Chapter 644: Zheng Zhilong Surrenders

Qi Yuanbi glanced at Yu Zigao, a strange look on his face.

"Are you sure what you just said came from the heart?"

"The ships across from us are decent?"

"What kind of broken-down vessels are those?"

Sailing on the Imperial Navy's warships, Qi Yuanbi truly couldn't see anything worthwhile in Zheng Zhilong's ragtag fleet.

"You don't need to look at me like that." Yu Zigao said with a smile: "When I say their ships are decent, they're decent — it's just that compared to ours, they fall short by more than a little. But what does that matter?"

"Tell the men to be careful this time — once they're scared stiff, stop firing. I want to capture every one of their ships. You need to understand, it's not just the cargo on board that's valuable; their warships are valuable too. Once this is done, we'll sell the whole lot to the Imperial Household Department."

"After this battle, those merchants will come out like madmen to make money. In places like Henan and Shandong, merchants can ship their goods by boat to Joseon and foreign countries to sell. What matters most to them?"

"Ships, of course. Although Shandong and elsewhere are building shipyards now, when will that production speed ever catch up?"

"These are ready-made good ships, and they even have cannons on board. If Your Majesty permits the sale of these warships, I'm certain plenty of people will buy them, and the cargo ships afterward as well. If we really do sell them, we can sell entire fleets at once — those big merchants can absolutely afford it."

"We are the Imperial Guard Corps, and you know our reward system — thirty percent of the spoils. Think about it yourself: how much income can these ships and goods bring us? How much income can they bring the soldiers? After this one battle, we'll be rich."

After hearing Yu Zigao out, Qi Yuanbi said with a somewhat odd expression: "Aren't you afraid we'll just go plunder them?"

Glancing at Qi Yuanbi, Yu Zigao felt somewhat exasperated.

The three Qi brothers were all highly talented men, but compared to his two older brothers, Qi Yuanbi still fell short. His military ability was fine, but his understanding of people was far too naive.

Perhaps it was because the family's circumstances had improved, letting Qi Yuanbi bury himself in books, that he lacked that aggressive ambition on the battlefield.

Then again, that wasn't quite right either — the lad could be ruthless enough in a fight. He still couldn't see why His Majesty had issued this military order.

Put plainly, wasn't it just telling you to go plunder?

On the surface it said thirty percent for yourselves and seventy percent turned over to the court, but in reality, if you skimmed a little nobody would care — fiddle with it a bit and it became forty percent for yourselves, sixty percent for the court.

Did the court and His Majesty really not know that once this order was issued, the soldiers would go plunder?

Of course they knew. What kind of man was the current His Majesty? How could he possibly not know about this?

The officials in the court weren't fools either — every one of them who could maneuver under His Majesty was a sharp operator. They knew perfectly well in their hearts; they definitely knew about this matter. But why did they still do it?

Because they wanted you to go plunder.

Although Yu Zigao hadn't yet figured out why the court would want them to plunder, the intent was already obvious enough. This was his experiment.

After all, these men followed him. Coastal pirates — to some extent, robbing them was perfectly normal. If his guess was right, this was a golden opportunity to get rich; even if he guessed wrong, killing them off was no great loss.

Seeing that Yu Zigao had no intention of explaining, Qi Yuanbi said nothing more.

Since he couldn't figure it out, he decided not to think about it — he'd write to his two brothers after returning. In this regard, he had always been somewhat lacking, far inferior to his two older brothers.

Especially his eldest brother, who served at His Majesty's side — he was the best of the Qi family in this regard.

As the warships charged forward, the Ming soldiers began pulling out their firearms, one by one taking aim. Some even started laughing and joking, making bets on who could pick off targets one by one.

On Zheng Zhilong's side across the way, their faces were extremely grim.

Their warships had just begun to get underway when the Ming warships had already caught up. At this rate, they would soon be overtaken — the Ming warships were faster than theirs.

When not running at full speed, it wasn't noticeable, but now that they were going all out, they truly were no match.

A subordinate came to Zheng Zhilong's side and stammered: "General, what should we do?"

He was genuinely panicking now — and not just him; everyone else was too.

Zheng Zhilong narrowed his eyes. Only two paths lay before him.

Either surrender, or fight.

Running was out of the question — the Ming ships were faster than his, and their cannons had greater range. Now that the enemy had closed in this close, escape was impossible.

But if he turned around to fight, or opened fire to slow the enemy down, then they would fire back. Given the power and range of their cannons just demonstrated, not a single one of his warships would get away. At that point, total annihilation was the only outcome.

Still, he could gamble — maybe a few ships could slip away, meaning he himself could escape. But the fleet and everything purchased this trip would all have to be abandoned here.

At the thought, Zheng Zhilong's heart ached as if cut with a knife.

But if he surrendered, then he would be the fish on the chopping block, at the mercy of the blade.

"Have them stop the ships and surrender." Zheng Zhilong said after thinking it over, calming his turbulent emotions as he gazed at the Ming warships ahead.

The subordinate looked at Zheng Zhilong and said hesitantly: "General, if we surrender, they might kill us this time. We can't surrender!"

Zheng Zhilong glanced at his subordinate and said: "That is the court's Imperial Navy. We never fired on them — what just happened was merely a misunderstanding. As long as we explain ourselves clearly, there won't be a problem."

This was another reason Zheng Zhilong dared to surrender — his side had never fired a single shot.

In recent years, his maritime business had grown very large, and he inevitably had dealings with the court. Although he had conflicts with Xu Xinsu, he wasn't without backers — the Imperial Household Department wasn't a monolith after all.

Moreover, local officials had excellent relations with Zheng Zhilong — the Governor of Fujian, for instance.

This time, as long as he explained things clearly, there was still room to maneuver. Under such circumstances, Zheng Zhilong dared to negotiate with the Imperial Navy across the water.

Fighting was a dead end; talking might just let him live.

What Yu Zigao hadn't expected was that the other side would stop their ships and surrender so quickly.

Zheng Zhilong stood at the very front, quietly waiting for the Imperial Navy to arrive.

The Imperial Navy side didn't hesitate either — they sent men aboard and took control of Zheng Zhilong and the others without delay.

Word soon came back, and Yu Zigao was somewhat dumbfounded.

"They say they're maritime merchants from Fujian?" Yu Zigao looked at his subordinate and said: "I think they're wokou pirates. Maritime merchants, they claim?"

In this era, pirates and merchants were basically indistinguishable.

In this globally renowned age, they typically became robbers and plundered when they could win, and became legitimate merchants trading when they couldn't — and even nations did the same.

Under such circumstances, maritime merchants and pirates truly had no difference.

In the Ming, the suffering from wokou raids was well known, and the common people harbored a deep, bone-deep hatred for them.

Yu Zigao had grown up fighting wokou alongside his father, so he understood the real situation all too well.

A force this massive, with this level of armed strength — and you call them maritime merchants?

Nobody would believe that.

"Commander, he says they have connections with the Imperial Household Department. A lot of the cargo they're carrying this time belongs to the Imperial Household Department. It was meant to be shipped to Joseon and handed over for the Department to sell there." The subordinate said with some hesitation.

"The man in charge is called Zheng Zhilong. He's said to be a wealthy merchant from Fujian, well acquainted with officials in Fujian and elsewhere. He requests to see you first, sir, saying it's all a misunderstanding and he wants to meet you face to face to clear things up."

Hearing this, Yu Zigao's expression turned grim.

If what they said was true, he was in trouble. If the other side really were maritime merchants, this was a blunder on his part. He had destroyed dozens of their ships and killed quite a few people—this wasn't something that could be brushed aside so easily.

As for opening fire now to sink them all and silence everyone—that was out of the question.

After all, although everyone in the Imperial Navy was his subordinate, not all of them would blindly follow his orders.

This was the Imperial Navy. If it were a normal combat order, there'd be no problem. But if you tried to pull something on the side, were you afraid no one would report you?

Even Qi Yuanbi would absolutely never agree to such a thing. And with military supervisors in the army on top of that? There was no way to justify it.

"Go fetch the military supervisor and the Imperial Household Department people." Yu Zigao said directly after a moment's thought. "Let their people come and listen, so they can't accuse us of playing tricks later."

Hearing this, even Qi Yuanbi at his side hesitated.

The subordinate said directly: "Commander, shouldn't we wait a bit and meet this Zheng Zhilong first? He might have been lying just now. We don't know anything yet. Once we've gotten the facts straight, there'll be no harm in calling the supervisor."

Yu Zigao glared at his subordinate and said: "Why so much talk? Go now!"

"Yes, Commander." The subordinate answered helplessly, turned, and walked out, preparing to send a boat to fetch the man.

The military supervisor wasn't on this ship, and neither were the Imperial Household Department people. After all, this was a warship—there was a certain amount of danger. They were all on the supply ship in the middle.

Zheng Zhilong was soon brought over as well, accompanied by several of his subordinates.

Seeing that the Great Ming soldiers didn't go to the cargo ships in the rear and only ordered the people on the warships to lay down their arms, Zheng Zhilong breathed a sigh of relief.

Clearly his words had worked—otherwise he wouldn't be receiving such good treatment. It also had to do with the fact that he hadn't opened fire.

Not opening fire—that was extremely important.

When Zheng Zhilong was ferried aboard the Great Ming warship, he felt his eyes weren't enough to take it all in.

The ships of the Great Ming Imperial Navy were much larger than his own, and far more spacious.

Especially the enormous cannon at the front—Zheng Zhilong's eyes went wide staring at it, gleaming with excitement.