Zhilong could only smile helplessly. Ah Hu can do everything very well, but it is a little bad, always wanting to go to the end of the sea to see what kind of place is on the other side of the sea, this unrealistic dream.

Of course, if it was in the past, Zheng Zhilong was regarded as a military advisor, mainly because of the talent Zheng Cai. In the past, under Zheng Zhilong, the two ships at sea were handed over, and the ones who dominated the deck were inevitably Li Kuiqi, Zhong Bin and Ah Hu. But when it comes to guessing people's hearts, planning and planning, and doing some shady things, no one can compare to Zheng Cai.

But today, Zheng Zhilong found that he couldn't find a subordinate who could be trusted to talk about the countermeasures against the imperial court.

The root cause is that because of the new recruitment conditions brought by Father-in-law Lu, his subordinates have some other ideas.

In fact, Chongzhen's condition is very simple, that is, to recognize the strength of the pirate before surrendering, and he will be given as many official positions as he has as many ships. Originally, these pirates supported Zheng Zhilong against the imperial court, but in fact, they never thought about how many official positions the imperial court would give.

Because according to past experience, the court will only give the leader of the pirates an official position, and then everyone will continue to follow the leader, except for changing clothes, nothing will change.

After recruiting An, it was Zheng Zhilong who rewarded his meritorious deeds and arranged official positions for his subordinates. And the imperial court generally does not interfere with Zheng Zhilong's management of his subordinates, and if Zheng Zhilong's subordinates make any mistakes, the imperial court will only look for Zheng Zhilong.

But now, everything has changed, after Zhao'an, what official and his subordinates have a few ships hooked, and it tears up the unity established by Zheng Zhilong and the eighteen Zhizhi successively defeated the imperial court sailors.

Eighteen Zhi began to split into small groups, and in order to obtain a higher official position, many leaders began to desperately win over those independent ship owners, so that they could have a few more ships under their command in exchange for higher positions.

Zheng Zhilong was surprised to find that the forces under his command were regrouping by themselves, and in the confrontation with the imperial court sailors, his various means of containing each other in the internal arrangements were almost completely ineffective under this drastic combination and reconstruction. And his control over the Eighteen Zhi Pirates has greatly decreased.