"Yiguan, you came back just in time. This county was just trying to find you. Did you see the edict at the gate of the county government office? I heard from the postman who delivered the edict that it had spread throughout the Ming Dynasty."
"Saw it!"
"Any ideas?"
Zheng Zhilong's expression changed several times after asking in one sentence.
"Hey, I regret it!"
After a long time, Zheng Zhilong let out a long sigh, his face full of depression, entanglement, regret, and doubt.
Jin Yiwei came to him before and asked him to go to Beijing to meet the emperor. Naturally, he guessed the emperor's intention of looking for him.
But he declined, not even seeing Jin Yiwei's face.
He could see clearly that the Ming Dynasty was corrupt. Although the emperor tried his best to seek change, the future was hard to predict.
The Jiannu, Mongolian tribes, Chahar, as well as the eagerly eyeing Dutch East India Company and the wandering Fusang were all uncontrollable factors.
The emperor wanted to recruit him, but he refused. If the Ming ship sank, he still had many options.
But who would have thought that in less than two months, the situation in the entire Ming Dynasty would take on a new look, and the 65,000 coalition forces of Jiannu would be surrounded and killed, and more than half of Jiannu's senior officials would be killed in the battle.
The city of Haraqin was overthrown, and the Haraqin tribe was crippled.
Based on this analysis, the emperor controlled extremely powerful forces, and the impact of this battle was great. There was no obstacle to returning Shaanxi to the people, with the support of eight million people and the loyalty of hundreds of thousands of troops.
And with the deterrence, more provinces returned land to the people, more people supported them, and they were already in an invincible position.
The wait-and-see situation two months ago has turned out to be unattainable now.
If he had accepted the offer two months ago, with the 700 ships he controlled and the things he had done for the people in Quanzhou and other places, he might have been able to get a count.
At worst, he is a third-grade general, and is awarded titles such as General Zhaoyong, General Zhaoyi, General Huaiyuan, General Dingyuan, etc.
Now it's hard to say whether the court will accept his surrender, or he might be charged with illegally breaking the sea ban and piracy.
Longqing Switch adjusted the sea ban restrictions, but only opened a small port like Fuyue Port in Zhangzhou, Fujian, but it still has many restrictions.
He has seven hundred ships. As long as Yuegang is blocked by him and he does not go out to sea from here, it will be illegal, and there will be no room to argue if he is cut off.
As for leaving Daming to go to Fusang and Southeast Asia, it is even more unfeasible. Those fishermen will not leave their hometown.
Using hundreds of ships overseas to fight against countries such as Fuso and the Netherlands is simply seeking death.
Therefore, as long as the court targets him, he can only drift on the nearby sea.
But there was nothing wrong with him not accepting the offer. After all, he had to consider the lives of thousands of his men.
He still couldn't figure out what went wrong and why such a big change happened in just two months.
"Hey, one wrong step, one wrong step!"
"Maybe, we really have to disband the fleet!"
At this moment, Zheng Zhilong's face was full of dejection, and he no longer had the high spirits he had just entered the county government office.
"not necessarily!"
A voice came into the lobby of the inner office. Magistrate Feng Zhihui's face suddenly sank. Just as he was about to speak angrily, a figure entered the inner office.
Looking at the person coming, Feng Zhihui was startled, rubbed his eyes, looked at the person again, and said hesitantly: "Master Governor?"
"What? Don't believe it?"
"Xiagguan Nan'an County Magistrate Feng Zhi met with the Governor!"
Feng Zhihui immediately saluted, not because he didn't believe it, but because he couldn't believe it.
The visitor was none other than Xiong Wencan, the governor of Fujian and the censor of Youqiandu. The governor of Fujian was stationed in Fuzhou. He was in charge of the Fujian region and was also in charge of military affairs. He was more than three hundred miles away from this small Nan'an.
How could a feudal official come to a central county like Nan'an?
But then he realized that the governor had made a special trip to see Zheng Zhilong.
Zheng Zhilong also stood up and greeted him: "Master Xiong, why are you here, why are you here specifically to see me?"
"That's not entirely true. I was going to inspect Yuegang in Zhangzhou. I happened to receive three edicts from the court on the way, so I came here to find you and try my luck. I didn't expect you to actually come here."
"Sir, you are joking. This is my hometown. You have to come back here wherever you go!"
"Sir, please sit down and chat slowly while I go down to make a pot of tea!"
Feng Zhihui said and left the lobby. He still had this point of vision.
Seeing Feng Zhihui leaving, Xiong Wencan stretched out his hand and motioned for Zheng Zhilong to sit down.
"You have seen all three edicts. You rejected His Majesty's invitation some time ago. You also know the current situation, but it is not completely impossible to save it!"
After saying that, without waiting for Zheng Zhilong to speak, he took out a letter from his sleeve and handed it over: "This is the imperial edict sent to the governors, governors and guards of the coastal provinces a month ago. Please read this first!"
"This is given to you by the imperial court. The common people will not look at it!"
"No problem, it's a public matter!"
Zheng Zhilong cupped his hand towards Zhu Yu, carefully took it from Zhu Yu, and slowly started to read it.
In just a moment, Zheng Zhilong stood up suddenly, his face full of anger.
"The Japanese pirates are so audacious, hundreds of them dared to occupy my county in Ming Dynasty!"
"Are all the thousands of households in Sanjiang just losers? More than a thousand soldiers fought against hundreds of people, and they were all wiped out. This thousand households are really stupid pigs!"
"I remember there were three and five guard stations in Shaoxing. What did the surrounding guard stations do? They let the Japanese pirates invade the county seat!"
"Where's the Zhejiang Navy? Why hasn't it been dispatched?"
…
Zheng Zhilong cursed angrily and indignantly.
It took a while before he calmed down, and then he realized something was wrong: "That's not right, sir, where did this group of Japanese pirates come from?
I remember that when General Qi plowed through caves and wiped out all the Japanese pirates along the coast, he could not find many of them. Even if there were fish that slipped through the net, there would not be dozens of warships and hundreds of people. "
"This is not your business. You can't care about it now even if you want to. What I'm talking about now is your business!"
"I?"
Zheng Zhilong was a little surprised: "What does this matter have to do with me?"
"It's a big deal!"
Xiong Wencan picked up the tea cup and took a sip gently: "Let me ask you, if these Japanese pirates are handed over to you, at what cost can you kill them?"
"With the same number of people, the naval battle is five to one, the Japanese pirates are five to one, and we are one.
In land combat, if the close combat is one to one, if equipped with 30% of the firearms, it is estimated to be three to one, three Japanese pirates! If they were all equipped with firearms, I could kill them without any damage! "
When he said this, Zheng Zhilong was full of arrogance.
No matter how powerful a group of Japanese pirates is, they can be stronger than the troops of the Dutch East India Company. They can cripple the Dutch troops stationed in Taiwan, but are they still afraid of small Japanese pirates?
But why did the governor ask him this question? Is it possible to let him fight Japanese pirates?
Sure enough, Xiong Wencan spoke up and said calmly: "Yiguan, you are a fan of the authorities. What do you want your Majesty to do with you?"
