Optimus One Pillar of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 215 Chapter [-] The Tragic Hero Wang Zhi

After all the thieves finished wailing, Wang Zhi added his sword and said: "Everyone, all the masters, in the past few months, Wang Shao was in the Japanese country to respect the king and fight the barbarians, destroyed the Meinong Kingdom, shocked the Japanese vassals, and completely conquered the Japanese country. I think everyone has heard about it! Let me tell you clearly, there are three thousand Japanese servants in Wang Shatou’s team this time."

"Everyone, you all have Japanese ronin as your thugs. I think you all know how ferocious those Japanese are. Precisely because the Japanese are so ferocious, you all only dare to recruit a small number of Japanese as forwards, but you don't dare to If we recruit too many people, we are afraid that if they rebel, our own people here will not be able to suppress them. And there are three thousand Japanese troops on Wang Shatou's side! And these Japanese troops are all serious Japanese vassals. The regular army is the most powerful warrior under their command, and their combat power is much stronger than the Japanese ronin under us."

"Wang Shatou has three thousand fierce Japanese troops and several thousand well-equipped Ming troops. So if we want to fight them head-on this time, we will have to knock eggs on rocks, which is courting death."

Wang Zhi clearly explained the current comparison of the strength between the enemy and ourselves.This is like pouring a basin of ice water on these thieves' heads.At this moment, the gang of thieves are all panicking in their hearts, full of fear of losing their lives, and they can't help but think in their mouths full of panic: "What can I do?" Ah, what should I do?"

After a period of desperate suffocation at the scene, the thief Xu Dong was the first to wake up from the panic.He said to all the thieves in a serious tone: "The king shaved his head so badly that hundreds of thousands of White Lotus Sect members in Shandong died in his hands. The Japanese were so ferocious that they are just his dogs now. Even hundreds of thousands of White Lotus Sect members and Tens of millions of Japanese are no match for him. The few thousand of us are really not enough for him. Fighting will not work. Sooner or later, hiding in this forest will starve to death of thirst. I think so, each of our families We all took out some gold and silver treasures and sent representatives to offer them to the king to shave our heads to see if he could give us a way to survive."

You can't fight, and you can't hide for long. If you can spend money to buy a way out, the thieves will naturally be willing.After all, if the gold, silver, and jewelry are gone, you can grab them again, but if your life is gone, everything is settled.

So as soon as Xu Dong's suggestion of spending money to buy his life came out, all the thieves expressed their support.He also said that for the overall benefit of everyone, no one can dig Soso this time.Each family must take out at least half of the gold and silver in their hands, as well as the treasures at the bottom of the boxes, and send them all to the king to shave his head and buy a way for everyone to live.

In order to survive, the thieves gritted their teeth and stamped their feet. This time they were determined to die and sacrificed their wealth to save their lives.Cai was heartbroken and decided to give it up, but when they finally discussed who should be sent to talk to Wang Shatou, all the thieves hid behind him.After all, to these thieves, Wang Shatou is like an angry dinosaur that eats people without spitting out bones, and they don't dare to send it to their door themselves.

All the thieves did not dare to see Wang Shatou and hid behind. In the end, Wang Zhi decided to risk his own life and take a gamble this time based on his life creed of finding wealth in danger.So he took the initiative to ask Ying to represent a group of thieves and go to the king to shave his head and pay for his life.

Seeing that someone was willing to take the initiative to do such a dangerous thing as Wang Zhi's haircut, the thieves were naturally happy. They all praised Wang Zhi as a good comrade and promised Wang Zhi that if the task was successful, they would give him a certain reward.

In this way, Wang Zhi became the representative of the pirates in Zhoushan.He first tried to contact Yoshino Koji again and asked Yoshino Koji to tell the Ming army that the pirates wanted to surrender and asked to meet Wang Daoqiu.

Receiving Wang Zhi's request, Yoshino Koji conveyed the pirates' wishes to the leading officer of his own Ming army.After a level of upload, the news that the pirates requested to send representatives to ask Wang Daoqiu to surrender reached Wang Daoqiu at noon the next day.

To be honest, Wang Daoqiu's plan this time is to kill all these pirates.After all, it is impossible for a person who has been a pirate to go back to being a good citizen.Letting them go will leave an element of instability in society.

Just like those young ladies who work in Fengyuechang, no matter how forced they were when they first entered Fengyuechang to make that kind of money.But as long as they have stayed in that kind of place, lived that kind of lavish life, and made that kind of big money, quick money, easy money.Then it would be impossible for her to go back to the village to farm, go to the factory to make screws, and earn those small and hard-earned money. This is human nature.

Therefore, Wang Daoqiu did not believe that these people who had lived a happy life and worked as a pirate, a profession that brought in quick and abundant money, could still go back to the village and farm and fish honestly.Therefore, Wang Daoqiu believes that the treatment of these pirates should be to eliminate them instead of letting them change their minds and start a new life.

But now he heard from his subordinates that the representative sent by the pirates this time was Wang Zhi, which made Wang Daoqiu interested. He also wanted to meet this Ming Dynasty, a folk wonder who had an important influence in the world.

Wang Zhi, whose real name is Quan and nicknamed "Zhi", is from Tuolin, Xiong Village, She County, Huizhou.Because he later made a living by smuggling trade at sea, in order to hide his identity from others, he pretended to use his mother's surname and called himself "Wang Zhi", the owner of Wufeng Ship.

Huizhou is mostly hilly and mountainous, with more people and less land. It is impossible to escape poverty by farming.So when Wang Zhi became an adult, he was forced by life to go out of his hometown to become a Huizhou merchant.

At the beginning, he sold salt together with his fellow villagers. After losing their capital, he and his fellow villager Xu Weixue went to Guangdong in the 19th year of Jiajing. Taking advantage of the relaxation of the Ming Dynasty's maritime ban policy, he went to Guangdong with Ye Zongman, Xie He, Fang Wu and others from Zhangzhou, Fujian, to carry out overseas trade. "Purchase prohibited goods such as nitrate, yellow silk, cotton, etc. to the Japanese country, and trade between Siam and Western countries." Later in the 21st year of Jiajing, Wang Zhi had good relations with Matsuura Takanobu, the Japanese Satsuma clan, and Matsuura Takanobu allowed Wang Zhi to use the Satsuma clan's Matsuura Tianjin was used as a base to engage in maritime trade. From then on, Wang Zhi had an overseas base.

Later, Wang Zhi joined the Xu Dong Group, a fellow villager in She County, Huizhou, and served as the shopkeeper. He called on "to lure Buddhists and foreigners to travel to and from the Zhejiang Sea, stop at Shuangyu Port, and engage in private trade."

In the original historical time and space, after his boss Xu Dong was wiped out by Zhu Wan's troops, Wang Zhisui started anew, using Jintang Island as a stronghold, gathering the remaining merchants and pirates, and building a 120-step boat with a capacity of 2000 people and a horse-riding capacity. The giant ships competed for hegemony in the oceans and became the largest maritime force in East Asia at that time.

In the eyes of those history novices, Wang Zhi was just a pirate who only knew how to rob.But in fact, he is not. To be precise, Wang Zhi is a Huizhou merchant. He prefers doing business to robbing.

Therefore, Wang Zhi always had great expectations for the Ming Dynasty. Under the hint of local officials' acquiescence in the "private market", he not only did not rob himself, but also worked very hard with the government to quell Chen Siman and other stocks. Along the coasts of Zhejiang and Fujian, they burned, killed and looted pirates in an effort to maintain stability and unity in the coastal areas.

Moreover, Wang Zhi is a very good person, honest and trustworthy, and chivalrous.Therefore, not only the merchants were willing to do business with him, but the common people also rushed to send their children to Wang Zhi's fleet.This gradually established Wang Zhi's status as "sea overlord".

Its strength was so strong at that time that Spain and Portugal, which were rampant in the world at that time and were called the Francois by the Ming Dynasty, faced Wang Zhi's force and could only take real money or their guns. , came to exchange silk tea porcelain with Wang Zhi, not daring to make any mistakes.

Wang Zhi had always wanted the Ming Dynasty to open up the sea for trade. However, the Ming Dynasty at that time was an era when the scholar-bureaucrats and landlords were in power. They only accepted imperial examinations and not strong men.Therefore, Wang Zhi, who violated the rules and profit-making methods of the ruling class at that time, could not escape the fate of the heroes of the Water Margin after he foolishly surrendered to the landlord class power.

In the original history, Wang Zhi was persuaded by Hu Zongxian and chose to recruit peace from the Ming court.The important ministers of the Ming Dynasty told Emperor Jiajing: "Wang Zhi has a fleet that far exceeds the strength of the Ming Dynasty navy, and has a large number of pirates for him to drive, and he also has bases overseas. Even if Wang Zhi defected to the imperial court, But he is still outside the system. As long as he runs to the seaside and gets on a ship, the emperor's imperial edict can do nothing about him. Therefore, if the court wants to eliminate this maritime problem, it must kill Wang Zhi."

The court did not trust Wang Zhi and wanted to kill him.At that time, when the Jiangnan gentry and wealthy merchants saw that Wang Zhi wanted to surrender to the imperial court, they were also worried that once Wang Zhi was recruited, his huge maritime power would surrender to the emperor.From now on, the emperor has the final say on the sea, and maritime trade will be strictly supervised. The court can collect as much tax as it wants. The emperor may even monopolize maritime trade himself, and the interests of the gentry and wealthy merchants in the south of the Yangtze River will be greatly damaged.

Therefore, as soon as this group of Jiangnan gentry and wealthy merchants received the news that Wang Zhi would defect to the imperial court, they mobilized all their connections and tried every means to put Wang Zhi to death.

The emperor and the court wanted to kill him, and the Jiangnan gentry and wealthy merchants wanted to kill him. In this case, Wang Zhi would have to blame himself for his death.

Wang Zhi has a unique vision and his judgment on the international trade situation is far better than those conservative bureaucrats.Even before he was executed, he wrote "Xi Zi Ming Shu" to pray to Emperor Jiajing for the lifting of the sea ban, but nothing happened.

Wang Zhi, the last outstanding figure of the generation, was beheaded at Hangzhou Palace Port on December 38, 25th year of Jiajing.Before he was executed, he saw his son for the last time. His son held him in his arms and cried. Wang Zhi took a hairpin and gave it to his son, sighing: "I don't want to punish this land!" Then he stretched his neck to receive the blade, and he did not scratch it. He was a true hero. also.

A generation of outstanding Wang Zhi died just like that, which also led to the demise of the last hope of trade in the Jiajing Dynasty at that time.In other words, we planted flowers and lost another chance to go to the ocean and avoid modern tragedy.So Wang Zhi's death, we later used a hundred years of humiliation to pay the price for it.

Facing Wang Zhi, as a flower grower, Wang Daoqiu believed that he should have respect and apology for him, and should give him justice.So Wang Daoqiu, who originally wanted to kill all the pirates, softened his heart after knowing that Wang Zhi would negotiate on behalf of the pirates.

(End of this chapter)