"The gentry, the magistrates, the coastal guards, and even the pirates everywhere are all part of this net, and they are all the recipients of the benefits of maritime trade. Whoever wants to move their interests is the enemy of everyone! Liu Mao was still not finished, and continued.

"You mean that behind most of the maritime merchants are the Fujian gentry, and the gentry and maritime merchants collude with the government and with the officers and soldiers, and I understand this. But why are pirates one of them? Li Yan asked puzzled.

"A lot of times, maritime merchants and pirates are one and the same." Liu Mao said lightly, "Maritime merchants don't mind grabbing a lone ship if they encounter a lone ship." Of course, real pirates don't have any official background, but they don't just make a living by looting, they make money from trade. For example, Zheng Zhilong, who returned to Fujian with you, was a pirate before Zhao'an, but he mainly made money by trading with Japan. ”

"The pirates had ships and people, and some of the gentry on land did not want to take the risk of being robbed, so they chose to cooperate with the pirates and supply them, making little money but not taking the risk. There were even some gentry who colluded with officers and soldiers, privately raised pirates, suppressed other maritime merchants, and tried in vain to monopolize more trade shares. All in all, maritime pirates have always been one and two, and it is not clear at all. ”

was told by Liu Maoyi, Li Yanzhi also felt that things were very troublesome, but after thinking about it for a while, he smiled: "Your Majesty is still far-sighted and decided to cooperate with Zheng Zhilong." Zheng Zhilong has tens of thousands of subordinates and nearly a thousand sea ships, and things are much easier. ”

At the beginning, Li Yanzhi still didn't understand Zhu Youzhen's giving Zheng Zhilong three percent of the shares. Although Zheng Zhilong has some forces, he is just a coastal defense guerrilla who has just recruited An, why should the emperor be so polite to him?

Now Li Yanzhi finally understands that if there is no Zheng Zhilong, he and Liu Mao alone will not be able to support the Royal Maritime Trade Company no matter what.

Liu Mao shook his head: "Don't take Zheng Zhilong too seriously, Zheng Zhilong's strength is not as big as he imagined!" As far as I know, Zheng Zhilong should not be able to hold on, so he chose Zhao'an. ”

"And what do you mean by that?" Li Yanzhi said curiously, after staying with the Zheng Zhilong brothers for so long, he has been listening to Zheng Hongkui bragging, saying how powerful they are at sea and how they are said by Liu Mao, but the Zheng Zhilong brothers seem to be very down.

Zheng Zhilong originally had no power at sea, but he was taken by Li Dan, a Japanese maritime merchant, and he swore to another pirate Yan Siqi, and gradually became famous among the maritime merchants.

Li Dan trusted Zheng Zhilong very much and asked him to be in charge of the fleet at sea, but after Li Dan died, Zheng Zhilong took the fleet for himself and refused to return Li Dan's son Li Guozhu, which made Li Dan's family very dissatisfied, such as Xu Xinsu of Xiamen Island, who has been cooperating with Li Dan to supply Li Dan, and now has become at odds with Zheng Zhilong.

In desperation, Zheng Zhilong could only lead the fleet to Yan Siqi, wanting to take advantage of Yan Siqi's momentum to gain a foothold on the sea. And Yan Siqi offended the Japanese shogunate and had to flee Japan, Zheng Zhilong fled to Taiwan with Yan Siqi, and set up camp in Beigang.

Then Yan Siqi died suddenly, Zheng Zhilong was originally the least senior in Yan Siqi's gang, but he inexplicably became the big leader, which made many old people under Yan Siqi very dissatisfied and left Taiwan one after another, such as Liu Xiang who went to Guangdong, and Li Kuiqi and others who were thieves in Penghu, all of whom were Yan Siqi's henchmen before.

Whether it is Li Dan's forces or Yan Siqi's old department, they have a bad relationship with Zheng Zhilong, so Zheng Zhilong is very lonely at sea. Although there were many men and ships, it was difficult to get enough cargo. What's more, Li Dan's son Li Guozhu is very powerful in Japan, and he has a good relationship with the Matsuura family in Nagasaki, and Zheng Zhilong basically lost the Japanese route. ”

Although he could support many of his subordinates by cultivating wasteland in Taiwan, Zheng Zhilong was not reconciled, so he tried to contact Xiong Wencan, the governor of Fujian, and tried to take refuge in the government. Xiong Wencan is a person who is very happy, and he can appease tens of thousands of pirates without a knife or a shot, so Zheng Zhilong turned into a coastal defense guerrilla. ”

"Lord Liu, have you found out all these days?" Li Yanzhi said with some admiration. This Liu Mao has not been in Fujian for many days, and he knows so many secrets, which shows that his person is indeed extraordinary, and His Majesty did not send the wrong person.

Liu Mao shook his head: "No, how can you inquire about many secret things?" But according to what is known, it is easy to get the truth of the matter by peeling back the cocoon. ”

"All in all, Zheng Zhilong's power is not as big as he imagined, and he has a lot of enemies, and if you cooperate with him, the pros and cons are mixed. Mr. Li, you have to be hard to strike iron, we can't count on others for everything! ”

"Lord Liu is right!" Li Yan smiled and said, "It is better to ask God and Buddha than to ask yourself, if you rely on others for everything, Your Majesty will send you and me here to do something!" Isn't it the collusion of the gentry and government pirates? I'm afraid of a fart! ”

"We have the emperor, the biggest backer in the world, and I am the general army of Fujian, nominally in charge of all the armies in Fujian, the officials of various parts of Fujian, and the officers and soldiers of the coastal guards, at least on the surface, they dare not embarrass us! Those gentry, if they want to suppress our royal maritime trading firm, the only ones they can use are pirates. There are elite Praetorian Guards under this general army, what are you afraid of pirates? Li Yanzhi said with pride.

Liu Mao frowned slightly and said: "General Li still has to be careful, Zheng Zhilong has tens of thousands of horses under his command, so the strength of other pirates is not bad, there are only a thousand people around you, and there are not even a few ships, if there is a conflict at sea, I am afraid that it is not an opponent?" ”

Li Yan smiled and said: "Don't be afraid, there are many of them, we can also recruit troops!" This official is the chief soldier of Fujian, and when he came, His Majesty gave him 50,000 taels of silver for the start-up capital, and then asked Zheng Zhilong to borrow some silver, and recruited him 350,000 soldiers and horses. ”

"It's not that easy to train soldiers, is it?" Liu Mao frowned and said, "The army needs supplies, weapons and armor, where do you get these, I'm afraid it's not enough to rely on these 50,000 silver alone, right?" ”

Li Yan smiled and said, "When it comes to military training, Lord Liu, you are a layman." We mainly train sailors, and we don't need any armor, just some swords, guns and guns. Besides, it doesn't matter if I don't have a weapon, I can go find someone and ask for it! ”

"Looking for whom? Zheng Zhilong? Liu Mao asked.

Li Yanzhi shook his head: "Zheng Zhilong's tens of thousands of subordinates, most of them are fishermen and ordinary people along the coast, and they are still bitter, where is there too much strength to support us." I'm talking about Xiong Wencan, the governor of Fujian."

Liu Mao shook his head: "Xiong Wencan is cunning and cunning, and he has a lot to do with the local gentry, how can he help us?" ”

Li Yanzhi smiled mysteriously: "As long as we are so ......, we are not afraid that he will not help." ”

Liu Mao's eyes widened, and he couldn't help but look Li Yanzhi up and down, such a guy with thick eyebrows and big eyes, he always thought he was an honest and honest martial artist, but he didn't expect to be so black-bellied!