Chapter 478: You Short-Sighted Old Sea Rogue

"There is actually such a thing?"

Zhu Cilang was taken aback. Although he knew Zheng Zhilong had a half-Chinese, half-Western fleet that absolutely qualified as the overlord of the East Asian seas, he had not known that Zheng Zhilong had built ten Western-style warships with double gun decks more than ten years earlier!

That was a formidable naval force! A warship with double gun decks would surely carry twenty or thirty Hongyi cannons, would it not? Ten of them together meant two or three hundred Hongyi cannons, and if they formed a line and fired from one broadside, that was still a hundred to a hundred and fifty Hongyi cannons firing at once. With so many cannons and warships, would the Tartars still dare to swagger?

But that could not be right! If Zheng Chenggong had possessed such a fleet back then, how could he have failed to take Nanjing? A hundred and fifty Hongyi cannons pounding the walls of Nanjing — what sort of Tartar could have survived? How could Zheng Chenggong have lost the Battle of Nanjing?

"Venerable Father-in-law, how many such ships do you have now?" Zhu Cilang pressed at once.

If he had them, he should bring them out and put them to use! Next spring, when the southeast wind rose, they would sail north and bombard the Tartar forts at the Dagukou of Tianjin.

A hundred and fifty Hongyi cannons firing together — would that not frighten Dorgon to death!

"Now?" Zheng Zhilong spread his hands. "Gone."

"Gone?" Zhu Cilang blinked.

"The Dutch burned them all in one fire."

Zhu Cilang was stunned again and again. "Can you not build more? You have so much money — can you not afford it? It has been over ten years now. If you had built one a year, you would have more than ten by now!"

Zheng Zhilong gave an awkward smile. "Thousand Years, this subject defeated the Battle of Liaoluo Bay even without those great Western ships. The Red-haired Country's East India Company submitted as well, and now they buy goods only through this subject every year. Ships passing through the waters off Fujian all pay this subject for passage flags. What use would this subject have for building more of those great Western ships?"

What use? Zhu Cilang thought to himself: to let your son Zheng Chenggong hammer the Tartars! And after hammering the Tartars, your son could use them to plot usurpation, seize the Ming's realm and altars, and establish your Zheng family dynasty — then you would be Zheng Liezu enshrined in the imperial ancestral temple, happy even in death!

"Then — then can you still build these ships now?" Zhu Cilang did not waste more words on "Zheng Liezu," but pressed on.

"I can," Zheng Zhilong said with a frown, "but these Western great ships are costly to build and difficult to handle, not as practical as the great bird ships."

Back then, Zheng Zhilong had spent a fortune building those ten Western-style warships in order to contest maritime supremacy with the Dutch East India Company. Therefore all ten Western great ships had been built to warship standards, at great expense.

Moreover, in order to chase down the East India Company's soft-sailed ships on the open sea, all ten warships could set soft sails.

For this, Zheng Zhilong had spared no expense to hire Western sailors from Macao, hoping they would teach the skills of sail-handling and ship-handling. According to Zheng Zhilong's thinking at the time, his war with the East India Company had a long way to run!

So he had prepared for a protracted struggle!

But he had not expected that the East India Company was mainly after profit and had no time to fight a prolonged war with Zheng Zhilong. After losing at Liaoluo Bay, they simply backed down. Once the East India Company backed down, the "short-sighted" Zheng Zhilong lost his motivation to keep developing a great navy, and the Zheng group settled comfortably into the good life of making money while lying flat — until the Qing soldiers came surging in!

This affair truly turned blessing into curse! If the Zheng group had fought the Dutch East India Company for over ten years, all the way until the Manchu Qing entered the pass, then sailing ships of the line, Maurice formations, three-pounder battalion guns — they would have had them all. As for Hongyi cannons, they would probably have built them up to twenty-four-pounders and thirty-six-pounders, and the fleet flagship's displacement might well have reached a thousand tons!

And would a bunch of sea rogues who had fought the Dutch to the death for over ten years fear Tartars who did not even have sixth-rate ships with a single gun deck? They wanted to descend on Jiangnan? First ask whether the thirty-six-pounder cannons agreed! If they angered Old Zheng, it would be iron ships and sharp cannons up to Tianjin!

"How can Western great ships be less practical than great bird ships?" Zhu Cilang glared at Zheng Zhilong and asked angrily. "They came ten thousand li to our very doorstep — when will you be able to make one trip to Amsterdam?"

Zheng Zhilong listened in utter confusion. "Amster— what dan?"

Zhu Cilang waved a hand. "Right now you cannot get to any dan — hurry up and build ships! Can you still build them now? If not, then first buy a Western great warship as a model?"

"I can build them, I can build them," Zheng Zhilong nodded. "This subject can invite foreign craftsmen to help. It is just that building Western great ships requires a good deal of Siamese rougewood, which is expensive, and moreover difficult to transport — not something that can be gathered together in a short time."

Siamese rougewood was teak. In this era, the sailing ships of the line that Europeans built were extremely durable, and for that reason they chose fine woods such as teak and oak. Properly maintained, a sailing ship of the line could serve for decades!

"Then start gathering it now!" Zhu Cilang said to Zheng Zhilong. "First build ten ships. We will give you a subsidy of thirty thousand taels of silver per ship. Once the warships are built and can put to sea, We will send men to inspect them, and if they pass, We will pay you! How about that?"

Zheng Zhilong was stunned. This was far too grand a gesture, was it not? Thirty thousand taels of silver per ship, ten ships meant three hundred thousand taels!

He paused, then probed, "Thousand Years, to whom will the ships belong?"

"To the Fujian Fleet, of course!" Zhu Cilang smiled. "Even if they were given to me, I would have no one to sail them. But once these ten ships are built, they must obey Our command!"

Zheng Zhilong breathed a sigh of relief. "Very well. Once this old subject returns to Quanzhou, I will make arrangements!"

Zhu Cilang nodded, seemingly very satisfied with this answer. "Good! Later We will have someone prepare a contract, and we shall sign it in black and white!"

Having settled the matter of shipbuilding, Zhu Cilang turned the conversation to the question of negotiations with the Dutch.

"Venerable Father-in-law," Zhu Cilang looked at Zheng Zhilong and said, "we must let the Dutch in — but we cannot let them pass for nothing; we must go out as well! The Zheng trading houses must be able to open in Batavia, in Ceylon, in Europa! The Zheng merchant ships shall sail freely in the Southern Seas and the Western Seas.

That is the condition for allowing the Dutch free entry to the ports of Shanghai, Quanzhou, Ningbo, and Guangzhou!"

Zheng Zhilong's brows knotted, clearly deep in hard calculation.

Opening the ports of Shanghai, Quanzhou, Ningbo, and Guangzhou to Dutch trade was of course disadvantageous to Zheng Zhilong.

Because previously Zheng Zhilong had monopolized Sino-Dutch trade; the Dutch could only buy goods through him.

Likewise, the Zheng family's entry into the Southern Seas and Western Seas was advantageous — but weighing benefit against harm, the Zheng family would probably still come out the loser.

Zhu Cilang continued, "Although the Dutch may freely enter and leave our ports, the sea passage tax must still be paid as before. That is military funding for the Fujian Fleet to hunt pirates, and it must be paid!

They must also hand over all their strongholds on the island of Taiwan to the Zheng family! Henceforth the Zheng family shall be the lords of Taiwan."

Zheng Zhilong's brows remained tightly furrowed. Through the monopolized Sino-Dutch trade, he made enormous profits every year!

If the Dutch were allowed free entry to the ports of Shanghai, Quanzhou, Ningbo, and Guangzhou —

Zhu Cilang looked at Zheng Zhilong and suddenly laughed. "Venerable Father-in-law, We have another big piece of business for you."

"Big business?" Zheng Zhilong asked. "What business?"

"Grain!" Zhu Cilang said. "The people take food as heaven. The southeast has many people and little land, and has planted too much cotton and mulberry, so it is always short of grain. We intend to bring in some from outside to make up the shortfall."

"Shipping grain ten thousand li?" Zheng Zhilong frowned. "That will not work, will it?"

Annam, Champa, Water Chenla, and Siam all abounded in rice, and the price of rice was very cheap, but once the cost of ten-thousand-li transport was added, there would probably be nothing left to profit from.

"Is it ten thousand li?" Zhu Cilang said. "From Champa and Water Chenla, which abound in rice, to Quanzhou is at most three or four thousand li, and to Shanghai five thousand li. With a favorable wind, it takes about a month. It is simply a matter of adding one more stretch to the trade route. We will pay one tael five qian per shi of Champa rice. Is there profit in this business?"

(End of Chapter)