Of course Huang Zhisheng is not really acclimatized. He has traveled all over the country in recent years, even to the grasslands outside the Great Wall. If he were to become "dissatisfied" so easily, the grass on the grave would be as tall as one person.
This time, he actually used illness as a cover, disguised himself as a businessman and secretly left Jinan City, and then went straight to Dengzhou Prefecture, which is more than 700 miles away from Jinan.
At this time, Dengzhou Mansion had a situation of one manor and two masters, just like Chaozhou Mansion back then. The three counties under the jurisdiction of Dengzhou Prefecture, including Penglai, Fushan, and Rongcheng, plus Ninghai Prefecture, were all under the control of King Zhu Tian.
Four counties, including Wendeng, Haiyang, Laiyang, and Huangxian, were still under the control of the Qing Dynasty. Moreover, the Dengzhou prefecture office in the Qing Dynasty was not closed, but moved from Penglai County to Laiyang County—the same one as before. The magistrate's office and the magistrate have not been changed!
King Zhu Tian was obviously much more reasonable than his son Zhu Heji. Of course, after he captured Zhang Shaoheng, the magistrate of Dengzhou Prefecture, he did not kill him, nor send him to hard labor, nor even persuade him to surrender. After giving him a good meal, he sent someone to take him to Laiyang.
Moreover, King Zhu Tian also allowed Zhang Dazhi to work as an official in Laiyang with peace of mind... and also guaranteed that he would not invade the four counties of Wendeng, Haiyang, Laiyang and Huangxian for the time being.
Of course, this "non-invasion" is conditional. The condition is that Laiyang does not block the trade routes with Dengzhou City.
In addition, King Zhu Tian also spoke to the Qing court through Zhang Zhifu, hoping that the Qing court would not blockade Dengzhou. In return, King Zhu Tian would not order his Dengzhou Navy to block the entrance to the Bohai Bay - this was a piece of cake for King Zhu Tian! As long as he gave the order, Emperor Kangxi would not be able to use Tianjin Port and Port Arthur to maintain contact with Western friends.
Because maintaining the two ports of Tianjin and Lushun for external exchanges was of great benefit to Kangxi, and Kangxi was temporarily unable to regain the capital of Dengzhou. So Kang Mazi simply acquiesced to the existence of the Huangxian-Penglai trade route, and also allowed merchant ships from various countries entering and leaving Tianjin to dock at Dengzhou Port to pay taxes...
In this situation where both parties can reach a tacit understanding, the Dengzhou Fucheng area under the governance of King Zhu Tian has become a quite special existence.
This existence is somewhat similar to a "free city". It seems that the war between the Ming Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty has nothing to do with Dengzhou Fucheng, a seaport city located on the north side of the Shandong Peninsula and at the entrance of the Bohai Bay.
When Huang Zhisheng arrived here, the first thing he saw was the outer wall of the "Free City" that was under construction.
In fact, Dengzhou Fucheng was originally a world-famous fortified city. It not only had tall and strong city walls, but also faced the sea to the north and the Danya Mountain high ground to the west. There is no need to build any external walls to ensure the safety of the castle.
However, King Zhu Tian, who became the lord of Dengzhou, still ordered people to build an eighteen-mile-long moon-shaped outer wall outside Dengzhou City. It was built from the west of Danya Mountain to Sanxian Mountain (located east of Dengzhou City). A large area of land was enclosed to the east of the front), thereby placing Dengzhou Fucheng in a safe area that was difficult for enemy artillery to reach.
In addition, the area between the Dengzhou capital and the outer wall of Dengzhou can be used to house the Cao workers and Cao workers' families who followed King Zhu Tian and evacuated from Tianjin. It can also be used to build commercial ports and commercial ports - Dengzhou's new commercial port and new port are located on the west side of Tianheng Mountain to the west of Danya Mountain.
Once the new commercial port and new port are completed and opened, Dengzhou Fucheng and Dengzhou Water City will become pure military cities and military ports, and the chance of a sneak attack by the Qing army will disappear.
And the base camp of the Dengzhou Army that will land in Liaodong in the future will be in Dengzhou City!
In addition, King Zhu Tian also brought 3,000 Mongolian horses from Tianjin, including thousands of mares!
These mares are much larger than the "rabbit horses" in the south of the Yangtze River and the Yunnan horses in the southwest. King Zhu Tian selected another two to three hundred relatively large mares and kept them in a horse farm at the foot of Sanxian Mountain within the outer wall of Dengzhou, waiting for the Andalusian stallions to be transported from Jiangnan. Come and start breeding!
When Huang Zhisheng arrived in Dengzhou, the outer wall of Dengzhou had not yet been completed. Only a long trench was dug and a low wall was rammed out with the soil taken out during the trench digging.
Within the low wall, there are several construction sites that look quite busy, and the commercial port of Dengzhou Free City is within the tall and strong Dengzhou city wall.
With the arrival of a large population and the emergence of the free city, Dengzhou City naturally became extremely prosperous.
The city is bustling with people dressed in all kinds of costumes! People wearing Ming Dynasty clothes, Qing Dynasty clothes, Korean clothes, a mix of Ming and Qing Dynasties, and even many Westerners wearing Western clothes, all crowded together on the streets.
After Huang Zhisheng entered the city, he asked people where the "Penglai Bank" was? Soon I found a street with numerous government offices in the north of Dengzhou City, and found this bank located in a large courtyard next to the largest government office in Dengzhou City - Dengzhou Tianwang Mansion.
After entering the bank, Huang Zhisheng took out a hand-stamped silver dollar with the English letters "PBOC" and "PRC" on it and handed it to a bank steward.
Soon he was led by another steward of the Penglai Bank and entered directly into the Dengzhou Heavenly King's Mansion through a side door in the backyard of the bank.
...
"Your Majesty, Huang Zhisheng, respectfully wishes His Royal Highness the Heavenly King and His Majesty the Heavenly Princess a long blessing and a happy life!"
Outside a pavilion in the back garden of Dengzhou Tianwang Mansion, Huang Zhisheng saw King Zhu Tianwang and Princess Tianwang who were playing chess.
The couple now gives off a feeling of elation, especially King Zhu Tian, whose face is almost full of energy, and he looks younger than the King Zhu Tian in Huang Zhisheng's impression... .I don’t know if it’s the effect of marrying a lovely wife or the effect of holding great power in Dengzhou?
"See your seats!"
King Zhu Tian put down the flag in his hand, smiled and asked someone to bring Huang Zhisheng an embroidery pier, and ordered him to take a seat.
Huang Zhisheng took out a notice he had just written in the Penglai bank account and handed it to one of King Zhu Tian's maids.
King Zhu Tian took the invitation from the maid, unfolded it, read it carefully, and burst out laughing: "It's interesting, it's interesting! Kangxi's new policy requires more Confucian taxes, and he must continue to exercise imperial power. The law of rural and tax farming, and the establishment of Confucianism... This Emperor Kangxi really has a way, it seems that he is not willing to be Emperor Shun of the Qing Dynasty."
Huang Zhisheng frowned slightly, "What His Royal Highness the Heavenly King said is absolutely true. Although this Kangxi was unlucky, his ability to govern the country was actually not bad, and he could still work hard to deal with difficulties after encountering them, and he was quite organized... .should be considered a wise king of the previous generation."
King Zhu Tian shook his head: "It's Mingjun... but his tricks are all within my expectations!" He paused, "This Dengzhou City of Freedom is the best way to crack the Kangxi The key to the New Deal!”
Can Dengzhou City defeat Kangxi’s New Deal?
Huang Zhisheng didn't understand what King Zhu Tian meant. In his opinion, Dengzhou City was nothing more than a bridge between the Ming and Qing Dynasties. How could it break Kangxi's New Deal?
But he didn't ask much... After working as a spy for two or three years, Huang Zhisheng was already a little bit experienced. He knew that to be a good spy, he must learn to be "calm" and not pry here and there. Don't express yourself too much, and be moderate. In this way, we can hide in the enemy camp for a long time without being noticed.
So he asked King Zhu Tian: "His Royal Highness, do you have any other instructions? If not, I will leave first."
King Zhu Tian said: "Just be your Confucian boss...Remember, don't go to the south on errands, and find a way to stay with Shenggong. In addition, you can let Shenggong know that outside Dengzhou Within the wall is the sanctuary of this Heavenly King. No matter what, no matter what he commits outside, as long as he comes to Dengzhou City, he is the guest of this Heavenly King, and this Heavenly King can keep him safe! Even if Emperor Kangxi comes to Dengzhou to take refuge, This heavenly king will still provide protection."
