Haisheng Mingdi

Chapter 408 Zheng Zhilong

It was early summer when Zheng Zhilong arrived in Nanjing.

It is said that the king of Fujian was summoned to Beijing last year, and he followed the order early on, but he made mistakes along the way, but he finally delayed his arrival in Nanjing until the beginning of summer.

In fact, the Nanjing Chaotang was dissatisfied with the king of the Southeast Sea, especially many young officials of the science and Taoism were constantly playing bullets, but the emperor always stayed in the middle.

Zhu Yihai was very patient, he didn't urge Zheng Zhilong to enter the court, and even seemed to forget that there was such an important minister. Zheng Zhilong, who originally wanted to stay on the road and wait and see, was a little uncertain and decided to enter the court immediately.

Speaking of which, Zhu Yihai had raised the flag for only one year, and he had just conquered Nanjing and ascended the throne. However, this man had personally proposed the Sixth Division's Northern Expedition twice, and even won a series of victories, especially after fighting for a year, annihilating the Eight Banners and Manchuria. There are more than [-] soldiers in the state, of which there are tens of thousands of Guangzhen Jianzhou Tartars.

Not to mention that many Eight Banners Han armies and Eight Banners Mongols were wiped out, and more green camps were wiped out or captured.

The emperor gained a great reputation. Although Zheng Zhilong, who had been recruited as the guerrilla of the Five Tigers of the Ming Dynasty, had been in the southeast for a long time, he was also very aware of Jianlu's strength.

Since the Jiashen period, Da Ming has been riddled with holes in the early morning. The Hongguang Dynasty was in a good situation at the beginning, but it only lasted for eight months. When Zhu Yihai raised troops in Taizhou, the prefect of Taizhou was surrendered, but he was able to single-handedly Formed his own imperial battalion army, fought all the way to Shandong, and restored Nanjing.

Zheng Zhilong is a sea hero, this kind of person has no loyalty to the imperial court, he only fears the strong.Back then when he was doing business in Japan, he planned to rebel against the shogun. After he failed, he went to Taiwan to take over the island and become king. Later, he was recruited because he was not strong enough.

However, when Chongzhen hanged himself and Hongguang collapsed again, he also took the opportunity to continuously seize the military and political power in Fujian and further monopolize maritime trade.

If Emperor Shaotian was another Hongguang, or even another Chongzhen, with the strength of Zheng's official party, he would be able to separate Fujian.

However, Zhu Yihai's powerful Yingguo scared Zheng Zhilong, who was only in his early forties.

Especially when the news came that the Three Loyalty rebels in Hunan had been put down one after another, Zheng Zhilong's scalp was numb.Originally, the secret envoy of the Qing court came to see him on the way, and he was granted the title of King of Fujian in the Qing Dynasty, Xu Litu sealed the border, hereditary Yongzhen and many other favorable conditions, but Zheng Zhilong just hesitated in the end and refused.

However, he did not report the matter to the court, nor detained or beheaded the Qing envoy.

Hearing that the emperor was going to make another Northern Expedition, Zheng Zhilong even sent a fast boat back to Fujian on the way, and dispatched a batch of money, food, ships, firearms, etc. to accompany him on the northward journey.

In addition, Fujian sent a lot of money and food to his son Zhu Chenggong's Fujian imperial camp. There were twenty big bird boats, twenty big water boats, and four hundred big turtledove guns. There are 240 bullets, 1 Zhongshui boats, [-] turtledove guns, and [-] bullets.There are also [-] bird guns and a large amount of ammunition.

Give 20 taels of silver and tens of thousands of grains.

The one he personally brought to Nanjing was even richer, with one million taels of silver, one hundred thousand shi of grain, thirty large bird ships, twenty large water boats, and more than two hundred other warships and food ships. ship.

There are [-] firecrackers of various types, including shotguns, and more than [-] artillery pieces of various types.

There are also more than [-] red cannons.

He also brought more than 100 young children of key members of the official party to Beijing.

This attitude is indeed very good.

The premise of all this is because Zhu Yihai is very good at fighting, especially because the emperor actually has an army directly under the emperor's imperial camp, and now there are more than a hundred thousand people.

When Zheng Zhilong first entered the mouth of the Yangtze River, he had already sent envoys to Nanjing to write letters over and over again.

He even deliberately released a lot of news along the way, so he hasn't entered the capital yet, but the officials and gentry in Nanjing knew that the Duke of Pingguo was about to enter the court, and he brought [-] Fujian navy troops, countless guns, money and food. The division is elite, and there is even a Fujian infantry among them.

For a long time, the influence of the Zheng family in Fujian in the southeast sea has actually made the court more afraid of this person, for fear that this person will cause chaos in the rear and separatist regimes.

He couldn't be summoned for a long time before, which also caused various speculations.

Now that it has finally come, and brought so many people to Malaysia, it is undoubtedly a relief.

Nanjing has gradually recovered a lot of vitality, and a restaurant has reopened and the business is good. Although the war years, all kinds of food, vegetables and meat are in short supply, but Nanjing is the current capital after all. Therefore, there are still many consumers, and the consumption level is not low. Even if the price is high, there is still a great demand.

What's more, today's son is a different emperor from the previous emperors of the Ming Dynasty. He no longer blindly emphasizes agriculture and suppresses business. The strategy he implemented has a lot of flavors from the Song Dynasty, and he supports the development of industry and commerce.Although some wise people said that the emperor was raising chickens and pigs, the chickens were raised to lay eggs, and the pigs were fattened to kill pigs and eat meat.

Taxation and profit from business and trade are far better than raising taxes on poor people in today's dilapidated and corrupt situation.

Although there are also people who think that the heavy business association is a big hidden danger, and even cite the Han Dynasty and continue to attack the powerful, they still cannot be suppressed, and eventually the country will perish when it cannot be suppressed at all.In the Jin Dynasty, under the rule of the scholar-bureaucrats, it was actually the indulgence of business and industry, so they died prematurely due to weakness.

The biggest advantage of emphasizing agriculture and suppressing business is stability, so that the whole society is strictly restrained and will not have too much vitality, so it is very easy for the court to control.

However, liberalization of industry and commerce will lead to the rise of industry and commerce, the prosperity of power and prosperity, the inevitable collusion of money and power, and it will be more difficult for the court to control.

However, it is obvious that the Son of Heaven is not ignorant of these things, but the current situation in Nanming, the Son of Heaven can only choose a safe path to survive in this chaotic world full of thorns.

"The Zheng family in Fujian is still very loyal to the country. You see, before Zheng Zhilong sent his eldest son to the court, he also asked his nephew to bring a 2000-man navy to the north. Over the past year, he has also paid a lot of money and food. Now Zheng Zhilong has personally received [-] Fujian The elite sailors went north and sent so much money and food, Zheng Zhilong is loyal."

In the restaurant facing the street, a green official robe said.

After Zhu Yihai proclaimed himself emperor, he made some adjustments to the clothing system of the Ming Dynasty, such as restoring the color system for officials in the Tang Dynasty, with purple for ranks three and above, scarlet for ranks four and five, green for ranks six and seven, and blue for ranks eight and nine.Officials outside the country are brown, servants are in soap, soldiers are in red, etc.

"That's not necessarily the case. A year ago, when the Qing army crossed the river, wasn't it Zheng Zhilong's younger brother Zheng Hongkui and nephew Zheng Cai who led the navy to guard Zhenjiang? But didn't they just give up their defenses and run away?

And after Qingjiang crossed the river, Zheng Zhilong of Fujian had soldiers, food, food, money, and money in his hands. Who of you saw that the Zheng family sent troops to the north to serve the king? "

Another green-robed official said, "But Zheng's performance is not bad now."

"Hmph, that's just because today's emperor, the sage and martial artist, formed a brave battalion with his own strength, and even won hundreds of battles, earning a great reputation. Zheng Zhilong went north not because of his status as a monarch and minister, but because he was afraid of the emperor. Bingwei also."

After stabilizing the south and restoring Nanjing, this great city in the south of the Yangtze River slowly regained its vitality and prosperity. Countless officials arrived one after another to enrich the six departments of the imperial court.

Even the Nanjing Guozijian is now bustling with professors and gentlemen returning, and even many new students have entered the prison. The children of imperial camp generals and officials were also rewarded, and Xu Ze's children were imprisoned.

There are nearly [-] prison students in one Guozijian. Among these students, there are not only tribute students selected from all over the country, but also the children of officials and relatives, and many professional supervisors who have been recruited through examinations. Prison students with the qualifications bought by spending money, but no matter what kind, those who can enter the prison are basically from rich or noble families, and they are also the kind of people with great spending power.

The tens of thousands of people in the Guozijian alone have restored Nanjing to a third of its former prosperity, and made the banks of the Qinhuai River lively again.

Of course, the imperial court just held the imperial examination in February this year. It was the first Jinshi after the emperor ascended the throne. The emperor specially ordered that all provinces increase the number of examination qualifications. If you are qualified for the examination, come directly to the examination.

Usually, not all the recruiters in Ming Dynasty are eligible to take the Jinshi examination, they have to take a qualification examination first, and the number of places admitted in the end is limited, generally a few thousand people are admitted. The number of applicants for the test is fixed at 4000.

The admitted Jinshi is also fixed at 320 to [-], and the admission rate is only about [-] to [-]%.

Now Zhu Yihai has relaxed the scope of the examination, and divided it into two Jinshi examinations, the North and the South. In the Jinshi section of the North List, as long as they are northern scholars with qualifications, they can come to Nanjing to directly take the Jinshi examination.

Juren in the provinces south of the Yangtze River also do not need to take the qualification examination. As long as you can come, you can directly participate in the examination.
In the end, Jinshi will be recruited in the north and south rankings. In previous years, about [-] Jinshi will be admitted in one subject. This time, Zhu Yihai specially ordered to admit [-] Jinshi in each of the north and south rankings.

It has tripled compared to the past.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the number of students was very large. There were about hundreds of thousands of scholars, and even tens of thousands of recruits.

Although affected by the war, it is impossible for these tens of thousands of candidates to take the test, but this year there is such a special benefit, and those who have the conditions will of course get it. Normally, people have to pass a qualification test first, and compete for [-] places for the test. In the end, they will compete for [-] Jinshi places.

But now you can take the test directly, whether you are a candidate in the provincial examination or a deputy list in the provincial examination, you can directly take the examination. After all, the imperial examination is sometimes about performance and luck, so failing the examination does not necessarily mean that the ability is not good.

One more exam means one less chance.

But now that there is one less exam, you can take the exam directly, and the acceptance rate has tripled. Who wouldn't?Especially for the candidates in the north, most places are still occupied, how many people can come to take the exam?But no matter how many people come, [-] Jinshi will be admitted in the end. This chance is many times higher than that of Juren in the south. How can we not come to this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

The provincial examinations held last year also tripled the admission rate. In previous years, the total number of applicants admitted in the national provincial examinations was around [-] to [-].

The total number of students in the country has reached more than 50, and the 50 people have to compete for the [-] to [-] test places. The admission rate is only about [-]%, but the admission rate can reach about [-]%.

Last year, when Zhu Yihai was still in charge of the state, he ordered to hold the provincial examination, but he relaxed the number of candidates for the examination to 20.00, and finally admitted 5.00 candidates. In this way, the admission rate of the provincial examination qualification reached [-]%, and the provincial examination admission rate of the applicant was [-]%.

There are more Juren admitted in one subject than in previous years in three subjects.

Although the emperor expanded too much the number of admissions for provincial examinations and general examinations, which depreciated the gold content of imperial examinations, but for scholars in today's war-torn world, this is what they look forward to and support.

As soon as the imperial examinations were held, scholars from all over the country tried their best to go to the exams. After all, ten years of hard study was the best way to change their fate.

(End of this chapter)