"Your Majesty's kindness to the Zheng family is as great as heaven, and Zhilong has no choice but to die in repayment..."
Zheng Zhilong's mouth was full of words of gratitude, but his black heart was in his throat.
There is no free princess in the world - at least no one can get such great benefits from Emperor Hongxing for no reason!
This prince is very shrewd, he must have some bad idea!
Zhu Cixi smiled sincerely. Now that he is the emperor, he naturally has to set an example for the people of the world. He cannot be as treacherous as in the past...
This time, he mainly took a fancy to Zheng Jiangong's potential - this is a potential stock! If there is only one person in the world who can run a naval academy for the Ming Dynasty, this person must be Zheng Jiangong!
Zheng Zhilong can't do it, Zheng Sen can't do it, only Zheng Jiancong can do it.
Because Zheng Zhilong has his own pirate career, it is impossible for him to work for the Ming Dynasty wholeheartedly. And Zheng Sen wants to be the elder of Zheng Ge, and he cannot let the abandoned Confucianism go to the sea, otherwise who will be the successor of Wei's famous prime minister? In the future, Zheng Sen's biography will be written according to "The Biography of Cao Shen"... Moreover, Zheng Sen has been hanging out with people like Qian Qianyi for too long, and he looks too much like a scholar-official.
Of course, in addition to being optimistic about Zheng Jiangong's potential, Zhu Cixiang also wanted to appease Zheng Zhilong with the marriage of Princess Kunxing. Because he has decided to canonize Wu Sanmei as queen... regardless of whether the baby Sanmei is pregnant with is a boy or a girl!
"Mr. Quan Guo, please get up quickly. I have something else to say."
When Zhu Cixiang said this, Zheng Zhilong quickly breathed a sigh of relief, got up and went back to his chair to sit down, waiting to hear the quotation - the princess's worth must be astronomical! Millions of taels are not certain...
Zhu Cixiang's next words were not to Zheng Zhilong, but to everyone, "I plan to make Wu Sanmei, Wu Sangui's sister, my queen after the Northern Expedition succeeds!"
What?
The queen now belongs to Wu Sanmei?
Zheng Zhilong's dark heart sank, and he understood how this boy Shichizaemon could pick up a princess for nothing. It turned out that Emperor Hongxing wanted to make Wu Sanmei his queen, and gave him a princess to appease the Zheng family...
Wu Xiang's heart also sank. Why wait for the victory of the Northern Expedition? Can't we just stand up as a queen now? What is the idea of that boy Sangui? Even his father can’t understand it!
Emperor Chongzhen frowned and thought hard. Could it be that his son married his sister to "Tian Qi" to appease the Zheng family? What about making the third sister your queen? Is it to win over Wu Sangui? Or do you want to make a deal with the Wu family? So what about the movie about the little girl from the Dorgon family? What should she do?
How complicated! There are so many calculations to create a queen and marry a princess... Being an emperor is really tiring, so it would be better to retire as soon as possible!
Chongzhen thought for a while and then asked: "Your Majesty, are we really going to go on the Northern Expedition? How long will we be stable in Jiangnan? Are we a little impatient?"
Zhu Cihong said in his heart: You, this foolish king, want to be a peaceful emperor! This is wrong. Even if you become a Supreme Commander, you must still have the energy to live forever and continue the Northern Expedition!
"Father," Zhu Cixiang said with a serious face, "We can't imitate Zhao Gou and settle for the comfortable situation of Jiangnan!"
Huh, that means you can't learn from Zhao Gou! Chongzhen said in his heart: I would like to learn...
"Then the emperor is going to fight in person again?" Chongzhen asked.
Zhu Cixiang said: "Of course I want to go to the expedition in person, but it's still early, and I guess I won't go north until winter." He paused, "From now on, we will prepare for war..." Sun Tzu's Art of War" says, Military conquest strategy, in addition to preparation for war, is now about conquest strategy. As long as Wu Sangui can stand on our side and Dai Fan can persist on Luliang Mountain, we still have a good chance of winning."
Chongzhen nodded lightly: "If Sangui can really fight back, it will be a blessing for the Ming Dynasty!"
...
In the inner city of Nanjing, the Palace of the Protector of the Country. Deep in this luxurious mansion, in a study room, Wu Xiang, who had returned from Xuanhu Gong, was sitting in front of his desk in a daze. A piece of letter paper was spread out on the desk, and there were also a brush and an inkstone. The inkstone The ink has been ground inside. However, the letter paper was still clean, not a word was written on it.
There is also a strong man standing next to old man Wu. It is his adopted son Youjunshi, who defeated Wu Guoyong, the Marquis of Jinzhou.
Seeing his adoptive father's dazed look, Wu Guoyong whispered: "Father, this Northern Expedition is an opportunity for Uncle Chang to fight back... By then our family will be a Three Kingdoms Duke. Such an honor, Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, there has never been a second one!"
Wu Xiang did not answer his adopted son's words, and just said leisurely: "Ningxia and Gansu are barren lands... and the Ming Dynasty has always had a Western Army, which was never on the same side as our Liao Town. The second brother must also be very worried. , can you barely maintain it?"
Wu Guoyong is also a veteran of the Ningyuan Army, so of course he knows the factions of the old Ming Army. The southern and northern armies could not stand each other, and the Liao and Shaanxi armies, both northern armies, had many conflicts. And Wu Sangui went to Shaanxi with the Liao Army, and deceived a group of generals from the Gansu-Shaanxi Ming Army to surrender to the Qing Dynasty... It's damn good if the internal stability is stable!
Moreover, the Gansu and Shaanxi Ming armies were large in number, with a large number of military towns and guard posts, and countless hereditary generals, many of whom were capable of fighting!
Most of this group of people have now surrendered to Wu Sangui, and together with the Liao army brought by Wu Sangui, they are crowded in the cramped territory of Gansu and Shaanxi in northwest China. It's a hell to live a good life. The people below are having a hard time, and they are all quite capable of fighting. Isn’t Wu Sangui, who is pressed down on top, as if he is being roasted on a fire?
Wu Xiang paused and sighed again: "Of course it is a father's dream for the emperor to make Sanmei his queen... But what Sangui needs most is real money! Really? He raised an army, but he didn’t have one or two million silver. How could the Shaanxi-Gansu army generals below be willing to move?"
"One or two million silver... can't be transported!" Wu Guoyong shook his head, "Donglu and Zhang Xianzhong are talking in front of each other, how can so much money get through?"
Wu Xiang sighed again.
Wu Guoyong said: "Fortunately, the emperor is not a stingy king, and he also has enough money and food. If the eldest uncle really sends troops, the emperor's hand will not be small."
"Do you still have contact with Guogui?" Wu Xiang asked in a low voice.
The contact between him and Wu Sangui has actually been severed - this kind of contact is not good for both father and son, because strictly speaking, it is collaboration with the enemy! It's okay when you don't pursue it, but if you want to pursue it, you can lose your head.
"Yes!" Wu Guoyong nodded.
He and Wu Guogui, Wu Xiang's other adopted son, grew up together since childhood. They were brothers and sisters, and even though they were different, they still kept in touch in private.
Of course, the contact between him and Wu Guogui was reported to Jinyiweinan Town Fusi, and it was not considered collaboration with the enemy.
"Okay," Wu Xiang sighed and picked up the brush, "then write a letter to Guogui and Sangui!"
...
"How is it? Has the letter been written? Will Wu Sangui switch sides?"
"Your Majesty, the Protector has already written a letter. Wu Sangui will definitely defect, but..."
"But what?"
"The Protector is worried that Wu Sangui will not be able to convince the public in Gansu and Shaanxi."
Nanjing Forbidden City, Fengtian Hall, Dongnuan Pavilion. Zhu Cixiang was looking down at "Travel Notes on Japan" written by Zheng Sen while listening to Wu Guoyong's report.
"Why can't you convince the crowd?" Zhu Cixiang looked up at Wu Guoyong.
Wu Guoyong said: "Now Wu Sangui has two troops in his hands. One is his own Guan Ning Army, which has about thirty to forty thousand soldiers. They are all old brothers who have followed all the way from Ningyuan; the second is the soldiers and horses of the Gansu and Shaanxi generals, which also have thirty or forty thousand soldiers." There are too many people... too many soldiers, too little land, and if they are crowded together in one place, conflicts will inevitably arise.”
"He won't expand?" Zhu Cixiang smiled, "There is still a lot of territory in Qingtang and the Western Region, right?"
"It's easier said than done," Wu Guoyong just shook his head, "The emperor may not know that in Qingtang, in the tenth or eleventh year of Chongzhen, many tribes of Oara people came from the west, called the Heshuote tribe, and their leader No. Gushi Khan was the leader of the Oara tribes and should not be underestimated. He first attacked and killed Choutu Khan of the Khalkha Mongols on the Qingtang side and annexed them. In the fifteenth year, he sent his army south to Tibet to attack Destroy Tibetan Bahan. Now he has unified Qinghai and Tibet. He has strong soldiers and horses, which is very difficult to deal with. Moreover, today's Wara tribe is not only a strong one from the Heshuote tribe... there are also Choros tribe, Duerbot tribe, and Tu'er tribe. The three major tribes, including the Hute tribe, are all located in the west of Gansu and Shaanxi.
In addition, there is a Yeerqiang Khanate entrenched in Turpan. Its strength is not very good, but it is sandwiched between several large Wala tribes and Gansu, and it is not easy to deal with. "
