Forty-eight years of Qianlong

Chapter 512

"General Wang, He's subordinates don't know real dragons, they have eyes but no pearls!"

"Damn the villain! Damn the villain!"

At the entrance of the "Jiule Palace" in the Hue Palace, He Xiwen, who was sweating profusely, and the men who arrested Zhao Xin with knives were kneeling on the ground, kowtowing to plead guilty.

Wang Yuanfang, dumbfounded, was about to speak when he heard someone behind him say: "Those who don't know are not to blame, please invite both of you."

Zhao Xin, who had just changed into the summer uniform of the Beihai Navy, strode out from behind the screen, came to the door, laughed, and stepped forward to help He Xiwen and the guy who told him to "hand in the gun and not kill" from the ground.

"What's your name?"

He Xiwen's subordinate was stunned, sweat dripped down his cheeks, and his legs were trembling uncontrollably.If Zhao Xin hadn't pulled out his gun just now, he would have killed the person directly.Just as the two confronted each other with a knife and a gun, the soldiers of the special warfare battalion who heard the sound immediately recognized Zhao Xin, and tied the guy backhanded.

"Xiao, the villain's surname is Lu, and his first name is San Dian."

"Lu three o'clock?" Zhao Xin was stunned for a moment, thinking that the name was quite philosophical.

He Xiwen hurriedly said: "This is a distant relative of my wife, who used to be a fisherman. If he hadn't been oppressed by officials and had no way of living, he wouldn't have had a living with He Mou."

Zhao Xin patted Lu Sandian on the shoulder, and Lu Sandian almost collapsed on the ground.

"Brother He, there is no rule of kneeling in Beihai Town. Let's just kneel down and kneel down to our parents. When the superior and the subordinate meet, just salute."

"Yes! Yes!" He Xiwen immediately bowed his body and raised his hand in Bei Haijun's salute, looking awkward at that.

After He Xiwen left with Lu Sandian, Zhao Xin frowned and asked in a low voice, "Why did you take this group of people away?"

"Hey, forget it.."

After listening to Wang Yuanfang's general narration, Zhao Xin lit a cigarette and did not ask until he finished smoking, "Where are He Xiwen's family members now?"

"They're all on Conlun Island. Before Ruan Fuying asked him to move his family to Jiading, he didn't think Jiading was too poor."

"Since he wants to join us," Zhao Xin threw the cigarette butt on the ground, stamped it out with his foot, and continued: "It's just right, after the fight against Annan, let He Xiwen take someone to Ryukyu to deal with the Shimadzu family."

"Huh?" Wang Yuanfang said in surprise, "Don't worry, this man is very familiar with the waters of Nanyang, and we still want him to be a guide to Java."

Zhao Xin shook his head and said, "There are so many Chinese in Hoi An, no guide can find them. You don't know Ruan Fuying. I only found out after checking on the way here. This King of Guangnan is not simple!"

"How to say?"

"From the age of 15 to 40, it took 25 years to restore the country. Let alone his ability, this perseverance alone cannot be underestimated. Do you know? In order to get the support of the French, Nguyen Phuc Anh would rather sign a contract to cede territory Fuguo. Think about it, what can such a person not do?"

"Hey!" Wang Yuanfang said in his heart, he was more daring than Man Qing. "Where did he cede?"

"Hoi An and Con Lun Island, empty mouth and white teeth, he hasn't even defeated Quy Nhon!"

A smile appeared on the corner of Zhao Xin's mouth and continued: "Louis XVI is about to lose his head, the French are too busy to take care of themselves, that Peter just hired a group of mercenaries. You asked He Xiwen to pick up his family members and tell him Ruan Phuc Anh, we can cooperate to bring down Binh Thuan Province. Since he can sign a treaty with the French, he might as well sign with us. Take this opportunity to put the issue of Dong Dang and Lang Son on paper.”

Wang Yuanfang heard that these two place names were familiar, but he couldn't remember them for a while, so he asked, "Where are you talking about?"

"Old squad leader, have you forgotten about the self-defense counterattack? Before the Northern Song Dynasty, it was our territory. Lang Son is only more than 100 kilometers away from Thang Long Mansion, and it is the barrier of the entire Annan and North. With Tong Deng and Lang Son, In the future, Annan will not be a problem."

After hearing this, Wang Yuanfang suddenly realized, and said with a smile, "You still have a long-term vision. By the way, what should we do here in Hue?"

"It's useless, even if it's given to Ruan Fuying, he can't keep it. His fleet won't come in winter." Zhao Xin turned around and looked around, jokingly said: "Forget it, I'll just pick up some Jinsinan and Qi Nan, go back and drive the beads, when the time comes, everyone will have a bunch of them, and it will be a souvenir."

Qinan was also called "agar" in ancient times, and it belongs to the best of agarwood.Since the era of the Champa Kingdom, Qinan has been a rare and precious spice in the Central Plains where people are thirsty for knowledge.Due to the exhaustion of resources due to long-term mining, in another time and space, the top-quality Chinan incense is already priceless.

Despite the small size of the Hue Imperial Palace, a lot of rare wood was used, and many of the furnishings in the palaces are made of top-quality Qinan.In the collapsed Jinhua Palace, there is even a large screen more than two meters high and four meters wide, which is completely carved out of a whole piece of Qinan incense.

In addition, the gold products and large emerald ornaments placed in various palaces are also very good.Speaking of the emeralds of this year, they are all absolutely old fakes!
It's all here, Zhao Xin has to search, otherwise he will be sorry for the Thor's fuel and ammunition expenses.What's more, He Xiwen and his subordinates must share some benefits.

So when Zhao Xin was accompanied by Wang Yuanfang, he walked around the palace first, and then he approached He Xiwen and said, "I'll give you two days, you can take whatever you want, it's all yours."

Although He Xiwen didn't even dare to say it, but with Zhao Xin's permission, he led hundreds of men to search the palace wantonly, taking all the jade, silver, bronze and even silks and satins that Zhao Xin didn't like. After looting, the pirates were so happy with the large and small bags of loot that they almost filled all the warships.

After the fleet returned to the sea, he sent [-]% of the searched supplies to the Thor.He Xiwen still knew how much he was worth. If there was no Beihai Navy, he would not even be able to see the shadow of the Hue Palace.

Afterwards, when Ruan Guangping learned of the tragic situation in the palace, he was so angry that he spat out blood on the spot, and shouted, "I will not avenge this revenge, I am ashamed of my ancestors."

In the evening of the same day, Zhao Xin returned to the Thunder God in an assault boat. After discussing the follow-up arrangements with Deng Fei, he took time to meet Ye Zhanrong and his son, who had always wanted to see him.

Zhao Xin was a little surprised when Ye Zhanrong first revealed his identity, and then opened the wooden box containing the golden hairpin, revealing the phoenix hairpin inside.

"Are you a descendant of Ye Mengxiong? What's the matter with this hairpin?"

"Xiaomin, let Your Highness tell a story about the past first." Following Ye Zhanrong's narration, an old event that happened 140 years ago appeared in front of Zhao Xin, and he also learned the unknown secrets of Zhao Wang's family in the last Ming Dynasty. .

During the Yongli period at the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the royal family and nobles of the former Ming Dynasty fled south to various places in Guangdong. Among them, the last king of Zhao Zhu Youfen and several county kings from Ziyang, Xinghua, and Zhongxin came to Huizhou and set up their palaces in Fucheng. Inner Biyuan and Jianyuan.In fact, these two houses belong to the Ye family in Huizhou.

The owner of Biyuan is Ye Weicheng, whose name is Zongyi, and whose name is Youlong. He is the grandson of Ye Mengxiong, Shangshu of the Ministry of War in the late Ming Dynasty.Ye Zhanrong's grandfather was Ye Weicheng's bastard son.

In the winter of the third year of Shunzhi (1646), Huizhou Town general Li Shilian, the capital of the [-]th Battalion and the commander-in-chief of the Fourth Battalion welcomed the last king of Zhao, Zhu Youyan, to Xingning, where he was appointed as the supervisor of the state, and Li Shilian called himself the cabinet.In February of the fourth year of Shunzhi, Tong Yangjia, governor of Guangdong and Guangxi of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and Li Chengdong, governor of the Qing Dynasty, sent people to surrender. Zhu Youfen knew that he was invincible, so he shaved off his hair and became a monk.In June, Li Shilian brought Zhu Youfen into Guangzhou to surrender to the Qing Dynasty.

Zhu Youfen and his son were escorted to the West Meditation Hall of Guangxiao Temple in Guangzhou and imprisoned. In July, because Chen Zizhuang and Chen Bangyan's fraudulent surrender was leaked, Tong Yangjia ordered Zhu Youfen and his son Zhu Cishe to be taken to Xuanmiao Temple and ordered him to commit suicide.

Later, because of the discord between Li Chengdong and Tong Yangjia, he led the crowd to rebel against the Qing Dynasty and killed Tong Yangjia, so Guangdong returned to the Ming Dynasty again.So Li Shilian changed himself and became the servant of Nanming, guarding Huizhou.

In the fourth year of Yongli (1650), the Qing army besieged Guangzhou again. Li Shilian knew that he was invincible, so he discussed with Huang Yingjie, the general soldier of Huizhou, and Lin Zongjing, the prefect, to dedicate the city to the Qing Dynasty again.

Li Shilian, Huang Yingjie and others then began to unscrupulously kill the pre-Ming princes and their families.Coveting the beauty of the princesses, Princess Pang of Xinghua was taken over by the battalion general Wang Shihuai. She hanged her four-year-old daughter to death and set up a tablet for her husband, and then hanged herself with her belt; the loyal princess Zheng was occupied by Li Shilian, and she would rather die than follow Princess Ziyang was snatched by Huang Yingjie, the chief soldier, and she refused to follow. Huang Yingjie was afraid that she would escape, so he stripped her shirt and imprisoned her in a secret room. Finally, taking advantage of Huang Yingjie's unpreparedness, the princess stripped her clothes into strands and committed suicide.Among the concubines, only Concubine Zhao is missing and has no whereabouts.

"And then?" Zhao Xin has found out what Ye Zhanrong said in the official history and the ancients' notes, and he is actually more concerned about the later things.

He once saw an article in another time and space, saying that some scholars recently discovered that the mysteriously disappeared Princess Zhao probably fled to Zhunti Pavilion on Chongdao Mountain and committed suicide by throwing herself into a well.However, the article also said that after the well was opened, only a puddle of clear water was found, so the scholars' words are only speculation.

".According to the villain's father, Princess Zhao was rescued by her great-grandfather You Long with a three-year-old child, and hid in the cellar of the inner house for more than half a year. The child was actually Zhu Cigui, the youngest son of King Zhao."

Having said that, Ye Zhanrong looked up at Zhao Xin, saw that his face was expressionless, gritted his teeth and continued: "After the fall of Guangzhou, Li Shilian died of illness, and Huang Yingjie led the army to leave Huizhou. Seeing that the situation was slowing down, his great-grandfather Youlong let him Grandfather Suo Nangong and his family went to Annan with the princess and settled in Hoi An ever since. More than ten years later, the eldest son grew up, and during this period, my grandfather invited scholars who also fled here in Hoi An city to teach them with all their heart."

After sitting for a long time, Zhao Xin's butt was numb. He immediately got up and walked back and forth a few steps, then motioned for the other party to continue.

"In the 16th year of the Yongli calendar (1662), the news of Guo Xinggong's recovery of Taiwan reached Hoi An, and the prince and princess asked Suo Nangong to take them to Taiwan. Unexpectedly, when they arrived in the sea off Anping on the third day of May, suddenly the waves soared into the sky, and thunder struck Shan, like a landslide, the boat capsized at that time. It was later learned that Guo Xinggong was about to die at that time, and the storm was a warning from the sky. So Nangong finally found a plank and hugged him tightly. Only then did he survive, and after being washed ashore on the second day, the body of the princess was found, but the crown prince was all there. This phoenix hairpin was the only thing left on the princess at that time."

When Ye Zhanrong said this, he was already in tears.He slid forward from the chair and immediately fell to his knees.Zhao Xin hurriedly asked Ye Chengxiang to help his father up, and waited until Ye Zhanrong was almost crying before listening to him continue.

What happened after that was that Ye Zhanrong's grandfather wanted to report to the government, but he didn't know that Zheng Chenggong was dead until he arrived in Anping Town. Then Zheng Jing launched a coup, proclaimed himself King of Yanping, and led his army to attack Taiwan from Kinmen.For a while, all parts of Taiwan were in chaos, and Ye Zhanrong's grandfather had no choice but to give up the idea of ​​asking Zheng for help.

He first found a secluded place by the sea to bury Princess Zhao, and after finally returning to Hoi An by boat, he brought people to Anping, Taiwan, where he retrieved the remains and brought them back to Hoi An for burial.Ye Zhanrong's grandfather didn't bury the phoenix hairpin with him. What he thought at the time was that if he found his eldest son Zhu Cigui, it would be a wish.

After Zhao Xin heard the whole story, he thought to himself, good guy, it turns out that King Zhao of the last Ming Dynasty really had descendants!On a whim, I once played the "Ming" flag under the city of Ninggu Pagoda, which actually involved so many troubles!If I had known earlier, I wouldn't have done that if I killed him.

Thinking of this, he hesitated for a moment and asked, "May I ask what your grandfather's name is?"

"The upper word is Jiji, the lower word is Jisi, and the name is Suonan. The residence of the little family in Hoi An is taken from the grandfather's name, and it is called 'Suonan Hall'."

"Where is the princess buried?"

"Ten miles to the west of Hoi An, my grandfather specially found a place with good Fengshui, bought all the surrounding [-] mu of land, and arranged for tenants to live nearby for care."

Zhao Xin nodded. He thought for a while, then looked at Ye Zhanrong and his son and said in a deep voice, "This matter should come out of your father's and son's mouth, and into my ears. Don't mention it to outsiders."

Ye Zhanrong asked with a puzzled face: "Where did you start? Now, Your Highness, you have repeatedly conquered Hue and conquered Hue. You should spread your reputation. You must know that there are Mingxiang Clubs in Hoi An and outside the city of Hue. Many of them are descendants of the survivors!"

"Mingxiang Society? What is that?"

Ye Chengxiang could already hear that his father's voice was a little hoarse, and knew that he was tired, so he quickly helped to explain.

It turned out that at the end of Ming Dynasty and the beginning of Qing Dynasty, a large number of survivors of the Ming Dynasty who escaped the war or were unwilling to settle down moved to the Hoi An and Hue areas, including Zhu Shunshui who later went to the island country.

At that time, the Ruan regime concentrated these Chinese fleeing south and allowed them to establish a special administrative organization - Mingxiang Society.

According to Ye Chengxiang, the current "Mingxiangshe" is no longer a mere adherent of the Ming Dynasty. Over the past 100 years, the villages where Chinese and mixed-race descendants born in Annan live together are also called "Mingxiangshe".He had heard from Chinese merchants from Java that such villages also existed in Java and Luzon.

The earliest Mingxiang Society in Annan was built in Hoi An. The founders were called "ten elders" and "six surnames", and they were revered as the former sages of Mingxiang.Among them, the "ten elders" come from Zhejiang and Fujian, and belong to the families of Kong, Yan, Yu, Xu, Zhou, Huang, Zhang, Chen, Cai, and Liu; the "six surnames" include Wei, Wu, Xu, Wu, Shao, Zhuang and others.

While the early Mingxiang people were naturalized in Annan, they emphasized their identities as "Chinese" and "Ming Dynasty adherents".In order to maintain their group characteristics and avoid being quickly assimilated by the local ethnic groups, they built corresponding ancestral halls and temples to enhance the cohesion and sense of identity of the group.

For example, the newly built Jiasheng Mingxiang Hall in Chaigun last year enshrined the gods from Zhu Yuanzhang to Chongzhen.There is a couplet in it that reads "Shame as a minister of the northern court is always solemn, and it is better to be a guest of the southern country."

The ancestral hall in Hoi An is the Chenghan Palace on Tang Street, which is the Guandi Temple.However, although the "Mingxiang Society" in Hoi An is connected with the "Da Tang Street", in fact the nature of the two is completely different.The former is a gathering area of ​​merchants, and the merchants under the Manchu Qing Dynasty all centered on the "foreign merchants' hall" to worship Mazu; while the latter is an immigrant group, with merchants and other industries, and has become a registered household under Annan's rule; Ye Zhanrong This is the case with one family.

Zhao Xin didn't expect that there was such a group in Annan, and he had to think again about whether it could be used by Beihai Town.So he pondered for a moment, and said to Ye Zhanrong and his son: "You two, it has been 150 years since the Ming Dynasty died, and the Chengxu is gone."

Ye Chengxiang was surprised: "But didn't you, Your Highness, raise troops to fight against the Qing Dynasty?"

Zhao Xin shook his head and said: "In fact, I first acted against the Qing Dynasty, and then I learned about my family background from my father. You two should know that even my surname has been changed since my grandfather's time. The purpose is nothing more than to avoid disaster. Now Beihai Town has already defeated the Manchu Qing outside the customs many times, and there is no need to raise the banner of the former Ming Dynasty. What's more, Beihai Town has its own system, which is different from the Manchu Qing Dynasty and the former Ming Dynasty."

Seeing Zhao Xin's resolute face, Ye Zhanrong and his son couldn't talk anymore.After talking for so long, the three of them were a little tired, and the father and son left immediately, leaving behind the phoenix hairpin and the wooden box before leaving.

However, when the Ye family father and son returned to their own boat and entered the cabin, Ye Zhanrong whispered to Ye Chengxiang: "This King Zhao is a fake."

Ye Chengxiang was shocked, and hastily whispered: "Why did father say that?"

Ye Zhanrong turned his head to stare at the flickering flames of the oil lamp, but the voices and smiles of his eldest son's family of four emerged in front of his eyes. He said faintly: "However, he is also real, and he must be real!"

　Historically, in the 19th century, the Nguyen Dynasty changed "Ming Huong" to "Ming Township".With the passage of time, the rule of the Qing Dynasty became more and more consolidated, and there was no hope of restoring the Ming Dynasty. Its members were gradually replaced by descendants of the survivors and new Chinese who moved to Mingxiangshe after the Qing Dynasty.After several generations of changes and continuous intermarriage with local aborigines, "Mingxiang" eventually became synonymous with "Chinese-Vietnamese mixed-race group" or "Vietnamese native Chinese".

　　
　
(End of this chapter)