I want to be emperor

Chapter 372 The Tangled Zheng Zhilong
On the other side of the Ming court, because of the defeat of Hezhou in the spring, Song Zushun voluntarily gave up Jiangpu, Liuhe and other places, and directly retreated to Yangzhou. It was blown away.

However, Song Zushun was able to continue to retain his post as governor of Jiangbei.

Not for anything else, just because he has Jiangbei's new standard army that he personally compiled under his command.

Moreover, this Jiangbei new standard army has also gone through a series of tough battles in Hezhou. Although it did not win any battles, it has more or less experience in fighting the main force of the Chu army and has a certain combat effectiveness.

The more than 5000 Jiangbei new standard troops that were withdrawn to Yangzhou were subsequently supplemented by thousands of troops by Song Zushun, and initially restored to the size of two mixed brigades.

However, it is relatively easy to replenish troops. After all, the new standard army does not have high requirements for soldiers, and a young man can barely be recruited as a recruit after a month or two of training.

Coupled with the fact that he was located in the north of the Yangtze River, and was still located in a place like Yangzhou where there were many salt merchants and local tyrants, it was very easy for Song Zushun to find a little way to make money.

Well, to a certain extent, it is precisely because after Song Zushun led his troops to withdraw to Yangzhou, he asked the local gentry and rich men for money, and in order to support and expand the army, he was a little anxious about the means, 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's department hall, and even many salt merchants themselves are agents introduced by these department hall officials and even vassal kings.

Song Zushun asked these salt merchants for money and food, and the method was not too gentle, so he would naturally annoy them, which in turn attracted the dissatisfaction of many high-ranking officials and even the vassal kings.

Ever since, many people impeached Song Zushun, and finally made him lose the title of Governor of Water Transport.

If there was no such thing as asking for military expenses, there would not be so many officials impeaching him. Even if Chongzhen was angry because he was defeated in Hezhou and gave up 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 will not affect Song Zushun's current strength in the slightest.

Relying on the foundation of more than 5000 Jiangbei new standard troops who retreated to Yangzhou, coupled with the money and food they collected, he raised the size of Jiangbei new standard army to more than 8000 in just one month, and is still expanding.

At the same time, they also built guns locally, and purchased guns from foreigners through the navy, um, in fact, through Zheng Zhilong's relationship.

It is said that the Portuguese in Haojing (Macau) made a lot of money in the past year by exporting guns to several governors of the Ming court.

Xiong Wencan from Guangdong and Guangxi is their big client. Wang Jiazhen was also their client before, and now Song Zushun is also their client.

During this process, Zheng Zhilong relied on his role as an intermediary and the captain of the transportation team. In addition, Zheng Zhilong also had a gun workshop under his command to manufacture guns.

So in the past two years, Zheng Zhilong has done quite well in the high-level of the Ming court.

At the same time, because Jiangnan is currently occupied by Chu thieves, and even the central and northern parts of Zhejiang have been occupied by Chu thieves. At present, the Ming army can only resist in southern Zhejiang and occupy Chongming Island and Zhoushan Islands to contain them.

In this process, Zheng Zhilong played a great role. On the one hand, Zheng Zhilong dispatched ground forces under his command to cooperate with Fujian officers and soldiers to station in southern Zhejiang and other places to fight against the Chu thieves.

On the other hand, it sent a fleet 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 Chongming Island and Zhoushan Islands, two strategic locations, and built fortifications and garrisoned fleets in these two places.

It can be said that at present, in the Jiangnan and Zhejiang directions, the main force fighting against the Chu thieves has changed from the Ming army in the Jiangnan and Zhejiang regions to the Ming army in the Fujian direction, of which Zheng Zhilong's troops are the main force.

During this period, Zheng Zhilong's influence was very huge!

All kinds of warships and merchant ships under his command add up to a frightening fleet size of more than 3000 ships. His subordinates include not only Han Chinese, but also Fusang, Korean, Nanyang and even black people.

With the troops and ordinary crew under its control, plus the ordinary people on Dayuan Island, its subordinates reached more than 20.

Even if you only count the strength of troops, there are tens of thousands of people.

Relying on Zheng Zhilong's fleet, combined with some official naval forces, the Ming court was able to firmly control the front line of the Yangtze River estuary and the coastal areas of Jiangsu and Zhejiang.

For this reason, the Ming court has officially promoted Zheng Zhilong to be the commander-in-chief of Fujian.

But at this time, Zheng Zhilong didn't have the determination to fight the Great Chu Empire!
He wants to maintain his semi-independent status in the southern coastal area and continue to maintain his huge maritime interests, but he also knows that it is difficult to fight against the Chu thieves on land, so Zheng Zhilong is also very entangled recently!
As for giving up his interests in the mainland and then retreating to Dayuan Island... He never considered this point. Although Zheng Zhilong made his fortune at sea, his roots are still traditional Chinese people. He always wants to go ashore. In addition, he never regarded himself as a real feudal town or official, he was just a businessman.

As a businessman, it is enough to have interests, so he happily agreed to Ming Ting's appeasement, because accepting appeasement can bring him greater commercial benefits.

You must know that at that time, with Zheng Zhilong's power, it might have been over to seal the king, but it is not an exaggeration to have a practical title of feudal official...but he was bought by a mere guerrilla in the Ming court!

Even now, Zheng Zhilong's official title is nothing more than that of Fujian General Soldier, and he has to follow the orders of the governor of Fujian to do things.

But his actual power, if you look at the many governors and governors of the Ming Dynasty today, it is also one-on-one, and it is no problem to directly claim the king by yourself.

But before Zheng Zhilong was still willing to accept solicitation, it can be seen that the mainland thinking in his bones is very heavy, coupled with the huge commercial interests.

It's just that the situation has changed again now. Now that the Chu thieves have risen and occupied the south of the Yangtze River and the north of Zhejiang, the whole situation is completely different from before.

The most important thing is that after the Great Chu Empire occupied the south of the Yangtze River and the north of Zhejiang, because of the hostile relationship with Zheng Zhilong's subordinates, the Great Chu Empire would naturally not let go of the coastal trade to Zheng Zhilong...

With this blockade, Zheng Zhilong's sea trade business has become very uncomfortable.

After the Great 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 towns and ports were also released a lot.

The purpose of the release is also very realistic. It is to continue to obtain a large amount of raw materials such as saltpeter and sulfur from overseas, especially the sulfur produced in Fusang, which is the most scarce strategic material in the Great Chu Empire. Acquired at a high price.

However, the maritime trade released by the Great Chu Empire did not include Zheng Zhilong's fleet.

Zheng Zhilong's fleet will be bombarded by the navy when it comes to trade...

Although he can still continue to maintain trade with the Jiangnan area 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 a little uncomfortable. He is not alone, but he has 30 to [-] people who need to eat.

With so many people to eat, it is not enough to just collect tolls, and they have to do business on a large scale to make money, so that they can support such a huge group of people and their families.

This business was affected, and after the income decreased, Zheng Zhilong's funds were also affected to a certain extent.

And he knows better that this kind of influence is still relatively small at present. If the follow-up Chu army kills Fujian, then he will completely lose Fujian's control area.

In the end, I can only be a pirate as before, and continue to hide in Dayuan Island and other places.

And this is not what Zheng Zhilong wants.

In order to reverse the situation, Zheng Zhilong also sent someone to secretly discuss the surrender with people from the Great Chu Empire...

But the result is quite bad!

It's not that the Great Chu Empire is not willing to give official titles. The Great Chu Empire clearly stated that if Zheng Zhilong is willing to lead his troops to defect, then he can break the rules and give a rear admiral title. A civil servant from the third grade.

real job!

The price offered by the Great Chu Empire was extremely high, and it was the highest price offered by the Great Chu Empire to recruit the generals and officials of the Ming court!
The title of Major General and Cong Sanpin are nothing, the key is the actual job!

The reason why the Great Chu Empire offered such a high price was because of the huge fleet in Zheng Zhilong's hands, not a fleet, but tens of thousands of skilled sailors under Zheng Zhilong's command.

According to the idea of ​​the Great Chu Empire Navy, these tens of thousands of people will be taken in, thrown into the training camp for a few months, and after washing away their gangster spirit, they will be assigned a bunch of Daye-class frigates and Xiangyang-class cruisers.

Then the Great Chu Empire Navy will be able to obtain a sea fleet with strong combat effectiveness in minutes, and the scale is not small.

However, this condition is completely unacceptable in Zheng Zhilong's view.

In fact, Zheng Zhilong doesn't really care about any official position, he just wants to keep the soldiers and horses under his hands, and keep the huge commercial profits.

You thief Chu 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.

He can be loyal to the Great Chu Empire, but his subordinates must be loyal to Zheng Zhilong himself, instead of directly becoming the official force of the Great Chu Empire.

In other words, he didn't want to hand over military power!
Going a step further, it can be said that Zheng Zhilong wants to continue to maintain the current relationship with the Ming court.

He can be loyal to Luo Zhixue and be a courtier of the Great Chu Empire.

But he also wanted territory, military power, and continued monopoly on maritime trade.

He wants to continue to be the One Piece along the coast of Fujian, Zhejiang and Guangdong!
(End of this chapter)