I'm a pirate at the end of Ming Dynasty

"I'm still not strong enough. After all, some strength belongs to my elder brother, not myself."

After sighing and thinking wildly for a while, Zheng Zhipeng finally wrote back to Zheng Zhibao, telling him that he was very satisfied, but asked him to scare the Xu family for a few more days before returning.

In fact, Zheng Zhipeng was happy, but not very happy. Firstly, he did not avenge this revenge, and he always felt that there was something wrong with him. Secondly, he had suffered too much in order to quit drug addiction, and he just let them I've lost my life and lost my fortune. I can't let go of this!Not to mention killing everyone in the Xu family, the head of the family, Xu Lang, must pay for it with his life, right?

But he couldn't say this to Zheng Zhibao, otherwise it would only appear that he was ignorant, and it would be useless to say it. Zheng Zhibao came here with a sense of proportion, and he had no ability to boss him around.

But Zheng Zhiyan seemed to see something and comforted her: "Fourth brother, after all, the Xu family is the descendant of Wen Zhengong and the fourth generation of Fei Pao. Although our family has changed from thieves to officials in the past few years, the top and bottom of the dynasty Come on, no one is looking at us as thieves. Because of the recruitment, the eldest brother has offended almost all the brothers up and down the sea. It is really... The eldest brother also has the difficulties of the eldest brother, and the third brother does not. If you dare to go ashore blatantly to capture a city, please be considerate to me, brother."

Zheng Zhipeng smiled and said: "How could I not be considerate of my elder brother? It's okay. I'm really satisfied. I won't talk about it anymore. I've been in the Jiangnan area for the past two years and I've been bewitched again. I'm no longer concerned about family matters." We don’t know each other very well, let’s have a drink and you can chat with me.”

"Yes, I want to have a drink with you after two drinks. I have recently fallen in love with a kind of strong liquor. It was brought by the Dutch. What is it called... Bailan or something? I guarantee you have never drunk it."

"Okay, let's call Sen'er."

At that moment, the two brothers and Zheng Chenggong ordered the cook to make good wine and food, and drove away the maids who were about to serve. They drank from cup to cup. The brandy of the seventeenth century was much stronger than that of later generations. The brandy The translation of these three words should be called burning wine, and the minimum alcohol content is over 60 degrees. After just a few glasses, the three of them were a little drunk, and they didn't have so much restraint on their speech.

"Fourth brother, the eldest brother has not been as prosperous as outsiders imagined in the past two years. It has been quite difficult for him."

"Tell me."

"Hey, aren't they all just trying to make trouble? At that time, the eldest brother's eighteen sworn brothers broke up with him, and the court still asked him to resist the Japanese. You said, they are all his own brothers. It turns out that they all followed the eldest brother. , I just want to deal with him, but I really want to kill him! Sometimes I just don’t understand. You said that we are the king of Japanese pirates, so why do we have to go ashore to recruit him? "

Zheng Chenggong was not happy when he heard this. This guy had grown up studying. Zheng Zhilong wanted to train him to be a scholar. At this time, he had not been tempered by reality, so he inevitably had a bit of scholarly air in him, so he scolded him on the spot. Zheng Zhiyan’s inappropriate remarks said:

"Uncle Liu, what you said is wrong. Even though my father was a bandit in the past, the imperial court ignored the previous suspicion and brought our family into peace. Our family should be grateful for the kindness of the imperial court and grateful for your majesty's courtesy. We should also be active and make more contributions. In order to atone for the crimes committed before, not to mention the matter of eating the emperor's salary and being loyal to the emperor, since my father is a maritime guerrilla canonized by the imperial court, and the Great Wall of the Sea is bestowed by His Majesty himself, he should work hard to eliminate Japanese troubles on behalf of the imperial court and the world. , As for the righteousness of friends, how can it compare with the righteousness of loyalty to the emperor? I think what my father did was right, and I am proud of what my father did."

Zheng Zhiyan blushed at the rebuke and immediately felt unhappy. After all, although he was not a few years older than Zheng Chenggong, he was still his uncle, right?After drinking some wine, he immediately acted like a senior and scolded Zheng Chenggong with a straight face:

"Sen'er, I know you study a lot and get into the country quickly, but you are still a child after all, so there are some things you still don't understand. What is the favor of the court? What the hell is this! Is the court so kind to our family? Our family is what we are today because of my eldest brother's own efforts. How has the imperial court become so virtuous now?

To be honest, I didn’t agree with the recruitment process. Back then, you were still in the Japanese country. We didn’t know how powerful we were. We had wiped out all the naval forces in the imperial court. What did our family want to do in the southeast area? Just do whatever you want. In all coastal areas, the local officials treat us like our ancestors. But now, without the help of my brothers, the eldest brother is being used like a dog by the court.

As for what you said about eating the king's salary, ha, it's even more of a joke. Since the invitation, has the imperial court given us a penny?All you spend is your own money!The eldest brother is also a loyal man. If any of his brothers is injured or killed, he pays heavy compensation out of his own pocket. The court?Pooh!What is this? Huang Taiji wrote a personal letter to his eldest brother last year. He wanted to form an alliance with our family and start trade with our family, but his eldest brother refused. I think it is more reliable to follow him than to work with the imperial court. "

With a bang, Zheng Chenggong slammed the table and said angrily: "How can Uncle Six say such a thing? All the men in my Zheng family are good men. How can we collude with the alien Hu Jie? Sell things to Huang Taiji?" Like those Shanxi merchants? Do you know that is called a traitor? A traitor! A big traitor will be infamous for thousands of years! How will he meet his ancestors under Jiuquan in the future?"

Zheng Zhiyan was also angry. She had obviously been feeling aggrieved for a long time. She slapped the table on the spot and said, "The imperial court, the imperial court, do you really think that you are now the young master of an official family and can be a yamen? Wake up, they still treat you as a thief!" Who is protecting the tranquility of the four provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong now? It's the eldest brother! It's our Zheng family! It's not like they spent half a copper from the court, but what kind of official position does the court give to the eldest brother? A guerrilla general! Even the older county magistrates don't take you seriously, let alone the general. My eldest brother wants to ask for a general, but the court said that he will wait until he kills Liu Xiang before giving it to him. Haha, you say, such a court effect What kind of loyalty does Te Niang have? How can we be as happy as we were on the treasure island back then?"

Zheng Zhipeng saw that the two of them were about to start a fight, so he quickly interrupted and said with a smile: "Okay, what you two said is actually right, but neither of them is right. Lao Liu, you are actually still young. Those who were not recruited back then were Most of what you said was probably what I heard, so there is inevitably some bragging in it.

When Big Brother was at the height of his popularity, even though he claimed to have hundreds of thousands of troops, most of them were those who followed him to make noises. Then even Liu Xiang was considered Big Brother's power, right? Can Big Brother use Liu Xiang at his command?Haha, at that time, the eldest brother was more like begging them than ordering them, but what about now?The eldest brother has nearly [-] fighting soldiers, and these are our own people.

What's more, in the past few years we have lived in Baodao, we have already moved over 10,000 people. This number will only get bigger in the future. At least this was unimaginable before the recruitment.

In these coastal towns, there are anti-Japanese volunteers everywhere, or anti-Japanese villagers. Currently, only the eldest brother in the world is really fighting against the Japanese and can really resist the Japanese. On weekdays, he is already semi-obedient to his orders. You Say, is eldest brother stronger now or then?

As for the letter from Huang Taiji, we should never mention it again in the future. When the business is done for our family, making money is no longer the purpose. My eldest brother and our family will do big things in the future, and to do big things, We must first have great righteousness. At present, resisting Japanese aggression is the great righteousness of our Zheng family. It is precisely because our family resists Japanese aggression that the people in the southeast will obey us. Pi, you can only be a thief for the rest of your life. In this regard, you are really not as good as Sen'er.

But Sen'er, what Lao Liu said is correct. The Zheng family doesn't owe the court anything. On the contrary, looking at it now, the court still owes us the Zheng family.

Lao Liu, there were actually more than eighteen large and small forces on the sea back then. Although they were all under the leadership of Big Brother in name, in reality they were still independent in their own affairs, and most of them lived by plundering and were not willing to engage in down-to-earth trade. Apart from Liu Xiang and Zhong Bin, are there any other sounds on the sea now?Zhong Bin can no longer jump around, and Liu Xiang is now squeezed into the Guangdong area, unable to get up or down. I think he is also a grasshopper after autumn.

What does this mean?It means that the eldest brother will soon dominate the sea. From now on, no matter who wants to take goods from the sea, whether coming in or out, they must get the nod from our Zheng family. If there is no such layer of official help these years, it will not be possible at all. It's impossible to do it. I don't know if you understand the concept.

Let me calculate an account for you. Every year, the amount of silver flowing into our Ming Dynasty from the sea from Frankie people alone is almost more than 2000 million taels (in the late Ming Dynasty, the Spanish family exported up to 100 million taels to the Ming Dynasty). Although most of the money now comes from our Zheng family or the Zheng family's influence, our family can only take out a very small part of such a large amount of money, because whether it is foreign or mainland businessmen, they all There are other options, and the eldest brother cannot drive them to Liu Xiang.

But what if there is only one voice in the sea?

2000 million taels of silver, no matter what method the eldest brother uses, he can ensure that the money only passes through our family's hands. When the time comes, our family can cut off as much as they want. This is called monopoly. If it is cut in half, it will be 1000 million. Two, ten million taels of silver, do you know what this means? It’s nearly twice the annual revenue of the Ming Dynasty’s treasury! !

Zhong Bin is almost finished, and now he is only one Liu Xiang away from this goal. Lao Liu, when did the eldest brother do a loss-making business? It is true that the imperial court relied on the eldest brother's strength to fight against the Japanese, but why didn't the eldest brother use the imperial court's power to fight against the Japanese? What about eradicating competitors?

Your vision is still too shallow. "