The ruthless emperor in the late Ming Dynasty forced Chongzhen to abdicate at the beginning

Chapter 246 General Strike
Zheng Zhihu, the second son of the Zheng family, killed all the dozens of officials who went to measure his own tea mountain, just like pouring a ladle of water into a frying pan, causing the whole Fuzhou to explode.

First of all, the prefect of Fuzhou, the governor of Fujian and other civil officials were furious, and immediately ordered the Fuzhou garrison to surround Zheng Zhihu's mansion and arrest Zheng Zhihu on the charge of rebellion.

Naturally, Zheng Zhihu couldn't be captured without a fight, and immediately fled to a small island in the sea off Fuzhou with his family members.

The governor of Fujian had to let Zheng Zhilong hand over Zheng Zhihu.

And Zheng Zhilong was also stunned. Although he knew that his second brother had caused a catastrophe, he wished to beat him to death, but it was impossible to hand over his second brother just like this.

So I had to send gifts everywhere, try my best to intercede, and at the same time write a letter to explain to the court that I wanted to make big things small and small things small.

But Zheng Zhilong obviously underestimated the influence of this incident. First of all, the governor of Fujian did not dare to accept his money and mud, and immediately reported it to Nanjing.

As the news spread, all the officials in Fujian were furious and went on strike directly, waiting for the court's punishment for this matter.

The wealthy gentry from all over Fujian took the opportunity to protest against the injustice of the new government policy.

In the end, it even affected the three provinces of Jiangxi, Guangdong and Zhejiang.

"Second brother, elder brother told you a long time ago, don't be impulsive when things happen, you just don't listen, it's all right now, this time our Zheng family must be killed by you."

"Brother, isn't it just some yamen servants arresting you? What's the big deal? I don't believe that the imperial court will really force my Zheng family to rebel for the sake of a dozen minor officials."

Although Zheng Zhihu also regretted that he had done too much, he pretended not to care and said that he felt much happier.

"Oh! You are so confused. Today is different. Those officials have filed records in the Ministry of Officials. If you kill them, it is like slapping the court in the face. What's more, all the officials in Fujian are on strike now. Obviously It is putting pressure on the imperial court, how can the imperial court let it go?"

Seeing that he hadn't realized the seriousness of the problem, Zheng Zhilong also cursed at him.

"Brother, what should we do? Is it possible that the second brother is really going to be handed over, so that the court can't deal with it?"

The third brother Zheng Zhibao was also a little anxious.

Zheng Zhihu was a little panicked.

"You know that you are afraid now, why didn't you think about the consequences at that time, I told you a long time ago, my Zheng family is very popular now, if you want to bear it, you won't listen."

Zheng Zhilong also had a headache for a while, and didn't know what to do.

"Brother, it's not that I don't listen, it's that the man surnamed Wang is so fucking inhuman, it's really hateful, he wants to extort money from me, but he also refuses to help to underestimate the number of acres, isn't that clearly asking me to blame him? ? How can there be such a reason in the world?"

As soon as this matter was mentioned, Zheng Zhihu became furious.

"Oh! It's just some silver, you just give it to him."

For officials everywhere, they want to extort money and do nothing. In fact, all big landlords hate it deeply. But in order not to pay more wronged taxes every year, most of them have to choose to be the big ones in the end, even Zheng Zhilong. No exception.

And the officials from all over the country actually don't want to do such dishonest things. However, the imperial court is too strict in the inspection, and has never been soft on underreporting and false reporting. If it is found out, it will be severely punished.

On the contrary, it is much more lenient when it comes to overreporting, especially when it comes to land. That's why officials in various places would rather be cursed and choose to overreport, a lot of repayments. This kind of immoral thing threatens the local gentry. Be obedient and filial to silver.

Who would have thought that this time he kicked the iron plate and met Zheng Zhihu, a reckless drunkard.

"Brother, it's useless to say these things now, let's think about what to do." Zheng Zhibao said impatiently.

"Damn, I'm in a hurry. I directly turned against his mother and occupied Fujian. My eldest brother will be the emperor himself, so I don't have to suffer from this useless brat anymore."

Zheng Zhihu slapped the table and said, with a fierce look on his face.

"You said lightly, the imperial court has hundreds of thousands of troops, what can our Zheng family do to resist?" Zheng Zhilong said unhappily, although he did not pay attention to the garrison troops in Fujian, but the imperial court had hundreds of thousands of field troops, even if Fujian was in the sky. Emperor Gao is far away, as long as the court is determined to mobilize an army to encircle and suppress, his Zheng family has no chance of winning.

"It's a big deal to continue to go to sea to live a happy life at that time. No matter how many soldiers and horses there are in the court, what's the use of it?" Zheng Zhihu snorted.

This time, the two brothers did not answer, but fell silent.

Now everyone has a lot of beautiful wives and concubines, and a lot of wealth. If they want to give up these things and continue to wander at sea, let alone they can't do it, even if they can, those subordinates probably won't be willing.

So the two of them didn't say anything, but they both complained that Zheng Zhihu was too impulsive and hurt them.

At the same moment, the former pirates of the Zheng family were also very dissatisfied with Zheng Zhihu.

Although Fuzhou is thousands of miles away from Nanjing, it was only ten days before the Fujian governor's memorial was sent to the cabinet.

After reading the memorial, Ma Shiying and the other bigwigs were furious, but at the same time they turned pale with shock. They never thought that the Zheng family would dare to openly kill the officials of the court.

"Crack! How can this be reasonable? He, Zheng Jia'an, dares to act so boldly?"

This time even Zhang Yan was very furious, and slapped the memorial on the case heavily, her chest heaving violently with anger.

On the other hand, Zuo Liangyu, who was at the side, saw that the queen mother was so angry that she was about to burst into tears, and at the same time, she was very excited.

Immediately stood up, gritted his teeth and said: "The Queen Mother calm down, a mere Zheng family, but a clown, dare not know the heights of heaven and earth, directly kill officials, and do not put the Queen Mother and the court in their eyes, it is an unforgivable crime, I only need [-] soldiers and horses, within three months, the entire Zheng family will be captured and taken to Nanjing, and the Queen Mother will send them down!"

Although Ma Shiying and the rest of the civil servants were also angry, it would be very shameless to directly lead the army to suppress Zuo Liangyu when he saw that Zuo Liangyu was always on the line.

Seeing Zhang Yan's hesitation, Ma Shiying was also afraid that she would be angry, so he directly agreed to Zuo Liangyu's request, so he stood up and said, "Reporting to the Queen Mother, Zheng Zhihu is really reckless. If he is not brought to justice, it will be difficult to protect the court." It is difficult to quell the anger of all the officials, but it seems inappropriate to deal with the Zheng family directly for the crime of rebellion, and I hope the Queen Mother thinks twice."

"The ministers and others seconded the proposal, I hope the queen mother will think twice."

Other civil servants also stood up and said.

Zuo Liangyu was in a hurry, he didn't care whether the Zheng family really rebelled, he finally caught an opportunity to make meritorious service, and he would not let it go easily.

"What, Ma Ge, are you trying to force the palace?"

Everyone rolled their eyes straight away, choosing to ignore the mad dog Zuo Liangyu.

And Zhang Yan also calmed down, and waved Zuo Liangyu to retreat first.

(End of this chapter)