The end of the Ming Dynasty swept the world

Chapter 617
After entering Chongzhen for 11 years (1638), under the command of Yang Sichang, the governors of various provinces made great progress in encircling and suppressing the peasant army, limiting the mobility of the peasant army and carrying out various defeats. The situation of the peasant army began to gradually deteriorate .

But fighting and training requires money, and Yang Sichang's payment alone cannot solve the problem. In fact, the Chongzhen Dynasty has never paid the full amount in all the previous payment.

It's not bad to get 100 for every 70 million additional distributions, and sometimes you can't even get half of the additional distributions.

So in the first month of the 11th year of Chongzhen, Fu Yuanchu, who was in charge of engineering, asked to play. Due to the imperial court's use of troops for years and the lack of financial resources, please open the Fujian sea ban and trade and pay.

In fact, as far as the Ming Dynasty is concerned, the emperors of various generations have repeatedly opened, banned, opened, and banned, repeatedly tossing and tossing.

Every time it is opened because of lack of money, every time it is banned because of foreign warships or pirates.

Not to mention the lifting of the ban before the apocalypse, only during the years between apocalypse and Chongzhen, the sea was opened (the fourth year of the apocalypse), the sea was banned (the fifth year of the apocalypse), the sea was opened again (the first year of the apocalypse), and the sea was banned again (the sixth year of the Chongzhen ) Four changes of reopening.

This time it may be that there is really no money. Chongzhen thought again and again and agreed to open the sea, but only in Fujian, not in Guangdong and other places.

But it was too late to open the sea at this time. Fujian has long been firmly occupied by Zheng Zhilong. In the original history, Zheng Zhilong mainly ran to Japan and North Korea. Now the two lines of Japan and North Korea are occupied by Ding Yi. Zheng Zhilong I am even more unwilling to spit out this piece of fat in Fujian.

But Kaihai also played a supporting role for Zheng Zhilong. For a while, merchants gathered and there were more sea ships, and Zheng Zhilong's business was booming and prosperous.

But the imperial court also opened the sea to collect taxes and increase income.

At this time, Huang Shi, Hong Xu's subordinate, asked Hong Xu why he should not let Zongbing Zheng pay some money to the imperial court. Seeing the benefits, the imperial court must increase the efforts to open the sea.

Hong Xu felt that it made sense, because he also had this idea in the first place.

During the Spring Festival in 1638, Zheng Zhilong entertained the generals and watched a battalion of 500 recruits trained by Hong Xu.

After more than a year of training, Hong Xu's recruits look good, and they look very elite, and they can be compared with Ding Yi's.

Zheng Zhilong was overjoyed and declared on the spot that he would reward Hong Xu with a thousand taels of silver.

Seeing him happy, Hong Xu may have drank some wine and called him by his nickname: "An official, the imperial court is now lifting the sea ban, why don't we hand over some money to the court, so that the court will see the benefits of opening the sea ban, and it will definitely open a new one." Lots of sea."

The scene suddenly fell silent.

In fact, Zheng Zhilong and his subordinates also discussed this issue before, but everyone agreed that it doesn’t matter if the imperial court can’t open the sea now, because there is no ban at all, and everyone still does business. What's the use?
Especially now that Zheng Zhilong dominates the world, as long as he doesn't make a sound, everyone will still run on the sea.

Zheng Zhilong was noncommittal after listening, and waved his hand to signal Hong Xu to back down.

Hong Xu was a smart man, he sighed secretly, returned to the wine table, bowed his head and sipped his wine.

In fact, he still has something to say, Zheng Zhilong asked him to train [-] new troops, he is [-] veterans, and [-] civilians are recruits.

As a result, the civilian soldiers trained well, but the five thousand veterans did not.

These veterans were all pirates in the past, and some of them were older than him. Many generals were inextricably linked with the Zheng family and the Shi family, and they were rebellious because of their qualifications and connections, and they didn't listen to orders at all.

Hong Xu was so angry that he wanted to kill several generals, but he didn't dare.

He is a wise man, of course he knows what can and cannot be done.

Once, he deliberately talked about the allusion of Sun Wu training soldiers and beheading Princess Wu in front of Zheng.

In the end, Zheng Zhilong persuaded him instead, asking him to be patient, they are all old brothers, don't hurt the hearts of the old brothers.

At that time, Hong Xu knew that he could only train [-] civilian recruits.

After the meeting ended that night, Hong Xu walked out of Zheng's mansion alone, outside there was a group of soldiers and his confidant Qian Zong Huang Shi, and Yuan Gui was waiting.

"General Hong, how is the matter of opening the sea? Zongbing Zheng agreed." Huang Shi smiled.

Hong Xu smiled wryly and shook his head: "The official said that in the future, he will give the court 5000 taels of tax every year."

This was decided by Zheng Zhilong after receiving the order to open the sea, and he would hand over five thousand silver to the court every year.

This is obviously too little, according to Hong Xu and Huang Shi's intention, at least [-].

Zheng Zhilong earns tens of millions of dollars a year, and giving him [-] is only good for him, not bad. Seeing that the tax is so high, the court must open more seas.

Yuan Gui said "ah", "So few?"

Huang Shi hesitated to speak, but after thinking about it, he still didn't dare to speak.

Even Hong Xu felt that Zheng Zhilong's structure was too petty, too petty.

The three of them looked at each other, naturally they did not dare to speak ill of Zheng Zhilong.

But at this moment, a voice came from behind: "General Hong."

The three turned around, and it turned out to be Shi Yong, Shi Fu, and Shi Daxuan brothers.

The three brothers also drank a lot of wine today, it must be Chinese New Year.

Hong Xu hurriedly took Huang Shi and the two to meet one by one.

These three people are all considered as Zheng Zhilong's Chinese army officers. Although they don't command soldiers, their status is not small.

"General Hong, you talk too much today." Shi Yong said very bluntly: "You are the general who leads the troops, and you are responsible for training the elite soldiers. Don't talk too much about other things in the future."

A gleam of joy flashed in Huang Shi's eyes, and he hurriedly said: "General Hong is also thinking about us. If the tax can be paid more than [-] yuan a year, the imperial court will definitely open more seas. It will only benefit us and not harm us."

"What's the difference if you can't drive the sea now?" Shi Fu was furious: "Isn't the sea full of boats outside?"

"Is it justifiable for us to collect taxes everywhere?" Huang Shi said again.

"It's not justified, but it still needs to be handed over, even Ding Yi on the opposite side." Shi Yong said loudly.

At this time, Shi Daxuan also said in a strange way: "It turns out that General Hong's subordinates are all generals with both ability and political integrity, both civil and military."

Huang Shi brushed it, his face flushed, he was ashamed and angry.

Hong Xu drank some wine today, and he felt irritated at first. He didn't dare to say it in front of Zheng Zhilong, but he finally couldn't help it: "If you didn't make up your own mind to kill Ding Yi, why should we have trouble with Ding Yi?" so stiff?"

"Yiguan and Ding Yi are good brothers."

"You Shi family, are you helping an official or harming an official?"

Swipe, now it's Shi Yong's turn to turn red with embarrassment.

Failed to kill Ding Yi, and killed Zheng Zhihu, this is the shadow in his heart for the rest of his life.

"You still have the face to accuse me?" Shi Yong was furious: "Your soldiers and horses came late that day, which allowed Ding Yi to rush into Zheng's mansion, control the young master, and let Ding Yi's thief escape from life. "

"It's a pity that an official said that your soldiers and horses are the most elite, bah, I think it's bullshit."

"Who are you talking about bullshit? You say it again?" Hong Xu was furious.

"You're training fart soldiers, Shi Lang said that you can't train soldiers." Shi Fu suddenly said loudly at this time.

Shi Lang is Shi Daxuan's son. Not long after he voted for Zheng Zhilong, he was sent by Zheng Zhilong to Hong Xu's new barracks.

Shi Lang is an all-rounder in civil and military affairs, proficient in the art of war, and knows that military training needs to be strict, but Hong Xu is too strict, and he practiced every day, completely exceeding the level of the normal Ming army by several times, so when he returned home, he vaguely mentioned that he did not approve of Hong Xu's training.

"Oh, don't quarrel, don't quarrel." The good old man Shi Daxuan saw that the two sides were about to quarrel, so he hurried forward to persuade them.

"Don't say it, don't say it, everyone, don't say it." Yuan Gui also hurried out to be a peacemaker.

"The bullshit new army was made entirely of money. If you give me so much money, I can practice." Shi Yong scolded angrily.

"Damn it." Hong Xu was furious, couldn't bear it anymore, rushed forward suddenly, and kicked Shi Yong's chest.

"Ah!" Shi Yong was kicked and sat on the ground, he was ashamed and angry: "You dare to hit me? Hit me Shi Yong?"

"Call me." The three Shi family brothers were followed by guards.

Shi Yong didn't care, he gave an order, and the guards rushed forward.

Hong Xu also had personal soldiers on his side, so he rushed forward immediately.

Huang Shi was overjoyed and put one hand on the knife.

But Yuan Gui held him down and said in a low voice, "Don't mess around."

The two rushed forward quickly, and the people on both sides punched and kicked into a ball.

In the early morning of the next day, Zheng Zhilong got the news that the three Shi family brothers and Hong Xu got into a fight.

Zheng Zhilong was so angry that he was half dead.

He first called the Shi family brothers, scolded him sharply, and then called Hong Xu to persuade him.

But within a few days, Hong Xu's [-] new troops were divided into two.

The [-] veterans were all under the command of the young Shi Lang, and the [-] recruits were still under the command of Hong Xu.

That night, Hong Xu called Huang Shi and Yuan Gui, and all three of them had bruises and swollen faces. Hong Xu looked at them and laughed loudly, with an ugly expression on their faces.

Then the three of them got some wine at Hong Xu's house. At this time, Hong Xu's mood was a little low, and he was not as ambitious as when he was training recruits.

Huang Shi could only comfort him: "Forget it, General Hong, the brothers of the Shi family must be from the same hometown as Zongbing Zheng, and they knew each other earlier than you, so let's talk about it."

He changed his tone: "The three of them are really good at managing financial logistics, we can't afford to mess with them now."

Yuan Gui hurriedly said: "We are all our own people, everyone should give way, if there is internal strife, it will only make outsiders laugh."

Huang Shi was dissatisfied and glared at him: "But the three of them are too bullying. They provoked us yesterday."

"Forget it, peace is the most important thing, and harmony makes money." Yuan Gui said: "As long as we train our soldiers well, in the future on the battlefield, General Zheng will see that our new army is powerful, so he will naturally know that General Hong is the real one. .”

Huang Shi immediately said: "I'm afraid that when the new army is trained, a single order will be transferred to Zheng Zhibao and his ilk, and General Hong will be busy for nothing."

Bang, Hong Xu's wine glass hit the table heavily.

The two fell silent in fright.

Hong Xu raised his glass again: "They are all brothers of an official. It doesn't matter who the new army returns to. Come, let's not talk about this, just drink."

The three of them had no choice but to drink the wine.

Hong Xu was hungover that night, and was supposed to go to the military camp for training the next day.

As a result, after Huang Shi and Yuan Gui arrived, Hong Xu's personal captain came to the camp and said that General Hong was not feeling well today, and the whole army had to rest for two days.

After Huang Shi, Yuan Gui and other soldiers left, they looked at each other and smiled.

(End of this chapter)