Daming: At the start of the showdown, Lao Zhu was stunned

Chapter 826 Heavenly Soldiers
Sometimes, negotiations are all about momentum. If one party has more momentum, it will naturally be able to gain more benefits in subsequent negotiations.

But the leader of the Ming army, Prince Zhou, didn't seem to care. He continued to threaten: "The winner is the king and the loser is the bandit. No matter whether you are the government army or not, whether you are willing to admit it or not, you are all defeated by us! Now that we have surrounded you here, you should listen to us..."

He originally thought that these Ming soldiers were ambushed and were protecting the nobles, so they should be extremely cautious and would never take risks. However, he did not expect these Ming soldiers to be so stubborn. They were about to draw their swords on the spot and did not give in at all. He had no choice but to continue to suppress them with words.

On the other side, Zhu Su finally spoke. However, he did not speak to Chen Zuyi, but to a guard behind him, "Go, bring the gift that I have prepared."

"Gift?" Chen Zuyi was stunned.

"Master Chen is a homeless ruffian, but I am a royal nobleman from a country of etiquette. Since we are going to talk, we must follow the etiquette." Zhu Su said. Before coming, the Jinyiwei had already discovered that Chen Zuyi wanted to return to his hometown in Chaozhou several times to bring honor to his family, so Zhu Su gave Chen Zuyi a light stab. Chen Zuyi's face darkened again, and a Ming army soldier brought a wooden box from behind and placed it in front of him.

"This is..." Chen Zuyi opened it on the spot, but was shocked. Inside was the head of the old bandit who had pretended to be the old tribe leader.

"Boss Chen said that we were defeated...but our soldiers and officers are intact, while you lost a leader and countless followers. May I ask, who was the winner and the loser before?" Zhu Su said calmly.

Facts speak louder than words, and the pirates finally lost their temper. This old thief was a high-ranking leader under Chen Zuyi, and the pirates all knew him. Now that he has died at the hands of the Ming army, it would be a shame for them to insist that they had the upper hand.

Chen Zuyi's face also looked ugly. This incident was indeed a flaw in their plan. According to their original plan, the old boss should have captured or lured the leader of the Ming army to death, and then they would have used flaming oil to ambush the leaderless Ming army soldiers, and finally use these Ming soldiers as hostages to exchange for the artillery on the Ming army warships.

This old boss, in fact, was his cousin. Because he was quite intelligent and extremely supportive of him, he had played the role of spy chief in the past and had never failed by disguising himself as a spy to capture and kill the enemy's generals. That was why this time he was given the important task of luring the leader of the Ming army.

Unexpectedly, the cousin who spent all day hunting geese was eventually blinded by a goose. The Ming army general they targeted turned out to be the famous King Zhou Zhu Su. The cousin failed to gain anything and was killed by the King Zhou.

"Since you think you have won, why bother to accept my invitation?" Chen Zuyi said sternly.

Zhu Su naturally would not say that he wanted to find out their bottom line. He wanted to persuade Chen Zuyi to surrender, but this intention could not be exposed at the beginning. These pirates were unruly, and if he wanted to subdue them, he needed to understand their intentions and undermine their morale. So Zhu Su said: "Master Chen also said that you invited me here."

"I have already given you the gift. Now it is time for Chen to take over... What exactly did you wait for me to do? Are you still unwilling to explain it now?"

His side has the upper hand in momentum, and Zhu Su did not expect them to ask for an exorbitant amount of money. By asking them now, he thought he could find out their bottom line.

Chen Zuyi was silent for a while. Similarly, he was in a weak position now, so how could he blackmail them? But he had traveled all over Southeast Asia, and his reputation had long been lost to Java. After thinking for a while, he said, "You are now besieged by us. If you are willing to write a letter to Tang He Laoer, pay a ransom of 10,000 taels, a treasure ship, and 100 cannons and firearms on the ship, I will decide to let you go..."

They were actually asking for a ransom. Zhu Su, who had originally wondered if they would bargain for the bay or simply ask the court for a legitimate title, was both amused and confused. It seemed that this group of thieves was indeed a thief, so he smiled and said, "That's impossible. The Hongwu Emperor of the Ming Dynasty has already made it clear that the Ming Dynasty will not cede land, marry women, or pay compensation. This is the case even for an enemy country, let alone you are just a group of pirates?"

"...If you don't want gold and silver, at least we should have some chance of winning, right?" Chen Zuyi still didn't give up. Originally, he planned to take the hostages to Tang He to ask for ransom. Now these "hostages" were resisting stubbornly on the mountain, and he had no choice but to bite the bullet and bargain with Zhu Su. "Prince Zhou, you have to think it through. You guard the way up the mountain, and we guard the way down the mountain... There is not much food on this mountain. If we really waste time like this, who knows who will be able to outlast the other!"

"I don't want to break out, but I don't want to suffer too much loss... Do you really think I can't break out?" Zhu Sushai said with a smile. "Moreover, do you have the strength to fight with me? If I don't have any news for a few days, Duke Dingguo will definitely send a large army to look for me. You, Chen Zuyi, may be a dragon in the sea, but you can also turn the sea upside down on the shore? Can you stop the Ming Dynasty soldiers under Duke Dingguo's command?"

Chen Zuyi was speechless. He thought he had the upper hand...how come he was the one being surrounded and cornered?

Seeing that the Ming army had the upper hand, Chen Zuyi suddenly became thief-like and no longer cared about hiding his true purpose. He slapped the armrest and stood up and said, "I don't care. Today, you have to at least bring me fifty ship cannons! Otherwise, I will attack the mountain and die with you guys!"

They actually wanted cannons. Zhu Su narrowed his eyes slightly and his expression turned cold. "Impossible. The Ming Dynasty has never had a precedent of compensating gold and silver. Besides, you want cannons, aren't you going to use them against the Ming Dynasty navy?"

"...Who said I want to use it against the Ming navy?" Chen Zuyi's eyes rolled. "Otherwise, I am willing to accept the imperial title and surrender to the Ming court with Srivijaya. Aren't you Ming people expanding your territory? This is a great feat of expanding your territory!"

"So if we ask the court to allocate some ships and cannons, it won't be considered as compensation, right?"

"In this case, you, Chen Zuyi, should tie yourself up and go to Yingtian to plead guilty... If the Emperor of the Great Ming is willing to pardon your crime and allow you to make meritorious contributions while serving your sentence, it will not be too late for you to say these things..."

The two groups of people couldn't agree on what to say, so they left unhappily. Before the visit, the pirate leader Chen Zuyi glared at Zhu Su fiercely. Zhu Su, Chang Mao and others glared at him angrily, but Li Jinglong was puzzled. After the two groups of people left, Li Jinglong asked, "Fifth uncle, according to your original intention, didn't you want to recruit this group of bandits? Why are they willing to surrender, but you don't want to?"

"...I want to recruit this group of bandits to serve the court. But Chen Zuyi is cunning and domineering. How can he be willing to share the worries of the court?" Zhu Su frowned. "If we recruit them, I am afraid they will not do as I wish and go west to contain the European countries. Instead, they will choose to lie on the Ming Dynasty and suck the blood of the Ming Dynasty..."

(End of this chapter)