After Zheng Zhilong defected to the Qing Dynasty, his pirate group broke up. At the same time, because Zheng Zhilong did not designate a successor, the originally huge Zheng pirate group split into three gangs. Zheng Chenggong, who was supported by his uncle Zheng Hongkui and had a foothold in Anping, and Zheng Zhibao, who occupied the outer islands of Zhejiang. The last gang was Zheng Lian and Zheng Cai brothers who occupied Kinmen and Xiamen.

Therefore, Zheng Chenggong did not take over his father's family business, but actually started from scratch. After Zheng Zhilong surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, Zheng Chenggong broke up with his father and fled back to his hometown in Anping with more than 50 people, and defected to his uncle Zheng Hongkui.

After Zheng Chenggong returned to Anping, he strengthened his own strength and widely recruited civil and military talents. Under his inspiration, former governor Lu Ruoteng, Jinshi Ye Yiyun, Juren Chen Ding and others came one after another. Zheng Chenggong respected them very much and treated them as guests. He solicited their opinions whenever he encountered major events. He gradually formed a politically involved in decision-making, contacted various anti-Qing forces and local civil servants and staff teams. At the same time, relying on his status in the Longwu court and his old relationship with Zheng Zhilong, he recruited soldiers and continuously expanded his military strength.

Zheng Chenggong's generals mainly came from four aspects: one was a few generals who followed him to raise an army, such as Hong Xu and others; the second was aspiring people recruited from the coast of Fujian, such as Gan Hui from Haicheng, Lan Deng from Zhangpu, etc.; the third was a general who was unwilling to follow Zheng Zhilong to surrender to the Qing Dynasty, such as Shi Lang, Hong Xishan, Huang Ting and others; the fourth was a few generals stationed in the southeast coast of the Qing Dynasty who were still thinking of their homeland, who came back.

Zheng Chenggong was able to treat these generals of different backgrounds equally, but only talented. In particular, he carefully adapted the military organization to prevent the generals from being arrogant and domineering. This was a resolute measure he had taken to sum up the lessons of Hongguang and Longwu tolerate evil spirits. It was precisely because of the establishment of extremely strict military organizations and disciplines that Zheng Chenggong became a true commander, rather than a rich second generation with a reputation.

At this time, although Zheng Chenggong destroyed his uncle Zheng Zhibao and took back most of the forces that originally belonged to Zheng Zhilong, there were still some elite soldiers in the hands of his brother Zheng Lian and Zheng Cai (some historical records say that Zheng Lian and Zheng Cai were Zheng Chenggong's uncle, but this relationship has little to do with this book, so I won't go into this book in depth). At the same time, Zheng Lian and Zheng Cai are not bullshit Zheng Zhibao. The two of them were very afraid of Zheng Chenggong. No matter how Zheng Chenggong summoned them, they would not go to Taiwan to meet.

A few years ago, Zheng Chenggong captured Chichicheng, Taiwan, and Zheng Lian cut off Zheng Chenggong's food route. There was no way, Zheng Chenggong could only farm and reclaim land in Taiwan while fighting with the Dutch. It took a total of ten months to capture Chichicheng, so Zheng Chenggong hated Zheng Lian and Zheng Cai to death. In history, Zheng Lian and Zheng Cai had no good ending.

After Zheng Chenggong gained a foothold in Taiwan, he had already made his mark in the Zheng group in terms of military strength. Zheng Chenggong secretly decided to become the recognized overlord of the Zheng group like his father Zheng Zhilong.

Zheng Chenggong adopted Shi Lang's suggestion and first sent 1,000 stones of rice to Zheng Lian in the name of having a good relationship with her, asking Zheng Lian to let his army land. Zheng Lian was worried about food shortage and thought that Zheng Chenggong was his family after all, so he agreed readily. When all Zheng Chenggong's army arrived in Xiamen, he suddenly disarmed the soldiers of Zheng Lian's troops and immediately captured and killed Zheng Lian. Zheng Lian's generals Chen Feng, Lan Yan, Wu Hao and others were all incorporated. Zheng Cai's generals Yang Chaodong, Wang Sheng, Yang Quan, Cai Xin and others also surrendered one after another under the invitation of Zheng Chenggong. Zheng Cai lost his military power and had no choice but to go back to his hometown in Anping to retire.

However, because there is a Shenwu regime on this time and space that is stronger than the Qing Dynasty, the Zheng group still retains superficial unity under common pressure.

After Yang Chao returned home, he prepared a boat and went to Xiamen first. The Zheng family navy was in charge of the sea outside Quanzhou. If he didn't go to Xiamen to collect the road, he would not be able to leave the sea.

Yang Chao is an old man from the Zheng family and has also smuggled food for Zheng Lian in recent years, so most of the soldiers under Zheng Lian recognized Yang Chao.

As soon as Yang Chao's ship approached the Xiamen Wharf, the guards saw Yang Chao get off the ship on the wharf, and stepped forward and said, "Isn't this Boss Yang? Why did you come in person today?"

Yang Chao said impatiently: "I have something to do today, so take me to see Uncle Dingyuan!"

The man who saw Yang Chao was anxious and did not dare to joke, led Yang Chao into Xiamen City.

Xiamen City was built in the 20th year of Hongwu. It has a circumference of 429 meters and has four gates, southeast, west and northeast. Xiamen City is not big, and there were only more than 2,000 fishermen living here, but with the fierce war in the mainland, many coastal fishermen fled to Xiamen to avoid the war. So now there are people inside and outside the city of Xiamen, with tens of thousands of people.

Yang Chao came to the admiral's yamen in the city and followed the soldiers who reported the matter to visit Zheng Lian. Zheng Lian was in his thirties and looked like a ground tank with rust on his face. At first glance, he was a person who had been seeking life on the sea for many years.

Zheng Lian saw Yang Chao coming in and said with a smile: "Uncle Yang, why did you come here in person today?"

Yang Chao did not want to tell the truth to Zheng Lian, because Zheng Lian and Zheng Cai brothers did not support Emperor Yongli, but supported Emperor Longwu of that year.

After Emperor Longwu's death, Zheng Zhilong's power was divided into pieces. Zheng Lian and Zheng Cai continued to support Emperor Longwu, and Emperor Longwu even supported Emperor Shaowu after Emperor Longwu's death. Zheng Chenggong was much more realistic. After Emperor Longwu's death, he immediately changed his sect and surrendered to King Lu Zhu Yihai. After Zhu Yihai was killed by Zhu Hongsan, he directly surrendered to Emperor Yongli Zhu Youlang. It was precisely because the two gangs belonged to different forces that Zheng Lian and Zheng Cai looked down on Zheng Chenggong.

Yang Chao knew the dirty things within the Zheng group, so it was impossible to tell the truth to Zheng Lian today. With Zheng Lian's hot temper, he must know that he was entrusted by Zhu Hongsan to persuade him to surrender, so he would definitely throw himself into the sea and feed him a shark.

Yang Chao rolled his eyes and said, "General Zheng, that's it. I miss my old brothers back then as I am old. I want to go to Taiwan to see He Tingbin, Yang Ying and others. Please send a post to General Zheng!"

Zheng Lian heard Yang Chao say this and laughed: "Boss Yang, they are all local foxes, why are you playing in a Chinese Studio? Missing your brothers? I remember that you had a bad relationship with Yang Ying and the others back then!"

When Yang Chao heard that Zheng Lian didn't believe it, he couldn't help laughing: "Isn't this old?"

"Fuck, Boss Yang, don't go out to sea today if you don't tell the truth! Come and send Boss Yang back to Quanzhou!"

A soldier outside the door came in and wanted to invite Yang Chao out. Yang Chao quickly said, "General Zheng, tell you the truth! I went to Taiwan this time by Mrs. Huang. The old lady is old and wants to go to Taiwan to see her son."

Mrs. Huang is Zheng Zhilong's concubine, Zheng En, the half-brother of Zheng Chenggong, and Zheng Yin's biological mother. Of course, she is also the godmother of Zheng Lian and Zheng Cai. She has been living in Anping's old house in recent years. (This is also true in history. Not only Zheng Zhilong's little wives, but also Zheng Hongkui returned to Anping to retire after he was old. I really suspect that due to the Qing Dynasty's urinary nature, he could actually let Zheng Chenggong's family go!)

Zheng Lian believed most of the time when he heard Yang Chao say this. Zheng Lian scolded: "Godmother wants to see my brother, why don't you tell the truth? I and Damu are not dealing with each other, but I am very filial to my godmother!"

Yang Chao quickly nodded and said, "It's mainly because I judge a gentleman's ambition by the heart of a villain. I don't know that the general was so generous, it's all my fault!"

Zheng Lian looked at Yang Chao and said to the bookkeeper beside him: "Okay, give him a way!"

The road strip is a small flag with the word Zheng written on it. This was also invented by Zheng Zhilong back then. This road strip would charge thousands of taels of silver. With this, you can keep your ships open and helpless along the southeast coast.

However, that was Zheng Zhilong's most glorious time. Now this road is not good if it leaves the sea outside Quanzhou, let alone the Nanyang where Zhu Hong's three fleets are entrenched.

Yang Chao left the Admiral's Office and cursed in his heart as he walked: Zheng Lian, what kind of thing are you? You were just a dog under Zheng Yiguan. Now you have some soldiers and horses, only five or six people, I bah!

Yang Chao is an old brother who started his business with Zheng Zhilong back then, but time has changed. Your Yang Chao is now just a rich man, and Zheng Lian is a warlord entrenched in Xiamen. How can you compare this?

After Yang Chao came out, he handed the small flag to the sailors on the ship, then hung it on the mast, and then drove out to sea.

When passing by the Kinmen Liluotu, a Zheng family sea boat leaned over and saw the small flag on the mast and drove away again. Although the Zheng family is no longer in the scenery and there is no Zheng family flag on the sea surface of Southeast Asia, it still works outside Quanzhou.

Yang Chao's ship left the sea outside Quanzhou and entered the Taiwan Strait.

The Taiwan Strait is about 800 miles long, and it takes two to three days to sail at the speed of a sailboat in the Ming Dynasty. However, God had already prepared a supply point in the middle, which is Penghu, one hundred miles away from Tainan.

Penghu was a beautiful place in later generations, and there was also a song "Grandma's Penghu Bay" to explain the beautiful scenery of Penghu, but Penghu was not a good place in the Ming Dynasty.

Penghu was discovered in the Han Dynasty, and it was just a place for some fishermen to rest. Later, with the development of navigation technology, the Penghu Islands gradually became a springboard for cross-strait transportation in the Taiwan Strait. It had a good harbor and was a gathering point for various ship activities in the Taiwan Strait. Penghu had officially acquired the territory of China in the Song Dynasty, and at that time, someone had moved to Penghu in Quanzhou, Fujian.

Now Penghu has become Zheng Chenggong's outpost, and Zheng Chenggong set up a patrol department here in Penghu to inspect the passing ships.

When he arrived at his own place, Yang Chao changed his cowardice in front of Zheng Lian, pulled a soldier on the dock and said, "Hurry, replenish me with Danshui, I want to go to Chengtian Mansion immediately!"
Chapter completed!