However, the maritime merchants did not rejoice for long, and soon they found that the long-extinct pirates and pirates had reappeared, and almost every day there were ships that were looted, and the wreckage of the ships that had been looted and burned could often be seen on the sea, and the fishermen who went out to sea to fish often salvaged the bodies of sailors and maritime merchants killed by the pirates, and the unprecedented prosperity suddenly turned into unprecedented chaos!

Not only that, because of the disorderly competition, the price fluctuations of maritime trade goods are also very large, especially such as raw silk, tea, which are very popular with Westerners in the tight maritime trade commodities, the price is almost a day several changes, Westerners use the maritime merchants to compete with each other, desperately lower the purchase price, resulting in the price of maritime trade goods suddenly from soaring to plummeting, some greedy merchants because of hoarding too much loss of blood, so that the family is ruined abound!

At this time, the maritime merchants remembered Guo Zhiyuan's good coming, when Guo Zhiyuan monopolized the maritime trade business in the past, although Guo Zhiyuan took away the biggest piece of cake, but because of the high purchase price negotiated with Westerners, there is still a profit margin, and more importantly, Guo Zhiyuan swept away the pirates and pirates in the coastal waters, and also sent the Dongfan Navy to escort them, they don't need to worry about security at all, unlike now, if you are not careful, you may lose all your money!

So the maritime merchants turned back to Guo Zhiyuan, hoping that he could stand up and uphold justice, but Guo Zhiyuan also avoided it, and let people reply that since the new army went to Liaodong this time to copy the Jin army's back road, he was also weak, and because of his father's death, he will soon resign and return to his hometown to guard the system, just wait for the arrival of the holy decree of the capital, he will leave Dongfan!

Of course, Guo Zhiyuan could not come forward, this situation was expected by him, and it could even be said that he was deliberately indulgent, if he wanted Emperor Wanli to have to issue an order to "seize affection" and let him stay in office, he must let Emperor Wanli understand that he has an indispensable position and role in the southeast coast and even the entire southern sea, if he leaves, there will be chaos in the southern coastal waters of the Ming Dynasty, and it will even threaten the rule of the Ming Dynasty!

This is actually a bit unkind, a bit of "raising self-respect", but Guo Zhiyuan's intention is far from this, he sees it more far-reaching, and he knows that even if he doesn't do this, all this will happen sooner or later, Dongfan has monopolized the maritime trade business for a long time, it is impossible not to be hated, once this resentment accumulates to a certain extent, it will break out, and when it breaks out, it must be when Dongfan encounters difficulties, when Dongfan is surrounded by enemies, but it is more passive, it is better to take this opportunity to detonate it in advance, Only in this way can the imperial court and maritime merchants know that if China's maritime areas are to be stable, there must be a maritime trade order maker, and he is the best candidate for this order maker, and then he will come out to clean up the situation and reformulate a new maritime trade order, so as to achieve the effect of long-term peace and stability.

And Guo Zhiyuan's biggest concern is not pirates and pirates, these pirates and pirates are just some of the most vicious people along the coast of China gathered some Japanese ronin, and they can't become a big problem, he is more worried about those Westerners, since the Westerners opened up the route to the East, their ambition to get involved in China has not been broken, as early as the sixteenth year of Zhengde (1521) and the first year of Jiajing (1522), the first Portuguese to reach the East coveted the rich China, There was the Battle of Tuen Mun and the Battle of Sai Cao Wan with the Ming Dynasty, although the Ming Dynasty won these two naval battles, but they relied on ten times the number of people and ships of the opponent, if you talk about the battle damage, in fact, it is far more than the Portuguese.

However, it was precisely because of the victory of these two wars that the Portuguese gradually gave up their ambition of invading China by force, and they applied for a land to dry by bribing Wang Bai, the official of the Guangdong Sea, and obtained the right of residence in Macao. (Please note that it is the right of residence, not the cession of Macau)

Compared with the cunning Portuguese, the Dutch had more ambitions for China, they came uninvited in 1604, taking advantage of the Ming army's change of defense, occupied Magong Island (Penghu Island), and later were repelled by Shen Yourong and had to withdraw, but in the original historical time and space, they would make a comeback in 1622, occupy Penghu again, and directly blocked the mouth of Zhangzhou with warships, so that the Fujian Navy Division could not dispatch, and the Fujian Navy Division also knew that the Dutch who could not defeat the ships and guns, and had been avoiding without fighting, even did not hesitate to give Dongfan (Taiwan) to the Dutch and let them leave the Penghu Islands, but the Dutch, who tasted the sweetness, actually disliked the poor conditions of Dongfan (Taiwan) and still occupied the Penghu Islands and refused to leave!

Under such circumstances, the Ming Dynasty court could not bear it, removed the inactive Chen Zizhen, and ordered the successor Fujian governor Nan Juyi to drive the Dutch away from Penghu.

Zheng Zhilong offered a plan to Nan Juyi, let him secretly gather troops, while first showing weakness to the Dutch, in the name of negotiations, the Dutch commander France was too arrogant, sure enough, the plan only took 2 single-pole boats to Xiamen to negotiate with Nan Juyi, as a result, at the banquet, France and all the members of the Dutch mission were drugged and drunk by Nan Juyi and detained. Nanjuyi then sent 50 fireships in ambush to attack 2 Dutch boats as planned, only to let one of them escape.

In February of the fourth year of the Apocalypse (1624), Nan Juyi, the governor of Fujian, personally took a boat to Kinmen and ordered the Ming army (with a total strength of 10,000 troops and 200 ships) to cross the sea to recover Penghu, and the Battle of Penghu began! Fujian General Yu Zhigao (son of the famous general Yu Dayou) and garrison Wang Mengxiong led the ships to Penghu, landed on Baisha Island, and engaged the Dutch army. However, the Dutch army relied on strong fortifications and warships to resist stubbornly, and Penghu could not be attacked for a long time.

Subsequently, the Ming army increased its troops three times, and the Dutch because of the lack of provisions, after seven months of fighting with the Ming army, they could not support it, and were finally driven out of Penghu by the Ming army.

Although the Battle of Penghu was won by the Ming army, it was really not very glorious to win, first used a trick to capture the commander of the people, and then fought for a full seven months under the absolute superiority of troops before the Dutch drove away, the Ming army used more than 200 ships in this battle, more than 10,000 troops, and the military expenditure amounted to more than 177,000 taels, and it was not possible to wipe out the Dutch, such a victory is really difficult to be proud of, so the Dutch still did not give up, and the famous Ming Heliu Luowan naval battle broke out ten years later (1633)!