Chapter 229: All the Worthy Gather (Part Two)

Without the slightest courtesy, the man who pointed out the logistical problems and proposed disbanding was short and stocky — even sitting in a folding chair, he was a head shorter than everyone else.

He looked around forty, with dark skin, a narrow face, thin eyes, and a broad forehead. He wore an incongruous short robe of Nanjing Prefecture Silk, a short knife at his waist, and a pair of quick-wear boots on his feet. This was one of the major powers within the Eighteen Zhi: Liu Xiang.

Liu Xiang came from a poor fishing family on Lamma Island and was the only Cantonese among the Eighteen Zhi. Most of his subordinates were also bold fellows who had flocked to him from Cantonese lands. Because of this, the Liu Xiang group, whose main force was Cantonese, had never really gotten along with the other Eighteen Zhi factions, which were predominantly Fujianese.

With Zheng Zhilong — the man whose command authority was maxed out, the only one who could keep these unruly leaders in check — now "missing," all the petty grudges they usually kept buried naturally erupted. Among them, the most radical in pushing for disbanding was the Liu Xiang Group.

Liu Xiang's urgency for the Great Gang to disband actually had a deeper reason.

Aside from his early years in Macau working as a Portuguese lackey, Zheng Zhilong's political line had, after that, always been leaning closer to the Dutch.

From the time he worked as a translator for the Dutch, Zheng Zhilong had in fact been drifting further and further away from the Catholic Powers represented by Portugal and Spain.

It must be understood that Comrade Yiguan's years as a "translator" in Dayuan were not spent as an office white-collar by the Dutchman's side — the task the Dutch gave him was: lead a fleet into the strait to intercept the messenger ships of those two thieves, Portugal and Spain.

In other words, from that point on, Zheng Zhilong was actually in a state of hostility with Spain and Portugal. Of course, on the East Asian seas of this era, the law of the jungle prevailed; fighting today and making peace tomorrow was the norm. Later, after Zheng Zhilong grew powerful, his relationship with the Dutch was also one of love and hate intertwined.

But historically, Zheng Zhilong ultimately chose the combination of the Dutch + the Great Ming. From the moment the Zheng Clan accepted recruitment and amnesty, the Dutch received a steady stream of raw silk and porcelain from his hands.

What did this kind of behavior represent? It represented Zheng Zhilong completely abandoning the Catholic duo of Portugal + Spain, and choosing the more dynamic, more commercialized, more militarily assertive Dutch — representing Protestantism — as his business partner.

At this point in time, Spain was still nominally the suzerain of Portugal. Although the two countries bickered endlessly back in their old nests in Europe, on the East Asian seas, facing the aggressive Dutch who opened fire on sight, Portugal and Spain still maintained a good alliance of huddling together for warmth.

So here comes the problem: since Zheng Zhilong could not be relied upon, whom should Portugal and Spain support to become their own Zheng Zhilong?

Liu Xiang.

This was the reason why the Liu Xiang Group, having confirmed Zheng Zhilong's death, urgently needed the Great Gang to disband.

For Liu Xiang, the current situation was actually advantageous to him: the disappearance (death) of Zheng Zhilong, who had monopolized the Japan trade and crushed him and the Portuguese and Spanish Sea Merchants behind him, was a great thing. Because whether in trade or other aspects, from this moment on, a vast space had opened up.

He now urgently needed to withdraw from under Zheng Zhilong's banner, then return to his old nest around Chaozhou and contact the Portuguese and Spanish powers with whom he had close ties.

The next step would be simple: after receiving support from the masters behind the scenes, Liu Xiang could fully regroup his forces and watch the fire from across the shore. Once these Fujianese sea lords had mostly slaughtered each other, Liu Xiang could, on the offensive, follow Zheng Zhilong's old path of recruitment and amnesty, or, on the defensive, continue raiding the coast and compete with the remaining Great Gangs for monopoly rights over the Japan trade. Many paths lay ahead.

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

From the very beginning of the recruitment and amnesty, Liu Xiang, representing Portuguese and Spanish power, formally turned hostile against Zheng Zhilong. After this, both sides engaged in a seven-year-long naval war.

Facing strategic suppression from a powerful northern enemy, the Liu Xiang Group had no choice but to retreat step by step. To maintain the group's cohesion, Liu Xiang could only turn around and pillage the Guangdong coast on a massive scale, bringing the war into his own old nest.

The price for this action was also bitter: Liu Xiang was loathed by Guangdong Officialdom, ultimately drawing a joint extermination campaign with Zheng Zhilong as the vanguard, which led to his destruction.

Of course, in the end, Liu Xiang didn't lose out either — before dying, he dragged Zheng Zhihu down with him. As the last surface-level brother among the Eighteen Zhi to be taken out by Zheng Zhilong, the shorty Liu Xiang could also be considered a typical example of physical disability but unyielding determination.

Let us return our gaze to the Central Army Tent.

When Liu Xiang once again repeated the demand for disbanding he had been advocating for the past few days, an older man sitting opposite him spoke up. He had graying hair, wore a short robe of Songjiang cotton cloth with a short curved knife at his waist, and looked forty-five or forty-six: "Master Liu, the matter is not yet settled. It wouldn't hurt to wait a little longer."

This man was Li Kuiqi, one of the major powers of the Eighteen Zhi. Historically, due to an uneven distribution of spoils, this man surrendered then rebelled again after the amnesty. He was a fierce figure who once swallowed up the majority of the men and drove Zheng Zhilong back to Fuzhou.

Hearing Li Kuiqi's seemingly magnanimous words, Liu Xiang's face was full of cold sneers: "Eight hundred elite troops, five large ships, and not a word for half a month. If we keep waiting, when will this be settled? Right now, nearly twenty thousand brothers are stuck here, eating away our reserves. I'm afraid the Grain Office can no longer meet the demand, can it?"

At this point, Liu Xiang cast a sidelong glance at a young man in a blue robe sitting on a folding chair opposite him.

The young man looked about twenty-five or twenty-six, with a robust build and features that held a hint of Zheng Zhilong's shadow. He was Zheng Zhilong's fourth brother: Zheng Zhifeng.

Zheng Zhifeng now wore an expression of exhaustion, sitting in his chair lost in unknown thoughts. Hearing Liu Xiang repeatedly target the Grain Office, he could only force himself to answer: "The Grain Office is still fine. No need for Shopkeeper Liu to worry."

"Still fine? Hmph." Liu Xiang sneered again: "Afraid you can't cover the bottom anymore, can you? Where are the silver and rice that were supposed to be allocated to my unit yesterday?"

Marching and fighting in ancient times was far from simple.

Ten thousand people is a boundless sea. In reality, even a group of a few hundred men also needed a Grain Office specifically responsible for logistics.

A pirate group with thousands of ships and over ten thousand men gathered together had even stricter logistical requirements: a critical resource like grain required large-scale commercial operations behind the scenes to guarantee distribution.

... Whether pirates robbed merchant ships or civilians, what they ultimately got their hands on was mostly just goods and floating wealth, not neatly planned stockpiles of grain.

After all, merchant ships also prioritized cargo, and Fujian itself did not produce grain. The so-called coastal raiding by pirates was actually mainly aimed at grabbing easily obtainable floating wealth. As for grain... the Zheng Zhilongs of the world were fabulously wealthy great merchants, not Chuang Wang; they were never hungry enough to attack cities for grain.

Therefore, regarding logistics, pirates had a traditional supply method passed down through generations: the Nest Master.

From the very first time pirates appeared, the profession of Nest Master simultaneously emerged in coastal areas. Nest Masters were responsible for buying the pirates' plundered goods at low prices and organizing bulk commodities like grain and salt to supply the pirates.

This process was just as effective even in later generations: those great thieves who robbed jewelry stores would still have to find a Jew to fence the goods afterward, at a market rate of thirty percent at most.

And for a ten-thousand-man Great Gang like the Eighteen Zhi, living off plundered grain was an even bigger joke. In fact, the Zheng Clan group consumed an average of seven to eight tons or more of grain per day. All these supplies were trafficked in by Nest Masters from the Guangdong and Zhejiang areas.

And Liu Xiang's repeated mention of the Grain Office issue today had, in fact, directly pointed to the core of the problem: the Zheng family could no longer cover the bottom.

Previously, because a certain someone was going to Fuzhou City to negotiate recruitment and amnesty, the entire Great Gang was in a state of enforced silence: naturally, no news of massive pirate raids could come through during negotiations; that was basic logic. Otherwise, did they really think Lao Xiong wouldn't chop heads?

However, this state of silence came at a cost: every day, large amounts of grain and silver flowed only out of the public accounts, with nothing coming in.

If Zheng Zhilong were not dead, this situation could have been maintained for a long time: even if the Zheng family had to pour in their own private silver from sea trade to fill the gap, they could at least support these pirates for half a year. Once the amnesty came through, they would earn back even more silver.

But now, that was no longer possible. Zheng Zhifeng, who managed the Grain Office, even if unwilling, could only now acknowledge the news of his eldest brother's death. And without Zheng Zhilong and the eight hundred core pirates of the Zheng family, the Zheng brothers, in their private grief, also had to start making early plans for their own family.

Men who live by the blade are most sensitive to shifts in the balance of power. Now, having lost their greatest support overnight, the Zheng family's strength could be said to be plummeting: pirates are all fair-weather followers. In the past few days, many had privately been in contact with major powers like Liu Xiang and Li Kuiqi, but not a single Shopkeeper had come forward willing to continue following these young attendants of the Zheng family.

It still comes down to that saying: this is 1628, still far from the golden age in history when the Zheng family rose to power and men like Zheng Zhifeng could borrow the tiger's skin to wave their banner. With Zheng Zhilong dead, these mediocre goods of the Zheng family immediately showed their true colors, completely unable to compare with second-tier leaders like Li Kuiqi and Liu Xiang in terms of command authority.

And so, Zheng Zhifeng began to tamper with the Grain Office: since they would sooner or later be unable to suppress these hungry wolves, it was better to take advantage of the time when their own brothers still controlled the Grain Office to stash away more resources for the winter. The brothers knew very well: the Zheng Clan would have to endure a long winter ahead.

Who would have thought that after just one day of skimming off the top, this matter would be exposed by Liu Xiang, who had been staring wide-eyed looking for faults.

A slightly embarrassed Zheng Zhifeng could only speak vaguely: "Perhaps my subordinates delayed a bit. It's only a day or two's worth of money and grain at most. Why must Shopkeeper Liu make such a fuss?"

"Nonsense! Skimming the brothers' blood money, and you still dare to act so arrogantly here!" Liu Xiang, who had long since ceased to regard these second-generation heirs of the Zheng family with any respect, now acted with righteous indignation. In great fury, he jumped up from his chair, pointed at Zheng Zhifeng's nose, and roared: "You thief, honestly confess how much silver and rice you've stolen from the Grain Office, and you might still keep your life!"

"Clang!" As Liu Xiang's words fell, a burly, broad-shouldered man standing behind Zheng Zhifeng instantly drew the short knife at his waist. This man was Zheng Zhipeng, a clansman and fellow villager of Zheng Zhilong — historically, this fellow was publicly beheaded by the National Lord on the charge of losing Xiamen, made an example of.

As Zheng Zhipeng drew his waist knife, the Central Army Tent was instantly filled with the sound of clashing metal: the subordinates standing behind the various Shopkeepers all drew their waist knives, and the scene suddenly became tense and explosive.