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

Chapter 252 Shooting yourself in the foot

Chapter 251

"The Prophet of Spring River Plumbing Duck."

Those who followed the news of the battle between Zheng Zhilong and Ning Haijun were actually not only big shots in the court, but also more Jiangnan businessmen. They had been worried about Cheng Shijie's Ning Haijun Group, which was stronger and more powerful than the Zheng Group. Aggressive group.

In particular, the products produced in Liaodong have a price advantage, which will have a huge impact on them. If possible, Jiangnan merchants, like Fujian and Guangdong maritime merchants, would like Zheng Zhilong to win.

But Zheng Zhilong was not only defeated, but also surrendered to Cheng Shijie.This unexpected turn of events made Jiangnan Maritime Group react immediately.It's time to build a good relationship with Cheng Shijie, otherwise, they won't be able to keep up with the northwest wind.

All of a sudden, a large number of merchant ships went out to sea from Wusongkou. Even the merchant ships that had been hiding in Hangzhou Port in Hangzhou Bay all went north, turned a corner, paid taxes at Wusongkou, and then went south to sea.

"General Cheng won?"

"Of course I won, otherwise, those iron cocks would pay the money so happily?"

Zhang Muzhi clicked his abacus: "Godfather, in just a few days, we collected more than 320 million taels of silver, which is more than what we usually collect in two months!"

"Okay, okay, I can finally explain to the emperor!"

Gao Qiqian has been guarding the money bag of Wusongkou during this period of time. Due to the absence of Emperor Chongzhen, his status has inevitably been shaken. Wang Zhixin, Wang Chengen, and Cao Huachun have all been reused by Emperor Chongzhen, especially Wang Chengen and Gao Qi Like Qian Qian, he supervised the Tianxiong Army as an admiral eunuch.

Because Cheng Shijie and Zheng Zhilong fought in Nanyang, as the peasant army grew stronger and stronger, generals Cao Wenzhao and Ai Wannian were killed in battle, and You Shiwei was defeated. Therefore, many officers, soldiers and generals were afraid of the peasant army and flinched.In particular, when the Xingyang Conference was held in the 12th year of Chongzhen, in order to deal with the peasant army, Lu Xiangsheng was promoted to the prime minister of the five provinces half a year earlier than in history, and he was in charge of the military affairs of the five provinces of Southern Zhili, Henan, Shandong, Sichuan, and Huguang.

The Tianxiong Army is still Lu Xiangsheng’s old foundation. Unlike in history, Emperor Chongzhen had no money in his hands. The Tianxiong Army that Lu Xiangsheng built from his formation to its demise had only 7000 troops. It was not that Lu Xiangsheng was unwilling to expand the army. , He has no money to feed these soldiers.

However, with the food and money sent by Gao Qiqian and Cheng Shijie to the capital, Emperor Chongzhen allocated 100 million taels of silver to Lu Xiangsheng, and transferred 50 cavalry from the Guanning Army to Lu Xiangsheng's command. Town, each town has three battalions, each battalion has five infantry divisions, each division has two divisions, each division has four bureaus, each division has four sentries, each sentry has 8000 soldiers, and each has four teams, that is, each battalion has [-] troops. Each battalion is equipped with a cavalry, totaling a thousand, and several artillery and muskets. Lu Xiangsheng also has a Fubiao Zhongjun battalion, with a total of more than [-] elites and a total of more than [-] troops.

The Tianxiong Army is different from the Guanning Army. The Tianxiong Army is all combat soldiers. Even the attached cooking soldiers have to participate in the battle. However, Wang Chengen has the largest number of supervisors and the most effective fighting force except Gao Qiqian. Strong supervisor.

This poses a serious crisis for high dives.

In particular, Lu Xiangsheng is simply not a human being, he does not accept corruption or bribery, and even the relationship between men and women is very clean, which is simply out of tune with the officials of Ming Dynasty.This made Gao Qiqian have no chance to deal with Lu Xiangsheng.

"Finally won!"

Gao Qiqian said indignantly: "Lucky for Lu Xiangsheng, if General Cheng had defeated Zheng Zhilong earlier, how could Lu Xiangsheng have a bright future?"

Zhang Muzhi said: "Godfather, are you going to the capital to report victory?"

"No!"

Gao Qiqian shook his head and said, "I don't know the real outcome of this matter, the key is General Cheng's attitude."

Zhang Muzhi didn't dare to speak.

In the past, it was Cheng Shijie who relied on Gao Qiqian's protection to block the open swords and hidden arrows in the court, but now it's reversed, it is Gao Qiqian who has to rely on Cheng Shijie's light to gain a firm foothold in the court.

At this moment, more than 100 armed merchant ships escorted by fifteen Ning Navy warships slowly approached Wusongkou.Although Cheng Shijie reorganized the troops of the Zheng Group in Luzon and had no way to return to Beijing for the time being, but others did not come back, so Zhu Weiti was asked to return to Beijing first.Zhu Weiti didn't come back empty-handed either. She could bring 580 million taels of silver and more than 300 million shi of rice.

In Daming, food is very expensive, even if it is rice in the south of the Yangtze River, it can be sold for six or seven renminbi, but in Luzon, rice is as cheap as dirt, a sack of rice can be exchanged with the natives for a piece of troublesome rice, a mouthful of braised braised rice Tin cans of meat can be exchanged for a large piece of unharvested rice.

Luzon's agriculture, especially food production, is very primitive. They don't need to farm the land at all, they just think of it as weeds in the ground. When they want to eat rice, they harvest some of it, and the rest of the rice is considered as seed.

In Cheng Shijie's opinion, the aborigines in Luzon really deserve to die. If the peasants of Daming saw this scene, they would definitely kill all these aborigines.It's so lazy to guard such a god-given fertile soil.

Cheng Shijie reorganized the surrendered army of the Zheng Group in Luzon because of the abundant and relatively cheap food in Luzon. In comparison, the cost of food production in Liaodong far exceeds that in Luzon.Although Spain has occupied Luzon for six to seventy years, their domestic population is small and they do not need so much food, so they are not interested in growing food, but are more interested in sugarcane plantations, rubber, and tobacco leaves.

At this time, some people in Ming Dynasty began to smoke, and many soldiers of the Zheng family also smoked. There were more than 150 Spanish-controlled tobacco plantations in Luzon alone.

In Cheng Shijie's ship to the capital, in addition to more than 300 million shi of grain, there are also some fruits, of course, the ones that are easier to store are the main ones.

"It's a warship of the Ning Navy!"

When Wu Sheng heard the news, he hurried out to greet him. When he saw the flag of the Eight Princesses, he realized that only Zhu Weiti had returned.

About half an hour later, the Ning naval warships began to enter the port, and they kept replenishing fresh water, food and repairing the ships.

Shen Boyun, Wu Sheng and Gao Qi went to the pier to welcome Zhu Weiti and his party.

Behind Zhu Weiti were the daughters of the four major Nanyang families and the daughters of the four major Luzon families, a total of eight new concubines.

"Everyone, I am exhausted!"

Although Zhu Weiti got off the boat, she didn't leave Wusongkou, but found a house to rest in Wusongkou.

Zhu Weiti did not stop at Wusongkou just to replenish part of the fresh water and food. The huge fleet went all the way north, and it was only a matter of footsteps. Wen Tiren in the capital also received the news that Zheng Zhilong was defeated and surrendered to Cheng Shijie.

Wen Tiren was learning a foreign language with his North Korean concubine at the time, and Wen Tiren felt that learning a foreign language was meaningless for a moment: "Trash!"

In Wen Tiren's eyes, Zheng Zhilong is a waste that can't be supported by mud. As the overlord of a party with 10,000+ troops and [-] warships in his hands, he was beaten to the ground by others, and there was no way to fight back. Strength is enough to make people despise, this guy is also shameless, after losing a few battles, he surrendered and gave up...

Zheng Zhilong is also the overlord of the South China Sea, so he has no backbone?Even if you really can't beat Cheng Shijie, you won't burn Xiamen to scorched earth, and then lead your troops to flee to the Nanyang Islands to fight guerrillas with him and consume him to death?

Or stick to Xiamen and fight him to the end!Although it's unkind for us people to burn incense and pray to Buddha every day, hoping that you and Cheng Shijie will fight each other, but it doesn't mean that we won't make trouble for Cheng Shijie when you are in a stalemate. With our backing, what are you afraid of!

Zheng Zhilong surrendered as a bachelor, but he was so angry that Wen Tingren Wen University.

Cheng Shijie's strength on land is already frighteningly strong, and now that he has annexed the Zheng Group and possessed an unparalleled sea power, who else can beat him?

Thinking of himself and others trying their best to provoke Cheng Shijie and Zheng Zhilong to fight fiercely, trying to profit from it, but ended up with such a result, Wen Shoufu felt a little like shooting himself in the foot.

But it's too late to say anything now, Cheng Shijie's becoming the overlord of the sea is a certainty, expect that guy to spit out what he eats?You might as well expect sows to climb trees!What's even more troublesome is that the Donglin party members are even more dissatisfied with him after this incident, and the storm of the cabinet collapse is just around the corner!

Gao Qiqian arrived in the capital a moment earlier than Zhu Weiti, holding a good report written by Cheng Shijie in his hand: "The [-] troops of the Ning Navy have fought hard, and with the cooperation of Fujian Admiral Zheng Zhilong, they have successfully wiped out the troops in the coastal areas of Guangdong and Fujian. The pirates who did evil things ensured the smooth flow of routes and the safety of maritime merchants. The Zheng Zhilong Group suffered heavy losses in the battle against pirates, and the Zheng brothers suffered from injuries and illnesses. Officially submitted a letter to the imperial court requesting to serve as an official in Liaodong for the elderly, and their fleet will be incorporated by the Ning Navy Navy..."

This victory report was written lightly, without mentioning anything about Luzon and Batavia. The super melee of the two 10,000+ armies became an insignificant battle against bandits in Cheng Shijie's writing, and was interrupted by him The backbone of the Zheng Group has become a hero in the encirclement and suppression of pirates. This ability to turn black and white, and this shame, really refreshed the three views of Emperor Chongzhen, and let him see that there was Cheng Shijie who was more shameless than those civil servants.

The most irritating thing is that Zheng Zhilong also followed up with a letter, talking in detail about the process of cooperating with Cheng Shijie to encircle and suppress pirates. He said that he was very old and couldn't do it anymore. He asked Zhishi to go to Liaodong to retire... Well, basically Cheng Yi Shijie agreed to whatever he said.

However, at the end, he told Emperor Chongzhen that in this battle, a lot of money was seized, as much as 580 million taels of silver alone. Cheng Shijie said that he did not move a penny, and after smelting, he cast it into silver ingots, hoping that Emperor Chongzhen would accept it with a smile.

In addition, some treasures were also seized. Considering the lack of food in the capital, Cheng Shijie boldly bought rice from Nanyang with the seized property, a total of 300 million shi of rice, and had already set sail for the north.

Emperor Chongzhen was very happy, but when he was happy, he had a headache on how to reward Cheng Shijie. You must know that Cheng Shijie is already the Duke of Hai, and he has no chance to be promoted, but the court still needs him. To be honest, although Lu Xiangsheng is considered a good general of Ming Dynasty Famous commander, but Emperor Chongzhen did not have much confidence in destroying the peasant army.

Fortunately, this sum of money came too timely.

If Cheng Shijie's eldest son, Cheng Jialong, could be found, Emperor Chongzhen wouldn't have such a headache, and he would directly confer the title of Cheng Jialong as the son of Duke Hai. For other dukes...

But the problem is that there is no news that Zhu Weiti is pregnant, nor that Cheng Shijie has found his son Cheng Jialong, so it may be difficult to find him.

"Cao Banban, what happened to the search for Cheng Qing's heir?"

"Reporting to Your Majesty, there are some clues about this matter. There were 14 people who claimed to be Cheng Jialong, the son of General Cheng, but these 14 people were all fake, and there were seven women who claimed to be Mrs. Xiang, but after verification, all of them were fake. It's fake!"

Cao Huachun thought for a while and said, "Your Majesty, the reputation of General Cheng is so great now, if you say that the country already has the reputation of General Cheng, if Xiang Shi and his son are still alive, they should have come here long ago! Unless... "

"Unless they are no longer alive?"

"It's also possible that they are hiding in the deep mountains and old forests, and the news is blocked!"

Cao Huachun said: "Jinyiwei and Dongchang have dispatched more than [-] people to various places to investigate, but there is no result yet!"

"Look, you want to see people when you live, and you want to see corpses when you die!"

Emperor Chongzhen was in a pretty good mood, but on the contrary, the ministers in the court were as disgusting as if they had eaten a fly.

The inkstones in the capital were quite expensive for a while. Obviously, how many civil servants smashed the inkstones and broke their writing brushes after hearing that Zheng Zhilong, who had 30 million troops and more than [-] warships, was defeated and surrendered. , How much thought did they spend in order to encourage the Zheng Group to go to war with Cheng Shijie?
Moreover, when the war was unfavorable, he spared no effort to write articles to build momentum for Zheng Zhilong, waved the flag and shouted, and packaged Zheng Zhilong as a hero against Cheng Shijie, a warlord.

What are they trying so hard for?Don't you hope that Zheng Zhilong can make Cheng Shijie fall into a big somersault, and it's better for the two of them to fight to the death?
Fortunately, Zheng Zhilong conceded defeat, and the rule of Dahai was handed over to Cheng Shijie. Cheng Shijie gained another large piece of territory!
Cheng Shijie, who was in Luzon, watched the Ning Navy train Zheng's recruits.

Li Zhixiang asked: "Marshal, should we build a shipyard in Luzon?"

"unnecessary!"

"why?"

"Luzon is positioned as a raw material and grain production base, not a complete industrial system!"

Cheng Shijie has not yet established a truly complete industrial system in Liaodong, so how could he develop and build in Luzon.

When a country really wants to become strong, it is just a passing cloud.It is also a tree without roots.What truly supports the national strength of a country is comprehensive industrialization!

Now Daming is not far behind in the technological development of the West. In fact, compared with catching up more than 300 years later, it has a stronger advantage.

The development of the Ming Dynasty in the field of machinery is not lagging behind that of the West. Whether it is agriculture, mathematics, chemistry, or astronomy, it is clearly ahead of the West.

With the development of Liaodong's industrial base, more and more people choose to cooperate with Ning Haijun and contribute their own unique secret recipes. Liaodong has produced a large amount of machinery and equipment, and Liaodong has developed a new technology without Cheng Shijie. A large number of hydraulic machinery.

For example, Cheng Shijie felt incredible that water-powered textile machines and forging presses could be used. In fact, Daming had a strong technical reserve, and the development of steam engines was enough.

The water row invented in the Han Dynasty, the piston bellows invented in the Song Dynasty, and the drive device of the water row have solved the power generated by the reciprocating motion, and the invention of the steam engine is just a matter of finishing.

While Cheng Shijie was reading the official documents of Ning Haijun's Liaodong Management Committee, one thing caught Cheng Shijie's attention.

That was the case of Yan's suing her husband Wang Zheng, which caused a huge sensation in Liaodong.

Cheng Shijie felt that the name Wang Zheng was very familiar. After thinking for a long time, Cheng Shijie remembered that Wang Zheng was actually a great scientist in Ming Dynasty, second only to Song Yingxing and Zhao Shizhen.

Wang Zheng has three characteristics: an official, a scientist, and a Catholic.He compiled a book called "Illustration of Newly Made Various Utensils" by himself, and later compiled a book with the missionary Deng Yuhan from Switzerland called "Illustration of Rare Utensils in the Far West", which was published in 1627. At that time, the introduction of western science and technology played an important role in the late Ming Dynasty.

In the wonderful book "Illustrations of Newly Made Various Vessels", there is a record that is still difficult to understand. "The fire boat goes away by itself, the fire and thunder explode by itself, the wind wheel turns, and the windmill travels far." According to the records in the article, according to our understanding today, the "fire boat goes by itself" most likely refers to steam-powered ships .

Wang Zheng once served as the deputy envoy of Shandong's procuratorate and a good friend of Sun Yuanhua. In history, because of the Dengzhou Rebellion and Kong Youde's rebellion, Wang Zheng was sent to the army.

In this time and space, because of the influence of Cheng Shijie, a butterfly from another world, he was not dismissed from office. Official, resigned and went to Liaodong.

As a missionary in Haizhou, Lu Ruohan recommended Wang Zheng because he was from Shaanxi. As the peasant rebels became more and more powerful, more and more people could not survive in Shaanxi. Except for the southeast coast and southwest, Ming Dynasty There is little peace left.

The refugees from Shaanxi will automatically go to Liaodong. Thanks to the help and attraction of the Liaodong Immigration Administration, Liaodong now has more than 50 people from Shaanxi.

This is a very strong resource of believers, but only Liaodong is the most inclusive of Catholicism, so Wang Zheng came to Liaodong. However, the problem is that Wang Zheng's original wife, Mrs. Shang, had many sons, but they all suffered from acne. Only two daughters survived, and Wang Zheng was relieved in the situation of "wife and daughter are sincere, brothers and nephews are crying, and father's order is strict", so in the third year of Tianqi, he married the [-]-year-old daughter in secret. The Shen family is a concubine, hoping to have children to continue the incense.

Since marrying a concubine has always been regarded as a felony by Catholics in China, Wang Zheng felt that the crime was serious, so he asked priests such as Kim to absolve him of the crime, but none of them were allowed.Wang Zheng repented bitterly and decided to marry a concubine to atone for his sin, but Shang tried his best to keep her, and Shen also cried bitterly, declaring that he was willing to enter the church and keep chastity, and vowed to die and refused to remarry, but Wang Zheng could not.

However, Wang Zheng accepted Shen but did not share the same room. After many years, Shen's belly did not move, and he was criticized by the neighbors around him. Unwilling to be scolded as a chicken that couldn't lay eggs, Shen hanged himself.

As a result, Wang Zheng made up his mind to solve his marital problems thoroughly. He publicly published the article "Praying for Excusement and Opening the Draft" in the "Liaodong Times", admitting that he had seriously violated the "Ten Commandments" religious regulations, and said that he had occasionally read And in "Miguel Zhang Zi Lingying Miracle" and "Kou Duo's Daily Copy", I feel even more ashamed and remorseful about the fact that I have declared that I do not want to marry a concubine, so I swear that from now on, I will treat Shen as a guest and friend, and I will never change my face. Seek forgiveness.

This pushes the Shen family to the cusp, but Liaodong's "Marriage Protection Law" has been introduced, and Wang Zheng has clearly violated the "Marriage Protection Law". Sue Wang Zheng.

Now Cheng Shijie understands that Shen's case has not yet been formally heard. Is this Yang Yunniang using legal means to force Cheng Shijie?
In fact, Cheng Shijie's approach was similar to Wang Zheng's. Besides his wife Zhu Weiti, he also had four concubines, Yang Yunniang, Yang Wan'er, Jin Qiaoer, and Gu Ziyi, and now there were eight more concubines.

Looking at the document marked in red, Cheng Shijie suddenly felt dizzy.

"Sloppy!"

The real reason for creating the Marriage Protection Law was to avoid taking advantage of legal loopholes like Chen Dayong's father did.In fact, Chen Dayong's father is not the most outrageous. The most outrageous is a businessman named Fang Yongchun. He opened a boot factory to produce sheepskin boots. The business is good. In order to avoid taxes and save money, he took five hundred and nine concubines from the Central Plains at once women, mostly used as free servants.

Due to the unrest in the Ming Dynasty, in the two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Central Plains, human trafficking is legal. During the famine period, a young girl with yellow flowers could not even sell two buckets of grain.With the economic development of Liaodong getting better and better, the cost of labor is getting higher and higher, especially now that the monthly salary of female workers has been raised to one tael, and skilled female workers can even get two or three taels of silver.

In order to avoid wage expenses, many businessmen bought population in the Central Plains. Of course, Liaodong did not recognize the population sales contract, so they adopted the method of taking concubines. Rich people can take countless concubines. It can be said that he is a slave, which makes people of later generations like Cheng Shijie feel very uncomfortable.

At the same time, this law was enacted to prevent rich merchants from taking concubines to avoid taxes and to prevent women from being bought and sold. If you have money, you can take concubines, but if you do, you must have intercourse. They must have intercourse, and no less than one at a time.If you do not have the same room for more than two months, you can file a fine, and the fine is cumulative.

For example, Chen Dayong’s 53 concubines were fined one tael if they had not had intercourse for two months. If they had not had intercourse for three months, they would be fined two taels of silver. The fine is four taels of silver, and the fine of eight taels of silver is fined for five months without intercourse. It is even more severe for six months, and the fine is 16 taels of silver.

If there are hundreds of concubines, unless they have an iron waist, they will be fined and ruined.

Facing the case of Shen's suing Wang Zheng, Cheng Shijie not only lifted a rock to shoot himself in the foot, but also made Cheng Shijie a great scientist.

(End of this chapter)