Chapter 133

If it is another family, Liu Bu and others will definitely dislike it and think it is not open and aboveboard, but the Zheng family are originally born as pirates, which is different.

The Zheng family is now a local power. The contemporary owner is Zheng Zhilong and the second leader is Zheng Zhibao.

Zheng's ancestors fled to Putian, Fujian during the Yongjia period of the Eastern Jin Dynasty after the five chaos in the Western Jin Dynasty. Zheng Zhilong's ancestors moved from Putian to Zhangzhou and then to Nan'an.

Zheng Zhilong's family made a fortune because of Zheng Zhilong. Zheng Zhilong's nickname is an official. His father, Zheng Shibiao, was born in a small official family in Shijing, Nan'an, Fujian. Shijing is a fishing village in Southern Fujian. Zheng Yiguan is less down-to-earth. He studied maritime affairs since childhood, has a loose temperament, doesn't like reading, has physical strength, is good at boxing and stick, indulges, gradually wanders and loses his father's love.

When Zheng Yiguan was 17 years old, due to the difficult livelihood of his family, he went with his brother Zhihu to Guangdong Xiangshan Macao (Macao), one of the places of the Sino foreign trade center at that time. According to his uncle Huang Cheng, Huang Cheng was a marine businessman and engaged in overseas trade in Macao. He left Zheng Yiguan and Zheng Zhihu as helpers to assist in business. Zheng Yiguan showed his wisdom and talents in business competition and interest competition, learned to do business and trade, went to Manila, and learned Spanish and Portuguese.

In the first year of the apocalypse, when Zheng Zhilong was 18 years old, he went to Macao with his brother to study business with his uncle Huang Cheng. In dealing with Portuguese, he was baptized by Catholicism and named Justin and Nikolai. Foreigners call him Nikolai Yiguan.

Huang Cheng was engaged in business, bought a ship and sold to the East. Seeing that Zheng Yiguan was capable, the Apocalypse sent him to the ship of Li Dan (from Quanzhou), an overseas Chinese from Pinghu, Japan, and escorted a batch of goods such as sugar, Qinan, musk and deer skin from Xiangshan Bay to Japan and lived in Nagasaki. When people and places were unfamiliar, they began to sell shoes or sew for people to paste their mouths. Later, he turned to business and sold white sugar, Qinan, musk and other things for his uncle Huang Cheng.

Zheng Yiguan engaged in commercial activities and foreign trade. Later, he stayed under Li Dan's door and helped Li Dan do business. He became the subordinate of Li Dan, the most powerful maritime merchant at that time, and acted as his father.

Li Dan has abundant capital, has a fleet, specializes in overseas trade and is the leader of local maritime merchants. Li Dan felt that an official was capable and reliable. He took care of him as his adopted son and handed over some assets and ships to him to do business in Vietnam. He made great profits. In a few years, Zheng Yiguan became a tycoon. He often traveled between China and Japan, and overseas Chinese living in Japan.

As a maritime leader, Zheng Yiguan paid a visit to the retired former shogunate general Tokugawa Xiuzhong, who was loyal to Junfu (now Shizuoka county) and offered medicine. Xiuzhong personally asked about China. He was very happy and ordered to entertain at Nagasaki Hotel and give him a gift. Zheng Yiguan was summoned by the shogunate. The Japanese regarded him as a glorious and prominent figure. He was a local dignitary and often made friends with him. He was called "an old official".

Hirudo fan was Japan's foreign trade center at that time, and merchant ships from all over the world gathered. Because Zheng Yiguan was familiar with overseas affairs and good at diplomacy, he was valued by the Japanese government. After the initial call, he "repeatedly visited the vassal family". After moving to the former guopinghu, he was given preferential treatment by the local vassal Matsuura. Matsuura gave him a homestead to build a new house in qianlibin, Hanoi (now qianlibin, Songpu County, Nagasaki county) near Pinghu, and introduced the marriage of tianchuansong, the daughter of tianchuanyu emperor, a family Minister of Pinghu fan.

Following Li Dan, Zheng Yiguan gradually became Li Dan's right-hand assistant and won Li Dan's trust. At the beginning of the fourth day of the apocalypse, Zheng Zhilong went to Penghu as a Dutch interpreter and general affairs because of Li Dan's recommendation. In the early autumn of the same year, the Dutch retreated to southern Taiwan; Because the dispute between the Ming Dynasty and the Netherlands affected Li Dan's commercial interests between China, Japan and Taiwan at that time, Li Dan's sending Zheng Zhilong was also one of Li Dan's means to intervene in the Ming Dynasty and the Netherlands.

The Dutch are already a superpower in the western marine economic world. At the end of January of the fourth year of Apocalypse (1624), Zheng Yiguan left Tianchuan's family and his unborn son and was sent to Penghu by Li Dan as a general agent of the Dutch. The Dutch gave the diplomat from Japan generous treatment, but the Dutch were in a military confrontation with the Ming army at this time. There was no communication between the two sides, and it was impossible for Chinese businessmen to trade with the Dutch. The Zheng brothers were not proud.

In April and may of the fifth year of the apocalypse, perhaps there was not much development under the Dutch. At the order of his adoptive father Li Dan, Zheng Yiguan left the Dutch and began his career at sea, both business and theft.

Two months later, Li Dan, a Japanese merchant from Nagasaki and Hirako, asked chief songke for a sailing permit. He set out from the senior staff to Hirako in July, but died in Hirako more than a month later. After Li Dan's death, his industry and career in Taiwan were owned by Zheng Yiguan. Zheng Yiguan merged the existing armed forces of other Han people in Taiwan at that time, and recruited new forces from the mainland to Taiwan. Li Dan's in Xiamen fell into Xu Xinsu's hands.

After Zheng Yiguan set up his own house, he attracted Zheng Xing, Zheng Ming, Yang Geng, Chen Hui, Zheng CAI and other ministries from Fujian. He divided his subordinates into eighteen pioneers and became eighteen Zhi. From then on, he changed his name to Zhilong instead of an official. Zheng Zhilong continued his great cause of reclamation and became the largest armed group in the southeast sea at that time.

In the sixth to seventh year of the apocalypse, a severe drought occurred in Southern Fujian, with red soil everywhere. Many villages ate up even grass roots and bark. In February of the lunar calendar, Zheng Zhilong took advantage of this opportunity to lead his fleet to attack Zhangpu, Fujian, plunder Jinmen, zhongzuo Institute (now Xiamen) and Jinghai and Jiazi, Guangdong. Soon he returned to Fujian, attacked Quanzhou and Xiamen again, attacked Tongshan and trapped the old town, defeated the advance and suppression of Jinmen guerrilla Lu Yuying and Fujian chief officer Yu Xigao, and crossed the southeast sea. The momentum was invincible and the officers and men were tired of running, nothing can be done. During the attack, Zheng Zhilong and others also appeased tens of thousands of hungry people in Quanzhou to reclaim in Taiwan, and coastal hungry people and unemployed people competed to take refuge. In this battle, Zheng Zhilong defeated the officers and soldiers and Xu Xinsu, which made Xiamen the territory of Zheng. The forces became stronger and stronger day by day, and the officers and soldiers were invincible. It also represented the rise of the Quanzhou gang.

Zheng Zhilong took Taiwan's Xianggang as his base and plundered several places in Fujian and Guangdong, which made the officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty tired of running. Although there were moves of the imperial court to recruit security, Zheng refused and dominated the Taiwan Strait for two years and six months.

Zheng Zhilong had 700 ships in the first year of Chongzhen; At that time, the Tongan magistrate of Quanzhou Prefecture in Fujian Province wrote to the governor of Fujian that although Zheng Zhilong was looted, he was extremely kind to the people of Quanzhou. He not only did not kill people, but even helped the poor, and his prestige was higher than that of the officials. "Where I went, I ordered to report the water (i.e. inform the government of the trace), but I didn't kill anyone. There are people who are completely poor, and they pay them with money and rice."

After emperor Chongzhen ascended the throne, the Zheng brothers led shibazhi from Taiwan to attack Quanzhou in the same year, smashing the Fujian fleet, shaking Yanjing, and the court recruited pirates. In the first year of Chongzhen, there was another drought in Southern Fujian, and there were many hungry people. With the support of Xiong Wencan, Zheng Zhilong once again recruited tens of thousands of victims from Zhangquan and Quanzhou,

In September, Xiong Wencan, governor of Fujian Province, led his department to lower Ming Dynasty, and gave an imperial edict to grant coastal guerrillas the rank of five tiger guerrilla general. He left Taiwan, the maritime trade base he had operated for many years, and took charge of the Fujian sea.

At this time, Zheng Zhilong had more than 30000 people and more than 1000 ships. He still led the original department to guard the coast for the Ming court to prevent the attack of pirates, Japanese pirates and Dutch. He led the army to attack other former sworn brothers and pirates, including Li Kuiqi, Zhong bin, officials and the general army. He soon returned to his hometown of Nan'an, Quanzhou, Fujian Province and became the richest man there.

In the spring of the third year of Chongzhen, Zheng Zhilong built a luxury mansion in Anhai Town, Jinjiang, which lasted three years and two months. Anping became Zheng Zhilong's military stronghold and maritime trade base.

According to the people at that time, Zheng Fu is located in the north of Anping bridge, from Xidai to Xigang in the west, to xilongtou in the north, to Anping bridge in the south, and directly to Wugang port, covering an area of 138 mu. The main structure is Xieshan style five bay 13, three-way door, double fire lane and five entrance courtyard. Wing halls, pavilions, pavilions and pavilions on both sides are opposite to each other, and the ring is a barrier. There is "Dunren Pavilion" in the East and "Taiyun building" in the West. The front hall is "Catholic Church" and the middle hall is "Xiaosi hall", with a towering scale. There is a "Zhiyuan garden" behind the big house, which is protected by walls and sparsely covered by gullies, pavilions, fine houses, ponds, small bridges, winding paths, beautiful trees and exotic flowers.

The Zheng family said they were sea merchants, but they were really pirates. They had no choice but to recruit them because they did too much to suppress them.

It has been only seven years since their imperial edict in the first year of Chongzhen. Their Zheng family was famous for a time, and Anping City was built only at the beginning of this year.

However, after several years of operation, Zheng Zhilong has been promoted from the coastal guerrilla of that year to the general force of coastal defense. He can be regarded as the military leader of the dominant side. It's a pleasure to be a maritime merchant and an official at the same time.

Zheng Zhibao is the second leader of this huge military group. Originally, he had a brother Zheng Zhihu, but he was killed in the battle at sea, so now he is the No. 2 figure in shibazhi.

At that time, the Zheng family could successfully recruit and install, and achieved a good outcome, which is also related to Liu Yuanqiao's operation support in the court, so the relationship between them is a close relationship.

In fact, the rise of the Zheng family is only in recent years. It is a rising star. There is still a certain gap compared with the Liu family who has been prominent and rich for 60 years. Therefore, the Zheng family also hopes to form a family in law and become an alliance with the Liu family, which is the consent and support of Zheng Zhilong.

They were originally born as pirates, so they didn't dislike the soldier bandit game played by Liu bu. They knew that if they didn't do so, it was estimated that they could make the government die.

In the past, as a huge maritime business group, they did not want to fight officials when they were on the sea. However, since they became officials, they have to have a good relationship with officials. Now they know that it is difficult to do so.

However, the Zheng family was recruited by pirates as officials. Although they were repeatedly made difficult by their local counterparts, they firmly established a foothold in this side with their huge military force. If they did not stand a firm foothold, they would not dare to build such a huge Anping City, which is equivalent to a small city.