Chapter 251
"Spring River Plumbing Duck Prophet."
People who are paying attention to the news about the battle between Zheng Zhilong and Ning Haijun are actually not only the big bosses in the DPRK and China, but also more wealthy businessmen from Jiangnan. They have actually been worried about Cheng Shijie's Ning Haijun Group, which is more powerful and more powerful than the Zheng Group. Aggressive group.
In particular, the goods 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 not only lost the battle, but also surrendered to Cheng Shijie. Jiangnan Maritime Group reacted immediately to this unexpected turn of events. It's time to establish a good relationship with Cheng Shijie, otherwise, they will not be able to keep up even with the northwest wind.
For a time, a large number of merchant ships went out to sea from Wusong Port. Even the merchant ships that had been hiding in Hangzhou Port in Hangzhou Bay headed north, turned a corner, paid taxes at Wusong Port, and then headed south to go to sea.
"General Cheng won?"
"Of course I won, otherwise, would those tough cocks of theirs have paid so readily?"
Zhang Muzhi clicked his abacus: "Godfather, in just a few days, we have collected more than 3.2 million taels of silver, which is more than what we usually collect in two months!"
"Okay, okay, I can finally explain it to the emperor!"
Gao Qiqian has been guarding Wusongkou's money bag during this period. Without Emperor Chongzhen's side, 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, he supervises the Tianxiong Army as an admiral eunuch.
Because Cheng Shijie and Zheng Zhilong fought in Nanyang, and as the peasant army grew stronger, generals Cao Wenzhao and Ai Wannian were killed in battle, and You Shiwei was defeated. Therefore, many officers and soldiers were afraid of the peasant army and were afraid to move forward. In particular, the Xingyang Congress was held in the twelfth year of Chongzhen. In order to deal with the peasant army, Lu Xiangsheng was promoted to the premier of five provinces half a year earlier than in history, and took charge of the military affairs of the five provinces of Nanzhili, Henan, Shandong, Sichuan, and Huguang.
The Tianxiong Army is still Lu Xiangsheng's old base. Unlike in history, Emperor Chongzhen had no money. From the formation of the Tianxiong Army to the destruction of the Tianxiong Army, the entire army only had 16,700 troops. It was not that Lu Xiangsheng was unwilling to expand the army. Ma, it is he who has no money to feed these soldiers.
However, with the food and money sent to the capital by Gao Qiqian and Cheng Shijie, Emperor Chongzhen allocated one million taels of silver to Lu Xiangsheng, and transferred 3,000 cavalry from the Guanning Army to Lu Xiangsheng's command. Now the Tianxiong Army has been expanded and divided into Three towns, three battalions in each town, each battalion has five infantry divisions, each division has two divisions, each division has four bureaus, each division has four sentries, each sentry has fifty people, and is divided into four teams, that is, each battalion has 8,000 troops. In addition, each battalion is equipped with one cavalry, totaling thousands, and several artillery and muskets. Lu Xiangsheng also has a Fubiaozhong military camp with a total of more than 8,000 elites, and the entire army has a total of more than 45,000 people.
The Tianxiong Army is different from the Guan Ning Army. All the Tianxiong Army are 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 combat effectiveness besides Gao Qiqian. Strong supervisory army.
This put Gao Qiqian in a serious crisis.
In particular, Lu Xiangsheng is simply not a human being. He does not engage in corruption or bribery. Even the relationship between men and women is very clean. He is simply incompatible with the officials of the Ming Dynasty. This gave Gao Qiqian no chance against Lu Xiangsheng.
"Finally won!"
Gao Qiqian said angrily: "Although Lu Xiangsheng is lucky, if General Cheng had defeated Zheng Zhilong earlier, how could Lu Xiangsheng be able to succeed?"
Zhang Muzhi said: "Godfather, are you going to the capital to report your victory?"
"No!"
Gao Qiqian shook his head and said: "We still don't know the true outcome of this matter. The key is General Cheng's attitude."
Zhang Muzhi did not dare to speak.
In the past, it was Cheng Shijie who relied on Gao Qiqian's protection to block the bright and secret arrows in the court. Now it's the other way around. It's Gao Qiqian who needs Cheng Shijie's light to gain a foothold in the court.
At this moment, more than a hundred armed merchant ships escorted by fifteen Ning Navy warships slowly approached Wusongkou. Although Cheng Shijie was reorganizing the Zheng Group's troops in Luzon and could not return to Beijing for the time being, Zhu Weiti was asked to return to Beijing first because others did not come back. Zhu Weiti did not come back empty-handed. She could bring 5.8 million taels of silver and more than 3 million shi of rice.
In the Ming Dynasty, food was very expensive. Even rice from the south of the Yangtze River could be sold for six or seven coins. However, in Luzon, rice was as cheap as dirt. A sack of rice could be exchanged with the indigenous people for a piece of troublesome rice and a mouthful of braised rice. A tin can of meat can be exchanged for a large piece of unharvested rice.
Luzon's agriculture, especially grain production, is very primitive. They don't have to cultivate the land at all. They just like weeds in the ground. When they want to eat rice, they harvest part of it, and the remaining rice is considered as seed.
In Cheng Shijie's opinion, the natives of Luzon deserved to die. If the peasants of the Ming Dynasty saw this scene, they would definitely kill all these natives. It was too violent. Guarding such a fertile land given by God, you are so lazy.
Cheng Shijie reorganized the surrendered troops of the Zheng Group in Luzon because he saw that food in Luzon was rich and relatively cheap. In comparison, the cost of food production in Liaodong was much higher than that in Luzon. Although Spain has occupied Luzon for 60 or 70 years, they have a small domestic population and do not need so much food, so they are not interested in growing food. Instead, they are more interested in sugar cane plantations, rubber, and tobacco leaves.
At this time, some people in the Ming Dynasty began to smoke, and many of the Zheng soldiers also smoked. There were more than 150 Spanish-controlled tobacco plantations in Luzon alone.
Among the ships that Cheng Shijie transported to the capital, in addition to more than three million stones of grain, there were also some fruits, of course mainly those that were easier to store.
"It's a battleship from Ning Haijun!"
When Wu Sheng heard the news, he hurriedly came out to greet her. When he looked at the flag of the Eighth Princess, he realized that it was only Zhu Weiti who had returned.
About half an hour later, the Ning Navy warships began to enter the port, and they were constantly replenishing fresh water, food and repairing the ships.
Shen Boyun, Wu Sheng and Gao Qi lurked at the dock to greet Zhu Weiti and his party.
Behind Zhu Weiti were the daughters of the four major families in Nanyang and the daughters of the four major families in Luzon, a total of eight new concubines.
"Everyone, I am exhausted!"
Although Zhu Weiti got off the ship, he did not leave Wusongkou. Instead, he found a house to rest in Wusongkou.
Zhu Weiti did not stop at Wusongkou just to replenish some fresh water and food. The huge fleet went all the way north, which was just a matter of steps. Wen Tiren in the capital also received the news that Zheng Zhilong was defeated and surrendered to Cheng Shijie.
Wen Tiren was learning foreign languages with his Korean concubine at the time. Wen Tiren suddenly felt that learning foreign languages had no meaning anymore: "Trash!"
In Wen Tiren's eyes, Zheng Zhilong was a loser who couldn't hold up a wall. As the overlord of a party with more than 200,000 men and 3,000 warships, he was beaten to the ground by others without even fighting back. His power is enough to be despised, but this guy is also shameless. After losing a few battles, he surrendered like a bachelor...
How can you say that Zheng Zhilong is also the overlord who dominates the South China Sea, but he has no backbone? Even if you really couldn't defeat Cheng Shijie, wouldn't you burn Xiamen to ashes and then lead your troops to flee to the Nanyang Islands to fight guerrillas with him and consume him to death?
Or you can stick to Xiamen and fight him to the end! Although it is unkind for us people to burn incense and pray to Buddha every day, hoping that you and Cheng Shijie will fight to the death of both sides, it does not mean that we will not take action to cause trouble to Cheng Shijie when you are in a stalemate. With us as your backing, what are you afraid of?
Zheng Zhilong surrendered as a bachelor, but he made Grand Bachelor Wen Tiren Wen very angry.
Cheng Shijie's strength on land is already frightening, and now he has annexed the Zheng Group and has an unparalleled maritime strength. Who else can defeat him?
Thinking that he and others had tried so hard to provoke a vicious fight between Cheng Shijie and Zheng Zhilong in an attempt to profit from it, but ended up with this result, Wen Shoufu felt a little like he shot himself in the foot.
But it's too late to say anything now. It's a definite fact that Cheng Shijie has become the overlord of the sea. Do you expect that guy to spit out what he eats? You might as well expect sows to climb trees! What's even more annoying is that after doing this, the Donglin Party members are even more dissatisfied with him, and the storm of overturning the government is just around the corner!
Gao Qiqian arrived in the capital a moment before Zhu Weiti, holding in his hand the good news written by Cheng Shijie: "Ning Haijun's 30,000-strong army fought hard and, with the cooperation of Fujian Admiral Zheng Zhilong, successfully wiped out the troops in the coastal areas of Guangdong and Fujian. The evil-doing pirates ensured the smooth flow of shipping routes and the safety of maritime trade. The Zheng Zhilong Group suffered heavy losses in the battle against pirates. The Zheng brothers were even injured and sick, and were no longer able to shoulder the important task of protecting the security of Fujian's coast. They formally submitted a letter to the imperial court requesting that they retire in Liaodong, and their fleet would be collected by Ning Haijun..."
This victory report was written in an understatement, not mentioning anything about Luzon and Batavia. The super melee with more than 200,000 troops turned into an insignificant battle to suppress bandits in Cheng Shijie's writing, and was interrupted by him. The Zheng Group, which lost its backbone, became a hero in the encirclement and suppression of pirates. This ability to confuse right and wrong, and such shame, really refreshed Emperor Chongzhen's three views and made him see that there was Cheng Shijie who was even more shameless than those civil servants. .
The most irritating thing is that Zheng Zhilong also wrote a letter, describing in detail how he cooperated with Cheng Shijie to suppress pirates. He said it in a very clear-cut manner. At the end, he also said that he was too old and could no longer work, and asked him to go to Liaodong to retire... Okay Well, basically he agreed to whatever Cheng Yi Shijie said.
However, he told Emperor Chongzhen at the end that a lot of money had been seized in this battle, including 5.8 million taels of silver alone. Cheng Shijie said that he had not touched any money, 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 that the capital was short of food, Cheng Shijie boldly used the seized property to buy rice in Nanyang, totaling three million stones of rice, which he had already shipped north.
Emperor Chongzhen was very happy, but while he was happy, he had a headache on how to reward Cheng Shijie. You must know that Cheng Shijie was already the Duke of Haiguo and could not be promoted, but the court still needed him. To be honest, although Lu Xiangsheng was considered a good general of the Ming Dynasty A famous commander, but Emperor Chongzhen did not have much confidence in wiping out the peasant army.
Fortunately, this sum of money came just in time.
If Cheng Shijie's eldest son, Cheng Jialong, could be found, Emperor Chongzhen would not have to have such a headache. He could directly make Cheng Jialong the crown prince of Haiguo Gong. In the future, the son of Zhu Weiti and Cheng Shijie could inherit Cheng Shijie's title, and then transfer Cheng Shijie's title from Haiguo Gong. If it were another Duke...
But the problem is that there is no news that Zhu Weiti is pregnant, nor that Cheng Shijie has found his son Cheng Jialong. I'm afraid it will be difficult to find him.
"Cao Banban, what's the result of searching for Cheng Qing's heir?"
"Reporting to Your Majesty, there are some clues about this matter. Fourteen people claimed to be Cheng Jialong, the son of General Cheng, but these fourteen people were all fake. There were also seven women who claimed to be Xiang. However, after verification, they also It’s all fake!”
Cao Huachun thought for a while and said: "Your Majesty, General Cheng is now famous as a thunderbolt. General Cheng has already been famous in the countryside. If Xiang and his son were still alive, they should have found him long ago! Unless... "
"Unless they are no longer alive?"
"It's also possible that they are hiding in the deep mountains and forests and have no information!"
Cao Huachun said: "Jinyiwei and Dongchang have dispatched more than 3,000 people to various places to investigate, but there is no result yet!"
"Looking for it, you want to see the person alive, and you want to see the corpse if you are dead!"
Emperor Chongzhen was in a pretty good mood, but on the contrary, the ministers in the court were as disgusted as eating a fly.
The inkstones in the capital suddenly became much more expensive. Apparently, many civil servants smashed the inkstones and broke their own inkstones after hearing that Zheng Zhilong, who had 200,000 to 300,000 men and more than 3,000 warships, was defeated and surrendered. Brush, how much effort did they put into inciting 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, wave flags and shout out slogans, and package Zheng Zhilong as a hero against the warlord Cheng Shijie.
What are they trying so hard for? Don't you hope that Zheng Zhilong can cause Cheng Shijie to fall into a big somersault, and it is best for the two of them to fight to the death?
The result was good, Zheng Zhilong gave up in defeat, and the control of Dahai was handed over to Cheng Shijie. Cheng Shijie gained another large piece of territory!
Cheng Shijie, who was in Luzon, watched Ning Haijun train Zheng's recruits.
Li Zhixiang asked: "Commander, should we build a shipyard in Luzon?"
"unnecessary!"
"Why?"
"Luzon is positioned as a raw material and grain production base, not a completed industrial system!"
Cheng Shijie has not yet established a truly complete industrial system in Liaodong, so how can it be possible to develop and build in Luzon.
If a country really wants to become strong, it will be nothing more than a fleeting moment. Vertically, horizontally, and closed, it is also a tree without roots. What truly supports a country’s national strength is comprehensive industrialization!
Now the Ming Dynasty is not far behind the technological development of the West. In fact, it has a stronger advantage than catching up more than three hundred years later.
The development of the Ming Dynasty in the field of machinery was not lagging behind that of the West. Whether it was agriculture, mathematics, chemistry, or astronomy, it was clearly ahead of the West.
As Liaodong's industrial base develops, more and more people choose to cooperate with Ning Haijun and contribute their own unique secret recipes. Liaodong produces a large amount of machinery and equipment, and Liaodong actually develops a Lots of hydraulic machinery.
For example, textile machines that can be driven by water power, and forging presses that can be driven by water power. This is incredible to Cheng Shijie. In fact, Daming has a strong technical reserve, and the research and development of steam engines is enough.
The water drain invented in the Han Dynasty, the piston bellows invented in the Song Dynasty, and the water drain driving device have solved the power generated by reciprocating motion. The invention of the steam engine was just a matter of time.
While Cheng Shijie was reading Ning Haijun's official documents from the Liaodong Management Committee, one thing caught Cheng Shijie's attention.
That was the case of Yan's lawsuit against 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 finally remembered that Wang Zheng was actually a great scientist in the Ming Dynasty, second only to Song Yingxing and Zhao Shizhen.
Wang Zheng has three characteristics: an official, a scientist, and a Catholic. He wrote a book by himself called "Illustrated Notes on Newly Made Various Weapons", and later compiled a book called "Illustrated Notes on Strange Weapons of the Far West" with Deng Yuhan, a missionary from Switzerland. The book was published in 1627. At that time, the introduction of Western science and technology in the late Ming Dynasty played an important role.
In the strange book "Illustrated Notes on Newly Made Various Utensils", there is a record that is still difficult to understand. "The fire ship goes away, the fire and thunder explodes, the wind wheel rotates, and the windmill travels far." According to the records in the article, and according to our understanding today, the "fire ship goes away" most likely refers to steam-powered ships. .
Wang Zheng once served as the deputy envoy of the Shandong Envoy and was also a good friend of Sun Yuanhua. In history, due to the Dengzhou Rebellion, Kong Youde rebelled, and 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. However, after Cheng Shijie landed in Liaodong and allowed Liaodong Catholics to build churches, Wang Zheng, who was obsessed with religion and scientific research, was invited by the godfather Lu Ruohan. 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 southeastern coast and southwest, the Ming Dynasty There is little peace left.
Refugees from Shaanxi will automatically go to Liaodong. Thanks to the help and attraction of the Liaodong Immigration Administration, Liaodong now has more than 500,000 people from Shaanxi.
This is a very rich Christian resource, but only Liaodong is the most tolerant of Catholics, so Wang Zheng came to Liaodong. However, the problem was that Wang Zheng’s first wife, Shang, had several sons, but they all suffered from acne. With only two daughters left, Wang Zheng's mind relaxed under the circumstances of "his wife and daughter were in mourning, his brothers and nephews were surrounded by tears, and his father's orders were strict", so he married the fifteen-year-old daughter in the third year of Tianqi without making it public. Shen is a concubine, hoping to have children to continue her incense.
Since taking a concubine has always been regarded as a serious crime by the Catholic Church in China, Wang Zheng felt that his sin was serious and asked several priests such as Jin to exonerate him, but they were not allowed. Wang Zheng then regretted it and decided to marry a concubine to atone for his sins, but Shang tried his best to persuade her to stay. Shen also cried bitterly and declared that she would join the church and remain chaste and would not remarry until she died, but Wang Zheng had no choice.
However, Wang Zheng accepted the Shen family but did not have sex with her. After many years, Shen's belly had not moved, so she was criticized by the neighbors. Shen was not willing to be scolded as a chicken that could not lay eggs, so she hanged herself.
As a result, Wang Zheng was determined to completely solve his marriage problems. He published an article "Praying for Exoneration" in the "Liaodong Times", admitting that he had seriously violated the "Ten Commandments" and said that he had read it recently And in "The Miracle of Miguel Zhang Zi Ling Ying" and "Kou Duo Rizhao", he once declared that he did not want to take a concubine, and he felt even more ashamed and regretful, so he vowed to treat the Shen family as a guest and friend from now on, and he would never have sex again. Seeking solution for sin.
This brought the Shen family to the forefront. However, Liaodong's "Marriage Protection Law" had already been introduced, and Wang Zheng had clearly violated the "Marriage Protection Law." Shen family, at the instigation of Yang Yuniang, filed a lawsuit with the Liaodong court based on the "Marriage Protection Law" Sue Wang Zheng.
Now Cheng Shijie understands that Shen's case has not yet been formally heard in court. Is this Yang Yuniang using legal means to force Cheng Shijie?
In fact, Cheng Shijie's approach was similar to Wang Zheng's. In addition to his wife Zhu Weiti, he also had four concubines, Yang Yunniang, Yang Waner, Jin Qiaoer and Gu Ziyi. Now he had eight more concubines.
Looking at the red-marked documents, Cheng Shijie suddenly felt like his head was as big as a bucket.
"That's sloppy!"
The real reason why the Marriage Protection Law was established in the first place 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 was good. In order to avoid taxes and save money, he took in concubines from the Central Plains for 509 yuan at a time. women, mostly used as free slaves.
Due to the unrest in the Ming Dynasty, human trafficking was legal in the two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Central Plains. During the famine period, a yellow flower girl could not even sell two buckets of grain. As Liaodong's economy develops better and better, labor costs are getting higher and higher, especially now that the monthly salary of female workers has increased to one tael of silver. Skilled technical female workers can even get two, two, or three taels of silver.
In order to avoid salary expenses, many businessmen purchased people in the Central Plains. Of course, Liaodong did not recognize human sales contracts, so they adopted the method of taking concubines. Rich people could take in countless concubines. These concubines were actually slaves, and 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, in order to prevent wealthy merchants from taking concubines to avoid taxes and prevent women from being bought and sold, this law was formulated. If you have money, you can take concubines, but if you take a concubine, you must have sex. Cheng Shijie also brought this law with him when he formulated this law. If you have a bad taste, you must have sex, and not less than once. If you do not stay in the same room for more than two months, you can be fined, and the fine is cumulative.
For example, if Chen Dayong has not had sex with his fifty-three concubines for two months, Chen Dayong will be fined one tael of silver. If he has not had sex with his concubines for three months, he will be fined two taels of silver. If he has not had sex with him for four months, he will be fined two taels of silver. If you don't have sex with someone for five months, you'll be fined eight taels of silver, and if you don't have sex for six months, you'll be fined 16 taels of silver.
If there are hundreds of concubines, unless they have a strong backbone, they will be punished and ruined.
Faced with the case of Shen's lawsuit against Wang Zheng, Cheng Shijie not only shot himself in the foot, but also created a great scientist for Cheng Shijie.
(End of chapter)
