"Miss Zheng, if I hadn't seen you bring these novelties, even if you were Yan Siqi's number one confidante, Yu wouldn't have let you board the warship. It's an old rule for generations, woman. , You can’t go to the city wall for land battles, and you can’t go to the boat gang for naval battles.”
In the Xiamen Port, on the old lock ship moving slowly eastward, Fujian Commander-in-Chief Yu Zigao walked on the deck that had been warmed and dried by the sun with his bare feet like a goose's paw, squinting his eyes. , teasing Zheng Haizhu beside him.
Behind the two of them were Xu Xinsu, Zheng Shoukuan, and Zheng Zhilong, who had just arrived in Xiamen the day before yesterday with a thousand porcelain thunders after receiving orders from Zheng Haizhu.
Xu Xinsu had already greeted a few people in advance. After Yu Zigao became his disciple, he continued to make waves in the waters of southern Fujian. He was inevitably arrogant and rough-spoken. Even so, Zheng Zhilong still couldn't hear General Yu's words about looking down on women.
"Master, my sister has been on a warship a long time ago, and she also fought against the Frankies, and we won happily."
Yu Zigao turned his head and glanced at Zheng Zhilong.
Yu Zigao found it interesting.
This young man, whom Xu Xinsu called "Yiguan", was obviously a junior member of the Fujian Maritime Group. It is said that even though he followed Yan Siqi, he was still often thought of by Li Dan, but now he became the son of a woman. My little brother.
However, as a military general, Yu Zigao looked at people with a sense of heroism and sharpness in his eyes. When he met Zheng Zhilong this time, he liked his appearance of a calf with blood on his head and didn't care about him. Yong boldly contradicted him, but he laughed and said: "Look, I can't write two characters of Zheng in one stroke. This time, my words of protection are faster than Frankie on my boat. Miss Zheng, Yiguan is really not your biological brother." ?”
Zheng Haizhu pursed his lips: "We killed Spanish people at sea together, we are closer than our own brothers, not to mention helping me manage my money."
Zheng Haizhu's expression remained as usual.
She has long been accustomed to the discrimination and dwarfing of women in this era, which is not much different from the discrimination and dwarfing of women in later generations.
If you have to criticize every greasy joke with a straight face, there will be no time to make money, help people and fight the Tatars.
The key is to guide these proud men who have real strength and IQ, not just to talk, but also to have their warships fire cannons at the invaders in a timely manner.
Zheng Haizhu did not continue to joke and talk nonsense, but leaned over the side of the ship to see the draft of the old lock ship when it was bumping in the big waves.
"Mr. Yu, is this boat bought from Guangdong, a second-hand Frankie boat, called a duck boat?"
"Oh? Is the girl so discerning?"
Zheng Haizhu had no shame and said sincerely: "I didn't understand at all. I went to Beigang in Taiwan in the twelfth lunar month and saw it in the hands of the Dutch. They said it was the French people who were attacking Macau when their ship sank. We robbed Frankie ships like this. Foreigners call our Ming Dynasty sailing ships Junk ships, which is the pronunciation of Junk. Both the Frankies and the Dutch look down on Junk ships and think our ships are Naval warfare is not possible, the gun positions are too high and the waves are too slow.”
Yu Zigao heard Zheng Haizhu talk about the key points of the warship. While he looked at the woman, he also came to discuss his interest in the warship.
"Miss Zheng, what the foreign monkey said is quite right. Our lucky ship has a big box in the bottom. It is majestic, but it sails slowly. As for the cannon, it is on the bow, and the firepower on both sides is different. We encountered it before As for the Japanese pirates' small boats that jump directly into the fight, our lucky ship can be directly rammed and sunk. The foreign ships we encounter now are like hedgehogs with cannons all over their bodies, so we can't fight them like we did when fighting Japanese pirates. Especially the red-haired ships, In recent years, I have become more capable, and I am no longer in the same embarrassed state as when Mr. Shen Yourong dealt with them."
Shen Yourong can be regarded as a national defense general of the generation of Qi Jiguang and Yu Dayou. Therefore, as Yu Dayou's son, Yu Zigao wanted to address him as Duke Shen.
More than ten years ago, Shen Yourong was a powerful defender of the China Sea in front of everyone. In the 30th year of Wanli, Shen Yourong led his troops to annihilate the Japanese Toyotomi Hideyoshi army that invaded the indigenous people of Taiwan Island. Two years later, he used envoy negotiations to expel the Dutch who attempted to occupy Penghu.
These two feats of Shen Yourong were not as famous in later generations as Qi Jiguang's fight against the Japanese and Zheng Chenggong's recovery of Taiwan. In this world, they are known to almost everyone in the Zhangquan, Xiamen and Jin areas.
At this moment, Zheng Haizhu carefully pondered Yu Zigao's words and once again confirmed Yu Zigao's position.
She waited at Xu Xinsu's house for a few days before Xu Xinsu came back and took her to the General Military Yamen to see Yu Zigao.
As she predicted, Yu Zigao himself was far more hostile to the Dutch than Yan Siqi, who had just settled in Taiwan.
Because the Dutch broke into the waters of southern Fujian because the East India Company wanted to do entrepot trade between China, Japan, India, and Southeast Asian islands, that is, a second-tier dealer in the Asia-Pacific sea.
According to the Dutch plan, the profits from re-export trade are enough to offset the ocean freight and cost of goods. In this way, the goods shipped back to Europe will be a net profit no matter how much they sell for.
However, Yu Zigao, who owns Xu Xinsu, has formed a solid cooperative relationship with Japan's Li Dan. The Dutch stepped in and wanted to eat the meat in Yu Zigao's bowl. They were very likely to steal Yu Zigao's smuggled goods along the coast of Fujian. , as well as customers in Japan.
It was precisely because Zheng Haizhu understood Yu Zigao's fundamental interests in the business chain that he bluntly told him that the Dutch were also outside predators for Yan Siqi, who also did not need middlemen.
She wanted to persuade Yu Zigao to join forces with Yan Siqi to kill the Dutch's attempt to find a stronghold in the Taiwan Strait.
Historically, a few years later, the Dutch continued to invade Penghu Island, and eventually colonized Taiwan and established Hongmao City.
Yu Zigao, who was both a soldier and a smuggler in Fujian, witnessed the Dutch bribing eunuchs of the Ming Dynasty for mutual trade when he was young. He heard Shen Yourong talk about the Dutch staying in Penghu and harassing and plundering the Chinese sea. Now that I heard Zheng Haizhu elaborately describe the situation of the Dutch coveting Taiwan's North Port, I no longer felt that the little woman Xu Xinsu had attracted was being alarmist.
The current governor of Fujian is named Wang Shichang. He was born in science and education and has always been very harsh on foreign barbarians. Whenever he heard that General Yu was sailing to sea to suppress bandits again (actually he was mostly selling goods), he was happy. I have to report my merits to the Fujian Navy.
Yu Zigao was not worried about Wang Junmen's support for fighting the Dutch.
Yu Zigao's only worry was whether Zheng Haizhu was here to set the hook for Yan Siqi. Afterwards, he asked Eunuch Liu, who they had become friends with, to go to Wansui and tell them that General Yu was provocative and scared the merchants. If you dare to sell goods, if Long Live gets angry, once the Fujian General Soldier is replaced, it is very likely that he will be replaced by Yan Siqi.
Fortunately, this concern was dispelled by Xu Xinsu the next day.
Xu Xinsu said that Zheng Haizhu proposed that before the Dutch were driven away, his nephew Zheng Shoukuan was a hostage in Xiamen. In addition, since the enemy of the Portuguese was the Dutch, Zheng Zhilong lobbied the Frankie Artillery Factory in Macau to send ten smoothbore cannons to Yu Zigao's Fujian Navy. He bought firearms from the Frankians at favorable prices.
】
When Yu Zigao heard the second point, he felt more at ease than if he didn't take hostages.
Everyone was a businessman, so they understood immediately that this woman wanted to be a second-hand dealer between Yu Zigao and the Frankies of Macau. Since he wanted to make money from his Yu Jiajun for a long time, how could he hack him Yu Zigao.
It didn't take long for the old lock boat to reach Liaoluo Bay near Kinmen.
Zheng Haizhu looked at the various warships of the Ming Dynasty that were crowded in the harbor and said to Yu Zigao: "Master, have the flood soldiers from Penghu Island returned?"
Yu Zigao nodded: "They have all returned to Kinmen. There is no one on Penghu Island now. Maybe, at this moment, ships of red-haired ghosts have arrived on Penghu Island, as well as the Spaniards you mentioned, and there are also ships on Manila. past."
Zheng Haizhu said in a humble tone: "Yan Xuanfu's ship also took me around Penghu Island last year. If we want to fight a naval battle, Liaoluo Bay is more advantageous to us than Penghu Island."
Yu Zigao narrowed his eyes and asked, "Didn't you say that Yan Siqi hasn't fought against the Dutch yet? Did you see them fighting a naval battle?"
Zheng Haizhu shook his head honestly: "I have not seen the Dutch fight in person, but I have seen their ships and heard their businessmen bragging. As the president just said, their ships are full of cannons. They fight every day. When the Langi people attacked, they fired first. If the opponent's formation was disrupted, they would no longer line up and rush into the rebels head-on. They stared at the unsinked ship and fired while picking up the string. Instead of jumping into a gang first, they switch to shooting with muskets or throwing grenades. Foreigners are not good at hand-to-hand combat, and they are indeed different from Japanese people."
Yu Zigao stared at her: "So? Why does Miss Zheng think that Liaoluo Bay is more beneficial than Penghu Island?"
Zheng Haizhu said: "Because we, the Ming Navy, are better at using fire ships than they are. Considering the wind direction of Luo Bay this season, if we bring in Dutch ships, wouldn't it be wonderful to burn them?"
Yu Zigao had never fought against the navy of the Dutch East India Company, but he lowered his head and thought carefully and felt that Zheng Haizhu was right.
"Miss Zheng, although the Dutch do need to be tidied up before they become honest. But Yan Xuan and I will work together to prepare a famous newspaper for the governor. 'The red barbarians occupy Penghu without permission, and the navy cameras are confiscated.'" It sounds like the most suitable one. If we want to fight in Liaoluowan instead...the Dutch are also very smart. They know that Kinmen is our Ming Dynasty's defense base, not the territory guarded by flood soldiers. How can we attract them to invade?"
Zheng Haizhu said seriously: "I will lead you, but I need someone from the boss to act together."
