Three or five days later, Shao Wu sent back the good news, and the Zheng family foot soldiers, under the leadership of Zheng Sen, beheaded more than 10,000 remnants of the Three Guards, among which more than 10 heads from Zhang Shi and the following troops were delivered to Anping in a few days, and they were shown to the public along the way. When the army reported to the hand, Zheng Zhilong, who had always been suspicious, couldn't help but feel relieved about a big stone hanging in his heart all the time.

What he was worried about was nothing more than retaliation by the foot soldiers of the Three Guards, and now that all the elites of the Three Guards who went deep into Fujian have been beheaded and passed on, then Li Xin, who is far away in Hangzhou, will more or less become a stern warning, telling them that they will be ruthlessly attacked and retaliated against for their behavior of casually going deep into Fujian to share the fat of others.

However, Zheng Sen still refused to return to Anping, saying that the Three Guards would not be reconciled after a defeat, and would inevitably continue to send troops to Fujian to retaliate, so it was very necessary for him to continue to stay in Shaowu, reorganize the army, and be ready for battle. At the same time, Zheng Sen also asked Zheng Zhilong for instructions, and when necessary, he could be allowed to go deep into Jiangxi or Zhejiang to attack the enemy in depth.

But after considering it all, Zheng Zhilong still felt that he should not tear his face with Nanjing in a big way, after all, the current Zheng family has not yet reached the time when its wings are completely plump and can work independently. Guided by this idea, Zheng Zhilong soon issued a proclamation, saying that the remnants of the Three Guards Army and the remnants of the Huaiwang Army had fought a fierce battle between Jianning and Taining, and both were defeated, and most of the people in his command died in this battle.

In the eyes of outsiders, this military report is naturally unknown, but the Zheng family immediately knew that this was an out-and-out victory for the Zheng family's foot soldiers, so the whole group was excited, and they all cheered for this unimaginable victory, after all, Li Xin and his Three Guards were famous in the north, and now the first battle was wiped out under the hands of the eldest prince, which is really unbelievable.

At this time, Zheng Zhilong also changed his previous cautious and conservative attitude, and immediately wrote a bitter complaint to Nanjing against Li Xin and the Three Guards for plundering merchant ships going north, causing panic in the southeast sea, and there was a great danger of getting out of control again and pirates raging. His complaint was not only a threat to officials from all walks of life in Nanjing, but also an ultimatum to Li Xin.

As long as Li Xin did not promise to stop seizing merchant ships, Zheng Zhilong would send Zheng's naval division to eliminate all opponents on the southeast coast. Zheng Zhilong actually still has a fluke heart, as long as Li Xin cares about the fiasco of the Fujian Three Guards Army and the strength of the Zheng family's water division, it will be a victory for his Zheng family.

Not to engage in a head-on conflict with Li Xin and his control of Nanjing in a short period of time is a relatively safe path to expansion. During this period, the Zheng family should pay close attention to integrating all factions within Fujian, and at the same time use Li Xin's trick to drive the tiger and devour the wolf to control Guangxi, Guangdong and other places, so as to lay the foundation for his Zheng family to divide the southeast.

As long as the time is ripe, even if the communication between Jingshi and Jiangnan in the Ming Dynasty is restored at that time, if others want to move his Zheng family, it is not a dream not to pay the price of blood.

At this time, a family member came to report.

"Dashuai, the fourth master asks to see!"

This fourth master naturally refers to Zheng Hongkui, the fourth brother of Zheng Zhilong, and when he heard this name, Zheng Zhilong's brows couldn't help frowning. He knew that every time Zheng Hongkui came to see him, he was a weasel who gave a chicken a New Year's greeting, but every time he thought about the overall situation, appeased his emotions, and he would see him if he asked. But today, Zheng Zhilong really didn't want to look at his flattering face and back, so he had a cold face and asked the family to reply to Zheng Hongkui.

"Tell him that the old man is not feeling well today, let him come back to see him later!"

Zheng Zhilong specially gave a vague word later, the reason why he didn't give a specific time was to send a hint to Zheng Hongkui that he didn't want to see him in the future.

After getting the order, the family retreated respectfully, and after a while, he heard a faint high-pitched and angry voice outside arguing with the family ding: "Dog kills, why are you in front of Lao Tzu, and Lao Tzu wants to see his eldest brother with your approval?" ”

However, Zheng Hongkui's voice was getting farther and farther away, and it was obvious that the family did not buy his account and was not threatened by him. These people are all righteous sons who followed Zheng Zhilong from birth to death, and they will not take anyone in their eyes except Zheng Zhilong in their hearts. Even Zheng Zhilong's eldest son, Zheng Sen, a tacit heir, these family members will not bend their will, let alone a fourth brother who has lost power?

After a few more moments, there was apparently no movement outside.

Zheng Hongkui ate a closed door in the eldest brother's mansion, and there didn't seem to be much frustration and resentment on the back of the horse going back, on the contrary, he was faintly excited.

After arriving at home, Zheng Hongkui immediately recruited his two sons back, and asked about the dynamics in the sailors in the past few days, whether they would stop raising the levy when the flag had stopped, or whether they were loose and tight, ready to set sail at any time.

The two brothers, Zheng Cai and Zheng Lian, were not implicated by their father Zheng Hongkui in the Zheng family's water division, and still held important positions in the water division. In addition to Zheng Zhilong's special arrangement, this is also due to Zheng Hongkui's precautions, he never took his two people to sea with him in previous wars, and even did not let these two sons obey orders under his command. This is also another reason why Zheng Hongkui's cadres are widely implicated, but his two sons are safe.

At this time, Zheng Lian's face was a little indignant.

"Father, if my son says something that I don't like, my uncle is afraid of you, how can he give our brother another chance to make meritorious contributions?"

Zheng Hongkui laughed after hearing this, and then turned his face to look at Zhengcai, who had been silent, this son has always been brave and resourceful, and he won Zheng Hongkui's heart.

But seeing Zhengcai, he calmly replied: "From what the son can see, although the eldest uncle now intends to restrict his father, he has no intention of suppressing my two brothers, on the contrary, the son also feels that the eldest uncle is even interested in promoting in many aspects, but it is just not obvious. ”

Zheng Hongkui nodded, his son can always understand the essence of the facts.

"You're right, my eldest brother is good everywhere, just one point is his biggest flaw, which can also be said to be his weakness. That is, the so-called family is valued too much. ”

Zheng Zhilong maintains family harmony and has always used gentle checks and balances, which Zheng Hongkui has long been aware of. Therefore, he dared to return to Fujian after losing all his warships in Hangzhou and being a prisoner. He calculated that Zheng Zhilong would not easily take his life unless he had to, on the contrary, before his bottom line was touched, he would even protect his life in every possible way.

Therefore, Zheng Zhilong chose a method that seemed to be stable but was actually ruthless. restricted Zheng Hongkui and his people, but promoted Zheng Hongkui's two sons, Zheng Cai and Zheng Lian.

"What the son saw and heard, it is said that the eldest uncle intended to attack Guangdong and include Liangguang in the Zheng family's sphere of influence, as a capital to compete with Nanjing. Therefore, based on the son's speculation, in fact, the eldest uncle did not have a large-scale naval conflict with Li Xin in Nanjing in the near future. ”

After hearing this, Zheng Hongkui couldn't help but sneer, and turned to look at his other son.

"Zheng Lian, what do you think?"

Zheng Lian was stunned by Zheng Hongkui's question, and then replied: "Zheng Lian listened to his father and eldest brother. ”

Compared with the wise Zheng Cai, Zheng Lian has fewer ideas, as long as he has a fight, he can be Li Gong, and he can be promoted, he will be satisfied. But he is not stupid, he knows what his position is fundamental, so only his father and eldest brother are the best choice for him.

Zheng Cai found that Zheng Hongkui's face seemed to be disapproving, and his heart suddenly moved, and he hurriedly asked: "Father, do you think that the eldest uncle's plan to attack Guangdong will fail?" ”

After a long time, Zheng Hongkui shook his head.

"The plan to attack Guangdong is right, but his mistake is that he shouldn't be the enemy of Li Xin! I'm afraid that he may not be able to get his wish calmly. ”

"How is this possible, Father, you also think too highly of that Li Xin, look at Shao Wu's good news twice a day, didn't Shi Kefa and that Zhang Shi be wiped out by the whole army of the eldest prince? It seems that his and Tartar's achievements may be boastful, and the prototype will appear under the knife of our Zheng family's foot soldiers, as long as he dares to come again, this will be a lesson from the past. ”

Zheng Lian obviously disagreed with his father's rhetoric of raising the prestige of others to destroy his own spirit, and expressed his views in a series of ways.

Zheng Hongkui didn't argue with it, but just scolded him fiercely: "If you don't make it, if you learn more from your eldest brother, if things were really that simple, our Zheng family would have already divided the southeast half of the wall." ”

After Zheng Lian was scolded by his father, although he was unconvinced, he no longer openly contradicted Zheng Hongkui. On the contrary, Zheng Cai, who has never taken the initiative to express his opinions, spoke.

"Second brother, what my father said is right, do you think the eldest son's good news will be ten percent accurate?"

"What's the matter, he still dares to lie about his successes?"

Zheng Lian was taken aback by the eldest brother's statement, he had never had such an idea, and now after being asked by Zhengcai, he was also faintly aware that his father and eldest brother did not seem to fully believe in the good news of the eldest son.

"Then, the beheading of more than 20,000 levels of the Shi Kefa Department is not fake, right?"

More than 20,000 captives were "killed" by the Huai Wang rebels, and Zheng Zhilong sent people to Pegasus to check them.

The father and son of the Zheng family naturally guessed that the so-called scene of the Huaiwang rebels beheading the prisoners of Shi Kefa's department, and then the Huaiwang rebels being disarmed, was just directed by Zheng Sen, which not only avoided the reputation of killing and surrendering, but also planted all the charges on the head of the Huai king. The last thing is that it also took this opportunity to eradicate the rebels of King Huai in one fell swoop, which further showed to the outside world that the Zheng family did not collude with King Huai to attack the two official troops pursued by Nanjing.

If you want to blame, you can only blame the Three Guards and Shi Kefa's incompetence, and they were beaten by the Huaiwang rebels, and the Zheng family's people were actually just avenging them.