readx; Regarding the first trip to the South Seas of the North Sea Fleet's flagship Princess Anna, Zhu Youzhen was a little overly optimistic. Just as he was about to meet with the Siamese envoys www.biquge.info Princess Anna was still sailing alone and difficult in the windy South China Sea, a thousand nautical miles away from one of its destinations, the capital city of Siam.

Originally, according to the agreement reached between Zhu Youzhen and Anna, Princess Anna set off from Dengzhou on the first day of the Lunar New Year with the Portuguese fleet in the first year of Chongzhen, closely following the coastline of the Indochina Peninsula, visiting countries along the way, and focusing on the feasibility of importing rice by sea. The Portuguese fleet was in front, followed by the Princess Anna, and the two sides communicated at sea under flags.

In order to successfully complete the visit, Zhu Youzhen also urgently dispatched an official from the Foreign Affairs Yuan to Dengzhou to board the ship as soon as possible to serve as an envoy for this historic visit. This person's name is Zhang Huangyan, only eighteen years old this year, a native of Yinxian County, Zhejiang, originally a Gongsheng of Guozijian, and his current official position is a doctor of the Five Classics, and he is only a petty official of the eighth grade.

The newly established Foreign Affairs Yuan recruited many people from the people to learn foreign languages, but these people could only temporarily act as interpreters and represent the Ming Dynasty in foreign countries, and they still needed to have official status. But none of the existing officials wanted to come to the Foreign Affairs Yuan, a yamen with any power, so Zhu Youzhen had no choice but to admit him from the Guozijian Gongsheng.

According to the regulations of the Ministry of Officials, Gongsheng can directly become an official without passing the imperial examination, but he can only do low-level official positions below the seventh grade, and it is extremely difficult to be promoted. The Foreign Affairs Yuan does not yet have a special official position, so it can only temporarily use the useless official title of "Doctor of the Five Classics". At present, there are only six doctors of the Five Classics in the Foreign Affairs Academy, and Zhang Huangyan is the best one among them.

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After departing from Dengzhou, with the help of a strong northerly wind, the Princess Anna crossed the Yellow Sea at a speed of 20 knots, and reached the vicinity of Wusongkou at the mouth of the Yangtze River in just over a day. However, as soon as we arrived here, an unexpected situation arose: from here, which was supposed to be close to the coastline, it turned southward, but the Portuguese fleet sailed straight south, not following the agreed route!

Admiral Zheng Sen of the North Sea Fleet and Captain of the Princess Anna immediately inquired in flag, but the answer was that the Portuguese fleet had decided to change its course and no longer pass through Siam and other places, but to return directly to Malacca, the Portuguese stronghold in Southeast Asia. And they believed that the Taiwan Strait was the sphere of activity of Zheng Zhilong's pirate fleet, and in order to avoid trouble, the Portuguese preferred to take a detour, take the bus strait off the coast of Taiwan, and then diagonally cross the South China Sea.

Zheng Sen immediately objected because it was completely inconsistent with Zhu Youzhen's will. But the arrogant commander of the Portuguese fleet replied coldly: We are still in a hurry, if you don't follow us, then whatever!

Zheng Sen was almost blowing up his lungs. He served for a year in the Portuguese navy in Macau, and these Europeans were quite arrogant, taking the Chinese as no human beings and rarely teaching them seafaring knowledge and naval warfare. If it weren't for the heavy trust, Zheng Sen and the others would have been working with them and even working hard. Now that he finally returned to China after stealing his teacher, this operation was obviously negotiated between the two countries, and the two sides were equal, but the Portuguese did their own thing, Zheng Sen really couldn't swallow this breath, and immediately asked Zhang Huangyan to discuss.

Although Zhang Huangyan is young and a scholar, as an envoy, he is naturally the backbone of Princess Anna. He pondered for a moment and said, "Admiral Zheng, we are the ministers of the Ming Dynasty, so naturally we can only follow the edict. According to the will, we also have to go to Chaoshan and Qiongzhou, and it is impossible to reach it if we take the route of the Portuguese. For the sake of today, there is only one way to go their separate ways. We first stopped at Songjiang Prefecture for a short time, and then continued to set sail as planned. ”

"Obey!" Zheng Sen was overjoyed, and immediately told the Portuguese in the flag language: Since you do not abide by the agreement, you will not be accompanied, and the King of Portugal and Princess Anna will soon know about your behavior!

After Wusongkou sent someone to Songjiang Mansion to deliver the letter, the Princess Anna immediately set off and headed south from the coast of Fujian in Zhejiang. Although it is not known why the Portuguese fleet is suddenly in a hurry to return to Malacca, it is also twelve points of caution about Zheng Zhilong, Zhang Huangyan and Zheng Sen mentioned by the Portuguese. Especially Zheng Sen, who was originally from the Zheng family, knows everything about the head of the Zheng family, who is called the official of the imperial court.

Since Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang issued an edict to implement the policy of "no piece of board is allowed to go to the sea", China's non-governmental overseas trade has plummeted, and the fishermen and maritime merchants in Fujian who originally made a living from it have found it difficult to make a living, and some of them have continued to engage in smuggling trade at the risk of being caught and beheaded by the government. Along with the smuggling trade, piracy also "flourished", and some maritime merchant families, both merchants and thieves, dominated one side, and the Zheng family was one of the best.

As one of the six great families of martial arts, the Zheng family has a lot of power in Fujian, has a wide range of contacts, and the government has received benefits, and it is also a blind eye to the Zheng family's smuggling and piracy. Zheng Zhilong himself not only learned navigation and naval warfare with the Portuguese in Macau, but also learned Oriental swordsmanship with the Japanese ronin in Japan, plus Zheng's martial arts itself is very powerful, and in the past 20 years, he has "blackened and blackened" several pirates, and now dominates the Taiwan Strait. And he is alert, although he holds the official post of military attaché, he never goes to land in Fujian, but sets up his home in Longgang on the island of Taiwan. Even if the court wanted to do something to him, it would be beyond the reach of the whip.

Zheng Zhilong is ruthless, the former in order to let his younger brother Zheng Zhibao marry Qi Meifeng, and then merge the Qi family army, which is also one of the six great families of martial arts, he dared to lead a huge fleet north to Dengzhou. Unexpectedly, Zhu Youzhen, who was pseudonymous Qi Jian, inserted a lever from it, Zheng Zhibao became angry after losing the game, and even hurt people with his hands, kicked off one of Zhu Youzhen's legs, and the marriage naturally came to naught. Zheng Zhilong once wanted to attack Dengzhou at that time, but only because of the prestige of Yuan Keli and Qi Xianzong, as well as the good strength of the Qi family's army, he did not dare to act rashly.

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In the past two years, the imperial court was busy dealing with the Manchus and thieves, and had no time to look south, Zheng Zhilong's strength has expanded, and the number of large and small ships has reached hundreds, and they are generally equipped with artillery, which is not comparable to the inland warships of the White Lotus Sect. However, with Zheng Sen's understanding of Zheng Zhilong, he was not bold enough to openly attack the imperial court sailors. So he ordered the Princess Anna to raise the flying dragon flag of the North Sea Fleet, taking advantage of the strong north wind, to sail into the Taiwan Strait at high speed.

As Zheng Sen expected, until it crossed the strait, the Princess Anna did not encounter any unusual conditions. As far as the eye can see, the coast of the mainland is faintly on the right, and the sea in the other three directions is a vast ocean, and there are no ships in sight. Zheng Sen guessed that perhaps because of the bad sea conditions, Zheng Zhilong's fleet had taken refuge in the harbor.

In just two days, the Princess Anna arrived at the first destination of the trip: Chenghai County, the capital of Chaozhou. The mission is simple: recruit egg people!