Chapter 5 Zheng Zhilong
Zheng Zilong is still very capable.
This notorious pirate, handsome and elegant, was unconventional in his ways. In his youth, he was carefree and disliked reading books, but had great physical strength and was skilled in martial arts, famous for his bravery in his hometown. He received baptism from the Roman Catholic Church, while also believing in Mazu, the goddess of the sea, and the Buddhist and Taoist deity, Marici. In Japan, he also worshiped Hachiman, the Shinto god of war.
This person is multi-talented, proficient in many languages including Southern Min, Nanjing Mandarin, Japanese, Dutch, Spanish and Portuguese. He is also enthusiastic about learning swordsmanship and can play musical instruments such as the Spanish guitar.
All of these are secondary, more importantly, this person founded the armed maritime merchant group: One Party!
Since the 16th century, armed merchant groups have become a normal part of maritime trade for various countries. In order to protect their trade business, they had their own armed forces to avoid harassment by pirates, but they also often had both commercial and pirating behavior, striking at competitors in trade.
Well-known trading companies at that time included the Dutch East India Company, the British East India Company, Zheng Zhilong's faction and Li Dan's faction in China.
The most well-known is the Dutch East India Company, which initially targeted Spanish and Portuguese fleets for political and religious reasons but later disrupted other countries' fleets on the same route for commercial interests, often plundering Chinese and Japanese ships that traded with Spain and Portugal (with Macau as a base).
However, later Zheng Chenggong's sudden rise to power made the Dutch suffer greatly.
Zheng Zhi was also very clever, on the one hand increasing the business of providing flags (sea protection) to his own fleet of ships, and on the other hand organizing another group of Japanese pirates to specifically harass fleets that had not applied for a Zheng family flag for protection, establishing his reputation along the Chinese coast and effectively reducing the occurrence of lone pirate behavior.
Later on, even the Dutch had to concede and do business with Zheng Zhilong.
Now going to see this person, Ding Yunyi's heart still had some apprehension.
However, upon seeing Ding Yunyi's arrival, Zheng Zhilong was extremely enthusiastic, repeatedly calling out "Xiangwen" as if he truly regarded Ding Yunyi as his own son or younger brother.
Zheng Zhilong invited Ding Yunyi to his tent and repeatedly ordered someone to hurry up and serve good tea. He turned around and flattered Ding Yunyi, saying that he was both civil and martial, how brave he was in the battle against the Red Barbarians, and how he would eventually become a great general.
Ding Yunyi repeatedly apologized and tried to make sense of what Zheng Zhilong was trying to do.
As they spoke, Zheng Zhi-long's personal soldier brought in a bowl of tea and just as Ding Yun-yi turned around, he collided with the soldier, spilling half a bowl of tea onto his body.
The personal soldier's face turned pale in an instant, and with a "thud" he knelt down on the ground, knocking his head repeatedly and shouting "Spare my life".
Ding Yunyi was being overly dramatic, it's just a bowl of tea spilled on his body, what's the big deal?
"Kill him!"
Zheng Zilong said in a low voice, suddenly making Ding Yunyi's face change greatly. What "killed"?
"Master! Master!" The bodyguard cried out loud: "Master, spare your life!"
Ding Yunyi only then realized that Zheng Zhilong had originally wanted to kill this personal soldier, and hastily stood up saying: "General, some minor matters, Yunyi doesn't mind them, please spare his life."
"Xiang Wen, sit down. Zheng Zhi Long sighed: "I know these are trivial matters, but a country has its laws and a family has its rules. If you can't even do such small things as serving tea and water properly, how will you be able to fight bravely on the battlefield and serve the imperial court in the future? With unrest brewing everywhere and bandits rising up in all directions, the Emperor..."
For no reason, it was dragged from such a small matter to the national event, Ding Yunwei was confused.
"Just because he is my personal soldier, I even more cannot tolerate him being so rude in front of our guests." Zheng Zhilong finished his long lecture and nodded at the personal soldier who was kneeling on the ground trembling all over: "He has been following me since he was eight years old. When I was surrounded by pirates and seriously injured at thirteen, it was he who carried me out from among the dead bodies. Later when I became an official in the imperial court, I originally wanted to give him an official position as a reward for saving my life back then, but he refused to leave me and only wanted to stay by my side as a small personal soldier. Where can you find such a loyal subordinate? I really cannot bear to kill him!"
Ding Yunyi finally breathed a sigh of relief, it turned out that Zheng Zhilong had just been pretending all along.
"Little stone, is there nobody at home?" Zheng Zhilong suddenly called out intimately to his personal soldier.
"Yes, sir. Xiao Shi Tou has been an orphan since he was a child. If you hadn't taken him in, he would have died long ago." Hearing Zheng Zhi Long's gentle tone, his personal soldier Xiao Shi Tou finally felt at ease.
Zheng Zilong nodded: "In these years you have followed me, with all your heart and effort, it's not easy, I'll take you as a sworn son."
Xiao Shi Tou, having benefited from misfortune, was taken in by Zheng Zhilong as a sworn son and, overjoyed, hastily kowtowed to thank him.
"Get up, get up." Zheng Zilong surprisingly helped Xiao Shitou up personally.
"Thank you, Grandpa, Grandpa, Xiaoshi will definitely..."
The little stone's words were left unspoken, and suddenly he stiffened there. He looked down to see a short blade deeply embedded in his heart.
"Grandpa, I..." Xiaoshi's voice trailed off as he fell to the ground, limp and soft.
Everyone in the big account was stunned there by this sudden change.
Zheng Zilong pulled out the short blade from Xiaoshi's mouth, and to his surprise, a few tears rolled down his eyes. He wiped away his tears: "Come on, let's bury Xiaoshi according to the young master's rules."
"He followed me for ten years, those ten years!" Zheng Zhi Long stamped his feet repeatedly, "heartbroken to the extreme": "I treated you like my own son, but Xiao Shi Tou, why did you do something wrong? Killing you is like cutting out my heart, from now on I will never speak of this again..."
His sorrowful appearance didn't give anyone a clue that the object of his heartache had just died at his hands over some inexplicable trivial matter.
When the body of Xiao Shi Tou was carried out, Zheng Zhi Long finally stopped "crying": "Although I am heartbroken, family rules are family rules, military orders are military orders, and there is no room for leniency. Even if it were my own son who committed a crime, he would be executed without exception!"
The big account was quiet, and there was not a sound. Zheng Zhilong swept his gaze over his subordinates one by one, finally deliberately lingering on Ding Yunyi's body for a while:
"Gentlemen, some of you have followed me for many years as old subordinates, while others have recently achieved new merits. I, Zheng, have received great favors from the Emperor and should share the Emperor's worries and difficulties. Therefore, I hope that all of you will unite your hearts and work together to assist me, Zheng. However, if there are those who do not follow my intentions and secretly do things that cannot be seen in the light, I can only take drastic measures and eliminate them, regardless of how powerful their background may be!"
Ding Yunyi found it strange that Zheng Zhilong's words were clearly meant for his own ears, but as a small and pitiful patrol officer, what could he possibly threaten Zheng Zhilong, the Zheng clan's general?
