Reborn Ming Dynasty as Emperor

Chapter 347 The Zheng Family Pirates Are Coming

Where there are people, there are rivers and lakes. Although the Donglin Party has fallen, those who are still in the capital as high-ranking civil servants have joined the Royalist Party.

But Zhu Youxiao, as His Majesty the Emperor, knows that even the royalists are roughly divided into two types of people. One is idealists who really want to follow him in a career, and the other is those who love power and position and don’t care about political opinions. A realist willing to play to the tune of the emperor.

But in this way, there will naturally be struggles and mountains.

Zhu Youxiao knew that this was inevitable and reasonable.On the contrary, these civil servants all agreed, and if they stopped fighting, it would be a bad thing for him, the emperor.

Because in this case, these civil servants will unite to deal with themselves.

But it should not be too much, leading to disputes between the party and the party, so as to affect the major policies of the court and the operation of the entire Ming Dynasty, and even lead to the corruption of officials.

"Go and check Cao Sicheng, the censor of Zuodu. You Dongchang can't always keep your eyes on the officials outside. Do you know what it means to be dark under the lights? Inside the capital, especially the six ministries and nine ministers, you have to keep an eye on them too." Tighten up, this Cao Sicheng seems to want to go a step further, check that he has gotten close to those people recently, especially Li Mingrui."

Zhu Youxiao gave Liu Ruoyu some instructions.

As the emperor, he was not worried about Li Mingrui's fight with Qian Qianyi, but he was worried that Li Mingrui would join forces with Cao Sicheng, the censor of Zuodu.

I don't want to go into details about how Dongchang secretly dispatched all kinds of officialdom, but just said that Zhu You came to Queen Zhang Yan after the feast of school scriptures was over.

Empress Zhang Yan is already pregnant with Liujia, and now her belly is slightly protruding, but she looks a little bit more maternal than usual. Zhu Youxiao has never been married in his previous life. Frankly speaking, Empress Zhang Yan was originally his second life. The first woman in .

Therefore, Zhu Youxiao's feelings for Zhang Yan are different from others, and he naturally feels like a real relative.

"Be careful, don't get up".

Unlike Xu Fu's pregnancy, Zhu Youxiao didn't go on tour at this time, because he stayed in the capital all the time, so Zhu Youxiao often visited Zhang Yan, and sometimes went to bed with Zhang Yan, imitating ordinary couples to cut things together Window candles, but talk about the night rain in Bashan.

As soon as the sutra feast was over, the winter sun shone into the Forbidden City. When Zhu Youxiao came to Kunning Palace, he saw Zhang Yan who had already been lying in the courtyard outside the palace basking in the sun, about to stand up and salute, so he gave this order.

Zhu Youxiao helped Zhang Yan to sit down, and saw that Zhang Yan's forehead was slightly sweaty, so he wiped it for her, but when he withdrew his hand, he saw Hai Lanzhu standing at the gate of the palace with his hands down, but he had already changed into a Han Dress, slender waist that can be grasped, Taofeng is plump and looks even more charming.

Seeing this, Zhu Youxiao couldn't help thinking of the two crazy things with this Hai Lanzhu. Although he had already obtained this Hai Lanzhu's body, he didn't enjoy his romantic affairs during that time. Hai Lanzhu didn't need Xu Fo and Zhang Yan. Being so active made Zhu Youxiao feel a little compulsive both times.

Zhu Youxiao couldn't bear to get close to Hai Lanzhu at this moment, but he thought that he came to see his queen Zhang Yan today, not Bairi Xuanyin, that would be too absurd, so he suppressed it With evil thoughts in his heart, he gently put his hand on Queen Zhang Yan's lower abdomen and touched it for a while, then said with a smile: "He seems to be moving."

Empress Zhang Yan saw that Zhu Youxiao looked like a child, so she couldn't help but smiled, and leaned her head gently on Zhu Youxiao's shoulder: "Your Majesty, I heard that you sent Sister Hui to go outside the customs?"

Zhu Youxiao nodded and said: "Yes, she is different from you. You are good at classifying the documents, and you can help me do some writing in the palace, and she is a person who can communicate well. Also let her train in the Royal Military Academy for a while, and now let her go to do something outside the pass is also prepared before, she is indispensable."

"However, Jiong'er has just been weaned." As soon as Queen Zhang Yan said, Zhu Youxiao interrupted her directly: "There is a guest mother with her, it's all right, so there is no need to mention this matter again."

Zhang Yan had no choice but to stop talking about it, and the two chatted for a while, before Zhu Youxiao left Kunning Palace, and walked up to Hai Lanzhu on purpose, and paused for a while, while Hai Lanzhu bowed down with the other court ladies. Apart from saluting, there was no strange expression on his face.

Zhu Youxiao couldn't help smiling, and said without saying anything, "Show me Xinuange."

……

On the boundless blue sea, the fifty warships of the First Fleet of the North Sea and the ten ships of the Royal Weaving Bureau loaded with tens of thousands of pieces of silk, thousands of glass and silver mirrors, and tens of thousands of porcelains of various styles are heading towards the Kingdom of Ryukyu. moving in the direction.

The Kingdom of Ryukyu is located between present-day Taiwan and Kyushu, Japan. It has been a subsidiary state of Ming Dynasty since the Hongwu period.

The current King of Ryukyu is King Shangfeng, but strictly speaking he is not the King of Ryukyu. As long as Cheng Yuqing, a pedestrian who came to the Ryukyu Kingdom with the Beihai First Fleet, handed over Zhu Youxiao's letter of credence to Shang Feng as the King of Ryukyu Only after Yu Shangfeng can be regarded as the real Ryukyu king.

Although the Ryukyu Kingdom is a small place, it is not a barren land. Because its geographical location is between the Ming Dynasty and the Japanese pirates, and it is also close to the countries of Southeast Asia, it is a trading hub, known as the Jinliang of all countries. say.

Therefore, the Ryukyu Kingdom is already very rich, so there is no need to worry that the tens of thousands of pieces of silk and other products of the Royal Weaving Bureau cannot be sold in the Ryukyu Kingdom. After the chaos, the silk trade between the Ryukyu Kingdom and Ming Dynasty was often hundreds of thousands or even more.

Of course, this does not mean that everyone in the Ryukyu country wears silk. In most cases, Ryukyu is just a transit point. Merchants in the Ryukyu country resell Ming’s goods to other places, and they can still earn countless wealth.

The Royal Weaving Bureau this time brought far less than one-tenth of the amount of trade goods in Long Wannian. The goods came to Ryukyu to test the reactions of Zheng Zhilong and other pirates.

According to Zhu Youxiao's thinking, if Zheng Zhilong really intends to belong to the court, the court should be allowed to intervene in maritime trade, instead of relying on Zheng Zhilong's pirates to indirectly control the sea.

Fortunately, the road to the Ryukyu Kingdom was uneventful, at least so far there has been no abnormality.

The commander-in-chief of the North Sea Fleet, Gu Sanmazi, who is also the commander of the North Sea Fleet, Cheng Yuqing, a pedestrian from the pedestrian department, and Wei Ming, the chief rudder of the Jiangnan Branch of the Royal Weaving Bureau, are standing on the steam-powered ship of the Ming Dynasty. On the "Zheng He".

Although Qin Botong is an officer student who graduated early from the Royal Military Academy, he has also made up for a year of theoretical knowledge of naval warfare, but he lacks actual combat experience. Therefore, Qin Botong entrusted Gu Sanmazi to command the escort mission to the Royal Weaving Bureau this time. , but he, the chief military officer, surrendered his status to learn from others.

Gu Sanmazi is also welcome, he has been a pirate in Hangzhou Bay for several years, and he has not been annexed by a sea overlord like Zheng Zhilong, which proves that he is quite good at sea combat. After tempering his temper for a year in the military school, not only did he become more steadfast and steady, he also filled up a lot of ink, and his theoretical knowledge also improved a lot.

"I said Gu Sanmazi, why don't you take a rest and hold up the binoculars to see what you are doing. You are going to the Ryukyu Kingdom soon. It is estimated that the Zheng family will not come. If they do, they will come earlier."

Qin Botong is easy-going, although he is a direct line general of the Imperial Guard who is deeply trusted by Zhu Youxiao and has the background of Duke Wei, but he does not despise Gu Sanmazi, who was born as a pirate. He also became friends with Gu Sanmazi, not only Gu Sanmazi, Cheng Yuqing, a pedestrian from the pedestrian department, and Wei Ming, the chief rudder of the Jiangnan Branch of the Royal Weaving Bureau and the official title of the same magistrate, got along well.

Seeing what Qin Botong said, Cheng Yuqing, a pedestrian from the Pedestrian Division, couldn't help laughing and said, "Yes, Brother Gu, just come and have a rest. The breeze is blowing, and the sea is calm. It's time to eat something, drink some wine, and sing a tune." , when recharging your energy, why waste your energy, how dare the Zheng family have the guts to confront the court directly, friend Wei, you are right."

Wei Ming just smiled, it was his first time to go to sea, and he didn't know much about these things, but he was born cautious, so he didn't say much.

However, Gu Sanmazi changed from his old hippie smiling face, and even lost the slightest mischievousness before. Instead, he put down the binoculars seriously: "What do you know, the more calm it seems, the more Be careful, under such circumstances, experienced old pirates will not be able to sleep, because enemy attacks often occur at such times. On the contrary, you don’t have to worry about it when there are strong winds and waves, because in that case, it is inconvenient for you formation, and the enemy themselves are not convenient."

As Gu Sanmazi said, he walked over, stepped on the iron-covered guardrail with his leather boots, took a bottle of Daming beer from Qin Botong, and poured it down in one gulp: "The Zheng family is not small. Just wait and see, I think back then..."

This Ming version of beer is also one of the products of the Royal Industrial Company that has become popular recently. It is especially liked by the officers of the Guards. They bought the only drink they could satisfy their cravings, but this thing is not cheap. Fortunately, the officers of the Guards have their own dividends in the royal capital, so they can also enjoy this high-standard wine.

……

While Gu Sanmazi was blowing the Ming version of beer while blowing the sea breeze and telling Qin Botong and others the story of how he was a pirate and the Zheng family and other big pirates, at the same time that he was not far from the Beihai First Fleet, it almost covered the entire area. A large number of ships in the sea area, many of them are large warships with three or four storey turrets.

And the leader among them was a middle-aged man in a blue robe standing on the largest tiger-headed boat. This person was Zheng Zhihu.

Zheng Zhihu is one of Zheng Zhilong's most trusted siblings, and a capable general in his Zheng's pirate group, and he is a fierce general who charges into battle.

"Second Lord, will it be bad for us to do this? After all, they are members of the imperial court. If we let them feed the fish, and if the imperial court blames us, what should we do?"

Zhang Liangchao, Zheng Zhilong's deputy, asked Zheng Zhihu with some concern.

Zheng Zhihu is also true to his name, he was a bit burly, but he was also very arrogant, and snorted disdainfully: "What are you afraid of, what kind of people from the court, this is my grandfather's territory, does he think he can come if he wants?" Don't think that our Zheng family is really afraid of his Zhu family. After all, on land, it is their Zhu family who have the final say, but on this sea, it is my Zheng family's world. If you want to be in my Zheng family's territory If you want to get rich, you have to ask me whether the Zheng family agrees or not!"

As he said that, Zheng Zhihu said again: "This matter is also ordered by the uncle. Although we are going to become members of the court now, we must teach those who should be taught a lesson. In short, pass the order to all brothers. This action must be kept strictly confidential. It can't affect the negotiations with the court on the uncle's side, and then just plant the matter on the Satsuma clan."

Hearing Zheng Zhihu's words, Zhang Liangchao couldn't help but said again: "But second master, do you think Zhu Youxiao can believe him? Although the Satsuma clan forced the Ryukyu king to recognize them as masters, the Satsuma clan didn't have the guts to go against Daming. Bar."

"Hmph, it doesn't matter whether Zhu Youxiao believes in him or not, if he has the ability, he will come to the sea to attack our Zheng family!"

After Zheng Zhihu said that, he ordered Zhang Liangchao: "Stop gossiping, give orders, and speed up!"

The hard sails of Zheng's Pirate Group were fully opened, and under the control of their skilled Zheng's sailors, they glide toward the North Sea Fleet like a sharp arrow on the sea.

On the side of the Beihai First Fleet, Gu Sanmazi did not take it lightly because of the calm hydrological environment, and has been sending countless eagle boats to row several miles away to guard.

And just as the sun was hanging on the southeast edge, the water mist gradually dissipated due to the increase in temperature, and when the entire field of vision became clearer, several white rays of light rushed straight into the blue sky.

This is the signal from the eagle ship!
Qin Botong also ran out of the cabin, and Cheng Yuqing from the pedestrian department and Wei Ming from the Royal Weaving Bureau also followed, looking at Gu Sanmazi who was already on the deck: "What's going on?"

"People from the Zheng family are still here, so I said that we can't take it lightly. Anyway, since he's here, let him come and go!"

Gu Sanmazi turned around and said to Qin Botong, "Commander, now we don't know how many boats the Zheng family has, and how many cannons they have, but we have to make preparations now, seize the upper air outlet immediately, and immediately send the cargo ship Gather it up, and keep the battleship out!"

Qin Botong pondered for a while, then nodded and said: "Just do as you say, Master Wei, let all the ships of your Royal Weaving Bureau gather together, and at the same time order the ships of the First Fleet to change their formation immediately and prepare for the battle! "

After Qin Botong gave the order, he said again: "Gu Sanmazi, you are more familiar with sea battles than I am, and you will take command of the Zheng He, and I will go to the Ningbo to command the escort of the cargo ship. Remember your majesty's instructions, and I would rather all Even if the army is wiped out, you can't run away!"

(End of this chapter)