Zheng Zhilong
On April 16, 1604, in a small official family in Shijing, Nan'an, Fujian Province, a little boy was born, and according to local customs, the family named him Yiguan.
Zheng Shaozu, the father of the first official, although he was an insider of the system according to the current words, he was actually a small civil servant - serving as a treasury official in the prefect of Quanzhou. Therefore, their family life is also more difficult.
When Zheng Yiguan was seventeen years old, the family wanted to think about his future, so they let him go out and work at his uncle's place.
His uncle, Huang Cheng, was a big businessman who mainly sold sugar, Qinan, musk and other things. After working there for a short time, he couldn't stand the restraints, so he jumped ship and came to Li Dan's door.
merchant vessel
This Li Dan was a well-known lord at that time, he was a native of Quanzhou, Minnan, who first did business in the Philippines and was not tolerant of Spanish rulers, so he moved to the Japanese island of Kyushu and settled down, becoming the leader of the local overseas Chinese.
This is just his public identity, his secret identity, which is actually a big pirate. Zheng Yiguan worked under him, which can be said to be handy, and dealt with the commercial fleets of various countries, learned many languages, and thus he was fluent in Hokkien, Nanjing, Japanese, Dutch, Spanish, portuguese, and was deeply appreciated by Li Dan, and later simply became his son.
After Li Dan came to Japan, with strong economic strength, he gave strong sponsorship to Tokugawa Ieyasu when he unified Japan, so he later repaid Lee with a peach, and his fleet was taken care of by the Japanese authorities, so his fleet was armed fleet, and the ships operated by Japan, Chinese mainland, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia were engaged in international trade with the Dutch and British ships, and the passage was unimpeded.
In addition to normal trading, Li Dan also engaged in pirate plunder, and because of his strong style, he was called "Captain" by the Westerners, that is, the title of the leader of the Han People.
In 1625, Li Dan became seriously ill, and before his death, he gave all his properties in Taiwan to his son Zheng Yiguan.
Trade area
After Zheng Yiguan accepted these industries, he set up his own portal and began to operate independently on the sea, recruiting Zheng Xing, Zheng Ming, Yang Geng, Chen Hui, Zheng Cai and other cadres from his hometown in Fujian, dividing his subordinates into eighteen pioneers, forming "Eighteen Zhi", and henceforth renaming him "Zhilong" instead of being called "One Official".
Zheng Zhilong then used his hometown of Anping Town, Quanzhou, as a base for navigation and business, and privately built a city, which is said to have direct access to his bedroom, jumping from bed to boat and reaching the sea. Zheng Zhilong continued to expand the great cause of reclamation, and his power continued to grow, becoming the largest armed group on the sea at that time.
At that time, the Dutch trade tentacles extended all over the world, but they could not rule the Sea around China.
The reason for this is that the eastern maritime economic world is not a power gap. Ming officials retreated from the sea, and maritime merchants and pirates became rulers of the sea.
Coachman at sea
Due to the substantial development of the power of the Zheng Zhilong group, it also posed a great threat to the Dutch colonists, and as soon as the Dutch ships appeared in the Chinese Sea, they were intercepted by the Zheng Zhilong group, for which a war between the Dutch army stationed in Taiwan and the Zheng army occurred in the seventh year of the Apocalypse (1627), and the Dutch army was defeated.
The rules of war are the "law of the jungle", if you can't fight, then obediently admit defeat.
Since then, Zheng Zhilong has stipulated that all merchant ships passing through the South China Sea, each ocean-going ship charges an annual toll of 3,000 taels of silver, including the Dutch, British and other Western European merchant ships, only after paying the toll and hanging the "Zheng" flag, can they trade smoothly, otherwise they may be eradicated at any time.
The annual income of a toll alone can be as high as 10 million taels!
This income is also equal to the annual income of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) - so it seems that it should be working for Zheng Zhilong.
In addition to these murderous and cross-border activities, they also do normal business with Japan and Southeast Asia, and profit from direct trade. According to an estimate, at that time, the annual profit of Zheng Zhilong Group could reach 20 million or 30 million silver! In addition, he has other sources of income such as rent, land proceeds and bribery, which we know very little about, but the amount must be very substantial. It seems that the annual revenue of the Zheng Zhilong Group is likely to be three to four times that of the world-famous Dutch East India Company at that time. ("Estimation of the Trade Volume and Profit Of Zheng Chenggong's Overseas Trade from 1650 to 1662", Yang Yanjie)
(Netherlands) East India Company
At that time, Zheng Zhilong could be described as rich and invincible. At this time, the Ming Dynasty regime has been overthrown by the Qing Dynasty, and the remnants of the Ming Dynasty have established the Southern Ming Regime in the south, and all their expenses depend entirely on the Zheng family, and Zheng Zhilong once lamented: "The three passes are paid to the subjects, the subjects take the sea, and there is no sea without the sea." ”
It can be seen from this that Zheng Zhilong is still very clear about the truth of "relying on mountains to eat mountains and relying on water to draft water".
But smart people sometimes get confused. Sometimes some confused things can be remedied, and some confused things cannot be remedied.
Qing army
When the Qing army advanced south and the army advanced into Fujian, Zheng Zhilong felt unprecedented pressure. At this time, at the suggestion of his compatriot Hong Chengzu, who had already surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, the Qing general Dorobel Bolo wrote a letter to summon Zheng Zhilong and promised that if he submitted to the Qing Dynasty, he would be named the "Governor of Minyue".
Under the temptation of interests and military pressure, Zheng Zhilong prepared to surrender.
His eldest son, Zheng Chenggong, saw that this step could not be taken, so the scientific expedition begged him to change his mind, but Zheng Zhilong had already made up his mind and went north to surrender.
His son Zheng Successfully persuaded Zheng Zhilong unsuccessfully, so he went to the Confucius Temple to cry and burn Confucian clothes, saying to his father: "If the father never returns, the child will come from Dang to avenge his father." ”
Father and son parted.
Zheng Chenggong
The Qing army took Zheng Zhilong hostage and took him to Beijing, and the imperial court awarded him the title of Viscount (Jingqi Nehafan), and later conferred the title of Marquis of Tong'an. But for Zheng Zhilong, there is only a title in vain.
Zheng Zhilong arrived in Beijing, but the family remained in his hometown, the Qing soldiers ransacked Anping, and Zheng Chenggong's mother, Tian Chuan, did not escape in time, lest he be humiliated and hang himself.
Zheng Chenggong, who broke with his father, at this time in southern Fujian to resist the Qing, successively attacked many cities in Fujian, the Qing court ordered Zheng Zhilong to write several letters to surrender his son, but Zheng Chenggong refused.
As a result, the Qing court was greatly disappointed and imprisoned Zheng Zhilong in a high wall.
In the autumn of 1661, after Zheng successfully defeated the Dutch to regain Taiwan and declared his "overseas loyalty" to Daming, Zheng Zhilong and eleven of his descendants were killed by the Qing court at Chaishikou, Beijing.
A generation of sea tyrants finally died on land.
Resources:
Minutes of minhai, Qing Charlene
"Small Shy Chronicle Supplementary Examination" Qing Xu Nai
"The Biography of Zheng Chenggong" Zhao Erxun
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