Qian Taichong stayed in Lingao for more than two years after being captured. He came from a poor family. Although he saved some money by working as a monk and traveling around the world to marry a wife and have children in his hometown, he was not even close to the level of a well-off family. Therefore, after being captured, no one ransomed him. Seeing the officials and staff in the camp redeem themselves and returning home one by one, but he could only stay in the prisoner camp and work every day, and he felt very angry.
Chang Qingyun, who was captured with him, was "almost ready to die" because he was so pampered and could not do the hard work in the prisoner camp. Qian Taichong was a well-informed man because he had more contacts with him. He was a master of civil engineering, so he took good care of him and often helped him with some hard work. Chang Qingyun burst into tears of gratitude and said many times that as soon as he was released, he and he would become brothers with different surnames, and they would be good friends of the whole family in the future.
Later, Chang Qingyun's family redeemed him, and Chang Qingyun vowed to raise money to redeem him as soon as he was sent back. Qian Taichong just waited in the prison camp eagerly for Chang Qingyun to redeem him.
Unexpectedly, Chang Qingyun left without any news. In the end, it was only after he had accumulated enough points through his own work that he was freed - it was already the spring of 1632.
After gaining his freedom, Qian Taichong refused the invitation of the civilian cadres in the prison camp to settle down in the camp and decided to return to the mainland. He had seen too much about the Australians on the construction site of the prisoner camp in the past few years, and he increasingly felt that the Australians would be a serious problem for the imperial court sooner or later. He had been working hard for several years here, and it was time to return to serve the imperial court.
Qian Taichong took a public carriage from Lingao to Qiongzhou with a little money given to him in the prisoner camp and some luggage left behind when he was a prisoner, and went to find Shi Bangyao, the former boss of Guangdong Zuoshenzheng Branch, Hainan Province.
Since the defeat of Chengmai, Shi Bangyao has been living in seclusion in the branch office of Qiongshan County. He does not go to the office every day and does not receive visitors. "Self-imposed prisoner" can be regarded as "non-violence and non-cooperation" with the Australians. Thinking of his old friendship, he still met with the former staff member and said that he was in an unexpected situation and could no longer retain him. However, Shi Bangyao had been the magistrate of Zhangzhou in Fujian and had dealt with Zheng Zhilong, so he wrote a letter of recommendation for Qian Taichong and gave him twenty taels of silver, asking him to go to Fujian to join Zheng Zhilong and make a living.
"The bandits have become a prairie fire in Qiongzhou." Before leaving, Shi Bangyao told him, "It's a pity that the imperial court is now trapped by rogue bandits and Donglu, so they can't take care of each other and let the bandits become more powerful. Sir, he has been trapped by the bandits for a long time. Now that we are out of prison, we will have great potential in the future.”
With this encouragement, Qian Taichong arrived in Anping with enthusiasm in his heart. Unexpectedly, Zheng Zhilong didn't see him at all - Zheng Zhilong is now a very popular figure. People recommended by various big shots to come here to have a leisurely meal are like crucian carp crossing the river. Qian Taichong He is nothing more than a scholar. He was not well-known, and there were already forty or fifty people around Zheng Zhilong, so he recommended him to Zheng Zhipeng.
Zheng Zhipeng didn't take Qian Taichong seriously, so he made him a clerk. The life is very simple, the people are leisurely, and the salary is certainly not high. It is just looking at Shi Bangyao's face to make a living.
This time the Zheng family was destroyed. Qian Taichong was not as surprised as others. In his view, it was not surprising that the thieves who had become the norm in Qiongzhou Prefecture wanted to destroy a shady sea master like Zheng Zhilong - Qian Taichong had been under Zheng Zhipeng's trap for several months. Looking on with a cold eye, I know that the Zheng Group is just a maritime business group, everything is for profit, and it does not have much political foresight. Compared with Kun Thief, it can be called Yunni. Once a war begins with the Kun Thief, failure is inevitable.
This contrast actually strengthened Qian Taichong's determination to fight against the Kun thieves. Like ordinary Chinese, he had the ambition to do something big. Under the old social system, it was difficult for a poor scholar like him to make a difference. Now that the Zheng family has been severely damaged and the family is falling apart, and his legitimate son Zheng Sen has no one to support him, this is a great opportunity for him to step in and turn the tide.
As long as Zheng Sen can be promoted to the position of the head of the Zheng family, and he slowly works towards it - Qian Taichong has quite the idea of becoming the "teacher" of the Zheng family - he might be able to create a new world in the southeastern sea!
The people gathered around the young master of the Zheng family are all low-level figures in the Zheng family. Although Matos and Tongtaro are loyal, they know very little about officialdom, and they are simple-minded and can easily be exploited. . It will also be much easier to operate it yourself.
At this time, seeing that the Japanese had already arrived at his door, he pretended to be profound and smiled, and took out the chapter that he had been thinking about over and over again in the past few days.
"Mr. Tong! It's rare that you are so loyal." Qian Taichong nodded repeatedly, "You want to help the young master ascend the throne, but your heart is pitiful. Just running around like this will not help the matter at all."
Although he had not been with Zheng Zhipeng for a long time, he had a very clear understanding of the situation of the Zheng Group, so he was not surprised that the Zheng Group was torn apart after Zheng Zhilong's death.
"...Master Sen is young, and the general is in his prime, so there are no masters or subordinates prepared for him. So now the only thing Master Zheng Sen has is the status of the general's legitimate son," Qian Taichong said, "He has no power of his own. It is not worth mentioning to the subordinates of the Zheng family, so no one cares about his identity as the legitimate son. Master Sen's mother is Japanese, and in the eyes of many subordinates, it is even more "not of my race", and there is no The influence of the maternal family can support him."
"What should we do?" Tongtaro was a little anxious.
"Haha, don't worry, there is still someone who cares about Master Sen. It's just that he doesn't know Master Sen's embarrassment yet, otherwise I guarantee that he will help Master Sen."
"who is it?!"
"Fujian Governor Zou Weilian."
Tongtaro had heard of Zou Weilian's name - not only had he heard of it, he had also accompanied Zheng Zhilong to see him. He knew that this man was the governor of Fujian Province and a very powerful "big name". However, He knew that Zheng Zhilong and Governor Zou had always been at odds with each other, and they were not as harmonious as the former "Governor Xiong".
"Governor Zou and the general have always been at odds..."
"One moment and another moment." Qian Taichong found it a bit difficult to explain to a Japanese, "In the past, the master was alive, but now that the master is gone, and all the heroes of the Zheng family are together, he has other considerations."
When Zheng Zhilong was alive, the Zheng family as a whole was a huge threat to him, the governor of Fujian. Now that Zheng Zhilong is gone, the Zheng family has fallen into pieces. Although the internal worries have been eliminated, the situation where the heroes are competing for the throne is not what he wants to see. The divided Zheng family is bound to fall into the flames of war with each other, the coastal areas of Fujian will suffer, and the situation on the formerly rough southeastern coast will deteriorate again. It will be difficult for Zou Weilian to explain to the court.
A big but weak Zheng family is what Zou Weilian wants to see. If he puts himself in his shoes, as the governor of a province in Fujian, what he most hopes to see is a unified but internally fragmented Zheng Group. In this way, all the forces within the group will work hard to please the government, and only then will Zou Weilian have the space to be good at what he does, both for the court and for him personally.
For Zou Weilian, it is not easy for him to win over other members of the Zheng family. The leaders of the Zheng Group have their own groups. If Zou Weilian wants to win over them, he will have to pay a high price; once they are supported, will they be able to win over them? It is still unclear whether he will become another Zheng Zhilong. Rather than letting an adult with insatiable desires succeed to the throne, it would be far less troublesome to let a child who has none take the throne.
What's more, Qian Taichong thought with a sneer that none of the Zheng family members who are now fighting for power in Zhangzhou Bay would have thought that Zheng Zhilong's success today has a lot to do with him wearing an official coat. Zheng Sen is not only Zheng Zhilong's legitimate son, but also the successor to Zheng Zhilong's hereditary military position. Now, the young Zheng Sen is the official of the imperial court, and the other generals of the Zheng family are just ordinary people.
Zou Weilian came forward in the name of the governor of Fujian to support Zheng Sen, who had "ascended to the post". Not only did he have an official excuse, but privately speaking, he was safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of "orphans and widowed mothers". It can be called aboveboard. It also gave Zou Weilian sufficient excuses and opportunities to interfere with the Zheng Group.
Zou Weilian spent little money in supporting Zheng Sen, but he exerted great restraint on the Zheng Group.
With Zou Weilian's intelligence, he should not have thought of this. Qian Taichong was very confident in his inference - and he knew that the governor of Fujian had sent someone to inquire about the whereabouts of Tagawa and Zheng Sen. Obviously, the governor attached great importance to the mother and son.
Totaro was impressed by his analysis, and immediately expressed his willingness to listen to "Mr. Qian" as long as Fusong could become the head of the family.
"Let's not be anxious now," Qian Taichong said confidently. He had already thought about the next step several times. "There are people who are unwilling to disperse in this county school. They are all loyal people of the young master. We should not treat them." I ignored them and distributed some money, rice and silver to them in the name of the young master."
"But we don't have much money and rice..."
"The general is so rich that he can rival his country. Will his legitimate son still care about such a thing?" Qian Taichong smiled slightly and said, "You have to calm people's hearts."
"Best regards, sir!"
"There are a few scholars outside who have some knowledge and can share the difficulties with the young master. We want to bring them over and use them for the young master. You send someone to quietly invite these people at night." Qian Taichong said and gave him A note.
There was no one named Zheng on the note. Qian Taichong believed that it was not appropriate to let people from the Zheng clan get involved at this time, lest someone try to use their own blood to seize leadership. In southern Fujian, the concept of hometown friendship and clan is very strong. Not only is my surname a foreigner, but I am also a foreigner, so I have to be careful.
Wait until everything is done before considering absorbing the Zheng family members.
"Mr. Duyi."
