Zhu Yuanzhang was stunned for a moment, and then he remembered that the person was Jiang Dejing, the former Minister of Household Affairs and Chief Minister of the Cabinet.
Jiang Dejing was a Jinshi in the second year of Tianqi. Because he was unwilling to rely on Wei Zhongxian, he was dismissed from office and idle.
It was not until Chongzhen succeeded to the throne that he became a bachelor's degree scholar, and later moved to Shao Zhanshi, right minister of the Ministry of Rites and other positions.
Because he believed in Catholicism and was good at managing finances and military affairs, he recommended Chen Zizhuang, Ni Yuanlu and others, which earned him Chongzhen's trust.
However, because he was an upright person, sympathized with the people's hardships, attached great importance to agricultural production, and deeply hated the exploitation of people's wages, etc., he often had conflicts with his colleagues, so his official career was not smooth.
Fortunately, he was really dedicated to serving the public and had real talent and learning, so he rose to the position of Minister of Household Affairs and became the chief minister of the cabinet.
Only in early March this year, he had a disagreement with Chongzhen over matters such as salary training. After a dispute, he was accused of being guilty.
At that time, Chongzhen thought he was fleeing the capital for an excuse, but now it seems that he was wrongly blamed.
After Zhu Yuanzhang sorted out all this, although he was dissatisfied with Jiang Dejing's Catholic belief, he thought that he loved the people, knew the soldiers, and had the courage to do his job. He was really a rare talent, so he helped him up and said: "Jiang Qing, you make it easy for us to find him." ah!"
Jiang Dejing was stunned when he heard this, and then said: "I was confused for a moment, please forgive me..."
It turned out that Jiang Dejing was so angry after the debate with Chongzhen that he wanted to leave the capital at that time.
However, thinking that the Ming Dynasty was in danger, he couldn't bear to leave, so he stayed in the guild hall.
His original intention was to stay in the capital and fulfill his duties as a monarch and his ministers. Unexpectedly, Chongzhen seemed to be a different person. After some operations, Jiang Dejing, who was originally frustrated, rekindled his fighting spirit.
Especially after he heard the rumors about the Jurchen yesterday, he was very worried about it.
He knew that with Ming's current strength, it would be impossible to defend, and the best way was to use offense instead of defense.
So he carefully reviewed the history of Liaodong and wanted to find a place where he could attack. Unexpectedly, he actually found it, which was Phi Island between the Liaodong Peninsula and the Korean Peninsula.
This Pi Island was originally the territory of the Ming Dynasty in the early years and has been guarded by Mao Wenlong.
The Ming army often used this as a springboard to attack the Jurchens and deter them from invading south.
It was only later that Mao Wenlong was killed by Yuan Chonghuan, and his subordinates Kong Youde, Geng Zhongming, Shang Kexi and others defected to the Jurchens and helped them capture Pidao, so that the Jurchens had no worries.
Ming Dynasty had also tried to conquer Pidao before, but all failed.
The reason why Jiang Dejing thought this plan was feasible was because he thought of his fellow villager in Quanzhou - Zheng Zhilong.
Zheng Zhilong was born in poverty. In his early years, he followed the wealthy businessman Li Dan in maritime trade in Vietnam, Japan and other places, and made a lot of profits.
Later, Li Dan passed away and donated all his properties in Taiwan and other places to Zheng Zhilong, which expanded his power again.
It is said that in Taiwan, Japan and other places alone, Zheng Zhilong had nearly 100,000 elite soldiers and more than 3,000 large and small warships.
Zheng Zhilong relied on this to defeat the arrogant Dutch East India Company fleet in the sixth year of Chongzhen. From then on, there was no rival in the southeastern sea.
Therefore, he is nominally a commander in chief of Fujian, but in fact he is the maritime overlord in the southeast area.
Jiang Dejing also knew Zheng Zhilong's strength, so he wanted Chongzhen to issue an order to send Zheng Zhilong to capture Pi Island.
As long as Pi Island is captured, the Jurchens will have no time to invade south.
It's just that he went to find Ni Yuanlu and others with this plan in mind, but he never saw them.
In desperation, he thought that Zhu Yuanzhang had been away for the past two days, so he went to the outer city to try his luck. Unexpectedly, he actually met him.
After listening to his story, Zhu Yuanzhang was quite surprised to learn that there was such an invincible fleet hidden in Fujian.
However, he immediately thought that Zheng Zhilong was a pirate who was surrendered by Xiong Wencan, and he already knew from Chongzhen's memory that Xiong Wencan's ability and vision were extremely poor, so he said with some suspicion: "Qing Jiang, Zheng Zhilong really has such strength, why did he surrender?"
Jiang Dejing heard this and knew that Zhu Yuanzhang had doubts about Zheng Zhilong, so he explained: "Your Majesty, due to the sea ban, some local officials are not very clear about matters at sea."
"I only learned about these things when I overheard Aiulius talking about the sea area, and I am absolutely not exaggerating. Please don't hesitate, Your Majesty!"
Zhu Yuanzhang knew that the Ai Julius he was talking about was a missionary. After pondering for a while, he looked at Shen Zhanran and said, "Shen Qing, what do you think of this matter?"
Shen Zhanran had been thinking about this matter just now. When he saw Zhu Yuanzhang asking, he bowed and said: "When Wei Chen was traveling in his early years, he heard that as long as the Zheng family's flag was planted on the ship, there would be no need to worry about pirate robbery, so Wei Chen felt that Zheng Zhilong's strength should be Not weak."
"Moreover, the Jurchens are not good at water warfare. The protection of Pi Island mainly relies on North Korea and Kong Youde and others. If Zheng Zhilong is sent there, Pi Island will be captured."
"It's just that I'm a little worried. Zheng Zhilong was a bandit in his early years, and he didn't rectify the situation after he surrendered. To suddenly entrust him with such an important task, if things go wrong, the risk is quite high!"
Jiang Dejing saw that Shen Zhanran was well-informed and a close minister of Zhu Yuanzhang, so he smiled and explained: "Master Shen is right, but Zheng Zhilong has not only kept his peace since his surrender, but has also taken the initiative to protect the tranquility of the southeastern coast."
"This spring, he even sent his eldest son Zheng Sen to the Imperial Academy of Nanjing to study, and he became a disciple of the contemporary great scholar Qian Qianyi, which shows that he..."
"What are you talking about? His son is in the Nanjing Imperial College and worships Qian Qianyi as his teacher?"
Zhu Yuanzhang has been paying close attention to the Donglin Party in the south since he learned about Zhu Yousong. When Jiang Dejing mentioned this matter, he hurriedly asked.
Jiang Dejing nodded in surprise and said: "Zheng Zhilong was not born well. If he wants to gain a foothold in the court, the right path for his descendants is to take the imperial examination."
"And Qian Qianyi is a great scholar today. Zheng Sen's worship of him as his disciple should be the first step for Zheng Zhilong to integrate into the imperial court, so the veteran..."
After Zhu Yuanzhang listened to Jiang Dejing's story, he said: "Okay, Jiang Qing, your plan is very good. Please come back to the palace with us to plan this matter!"
After that, he stopped patrolling and took Jiang Dejing directly back to Qianqing Palace.
On the way back, Zhu Yuanzhang asked some questions about Fujian, pretending to be unintentional.
He originally wanted to test the relationship between Jiang Dejing and Zheng Zhilong, but unexpectedly he accidentally learned that there is a kind of sweet potato in Fuzhou with a large yield. One acre of good land can yield more than 10,000 jins, and even poorer land can yield 5,000 to 6,000 jins.
Zhu Yuanzhang had been worried about food issues before. When he heard about this, he immediately asked Jiang Dejing for details.
Seeing that Zhu Yuanzhang's words and deeds were very different from the past, Jiang Dejing couldn't help but believe what Chongzhen had been inspired by in his dream, so he took the opportunity to explain to him the suffering of farmers and the importance of agriculture.
In order to arouse Zhu Yuanzhang's interest, he also specially talked about some strange and novel planting methods.
What he didn't expect was that Zhu Yuanzhang was also very proficient in agriculture, and some inquiries could actually stop him, which reminded him of an old friend Song Yingxing.
