Zheng Zhilong's original name was Zheng Yiguan. He was born in a small fishing village called Shijing in Nan'an, Fujian. His father was a small local official. The salary of officials in the Ming Dynasty was pitiful. If ordinary small officials were not corrupt, their families would not be able to support their families. Zheng Yiguan's father was relatively honest, so when there were more children in the family, the family's livelihood was difficult to maintain.

When Zheng Yiguan was seventeen years old, due to the difficulties in his family, he had to take his two younger brothers to Macau to join his uncle Huang Cheng who was engaged in overseas trade. He was very business-oriented and had good foreign language talent. After working with Huang Cheng for three years, he not only helped Huang Cheng manage his business properly, but also learned Dutch and Portuguese.

Seeing that he had learned almost everything, Huang Cheng sent him to the sect of Li Dan, an overseas Chinese in Hirado, Japan. Li Dan was not simple. He was one of the most powerful maritime merchants at that time, with strong capital and his own fleet. After Zheng Yiguan became more diligent after he arrived at Li Dan, he was even more diligent and even "serving his father" to Li Dan. Seeing that he was capable and reliable, Li Dan accepted him as his adopted son and handed him some of the business over to him.

Since then, Zheng Yiguan has become a leader of local overseas Chinese and has received preferential treatment from the Tokugawa shogunate, becoming one of the prominent figures in Japan at that time.

There is a saying that: Opportunities are always reserved for those who are prepared. Since Zheng Yiguan knows Dutch and Portuguese, Li Dan simply handed over all the transactions with the Dutch to him, and Zheng Yiguan got on the Dutch line again.

At that time, the Dutch were competing for maritime hegemony with the Portuguese and the Spaniards. In order to monopolize trade with Japan, the Dutch actually trained Zheng Yiguan to be a pirate, specifically plundering cargo ships sent from the southeast coast to Japan.

From then on, Zheng Yiguan began a life of both business and thieves. In the eyes of the Japanese and Dutch, he was a famous maritime businessman with huge business and wealthy business; in the eyes of the Portuguese and the Spanish, he was a notorious pirate, burning, killing, looting, and doing all kinds of evil.

Zheng Yiguan was both businessman and thief and was stalked at the sea for two years and gradually broke away from the control of the Dutch and began to establish his own business. After Li Dan's death, he inherited most of Li Dan's legacy and gradually became the largest maritime merchant and pirate on the southeast coast.

Later, he recruited Zheng Xing, Zheng Ming, Zheng Cai, Yang Geng, Chen Hui and other generals from the mainland, collectively known as "Shibazhi". He also changed his name to Zheng Zhilong and no longer called Zheng Yiguan.

At the end of the Apocalypse, a severe drought occurred in southern Fujian. Zheng Zhilong took the opportunity to attack the coastal areas of Fujian and recruited victims to Taiwan to open up land and farm. The coastal hungry and unemployed vagrants competed to join tens of thousands of people. Zheng Zhilong's power began to expand rapidly, and the number of people under his control reached hundreds of thousands, and the army even grew to more than 100,000!

At that time, the Ming Dynasty was in internal and external troubles. The peasant uprising in the northwest and the Later Jin cavalry in the northeast caused the entire Ming Dynasty to be in turmoil. They were powerless to wipe out the pirates and could only seek pacification.

In July of the first year of Chongzheng, Zheng Zhilong accepted the requisition of Fujian Governor Xiong Wencan, and led his troops to surrender to the Ming Dynasty and served as the "Five Tigers Guerrilla General". He was in southern Fujian and guarded the coastal areas of the Ming Dynasty to prevent pirates, Japanese pirates and Dutch attacks.

By February of the third year of Chongzheng, Zheng Zhilong basically wiped out pirates and Japanese pirates on the coast of Fujian. He was promoted to the Fujian general for his merits, with more than 100,000 troops and thousands of warships, which shocked the southeast!

In June of the same year, he took his beloved son Zheng Sen back to his hometown in Fujian from Hirado, Japan, and hired scholars from scientific examinations for him to conduct enlightenment education. Then he sent him to Jinling, Nandu to increase his knowledge and inspire him to be studious and progress.

I originally agreed to come back a month before the New Year, but it was about to be over. Not only did my beloved son Zheng Sen not only did not come back, but he also sent someone a letter from home, saying: The emperor asked you to come to Nanjing for a gathering!

The emperor is now in Nanjing, so there is no doubt about this. Fujian belongs to the three provinces in Jiangnan. The vigorous arrest operation lasted for nearly a month. Even the common people knew that it was the emperor arresting the rebels. Zheng Zhilong was not a common people. Not only did he know that the emperor was arresting the rebels, but he also knew that the emperor was desperately raiding his house. He even knew that the emperor was eliminating the opposition forces of the Donglin Party.

Should I go or not? After all, I am a pirate and have more than 100,000 troops. If the emperor turns against me, it will be a meat bun to beat a dog, and there will be no return! If it is someone else, it may be difficult to make a decision, and I even dare not go at all, but Zheng Zhilong decided to go for only one cup of tea.

Zheng Zhilong was born a speculator and had a unique vision of the situation. Once he thought it was profitable, he would bet without hesitation. For example, at the Southern Ming Dynasty, he could see at a glance that the Ming Dynasty had exhausted its energy and chose to surrender to the Qing Dynasty without hesitation. As a result, the Qing Dynasty won and the Ming Dynasty died, but the Qing Dynasty looked down on the Han people at all, not to mention that he was still a pirate, so he not only did not get heavy use for decisive surrender, but instead paid all the lives of the whole family.

Of course, this cannot be blamed for making mistakes in judgment. No matter how you make a judgment, you will not get the correct answer.

So why did he decisively fall into Emperor Chongzheng's arms this time? The reason why he was so decisive was because he received the news that the little emperor had confiscated all the assets of the Jiangnan family, and all the forces against him such as the Donglin Party were captured by him!

Why was the Ming Dynasty dying? In the final analysis, it was due to serious internal friction and lack of funds.

Now the Donglin Party, who likes internal strife the most, has been dealt with. It can be said that the source of internal friction has been extinguished. In addition, the number of assets of the Jiangnan rich clan was confiscated, and the court also had money. If these two key problems were solved, the Ming Dynasty's ZTE was expected.

At this time, the little emperor needed support the most. Now he went to surrender was equivalent to a timely help. When he straightened everything, the Ming Dynasty gradually became formal. Even if he, a pirate, ran over and licked someone's toes, he would be kicked away!

The opportunity must not be missed, and no more mistakes will come. Once Zheng Zhilong determines what he knows, he will do without hesitation. Therefore, despite the opposition of his brothers, he rushed to Nanjing City with a thousand guards.

This time, Zheng Zhilong was lucky. Zhu Cijiu was not the kind of person who was a man of Qing court who was undone and killed donkeys. He just wanted to use Zheng Zhilong's power at sea to compete with European powers for trade rights. Therefore, Zhu Cijiu not only would not kill Zheng Zhilong, but would also give him generous treatment, making him willing to contribute to the Ming Dynasty.

After Zheng Zhilong arrived in Nanjing, Zhu Cijiu immediately met him at the temporary residence of the Forbidden City in Nanjing. When he saw his son following Zhu Cijiu like a follower, he was not angry, but secretly glad that he had the right bet.
Chapter completed!