Zheng Jing hasn't even taken Nanjing yet, but he is already thinking about internal strife!
However, Wang Zhongxiao could only sigh quietly in his heart, because he still had to coax the maritime overlord, and he also knew Zheng Jing's difficulties.
Who doesn’t have a problem these days? Wang Zhongxiao himself has a lot of them!
The reason why the Zheng Group of the old Zheng family can dominate the seas of East Asia and Southeast Asia is not because their navy is really strong, but because the Zheng family was run by Zheng Zhilong and Zheng Chenggong and became the Chaoshan and Minnan ethnic groups. "Big brother". Among the Han people who speak Hokkien and Chaozhou dialect, their family has a very high prestige.
The Han people who speak Hokkien and Teochew dialects have a tradition of going to Southeast Asia to make a living. After countless generations of development, they have spread out in Southeast Asia and the Nanyang Islands, and have strong financial and certain political resources.
It was precisely relying on the resources of southern Fujian and Chaoshan people in Nanyang and Southeast Asia that the Zheng family was able to fight against the entire Qing Dynasty for decades with a small Dayuan Island and a mere one or two hundred thousand people!
However, after the Zheng family lost their strongholds in southern Fujian and Chaoshan mainland, their base was running low, and they could only rely on the prestige left by Zheng Zhilong and Zheng Chenggong to support the situation.
And once new local tycoons emerged in Chaoshan and southern Fujian who also had the status of Ming princes, for example, Dahao Qiu Hui took over the entire Chaozhou Prefecture or Haicheng Gongfu in Zhangzhou took over the entire Zhangzhou Prefecture, and then obtained the power of Emperor Xian of the Ming Dynasty. After the canonization, it is hard to say whether the Zheng family can still be the "elder brothers" of southern Fujian and Chaoshan.
Therefore, the Zheng family must capture at least two of the four prefectures of Chaozhou, Zhangzhou, Quanzhou, and Xinghua as soon as possible.
Only by grasping the "roots" of the Chaoshan and Hokkien people who went to Nanyang can the Zheng family be confident that they will always be their "eldest brother".
However, compared with seizing the territory of Chao, Zhang, Quan, and Xing, it would be more convenient to send Prince Zhu San into Nanjing City and seize the important Southeast sea trade town like Ningbo Prefecture!
Sending the third prince to Nanjing would allow Zheng Jing to occupy a favorable position in the power game of "holding the emperor and commanding the princes" - at least he could arrange for his own army to follow him into Nanjing!
With this position, you can become Prime Minister Zheng of the Ming Dynasty in the future, or you can use the righteous title of "Emperor Xian of the Ming Dynasty" to gain a higher rank or title.
This "Ming Xian Emperor" can advance or retreat. To put it more broadly, he is the co-owner of East Asia, and the countries in Tiannan and Nanyang are all vassals of the Ming Dynasty.
If the Zheng family can restore several small Southeast Asian island states that were destroyed by Westerners in the future, it will be justifiable for Emperor Ming Xian to confer several kings.
Taking over Ningbo Prefecture will help Zheng Jing control the supply side of silk and cotton, two bulk trade goods. This is not an era of excess supply of commodities, but an era of insufficient supply of commodities.
Whoever controls the supply of bulk trade goods will be able to occupy an extremely advantageous position in the fight for the vast ocean!
And this advantageous position can also play a great role when the Zheng family wants to explore Southeast Asia - Zheng Jing can use the supply of goods as a condition to unite one group of foreign barbarians to fight another group of foreign barbarians!
Therefore, for Zheng Jing, the most favorable situation in the future is to occupy a piece of Nanjing, capture Ningbo Prefecture in the southeast, capture Zhangzhou Prefecture, Quanzhou Prefecture, and Xinghua Prefecture in southern Fujian, and support Dahao Qiu Hui in Chaozhou to control Chaoyang along the coast. , Chenghai two counties.
Before he sent out troops, he told Wang Zhongxiao about the capture of Zhangzhou, Quanzhou, and Chaozhou. Of course, he did not really want to give up the big plan of sending Prince Zhu to Nanjing, but he wanted to discuss the carving up of Guangdong and Fujian with Wang Zhongxiao. Zhongxiao reaches a verbal agreement.
After thinking clearly about Zheng Jing's thoughts, Wang Zhongxiao smiled and said: "Your Majesty, now all the Liuhai Jiedushuans in Guangdong and Guangxi are controlled by my father, including Chaohai Liu Jieshuai and Nan'ao Qiu Jieshuai, so My family doesn’t have to decide whether to take Chaozhou Prefecture or not.”
Wang Zhongxiao's words were so accurate that he could not reveal his intention to seize Chaozhou Prefecture now. Because Chaozhou is the buffer zone between the three families of Wang, Zheng and Geng.
If Chaozhou is in the hands of Liu Jinzhong and Qiu Hui, then the three families of Wang, Zheng, and Geng will not break up and start a war.
The strength of Liu Jinzhong and Qiu Hui will not pose a threat to the Wang family. In this way, the Wang family can concentrate on rectifying their internal affairs and cleaning up Guangxi.
Wang Zhongxiao continued: "As for the territory in Fujian, my family has no interest in interfering with it. If the prince wants my father to send troops to help, then he only needs to move Qiu Jieshuai of Nan'ao to Fujian after the victory. However, my family has no intention of taking over Nan'ao. I just want Chen Shengcai, the commander-in-chief of Gao, Lei and Lian appointed by King Wu of Yanping, to move to Nan'ao as the commander-in-chief."
Qiu Hui's Nan'ao Jiedushi was "represented" by Wang Fuchen and conferred by Wu Sangui. Zheng Jing did not admit it, and certainly did not deny it. Qiu Hui's territory covers Chaoyang and Chenghai counties plus a few coastal islands, including Nan'ao Island at the junction of Guangdong and Fujian. As for his own residence, he has never moved in Dahao.
As for the "Commander Gao, Lei and Lian Chen Shengcai", he was the one who occupied Qinzhou Bay to fight against the Qing Dynasty. He launched a large-scale attack on Qiongzhou during the Battle of San Francisco in history. Later, he went to Vietnam and became the ancestor of the "Mingxiang people". He is still there Annan made Chen Shangchuan the governor, and Sheng was his title.
After the drastic changes in Guangdong, Chen Shangchuan took advantage of the opportunity and went to Hainan Island to besiege Qiongshan County (Haikou). Wang Zhongxiao left Guangzhou Prefecture this time in the name of crusading against him.
However, neither the Wang family nor Chen Shangchuan had any intention of getting into a fight. They just wanted to negotiate terms of surrender.
Chen Shangchuan wanted Qiongzhou Prefecture, while Wang Fuchen and Wang Zhongxiao wanted to recruit him as the naval commander.
When Wang Zhongxiao talked to Zheng Jing about Chen Shangchuan, his intention was very clear, that is, he wanted Zheng Jing to act as a middleman.
Zheng Jing smiled and said, "It's easy to talk about. After I take over southern Fujian, I will move Qiu Hui to be the head of Xinghua Palace. Then Nan'ao Town will be freed up."
Got it, another Xinghua Geng Jingzhong hasn’t gotten it yet in Nanjing, Wang Zhongxiao and Zheng Jing have almost divided up all his Fujian territory!
Wang Zhongxiao smiled: "But it seems that your Majesty is too hasty to raise troops in southern Fujian now? Why not wait until King Geng has entered Jinling and has no time to take care of Fujian before sending troops to attack Zhangzhou and Quanzhou?"
As far as I know, among the three prefectures of Zhangzhou, Quan, and Xing, the ones who will really fight against the king are Fan Chengmo, the governor of Fujian in the Qing Dynasty, and Huang Wu, the Duke of Haicheng. How many troops do they have? How could it be possible to block the heavenly soldiers of the Yanping Palace? "
Zheng Jing had received a satisfactory answer and burst into laughter: "That makes sense! Fufu, tell me your plan! How do you plan to take Ningbo and enter Nanjing?"
Chen Yonghua said with a smile: "The current magistrate of Ningbo is the original magistrate of Ruian County, Luo Pan. He made military exploits when the Qing army recaptured Ruian. He also gave a large sum of money to Zhejiang Governor Fan Chengmo and Nalan Mingzhu to buy Ningbo." Lack of prefect.
The magistrate of Dinghai County has always been ours, and the entire Zhoushan Island is in our hands. The army that attacked Ningbo has been resting and training on Zhoushan Island for a long time. As long as the king gives the order, the army can land and march directly into Ningbo City.
As for Nanjing, the current Magistrate Jingchuan of Shangyuan County, Magistrate Zhang Jingke of Jiangning County, Wang Shengming, Magistrate of Jurong County, Zhu Xu, Magistrate of Lishui County, and Jiang Zixiang, Magistrate of Gaochun County, are all our people! Not only are their five county magistrates our people, but all the masters and squad leaders under them are also brothers of the Tiandihui! "
"Hahaha!" Zheng Jing laughed, "There are only six counties in Jiangning Prefecture. Except for Jiangpu County in the north of the Yangtze River, the other five counties are ours. Shikai, what do you think of the method of restoration?"
"High! It's really high!" Wang Zhongxiao smiled and raised his thumb, "Wang really admires Brother Fufu's methods!"
Chen Yonghua said with a smile: "Brother Shikai, didn't you find these five 'debtors' from Beijing? If we want to talk about merit in this matter, you are the top one! By the way, the new governor of Jiangning is also Brother Shikai An old acquaintance!"
"Who?" Wang Zhongxiao asked.
"Lu Sanhao!" Chen Yonghua said with a smile, "It's the original Lu Sanhao, the prefect of Qujing, Yunnan! I don't know where he got his way, but he was actually released from Liangjiang and became the prefect of Jiangning!"
"Jiangning Mansion requested an order," Wang Zhongxiao said with a smile. "It should be that Kangxi himself fell into his trap again, but he would let Liangjiang go. There was probably Wu Sangui's order behind this! It seems that Wu Sangui is in Hanzhong, staring at Guanzhong, I still have a piece of Nanjing in my heart."
Zheng Jing said with a smile: "Wu Sangui wants to get involved, it doesn't matter, as long as we can be a part of Nanjing City!" He smiled proudly again, "It's rare that the westerly wind blows these days, let's take advantage of the wind and hit the road. 1 It’s a thousand-mile waterway, and if the winds and currents are favorable, we can get there in almost two days!”
Wang Zhongxiao nodded: "Okay! Let's set off now! If everything goes well, maybe we can enter Nanjing earlier than Geng Jingzhong!"
Liangjiang, Jiangning Mansion.
Duolong, the governor of Liangjiang, and Echu, the general of Jiangning, were so shocked that their jaws almost dropped to the ground.
Because they already know that someone is coming to attack Jiangning City!
The one who brought the news to them was Li Guangdi, an editor at the Hanlin Academy who had returned to Fujian to visit relatives. This Li Guangdi traveled all the way from Fujian to Jiangning with Mingzhu's autographed letter.
Before Li Guangdi arrived, the situation in Jiangning was very good, not bad!
On the one hand, Prince Kang Jieshu, the general on the upstream side of Jiangxi, finally lived up to his divine grace and blocked Li Zicheng's advance at the line between Dehua, the capital of Jiujiang, and Xiaochikou on the north bank of the Yangtze River.
Oh, of course this is a term for "high emotional intelligence". If people who can't speak tell it, Jieshu has finally lost all the territory in Wuchang Prefecture and Huangzhou Prefecture, and now it has shrunk to Jiujiang Fucheng and Nanchang Fucheng, barely Resisted Li Zicheng.
But no matter what, Li Zicheng will not be able to break through to Jiangning City for the time being.
On the other hand, the Qing army in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River finally received reinforcements. Reinforcements from Fujian!
Just two days before Li Guangdi arrived in Jiangning, the messenger sent by Geng Jingzhong had arrived in advance and informed the King of Jingnan of the good news that an army of 20,000 troops would arrive in the near future.
King Jingnan is such a loyal minister! He didn't even care about his hometown in Fujian. He came to help Jieshu, Duolong, and Echu guard the Yangtze River. He was so loyal!
In addition, the team training in Jiangning Mansion has been going very well recently!
With the joint efforts of the newly appointed Jiangning magistrate Lu Sanhao and his five county magistrates, the number of Jiangning regiment training personnel has reached 6,000, and a Jiangnan regiment training camp-Liu was also set up at Xiaolingwei outside Jiangning City. Thousands of regiments are stationed at the Jiangnan regiment training camp and will not enter Jiangning City. It is really reassuring!
But who would have thought that after only a few days of such a good situation, the devastating news would come!
Geng Jingzhong actually rebelled!
"Geng Jingzhong rebelled? What kind of rebellion did Geng Jingzhong rebel? In the current situation, he is already the master of Fujian. What kind of rebellion would he rebel against?"
"Is it possible that he still wants to be emperor?"
After Duolong and Echu were surprised, they didn't believe that Geng Jingzhong would rebel.
Their thoughts are actually normal. If Geng Jingzhong is a normal person, there is indeed no need for him to rebel. Because the "rebellion threshold" is getting higher and higher now, supporting troops and separatist Fujian is not enough to be a rebellion.
Therefore, no one would care if Geng Jingzhong became the king behind closed doors in Fujian. Anyway, the Qing court would still regard him as a loyal minister.
"With Duo Zhijun and Ejunmen, Geng Jingzhong is now crazy and wants to be the emperor!" Li Guangdi said helplessly, "He also made a prophecy about 'the emperor's clone has a fire in his ears'. "
"What's the meaning?"
"What, what ear fire? What does this mean?"
Duolong and Echu didn't study the prophecies and were confused.
"The combination of Erhuo and Erhuo means the word 'Geng'," Li Guang said. "The emperor's clone Erhuo means, 'Emperors take turns, and today we are at Geng's house.' He, Geng Jingzhong, is destined to be emperor!"
"Isn't this nonsense?"
"That's right. With his little strength, wouldn't it be good to be a vassal king in peace and stability? How can he rebel and still be the emperor?"
Duolong and Echu were both a little speechless!
Li Guangdi said: "That's right! But the 17,000 troops Geng Jingzhong brought this time are quite elite. The officers and soldiers of Jiangning Mansion"
As soon as he mentioned the officers and soldiers, Duolong and Echuke frowned.
There are a little few officers and soldiers!
Duolong's governor numbered 5,000, and Echu's Eight Banners soldiers numbered almost 5,000.
As for the soldiers of the Jiangbei Admiral and the Jiangnan Admiral, they are now supporting the Jiujiang front line.
The Yangtze River Navy is still training. Shi Lang took over the navy in Chongming Town, and based on this, expanded the navy to 10,000 people. However, naval training is not easy, and warships and artillery must be built, so success cannot be achieved overnight. So Shi Lang is now stationed in Guazhou, north of the Yangtze River, training troops and building ships there!
Duolong looked at Echu and said: "Ejunmen, we have 5,000 green battalions, 5,000 flag soldiers, and 6,000 regiment drills, a total of 16,000, and Geng Jingzhong has 17,000. Are we a little short?"
Sixteen thousand is one thousand less than seventeen thousand. The advantage lies in Geng!
E Chu said worriedly: "Then defend the city! Jiangning is strong, but we only have a thousand fewer people than Geng Jingzhong, and Shi Junmen still has 10,000 people in Guazhou. It is better to defend the city!"
Doron nodded, feeling a little moved.
It's good to defend the city. It's safe to defend the city!
But Li Guangdi shook his head and said: "No! When Zhu Yuanzhang crossed the river to attack Jiqing Road, the Yuan army also defended the city. But Zhu Yuanzhang divided his troops to attack around Jiqing Road City, and soon turned Jiqing Road City into a An isolated city, conquered in one fell swoop! The situation today is almost exactly the same as back then. If we were trapped in the isolated city, then Geng Jingzhong would effortlessly seize the prefectures and counties around Jiangning. When Jiangning becomes an isolated city, can we still defend it?"
Duolong and Echu also hesitated a little when they heard this.
Jiangning is a big city. There are hundreds of thousands of people and family members of the garrison in the city. It is really going to be besieged, and it will not take long for food to be exhausted.
Moreover, once the prefectures and counties around Jiangning fall one by one, can Jiujiang upstream be preserved? If Jiujiang doesn't defend, Li Zicheng will come!
Geng Jingzhong's 10,000 men may not be able to defeat Jiangning, but what about Li Zicheng? Li Zicheng had at least tens of thousands of troops!
If Li Zicheng can't do it, then there is Wu Guogui who is not done yet, and each one is more cruel than the last!
When Duolong and Echu were really thinking about not being able to defend the city, Lu Sanhao's voice suddenly came from outside the lobby: "Li Hanlin's words are right. The isolated city of Jiangning can never be defended. Today's world is not Zheng Chenggong's attack on Nanjing more than ten years ago." It's time, Geng Jingzhong is not really alone, and the people in Jiangnan are not necessarily on the side of the Qing Dynasty! For the current plan, it is better to mobilize the troops out of the city to fight, and catch Geng Jingzhong by surprise!"
"Yes!" Li Guangdi also nodded heavily, "Geng Jingzhong thought he was here for a sneak attack. He never thought that we already knew his plot and wanted to attack him in turn. As long as we repel Geng Jingzhong, the Yangtze River will be temporarily stable. Got it!"
(End of chapter)
