The Great Bandit in Kangxi Year

Chapter 168
When the sea merchant came in, Jiang Tao not only smiled secretly, but also looked at him playfully. He saw that although the man was wearing silk, his skin was wheat-colored, his back was like a wolf, and there were not only many scars on his face, but also a missing one. Fingers are obviously not as simple as sea merchants.

I don't think that person is very knowledgeable and understands Jiang Tao's rules. He casually stood at the same place and said with a smile: "See the prince, the little one was ordered by the master to come here to give the prince a gift."

"Oh, then who is your master?" Jiang Tao took the gift list handed over by the guard, suppressed the surprise in his heart, and asked lightly.

The gift list actually said 10 taels of silver, [-] taels of gold, and rare gifts such as ivory. Jiang Tao murmured to himself, what a big gift, these maritime merchants are really not simple.

"Hehe, my master's surname is Li, and he is a survivor of the former dynasty. Seeing that the prince is dedicated to the people, he has admired him for a long time. He specially sponsors some military funds. If the prince likes it, he will also send other rare things." The man saw that Jiang Tao did not move. Sensual, thinking that King Huaxing would not like these gifts, he hurriedly increased his bargaining chips.

"Send off the guests, keep the presents, the king thanked Wanmin." Jiang Tao sneered, although he said thank you, but he didn't mean to thank him at all.

"This?" The man was obviously startled, and his face changed in an instant, and he said stiffly: "Wait a minute, my master has something to ask."

"Hey, let's talk about it." Jiang Tao had a stern face, but he became suspicious in his heart. This sea merchant is really brave, thinking that this little gold and silver can impress him?
"My lord, my master wants to buy some high-quality silk and porcelain, and please be kind to me." The man saw that Jiang Tao was difficult to speak, so he quickly explained his reason for coming, so that no matter what the result was, his family would not blame him.

"Hehe, this king has made it clear a long time ago that no matter who it is, if they want to buy silk and other things, they can only exchange for grain. Come here, and kick this person out." Jiang Tao said with a smile, and quit directly lobby.

He was very funny in his heart, do these sea merchants think they are corrupt officials?

He suddenly remembered the uncooperative Prince of Yanping County, Zheng Jing. Jiang Tao had sent people to recruit him to surrender. He didn't want Zheng Jing to just agree to become a vassal state of Ming, but Ming was not allowed to interfere in Taiwan's military affairs, and Jiang Tao was required to open up the coastal cities.

This is equivalent to Taiwan becoming a vassal state of Ming Dynasty, which Jiang Tao cannot tolerate, and he also wants to use the Zheng family's maritime power to develop overseas trade wantonly, it seems that this will not work.

How to completely subdue the Zheng Group's subordinates?

According to the memory of his previous life, at this time Luzon (Philippines) was still occupied by Spain, the former maritime power, and he coveted Luzon's spices and other resources, while the maritime powers at this time were the Netherlands, Britain, France and other countries. The most powerful thing is that Spain's power in Asia has dropped a lot, but Jiang Tao's navy is not invincible. After all, Jiang Tao's warships have very few artillery pieces. Facing a powerful country that can gather dozens of main battleships, there is only one dead end.

Also in the summer of this year, the Dutch and British fleets fought three naval battles in the North Sea. Each fleet included 130 to 150 large warships, and each side had 9000 to 1 cannons. Jiang Tao couldn't help taking a deep breath. Daming's strength is still too weak. Although Dai Cang and others have recently found the blueprint of the treasure ship, but now Daming lacks top shipwrights, many skills have been lost, and it is impossible to build them in a hurry.

The largest treasure ship is 44 feet four feet long, [-] feet wide, nine masts, and twelve sails, and can carry about [-] tons. While Jiang Tao sighed, he knew that it was useless to be anxious. Three acres of land, and even if it is built, it may not be able to defeat Western battleships. After all, the treasure ship is too big. Without the protection of iron armor, it is difficult to block the bombardment of dozens of battleships. After all, the target is too big, and such Treasure ships are expensive to build and have a long cycle time, so they are particularly effective for transportation.

Fortunately, for more than a month, Wu Sangui and Manqing were very calm and did not attack Daming's territory, but Jiang Tao knew that this was the prelude to the approaching storm, and secretly said: "We will defeat Manqing first, but will Wu Sangui hinder him?"

What if Wu Sangui and the Manchus allied themselves by coincidence?
Jiang Tao sighed, he really didn't dare to overestimate Wu Sangui's character.

...............

Zheng Jing, who is in Xiamen, is also distressed at this time. He has already occupied Xiamen, Zhangzhou, Quanzhou, Chaozhou and other places, but the [-] troops of the Black Tiger Bandit Army have already forced Fuzhou.

When Geng Jingzhong retreats, he will have to face a hundred thousand Black Tiger Army. Zheng Jing knows that he will never be able to defeat the Black Tiger Army in a land battle, but he rejected King Huaxing earlier, so this battle is definitely inevitable.

Another point is that recently the Black Tiger Army closed the country, Taiwan's trade volume has dropped sharply, the Dutch have repeatedly urged the goods, Zheng Jing is also a little annoyed, by the way, why not gather sea boats to threaten Jiangsu and Zhejiang when the Black Tiger Army has not attacked?
Zheng Jing smiled lightly, based on how the two broken ships of the Black Tiger Army could be the opponents of the Zheng family, he summoned all the generals to express his intention, but Chen Yonghua resolutely objected: "My lord, although King Huaxing is relying on the emperor to order Princes, but he is the main force against the Qing Dynasty after all, out of emotion and reason, even the prince cannot attack Jiangsu and Zhejiang, lest the heroes of the world laugh at him."

"Is there any reason for this? The Black Tiger Army are bandits, and the Third Prince Zhu doesn't know the truth, how can we believe it?" Zheng Jing was furious and asked sharply.

Chen Yonghua sighed and said: "My lord, now the Black Tiger Army has 50 troops, fighting against the Manchus and Wu Sangui, how can it be easy to provoke, and when it comes to becoming a deadly enemy, there is no room for relaxation."

"Shut up, even the Qing Dynasty has nothing to do with us, so what should the Black Tiger Army do? The worst is to retreat to Taiwan, order the generals, and immediately send a boat to Zhejiang, and send a letter of war telling the Black Tiger that the Black Tiger Army must withdraw from Fujian immediately. Step into Fujian!" Zheng Jing couldn't rest for a while, blushing and ordered loudly.

The enthusiasm in Chen Yonghua's heart was extinguished immediately, and hundreds of large and small warships cut through the wind and waves, sailed northward, he was stunned for a long time before he woke up, and muttered to himself: "Regardless of victory or defeat, the Zheng family will fall. "

He thought about it for a long time, and finally made up his mind to go to Taiwan by boat.

…………

Three days later, Jiang Tao couldn't believe it when he received the letter of war. He didn't expect Zheng Jing to be so irrational, and he hated others to threaten him the most. While ordering Wei Donglai to capture the entire territory of Fujian as soon as possible, he gathered sharp spear guards and tiger and leopard cavalry to go along the coast, and ordered officers and soldiers from all over the country to guard the coastal cities.

Jiang Tao vetoed the idea of ​​letting the navy retreat from the enemy. After all, the navy should not be allowed to die in vain, especially if there is no suitable warship.

In a few days, Zheng Jing led the navy to bombard Taizhou, Zhoushan, Ningbo and other places one after another, and tried to land, but was repelled by the soldiers and civilians. When Jiang Tao rushed to Hangzhou, he did not expect that Zheng Jing also came with the navy. The coast of Hangzhou is preparing to bombard Hangzhou.

Jiang Tao saw hundreds of large and small warships approaching the shore covering the sky and the sun, and the largest warship was more than [-] meters long. He was slightly envious and sneered, because Zheng Jing and others were on their way to death.

Sure enough, when Zheng Jing and others were only two miles away from the shore, there were sudden explosions like thunderbolts one after another, and more than a dozen large ships with about a thousand materials sailing side by side exploded one after another, and all of them exploded below the water surface line. A huge hole with a width of one meter was blown out immediately, and the whole hull immediately tilted forward, and the sea water was poured in without money. The dozen or so warships persisted for more than ten minutes, and then sank one after another. The ship fled with all its might.

It turned out that Jiang Tao saw Zheng's navy going all the way north. In order to prevent Zheng's soldiers from forcing Hangzhou, he ordered his subordinates to deploy hundreds of sea mines on the shore of Hangzhou, and they were newly developed and powerful new mines.

It was really powerful, Jiang Tao was overjoyed, and shouted: "Come on, salvage the enemy ship immediately!"

These warships have been repaired, but they can still be used.

(End of this chapter)