Liu Jun regards Taiwan as a treasure, but in Zheng Zhilong's eyes, Taiwan is actually a grass, a worthless grass. Even in Zheng Zhilong's eyes, Taiwan Island, in fact, the area around Dayuan Island in Tainan, which is now occupied by the Dutch, is worth mentioning, and other places are just barbaric places full of indigenous people.

Not only Zheng Zhilong has this concept, but also other Ming people. When the imperial court banned the sea so badly that those maritime merchants could not gain a foothold on the coast of China, they could only turn to pirates, and ran to remote islands to gain a foothold, and even to the island of Taiwan to rest.

The officials of the Ming Dynasty also knew about the island of Taiwan, but they were not interested in the big desert island at all. In those years, when the Dutch repeatedly wanted to seize a maritime trade base along the coast, Fujian officials once took the initiative to let the Dutch go to Taiwan, and even generously wanted to give the entire island of Taiwan to the Dutch. Although these were only irresponsible words made by local officials in Fujian at that time for the sake of their own local tranquility, Taiwan was indeed in such a position at that time.

In the eyes of Ming officials, only the Penghu Islands are considered the territory of the Ming Dynasty, and as for the island of Taiwan, which is countless times larger than Penghu, it is not the territory of the Ming Dynasty at all.

Even if due to the ban on the Ming Sea, countless Chinese maritime merchants and Japanese Japanese pirates have been operating intermittently, until now, there are no more than 10,000 Han people on Taiwan Island, and they are mainly the displaced people in Tuntian, Fujian Province who moved there when Zheng Zhilong took Taiwan as a base. The Dutch and Spaniards occupy one south and one north of Taiwan, from the fourth and sixth years of the Apocalypse to the present, fourteen or five years of operation, these red hairs add up to more than a few thousand.

Even in Taiwan, those indigenous mountain people, for so many years, there has not been a slightly stronger force, they all live a very primitive life in the form of village communities, and various tribes and villages often fight against each other. At every turn, he will come out of the grass and cut off people's heads. The biggest king is just a union of several village communities.

Any county in the Ming Dynasty is not richer than Taiwan, and any village or town is more prosperous than Taiwan. If it is not a last resort, who wants to go to Taiwan to be the company of some vicious savages?

Even the Spaniards and Dutch, who have been entrenched on the island of Taiwan for more than ten years, have been hit countless times along the southeast coast. I had to go to Taiwan and deceive a place from the Gaoshan people to use it as a transit station. Although the Spaniards occupied Luzon, which was very close to Taiwan, they never thought of occupying Taiwan.

Later, it was also because the Dutch arrived and occupied Jakarta, then they went to the east, began to trade with Japan, and jointly with the British sent a fleet to block the route from the South China Sea to Luzon Manila, so that the Spaniards could not trade with China and Japan, so they had to run to Taiwan to establish a stronghold. to break the joint blockade of the Netherlands with the United Kingdom.

As for Zheng Zhilong, when he was recruited by the imperial court, he could freely set up trading stations in Fujian, Guangdong and other places and berth sea ships, why did he stay in that remote place in Taiwan.

However, in the face of Liu Jun's questioning, Zheng Zhilong didn't explain much, and he didn't quite understand why Zhennanhou valued Taiwan so much. Isn't it just a desert island, even if it's a Phi Island on the edge of the Yalu River? All of them used to be the transit points of Sino-North Korean trade, and Taiwan was 100 times more prosperous.

Liu Jun stood on the deck of the Zhenhai. Looking at the distant shore, I was very excited. Others think that Taiwan is worthless, but he does not see it that way, Taiwan is China's southeast maritime gateway, and in the era of sea power that has come, Taiwan's value to China is irreplaceable. It was an unsinkable ship.

Similarly, when the population of the Ming Dynasty has grown to more than 200 million, at a time when this land is seriously annexed, how many landless people can be resettled in such an uncultivated virgin land as Taiwan. How many new grain fields can be reclaimed? With time, as long as it is given sufficient development, Taiwan can become a new granary.

"Are we really going to fight the Spaniards?" Zheng Zhilong asked again, "Spain occupies Luzon and the surrounding islands, not far from Taiwan, and its strength is strong, in case it attracts the Spaniards to retaliate."

Zheng Zhilong is very familiar with the strength of the Spaniards, although the strength of the Spaniards in northern Taiwan is not strong, but Luzon Manila is not far away, which is the base camp of the Spaniards in the East Indies.

The East Indies actually refer to East Asia, and at the end of the 15th century, Columbus arrived in the Caribbean in the Americas, thinking that he had arrived in India. A few years later, when the Portuguese Vasco da Gama arrived in the real India, he still mistakenly called the Caribbean the West Indies and the east of India the East Indies, until a long time later, when the Europeans gradually understood Asia, and then changed the name to East Asia or the Far East.

Speaking of the East Indias, one cannot but mention the East India Company. When Liu Jun first heard about the East India Company, the first thing he thought of was the British. As a result, he was told that the most powerful East India Company in the East Indies was actually Dutch. Although, the British also had an East India Company, which was founded two years before the Dutch East India Company, but in the East India region, the Dutch East India Company was the most famous and powerful.

This huge business organization of 14 Dutch trading companies has been established for 37 years. The Dutch East India Company is also the richest company in the world today, with a large merchant fleet and a powerful armed fleet, as well as a large number of employees and private armies.

They were even a prince who could organize their own mercenaries, issue currency, and have the power to make formal treaties with other nations, and even to declare war and colonize the region.

Spain did not have such a powerful company, but they were no less powerful in the East Indies than the Dutch.

Zheng Zhilong was not only worried that the Spaniards in Taiwan would attract retaliation from the Spaniards in Luzon, but also worried that the Spaniards in Luzon would prohibit maritime trade with the Chinese. If this is the case, it would be extremely uneconomical for the Zheng family to make a feud with the Spaniards for the sake of a desert island where birds do not lay eggs, and to lose trade relations with Manila, an important trading post.

"Don't worry, this is the era of giant ships and cannons, whoever has a big battleship and whose gun is far away will make sense. Don't worry about the Spaniards retaliating, as long as we show enough strength, the Spaniards won't be stupid enough to fight us. You don't have to worry that he won't let Chinese maritime merchants go to Manila, if he dares to do so, he must first consider that we will completely block the trade routes between Spain and Japan to the Ming Dynasty, and we will let him not be able to cross the South China Sea to the north, and then they will not be able to hold it first. ”

Why did the Spaniards come all the way? And not for the sake of profit. In the final analysis, they went to Taiwan to establish a stronghold, but also because the Ming did not trade with them, and the Dutch and British blocked the route between Manila and Japan, preventing them from participating in the trade with Japan.

To drive Spain away from Taiwan, as long as Liu Jun allows Spain to participate in trade with China in the future, that is something that Spain cannot want, how can it fight with Daming for a stronghold on a desert island?

This fleet of hundreds of large and small ships sailed on the vast sea, still maintaining a formation, and the crew and sailors of the Zheng clan were quite skilled.

The coastline is just ahead, and Liu Jun's flagship Zhenhai is also the command ship of this fleet, and on that high mast, a huge handsome flag has been raised, and there are several command flags of different colors around it.

When the flag bearer on the mast points the command flag in a certain direction, the large flag on the flagship of the detachment in that direction also waves, which is called the response flag. In fact, it was moved from the flag order in the army, and the flag was waved and responded to to the flag, indicating that the order from above was received.

After the flagships of the detachment were raised, the main warships under the detachments also waved their flags.

Just by the flag, the entire fleet of hundreds of ships, large and small, finally all contacted and responded.

There are also red, blue and black tricolor flags next to the big flag of Zhenhai, and when fighting, it will convey combat orders through a set of exclusive flags and drum music.

The banner golden drum is the most important means of command in this era, once the flag golden drum is lost, it means that the command is lost, and the army is chaotic. Therefore, in ancient times, beheading generals and capturing the flag were often miraculous feats.

Liu Jun watched the Zheng flag-bearers skillfully waving the flags, and the ships responded, although in the vast sea, the ships were separated by a long distance, but they were as one.

Looking at these skilled Zheng generals, Liu Jun had to sigh that at sea, the Zheng family was indeed a dragon, and it was too difficult to compete with them. This is also the reason why Liu Jun attaches so much importance to Zheng Zhilong, if he wants to cross the sea to attack Liao, he really needs the cooperation of a sea overlord like Zheng's fleet. In addition, Liu Jun also knew that the Zheng clan's power at sea was unmatched, so he came to unite with them early and made an ally for himself as soon as possible.

Far friends and close attacks, Zheng's forces are far away in the southeast sea, and there is little conflict of interest with Liu Jun, so he is an excellent ally.

"Brother Zheng, let's make a bet, I bet that the Spaniards in Chicken Coop Harbor will surrender without a fight after seeing our fleet." Liu Jun said to Zheng Zhilong with a smile.

Zheng Zhilong stood beside Liu Jun, "Although the Hongyi soldiers are few, they have always been fierce and dare to fight, and they have strongholds and fortresses on the shore, so I am afraid that they will not surrender easily." ”

"Then let's make a bet, if I win, then the ships of the Spaniards in Keelung Harbor, equipment, money, etc., will all belong to me!"

"What if the red doesn't fall?"

"All the Spaniards are yours."

"Okay, then the subordinate will make this bet with Hou Ye."

Liu Jun laughed loudly, "Please Admiral Xiong to be a witness." ”

Xiong Wencan was invited, and after listening to their bet, he shook his head again and again, "It's better not to fight or not, don't start a war lightly." ”

The fleet was getting closer and closer to the port of the chicken coop, and in the distance, a fleet sailed out of the harbor and stopped in front.

Zheng Zhilong laughed, "Master Hou, it seems that I won." ”

At this moment, a light express ship sailed out of the Spanish fleet.

"Brother Zheng, it seems that I guessed it, you see, the Spaniards hung up the white flag!" (To be continued......)