nucmednet Chapter 182 Meeting Zheng Zhilong
Chapter 182 Meeting Zheng Zhilong
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Liu Ye looked at the towering masts and sails in the harbor and was secretly alarmed.
I had long heard that Zheng Zhilong at his peak commanded over 100,000 men and had more than a thousand warships. Hundreds or thousands of ships might sound like just a number, but seeing them in person was truly awe-inspiring. There were hundreds of ships of all sizes in the harbor alone. As the saying goes, "a flurry of punches can defeat a master," if these ships swarmed in, even Gao Jie's five Wuyi-class ships at full firepower wouldn't be able to withstand them. With such a large number, the quality could be completely overwhelmed.
Liu Ye asked Li Fei, "Are these all Zheng Zhilong's warships?"
"Apart from a few merchant ships from various places, most of them are. However, these are not all purely warships; they can engage in trade and sail the seas, and they can also kill and rob."
Those were armed merchant ships. Liu Ye examined them closely and estimated that most of these ships had a displacement of only two or three hundred tons. A single ship was not a threat, but a large number of them would be terrifying. If they were accompanied by thousands of fire ships, it would not be hard to understand why the Dutch, who had more advanced gunboats, were defeated by Zheng Zhilong.
He said to Liang Xiaoming, "It seems that it's not the right time to directly confront Zheng Zhilong. I now understand why the Dutch lost."
Liang Xiaoming nodded: "Even a lot of ants can kill an elephant. Besides, Zheng Zhilong has the advantage of terrain. He is fighting on his doorstep, and most of the battlefields are in the near sea. The Dutch are just a few gunboats that have come from afar. How can they possibly win? We must not act rashly before we are fully confident."
As they passed through the dense array of warships, many sailors looked at the strangely shaped ships with great interest. Liu Ye was the center of attention of hundreds of ships, giving him a feeling of walking through a formation of swords and spears to enter the enemy camp in an ancient costume drama.
"This can be considered a show of force," Liu Ye thought to himself.
Under Zheng Zhiwan's guidance, the fleet successfully docked, and Xia Tiannan boarded the Zhongzuosuo pier. Unlike the concrete buildings of Bofu Port, this was a typical medieval pier: wooden piers were piled with unloaded goods, coolies shuttled back and forth, and there was scattered debris and garbage everywhere, with the smell of urine emanating from some corners from time to time.
Yan Guang complained in a low voice, "This place is too messy. It's nowhere near as clean and tidy as Bofu."
Bofu Port is entirely constructed of concrete, with concrete piers and a smooth dock surface. It even has dedicated public restrooms, making it naturally much cleaner. Having lived in Nanjing for a long time, and after being demoted, he had been holed up in the mountains of Qiongzhou, rarely seeing a proper seaport, and assumed that all docks in the world were like Bofu.
Liu Ye laughed and said, "Mr. Yan, don't use Bofu Port as a standard, otherwise you won't be able to stand it no matter which port you go to." As he said this, a sense of pride rose in his heart. He could see the difference between himself and Zheng Zhilong from the details. After all, he had the knowledge of the other party for hundreds of years. No matter how powerful the other party was, he was just a local sea lord. His methods and knowledge could not transcend the limitations of his time.
It was precisely because of this limitation that, although Zheng Zhilong had a far longer-sighted vision than the average sea lord and was able to consciously choose to be appeased and engage in maritime trade under the legitimate name of the imperial court, his ultimate goal was still to monopolize trade with Japan. In another timeline, after defeating Liu Xiang and the Dutch, he monopolized maritime passage by selling command flags. The price of two thousand taels of silver per flag effectively excluded merchants with limited financial resources from the maritime trade circle, causing merchants going to Japan to choose more profitable luxury goods and daily necessities for the Japanese, while the trade in other goods gradually shrank. This distorted trade method, apart from allowing Zheng Zhilong to get rich quickly, did not benefit the common people, nor did it help the nascent capitalism of the Ming Dynasty. In later terms, it was backward and hindered the development of productivity.
At the government office in Zhongzuo Fortress, Liu Ye met this legendary figure. Completely different from the image of a burly man with a full beard he had imagined, Zheng Zhilong was taller than average and had delicate features; he was a handsome man in all his right aspects.
Although he didn't know Liu Ye's exact age, Liu Ye estimated Liu Ye to be around thirty, not much older than him. Young, handsome, successful, rolling in money, incredibly wealthy – all these traits combined in one person were enviable. Liu Ye felt a strange pang of jealousy. First Li Fei, then Zheng Zhilong – how come these days all the maritime merchants are so handsome they can make a living off their looks?
While his mind was wandering to random thoughts, his mouth was not idle. He clasped his hands and said, "I have long admired General Fei Hong's name. It is an honor to meet you today. You are indeed a dragon among men!"
Zheng Zhilong, beaming, stepped down from his chair and returned the greeting with a cupped hand: "General Liu is also a young man of great talent, having built up a vast territory in Guangdong. I admire him greatly!"
After the host and guests were seated and exchanged pleasantries, they began to consider how to get to the point.
By the fourth year of the Chongzhen Emperor's reign, Zheng Zhilong had already eliminated most of his maritime rivals, including Li Kuiqi, who had once driven him to the brink of defeat. Possessing a massive fleet and controlling trade with Japan, Zheng Zhilong had no rivals in the Fujian region other than Liu Xiang. Perhaps the Dutch, with whom he maintained a superficially friendly relationship, were a potential enemy. As for Liu Ye in Guangdong, he had heard of him, but his activities were mostly confined to land, with little significant action at sea. Furthermore, Guangdong was not within his traditional sphere of influence, so he paid little attention to him.
It wasn't until Liu Ye repelled the Guangdong army's advance and launched a fierce attack on Guangzhou, decisively defeating the government forces' counterattacks by both land and sea outside the city and at Baietan, that Liu Ye began to take this suddenly rising power seriously. Li Fei's astonishing feat of fighting five enemies single-handedly further revealed their naval potential—given time, this was a force that could potentially threaten his position as the dominant maritime power. The reason he contacted Xiong Wencan to purchase those lightweight, short cannons was twofold: firstly, to strengthen his own forces, and secondly, to prepare for the future and avoid a significant gap in weaponry with the enemy, maintaining a numerical advantage through his fleet.
As for whether the other side would sell the cannons, Zheng Zhilong wasn't worried. If they readily agreed, everyone would benefit. If not, he would have a reason to restrain them at sea. With such excellent warships and cannons, they would definitely want to get involved in trade with Japan and get a share. They wouldn't just hide on Qiongzhou Island and play house. If they wanted to conduct trade with Japan, he would call the shots in Fujian. He would make sure not a single ship could pass through. If they had to consider the official status of both sides, he could seize their ships and kill them, directly blaming the pirates. Even if Xiong Wencan, as the Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi, had to intervene, he had a reason to deal with it. After all, they had offended him first.
From this perspective, they wouldn't lose out either way. Buying cannons would be like adding wings to a tiger, while not buying cannons would give them a reason to nip the Qiongzhou Camp's naval strength in the bud and eliminate a potential rival.