Reborn Ming Dynasty as Emperor

Chapter 389

As the sun set, the smoke began to gradually dissipate on the sea under the afterglow.

In addition to the East China Sea Fleet is still ordered to search for the whereabouts of Zheng Zhilong, the North China Sea Fleet and the South China Sea Fleet are ready to return.

After this battle, it will be marked that Xiao Ju gathered on the southeast coast of Daming, and the obstacle to the development of Daming's maritime trade, that is, the Zheng's Pirate Group, was completely destroyed. From then on, the maritime trade along the entire coast of Daming will be completely controlled by private merchants and pirates, and will be controlled by the imperial court. , truly benefit the people's livelihood.

The sea water that was dyed red by the fierce battle and the countless corpses and pieces of wood floating on the sea surface also began to be gradually subsided by the sea water. As the sun rose in the east the next day, it seemed that history had opened the picture scroll of the heart.

Regardless of whether Zheng Zhilong was caught or not, his decades-long ocean hegemony was completely destroyed by the court, but the court also paid a lot for it.

The damage to the three fleets was not small, although the three steam-powered ships "Zheng He", "Yu Qian", and "Xu Da" were not seriously damaged, and at most they needed to be transported back to the Daming Shipping Bureau for repairs , but many other warships were also sunk, especially the small warships that played a vital role. Almost many of them were people and the boats were knocked into the sea by enemy ships.

The North Sea Fleet lost more than [-] ships, the South China Sea Fleet lost more than [-] ships, and the East China Sea Fleet lost more than [-] ships. Compared with the number of enemy ships sunk, it is not much less.

But as long as you win, it’s fine. For the young Daming Navy, this may just be a coming-of-age ceremony, and perhaps the price of this coming-of-age ceremony is a bit high. Nearly half of the students trained by the Royal Military Academy and the Daming Ocean School died, but it is also I have to admit that this is a rare tempering.

At least people like Gu Sanmazi, Qin Botong, and Heiwa who were unknown in the original history began to gain fame in this time and space.

Zheng's Pirate Group was defeated by the three fleets of the Ming Dynasty within a few days, and its main force was almost completely lost. This not only won a good start for the Ming Navy to protect the maritime rights and interests of the Ming Dynasty, but also deterred other pirates group.

For example, the Li Kuiqi Pirate Group, which is also quite powerful, has never wavered and maintained a neutral attitude. A few days after the Zheng Group was defeated, it expressed to the Governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, Shang Zhouzuo, that he was willing to accept the reorganization of the imperial court and would not have any official positions. Allow him to go to Daming Ocean Academy to study.

In addition, the disastrous defeat of Zheng Zhilong's pirate group also forced early Western colonists such as Frangji and Hongfangui to re-examine the ancient Eastern Empire of Ming Dynasty.

Originally, because of the death of Baron Turia, these Western fans already had the idea of ​​teaching Daming a lesson, but now they have seen the strength of the Daming Navy and coupled with the huge market of Daming with hundreds of millions of people, they are all at this moment. Had to keep silent.

As a red fan ghost, that is, the highest representative of the Dutch East India Company in the Pacific Ocean, Wilmingson has even expressed his desire to visit the Ming Emperor Zhu Youxiao through Fujian Governor Xiong Wencan.

The Red Fan Ghost, who was already accustomed to using violence to open the gates of other countries, began to pick up the business methods he used to communicate with Daming, which naturally showed that they had grown fearful of Daming's strength.

Zhu Youxiao did not rush to reply to these Western powers who had begun to express their favor. As the king of the heavenly kingdom, although he had to admit that these Western powers were the biggest opponents of his Ming Dynasty and even the entire Eastern civilization system in the next few hundred years, Moreover, this opponent not only poses a challenge to Eastern civilization in terms of force, but also its ideological civilization system. According to the original historical trajectory, in the next few hundred years, Eastern civilization will be suppressed unprecedentedly by it, and gradually lose the world's mainstream thinking status of civilization.

Zhu Youxiao was only the governors of Guangdong and Guangxi, Shang Zhouzuo, and Fujian governor Xiong Wencan, who first contacted these Western fans.

……

The eradication of Zheng Zhilong's pirate group is not good news for the gentry along the coast, especially in Fujian and Zhejiang.

In fact, Zhu Youxiao's policy of opening up the sea has always been resisted by these gentry, but now that Zhu Youxiao's imperial power is very heavy, these gentry dare not say more, at most some radicals say that Some people also said that the troubles of pirates today are all caused by the troubles of the Longwan switch.

Zhu Youxiao was also polite and killed a few more jumpy officials on the grounds of slandering the late emperor, and ordered Jin Yiwei to vigorously investigate the local gentry forces that had links with Zheng's pirate group.

Moreover, taking advantage of the opportunity to mobilize a large number of imperial guards to the south to encircle and suppress pirates, many local forces that had colluded with Zheng's pirates were eradicated, which made Zheng's pirates less support and assistance on land, and also made these coastal gentry Don't dare to collude with Zheng's pirate group.

Now that the pirates are eliminated, it is natural to open the sea, which means that from now on more than half of the profits brought by ocean trade will flow to the court, especially the royal capital, instead of flowing to the coastal bureaucrats, gentry and landlords.

The bureaucrats and gentry along the coast are naturally unwilling in every possible way, but they are helpless. They thought that Zheng Zhilong's pirate group would make the imperial court suffer, and when the time comes, the civil servant group they rely on will take the opportunity to attack and force His Majesty the Emperor. Zhu Youxiao gave up the policy of opening the sea.

But what they didn't expect was that the court could win a big victory, and now it has reached the point where it has to open the sea.

Zhu Youxiao also knew that once he opened the sea, he would touch the interests of vested interest groups in many places. These scholar-bureaucrats who rose up by studying and doing business were unwilling to take away their back garden by the imperial court opening up sea trade.

At a time when the Luocha Kingdom in the north is pressing harder and harder, and the slave-building forces are on the rise again, Zhu Youxiao can directly use the imperial power to open the sea in order to avoid causing major turmoil.

However, he has clearly instructed that in order to stabilize the coastal situation, he specially ordered Xiong Wencan, the governor of Fujian, and Shang Zhouzuo, the governor of Liangjiang, to partially open the sea, that is, the imperial court will manage ocean trade and allow local people to conduct ocean trade under the control of the imperial court.

Due to the barren land and proximity to the sea, Fujian and Guangdong have a strong commercial culture, so opening the sea is acceptable, and it is also in the interests of most of the local low-level people, so there is no need to worry about too much resistance.

Xiong Wencan is from Luding County, Sichuan, and Shang Zhouzuo is also from Shaoxing. They both belong to traditional gentry families, so they are not involved in the profit dispute of marine trade, so they can strictly implement Zhu Youxiao's instructions.

However, the coastal gentry who tried to occupy the interests of the sea and were unwilling to give up easily expressed their indignation to the court and Zhu Youxiao in another way!

……

Because Shang Zhouzuo, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, had already set up the Shibo Lifting Department earlier, and successfully opened up the situation in the Pearl River Delta with Guangzhou, Xin'an, and Macao as important places, and gradually formed a scene of prosperity. As a result, Zuo was awarded the title of Prince Shaofu and a reward of [-]% of the Guangzhou government's annual tax.

Therefore, for Xiong Wencan, who has a persistent pursuit of utilitarianism, seeing that people in Guangdong and Guangxi are making a lot of money for the court and receiving a lot of money, he has to get anxious and think about it. As soon as possible in Quanzhou and Xiamen area also start business as soon as possible.

For this reason, Xiong Wencan did not wait for people from the Royal Weaving Bureau and the Royal Industry Company to come to Fujian to contact him. He sent his cronies to Nanjing to find Mao Yisheng from the Royal Weaving Bureau, and also contacted Gong Yong from the Royal Industry Company. In addition, he also contacted dozens of well-known tea merchants and silk merchants in Fujian and Zhejiang, in order to start Fujian's sea trade as soon as possible.

Xiong Wencan did not wait for the imperial court to allocate funds, so he first borrowed money from the Fujian Branch of the Royal Bank to build the Fujian Ship Lifting Department, and organized migrant workers to renovate the ports in Xiamen and Quanzhou. At the same time, he also built docks and trained Sailors and professional maritime trade personnel, etc.

Xiong Wencan was also very enthusiastic about the Red Fan Ghost's initiative to approach them. Unlike Shang Zhouzuo, Governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, who had no good impression of Western Fans because Guangdong and Guangxi were often harassed by Western Fans, Xiong Wencan did not have any strong feelings for these Western Fans. disgust.

To him, these red ghosts are the god of wealth, so as soon as Xiong Wencan got in touch with these red ghosts, he immediately reached an agreement with them, that is, how he, the governor of Fujian, would encourage them to come here to do business with Daming.

This day is the day when Fujian opens the sea market, so it is natural to celebrate
As the governor of Fujian, Xiong Wencan naturally wanted to attend such an occasion. Today, he made a special trip to the country to do as the Romans do. Some local coastal vendors talked to each other and asked about their life and their opinions on the sea.

Although Xiong Wencan, as an old bureaucrat who has been in the officialdom for decades, half of the reason why he did these things was to show the guards who watched secretly, and through these guards, it was passed to the ears of His Majesty Zhu Youxiao, the emperor, but he can take action. It also shows that he is somewhat capable, at least he listened to Zhu Youxiao's words.

However, what is unexpected is that just after Xiong Wencan paid homage to the Mazu Temple, he had close discussions with a group of gentry and wealthy businessmen from Fujian and Zhejiang, as well as representatives of the Royal Industrial Company and the Royal Weaving Bureau.

Suddenly, Xiong Wencan fell to the ground, and a blood hole suddenly appeared in his chest, and blood gushed out.

The governor's pacesetter's personal guards rushed over immediately, but except for a puff of black smoke that suddenly disappeared at the door, no suspicious person was found.

Jin Yiwei, who had been observing secretly, was also very surprised by this, and couldn't help but exclaimed in a low voice to the other Jin Yiwei: "Someone actually assassinated Xiong Zhongcheng, immediately inform His Majesty on a flying horse!"

At this moment, Xiong Wencan stared at the ceiling with empty eyes, covered his bleeding chest with his hands and didn't know what to say, but he felt extremely remorse in his heart, why he was shot so suddenly.

The other gentry and wealthy businessmen present also stood up in amazement, but they were also panicked and at a loss.

The majestic governor of a province was assassinated, and the entire Fuzhou city was naturally under martial law. These Fujian and Zhejiang businessmen and representatives of the Royal Industry Company and the Royal Weaving Bureau who came from afar could only stay here and could not leave at will.

Zhu Youxiao also soon learned of the assassination of Fujian governor Xiong Wencan.

boom!
The broken vase is enough to express the anger in Zhu Youxiao's heart at this moment as the Ninth Five-Year Lord. Although it was Xiong Wencan who assassinated, it was obviously a slap in the face of the emperor.

Because the behind-the-scenes messenger and advocate of Fujian and Kaihai is himself, His Majesty the Great Ming Emperor.

But now, someone blatantly assassinated Governor Xiong Wencan in public, which made Zhu Youxiao furious.

"It's really unreasonable, we must strictly investigate, strictly investigate to the end!"

Zhu Youxiao roared angrily. At this time, he felt that his dignity was being trampled on. He couldn't believe that he had already defeated the strongest opponent, and there was still someone singing against him at this time.

Li Mingrui saw that Zhu Youxiao's eyes were red, so he had to bravely stand up and say: "Your Majesty, please calm down. These people dare to kill Xiong Wencan, and their intention is obviously not Xiong Wencan. This is the same as the death of Zhang Jing during the Jiajing period. How powerful are the people in the court, even a good official like Xiong Wencan, let alone other people, so Your Majesty, we must not take it lightly. I implore you to strengthen the protection of important court officials, and order Dongchang to crack down on these reactionary forces , can’t reappear after the Donglin Party and Fushe were beaten.”

"What Aiqing said is very true." After Zhu Youxiao nodded, he immediately ordered Dongchang to solve the assassination of Xiong Wencan within one month. At the same time, he ordered Dongchang to strengthen the protection of important bureaucrats in various provinces, such as Lu Xiangsheng, Yuan Keli, Ma Shiying, Sun Chengzong, Shang Zhouzuo and so on.

Fortunately, Xiong Wencan was not killed immediately because of being shot. Fortunately, now Daming has begun to popularize public hospitals in all parts of the province, and has also established public hospitals in Fujian, and has begun to have surgical personnel.

As soon as Xiong Wencan was assassinated, he was immediately sent to a local public hospital in Fujian. After a simple treatment, he received a special order from Zhu Youxiao to let Xiong Wencan take a royal boat and take the green channel to rush to Beijing for treatment at Daming Royal Hospital.

Regarding Xiong Wencan's life, Zhu Youxiao must protect it, not because Xiong Wencan is an important official, but because the reactionary forces cannot achieve their goal, that is, they think that assassinating a few governors will deter the entire Ming Dynasty officialdom and force many cadres. Ministers who are practical do not dare to do practical things for the court in a down-to-earth manner.

Although Xiong Wencan was assassinated, Zhu Youxiao had no intention of stopping Fujian's sea development, but he couldn't find a suitable governor for a while.

Not many civil servants even mentioned this matter for a while. It can be seen that no one is willing to do this matter, because everyone knows that once they sit in this position, they will be plotted against because of robbing many people of their wealth.

But in the end, a head of the household department named Bi Ziyan recommended himself.

Zhu Youxiao couldn't help but be overjoyed. Knowing that under such circumstances, there are still people who dare to go to the muddy water of the governor of Fujian, which is enough to make people admire.

Therefore, Zhu Youxiao immediately summoned this official named Bi Ziyan on the platform, and ordered many things, and immediately promoted the title of Yushi, the fourth rank of Bi Ziyan, to govern Fujian.

(End of this chapter)