I'm really not doing business

Chapter 814: Blood clotted in the young neck, the enemy was defeated, Cang Bo buried the enemy, and the lone flag was raised
Yin Zongxin woke up from his sleep and ate and drank for a long time before he recovered. At his prime age, he had eaten, drunk and slept enough, and his physical fatigue was suppressed. Although the chief physician repeatedly reminded him that he still needed rest, he still dealt with the matters of Red Army Mountain.

Yin Zhengmao could handle all the trivial matters with the staff he gave him. Yin Zongxin only needed to make one decision. The thieves had kidnapped a group of children and were resisting. Now they were in a standoff and Yin Zongxin needed to make a decision.

The morning mist in Red Army Port has not yet dissipated, and the salty sea breeze is filled with a certain corrupt sweetness.

As Yin Zongxin walked down the stone steps of the pier, wearing armor as he walked, his iron-soled shoes crushed the salt frost condensed between the cracks in the stones, making tiny crackling sounds.

On the beach of Chijunshan Port, there is a huge skeleton, which is the remains of a stranded whale. Seabirds are flying in the air, constantly searching for prey on the beach and in the shallow sea.

There were wooden houses along the beach, most of which had been destroyed in yesterday's fire. The closer you got, the stronger the smell of feces, decay, sea breeze and moldy straw became. It was a disgusting smell.

The environment was very bad. Yin Zongxin saw countless excrement. It was obvious that the rebels in the Red Army Mountain had no intention of building public toilets for the piglets. These five houses were where the piglets lived.

"There are five rooms in total, and each room is crammed with more than 30 people." The accompanying lieutenant general whispered, "They are all fishermen from Fujian and Zhejiang who were deceived and came here a month ago."

Yin Zongxin lifted his foot, the sticky mud sucked the soles of his boots. The soles were not just mud, but the filth condensed from years of blood and human and animal excrement. It was obvious that someone was here, slaughtered like an animal, and the corpse that had not yet rotted was right next to him.

Public executions are meant to serve as a warning to others and deter other victims.

Suddenly, there was a sound of dragging chains coming from the wooden house in the southeast corner. Yin Zongxin looked in the direction of the sound and saw a dozen children tied up with hemp ropes and several thieves dragging them out.

The purple bruises on these children's ankles were shocking against their pale skin. Their knuckles were thick and deformed, with dark purple bruises embedded in the cracks between their nails. These were the marks of being chained to the bottom of the boat and rowing for years.

The eyes of these children are the most sad and angry. The eyes of these children are not filled with the desire to survive, but the emptiness after being crushed by fear.

The girl in the front was about ten years old. Only half a piece of flesh was left on her right ear, with congealed blood stuck to a few pieces of dry grass.

When the bandit's Japanese sword was placed against her neck, the blade cut her skin and shed blood. There was no fear on the child's slightly childish face, only numbness.

The Ming Dynasty's family law did not include beheading children under the age of fourteen.

"They want a boat." The lieutenant general lowered his voice with suppressed anger: "General Yin, they want a fast boat to leave. Even if you agree to their conditions, they still won't let us go. They are all vicious and rebellious people. I don't know how many lives they have taken."

Yin Zongxin's thumb unconsciously rubbed the rope around the knife handle. If he agreed to the bandits' conditions and they released the people as promised, the decision would not be so difficult.

The bandits have ships, and the Ming navy has plenty of ships. They are all grown men. When they are on the sea, the Ming army will chase and intercept them to show them how powerful they are, but these bandits will definitely make further demands, keep making demands, and even leave with hostages.

The negotiations have reached a deadlock and require Yin Zongxin, the decision maker, to make a decision.

"Japanese pirates." Yin Zongxin looked at these thieves and found a Japanese pirate with a bang among them. Everything seemed natural.

After the Ming people went out to sea, their morals declined, but in any case, they should not have declined to this extent, with public executions, not even collecting corpses, using children as hostages, etc. After Yin Zongxin saw the Japanese pirates, he immediately understood why they did so.

Birds of a feather flock together. How can those scum who hang out with the Japanese pirates be considered good people?

Yin Zhengmao is old, and old people tend to be more talkative, especially they like to reminisce about the past, and recall how they were full of vigor and vitality and how they made the Japanese pirates flee in fear.

But every time when talking about the evil deeds of these Japanese pirates, Yin Zhengmao would selectively skip it, but his father's lonely expression left a deep impression on Yin Zongxin.

The evil deeds of the Japanese pirates were fully demonstrated on the Korean battlefield. The fact that the Ming army was able to advance so smoothly and recover lost territory was also largely related to the support of the Korean people.

Yin Zongxin tightly grasped the Qi family saber in his hand, slowly raised it above his head, and shouted sternly: "I will count to three. If you refuse to surrender, the sword will have no eyes!"

"one!"

"two!"

"kill!"

Yin Zongxin counted to three and swung the long sword in his hand fiercely. This was the signal to attack. Twelve fully armored soldiers of the Xianzhen Camp stepped out and walked towards the bandits step by step with firm steps. No matter whether the other party wanted to kill or not, they would not stop after receiving the order from the general.

Yin Zongxin made such a decision because Qi Jiguang's "Jixiao Xinshu" recorded: When encountering bandits holding civilians hostage, lead your elite troops to advance straight ahead and do not miss the opportunity by tolerating them.

All soldiers are familiar with this military discipline.

Dozens of thieves shouted loudly and even stabbed the child's neck with their daggers, but they still couldn't stop the advance of the heavy armored infantry. The thieves never expected that Yin Zongxin would directly order an attack.

These thieves finally panicked and started to flee in all directions, waiting for them were arrows and muskets.

After a commotion, Yin Zongxin wiped out all the thieves. They were originally helpless and only relied on the children acting as human shields to survive until now.

The thief was dead, and several children lay in a pool of blood. Yin Zongxin walked among the children. In their numb and empty eyes, there was only one emotion, and that was relief.

"Have a safe trip." Yin Zongxin sighed and covered their eyes with his hands.

Most of these children were brought up by their parents, and Yin Zongxin didn't know where their parents were. The tragedy of these children was caused by their parents not listening to the advice of others and believing in lies, and it was also the sin caused by the Red Army mountain and sea bandits.

"Okay, you are saved." Yin Zongxin tried his best to make his tone gentle. Of the twelve children, two died and the remaining ten survived.

Did he survive? Maybe.

Yin Zongxin did not see any other emotions in their eyes. They just stared at Yin Zongxin blankly with dull expressions.

Yin Zongxin slowly untied the ropes in their hands. The ropes were very tight, even leaving scars. There was some salt on the hemp ropes, and every slight untying would tear the wounds.

There were many bruises on the child's body. These injuries were not formed in a day or two. New and old wounds, "all over the body" - the idiom "bruised and bruised" suddenly appeared in front of Yin Zongxin.

Yin Zongxin tried to be as careful as possible when untying the children, while the accompanying medical officers began to provide first aid to the children.

"Let all the rescued Han people go to the dock to watch the ceremony, and all the evildoers will be sunk into the sea." Yin Zongxin's voice was very cold. The imperial court and local government offices were not omnipotent. He only hoped that after experiencing these things, these people would no longer easily believe these lies and would not be deceived.

At least don't let your children suffer this.

Sinking into the sea was the way the Luzon Governor-General's Office carried out the death penalty. After death, the person would not be allowed to be buried but would sink in the ocean for eternity.

On the beach of Chijunshan Port, countless seabirds were flying. When the crowds were bustling, the seabirds flapped their wings and flew high from the remains of the whale. The tide on the beach receded, revealing an endless stretch of sandy beach.

Yin Zongxin arrived at the beach, ready to carry out the execution by sinking into the sea.

While Yin Zongxin was sleeping, the victims identified the captives. What made Yin Zongxin very dissatisfied was that more than 90% of the captives had the blood of their compatriots on their hands, and each of them had committed countless crimes.

The Ming Dynasty was opening up the sea, and Nanyang needed the Han people to unite in order to maintain the Han towns. However, Yin Zongxin did not see this. In several Han towns and copper towns in Luzon, Yin Zhengmao saw more unity rather than such unscrupulous oppression.

Rows of criminals were tied up with shackles and taken onto the boat. Hemp ropes and stones were prepared on the boat. When the execution was carried out, the criminals would be tied to the stones together.

The shore was filled with rescued victims, their eyes finally recovered from the numbness, with a little anger in their eyes, that was anger, that was unwillingness, that was hatred for the criminals. The victims, who were dressed in rags or even without clothes, stood there quietly, watching the criminals being taken onto the boat.

There was a military strategist in the Red Army Mountain named Zou Diguang. It was only after Yin Zongxin read the case files that he learned about this man's background. He was a great master in the Red Army Mountain.

Yin Zongxin knew him and had heard his father and Zhang Yuanxun discuss him.

This man was a Jinshi in the second year of the Wanli reign. In February of the eighth year of the Wanli reign, he falsely accused Zhang Juzheng, the Grand Tutor, Marquis of Yicheng, You Zhuguo, President of the Ming Dynasty Ceremonies, Grand Secretary of Wenyuan Pavilion, and Minister of Personnel, of manipulating the joint and palace examinations in the second and fifth years of the Wanli reign, causing an uproar.

Because of Gao Qiyu's incident, the court officials were immediately alert and thought that Zhang Juzheng really wanted to replace the emperor. The emperor was married and had an eldest son. Zhang Juzheng was thinking of rebelling now? This didn't make sense.

After three trials and discussions among the nine ministers, it was finally determined that Zhang Juzheng was innocent.

You must know that once Zhang Juzheng was found guilty of manipulating the imperial examination, he would immediately become a sinner of the orthodox religion. The imperial examination was watched by all scholars from top to bottom in the Ming Dynasty. This was a distribution of power every three years and was very complicated.

The result of the three-court trial and the nine ministers' discussion was that Zou Diguang had made a false accusation with the purpose of testing whether the emperor, now that he had grown up, would take action against Zhang Juzheng.

The Emperor of the Ming Dynasty wanted to kill Zou Diguang, but Zhang Juzheng saved him because the country had its own laws and the Emperor could not arbitrarily increase the punishment for personal reasons.

In the end, the court passed a resolution to exile Zou Diguang to Java.

There are two places of exile in Java, one is Coconut Sea City and the other is Surabaya City, which is the Surabaya City where Yin Zhengmao was the Marquis of Sishui.

Zou Diguang arrived at Surabaya City in Java, escaped from Surabaya City, and ran to Chijun Mountain in Yuanxu Islands.

He was a serious Jinshi, the top scholar in the Ming Dynasty. The tragic tragedies that occurred in the Red Army Mountain were inseparable from Zou Diguang's design.

Zou Diguang was not included in the sinking this time. He will be sent to the capital as the bandit leader and interrogated personally by His Majesty.

When Zou Diguang was taken aboard and saw Yin Zongxin, he spat viciously and said in a harsh voice: "Bah! You are an accomplice to the tiger! How dare you be so arrogant, you lackey of the emperor! Give me a few more years, and I will make sure that you, a yellow-haired brat, will never come back!"

"I have already fled to the Red Army Mountains thousands of miles away, but the old emperor still won't let me go. He has to chase me down all the way! I hate it. I hate the injustice of this world! Why is God treating me so badly?!"

Yin Zongxin took out the handkerchief, a little reluctantly, grabbed the clothes of the master next to him, and wiped off the spit on himself. The handkerchief was embroidered by his wife herself. Princess Yingjia was not a spoiled child, and the maid did a good job.

The master looked at his third son in astonishment. The third son thought it was dirty, but he, the number one master of the Luzon Governor's Office, didn't think it was dirty? Use my clothes to wipe it, right?
Yin Zongxin sighed and said, "In the eleventh year of the Wanli reign, the Governor's Office of Jiugang reported that the exiled Jinshi Zou Diguang from Sishui City, Java Prefecture, had disappeared for no reason. The Governor of Jiugang personally led two thousand troops to Sishui and searched for three days and three nights. In the end, they announced that you were dead and even built a cenotaph for you."

"Don't say you've been wronged. The first big house built in Hanxiang Town, Sishui City, with three entrances and three exits, is given to you."

"Uncle Zhang is going to hand over the Han Town of Sishui City to you. After three to five years, when you have made achievements, you can report to the court. You have made contributions to the country and have admitted your mistakes. You can return to the court." "My father and Uncle Zhang are both Yuanfu's men. They have corresponded with each other. Yuanfu repeatedly reminded me not to be too harsh. There were only 300 Jinshi in the three years of the Ming Dynasty. It was not easy to come by."

"Your Majesty wanted to kill you back then, but you refused to let him. Seeing that Zhou Liangyin was able to come to his senses, I thought you could do the same."

"Sir, you are wrong. There is only one Zhou Liangyin."

Yin Zongxin had a very deep impression of Zou Diguang, because when Zhang Yuanxun arrived at the Governor-General's Office of Luzon, he lamented that this great Jinshi disappeared for no reason.

Zhang Yuanxun was really heartbroken and regretted that he did not provide more guards, otherwise Sishui City might have become a large town with a population of over 150,000. Now Sishui City has less than 100,000 people.

There are not so many scholars to waste in Nanyang, and anyone who has some ability will be kept to himself for fear that something bad might happen.

Even Yin Zongxin didn't expect to find him in Red Army Mountain. The great master mentioned by the bandits in Red Army Mountain turned out to be the missing Zou Diguang.

"You lied to me! I don't believe it!" After hearing what Yin Zongxin said, Zou Diguang's face changed several times, from livid to pale, and then to red. He shouted angrily: "Impossible, Zhang Juzheng wants to kill me! How could he save me!"

Yin Zongxin shook his head again. There was a reason why this man had ended up in this state.

"I am the son-in-law of the emperor and the prince of the governor's office. Why would I lie to you, a prisoner? If you don't believe me, why don't you go back to Beijing and ask yourself? Sir, you are a scholar-official and a Jinshi. In the words of your majesty, class identity is more important than ethnic identity. Haven't you noticed? Sir rarely kills people. If he really can't stand it, he will just exile them."

"It is Your Majesty who likes to kill people." Yin Zongxin explained a few more words because he was a Jinshi.

Zhang Juzheng really didn't like killing people. At most he would just drive them away. This was the case from Gao Gong, Xu Jie to Liu Tai, Zou Yuanbiao, Zou Diguang and so on who impeached him.

He likes to uphold justice for the gentleman, and he always calls for fighting and killing, and even shouts that anyone who speaks out against the gentleman should be beheaded, Your Majesty.

"Third Master, be careful with your words, be careful with your words." The master was shocked. The Nanyang Navy also has a pier and a distant marquis. If this word gets to your majesty's ears, wouldn't that be a serious crime of secretly slandering the monarch? !
Don't dare to talk nonsense.

"Your Majesty said this to me, so why are you afraid?" Yin Zongxin laughed loudly, but still reminded himself to be careful with his words and actions, and to be loyal even if he was thousands of miles away, otherwise he would be sorry for His Majesty's grace.

The lawyer said no more. If a young man is not hot-tempered, he is not a young man. In fact, the lawyer knew very well that Yin Zongxin said these words to Zou Diguang just to make Zou Diguang angry, there was no other reason.

The more angry traitors like Zou Diguang are, the more correct the Governor-General's Office's line is. There are also two different voices in the Governor-General's Office, one is centrifugal force and the other is centripetal force. There is a contradiction, the contradiction between not relying too much on the Ming Dynasty and relying completely on the Ming Dynasty.

Zou Diguang was very smart. He knew that what Yin Zongxin said was true. He was a prince who was granted the royal surname. There was no need for him to lie to him.

Therefore, all sins are self-inflicted.

"Puff!" Zou Diguang's face became redder and redder, and he finally spat out a mouthful of blood and fell limply to the ground. The entire narrative he had constructed, that the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was indifferent and ungrateful, and that the Ming Dynasty treated him unfairly, so he had to rebel and become a traitor, was completely shattered.

"Doctor, keep an eye on him. Don't let him die on the road. It will vent the anger of His Majesty!" Yin Zongxin smiled, patted Zou Diguang on the shoulder and said, "You are just too angry."

Yin Zongxin stood at the bow and made sure that all the captured criminals had been on board. He raised his hand and the flags behind him began to flutter.

The boat full of criminals slowly began to sail out to sea under the rowing of the boatman and stopped in deep water. The criminals were stripped of all their clothes and tied with stones. As horns and drums sounded and the red-lettered flags and the round dragon flags kept flipping, the executioners cut the arms of the criminals with knives and pushed them into the sea.

The reason for cutting their arms is to ensure that they will die without a doubt. These days, there are too many sharks in the sea, and there are even a bunch of huge saltwater crocodiles on the beach. The smell of blood will attract these predators, ensuring that the death penalty by drowning is carried out.

Soon the water began to boil, and blood flowers floated on the sea.

Yin Zongxin stood at the bow, looking up at the red flag and the round dragon flag, a little dazed. His family was granted the royal surname by the emperor, and they also married a princess, so no matter how you look at it, they are qualified to use the red flag.

"What is the prince thinking about?" asked the lawyer curiously.

Yin Zongxin said in confusion: "Is my father's last name really not Zhu? Why do I feel that our family is really like the rumors say, a royal family that has been exiled?"

"Just pretend I didn't ask." The lawyer wanted to slap himself in the face. The prince's thinking was really a bit out of line.

After Yin Zongxin returned to the port, he wrote a memorial reporting the situation and rode on the ship that was escorting the criminals back to Beijing to report it to the emperor.

As the saying goes: The sound of iron armor stepping on frost and cracking salt, the sweet and fishy sea mist surrounds the rotting whale; the blood coagulates on the child’s neck and the blade becomes rusty, the eyes of the rotten child are locked in a fishy smell.

Three loud shouts frightened the enemy, and a flash of cold light cut off the owl's shape; suddenly I met an old acquaintance, but he was dressed differently, and the evil star was buried in the vast ocean.

When Yin Zongxin was executing the sinking of the ship, Deng Zilong's fleet destroyed the Black Sail Army's hideout and set sail again to Juezhou. The importance of Juezhou gold mine to the Ming Dynasty was self-evident. Deng Zilong stood on the bow, looking at the rippling waves, his brows deeply furrowed.

The future is bright, but the road is tortuous.

There are no strong enemies in the Jinchi Governor's Mansion that we are about to reach.

To this day, the main forces of Spain and Portugal in opening up the Western Sea have not found this place. The local indigenous people are called the Kulin people, and the observations made by the stargazing ships show that there is no threat.

The Kulin people lived in the northeast corner of Juezhou, in a bush forest with rainfall as high as three feet and six inches. They used stone tools and their clothing was mainly made of animal skins and grass. They had no smelting technology and only a small amount of bronze artifacts.

The Kulin people were very backward. They peeled the bark of a tree called the red gum to make boats. Due to the lack of suitable tools, they did not even have the ability to cut down trees and build boats.

The Kulin people were still using boats made of tree bark, but the Ming Dynasty already had the copper-clad wood technology, which allowed the ships to have a longer lifespan and avoid being infested by shipworms.

Songjiang Prefecture, Zhangzhou Prefecture, and Guangzhou Prefecture are trying to manufacture an ironclad ship with a thinner hull. Currently, Guangzhou Prefecture has the fastest progress. The hull planking of Guangzhou Prefecture's ironclad ship is two-layered, the outer layer is iron, and the inner layer is wood, but for various reasons, it has not passed the sea test.

The reason that supported Guangzhou Prefecture to build ironclad ships was relatively simple. The huge success of Foshan Iron Smelting in iron smelting and the two iron factories established by Wang Jiaping used good money to drive out bad money, maintained the high price of Foshan iron pots, and also made smelting technology advance by leaps and bounds.

The Kulin tribe posed no threat, but instead made Deng Zilong worried.

Because a solid fortress often collapses from the inside. Having conflicts both inside and outside is not always a bad thing. Only when there are difficulties both inside and outside will the sky fall and the earth collapse.

Both Luzon and the Governor's Office of Old Port were facing great threats, including the red-haired foreigners, Japanese pirates, barbarians, black foreigners, Persians, and internal divisions.

However, the Jinchi Governor's Office lacked such internal and external conflicts. The Kulin people were not particularly warlike. Facing the Ming Dynasty's star-observing ship, they bowed down in worship, knelt on the ground, and lowered their bodies very low, regarding the appearance of the star-observing ship as a miracle.

Therefore, in the short term, the Ming Dynasty's South China Sea Navy will not conflict with the Kulin people. For the Kulin people, the Ming Dynasty army is truly a heavenly army sent down to earth.

Without internal and external troubles, an ideal country cannot last long.

In fact, there is a good way, that is to deliberately create conflicts with the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty is strong enough, and the pressure on the Ming Dynasty is great enough. It is also very simple to deliberately create centrifugal force. With mountains of gold and silver, why should we listen to the words of the Ming Emperor!
But this could easily fall into a paradox and become a joke.

It requires huge military and cultural investment and deliberate creation of divisions to protect trade with the Ming Dynasty and avoid being threatened by the Ming Dynasty.

As for the place of Juezhou, once it is developed, the largest trading partner will be the heartland of Ming Dynasty. Others simply cannot consume these minerals or collect so much gold.

"The only loyal person overseas! Even if all the governor-general's offices betrayed the Ming Dynasty, the Jinchi Governor-General's Office cannot." Deng Zilong determined a clear policy.

To implement absolute loyalty education in Jinchi Governor's Office and to create a loyalty seal unique to Jinchi Governor's Office culturally, this was the only solution Deng Zilong could think of, just like the white-shou soldiers of Anxi Lone Army back then.

After the Anshi Rebellion, the national strength of the Tang Dynasty weakened rapidly. In the first year of the Dali period, the Hexi Corridor was annexed by Tubo. The Anxi Army of the Anxi Protectorate became an isolated army. After 42 years of holding out in the Western Regions, the soldiers, with gray hair, still believed that the Tang Dynasty could return to the Western Regions.

I am just waiting for the smoke and dust to report to the emperor, my hair is covered with frost and snow as a military plan, my determination to die is clear, how heroic is it? Who can I ask, to whom can I pledge my loyalty?

Deng Zilong’s goal is to build an absolutely loyal Jinchi Governor’s Office. If the sea route is completely cut off one day, all Han soldiers will defend it to the death and wait for the Ming army to come here again.

"General, we have arrived at Jinchi Port." The lieutenant general reported to Deng Zilong that Jinchi Port was right in front of them.

Deng Zilong stared at the port in front of him for a long time. The entrance to Jinchi Bay was only six miles long, and it would be even shorter at low tide, which was very helpful in defending against enemies from the sea. Behind the entrance was a huge bay with deep water and wide harbor. The most important thing was that there was a good port on the east side of Jinchi Bay.

"The Big and Small Golden Ponds are real." Deng Zilong murmured.

This is also the reason why the stargazing ship called this place Jinchi after mapping. There are two natural harbors, large and small, with narrow entrances, deep water and wide surfaces. These two harbors are called Big and Small Jinchi.

When the stargazing ship reported the survey to the Governor-General's Office of Luzon, Yin Zhengmao and Deng Zilong didn't quite believe it. How could there be such good natural endowments, abundant rainfall, fertile land, weak indigenous people, gold, and good harbors, a pair of natural harbors, and backed by mountains to block the ravages of storms.

"God bless the Ming Dynasty!" Deng Zilong said with deep emotion, "If we build two artillery batteries at this entrance, store heavy troops at the Dajin Pond, and store fast ships at the Xiaojin Pond, so that they can support each other, even if General Qi comes, I can make him never return!"

"General, there is a river inside, called Cangwu River." The lieutenant general carefully reminded General Deng that the natural endowments here are extremely good. Even if this river cannot be used for water transportation, the abundance of fresh water resources means irrigation, and large tracts of fertile fields can appear.

"Okay, okay." Deng Zilong's eyes lit up, and he stretched out his hands to both sides of the entrance and said, "Build three camps and artillery batteries in these three places, and call them Dinghai, Zhenhai, and Pinghai."

If the Anxi Army had the conditions of the Jinchi Governor's Mansion, they would be able to hold on for four hundred years, not to mention forty years!
With the right time, right place, and right people, plus food and water, no matter how unfilial the descendants are, they can still wear down the invading enemy.

"It's really a great place!" Deng Zilong held a telescope and kept observing the geographical features.

Deng Zilong and the officials from the Governor's Office were constantly planning how to determine the location of the camp and fort to protect the safety of Jinchi City, where it was suitable to reclaim land and grow crops, where dredging and digging of ditches were needed, and where to build Han towns.

For a moment, Deng Zilong felt that there was endless work waiting for him.

When Deng Zilong got off the boat, a group of Kulin people who saw the fleet entering the port immediately surrounded him. The interpreter walked up and translated what he heard by gestures and guesses. The interpreter whispered, "The Kulin people said that they found another golden stone on the Golden Plain."

"But the Kulins want our weapons in exchange."

(End of this chapter)