The person who unceremoniously pointed out the logistical problems and proposed disbanding was a man of short stature who was shorter than others even if he was sitting in a high position.

This man is about 40 years old, with dark complexion, narrow face, narrow eyes, and a broad forehead. He is wearing a nondescript Nanjing poplin short robe, a short knife at his waist, and a pair of fast boots. He is the leader of the Shibazhi gang.

One of the tops of the mountain: Liu Xiang.

Liu Xiang was born into a poor fishermen's family on Lamma Island. He is the only Cantonese in Shiba Zhi, and most of his subordinates are heroes who defected from Guangdong. Therefore, Liu Xiang's gang, whose main force is mainly Cantonese, and

The other hills of Shibazhi, which are dominated by Fujian people, are not very easy to deal with.

Since Zheng Zhilong, the only one with commanding power who can suppress these rebellious leaders, is "missing", everyone's usual nastiness will naturally burst out. Among them, the Liu Xiang Group is the most aggressive in disbanding.

There is actually a deeper reason why Liu Xiang is so eager to break up the gang.

Except for the fact that Zheng Zhilong worked as a horseman for the Portuguese in Macau in his early years, Zheng Zhilong's political line since then has actually been moving closer to the Dutch.

Ever since he started working as a translator for the Dutch, Zheng Zhilong had actually drifted away from the Catholic forces represented by Portugal and Spain.

You must know that when Comrade Yiguan was working as a "translator" for senior officials, he was not working as an office white-collar worker next to the Dutch. The task given to him by the Dutch was to lead a small fleet to intercept the two Portuguese and Spanish thieves in the strait.

Messenger ship.

In other words, from that time on, Zheng Zhilong was actually in a state of hostility with Spain and Portugal. Of course, the East Asian sea in this era was the law of the jungle, and it was normal for everyone to fight today and tomorrow. Later, when Zheng Zhilong became bigger

, and the Dutch also fell in love with each other.

But in history, Zheng Zhilong finally chose the combination of Dutch Daming. From the moment Zheng was recruited, the Dutch continued to receive raw silk and porcelain from him.

What does this behavior mean? It means that Zheng Zhilong completely abandoned the Catholic pairing of Portugal and Spain, and chose the Dutch side, which is more dynamic, more commercial, and more forceful, and represents the Protestant side, as his business partner.

At this point in time, Spain is still nominally the suzerainty of Portugal. Although the two countries are constantly at odds with each other in their European home base, on the East Asian Ocean, facing the aggressive Dutch who fire on every encounter, Portugal and Spain still maintain a good relationship.

An alliance that keeps people together for warmth.

So here comes the question: Since Zheng Zhilong is unreliable, who should Portugal and Spain support to be their own Zheng Zhilong?

Liu Xiang.

This is why the Liu Xiang Group urgently needs to disband after confirming that Zheng Zhilong is dead.

For Liu Xiang, the current situation is actually beneficial to him: the disappearance and death of Zheng Zhilong, who monopolized Japanese trade and left him and the Portuguese-Western merchants behind him breathless, is a good thing, because whether it is trade or

In other respects, from this moment on, a vast space has opened up.

He now urgently needs to resign from Zheng Zhilong's banner, and then return to his hometown in Chaozhou to contact the Portuguese and Spanish forces with whom he has been close.

The next step is simple: after getting the support of the master behind him, Liu Xiang can completely prepare his troops and watch the fire from the other side. After these Fujian sea masters have almost killed each other, Liu Xiang at that time can follow Zheng Zhilong's recruitment.

If we retreat to the old path, we can continue to plunder the coast and compete with the other gangs for the monopoly on trade with Japan. There are many ways forward.

In real history, Zheng Zhilong did not give Liu Xiang this opportunity.

From the beginning of the recruitment process, Liu Xiang, who represented the Portuguese-Spanish forces, officially fell out with Zheng Zhilong. After that, the two sides engaged in a seven-year maritime war.

Facing the strategic suppression of the powerful enemy in the north, Liu Xiang's group had no choice but to retreat step by step. In order to maintain the cohesion of the group, Liu Xiang could only go too far and plunder along the coast of Guangdong, bringing the war into his home base.

The cost of doing so was also heavy: Liu Xiang was hated by the Guangdong officialdom, which eventually led to a joint killing operation spearheaded by Zheng Zhilong, which led to his demise.

Of course, in the end, Liu Xiang was not at fault because he took Zheng Zhihu as his companion before he died. As the last of the Shiba Zhi cousins ​​to be eliminated by Zheng Zhilong, the dwarf Liu Xiang can be regarded as a typical example of a physically handicapped person with a strong mind.

His eyes returned to the Chinese army's tent.

When Liu Xiang once again repeated the demand for disbandment that he had been advocating in recent days, an old man in his mid-forties with gray hair, wearing a short Songjiang cotton robe and a short scimitar at his waist, sitting opposite him, spoke: "Liu Xiang

Master, the matter has not yet been decided, so you might as well wait a little longer."

This person is Li Kuiqi, one of the top Eighteen Zhi Mountains. Due to the uneven distribution of spoils in history, this person surrendered and rebelled after being recruited. He once annexed most of the troops and drove Zheng Zhilong back to Fuzhou.

After listening to Li Kuiqi's seemingly generous words, Liu Xiang sneered: "800 elites, 5 large ships, and no news within half a month. If we wait any longer, when will we be able to settle the bill? Now nearly 20,000 brothers are trapped here, sitting on empty mountains and empty food.

I’m afraid you won’t be able to handle it on stage, right?”

Having said this, Liu Xiang glanced sideways at a young man in green robe sitting on the chair opposite.

The young man looks to be in his mid-twenties, has a strong body, and there is a hint of Zheng Zhilong in his brows, but he is Zheng Zhilong's fourth brother: Zheng Zhifeng.

Zheng Zhifeng had a tired look on his face at the moment, and he didn't know what he was thinking while sitting in the chair. Hearing Liu Xiang repeatedly pointing at the grain table, he could only open his mouth and try to answer: "The grain table is still good, don't worry shopkeeper Liu."

"Not bad? Humph." Liu Xiang sneered again: "I'm afraid you can't keep track of it, right? Where is the silver rice that was supposed to be allocated to me yesterday?"

Marching and fighting in ancient times were far from simple.

With 10,000 people, there are no boundaries. In fact, even if it is a group of several hundred people, it still needs a food station dedicated to logistics work.

A pirate gang with thousands of ships and tens of thousands of men has even more stringent logistics requirements: key materials such as food must have large-scale commercial operations behind them to ensure distribution.

Whether pirates rob merchant ships or civilians, most of what they get in the end is just some cargo and floating wealth, rather than the neatly placed food.

After all, cargo is the priority on merchant ships, and Fujian does not produce grain. In fact, the main purpose of the pirates' so-called coastal robberies is to grab easy-to-get wealth. As for grain, Zheng Zhilong and the others are extremely rich.

A big businessman, not King Chuang, is not hungry enough to attack a city for food.

So regarding logistics, pirates have an ancestral supply method: the den owner.

From the day there were pirates, the profession of den owners also appeared in coastal areas. The den owners were responsible for purchasing the stolen goods looted by the pirates at low prices, and organizing grain, salt, and other bulk goods to be provided to the pirates.

This process is still effective even in later generations: those thieves who robbed jewelry stores also asked Jews to sell their stolen goods afterwards, and the street price was 30% at most.

It is even more ridiculous for a gang of ten thousand people like Shibazhi to live by grabbing food. In fact, the Zheng Group consumes an average of more than seven or eight tons of food every day. All of these goods are from Guangdong and Zhejiang.

Trafficked here by the owner.

And the matter of the grain platform that Liu Xiang mentioned repeatedly today has actually gone straight to the core of the problem: the Zheng family can no longer keep its bottom line.

Before this, because someone was going to Fuzhou City to negotiate for recruitment, the entire gang was in a state of forced silence: naturally, no news of pirate raids could be heard during the negotiation. This is the basic principle. Otherwise, it would be really serious.

The old bear doesn't know how to kill people?

However, this state of silence comes at a price: a large amount of food and silver are withdrawn from the public account every day.

If Zheng Zhilong had not died, then this situation could have lasted for a long time: even if the Zheng family filled it with their own private bank from sea trade, they would be able to support these pirates for half a year at least. By then, all it takes is one move, no matter how much money they have.

I also made money back.

But now it's no longer possible. Zheng Zhifeng, who is in charge of the grain platform, can only admit the news of his eldest brother's death even if he is unwilling to do so. After leaving Zheng Zhilong and the 800 core pirates of the Zheng family, the Zheng brothers are grieving in private.

I also had to make early plans for my own family.

People who lick blood from the edge of a knife are the most sensitive to the ebb and flow of each other's strength. Now the Zheng family has lost its biggest support overnight. It can be said that the strength is sliding down: pirates are all like red tops and white ones.

In the past few days, there have been many people going back and forth with Liu Xiang and Li Kuiqi in private, but there is not a single shopkeeper who is willing to continue to follow these young people from the Zheng family.

Still the same sentence: Now is 1628, which is far from the golden years in history when the Zheng family became powerful and Zheng Zhifeng used the tiger skin to pull the banner. As soon as Zheng Zhilong died, the Zheng family's middle-aged goods immediately showed their prototypes

, there is no comparison with the likes of Li Kuiqi and Liu Xiang whose commanding power is in the second level.

Ever since, Zheng Zhifeng started to play tricks on the grain table: Since sooner or later these hungry wolves will not be suppressed, it is better to take advantage of the time when his brothers are still in charge of the grain table and save more resources for the winter. What's the point?

It is very clear: the Zheng family will have to spend the winter in the future.

Who would have thought that after just one day of deducting food and grass, the matter would be exposed by Liu Xiang, who was looking for trouble.

Zheng Zhifeng, who was slightly embarrassed, could only speak vaguely: "Perhaps my subordinates were delayed a little, and I only had enough money and food for a day or two. Why would Shopkeeper Liu do this?"

"You bastard! How dare you get rich here after deducting money from brothers who worked hard for their lives!" Liu Xiang, who had long ignored the second-generation ancestors of the Zheng family, was filled with righteous indignation and jumped up from his chair in anger.

He pointed at Zheng Zhifeng's nose and yelled: "You little thief, how much silver rice have you stolen from the grain platform? Now to be honest, you can still survive!"

With a "choking" sound, as soon as Liu Xiang finished speaking, a tall and thick man standing behind Zheng Zhifeng suddenly pulled out a short sword from his waist. This man's name is Zheng Zhipeng, a brother of Zheng Zhilong's hometown. Historically, this guy was named by the country's master

On the charge of losing Xiamen, he was beheaded in public and made into a raft.

As Zheng Zhipeng pulled out his saber, the Chinese military tent suddenly became filled with the sound of gold and iron clashing: the subordinates standing behind the shopkeepers all pulled out their sabers, and the scene suddenly became tense.

7

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