Late at night, the moonlight shines on the sea, emitting shimmering light.

Five sailboats were arranged in a rectangular array, guarding the three-masted ship in the center to break through the waves, and the "Zheng"-shaped flag hanging on it fluttered high in the night sky.

The three-masted ship in the middle is about two feet long.

Zheng Yiguan leaned over and lay on the side of the boat, looking at the deep sea, quietly listening to the sound of the waves hitting the bow of the boat, and seemed a little restless.

Zheng Yiguan is not as old as Emperor Tianqi, and his figure is not very strong. Compared with the pirates under his command, he even looks a little thin.

However, despite his young age and his experience of fighting with wind and waves since childhood, he has made him firm in character and looks stronger than an ordinary 18-year-old.

Suddenly, a sound of footsteps rang out.

A young man crawled out of the small cabin behind Zheng Yiguan, came behind him and patted his shoulder, and said softly:

"Yiguan, why haven't you gone back to sleep?"

Zheng Yiguan didn't even look back and said lightly:

"I'm not sleepy, you go back and sleep."

The person who came was Zheng Zhifeng, the younger brother of Zheng Yiguan, who later changed his name to "Zheng Hongkui".

He was not too surprised when he heard this.

He knows the personality of his brother best.

Zheng Zhifeng didn't plan to leave either. She moved a hindrance board under her feet and lay beside Zheng Yiguan and asked:

"What's the matter?"

"How did you agree to Yu Zigao today? He obviously wanted to borrow the hands of our Zheng family to get the Dutch ship equipment, and win multiple goals in one fell swoop."

Zheng Yiguan snorted, not commenting.

He knew in his heart that the Fujian Navy had been ordered by the emperor to annihilate the Dutch invading Penghu in a short period of time, and at least drive them away.

The main warship of the Fujian Navy was the Cangshan Ship, which was not as good as the Dutch Garen Ship in all aspects.

In Zheng Yiguan's opinion, the Cangshan boat may not be able to beat even if it meets the Dutch merchant ship.

As for his own Zheng family fleet, although he has no power in the southeastern waters, there is no pressure to deal with such a few Dutch people.

Zheng Yiguan always followed his uncle Li Dan and traded between the Ming Dynasty and Japan.

But since last year, he began to leave Li Dan intentionally or unintentionally, take the Zheng family to make a living and develop his own power.

He could see that it was a year to compete for navigation power.

Although his uncle Li Dan was already the largest maritime merchant outside the court, he stared at a small place in Japan.

Compared with the vast southeastern sea, the Sea of ​​Japan is too small.

In the current southeastern waters, it can be said that there are heroes rising, including pirates, maritime merchants, Western colonists, and various forces, attacking each other, but none of them can be called the leader.

Either he was dragged to death by Li Dan, or he took the Zheng family out of the Sea of ​​Japan and conquered his own world in the vast southeastern waters.

Zheng Yiguan decisively chose the latter.

If you want to develop your power, you must first have money. If you have money, you cannot do without going to trade goods. Therefore, Zheng Zhilong’s top priority is to obtain a formal business license from the court.

Only in this way can he move forward in the next step of development.

As for the imperial court, it was to maintain its prestige and drive away or annihilate the Dutch invaders. However, the battle of the Zhongzuo proved that the Fujian Navy was not strong enough.

Zheng Yiguan is not an impulsive person. Gao Wenlu's attack has a greater significance for him.

With this fuse, he could go to the Fujian Navy to cooperate with it with justice, and even if Li Dan found out, he would still make a statement.

The Zheng family is still unable to leave Li Dan and break up with the Li family.

"Combining with Yu Zigao is a win-win situation." Zheng Yiguan said lightly:

"The Fujian Navy is not enough to defeat the Dutch alone. If you want to break away from Li Dan and develop alone, this opportunity cannot be missed."

"I understand." Zheng Zhifeng nodded without hesitation, then sighed and said with a sigh:

"How easy is it to be a whole Galen ship and Dutch weapons?"

Speaking of this, Zheng Yiguan's expression became more firm.

He looked at the bow of the ship that was moving forward through the waves and said without emotion:

"If you want to do big things, there will be sacrifices. Our Zheng family wants to gain a foothold in the southeastern waters, even become king and dominate. This is just the beginning."

Zheng Zhilong sighed helplessly, looked at the vast sea, and his mind suddenly became clear and relieved in a flash.

......

The fierce sunlight shone over the sky above the middle left, and the bustling port was silent at this moment, which made people a little scared.

Eight Dutch warships were moored around the port, and they were so scared that hundreds of ships from the Fujian Navy were afraid to approach.

Royal Navy Admiral Gao Wenlu stood on the board of one of the Garen ships and used a monocular telescope to carefully observe the every move of the yellow-skinned monkeys in the port.

After a while, he put down his telescope and smiled contemptuously:

"These people were all scared to death. In broad daylight, there was no living person in the port."

"It seems that I want to reply to the king that the Ming Dynasty can develop into our colony!"

Looking at this confident admiral, the other East India Company generals didn't say much.

It has been twenty years since the establishment of the East India Company.

In the 1690s, British fleets sailed into the Indian Ocean, challenging the unshakable control of the Spanish trade.

The Spanish Empire gradually declined, global trade routes collapsed, and even a trade vacuum appeared in the Far East.

The Ming Dynasty in the East did not engage in trade with any Western countries.

The huge territory and abundant resources of the Ming Dynasty made Westerners very eager to establish trade with it, and even if they launched a war, they would do whatever they could.

After the "Invincible Armada" was defeated by the British, the Spanish Empire was unable to impose autocratic rule on the Netherlands, and the Netherlands became independent.

After gaining independence, the Netherlands developed into a world power dominated by navigation and trade at an astonishing speed.

Nowadays, the number of ships in the Netherlands even exceeds the total number of ships in all other European countries, and for this reason, it is called the "sea coachman" by Westerners.

Twenty years ago, the Dutch established the East India Company under the authorization of the Federal Parliament.

In fact, the East India Company was established specifically to explore Eastern trade.

Today, the East India Company has mastered extensive trade from the Indian Ocean to the east to the Pacific Ocean, and even its headquarters is located in Batavia, far away in the east.

After twenty years of open and secret struggle, the Dutch and the English finally divided the spoils and decided to jointly monopolize the trade of the Spice Islands with a share of two to one.

Not long ago, during the Dutch war against England, they gained control of the Strait of Malacca and occupied Ceylon in the Indian Ocean.

Now the Dutch East India Company's trade in the East has achieved great success, but people are ambitious, and the Dutch's ambitions are endless.

After Cohen, who was elected as the head of the East India Company by the Union Parliament, took office, he immediately turned his attention to the Ming Dynasty.

Cohen sent Yi Lei Yeshan as the commander-in-chief and set out from the Spice Islands to invade the Penghu area of ​​the Ming Dynasty again.

In fact, it was not the first time that the Dutch had wanted to open the Ming Dynasty with strong ships and powerful cannons.

In the third year of the establishment of the East India Company, their ships had sailed to the coast of Fujian in the Ming Dynasty and even occupied Penghu for a time.

However, at that time, it was not only the Dutch who coveted it, but the Spanish, Portuguese, and even the English who followed were all coveting about it.

The infighting among Western colonists, coupled with the tough attitude of Emperor Wanli, made them quickly abandon Penghu and continue to compete for the Spice Islands.

In the second year of Tianqi, due to Lei Yeshan's strength, Zhu Youxiao, the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, was strongly dissatisfied. He issued a clear order to safeguard territorial sovereignty at all costs.

For this reason, the Fujian Navy even launched a war directly.

The game between the East India Company and the Ming Dynasty has only been completely moved to the table since the Wanli period.
Chapter completed!