Daming Yinghua

Chapter 230
Dong Qichang noticed something strange in Zheng Haizhu's eyes.

This little woman obviously had a bigger reaction when she heard the word "Yang Lian" than when she heard the name of the inner court eunuch Wang An.

Dong Qichang twirled his beard and asked, "What is it? Miss Zheng is familiar with Mr. Yang Lian?"

Zheng Haizhu accepted the expression of emotion, and concealed it with eloquence: "I accompanied Ms. Han to Suzhou to learn embroidery, and there were floods and droughts. I heard the people in Changshu talk about Yang Lian, the county magistrate. Field canals were inspected. Because of this, Yangzhi County was elected as the top honest official in the examination of merit, and went to the capital to be a speech officer. Dong Gong just mentioned the matter of military affairs, so I guess that Yang Lian, the speech officer, is Yang Lian of Bizhi County. "

Dong Qichang nodded, and continued to briefly add Yang Lian's background.

Zheng Haizhu listened calmly, but his mind was full of the scenes of Yang Lian's torture that were painstakingly described by later historians.

In another five years, Yang Lian, the backbone of the Donglin faction who wanted to impeach the eunuchs to death, will be framed for accepting bribes and sent to prison controlled by Wei Zhongxian's lackeys.

Ordinary torture was not enough, so they used iron wire to brush the skin to pieces, broke every rib in the chest with a copper hammer, pressed the body with a cloth bag filled with soil, and used iron nails to drive in from the left ear and pull out from the right ear.

Even so, Yang Lian still did not succeed in being tortured. After writing the blood book "Slashing Dongfeng with a knife, laughing and laughing", he was finally killed in prison by the eunuchs.

The power system of the Ming Dynasty, regardless of the warlords and military power of all sides in the later period, the core of the court is composed of the power of the king, the power of the cabinet ministers, the power of the eunuchs, and the power of the eunuchs. The king tried to use the latter three to check and balance each other and benefit himself. Poor, but it's a pity that the successor's ability is high or low. When encountering a weak emperor, the situation will change. The latter three powers sometimes engage each other, and sometimes unite to become the emperor.

Therefore, Zheng Haizhu intentionally integrated the last three kinds of powers in the past few years, or at least made friends with people who were still considered clean among the three groups.

For example, her very favored Ma Xianglin's father-in-law, Zhang Quan, the minister of the Ministry of War, did not die in Liaodong as in the original course of history, so he is expected to join the cabinet.

Zhang Yanke, who looks like her male best friend, and Shang Zhouzuo, governor of Fujian who serves as an aide, are also candidates that Zheng Haizhu is optimistic about joining the cabinet.Therefore, after the Minghe Sea War, every six months, Zheng Haizhu asked his nephew to send an instrument of gold to a merchant in Shaoxing, thanking Shang Zhouzuo for supporting the navy in the Minhai area and asking the Songjiang Firearms Factory to buy guns.

Among the two schools of eunuchs and speech officials, Zheng Haizhu, who has the perspective of God, firmly favors Liu Shimin and Huang Zunsu. After having a life-threatening friendship, the current friendship is stable.

Unexpectedly, this time, Dong Qichang would recommend him to meet Wang An and Yang Lian, the more important eunuchs and speech officials.

It is natural to seize such an opportunity.

"Dong Gong, Wang Gonggong and Yang have given advice to two people, how should I prepare the ceremony?" Zheng Haizhu asked humbly.

Dong Qichang looked friendly and treated his little friends well, and said warmly, "I've prepared for you. The prince is good at calligraphy and painting. The old man visited a landscape of Ni Zan. You can present it to the prince as a gift."

"Ah, thank you Dong Gong, I will write to Songjiang tomorrow and order someone to send the bank note to Dong Gong's residence."

"You don't need to look outside, not including Ni Yuanzhen's huge price, you can just pay a half, one thousand three hundred taels."

Zheng Haizhu took a deep breath, and the two hundred machine guns disappeared.Dong Qichang, an old Jiang Hu, although he is not a villain who lives in the fish and meat village and kills people like in the wild history, but he really knows how to settle accounts. It means that he has sponsored half of his gift investment in the name of worshiping mountains and building relationships.

But after all, the person I met was the prince's big companion, so the level of the gift couldn't be lowered, and Ni Zan's painting was worth giving away.

In this way, I have to think about how to fight against Wei Zhongxian and Ke Shi, and try not to let them join forces to kill Wang An after a year.

Dong Qichang said again: "As for Yang Lian, he is a full-fledged Donglin sect man. He maintains integrity and cares about the people of his family and country. He doesn't care about rare treasures, antiques, gold, silver and jewels. So go ahead, follow the old man The boat sailed northward, and the journey took about ten days. You told the old man about the Ming army's expulsion of the Tartars in Fushun, the battle against the red barbarians in Fujian, and your military training in Chongmin. Prosper the number of scenes, and give it to Yang Gong."

"Ah, wonderful, wonderful." Zheng Haizhu praised cheerfully, "The younger generation will also offer some money to polish the pen, please accept it with a smile."

Dong Qichang waved his hands: "Miss Zheng is a real person, and this old man is not out of touch with you. Over the years, this old man has spent a lot of time searching for the authentic works of the former sages."

Zheng Haizhu accompanied him, hehe, thinking, it is true that Scallops wanted to applaud after hearing it, and the main theme of the gift was right, and they also sold their own paintings by the way, anyway, they are idle during the trip.

Dong Qichang is really shrewd, but shrewd enough to be frank, he doesn't fool people who make deals as fools, but kindly shows you his hole cards, which is quite interesting.

……

A few days later, Cao Xu, Yibin of Lu Fan County's royal residence, came to Yanzhou Wharf on the Canal with only one servant.

The three craftsmen of the Dianbao Institute recognized that it was Cao Yibin who had stepped onto the boat, so they knelt down and kowtowed.

Cao Xu made a polite gesture, and said modestly and easily: "Masters, from now on we will be in the same boat, not only on the boat on the canal, but also on the boat going to Champa."

The craftsmen were silent for a while in panic, but their eyes were full of doubts.

The days when the bells are ringing and the feasting is something they dare not even imagine in their dreams. If Cao Yibin says no, then why not?
Zheng Haizhu waved them to put their luggage in the cabin, then turned to Cao Xu and said, "If Yibin 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."

He said again, "madam, call me Guanshi Cao from now on, that's fine."

Zheng Haizhu suddenly felt emotional.

Cao Xu's appearance reminded her of Wu Bangde.

In this world, no matter in which life, at every moment, there are brave and beautiful lives that come to an abrupt end, and some lives break free from the gorgeous but barren cage, and go to the world to pursue the word "break".

Zheng Haizhu smiled, and said to Cao Xu in a calm tone: "Cao Guanshi, I am in a hurry to go to Beijing, and I can't go south to lead you to meet the Gu family. I have written to Zhenjiang, and my nephew Shoukuan will meet you at the pier Let's meet up and accompany you to Songjiang."

Cao Xu asked calmly: "I don't intend to ask what Madam has to do, I just want to ask, can Madam come back before the ship leaves Songjiang?"

"I don't know," Zheng Haizhu smiled, and said lightly, "If you don't make it back in time, you should go to sea first and go to Taiwan. My righteous brother Yan Xuanfu may be able to receive you and send interpreters and sailors with you to Zhan But if you go to thousands of miles of waves, whether it is in the sea or on the shore, where things change rapidly, you must have a good head. If Yan Xuanfu can't accompany you, you have to go by yourself. The only thing you can rely on is me who was raised in Songjiang My servant. How about you, do you still dare to go?"

"Dare," Cao Xu said without hesitation, and pointed to the suitcase on the ground, "I don't need to hide it from my wife. Ever since I saw a sea boat when I went to Dengzhou to visit my brother, I have always wanted to go to sea. In this suitcase, There are records of Gong Zhen, Fei Xin and others that I found, they were all attendants when they went to the West with the Sanbao eunuch, and their writings, although incomplete, are also very precious."

Cao Xu signaled his entourage to open the box, and took out two apparently repaired 缃缃, Zheng Haizhu recognized that one was written "Western Fan Guozhi" and the other was "Xingcha Range Rover".

Cao Xu changed his calm and calm attitude, and said a little excitedly: "If you talk about being a guest of honor in the palace, what good is it? It's to get some treasures from the inner court, which is better than Confucian scholars outside. Madam, this Fei Xin, who was the general of the Sanbao eunuch fleet at that time, wrote very clearly that sailing from Fujian, setting up twelve sails, and ten days and nights with the wind, you can reach Champa, which is near the sea and has a port, called Xinzhou. After occupying the city, the chief came to greet him, wearing a gold crown on his head, gold bracelets on his arms and ankles, riding an elephant, with hundreds of foreign soldiers behind him, those foreign soldiers..."

"Cao Guanshi," Zheng Haizhu smiled and interrupted him, "I think you know more about Champa than my righteous brother Yan Xuanfu."

Cao Xu was taken aback for a moment, then blushed.

After interacting with him several times, he always felt that the woman in front of him had a faint sense of coercion when talking to him. On the contrary, it was more nervous than the arrogance of the nobles in the royal family who were arrogant but actually strong on the outside. He never thought that she would also boastful.

The boatman came to report, and it was time to leave the gate.

Zheng Haizhu crossed the strings of the boat, reached the shore, turned around and said goodbye to Cao Xu, and walked towards Dong Qichang's boat going north without hesitation.

(End of this chapter)