Chapter 331: Liberation Officer - Part 2 (Death of Zheng Zhilong)
Longrich made some docile questions and seemed to have taken the moral high ground and used the international influence of the Chinese Empire to sway the Ming Dynasty.
Indeed, undeclared war and sneak attacks on territory occupied by others are not authentic on paper.
It's a pity that he obviously underestimated the ability of the Ming Dynasty civil servants to make excuses. Since Zheng Chenggong and Zhang Mingzhen dared to come, of course they had been prepared both civil and military.
Zheng Chenggong used the reasons given by Zhu Shuren in advance and retorted righteously: "I have been ordered to punish thieves, so how can I be nameless?"
Langrich was stunned. He had never seen such a shameless Ming Dynasty person. He was furious: "This... this Ming Emperor can do whatever he wants and destroy diplomatic relations! There has been seven years of mutual exchanges between the Netherlands and the Ming Dynasty.
Don’t offend each other!”
Zheng Chenggong: "You also know that it has only been seven years of non-infringement. You just had the nerve to say, 'We have negotiated ceasefires many times and reached a trade peace treaty before.' If your country has always been trustworthy, how can we have 'multiple ceasefires negotiated'?"
Shouldn't it be that since your country withdrew from Penghu in the fourth year of the Apocalypse and the two sides reached an agreement, the Ming Dynasty and the Netherlands will not invade each other? Then in the sixth year of Chongzhen's reign, the Battle of Liaoluo Bay, and in the eleventh year of Chongzhen's reign, your country's naval general Lang Biji Li Ge led
Nine warships, discounted as an excuse for Liu Xiang's revenge, plundered our coast. How should we deal with all the old grudges!
The two previous times, your country tore up the contract and looted first. Your country's so-called contract before was simply because you were thousands of miles away from the country and had insufficient supplies after a long war, so you pretended to sue for peace in order to take a breather and raise reinforcements!"
As soon as Zheng Chenggong cleared up the old score, the Dutch were immediately entangled and it was difficult to sort things out. Longrich tried his best to defend himself:
"One thing comes to one. Although there were repeated frictions at the beginning, they were mostly caused by misunderstandings. And didn't the misunderstandings already made clear in the last armistice negotiations in the 11th year of Chongzhen's reign?
The reason why Xiang was sent to help Liu Xiang and restore order in the East China Sea and the South China Sea that year was just because the previous East Asian seas had many political affairs. Our Dutch merchant ships had never heard that they had to pay a flag fee before they were allowed to trade!
General Zheng, after you wiped out Liu Xiang, you ordered all ships in East Asia, without exception, to pay three thousand taels of flag silver every year whenever they go to sea. This is unprecedented. Lang must be Li Ge's impulse, and his original intention is
I am just negotiating with you to ask for my life to be withdrawn, not trying to start a war with the Ming Dynasty. Now that we have reached an agreement, why bring up the old matters again!"
The past incident Longrich mentioned involves a history, that is, before 1638, not all ships in the East Asian waters submitted to the international order led by the Zheng family.
Because Liu Xiang has not been wiped out before, there are several maritime powers in East Asia who have divided their territories, so no one can charge everyone's "health management fees" across the board.
But after the fall of Liu Xiang, the Zheng family dominated the East Asian waters and began to impose an indiscriminate 3,000 taels of silver per ship every year. No one was exempted.
According to statistics at that time, if you did not do business in the waters north of Fujian, the probability of being robbed or killed if you did not fly the Zheng family flag was as high as 50-50 - that is to say, even if a Portuguese or Dutch ship went from Manila to Guangdong, there was a high probability of being killed if the ship did not fly the Zheng family flag.
If you want to do business in the waters north of Fujian, the death rate for not flying the Zheng family flag is generally 9 to 1. If you are caught, the whole ship will be killed to show your authority.
The Dutch didn't want to pay at first, so they asked a naval admiral named Rambirge to lead the fleet in a battle. More than half of it was beaten and sunk, and the Dutch finally gave in to the peace talks.
Now people in the Netherlands feel that we have been paying "sanitary management fees" for seven or eight years, how can we suddenly turn our backs? Could it be that we want to raise prices? If we want to raise prices, we can't just attack and fight directly! If we feel that the money is too little, we can resolve it through diplomatic negotiations.
Yes!
However, Longrich's complaint was once again deceived.
Zheng Chenggong dared to come, so of course he had secretly found out the evidence of the Dutchman's crime in advance. He directly threw out a pile of testimonies and documentary evidence, and said coldly:
"It seems that our Ming Dynasty has never allowed your Dutch ships to pay flag silver and tribute, right? When the armistice was launched, they only said that Dutch ships were not allowed to cross the Black Water Ditch and could only wait for the Han merchant ships from Fujian and Guangdong to come out at Damuan Island.
Goods, you can only be responsible for overseas shipping to the Hongyi mainland!
However, in recent years, we have repeatedly caught Dutch ships pretending to be Japanese ships, false flags to pay money, and secretly approaching the coast of the Ming Dynasty to purchase goods! Especially in the past year or two, when the northern part of the Ming Dynasty fell, we also caught you traveling with whip ships in the waters north of Huai'an!
Such behavior is regarded as collaboration with the enemy by our Ming Dynasty, and we have declared war on our Ming Dynasty! Based on this alone, the Ming Dynasty will completely expel you from Dajuan Island!"
Being caught, Longridge couldn't refute directly, so he jumped anxiously: "Paying money under false flags? Didn't you only know about this today? You knew about it at least five or six years ago. Why was it not banned then, but now it is?"
Take it out and say, this is just letting the water go to raise fish. You want to fatten them up and then kill them!
The Ming Dynasty is so cunning and has no integrity! The rights and wrongs of this matter will be seen by everyone in the world, and the Japanese country of Annan in North Korea will also know that you, the Ming Dynasty, are dishonest!"
One of the incriminating evidence mentioned in Zheng Chenggong's last few sentences involves a detail, that is, "when the Zheng family required all merchant ships in the East Asian waters to pay money to the Zheng family," the Dutch were not actually allowed to pay.
After paying for it, I was not allowed to cross the Black Water ditch, so I had to wait for the goods to arrive on the island.
The qualification to pay money was given to people from the Ming Dynasty, as well as Koreans, Japanese, Annanese and Portuguese.
But in fact, the Netherlands still succeeded in subduing and paying the money. At that time, the Dutch East India Company relied on a man named Frederick Kuichi, the senior commercial director of the East India Company's commercial office in Japan (this man was historically
When Zheng Chenggong came sixteen years later, he was already the Dutch governor of Dayuan Island. He was the opponent in the Battle of Dayuan that we read in the history books.) He helped come up with a solution:
Let the Dutch merchant houses in Hirado and Nagasaki (there are also Dutch merchant houses in Hirado in the Age of Discovery and Taiko Ritsushiden games) negotiate with the local Japanese daimyo, and provide formalities for the Higo Clan and the Chigo Clan and other daimyo.
We asked these Japanese celebrities to come forward and pay a few more 3,000 taels per year, over-lease a few Zheng family flags, and then take them back and misappropriate them to be hung on Dutch ships.
To put it bluntly, the Dutch were not worthy of paying the Zheng family directly, so they asked the Japanese to pay the handling fee and pay through a backdoor.
Does Zheng Chenggong know about this? Of course he does. After all, when patrolling at sea, he saw a ship flying the Zheng family flag approaching. Can you tell whether the ship is a Galen ship or a Japanese ship?
It's just that in previous years, the court didn't let him find excuses to take back senior officials, so the Zheng family could turn a blind eye and accept the money. Now that the prince asked him to beat him, he immediately turned his face:
"Surprise inspection! Do you know that you, the Dutch, are breaking the law by borrowing qualifications?"
Moreover, since Zheng Chenggong wanted to break up his face today, he could also give a very righteous and supplementary reason: "Our Ming Dynasty has always collected three thousand taels per year per ship, but this is just because the lucky ships generally only have four hundred taels, and the Japanese ships can only be self-respecting at best.
Four hundred ingredients.
But your Hongyi's heavy-duty Galen ship weighs more than a thousand taels of material? How many times can it carry cargo that is heavier than the Taifuku ship and the Japanese ship? Such a ship can cheat the flag by pretending to be its nationality, and only gives you three thousand taels a year. You are sending it away to beg for food.
What about?”
You pay road maintenance fees for a pickup truck, but you drive a large semi-trailer truck. If you don't investigate this, who will the Dutch investigate?
Longridge was completely speechless, because the Zheng family made it clear at the beginning that the charging standards were not targeted at the Netherlands and did not give the Dutch a chance to pay. Now they say that you paid less and owe tax, which is indeed reasonable.
The rest is nothing more than the seriousness of the matter and how to solve it.
Longridge has not received enough authorization for the time being. He originally only received the authorization from General Cornelis to condemn him today. Now that he is in the wrong and needs to negotiate concessions and compensation, he can't make the decision, so he can only plead with Zheng Chenggong to postpone the offensive for one day.
, and asked him to return to the city of Relanja to ask for authorization.
Zheng Chenggong put down harsh words and did not accept other conditions. He only asked the Dutch to evacuate Dajuan Island and abolished the ban that the two sides had set in the fourth year of the Apocalypse: "The Dutch are not allowed to go to the Ming Dynasty mainland, and the Zheng family is not allowed to go to Manila."
Half a sentence, Ming Dynasty ships are allowed to go to Manila from now on.
The main purpose of this treaty was to ensure that both the Dutch and the Zheng family could work as middlemen and have sufficient profit margins.
If the Dutch could directly go to the coasts of Guangdong and Fujian to receive goods, then the purchase price of their silk tea porcelain would definitely be cheaper, and the Zheng family would not be able to monopolize the middleman link to make the difference.
And if the Zheng family ship went directly to Manila for shipment, the Dutch would not be able to act as middlemen for resale to the Spaniards, so the two parties agreed to guarantee each other's part of the monopoly as a middleman.
But now the Dutch are the first to breach the contract, especially after the fall of northern China in the past two years. The Dutch actually have a small-scale trade with the Qing Tatars, and even try to get closer to the coast of mainland China. Since they breached the contract first, of course Zheng Chenggong wanted to abolish the Ming Dynasty.
The ship is not allowed to go to Manila as a reciprocal punishment!
Of course, Longrich could only say that he had heard Zheng Chenggong's words for the time being, and would discuss and ask for instructions when he returned, but would not commit.
One day later, he received a new authorization from General Cornelis and came again to plead:
"General Zheng, your requirements are too harsh. We admit our mistakes in impersonating our country and trading beyond our authority before, and we also apologize. Let's do this. We only have twenty ships at most on Damuan Island, and more than half of them are not heavy-duty ships.
The Lun ship is just a frigate.
However, in order to show our sincerity, the East India Company is willing to treat all large-scale trading vessels in the past seven years as heavy galenic ships, and there is no need for you to specifically verify the ship types.
We think that based on the comparison of the tonnage and cargo capacity of the heavy Galen ship and the Dafu ship, the Dafu ship can charge 3,000 liang per year, and the heavy Galen ship can charge 10,000 liang per year, which is enough, right?
In the past seven years, there have been 20 ships every year, and the price difference per ship has been 7,000 taels. We, the East India Company, are willing to fully compensate for the difference of 980,000 taels of silver. Is this done? In the future, we promise not to cross the border to explore and camp.
Businessmen, pay taxes according to regulations."
After Zheng Chenggong heard this, he laughed angrily: "Is there such a good thing in the world? Your family is inspected for taxes. After the inspection, you just pay the evaded taxes and that's the end of it?"
What’s more, if the tax bureau of later generations finds out the problem and pays the full amount plus late payment fees, it will also impose three or four times the fine!
Although Zheng Chenggong was not a time traveler, and he did not have a deep understanding of the Ming Dynasty's tax laws, his simple intuition told him that it would be too cheap to just make up for the leaked money.
Longridge also knew that this was a bit excessive, and then urgently expressed that if the supplementary payment was not enough, the fine could be doubled. The East India Company was willing to pay 1.96 million taels of silver as compensation in exchange for not abandoning the colony of Taiyuan Island.
The Dutch were still rich these days. A silver smuggling ship going to Manila sank. When later generations salvaged it, they found that the customs declaration stated 500,000 silver pesos, but actually contained 1.63 million silver pesos.
, the entire 1.13 million silver pesos were smuggled without tax.
If they can save Dajuan Island, it would be a good deal for the Netherlands to pay a one-time compensation of about two million taels.
It's a pity that Zhu Shuren behind Zheng Chenggong has feelings for his family and country, and Zheng Chenggong himself is not bad, so how could he let this opportunity pass.
Zheng Chenggong refused righteously and reiterated his conditions again:
The Dutch can take away all their movable property on Taiyuan Island, and even allow them to sell their houses and fields before leaving. Previous tax arrears and fines can also be ignored. This time, Taiyuan Island will be used as the Dutch's previous illegal behavior.
Compensatory punishment!
Zheng Chenggong also opened the door. As long as the Dutch abandon Taiyuan Island and do not interfere with the Ming Dynasty ship heading to the North Island of the Philippines where Manila is located, other trade conditions can remain the same. The Dutch will still be allowed to trade in the future, and trade can be formalized.
If the war continues, then the Ming Dynasty will not be able to guarantee the safety of the Dutch's private property on Dajuan Island! Because war has losses! Those will be used as Ming Dynasty's military expenses and war compensation!
…
Longrich returned in despair with the negotiating terms, but the Dutch, relying on the fact that they had a castle to hold on to, were unwilling to compromise.
The Dutch fleet was not completely blocked by Zheng Chenggong. A frigate immediately slipped back to report for help. This is where the Dutch's confidence lies.
In this case, we can only slowly besiege the city and attack it.
The Ming army's follow-up fleet gradually transported Zhang Mingzhen's heavy artillery, especially the explosive siege mortars, ashore and deployed them in place.
The maximum range of the Ming army's siege mortars also clearly exceeded the Dutch fortress artillery of this era. Who made the Ming army's steel-making technology and artillery technology surpass the Dutch?
Although under normal circumstances, the range of fortress guns of the same era will be farther than that of naval guns and field guns, the latest heavy artillery of the Ming Army and the Dutch fortress guns are no longer products of the same generation.
After Zheng Chenggong and Zhang Mingzhen conducted tentative attacks for a few days, they gradually figured out the strength of the defenders at each of the divided and surrounded Dutch strongholds. Once the two combined them together, they decided to defeat them one by one, picking the weak ones first and striving to destroy them.
It can also intimidate the defenders in the relatively hard city and make them choose to surrender directly.
In this case, the city of Relanzha is located on the hills on the south bank of Da Yuan Bay at the mouth of the Taijiang River. The terrain is relatively high, the city is the strongest, and the number of defenders and cannons are the largest, so we should attack last.
Chikan City is located in a relatively flat area in the hinterland of the bay, and the number of people is less than half. The fortress artillery cannot be condescending to make up for the range advantage, so let the Ming army siege mortars take full advantage of the range difference and slowly push forward.
Under the bombardment of the Ming army's artillery, the attack went smoothly. Although the new Western bastion of the 17th century was very strong, it took a few days to break through some small collapses, but after all, the damage was caused by flying kites.
Given time, the fall of Chican City was inevitable. The defenders in the city also tried to organize night attacks to destroy the Ming army's artillery positions, but they all failed and the death squads were lost in vain.
After more than a month of siege in Chikan City, which had more than 600 people, there were still 400 people and some civilians left. They finally chose to surrender out of despair——
In fact, the number of Dutch casualties was, of course, far more than 200, because these 200-plus were only the casualties of regular soldiers, and there were many sailors, merchants, and dock workers in the city who would go to the city with guns to help defend them during the war.
This number of casualties.
In this era, almost all the Dutch who dared to come to the Far East to make a living were outlaws. Even if they were not soldiers, they still had tough folk customs.
After taking Chiyan City, Zhang Mingzhen still felt that the attack speed was a bit too slow.
But in fact, if he knew how long it took Zheng Chenggong to storm various Dutch fortresses in the history of parallel time and space, he wouldn't feel this way.
Zhang Mingzhen and Zheng Chenggong combined their forces again and confirmed that this tactic was no problem, but consuming so many troops for a long-term siege meant that some military rations could not be supplied.
At this time, the indigenous population of Damuan Island was not large. There was also an indigenous country called the Dadu Kingdom in the middle of the east coast of the island, which was relatively exclusive. Previously, those who were willing to trade with the Ming Dynasty to sell grain and supply military supplies were only locals in the south of the island.
Just a few indigenous people.
To maintain military rations for an army of 30,000 people across the sea for a long time, and to transport all the necessary materials from Fujian, the cost is too high and the transportation pressure is very high——
In the Zheng family, Zheng Chenggong is not completely able to speak out now. His father Zheng Zhilong is still alive, and industrial management and commercial transportation are all in Zheng Zhilong's hands. Zheng Zhilong said that the pressure is too great, and Zhang Mingzhen cannot audit the accounts.
Considering that the infantry troops only need to attack the enemy at the end and surround the city to prevent the Dutch from leaving the city and counterattacking the artillery positions, so many people are really not needed in the subsequent stages.
After the two sides combined, they finally made some compromises. Zhang Mingzhen only left a small number of artillery units, and the rest of the Ming army in the north had to deal with the problem. After returning to Nanjing to consult Zhu Shuren, he was allowed to withdraw temporarily.
The troops sent by the Zheng family will also be reduced from 25,000, perhaps to 15,000, to be used for long-term sieges and artillery protection.
At the same time, Zheng Zhilong also issued a military order to Zhu Shuren through Zheng Chenggong, guaranteeing that even if most of Zhang Mingzhen's men evacuated, as long as the siege heavy artillery team was left behind, the Zheng family would eventually capture the entire island.
When Zhang Mingzhen and part of the Zheng family's troops withdrew back to the north, they spent a few months along the way, stopping and going, and destroyed the Dadu Kingdom in the middle of the east coast. It was a high-mountain indigenous country. There was nothing to say.
Then passing through Danshui, they destroyed the defenders of Fort Anthony in Danshui, and wiped out the main force of the North Dutchmen on the island. Fort Anthony was rebuilt from the Spanish Fort of Santo Domingo that was destroyed two years ago, and it has not yet been completed.
, was in tatters, so it was easy to break through under the Ming army's artillery. More than half of the defenders' five dissatisfied companies of more than 800 people were killed, and the rest surrendered and were captured.
By the end of the twelfth lunar month, more than two months after the war started, the Xianwei Island Fort, Chichan City, and Anthony Fort had been defeated, and the Dadu Kingdom was also destroyed.
The only city on the island that resisted the Ming Dynasty was the city of Relanja, which lasted until the New Year of the third year of Longwu.
…
After Zhang Mingzhen withdrew most of the imperial troops, only one general, Zhang Guozhu, who was in charge of the siege artillery team, was left to assist Zheng Chenggong.
After Zheng Zhilong learned of this situation, he personally took some fleets and rushed to Damuan Island to meet his son in private.
Zheng Zhilong was also ambitious, and immediately told the loyal Zheng Chenggong something: a small number of troops could be surrounded by the city of Relanja, and then farm the surrounding areas to replant the fields that had been cleared by the Dutch, and expand land reclamation, and gradually
Achieve self-sufficiency in food supplies for the siege troops.
The Taijiang Plain in the southern part of Damuan Island is quite fertile and suitable for large-scale rice cultivation. In later generations, it was able to produce a large amount of grain, which was enough for the local people to eat and could be sold to Danshui in the north.
Zheng Chenggong expressed his disbelief at this slow attack method that was too concerned about casualties. He believed that with hundreds of thousands more casualties at most, he could definitely storm the already half-battered city of Relanja.
came down.
But Zheng Zhilong, a traitor in history, showed more ambitions. He warned his son that although Zhu Shuren had always been in alliance with the Zheng family, he was now very powerful and could crush the Zheng family far away.
Zhu Shuren also promised the Dutch to open customs, formally collect tariffs, completely abolish the maritime ban that had existed for hundreds of years in the Ming Dynasty, and allow maritime trade to be fully open to collecting money. What will happen to the Zheng family's flag silver business in the future?
The imperial court has collected customs duties, can the Zheng family collect flag money again? That was a huge fortune of more than 11 million taels of silver per year at its peak!
Therefore, Zheng Zhilong wanted to be prudent and delay the occupation of Da Yuan Island. In the process of occupying the island, he first spread the Zheng family's military garrison on the fertile land of the island, controlling the throat and creating established facts to ensure that in the future, Da Yuan Island would be used as a legal foreign trade to collect taxes.
Island, the Zheng family can still have absolute economic interests in Da Yuan Island!
Zheng Chenggong still admires Zhu Shuren and recognizes this eldest brother very much. Of course, he doesn't take it seriously when dealing with his father's little tricks. He also warned Zheng Zhilong that Prince E had promised to share the economic benefits of Dajuan Island with the Zheng family in the future. It was unnecessary.
Make small moves.
But Zheng Zhilong was able to suppress his son, and he did it more secretly. He also issued a military order to take over Da Yuan Island, but it was just delayed a little, until the relatively cool winter season was over. Zhang Mingzhen's people from the north suffered.
Not being able to cope with the tropical weather, they all reported illness and withdrew their troops, and then he personally controlled the rhythm of breaking the city and the timing of reporting.
Zheng Chenggong didn't want his family to be convicted, so he had no choice but to mediate and speed up the attack.
In the end, the battle that the Ming army expected to resolve in three months actually dragged on for five or six months before the city of Relanja was finally conquered. Because it was a breach rather than a surrender, General Cornelis and others were of course made prisoners of war.
And no longer enjoy the surrender treatment.
But compared to parallel time and space, the entire battle lasted for nearly a year, and the siege of Guangre Lanzha City lasted for more than eight months, which was much faster.
Moreover, before the final victory of the Ming Dynasty, they indeed repelled the reinforcement fleet sent by the Dutch from the Batavia expedition at sea, which completely established the Ming Dynasty's absolute authority in the East Asian ocean.
Later, Zhu Shuren also learned about the Zheng family's petty tricks of seeking personal gain and wanting to eat and occupy more. Of course, he originally wanted to find a way to punish Zheng Zhilong - Zhu Shuren was very good to Zheng Chenggong, his younger brother. After all, he was a national hero, but Zheng Zhilong was different.
, he was a traitor in history!
Zhu Shuren had been pretty good to Zheng Zhilong before, but it was just for the sake of his son's face, and there was no conflict of interest.
However, it can be regarded as a trick of God. In the end, Zhu Shuren did not seize the opportunity to punish Zheng Zhilong for delaying the development of his island's power-perhaps because Zheng Zhilong delayed the time and delayed the battle against the Dutch from the end of late winter and early spring.
It ends in late spring and early summer.
In addition, Zheng Zhilong was greedy and went deep into the center of the island to pursue the remnants of the indigenous people of the Dadu Kingdom, hoping to arrest people as sharecroppers and kill those who harassed the rebels.
Although he is from Fujian, the original tropical rainforest of Damuan Island is still much more dangerous than that of Fujian. Finally, during a private operation this summer, Zheng Zhilong was infected with a tropical disease and died without treatment in time——
Don’t really think that Zheng Zhilong is not in good health, because in the history of parallel time and space, when Zheng Chenggong regained Taiyuan Island sixteen years later, he also defeated the Dutch and died of illness very quickly the next year. He was only thirty-eight years old when he died.
.
And now Zheng Zhilong is a middle-aged man in his forties after all.
Perhaps there is something wrong with the genes of the Zheng family, and they are particularly afraid of certain tropical disease bacteria or viruses on Dayuan Island. After they reach middle age, they cannot handle it anymore, and only young people can handle it.
The Ming Dynasty regained Damuan Island sixteen years ahead of schedule, but due to the butterfly effect, Zheng Zhilong died of a tropical disease instead of his son.
After receiving the news of Zheng Zhilong's death, Zhu Shuren naturally stopped the beating he had planned before. There was no need to argue with the dead man anymore.
Moreover, Zheng Zhilong is dead, and it is even more necessary to play the emotional card, not only to completely win over Zheng Chenggong, but also to help Zheng Chenggong completely control the power of the Zheng family.
In any case, Zheng Chenggong's second uncle and third uncle are still alive in this life. Historically, these people followed Zheng Zhilong to surrender to the Qing Dynasty. Only Zheng Hongkui followed his nephew.
Now that these people have not surrendered, Zhu Shuren will help Zheng Chenggong squeeze out these two unreliable uncles as soon as possible.
The best way is, of course, to hold his nose and give Zheng Zhilong a title, give him some honor, and then immediately allow Zheng Chenggong to inherit.
Zheng Chenggong had a title and the imperial court's absolute support, so his second uncle and third uncle could be marginalized.
Zhu Shuren killed three birds with one stone. He not only recovered the senior officials, intimidated the Dutch, but also made Zheng Zhilong and his two brothers withdraw from the stage of history.
Longwu's three years have been a perfect start.
——
PS: I said that my book cannot make the people who were great traitors in history die rich and happy. But the butterfly effect has reached this point. It is impossible for Zheng Zhilong to become a traitor and become a complete villain. Even someone like Wu Sangui
That's impossible
In order not to disgust the readers, I think it is the best way to let Zheng Zhilong die early due to the epidemic when he was expanding his territory in the tropical rain forest due to greed. This is also the last plot kill in the book.