On July 11, Zheng Chenggong stood on the lucky boat loaded with sweet potatoes and sighed.
Zheng Chenggong was transporting sweet potatoes for Li Zhi, the Duke of Jin, who killed his father and his enemy.
After the collapse of Zheng Zhilong's power, Zheng Chenggong changed from the "Prince" of the "King of Fujian" to an unknown citizen. Although Li Zhi gave Zheng Chenggong one hundred taels of silver to start a small business, Zheng Chenggong has been nesting in a private house in Quanzhou, working every day
Drunk to the point of death.
Although a man is capable of stretching and bending, Zheng Chenggong could not adapt to the reality of his father's murder and the decline of his family in such a short period of time.
Although Zheng Chenggong was a scholar, it was Zheng Chenggong's teacher Qian Qianyi who communicated with the county magistrate and allowed Zheng Chenggong to get it cheaply. Zheng Chenggong actually did not read the book of saints for a few years. What Zheng Chenggong longed for in his heart was to gallop on the sea and build a city like Zheng Zhilong.
A piece of male merit.
But after the Zheng family was defeated by Li Zhi, Zheng Chenggong's dream was shattered along with the Zheng family. Since Li Zhi killed Zheng Zhilong, it would be impossible for the Zheng family to make a comeback. If Zheng Chenggong becomes a pirate again or runs into the sea, he will probably be killed by Li Zhi.
Zhi killed them without mercy.
Zheng Chenggong did not want to be a rotten scholar who shook his head, nor was he willing to be a small businessman who bargained for a few pennies every day. After Zheng Zhilong's death, he had been depressed and drunk every day. Zheng Chenggong's performance made his mother and younger siblings very disappointed.
Originally, these relatives hoped that Zheng Chenggong would cheer up and revive the Zheng family.
Until Li Zhi's people approached Zheng Chenggong and asked Zheng Chenggong to contact the ship to deliver sweet potatoes to the Li family.
Sweet potatoes are low in calories, and it takes a lot of food to live on sweet potatoes. This time, Li Zhi wanted to transport more than 30 million shi of sweet potatoes to Shandong. He could not do it with the 63 merchant ships and ten armored ships owned by Li Zhi alone.
Relying on Li Zhi's own merchant ships, Li Zhi could only transport more than 10 million shi of grain in a year.
Relying only on ship transportation, the people of Shandong would starve to death, so Li Zhi had to hire external merchant ships.
Of course, Li Zhi could contact the navies in Tianjin and Shandong, and he would be able to mobilize hundreds of sailboats. But Li Zhi knew that the officers and soldiers of the navy were sluggish, the ships were dilapidated, and the shipmanship skills were rough. If they went to the long sea, something might happen.
Mistakes.
So Li Zhi thought of Zheng Chenggong.
Although he killed Zheng Chenggong's father, Zheng Zhilong, Li Zhi had a good impression of Zheng Chenggong, who persisted in resisting the Qing Dynasty and regained Taiwan in history. Moreover, the sailors of the Zheng family were all experienced water thieves with excellent skills. If Zheng Chenggong was to take the lead, mobilize
More than 100 Dafu ships with 5,000 tons of material transported sweet potatoes for Li Zhi, which can ensure the safety of transportation.
Li Zhi sent Gao Ligong to find Zheng Chenggong, who was drunk every day, and told him his idea. Li Zhi promised to give each of the boatmen hired by the Zheng family 2 taels and 5 taels of silver per month, and the leader 3 taels and 7 cents per month. This time
The transportation lasted for a year, and Li Zhi paid each ship a "shipping fee" of 1,500 taels.
Zheng Chenggong, who was still called Zheng Sen at that time, threw down his wine bowl without saying a word when he heard this proposal and agreed. After Zheng Zhilong died, the Zheng family fell apart, and the sailors of the Zheng family had no food and clothing. They wanted to go to sea but had no capital.
The pirates were afraid that Li Zhi would come and destroy them. Now that Li Zhi has given the sailors of the Zheng family a way to survive, Zheng Sen will of course lead the sailors to work.
For Zheng Sen, this is a good opportunity to revive the Zheng family. Although the Zheng family can no longer dominate the sea as before, even if it is a transportation team attached to Li Zhi, it is much better than the whole family falling apart, right?
So Zheng Sen, with conflicting feelings, summoned one hundred and forty-six Dafu ships worth 5,000 materials, and twenty-five boatmen for each ship - Li Zhi would not allow the Zheng family's fleet to be armed anymore.
, so apart from the lack of cannons, gunners and sailors on the ship, twenty-five boatmen were enough to operate the ship.
In fact, most of the blessing ships sailed with the wind, and rarely went to sea during the seasons when the wind direction was unstable. They could not run the sea non-stop for 365 days like the ships. Because the blessing ships were easily blown by the wind when the wind direction was unstable.
If you go outside the waterway, you will be in trouble if you get lost or hit a rock.
Li Zhi's solution was to use the seventy-three ships as tugboats for later generations. Each ship used a cable to drag two Fu ships forward. The cable pulled from the ship was tied to the main mast of a Fu ship, and then tied
Go to the main mast of a lucky ship behind.
With the ship towing in front, the Fuchuan can move forward steadily on the waterway like a ship, and its speed can also be increased a lot.
Li Zhi, the Duke of Jin, suggested that Zheng Sen change his name to Zheng Chenggong, and Zheng Sen agreed. He understood that Li Zhi meant that he wanted him to forget the past and start over.
Of course Zheng Chenggong still hated Li Zhi in his heart: Li Zhi defeated the Zheng family and made him fall from the high clouds into the soil. But now he had to rely on Li Zhi's breath to keep the Zheng family fed, and Zheng Chenggong had to put this aside.
Zheng Chenggong thought of his mother's words: "Everyone has his or her own position, so what's the point of hatred?"
In fact, a few days after joining Li Zhi's fleet, Zheng Chenggong understood Li Zhi's methods of doing things and even admired Li Zhi, the Duke of Tianjin.
Zheng Chenggong knew that Li Zhi used all private funds for disaster relief in Shandong. In the next year, all the people in Shandong will eat will be free food provided by Li Zhi, the Duke of Tianjin. Li Zhi saved more than 10 million yuan by himself.
People, how powerful is this? Without Li Zhi, what kind of hell would Shandong become?
Before the ship sailed, Zheng Chenggong stayed in Hsinchu for a few days and learned a lot about the local situation. Zheng Chenggong knew that Li Zhi asked all Hsinchu farmers to grow sweet potatoes this time, and also used private funds to purchase sweet potatoes from Hsinchu farmers. Excluding 60% of the land rent
, 40% of the output of farmers in Hsinchu belongs to the farmers themselves. Li Zhi purchased these sweet potatoes from the farmers at the price of three yuan and one stone.
In this way, a farmer who grows twenty acres of sweet potatoes in a year will get the same income of fifty taels as planting rice. Although Li Zhi controls Hsinchu, he loves his people like his own children and will never let his people suffer.
Zheng Chenggong has also eaten sweet potatoes and knows that more than 10 million people in Shandong need to eat at least more than 30 million shi of sweet potatoes a year to avoid starving to death. Calculating at the price of three qian per shi, Li Zhi will spend nearly 10 million on this disaster relief
Li Zhi paid all this money himself.
Li Zhi was not only good at using new crops to do things that others could not do, but he was also so generous to the people, which surprised Zheng Chenggong.
To say that Li Zhi is a hero is not enough to describe the greatness of this disaster relief effort.
Zheng Chenggong was also a chivalrous person. He felt that Li Zhi could even be regarded as a hero, a hero who saved the country and the people.
Compared with a hero like Li Zhi, his father Zheng Zhilong's background and behavior seemed very dirty. Zheng Chenggong was sitting on the poop deck, and in a daze he seemed to have forgotten his hatred for the Duke of Jin, and actually admired Li Zhi.
.
The ship in front gave out a long whistle and slowly sailed out of Hsinchu Port, dragging two lucky ships to Shandong. Zheng Chenggong's lucky ship raised its hard sail, and as the ship cut through the waves, it sailed on a brand new road.
of waterways.
Zheng Chenggong's younger brother Zheng Du's eyes were moist. He grabbed Zheng Chenggong's sleeve and said, "Brother! Our Zheng family is alive again!"
Sighing, Zheng Chenggong looked again at the Zheng family flag flying high on the fortune ship.
Although he felt aggrieved, and even though he was just a transport team, he had allowed the Zheng family to survive no matter what.
