In the summer, the waters around Daishan Island gradually become dangerous. First of all, the direction of the wind that dominates the sea changes from a cold northeast wind to a howling southeast wind, and then the waves on the sea surface gradually increase.

Especially today, the sky is overcast and the wind and waves are very strong, which seems to indicate that a storm is about to cover the sea. In the wooden dock by the sea, four large ships have lowered their sails and docked at the pier, and many cables are tied to the wooden stakes of the pier, which makes the hull more stable in the sea.

These were two frigate gunboats and two fast cruisers led by Captain Liu Haiyang, who were waiting here for the return of several gunboats heading to the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. Today, Daishan Island has almost become a base for the activities of people on the eastern coast in the southern seas, and not only some wooden houses have been built on the island, but also several brick and stone warehouses have been built to store large quantities of weapons, ammunition and valuable supplies. As for the coal brought from the port of Blackwater, it can only be stored in the open air, and it is not afraid of getting wet anyway.

There are still a small number of garrisons on the island, numbering about 1,500 people, who are the headquarters of the former Rugao County Lian General Sun Shouzheng who was transferred from Jeju Island. At this time, they had changed into the military uniforms of the people on the east coast, and carried standard spears and a few muskets, and after a year-long training, the department was quite impressive, and it was not a problem to guard such a small island.

It is worth mentioning that since the people of the east coast suddenly occupied this place and expelled some Ming fishermen who strayed into the island. Zhang Mingzhen, Zhang Huangyan and others on the main island of Zhoushan, which is not far from this island, have also sent people over to inquire, and after learning that this is a famous yellow-clothed thief in Shandong and Beizhili, the expressions of these people are more wonderful and wonderful.

After a series of setbacks against the Qing army. At present, the regime of King Lu on the isolated island can be described as internal and external coercion. Although they have a lot of ships and men, the lack of various supplies makes it impossible for them to be self-sufficient. Therefore, it became their inevitable choice to go ashore from time to time to fight the autumn wind, but the poor equipment and weak combat power made it impossible for them to fight the Qing army at all. Even if those Qing troops were only the Ming troops who surrendered, they were cramped in a corner of Zhoushan and faced the same dilemma as the Shun army, that is, there was a shortage of food and weapons, and it was not easy to replenish the supply of soldiers. Naturally, this combat effectiveness is getting worse and worse.

Why can the Qing army become stronger and stronger? Even can't beat you at first, but will gradually surpass you after a long time of see-sawing? That's because both the supply of personnel and materials is in place! The combat level of the Qing Army's Green Battalion is certainly much stronger than when the Ming Army was in the first meeting, but the bigger reason is that your own level has declined too quickly. It was gradually compared by the Qing army. In this regard, the swift flooding of the Shunjun is the best example.

The same is true of these Ming troops in Zhoushan. Maybe it can be compared with the Qing Zhejiang Green Battalion on the other side of the river at the beginning, but the long-term confrontation is compared with the comprehensive strength, and to put it bluntly, it is the consumption of money, food, ordnance, and personnel. In this regard, only Zhang Huangyan and others in Zhoushan were no match for the green camp under the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang set up by the Qing court.

Liu Haiyang is the commander of the Navy in charge of the Blackwater region. is a special person who is outside the Blackwater Pioneer Team system. Even Shao Shude, who is the captain of the development team, has to discuss some things with him, in other words, he Liu Haiyang has a lot of autonomy. Therefore, when Erzhang from Zhoushan sent someone to contact him, he took it upon himself to send a batch of rice, spears, bows, gunpowder, and armor to maintain good relations with them. Second, it is also the basic policy of the Blackwater Pioneer Team to assist various anti-Qing forces, and some materials are not worth much anyway. Many of them can be produced by the two military bases in Jeju and Yantai, and they will be sent. It's not a big burden.

Moreover, the thing that was given to the remnants of King Lu of Zhoushan was just a small head, and the next thing to be "sent" to another southern force was the big one. And the representative sent by this force is also an old acquaintance of the people from the east coast, he is Zheng Hongkui, who had a side when Mo Dashuai was in Zhenjiang, and the force he represents is naturally the Zheng Sen Zheng family who has already raised troops to resist the Qing Dynasty.

Zheng Zhilong, the original head of the Zheng family, surrendered when the Qing army reached Fujian. This person was originally an opportunist and warlord, and when Emperor Longwu asked him to send troops to Jiangxi to resist the Qing army, he pushed back and did not want to consume his own capital. After the Qing army reached Fujian, Zheng Zhilong, an old speculator who had speculated for half his life, decisively surrendered to the Qing Dynasty according to his own judgment, unwilling to die with the Ming Dynasty.

His surrender was indeed smooth at first, but later there were some minor deviations, namely that his son Zheng Sen objected to it. In addition, Zheng Sen's mother, Tian Chuan, was humiliated and killed by the Qing army, which completely cut off Zheng Sen from any possibility of surrender with the Qing army before, and there were some people within the Zheng group who were unwilling to surrender, so Zheng Sen simply pulled some of his father's old subordinates to raise the banner of anti-Qing. This made Zheng Zhilong suddenly fall into an extremely embarrassing situation, and his value in the eyes of the Qing court was greatly reduced, and the situation suddenly became delicate. The reason why he is not dead at present is only because the Qing court still has a trace of relying on him to surrender and disintegrate the Zheng group.

Although Zheng Sen raised troops to resist the Qing Dynasty and gathered a considerable number of men and horses in a short period of time, in the final analysis, there are still many difficulties at present. First of all, there is the scarcity of materials, and the places they occupy such as Kinmen and Xiamen are also overseas outlying islands, and the land is narrow and poor, which is simply not enough to support long-term military operations of tens of thousands of people. In addition, Zheng Sen himself was very respectful to the Ming Dynasty and repeatedly sent troops to support these pig teammates, which further aggravated the financial, material and personnel difficulties of his department.

At this time, Zheng Hongkui, who was also overwhelmed by the lack of money, food and materials, remembered the fate of the Yangtze River back then, so he asked Zheng Senjian that maybe he could try to go to the yellow-clothed thief to turn the fate. For example, it is rumored that the yellow-clothed thieves and the remnants of Huguang's gang of rebels are in the same group, and they have repeatedly sent them supplies and weapons, and they don't seem to have too many views on their appearance, as long as they are sincerely armed against the Qing Dynasty, they will not hesitate to help. So maybe their Zheng family can also go and ask for something to come back?

Zheng Sen was also troubled by the material problem at this time, so he agreed to Zheng Hongkui's construction and sent him to take some people to Yantai to contact him. However, when Zheng Hongkui's fleet reached Zhoushan. He actually heard that the Yellow Thief had occupied Daishan Island, so he immediately changed his mind and decided to go to Daishan Island to take a look first, maybe he could gain something?

Zheng Hongkui arrived two days ago, and Liu Haiyang just returned from the mouth of the Yangtze River yesterday, after hearing the report of his subordinates, he decided to meet this Zheng Hongkui today after thinking about it all night. So he was invited into his office early in the morning.

The office is a brick and stone bungalow with large blocks of clear glass inlaid with windows. Zheng Hongkuian, who was wearing a long gown, sat on a chair made of fish scale pine in Sakhalin, boredly waiting for Liu Haiyang's arrival. On the table was a plate of pine nuts, a large wine glass, and a bottle of beer. This was just brought in by a guard in a sky blue uniform.

But Zheng Hongkui didn't have the heart to eat now, he was still wondering if he could get some urgent supplies from Daishan Island on the spot, and if he really couldn't, he would have to ask the person in charge here to give him a letter of recommendation, so that he could go to Yantai Port more smoothly. Don't run around like a headless fly. But. I just don't know if they will be willing or not? After all, when he was on the river, he just had a relationship with that "Mo Dashuai......

Just when Zheng Hongkui was too entangled, Liu Haiyang, who was wearing a sky-blue naval academy uniform (official captain, temporary major), walked in with several entourages, and Zheng Hongkui immediately got up from his chair when he saw this.

"General Zheng, meet for the first time. Meet the contemptible Liu Haiyang, who is currently serving in the Navy. Liu Haiyang stretched out his right hand as soon as he entered the door. Said in a loud voice.

"Fortunately, I will be fortunate to ......" Zheng Hongkui naturally shook hands with Liu Haiyang, and he also knew that this was the etiquette of the yellow-clothed thief. Of course, he also knew that this so-called "navy" was actually a sailor. If this person can come here to see him, he must not be an unknown person, maybe he is a general with real power in the sailors.

Therefore, after organizing his words slightly, Zheng Hongkui said meaningfully: "In the past, I also learned some face-to-face techniques, and I have gained a lot from years of study. Now it seems that General Liu is heroic and extraordinary, and he should also be a famous and good general in this eastern coast country. ”

"General Zheng is really good at talking." Liu Haiyang took off the barrel-shaped military hat and put it on the table, smiled, and said: "We Mingren don't say secret words, I already know the intention of General Zheng." And to be honest, our current ordnance is indeed quite sufficient, if General Zheng wants, we can help some. But there is only one thing, General Zheng must answer me sincerely, if I win my heart, what if I have the heart of the army, such as muskets, cannons, armor, spears, arrows, gunpowder, etc., will be given to General Zheng? If the answer is not satisfactory to my heart, I am also willing to give General Zheng a batch of spears and armor, but only this time, in the future, everyone will go their own way, and there will be no more trouble. ”

"Lord Liu, please speak directly." Zheng Hongkui couldn't help but sit upright at this time, and even forgot the tone of the people who learned from the East Coast. How difficult it is for the Zheng family now, how he doesn't know as the core figure. Not only were there a shortage of materials and personnel, but at a time when trade with Japan had not yet been restored, they were also very short of money! The ordnance in the hands of the yellow-clothed thief or the people on the east coast is the material that the Zheng family urgently needs, and it is a military material that money can't buy, which makes him not nervous.

"Okay, I'll say it." Liu Haiyang now felt like he was a venture capitalist interviewing investment targets, only to see him clear his throat, and then said: "General Zheng, why is your ministry resisting Qing?" Will Damu Gongzi be cleared? ”

"The anti-Qing thing is to provoke righteous indignation, and the second is that the Manchu court did not allow us to go to sea to make a profit, cutting off our financial route." Zheng Hongkui looked at Liu Haiyang with a bright gaze, and said: "Damu Gongzi has a very strong relationship with his biological mother, and he has sworn in front of the generals that he will never die with the Tartars, and there is no possibility of surrendering!" ”

"Well, in a few moments, General Zheng and my entourage will go to the warehouse to extract 300 muskets, 6 cannons, 1,000 spears, 50 pairs of armor, 100 barrels of gunpowder, and 5,000 bundles of arrows." Liu Haiyang made the final decision.

These things are nothing to the vast inventory of the East Coast Arsenal, which is maintained by a row of brick and stone houses, which will be converted into a fortress in the future. Regardless of other places, at this moment, there are nearly 2,000 muskets and more than 10 artillery pieces stored in the warehouse on Shan Daishan Island, which are enough to support several anti-Qing forces in the south for a while.

Besides, looking at the current appearance of the Zheng Group, it doesn't look like it is very rich, so how about giving them some small sweeteners in advance to support them in resisting the Qing Dynasty. When they rely on the weapons provided by the Upper East Coasters, they will sooner or later spend a lot of money on them. The matter of providing weapons for free, only Dashun has this face, and everyone else has to pay for it! (To be continued......)