Unceremoniously pointed out that there was a problem with logistics, and proposed to break up the group, it was a man with a short stature, even if he sat in the chair, he was a little shorter than others.

This person is about 40 years old, with a dark complexion, narrow face and thin eyes, a wide forehead, wearing a nondescript Nanjing poplin short robe, a short knife at the waist, and a pair of fast boots under his feet.

Liu Heung was born in a poor fisherman's family on Lamma Island, and was the only Cantonese in the Eighteen Chi, and most of his subordinates were heroes who defected from Guangdong. Therefore, for a long time, the Liu Xiang gang, which is mainly composed of Cantonese people, and the other hills of Shibazhi, which are mainly Fujian people, have not been very good at dealing with each other.

Dominating power MAX, Zheng Zhilong, the only one who can suppress these unruly leaders, is now "missing", so everyone's usual filthiness has naturally erupted, and the most radical attitude among them is the Liu Xiang Group.

Liu Xiang is so anxious to break up the gang, there is actually a deeper reason for this.

......

Zheng Zhilong, except for being a Portuguese horse boy in Macau in the early years, Zheng Zhilong's political line has actually been moving closer to the Dutch.

Since working as a translator for the Dutch, Zheng Zhilong has actually drifted away from the Catholic forces represented by Portugal and Spain.

You must know that when Comrade Yiguan was working as a "translator" in the senior office, he did not work as an office white-collar worker next to the Dutch - the Dutch gave him the task of leading a small fleet to intercept the messenger ships of the Portuguese and Western thieves in the strait.

In other words, from that time on, Zheng Zhilong was actually in a hostile state with Spain and Portugal. Of course, in this era, the East Asian seas are the law of the jungle, and it is normal for everyone to fight today and tomorrow. Later, after Zheng Zhilong became bigger, he and the Dutch also fell in love and killed each other.

But Zheng Zhilong, who was in history, finally chose the combination of Holland + Daming. From the moment Zheng was recruited, the Dutch received a steady stream of raw silk and porcelain from him.

What does this behavior mean? It represents Zheng Zhilong's complete abandonment of the Catholic combination of Portugal + Spain, and chooses a more dynamic, more commercial, and more forceful Dutch side as his business partner.

At this point in time, Spain was still nominally the suzerainty of Portugal. Although the two countries are constantly in the European nest, in the East Asian Ocean, in the face of the Dutch who are aggressive and open fire when they meet, Portugal and Spain still maintain a warm alliance relationship.

So the question is: since Zheng Zhilong is unreliable, who should Portugal and Spain support to be their own Zheng Zhilong?

Liu Xiang.

This is the reason why Liu Xiang Group urgently needs a big gang to disperse after determining that Zheng Zhilong is dead.

For Liu Xiang, the current situation is actually in his favor: the disappearance (death) of Zheng Zhilong, who monopolized Japanese trade and overwhelmed him and the Portuguese and Western maritime merchants behind him, is a great thing, because from this moment on, whether it is trade or other aspects, a vast space has been opened.

He now urgently needs to retire from Zheng Zhilong's banner, and then return to his old nest in Chaozhou to contact the forces of Portugal and Spain, which have been close to him.

The next step is simple: after getting the support of the master behind him, Liu Xiang can completely prepare his arms and horses and watch the fire from the other side. After these Fujian sea lords killed each other, Liu Xiang at that time could follow Zheng Zhilong's old road of Zhao'an, and retreated to continue to plunder the coast, and compete with the rest of these big gangs for the monopoly of trade with Japan, and there was a lot of way ahead.

In real history, Zheng Zhilong did not give Liu Xiang this opportunity.

From the beginning of Zhao'an, Liu Xiang, who represented the Portuguese and Western forces, officially turned against Zheng Zhilong, and after that, the two sides fought a 7-year naval war.

In the face of the strategic suppression of the strong enemy in the north, Liu Xiang Group had no choice but to retreat step by step. In order to maintain the cohesion of the group, Liu Xiang could only turn around and plunder along the coast of Guangdong, introducing the war into his own nest.

The price of this was also painful: Liu Xiang was disgusted by the Guangdong government, which eventually led to a joint campaign of killings spearheaded by Zheng Zhilong, which led to his demise.

Of course, in the end, that wave of Liu Xiang did not lose - this person also pulled Zheng Zhihu as a companion before he died. As the last eighteen-zhi surface brother to be cleaned up by Zheng Zhilong, the short Liu Xiang can also be regarded as a typical example of the disabled Zhijian.

......

The gaze returned to the big tent of the Chinese army.

When Liu Xiang once again repeated the request he had been advocating for the disbandment of the gang in the past few days, sitting opposite him a gray-haired, Songjiang cotton robe with a short scimitar at the waist, the forty-five or sixteen-year-old man spoke: "Master Liu, the matter is still undecided, you might as well wait a little longer." ”

This person is Li Kuiqi, one of the eighteen Zhi mountains. Due to the uneven distribution of spoils in history, this person rebelled after Zhao'an, and once annexed most of the men and horses, and drove Zheng Zhilong back to Fuzhou.

After listening to Li Kuiqi's seemingly generous words, Liu Xiang sneered: "800 elites, 5 big ships, there is no news in half a month, wait any longer, when will the account be settled?" At present, nearly 20,000 brothers are trapped here, sitting on the empty mountain, and I am afraid that the grain platform will not be able to support it, right? ”

Speaking of this, Liu Xiang squinted his eyes and glanced at a young man in a green robe on the opposite chair.

The young man looked like he was twenty-five or sixteen years old, with a strong body, and there was a shadow of Zheng Zhilong between his eyebrows, but he was Zheng Zhilong's fourth brother: Zheng Zhifeng.

Zheng Zhifeng's face was tired at the moment, and he didn't know what he was thinking when he sat in the chair. Hearing Liu Xiang repeatedly pointing at the grain table, he could only open his mouth and reluctantly replied: "The grain table is still good, don't worry about the shopkeeper Liu." ”

"Okay? Hum. Liu Xiang sneered again: "I'm afraid I can't hold on to the bottom, right?" And the silver that should have been given to me yesterday? ”

......

In ancient times, marching and fighting were far from being so simple.

There are 10,000 people, and there is no boundary. In fact, even a gang of several hundred people must also have a grain station dedicated to logistics work.

The pirate gang with thousands of ships and tens of thousands of men gathered together has even more stringent logistical requirements: food, a key material, must have a large-scale commercial operation behind it to ensure its distribution.

...... Whether the pirates robbed merchant ships or civilians, most of what they ended up with was just some goods and floating wealth, not food neatly placed there.

After all, merchant ships also give priority to goods, and Fujian does not produce grain locally. The so-called coastal raids of the pirates are actually the main purpose of grabbing some floating wealth that is easy to get their hands on, as for the food ...... Zheng Zhilong and the others are all wealthy merchants, not kings, and they are not hungry enough to attack the city for food.

So when it comes to logistics, the pirates have an ancestral way of supplying: the Den Master.

From the day there were pirates, the profession of nest master appeared in the coastal areas at the same time. The owners were responsible for buying the booty from the pirates at low prices, and organizing the supply of food, salt, and other large quantities to the pirates.

This process worked even in later generations: the thieves who robbed the jewelry store also had to find the Jews to sell the stolen goods afterwards, and the market price was up to 3%.

And a 10,000-strong gang like Eighteen Zhi, living by grabbing food is even more of a joke. In fact, the Zheng Group consumes an average of more than seven or eight tons of grain every day. All of these goods were trafficked by the owners of the nests in Guangdong and Zhejiang.

And Liu Xiang's repeated mention of the grain platform today has actually pointed to the core of the problem: the Zheng family can't hold the bottom.

Before this, because someone was going to Fuzhou City to talk about Zhao'an, the whole gang was in a state of forced silence: naturally there could be no more news of the bandits' plundering during the negotiations, which was the basic reason. Otherwise, if you really don't know how to cut people?

However, this silence comes at a cost: every day a large amount of grain and silver will come out of the public account.

If Zheng Zhilong is not dead, then this situation can be maintained for a long time: even if the Zheng family fills it with the private money they use to do maritime trade, they can feed these pirates for half a year. When the time comes, as long as you make a move, no matter how much money you have, you will earn it back.

But not anymore. Zheng Zhifeng, who is in charge of the grain station, can only admit the news of his eldest brother's death even if he is unwilling at the moment. After leaving Zheng Zhilong and the 800 core pirates of the Zheng family, the Zheng brothers were privately grieving, but they also had to make plans for their own families.

People who lick blood from the knife edge are the most sensitive to the rise and fall of each other's strength. At present, the Zheng family has lost its biggest reliance overnight, and it can be said that its strength is rolling down: the pirates are all characters with red and white, and there are many people who have returned to Liu Xiang and Li Kuiqi in private in the past few days, but there are no small shopkeepers who are willing to continue to follow the young people of the Zheng family.

is still the same sentence: It is 1628 now, and it is far from the golden years in history when the Zheng family became powerful and Zheng Zhifeng used tiger skin to pull the banner. As soon as Zheng Zhilong died, the goods of the Zheng family, which were of several middle-aged people, immediately showed their prototypes, and they were completely incomparable with Li Kuiqi and Liu Xiang, who were in the second gear.

So, Zheng Zhifeng began to do things on the grain platform: since sooner or later he couldn't suppress these hungry wolves, it was better to take advantage of his brothers who were still in charge of the grain platform and save more resources for the winter. The brothers are very clear: the Zheng family is going to spend the winter in the future.

Who would have thought that the grain and grass had only been deducted for a day, and the matter was exposed by Liu Xiang, who was staring at the fault.

And Zheng Zhifeng, who was slightly embarrassed, could only say vaguely: "Xu is subordinates have delayed a little, and the money and food are only one or two days' left, so why should Shopkeeper Liu be like this." ”

"Bastard! After deducting the money of the brothers, they dare to take a big deal here! Liu Xiang, who had long since stopped taking the second ancestors of the Zheng family in his eyes, was filled with righteous indignation at this time, jumped up from the chair in anger, pointed at Zheng Zhifeng's nose and shouted: "Little thief, how much silver and rice have you stolen from the grain table, now to be honest, you can still save a life!" ”

"Choking", as soon as Liu Xiang's words fell, a strong man standing behind Zheng Zhifeng suddenly pulled out a short knife on his waist. This person's name is Zheng Zhipeng, and he is Zheng Zhilong's fellow villager brother - in history, this goods was beheaded in public by the national surname on the crime of losing Xiamen and made a raft.

As Zheng Zhipeng pulled out his waist knife, there was a sudden sound of gold and iron clashing in the Chinese military tent: the subordinates standing behind the shopkeepers from all walks of life all pulled out their waist knives, and the scene suddenly became tense.