Haisheng Mingdi

Chapter 36 The Tang King
The first year of Hongguang in the Ming Dynasty, June [-]th.

In Xi'an, the capital city of Quzhou where Zhejiang and Fujian intersect, the sun is high, the city gates are still closed, and the streets are very quiet, even a little deserted.

There are soldiers standing at the gates of the city, guarding them with guns and knives. There is a strict curfew. Those who dare to break the night ban will directly attack people with knives. Several unlucky people have been hacked to death at various city gates in one night. On the corner of the street, although some of them just committed crimes unintentionally, the soldiers directly hacked them to death as spies.

Some luckier ones were only beaten severely, with bruised noses and swollen faces, locked in a corner, waiting for the dawn.

In fact, just a day ago, this capital city of Quzhou experienced a war.

The defenders of the city were the young and strong villagers led by the Tongzhi of Quzhou Prefecture, while the attackers were Zheng Hongkui, who was awarded the title of Zhenjiang General Soldier by Emperor Hongguang and had the seal of Zhenhai General.

The cause of the incident was that Zheng Hongkui led troops to enter the city, but the prefect who defended the city refused, and the two sides could not settle down. In the end, Zheng Hongkui, who was angry, ordered to attack the city directly.

There were not many soldiers in the city of Quzhou, and although Zheng Hongkui lost the river with little resistance when the Qing army attacked Zhenjiang and fled, after all, Zheng Hongkui was also a Fujian pirate, the fourth brother of the Fujian pirate Zheng Zhilong, His real name was Zheng Zhifeng, but he later changed his name to Zheng Hongkui when he went to take the martial arts exam. At the end of Chongzhen, he became a Jinyiwei.

Zheng Hongkui didn't dare to fight against the Qing army, but he won it easily without any scruples against an empty Quzhou.

After entering the city, Zheng Hongkui ignored the opposition of his fellow Nanyang king Zhu Yujian, and sent troops to directly hack to death a group of officials including Tongzhi who dared to resist him entering the city. They even forcibly dragged thousands of strong men into the army.

The poor people in Quzhou City encountered a military chaos for no reason. Before the northern soldiers went south, they were looted and killed by the Zheng soldiers holding the flag of Ming Dynasty.

Many families in the alleys of the city hung up white lanterns and held funerals.

At the corners of the streets and alleys, there are also rough wooden martial law notices that have been temporarily printed.

Although the riot was over, the atmosphere in the city was extremely suppressed.

In the magistrate's yamen, Zhu Yujian was coughing and his mood was gloomy.

As the ninth grandson of Emperor Gao of Taizu, and the tenth grandson of No.20 third son of Taizu No. [-], Tang Dingwang Zhu Gong, Zhu Yujian also had a rough life. Bewitched by him, he imprisoned his eldest son, three-year-old Zhu Yujian was imprisoned with his father.

When he arrived, King Tang Duan did not ask him to be named by the imperial court. Later, his son was poisoned to death by his younger brother. King Tang Duan wanted to directly invite his beloved concubine to be his son. Fortunately, Chen Qiyu, the guard at the time, came to express his condolences and felt that it was too much. After warning Queen Tang Duan, the matter was not done. Later, King Tang Duan had to ask the court to make Yujian his grandson.

In the fifth year of Chongzhen, the 31-year-old Zhu Yujian finally waited until the death of his fatuous grandfather and inherited the title of King Tang.

The young Tang king must show his sharpness. He built a magnificent building in the palace, invited celebrities from all over the world, and even killed two uncles with a stick to avenge his father's poisoning. In nine years, the Qing army entered the fortress. Xiangyong went north to Qin Wang.

The incident aroused Chongzhen's fury, and he was deposed as a commoner, imprisoned in Fengyang High Wall, the imperial clan prison, and named his younger brother King of Tang.

When he was young, he was imprisoned by his grandfather for 16 years. He became the king of Tang Dynasty for only a few years, and was imprisoned in the high wall of Fengyang for seven years.

It was not until Chongzhen hanged himself last year and King Fu ascended the throne in Nanjing that Zhu Yujian was released and bestowed the title of King of Nanyang.The Nanjing Ministry of Rites originally requested for him to restore the old prince of the Tang Dynasty, but Hongguang refused to allow him, and asked him to move to Pingyuefu, Guangxi.

Because of being imprisoned in Fengyang for seven years, Zhu Yujian, who was in his 40s, was suffering from pain and illness. He was old and haggard and could not walk. He took refuge and went to Hangzhou in early June. He asked King Lu to supervise the country, but he refused to listen.

Zhu Yujian, an aspiring vassal, couldn't help but feel helpless. He talked about the current situation with Zheng Hongkui, the general of Zhenjiang, Su Guansheng, the minister of the household department, and Huang Daozhou, the minister of the Ministry of rites, and burst into tears.

Later, Zheng Hongkui decided that King Lu of Hangzhou could not keep it, so he wanted to return to Fujian, and let Zhu Yujian go with him by the way.

Following all the way to the south, Zhu Yujian gradually discovered that the purpose of this Zongbing Zheng was not pure. He brought himself to the south, but seeing the turmoil in the current situation, he wanted to grasp a vassal prince in his hands.

Along the way, Zheng Hongkui had hinted several times that he would be invited to take over the throne.

Zhu Yujian never agreed.

The reason is naturally that he is only the King of Nanyang now, and the King of Tang is his younger brother, and even if he is still the King of Tang, he, the ninth grandson of Taizu, actually has no chance at all in terms of succession to the throne.

His eighth ancestor was the 21st son of Taizu, Chengzu's brother, no matter how the throne of Ming Dynasty was handed down, it must be among Chengzu's descendants.

After Lu Wang and others surrendered, the most qualified person now is Gui Wang Zhu Changying, the seventh son of Emperor Wanli Shenzong.

However, for Zheng Hongkui, the king of Gui granted Hengzhou, Hunan Province, and had nothing to do with the Zheng family in Fujian. It is said that now that King Gui has arrived in Guangxi, if he wants to embrace Gui, it must be the Guangxi governor Qu Shixu who is near the water.

In contrast, how can there be Nanyang Wang Zhu Yujian who is in his own hands more suitable?

"Your Highness, for a grand meeting, it is not enough to restore the great cause without being a relative of the Taizu. I invite Your Highness to take the throne and supervise the country."

Huang Daozhou stood up and bowed to Zhu Yujian.

Huang Daozhou was a great Confucianist in the dynasty, with a great reputation, but he could not be reused in the Chongzhen Dynasty. He once served as a scholar of the Imperial Academy and other positions.

Nanjing broke, went south to Hangzhou, invited King Lu to supervise the country, and asked to kill Ma Shiying. Seeing that King Lu was weak, he planned to go south to support King Gui to rebuild the imperial court and organize resistance against the Qing Dynasty.

He is from Fujian, and he and Zheng Hongkui were originally from the same village, and they walked together all the way. Zheng Hongkui valued the reputation of Huang Daozhou and kept persuading him to embrace the king of Tang. Take it out.

Of course, it was Zheng Hongkui who finally convinced Huang Daozhou that Tang Wang was brave and courageous, and this is the most needed leader in today's chaotic situation.

In comparison, although King Gui is legally more qualified to succeed to the throne, King Gui is weak and sick, and now he fled from Hunan to Guangxi. Everyone is far away, and it is not known whether King Gui is still alive.

In comparison, Zhu Yujian, who is in his 40s, is firstly younger, and secondly, he has spent more than 20 years in prison in his life, and he was able to persevere in adversity, which is more suitable for the current situation.

It was under the impetus of Zheng Hongkui that the small group of civil servants and military generals in this team of fleeing south planned to support the king of Tang to ascend the throne and supervise the country, and then went to Fujian to re-establish the imperial court.

Fujian is the home base of the Zheng family. Since the Zheng family accepted the recruitment, they have defeated all forces on the sea, and they are powerful in the southeast sea.

A brave and responsible vassal prince, plus the strength of the Fujian Zheng Group, this is undoubtedly a very good combination.

Zhu Yujian was sitting there, still dissatisfied with Zheng Hongkui's storming of Quzhou before entering the city and looting after entering the city. At that time, Zhu Yujian recruited a team of King Qin's soldiers and horses to go north. Beijing was ordered to disband and return after fighting the Tartars, but the King Qin army commanded by Zhu Yujian never looted the people.

Zheng Hongkui's arrogance and arrogance poured cold water on Zhu Yujian, who was originally full of enthusiasm and planned to go to Fujian Zhongxing Daye together.

Now that he is like this, how can brothers Zheng Hongkui and Zheng Zhilong really obey his will when they are on the territory of the Zheng family in Fujian?

He began to reflect on whether he should go to Fujian.

Zheng Hongkui was impatient to try to persuade Zhu Yujian, so today he specially invited Huang Daozhou and Su Guansheng to persuade him.

Huang Daozhou was also very dissatisfied with Zheng Hongkui's attack and looting, but in the current situation, he could only rely on military officials. If he wanted to rebuild the imperial court in the southeast to fight against the Qing Dynasty, he had to rely on the Zheng family.

The bigger picture matters.

"Your Highness, the Qing Dynasty forced martial arts, and people have no firm will. The thieves and ministers have a proposal to bow their knees, and the whole country is ashamed to hide their faces. Thinking about the difficulties of Emperor Gao's business, every step back is a foot away, and the plan for ZTE's recovery is as soon as possible. It's easy for a while. It's a good luck to cut the picture of the clan society, and don't fix the knot of the local doctor."

"Sacred artifacts cannot last long, and today's decree cannot be time-tested. Urgently boss Yaoshu, so as to face Kuishan!"

"A country cannot live without a king!"

"If there is no king in the country, the hundreds of millions of people in the Ming Dynasty will be in a mess, and it will be difficult to unite to fight against the great cause of Zhongxing in the Qing Dynasty."

"His Royal Highness, please take care of the ancestors and the people of the world, and take your place as soon as possible!"

Zhu Yujian was still a bit brooding, and he had already seen through the big cake that Zheng Huangsu and others had described about how to rejuvenate the great cause after arriving in Fujian.

"Unless I have to, I don't want to come out to take on this matter. I want to make an agreement with the public. If the public accepts it, I will temporarily supervise the country. If the public doesn't want to, don't bring this matter up again."

"Your Highness, please say, don't say three chapters, even thirty chapters and three hundred chapters, and all the ministers will agree." Seeing that Zhu Yujian finally let go, Zheng Hongkui hurriedly answered.

Zhu Yujian coughed again and stretched out a finger.

"Chapter 1 of this agreement is that from now on, generals such as Zheng Zongbing must restrain their troops and stop harming the people and robbing innocent people. We want to rejuvenate the great cause, not bandits in troubled times."

Zheng Hongkui was very dissatisfied with this statement, thinking that it implied that he was once a pirate.

"The minister obeys the order."

"Chapter 2 of this agreement, I think about it alone. I have a great Ming ancestor system. The emperor guards the gate of the country, and the king dies in the country. Now that the Tartars are going south, the situation is urgent. I think that I should stop here and recruit the king and soldiers... "..."

As soon as these words came out, Zheng Hongkui's face became very ugly. He reluctantly agreed to the first one just now, but what does it mean that he won't leave?
"Your Highness, please forgive me for not agreeing to this Chapter 2. Now that the two capitals have fallen, and Jiangnan is everywhere, Quzhou cannot stay for long, let alone defend it. It should immediately go south to Fujian, establish the capital and ascend the throne, and rebuild the imperial court is the top priority."

Zhu Yujian glanced at Zheng Hongkui, then waved.

"Huang Gong, Su Gong, Gu has just made it clear. Since Zheng Gong refuses, then you should stop talking about other things. Why don't you just say goodbye. You will go south to embrace the king of Gui and supervise the country and proclaim yourself emperor. Gu wants to stay here Recruit volunteers, defend the land and resist the captives!"

　Thanks to Suidehou, the black old captain, Hanshui passed away in the east, and several book friends who have cooked in the rain for their support, thank you!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)