Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 324 The Strength of the Zheng Group

Liu Kongzhao had to listen to Zhu Youjian's instructions, and immediately got ready to get up and go to Fujian.

Zhu Youjian's praise of Zheng's group made Liu Kongzhao, who is now full of ambitions, very disapproving, and he was quite dissatisfied in his heart. Even on the road, he couldn't help muttering: "I want to take a good look at how different his Zheng family is." , but a pirate's ear, it's possible that the red-haired fan who is fighting against him has three heads and six arms."

Accompanied by Liu Kongzhao were trainee officers from the Daming Ship Administration Bureau, such as Chu Huaisheng and others who performed well in the sea battle against pirates last time.

It is worth mentioning that after learning that the gunsmith surnamed Bao in the Ordnance Institute was over [-] years old, Chu Huaisheng finally did not betroth his sister to him, and did not mention this matter again.

"Why should the Sir be angry? No matter how different the Zheng family is, as long as you are here, our Ming Navy will surpass them sooner or later."

After Chu Huaisheng said something, he bought a newspaper on the street.

"Wrong, as long as His Majesty is here, my Ming Navy will surpass them sooner or later, you bastard, I really can't talk," Liu Kongzhao cursed with a smile, then snatched the newspaper from Chu Huaisheng's hand, and after reading it for a while, he became speechless : "When did this literary society appear, and it dared to beat Huang Zongxi in the street."

"How do we know about the affairs between scholars", when Chu Huaisheng said this, Liu Kongzhao slapped the table:
"Confused! This is not a matter between scholars. The water here is deep. Don't look at the surface as a group of scholars arguing. There may be some big shots behind this. The Lord has been in Nanjing for so long. After many years, I still have this vision.”

Liu Kongzhao talked about his judgment on the political situation in Nanjing to Chu Huaisheng and other military officers.

Naturally, the officers and students did not know as much as Liu Kongzhao's experience, so they asked Liu Kongzhao for advice, and finally even begged Liu Kongzhao to tell the legendary story of his ancestor Liu Bowen.

Liu Kongzhao was also very happy, talking with this group of military officers and students along the way, and unknowingly arrived in Jiaheli (Xiamen) half a month later.

Zheng Zhilong personally met Liu Kongzhao, and heard that Liu Kongzhao had come to watch the battle and take prisoners and equipment under the order of Zhu Youjian. Zheng Zhilong hurriedly asked his second brother Zheng Zhihu to accompany Liu Kongzhao in person.

Although Zheng Zhilong only wanted to obtain Dongfan Island as an additional supply base, and drive away the interests of the Dutch colonists in the Taiwan Strait that hindered Zheng's business, he did not want to drive out the Dutch colonists.

However, the Dutch colonists were not willing to give up the colonial base that had been in operation for several years so easily, so they did not follow Zheng Zhilong's ultimatum to withdraw from Dongfan Island within one month.

And after Zheng Zhilong received Zhu Youjian's approval of his memorial to recover Dongfan Island, he began to inform the inland Chinese merchant ships to suspend the trip to Dongfan Island in the name of the prefect of Taiwan, and ordered all members of the Chinese merchants to transfer their property back to the mainland. And began to mobilize warships from all over the world to gather in Kinmen and Penghu within this month, ready to attack Dongfan Island at any time.

At the same time, Zheng Zhilong also asked the imperial court for military pay and ordnance, and at the same time hoped to get the intelligence help of Jin Yiwei.

By the time Liu Kongzhao arrived in Kinmen, the Zheng Group's military force to attack Taiwan had already been prepared.

However, the Dutch colonists also began to step up their preparations at this time. Kuiyi, the chief officer of the Dutch East Fan Island, had reported to the governor of the Dutch East India Company, requesting support.

The governor of the Dutch East India Company in Batavia has sent Commander Van der Laan to lead the "Stubborn John" with a total of more than [-] people and twelve warships to support.

Kui Yi also strengthened the reconnaissance and defense settings in the waters near Dongfan Island, and began to explicitly prohibit the Chinese gentry in the city from leaving the city, and restricted the freedom of the Chinese, burned the grain outside the city, and implemented the strategy of fortifying the walls and clearing the fields.

The Zheng Group and the Dutch colonists have always had conflicts. After all, they are all vying for each other's maritime hegemony in Southeast Asia.

Since the 18th year of Chongzhen, the increase of commercial tax by Emperor Zhu Youjian of the Ming Dynasty and the opening of tax-free privileges for the Zheng Group have intensified this contradiction.

Because of the tax-free privileges, Zheng's Group established Zheng's firm, wealth was accumulated rapidly, commercial capital increased sharply, and there was an urgent need to expand the foreign trade market.

However, the mainland of Ming Dynasty began to levy taxes, which made the Zheng Group unwilling to expand the procurement and production organizations in the country in order to reduce production costs and procurement costs, but could only hope to find commercial bases abroad.

The Dutch colonists managed to manage Dongfan Island well within a few years, and established cities such as Zeelandja and Prominja, which naturally aroused the covetousness of the Zheng Group.

It can be said that in the original history, Zheng Chenggong regained Taiwan because of the relocation order of the Qing court, which forced him to occupy Taiwan and re-establish an anti-Qing base.

However, in this life, Zheng Zhilong regained Taiwan because of the contradiction between the external expansion of the Zheng Group and the external expansion of the Dutch East India Company.

Unknowingly, Zhu Youjian turned Zheng's group into an armed Han commercial group that expanded abroad.

The current Zheng Group is much stronger than the Zheng Group in the Zheng Chenggong era in history.

At this time, the Zheng Group has not experienced the consumption of the Yongli War against the Qing Dynasty, the father and son have not turned against each other, and the internal division has not been disintegrated. Coupled with the support of the imperial court, the current Zheng Group is stronger than before. few.

Liu Kongzhao, who didn't take it seriously at first, also became dumbfounded when he saw the warship equipment of the Zheng Group.

In his memorial to Zhu Youjian, he directly stated that the Zheng Group has more than 12 warships of various types, with a force of no less than [-]. The logistics support capability of the group to launch a war cannot be underestimated. These ships number almost tens of thousands.

In addition, Liu Kongzhao also mentioned that the equipment of more than [-] soldiers and horses in the entire Zheng Group should not be underestimated. There are countless types of weapons such as rod guns, bird guns, deer guns, lianzhu rockets, spray guns, cupping cans, Japanese swords, etc.

Even among the more than [-] horses, there are a large number of Western Fans, Japanese slaves and Kunlun slaves (Africans) in heavy armor, all of whom are fierce in combat.

In short, in Liu Kongzhao’s memorandum, he said that the Zheng’s group was already extremely powerful, and even directly proposed that it might deter the imperial court’s rule in the future, suggested that the Ming Navy should continue to be developed in large quantities, and implicitly hoped that His Majesty Zhu Youjian would not give Zheng’s group Armament support such as guns and new artillery, so as to further expand the Zheng Group.

Only then did Liu Kongzhao realize how big the gap between his Daming Navy and the Zheng Group was, and he began to carefully observe the military strength of the Zheng Group. The practiced cliché skills used the wine table culture to get along with these generals of the Zheng Group, and some of them began to use their words.

(End of this chapter)