And Zheng Zhibao came to Nanjing City this time for Zheng Zhilong to run for official positions and seek support. Because Zheng Zhilong had just fought a sea battle with the combined fleet of the Dutch and the great pirate Liu Xiang, and won a big victory in the naval battle. But then Zheng Zhilong wanted to completely eliminate one of Zuihou's opponents, Liu Xiang, in order to completely dominate the Far East Seas.

Zheng Zhilong was born in a small official family in Shijing, Nan'an, formerly known as Yiguan, and his words are flying yellow. When Zheng Yiguan was 17 years old, due to the family's difficult livelihood, he accompanied his younger brothers Zhihu and Zhibao to Xiangshanao (Macau), Guangdong, one of the locations of the Sino-foreign trade center at that time, according to his uncle Huang Cheng.

So after more than ten years of wandering, Zheng Yiguan began the process of assisting in business to engaging in commercial activities and foreign trade, and displayed his wisdom and talents in business competition and interest competition, and learned Lusita and Portuguese.

Later, he lived under Li Dan, the most shili maritime merchant at that time, helped Li Dan to do business, became Li Dan's subordinate, and "took his father to do it". Within a few years, Zheng Yiguan became a giant, often traveling between China and Japan, the most profitable shipping routes at that time.

It didn't take long for Zheng Yiguan to be elected as a leader by overseas Chinese in Japan. You must know that the overseas Chinese in the Far East at that time were not the modern kind of overseas Chinese under the fence, but similar to the foreigners who were superior in the concession of the Ten Mile Concession before the liberation.

Naturally, the overseas Chinese leader Zheng Yiguan was promoted to Tokugawa Ieyasu, the Japanese shogunate at that time, and Ieyasu also ordered to entertain him at the Nagasaki Hotel and give him a good fortune. Therefore, Zheng Yiguan was immediately regarded as a glorious and prominent figure by the Japanese, and he was often known as the "old official" because he was a local nobleman and often traveled from friends.

And Zheng Yiguan's life in Japan was even more wealthy, when the Marquis of Matsuura of Japan introduced Tagawa Matsu, the daughter of Emperor Tagawa Yu, the daughter of the Marquis of Hirado, to marry. And the eldest son of Zheng Yiguan born to the Tagawa clan was the famous Zheng Chenggong in later generations.

By this time, the Dutch military and commercial complex "East India Company" had already occupied Penghu, and Li Dan mediated to persuade the Dutch to withdraw. Transfer to Taiwan. Zheng Yiguan was sent to Penghu by Li Dan to serve as a messenger (translator) for the Dutch.

Then Zheng Yiguan became a minion of the Dutch, and made great contributions to the Dutch's monopoly of the whole of Taiwan. In April and May of the fifth year of the Apocalypse, perhaps there was not much development under the Dutch, or because of the order of his father-in-law Li Dan, Zheng Yiguan left the Dutch and began a maritime career of both business and theft.

But a few months later, after Li Dan's death, his property and business in Taiwan were owned by Zheng Yiguan, which was the basis for Zheng Yiguan to merge with other Han Chinese armed forces in Taiwan at that time. As well as recruiting new shili from the mainland to Taiwan, conditions have been created.

At that time, Yan Siqi and Yang Tiansheng, Chen Xinji, Zheng Yiguan and other 28 people worshiped the alliance as brothers, and everyone recommended Yan Siqi as the leader of the alliance. But more than a month later, Yan Siqi overdrank and contracted typhoid fever and died. Zheng Yiguan became the leader of the alliance.

Don't say it, Zheng Yiguan's luck is really good. Death cleared the way for him, supporting him to move upwards step by step. This also led to speculation in later generations that it was Zheng Yiguan who continuously poisoned him.

After Zheng Yiguan set up his own door. Zheng Xing, Zheng Ming, Yang Geng, Chen Hui, Zheng Cai and other generals were recruited from Fujian. He divided his subordinates into eighteen vanguards, formed the "Eighteen Zhi", and changed his name to "Zhilong" from then on, instead of "Yiguan". Zheng Zhilong continued to expand the great cause, and Shili continued to grow, becoming the largest armed group on the sea at that time.

In the sixth to seventh year of the Apocalypse. Zheng Zhilong led a fleet to attack Zhangpu in Fujian, plundering Kinmen, Zhongzuosuo (now Xiamen) and Jinghai and Jiazi in Guangdong. Attacking Tongshan (Dongshan), trapping the old town, defeating the Kinmen guerrilla Lu Yuying and Fujian General Military Officer Yu Zhigao's advance and suppression, crisscrossing the southeast sea, invincible, the officers and soldiers were exhausted, and there was nothing to do.

During the attack, Zheng Zhilong and others also appeased tens of thousands of hungry people in Quanzhou to go to Taiwan to reclaim land, and the hungry people and unemployed people along the coast competed for refuge. In this battle, Zheng Zhilong defeated the officers and soldiers and Xu Xinsu, making Xiamen the territory of the Zheng clan from then on.

The growing expansion and strength of Zheng Zhilong's sea shili caused fear among the rulers of the Ming Dynasty, and they sent troops to pursue and suppress them many times, but they all failed. The Ming government was unable to exterminate Zheng Zhilong, and in order to use this maritime shili to compete with the Dutch and suppress other "pirates", it had no choice but to appease Zheng Zhilong.

However, due to the substantial development of Zheng Zhilong's Liliang, it also posed a great threat to the Dutch colonists, and as soon as the Dutch ships appeared in the China Sea, they were intercepted by Zheng Zhilong's group.

Then there were several appeasements of Zheng Zhilong by the Ming Court. The first few times were unsuccessful, and it was not until July of the first year of Chongzhen that Xiong Wencan, the governor of Fujian, succeeded in appeasing Zheng Zhilong. After Zheng Zhilong led his troops to surrender to the Ming Dynasty, he was appointed as a guerrilla general of coastal defense, and he left Taiwan, the maritime trade base he had operated for many years, and sat in the Fujian Sea. At this time, Zheng Zhilong had more than 30,000 troops and more than 1,000 ships.

But what is funny is that Zheng Zhilong's appeasement was successful, but Zuihou became a life-urging talisman for Xiong Wencan. But that's another story.

Then it's time for Zheng Zhilong to clear the performance time of the other pirates Shili. For Zheng Zhilong's surrender, the original brothers raised their own flags and stood on their own, so Zheng Zhilong defeated them one by one. When he arrived in Zuihou, only Liu Xiang, who had been born and died with him, pulled a shili to Guangdong and continued his sea raids. And Liu Xiangshili colluded with the Dutch and posed a great threat to Zheng Zhilong for a period of time.

In the fifth year of Chongzhen, Zheng Zhilong and Liu Xiang's fleets encountered near Fuzhou, and a bloody battle broke out, fighting from morning to evening, with nearly 1,000 dead and wounded on both sides. Zheng Zhilong's younger brother Zheng Zhihu rushed into the enemy formation when he was wounded in two places, and was entangled by Liu Xiang's men with four-claw anchors and iron chains, and could barely get out, and was later rescued by his subordinates. And Liu Xiang himself fled south.

In July of the sixth year of Chongzhen, in order to force the Ming Dynasty to open up trade, the new Dutch governor of Taiwan, Putmans, tried to forcibly occupy the coast of the mainland by force, and with the help of Liu Xiang, he sent eight warships to launch a surprise attack on Zheng Zhilong's troops and Ming Dynasty officers and soldiers who had just pursued Liu Xiang back to Xiamen without warning. Sunk, burned, and sank more than 20 warships of Zheng Zhilong and Ming Dynasty officers and soldiers in the harbor.

These ships were Zheng Zhilong's elite troops, and they were also the most advanced maritime armed ships in China at that time, and they were fully equipped with sixteen, twenty to thirty-six cannons.

However, after the garrison was severely attacked by the Dutch, the Xiamen officials of the Ming Dynasty adopted an attitude of calming the people, looking for someone to dredge up with the Dutch, and expressed their willingness to inform the people of Xiamen, Kinmen, Lieyu, Gulangyu and the nearby islands to send 25 cows, 25 pigs and 100 chickens, hoping that the Dutch would no longer harm the people so that they could continue to cultivate with peace of mind.

But will the colonists put down their butcher knives? In September, Putmans joined up with Liu Xiang's officers in Taiwan to prepare for another attack on Zheng Zhilong.

And Zou Weilian, the governor of Fujian, who got the news, transferred the generals and gathered the boat division, ready to attack the Dutch invaders. Zheng Zhilong, who served as the "Five Tiger Guerrilla Generals", served as the front line of the battle and was actually responsible for planning and directing the battle.

Zheng Zhi crossed Zhangzhou Haicheng by dragon boat and set off. Soon in the encounter in Penghu, a lotus boat was burned, one lotus general was captured, and hundreds of lotus soldiers were drowned.

On 22 October, led by Zheng Zhilong, about 150 sailing ships of the Ming army (50 of which were particularly large war ships) caught up with nine large Dutch ships and more than 50 Liu Xiang ships in Liaoluo Bay, Kinmen. Zheng Zhilong was eager for revenge and bravely took the lead, using iron hooks to hook enemy ships and set fire to them, burning a total of one Dutch speedboat and capturing another. Liu Xiang was defeated and fled, and Putmans retreated to Taiwan in embarrassment.

After this battle, Zheng Zhilong's momentum was greatly boosted, and Putmans had no choice but to give up colluding with Liu Xiang and reconcile with Zheng Zhilong instead, and instead expressed his willingness to seek trade with China in Taiwan instead of going to Fujian in the future, and Zheng Zhilong sent ships to Taiwan for trade. Zheng Zhilong also did not make enemies for a long time, so under the mediation of Lin Hengwan, a Tong'an merchant who lived in the city of Geranza, the two sides agreed to trade. As a result, Fujian merchant ships began to sail to Taiwan.

However, at this time, Zheng Zhilong had become a big problem in the Dutch colony, and the East India Company historical materials said: If the company wants to exist, it must pull out the thorn of the official from the feet of the company. The size of Zheng Zhilong's shili can be imagined from this.

It can be seen from Zheng Zhilong's experience that he is simply a person who has no national righteousness and only knows how to make money and enjoy happiness. After he took office as a guerrilla in coastal defense, Zheng Zhilong built a luxurious mansion in his hometown of Anhai Town, Jinjiang, and even dug an artificial canal nearly a few miles long for this mansion, which really embarrassed some modern local tyrants!

The mansion took three years and two months to complete. And Anping became Zheng Zhilong's military base and maritime trade base for his own troops. And Zheng Zhilong also collected almost all the craftsmen who could make big ships in the Ming Dynasty at that time, and monopolized the manufacture of sea ships.

Zheng Zhilong used the navigation and business base of Anping Town, Quanzhou, to break the official maritime ban of the Ming Dynasty, prosper the sea market, and the armed fleet was clear-cut and strong, sailing between the coast of China, Taiwan, Macao, Japan, the Philippines and other Southeast Asian places, making full use of his power and financial resources to expand maritime trade, and almost monopolizing China's trade with overseas countries.

And now, the only one standing in front of Zheng Zhilong's road is the big pirate Liu Xiang. Therefore, Zheng Zhibao's visit to Nanjing this time was to seek the support of the major yamen in Nanjing. Of course, being able to promote Zheng Zhilong to the next level is also a great thing that cannot be sought. Anyway, Zheng Zhilong is not short of money, all he has left is silver!

In the original history, there is a very wonderful evaluation of Zheng Zhilong and Zheng Chenggong, the father and son-Zheng Zhilong is talented but not ambitious, and Zheng Chenggong is ambitious but not talented.

So later, Zheng Zhilong, whose ambition had been wiped out by long-term pleasure, obediently took more than 10 million taels of private wealth to Beijing City and surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, but was immediately killed by the wolf-like Manchu magnates as fat sheep.

And in this history, what will be the fate of Zheng Zhilong? (To be continued......)