Zheng Zhilong couldn't sit still anymore, so he called Zheng Cai, who was recuperating at home, to ask about countermeasures. On the surface, this is a ploy, but in fact he has already started to kill. It is true that Zheng Cai and Zheng Lian are brothers of the same birth, but before this expedition, Zheng Cai rarely refused to lead troops on the grounds of recuperation, so Zheng Lian had the opportunity to emerge.

The current Zheng Zhilong is suspicious and refuses to believe anyone, he not only suspects that Zheng Cai and people with bad intentions collude with his brother regardless of the safety of his brothers, but also suspects that Zheng Lian and Zheng Cai are in the same stream. But what are their motives?

"Dashuai!"

Just when Zheng Zhilong was thinking nonsense, Zheng Cai came with a tired face.

Zheng Zhilong didn't raise his eyelids, but only responded lightly.

"Feeling better?"

"Thanks to the blessing of the handsome, it's good, it's good!"

Zheng Zhilong suddenly opened his eyes and looked at Zheng Cai, who was low-eyed and pleasing in front of him, he couldn't see the slightest strange look in his nephew. Recently, the news of the fiasco of the Zheng family's sailors has been boiling in Anping, and the Haikou and giant merchants who had previously expressed their submission from all parties have also begun to become ambiguous. This made him feel quite helpless, after all, the foundation of the Zheng family is the water division, if the water division is destroyed in a war, if you want to build a water division of the same scale again, it will have to be three or five years of work. But will the situation leave him that long? The answer is clearly no.

His eyes flickered like candles in the room.

"Recently, there have been a lot of rumors in the city, Zheng Cai, what do you think?"

I saw Zheng Cai replied lightly: "It's all rumors and rumors without tangible evidence, the marshal doesn't have to worry about it, even if my sailor suffers a fiasco, there will inevitably be my sailor soldiers who pass on the news of defeat and come back, listening to the noise of some maritime villains, it is completely self-inflicted." ”

Zheng Cai's performance was calm and calm, and his words even expressed his contempt and hatred for businessmen. This is very much in line with what he has always been advocating in the past. However, this also made the suspicious Zheng Zhilong relax a little.

Zheng Zhilong even felt for a moment that he might be wrong to blame Zheng Cai, and whether the Zheng family's sailors had a fiasco or not, before getting accurate information, I was afraid that no one would be able to make a conclusion. The flame of hope that had been extinguished suddenly burned again.

A gambler will not and does not want to believe that he has lost all his chips until he has completely lost all his chips, even if he already knows that there is no hope of winning with his hole cards. What's more, Zheng Zhilong at this moment has no tangible evidence of the annihilation of the entire navy, everything is just a few words brought back by the sea merchants.

"A businessman loves to make a profit, and as long as he has money, he can buy it for his own use. How does the marshal know that these profit-seeking villains who are flies and dogs are not bought by Li Xin's gang to disturb the hearts of our army? It is suggested that if anyone dares to talk about the victory or defeat of the sailor in private, he should be punished in the name of disrupting the army's heart! In this way, the hearts of our soldiers can be determined! ”

At this time, the doubts in Zheng Zhilong's heart were further eliminated, thinking that Zheng Cai's words were not unreasonable, maybe he was too deeply influenced by those businessmen before, and it seems that at this moment, he should also let these profit-seeking villains recognize their duty.

So, that night, Zheng Zhilong sent his cronies to the city to arrest the merchants who had trumpeted the defeat of the sailors, and in one night they captured more than ten people, many of whom had huge family assets, and they were divided into three, six, nine and so on according to a trumped-up charge and standard. Several of the most active businessmen were immediately executed and their property confiscated. Minor sentences were sentenced to prison and family property confiscated. The last one could not escape the punishment of a whipping and the confiscation of part of the family property.

After three days of spicy politics, the news of the defeat of the sailors was finally suppressed. At this time, people also thought that the defeat of the Zheng family's naval division was just the fake news brought back by some businessmen who colluded with Li Xin, and the purpose was to make the Zheng family mess up.

For this reason, Zheng Zhilong specially praised Zheng Cai, thinking that he had contributed to the Zheng family, so he asked him to preside over the errand of correcting the law. It's just that Zheng Cai shirked it with great humility, and said that he was sick and might not be able to do it.

At first, Zheng Zhilong thought that Zheng Cai was just staging a deliberately humble drama, but after pushing it three times, Zheng Zhilong knew that Zheng Cai was not acting falsely. So he couldn't help but wonder, if according to common sense, Zheng Cai should be overjoyed to learn that he was reused, but he not only insisted on resigning from an important errand, but even said that his health was deteriorating, and he had to resign even from the errand he had originally had. This made him scratch his head, could it be that Zheng Cai's condition really worsened?

Soon, the news from southern Zhejiang lifted Zheng Zhilong's spirit. Wenzhou has already gone down in one go, and at present, the army is taking advantage of the victory to chase the Japanese and go to Taizhou Prefecture. As long as Taizhou is taken, Hangzhou is already close at hand. Obviously this is a major victory.

The rumors of the sailor's fiasco were quickly dispelled by the news of the victory that came back, and Anping was immersed in joy.

But one evening, this joy was shattered by a wrecked warship quietly sailing into the harbor.

"Take me to see the big handsome! I'm a sailor general......"

In the dark light, a bloodied and foul-smelling officer stumbled from the boat and jumped on the dock. At this time, there were only soldiers on duty at the dock, and they were naturally overjoyed to see the ships of their own fleet, and they came forward to ask how much they had gained this time.

It's just that the filthy general didn't answer the soldier's question, and coldly scolded, "The military plane is a serious matter, how can you be a mere pawn to ask?" Then, he kept urging the night guards to bring their horses and go to the general soldier's mansion in person.

After the soldier was scolded, he was extremely angry, so he prevaricated and made it difficult. The general was so angry that he fainted, and several of his own soldiers were shocked and immediately rushed to the rescue. And the professional soldier who started it was holding his shoulders and gloating at the joke.

"Look at how crazy you are?"

Of course, these words can only be said once in the stomach, and they dare not say it openly.

In the end, the staff general was carried to the general military mansion by several subordinates, Zheng Zhilong had already slept, and after learning that a warship had returned, he didn't even care about putting on his clothes and shoes and hurriedly greeted him. At this time, although the general was weak, he still came to Zheng Zhilong with his injured body, and knelt down full of sorrow.

"Dashuai!"

After shouting, Da Shuai burst into tears and cried.

This situation made Zheng Zhilong, who was already apprehensive, suddenly feel that the world was spinning, just looking at the demeanor of the general, it would never be the result of the victory of the sailor.

Zheng Zhilong suppressed the uneasiness in his heart and asked, "Tell me, how is the naval battle going?" ”

It took a long time for the general to stop crying, "My sailor and the Dutch encountered, and the whole army was wiped out in a battle, Zheng Lian did not dare to come back for fear of crime, and led the remnants to flee south, marking that it was risking death to escape Zheng Lian's pursuit and killing, and fled back to report to the marshal!" ”

"What? You, you say it again......"

After hearing this, Zheng Zhilong only felt that his blood was surging, his breathing was short, and the world in front of him seemed to be unclear.

The general repeated it sadly, but before he could finish speaking, he heard someone exclaim for the handsome, and when he raised his head, he found that Zheng Zhilong had fallen to the ground and passed out.

After a long time, Zheng Zhilong was finally awakened, and then before he could speak, he opened his mouth and spit out a mouthful of Yin Hong's blood.

He knew that this time it was definitely not a lie about the military situation, and these circumstances coincided with what some businessmen had said. Before, he was just wishful thinking with a trace of fantasy, but now the fantasy is ruthlessly fragmented, and the Zheng family will face unprecedented disasters and challenges.

And once it is confirmed that the fiasco of the sailor is real, how can the merchant who was unjustly killed by him be appeased? Someone has to pay for it. At this time, the first thing Zheng Zhilong thought of was naturally Zheng Cai. This black cauldron can only be carried by Zheng Hongkui, Zheng Cai's father and son, because the cause of all sins is also caused by his Zheng Hongkui father and son.

Zheng Zhilong summoned his henchmen and generals, "Go, take someone to detain Zheng Hongkui, Zheng Cai's father and son." ”

The deputy general obviously didn't expect Zheng Zhilong's first move after suddenly learning of the defeat to lock up his fourth brother's family, but he didn't hesitate, he always only obeyed Zheng Zhilong's orders, and never asked the reason. But Zheng Zhilong stopped him, "If anyone asks, say that Zheng Hongkui's father and son colluded with thieves and unjustly killed the good merchants in the city......

The adjutant general quickly understood and hurried away with his troops. Then, Zheng Zhilong arranged for his henchmen to impose martial law in the whole city, and no one was allowed to enter or leave without his own order. At the same time, he sent an eight-hundred-mile rush to Shao Wu, urging Zheng Sen to stop fighting and immediately return to Anping to assist him in presiding over the overall situation.

After taking some measures, Zheng Zhilong leaned back on the Taishi chair tiredly.

His eyes were a little hollow, staring blankly at the ceiling.

Soon, the lieutenant sent to capture Zheng Hongkui's father and son came back and brought back a piece of news that made Zheng Zhilong very angry.

"Dashuai, Zheng Hongkui, Zheng Cai's father and son have quietly left Anping early yesterday morning, and they are currently missing!"

After hearing this, Zheng Zhilong suddenly bounced up from his chair, "Send troops!" Send troops to search and arrest, you have to see people alive, and you have to see corpses when you die! ”

He suddenly realized that Zheng Hongkui and Zheng Cai's father and son must be planning something he didn't know, rather than simply slandering and harming people. Until this moment, Zheng Zhilong suddenly regretted it, regretting that he was too confident, thinking that he could control the young Zheng Cai and Zheng Lian brothers, but in the end, he became a tiger skin. Now he only hopes that Zheng Sen will hurry back with the army stranded in Shaowu as soon as possible, and stabilizing the foundation of Anping is the top priority.

At the same time, Zheng Zhilong once again sent fast horses to the Zhejiang army to give an order, immediately stop the pursuit of the Japanese invaders, and the army immediately returned to Fujian, control the situation near Fuzhou, and must not let lawless people with ulterior motives mess up the situation in Fujian.