Zhou Li lay naked on the ground, touching the ground with his forehead, and did not dare to make a sound. Qin Feng raised his chin, and Eunuch Le from behind walked forward knowingly, shook a long robe, and draped it lightly on Zhou Li's naked body.

"What is the most important thing between the monarch and the minister? Of course it is mutual trust." Qin Feng said slowly: "If there is no trust as the basis, how can I feel at ease to hand over an army to you? Especially for troops like the Navy, Zhou Li, once you sail far above the sea and cut off the news from the land, what else can you and me do to guarantee each other besides trust? But when you arrived in the Ming Dynasty, you concealed too much from me, which disappointed me very much. Fortunately, it was not too late to seize the opportunity."

"Myong knew that he was wrong." Zhou Li said tremblingly: "Myong was originally born innocent, but later he could not stand the temptation of galloping across the sea. He became a pirate. He was proud but was deeply ashamed, for fear that His Majesty would look down on someone like Moyong, so he did not dare to tell the truth."

"Since ancient times, heroes have not asked where they come from." Qin Feng said: "There is nothing to say. Zhou Li, get up, Mr. Le, bring him a seat. I want to listen carefully to the situation at sea. The last time you told me, there are many incomplete and untrue things, or have you concealed a lot of things?"

"The last general, I'm inexplicably afraid, Your Majesty forgive me!" Zhou Li, who stood up, couldn't help but tremble.

"Put your clothes first!" Qin Feng was a little funny looking at the other person's appearance, "This look is really a bit bad."

After putting on his clothes, he sat on a stool, holding the ginger tea made by Eunuch Le, Zhou Li finally calmed down. He drank a bowl of ginger tea in one breath, placed the bowl on the table, sat up straight, and placed his hands flat on his knees, waiting for Qin Feng to ask questions.

"Let's talk about your relationship with the Ning family in Quanzhou first!" Qin Feng said: "You are from Quanzhou. I think what you do must be inseparable from them, right?"

"Your Majesty see Wanli clearly! The Mo General admires Wudi." Zhou Li said: "In fact, it is better to say that Mo General is working for Ning's family than being a pirate."

Qin Feng nodded as expected.

"Third-year-old Jiang was not welcomed by the Chu Navy and was excluded everywhere. In anger, he resigned from his post and returned home, thinking that even if he was a fisherman, he would not starve to death. But later, the facts proved that Mo Jiang really thought about the things in this world too simply." Zhou Li said with some emotion. "The name of Mo Jiang is still a little famous in this business. Shortly after returning home, Ning came to him."

"But Mo General knew more or less the details of the Ning family, so he naturally refused to fall. After that, my family encountered great difficulties in Quanzhou. Later, the child was even more involved in a murder lawsuit and was unable to escape. At this time, the Ning family came to the door again, claiming that as long as I joined the Ning family fleet and became the chief guard of their fleet, the child would not have anything to do. In desperation, Mo General had to agree to them and began his pirate career from then on. This has been nearly ten years!"

"Aren't you the chief of the guard? Why did you turn into a pirate?" Qin Feng asked with a smile.

"Your Majesty doesn't know anything." Zhou Li said: "In Chu State, the Ning family does business in a regular manner, but as long as the fleet goes out to sea, it will be different. The sea is so big that people living on land can understand. There is a place without a king's law, and whoever has a strong fist will have a great reason. So when the fleet goes out to sea, it will do both legal business and illegal things. For example, robbery."

"If there is no sea port in the mainland, Qin will not talk about it. The Ming Dynasty now only has Baoqing, and it was abandoned during the pre-July period. The strategy of banning the sea between Qi and Chu is quite strict. Who do you rob?" Qin Feng said in a bit puzzled.

"Your Majesty, although we are forbidden from the sea here, we do not do other places. On the contrary, the countries outside have very prosperous sea trade. During the heyday of the Tang Dynasty, all countries came to pay tribute. Although it was a bit exaggerated, hundreds of small countries always had hundreds of small countries. More than a thousand years have passed, and these countries have broken up and merged, some have been destroyed, some have continued, and some have even merged into some quite large countries. When we go out to sea and do business, they are the ones we grab. Of course, they are also the ones we grab. Sometimes, we also grab the Guo family of Qi."

Qin Feng nodded, "How many of these overseas countries do you know? How big is their fleet? Do you have the ability to launch an attack on us?"

What Zhou Li said made Qin Feng a little worried.

"Your Majesty, the Ning fleet led by the last general did not go too far. According to my knowledge, the largest of these countries is equivalent to the size of the Ming Dynasty. They seem to have a great sense of fear for us. This may be related to the shadow left by the Tang army in the Tang Dynasty. The people in power there did not intend to march to us. They even guarded against us, even if they did business with us, they would be careful."

"Based on your observation, how powerful are these countries?" Qin Feng continued to ask.

"Their land power ministers don't know much, but if they only count the sea fleet, either Qi and Chu countries can't be their opponent. Fortunately, they don't know the details, otherwise the sea area of ​​our continent would be in panic." Zhou Li said.

"So that's how it is!" Qin Feng's mood became a little heavy.

"Yes, we are very regular in doing business here. Only when we reach the sea, we will turn around and become pirates, rob merchant ships in that area of ​​sea, and even occasionally go ashore to rob some small island countries." Zhou Li said: "The sea life is full of crises. A fleet like us who do both regular business and pirates still have some bottom lines. Generally speaking, we only seek wealth, but there are some pure pirates, which is quite cruel. If we encounter them at sea, it will be an endless battle. My scar is obtained from the battle with these pirates."

"Have you lost?"

"The worst thing that has lost is that the entire fleet is almost destroyed. The last general fleeing alone on the ship." Zhou Li said ashamed.

"You are so embarrassed?" Qin Feng laughed.

Zhou Li raised his head: "Your Majesty, it's not that I'm useless, but that the fleet led by me is mostly merchant ships. There are actually very few warships that are actually used for combat. However, those pirates are all warships. The war minister was very unlucky. The Ning fleet has been on this route for many years and has been targeted by the pirates in that area. Several small pirate gangs joined forces to deal with the generals, and the generals are really powerless to turn the world back."

"So, you are actually only walking in a very small area of ​​sea and know nothing about the farther place." Qin Feng said thoughtfully.

"Yes, the sea areas I know are already all in the book I offer to Your Majesty. I don't know anything further away, but there is one thing that Your Majesty may be interested." Zhou Li said.

"What's the matter?"

"Three years ago, I often went to dozens of countries in the sea where I did business, no matter how big or small, and once organized a joint fleet. At that time, even all the pirates received invitations. I heard it was to deal with the invasion from the farther West. Unfortunately, I was in Quanzhou at that time, and Ning seemed to have heard the news. During that period, I did not go to sea."

"What's the final outcome?" Qin Feng suddenly raised his ears.

"A year later, when I arrived at that sea area, I saw a bleak scene. During that battle, I heard that thousands of warships fought fiercely in the vast sea area. It made me excited. In the end, they won, but they also won miserably." Zhou Li said: "That distant country is quite terrifying. Under the premise of the Labor Expedition without any logistical support, it actually supported it for nearly a year, causing great losses to the joint fleet in that sea area."

Qin Feng took a deep breath: "It's terrifying. After that battle, I never heard of the distant country again, but there were many pirates in this sea area. One of them was the remnants of the fleet of this distant country that defeated. The one we went to sea was actually them. Because they were too cruel. Fortunately, they were the public enemies of this sea area. In a few years, their strength had almost been exhausted. In fact, in my opinion, fortunately, the fleet from a distant country was stopped this time, otherwise they would win, with the wolf nature they showed, we would not be peaceful here."

"You're right." Qin Feng nodded: "Now our sea preparations are relaxed, regardless of Qi Chu, and our Ming Dynasty is just starting out. If such a powerful fleet finds that our place is vulnerable, it would be really miserable. Fortunately, we are now on the road. Zhou Li, this is your mission in the future. We need a powerful navy."

"Your Majesty will not hold me accountable?" Zhou Li asked dumbly.

"What did you have any problems in the past? Does it have anything to do with me, Daming? And you are just overseas. In fact, the plan you proposed earlier is not to let me, Daming Navy, also be a pirate? I am quite interested in this. Zhou Li, now we only have two real warships. Do you think you can go out and grab one?"

"Your Majesty, although we only have two warships, these two warships are much stronger than the pirates. As long as we don't encounter the big pirates who have moved dozens of warships and the regular navy of the country in that area of ​​the sea, we are invincible." Zhou Li said loudly.
Chapter completed!