Autumn of the 17th year of Chongzhen

Chapter 177

At the end of October, with the defeat of the Jiangnan Rebel Army, coupled with the defeat of Lu Jianguo in eastern Zhejiang and returning to the south bank of the Qiantang River, and the defeat and killing of Huang Daozhou, a scholar of the Longwu court, the struggle against the Qing Dynasty in the entire southeast fell into a trough.

In the court of Fujing, Emperor Longwu was deeply concerned about Huang Ge's death.

When Huang Ge was stationed in Guangxin, he wrote a report to ask for help from the imperial court. Emperor Longwu also ordered Dingyuan Marquis Zheng Lian to send troops to support him, but until Huang Ge was defeated, Zheng Lian's soldiers never left the customs.

Emperor Longwu was very angry about this and wanted to kill Zheng Lian, but today in the court hall, Zheng Zhilong resigned from office and threatened to replace him, forcing the emperor to retreat.

Fujing City, Duke Pingguo's mansion, Zheng Zhilong was rejoicing to save Zheng Lian. This move not only saved his brother's blood, but also hit the emperor's prestige again, making the court favor the Zheng family.

For a while, Zheng Zhilong couldn't help being in a good mood, but at this moment, a confidant came in and presented a letter saying: "Master, this letter from Wang Yanzhi just arrived from Guangdong urgently."

Hearing this, Zheng Zhilong couldn't help sitting up from the rattan chair he was lying on. He took the letter, opened it, and said with a smile: "It seems that the fifth younger brother played a role in Yuehai, and Wang Yan is finally going to report to Ben. The governor is soft and begging for mercy."

"Fifth Master fights in person, which naturally disturbs the peace in Yuehai. How can Wang Yan, who is only a junior, beat Fifth Master?" His confidant immediately agreed.

Zheng Zhilong nodded with a smile on his face, acknowledging the flattery of his confidant, he is in a good mood today, and he is in a very happy mood, especially if he can make Wang Yanfu softly beg him, it makes him feel bad, but in The moment he opened the letter paper, his expression immediately changed drastically, and his entire face was distorted.

Seeing this, the confidant on the side couldn't help being surprised, knowing that the content of the letter might not be a good thing, he couldn't help feeling a little regretful for a while, and sent the letter in himself. Now, not only would he not be rewarded, but instead he would be punished for delivering the letter. Zheng Zhilong vented his anger.

The confidant felt remorse, but after all, he is a man who has been in the Zheng family for many years, and he knew that the most urgent thing to do was to understand the content of the letter before he could deal with it calmly, so he stood behind Zheng Zhilong and watched him, and saw his trembling On the letter paper held in both hands, it was written in astonishment, "This governor runs the Guangdong Sea, eliminates banditry at sea, successively smashes pirates on outlying islands and at the mouth of the Pearl River, captures more than [-] people, and more than [-] warships. One of the bandits falsely claimed It is Zheng Zhibao, the young teacher of the imperial court and the Duke of Dingguo. The governor doubted it. He believed that the Zheng family was a stone pillar of the imperial court and would never collude with pirates. , this thief still doesn’t know how to repent, and he called himself the Duke of the court, and this governor has doubts in his heart, thinking about whether it is true or not, Duke Ping has the clearest mind, so write this letter and ask him!”

The confidant couldn't help but look ashen after watching it, he didn't expect Zheng Zhibao to be arrested by Wang Yan, and he deliberately pretended not to know, and served him with severe punishment.

At this time, Zheng Zhilong was furious, and tore the letter in his hand into pieces, "Wang Yanpifu, Zhibao was captured by him once in Quanzhou, and he pretended not to know him, not only tortured Zhibao, but also wrote It is unreasonable to believe in humiliating the governor!"

"Master, calm down~ Master, calm down~" My confidant saw Zheng Zhilong, his heart was full of anger, so he had to persuade: "Although Wang Yan's move is hateful and unforgivable, but my subordinates want to come, he pretends not to recognize the fifth master, and does not want to admit the fifth master." The identity of the master is actually giving in to the master, so as not to expand the situation!"

Zheng Zhilong was slightly taken aback when he heard the words, and couldn't help calming down slowly. He sat down on the rattan chair again, sorted out Wang Yan's words in his heart, and gradually understood Wang Yan's intentions.

Just now when he saw Zheng Zhibao failed to be captured in Guangdong Sea, he was angry, but the matter had already happened, so he had to face it and solve it.

Zheng Zhilong was a pirate businessman, and quickly came out of his anger, thinking: "Wang Yan didn't bring the matter to the court, but he wanted to settle it with the governor in private, and this matter really cannot be let the gang in the court Rotten knows, otherwise they will look for opportunities to attack Bendu again, and the situation will be out of control, and it is indeed impossible for Bendu to completely tear faces with Wang Yan and let Fujian and Guangdong fight each other."

Obviously, Zheng Zhilong is not willing to make the situation public, because he and Wang Yan are ministers in the same palace, and they are both Dukes of the Ming Dynasty. As long as he still needs the pawn of the Longwu court, he cannot openly fight with Wang Yan. What's more, the Longwu court has not yet completely become his chess piece. Whether it is the court or the locality, there are many loyal to the court.

It is precisely because the Zheng family still cares about the imperial court and it is not time to tear their faces, so the mutual struggle can only be carried out in secret. Therefore, Zheng Zhibao has to pretend to be a pirate instead of directly sending the Fujian Navy to block Guangdong Sea. Zheng Zhibao also cannot admit that he is Zheng Zhibao, because he has not yet the strength to break with Fujian.

Zheng Zhilong wanted to understand this, and knew that this matter could only be resolved privately. He and Wang Yan had to pretend to be confused, but once he agreed to resolve it privately, he would inevitably make some compromises in the South China Sea.

At this time, Zheng Zhilong was thinking about Zheng Zhibao who was still in prison. He knew that it would be useless to delay this matter, because Wang Yan had already opened up the situation in the South China Sea, so he decided to negotiate terms with Wang Yan, "Go and deliver the letter." The person invited, the governor will personally discuss the conditions with him."

Seeing this, his confidant quickly saluted and retreated respectfully, but before he could go far, he was stopped by Zheng Zhilong's words, "Wait~ You talk to the messenger who sent the letter first, find out Wang Yan's conditions, and inform the governor , the governor invites him to meet again."

When Zheng Zhilong received Wang Yan's letter, Wang Yan had already returned to Guangzhou.

That **** first captured Zheng Zhibao on the outlying islands, and dealt with the pirates and Zheng's soldiers on the outlying islands. After dawn, Shi Lang led four hundred naval warships to attack Macau.

At this moment, the four surnamed pirates didn't know anything about the situation on the outlying islands. They sent decent people to negotiate with the Portuguese. Unexpectedly, the Portuguese were really willing to drive [-] grain ships out of the port. The four surnamed pirates couldn't help but be overjoyed.

At around noon, when [-] grain ships left the harbor, [-] pirate ships immediately surrounded them, but at this moment, a fast shutter on both sides of the grain ship was suddenly pulled open, revealing a dark door. muzzle.

All of a sudden, gunfire erupted one after another on the sea outside Macau, and the water splashed. Only then did the four surnamed pirates realize that what they saw in front of them was not a grain ship at all, but a naval warship of the government army. Absolute advantage.

After half an hour of the naval battle, [-] of the [-] warships led by He Yuqing had sunk, and they were completely at a disadvantage. But at this moment, Shi Lang's [-] warships finally arrived on the battlefield. Immediately reversed.

The two sides fought until [-]:[-] Shen Shi, Zheng Tingqiu and his men sank the boat into the sea, Shibi and Ma Xuansheng led the boat to surrender, only Xu Guixiang escaped with forty warships.

(End of this chapter)