Dong Qichang noticed something strange in Zheng Haizhu's eyes.
This little woman obviously reacted more strongly when she heard the word "Yang Lian" than when she heard the name of the eunuch Wang An.
Dong Qichang tugged at his beard and asked, "What? Miss Zheng is familiar with Mr. Yang Lian?"
Zheng Haizhu calmed down her expression and gushed, "When I accompanied Miss Han to Suzhou to learn embroidery, there were floods and droughts. I heard the people of Changshu talking about Yang Lian, the then magistrate. When he was in office, he would wear straw sandals and cloth shirts. Inspection of water canals in the fields. Therefore, Yang Zhixian ranked first among honest officials in the merit examination and went to the capital to serve as an official. Dong Gong just mentioned the matter of military affairs, so I guess that Yang Lian, the official, is Yang Lian, the county magistrate. "
[In view of the general environment,
Dong Qichang nodded and continued to add Yang Lian's background concisely and concisely.
Zheng Haizhu listened calmly, but in his mind were the scenes of Yang Lian's torture that later historians spent a lot of time describing.
In another five years, Yang Lian, the backbone of the Donglin faction who went to death to impeach the eunuch party, will be falsely accused of accepting bribes and imprisoned in a prison controlled by Wei Zhongxian's lackeys.
Ordinary torture was not enough, so they used iron wires to tear open the skin and flesh, used a copper hammer to break every rib on the chest, filled a cloth bag with soil to hold down the body, and used iron nails to drive in the left ear and pull it out from the right ear.
Even so, Yang Lian still refused to give in and wrote a blood letter "Cut the east wind with a knife, laugh and laugh again", and was eventually killed in prison by the eunuchs.
The power system of the Ming Dynasty, regardless of the warlords and military power of each side in the later period, the core of the court was composed of the power of the king, the power of ministers, the power of eunuchs and the power of officials. The king tried to use the latter three to check and balance each other and benefit himself, but the idea was different Poor, but unfortunately the heirs have different abilities. When encountering a cowardly and weak emperor, the situation will become that the last three powers sometimes interfere with each other, and sometimes unite to become the emperor.
Therefore, in the past few years of his career, Zheng Haizhu deliberately integrated the latter three powers, or at least, made friends with relatively clean figures among these three groups.
For example, she was very fond of Ma Xianglin's father-in-law and Zhang Quan, the minister of the Ministry of War. This man did not die in Liaodong as the original course of history, and he was expected to join the cabinet.
Zhang Yanke was like her best friend, and Shang Zhouzuo, the Fujian governor who served as an aide, was also whom Zheng Haizhu expected to join the cabinet. Therefore, after the Ming Dynasty Naval War, every six months, Zheng Haizhu asked his nephew to send ceremonial money to Shaoxing merchants to express his gratitude to Shang Zhouzuo for supporting the Navy Wensongjiang Firearms Factory in the Minhai area to buy guns.
Among the two factions of eunuchs and officials, Zheng Haizhu, who has a God's perspective, firmly likes Liu Shimin and Huang Zunsu. After their fateful friendship, their friendship is now stable.
Unexpectedly, Dong Qichang would recommend him to meet Wang An and Yang Lian, the more important eunuchs and officials.
It is natural to seize such opportunities.
"Dong Gong, Wang Gonggong and Yang have given me advice, how should I prepare a gift?" Zheng Haizhu asked humbly.
Dong Qichang showed his kindness and kindness to his children, and said warmly: "I have prepared it for you. The prince is good at calligraphy and painting, and I have found a landscape painting by Ni Zan. You can present it to the prince."
"Ah, thank you Mr. Dong. I will send a letter to Songjiang tomorrow and have someone send the banknote to Mr. Dong's house."
"There is no need to show it to others. Not counting Ni Yuanzhen's huge amount, you can just pay less than half, one thousand three hundred taels."
Zheng Haizhu took a deep breath, and the two hundred muskets were gone. Although Dong Qichang, an old gangster, is not a gangster who lives in a fish-and-meat village and murders people like those in the Wilderness Chronicles, he is really good at settling accounts. In the name of worshiping the mountain and building relationships, he sponsored half of his gift investment.
But after all, it was the prince’s eldest companion who was paying his respects. This ceremony was of a high level, and Ni Zan’s painting was worthy of being given away.
In this way, I have to think about how to fight Wei Zhongxian and the Hakka family. I don't want them to work together to kill Wang An in a year.
Just listen to Dong Qichang say again: "As for Yang Lian, he is just like a Donglin sect member. He is self-righteous and concerned about the common people of his family and country. He doesn't care about rare antiques, gold, silver and jewelry. So be it, you follow me. The boat sails north, and the journey still takes about ten days. You can drive the Ming army in Fushun.
You told me about your drive against the Tartars, the naval battle against the Red Barbarians in Fujian, and your military training in Chongmin's reclamation of wasteland. I drew it and titled it "Scenes of Mingxing" and gave it to Duke Yang. "
"Ah, wonderful, wonderful." Zheng Haizhu praised happily, "The younger generation will also offer money to polish the pen, please accept Dong Gong's smile."
Dong Qichang waved his hands and said, "Miss Zheng is a real person, and I don't want to be a stranger to you. I have spent a lot of money searching for the original works of the predecessors these years."
Zheng Haizhu accompanied him and thought to himself, it is true that the scallops want to applaud after hearing this. They hit the right theme of giving gifts and even sold their own paintings. Anyway, they are idle during the trip.
Dong Qichang is really shrewd, but also shrewd and magnanimous. He does not treat people who make deals as fools, but shows you his cards in a friendly manner, which is quite interesting.
…
A few days later, Cao Xu, the guest of honor of the Prince of Lu Fan County, came to the Yanzhou Wharf on the canal with only one personal servant.
The three craftsmen at the Dianbao Office recognized that it was Cao Yibin who was stepping onto the boat, and they were so frightened that they knelt down and kowtowed.
However, Cao Xu made a gesture of no courtesy and said humbly and easily: "Masters, from now on we will be in the same boat through thick and thin, not only on this canal boat, but also on the boat going to capture the city."
The craftsmen were frightened and silent for a moment, but their eyes were full of doubts.
The day when the bells ring and the cauldrons eat is something they never dare to dream about. Cao Yibin just doesn’t want it anymore?
Zheng Haizhu waved them away to put their luggage in the cabin, then turned to Cao Xu and said, "If Yi Bin wants to change his mind, it's still too late."
Cao Xu said: "I'm even more afraid that Madam will change her mind now."
Then he said, "Madam, just call me Cao in charge from now on."
Zheng Haizhu suddenly felt emotional.
Cao Xu's appearance reminded her of Wu Bond.
In this world, no matter which life it is, at every moment, there are brave and beautiful lives that come to an abrupt end, and there are lives that break free from the gorgeous but barren cage and pursue the word "break" in the world.
Zheng Haizhu smiled and said to Cao Xu in a worried tone: "Manager Cao, I am in a hurry to get to the capital. I can't lead you south to see Kang Li of the Gu family. I have written to Zhenjiang, and my nephew Shoukuan will meet at the dock. We will meet you and accompany you to Songjiang."
Cao Xu calmly asked: "I have no intention of asking what business Madam has to do. I just want to ask, can Madam come back before the ship leaves Songjiang?"
"I don't know," Zheng Haizhu said calmly, "If you can't make it back in time, you should go to sea first and arrive in Taiwan. My sworn brother Yan Xuanfu may be able to receive you and send an interpreter and sailors to accompany you there. Champa. But this trip is thousands of miles away, whether it is in the sea or on the shore, everything is changing rapidly, and there must be an accurate guide wherever you go. If Yan Xuanfu cannot accompany you, you have to go by yourself. The only one you can rely on is me. Matsue’s servant. How about it, do you still dare to go?”
"Dare you," Cao Xu said without hesitation, and pointed to the suitcase on the ground, "There is no need to hide anything from my wife at this time. Ever since I saw a sea ship when I went to Dengzhou to visit my brother, I have been yearning to go to sea. In this box, There are records of Gong Zhen, Fei Xin and others that I found. They were all accompanying the eunuch Sanbao when he went to the West. Although their writings are incomplete, they are extremely precious."
Cao Xu asked his entourage to open the box and took out two obviously repaired books. Zheng Haizhu recognized that one read "Xiyang Fan Guo Zhi" and the other read "Xingcha Range Rover".
Cao Xu changed his slow and calm demeanor and said slightly excitedly: "If there is anything good about being a guest of honor in the palace, it is to obtain some rare books from the inner court, which is always more useful than the Confucian scholars outside. Madam, this Fei Xin, who was a military commander in the Sanbao eunuch fleet at that time, wrote very clearly that he set sail from Fujian and set out twelve sails. With a favorable wind for ten days and nights, he could reach the country of Champa, which has a port on the sea, called Xinzhou. The treasure ship arrived After capturing the city, the chief came to greet him, wearing a golden crown on his head, gold bracelets on his arms and ankles, riding an elephant, and behind him were hundreds of Tibetan soldiers. Those Tibetan soldiers..."
"Manager Cao," Zheng Haizhu smiled and interrupted, "I think you know more about Champa than my sworn brother Yan Xuanfu."
Cao Xu was stunned for a moment, then stunned.
After several interactions with him, he always felt that the woman in front of him had a faint coercion when speaking to him. On the contrary, she was more noble than those arrogant women in the palace who had a good tone but were actually strong on the outside but capable on the inside.
Slowness is even more nerve-wracking. I never thought that she would also be able to praise others.
The boatman came to report that it was his turn to leave the lock.
Zheng Haizhu crossed the string of the boat and reached the shore. She turned around and said goodbye to Cao Xu. Without any further hesitation, she walked towards Dong Qichang's northbound boat.
