The end of the Ming Dynasty swept the world

Chapter 783 The world is so big, there is no room for shelter
September, Fujian.

Quanzhou General Military Mansion has been coming and going these days, and a large number of generals come in and out frequently.

Zheng Zhilong sat in the middle with a sad face, and on the table was a pile of slanderous newspapers from the Fuzhou Chief Envoy.

The civil and military people around him also gathered together at this time, and one of them was wearing the general uniform, which was his fourth brother Zheng Zhifeng.

It is now renamed Zheng Hongkui.

Zheng Zhifeng is one of Zheng Zhilong's brothers and subordinates who wholeheartedly wants to be an imperial official.

He was the one who persuaded Zheng Zhilong to agree when the imperial court called for peace.

After Zheng Zhilong became the commander-in-chief of Quanzhou, Zheng Zhifeng was admitted to Wu Jinshi in the 13th year of Chongzhen (1640). I don't know if it was because he didn't want his colleagues to know his relationship with the pirate Zheng Zhilong, or for other reasons, he quickly changed his name to Zheng Hongkui.

He successively served as the commander of Jinyiwei in Nanjing and the deputy commander of Zhenjiang.

In the original history, he first went to Dengzhou as the deputy commander-in-chief. After Li Zicheng defeated the capital, he returned to Zhenjiang as the commander-in-chief. He led the boat division to guard the mouth of the Yangtze River to guard against the Qing soldiers.

This time, because Ding Yi's influence is in Dengzhou, he directly served as the deputy general of Zhenjiang.

After Ding Yi changed Nanzhili to Jiangnan Province, Zheng Hongkui was changed to the chief officer of the Zhenjiang Navy, and he still led the navy to garrison Zhenjiang and guard the Yangtze River Estuary to show his respect for him.

At this time Zheng Hongkui was clasping his fists and said: "Brother, now the court is assisted by the prince and controls the overall situation. Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong have all been swept away."

"The world is about to be settled, so please make plans early."

As soon as Zheng Hongkui finished speaking, Shi Yong beside him said angrily: "Move the town to Tianjin and become the commander-in-chief of the Tianjin Navy? We are all from the south, and suddenly we all go to the north. How do we adapt? We don't want tens of millions of flags and silver from Fujian?"

It turned out that Ding Yi wanted Zheng Zhilong to move to Tianjin, and another garrison Yu Liangtai was appointed as the commander of Quanzhou. Simply put, he wanted to replace Zheng Zhilong with his own troops.

Zheng Zhilong wanted to move the town, and the tens of millions of flag silver in the next year would be completely gone.

He has tens of thousands of subordinates now, Ding Yi asked him to bring [-] elites there, and leave the rest to Yu Liangtai.

Therefore, Zheng Zhilong's subordinates expressed dissatisfaction one after another.

"Ding Yi just wanted to annex us. I said back then that he had a lot of ambitions. He asked an official to kill him. Kill him. Now it's all right. He has become jealous, and he is holding the prince to order the princes." Shi Yong is still talking.

"I went to my sister-in-law's room in Japan back then, and it really was Cao's thief." Shi Fu also said.

Hong Xu frowned: "Why bring up the past, think about the current situation."

Zheng Zhilong looked gloomy, with mixed feelings in his heart.

The little brother who once needed his help has now become a powerful minister with power over the world.

Now Ding Yi's Sima Zhao's heart is known to all passers-by, and all officials in the world can see it in their eyes.

How many years has it been?
Zheng Zhilong couldn't help thinking that more than ten years ago, Ding Yi, who was still a little green, took the initiative to approach him, and said that he would become a brother with him.

"Hey" Zheng Zhilong smiled wryly and shook his head.

"Brother." Zheng Hongkui said again: "Our Zheng family's money has been spent in several lifetimes."

"Sen'er is not young anymore, you don't think about yourself, you also think about Sen'er?"

Zheng Sen (Zheng Chenggong) is currently studying at the Imperial College in Nanjing, where he learns from Qian Qianyi.

Zheng Zhilong also wanted his son to be an official, so the whole family was eager to go ashore.

"Has Sen'er come back this time?" Shi Dafu asked suddenly.

"No." Zheng Hongkui said: "The king of Zhenbei came to hear rumors that he asked Sen'er to study hard and prepare for the exam."

Shi Dafu was inexplicable: "Sen'er has never passed the provincial examination, how can he take the examination?"

It turns out that there were four steps in the imperial examination in the Ming Dynasty. The first step was the courtyard examination, which is equivalent to the current county-level examination. Those who pass the examination can be called scholars.

Zheng Chenggong was admitted as a scholar in the 11th year of Chongzhen (1638).

Strictly speaking, this step is not considered an imperial examination. Later generations have divided the Ming Dynasty imperial examination into three steps.

That is, the following township examinations, general examinations, and imperial examinations (temple examinations) are held every three years.

The township examination is not held in the village. It is equivalent to the current provincial-level unified examination.

Zheng Chenggong failed the provincial examination, so Zheng Zhilong was anxious to help him find a good teacher, sent him to Nanjing, and worshiped Qian Qianyi as his teacher.

After the township examination, there is the general examination, which is equivalent to the national examination. About 300 people are selected, and those who are admitted are called Gongsheng.

Both Juren and Gongsheng have the opportunity to be officials. When the incumbent official dies and there is a vacancy, he can be a substitute.

The third step is the court examination (temple examination), which is to be taken by the emperor, and those who pass the test are called Jinshi, which can directly become an official.

Zheng Chenggong has just passed the first step now. He is only a scholar and has no chance to become an official.

It is not counted as entering the gate of the imperial examination.

Zheng Hongkui thought for a while and looked around: "My lord's next step is to reform the imperial examinations. From now on, there will only be a provincial unified examination (general examination), with merit-based admissions, and direct appointment as an official. There will be no township examinations, hospital examinations, palace examinations, etc."

As soon as this statement came out, there was an uproar all around, Shi Yong and other civil officials couldn't believe it.

What does this mean? It means that those who are not even scholars have the opportunity to take the exam and become officials.

What do they do with Zheng Zhilong, besides making money, don't they just want to fight for fame and fortune?

"Zhenbei King really said that?" Shi Dafu also excitedly asked.

"Of course, what did I lie to you for?" Zheng Hongkui whispered, "My lord personally sent someone to teach Sen'er in Nanjing."

After that, he winked at Zheng Zhilong, you understand.

This is to remind Zheng Zhilong that Ding Yi may teach Zheng Sen the content of the future exam in advance.

The expression on Zheng Zhilong's face became more complicated, and his heart was extremely entangled.

In history, the Manchu Qing asked him to surrender, but did not force him to move the town, but only let him go to the capital, Quanzhou's banner silver, or their Zheng family is collecting.

Now that Ding Yi is directly forcing him to move to the town, it is impossible to say that he does not feel sorry for the tens of millions of flag money this year.

But of course he also knows that now Ding Yi's power is almost commanding the whole country, if he disagrees, he will have to die at sea.

Is it really okay to return to the sea after being a rich man for more than ten years?
Seeing that Zheng Zhilong was silent, everyone was also silent. Everyone knew that he was very conflicted.

Originally Shi Yong wanted to jump out, but when he heard that the imperial examination was about to change, he suddenly didn't want to speak out.

The hall was quiet for a while.

Hong Xu finally couldn't help it, and said in a deep voice, "I'm an official, it's different now."

He hadn't been called an official for more than ten years, but when he suddenly called out, everyone looked at him in bewilderment.

Zheng Zhilong was not angry either, because he knew in his heart that among the generals, Hong Xu was quite capable.

"you say?"

Hong Xu said: "In the past, we would have gone to the sea with more than a hundred thousand brothers and thousands of warships, and we would not be able to go there."

Everyone nodded.

"But now, the brothers have lived in Lu'an for more than ten years, and they have long been accustomed to this kind of life. After more than ten years of being pampered and pampered, if you let them leave suddenly, many people may not be willing."

Everyone is thoughtful.

"The situation outside is different now. Ding Yi has taken over the top officials on the opposite side, and North Korea and Japan are all Ding Yi's territory."

"Luzon to the south is also occupied by Ding Yi. Within a thousand miles, the five lakes and the four seas are all within Ding Yi's army."

"In recent years, we have been content with collecting the flag money, while Ding Yi has been expanding everywhere, with warships in all directions, defeating the Dutch and the Spaniards in succession. In terms of maritime strength, he has already far surpassed us."

"In the past, we were only afraid of him stepping into the camp, but now, I'm afraid we can't even beat the navy."

"The world is so big that there is no room for us."

Bah, the teacup in front of Zheng Zhilong fell to the ground with a bang, and his whole face turned pale.

Of course he knew these things, but it was too hurtful to be said in public now.

Zheng Zhilong, the overlord of the four seas, may not be as good as Ding Yi's navy.

"What are you doing with other people's prestige?" The young Shi Lang was not convinced at this time: "With our navy, we will definitely be able to defeat Ding Yi."

Hong Xu was furious: "The Dutch have dozens of Tier [-] battleships, how do you fight them?"

Shi Lang had a dissatisfied face, and wanted to say something else.

"Back then, we did our best to defeat the Dutch navy with two Dutch third-class battleships."

"Now he has dozens of ships, how do you fight? Tell me how to fight?"

The audience was completely silent, and Zheng Zhilong's expression became even uglier.

Shi Yong opened his mouth with horror on his face, he couldn't believe it, it was true.

Ding Yi, who even ship repair craftsmen had to look for them back then, now has dozens of Tier [-] battleships?
In fact, Ding Yi did not have as many as dozens of ships at this meeting, but several ships were produced at once some time ago.

In addition to the original number of ships of Da Yuan, it seems that there are a lot of them.

Hong Xu exaggerated a bit, and everyone was scared to death.

At this time Zheng Zhilong sighed deeply: "What else did Ding Yi say?"

"Zhu Dadian is the governor of Fujian, and Fujian has a three-way army."

Zheng Hongkui looked around, and said in a deep voice, "Yu Liangtai is the commander-in-chief of Quanzhou, and Li Guo is the commander-in-chief of Fuzhou."

"Zheng Zhibao is the commander-in-chief of Yanping."

"In addition, Hong Xu is the commander-in-chief of Guangdong Leizhou."

Everyone looked at Hong Xu together, Hong Xu looked embarrassed.

He really didn't know about this, but now that he did it like this, everyone thought he had betrayed Zheng Zhilong and turned to Ding Yi.

"Hong Xu, you villain, have you already turned to Ding Yi?" Shi Yong was furious.

"Don't talk nonsense, how can I do such a thing?" Hong Xu asked urgently.

"Shi Lang is the General Soldier of Chaozhou, Guangdong." Zheng Hongkui said again.

Shi Daxuan hesitated to speak, and his expression became richer.

Shi Lang's young face suddenly flushed.

He is not well-known under Zheng Zhilong's seat, and his official is also small. He did not expect that Ding Yi would promote him to be the chief soldier.

Shi Yong on the other side was dumbfounded. The members of the Shi family and the Zheng family have all been reused. This Ding Yi is too good at winning people's hearts.

Everyone looked at Zheng Zhilong together.

Zheng Zhilong laughed suddenly: "Brother Ding, I'm so powerful at pulling people's hearts away, sowing dissension, and I really look like a hero."

Zheng Hongkui smiled wryly and couldn't deny it.

When Ding Yi's appointments were announced by Zheng Hongkui, the scene broke up almost instantly, and everyone wanted to surrender.

It is estimated that even Shi Yong, who hates Ding Yi the most, wants to try it.

"That's all." Zheng Zhilong sighed: "After so many years of hard work, it's time to enjoy the happiness."

"Big brother is wise." Zheng Hongkui said happily.

So in September of the 17th year of Chongzhen (1644), Fujian Zheng Zhilong agreed to move the town to Tianjin, and the court asked him to take [-] sailors northward.

The rest of the soldiers, horses and ships were all handed over to Yu Liangtai, the new general of Quanzhou.

(End of this chapter)