Daming Yinghua

Chapter 403 Prejudgment of your prediction

Zheng Haizhu took Zheng Zhilong to have a private meeting with Gulit. That night, an oral report was sent to the emperor through Jinyiwei and Dongchang.

At this time, Wang An, the chief minister of rites, had some signs of the summer. Wang Tiqian, the third eunuch in the ceremonial rank, had replaced Wang An several times to listen to the emperor's orders.

In the Palace of Qianqing, Wang Tiqian watched the factory guards retreat and bowed to Zhu Changluo: "Long live Lord, although Mrs. Zheng had the idea to beat the Hongyi people back then, this time, none of the elders in the pavilion helped. It’s not appropriate for Mrs. Zheng to go into the Honglu Guesthouse to reminisce about the visit of Long Live Lord Zhang Luo Hongmao.”

Zhu Changluo closed his eyes slightly in the light breeze brought by the palace fan, but what he said was: "Both sides of the factory guard are very efficient in doing things, and they are worthy of being the confidants of the imperial court. I thought that Luo Sigong and Liu Qiao of the Jinyi Guard were as good as Zheng's friendship is very good, and any situation involving her side will be postponed before talking to me."

Wang Tiqian didn't know how to restrain himself, but still insisted on pulling the battle towards him, thinking carefully about his words: "Commander Luo and Governor Liu are both old men of Jinyiwei, and they have their own sense of proportion. In the past few years, Dongchang has been changing things like a revolving door. He is the beloved grandson of Shangshu Tian. After all, he is a descendant of an aristocratic family. He is too polite and might not be able to control his subordinates from cheating and being lazy. Uh, so I usually have to take over my duties..."

Zhu Changluo's closed eyes opened, and his eyes were gentle and full of interest: "Dongchang has always been the supervisor of the ceremony, so if you just stare at it, it doesn't mean you put your hand in the wrong bowl. Then, what happened to Dongchang just now?" Is he more familiar with you than his boss Tian Ergen? "

Wang Tiqian weighed it up. The middle-aged emperor was not a childish child, so he couldn't hide it from him as a fool.

The prince and father-in-law, who claimed to understand the emperor's character, simply put on a look of being honest and unambiguous because of his loyalty to the emperor: "Hui Long live Lord, that backbone of the East Factory, because he is a fellow slave, he usually listens to the slave's admonitions, and in his mind His strings are very tight, and whenever there is something fishy or inappropriate outside the court, he will immediately report it to the Lord Long Live."

Zhu Changluo made a satisfied look, thought for a moment, and said earnestly: "Wang Tiqian, the factory guards are my confidants, but those of you who helped me when I was guarding the cold stove and endured hardships make me feel more at ease. Alas, Wang When I am getting older, I am really thinking about how to choose the next Chief of Ceremony."

Wang Tiqian smelled the strong fragrance of the power of the top, and was overjoyed for a moment. Only with the cautious instinct of being a saint for many years, he managed not to show his greed for meat and bones.

He used a hypocritical but correct way of replying: "No matter who Long Live Lord decides, I can't wait to put my whole heart and body into serving Long Live Lord even more fiercely."

Zhu Changluo smiled and waved: "I understand, you can go down."

After lighting the incense, in the Yikun Palace not far away, Concubine Li listened to the report from her cronies in the palace with a serious face.

"Even when I go to deliver mung bean soup to Lord Long Live, I can still see a man named Wang in the Qianqing Palace. What time is it? He is not the father-in-law of the Jingshi Room. Why is he going to the Qianqing Palace?"

Concubine Li was suspicious and angry, and her voice couldn't help but get louder.

Birds of a feather flock together, and most of the favored servants in Yikun Palace are narrow-minded or just follow Concubine Li's words. At this time, a maid in charge who claimed to be close to Concubine Li showed a worried look: "I can see it at a glance. A clue. Wang Tigan is so ungrateful, he won’t do anything bad that will harm the queen’s favor, right?”

Concubine Li glanced at her, her eyes slanted, but her tone was serious: "Last time you went to the Zheng family to choose other jewelry for me, and you met a young and beautiful lady who was generous and generous. The maid mentioned to the prince. . You said Zheng asked you to find out who the prince was, a relative or the woman in the house. How did you find out? "

Of course the maid in charge knew, and Concubine Li also wanted to find out.

The palace maid Hou'erjing first analyzed the wealthy eunuchs in the inner court. The only ones named Wang were Wang An and Wang Tiqian. Although she didn't have the connections to follow the two royal officials surnamed Wang, she realized that the current situation was that neither King Xin nor Zheng Haizhu liked Wang Tiqian, and Concubine Li also began to be wary of Wang Tiqian's tactics, so she, a slave, The smart thing to do is to find out the truth, follow the trend and report ambiguous information.

The palace maid then apologized three points and said seven points: "Ah, I beg your empress to punish me. My two brothers are not well-connected. I only heard the legend from Nanhaizi that Wang Tiqian seems to have bought a young girl this year. As for Mr. Wang An, my servant Since I entered the palace, I have never heard that Mr. Wang An has a daughter-in-law. Please ask me."

Concubine Li sighed: "I don't blame you. Who made us prosperous last year? How can we be like Concubine Zheng in the past? The servants and spies outside the palace are probably better than the factory guards. By the way, that little lady who buys jewelry 's face, do you remember?"

"Slave remember."

Concubine Li stopped talking, turned her head, and looked at her face in the mirror.

Both she and Zheng Haizhu are women of the same age. The one named Zheng is much worse than her in terms of foundation and maintenance level. But if she were to compete with a girl in her mid-20s, she would lose miserably.

Didn't Wang Tigan, that eunuch, fall in love with that lady from Ke Yinyue? Then why did he buy a young girl?

……

In the following days, the Dutch mission was formally summoned by Zhu Changluo. There were no assistant ministers from the cabinet to accompany him. Except for the internal ministers of the Supervisor of Ceremonies, the only foreign ministers were the officials of Honglu Temple and the newly promoted editors and editors of the Hanlin Academy. Xiu, and Zheng Haizhu.

But the Dutch are already feeling flattered. I originally thought I was seeing someone like a consul, but I didn't expect to be able to stand in front of the emperor of the Eastern Empire.

The Netherlands, after all, was a defeated country at that time. The male civil servants of the Ming Dynasty who had accepted the Western religion, and their friendly missionaries were all from Italy, Portugal and other countries, so how could they take the initiative to help them connect.

Gullit pondered in his mind that although the woman named Zheng would not compromise on the price of goods, she could still fulfill her promises such as a gentleman's agreement and persuade the emperor to come out to meet them.

Zhu Changluo asked about foreign customs, said some words of admonishment such as "You must follow the rules when importing goods in the Fujian Sea, and do not commit adultery or break laws." After rewarding brocade cloth, the summons ended.

Returning to the Xinuang Pavilion of Qianqing Palace, Zhu Changluo said to Zheng Haizhu who was left behind by the order: "This Hongyi man seems to be as you said. He is different from the Thai and Western missionaries who met the late emperor in the past. They don't talk about Bodhisattvas and gods." , just licking his face and begging me, Ming Dynasty, to allow them to enter the ship in Guangdong. "

Zheng Haizhu said: "Your Majesty, this is the style of Westerners who are more direct from generation to generation. When I saw this Gulit this time, I stared at him and asked about the situation in Europa for a long time, and made peace with Yan Xuan What Zheng Zhilong learned is similar. The capabilities of the Frankies are gradually declining, and the island country further to the west of the Europa continent, called England, is probably rising faster than the Netherlands."

At the core power level, the ruler's personal advisers often have stronger discourse penetration than ministers and officials from foreign dynasties.

Zhu Changluo had been indoctrinated by Zheng Haizhu for two years about the map of the seas of all nations, the situation of sea traders in the southern customs, etc. Now he has a general understanding of the pattern of the Age of Discovery, and he is not like those civil servants in the outer dynasty who were frogs in the well. When I reach the level of a ministry official, I will also ask, "What can a Western island country do to me?"

On the contrary, Zhu Changluo murmured meaningfully: "English is also an island country. Like Japan, it cannot be underestimated, right?"

In the Wanli Korean War, the Japanese army led by Toyotomi Hideyoshi had a cognitive impact on the Ming Dynasty and North Korea. Even though Zhu Changluo was just a prince sitting on the bench, he had some sense of it from his master Sun Chengzong.

Zheng Haizhu did not shy away from showing his worries about the future of the empire: "Yes, these foreign countries in the East and West have more ambitions to plunder and expand because of their small territories. Therefore, long live the Ming Dynasty. In their eyes, we are just fat sheep. Only by showing our fangs and claws will they believe that we are also wolves, more powerful than them, and that Long Live the Lord is the wolf king."

Zhu Changluo smiled: "Okay, no need to flatter me, you can tell me now, right? You asked Hong Mao to buy whale oil, what is it for?"

"Make grenades. Putting aside the two tactics of mandarin duck formation and cavalry battle, in the long-range firepower strike of our Ming army, the lethality of porcelain mines is small, and cannons and matchlocks can only inflict heavy damage on the enemy in specific formations. Soldiers, Especially soldiers in infantry combat need a firearm that is easy to carry but will kill and injure a large area when thrown."

Zhu Changluo was surprised: "Can this kind of firearm be made with fish oil?"

"It's just an introduction. It mainly relies on the compatibility that we Ming officials have figured out themselves. Your Majesty, Xu Hanlin wrote a book "The Method of Creating Strong Water" last year. After I read it, I suddenly got an idea and wanted to try it."

Zheng Haizhu then combined the method of producing concentrated nitric acid and concentrated sulfuric acid discovered by Xu Guangqi, combined with the feasibility of refining glycerol from whale oil, and relied on his own reflections on black powder after running an artillery factory for many years, and simplified the complex to the emperor.

Just like pushing Song Yingxing to invent the steam engine for pumping water from mines, Zheng Haizhu did not need or have the ability to explore the new generation of explosives on his own. He also made a start and prepared the raw materials for testing, giving it to the smartest people of this era. Just think about it in your head.

Zhu Changluo listened carefully and nodded frequently.

"Mrs. Zheng, I gave Nurhaci a hard lesson in fire attack. I will never forget it. Therefore, I will allow you to research new firearms at any time. You are careful and are afraid of the capital, Jizhen, and Xuanda." There are Jurchen spies in , Denglai and Songjiang, and they want to put it in Daning New Town where Ma Xianglin and Huang Zunsu are located. I also believe you and say that you are selling red-haired whale oil to Chahar Mongolia. "

Zheng Haizhu immediately stood up from his seat to thank him.

Zhu Changluo stared at her: "You know, in the past three years, I have read all the books that impeached you. Is that why?"

Zheng Haizhu said: "Because I am doing hard work, but they only like to talk. I have a clear conscience, so my family background and my thoughts are always ahead of them, and I will tell them clearly to Your Majesty."

Zhu Changluo lowered his eyes and remembered that three days ago, Wang Tiqian also stood on the same green brick where Zheng Haizhu stood, plausibly arranging this woman's private meeting with the Hongyi people.

When Zheng Haizhu heard the emperor sitting on the dragon throne, he said in a teasing tone: "Why do they think that they are more strategic than you, a woman? I have recently begun to understand. In fact, they think that they More strategic than me."