When Zhou Lang heard that Zhu Mian was here in person, he was full of curiosity about the pirate king of this era.

As soon as the opponent's huge fleet of fifty ships docked in the port, he sent someone to invite Zhu Li into his residence, the official office of the East Port.

After some politeness, it turned out that Zhu Lian had already fought Penghu, but failed to overcome it.

Zhou Lang saw the fifty ships under Zhu Li, and saw that the ship was not small, not as big as an armed merchant ship of 500 tons, but at least two or three hundred tons, if the cannons were installed, it would be no problem to install 10 cannons, and the 50 ships with 500 cannons should be able to suppress the Penghu Fort, and then storm it.

Zhou Lang's question made Zhu Mian very embarrassed, because he only had a hundred cannons on board, and he couldn't beat the Qing army's shore artillery at all.

Although the artillery technology of the Qing army is old, in fact, the cannons that pirates can be equipped with are not much more powerful.

Of course, Zhu Ting said that there were 10 second-hand guns bought from foreigners on his ship, which could be used to bombard the Penghu Battery, but the other guns were not satisfactory.

What makes Zhou Lang envious is that Zhu Li's ship is built by himself, and the cannon is cast by himself, except for technical problems, his hard power is actually stronger than Zhou Lang.

The two had a long talk and fell in love with each other, Zhu Mian sighed at Zhou Lang's experience during his time in India, and Zhou Lang was also very curious about Zhu Lian's story.

Although the cooperation was not negotiated, the two got to know each other.

Unlike the stories Zhou Lang heard before, this Zhu Lian is not a pirate in the real sense, he is actually mainly a maritime merchant. His grandfather and father were both merchants who ran the sea trade, and his father was very big when he was a man, and he was very familiar with the shipyards in the southeast.

Zhu Li grew up with a golden key, which is the biggest difference between him and other pirates.

His family also has its own shipyard and is a shipbuilder. Zhu Li has followed his father to build ships or go to sea since he was a child, and is very familiar with the coastal areas of Fujian. In the thirty-seventh year of Qianlong, the twenty-three-year-old Zhu Li already had a certain amount of power and set sail with many boat gangs. He was recommended as a shipping helper.

Zhu Li not only set up a maritime merchant fleet, but also partnered with many small and medium-sized shipwrights, fishermen, helmsmen, and shipwrights to build his own shipyard. In addition to collecting sea taxes in port fishing villages, the main business is actually trade, mainly trafficking in grain and other agricultural and sideline products, and concurrently dealing in cloth, pottery, indigo, sugar, tea, salt fish, etc., Fujian's Mawei, Tong'an, Guangdong's Nanao, Chenghai, Zhejiang's Ningbo, Taizhou, Taiwan's Lugang, Tamsui and other ports he often enters and exits.

In the ship yard of Yunxiao, Gulei and other docks in Zhangpu are set up with accounting management personnel. Some poor people who had no way to make a living, small boat (merchant) people and boatmen who were unable to defend themselves joined in one after another, and some joined in order to break free from the extortion and extortion of various forces, and the fleet of three or four thousand people was large.

Such a person is actually very reluctant to rebel, he and the officers and soldiers of the major ports also often move around, and a generous gift is indispensable for the New Year's holidays, and the local sailors also ignore him, and even partner to open a gambling house together.

But who knew that offended the gods and Buddhas, the Qing government targeted him, and the government suddenly offered a reward of 1,000 taels of silver to capture and kill Zhu Li, starting from the forty-fifth year of Qianlong (1780), the sailors began to encircle and suppress Zhu Li. On land, "the armor is guarded and strictly controlled", and even selling fruit to Zhu Li's fleet will be punished with a felony.

But Zhu has built a sophisticated smuggling network along the coast, which allows him to evade the patrols on the water, allowing fishermen to barge goods to his ship in small boats. He established smuggling channels in Yunxiao, Zhangpu, and Mawei in Fujian, and Chenghai in Guangdong, and the officers and men at the top also had dealings with him. As long as he did not encounter the fleets of the Fujian, Zhejiang and Guangdong naval divisions, there would be no problem under normal circumstances, and there were very few situations encountered, for example, when he was active at sea a few years ago, he encountered the tribute ships of the Ryukyu Kingdom, and as a result, he clashed with the officers and men escorting the ship.

The reason why he came to cooperate with the Heaven and Earth Society this time was because he was forced to be in a hurry, and the government moved his lair. The government hired Chen Mingkui, a resident official from Yunxiao, to serve as a guerrilla in Kinmen, guarding Tongling (Dongshan) and blocking the islands, Daisong, Gulei and other places at the mouth of Yunxiao.

happened to contact Chen Zhouquan, who was uprising in Taiwan, through the relationship of the Guangdong Tiandi Society, and ran to Taiwan as soon as he gritted his teeth and rescued Chen Zhouquan in Lukang.

After that, he helped Chen Zhouquan sell the stolen goods, or sell the stolen goods to each other, Chen Zhouquan's rebel army went all the way north, seized countless gold, silver and jewelry, but these things could not be realized, Zhu Lian used his own network to help Chen Zhouquan sell the stolen goods, and then purchased various materials from the mainland. The materials that Zhu Lian plundered at sea would also be sold in Lukang, or directly sold to Chen Zhouquan, and exchanged for grain from Taiwan to buy on the mainland.

Then Zhu Li moved him to Yunxiao Shipyard to Lukang, where he continued to build ships.

It can be said that the cooperation between the two sides, one has obtained a stable base, the other has been protected by the sea, with Zhu Li, Chen Zhouquan not only does not have to worry about the Qing army coming from the sea, but also can capture fresh water and other places by sea and land, bypassing the Qing army's layers of defense.

It is extremely important for pirates to have a stable base, and the largest pirate force at sea in recent years is not Chinese pirates, but pirates from Vietnam.

Of course, Vietnam's pirates are also composed of Chinese, and Vietnam has a population of more than 4 million at this time, and its manpower is very insufficient. The so-called Vietnamese pirates are a pirate group composed of Chinese fishermen recruited by the Tay Son Dynasty of the Vietnamese peasant uprising. The Xishan Dynasty used its official position to attract many pirate leaders to take refuge, and every year during the wind season, these pirates formed a fleet to rob the coast of China, which solved the financial problems of the Xishan Dynasty. The pirates get a share of the stolen goods, and they usually get 40%. At the same time, except for some leaders who were keen on power, most of the small pirates obtained ships and weapons through the stable base of the Xishan Dynasty.

What is ridiculous is that the pirate force supported by the small Vietnamese rebel army has been crisscrossing the coast of China for more than ten years, and is known as another "golden age" of southeast pirates, and the last golden age was the era of Zheng Zhilong in the late Ming Dynasty.

There were groups of pirates in Xishan, and the Qing court sailors did not dare to fight at all, and even let them go north from Vietnam to Zhejiang every year. Qin Ying, a Taoist station in Wenchu, Zhejiang, said that "the official sentry ship did not dare to approach the thief ship, and when the merchant ship was asking for money, and the merchant ship did not cooperate, he pointed out that the merchant ship was a pirated ship." Sailors not only did not dare to crack down on pirates, but took the opportunity to extort ordinary merchant ships. As a result, many merchants have to work with pirates to gain security.

Later, Ruan Yuan, a famous minister who exterminated pirates, said, "There are foreign bandits in the three provinces (Fujian, Guangdong, and Zhejiang), and the boat bandits are especially serious. The bandit is half Yi and half Cantonese. Through Guangdong, he did not stay, and he stayed in Zhejiang to serve the robbery, and he often stayed for half a year. Fujian and Zhejiang bandits are attached to the boat bandits, and the traitors on all shores secretly communicate with the bandits, day by day, year after year, if they are not urgently exterminated, they will gradually become a huge gang. ”

Zhu Li is different from the Guangdong pirate group, he has nothing to do with the Xishan Dynasty in Vietnam, he has been relying on his own methods to build a base before, he is a maritime merchant for generations, and he has not developed with the support of the Xishan Dynasty, and now there is no way to form an alliance with the Heaven and Earth Society.

But he has formed an alliance with Chen Zhouquan, and on the surface accepts Chen Zhouquan's canonization and becomes the king of Zhenhai of the Great Tomorrow Fortune Kingdom, he still has to be bound by Chen Zhouquan, for example, Chen Zhouquan ordered him to fight Penghu, and he couldn't help but fight.

Why fight Penghu, because Penghu is a transit between Taiwan and the mainland, and the supplies and troops of the Qing army from the mainland are sent to Anping Port in Taiwan through Penghu, and once Penghu is occupied, the Qing army will be cut off from Taiwan.

After synthesizing this information, Zhou Lang felt that he could cooperate with Zhu Li, not to mention whether he could fight Penghu or not, the resources that Zhu Li mastered would be very useful to him.

So on the second day, he discussed with Zhu Li: "It's okay to fight Penghu, but Ben Shuai still wants to negotiate a deal with Zhu Da to go to sea." ”

In the Qing Dynasty, the captain of the ship who went to sea was not called the captain, but "going to sea", and the leader of a group of fleets like Zhu Lian was called the big sea.

Zhu Mian said: "I don't know what business Nan Shuai plans to follow?" ”

Zhou Lang said: "I want to go to sea to buy a batch of shipbuilding materials from Zhu Da." ”

Zhu Mian asked: "How much does Nan Shuai want?" ”

Zhou Lang said: "The material to build fifty ships." ”

Zhu Li frowned, this is not a small amount, he has accumulated in shipyards all over the mainland for decades, and the materials he has saved are not enough. The other party wants to build a ship, of course, what he wants is not new materials, but good old materials, Zhu Lian understands shipbuilding, he knows very well the value of Zhou Lang asking for so many materials.

But he gritted his teeth: "Okay, as long as Nan Shuai helps me take Penghu, I will give Nan Shuai the old materials for fifty big ships!" ”

Zhou Lang smiled: "Happy! ”

Zhou Lang's shipyard had already been built, and more than 100 craftsmen were "recruited" from Huangpu in Dagu Port. These craftsmen are all brought by their families, and there are more than 300 people.

It was Wei Lianli who was in charge, and Zhou Lang promised a high salary at that time, and these people refused to come, so he let Wei Lianli go. Wei Lianli was not so reasonable, and directly led the troops to arrest the family members of the people first, and then invited the other party, so that they all came, and almost emptied the shipbuilding force of the entire Huangpu Port.

Not only did they recruit people, but in the end, even the shipyard facilities in Huangpu were dismantled and transported back to Tagu Port together.

These craftsmen, according to Zhou Lang's requirements, worked overtime to build the old lock boat, and a ship has been built and is undergoing sea trials.

The ship is no problem, these people don't know how many ships have been built, but the problem is that there are too many guns, they used to build ships, they did not install cannons, although the ships built are the same as those made by the Portuguese, but the Portuguese ships are equipped with cannons, this small difference, so they dare not guarantee, so they are conducting sea trials.

In addition, Zhou Lang also asked them to build bigger ships, they used to build ships, there were few three-masted ships, not that they couldn't build them, but the imperial court did not allow them, and Zhou Lang asked to build the largest ships, which was a little different, so they also had to try the sea.

At present, the situation is good, the only problem is the lack of enough wood, the surrounding area of Dagu Port is mountainous, there is wood on it, Taiwan has not yet been fully developed, the central mountain range is also a primeval forest, there are many big trees for hundreds of years, but these wood are cut down, there is no three or five years of dryness, it is impossible to build a ship, the boat made of new wood, it is easy to crack when launched, and it is not enough to force the crossing.

That's why Zhou Lang talked to Zhu Li about the deal.

But the deal wasn't that simple.

Zhou Lang said with a smile: "I can pay the money, so I don't want Zhu Da to go to sea to send it." It's okay to help you fight Penghu, but you also have to help me fight a place! ”

Zhu Ting asked, "Where?" ”

Zhou Lang said with a smile: "Zhu Da should be very familiar with going to sea, Jinmen!" ”

Zhu Mian was quite shocked, the other party's ambition was too big, he just wanted to fight Penghu, he actually wanted to fight Kinmen, but it was opposite the mainland, and if he occupied it, he would inevitably be attacked by the imperial court.

But it's not that he can't fight, Zhu Mian gritted his teeth and nodded.

Zhou Lang said again: "And in the future, you and I have to watch and help each other, one party is in distress, support each other, what do you think Zhu Da thinks when he goes to sea?" ”

This is an alliance, Zhu Mian understood in his heart, after considering Zhou Lang's strength, he immediately agreed!