Chongzhen's domineering

Chapter 119 Pirates and Treacherous Officials Collude (Part 8)

Zhu Jue was waiting for news from the southeast.

Unfortunately, Wang Yingchao was unfamiliar with the waterway on his first trip, which delayed him by more than a day.

This trip took eight days and they still haven't returned.

He was worried that something had happened to this guy.

Thankfully, he's finally back.

Soon, Wang Yingchao strode in carrying a memorial, bowed respectfully, and said, "This servant greets Your Majesty. Your Majesty, this is a memorial that Lord Xiong entrusted to me to bring back."

Upon hearing this, Zhu Jue took the memorial without hesitation and began to read it.

The memorial was quite long. Xiong Wencan not only reported on the situation of the Dongfan War, but also listed the gains of the war in detail, and even recommended the Zheng brothers for credit.

Zheng Zhihu, Zheng Hongkui, and Zheng Zhibao were all fearless warriors. They were not intimidated by muskets or cannons. As long as they gave the order, they would lead their troops to charge forward and fight to the death, even amidst a hail of bullets and flying shells.

It can be said that the reason why the losses in this battle were so small and the gains so great was because the Zheng brothers were not afraid of death. If they had hesitated or retreated even for a moment in the naval battle, giving the enemy time to reload their ammunition, a volley of muskets or even a bombardment of cannons would have caused countless casualties.

Xiong Wencan did know how to win over his soldiers.

Zheng Zhihu, Zheng Hongkui, and Zheng Zhibao are so brave that they must be rewarded.

After reading the memorial, Zhu Jue decisively said, "Ruoyu, draft an imperial edict to promote Xiong Wencan to Grand Tutor of the Crown Prince, and to appoint Zheng Zhihu, Zheng Hongkui and Zheng Zhibao as Right Commanders of the Five Armies. All other meritorious officers and soldiers shall be awarded military merits at a rate of fifty taels per enemy head, and each fallen officer shall be given a pension of one hundred taels."

Upon hearing this, Liu Ruoyu immediately took out a blank imperial edict and began to write rapidly.

Zhu Jue thought for a moment and then asked, "What did Xiong Wencan say about the confiscation of the privately sold raw silk and tea?"

Wang Yingchao recalled carefully: "This Lord Xiong didn't say anything, he just said that he would follow His Majesty's order and immediately rebuild the Penghu Patrol Office to strictly inspect ships coming and going in the southeastern sea area."

General Zheng Zhihu did mention that if those people discovered that ordinary merchant ships and fishing boats couldn't smuggle goods, they might use naval warships to do so. He also asked, "What if naval warships are used for smuggling?"

Hmph, Yu Zigao, you have utterly disgraced our ancestors!

I should have dismissed this naval commander a long time ago.

Zhu Jue snorted inwardly, then decisively said, "Go tell Xiong Wencan to issue a governor's order that any ship, no matter what kind, will be detained and investigated if it is carrying smuggled goods."

"I'll seize and search all the naval warships. During the searches, it's best to record statements proving that the smuggling of contraband by the warships is related to Yu Zigao, the General of the Zhejiang and Fujian Naval Forces. I'm too lazy to argue with the outer court. Once he gets the statements, I'll dismiss Yu Zigao and replace him with Zheng Zhihu."

If these naval warships are found to be smuggling contraband, it won't be as simple as dismissing a Zhejiang-Fujian naval commander. He'll also use this opportunity to thoroughly investigate the contraband. There's no need to tell anyone about this; he can just order his men to take action when the time comes.

Wang Yingchao carefully took notes before nodding repeatedly and saying, "This servant has remembered."

Zhu Jue thought for a moment, then carefully instructed, "Tell Xiong Wencan to have Zheng Hongkui transport all the seized goods, including the adult deer raised in Dongfan, to Japan to exchange for copper."

Also, take back the gold and silver he captured this time to distribute as military merit rewards and pensions for fallen soldiers. Let Zheng Hongkui take the rest to Japan to buy copper.

Have Zheng Hongkui use fast ships to quickly go to Japan to exchange for and buy copper, and then bring the copper directly from Japan to the capital. If it doesn't take too much time, have him bring Zheng Zhilong's wife and children back as well.

Wang Yingchao carefully took notes again before nodding repeatedly and saying, "This servant has remembered."

Zhu Jue nodded slightly, then asked, "Is there anything else? Did Zixian say anything?"

And one more thing.

Wang Yingchao recalled, "Lord Xu didn't say anything; he was in a hurry to go to Beigang and Dayuan to cultivate sweet potato and potato seedlings."

Lord Xiong did mention something. The Spanish they captured seem to want to discuss business with us. Lord Xiong doesn't dare make a decision on his own, and he even wanted the Spanish envoy to come to the capital on my ship for Your Majesty to handle, but I refused. Your Majesty, what do you think? Should Lord Xiong send a ship to escort the Spanish envoy to the capital?

Yes, Not Bad.

Zhu Jue nodded slightly and said, "You did the right thing. Apart from the officials of the inner court and their confidants, you should not pull anyone over, especially those European colonial bandits. You'd better not even let them examine the exterior of this ship closely."

As for the Spanish envoys, have Xiong Wencan send them over by fast ship. I will speak with them.

They are severely lacking in raw materials right now, and they have no choice but to buy them from the European colonial powers.

As for looting, they don't have that capability yet. Zheng Zhilong's fleet may be invincible in Southeast Asia and even the South Seas, but once they leave the South Seas, they are no match for those colonial bandits.

This is because most of the warships under Zheng Zhilong's command were small, with few exceeding 800 liters, and even fewer large ocean-going ships exceeding 1,000 liters.

Meanwhile, the colonial powers were building ocean-going ships with a capacity of over 1,000 tons.

Therefore, in the southeastern coastal areas and the South China Sea, where these small boats could reach, Zheng Zhilong's small boats could also use their numerical advantage to launch encirclement tactics.

If they left Southeast Asia, their small boats wouldn't be able to go very far without supplies, and without their numerical advantage, they wouldn't be able to fight the colonial bandits.

Therefore, they could only do business with colonial powers first, buy raw materials, and build ocean-going giant ships and even warships. Only when they had enough ocean-going giant ships could they compete with colonial powers for resources.

Although the Spanish colonial bandits were despicable, they still had to buy large quantities of copper and rubber from them because the colonies they seized were the richest in copper and rubber resources.

The Dutch were a different story. At that time, the Netherlands didn't have many colonies, and those colonies produced almost no copper or rubber. If you bought from the Dutch, they would definitely act as middlemen, and you would end up wasting a lot of money.

Wang Yingchao, of course, knew nothing of this.

He could only nod repeatedly and say, "This servant will remember."

Zhu Jue thought for a moment, then solemnly said, "Yingchao, please go there today and convey my imperial edict as soon as possible."

Wang Yingchao nodded repeatedly and said, "Yes, Your Majesty. This servant will have someone replenish the fresh water, food, and coal, and then I will go over."

Yes, Not Bad.

Zhu Jue nodded slightly, then waved his hand and said, "Go."

Wang Yingchao quickly bowed and took his leave.

When the imperial edict reached the southeast, Xiong Wencan immediately took charge of Penghu Bay and began to strictly inspect the ships coming and going.

What will happen when the wealthy Zhejiang merchants can't find Liu Xiang's pirate ship and can't contact the Dutch and Spanish fleets?

After a thorough investigation, Xiong Wencan did make some discoveries. Initially, the wealthy merchant families of Zhejiang were using their own merchant ships to smuggle goods.

There are no longer any maritime restrictions, so there are more and more merchant ships doing business between Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong. This is because there are too many mountains between Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong, and land transportation takes too long and is too expensive. Only by going by sea can one make huge profits.

Their merchant ships were mostly small boats weighing less than 800 liao, and they were carrying cargo, so they naturally couldn't outrun the pirate ships under Zheng Zhibao's command.

Soon, Zheng Zhihu and Zheng Zhibao seized several boatloads of raw silk and tea.

As a result, the wealthy merchants and businessmen of Zhejiang changed their tactics again, switching to fishing boats of 400 or even 200 liang (a unit of weight) to smuggle their own goods.

These days, fishing boats mostly fish in the waters near their own county; it's rare for them to fish across prefectures or provinces, let alone across several provinces.

Soon, their fishing boat, which was smuggling contraband, was seized by Zheng Zhihu and Zheng Zhibao.

This time, the powerful merchant families of Zhejiang came up with another trick. They actually had Yu Zigao submit a memorial impeaching Zheng Zhilong!
(End of this chapter)