Zheng Zhilong, formerly known as Zheng Yiguan, was born in a small fishing village called Shijing in Nan'an, Fujian Province, where his father was a minor local official. The income of the officials of the Ming Dynasty was low and pitiful, and if the ordinary petty officials were not corrupt, their families would not be able to support them, and Zheng Yiguan's father was relatively honest, so when there were more children in the family, it would be difficult for the family's livelihood to maintain.

When Zheng Yiguan was 17 years old, due to the family's difficult livelihood, he had to take his two younger brothers to Macau to join his uncle Huang Cheng, who was engaged in overseas trade. After following Huang Cheng for three years, he not only helped Huang Cheng to manage his business properly, but also learned Dutch and Portuguese.

Huang Cheng saw that he had almost learned something, so he sent him to the door of Li Dan, an overseas Chinese in Hirado, Japan. This Li Dan was not simple, he was one of the most powerful maritime merchants at that time, with strong capital and his own fleet. Zheng Yiguan became more diligent after arriving at Li Dan's door, and he was even more "fatherly" to Li Dan, Li Dan saw that he was capable and reliable, so he accepted him as his righteous son and handed over part of the business to him to take care of.

Since then, Zheng Yiguan has gradually become the leader of the local overseas Chinese, and has received preferential treatment from the Tokugawa shogunate, becoming one of the prominent figures in Japan at that time.

There is a saying that opportunities are always reserved for those who are prepared, and since Zheng Yiguan knew Dutch and Portuguese, Li Dan simply handed over all the transactions with the Dutch to him, and Zheng Yiguan took the Dutch line again.

At that time, the Dutch were competing with the Portuguese and Spaniards for maritime supremacy, and in order to monopolize trade with Japan, the Dutch actually trained Zheng Yiguan to be a pirate, specializing in plundering the cargo ships sent to Japan by the Portuguese and Spaniards from the southeast coast.

In the eyes of the Japanese and the Dutch, he was a well-known maritime merchant with a huge business and a wealthy party; In the eyes of the Portuguese and Spaniards, however, he was a notorious pirate, burning, killing, looting, and committing all kinds of evil.

After two years at sea, Zheng Yiguan gradually got rid of the control of the Dutch and began to stand on his own, and after Li Dan's death, he inherited most of Li Dan's inheritance, and gradually became the largest maritime merchant and pirate on the southeast coast.

Later, he recruited Zheng Xing, Zheng Ming, Zheng Cai, Yang Geng, Chen Hui and other generals from the mainland, collectively known as "Eighteen Zhi", and he also changed his name to Zheng Zhilong, no longer called Zheng Yiguan.

In the last year of the Apocalypse, a severe drought occurred in southern Fujian, Zheng Zhilong took the opportunity to attack the coastal areas of Fujian, recruiting the victims to go to Taiwan to open up wasteland and farm, the coastal hungry and unemployed vagrants competed for refuge, often tens of thousands, Zheng Zhilong's power began to expand rapidly, the people under his rule reached hundreds of thousands, and the army grew to more than 100,000!

At that time, the Ming Dynasty could be described as internal and external troubles, the peasant uprising in the northwest and the Houjin Iron Cavalry in the northeast stirred up the whole Ming Dynasty, and it was powerless to exterminate the pirates, so it could only be appeased.

In July of the first year of Chongzheng, Zheng Zhilong accepted the appeasement of Xiong Wencan, the governor of Fujian, and led his troops to surrender to the Ming Dynasty, serving as the "Five Tiger Guerrilla Generals", sitting in southern Fujian, and guarding the coast for the Ming Dynasty to prevent pirates, pirates, and the Dutch from attacking.

By February of the third year of Chongzheng, Zheng Zhilong basically exterminated the pirates and pirates along the coast of Fujian, and was promoted to the general army of Fujian because of his merits, with more than 100,000 troops and 1,000 warships, which shocked the southeast!

In June of the same year, he took his beloved son Zheng Sen back to his hometown in Fujian from Hirado, Japan, and hired a talent from the scientific examination for him to carry out enlightenment education, and then sent him to Jinling, the southern capital, to increase his knowledge and stimulate him to be eager to learn and progress.

Originally, he said that he would come back a month before the New Year, but seeing that the New Year was coming, his beloved son Zheng Sen not only did not come back, but also asked people to bring back a letter from home, saying something: The emperor invites you to come to Nanjing for a gathering!

The emperor is now in Nanjing, there is no doubt about this, Fujian also belongs to the three provinces in the south of the Yangtze River, and the vigorous arrest operation lasted for nearly a month, and even the common people know that this is the emperor arresting the anti-thief. Zheng Zhilong is not an ordinary person, he not only knows that the emperor is arresting the anti-thieves, but also knows that the emperor is desperately raiding his house, and he even knows that the emperor is clearing the opposition forces of the Donglin Party.

To go or not to go? After all, he was born as a pirate, and he has more than 100,000 soldiers, in case the emperor turns his face, it will be a meat bun beating a dog, and there is no return! If it were someone else, it might be difficult to choose, or even dare not go at all, but Zheng Zhilong only thought about the time for a tea and decided: go.

Zheng Zhilong is a natural opportunist, has a unique vision of the situation, and once he thinks it is profitable, he will not hesitate to bet. Like the Southern Ming Dynasty, he saw at a glance that the Ming Dynasty was exhausted, and he chose to surrender to the Qing Dynasty without hesitation. As a result, the Qing Dynasty won and the Ming Dynasty died, but the Qing Dynasty looked down on the Han people at all, not to mention that he was still a pirate, so not only did he not get reused because of his decisive surrender, but put the lives of his family into it.

Of course, this can't be blamed for his misjudgment, in front of untrustworthy people, no matter how much you judge, you will not get the right answer.

So why did he decisively throw himself into the arms of Emperor Chongzheng this time? The reason why he was so decisive was because he received the news that the little emperor had confiscated all the assets of the Jiangnan wealthy family, and the Donglin Party and other forces that opposed him were all wiped out by him!

Why was the Ming Dynasty dying? In the final analysis, there is serious internal friction and lack of funds.

Now that the Donglin Party, which likes infighting the most, has been cleaned up, it can be said that the source of internal friction has been extinguished, plus so many assets of the Jiangnan Hao family have been confiscated, and the imperial court is also rich, and if these two key problems are solved, the Zhongxing of the Ming Dynasty is expected.

At this time, the little emperor is the time when he needs support the most, and now taking refuge in the past is equivalent to sending charcoal in the snow; When he straightened everything out, Da Ming gradually entered the norm, and even if he took the initiative to run over and lick someone's toes, he would be kicked away!

Once Zheng Zhilong recognizes something, he will not hesitate to do it, so he ignored the opposition of his brothers and rushed to Nanjing City with a thousand guards.

This time Zheng Zhilong was lucky, Zhu Cijiong was not the role of the Manchu court to unload the mill and kill the donkey, he just wanted to use Zheng Zhilong's power at sea to compete with the European powers for trade rights. Therefore, Zhu Cijiong not only will not kill Zheng Zhilong, but will also give him very generous treatment, so that he will be willing to contribute to Daming.

After Zheng Zhilong arrived in Nanjing, Zhu Cijiong immediately met him at the temporary residence of the Nanjing Forbidden City, and when he saw his son following Zhu Cijiong like a fart, he not only did not get angry, but secretly congratulated himself that he had made the right bet.

Just kidding, is the emperor's follower so easy to be? Ordinary people want to be the emperor's younger brother, it's just a fool's dream, what kind of person is the emperor, does he need a younger brother? The emperor can treat you as a little brother, that is simply a great creation!