The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 281: Hard Work to Build a Nation, the Donglin Party

"God bless the Ming Dynasty with famine. God bless Japan with rivers of blood. God bless the extinction of the indigenous peoples of the New World. Your God is too busy."

The Portuguese standing in the central army tent, fluent in Ming official language, became alarmed when he heard Ping Liaohou's complaints. He quickly explained to the young commander that he had come all the way from Macao to Liaodong solely for trade and had no interest in religious matters.

"Alexander the Great of the East, please don't misunderstand me. Not all Portuguese citizens are clergy. Are you also aware of the tragedy that occurred in the New World?"

Before the Portuguese merchant Roman arrived at Shanhaiguan, many people along the way warned the Red Haired Barbarians to maintain high respect for him, Ping Liaohou.

When he learned that Ping Liaohou was only 22 years old, he had already defeated the Tungus barbarians, his ruling area exceeded half of Europe, and he was currently competing with the Ming Empire.

Roman immediately thought of Caesar and Alexander the Great.

"The British have taken over the New World now, so I want a piece of the action in the future! You can certainly come to trade, but you must wait until I negotiate peace with the imperial court and occupy Dengzhou, Shandong, because there is a better deep-water port there for your cargo ships to dock."

Liu Zhaosun smiled and nodded to the Portuguese merchants, and signaled the guards to serve tea to the red-haired foreigners.

The weather in western Liaoning was pleasant at the end of March, but Ping Liaohou was no longer prepared to wait in Shanhaiguan.

All the food in Jinzhou and Ningyuan areas was consumed by them. He ordered 300,000 foreign Liao people to return to Liaodong in batches, leaving only the last three guards and some Liao people to continue confronting the Ming army.

The capital has not responded yet.

Liu Zhaosun's patience was exhausted.

March 30th was the deadline for Kaiyuan to negotiate peace with the Ming Dynasty.

If the two sides still cannot reach an agreement by then, Ping Liaohou will have to adopt the opinions of the pro-war faction, enter the pass early, and end the Ming Dynasty.

At present, southern Liaoning was under the control of the Kaiyuan Army. Throughout March, Yuan Chonghuan and Qiao Yiqi continuously transported shiploads of soldiers to Dengzhou.

After the war begins, all five Kaiyuan guards will be dispatched.

Ping Liaohou personally led the First and Second Guard Armies into the Shanhaiguan Pass and attacked Tongzhou Sanhe directly, taking the lead in the attack.

The Third, Fourth and Fifth Armies will be divided into two routes, one of which will attack from Weihaiwei towards Tianjin, while the other will cut off the grain transport and prevent the royalist troops from Henan, Hebei, Huguang and other places from going north to rescue.

At the same time, the Khorchin and Kharchin tribes of Mongolia will break through the wall from Longjing Pass and Xifengkou in Jizhou to contain the border troops in Shanxi and other places.

Liu Zhaosun called this battle plan Operation Little Ice Age Harvest.

During Operation Little Ice Harvest, he might massacre a town that watched Jin Yuji being killed.

As for how many people to kill, it all depends on the mood of Ping Liaohou.

March 30th has not yet arrived, he needs to wait quietly.

Waiting for the Chaotian official Li Tiran, waiting for the Koreans to bring back good news.

On March 28, Li Tiran did not return, and Liu Zhaosun waited for the Portuguese merchant Roman.

Marco Polo's travelogue was widely circulated among Europeans. Inspired by this book, European adventurers such as Columbus and explorers such as Nicolaj dreamed that the China they would discover on the other side of the world would be the world described by Marco Polo, with magnificent palaces of happiness and unparalleled wealth - we call it the Celestial Empire.

Of course, for those more pragmatic Europeans, they need to look for something more tangible and concrete:
Porcelain, silk worn by priests, rhubarb, and tea.

These artifacts produced in China were sold at high prices in Europe and brought huge profits, so countless honest and brave European merchants went to China to seek trade.

Roman is one of them.

Roman arrived in Macau, China in 1618 (the th year of the Wanli reign). Before meeting Liu Zhaosun, he had been working as an interpreter in the Portuguese fleet.

Two years later, Roman used his accumulated wealth to buy a state-of-the-art three-masted sailing ship, ready to follow the Dutch in their footsteps and go to Japan to make a big move.

Unexpectedly, in the same year, the Tokugawa shogunate announced a policy of closing the country to the outside world, prohibiting merchant ships from any country except China and the Netherlands from entering.

The once lucrative commercial voyages to Japan were drawing to a close.

Roman lost all his money.

In despair, the Portuguese merchants on the verge of bankruptcy chose to convert to Catholicism and turned to the Jesuits.

Perhaps it was a miracle from God, but by chance, Roman heard about the deeds of Ping Liaohou from a missionary from the north.

In the remote northeastern corner of the Ming Empire, there actually existed such a powerful figure dedicated to upholding free trade and human rights equality.

From the name of Ping Liaohou (Zhao Sun), which was full of simple religious atmosphere, the Portuguese felt the long-lost atmosphere of classicism.

One of the tricky issues Roman encountered when dealing with other officials was that they would use all kinds of rare and strange characters to show off their cultural accomplishments.

So, he set out from Macau without hesitation and headed north to open up a Liaodong trade route.

"Except for Tang (Ming) people, all other goods can be bought and sold."

Liu Zhaosun stared at Roman's deep blue eyes and became interested in him after listening to the Portuguese's rough life experience.

"The rule in Liaodong is that payment must be made upon delivery, and no credit is accepted. Mr. Roman, if you can sell this batch of goods successfully, the trade agency rights for Liaodong and southern Liaoning will be handed over to you, and I will only cooperate with you. Next time you come, please ship a batch of your most advanced firearms, which can be used to offset the payment for the goods..." On March 28, Ping Liaohou and the Portuguese began to discuss various trade details at noon. When Roman left the tent, it was already dusk.

As usual, Liu Zhaosun forgot to eat.

Kang Yingqian stood outside the tent. Without waiting for the red-haired barbarians to leave, he rushed into the tent and shouted at Ping Liaohou, who was still chewing on a steamed bun:
"Did you hear that?"

Liu Zhaosun chewed the food voraciously, grabbed the teacup and took a sip, then looked up at General Kang.

"what?"

Kang Yingqian didn't care whether Ping Liaohou had eaten well or not. He tore off half of the steamed bun and said anxiously:
"Ah, stop eating! Commander Sun has been imprisoned!"

Liu Zhaosun's chewing stopped abruptly.

"Which Commander Sun?"

Kang Yingqian was at a loss whether to laugh or cry.

"Who's that Commander Sun? It's Sun Chengzong, the one who negotiated peace with us! What happened the other day? No wonder there's been no news about Li Tiran these days. It turns out the court has changed! They're not negotiating peace anymore! I'm sure Li Tiran is dead too."

Liu Zhaosun put down the teacup and tried to adjust his thoughts.

Although he had simulated the finale of the Little Ice Age countless times in his mind and there was no problem on the military level, no one in Kaiyuan was ready to enter the pass.

Except for the pro-war factions such as Wang Erhu, Kang Yingqian and Yuan Chonghuan, the others were cautious about entering the pass.

Liu Zhaosun himself was not ready to become emperor immediately.

He has not yet decided whether to name the new dynasty "Han" or "Qi".

Not to mention the various troubles after becoming emperor.

Just swallowing up Liaoxi was already a headache, and occupying the entire northern Zhili, the Kaiyuan system would be diluted to an unknown extent.

In the end, perhaps he would be like Zhu Yuanzhang, launching several major crimes, slaughtering tens of thousands of people, and thus controlling the overall situation.

By then, he had become a tyrant and a traitor in Nurhaci's eyes.

"Isn't Sun Chengzong the imperial tutor? The emperor favors him so much, who would dare to touch him?"

Kang Yingqian sighed and gritted his teeth:
"Who dares to touch him? Marquis Ping Liao, do you know anything about the Donglin Party?"

Liu Zhaosun looked at Kang Yingqian suspiciously and thought, aren't you one of them?

Liu Zhaosun wanted to kill Xu Xianchun under the pretext of peace talks. After Xu Xianchun learned that he had been betrayed by Sun Chengzong, he immediately joined forces with the Donglin Party and revealed the terms of the peace talks between Sun Chengzong and Kaiyuan, shocking the court and the public.

Soon, rumors spread in the capital that Commander Sun had seized ten carts of gold, jade, and jewelry from the Marquis of Ping Liao at Shanhaiguan, as well as more than a dozen beautiful women from Liaodong.

Kang Yingqian was out of breath and said excitedly:

"On the morning of the 25th of this month, during the court session, Yao Zongwen, the Imperial Secretary, rebuked Sun Chengzong in front of all the officials, saying:
"The Liao situation is becoming increasingly difficult because Sun has abandoned collective wisdom and pursued his own ideas. He has colluded with Kaiyuan and seized the fertile land of western Liaoning. He is disgusted with Liu's ferocious and ruthless nature and is causing harm to millions of people in the Ming Dynasty."

Censor Wei Yingjia, Censor Zhang Zhifa, Imperial Secretary Fang Shiliang, and Vice Minister of Justice Xu Shiqi all attacked Sun Chengzong and demanded that the emperor punish him severely:

"A minister has no right to foreign relations. No one in the imperial court has ever taken advantage of others without consulting the emperor or his father. Sun Chengzong privately paid money and insulted the country. He deserves the punishment of execution according to the law of the captured city."

···········
"What else did they do?"

Kang Yingqian raised his arms and shouted:
"On the 26th, the Emperor had the Director of the Imperial Observatory executed with a cane. This director had submitted a memorial claiming that Mars was in the heart, and that this was due to the Emperor's favoritism towards treacherous officials, and that the country was doomed... On the 27th, Prime Minister Huang led the officials in forcing the palace. Over 200 people knelt in front of the Jinshui Bridge, demanding that Sun Chengzong be punished. The eunuchs on duty ignored the situation, and the commotion continued until twilight that evening, when an order was issued from the Qianqing Palace to arrest Sun Chengzong, and they dispersed."

"Marquis Ping Liao, I have been an official for many years, but this is the first time I have seen such a scene. It is even more lively than the grand ceremony of Emperor Shizong!"

Liu Zhaosun smiled slightly.

"They died admonishingly, they were ambitious and loyal. Even the celestial phenomena were visible to them! It seems that Sun Chengzong will not survive. However, why do the names of these Imperial Censors look so familiar?"

Kang Yingqian cursed:
"It's strange that they're not familiar with each other! They are the same people who impeached Xiong Jinglüe before!"

Liu Zhaosun laughed loudly.

Kang Yingqian glared at Ping Liaohou. He could still laugh at this time.

"Marquis Ping Liao, according to the terms of the peace agreement, we in Kaiyuan will also get involved in the business of the Jiangnan Canal and other places. Donglin's opposition is understandable. I thought that we could ask for an exorbitant price and the court would pay us back on the spot. At worst, we could divide the money with local officials, and we would all make money together. I didn't expect it to turn out like this!"

"Marquis Ping Liao, if the imperial court truly kills Sun Chengzong this time, we'll be in a difficult position. We can't really enter the pass! By the way, did you tell that imperial official to let him do what he wants and not be too forceful?"

"Of course I told him."

Liu Zhaosun's laughter stopped abruptly and his eyes turned cold again.

"General Kang, you underestimated the Donglin Party. They are the ones who work hard to build the country. They just want to eat all the benefits and won't give Kaiyuan any share. Well, since I can't get any, then I'll overturn the table."

(End of this chapter)