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It was no coincidence that Zheng Zhilong turned his attention to Ryukyu, or Taiwan Island.
Zheng Zhilong's life is a legend. His family was relatively poor in his early years, so he went to Macau at the age of seventeen to follow his uncle Huang Cheng to do business.
He learned a lot of business knowledge from his uncle Huang Cheng, how to build connections, and learned a lot of navigation knowledge.
He also had an amazing talent for languages. In less than a year in Macau, Zheng Zhilong could speak fluent Portuguese.
Later, he learned Japanese and Dutch. His talent in languages gave him an advantage when dealing with foreigners.
His performance pleased his uncle Huang Cheng, who asked him to bring a batch of sugar, agarwood, and musk to Japan. These goods were shipped to Hirado Port in Japan on the ship of Li Dan, a sea merchant.
This trip to Japan became the biggest turning point in Zheng Zhilong's life, because during this trip, his outstanding performance impressed Li Dan, and soon after, he made a decision that shocked everyone: to adopt Zheng Zhilong as his adopted son.
From then on, Zheng Zhilong quickly rose in Li Dan's group and became a core figure among them. At this time, he was only about 20 years old.
But the person who had the greatest influence on him was not Li Dan, but another Chinese merchant from Hirado, Yan Siqi.
Yan Siqi and Li Dan were the two most powerful Chinese merchants in Hirado. Li Dan was a pure businessman, but Yan Siqi had great political ambitions and was not content to be just a merchant. He was generous and generous, and won the attention of the Tokugawa shogunate and was appointed as the first ship.
Yan Siqi's first goal was to overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate, which held great power in Japan, and establish a Japanese government controlled by the Chinese.
To this end, he recruited 28 sea merchants including Yang Tiansheng, Chen Zhongji, Hong Sheng, Zhang Hong, and Lin Fu. It should be noted that these were not pure businessmen. Their armed merchant ships were both pirates and merchants and they were very powerful.
Zheng Zhilong, who was a martial arts expert and had considerable strength, was one of these twenty-eight people.
After Yan Siqi and the 28 men formally became sworn brothers, he said to them: "Japan is a vast land, connecting Liaoyang and Beizhi in the north and Fujian, Guangdong and Jiaozhi in the south. It is truly a land of fish and rice. If we can occupy it, we can dominate it."
Everyone was very excited after hearing this. The Western devils could control the Southeast Asian countries. Why couldn't they control Japan
Twenty-eight people worked together for this and planned carefully for a long time. If this operation succeeds, the history of the entire Asia will be rewritten.
Unfortunately, when everything was ready and even the date of the uprising was set, the news accidentally leaked.
The Tokugawa shogunate took the initiative and sent troops to wipe out the pirate group. Fortunately, an insider in the shogunate informed Yan Siqi of the Japanese in advance. So everyone fled Japan urgently.
After retreating to the sea, this group of pirate merchants urgently needed to find a place to settle down, so they turned their attention to Ryukyu, which is Taiwan Island.
At that time, Ryukyu Island was still a wild land.
They landed in Beigang and began the arduous pioneering work. They sent Yang Tiansheng back to Fujian to recruit thousands of people to build a city in Beigang, which marked a new chapter in the history of Ryukyu.
In addition to developing the Ryukyu Islands, they also used force to control the Ryukyu Strait and robbed a large amount of property from passing merchant ships. Although Zheng Zhilong left Japan, Li Dan was still in Japan;
As Li Dan's adopted son, he established the business relationship between Yan Siqi and Li Dan's group. This made Zheng Zhilong's position in Yan Siqi's group even more important.
His younger brothers Zheng Zhihu and Zheng Zhibao, as well as his cousin Zheng Zhiguan, who stayed in Macau, came to join him, further increasing his strength.
At this time, a group of Dutch pirates, who were defeated by the Portuguese, also fled to Ryukyu, occupied the southern part of Ryukyu, and began to build two castles: Fort Zeelandia and Chihkan Castle.
Both sides had just settled in the Ryukyu Islands and were busy licking their wounds, so at the beginning, the two sides lived in peace, one in the south and the other in the north. Zheng Zhilong was even sent to serve as an interpreter for the Dutch for a while.
In the fifth year of the Tianqi reign of the Ming Dynasty, Yan Siqi fell ill while hunting in Zhuluo Mountain and died shortly after returning.
Yan Siqi’s sudden death caused the group’s power struggle to become increasingly intense.
It is worth mentioning that a month ago, Zheng Zhilong’s adoptive father Li Dan also passed away. The huge power under Li Dan was handed over to Zheng Zhilong. Relying on the strength left by Li Dan, Zheng Zhilong successfully seized the top spot in the Yan Siqi Group.
As a result, the two forces of Li Dan and Yan Siqi fell into Zheng Zhilong's hands at once, making him the most powerful maritime force in East Asia.
Zheng Zhilong, who combined two powerful forces in one, should have done more than Yan Siqi. Yan Siqi was obsessed with occupying Japan. When he was dying, he said to everyone: "I have worked with you for two years. During this period, I created achievements and made China famous. Now my ambition has not been fulfilled. I died halfway. You should take over."
Unfortunately, Zheng Zhilong only inherited Yan Siqi's strength but not his will. He did not have Yan Siqi's ambition to conquer the world. All he had was a little cleverness and only wanted to return home in glory.
By the first year of Chongzhen, Zheng Zhilong's army had expanded to nearly 100,000 people, with more than 1,500 ships. He roamed the southeast coast and was invincible.
However, Zheng Zhi forgot Yan Siqi's last words and did not lead this powerful force to attack Japan. Instead, he returned to the southeast coast. His constant harassment in the coastal areas made the Ming court very uneasy.
The then Fujian Governor Zhu Yifeng was unable to cope with the situation and secretly invited the Dutch to participate in the elimination of Zheng Zhilong's forces. In return, Zhu Yifeng would ask the emperor to allow the Dutch to obtain the privilege of trading with China.
The Dutch Governor-General of Ryukyu, Witte, led his troops to attack Zheng Zhilong. However, Zheng Zhilong's artillery fire was so fierce that Witte's legs went weak. Without firing a single shot, he hurriedly led the ships Wired and Erasmus to flee to Java.
Later, Xiong Wencan became the governor of Fujian and successfully pacified Zheng Zhilong, a "sparrow". Zheng Zhilong went from being a pirate leader to a garrison commander of the Ming Dynasty.
The Dutch were still determined to take advantage of the situation. After gathering their forces in East Asia, they attacked Fujian several times in an attempt to seize control of the maritime trade routes from Zheng Zhilong, but were repelled every time by Zheng Zhilong.
Especially in the battle of Penghu, thousands of foreigners were burned and sunk, 118 were captured alive, 20 foreign ships were beheaded, 5 foreign warships were burned, one foreign warship was captured, more than 50 foreign boats were destroyed, and armor, swords, compasses, sea charts and other items were captured and recorded. And the bodies of foreigners killed by guns and dragged away by the foreigners without being cut into pieces are countless.
But after Zheng Zhilong accepted the surrender, he focused all his energy on managing Fujian.
Although there was a severe drought in southern Fujian in the first year of Chongzhen, Zheng Zhilong took the opportunity to propose to Xiong Wencan that they should recruit tens of thousands of disaster victims from Quanzhou and Zhangzhou to go to Taiwan Island for reclamation, giving each person three taels of silver and a cow for three people, so that they could establish homes on Taiwan Island and reclaim wasteland.
However, no effort was made to eradicate the Dutch influence in Ryukyu. After so many years of operation, the Dutch changed eight governors, and now the ninth governor is Oward. The Dutch power on the Ryukyu Islands is already very considerable.
Zheng Zhilong felt that the situation in Fujian was becoming increasingly tense. Although he was unwilling to give up Fujian, he decided to expel the Dutch first and occupy the entire Ryukyu as a future retreat for the Zheng family.
This idea was supported by Zheng Zhibao and his brothers. After some discussion, they decided that Zheng Zhibao would lead the fleet to attack Fort Zeelandia and Chihkan, and Zheng Hongkui would be responsible for recruiting civilians and immigrating a large number of people to Ryukyu.
However, Zheng Hongkui still felt that imprisoning Longwu was inappropriate. He hesitated for a moment and said, "Brother, the emperor publicly burned the letters of collusion between officials in the court and issued a special decree to let bygones be bygones. Why don't we have a frank talk with him again to restore the old relationship and stabilize Fujian."
Zheng Zhilong was still upset about Wulong's escape. He said in a bad tone, "Then go talk to him. Pass on my order to strengthen the inspection at the pass, but all defectors will be executed. Also, keep an eye on that unfilial son and don't let him stir up any more trouble."
Zheng Zhilong had a mixture of love and hate for his eldest son Zheng Sen. He once asked a fortune teller to read his son's fortune. When the fortune teller saw Zheng Sen's face, he immediately exclaimed: "You are a man of talent, with an extraordinary character." He even congratulated Zheng Zhilong.
Zheng Zhilong was very happy at that time and said: "I am just a warrior. It would be a blessing if this child could win the imperial examination and bring honor to our family." The fortune teller shook his head and said: "This child is not a scholar, but a great talent who can help the world."
Zheng Zhilong was even happier after hearing this and placed great hopes on his eldest son. Later, Zheng Sen's performance really surprised Zheng Zhilong. He was both civil and military, and he was full of vigor and vitality. His brothers often praised Zheng Sen as "the best of our family."
In this world, what you fear will come true. Zheng Zhilong had just ordered someone to keep an eye on Zheng Sen when his personal bodyguard, the Black Whirlwind Xian Lao San, suddenly burst in and shouted anxiously, "Duke, this is bad. The eldest son..."
"What happened to him again?" Zheng Zhilong's heart was suddenly filled with an ominous premonition.
"The eldest son, along with Tong Haifeng, Yang Qihuang, Shi Lang, Shi Fu, Hong Xishan and others, rushed into the palace and kidnapped the emperor and the queen."
"What? This rebellious son is rebelling against him!"
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ps: It’s been so quiet and lonely these past two days. Brothers, please give me some support!
.(To be continued..)
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