The Ming Dynasty started with saving the eldest grandson

Chapter 344 Bloodstained Temasek (Part )

The Qin King's Guards blockaded Temasek Island. Who reacted the most?
The answer is the garrison on the island.

As the key to the Ming Dynasty's control over Malacca, a navy of 6,000 people was stationed on Temasek all year round.

Usually patrol the coast to deter pirates and other criminals.

The commander of this navy was named Guo Cheng.

His father was Guo Zixing, his adopted sister was Empress Ma, his biological sister was Concubine Ning, his third brother was Guo Xing, Marquis of Gongchang, and his fourth brother was Guo Ying, Marquis of Wuding.

Although his abilities are average... with this status, what other abilities do I need?
As long as you are loyal and not stupid, you can hold a high position.

He had previously served as the commander-in-chief in Fujian, where he didn't achieve much but also didn't cause any trouble.

When choosing the commander of the Temasek garrison, Zhu sent him over.

Again, no achievements were made, but no mistakes were made either.

Diligently carry out the tasks assigned by above.

He was resting in the military camp that day when he suddenly received a report from his subordinates that a fleet from the imperial court had arrived and blockaded the entire island.

He was shocked. He had never heard from his superiors that they would send anyone over before.
And no matter who comes, they have to greet him, the commander of the garrison, first.

You blocked it without saying anything. You don't take me seriously at all.

If it were an ordinary general, he would definitely not be able to tolerate this humiliation and would probably immediately call up the army to save face.

But Guo Cheng was different. He was not anxious at all, but carefully inquired about the situation of the fleet.

When he learned the size of the enemy and the two flags flying on the ships, he immediately ordered the entire army to be assembled.

"Immediately cut off the waterway between Temasek and Malacca. Don't let even a fly fly to the other side."

"Remember, you must not conflict with the other party. You are cooperating with them."

His subordinates were very puzzled. Even if he was an imperial envoy sent by the higher authorities, he couldn't help but respect Guo Cheng, the local tyrant, right?
Now others are taking advantage of you, how can you tolerate this?

You don't care about your own face, so don't you care about the face of Empress Ma, Concubine Ning and Marquis Wuding either?
Seeing his subordinates dithering, Guo Cheng urged:

"What are you hesitating about? Why don't you go now?"

The subordinate asked again: "General, do you really want to cooperate with the other party?"

Guo Cheng asked back: "Why don't you cooperate? Are you going to lead your troops to fight the enemy?"

The subordinate muttered, "We are not afraid of fighting with our brothers, because we are in the right."

Guo Cheng smiled: "Zhanli? Do you know who is coming?"

"He's a murderer without blinking an eye. Do you still want to fight him?"

"I think you are an old man who is tired of living."

The subordinate said unconvincedly: "Who hasn't killed anyone? All of us brothers have gone through mountains of swords and seas of fire..."

Guo Cheng interrupted him and said, "It is the King of Qin who is coming."

"What's wrong with the King of Qin? The King of Qin cannot disrespect others, Qin..."

The subordinate suddenly stopped talking halfway, with a look of horror on his face.

"General, are you talking about the King of Qin? The Second Prince, the King of Qin?"

"How many Qin princes are there in the Ming Dynasty?" Guo Cheng asked jokingly, "Why, do you still want to fight him?"

The subordinate said with difficulty: "No...Isn't the King of Qin imprisoned?"

Guo Cheng shook his head and said, "How would I know? But I can't think of anyone other than the King of Qin who would dare to use such a banner and be so arrogant."

The subordinate took a deep breath and suddenly said, "King Qin is here... to deal with the matter on the island?"

Guo Cheng nodded and said, "They went too far..."

At this point, he looked at the subordinate with scrutiny and asked, "You are not colluding with them, are you?"

The subordinate quickly shook his head and said, "No, no, there are many ways to make money here. Why would I want that kind of money?"

"But... there are indeed quite a few people down there who have unclear relationships with them."

Guo Cheng snorted coldly and said, "Those who don't know how to live or die... Tell them to cooperate with the King of Qin, and I can still save their lives."

"If anyone doesn't know how to live or die... Humph, don't blame me for being merciless."

The subordinate quickly said, "Yes, I will go and inform the brothers right away."

After his subordinates sailed away, Guo Cheng also rushed to the dock with his personal guards and met Zhu Chong on the deck.

Zhu Chong sat on a throne with his horse and sword in his hands, gazing into the distance, no one knew what he was thinking.

There were four people standing on both sides of him. In addition to Xu Chailao and Cen Xintong, there were two other big figures on the island.

One is Tong Dayin, the head of the Tax Inspection Bureau, and the other is Jiang Fengnian, the head of the Gold Banknote Bureau.

Guo Cheng didn't look at it any more, and immediately bowed and said, "Your Highness."

After a while, Zhu Chong said slowly, "It was General Guo who ordered the blockade of the entire island without your permission. You won't be angry, will you?"

Guo Cheng said quickly, "I dare not. Your Majesty must have done this to prevent the thief from escaping. I can only admire your decisiveness."

"I heard that the king brought more than 60 ships, and I am afraid that he will not be able to blockade the entire island."

"I will take the initiative to dispatch my navy to cooperate with the guards to blockade the island."

"I acted without your permission, please forgive me."

Zhu Chong glanced at him and said, "General Guo is my uncle according to seniority. It's too formal to say that."

Guo Cheng quickly said, "Thank you for your kindness, Your Majesty. I really don't deserve it."

Zhu Chong asked casually, "General Guo's men didn't go along with them, did they?"

Guo Cheng said with a sad face: "There are a few good-for-nothings who can't control their hands and took money they shouldn't have."

"I have already severely punished them according to military law and ordered them to make up for their crimes with meritorious service."

"After the matter is resolved, we will hand them over to the king for disposal."

"Heh..." Zhu Chong laughed mockingly: "You've already dealt with me. If I deal with you again, wouldn't that be disrespectful to you?"

Guo Cheng said in fear and trepidation: "Your Majesty, you have misunderstood. I have absolutely no such intention."

Zhu Chong's face darkened and he said, "If you want me to spare them, that's fine. Go to the island and drive everyone to the dock."

"If you miss one person, you can use your people to replace him."

Guo Cheng's heart trembled, but his expression remained unchanged as he said, "Yes, I will order the soldiers to land on the island right away."

Zhu Chong looked at Cen Xintong and Tong Dayin again and said, "There must be a secret hideout on the island. Get your people moving and find them all."

"In three days, I will hold a public trial at the dock."

"Yes."

After the two received the order, Cen Xintong asked again: "Should we hand over the evidence..."

Zhu Chong glanced at him and said, "My words are evidence. Just send the waste paper in your hand back to Luoyang."

Hearing this, everyone felt a chill in their hearts and dared not speak anymore.
-
The news of Qin Wang Zhu Chong's arrival quickly spread throughout the island.

Those who don't know him are curious about what a prince is doing here?
Why blockade the island?

Those who knew him were all in panic.

They have spies in both the Embroidered Uniform Guard and the Governor's Office.

It can be said that every move of Xu Chailao and Cen Xintong is under their surveillance.

They also knew that the two men had sent a secret letter back to Beijing.

Although I don't know the specific content of the secret letter, I know it must be related to the situation on the island.

Given the importance the imperial court attaches to this place, it will certainly not ignore it.

Originally, they thought that the court would at most send an imperial envoy, and they didn't really care much about it.

Which business on the island doesn’t have someone behind it?

No matter how powerful the imperial envoy is, would he dare to offend half of the court at the same time?

At worst, we can find a few scapegoats and save face for everyone. Burning down the Jinyiwei Yamen is not only to destroy evidence, but also to warn Xu Chai Lao and Cen Xintong.

However, they still underestimated the importance of Temasek to the court.

When they heard the news that Zhu Chong had arrived and blocked the entire island, they finally realized that something was wrong.

They started to work together privately to discuss solutions.

Finally, they decided to nominate several representatives to visit Zhu Chong and inquire about the news.

After several rounds of negotiations, five unlucky guys were selected.

Carrying generous gifts, he went to the dock and handed over the visiting card.

They were very nervous and prepared to be rejected.

In fact, they actually hope to be rejected.

Going to see the King of Qin is like looking for death.

However, only a cup of tea later, good news came from the ship: the King of Qin wanted to see them.

This made several people very "happy", and they gestured to the back that everything was going well.

When the people hiding far away saw this, they immediately sent someone to pass the good news back.

The five lucky ones were led into the cabin, but the person they saw was not Zhu Chong, but Cen Xintong, a captain of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

Everyone was an old acquaintance, and they were particularly jealous of each other when they met each other at this moment.

The five people immediately realized that something was wrong and turned around to run, but it was too late.

A group of Jinyiwei immediately rushed up and pinned them to the ground.

Cen Xintong showed his white teeth and said, "Since you are here, why are you in such a hurry to leave?"

Wang Yanli forced a smile and said, "What is Captain Cen doing? We are here to pay our respects to the King of Qin according to etiquette..."

"Bah." Cen Xintong spat on his face and scolded:

"Are you worthy enough to see the King of Qin?"

He bowed to the boat next door and said, "I am under the order of the King of Qin to arrest the traitors. Do you want to confess yourself or do you want me to..."

"Forget it, you guys definitely won't confess, just torture them."

"First, cut off all their fingers... Don't cut them all at once, cut them one joint at a time."

"Yes." The Jinyiwei all showed excited expressions.

Before, these people were arrogant and never took them seriously, and even dared to set fire to the Jinyiwei Yamen.

When had the Jinyiwei ever suffered such humiliation?
If this gets out, how will other institutions view them? How will other peers view them?
How will they survive in the Ming Dynasty in the future?

I will take it back today.

Wang Yanli and others were shocked. Some begged for mercy, while others cursed.

However, soon the only sounds in the cabin were screams.

The Jinyiwei hated these people very much. They really carried out Cen Xintong's intentions and did a very rough job.

Cut it down section by section, using a blunt knife.

Before the fingers were cut off, someone couldn't bear it anymore:
"I confess. I confess everything..."

Cen Xintong ignored him until he had cut off all ten of their fingers, then he said:

"How does it taste?"

Wang Yanli endured the excruciating pain and said, "You don't want to confess at all, right? You just want to torture us."

Cen Xintong laughed and said, "Haha... Shopkeeper Wang is really smart, worthy of being a casino owner."

"King Qin said that he doesn't need evidence to do anything... Do you understand?"

Wang Yanli's eyes were filled with despair, he knew that Zhu Chong was really capable of doing such a thing.

Cen Xintong changed the subject and said, "You can't live, but you can choose how to die."

"There are those who die quickly and painfully, and those who die after being cut into pieces..."

"The Jinyiwei has many tortures that you can use to experience before you die."

"I don't know which one you are going to choose."

Wang Yanli snorted: "Tell me, what do you want to know?"

Cen Xintong asked coldly, "Where are your people hiding?"

Temasek Island is neither big nor small.

Although the Ming Dynasty had been operating for several years, only the area facing the port was well developed.

Most of the rest of the place remains in its original state.

It is in these places that criminals have built a large number of secret trading locations and hiding places.

For example, places where slaves were held.

The Jinyiwei knew some places, but not others.

In order to catch the other party in one fell swoop, it is naturally necessary to interrogate him and obtain a more detailed confession.

At this time, the five men finally remembered the horror of the Jinyiwei prison and no longer had the arrogance they had before.

One of them yelled, "I said...I said...give me a quick death."

Once one person spoke, more people followed, and soon everyone told the truth about all the hiding places they knew.

Cen Xintong took the confession and immediately went to meet Zhu Chong next door:
"My lord, this is the hiding place they found..."

Zhu Chong took it and glanced at it, then focused his attention on one of the pages:
"Go here and catch them all."

He was referring to the place where those people were discussing countermeasures.

Each family has sent someone to take charge, and they are all waiting for news.

The Jinyiwei alone was not enough, so Cen Xintong asked Zhu Chong to borrow a team of people.

They made no attempt to hide their whereabouts—and in fact there was no way to do so.

After landing, he rushed directly towards the stronghold.

The spies who were monitoring the fleet on the shore naturally discovered their actions and ran back to report.

However, after running a few steps, he suddenly felt a sharp pain on his back, and the next moment his eyes went black and he lost consciousness.

One of the King of Qin's personal guards remained calm and pointed his crossbow at another runner.

Several other guard members were performing the same operation.

In a short while, more than ten people were shot dead.

It is better to kill the wrong person than to let him go. At this time, all suspicious persons will be killed.

In fact, few of those still wandering the streets at this moment are innocent.

The group marched quickly all the way and soon arrived at their destination.

This is a casino with very high and thick walls and doors and windows made of iron.

The people hiding here at this time already know what is happening outside.

But they got the news too late, and it was too late to run away. They could only hide here and fight back.

However, the Qin King's guards never thought of launching a forceful attack.

He directly ordered the people in the surrounding shops to be driven out, the doors, windows, tables and chairs to be dismantled, and a large amount of firewood was collected and piled around the casino.

Fire attack.

Zhu Chong’s order was to catch them all in one swoop.

So, they never thought of capturing him alive from the beginning to the end.

(End of this chapter)