At the same time, about 80 nautical miles away from Kinmen Island, Penghu Magong Port. n∈ top n∈ point n∈ small n ∈ said,

The three bird boats slowly approached the shore, and the foreman on the shore shouted for his men to quickly tie the cables thrown from the ship, build a gangplank, and prepare to unload. There were already more than a dozen mule and horse carts parked on the dock, apparently waiting to be loaded.

The boss of the boat didn't wait for the gangplank to be stable, so he took three steps and made two steps down to the shore, knelt down on one leg to a young man on the shore and said, "My subordinates have delayed the trip, and Lord Wangbao will forgive you!"

"I said that I would go back in seven days, but it turned out that it would be more than half a month to leave, and if you come back a few days later, I am afraid that the island will not be able to open the pot!"

The boss of the boat didn't dare to get up, and lowered his head and responded: "Lord Leopard doesn't know, now that the entire territory of Fujian has been sealed off the sea frontier, the rice shops in various places are being watched by the Yamen, and the trade of more than 1,000 catties has to be reported in the Yamen." The subordinates were worried that their identities would be revealed, so they had to slowly search all the way to the coastal states and counties to find places where grain could be bought and sold without registration. ”

"Oh? I see...... Have you bought the food?" the young man listened to the explanation, and his face changed slightly.

"My subordinates went all the way north from Xinghua Mansion, Fuzhou, and Funing Prefecture to Yueqing, Wenzhou, and finally bought food through the relationship. The captain also lost no time in showing his merits, and explained the reason for the late return by the way: "Because of the stop-and-go along the way, it will be delayed for so many days." ”

"I only bought rice ...... in Wenzhou," the young man couldn't help frowning when he heard this. In the past, when I went to the mainland to purchase grain, I only needed to go to Funing Prefecture at most, but I didn't expect that now I have to go to Zhejiang to buy it.

"Not only that, but the Fujian Navy Division is also checking the ships coming and going in the waters near Funing Prefecture, and it is said that the ships coming from Zhejiang are particularly strict in their investigations, and their subordinates think that this should be the government's desire to cut off the sea passage for us to obtain supplies from Zhejiang. The boat boss continued to report.

"It doesn't matter, just take a detour a little longer at sea. The sea is so big, how can the government seal it all!" The young man pretended to respond easily.

With the limited strength of the Fujian Navy Division, of course, it is impossible to block the entire shipping route of the Taiwan Strait, and as long as there is a will, it is easy to avoid the inspection of the government if the route does not take the route near the shore, but the cost and risk of transportation will naturally rise accordingly. And those ships that were originally willing to undertake the transportation task will also retreat because of the government's actions, and if they want to purchase materials in the future, they will probably have to send their own ships to transport them back, which will definitely further increase the burden of their own transportation capacity.

However, no matter how troublesome this kind of large-scale procurement is, the local agricultural development process in Penghu is not high, coupled with the limited land area, and the grain production cannot achieve self-sufficiency, there are more than 20,000 people on the Penghu Islands, and at least half of them need to buy grain from outside to maintain, and the amount required for this year is really not a small amount. Sending fleets to the mainland to buy grain in large quantities like this is done almost once or twice a month, but in recent times, it seems that it has become more and more difficult to go to the mainland to purchase supplies.

After the Zhangzhou assassination, the Fujian government gradually tightened the supply of civilian goods in the coastal areas, began to monitor the bulk trade of grain, pig iron, salt, medicinal materials, cloth and other commodities, and set the upper limit of private transactions. For those commercial houses with complicated backgrounds that cannot be trusted by the authorities, special personnel were even sent to guard them to put an end to their private sales of materials to Shibazhi. Although these measures could not completely ban the channels for Eighteen Zhi to purchase supplies from the mainland, they had indeed created a lot of trouble, and this time the fleet went out to buy grain, and it was only one of them.

For such a situation, Zheng Zhilong, the leader of Eighteen Zhizhi, naturally saw it in his eyes and was anxious in his heart. The fleet that went to the mainland to buy grain has not returned after the agreed date, and the grain storage capacity on the island is decreasing day by day at a rate visible to the naked eye, it must be a lie to say that Zheng Zhilong is not panicking. This young man who came to the dock fleet was Zheng Zhilong's fifth brother Zheng Zhibao.

Although the name Zheng Zhibao sounds very powerful, it is different from the brothers who are pirate leaders in the family, he is a scholar, and he studied in Nan'an County, Quanzhou in his early years. Although he has no fame, he is just an ordinary student, but in the group of Eighteen Zhi, he can already be regarded as a cultural person. In the original history, Zheng Zhibao was named the crown prince and prince in the Hongguang period of the late Ming Dynasty, that is, after Zhu Yousong, a descendant of King Fu, was proclaimed emperor in Nanjing, and he also added the title of Chengji Bo, which can be regarded as a famous name in the troubled times. However, Zheng Zhibao is not a person with stable discipline, and later followed Zheng Zhilong to the Qing court, and then never lived a good life.

However, in this time and space where the Haihan people have intervened, it is probably difficult for the Zheng brothers to have a chance to intersect with the Tartars in the north. Because judging from the current development form, it should be unlikely that they will hold out until the time when the Tartars are moving south.

Zheng Zhibao did not wait for all the grain to be unloaded into the warehouse, and hurriedly rushed back to the camp to give Zheng Zhilong an errand. Of course, more importantly, he had to inform Zheng Zhilong of the news that the ship boss had brought back from outside, and Eighteen Zhi could no longer sit idly by and watch the situation deteriorate like this.

"Xu Xinsu wants to cut off our grain and grass, it's not so easy!" After listening to the description, Zheng Zhilong put down the brush in his hand, raised his head and said to Zheng Zhibao: "I have ordered people to go to Ningbo, Jiaxing, Shaoxing, Hangzhou and other places to buy grain from local rice merchants. Xu Xinsu is the emperor of the soil in Fujian, can he still manage Zhejiang?"

"It's still the eldest brother who is far-sighted!" Zheng Zhibao slapped himself on the back before expressing his worries: "It's just that the voyage from Penghu to Zhejiang is long, and the time required to travel is two or three times longer than that of various places along the coast of Fujian, and the risk and freight of purchasing bulk goods are also much higher." If this is the case for a long time, it will also be a big drag. ”

"Now Xu Xinsu is powerful, and there are Haihan people who are fighting for tigers, and the red-haired people can't stand it at a critical time, and my brother is also distressed about this situation. Zheng Zhilong did not hide his worries too much in front of his brother: "If it was a few years earlier, my brother would not be afraid of such a means as the Fujian government, and it would be a big deal to go ashore directly to rob it, but now there are fewer and fewer villages willing to rely on us, and if we go to the open fire to loot the place, it will be even more inconvenient to buy supplies from Daming in the future." ”

"It's better to ...... Make peace with Haihan, right?" Zheng Zhibao put forward an extremely sensitive suggestion. This method was also mentioned earlier, but after Zheng Zhihu killed Nanri Island in battle, no one talked about it again. It was Zheng Zhibao's own family who dared to mention this matter in front of him.

"Negotiate peace?" Zheng Zhilong glanced at his brother, slowly stood up and walked to the window, and sighed for a long time: "It's not that my brother hasn't thought about peace, it's just that the Haihan people don't know what their considerations are, and they don't want to accept peace at all." ”

"Big brother, you...... Have you already tried it?" Zheng Zhibao immediately reacted.

"That's right. Zheng Zhilong nodded and said, "Brother Wei has entrusted people to convey their willingness to negotiate peace to the Haihan people more than once, but they have not been able to get their consent. ”

"What harsh conditions do the Haihan people propose?" Zheng Zhibao heard his brother mention this matter for the first time, and couldn't help but ask curiously.

"All the leaders of the Eighteen Zhi need to go to Zhangzhou to surrender themselves. Zheng Zhilong replied with a gloomy face: "In this way, they can guarantee to leave us a life." As for the other conditions, they are not to be discussed. ”

"These self-righteous thieves!" Zheng Zhibao was furious when he heard this, and he couldn't care about his identity when he scolded him in a hurry: "Do they really think that I can't catch it if I am eighteen Zhi and ten thousand children?"

"What the Haihan people want is not our submission, but the complete disappearance of the Eighteen Zhi. Zheng Zhilong said slowly: "It's me, it's you, their goal is to be the leaders of the Eighteen Zhi, arrest us, the Eighteen Zhi Dragons are leaderless, and it will be much easier for them to deal with it at that time." ”

"If they have that plan, then there really will be no more negotiations. After hearing this, Zheng Zhibao was already dead set on this solution.

"There is really no room for negotiation with the Haihan people,"

"Then how about we surrender to the Fujian government? Zheng Zhibao thought about it and came up with another idea.

"Two years ago it might have been okay, but now it'...... It's late. Zheng Zhilong said with regret: "Lord Xiong has indeed expressed his intention to recruit us before, but in the past two years, Xu Xinsu has gradually become stronger, and the battle situation has been dominant, and the Fujian government has no pressure, so he naturally does not want to bother recruiting us." If you think about it, let us recruit An, and the Fujian government will raise one or two thousand more mouths, so it is better to let Xu Xinsu kill us cleanly, save trouble and money. ”

Zheng Zhilong's tone was unwavering, as if he was telling a story that had nothing to do with him, but Zheng Zhibao could feel the irrepressible resentment under his brother's calm appearance. Since the Eighteen Zhi Incident, it is really the most difficult period at present, and it has been pressed by foreign enemies to shrink its sphere of influence step by step, and now even the most basic supply of grain and grass has become a problem. If no effective solution has been proposed, the fall of the Eighteen Zhi is indeed not far off.

"Big brother, can we just sit back and wait like this?" Zheng Zhibao also knew that his current strength was no longer able to launch a large-scale attack on Zhangquan and other places, but he didn't want to be suppressed in Penghu and couldn't move, waiting for the opponent to wrap the noose around his neck one by one.

"We're not completely out of the loop. Zheng Zhilong responded: "If we get closer, we can withdraw to Dayuan Island, but if we retreat from Penghu, this place will immediately be occupied by the Ming and Haihan people, and this is less than a day's voyage from the nearest place on Dayuan Island, and they will still chase after it sooner or later." ”

The younger brother also thinks that it is inappropriate to withdraw to Dayuan Island, where there are red-haired people in the south, Folangji people in the north, and there are natives in the mountains in the east who are difficult to domesticate. Zheng Zhibao agreed with his brother's views on this matter.

"The east and west will not work, so if you want to withdraw, you can only consider it in the north and south directions. Zheng Zhilong walked to a chart on the wall and stopped, raised his hand and pointed to the map: "To the south, the optional place is Luzon, but it is also the territory of the Francophiles, but I am afraid that it will be difficult for us to be allowed to settle in the local area." Heading north, to the Ryukyus, there is a glimmer of life. The Ryukyu Kingdom is not strong in military strength, and if we take one or two large islands, they will have nothing to do with us. But the bigger problem is that there is not much arable land and no population, and it is also a problem to feed so many people. ”

Zheng Zhibao stared at the chart for a long time before he said faintly: "The world is so big, there is almost no place for it. ”

Zheng Zhilong persuaded: "Fifth brother, don't be discouraged, I think when I went to my uncle in Haojing Ao ten years ago to learn business, my family property was just a few clothes. Six years ago, when the Eighteen Zhi were founded, there were only 1,000 people under his command, so how could he have thought that in a few years later we would be able to run rampant in Fuguang and fight so that even the officers and soldiers could not raise their heads? Even if we moved away from Penghu and went to other places, would we be able to have the same difficulties as we had when we started? As long as we avoid the strong enemy at present and change places, we will not be able to make a comeback. Maybe in a few years, we will be able to make a comeback! When the time comes, not to mention Fujian, you and my brother will lead the troops south together and go straight to the nest of the Haihan people!"

After hearing these words, Zheng Zhibao's mood eased slightly, and he said: "Brother has taught me a lesson, junior brother should not be so negative. If it can be developed in a different place, Eighteen Zhi may really be able to regain its vitality. ”

Zheng Zhilong said it beautifully, but he himself knew that things were not so easy to do. So many people want to move overseas, it doesn't mean that they can leave immediately, the preparations that need to be made in the early stage are very complicated, and the materials required to relocate are also an astonishing amount, even if there are many ships under the name of Shibazhi, I am afraid that it will not be able to be transported in one or two trips. And during this period, once the news leaks and is driven to the door by the fleet of the Fujian Navy Division and the Haihan people, it will be really troublesome.

Take 10,000 steps back and say, even if you are really optimistic about the place and plan to move away, how many people in the current Eighteen Zhi can have one heart with themselves and are willing to move overseas to continue to work together? As far as Zheng Zhilong knows, the various opinions among the big leaders of the Eighteen Zhi have never been unified, some want to fight to the death with their opponents, some want to surrender and beg for a safe life, and some even reveal the idea of going directly to Dayuan Island to seek refuge in the red-haired people or the Franco-machine people. Once the big tree of Eighteen Zhi is about to fall, it is really difficult to say how many of these people will be able to follow him.

Zheng Zhilong's plan for the present can only try to appease his subordinates, and only his own family members who are related by blood like Zheng Zhibao dare to reveal his true intentions.