Lu Ming

Chapter 229

The one who unceremoniously pointed out that there was a problem with the logistics and proposed to break up the team was a man with short stature who was a bit shorter than others even when he was sitting on the top chair.

This person is about 40 years old, with a dark complexion, narrow face, narrow eyes, and broad forehead. He is wearing a nondescript Nanjing poplin short robe, a short knife on his waist, and a pair of fast boots on his feet. He is the leader of the Shibazhi gang. One of the hills: Liu Xiang.

Liu Xiang was born in a poor fisherman's family on Lamma Island. He is the only Cantonese in Shiba Zhi, and most of his subordinates are heroes who defected from Guangdong.So for a long time, the Liuxiang gang, whose main force is mainly Cantonese, and the Shibazhi gang, whose main force is Fujianese, have not been very easy to deal with.

With the MAX of dominance, Zheng Zhilong, the only one who can suppress these rebellious bosses, is now "unaccounted for", so everyone's usual dirtyness will naturally erupt. Among them, the most radical disbandment attitude is the Liu Xiang Group.

There is actually a deeper reason why Liu Xiang is so eager to disband the gang.

Apart from Zheng Zhilong being a Portuguese horse boy in Macau in the early years, Zheng Zhilong's political line has been moving closer to the Dutch since then.

Ever since he worked as an interpreter for the Dutch, Zheng Zhilong has actually drifted away from the Catholic forces represented by Portugal and Spain.

You must know that Comrade Yiguan did not work as an office white-collar beside the Dutch when he was an "interpreter" for senior officials. Thief's messenger ship.

In other words, since then, Zheng Zhilong has been hostile to Spain and Portugal.Of course, the law of the jungle prevails on the seas of East Asia in this era, and it is normal for everyone to fight today and fight tomorrow.Later, when Zheng Zhilong grew up, he and the Dutch also fell in love and killed each other.

But Zheng Zhilong in history finally chose the combination of Holland + Daming.From the moment Zheng was recruited, the Dutch continuously obtained raw silk and porcelain from him.

What does this behavior represent?It means that Zheng Zhilong completely abandoned the Catholic combination of Portugal + Spain, and chose the Dutch side, which is more dynamic, more commercialized, and more forceful, representing Protestantism, as his business partner.

Spain at this point in time is still nominally the suzerain of Portugal.Although the two countries are constantly dirty in their old nests in Europe, in the East Asian ocean, facing the aggressive Dutch who will shoot when they meet, Portugal and the West have maintained a good alliance between Portugal and the West.

So here comes the question: Since Zheng Zhilong is unreliable, who should Portugal and Spain support to be their own Zheng Zhilong?

Liu Xiang.

This is the reason why Liuxiang Group urgently needs to disband the gang after confirming that Zheng Zhilong is dead.

For Liu Xiang, the current situation is actually beneficial to him: the monopoly of Japanese trade, and the loss of contact (death) of Zheng Zhilong, who suppressed him and the Portuguese and Western maritime merchants behind him, is a very good thing, because whether it is Trade or other aspects, from now on, a vast space has been opened.

Now he urgently needs to withdraw from Zheng Zhilong's big banner, and then return to his old home in Chaozhou, and contact the Portuguese and Western forces that he has had a close relationship with.

The next step is simple: after getting the support of the master behind him, Liu Xiang can completely prepare his army and watch the fire from the other side.After the gang of Hokkien sea masters can kill each other, Liu Xiang at that time can follow Zheng Zhilong's old way of recruiting peace, retreat can continue to plunder the coast, and compete with other big gangs for the monopoly of trade with Japan. a lot.

In real history, Zheng Zhilong did not give Liu Xiang this chance.

From the beginning of Zhao'an, Liu Xiang, who represents the forces in Western Portugal, and Zheng Zhilong officially fell out. After that, the two sides fought a naval war that lasted for 7 years.

Facing the strategic oppression of the powerful enemy in the north, the Liuxiang Group retreated step by step in desperation.In order to maintain the cohesion of the group, Liu Xiang could only go too far and plunder along the coast of Guangdong, bringing the war into his old nest.

The price of doing so was also painful: Liu Xiang was loathed by Guangdong officials, which eventually led to a joint killing operation led by Zheng Zhilong, which led to his demise.

Of course, that wave of Liu Xiang didn't lose in the end—this one even brought Zheng Zhihu to accompany him before he died.As the last Shibazhi superficial brother who was dealt with by Zheng Zhilong, the dwarf Liu Xiang is also a typical example of a disabled man.

His eyes returned to the big tent of the Chinese army.

When Liu Xiang repeated the disbandment request that he had been advocating for the past few days, a 45-year-old man with gray hair and a short cotton robe from Songjiang, with a short machete on his waist, said, "Master Liu, Things have not yet been decided, might as well wait a little longer.”

This person is Li Kuiqi, one of the Eighteen Zhi Mountains.In history, due to the uneven distribution of spoils, this person surrendered after being recruited and rebelled. He once annexed most of the troops and drove Zheng Zhilong back to Fuzhou.

After listening to Li Kuiqi's seemingly generous words, Liu Xiang sneered: "800 elites, 5 large boats, and no news for half a month. If we wait any longer, when will the bill be settled? Right now nearly [-] brothers are trapped here, sitting on the mountain and eating nothing. I'm afraid you won't be able to handle it on stage, right?"

Speaking of this, Liu Xiang squinted at a young man in green robes who was sitting on the opposite chair.

The young man looks about 25 or [-] years old, with a strong figure, and there is a bit of Zheng Zhilong's shadow in his eyebrows, but it is Zheng Zhilong's fourth brother: Zheng Zhifeng.

Zheng Zhifeng had a tired expression on his face at the moment, sitting in the chair, he didn't know what he was thinking.Hearing Liu Xiang pointing his sword at the grain table again and again, he could only open his mouth and try his best to answer: "The grain table is still good, don't bother shopkeeper Liu to worry about it."

"It's good? Humph." Liu Xiang sneered again: "I'm afraid I won't be able to get the bottom of it? What about the silver rice that should have been allocated to me yesterday?"

Marching and fighting in ancient times was far from simple.

There are tens of thousands of people, and there are no boundaries.In fact, even a gang of hundreds of people still needs a food station dedicated to logistics.

A pirate gang with thousands of ships and tens of thousands of men has even more stringent logistical requirements: food is such a key material, and there must be a large-scale commercial operation behind it to ensure the distribution.

Whether the pirates robbed merchant ships or civilians, most of what they got in the end were just some floating goods, not the food neatly placed there.

After all, cargo is the priority on merchant ships, and Fujian does not produce food locally.The pirates' so-called coastal plundering, in fact, the main purpose is to grab some easy-to-get floating wealth. As for food, Zheng Zhilong and the others are all wealthy businessmen, not Chuang Wang, and they are not hungry enough to attack cities for food. .

So regarding logistics, the pirates have a set of ancestral supply methods: nest masters.

From the day when there were pirates, the profession of nest owner appeared in coastal areas at the same time.Nest owners are responsible for purchasing the stolen goods looted by pirates at low prices, and organizing food and salt to provide these bulk goods to pirates.

This process is also effective in later generations: those thieves who robbed the jewelry store also wanted to sell the stolen goods to the Jews afterwards, and the selling price was up to 3%.

And it is even more ridiculous for a gang of ten thousand people like Shibazhi to live by robbing food.In fact, the Zheng Group consumes an average of more than seven or eight tons of grain every day.All these goods were trafficked by nest owners in Guangdong and Zhejiang.

And the matter of Liangtai that Liu Xiang mentioned repeatedly today has actually pointed to the core of the problem: the Zheng family can't get it right.

Before this, because someone was going to Fuzhou City to talk about recruiting security, the whole gang was in a state of forced silence: Naturally, there should be no more news of pirates looting during the negotiation, this is the basic principle.Otherwise, is it true that the old bear can't kill people?

However, there is a price to pay for this state of silence: every day, a large amount of food and silver are withdrawn from the public account.

If Zheng Zhilong hadn't died, then this situation could last for a long time: even if the Zheng family used their own private money for maritime trade to fill it, at least they could support the pirates for half a year.At that time, as long as one move is made, no matter how much money is earned back.

But now it doesn't work.Zheng Zhifeng, who is in charge of Liangtai, can only admit the news of his elder brother's death even if he doesn't want to.After leaving Zheng Zhilong and the 800 core pirates of the Zheng family, the Zheng brothers had no choice but to make plans for their own family while grieving in private.

People who lick blood at the knife edge are the most sensitive to the rise and fall of each other's strength.Right now, the Zheng family has lost their biggest support overnight, and it can be said that their strength is rolling downhill: the pirates are all characters with red tops and whites, and they have been with Liu Xiang and Li Kuiqi in private these days. There were a lot of people who returned, but none of the little shopkeepers who came to follow the Zheng family and these young people.

Still the same sentence: now is 1628, and it is far from the golden age in history when the Zheng family became powerful and Zheng Zhifeng used the tiger's skin to pull the banner.As soon as Zheng Zhilong died, the middle-class people of the Zheng family immediately showed their prototypes, and they were completely incomparable with Li Kuiqi and Liu Xiang, who were in the second tier of dominance.

Ever since, Zheng Zhifeng began to play tricks on the grain platform: Since these hungry wolves will not be able to be suppressed sooner or later, it is better to save more resources for the winter while his brother is still in charge of the grain platform.Brothers are very clear: Zheng's family will spend the winter in the future.

Who would have thought that the grain was withheld for only one day, and the matter was exposed by Liu Xiang, who was looking for faults with his eyes wide open.

And Zheng Zhifeng, who was a little embarrassed, could only vaguely say: "Perhaps it is because the subordinates delayed a little, and the money and food left for only a day or two, why is shopkeeper Liu like this?"

"You bastard! How dare you take money here after detaining your brothers' hard work!" Liu Xiang, who had long disregarded the second generation ancestors of the Zheng family, was filled with righteous indignation at this moment, and jumped out of his chair in rage. Pointing at Zheng Zhifeng's nose, he shouted: "Little thief, how much silver and rice have been stolen from the Liangtai, and to be honest, there is still one life left!"

With a sound of "choking", as soon as Liu Xiang finished speaking, a burly man standing behind Zheng Zhifeng immediately pulled out a short knife from his waist.This person is Zheng Zhipeng, a brother of Zheng Zhilong's hometown - in history, this guy was beheaded in public by Guo Xingye on the charge of losing Xiamen, and made a raft.

As Zheng Zhipeng pulled out his waist knife, there was a sound of gold and iron clashing in the tent of the Chinese army: the subordinates standing behind the shopkeepers all pulled out their waist knives, and the scene suddenly became tense.

(End of this chapter)