The moment the news settled in, the two young men practically exploded.
Shi Lang slapped his thigh. "Then what are we waiting for? Mobilize troops! We hold imperial posts now. We can deploy forces legitimately. Let's drive those English dogs straight back into the sea."
Zheng Sen's eyes were blazing. "Exactly. We're not pirates anymore. We're officers of Great Ming. We have the right."
They were already halfway to the docks in their minds.
Then a calm voice drifted in from behind them.
"You two are speaking nonsense."
They turned.
Bai Gongzi had just docked his paddlewheel ship, the Little White 3. He stepped off the gangplank with unhurried grace, folding his fan as he approached.
"You're excited," he continued, "which is understandable. But it's precisely because you now hold official positions that you cannot interfere freely."
The two youths froze.
"Huh?"
Shi Lang frowned. "What do you mean we can't?"
Bai Gongzi gave them a look that said, You still have much to learn.
"In the past," he said patiently, "when we were acting under looser banners, we could claim to be pirates. We could strike where we wished and disappear. No one could pin jurisdiction on us."
He tapped Shi Lang's chest lightly with his folded fan.
"Now you are registered officers of the court. That means boundaries. Regions. Authority lines. If you act outside your assigned jurisdiction, you undermine not only your own status but also the legitimacy Gao Family Village fought so hard to establish."
Zheng Sen scratched his head.
"But General Cao is Coastal Regional Commander. Doesn't that mean he commands the whole coastline?"
Bai Gongzi shook his head.
"The Suzhou and Songjiang fleet governs its own coast. The Fujian Naval Commander governs Fujian waters. The Guangdong Regional Commander governs Guangdong. General Cao's authority likely covers Tianjin and Shandong coasts. The bureaucracy is a web, not a sword. You pull one thread carelessly, and the whole thing tangles."
Shi Lang muttered, "So we just watch?"
"I did not say that," Bai Gongzi replied calmly. "I also think the English deserve a beating. I am only saying that how we beat them matters."
The two youths exchanged looks.
Their fists were ready.
Their brains were catching up.
Just then, another ship entered the harbor at speed.
It flew a familiar banner.
Zheng Zhilong's flag.
Before it had fully docked, a burly man leapt ashore.
"Young Master! Young Master!"
Zheng Sen blinked. "That's Father's trusted man."
The man rushed over, breathing hard but grinning.
"My master sent me. There is some entertainment to be had. He asks whether Young Master wishes to watch."
Shi Lang snorted. "Entertainment? Don't tell me it involves four English warships."
The messenger froze. "You already know?"
"We just heard," Zheng Sen replied. "They bombarded Humen Fortress. The fight is over. What's left to see?"
The man's grin widened.
"The Westerners angered the provincial governor and the Vice Commissioner of Maritime Affairs. Several high officials ordered Guangdong Regional Commander Chen Qian to expel them immediately. But Chen Qian lacks men. His ships are old and worn. He could not drive them off."
He paused for effect.
"So he requested assistance from my master."
Understanding dawned instantly.
Of course.
If Westerners bullied the coast, who would they think of?
Zheng Zhilong.
The most powerful maritime force in southeastern Great Ming.
The man who had broken the Dutch at Liaoluo Bay.
The sea knew his name.
Shi Lang's expression brightened like sunrise.
"Little Sen, you're going."
Zheng Sen was already nodding.
"And I am coming with you," Shi Lang continued quickly. "I will not reveal my identity. I will pretend to be one of your subordinates. No one will know."
"That is perfect," Zheng Sen said, almost laughing from excitement.
Since Zheng Zhilong was personally intervening, Gao Family Village decided not to dispatch a massive fleet. There was no need to crowd the stage.
They sent only two ships.
The Wanli Sunshine.
And the newly completed paddlewheel vessel, Little White 3.
Shi Lang changed attire, blending into Zheng Sen's retinue.
The two large ships left Zhoushan Harbor and cut southward toward Fujian waters.
After steady sailing, they reached Anhai Town in Jinjiang.
Zheng Zhilong's stronghold.
The docks were packed.
Ships of all shapes and sizes crowded the harbor like fish in spawning season.
Dominating the center was a Western galleon roughly fifty meters long. No one quite knew how Zheng Zhilong had acquired it, but it was clearly not locally built.
Behind it were about a dozen large junks around twenty meters in length.
And then smaller craft, dozens of them.
But when Wanli Sunshine and Little White 3 entered the harbor, conversation died.
The two ships exceeded sixty meters.
They dwarfed Zheng Zhilong's prized galleon.
Sailors stared openly.
"What monsters are those?"
"Are those really Ming ships?"
"Look at that hull…"
"Is that a paddlewheel?"
Whispers rolled across the docks.
Zheng Sen waved cheerfully.
"Uncle Zhang!"
"Uncle Li!"
"Uncle Zheng!"
Men who had sailed under his father's command for years laughed and waved back.
"You've grown taller!"
"Young Master looks stronger!"
Zheng Zhilong himself stood waiting on the dock.
When he saw his son step ashore, a broad smile spread across his weathered face.
"Little Sen. It has been a while. Have you learned anything studying under Mr. Li?"
Zheng Sen's chest swelled with pride.
"Father, I have learned incredible things. The Earth is a great sphere. The Sun does not circle us. The Moon affects the seas. I understand tides, monsoons, ocean currents. I have studied navigation beyond imagination. Mr. Li knows more than ten thousand scholars combined."
Zheng Zhilong laughed heartily.
"That so?"
"Oh, and I also secured an official post."
Zheng Zhilong blinked.
"You what?"
"A Centurion."
Silence.
Zheng Zhilong stared at his thirteen year old son as if seeing him anew.
"A Centurion?"
"Yes."
For a moment the great sea lord did not know whether to laugh or question the heavens.
When he had sought rank in his youth, he had endured humiliation and struggle. Advancement had been slow and uncertain.
Now his son returned from study with a formal military title already attached.
Sending him to follow Eunuch Li had been the correct decision indeed.
Zheng Zhilong felt something warm in his chest.
Perhaps one day, he thought, I will rise through my son.
"How did you obtain it?"
"That story is long," Zheng Sen said quickly. "I will explain later. For now, Father, let us deal with the English."
Zheng Zhilong's expression hardened.
"Yes. Let us."
He had already prepared most of the fleet, merely waiting for his son's arrival.
The English had only four ships.
Guangzhou was far from Fujian.
There was no need to mobilize everything.
He selected ten medium to large vessels capable of long voyages.
He himself commanded from the Western galleon.
His younger brother, Zheng Zhihu, took the vanguard aboard a twenty meter junk.
The fleet sailed.
On the journey southward, Zheng Sen recounted the Battle of Pi Island in full detail.
Zheng Zhilong listened carefully.
The scale of that conflict startled him.
So much bloodshed.
So much risk.
So much balance hanging by a thread.
Had that battle gone differently, Great Ming's northern waters might have collapsed.
He felt cold for a moment imagining it.
Then Zheng Sen continued excitedly, shifting from battle to knowledge.
He spoke of steam powered paddlewheels.
Of propulsion systems.
Of understanding wind not as superstition but as science.
When he explained that tides were influenced by the Moon's pull, Zheng Zhilong frowned deeply.
"The Moon… pulling the sea?"
"Yes."
"With what?"
"Gravity."
Zheng Zhilong stared at the water for a long time.
The sea he had ruled for decades suddenly seemed deeper than ever.
Finally, he laughed softly.
"My son."
"Yes, Father?"
"In the future, your achievements will far surpass mine."
The fleet continued southward.
Ahead waited four English ships.
Behind sailed a father beginning to understand that the world was changing.
And beside him stood a son who already belonged to that new world.