Dragon Sea Empire

The ones who came to visit Yin Feng were the so-called three pillars of Catholicism in China: Xu Guangqi, Yang Tingyun, and Li Zhizao, Yang Tingyun and Li Zhizao. These two came to receive a group of detainees at the invitation of Yin Feng, the leader of the Chinese Army. The Catholics in the Nanjing prison, these believers were all the victims of the Nanjing religious disaster in the previous year, the 44th year of Wanli.

The Nanjing missionary case was the first direct political blow encountered by Catholicism when it spread in Ming Dynasty China. The main messenger was Shen Que, a servant of the Ministry of Rites in Nanjing. There are two crimes listed: one is that Western missionaries participated in the calendar revision, which violated the traditional Chinese calendar since Shangshu Yao and Shun; deport.

Emperor Wanli was noncommittal about his memorial, but with the support of the eunuch, the supervisor of rites and the support of Fang Congzhe, a scholar in the cabinet, Shen Qian sent Wang Fengsu (later renamed Gao Yizhi) and Xie Wulu (later renamed Zeng Dezhao) and other ten officials to the court without waiting for the court's decree. Three missionaries and believers were arrested.

Wang Fengsu was beaten to death by the guards in prison, and he directly accused the Catholic Church of treason following another statement by Shen Qiang: "According to what he claims to be God, he is the number one sinner in that country... to coax witches into honor, to deceive the audience, It is not enough to argue, but it is not a conspiracy to stop practicing heresy. Why is it so popular with the king of Hongwugang, and it is so private; Kou all obeyed his teachings, committed crimes on the sea, and rebelled against the law..." Shenzong was in a state of neglect, and Shen Que colluded with eunuchs to drive out barbarians. Missionaries in the northern and southern capitals were arrested and imprisoned, their residences were demolished, and most of the churches were destroyed. .

Speaking of which, the Chinese company's resistance to the sea ban also affected the church persecution. Since Taiwan openly allowed Catholic missionaries, this has also become a criminal evidence of Catholic rebellion.

When Yin Feng's army invaded Nanjing, this group of missionaries and believers had just been transferred to the Metropolitan Procuratorate. After all the officials and servants fled, these special prisoners fell into the hands of the Chinese Army.

The victims of these religious disasters include not only Western missionaries such as Wang Fengsu and Xie Wulu, but also two Chinese brothers, Zhong Mingli and Zhong Mingren, who have been sentenced to slavery outside the customs. Zhong Mingren is the first Chinese to join the Society of Jesus , his name is Nian Jiang, a native of Xinhui, Guangdong, he is proficient in Portuguese and other Western languages. He used to be the translator of Matteo Ricci for several years. The monks, they were treated very well by the Chinese army, and they were taken care of by the Catholics in the Chinese army.

After the imperial court refused the peace talks, on the one hand, Yin Feng decided to expand the military attack on the imperial court again, and on the other hand, he looked for someone who could mediate between the ruling and opposition parties.

At this time, he thought of the victims of religious disasters, and immediately sent a letter to Yang Tingyun and Li Zhizao in Hangzhou, saying in the letter: "Jiu Yang, you two are people who work hard to promote Western learning. My Chinese company has always been committed to integrating Eastern and Western culture. We The army discovered the Catholics in the Nanjing Prison, and wanted to rescue these suffering missionaries from the prison and take them to Taiwan; we can also help transfer the missionaries and believers who took refuge in the two homes, but we don’t know what to do.

With the catastrophe in Nanjing, two missionaries, Long Huamin, president of the Jesuit China Missionary Society, and Deng Yuhan, a German, remained in Beijing. Among them, Pang Diwo, Guo Jujing, Bi Fangji, Ai Julius, Shi Weizhen and other missionaries were safely hidden in the homes of Yang Tingyun and Li Zhizao in Hangzhou to preach.

Originally, Yang and Li, two Chinese Catholics who were born in imperial examinations, would never associate with rebels and thieves. But at this time, they received a letter from Long Huamin from Beijing asking them to find a way to rescue the Nanjing Catholics. Friends, and do everything possible to form a good relationship with Taiwan Zhonghua Company.

The status of Yang and Li in the church made them aware of the important position of Taiwan in the Jesuit Chinese diocese. There are nearly 4000 Chinese baptized believers in the area under the rule of the Chinese company, which is more than the number of believers in the entire mainland of China. They want to get to know the believers in the Chinese army, and rescue those believers in prison by the way, so there is a trip for the two of them to Nanjing.

The two of them were accompanied by Shi Hongji, a believer from Macau, to the old camp of the Chinese Army in Nanjing.

Shi Hongji, whose character is Houqi, is a Chinese Catholic in Macau. He is 43 years old this year. Shi Hongji was one of the first batch of Chinese Catholics in the Ming Dynasty. In 1596, he was the first student of the art course of St. Paul's College. He went to the mainland after graduation He was only 13 years old at the time as a "painter" in the diocese. In 1603, he went to the Beijing Academy to assist Matteo Ricci. After 1610, he preached in various parts of China. He was very familiar with You Wenhui. He was also the first Chinese painter to learn Western oil painting techniques.

Yang Tingyun and Li Zhizao heard that one of Yin Feng's entourage was a fellow church member of Shi Hongji, so they let him accompany him.

When they entered the city of Nanjing, they were surprised to find that the city was well-ordered and all walks of life were flourishing. There were even many blond-haired and blue-eyed Westerners walking on the streets; Nanjing, wantonly doing business.

After the Battle of Suzhou, Yan Siqi’s Fifth Brigade captured Suzhou, Jiading, Jinshan and other places. Basically, the entire southern half of Southern Zhili has been occupied by the Chinese Army. This area is the main sericulture breeding area in the south of the Yangtze River. From April to November is the season for buying cocoons in Jiangnan. This is the end of the silk buying season. The sericulture industry in Jiangnan has not been interrupted by the war. With the rapid victory of the Chinese army, the damage caused by the war is very small. , and the largest customer of the overseas silk trade, Zhonghua Company, came directly to receive the goods. This industry has reached a climax. The streets of Nanjing are full of silkworm farmers and silk merchants. Someone is already asking the market director temporarily set up by the Chinese Army. : "...You guys come back next year, or, how long are you going to live here,"

Yang and Li saw that the majestic imperial city of Nanjing had become a big market, and they couldn't help crying and laughing. They came to the residence area of ​​officials, gentry and nobles in Beicheng, and found that the gates of the houses of various families were guarded by soldiers in black. The homes of these bureaucratic nobles have not been destroyed.

They also found that except for a few government treasuries, government offices, and barracks that were requisitioned by the Chinese Army, the rest of the residential buildings in Nanjing were basically not affected by the Chinese Army. Moreover, the common people got along very happily with the Chinese Army soldiers patrolling the streets and alleys, and there seemed to be no conflicts. mood.

The two of them were puzzled. They had heard about the good military discipline of the Chinese Army, but now they really saw it, but they were worried: In any case, the pirates behaved like a "king's army". It is not a good thing, but a crisis of the Ming Dynasty.

The two of them came to the old camp to ask to see Yin Feng, and announced by their Christian names that Yin Feng had been waiting for them for a long time, and immediately sent You Wenhui out to meet them.

As soon as they met, they clarified their identities as Catholics and Ding You at home, emphasizing that they came here for a private meeting, and came to rescue the believers. Lu Ruohan, who was present at the scene, was a Jesuit Chinese diocesan inspector, and they crossed and arched Proceeding to bow and salute, this kind of etiquette combining Chinese and Western styles seemed very funny to Yin Feng, he couldn't hold back his laughter with great difficulty, he didn't care about the hypocrisy of the two celebrities, and personally took them to meet with those religious friends who were released from the prison in Nanjing noodle.

Yin Feng then invited them to visit the books published by Zhonghua United Company at his residence: the translation of all 15 volumes of "The Original Geometry", "On the Operation of Celestial Spheres" and other western scientific and technological books, and Li Zhizao's reference to the "Element of Geometry" to write "Compound Rongrong" "Comparison" and "On Geometry" and "Essentials of Geometry" published five years ago are written by Sun Yuanhua from Jiading, Shanghai. Sun himself is Xu Guangqi's friend, student, and a Catholic.

Both Li Zhizao and Yang Tingyun were surprised: Li Zhizao had no objection to the piracy of his books, but was very surprised that these practical and Western books were published in Taiwan in large quantities.

Yin Feng took the opportunity to work on them and asked them to mediate between the Chinese company and the court.

"...We are the hope of Ming Dynasty. My Ming Dynasty is full of diseases now. Western learning is the way of salvation, and it is also the way of 'replenishing Confucianism' that Xu Dashi and you gentlemen said. Our company is not like changing the dynasty, but wants to open the sea. The people of Yuguo and Ming Dynasty live and work in peace and contentment, and the sea ban must be lifted, so that the Catholicism you believe in can spread in the land of China..."

Li and Yang did not make any promises. When they left, they left their disciples behind. Later, some missionaries who hid in their homes also came to Nanjing by water. Pang Diwo, Guo Jujing, Bi Fang Among the missionaries such as Ji Ji, Ai Juliu, and Shi Weizhen, Guo Jujing was unwilling to leave the mainland and stayed at the home of Li Zhizao in Hangzhou.

Yang Tingyun once served as the supervisory censor, and Li Zhizao served as the Shaoqing of Nanjing Taipusi. Their official positions were not high, and their influence in the court was not enough. Yin Feng had already considered this point. When Pang Diwo, Bi Fangji, and Ai Julius, who had fled, set off for Taiwan to take refuge, they jointly wrote a letter to Xu Guangqi in Tianjinwei, asking him to come forward to advocate appeasement to the Chinese company.

During the same period, Li Zhizao and Yang Tingyun wrote to Ye Xianggao, the former chief minister of the cabinet. After receiving the letter, Dou and Ye Xianggao, who was very fond of Western missionaries, set off for Hangzhou immediately.

In their letters, Yang and Li did not directly raise the issue of appeasement, but recounted what they had seen and heard in the Chinese Army-controlled area, and then mentioned that Yin Feng was willing to evacuate Nanjing and Beijing after he proposed to open the sea and ban trade.

After all, Ye Xianggao is a political figure, and he can see the major crisis that the Ming Dynasty is facing from the things described in the letter.

He came to Hangzhou in a hurry. He first visited Luo Qing, the deputy general of Zhejiang, and asked him to talk about the combat effectiveness of the Chinese army. After emphasizing it, after leaving Luo Qing's place, Ye Xianggao went to Li Zhizao's house to meet Yang and Li.

As soon as they met, he said: "This battle can no longer be fought. If we continue to fight, the Ming Dynasty will be in danger."