I have a cornucopia

Chapter 271: After three hundred years of reign, there are always a few loyal ministers
The fragile and slender centipede ship was hit by the huge warship, and then it was pushed forward by the bow of the warship and was crushed by the bow...

"Help me, the water is too cold!"

The water was too cold for the one that had just hit it, and it was screaming as it floated in the river.

The river water is indeed very cold.

After all, it was still winter, and there was even thin ice in the shallow waters by the river. To be more precise, the river water was freezing cold.

But no one came to rescue him.

Zheng Chenggong stood on the deck and looked at his former teacher.

Of course, he wouldn't save her.

In fact, he just followed the cold water and was just gilded for a few months.

He worshipped Shui Tailiang as his teacher in the 16th year of Chongzhen. After all, Shui Tailiang was also a famous scholar in Jiangnan at that time, and the leader of Donglin. Although he was stripped of his official title and stayed at home, he was still admired by the scholars in Jiangnan, and was the banner of the gentry in Jiangnan. An old pirate like Zheng Zhilong also wanted to gild his family, so that his son could worship him as a teacher so that he could squeeze into the Jiangnan scholars. This would be helpful in both officialdom and business in the future, and it could also whitewash his family background.

Just like the generals under Li Zicheng now, they all like to marry into the old families of Shaanxi.

Or just like the nouveau riche in America back then all liked to marry into the aristocrats of the Old World.

After all, those who come from humble backgrounds, when they suddenly achieve success, will inevitably want to rub shoulders with the rich.

in fact……

Just cheap.

And this is usually the first step in their corruption.

But if you want to talk about true feelings...

There is no real emotion in this kind of pure combination of interests.

What's more, the Zheng family has long been a local lord, and Shui Tailiang's reputation has been severely damaged due to a series of mistakes before. Now he has fallen to the point where he relies on women to show up in public, and even turns to the Zheng family to elevate himself.

There is no profit at all.

Zheng Chenggong just watched the cold water that finally held onto a piece of wood. The latter floated up and down in the freezing river water with a blue face, while the speed of the warship under his feet continued to increase.

This miraculous winter southwest wind and the river water jointly pushed the warship to move at full speed downstream.

The other warships behind him had also raised their anchors and set sail, and began to move forward at the same speed. Soldiers who were climbing up were on all the ships, and those who had not yet boarded the ship were shouting in the water. Of course, at this time, they could not care about them. Everyone knew that this wind would not last long. There was little southwest wind in this season. If they did not take advantage of the opportunity that might only last a few hours to quickly break through the downstream interception, it would be difficult to have a new opportunity.

As for the water being too cold...

Not long after Zheng Chenggong's ship passed by, a warship behind him passed by, and the waves it created directly knocked him, who was already frozen, into the river.

Of course, Zheng Chenggong did not see this scene.

His warship was still accelerating, and had actually exceeded five knots, but for ships like theirs, the limit could easily reach nine knots.

The current situation can completely reach this limit. After all, there is three meters of river water per second below, which in itself increases the speed by two knots.

The fifty-four warships behind him were also continuing to accelerate.

In the chaos on the shore, they sailed into the channel west of Mizizhou and approached their first pass, Puzikou City. When they reached the range of the cannons on Puzikou City, they had basically reached the limit of their speed. When the cannons on Puzikou City opened fire, he didn't even order a counterattack. There was no point in firing at this speed. However, the real obstacle was going forward, because the river-locking iron chain between Shizishan and Puzikou City had been raised. The last time he passed through was under the guise of offering prisoners, so in order to let him pass, the river-locking iron chain was sunk directly to the bottom of the river.

But after he raided Xijiangkou, iron chains were raised to lock the river.

Soon after, the giant river-locking cannon on the Lion Rock Fort also opened fire. The hit rate of the coastal defense artillery in the preset aiming area was still very high, and warships in the fleet were constantly being hit.

Thick smoke immediately billowed from the two warships.

But the other warships still did not fight back, or there was no point in fighting back. What could save them now was their speed.

The sooner the better.

Some warships have already dropped non-essential supplies.

Amid the rising water columns around him, Zheng Chenggong's warships rushed straight towards the iron chain in front. Although he could not see the iron chain hidden under the water, he knew it was there.

"How to get there?"

Zhang Jiayu shouted anxiously beside him.

Of course he knew that there was an iron chain blocking the river.

"Leave it to fate!"

Zheng Chenggong answered calmly.

This answer left Zhang Jiayu speechless, but upon thinking about it, this was indeed the only reasonable answer. After all, their entire plan was to leave it to fate.

At this time, on the large warship that was originally parallel to them, various materials were constantly thrown out, and even cannons were pushed out and then allowed to fall into the river, including the heaviest ones. The cannons on the warship were a large part of the burden. After all, the total displacement of the warship was only 500 tons, and the cannons on it alone weighed 50 tons. Relying on the significant weight reduction, the warship continued to accelerate and soon surpassed Zheng Chenggong's ship, even exceeding the limit it could reach in the past. Then, in the water column of the falling shells, this warship with a displacement of more than 500 tons, at a speed of more than ten knots, suddenly hit the underwater iron chain with its front ram.

With the ripples of the river water and the strange friction sound of the two sides being tightened instantly, the iron chain that locked the river was pushed out of the water, but then it reached its limit and broke instantly...

It was designed to intercept those light and slow inland vessels and had never been designed to intercept such a large battleship. The latter's tonnage and speed at the time gave it the greatest power. A collision of more than 500 tons at a speed of nearly 20 kilometers per hour was much more powerful than a ten-thousand-jin cannon.

“This is God’s will!”

Zheng Chenggong said proudly.

Amid cheers resounding across the river, warships, including the one responsible for the ramming, continued to pass through the iron chain that had sunk to the bottom of the river and rushed downstream amid the whistling of artillery shells.

The damage to the ramming ship was not serious, at least it did not affect its escape.

However, six relatively small warships were sunk by the crossfire from both sides. The power of the Suojiang cannon was still terrifying for these armed merchant ship-level warships.

Zheng Chenggong, who had escaped death, had no time to care about these things. He led the fleet to continue to move downstream at full speed. There was no threat to them downstream. Although Zhenjiang had garrisons, Guazhou was under Gao Jie's jurisdiction and was actually controlled by the Knights of Confucius and Mencius. In addition, the tide in Zhenjiang was more obvious. If they maintained their current speed to reach Zhenjiang, they would just catch up with the low tide. As long as the current wind direction was maintained, it would be easy to pass through with speed. Downstream, only Jiangyin had a newly built artillery fort.

But as long as they were fast enough, they might not even be able to receive the message. After all, the speed of land message transmission was not necessarily as fast as their ship speed. Even if they rushed 500 miles, it would still take nearly 400 miles to reach Jiangyin.

And it's not that he didn't cooperate. Zeng Ying's servants would not let the messenger deliver the letter.

There is still Wusongkou left, but they do not go through Wusongkou. At that time, the main channel of the Yangtze River is still Haimen, and Wusongkou still controls more of the Huangpu River, but seagoing ships mainly go north of Chongming. At this time, the Yangtze River estuary reaches hundreds of kilometers from north to south, and there is no real throat.

At this moment, on Lion Mountain behind them, among the crowd watching the battle, Prince Yang also showed a satisfied smile.

"Let's go back to Antonwei. It's our turn to take the stage."

He said.

Yang Guanguang, who was also dressed as a civilian beside him, also smiled with satisfaction.

Although Yang Feng, and even the Shandong Group, really wanted the Queen...

What Jiangnan Group wants is actually what all places want. After experiencing the happiness of not having the power of the emperor weighing on their heads, no one wants to go back to the era of imperial power. But there can be no emperor, at least it has not evolved to this level yet, and no one can imagine an era without an emperor. In everyone's mind, they all think that there must be an emperor in the world. But having an emperor does not mean having imperial power. A virtual emperor is also a monarch. There have been countless examples of a weak emperor in history, so everyone needs an emperor who is as weak as possible and can let go.

Then the Queen is the one who best meets the requirements.

Perfect fit.

They naturally lack legitimacy, so they have to give up power in order to win over the world. They are easy to manipulate and do not have the strength of those wise and capable monarchs.

To put it simply, it means sharing the world with the literati just like in the Northern Song Dynasty.

Of course, it is still different from the Northern Song Dynasty. After all, the local governments in the Northern Song Dynasty had little power and were just supporting one city with the whole country.

But the requirements for the monarch are similar.

Just be as weak as possible.

But everyone wants a queen, but not a queen controlled by the Jiangnan Group.

Even with Yang Feng's suppression, the interests of the Shandong Group can indeed be ensured, but as long as the strength of the Jiangnan Group maintains this speed of development, sooner or later they will turn against the Shandong Group. After all, they have overwhelming advantages in wealth, population, and even industry and agriculture. No matter how hard Shandong tries, it cannot make up for the gap in natural conditions.

In fact, Shandong's current prosperity is only due to Yang Feng's cheating, which ensures that there will not be mass starvation and civil unrest due to famine. But Jiangnan does not need cheating, and just by unlocking it, it can easily achieve what Shandong has achieved with cheating and all its efforts.

The gap in natural conditions cannot be made up.

No matter how powerful Yang Feng is, he cannot make the yield of tens of millions of acres of farmland in Shandong reach four or five shi per mu.

But Jiangnan is not cheating, as long as there is no natural disaster, it can easily reach this number.

Shandong is currently the best province outside of Jiangnan, and the gap between the remaining provinces and Jiangnan is even greater.

Therefore, as long as the future empress's court is still controlled by the Jiangnan Group, it will end up like the past two hundred years. The country is controlled by Jiangnan or the three provinces of Nanzhili, Jiangxi, and Zhejiang, and other places can only follow behind as supporting roles, or even pick up their leftovers.

It's impossible that Prince Yang has been making trouble for so many years, but in the end, they still get the advantage, right?
Yang Feng agreed, but the group behind him did not agree. Now Shandong is already facing a lot of competition with Jiangnan.

Relying on Yang Feng's influence, Shandong merchants' fishery and canned food industries along the Yangtze River directly competed with local Jiangnan merchants, and there were many cases of mutual underhandedness.

The Queen must have it.

The Jiangnan Group must also be hit.

I want it all!
and so……

It would be better to send the Emperor here and give them a chance to openly kill the emperor!
As long as they killed the king, they would be nailed in the history books forever. Similarly, no matter whether Li Zicheng or Yang Feng reached the south of the Yangtze River, they could purge them in the name of justice.

"Huang Shizhai and Zhang Zhiyuan should have the same thoughts as us, right?"

Yang Guanguang said.

In fact, the situation had gone beyond their plan since Zhang Jiayu came to rescue the emperor. Yang Feng's original plan was to send Chongzhen here. As for exposing his identity, it was inevitable. After all, there were too many people in Nanjing who knew the emperor. As long as he went to Nanjing, his identity would definitely be exposed, it was just a matter of time. Besides, Chongzhen was originally trying to revive the emperor's power, so he couldn't hide forever. He had to jump out, and at that time, the Jiangnan sages would have the opportunity to kill the emperor.

Even if they didn't kill the king, as long as Chongzhen died in Nanjing, it would be their fault.

But Zhang Jiayu's rescue was certainly not in the plan, and Zheng Chenggong's rescue was even less in the plan, because the palace was blocked and Yang Feng did not enter the palace, so he did not know that the princess was asking for help.

The latter's letter for help was sent by the female soldiers under Dong Qiongying, who directly climbed over the city wall to get out of the inner city. These barbarian maids were very capable in this regard. As for Zeng Ying, he and Huang Daozhou were originally in the same group. He found Huang Daozhou, and Huang Daozhou also knew that Zheng Chenggong had offered up prisoners, so he sent people to find Zheng Chenggong in Zhenjiang. He bet that Zheng Chenggong would listen to the princess. After all, Zheng Chenggong's name was even given by the princess.

He made the right bet.

But all this is really not director Yang Feng’s.

However, in Yang Guanguang's opinion, the reason they did this should be similar to that of the Shandong Group, which is to take advantage of this opportunity to attack the Jiangnan Group.

After all, whether the emperor was rescued or not, the identity of the Jiangnan rebels was confirmed.

As for who will be the one to rebel in the end, it doesn’t matter. No matter who succeeds, it will not affect Fujian and Guangdong. They can just hang up the banner of loyalty and righteousness and watch the Jiangnan gentry being beaten from afar.

Even put on the clamp.

"Not necessarily. After three hundred years of reign, there will always be some loyal ministers."

Yang Feng said.

Indeed, there were still some loyal ministers in the Ming Dynasty.

These people should have acted purely spontaneously and were not instructed by the interest groups behind them. After all, no matter how you look at it, there was no need for Zheng Zhilong to be involved in this struggle, and he would not have interfered with it with his brains. It should have been purely Zheng Chenggong's own decision, just like in the original history, although Zheng Zhilong chose to welcome the Qing army, Zheng Chenggong still chose to resist to the end.

It is hard to say whether Huang Daozhou had such thoughts, but Zheng Chenggong and others probably did not. They just wanted to save the emperor.

Of course, this is also the best.

Yang Guanguang didn't say anything else. Although saying this was equivalent to saying that the Shandong Group was not loyal, no one cared about it now.

If he is not a loyal minister, then he is not a loyal minister. In this day and age, loyal ministers are the outliers. After all, when the whole world is full of rebels, loyal ministers really become the outliers.

(End of this chapter)