Chapter 394: The Past of the Zheng Family
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It is no accident that Zheng Zhilong set his sights on the Ryukyus, that is, the island of Taiwan.
Zheng Zhilong's life is a legend, his family was a little poor in his early years, and at the age of seventeen, he went to Macau to follow his uncle Huang Cheng to do business.
He learned a lot of business knowledge from his uncle Huang Cheng, and he learned a lot of nautical knowledge to learn to get through the joints.
And he has an amazing talent for languages, and in less than a year in Macau, Cheng Zhilong was able to speak Portuguese fluently.
Later, he learned Japanese and Dutch. He has a talent for languages that gives him an edge when dealing with foreigners.
His performance made his uncle Huang Cheng very satisfied. Huang Cheng then asked him to bring a batch of sugar, Qi Nan, and musk to Japan, and these goods were transported to the port of Hirado in Japan by the ship of the sea merchant Li Dan.
This trip to Japan became the biggest turning point in Zheng Zhilong's life, because in this trip, his outstanding performance impressed Li Dan, and soon after, he made a decision that shocked everyone: to accept Zheng Zhilong as his adopted son.
Since then, Zheng Zhilong has risen rapidly in Li Dan Group and become the core figure in it, and he is only about 20 years old at this time.
But the person who had the greatest influence on him was not Li Dan, but Yan Siqi, another Chinese maritime merchant in Hirado.
Yan Siqi and Li Dan are the two most powerful maritime merchants in Pingdo Chinese, Li Dan is a pure businessman, but Yan Siqi has great political ambitions and is not willing to be just a maritime businessman. He was a man of righteousness and wealth, and his bold temperament won the attention of the Tokugawa shogunate, and he was appointed as a conch.
And Yan Siqi's first goal. It was to overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate, which held power in Japan, and establish a Japanese government controlled by the Chinese.
To this end, he recruited 28 maritime merchants, including Yang Tiansheng, Chen Xinji, Hong Sheng, Zhang Hong, and Lin Fu.
And Zheng Zhilong, who is strong in martial arts and already has considerable strength, is one of the twenty-eight people.
After Yan Siqi and these 28 people officially became brothers, he said to them: "Japan is a vast area, with Liaoyang and Beizhi. Sent to Fujian, Guangdong, Jiaozhi. It is really the land of fish and rice, if you have to occupy it, it is enough to dominate yourself. ”
Everyone was very excited after hearing this, and the Western devils could control the countries of the South Seas. Why can't you control Japan if you are artificial?
To this end, twenty-eight people worked together. It has been carefully planned for a long time. If this operation is successful, the history of Asia will be rewritten.
It's a pity that when everything is in place. Even when the date of the incident was set, the news was accidentally revealed.
The Tokugawa shogunate preemptively dispatched troops to exterminate the pirate merchant group. Fortunately, it was arranged in the shogunate, and Yan Siqi was informed of the news of the Japanese in advance. So everyone fled Japan urgently.
After retreating to the sea, the group of pirate merchants urgently needed to find a place to stay, so they set their sights on Ryukyu, that is, the island of Taiwan.
At this time, Ryukyu Island was still a wild land.
They landed in Beigang, began the difficult frontier, and sent Yang Tiansheng back to Fujian, recruited thousands of people to come and build a city in Beigang, which marked a new page in the history of the Ryukyus.
In addition to developing the Ryukyu Islands, they also took control of the Ryukyu Strait by force, looting large amounts of goods from passing merchant ships. Although Zheng Zhilong left Japan, Li Dan is still in Japan;
As Li Dan's righteous son, he hooked up the business ties between Yan Siqi and Li Dan's group, which made Zheng Zhilong's position in Yan Siqi's group more important.
His younger brothers Zheng Zhihu and Zheng Zhibao, as well as his cousin Zheng Zhiguan, who stayed in Macao, came to vote one after another, and his strength further increased.
At this time, after being defeated by the Portuguese, a group of Dutch pirates also fled to the Ryukyus, occupied the southern part of the Ryukyus, and began to build two castles: Geranza Castle and Akatsu Castle.
Both sides had just settled on Ryukyu Island and were busy licking their wounds, so at first the two sides were safe and sound, and Zheng Zhilong was also sent to work as a translator for the Dutch for a while.
In the fifth year of Tomorrow's Qi, Yan Siqi contracted an illness while hunting in Zhuluo Mountain, and died of illness shortly after returning.
Yan Siqi's violent death made the power struggle of the group suddenly fall into a white heat.
It is worth mentioning that a month ago, Zheng Zhilong's father-in-law Li Dan also passed away, and Li Dan's huge power was handed over to Zheng Zhilong.
In this way, Li Dan and Yan Siqi, the two powerful forces, all fell into the hands of Zheng Zhilong at once, making him the most powerful maritime force in East Asia.
Zheng Zhilong, who combines two powerful forces, should have done more than Yan Siqi, Yan Siqi never forgot to occupy Japan, and said to everyone when he was dying: "I have worked with the public for two years, and I have created a meritorious career in this issue and promoted China's reputation." Today's ambition is unsuccessful, the middle way is dead, and the public is waiting for its succession. ”
It's a pity that Zheng Zhilong only inherited Yan Siqi's strength, but did not inherit his legacy, he didn't have Yan Siqi's ambition to look at the world, he was just smart, and he just wanted to return home.
By the first year of Chongzhen, Zheng Zhilong's command had expanded to nearly 100,000 people, and the number of ships had reached more than 1,500.
Zheng Zhi forgot Yan Siqi's last words, and did not lead this powerful force to kill Japan, but returned to the southeast coast, and continued to harass in the coastal areas, which made the Ming court very uneasy.
Zhu Yifeng, the governor of Fujian at the time, was unable to cope with it, and secretly asked the Dutch to participate in the suppression of Zheng Zhilong's forces, and in return, Zhu Yifeng would ask the emperor to allow the Dutch to obtain the privilege of trading with China.
The Dutch governor in the Ryukyus, Waite, led his army to attack Zheng Zhilong, but Zheng Zhilong's artillery fire was so fierce that Waite's feet were weak, and he fled to Java in a panic with the ships Vered and Erasmus.
Later, Xiong Wencan served as the governor of Fujian and successfully appeased Zheng Zhilong, the "bird". Zheng Zhilong went from being a pirate leader to a garrison of the Ming Dynasty.
The Dutch were thieves, and after gathering forces in East Asia, they attacked Fujian many times, trying to snatch control of the maritime trade routes from Zheng Zhilong, but Zheng Zhilong repulsed.
Especially in the first battle of Penghu, thousands of people were burned and sunk, 118 people were captured, 20 were killed, 5 splint giant ships were burned, 1 splint giant ship was captured, more than 50 thieves boats were destroyed, and armor, swords, compasses, charts and other things were captured. And the corpses of the dead before and after were dragged away, and the uncut ones were countable.
But after Zheng Zhilong was appeased, his energy was spent on running Fujian.
Although in the first year of Chongzhen, when there was a great drought in southern Fujian, Zheng Zhilong took the opportunity to propose to Xiong Wencan to recruit tens of thousands of disaster victims from Quanzhou and Zhangzhou to go to Taiwan Island to reclaim and farm, and each person was given three taels of silver and three people were given a cow, so that they could establish homes on Taiwan Island and reclaim wasteland.
However, no effort was made to eradicate the power of the Dutch in the Ryukyus, and after so many years of operation, the Dutch changed eight governors, and now they are the ninth governor, Ovaud. The strength of the Dutch on the island of Ryukyu is already very impressive.
Zheng Zhilong felt that the situation in Fujian was becoming more and more tense, and although he was unwilling to give up Fujian, he decided to expel the Dutch first and occupy the whole of Ryukyu as a way for the Zheng family to retreat in the future.
This was supported by Zheng Zhibao's brothers, and after some discussion, it was decided that Zheng Zhibao would lead the fleet to attack the city of Gelanza and Chichicheng, and Zheng Hongkui would be responsible for recruiting people and immigrating to Ryukyu in large numbers.
It's just that Zheng Hongkui always felt that it was inappropriate to imprison Longwu, so he hesitated for a moment and said: "Big brother, the emperor burned the letters of the officials of the DPRK and China in public before, and issued a special edict regardless of previous suspicions. Why don't we talk to him openly anymore, so as to restore the old view and stabilize Fujian. ”
Zheng Zhilong was still worried about Wu Long's escape, and he said in an unkind tone: "Then you can go and talk to him." Pass my order to close the border to strengthen the investigation, but there are defectors, all of them are beheaded. Also, be optimistic about that unfilial son, don't let him stir up any more trouble. ”
For the eldest son Zheng Sen, Zheng Zhilong loves and hates. He once asked the Xiangming Warlock to look at his son, and when the Xiangshi saw Zheng Sen's face, he immediately exclaimed: "Lang Jun Yingwu, the bone is very good. Lian congratulated Zheng Zhilong.
At that time, Zheng Zhilong was very happy, and said: "I am just a martial artist, if I can win the fame of the imperial examination here, it will be fortunate to add glory to the family." Xiangshi shook his head and said: "This child is not a person in the first class, but he is really a genius in the world." ”
Zheng Zhilong was even happier when he heard this, and placed great hopes on his eldest son. Later, Zheng Sen's performance really surprised Zheng Zhilong, Yunwen Yunwu, heroic, and his brothers often praised Zheng Sen as "the thousand-mile horse of my family." ”
Things in this world, sometimes I am really afraid of something, Zheng Zheng Zhilong just ordered to be optimistic about Zheng Sen, and the personal guard Black Whirlwind Xian Laosan suddenly knocked on the door and came in, and said urgently: "Grandpa Guo, it's not good, the eldest prince he"
"What's wrong with him?" Zheng Zhilong's heart was suddenly filled with an ominous premonition.
"The eldest prince took Tong Haifeng, Yang Qihuang, Shi Lang, Shi Fu, Hong Xishan and others to rush into the palace and rob the emperor and queen."
"What? This rebel is against him! ”
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PS: It's been so lonely these two days, and the mood is low, so brother come and support it!.
(To be continued......)