Southern Ming, my destiny is too abstract

Chapter 130 You can borrow your life from God, but you can’t ask me for money

Siming Prefecture, renamed by Zhongzuo in the ninth year of the Yongli reign, is surrounded by the sea on three sides and faces the islands across the sea on the east, west and south sides.

The north is connected to the land, and the hills centered on Foxtail Mountain and Xianyue Mountain form a natural barrier. Zheng Yanping also built mountain cities that support each other here, and equipped them with Dutch artillery to cover a large area of ​​sea.

Among the people of Siming Prefecture, one-third of the army and their families lived in the north, facing the plains where the people lived and worked as farmers in the southeast.

Zheng Tai, Hong Xu and other meritorious generals will stay in the military camp tonight, looking down at the Siming Prefecture Office in the middle of the island.

After Huang Wu rebelled and surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, and offered Haicheng and other places to the Qing Dynasty, Siming Prefecture became the front line.

When Zheng Yanping captured Yizhou, Hong Xu, Huang Ting, Huang Zhao and other meritorious generals guarded Simingzhou, and Zheng Tai guarded Wuzhou Island and was in charge of transporting money and food.

When Zheng Tai delayed the transportation of food and fodder, Zheng Jing retreated from Simingzhou on the front line to Wuzhou Island.

In other words, Siming Prefecture was originally the territory of the meritorious generals.

Inside the big tent of the martial arts training ground.

"Look at the clanging of iron hooves, trampling across thousands of miles of mountains and rivers."

"I stand at the forefront, holding on to the sun and moon as they spin."

"The world is flooded with blood, and peace and happiness are all mine..."

Military officer Hong Xu hummed the song that Zhu Cixuan sang for Zheng Yanping.

It was very crude and colloquial, completely different from the songs of the Ming Dynasty, but it was just what these warriors wanted.

Even though there were some conflicts with Zhu Cixuan, the generals all agreed that Prince Yongli was indeed capable of both civil and military affairs.

Some people watched Zheng Yanping grow up, and more people accompanied Zheng Yanping from a small corner of Siming Prefecture to become the leader of the Southeast Ming Army step by step.

They knew best Zheng Yanping's mental and physical condition after the defeat in Nando, and they were both afraid and worried.

Hong Xu finished humming the song and murmured, "An official surrendered to the Qing Dynasty. Da Mu went through countless hardships to reach this point."

"I only regret that Heaven has not yet tired of the chaos and is still torturing and testing him."

"No wonder Da Mu refused to obey anyone and submitted to Zhu Cixuan."

This song, which was written personally by Zheng Yanping, is full of heroic spirit, but given the current situation, with the Ming Dynasty having lost the world and trapped on two islands in the southeast, the lingering sound is full of tragedy.

After Crown Prince Yongli finished singing this song, he fell seriously ill, which made the scene even more sad.

Hong Xu smiled and said, "I heard from those military commanders from Nanyang that Zhu Cixuan married into Nanyang and took in concubines, and that the Eastern Palace took in princesses from various countries."

"From what I've seen, Zheng Jing doesn't look like Da Mu's son. Instead, Zhu Cixuan and Da Mu look a bit like father and son."

Of course, Zheng Jing was also lustful and had many wives and concubines.

But he is not like Zheng Yanping and Zhu Cixuan, who are indifferent to both sexes and like foreign women.

Upon hearing this, Zheng Tai glanced at the old generals who had followed the Zheng family since the time of Zheng Zhilong.

He also had the idea of ​​surrendering to Zhu Cixuan.

This is not surprising. Who can stop the trend of Southeast Asia?

Zheng Yanping treated them well, and as long as Zhu Cixuan was not too harsh on them, they could continue to live the same life as before.

While the honored generals were chatting, someone who was trying to find out the news from the government office came into the tent panting.

"Fever?"

The generals couldn't help but frown.

They are quite familiar with Yizhou.

Fever is both easy and difficult to cure. If the evil can be eliminated and the fever can be reduced within a few days, then it is still okay. If not, then the patient will be in danger of death.

Zheng Tai thought for a moment and said, "Yizhou is desolate, and Nanyang is filled with miasma. Could it be that Zhu Cixuan contracted an illness in Nanyang and, knowing his life was coming to the southeast, came to seize power?"

Hong Xu hesitated and said, "Not really. Didn't he say that he has unified Southeast Asia and made all the countries vassal states pay tribute?"

"If you really contracted an illness in Southeast Asia, why didn't you rest and recover first? Why did you travel thousands of miles to the southeast with an injury? Traveling on a ship with a fever, new illnesses compounded with old ones, making recovery even more difficult."

Zheng Tai's eyes were stern. "What if he can't recover? What if he knows that he is not far from death?"

"If he doesn't take advantage of the south wind and head north, he'll have to wait until next year. What if he can't wait until next year?"

Looking at the thoughtful crowd, Zheng Tai said slowly, "Everyone says he unified Southeast Asia. Aside from the few captured Southeast Asians, Westerners, Japanese, and Yongli soldiers in the southwest, who knows if that's true or not?" "We can't send anyone to verify it now, and we'll have to wait until next year to verify it when the north wind blows south."

Zheng Tai saw everyone looking at him in surprise and doubt: "Do you think I'm lying?"

"It's normal to feel uncomfortable in a foreign land, but have you seen generals like Hu Yiqing and Ma Bao fall ill?"

"I've inquired about it. Even if there are some minor illnesses, they will be cured in a short time."

"Zhu Cixuan, a young man who hasn't even reached adulthood, is really as brave and invincible as those people say, but he would fall down because of a mere natural fever."

"You have been through many battles, and a brave general would only fall ill from a minor illness in his prime, unless it were due to plague or old age."

Huang Ting blinked his eyes. "General Zheng means that they deceived us. They were fleeing to Fujian and are bluffing in order to seize power."

Hong Xu retorted, "Even if those foreigners are lying, we inland have intelligence. The Yunnan-Yunnan incident is so big, we can find out the truth after a little investigation."

Zheng Tai said calmly, "The pseudo-Qing Dynasty has relocated its borders and closed off the sea. Even if Chen Yonghua finds anti-Qing patriots in Fujian and Jiangxi, it will take months to go back and forth."

Hong Xu narrowed his eyes slightly and stared at Zheng Tai: "Da Mu has already attached himself to Prince Yongli. Can we refute and resist?"

Zheng Yanping's prestige over the past fifteen years was such that even if there were some conflicts among the upper-level generals, the middle and lower-level soldiers would definitely obey Koxinga.

Zheng Tai was mentally prepared, and with his lips slightly opened, he only uttered one name.

"Chang Shouning."

After hearing these three words, the people who were still secretly angry at Zheng Tai for defying Zheng Yanping immediately stopped.

That was six years ago.

Zheng Yanping had just renamed Zhongzuo to Siming Prefecture and received the order from Emperor Yongli to set up six government offices when a major case broke out in Jinxia.

Chang Shouning, born into a prominent family in Jiangnan, led an uprising in Songjiang to resist the Qing Dynasty, and later went south to join Zheng Yanping.

When the six government offices were established, Chang Shouning was valued by Zheng Yanping and was appointed to the position of Censor-in-Chief and in charge of the seals of the six inspectors, that is, the Censor-in-Chief of Jinxia.

It was also the knife that Zheng Yanping used to control the military with civil power and suppress the meritorious generals.

Among the three people in charge of military supplies in Jinxia, ​​Huang Kai, who was initially in charge of supplies, was investigated and punished by Chang Shouning because of his rebellious behavior, excessive collection and insufficient reporting, which aroused public resentment.

After Zheng Yanping received the report, he killed people and confiscated their property.

The official first household official, Hong Xu, was also impeached and reported by Chang Shouning. Although he was acquitted, he still gave up the post of household official three months after taking office in order to avoid suspicion.

Then the Jinxia household official was Zheng Tai.

Zheng Tai would not surrender like the previous two. He directly counterattacked and impeached Chang Shouning, who had been sent to Daiqing as a spy from the Eastern Tartars.

Zheng Yanping led his generals to counterattack in an attempt to weaken their power.

Seeing that Hong Xu was silent, Zheng Tai snorted coldly, "Have you forgotten where Chang Shouning was imprisoned?"

"If Zhu Cixuan and Damu bring him back from Yizhou, how many families here will be able to find peace?"

"I have seized people's property by force, and my son has also abducted women, but how clean are you?"

"Hong Xu, you never accepted bribes when you were transporting grain. Huang Ting, wasn't your third concubine also a forced-purchased fisherwoman?"

Hong Xu looked coldly at Zheng Tai who was talking eloquently.

The few thousand taels he embezzled could still be considered honest if they were put there.

On the contrary, it was Zheng Tai who was the real corrupt official during his years as the household official. He hid dozens of boxes of silver in Japan alone.

"We are pirates. It's impossible for Da Mu to use the damn Ming Dynasty law to control us."

Zheng Tai continued, "Zhu Cixuan's fate is uncertain, so he wants to use his last days to follow the example of Damu and launch a northern expedition against the two capitals."

"Anyway, I know that Jinxia can only pay 100,000 taels of silver as military pay, not more."

"Think for yourself whether he will ask for money from us."

Zheng Tai picked up the bird gun at his waist and said coldly, "Borrow another five hundred years from heaven?"

"You can ask God for your life, but you can't ask me for money."

(End of this chapter)