I really don't want to be emperor at the end of Ming Dynasty

Chapter 209 The Sea Can Only Have One Sea King

Chapter 208

Now what Cheng Shijie lacks the most is time, although the first batch of Sea Sharks has been completed and sea trials started last month, because he felt threatened by Zheng.

Cheng Shijie not only shortened the sea trial time, but also incorporated the eight Sea Shark-class warships into the battle order of the Ning Navy just like the first Sea Shark-class warship.

However, the problem is that the current naval force of the Ning Navy only has nine Sea Shark-class warships, and the second batch of eight ships is nearing completion. Seventeen Sea Sharks will be formed in early October as the main battleships of the Ning Navy Navy. .

Then, the seventeen main sea shark-class warships may not have the power to fight against Zheng's.

With Zheng Zhilong's strength, more than 3000 warships, and more than [-] troops, he is not a quantitative opponent at all. This is like Cheng Shijie who landed in southern Liaoning at the end of the fourth year of Chongzhen. At that time, if Huang Taiji valued Cheng Shijie , even if Ning Haijun is well-equipped, he can't withstand Jiannu's full blow.

However, the problem is that at that time Huang Taiji didn't pay attention to Cheng Shijie's opponent, so Huang Taiji suffered a big loss. Now Zheng Zhilong uses the method of blocking Liaodong shipping to force Cheng Shijie to fight an asymmetrical war with him.

Cheng Shijie doesn't want to fight, he needs time, and in the near future, that is, at most nine days later, at the beginning of October, Jinzhou Donggang Shipyard can also be put into use.

Cheng Shijie's plan is to build eight sea-shark-class warships at Jinzhou Donggang at the same time. If the war can be dragged to April in the seventh year of Chongzhen, at that time, the Ning Navy Navy will form 37 main sea-shark-class warships, and Jinzhou West Shipbuilding The twelve Seawolf-class (64 material) gunboats built by the factory, together with the original fifteen Galen ships of the Ning Navy, will form a fleet of [-] large ships.

At that time, although Cheng Shijie was far from being as strong as Zheng Zhilong, he still wanted to meet Zheng Zhilong.Cheng Shijie can compare his shipbuilding capabilities with Zheng Zhilong. He will own three shipyards and produce 64 Sea Shark-class warships and 48 Sea Wolf-class warships a year.

It can also be said that Cheng Shijie can produce a fleet of not weak in one year, and this raw material reserve is enough for Cheng Shijie to build three fleets of this size without any increase.

It's a pity that Zheng Zhilong didn't give Cheng Shijie enough time.

"Master Shen, don't worry, this commander will definitely give you justice!"

Cheng Shijie has no better way now, he can only appease Shen Boyun, his partner, with good words first, and then consider other ways.

Song Xiance was about to report to Cheng Shijie the results of the autumn harvest just now. Although he didn't look at the data in Song Xiance's hands, Cheng Shijie knew that Liaonan had a bumper harvest this year just like last year.

Among them, nearly one-third of the farmland is collectively owned by Ning Haijun. For these reform-through-labour prisoners from the Central Plains or previous prisoners of war, Cheng Shijie only cares about their normal eating and drinking. All the land they plant belongs to Ning Haijun, of which more than 400 The 30.00 mu of land belongs to the immigrants, and Ning Haijun collects [-]% of the grain tax from these military households who garrison the fields according to the regulations.

Of course, there is another part, that is, nearly one-third of the fields, which belong to tax-free grain. These fields basically belong to the military family of Ning Haijun, and they belong to the tax-free welfare stage.

But the problem is that it is impossible to eat all the food they harvest, and they need to sell a large amount of it, and exchange it for silver to buy the necessities of life.

Because of this incident, the joy of the harvest could hardly affect Cheng Shijie's mood. He told Song Xiance about Zheng Zhilong's sending of pirates, and asked, "Kang Nian, what do you think about this?"

"My lord, I'm afraid it's just wishful thinking that you want to keep the Longjing River with Zheng Zhi. The Zheng family has almost monopolized the maritime trade and makes tens of millions of profits every year. Even the Jiangnan consortium, which has the support of the ministers of the court and China, depends on their faces. How happy is this, how can they allow the rise of the Ning Navy to threaten their status!"

Cheng Shijie nodded: "That's right, but why did Mrs. Zheng get into trouble with us for no reason? Zheng Zhilong's timing is too early!"

Cheng Shijie built the shipyard by himself, and built [-] warships successively. Among them, the Four King Kongs were still experimental. Now Zheng Zhilong unexpectedly noticed him so quickly.

Moreover, these new ships did not leave Jinzhou (Dalian) Bay, which is simply unreasonable.

"I'm afraid it's not for no reason."

"tell me the story."

"The subordinates believe that the reason why the Zheng family wants to make things difficult for us is because they want to suppress our Ning Haijun, and they don't want Ning Haijun to develop and compete with them;

"What does the big brother in the court mean?"

"pretty close!"

Cheng Shijie also wanted to understand that although the Donglin Party has not formed a monopoly in the cabinet at this stage, it does not prevent them from controlling the government, and the Jiangnan Consortium is the Donglin Party's financial backer.

Cheng Shijie is now vigorously developing industries such as steel, flax, sea salt, farming, and shipbuilding, and has achieved remarkable results. Although the people of Liaodong have benefited from it, it has caused a strong impact on the Jiangnan consortium.

Had Cheng Shijie been in the Jiangnan Consortium, he would not have hoped that Ning Haijun would continue to develop and continue to squeeze his profit margins. Under the circumstances that there is not much chance of winning in frontal competition, playing black hands has become an inevitable choice.

It must be known that apart from being a pirate, the Zheng family also has another identity, that is, the commander-in-chief of Fujian.

Cheng Shijie sneered: "If the princes in power let him suppress Ning Haijun's sea route and endorse him, no one will refuse such a good thing that can suppress potential opponents without being blamed by the court! Well, really Some people treat Lao Tzu as a soft persimmon, you can pinch it casually."

Cheng Shijie knew that the war with Zheng Zhilong was unavoidable at this time. Although Ning Haijun's navy could not confront Zheng's fleet head-on, but Cheng Shijie was also a time traveler. when he didn't.

However, Cheng Shijie's real purpose is to cultivate the industrial foundation of southern Liaoning, so as to avoid taking too many steps and getting involved. Cheng Shijie still has a way to clean up Zheng Zhilong temporarily.

Seeing that Cheng Shijie looked like a hungry lion at this time, Song Xiance hurriedly persuaded: "My lord, don't be impulsive! Zheng Shixiong has occupied the South China Sea for more than ten years, with a solid foundation, more than 20 sea-going ships, and as many troops as [-], even if all the naval divisions of Ming Dynasty are transferred here, they may not be their opponents!"

"Are you doubting the combat effectiveness of Ning Haijun?"

"My disciples have no doubt that Ning Haijun can easily defeat the Zheng family on land, but it is too difficult to defeat the Zheng family at sea! Maybe all the justices in power hope that the lord will fight with the Zheng family, and they will lose both in the fight. It’s good to benefit from it!”

Cheng Shijie nodded and said, "Your judgment is very accurate, I bet that's what those bastards in the imperial court have in mind."

"So, I suggest that my lord hold back for the time being, find an opportunity to talk to the Zheng family, and seek a peaceful coexistence strategy. After a few years, wait until the Ning Navy's naval strength is strong, and then destroy the Zheng family once and for all!"

Song Xiance smiled and said: "I am about to recommend a great talent to my lord, and it happens that he will be sent to Fujian as an envoy, which can be regarded as an assessment!"

Cheng Shijie tapped the coffee table quickly with his fingers, silent, anger and disdain flashing across his face.

Song Xiance saw Cheng Shijie's displeasure, and hurriedly said: "Although the Zheng family is hateful, it is not useless. It has been suppressing the Hongyi pirates for so many years. Without them, I am afraid that Guangdong and Fujian have already been destroyed by the Hongyi pirates." The pirates have been tossing the world upside down, rashly starting a war with the Zheng family will only allow the Hongyi pirates to take advantage of it, and the consequences will be even more serious. My lord, please think again!"

"San En, Kang Nian, you have considered everything, but you have not considered the key point!"

"The essential!"

Song Xiance said with some doubts: "What's the key?"

"Now Jiannu is no longer a threat to Daming. At least in three to five years, Jiannu will not be able to go south or west!"

This matter is thanks to Gao Qiqian. In the past few months, Gao Qiqian, in the name of fornication and slavery, snatched Wang Dengku, one of the eight families of Shanxi merchants, from the hands of Emperor Chongzhen.

Earlier, Wang Zhixin copied Hou Xun's house, and from Hou Xun's house, he copied luxurious gold and silver utensils, precious furs, pearls, wild ginseng, exquisite furniture and so on.

The property accumulated by the Hou family with the painstaking efforts of several generations was stolen by Wang Zhixin, but the problem is that Hou Xun is indeed not as rich as Fan Yongdou. Fan Yongdou is a businessman with a lot of property in his family, but Hou Xun's main industry is Land, more than 700 mu of good land in Guide Mansion, according to the land price of Guide Mansion, these lands are worth [-] million taels of silver.

However, the silver that Wang Zhixin handed over to the internal treasury was less than one million taels, only 80 taels. There was no way to cash out the large amount of antiques, calligraphy and paintings.

In the eyes of Emperor Chongzhen, Wang Zhixin was given the impression of being self-possessed, which was useless, so it was Gao Qiqian's turn to confiscate the house.

Gao Qiqian has ample experience in the work of copying houses. He didn't make much fanfare, but borrowed more than 50 cavalry from the champion Hou Lu Xiangsheng. Gao Qiqian loved these simple Tianxiong cavalry so much. The Xiongjun cavalry promised that as long as they made this trip, each person would receive [-] taels of silver.However, whoever dares to report the news or has dirty hands and feet will be regarded as Wang Dengku's accomplices, fornicating slaves, ransacking his family and exterminating his family.

Therefore, the eyes of the soldiers of the Tianxiong Army turned red. Lu Xiangsheng did not know how to get money without Cheng Shijie. The soldiers of the Tianxiong Army are usually the same as the soldiers of the guards. Only between fifteen and twenty acres.

This has already caused the soldiers of the Tianxiong Army to fight the enemy desperately with red eyes, but they can use them once and pay 50 taels of silver, which is equivalent to their income for three to five years.

Therefore, it took only three days for the cavalry of the Tianxiong Army stationed in Baoding to arrive in Datong with light clothes. Wang Dengku was very clever. He melted gold and cast it into a large square, and then spread it on the ground. The floor tiles and carpets were built on it, and it was done in an extremely secretive way. If it wasn't for the Jin Yiwei who had been lurking in their mansion, they would have been fooled.

Gao Qiqian succeeded, and he confiscated a total of more than 260 million taels of silver. Of course, Gao Qiqian also benefited a lot from it.

When Emperor Chongzhen saw a house raid, he actually confiscated one-third of the treasury's revenue. At that time, Emperor Chongzhen exploded, "The gang of lowly merchants are so mad, they sold military weapons to Jiannu, and put Ming Dynasty in a place where there will be no redemption. ? I... I can't spare them! I'm going to steal their families and wipe out their families, destroying their bones and ashes!"

Therefore, the six families of Jin Liangyu, Wang Dayu, Liang Jiabin, Tian Shenglan, Zhai Tang, and Huang Yunfa were also ransacked by Gao Qiqian. It can be said that none of the eight imperial merchants of the Manchu Qing Dynasty and the eight Jin merchants escaped. With more than 960 million taels of silver, it can be regarded as a bumper harvest.

The news spread to Shenyang, and after Huang Taiji learned that all the eight surnames had been ransacked and exterminated, Huang Taiji, who was deep in the city, shook his body a few times, and spurted out a mouthful of blood.

This time, it can be regarded as hitting Jiannu's seven inches and the gate of life. This blow is even more deadly than the Baliwan battle in which Jiannu lost [-] to [-] troops. It means that Jiannu lost the sale of stolen goods and the acquisition of strategic materials. The channel, the noose around their necks, became tighter and tighter.

In this case, there are several times as many Mongolian tribes who expressed sincerity to Emperor Chongzhen. So far, a total of 34 Mongolian tribes have expressed their surrender.

Now Cheng Shijie's importance has been greatly reduced.

Cheng Shijie smiled wryly and said: "The cunning rabbit is dead, the lackey is cooking, and now Jiannu has the idea of ​​negotiating peace with Daming, which means that our Ning Haijun's status is not as good as before. If the commander takes this step back, the Zheng family and the court Those scumbags in the middle will only press on every step of the way, and they will not give up until they tear this commander and Ning Haijun into pieces! This commander knows those guys too well, and it is harder to get them to do something practical, but let them drag you People's hind legs are stronger than one! This commander must not back down, not even half a step!"

"What does the lord mean... to start a war with the Zheng family?"

"Why not?"

Cheng Shijie said with a smile: "The Zheng family has monopolized the maritime trade and collected protection fees from merchant ships passing by. The annual profit is more than tens of millions. This is the wealth of the country. How can he be allowed to monopolize it!"

Cheng Shijie knew that Chongzhen was short of money, even if Gao Qiqian got nearly ten million taels of silver for Emperor Chongzhen, it was already a huge sum of money, but the problem was that the financial problems of Ming Dynasty were too serious, and there were too many places that lacked money. The military salary of the army below is enough to spend the money. In addition, Emperor Chongzhen has all the vassal kings in the world to support.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the vassal king became a huge burden on the court.Of course, Emperor Tianqi did the best job. He stipulated that the salaries of all vassal kings in the country should always be a quota of 1567524 taels. (Data source: Wangzhuang income (private collection) of the Ming Dynasty, Huang Renyu's "Finance and Taxation of Ming Dynasty China in the Sixteenth Century")
To explain that the dynasty was dragged down by the clan, in fact, the salary of the idle clan in Manqing was 1.67 times that of the county king of the Ming Dynasty, and the extravagance was more than 20 times.

Of course, this also has a lot to do with the depreciation of prices. In the early Ming Dynasty, the clan farmland could still collect tenant rent. During the Chenghua period, the government conscripted the officials and returned them to the public. The land ownership belongs to the tenant farmers, and the rent is collected by the government and then distributed To the clan (0.03 taels for upper land, 0.02 taels for middle land, and 0.01 taels for lower land. The average harvest per mu of land in the late Ming Dynasty was more than 1 tael, so the rent per mu was only 1%), even if it was only 1% of the renting government They often defaulted on the arrears, and the Ming clan couldn't get it.

Because the clan has no power, they can only cry poor to the emperor, but the court has no money, so it embezzles this part of the money and keeps it under hold. You know, the salary owed by the Ming Dynasty to the vassal king is really gone, only Henan owes the vassal. Wang's salary was as high as 120 million shi, Shanxi owed 35 shi, and the country's total amounted to more than 2000 shi.

Emperor Chongzhen could default when he had no money, but now that he has money, there are many people staring at his money bag. Emperor Chongzhen is still short of money.

Cheng Shijie wrote a memorial to Emperor Chongzhen. This memorial has a lot of words and lists a lot of data, including the insurance premiums collected by Zheng Zhilong over the years, as well as the compensation and protection fees from the Dutch East India Company. Of course, Cheng Shijie is still afraid of Emperor Chongzhen. I don't know how much one franc is, but it is specifically stated that one franc is equivalent to [-] taels of silver.

According to Cheng Shijie's true and false data, Zheng Zhilong earns as much as more than 130 million taels of silver every year, so he can build a mansion covering an area of ​​30 acres and have enough financial resources to support [-] to [-] troops, and three There are more than a thousand warships, and now Zheng Zhilong is running amok, plundering merchant ships, and the people are full of grievances. Please allow Emperor Chongzhen to allow Cheng Shijie to lead the Ning Navy into Fujian and Qing to suppress those hateful pirates!

Cheng Shijie kicked the ball to Emperor Chongzhen, aren't you going to use Zheng Zhilong to test yourself?Cheng Shijie kicked the ball back, he wanted to see what the Emperor Chongzhen and the princes of the court would make.

If Emperor Chongzhen and the princes of the court were on Zheng Zhilong's side, Cheng Shijie would give up his heart to the court. Of course, he would cooperate with the Dutch first, and take advantage of the Dutch's ocean transportation capabilities to transport the troops to Dayuan. Besides, with the combat power of the Ning Navy, as long as the landing is completed, the surname of the officers will be Cheng.

All the Spaniards and the Dutch, I will get out of the big officials. Now the big officials are divided into three parts, the Spanish occupy the northern part of Taiwan, the Dutch occupy the southern part of Taiwan, and Zheng Zhilong occupies the central part of Tai.

On Dayuan Island, there is no industry now, and the population is very small, so it can be completely self-sufficient. No matter how powerful Zheng Zhilong is, he can only use his weakest land battle to fight an asymmetrical land battle with Ning Haijun .

In this way, Cheng Shijie had enough time to complete the construction of the battleship. Of course, Cheng Shijie did not wait for Emperor Chongzhen's decision.

In his first step, he recruited soldiers familiar with water from the capitals of Pidao, Shuangchengwei, Jinwei, and Jeju Island, the former capital, and Zuodu. These soldiers will total 3 soldiers. After the men and horses are in place, immediately board the ship for ocean training and landing drills.

At the same time, the major factories under the Gun Bureau of the Ning Navy are operating at full capacity and working overtime to produce guns and ammunition. Clothing factories and military product factories produce quilts, shoes and socks, and the Medicine Bureau is responsible for preparing medicines. Hit up quickly.

The mountain rain was about to come and the wind filled the building. At this moment, the people and soldiers in southern Liaoning immediately felt the tense atmosphere of the coming war in the air.

When Cheng Shijie returned to Jinzhou from Liaoyang, Sun Chengzong couldn't wait to ask: "Beiping, are you going to fight Zheng Zhilong?"

"That's right!"

Cheng Shijie did not hide it, anyway, the memorial has been sent to the capital, and the matter has been decided.

Sun Chengzong said heartbrokenly: "Confused, Beiping, you are confused!"

Cheng Shijie smiled and said, "Teacher, why do you say that?"

"How many warships does Zheng Zhilong have?"

"More than 3000 ships!"

"You also know that there are more than 3000 ships, but how many ships does the Ning Navy have now?"

"The total number is more than 300!"

"It's just more than 300 old and broken ships!"

"Zheng Zhilong has more than 3000 ships, most of which are old and broken ships. His real warships are only six or seven hundred black-tailed ships, and one or two hundred Galen ships, and more than 2000 of them are supercharged!"

Sun Chengzong thought for a while and said, "Are you going to join forces with the Dutchman and Xiyi? Are you going to deal with Zheng Zhilong?"

"No, how could it be possible to join hands with them? The fight between me and Zheng Zhilong is just an internal fight. Whether it's the Dutch or the Spaniards, I will kill whoever interferes!"

Cheng Shijie suddenly figured it out. He originally planned to rent a Dutch transport ship to complete the southward strategy, but the problem was that as long as he cooperated with the Dutch, he would be a traitor.

This kind of thing must never be done.

However, this does not mean that Cheng Shijie has no allies to choose from. Zheng Zhilong dominates Nanyang and has countless enemies. Cheng Shijie is not worried that no one will cooperate with him.

What's more, the Shachuan Gang will definitely stand on their side.

Sun Chengzong is full of worries about this, but he also knows that although the art of compromise is used in the officialdom, the problem is that the officialdom is like sailing against the current, if you do not advance, you will retreat.

Facing Sun Chengzong, Cheng Shijie explained helplessly: "Teacher, if other methods work, I will definitely not resort to military means. The problem is that the trouble we encountered this time really can only be solved by military means."

"Actually, we can talk about it!"

"There is no way to talk. One mountain cannot accommodate two tigers. Although the sea is big, there can only be one king!"

"At present, maritime trade is booming, and the scale is getting bigger and bigger. With the friendship between Daming and Taixi, more and more western fleets come to Daming to do business. One can imagine the profits!"

"The old man is still three points thin, let me go for the teacher..."

Cheng Shijie shook his head and said: "Teacher, if Liaodong wants to become truly prosperous and strong, it must do a good job in maritime trade and even attract investment. Liaodong has a natural advantage in this regard. To put it bluntly, Liaodong is the gateway to the sea! And the Zheng Group is A boulder blocking the gate, if we don’t remove it, we won’t even be able to get out! Liaodong has just shown signs of rising, and they unceremoniously robbed my cargo ship, detained the crew, and even supported Japanese pirates in the coastal areas of Shanghai , is simply lawless!"

PS: I fell asleep while writing, and finally wrote it out, a bit late.

(End of this chapter)