Late Ming sea owl

Chapter 48
When Li Guozhu heard this, he became unconvinced and said with a bitter smile: "Third uncle, the navy of the imperial court has long been reduced to nothing more than a showpiece. It's okay to scare the little thieves, but it's useless when it comes to hard ideas. Not to mention Hong Mao. Well, even Zheng Zhilong right now, I don’t think even the Fujian Navy can beat him.”

Xu Xinsu disagreed: "I have been in Fujian for a long time, so I don't know the reality of the navy. Although the warships have been in disrepair for a long time and the soldiers have become less and less drilled, they are not completely showy. In addition, after the famous general Yu Zigao, the family's military skills are no small matter. To deal with a Zheng Zhilong still has it at his fingertips."

Li Guozhu shook his head and said: "Third uncle, you have never been on the sea. In a battle on the sea, surrounded by sea water, what can the art of war do? Whichever ship has more cannons will win. Don't talk about Yu Zigao. Even if I survive, the broken boats of the Fujian Navy will not be able to do anything."

Xu Xinsu was shocked when he heard this. He usually interacted with the Fujian officials and gentry. He was a good player at Qingqu, Xiao, Ma, Diao and Go. He could even compose verses in rhymes, fight with wine, and give orders. However, he really knew nothing about naval warfare.Don't talk about him, even Maotong Youbing always looked at him with a black eye.

In order to establish a relationship with Yu Zigao, Xu Xinsu did read Yu Dayou's collection.When Li Guozhu said this, he suddenly remembered that there seemed to be a similar statement in "Zhengqitang Collection", and he hesitated for a moment.

After a while, Xu Xinsu said: "What if instead of fighting Zheng Zhilong in water, we go to Dongfan to fight him in land?"

Li Guozhu's eyes lit up, and he immediately shook his head and said: "It's difficult. First, it's hard to avoid being intercepted and killed by Zheng Zhilong at sea. Second, the geography of Dongpan is unfamiliar, and the supplies can't keep up. Zheng Zhilong can hide in the mountains and consume all the water in Fujian." The teacher is exhausted."

Xu Xinsu was dumbfounded now, and came up with another plan: "What's the best? How about I trick him into coming to Zhongzuo and kill him directly."

Li Guozhu said: "You can try, but I think most people named Zheng will not come."

"That's right. Unless he is convinced that you are dead, he will not come to me." Xu Xinsu said again, "Where is the other side of Pingdo? You first secretly return to Pingdo, and then let the Japanese deceive him, and then try to get rid of him. he."

Li Guosuke shook his head: "I don't have many people in Hirado, so I'm afraid it will be difficult to succeed. Moreover, the pretty boy named Zheng has always been popular with the Lord of Matsuura. Now that my father is gone, the Matsuura family's business now relies on Zheng. Will help us."

Xu Xinsu was completely at her wits' end: "So, we are helpless against this person named Zheng?"

Li Guozhu said: "That's why you guys just said that we should deal with Hongmao, and I said that we should take a long-term approach. For the current plan, we can only find a way to join forces with Hongmao and use Hongmao's hand to get rid of the person named Zheng. But in this way, we can't Revenge against the red hair."

Xu Xinsu asked curiously: "What sutra is my nephew reciting? Hongmao has made it clear that he is in the same group with Zheng Zhilong, so how can he help us?"

Li Guozhu said: "Third uncle, have you ever thought about it? Hongmao cooperated well with my father, why did he help Zheng Zhilong? I suspect that what my father did behind Hongmao's back was exposed, and that made them want to kill. .”

Xu Xinsu suddenly said: "Are you talking about defrauding Hong Mao of money?"

Li Guozhu said: "It may be that they intercepted the merchant ship heading to Da Yuan, or maybe Hong Mao knew about it, and then he killed my father."

Lin Hai had been listening indifferently, and suddenly became interested when he heard this. So Li Dan once cheated the Dutch?No wonder when he was interrogating Zheng Zhihu that day, he asked Hongmao why he wanted to help Zheng Zhilong, but was stopped by Li Guozhu. It seemed that this matter was not very honorable.

What he didn't know was that Li Dan had not only cheated the Dutch, but also the British.This matter began ten years ago when Lord Wanli was still alive. At that time, the British Hirado Commercial Store was opened in Li Dan's private residence.So Li Dan took the opportunity to fool Richard Kirks, the director of the merchant bureau. He and Ou Huayu claimed to Kirks that they could help the British obtain a trading port along the coast of the Ming Dynasty like the Portuguese.

These two guys were very knowledgeable and claimed to have connections with important ministers of the Ming Dynasty. They even made up two fictitious official names, one was called Minister of State and the other was called State Councilor.However, the two of them need event funds for public relations to open up the joints.

Kirks cast a dark eye on Ming Chao and believed what they said was true.Not only did he provide funds for the so-called activities, he also wrote a letter to the "Minister of State" and the "State Councilor", asking Li Dan and Ou Huayu to take them with them.

As a result, Li Dan and Ou Huayu sent a ship to the Ming Dynasty, but they lied that they had been robbed by pirates, and then asked for more money.Kirks had been deceived and was lame. While collecting money from everywhere, he also translated the trade documents of King James I of England into Chinese, and asked Li Dan and Ou Huayu to try to deliver them to Emperor Wanli.

For the next five consecutive years, Li Dan and Ou Huayu continued to send ships to China. Each time they said that they had made gratifying progress, but they were still not close to success and needed to continue to increase money.

Kirks was already dubious at this time, but he was already riding a tiger. He had already reported the matter to the headquarters of the East India Company in London, and vowed that the matter was very promising.If he now says that he was deceived, then the company's money was not wasted, and he can only bear this responsibility.

So Kirkus bit the bullet and kept adding more money until Wanli Wanli passed away. Li Dan claimed that the matter had already been done, but who knew that after the emperor passed away, the two important ministers still needed to do something more to the new emperor's cronies. PR, please continue to increase the money.

Kirks could only continue to fill this bottomless pit. Not long after, Emperor Taichang burped after taking the red pill, and Zi Gong cried twice in just over a month...

Until the third year of the Apocalypse, when the British Hirado Commercial Store closed down, Li Dan defrauded the British of more than 7 taels of silver in total, not counting other gifts.You must know that the British were having a miserable time in Asia at that time, and the Hirado Commercial Building could not be uncovered all year round. This was already a huge sum of money.

Later, Li Dan used almost the same trick to deceive the Dutch, but it was slightly more difficult than deceiving the British who knew nothing about the Ming Dynasty.His rhetoric became to use public relations as the governor of Fujian to give the Dutch the power to trade with Xiamen.

This seemed quite feasible to the Dutch, so Song Ke, the chief minister, gave Li Dan a large number of gifts and public relations fees.However, what the Dutch did not know was that the road that the Portuguese had taken was not feasible at all for Nan Juyi, the governor of Fujian at the time.

In fact, after Li Dan persuaded the Dutch to withdraw from Penghu, Nan Juyi had been trying to use his room to try to get Hong Mao away from the officials.Li Dan also agreed to this, but it was obvious that he would not really get this business partner away from Taiwan.

Of course, surface work still needs to be done.For example, what Li Guozhu said about the interception of merchant ships, Li Dan has been secretly instructing a small group of pirates to rob the route from Fujian to Dayuan. Firstly, he has an explanation for Nan Juyi, and secondly, it is convenient for Xu Xinsu to monopolize trade with the Dutch. .

The poor Dutch were kept in the dark and signed an agreement with Li Dan. All Chinese pirates caught by the officials would be handed over to Li Dan for disposal.They never dreamed that ninety-nine percent of these pirates were secretly instigated by Li Dan. In the end, they caught the thieves and handed them over to the leader of the thieves.

In the original history, these things were not known to the senior officials until Li Dan and Yan Siqi died one after another.It can be said that although the Dutch are slightly higher in rank, when they met Li Dan, they were deceived just like the British.

(End of this chapter)