"God bless the Ming Dynasty, when famine spreads all over the world. God bless Japan, where rivers of blood flow. God bless the aborigines of the New World, who become extinct."
“Your God, you’re so busy.”
The Portuguese standing in the Chinese army's tent were familiar with the official dialect of the Ming Dynasty. When they heard the complaints from Marquis Pingliao, they were frightened and quickly explained to the young commander that he came to the Ming Dynasty this time only to engage in trade and not to interfere with religious matters.
"Alexander the Great of the East, please don't get me wrong. Not all Portuguese citizens are clergy. Do you also know about the tragedies that happened in the New World?"
Before the Portuguese businessman Roman arrived at Shanhaiguan, many people along the way warned the red-haired barbarians to maintain high respect for him, Marquis Pingliao.
When I learned that Ping Liaohou was only twenty-two years old, he had already defeated the Tungus barbarians. He ruled more than half of Europe, and was currently competing with the Ming Empire.
Roman immediately thought of Caesar and Alexander the Great.
"Of course trade is possible, but we need to wait for my official to negotiate a peace with the imperial court and occupy Dengzhou, Shandong, where there is a better seaport."
Liu Zhaosun smiled and nodded to the Portuguese businessman, and motioned to the guards to serve tea to the red-haired barbarians.
The weather in western Liaoning at the end of March was pleasant, but Marquis Pingliao was not prepared to wait any longer in Shanhaiguan, and his patience was limited.
They had consumed all the food in Jinzhou and Ningyuan. He had ordered 300,000 foreign Liao civilians to return to Liaodong in batches, leaving only the last three Guards and some Liao civilians to continue to confront the Ming army in front of Shanhaiguan.
There was no response from the capital.
Liu Zhaosun's patience has been exhausted.
March 30th was the deadline for peace negotiations between Kaiyuan and the Ming Dynasty.
If the two sides cannot reach an agreement by then, Ping Liaohou will have to adopt the opinions of the main war faction and enter the customs in advance to end the Ming Dynasty.
At present, southern Liaoning is under the control of the Kaiyuan Army. Throughout March, Yuan Chonghuan, Qiao Yiqi and the others continued to transport shiploads of soldiers to Dengzhou.
After the war begins, all five Kaiyuan Guards will be dispatched.
Marquis Ping Liao personally led the First and Second Guards Corps into the Shanhaiguan Pass and attacked Sanhe in Tongzhou as the main attack.
The Third, Fourth, and Fifth Armies will be divided into two lines, attacking from Weihaiwei to Tianjin, cutting off water transportation, and blocking the ground support armies of Henan, Hebei, Huguang and other areas from going north for rescue.
At the same time, the Mongolian Horqin and Karaqin tribes will break through the walls from Longjingguan, Xifengkou and other places in Jizhou to contain the border troops in Shanxi, Shanxi and other places.
Liu Zhaosun called this combat plan the Little Glacier Harvest Operation.
During the Little Glacier Harvest Operation, he might massacre a town that was watching Jin Yuji being killed. As for how many people he would kill, it would all depend on Marquis Ping Liao's mood.
He needs to wait quietly before March 30th arrives.
Waiting for Chaotian official Li Tiran, waiting for the North Koreans to bring back good news.
On March 28, Li Tiran did not come back, and Liu Zhaosun waited for the Portuguese businessman Roman.
Marco Polo's travel notes were praised by Europeans. Inspired by this book, European adventurers such as Columbus and explorers such as Nicoray dreamed that the China they discovered on the other side of the world would be Marco Polo described a world of splendid pleasure palaces and unparalleled wealth - what we call the Celestial Empire.
Of course, for those more pragmatic Europeans, they need to look for something more real and concrete:
Porcelain, silk worn by priests, rhubarb, and tea.
These artefacts produced in China were sold at high prices in Europe and were extremely profitable, so countless upright and brave European businessmen went to China to seek trade.
Roman is one of them.
Roman arrived in Macau, China in 1618 (the forty-sixth year of Wanli). Before meeting Liu Zhaosun, he had been working as a general (translator) in the Portuguese fleet.
Two years later, Roman used his accumulated wealth to buy a state-of-the-art three-masted sailing ship, preparing to follow the footsteps of the Dutch and go to Japan to fight.
Unexpectedly, in this year, the Tokugawa shogunate announced a seclusion of the country, prohibiting the entry of merchant ships from any country except China and the Netherlands.
The once very profitable commercial voyage to Japan was coming to an end.
Roman lost all his money.
In desperation, the Portuguese businessman who was on the verge of bankruptcy chose to convert to God and turned to the Jesuits.
Perhaps it was a miracle from God, but by chance, Roman heard about the deeds of Marquis Pingliao from a missionary in the North of the Ming Dynasty.
In the far northeastern corner of the Ming Empire, it turned out that there was such a person dedicated to maintaining free trade. A powerful figure who advocates equal human rights.
From Ping Liaohou's name full of simple religious flavor (Zhaosun), the Portuguese felt the long-lost atmosphere of classicism.
One of the most difficult problems when Roman was dealing with other officials was that they would use all kinds of unusual and strange words to show off their cultural heritage.
Therefore, he headed north from Macau without hesitation to open up a Liaodong trade route.
"Except for Tang people (Ming people), other goods can be bought and sold, especially firearms."
Liu Zhaosun stared at Roman's deep blue eyes and became interested in him after hearing the Portuguese's bumpy life experience.
"The rules of Liaodong are that money and goods are paid in full and no credit is owed. Mr. Roman, if you can successfully sell this batch of goods, the trade agency rights of Liaodong and Liaonan will be handed over to you in the future. I will only cooperate with you. Next time When we come back, we can ship a batch of your most advanced firearms over to offset the payment..."
On March 28, Marquis Pingliao and the Portuguese began discussing various trade details at noon, and by the time Roman left the tent, it was already dusk.
As usual, Liu Zhaosun forgot to eat.
Kang Yingqian stood outside the tent. Before the red-haired barbarians could go far, he rushed into the tent and shouted to Liu Zhaosun who was still eating steamed cakes:
"Did you hear that?"
Liu Zhaosun devoured the steamed cake, grabbed the tea cup and took a sip, then looked up at Kang Jianjun.
"What did you hear?"
Kang Yingqian didn't care whether Marquis Pingliao had eaten well or not. He pulled off half of the steamed cake from Liu Zhaosun's mouth and said impatiently:
"Oh, don't eat it! Governor Sun has been jailed!"
Liu Zhaosun stopped chewing, thought for a while, and asked:
"Which Governor Sun?"
Kang Yingqian couldn't laugh or cry.
"Who else is Superintendent Sun! It's Sun Chengzong who negotiated peace with us! What happened the day before yesterday, no wonder no news has been sent back from Li Tiran these days. The court's situation has changed! They won't negotiate peace with us! I guess Li Tiran will soon be killed. ”
Liu Zhaosun's mind was buzzing. He put down his tea cup and tried to adjust his thoughts.
Although Xiao Glacier's closing operation has been deduced in his mind countless times and there is no problem at the military level, however, everyone in Kaiyuan is not ready to enter the border yet.
Except for the main combatants Wang Erhu, Kang Yingqian, and Yuan Chonghuan, the others all adopted a cautious attitude towards entering the customs.
Even Liu Zhaosun himself was not ready to be emperor yet.
He has not yet decided whether the new dynasty will be named "Han" or "Qi".
Not to mention the various troubles and problems that will arise after becoming emperor.
He had just swallowed a western and southern Liaoning, which already made him very anxious. If he occupied the entire northern Zhili, the Kaiyuan system would be diluted.
In the end, like Zhu Yuanzhang, he had to launch several major crimes and massacre tens of thousands of his own people in order to control the overall situation.
By that time, he had really become what Nurhachi calls a lone man and a thief.
"Isn't Sun Chengzong Zhu Youxiao's imperial master? The emperor is so favored, who dares to touch him?"
Kang Yingqian let out a long sigh, gritted his teeth and said:
"Who dares to touch him? Marquis Pingliao, do you know about the Donglin Party?"
Liu Zhaosun looked at Kang Yingqian suspiciously and said to himself, aren't you one of them?
Liu Zhaosun wanted to kill Xu Xianchun by negotiating for peace. After Xu Xianchun learned that he had been sold by Sun Chengzong, he immediately united with the Donglin Party and revealed the terms of the peace between Sun Chengzong and Kaiyuan, which shocked the government and the public.
Then, people in the capital soon spread rumors that Governor Sun had collected ten large cars, gold, jade and jewelry from the Marquis of Pingliao at Shanhaiguan, as well as more than a dozen stunning women from Liaodong.
Kang Yingqian was out of breath and said emotionally:
"During the early morning court on the 25th of this month, Yao Zongwen rebuked Sun Chengzong in front of hundreds of officials, saying that "the Liao Dynasty is becoming more and more difficult every day." It was all because Sun Fei was so powerful and wise that he colluded with Kaiyuan to bribe Liu Zhi. Harmful to the Ming Dynasty."
There were also the censor Wei Yingjia, the censor Zhang Zhifa, the official Fang Shiliang, and the minister of punishment Xu Shiqi. They all attacked Sun Chengzong and demanded severe punishment from the emperor:
"There is no border diplomacy between people and ministers. There is no one in the imperial court who does not sue the king and father but only specializes in taking advantage of others. Sun Chengzong insults the country with his private money and should be executed according to the law of falling into the city."
··········
Liu Zhaosun waved his hand, signaling Kang Yingqian not to say any more.
"Are these people from Donglin?"
Kang Yingqian threw his arms and shouted: "That's natural! All the empty talk is misleading the country. Xiong Jinglue was harmed by this group of people back then!"
Liu Zhaosun suddenly burst out laughing:
"No wonder the names in the matter sound so familiar. It turns out they are all the people who impeached Xiong Jinglue before. Changing the soup does not change the medicine."
Kang Yingqian glared at Ping Liaohou and complained in his heart. At this time, Liu Zhaosun could still laugh.
"Ping Liao Hou, according to the terms of the negotiation, Kaiyuan accounts for most of the business in Jiangnan Canal and other places, so it is reasonable for Donglin to object. However, what I want is that we ask for high prices, and the court will pay back the money on the spot. When the time comes, the big deal will be Give them more money, but you didn’t expect it to turn out like this?”
"Marquis Ping Liao, if the imperial court really kills Sun Chengzong, Kaiyuan will be in trouble. By the way, didn't you tell the Chaotian official to make some concessions during the peace talks?"
"Of course I said so."
Liu Zhaosun's laughter stopped suddenly, and his eyes turned cold.
"The Donglin Party will rejuvenate the country through hard work. Donglin wants to be able to eat alone without sharing any benefits, so let's just flip the table."
