Chapter 176: The Great Enemy Zheng Zhilong

The welcoming party at the dock included not only Wei Yuan of the Army, but also Du Dewei, the Marine Corps Deputy Commander.

Du Dewei, that remnant of the South American Guerrillas, had crossed over relatively late, so he didn't know Chen Huoding. But that didn't matter; Du Dewei, who had long since had a clear "count" in his heart, simply shook hands with Chen Erye with a smile, exchanged a couple of introductions, and that was that.

Chen Erye was completely baffled by the internal branch divisions of the military. Fortunately, before departing from Hangzhou, he had received hints and pointers from Lu Cheng, so he now roughly understood that Du Dewei was the head who commanded elite units like the "Scouts and Night Stalkers" — the Imperial Guard.

The helpless Chen Erye could now only take things one step at a time. Being forced into these internal factional struggles before even becoming a common soldier was truly not what he wished for. What followed next was naturally the new recruit training that no one could escape: the buzz-cut Erye was soon assigned to a newly built barracks on Dayuan Island, silently tidying his bunk while beside him a drill instructor — an old hand from Pingfeng Stronghold and Erye's new immediate superior — loudly read out the regulations.

The group that came to the Dayuan Dock to meet the ship also included two Navy personnel. Of course, so many military men coming to the dock was naturally not because of Chen Huoding, a mere recruit... Erye was just an incidental sight for everyone, a bit of comic relief to tease a couple of times. The real reason these people came to the dock was to meet Wang Xiaohui: three days ago, while this gentleman was still adrift at sea, he had already been appointed as the Navy representative for the "Contending for the Front" plan.

So, the atmosphere at this kind of occasion today was slightly oppressive; in fact, the mood on Dayuan Island had been rather tense lately. Of course, an outsider like Chen Erye, visiting Dayuan for the first time, could not feel it.

It was now May of 1628. The Crossing Faction's most important external task this year — the elimination of the Zheng Zhilong Gang — had already entered its formal implementation phase.

Ever since Xiong Wencan entered Fujian, the Transmigrators, who had been closely monitoring the situation in the Min Sea, had already held two expanded meetings and one special-topic meeting based on intelligence sent back by field personnel. This frequency was unprecedented in the short history of the Crossing Faction.

The current situation was this: the Dayuan Island representative stationed in Fuzhou had already successfully met with Xiong Wencan multiple times. While presenting large amounts of treasure, the representative also took the opportunity to express the urgent desire of these uncivilized savages beyond the pale to serve the nation with utmost loyalty.

These actions, combined with the "out of public duty" "staff planning" of a certain influential advisor in the Grand Coordinator's Office, had successfully led Xiong Wencan to make a strategic judgment: prioritize receiving the leader of the Dayuan gang: Cao Chuan. If everything went smoothly after this, Xiong Wencan intended to formally offer recruitment and amnesty to the Dayuan power, and grant Cao Chuan official support to pacify the major pirates, including Zheng Zhilong.

Although Lao Xiong was still in a wait-and-see state and hadn't fully leaned toward the Dayuan side, this achievement was already enough to excite the gentlemen of the Great Office — this was normal. Historically, Lao Xiong had no choice; now that a Dayuan Gang had appeared, Lao Xiong would naturally hold out for the best price.

It must be known that historically, Xiong Wencan had left the capital with the tacit approval of the entire court for the recruitment and amnesty of Zheng Zhilong. Soon after Lao Xiong arrived in Fujian, he began the process of recruiting Zheng Zhilong. The process was very smooth, lacking the standard features of past dynasties' official recruitment of bandits: repeated back-and-forth, haggling, ambushes and entrapment killings — from this, one could glimpse Lao Xiong's sincerity, and also the profound weakness beneath the Ming Empire's mighty exterior.

That the Crossing Faction could achieve such a priority in blocking position today was the result of foreknowledge plus long-term planning, and it was no easy feat.

Xiong Wencan's message was transmitted from the radio at the Fuzhou Intelligence Station three days before Chen Huoding arrived at Dayuan.

Upon receiving this news, Xia Xianze immediately convened an emergency meeting.

The first thing decided at the meeting was the formal establishment of the "Contending for the Front" plan execution group, aimed at eliminating Zheng Zhilong. The group leader was Dai Yun, Director of the Intelligence Bureau, with participants sent from the Navy, Army, and Marine Corps.

The second thing decided at the meeting was to respond quickly to Lao Xiong's proposition: to send "Cao Zong" to Fuzhou in the coming days to meet with Lao Xiong, striving to obtain formal recruitment and amnesty as soon as possible.

At the meeting's conclusion, the Great Office tasked the newly formed "Contending for the Front" group with producing a concrete plan to eliminate Zheng Zhilong as quickly as possible, based on prior contingency plans and the latest intelligence.

From the very moment Xiong Wencan passed through Hangzhou and Xiong Dao came to offer his allegiance, the Dayuan side had already gamed out today's scenario.

The best outcome the Crossing Faction hoped to achieve was this: Xiong Wencan would recruit a "Fierce General" grandly presented by the Crossing Faction, grant this man the official post of Mobile Corps Commander General, and then the combined forces of both sides, under the command of this Fierce General, would campaign east and west, pacifying all the pirate powers.

This model would be advantageous for a certain power to shift blame after gaining the world: it was so-and-so who accepted recruitment, not Cao Chuan who accepted recruitment... Although this was self-deception, it could at least apply a bit of rouge and powder to the historical records.

For the second-best outcome, everyone also had a contingency plan: Lao Xiong would ignore the so-called Fierce General proposal and go straight to the point, wanting to recruit Cao Chuan, the pirate leader of Dayuan.

What the Transmigrators now faced was this second-best outcome.

A fake was easy to find; after all, Xiong Wencan didn't know what Cao Chuan looked like.

As for Cao Chuan himself, going to Fuzhou would be a joke. As the absolute core competitiveness of the Crossing Faction, the source of all power, let alone recruitment, even if one day the Transmigrators captured some major coastal city, without a large fleet escort, Cao Zong could not possibly budge from Dayuan — he was simply too important to move lightly!

... In summary, the fake, Zhang Dongdong, thus made his entrance.

Zhang Dongdong, a native of Hebei, had been a client manager at an advertising company before crossing over.

Zhang Dongdong was neither handsome, nor did he look much like Cao Zong, nor was he brilliant and mighty, nor did he know naval warfare, land battle, or intelligence warfare. So how did he become Cao Zong's body double?

Very simple: process of elimination.

The first to be eliminated were the heretics.

What were heretics? That group who attacked Xia Xianze's right-leaning capitulationist line were heretics. Simply put: the Imperial Han.

The person who went to accept recruitment would spend much of the future away from Dayuan. Therefore, Dayuan's current leadership and all technical personnel, including those in steelmaking and shipbuilding, were also excluded.

The remaining people were already few, and from these, the majority who were unwilling to go and kneel before Ming officials had to be removed.

Historically, when Xiong Wencan recruited Zheng Zhilong, the "Five Tigers Guerilla General" title he offered was not only very low in rank within the Great Ming system, but even within the Crossing system, it was not a good post.

No real power, every move guided by someone behind the scenes, military professionals handling the fighting, and getting criticized by the Imperial Han from time to time... it was a puppet role.

To be honest, there weren't many competitors for this position, so the advertising manager Zhang Dongdong smoothly took office. Brother Zhang was currently undergoing emergency training: using Cao Chuan's name, growing his hair to half-length, carrying a fake hair bun in his pocket, and practicing how to kneel and kowtow every day...

After clarifying the person responsible for recruitment and the plan leader, the group led by Dai Yun, after a few days of discussion, quickly produced a plan to eliminate Zheng Zhilong: ambush.

A direct head-on confrontation was impossible. Dayuan Island simply did not have enough ships and crewmen right now to go across the sea and cause trouble for Lao Zheng. Hoping that Lao Zheng would suddenly become brainless and attack with his entire force was also unrealistic. So, after all calculations, they still had to leverage a certain faction's unique high-tech advantage: ambush and kill.

As for how to ambush and kill, in short, Zheng Zhilong had to show his head. Now that the enemy was in the open and we were hidden, Dai Yun and his team had already prepared a series of contingency plans. As long as Lao Zheng still wanted recruitment, there was no worry he wouldn't take the bait — deal with Lao Zheng, great fortune and great luck, winner winner chicken dinner tonight.

As for the situation after Zheng Zhilong's death, that was actually the least worrisome — historically, after Zheng Zhilong was placed under house arrest by the Manchu Qing, his underlings instantly fragmented, with no one capable of commanding universal obedience.

In this time period, none of those so-called great sea lords, including Zheng Zhilong's own clan brothers and cousins, possessed Lao Zheng's innate talent for alliance-building and diplomacy. The moment those surface-level brothers learned of Lao Zheng kicking the bucket, they would immediately start slaughtering each other.

If one were to place Lao Zheng into the game Romance of the Three Kingdoms, then without a doubt, Lao Zheng's Leadership stat would be 90+. The young Zheng Zhilong possessed a talent common to all great commanders: forming a united front.

Looking at all successful figures throughout history, like Liu Bang of Han, Li Tang, even Zhu Baba, and the founding father of the later dynasty, these people could always, amidst complex and intricate situations, clearly distinguish friend from foe — at a certain point in time, ally with the second to fight the first, then disband, turn hostile, and continue by allying with the third to fight the second... until all opponents were eliminated.

Zheng Zhilong possessed this same capability.

Historically, Zheng Zhilong first united a group of pirates who were only superficially aligned to plunder everywhere, using profit as bait to coax everyone into opposing the authorities. However, after successfully accepting recruitment and amnesty, he turned around and eliminated his old brothers one by one.

There is a section of historical fact in the middle that provides an extremely clear contrast: shortly after Zheng Zhilong first accepted recruitment, he was betrayed by his surface-level brother Li Kuiqi. At that time, Li Kuiqi had already incited most of the Zheng Clan's original followers, occupied Xiamen, and driven Zheng Zhilong and a few of his clan brothers back to Fuzhou.

At this moment, the Dutch entered the scene.

The Dutch fleet came to Zhangzhou Bay at Zheng Zhilong's invitation. At that time, Zheng Zhilong, abandoning his previous dismissive attitude toward the Dutch, not only organized a small amount of raw silk for delivery to the Dutch, but also wrote multiple letters making grand promises: just help me deal with Li Kuiqi, and the raw silk trade from now on will be well...

The Dutch were not stupid; subconsciously, they did not want Zheng Zhilong to gain power. So during their days in Zhangzhou Bay, the Dutch sent ships multiple times to contact Li Kuiqi, making a demand: as long as Li Kuiqi promised future raw silk trade, the Dutch would turn around and attack Zheng Zhilong.

This kind of two-sided bargaining was done openly and brazenly by the Dutch, and Zheng Zhilong's envoy was actually staying on the Dutch ship at the time.

Yet Li Kuiqi was simply unwilling to cooperate with the Dutch...

At such a critical moment, the arrogant and overbearing Li Kuiqi was simply unwilling to ship raw silk to the Dutch... At that time, Li Kuiqi occupied Xiamen and had a large stock of raw silk on hand.

As the days passed, until the night before Zheng Zhilong arrived with the fleet the authorities had supported him with, the Dutch contacted Li Kuiqi one last time... The Dutch finally despaired. The next day, the Dutch gunboats charged into Li Kuiqi's fleet first, and Zheng Zhilong, with a small force, had the last laugh.

The above historical facts are all recorded in detail in the Dutch "Zeelandia Diaries."

Therefore, the ability to assess the situation, especially in the information-poor medieval era, to cast aside all likes and dislikes and unite with an enemy, was truly a trait possessed by only a few.

So, the only one the Transmigrators truly feared was Zheng Zhilong himself — this handsome man who, as long as he didn't die, could bind forces together to oppose the Transmigrators.