On the Ming court side, due to the defeat of Hezhou in the spring, Song Zushun later took the initiative to abandon Jiangpu, Liuhe and other places, and directly retreated to Yangzhou, which directly led to his title of governor of water transportation only hanging on for a few months, and then he was replaced by Chongzhen. Fucked it off.
However, Song Zushun was still able to retain his position as governor of Jiangbei.
For no other reason than because he has the Jiangbei New Standard Army under him, which he personally trained.
Moreover, this Jiangbei New Standard Army also went through a series of arduous battles in Hezhou. Although they did not win any battles, they had some experience of fighting the main force of the Chu army and had a certain combat effectiveness.
The more than 5,000 Jiangbei New Standard Army who withdrew to Yangzhou were subsequently supplemented by thousands of troops by Song Zushun, and initially returned to the size of two mixed brigades.
But it is relatively easy to replenish the troops. After all, the New Standard Army's requirements for soldiers are not very high. Just recruit a young man and train for a month or two and he can barely be a new recruit.
In addition, he was located a little north of the Yangtze River, and he was located in a place like Yangzhou where there were many wealthy salt merchants. It was easy for Song Zushun to make money by using some tricks.
Well, to a certain extent, it was precisely because after Song Zushun led his troops to withdraw to Yangzhou, he asked the local gentry and wealthy people for money, and in order to support and expand the army, he was a little anxious, which offended the local salt merchants. Few, and these salt merchants are not alone. Many salt merchants have direct connections with senior officials in the capital, and many salt merchants themselves are agents promoted by these senior officials and even the vassal king.
Song Zushun asked these salt merchants for money and food, and his methods were not too gentle, which naturally angered them, which in turn caused many high-ranking officials and even vassal kings to be dissatisfied with him.
As a result, many people impeached Song Zushun, and he eventually lost his title as Governor of Water Transport.
If there was no such thing as asking for military expenditures, there would not be so many officials impeaching him. Even if Chongzhen was angry because Hezhou was defeated and abandoned Jiangpu and Liuhe, if there were not so many officials fanning the flames, Chongzhen might not directly impeach him. Take off his title of Governor of Water Transport.
However, although he lost the title of Governor of Water Transport, it would not affect Song Zushun's current power at all.
Relying on the foundation of more than 5,000 Jiangbei New Standard Army who retreated to Yangzhou, plus the money and food he seized, he increased the size of Jiangbei New Standard Army to more than 8,000 people in just one month, and it is still expanding.
At the same time, they also built guns and cannons locally, and purchased foreign guns and cannons through the Navy, well, in fact, it was Zheng Zhilong's relationship.
It is said that the Portuguese in Haojing (Macau) have made a lot of money in the past year by exporting guns and cannons to several governors of the Ming Dynasty.
Xiong Wencan from Guangdong and Guangxi is their big customer. Wang Jiazhen was also their customer before, and now Song Zushun is also their customer.
In this process, Zheng Zhilong relied on his role as a middleman and the captain of the transportation team. In addition, Zheng Zhilong also had a gun workshop to manufacture guns. In addition to his own use, he also supplied them to the governors of the Ming Dynasty.
Therefore, in the past two years, Zheng Zhilong has been doing quite well among the top management of the Ming Dynasty.
At the same time, because the south of the Yangtze River is currently occupied by Chu thieves, as well as central and northern Zhejiang, the Ming army can only resist stubbornly in southern Zhejiang and occupy Chongming Island and Zhoushan Islands to contain it.
In this process, Zheng Zhilong played a great role. On the one hand, Zheng Zhilong dispatched ground troops under his command to cooperate with Fujian officers and soldiers to station in southern Zhejiang and other places to fight against the Chu bandits.
On the other hand, it sent fleets to blockade and patrol the coastal areas of Jiangsu and Zhejiang and the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and sent troops to land and control the two strategic locations of Chongming Island and Zhoushan Islands, and built fortifications and garrison fleets in these two places.
It can be said that at present, the main army fighting the Chu bandits in the direction of Jiangnan and Zhejiang has changed from the Ming army in the Jiangnan and Zhejiang areas to the Ming army in the Fujian direction, among which Zheng Zhilong's troops are the main force.
During this period, Zheng Zhilong's power was very huge!
Adding up all kinds of warships and merchant ships under his command, the size of his fleet reached a terrifying number of more than 3,000 ships. His subordinates included not only Han people, but also Fuso people, Koreans, Nanyang people and even black people.
The number of troops and ordinary sailors under his control, plus the ordinary people on Dajuan Island, amounted to more than 200,000 people under his command.
Even if we only count the military strength, there are tens of thousands of people.
It was by relying on Zheng Zhilong's fleet, combined with some official naval forces, that the Ming court was able to firmly control the Yangtze River estuary and the coastal areas of Jiangsu and Zhejiang.
For this reason, the Ming court has officially promoted Zheng Zhilong to the rank of general soldier in Fujian.
However, at this time, Zheng Zhilong did not have the determination to fight to the death against the Chu Empire!
He wants to maintain his semi-independent status in the southern coastal area and continue to maintain huge maritime interests, but he also knows that it is difficult to fight against the Chu bandits on land, so Zheng Zhilong is also very conflicted recently!
As for giving up his interests on the mainland and then retreating to Dajuan Island... he has never considered this. Although Zheng Zhilong made his fortune at sea, he is still a traditional Chinese at his core. He always wants to go ashore. In addition, he never regarded himself as a real vassal or official, he was just a businessman.
As a businessman, as long as there is profit, he readily agreed to Ming Ting's offer because accepting the offer would bring him greater business benefits.
You must know that at that time, with Zheng Zhilong's power, it might be too much to break the soil and become a king, but it is not an exaggeration to have a practical title of feudal official... But he was bribed by a mere guerrilla from the Ming court!
Even now, Zheng Zhilong's official title is just that of a Fujian general soldier, and he has to obey the orders of the Fujian governor.
But his actual power, looking at the many governors and governors in the Ming Dynasty, is one of the best, and there is no problem in directly proclaiming himself king.
However, Zheng Zhilong was still willing to accept recruitment before, which shows that he has a strong mainland mentality and the mentality of returning to his roots, coupled with the huge commercial interests.
But now the situation has changed again. Now that the Chu thieves have risen and powerfully occupied the south of the Yangtze River and the north of Zhejiang, the whole situation has been completely different from before.
The most important thing is that after the Great Chu Empire occupied the south of Jiangsu and northern Zhejiang, it was in a hostile relationship with Zheng Zhilong's troops, so the Great Chu Empire would naturally not let go of all coastal trade to Zheng Zhilong...
With this blockade, Zheng Zhilong's sea trade business became very difficult.
After the Chu Empire occupied the south of the Yangtze River, it did not impose a sea ban. On the contrary, it also opened two large ports for maritime trade, such as Shanghai and Ningbo. In addition, some coastal small town ports were also liberalized a lot.
The purpose of liberalization is also very realistic, which is to continue to obtain large amounts of saltpeter, sulfur and other raw materials from overseas, especially sulfur produced in Fuso, which is currently the most scarce strategic material in the Chu Empire. It has always been open to maintain Acquired at a high price.
However, the maritime trade liberalized by the Dachu Empire did not include Zheng Zhilong's fleet.
If Zheng Zhilong's fleet comes over for trade, it will be bombarded by the navy...
Although he can still maintain trade with the Jiangnan region by collecting tolls from other merchant ships, or even through a third-party merchant fleet, the money he makes will inevitably be much less.
This made Zheng Zhilong feel a little uncomfortable. He was not alone. He had two to three hundred thousand people under his command who needed to eat.
If so many people want to eat, it is not enough to just collect tolls. They also have to do business on a large scale to make money, so that they can support such a large tribe and their families.
This business was affected and after the income dropped, Zheng Zhilong's funds were also affected to a certain extent.
And he knows better that this impact is still small at present. If the Chu army reaches Fujian later, then he will completely lose the control area in Fujian.
In the end, I can only continue to be a pirate as before and continue to hide in places such as Taiyuan Island.
And this is not what Zheng Zhilong wants.
In order to reverse the situation, Zheng Zhilong also sent people to secretly discuss surrender with people from the Da Chu Empire...
But the result is quite bad!
It’s not that the Dachu Empire is reluctant to give official titles. The Dachu Empire has made it clear that if Zheng Zhilong is willing to lead his troops to defect, then he can be given the title of rear admiral. If he is not willing to join the army but engages in politics, he can also be given the title. A civil service position from the third rank.
Real job!
The price offered by the Great Chu Empire was extremely high. It was the largest price offered by the Great Chu Empire to recruit Ming court generals and officials!
The title of major general and the rank of third rank are nothing, what matters is the actual job!
The reason why the Dachu Empire offered such a large price was because of the huge fleet that Zheng Zhilong had on hand. It could not be said to be a fleet, but tens of thousands of skilled sailors under Zheng Zhilong's command.
According to the idea of the Dachu Empire Navy, they would take these tens of thousands of people and throw them into a training camp for a few months. After they wash away their gangster spirit, they would be assigned a bunch of Daye-class frigates and Xiangyang-class cruisers.
In this way, the Dachu Imperial Navy can obtain a maritime fleet with strong combat effectiveness in minutes, and the scale is not small.
However, this condition is completely unacceptable to Zheng Zhilong.
Zheng Zhilong actually didn't care much about his official position. He just wanted to keep his troops and his huge business profits.
You Chu thief wants to take away the soldiers, horses and ships in his hands, and then give him a so-called rear admiral... How could Zheng Zhilong be willing to do so.
He can be loyal to the Da Chu Empire, but his men must be loyal to him, Zheng Zhilong, instead of directly becoming the official military force of the Da Chu Empire.
In other words, he does not want to transfer military power!
Furthermore, it can be said that Zheng Zhilong wants to continue to maintain his current relationship with Ming Ting.
He can be loyal to Luo Zhixue and become a minister of the Chu Empire.
But he also wanted territory, military power, and even more, he wanted to continue monopolizing maritime trade.
He wants to continue to be the pirate king in the coastal areas of Fujian, Zhejiang and Guangdong!
