This person is easy to get carried away when he is proud, no, Zheng Zhilong found that he said what he shouldn't say when he was proud. He twisted for a long time, and finally took off a gold ring on his hand, handed it to Zhu Cijiong, and then said stupidly: "This is the seal of my Zheng family's order, there are secret lines on it, others can't imitate it, they generally don't look at the handwriting, only look at the secret lines on the seal." ”

Zhu Cijiong took the ring and looked at it curiously, this is a large gold ring, the front is a square seal style, and a strange "Zheng" character is engraved on it, he naturally can't see what the secret pattern is, but it doesn't matter, just confiscate it directly.

He put a set on his fingers, and found that his delicate fingers couldn't carry such a big ring at all, he couldn't help but glance at Zheng Zhilong with annoyance, you said that if you get a seal, you can get a seal, why do you want to make it look like a ring, how can others bring it?

At this time, there was a burst of laughter from the pile of women on the side, it turned out that Zheng Chenggong was holding his younger brother and selling it there, a child holding another child looked quite interesting, Zhu Cijiong's eyes rolled, and he immediately had an idea, he beckoned to Cao Huachun in the distance, Cao Huachun naturally immediately stepped forward respectfully and waited for the dispatch.

Zhu Cijiong smiled and said, "Father-in-law Cao, go find a gold chain, it should be thicker." ”

Cao Huachun didn't say a word, immediately took the decree and retired, and after a while, he brought up a sandalwood tray with a red flannel on it, and there were more than a dozen gold chains of all kinds on the flannel!

Zhu Cijiong was supposed to choose the thickest one, but he gave up after holding it in his hand and turning it upside down, it was really cruel to hang a chain weighing a pound on a child's neck all day long, and finally he chose a root that was only three or four heavy, studied the structure of the interface with great interest, and then put Zheng Zhilong's gold ring into it.

Zheng Zhilong looked at Zhu Cijiong inexplicably on the side, the emperor wanted to hang a gold chain around his neck? This, this, doesn't look like an upstart, but like a brain in water, of course, he didn't dare to say this, so he could only watch silently from the sidelines.

Of course, Zhu Cijiong's brain didn't get into the water, and after he put on the gold ring, he immediately stood up, made a follow-up look at Cao Huachun, raised his feet and walked among the women.

He had already told everyone that all customs were exempted during the Chinese New Year, so everyone didn't react much when they saw him coming, and continued to tease Zheng Chenggong's brothers.

Zhu Cijiong stepped forward with a smile and hung the gold chain around Zheng Chenggong's neck, and then advised: "Success, this is a token of your Zheng family's orders, wear it, don't lose it." ”

Zheng Chenggong looked dazed, Zheng Zhilong hid his face and couldn't bear to look directly, the girls didn't have any special reaction, this golden hanging neck was also quite beautiful, only Xiao Qizaemon's eyes were red, and he shouted in a milky voice: "I want it too, I want it too." ”

Zhu Cijiong grabbed the thickest gold chain from the wooden plate with his backhand, hung it around his neck, and coaxed: "This one is the biggest, it's for you, take it and play with it." ”

Xiao Qizaemon grabbed it in his hand and looked at it, and then looked at the gold chain around his brother's neck, and found that the one on his neck was really much bigger, so he couldn't help but raise it and show off: "It's good-looking, it's good-looking, right?" ”

The girls couldn't help but praise again and again: "It's so beautiful, our Xiaoqi is the most beautiful." ”

Little Seven? How does it sound so familiar, such a distant memory, Zhu Cijiong slowly walked back to his seat with nostalgia for his previous life.

Cao Huachun saw him sit down, so he asked softly, "Your Majesty, do you still want these?" ”

Zhu Cijiong looked at the gold chain, then at Zheng Zhilong, and teased: "Do you want Zheng Aiqing to have one too?" ”

When Zheng Zhilong heard this, he hurriedly shook his head and said: "Thank you for the emperor's grace, forget about Weichen, this golden and shaking Weichen is dizzy." "Forget about this dog-chain-like thing his two stupid sons, he will never bring it.

Zhu Cijiong saw that he didn't pick up the stubble, so he could only give up the idea of teasing him, he waved his hand lightly, asked Cao Huachun to step back, and then continued to ask about the situation of the pirates: "What are your brothers called, and what is the strength of your hands?" ”

Zheng Zhilong replied carefully: "At the beginning, it was Weichen's three brothers, Shi Daxuan, Hong Xu and Gan Hui, who led the rest of his men to Semarang to make a mixed living, and each of them received a hundred lucky boats, five hundred small boats, and more than 20,000 horses. ”

The three pirate leaders, each of whom has more than 20,000 people under his command, adding up to 60,000 or 70,000 people, this is a big force, Zhu Cijiong continued to ask: "Did your brother Zheng Zhihu find them?" ”

Zheng Zhilong nodded and said, "Usually Zhihu is contacting them, and Zhihu knows best where they are." ”

Zhu Cijiong thought for a while, and said solemnly: "You don't have to worry about their affairs in the future, if you need to use them, I will let Zheng Zhihu contact them, if you can't use them, I will also find a place for them to retire with peace of mind, you can manage Western commerce and trade for me." ”

............

The New Year's Festival passed quickly, and the time entered the seventh year of Chongzheng, the most important thing this year was the Jiaxu Kedian test, Zhu Cijiong is now most lacking talents, so as soon as the New Year is over, he will spend his mind on these students, as for the problem of pirates, raising pirates is too lacking in virtue after all, he really can't be ruthless, and this matter can only be delayed temporarily.

It is said that since Zhu Cijiong began to promote steam-powered machinery, various factories in Daming have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain, there are more factories, and there are naturally more things to make, Goa is selling well, and the profits are quite high, but the road is too far, and it takes at least two or three months to go back and forth, and many merchants in Daming have begun to look closer.

The profit of selling things to the surrounding small countries is much lower, but the advantage is that the road is closer, and with the promotion of steam machinery, the cost of production continues to fall, and the output is also rising, although the profit is low, the volume can still make a lot of money.

Dongying and North Korea can be said to be the richer countries around the Ming Dynasty, so there are many Ming merchants who chose to expand their business to Dongying and North Korea, which is naturally a good thing for the Ming Dynasty, the bigger the market, the greater the development prospects, now Portugal has not many colonies in the Nanyang region, relying on colonial trade alone The economy of the Ming Dynasty is afraid that it is about to reach a bottleneck, and it is time to develop peripheral trade.

It's a good thing for the Ming Dynasty but it's a terrible thing for the Netherlands, the reason why they occupy the East is to monopolize the trade between Dongying and North Korea, and the merchants of the Ming Dynasty used to make a small fuss, and they can't have any impact, but now the productivity of the Ming Dynasty is up, it's not a small fight, and the goods dumped into Dongying and North Korea even exceed the momentum of the Netherlands, and the price is much lower than that of the Netherlands, which is okay, You must know that the sales of Dongying alone account for more than 30% of the overall sales of the Dutch East India Company, which is simply smashing their jobs!

The Netherlands have never been merciful when it comes to interests, and they have used their old tricks again, and groups of pirates have begun to be active in the East China Sea coast of the Ming Dynasty and the waters near North Korea and Dongying.

Now the merchants of the Ming Dynasty are miserable, the pirates are called a ruthless, not only robbing the goods, even people with ships are robbed together, most of the merchants who are developing in the direction of Dongying are not only bloodless, even people can not come back, for a while, the provinces of North Zhili, Shandong, and South Zhili are all over the country, and the twists and turns reported from all over the country are flying like snowflakes.

Zhu Cijiong looked at the mountains of twists and turns in front of him, his face was blue with anger, no need to ask if this must be a ghost made by the Dutch, he is so soft-hearted, but the enemy is so ruthless, how can he not let him get out of anger!

As soon as he gritted his teeth, he immediately sent an edict, asking Zheng Zhihu to inform Shi Daxuan, Hong Xu and Gan Hui to rush to Dongdaying in batches immediately, preparing to renovate the Fu ship and receive weapons, and at the same time ordered Wang Gongchang and Dongdaying Artillery Factory to imitate a batch of Franc machine guns and Dutch artillery.

As for the problem of piracy along the coast of the East China Sea of the Ming Dynasty and the waters near North Korea and Dongying, Zhu Cijiong ordered the Jinyi Wei secret agents to immediately go out to investigate, and at the same time let the Beiyang Navy Division be ready to attack at any time.

The efficiency of the Jinyi Wei secret agent is still quite high, and in less than half a month, the news about the pirates has been transmitted back to the capital one after another. Sure enough, it's the Dutch who did it, and recently there have been a lot of cheap cloth, porcelain and other Ming specialties in Dongfan, no need to ask, these are all looted by pirates, and Jinyiwei also found out that there is a group of pirates who often haunt the waters near Dongfan and Ryukyu, there are a large number, no less than forty or fifty thousand people, and their leader is Liu Xiang, who is not very good with Zheng Zhilong!

Since you are unkind, then don't blame me for being unjust, Zhu Cijiong is still quite terrifying, Wang Gongchang and Dongdaying Artillery Factory began to frantically imitate Francophone cannons and Dutch artillery, Shi Daxuan, Hong Xu and Gan Hui's Fu ships were all transformed into quasi-battleships with 22 guns by them, and batches of bird guns and earthen cannons were also sent to them, Zhu Cijiong even gave them more than 100,000 grenades, these three batches of pirate armament are called an outrageous one, and even the small bluff ship that can only accommodate more than ten people is equipped with earthen cannons, Each pirate is equipped with at least two bird guns and a grenade, and the only thing they lack now is a super battleship, or they dare to go directly to Java Island to rob the headquarters of the Dutch East India Company!

The current military industrial force of the Ming Dynasty is quite terrifying, and under the supervision of Zhu Cijiong, the ships of the three batches of pirates have all been transformed in less than a month.

In the end, he even personally met with Shi Daxuan, Hong Xu and Gan Hui who came secretly, and gave them only one will, that is, to rob desperately, not to let go of any Dutch merchant ship, to rob when you see it, and even to grab people with ships! As for the Spanish merchant ships, it would be enough to put a proper sense of it, and the main thing was to pile up the Dutch cargo to Manila, so that the Dutch could go to trouble the Spaniards.

Just when the Dutch were secretly complacent, a disaster was quietly befalling them, Shi Daxuan, Hong Xu and Gan Hui were not ordinary people, they all got the true biography of Zheng Zhilong, and they were called a great pirate, far exceeding Zhu Cijiong's expectations, and finally they even developed into a country of considerable scale, of course, these are all later words, so let's skip it for the time being.