Chapter 320: Peace in the Southeast
In Fuzhou Fucheng, three gates were opened. Supported by rows of Dingwu troops marching neatly, Chen Cao rode a war horse into the Fujian government office.
Zheng Zhilong and other Fujian military attachés all gathered at the gate of the city. When Chen Cao came on horseback, Zheng Zhilong took the lead in kneeling down and worshiping Chen Cao.
"The guilty general Zheng Zhilong pays homage to the Songjiang County Prince..."
Chen Cao spurred his horse to stand still, then turned over and dismounted. He put his hand on Zheng Zhilong's shoulder with a smile. He did not take Zheng Zhilong's betrayal of him to heart at all: "Zheng Feihuang, thank you for your hard work..."
"The sinner will not be able to see His Highness the County King. Please forgive me."
Chen Cao laughed, and then used all his strength to mention Zheng Zhilong, without any pretense: "I always put the overall situation first in my work, not to mention that there was a better choice at that time. Even I had to stand up again. This is the case for everyone. , don’t keep it in your mind, let’s go and talk about it in the city.”
Zheng Zhilong observed carefully and still couldn't tell whether Chen Cao was deceiving him, but he could feel that Chen Cao had indeed used his strength when mentioning him, so he stood up and followed him into Fucheng without hesitation.
"The coast of Fujian is great. If these seafood were not close to the sea, it would not be easy to eat them..."
The salmon meat was placed in front of Chen Cao, which made him sigh for a long time. The attendees of this banquet were all military generals and important civil and military officials. Of course, Chen Cao's main purpose of organizing this banquet was to win over the former Fujian Third Division officials and Zheng Zhilong.
"I keep my word. From today on, Zheng Zhilong will be the Marquis of Nan'an. I will hand over the recommendation documents to Nanjing, and an edict will be sent soon;
In addition, all the generals under the Marquis of Nan'an who have meritorious service can be promoted to governor, commander-in-chief, deputy general, commander, etc. The Marquis of Nan'an only needs to draw up a clause, and I will agree to it..."
Zheng Zhilong immediately stood up and clasped his fists towards Chen Cao: "Thank you, Your Majesty for your grace..."
"After Fujian becomes peaceful, it will only take some time for Guangdong and other places to be at peace. After years of war, the troops of Guangdong and Guangdong have been exhausted. Now the combined strength of the three divisions in Guangdong is less than 30,000. The entire province of Guangdong has a vast landscape. , according to my opinion, only one division of troops and horses is needed to capture Guangdong."
Xu Fuyuan raised his hands in greeting: "Your Majesty, from now on, there will be no war in the southeast, and the people can live and work in peace and contentment..."
Chen Cao raised his glass and said: "Come, let's congratulate the people of Ming Dynasty and drink a toast..."
Zheng Zhilong's surrender gave Chen Cao two years to lay the groundwork for Jingping Southeast. It is now the end of the year. After all matters in Fujian and Guangdong are settled, Chen Cao may be able to return to Songjiang early next year.
"Lord Xiong is in charge of all affairs in Guangdong, and Marquis Nan'an will continue to serve as the commander-in-chief of Fujian. I will leave a division of troops in Fujian and Guangdong to be stationed permanently. When the world is completely peaceful, I will mention other matters at that time."
Everyone at the table had their own thoughts, but they all kept their official positions and rights. It seemed that they really didn't care who became the emperor, as long as their interests were guaranteed, whoever they loved would be the emperor.
After the banquet, Chen Cao left Zheng Zhilong alone.
In the middle hall, there were only three people, Chen Cao, Zheng Zhilong and Zhao Xin standing aside. Zheng Zhilong felt a little uneasy. He didn't know what Chen Cao would say to him.
"Back on the sea, I once told Fei Huang that my ambition was the sea... But as things develop, you and I have different choices..."
Zheng Zhilong stood up and clasped his fists: "I will eventually be ashamed of the prince's cultivation."
"I don't want to be a cultivator, but since you have chosen to follow Chen Cao again, I hope Feihuang will stay with you forever and never do the things of those three-named domestic slaves again."
Back then, Chen Cao became a well-known domestic slave with three surnames in the capital officialdom, which made him very angry and criticized for a long time. However, things have changed. Now that he is the king of Songjiang County and has real power, who will mention such things? .
Zheng Zhilong blushed, then lowered his head and said: "The general will die..."
"Hahaha..." Chen Cao laughed again, and then he said: "The Zheng family has tens of thousands of private soldiers, as well as so many ships and sailors. No one in power will tolerate the existence of this kind of power." .”
Zheng Zhilong seemed to have thought about it a long time ago, cupping his fists and saying, "It all depends on the prince."
Chen Cao stared at Zheng Zhilong for a long time and then said: "The Japanese king has ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor. If you still have so many soldiers, I don't know if I can protect you."
Zheng Zhilong was frightened that Chen Cao was so bold to tell him directly about the rebellion. Why was this? But soon he also wanted to understand one thing, that is, Chen Cao really regarded him as one of his own, otherwise he would not have left him behind and told him such secret things.
"I will follow the prince wholeheartedly. If I disobey him, both humans and gods will be angry, and God will punish him..."
"Um..."
After Chen Cao responded habitually, he sat on the main seat and asked Zheng Zhilong to sit down: "The Fujian Third Division soldiers and horses have standing security forces, because once the reform reaches Fujian in the future, you will have the position of Fujian General Soldier. It will also cease to exist.”
Zheng Zhilong's heart tightened. It was exactly what he thought.
"But don't worry, I am not the only one who has the final say on everything on the sea now. Your Zheng family's strength is now as strong as a Tu emperor in the southeast. I heard that you defeated the Portuguese fleet in the sea outside Hao Jing last year. , I am quite afraid of such strength..."
Zheng Zhilong clasped his fists: "Now we are all the prince's navy..."
"Haha..." Chen Cao smiled knowingly, thinking that Zheng Zhilong would still cause trouble: "Well...
In addition to the Zheng family's seamen, I still recommend that you disband the Zheng family's tens of thousands of private soldiers. However, in order to take into account the thoughts of your family, I allow the Zheng family to retain a thousand land guards;
Moreover, I will order the foreign trade group to cooperate with your Zheng Group. Except for military and political affairs, all commercial interests can be shared equally with your Zheng family...
What do you think? "
Zheng Zhilong stood up again and knelt down on one knee towards Chen Cao: "I will thank you for your great kindness..."
"Well, just get up..."
"I wonder when the prince will need a general?"
Chen Cao knocked on the table and then said: "My Songjiang Fan Nanhai Fleet went to the Middle East... Oh, let's talk about Tianfang Kingdom..."
Only then did Zheng Zhilong understand where it was.
"Tianfang Kingdom is now called the Middle East. They belong to Arab countries. The entire Tianfang Kingdom is composed of many Arab countries. When I set out to go south, Chen Yongsu's reporting fleet had just arrived in Shanghai. The Kingdom of Oman had been conquered. Over there, The battle was still fierce;
The reason why there are no sea ships to trouble you is because the four major fleets under Songjiang Fan have basically been mobilized. Except for the flagship Dingwu, there are really no extra warships to use. "
Only when Zheng Zhilong heard this did he understand why Chen Cao did not send a fleet south. Although he knew that a large number of fleets passed through the Dongfan Island Strait last year, he did not know their specific goals. Chen Cao did not tell him, but he was still kept in the dark. Drum.
But thinking about it, I also regretted it. If Chen Cao didn't surrender, Chen Cao wouldn't have a fleet, and there would be nothing he could do about himself.
In order to prevent Chen Cao from seeing clearly what he was thinking, Zheng Zhilong handed over his hand and said, "I wonder what the general's fleet can do for the prince?"
"I plan to establish the Pacific Fleet, with the flagship Dingwu as the leader. You will be the commander-in-chief of the Pacific Fleet. What do you think?"
Zheng Zhilong was indeed very methodical in naval warfare, and he was good at learning. He studied the Dutch ships for a long time and also made three imitations. It was these three imitation ships that hit the Portuguese by mistake off the coast of Guangdong.
"The last general will be entirely at the command of the prince."
...
After Chen Cao arranged the government affairs in Guangdong and Fujian provinces, he ordered Yan Chun of the Eighth Division to station in Guangdong, and Han Xianchu of the Seventh Division to station in Fujian. So in the first month of the fourth year of Chongzhen (the second year of Chongde, 1631 AD) After the 15th, he led the army back to Songjiang by sea. Zheng Zhilong brought many family members with him, some of whom were hostages. Another focus was to go to Shanghai to receive the Dingwu flagship ship. Zheng Zhilong's eldest son Zheng Sen also picked up and sent him back from Beijing. After arriving in Songjiang, he directly entered the junior preschool class of Nanjing Military Academy.
In the governor's office, Chen Cao looked at the map of the Ming Dynasty that belonged to his territory for a long time without speaking. Huang Chunyao walked into the lobby with an official document: "Your Majesty, the remaining divisions of the Tianxiong Army have rushed to Oman after completing their training. This time A ship came back, fully loaded with oil, and according to reports from the troops accompanying the ship, all the oil on this ship came from Oman.”
Chen Cao took the official document and read it carefully, and then said: "Tell the arsenal to give priority to supplying rifles and field artillery to the Tianxiong Army. In addition, tell Sun Chuanting and Lu Xiangsheng to take advantage of the opportunity we have to expand the war situation without limit. They How to do it is their business, and the oil countries must be in the hands of our Ming Dynasty."
As he spoke, Chen Cao took out a long-drawn color map of the Middle East from the desk next to him, with several very important world oil-producing countries marked on it: "This map is sent to Oman and must be handed over to Lu Xiangsheng held it in his hand and told him that after occupying several countries on the map, they would consolidate their victory and stop expanding outwards. The countries on the map would be built according to the Chief Envoy of the Ming Dynasty. Officials at all levels would be dispatched from Nanjing School in the future to let them Prepare early.”
"yes..."
After Huang Chunyao responded, he handed an official document sent from Nanjing to Chen Cao: "The prince was not here at that time, and the student did not dare to make the decision on this official document."
Chen Cao opened it and saw that it was Zhu Yousong who asked Chen Cao to go to Nanjing to be the Minister of War. He also gave Chen Cao the military title of "Pingbei General" and led the Nanjing ministries northward to attack Beijing.
"In the middle of last year, Zhu Chunchen, Duke Cheng of the Northern Dynasty, was awarded the title of 'General Pingnan' and controlled the 600,000 main Chinese and foreign armies from going south. Now his various ministries are hoarding Huai'an and Gaoyou, and they are responding to each other from afar. Students speculate that the Northern Army troops may be there. When summer comes this year, we will launch a general offensive against South Zhili."
