Zheng Zhilong, who rushed to the capital again to attend the meeting of representatives of overseas trade merchants, had mixed feelings, although he won the opportunity to recruit an according to his own ideas, and also obtained a knighthood of Chiayi County beyond his expectations.

At first, he was relatively happy, and proudly took the title of Chiayi County man back to Guangzong to honor his ancestors. But he soon realized that things seemed to be out of his control.

Although he knew that with the promulgation of a series of new navigation regulations, and the implementation of the conditions for recruitment. Those maritime merchants and sailors who had originally gathered under their own names would inevitably throw themselves into the arms of the imperial court. Although this made him a little uncomfortable, he also knew that it was a helpless thing.

After all, the imperial court has the reputation of righteousness, and the maritime merchants and sailors gathered under his name did not want to raise troops against the Ming Emperor, but wanted to use force to force the imperial court to lift the sea ban and break the overseas trade monopoly of those officials and gentry and wealthy families.

But he never imagined that things would unfold so quickly, so fast that he was somewhat caught off guard. Liu Xiang returned to Guangdong with people, and then occupied the trade route from Guangdong to Annan and Zhenla, which he could predict. After all, the Guangdong pirates and pirates under Liu Xiang's command were not the same as them, the maritime merchants and pirates in southern Fujian.

To be honest, there are still quite a few contradictions between the two sides. Guangdong maritime merchants who went north to Japan were often robbed by Fujian pirates, while Fujian merchants who went to Annam and Zhenla often intercepted them behind the backs of Guangdong pirates. If it weren't for the fact that they were fighting together against the huge power of the imperial court, it would not have been possible for the two sides to unite temporarily.

But even if they united, this group of Guangdong pirates did not plunder the coastal areas of Guangdong as agreed, but crossed Guangdong and plundered the ground of southern Fujian, which made a group of pirates of southern Fujian deeply dissatisfied. Now that everyone has achieved their goal, the imperial court has opened the sea ban and accepted the imperial court's recruitment.

The internal contradictions between the pirates naturally began to erupt, and it was not surprising that Liu Xiang, as the leader of the Guangdong pirates, was the first to split.

Yang Tiansheng and Chen Xinji, who had always regarded themselves as the leaders of the merchants of the Southern Fujian Sea, immediately seized this opportunity to take a large number of ships away from Zheng Zhilong's fleet and run to Anbuna Island, which was beyond his reach, to establish a base.

This made Zheng Zhilong, who originally regarded this power as his own bag, angry, and he originally wanted to write to win the support of the imperial court, but apparently the emperor did not mean to do what he wanted.

Although he did not gain the support of the imperial court, Zheng Zhilong did not let go, he still wanted to take revenge on Yang Tiansheng and Chen Xinji, and take back all the ships and men they had taken away.

However, the attitudes of Li Kuiqi and Zhong Bin, who had gained a firm foothold in Palawan and Bugasan Island, were a little ambiguous, which suddenly made Zheng Zhilong vigilant. After careful investigation, he realized that these two subordinates seemed to have colluded with Yang Tiansheng and them.

This is because the original Ming pirates have always been operating in the sea areas west of Luzon and north of Annam. Although the Ming maritime merchants were relatively active in the waters of Southeast Asia, they never tried to establish a sphere of influence on these islands, so no matter how much the European colonizers fought with the natives of Southeast Asia, or the merchants, they all acquiesced in the existence of this power demarcation line, and there was no large-scale cross-line action.

However, now the actions of Yang Tiansheng, Chen Xinji, Liu Xiang, Li Kuiqi, Zhong Bin and others have destroyed this default demarcation line of power, and what followed was a change in the situation in Southeast Asia.

For small countries such as Boni and Johor, which were overwhelmed by the rapid growth of the Dutch power, the Ming forces reappeared in the waters of Southeast Asia after an interval of more than 100 years, and they were obviously regarded as a talisman, so they quickly accepted the existence of these Chinese pirates flying the Ming flag.

But for the Spaniards, the Dutch, and even the merchants from the Middle East and India, the emergence of these Chinese was undoubtedly another rival in their struggle for trade domination in Southeast Asia.

As for Mataram, Aceh, and Annam Nguyen, the presence of Chinese forces in the region is equally unpopular with them. Because these small countries are in a period of strength, they are fighting against the power of European colonizers and at the same time annexing the indigenous forces around them.

In their eyes, the Chinese, like the Europeans, will inevitably hinder their efforts to unify their periphery.

Among several people, Liu Xiang's environment is slightly better. Although he forcibly demanded Priango, the fertile land of the Mekong Delta.

However, at this time, the country of Chenla, which was renamed Cambodia, was in the midst of an internal political struggle. In the past few decades, Cambodia's weakening has led to greed in the two neighboring countries, Siam and Annam.

Although Annam was stronger than Siam, it was in the midst of a north-south split, so it only took actions to encroach. Siam, however, used force to turn Cambodia into its vassal.

King Gi Zheta II of Cambodia wanted to change this situation, so he married one of the daughters of Annam Nguyen, and wanted to rely on Annam's power to resist the Siamese people's aggressive policy. However, it is clear that this plan was not successful, and instead of freeing the Siamese from the control of the Siamese, Gizheta II introduced the Annam people into the fertile lands of the Mekong Delta.

When Gizheta II died this year, he was succeeded by his son Bonidu, but not in his own right, and the regent was Prince Udie, although several other princes also wielded great power.

In the midst of this internal power struggle, there is also the external encroachment of Annam Nguyen on migrants to the east of Cambodia and the Mekong Delta. Therefore, when Liu Xiang forcibly occupied Puliange and changed his name to Saigon with the common name of the locals, which had the meaning of building a city and building a walled village to live for a long time, it was not the Cambodians who were most anxious.

Nguyen Phuc Yuan, the ruler of Annam Nguyen, was the one who was most angry at Liu Huong's occupation of Saigon, and it took a generation of effort to destroy the Cham state, dividing the Cham into three small vassal states, opening the way to the Mekong Delta and the road to Cambodia.

Now Liu Xiang actually took the cooked rice away, which not only hindered his policy of emigration and encroachment on land, but also blocked the advance channel for the Nguyen clan to annex Cambodia.

The expulsion of Liu Huong from Saigon and the resumption of the existing southward expansion policy were naturally placed in front of Nguyen Phuc Yuan. But although Liu Xiang was easy to deal with, after all, this Cantonese pirate was a newcomer, and he could not be compared with the Nguyen clan, who had been running Saigon for six or seven years.

The problem is that Liu Xiang is still in the name of China's official army, and even various forces in Cambodia not only dare not refute Liu Xiang's behavior, but also send people to win him over, hoping to win China's support through Liu Xiang and win the domestic political struggle.

Cambodia itself resisted, and he, the lord of Quang Nam, could not overstep his bounds, after all, China was not Cambodia, and it was not something that Annam Nguyen could easily provoke. What's more, now that the Ruan clan has to face the strong pressure of the Zheng clan in the north, he can't help but act cautiously.

Therefore, Liu Xiang suddenly found that after he occupied this place, no one came to reason with him, and there were even a lot of gifts for him. He accepted the gifts without hesitation, and for the requests of these people, he pushed them all back, and then began to build his Saigon City with peace of mind.

Unlike Liu Xiang's calm waves, whether it was Li Kuiqi, Zhong Bin, Yang Tiansheng, or Chen Xinji, when they stepped on the beach of the Southeast Asian islands, the stormy waves in this sea area immediately swept towards them.

The first to bear the brunt were Li Kuiqi and Zhong Bin, who occupied a place that was not only surrounded and suppressed by the Spaniards, but also hostile to forces from Mindanao and Sulu*.

These * forces obviously have the concept that the enemy is an ally without an enemy, and they obviously regard Li Kuiqi and Zhong Bin as enemies who want to invade their territory.

Fortunately, however, there were still some natives close to the Ming Dynasty, as well as the natives who had been plagued by Catholic missionaries on Palawan and Bugasan Islands, who saw their arrival as an opportunity to relieve the sea of suffering, and expressed their willingness to surrender to the Ming represented by the two.

Li Kuiqi and Zhong Bin were originally a little suspicious of these converted natives, but after hearing that these Spaniards not only levied church taxes on them, but also levied Mass, baptism, wedding, funeral and other exorbitant taxes, they understood why these natives couldn't wait to take refuge in themselves.

However, although Palawan and Bugasan Island have a beautiful environment, they do not have any mineral deposits, and there is only some agriculture. It was clearly not enough to rely on this income to feed the pirates.

If you want to develop entrepot trade, the location of Palawan and Bugasan Island is not very suitable. The geographical conditions here are not as good as Manila in the north, and it is too far from the densely populated islands of Java, Sumatra, and the Malay Peninsula.

At the same time, Yang Tiansheng and Chen Xinji also encountered the same problem as them, although the geographical location of Ambuna Island is important, but the development potential is insufficient. Without trade support, they wouldn't be able to stay here.

Under the oppression of European colonizers and merchants, the two sides soon united. They eventually decided to establish a trading hub in western Borneo where the Kapuas River and the Lanta River converge.

It is more than 40 miles from the mouth of the river, but the river is wide and deep enough for boats to moor, and there is already a small Chinese settlement village here, so it is not difficult to develop. On top of that, most of the Capuas River is navigable, and as long as there is enough population, the resources of the interior can be exploited.

After the construction of this port called Pontianak, the Sunda Strait in the southwest and the Strait of Malacca in the west, from the west to the southern islands, it is also the most densely populated area on the islands in Southeast Asia.

The only downside to Pontianak is that due to its equatorial location and the sparse population of Borneo, the island is covered with tropical rainforests and is largely undeveloped. This is also the reason why European colonizers did not occupy this place.

When Yang Tiansheng, Chen Xinji, Li Kuiqi and Zhong Bin united, Zheng Zhilong naturally changed his attitude. Without the support of the imperial court, even if he wanted to fight them, he couldn't see any hope of victory.

Therefore, Zheng Zhilong chose to assist them and established a trade route from China to Bugasan Island and then to Pontianak. This compromise not only eased the contradictions between them, but also allowed Zheng Zhilong to regain some of the dominant power, after all, the source of the trade route was in Xiamen and Beigang.