428 Zheng Zhilong

[Add one more today, more than 8,000 words. I won't add more changes in the next few days, and it will break out after the fifteenth, everyone is waiting!! 】

The Southeast Maritime Merchants didn't want Li Zixiao's city in Yangzhou to be built smoothly, but they couldn't organize it, after all, it was Chongzhen's order.

Moreover, Li Zixiao's murderous reputation is far and wide, and those maritime merchants are afraid of Li Zixiao, a general who holds real power.

These maritime merchants didn't dare to be the first bird, they could only find someone who was strong enough to be their leader, and it was no surprise that they found the Zheng family.

At this time, Zheng Zhilong is the only one who is qualified to talk to Li Zixiao, and Li Zixiao controls the establishment of the city in Yangzhou, which is equivalent to stealing business with the Zheng family in disguise.

These maritime merchants did not believe that Zheng Zhilong would sit idly by, and soon many maritime merchants in the southeast found Zheng Zhilong to express their wishes.

Subsequently, Zheng Zhilong really couldn't sit still, he wrote to Chongzhen, hoping to set up a city department in Quanzhou, Fujian, but was rejected by Cheng Chongzhen.

According to Chongzhen, a pilot project will be set up in Yangzhou first, and if feasible, it will be restored in Quanzhou and Guangzhou.

Chongzhen's rejection made Zheng Zhilong even more panicked, and he instinctively thought that this was a sign that Chongzhen was going to attack their Zheng family.

In fact, in recent years, the Zheng family has been in the southeast of Fujian, and its power has expanded more and more, and Zheng Zhilong himself is weak-hearted, for fear that Chongzhen will target his Zheng family.

The Zheng family started by the sea, and the establishment of the Yangzhou City Shipping Division will have a great impact on the Zheng Group, which specializes in monopolizing maritime trade, and even replaces the Imperial Court City Shipping Division, and has been collecting maritime protection fees.

Zheng Zhilong couldn't sit still, left the matter of Fujian, and hurriedly went north, he wanted to meet Li Zixiao once to test his tone.

Find out if the establishment of the city division by the imperial court this time is a precursor to Chongzhen's attack on them.

Zheng Zhilong didn't look at the pirate in his early years, but at this time he had already accepted the imperial court's edict.

Moreover, as Zheng Zhilong got older, he was unwilling to continue to fight in exile on the maritime merchants, otherwise he would not have accepted the imperial court's edict.

Back then, Zheng Zhilong led his pirates to beat the Ming army in the southeast coastal area.

Moreover, the comfortable life at this time has already made Zheng Zhilong lose his ambition, and he definitely does not want to be a pirate again at this time.

Of course, he didn't have much loyalty to the Ming Dynasty, and his only hope was to continue to be his 'soil emperor' in the Fujian area and strengthen the Zheng family's maritime armament.

This can be seen from the fact that the capital was later broken by Li Zicheng, Chongzhen committed suicide, and after the Ming Dynasty was destroyed, the Tartars entered the customs, and he easily surrendered to the Tartars.

It's a pity that the Tartars are simply a group of barbarians who will not keep their promises, and after Zheng Zhilong surrendered, he directly broke the contract, and was later killed by the Tartars.

At the beginning of July of the thirteenth year of Chongzhen, a large fleet went to sea from Quanzhou, Fujian, and went north by sea, and a few days later, arrived at the Yangzhou River at the mouth of the Yangtze River.

In fact, when Zheng Zhilong's fleet had just entered the mouth of the Yangtze River, it was discovered by the ships sent by Lu Yuan to tow it in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.

At this time, after Li Zixiao set up the city department in Yangzhou, he directly ordered Lu Yuan and Hong Sheng's navy to drive to the Yangtze River and take charge of the Yangtze River.

Of course, with the current strength of the White Dragon Army, he can control the river area around Yangzhou in front of him, and he can monitor the mouth of the Yangtze River to the east, and Jinling can be involved upstream.

After Zheng Zhilong arrived at the Yangtze River, he sent people ashore and went to Yangzhou to contact Li Zixiao.

On the one hand, he entered Yangzhou strongly, and after copying 10,000 homes, he needed to attack all the states and counties in Yangzhou.

Therefore, during this time, the White Dragon Army was frequently mobilized, and Li Zixiao also completed the replacement of Yangzhou state and county officials as soon as possible through the assistance of his father-in-law Lin Yongnian in Yangzhou.

At the same time, Li Zixiao also recruited laborers in Yangzhou, started the construction of Yangzhou Port and Cangcheng, and mobilized nearly 50,000 laborers, and the progress was still very fast.

Moreover, at this time, it is already July, and the spring sweet potatoes in Xuzhou and Huai'an have reached the stage of maturity, and he also has to pay attention to the summer harvest in Xuzhou and Huai'an.

Because this is their first season of large-scale promotion of sweet potatoes, it is related to the rations of the people of Xuzhou and Huai'an, as well as the military rations of the White Dragon Army.

However, Li Zixiao still has some confidence in the sweet potato harvest, and with Qian Guangyuan and Qiu Guangming in charge of the summer harvest, Li Zixiao does not need to worry too much.

Li Zixiao was not surprised when he learned that Zheng Zhilong was coming, in fact, he had been staying in Yangzhou, on the one hand, to sit in Yangzhou to deter Xiaoxiao, and to wait for Zheng Zhilong's arrival.

Sure enough, Zheng Zhilong did not disappoint Li Zixiao, after all, he still couldn't sit still and took the initiative to come.

At Yangzhou Port, where the fleet docked, Zheng Zhilong took people ashore and went to Yangzhou.

Zheng Zhilong is not worried about what Li Zixiao will do to him, even if Chongzhen really has the intention to weaken him, he does not dare to detain him directly, otherwise the Zheng Group entrenched in Fujian will be able to rebel at any time.

Of course, Li Zixiao would not do such a stupid thing, he finally used the establishment of the city department to force Zheng Zhilong to come, he had a purpose.

In order to greet Zheng Zhilong, Li Zixiao deliberately went out of Yangzhou City in person and greeted him ten miles outside the city, which was enough to give Zheng Zhilong face.

Moreover, Li Zixiao also showed his muscles appropriately, and he couldn't let Zheng Zhilong despise him, so he asked Luo Chao and Liu Chong to take two white dragon soldiers to line up outside the city to accept the review of him and Zheng Zhilong.

"Queue, forward!" A group of white dragon sergeants lined up in a neat queue.

Zheng Zhilong didn't expect that Li Zixiao would get him this play, but he was still very happy to see Li Zixiao's soldiers, so he didn't say anything, just stared at those white dragon soldiers.

When Zheng Zhilong looked at the white dragon soldiers who were neatly aligned and marching forward in formation, especially their armor, the weapons were all brand new, and they were full of energy, and they looked like an elite division.

"A good elite army, worthy of being able to fight the Tartars, with just a few thousand people can defeat the elite of tens of thousands of rogue troops, when I see it today, it can be regarded as a long insight.

This Li Zixiao, he really has two hands in training, and looking at his subordinates, the armor and weapons are all new, which shows that this person is not short of money in his hands! ”

Zheng Zhilong looked at the White Dragon Sergeant, his eyes were also shining, and he said to the subordinates next to him.

"Of course he is not short of money, look at how many big salt merchants he has confiscated in Yangzhou, if he has no money in his hands, it will be strange!" Zheng Zhilong's nephew Zheng Cai, who was on the side, muttered in a low voice.

Zheng Zhilong's strength has expanded rapidly in recent years, and he is even known as the 'King of the Minhai Sea', but the total number of soldiers and horses under his command is only about 30,000.

Moreover, most of the soldiers under him were merchant sailors, and they were still very strong in sea combat, otherwise it would be impossible to defeat the Dutch at sea.

But when it comes to land, Zheng Zhilong thinks that there is still a big gap between the soldiers under him and the white dragon soldiers brought by Li Zixiao.

"Uncle Clan, what does this Li Zixiao mean by putting on such a posture? Is this a disadvantage for us? ”

Zheng Zhilong's nephew Zheng Cai said with some dissatisfaction with Zheng Zhilong.

Zheng Cai is the nephew of Zheng Zhilong's own family, but he is only ten years younger than Zheng Zhilong, and he is very valued by Zheng Zhilong.

"Hehe, Cai'er, don't worry too much, if Li Zixiao wants to give us a horse, he doesn't have to go out of the city to greet him in person.

He put on such a posture, he just wanted us to pay attention to the strength in his hands and gain a status on an equal footing with us.

When he did this, I was relieved that maybe we would have unexpected gains from this trip. Zheng Zhilong saw more when the time came, and said with a smile.

"Big brother, do we really want to cooperate with this surnamed Li? When the time comes, won't we give him a part of the benefits at sea, why? ”

Zheng Zhibao next to him couldn't help but open his mouth and asked Zheng Zhilong, and he was also a little dissatisfied with Li Zixiao in his tone.

At that time, Zheng Zhilong's original name was Zheng Yiguan, and later after he died of the great pirate Yan Siqi, after taking over the leader, Zheng Yiguan divided the soldiers and horses into eighteen departments.

Led by eighteen people, all eighteen people changed their original names, and their new names all used a Zhi character, known as Eighteen Zhi.

Zheng Yiguan changed his name to Zhilong, and several of his brothers changed their names to Zhihu, Zhibao, Zhifeng, Zhiyan, Zhixiong, and so on. Since then, Zheng Yiguan has been called Zheng Zhilong.

"It's okay, the interests of maritime trade are huge, and we can't swallow them all, and it's not impossible to cooperate with Li Zixiao, of course he has to take out something to exchange with us.

Otherwise, if he wants to share our piece of the sea for nothing, he is also whimsical, and our Zheng family is not easy to bully.

However, I look at Li Zixiao, who is young, but he will do whatever it takes to achieve his goals, and the means are very clever, and he was named the general of Zhenguo at this time.

With an elite army in his hands, he is also qualified to cooperate with us, and it is a good thing to have a strong ally. ”

Zheng Zhilong said with a smile.

As the king of the sea in the Ming Dynasty at this time, Zheng Zhilong is actually only thirty-seven years old this year, his words are flying yellow, and he has a foreign name, called Nikolai.

Zheng Zhilong crisscrossed the sea, but he was recruited and surrendered several times before and after, and now the governor and the governor are all known, and he is the chief military officer of Fujian, and he moved the base camp from Taiwan back to Fujian a few years ago.

Zheng Zhilong attaches great importance to the relationship with the imperial court, and the reason why he rebelled after being recruited was also because the imperial court did not pay enough attention to it.

Now that he has become a first-class member of the imperial court, and has the real power of the chief military officer of Fujian, he is very satisfied, and has no intention of rebelling again.

In these years, Zheng Zhilong swept away those pirates on the southeast coast, in the name of the imperial court, waged war with the Dutch occupying Taiwan, protected the Chinese merchant ships at sea, and collected 'protection fees' from those merchant ships.

This is exactly the life he once dreamed of, being an official of the imperial court, monopolizing maritime trade under the banner of the imperial court, and making a lot of money.

In fact, Zheng Zhilong has always been just a businessman, and he was forced to be a pirate back then, and he had no ambition to dominate the world.

This guy has changed from a businessman and a thief at the beginning, to a feudal official of the imperial court and a red-capped businessman.

"Don't bother with a sloppy face, everyone has greeted you in person, don't lose your manners." Zheng Zhilong saw Li Zixiao riding over in the distance, and said slowly to Zheng Cai and the others.

After Li Zixiao approached on horseback, Zheng Zhilong couldn't help but be stunned when he saw Li Zixiao's appearance clearly, and then said to Li Zixiao with a smile: "Sure enough, the rumors are true, General Li is really young and promising!" ”

Because, Zheng Zhilong was really shocked by Li Zixiao's young appearance in his heart at this time.

"Zheng Zongbing praised it, in front of Lord Zheng, how dare the lower officials say that they are young and promising, compared to Lord Zheng, the lower officials are really far behind."

Li Zixiao also complimented Zheng Zhilong for a while, who wouldn't say nice words, anyway, it doesn't cost money to praise people.

Li Zixiao looked at the middle-aged man in front of him, his face was very kind, he set up the city department with great fanfare, not to catch this big fish, and now the big fish has finally taken the bait.

"Knowing that Lord Zheng is coming, the lower officials are also sincerely afraid, and the banquet that has already been prepared in the city is waiting for Lord Zheng to enter the city."

"Okay, let's go into the city." Zheng Zhilong also said boldly.

Li Zixiao forced Zheng Zhilong to come this time, but he actually cooperated with his Zheng Group.

At this time, Li Zixiao had to admit that the Zheng Group was definitely the maritime overlord of the Ming Dynasty, just look at him at sea, exterminate pirates, and repeatedly defeat the Dutch.

Even if Li Zixiao has the intention to shake the status of others, it is impossible for him to develop a naval army in a few years.

But during this time, Li Zixiao did not wait in vain, he also wanted to carry out the maritime layout as soon as possible and meddle in the maritime trade, so that he could only cooperate with the Zheng Group temporarily.

Moreover, more importantly, according to Li Zixiao's understanding of Zheng Zhilong in later generations, at this time, the businessman had a strong atmosphere, and he was not ambitious, and he had no ambition to dominate the world.

This also means that the Zheng family will not become Li Zixiao's life-and-death enemy in the future. Working with him at this time, Li Zixiao doesn't have to worry too much.

Anyway, at this time, if you let Li Zixiao cooperate with Tartar, he won't do it to death.

Li Zixiao wants to make money through maritime trade, but while he makes money, he will not invest in the enemy, otherwise it will not be profitable.

And Li Zixiao has already arranged it, and he is quite sure about this meeting with Zheng Zhilong to discuss cooperation.

Li Zixiao welcomed Zheng Zhilong and his entourage into Yangzhou City, chartered the largest restaurant in Yangzhou, and entertained them well, and even most of the officials in Yangzhou were all present to accompany them.

Zheng Zhilong looked at Lin Yongnian, Pan Ying and other officials in Yangzhou City, all of them came, which seemed to give him face, which didn't show Li Zixiao's energy.

"In such a short period of time, the influence of Wanjia in Yangzhou has been eliminated, and Yangzhou City at this time has basically been controlled by him, this person is young and gentle, but the means are not ordinary, and it is really a talented person from generation to generation!"

Zheng Zhilong looked at Li Zixiao and sighed in his heart.

At this time, seeing Li Zixiao put on such a big scene, so that all the officials of Yangzhou were present, it was regarded as giving Zheng Zhilong face, and it also made Zheng Cai and others less dissatisfied with Li Zixiao.

(End of chapter)