Late Ming Dynasty: Oops, I am surrounded by the Donglin Party

On June 13, the 14th year of Chongzhen, east of Ningbo Prefecture, in the East China Sea.

On the boundless sea, a huge fleet is sailing on the sea.

The fleet consisted of more than 300 warships of various types, all flying the Zheng flag.

On the flagship of the Zheng family navy, Zheng Zhilong squinted his eyes and stared at the blue sea in a daze. He had not personally commanded the fleet out to sea for several years.

Standing beside him were several of his brothers and Chen San, the envoy of the Qing Dynasty.

Zheng Zhibiao, Zheng Zhihu and other brothers frowned, seeming to be very disgusted with Chen San.

At this time, a small reconnaissance boat came from the northeast and shouted to the flagship from a distance:

"Report! Master, the Dutch fleet has been spotted northeast of here, about twenty miles away."

Zheng Zhilong frowned when he heard this.

"These red-haired barbarians are so bold. It seems that we didn't beat them hard enough in the last naval battle!" Zheng Zhihu said viciously.

"They must have been instigated by the Ming Dynasty court to come and kill us.

Master Zheng, please don't take it lightly." Chen San thought for a moment and said to Zheng Zhilong.

Zheng Zhilong said nothing, but Zheng Zhihu said to Chen San in a bad tone:

"My Zheng family has never rebelled, so why would we talk about extermination?

Even if I want to kill, I’m here to kill you!"

Zheng Zhihu spoke very rudely because this man named Chen San had been instigating his elder brother to rebel these days.

It is said that the imperial court vigorously developed the navy in order to deal with the Zheng family, and the imperial court took back the Zheng family's title, which showed its lack of trust in the Zheng family.

They also said that the imperial court's general was setting up a chamber of commerce in order to seize the Zheng family's business in the future. It was impossible for the imperial court to give all the huge profits in the ocean to the Zheng family.

Chen San also said that following the Qing Dynasty would be completely different. The Qing Dynasty has always been righteous, and all Han officials who defected to the Qing Dynasty were rewarded with both titles and official positions.

What's more, the Qing Dynasty had no navy. If the Zheng family surrendered, they would become the maritime commander of the Qing Dynasty, and their title of king would be as noble as the royal family of the Qing Dynasty.

Although Zheng Zhihu felt that Chen San was not a good person, he was still moved by what he said at first.

After all, the Zheng family’s current position in the Ming Dynasty is really embarrassing. The two sides lack trust, and they are really in a difficult situation.

But the fourth brother Zhi Biao once reminded him that those who are not of our race must have different hearts, and the reason why the Qing Dynasty offered a sky-high price was simply to use them to fight against the court.

This incident was like a fishbone, causing a rift within the Zheng family. Some supported joining the Qing Dynasty to seek another way out, while others supported maintaining the status quo.

The initiator of this situation was not someone else, but Zheng Zhilong, the current head of the Zheng family.

Although Zheng Zhilong chose to ignore Chen San under the instigation of his eldest son last time, he did not kill or expel him.

After this, whenever Chen San had the chance, he would start to persuade others, and he would have reasons and evidence to support his claims.

Zheng Zhilong sent people to the capital to investigate secretly and found out that the group of Ming nobles were actually setting up a chamber of commerce, and the purpose of this chamber of commerce was maritime trade.

This touched Zheng Zhilong's sore spot, so he summoned Chen San again to discuss the matter.

It’s just that the Zheng family obviously has a stronger sense of belonging to the Han regime and is not very interested in joining the barbarians.

Zheng Zhilong himself was still hesitant. He was neither satisfied with the status quo nor worried about joining the Qing Dynasty and lacked confidence.

His hesitant attitude finally led to signs of division in the Zheng family.

Zheng Zhilong was very annoyed by this and punished several guys who said bad things. At the same time, he came up with a way to kill three birds with one stone - he would personally command the fleet from the coast of Quanzhou to the north - in the name of patrolling the sea.

War can divert conflicts, and the conflicts within the navy can be temporarily alleviated. This is one reason.

Secondly, it can also be regarded as an explanation to Chen San and the Qing Dynasty behind Chen San. After all, the Zheng family’s navy is heading towards the capital of the Ming Dynasty.

As for the third, and most important reason for Zheng Zhilong's hesitation, it was the war between the Ming Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty.

No one wants to be on the wrong side. Although Zheng Zhilong is optimistic about the Qing Dynasty, he is not in a hurry to place a bet. He wants to wait for the outcome of the war between the Qing Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty.

He only stands on the winning side and often prides himself on his own caution.

However, Zheng Zhibiao quarreled with him several times because of this, saying that his indecision would put the Zheng family in a desperate situation. This made him furious, and he took back some of the fourth brother's military power as punishment.

Zheng Zhilong felt that the Zheng family's maritime power was the key to playing a decisive role for both the Ming Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty.

Although the Ming Dynasty court had established a navy, most of the warships and equipment were built by his Zheng family. Zheng Zhilong did not take that little bit of maritime power seriously.

It is unlikely that the Ming Dynasty court would really break with him. This time he went to the north to patrol the sea just to demonstrate to the Ming Dynasty court.

Let those old guys in the court understand that the Zheng family is not a soft persimmon. They'd better be sensible and take a step back, return the title to the Zheng family, and preferably promote them to a higher rank, so that the Zheng family can still guard the coastal defense for the court.

Of course, trade in the ocean can only be managed by the Zheng family, and that noble chamber of commerce must be disbanded on the spot.

Deep down, Zheng Zhilong still identified more with the Ming Dynasty court, but it was only because of interests.

The only thing he was worried about was not the emperor and court officials of the Ming Dynasty, but the young military marshal Zhang Shikang.

This person doesn't play by the rules and is a big variable.

He tried to bribe them and sent a lot of silver, but the people who came back said that the Duke of Zhenguo's Mansion had taken the silver.

At first he was very happy, but later he found out that Zhang Shikang just took the money but did nothing.

But even so, Zheng Zhilong was still full of confidence, believing that no matter what, no force in the waters of East Asia and Southeast Asia could confront his Zheng family.

But... the news from the bird boat shattered half of his dream.

Why did the Red Haired Barbarians’ fleet appear in the East China Sea?

Would the Ming Dynasty court really ally with foreign vassal states?

This is impossible! Those old guys claim to be the Celestial Empire and have always been full of contempt and distrust towards foreign vassals.

Besides, the Red Barbarians are now fighting a war of independence with the Big France. Even in the East Indies, the Red Barbarians are already struggling to deal with the Small France.

Why would he choose to go against the Zheng family at this time?

No matter how hard it is to understand, it did happen.

"Did you see clearly? How many ships are there? Are you sure they are warships, not merchant ships?" Zheng Zhilong waved his hand to stop the hostile behavior of Zheng Zhihu and Chen San, and said to his subordinates on the bird boat.

The merchant fleet of the Red-haired Barbarians was spread throughout the East Indies, and the Red-haired Barbarians were one of the only two trading partners of Japan after it closed its borders.

Japan was just to the northeast, so Zheng Zhilong subconsciously thought that it was a merchant fleet of the red-haired barbarians.

"Return home, my Lord. Look carefully, they are all warships. At least half of them are galleons, and there are several double-decker warships that are even larger than galleons!"

The subordinate replied again.

Zheng Zhilong was just about to discuss countermeasures when a bird boat came from the southeast.

"Master! The French fleet has been spotted about thirty miles to the southeast!"

"What? The little French country is here too? Are they going to have a decisive battle in the waters of my Ming Dynasty?" Zheng Zhihu said subconsciously.

The Red Barbarians and the Little France had been fighting in Southeast Asia for decades, and many of the Little France's islands were occupied by the Netherlands.

"Master...Master, their fleet seems...seems to be heading towards us." The helmsman of the bird boat said somewhat unconfidently.

"This is impossible!" Zheng Zhilong shouted angrily.

……