Outside Iki Island.

Zheng Zhilong brothers led the fleet has been waiting for Liu Jun for a long time, this more than half a year, Zheng Zhilong has made a lot of money, although the Ming Dynasty is open to trade with various countries, the Netherlands, Britain, Spain, Portugal, etc. can freely come to the Ming Dynasty to trade, but there is an agreement in advance, but countries can not get involved in trade with Japan and Korea.

Zheng Zhilong did entrepot trade in Taiwan, silver from the Americas, spices and cotton cloth from the South Seas, tea, raw silk, porcelain, and sugar from the mainland, silver, copper, lacquerware, and grain from Japan, medicinal materials from Korea, ivory and gold from Africa, etc., gathered in Taiwan, and then resold them to all parties by the Daming East India Company.

Although the Zheng family of the East India Company only held a 10% stake, it could not stand up to the huge scale of monopoly exclusivity. In the past, although the Zheng family was dominant at sea, Taiwan's entrepot trade was controlled by the Dutch, and Portugal, Spain, Britain, and Sweden also purchased a large number of commercial goods along the coast of the mainland. Zheng Zhilong mainly buys goods for various countries, and he does not earn much compared to Dutch countries.

Now, the Daming East India Company monopolized a huge market, and a large number of shareholders of the company are mostly upstream controllers of foreign trade goods, including silk merchants, porcelain merchants, tea merchants, silk merchants, there are markets and supplies, the business of the Ming East India Company is extremely smooth, even if Zheng Zhilong only occupies a percent of the shares, the income is far more than the past.

What's more, he has a business of his own, and his shipyard is now building European soft sailing ships, and the business is excellent. And Taiwanese immigrants are also very promising for mining tuntian. Not to mention, in less than a year, the mobilization of the imperial court and the people has sent 500,000 people to Taiwan.

That's a huge number. Many people come to Taiwan empty-handed, they divide the land and cultivate the wasteland, or work as employees of the development company to receive salaries, and everyone arrives in Taiwan to eat, drink, live, use, all kinds of daily necessities, and production materials. They all had to be shipped from Fujian, Guangdong, and other places, and these transactions were basically monopolized by the East India Company.

The East India Company also established a commercial port on Liu Jun's fiefdom in Nanyang, officially inserting a foot in Nanyang.

When Zheng Zhilong received Liu Jun's letter saying that he was ready to intervene in the Korean Strait, Zheng Zhilong was not surprised at all. He is not surprised that Liu Jun made any strange decision, and when Liu Jun summoned him to lead the fleet, he did not hesitate.

It is good to follow Liu Jun, this is the conclusion that Zheng Zhilong has reached now. followed Liu Jun to fight Taiwan and Macau. His strength increased exponentially, he became the admiral of the navy, the commander-in-chief of Taiwan, and his subordinates organized two fleets, and his brothers became the deputy general of the general army, the general of the staff, and the guerrilla general. Following Liu Jun to establish the East India Company, he brought his business to a new level.

Zheng Zhilong clearly knows how big the Japanese market is, and now they have their own channels for goods by buying commercial goods from China and selling them to the Japanese. If there are fewer links in the middle, you will only earn more.

Agreements with countries such as the Netherlands. As a result, the maritime trade is now very stable, and everyone has got the desired results, and they are busy trading to make money.

When he saw Liu Jun, Zheng Zhilong had a smile on his face, and there was respect in his smile.

While he was busy making money in Taiwan, Liu Jun had already fought a few beautiful battles in Liaodong. Now they have all been promoted from marquis to duke.

"Congratulations to the Duke of Chu, I heard that the king of Joseon married his beloved daughter Princess Jingshu to an adult, congratulations." Zheng Zhilong saluted Liu Jun and congratulated.

Liu Jun gave way sideways and did not accept his full courtesy. "Brother Zheng came quickly."

"Adults call, how dare there be a little delay." Zheng Zhilong asked, "Your Excellency really wants to attack Japan?" ”

"It's not an attack on Japan, I received news that the Edo shogunate is going to further close the country, they want to close down the port of Hirado, move the foreign trading station there to Nagasaki, and only allow foreign merchants to trade in Nagasaki in the future, and also stipulate the number of trading ships, and only how many ships are allowed to enter the port each year, which is very unfavorable to us."

It was not easy for Liu Jun to determine with the Netherlands and other countries the exclusive trade rights of the Ming East India Company to Japan, how could he allow such a new policy of Japan.

"This time, we want to show our force to the Japanese and force the Japanese to sign an exclusive trade agreement with us, and there can be no restrictions. If you can, then also seek control of Hirado Island. You are very familiar with Japan, especially Hirado, and it is up to you to do this. ”

Zheng Zhilong has indeed lived in Japan for many years, and he was in Hirado when he was in Japan.

Hirado is a large island, only five or six hundred meters wide from the narrowest point of Matsuura. A hundred years ago, it was just a small fishing village, and later the Chinese pirate Wang Zhi cooperated with the Japanese Matsuura family to recruit ronin samurai and sailors in Hirado, and established a very powerful pirate organization, which repeatedly went to the coast of China to harass and force the Ming Dynasty to open the sea ban and allow maritime trade.

However, the Ming Dynasty had a tough attitude, Wang Zhi and others began to plunder the coast of the Ming Dynasty repeatedly, and finally became a serious Japanese invasion at that time, and Hirado also became the base camp of the Japanese at that time, and later became a free port.

Many Chinese maritime merchants, Chinese pirates, also took root here, and there were Chinese everywhere. In addition to the Chinese, Hirado is also home to many foreigners, and it was once a trading port for the Dutch, Portuguese and other countries in Japan. It was here that many European missionaries began their missions to Japan.

When Zheng Zhilong was in Japan, he was in Hirado, and he married a Japanese wife here and gave birth to Fumatsu Maru Zheng Sen. Later, Zheng Zhilong took Zheng Sen away, and then asked him to worship under Liu Jun's knees as a righteous son, and changed his name to Zhu Chenggong.

But Zheng Zhilong's Japanese wife is still in Hirado, not that Zheng Zhilong will not take him away, but since the issuance of Japan's lockdown decree, the Japanese shogunate has stipulated that all Japanese are not allowed to go abroad, all Japanese overseas are not allowed to return to China, and the Southern Barbarians, that is, Europeans, are not allowed to preach in Japan, and all Japanese who originally believed in religion must change their belief in foreign religions.

"Hirado was returned to the Hirado Domain, and the Hizen Province received Kitamatsunura Prefecture and Iki Province in Hizen Province, and the domain office was located in Hirado, and it was famous for its naval army."

The feudal domain of Japan is equivalent to the vassal states of ancient China, and the feudal lords are called daimyos. During the Edo shogunate period, those who knew 10,000 koku or more were called daimyos. At this time, there were more than 200 daimyo in Japan, which were basically divided into daimyo of kin-feudal clans, daimyo of pedigree, and daimyo of foreign daimyos.

The political system of the Edo period was the shogunate system, in which the shogunate and feudal towns jointly administered Japan.

The Hirado Domain belonged to the Daimyo of the Outer Kind, and Chiyuki 63,000 Stone, was a daimyo who was forced to submit in the Battle of Sekigahara, and was not trusted by the Tokukang family. Compared to the Maeda Toshiya of the Kaga Domain, which had 1,020,000 koku, the Shimazu Tadatsune of the Satsuma Domain, which had 770,000 koku, and Date Masamune, who had 625,000 koku, the strength of the Hirado Domain was quite weak.

"I heard that your wife, the Tagawa clan, is a retainer of the Matsuura family, the lord of the Hirado domain?" Liu Jun asked.

The current lord of the Hirado Domain is Matsuura Shinnobu, the fourth generation of the feudal lord. It is said that when Zheng Zhilong was in Hirado, he had a good relationship with the Matsuura family.

"At the beginning, I sent someone to pick up Chenggong and the Tagawa clan back to Fujian, but the Matsuura clan blocked it in various ways, and finally I sent a warship to come, and he also handed over the success, but he refused to hand over the Tagawa clan, and my relationship with the Matsuura family has long been severed." Zheng Zhilong said.

In fact, Zheng Zhilong's words were not complete, when he was in Hirado, the Matsuura family had a good relationship with him, but later Zheng Zhilong and Yan Siqi and a group of Chinese plotted to raise troops to occupy Hirado, but the matter was not confidential and he was forced to flee to Taiwan, and his wife and children were thrown in Hirado. The Matsuura family did not sin against them, and it was also because the Tagawa clan was a retainer of the Matsuura family.

Since the lockdown order, the Port of Hirado has not been as good as it used to be.

"Are you ready?" Looking at Hirado Port, Liu Jun asked Zheng Zhilong.

"Ready." Zheng Zhilong replied, "My lord, let me take someone to land in Hong Kong." ”

Liu Jun nodded.

Hundreds of ships appeared outside the port of Hirado, causing a panic.

"That's not a merchant ship! It's a battleship! The Matsuura samurai of the port shouted in panic.

The sun and moon flags fluttered on the high mast, red flags.

An old man with a white beard looked at the bright red sun and moon flag, and his face showed fear.

"Tang State, Tang State is here. I knew it, I knew that sooner or later, the Tang Kingdom would send troops to come. Forty-eight years later, they are still coming, they are coming, the army of the Tang Army is coming! ”

That old man was a samurai of the Matsuura family, who had participated in the war of invasion of Korea with the feudal lord and fought against the Ming army with the red sun and moon banner.

He remembered the Ming Dynasty well, they had occupied Korea, but in the end they were defeated by the Ming army. Later, another invasion was launched, but it still failed, and with the death of Toyoda Hideyoshi, all the Japanese troops who entered the dynasty finally retreated. The first 160,000 and the second 140,000, Japan launched a nationwide invasion of Korea, but in the end only 50,000 corpses were left in Korea.

The Japanese remember that defeat deeply, and they have been worried all these years that sooner or later China will come to retaliate. Unexpectedly, this day finally came.

Forty-eight years later, this day still came.

Zheng Zhilong stood on the deck of his flagship East China Sea Dragon King, looking at the panicked port dock, a little suddenly distracted.

"Big brother." Zheng Zhibao called him softly.

Zheng Zhilong came back to his senses and glanced at the dock, "Sink all the ships of the Matsuura family in the port, whether they are merchant ships or warships, bombard the docks, and then land, we will take Hirado Castle!" ”

"Yes." Zheng Zhibao nodded in response, his face showed excitement, "Damn, let the Japanese compensate us for our strength." ”

Zheng Zhilong looked at Hirado Island, thinking about the woman who had been separated for more than ten years. (To be continued......)

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