Zheng Zhilong
Initially "Iquan's Party" was a simple trading enterprise plying the Japan-China Southeast Asian trade routes. In addition it operated a business providing security to trading ships, ships that had paid a protection fee would fly a flag indicating that protection. The enterprise was initially led by Li Dan who was a leader of the Chinese merchant community in Japan, at this time Zheng Zhilong was the youngest member of the "Society of the Twenty Eight Brothers". By 1625 Zheng Zhilong had become the leader of a group of eighteen birth and oath brothers known as the "Eighteen Zhis" (so called because all eighteen shared "Zhi" as a generational name).