In the second year of King Ding's supervision of the country, on the tenth day of the seventh month, Chenghai County, Suwandu.
Zhu Heji was sitting in a rickety open-top four-wheel carriage, frowning, and he was so thoughtful that he didn't know what he was thinking. In the carriage, there were only two women, Da Boling and Qiu Shuzhen, and a fat boy who was eight or nine years old. Qiu Shuzhen looked very excited, looking around at the scenery beside the official road. Da Boling lent Zhu Heji and Qiu Shuzhen's son, a fat little boy named Yixin, to play with. In fact, she was about to become a mother herself. After Zhu Heji's special, redoubled, and hard work, the hard work finally paid off, and she was diagnosed with Ximai in May.
It was precisely because Qiu Shuzhen brought the child and Da Boling diagnosed the Ximai pulse that Zhu Heji remembered to get this four-wheeled carriage.
The reason why he took the pregnant Da Bo Ling and the child-rearing Qiu Shuzhen all the way to Chaozhou was mainly because when he met Zheng Jing, he could stop by Zhucuo Village, Suwandu, Chenghai County to pay homage to his ancestors—— Pay homage to Zhu Yuanzhang, the ancestor of the Zhu family in Chaozhou!
Well, some of Zhu Yuanzhang’s descendants are now Chaozhou people!
But this is also the need to fight against the Qing Dynasty and restore the Ming Dynasty.
It turns out that after Zhu Heji took control of Guangzhou, people claiming to be Zhu Yuanzhang's descendants came to seek refuge from time to time. Although most of them were fake, some were genuine.
For example, a group of bearded people came from Xinning County and Yangjiang County. The "average beard length per capita" is more than one foot, and they are also one size larger than ordinary Cantonese people. They can also speak with an accent of Nanyang, Henan Province, and they speak like "Zhongzhong" "of. When Zhu Heji saw them, he knew they must be relatives without looking up their genealogy.
The Heavenly King Zhu had long told him that there were "ten men and nine beards" in the Tang family, and all of them were relatively tall and had bad tempers... Emperor Longwu was a big bearded man with a hot temper. In the ninth year of Chongzhen, when he was the king of Tang Dynasty, he actually beat to death an uncle who was suspected of poisoning his father with a stick, and seriously injured another uncle.
Later, the Qing army entered the pass and burned and killed them in August of that year. The fiery-tempered King of Tang actually recruited troops privately and led three thousand troops northward when Shangshu's request to King Qin was not allowed. Later, he was ordered to return by Chongzhen. On the way, he encountered the peasant uprising army. They fought randomly but still won. At that time, there were many bearded eldest sons of the Tang Dynasty among King Qin's army. In fact, they didn't know how to fight at all. They just looked too fierce and frightened the peasant army on the opposite side.
After recognizing these bearded relatives from Xinning and Yangjiang, more and more Zhu family members successfully recognized their relatives - when Guangzhou fell, there were more than twenty vassal princes and county princes in Guangzhou, and the Zhu family There are countless generals and lieutenants. Even though many were killed by the Qing army, some still ran away. These people didn't know how much hardship they suffered and how difficult their life was. When Zhu Heji's rule in Guangdong stabilized, they came back one after another.
After recognizing these poor relatives, Zhu Heji was "not very righteous". He did not restore their titles and worldly positions, nor did he use the court's finances to pay them salaries.
However, he still used a lot of money from selling perfume to distribute to these "poor relatives", and then gave them a good piece of land in Chaozhou - Chenghai Suwandu, which was originally one of the Chaozhou Five Tigers , Xu Long, who was later captured by the Qing court and sent to Beijing to become a Manchu, and his family's property were all given to these poor relatives. Please also ask Qiu Hui and Da Bo Ling's tribe to help take care of this group of Zhu family members who are in trouble, so that these Zhu family members can take root in Chaozhou as soon as possible and then spread their branches.
The reason why Zhu Heji arranged his distant relatives in this way was not because he was really reluctant to part with the money.
After all, after the chaos in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, there are not many Zhu family members who can still find Zhu Heji. Moreover, under Zhu Heji's management, the finances of the Guangdong imperial court were quite generous. It doesn't matter if we really want to raise these people like pigs again.
But the lesson of the Zhu family’s descendants being slaughtered like pigs and sheep in the late Ming Dynasty is still vivid in our minds. How could Zhu Heji repeat the same mistake?
Therefore, Zhu Heji will no longer let the descendants of the Zhu family, including his own descendants, be "pigs"... Of course, he will not let the descendants of the Zhu family do things that are too inconsistent with his abilities.
Of course, he would try his best to promote and reuse those descendants of the Zhu family who were indeed capable. And for those who were young and could still be trained, he would also pay to run schools for them. But for those Zhu family members who have no ability and can only hang around. Sorry, their mission is to return to the countryside of Chaozhou to take root!
There are two main reasons for this arrangement.
First, Zhu Heji started his career in Chaozhou, and there were many Chaozhou people there. Chaozhou people treat Zhu Heji just like Fengyang people treat Zhu Yuanzhang!
However, Chaozhou people like to stick together with fellow villagers and are quite exclusive. However, Zhu Heji was not a native of Chaozhou in his life. His ancestral home was Fengyang, his ancestors were sealed in Nanyang, and he was born in Wen'an City, Xinning County, Guangfu.
Therefore, Zhu Heji has always been worried that when he gets further and further away from Chaozhou in the future, he will be regarded as an outsider by the Chaozhou hero group.
Therefore, he wanted to take root in Chaozhou by creating the Chaozhou Zhu clan.
Another reason for arranging for the Zhu family to take root in Chaozhou is that Zhu Heji learned the lessons of the Ming Dynasty's clan's high development and low development, and wanted to explore a path that could truly allow the clan and royal family to thrive... In his opinion , the royal family that cannot support themselves and becomes a heavy burden on the country will not end well in the end.
The ones that can really develop and exist for a long time are the royal clans that can make a living and take root among the people, and are not much different from ordinary people.
In addition, Zhu Heji did not want the families of the heroes of the Ming Dynasty to develop into parasite families like the "Rongguofu" and "Ningguofu" in the future. He also did not want them to become waste like the children of the Eight Banners in the middle and late Qing Dynasty.
Moreover, the era when military aristocrats conquered the world has passed... Now is the era when muskets, artillery, and grenades dominate the battlefield, let alone the future.
Therefore, Zhu Heji hopes that under the demonstration effect of the Zhu Ming royal family, the families of the heroes of the Ming Dynasty in the future can gain more ground energy.
But now that he was about to meet his poor relatives, Zhu Heji was a little unsure...don't let those "loved relatives and friends" put him in trouble!
Just when Zhu Heji was a little worried, the team of carriages and horses saw several large enclosed buildings in Zhucuo Village that relied on each other and gathered together from a distance. This Zhucuo Village was originally called Xucuo Village and was the former home of the Xu family, a wealthy family in Chenghai. The patriarch of the Xu family, Xu Long, was originally a powerful figure in Chaozhou. He also helped the Manchus resist Zheng Chenggong and was awarded the title of general soldier.
But even this kind of family has not escaped the blow of coastal migration. Xu Long himself and his family were moved to Beijing to become Manchus, and his clan was moved to Chengxiang County in the northern mountainous area of Chaozhou where Hakkas gathered... Throwing a Chaozhou family into a group of Hakka clans , I really don’t know what Man Qingan’s heart is!
There is also a circle of earth walls around the large buildings. Outside the earth walls is a "village protection river" that is filled with water and turned into a small canal. There is a suspension bridge on the "Cuncun River" that has been lowered for a long time.
On the outside of the suspension bridge, there were already a large number of men wearing cross-collared commoners, scarves on their heads, and long swords hanging from their waists waiting neatly. There are also lion dancers and men playing gongs and drums, who have been waiting for a long time. Large strings of firecrackers were hung on the poles, and the thick incense heads were held in the hands of several men in "Confucius uniforms", waiting to be lit.
Zheng Jing and Chen Yonghua, who were preparing to meet Zhu Heji in Zhucuo Village, had already arrived. Under the escort of a group of soldiers in military uniforms, they were also standing outside the suspension bridge to greet the arrival of Prince Ding's prince Zhu Heji.
When Zhu Heji's chariot and horse team approached, a man who looked a little like King Zhu immediately gave orders. Gongs and drums were beating, firecrackers exploded, and lions danced. The people waiting at the door bowed their heads and saluted, shouting loudly: "Welcome to the Chaozhou Zhu clan chief..."
