After taking a sip of hot tea, Zheng Zhilong decided to change this passive situation, obviously he was just a young man who had just ascended to the throne, but in terms of the several maritime policies he proposed, he knew better than those Fujian officials, what they wanted these half-businessmen and half-thieves at sea.

Zheng Zhilong looked at the expressions of everyone in the hall, and he noticed that Cai Shanji's face was blank when he heard the news, and it seemed that it was not the first time he had heard the news. In this case, presumably the gentry of Fujian should have understood the news that His Majesty is going to open the sea, and this Lord Cai is still willing to accompany these envoys to arrive, it seems that the Fujian gentry have the intention of giving in.

And after his subordinates Li Kuiqi and Zhong Bin heard that the imperial court planned to fully open up overseas trade, their minds had already begun to become active, and they seemed eager to accept the imperial court's recruitment immediately.

Wanting to force the Ming Dynasty to open the sea ban is something that generations of sea bandits have not done, and this is also the greatest desire of those who are begging for a living at sea. If they could trade freely overseas, who would want to be a pirate at sea? Even if the power is as big as Zheng Zhilong, it is not the same as cowering on this desert island, and he can't enjoy anything. In this era, only in the Ming Dynasty can enjoy the most civilized life, and the living standards of people in other places are basically better than those of savages.

Zheng Zhilong cleared his throat and said, "Gonggong Lu, in this way, Your Majesty has allowed me to conduct maritime trade in the future." So in addition, what official positions are Your Majesty going to reward me with, I now have thousands of ships, and the number is also tens of thousands, I don't know how many people the imperial court intends to accept as officers and soldiers, and how will others be arranged? ”

Hearing Zheng Zhilong's question, several subordinates who cared about their official positions immediately pricked up their ears, wanting to hear what benefits they could get.

Lu Jiude just smiled slightly, and did not react at all to Zheng Zhilong's showing off of his strength, but said sincerely: "Your Majesty said that the people who are willing to recruit are not necessarily all want to be officers and soldiers, some people may just want to go ashore and be good citizens, some people may be old and infirm and no longer suitable for life at sea, and some people just want to trade at sea in the name of officers and soldiers."

Therefore, it can't be one-size-fits-all, and those who are willing to recruit security should first write a letter of ambition and talk about what they want to do after recruiting security. However, the imperial court cannot fully meet the wishes of everyone, and can only say that it can satisfy the wishes of the majority as much as possible, and I hope that the leaders will truthfully convey this to your subordinates.

As for your official position? To be honest, I don't know yet, but I can tell you about the criteria that His Majesty has drawn up for the time being.

Whoever has a ship of less than 50 materials is the sentry commander; A ship within 50-100 materials is for inspection; Those who return from ships below 200 materials are considered to be 100 households; Those with more than 200 ships are 100 households; Those with less than 5 ships are deputy thousand households; 1,000 households or less with less than 10 vessels; Those with less than 30 ships are considered admirals; Those with more than 30 ships are considered guerrillas. And Zheng Chief, you are a guerrilla general under His Majesty's own mouth. ”

Hearing the official position of guerrilla general, even Zheng Zhilong was a little happy. Thinking that he is the son of a small official, he has become a guerrilla general from the third grade, and he must be said to be glorious and proud of his ancestors.

However, when Zheng Zhilong saw the happy expressions of several subordinates, he suddenly secretly screamed in his heart. The conditions for recruiting security brought by Lu Jiude are indeed rich, but the seal of this official is too specific.

He Zheng Zhilong has not fully mastered the Eighteen Zhi, originally even if he was in the Toucheng Mansion, those Fujian civil officials would give him an official position and establishment, and then he would not interfere in the internal personnel of the Eighteen Zhi.

And he happened to use the name of the imperial court to vigorously promote his cronies, so that these subordinates would be loyal to him instead of the imperial court. As for those pirates who had more internal power and did not obey his orders very much, they were naturally given a lowly official position, so that these pirates resented the injustice of the imperial court.

Zheng Zhilong already had a vague plan for how to clean up the more independent forces inside after Zhao'an, but Lu Jiude made public the criteria for defection, which means that it is unlikely that he wants to do anything from it. Otherwise, the pirates below will turn to the court to deal with him as soon as possible.

Looking at the beaming appearance of his subordinates, Zheng Zhilong turned his heart sideways and suddenly sneered at Lu Jiude: "Isn't my father-in-law playing us like monkeys?" As long as most of the tens of thousands of people such as me choose to be officers and soldiers, will the salary issued by the imperial court be paid? I heard that the officers and men of the Fujian Navy Division have not been paid for several months, so it is possible that Your Majesty has only given me an empty official position, so that I will not be able to support myself. ”

"Yes, if it's just an empty official position, I might as well still drink wine and eat meat in this big bowl, and I can always end up happy." Zheng Zhihu, who had never had a chance to interject, immediately attacked Lu Jiude after seeing his brother's face change.

Li Kuiqi and Zhong Bin's faces were cloudy, and they were also awakened by Zheng Zhilong's words, the conditions of the court this time are really good, and the good ones are a little unreal. Last time, the governor of Fujian did not see Zheng Zhilong for a month, and the official position was only given to a mung bean sesame official who patrolled. And today the emperor personally gave Zheng Zhilong a guerrilla general, and everyone is not a hundred households but also a thousand generals, garrisons, if this is really His Majesty's will, then the officials from Eighteen Zhi will immediately exceed the number of military attaches in the entire Fujian, which feels a little bad.

Zheng Cai on the other side didn't think about it so much, he calculated the ships under his command, and felt that there was always more than one thousand, and if he attracted a few more ships, maybe he could get a garrison.

As for the salary, this talented pirate leader didn't care at all. Since the imperial court gave them official status and allowed them to trade at sea, who cares about those salaries. As long as you go to overseas trade, you will have three years' worth of military salaries.

He hurriedly spoke up and said, "Ah Hu, don't be rude to the angels. Since Your Majesty is so generous to us, how can you be stingy with a few taels of silver? As the people of the Ming Dynasty, isn't it a matter of course for us to be loyal to Your Majesty? ”

Zheng Zhihu blinked and looked at Zheng Cai a little speechless, this person who used to shout affectionately in front of him in front of the tiger brother and after the tiger brother, but today he reprimanded him for a previously hostile imperial court envoy, this plot changed a little quickly, so that Zheng Zhihu, who has always attached importance to brotherhood, froze.

Zheng Zhilong in the hall looked at this and couldn't help but squint at Zheng Cai, but then he thought about it. Even Zheng Cai, who had always followed him closely, was moved, and those pirate leaders who were more estranged from him in the Eighteen Zhi were more likely to fall to the imperial court.