Zheng Jie himself has led troops to fight, so he naturally knows that if he lets the pirates stay at the mouth of the Red River, he will be very passive strategically. Zheng Jie, the www.biquge.info of the pen "Fun", has always had a dream, that is, to eliminate the Nguyen regime that had seized the south and unify Da Viet again. It's just that although Zheng Qiang and Ruan are weak, although Ruan is unable to attack, he still has the strength to defend. The last time Zheng Jie's southern expedition ended in failure. However, Zheng Jie was not discouraged, and after a period of preparation, he planned to launch a new attack to the south. The basic preparations for this attack had been completed, and at this time, those pirates of the Zheng family of the Ming Kingdom had reached the mouth of the Red River. This put him in an unfavorable situation of fighting on two fronts at once.

Because whether it is the king of Nguyen in the south or the lord of Zheng in the north, they do not have too decent sea power in their hands. In fact, the spread of the civil war forced them to strengthen the army as much as possible, so naturally there was no money to build a decent naval division. Of course, this also makes it impossible for the two sides to consider how to fight, without having to consider the opponent's use of maritime maneuvers. But now, if you can't solve the threat of the pirates, you will rashly send troops to the south, and you will have to worry that those pirates will take the opportunity to attack Thang Long Mansion. Once such a situation arises, Lord Zheng's army will be in danger.

Therefore, if there is to be a military solution to the south, it is necessary to immediately eliminate the threat of pirates entrenched at the mouth of the Red River. As for how to eliminate this threat, in general, there are only two usual ways:

One way to do this is to take advantage of the fact that the pirates are still on the ground and immediately mobilize an overwhelming numerical advantage and drive them out of the land. Another way is to make money and offer benefits in exchange for their withdrawal. Whatever option is to be adopted, a decision needs to be made immediately, otherwise the longer it drags on, the greater the cost to be paid, whether by force or peace.

Considering that there were not many Haikou, and the strength they could put into it on land was no more than a thousand, Zheng Jie was originally very inclined to use force to expel them. But now it seems that the combat effectiveness of these pirates exceeds his previous estimates, and if he wants to expel them, he is afraid that the main force of the army that was originally intended for the southern expedition will have to be turned around against them. This means that even if they succeed in repelling the pirates, the plan for this southern expedition will not be carried out.

"Chen Qingjia, what do you think the widow should do?" Zheng Jie asked suddenly.

"The king......" Chen Zhigang originally wanted to say that of course he would immediately mobilize troops to expel the Haikou bandits, but he immediately thought of such a question: how much force would need to be mobilized to achieve this, and whether this would seriously delay the plan of the southern expedition. Chen Zhigang thought for a while, and then said, "Your Majesty, Weichen still feels that he should concentrate his forces as soon as possible to expel those pirates. ”

"Hmm." Zheng Ji nodded and said, "How many troops do you have to use to expel them?" After doing so, we are afraid that it will be too late for our plan to march south this year. Have you thought about any of this? ”

"Your Majesty, Wechen has thought about it." Chen Zhigang replied, "If you go outside, you must first settle inside." If our back road is restless, we cannot risk launching a southern expedition no matter what. And if we assume that now that the pirates have suddenly burned down the walled city and withdrawn, does the king think that we can now go on an expedition to the south as if nothing had happened? ”

Zheng Jie understood what he meant, Haikou was invincible at sea, at least for the Great Yue Kingdom. For the Haikou Kou, relying on the power of the sea, they will gain a mobility ability that far exceeds that of the army of the Great Viet Nam. If the war is unfavorable, they can also retreat by boat, so it is almost impossible for the Great Viet Kingdom to have a chance to keep them. And after they retreated, the Great Viet Kingdom could not turn south to conquer, because they could come back at any time, so the Great Viet Kingdom must maintain a strong force at the mouth of the Red River until the Great Viet Kingdom built a fortress at the mouth of the Red River to defend the estuary. Before the completion of this fortress, it would be impossible for the Great Viet Kingdom to launch a southern expedition. So, no matter what approach is adopted, the southern expedition has become impossible.

"Your Majesty, Weichen thinks we should make peace with those pirates." The civil official surnamed Hu said. "Wechen heard that the rebels in the south were desperately trying to build castles and defensive lines. Every day that our southern expedition is delayed, it will be more difficult. Therefore, although it is too late to make a break this year, if we can make peace and let those pirates retreat immediately, we can avoid the loss of those most elite soldiers, and we can also get more time to build coastal defense fortresses. Moreover, your Majesty, you bought cannons from the Zheng family of the Ming Kingdom and the Dutch, so that you could break the rebellious defense line in the south? Now that the southern expedition is bound to be delayed, and the rebellious defenses of the south are bound to be stronger, is the number of artillery and gunpowder that our army has enough to do? If we use force to drive out the pirates, not to mention the loss of our elite, we will not be able to buy more artillery and gunpowder as long as their ships continue to sail on our shores. Your Majesty, the Haikou are only here for profit, and the rebellion of the South is our henchmen! ”

"We have no precedent for bowing to the enemy. If this king does this, won't he be ......," Zheng Ji hesitated.

"Your Majesty, the sinners have something to say." Wu Wenyong said suddenly.

Zheng Jie glanced at him and said, "What do you have to say?" ”

"Your Majesty, the criminal minister thought, why did the people of the Zheng clan of the Ming Kingdom want to play the banner of Australia, but they unabashedly showed their true identities to the criminal minister. What are they doing this for? Wu Wenyong said.

"What do you think it's for?" Zheng asked Jie.

"The criminals think that the biggest purpose of them is that they don't want to break with us completely." Wu Wenyong replied.

"You're dizzy!" Chen Zhigang said, "They all occupied our land and killed and injured so many of our soldiers, and you actually said that they didn't want to break with us?" ”

"Your Majesty, when I was in the hands of those pirates, the criminal ministers warned them not to think of taking possession of my Dayue land. But the pirate leader said wildly, "We don't have the power to drive them away, unless we ...... Unless we pay to hire the people of the Ming Zheng family to deal with them, because in this world, only the sea power of the Ming Zheng clan is enough to expel them. The guilty minister thought that as long as the king pretended not to know that those pirates were the Zheng clan of the Ming Kingdom, and still sent someone to find them, and then offered to hire them to deal with the pirates, and negotiate terms with them, they would definitely pretend that they had nothing to do with those 'Australian pirates', and then act a play to remove those pirates. ”

"But the king, the conditions proposed by the people of the Ming Kingdom at the beginning are like asking us to cut the land! How can I endure such humiliation? Chen Zhigang said loudly.

"Your Majesty, when King Goujian of Yue was not humiliated by the State of Wu, he later destroyed Wu to take revenge and achieved a hegemony, and no one in the world praised him. Your Majesty, what is not to do if a great husband can bend and stretch and endure the anger of the moment in exchange for the inheritance of eternity? The minister surnamed Hu said loudly.

"In fact, the Ming Zheng clan's request is not too damaging to us, on the contrary, if they want to mine in our territory, they have to pay taxes to us. Your Majesty, we need more money for the southern expedition. It's just a no-brainer. Moreover, if this can be used as a condition in exchange for the Ming Zheng clan to stop selling weapons to the rebels in the south, the criminal minister feels that it may not be impossible to give them a mine to mine. Wu Wenyong said.

Zheng Jie thought for a while and said, "Wu Wenyong, the widow will give you a chance to make meritorious contributions." The widow asked you to go to see the people of the Zheng family in the Ming Kingdom, you go and talk to them, they want to open a mine, it's okay, but their people can only wear our people's clothes and pretend to be our people. In addition, we need them to explain to us how much they have sold to the rebels in the South, and to stop selling new weapons to the rebels in the South. In addition, more weapons will be borrowed from them. What do you think? Do you dare to go? ”

When Wu Wenyong heard this, he immediately knelt on the ground, kowtowed and said: "Your Majesty, the guilty minister lost his teacher and humiliated the country, and the crime deserves death." The king is willing to give sinners the opportunity to make meritorious contributions, and the kindness of the sinners is really high and high, and the sinners are full of liver and brains, and it is difficult to repay the king's great kindness. If you can't say that you can retreat from the enemy's army, please punish the family of the guilty minister to thank the world! ”

……

A few days later, Wu Wenyong appeared in front of Li Guozhu again.

"General Wu, what are you doing here again?" Li Guozhu asked.

"Chieftain of thieves, this official was ordered to go to Taiwan to negotiate a deal with the Zheng family in Fujian, do you have a ship here for this official?" Wu Wenyong said with his head held high.

"Taiwan is so far away, why should people who want to find the Zheng family go to Taiwan?" Li Guozhu said with a smile, "We Australians also have business dealings with the Zheng family. We also have people from the Zheng family here, if General Wu wants to negotiate a deal with the Zheng family, you can wait here for a while, and I will help you find a Zheng family. ”

"Go and come back quickly, don't make General Ben wait for a long time!" Wu Wenyong said.

Li Guozhu slowly stood up, walked out of the door, closed the door with his hand, and then straightened his hat and clothes with his hands, then pushed the door open again, walked in front of Wu Wenyong and said: "I am Li Guozhu, the steward of the Zheng family, I don't know what business the general wants to talk to us." ”

Wu Wenyong clasped his hands into fists and said, "Look up for a long time." Sir, you may be seated. Sir may have known that recently there has been a gang of pirates, claiming to be 'Australians', who have invaded our country and taken possession of our land. However, our army is now quelling the rebellion in the south, so the king has sent me to negotiate with you to see if I can hire your army to quell these pirates. ”

Li Guozhu listened and said with a smile: "We have also heard of this 'Australian'. These guys have done a lot of evil deeds, and they're all goddamn bandits! It's very brave, it's very difficult to fight, I don't know what kind of price your country can offer? ”