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

Chapter 249 Zheng Sen's Ambition

"Report to the Empress Dowager, my father is indeed suspected of dereliction of duty regarding Dongfan Island, and the students have repeatedly advised my father and a group of uncles to report this matter to the imperial court, requesting troops to recover Dongfan Island, expel the Xiyi people, and protect them. I am in the southeast sea of ​​Ming Dynasty..."

When Zheng Sen said this, he paused for a moment, then gritted his teeth, and continued: "However, the uncles only care about pleasure and have no intention of serving the country, and the students are so soft-spoken, there is nothing they can do!"

All the people here are good people. After hearing this, they almost understood what Zheng Sen meant, and also understood his purpose.

Seeing that this guy wanted to step on his father and other uncles, Zuo Liangyu also despised him.

However, Ma Shiying's eyes lit up. If Zheng Sen is willing to kill his relatives righteously, it will not only be of great help to solve this matter, but also completely solve the hidden dangers of the Zheng family group. It is indeed a good choice.

After all, compared to Zheng Zhilong and other old pirates, this young Zheng Sen is indeed much easier to control.

As for why a son keeps silent about his father's faults and is too utilitarian, this is not a problem in Ma Shiying's view.

It is perfectly normal for young people to want to make a name for themselves, be competitive, and have great ambitions. With the mind of His Majesty today, he will definitely act on merit.

However, Zhang Yan frowned slightly, her good impression of Zheng Sen was gone, and she obviously thought that although he had talent, his character was not good.

"Reporting to the Empress Dowager, students know that they should not blame their elders, but since ancient times, loyalty and filial piety are difficult to balance. Although students have selfish intentions, they want to make contributions to His Majesty and Ming Dynasty, and to wash away the contempt of their classmates and friends, but they still want to protect their father. And a group of uncles, after all, what they did before, if there is no world-class merit, it is really difficult to wash away."

Zheng Sen obviously also saw that the Empress Dowager had a bad feeling for him, and he also understood that after all, Daming ruled the world with filial piety, but he had no choice, so he simply said what was in his heart.

"Your intentions and your loyalty to His Majesty, Aijia already understands this matter. Aijia will report this matter to His Majesty, and His Majesty will decide. Go back first!"

Zhang Yan pondered for a moment, then waved her hand, and decided to report the matter to Lang'er. As for whether Lang'er would use Zheng Sen, it was up to his own luck.

"Thank you, Empress Dowager, the students will leave!"

Zheng Sen had no choice but to resign and leave.

What he wants is that the queen mother can support him to return to Fujian, take control of the Zheng family, and then make contributions to the court and recover Dongfan Island. This is the most powerful for him, the Zheng family, and the court.

So I was very disappointed, secretly said that the Queen Mother is a woman after all, lacking determination, if it were His Majesty, I am afraid that he would support him without hesitation.

Ma Shiying was also a little helpless. In his opinion, the Queen Mother could make the decision first and then report it.

Give Zheng Sen a decree to return to Fujian to take over the entire Zheng's navy, escort Zheng Zhihu's family to Nanjing for trial, and then take Dongfan Island.

"Qi Queen Mother, this son is ambitious, selling his father for glory is absolutely unbelievable. If the court wants to recover Dongfan Island, it doesn't have to rely on his Zheng family's navy."

Zuo Liangyu, on the other hand, thought exactly the opposite of Ma Shiying, and wanted to take the credit for recovering Dongfan Island.

Zhang Yan felt that it was true that he could not completely rely on the Zheng family's navy, but Dongfan Island would definitely be regained. After thinking about it, he ordered someone to recruit the admiral of the Jiangnan navy and the eunuch in charge of the Longjiang Shipyard.

Zhu Cihong has always attached great importance to the navy and the shipyard, and made corresponding arrangements and explanations when he left, so Zhang Yan is also very attentive, asking questions from time to time, and even sending people to inspect.

However, the Nanjing Navy has long been decayed, and the shipbuilding industry of Ming Dynasty has also declined very seriously.

In the past two years, although a huge amount of manpower and material resources have been invested, the time is too short after all. After the Nanjing Navy has been reorganized, it has expanded to more than 2 people. Almost none of the small boats can really go out to sea.

Although the shipyard has also recruited tens of thousands of craftsmen, due to the lack of veteran craftsmen and experience in building large ships, it has been accumulating experience in the past two years. The dozens of warships built are all small boats of two to three hundred loads. It is similar to the merchant ships of those maritime merchants, and it is simply incomparable with the thousand-ton large ships of Western countries.

As for the treasure ships that were called the giants of the sea back then, and even the smaller Fuchuan, because the blueprints were burned, the manufacturing process has long been lost, and it is impossible to reproduce it now.

After some understanding, Zuo Liangyu was also disappointed. He knew that it would be unrealistic to rely on the Nanjing navy to carry infantry to regain Dongfan Island in a short period of time.

Originally, Zhang Yan planned to wait for Jin Yiwei to kill Zheng Zhihu and report it to Zhu Cihong after a thorough investigation, but the influence of this incident was far beyond everyone's expectations.

In the next few days, memorials from various provinces flew to Nanjing like snowflakes, and all the officials surprisingly united and chose to go on strike temporarily, waiting for the ruling of the court.

The new policies of the provinces also came to a standstill, and the big gentry in the provinces also protested against the injustice of the new policies of the imperial court and the exploitation and extortion of officials.

Whether it was the rebellion of the big gentry in various provinces or the strike of officials, Ma Shiying and the Eighth Ministry of the Cabinet felt tremendous pressure.

Zhang Yan was also a little panicked, but she also knew that it could not be delayed any longer. The imperial court had to give all the officials a word as soon as possible, and must also appease the big gentry families in various places. Large-scale riots and civil commotions.

The most important reason why officials serve the imperial court wholeheartedly is that the imperial court granted them official titles and gave them a guarantee, while salaries and promotions came second.

And when more than a dozen officials went to measure the tea mountain, they were killed by the local wealthy Zheng Zhihu, which undoubtedly touched the most fundamental interests and sensitive nerves of all the officials. Party members as officials?
Similarly, the big landlords in various provinces also want to take advantage of this incident to vent their dissatisfaction. The most unbearable thing for them is that they were extorted by officials from all over the country and did not help.

"Queen, this matter must not be delayed any longer."

"All right!"

Zhang Yan also knew that Lang'er asked her to come to Nanjing to deal with these emergencies, so she no longer hesitated or scrupled, and immediately took out two blank imperial decrees for the cabinet to draft, and then issued them to the world to reassure people's hearts.

The first imperial decree was naturally to deal with the Zheng family. Zheng Zhilong, the commander in chief of Fujian Province, was dismissed and investigated. The guerrilla general Zheng Zhihu obstructed the New Deal and killed officials.

The second imperial decree is to strictly order the officials in all provinces to strictly implement the court regulations when measuring land. They must not underreport, conceal or overreport indiscriminately, and not to extort landowners. Violators will be severely punished.

In the past, it would be useless to issue such an imperial decree, and officials everywhere would definitely obey and violate, and they would do whatever they wanted.

But it is different now, the imperial court has a large number of special envoys to inspect the censors, and there are also iron boxes for reporting at the gates of the county yamen. Zhang Yan didn't bother with the implementation of the New Deal.

Now that Zhang Yan has made an order, it must be severely punished, so the officials in all provinces have to restrain themselves, and dare not open their mouths to hug, at least they dare not turn over the 500-acre tea mountain like before. Several times it is said to be 2000 mu.

In the end, under Ma Shiying's suggestion, for the stability of Fujian, Zhang Yan also recruited Zheng Sen into the palace again, and gave him a secret order to return to Fujian, and sent two hundred Yulin soldiers and Dongchang fans to accompany him.

Zheng Sen received the secret decree, trembling with excitement, immediately showed his loyalty, and rushed to Fujian that day, ready to show his strength.

With this secret decree from the queen mother, even if he returns to the Zheng family alone, there will be countless people standing by his side, asking his father and uncles to retire obediently and hand over the power.

(End of this chapter)