Dragon Sea Empire

In March of this year (46th year of Wanli), the Eight Banners soldiers first raided Fushun.

Fushun City belongs to the Thousand Households Office of Shenyang Zhongwei. It was built in the 17th year of Hongwu (1384), and it was only three miles around. Twenty miles to the east of the city, the horse market is the place where Jianzhou Jurchen and the Han people under the direct rule of the Ming Dynasty traded. Fushun is [-] miles west of Shenyang, southwest of Liaoyang, and northwest of Kaiyuan. In terms of defense and offense, these places can form special corners. To the east is the land of Jurchen, especially along the Suzi River upstream. Neither side can abandon this place if they want to fight and defend.

Before Nurhachi sent troops, he offered sacrifices to heaven and earth and uninspiredly proclaimed the Seven Great Hatreds—Yin Feng set a precedent, and now some people have imitated it.

The situation inside the pass was chaotic, and it was a perfect opportunity for this 60-year-old treacherous man to mobilize the elite of the Liaodong Army to fight in the pass. Therefore, he gathered the cavalry of the Mongolian tribes, with the Eight Banners soldiers as the forwards, and the Mongolian horse sellers as the internal support. , attacked and occupied Fushun in one fell swoop, and Fushun guerrilla Li Yongfang surrendered.

Then, Kaiyuan and Shenyang, which were empty of defensive forces, were successively captured by the Eight Banners soldiers. Zhang Chengyin, the general soldier of Liaodong who had suffered a defeat in the east of the capital city, led his troops out of Shanhaiguan to rescue Shenyang. As a result, the Ming soldiers set off firearms repeatedly when they lined up to meet the enemy, committing an old problem. The enemy started to set firearms indiscriminately outside the range, which did not hurt the enemy, but made their own soldiers scramble. With his long shooting skills, he overwhelmed the three phalanxes of the Ming army in one fell swoop.

When fighting against the Chinese army, since the Chinese army is mainly infantry, once the Ming army is defeated, they can escape quickly on their legs and feet. However, outside the Fushun side wall, because the main force of the Eight Banners is cavalry, the Ming army was too late to run after the defeat. The general Zhang Chengyin and the deputy general Pu Shifang all died in battle. Tens of thousands of soldiers died, and only one survivor survived.

The Eight Banners soldiers won consecutive battles, took advantage of the emptiness of the Liaodong frontier army, and kept plundering Liaoyang before returning.

The Jianzhou Jurchen officially pulled up the flag to rebel. The rebel forces that are close at hand are already directly threatening the Liaodong capital. The base is far away in the southeast sea. Although they can reach the two capitals, they have been asking for peace talks. Now it seems that they are no longer a serious problem.

After the emergency meeting of the Six Ministries and the Nine Ministers, Fang Congzhe, the chief assistant, submitted a memorial to Emperor Wanli, requesting that the pirates be properly agreed to, quickly gather troops to leave the customs, and put down the rebellion of the Jurchen Ministry.

Emperor Wanli Zhu Bi approved, and sent the eunuch to issue a decree, and went to Nanjing to inform Xu Guangqi and his party as soon as possible. Earlier, as soon as Xu Guangqi arrived in Nanjing, he sent a memorial to Beijing, reporting that the pirates' negotiation conditions were too outrageous. It has been protracted, and now, the imperial court is urging him to complete the peace negotiation as soon as possible. As long as the Chinese army can withdraw from the two capitals, the corresponding conditions can be agreed; there are three exceptions: the king is absolutely not allowed, the sea ban can be opened, but the merchants are absolutely not allowed to have the right to discuss politics and cede Jiangnan is absolutely not allowed.

After the Eight Banners soldiers occupied Fushun, two months later, Xu Guangqi and his party found out about the incident through the Tang newspaper of the Ming army in Huaiyang. In this way, Xu Guangqi and others received the imperial edict of Emperor Wanli on handling the negotiation matters. He was greatly disappointed: these three prohibitions, except for agreeing to open the sea ban, basically denied the main negotiation of the Chinese company. Conditions, what does this allow him to negotiate, he has been in Nanjing for more than a month, and the negotiation has not made any substantial progress.

However, the Chinese Army’s control over the south of the Yangtze River is more stable. It even started to open textile factories and silk weaving workshops in the city of Nanjing, openly set up schools, and openly taught Western and miscellaneous studies. Technology and other things are good things, but this should be done by the imperial court. What is going on with a rebellious businessman group doing these things.

Although the official truce order has not yet been issued, the Chinese Army and the official army are safe and peaceful in various places. This peaceful situation seems very strange, because the Chinese Army has the strength to further expand the control area, while the official army is It is also capable of harassing the areas ruled by the Chinese army, but the two sides have basically ceased fighting across the board, and even small-scale conflicts are rare.

The fundamental reason is that the current frontline of the war has become a trading place. Rice, timber from Huguang, coal from Shanxi, etc. are transported to the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Due to the war, this route has been interrupted. Now, at the junction of the areas controlled by the two armies, these goods have become The trading place is located along the shore of Taihu Lake and in the north of Huzhou City. Right under the eyes of the officers and soldiers, countless people and businessmen spontaneously formed several trading markets. Every day, countless people come and go from south to north, trading in this market surrounded by temporary fences. Various handicrafts such as silk, cocoon, tea, grain, rice and wheat, pig, duck, fish, iron, copper, gold, etc. The Bank of China Company also opened a temporary branch here, and the banknotes and seals of the Company were engraved. The silver is the common currency.

The officers and soldiers of the Ming army who participated in the transaction, they took off their military clothes and became merchants. Often, officers and officers brought military rations and military irons to trade with Chinese company merchants, and exchanged them for white money. Guarded by soldiers, the exit at the southern end is often guarded by officers and soldiers of the Ming army, and the two sides do not interfere with each other.

Soldiers of the Chinese Army cannot do business, but they have the responsibility to protect their merchants from doing business. This is one of the purposes of the establishment of the Chinese Army.

At the junction of the two armies, those people who originally belonged to the area controlled by the government and the army heard of the three-year tax exemption policy of the Chinese army, and moved their families to the area controlled by the Chinese army. The Ming army wanted to control this tendency at the beginning. As a result, deserters soon appeared in the barracks, and the soldiers also wanted to take the risk of fleeing to the area controlled by the Chinese Army, and then moved their families. The soldiers and officers just turned a blind eye and closed their eyes. It is too late to guard against the Chinese army's attack, so let these refugees go as they please.

The Chinese company takes commerce as its main income, and mainly supports and manages agriculture; while the government of the Ming Dynasty mainly collects taxes from farmers. They are also poor, but at least they don't have to worry about food and clothing, and they obviously won the support of more middle and lower Ming people.

Xu Guangqi couldn't leave Nanjing City, but from the time after time he came to visit his fellow countrymen and friends here, he somehow knew about these situations, and the peace talks could not be reached for a long time, and the Chinese company's deeply rooted policies are gaining the favor of the people, which is extremely detrimental to the Ming Dynasty. The unfavorable situation, in Xu Guangqi's view, he does not think that the rebellion on the Liaodong frontier is more important than the rebellion of the Chinese army.

When Xu Guangqi was in distress, the imperial court issued an official edict issued by the cabinet, which was carried by Huke to Yao Zongwen and Ma Yuan, the eunuch in charge of ceremonies, and came to Nanjing through the occupied area of ​​the Chinese Army in Yangzhou.

Yao Zongwen was one of the 35 Jinshi in Dingwei Division 1607A in the 39th year of Wanli ([-]). He was sent by Fang Congzhe to inspect King Qin's troops in Baoding. He didn't know military affairs, he only knew how to ask for bribes. In Nanjing, it was Fang Congzhe who took care of him and let him go out of Beijing to avoid the impeachment of the officials.

Among the ministers in the DPRK, Xu Guangqi looked down on this person more, but now he has no choice but to brace himself to meet Yao Zongwen.

After hearing Xu Guangqi's complaints, Yao Zongwen just sneered: "Master Xu, have you forgotten the words of Lord Chief Assistant Fang before leaving Beijing?"

"What do you mean?" Xu Guangqi asked solemnly, with a downcast face.

"I promise you to do things cheaply,"

"How can you act cheaply if the Holy One is not allowed to be here?"

"Mr. Xu is upright, and I admire him. There is a priority in everything, and you can discuss it with authority." Yao Zongwen came under Fang Congzhe's secret order, so he seemed very sure: "Fang Xiangguo ordered me to tell Master Xu that the imperial court opened the sea ban. It is unavoidable, and the other clauses can be vague in the past, and the truce and the return of the two capitals are settled first, and Master Xu has already made a great contribution."

Xu Guangqi frowned and shook his head. He is a typical doer and family man. In fact, he is not suitable for the traditional bureaucratic style, and he is not very good at political strategy. He shook his head repeatedly: "The Zhonghua Company and Yin Feng, these people Tian insisted on ceding the land and claiming the title of king, and to use their six oaths to be equal to the laws of the imperial court. If these conditions are ignored, the negotiation will not be possible..."

Yao Zongwen moved his chair close to Xu Guangqi, and said patiently: "Xu Fengwang and the matter of cutting the land are actually not important matters. In my opinion, it is just a trick of Yin Feng and his people to ask for prices. Now the land in the south of the Yangtze River is in their hands. They are not allowed to cede the land and do it again." What can I do, the officers and soldiers now have to deal with the Jurchen rebellion in Liaodong, and they are no longer able to fight the Chinese army, and the same is true for the matter of claiming the king. If the imperial court does not allow him to become the king, will they obey obediently?"

Xu Guangqi's heart skipped a beat: "Could it be, this Yin Feng..."

Yao Zongwen said: "Didn't Master Xu have a ten-year plan to train a new army? Now Fang Xiangguo allows you to train for five years, and use the money from the southeast as the training fee. Appoint you as the governor of Fujian, Zhejiang and Jiangxi, and train new troops to resist the pirates. Besides, as long as the public peace talks only state that the Chinese army will return the two capitals and withdraw from Tianjin Wei, Shandong, and Liaodong, the officials in the DPRK and China will not agree. Come out to make trouble, as for the land in the south of the Yangtze River, you can promise them to postpone the evacuation."

"Delayed evacuation,"

"Don't you know, the Chinese army promised the people tax-free food for three years, and there are still two years left. If the imperial court recovers Jiangnan at this time, it will inevitably have to collect taxes again. Isn't this competing with the people for profit and giving these pirates money for no reason? Buying people's hearts to create conditions? Besides, the imperial court will take at least a few years to stabilize the situation when it regains Jiangnan. In fact, it will not receive any taxation. Why don't you just let the Chinese army toss for two years? If Jiangnan is bigger and has a population of several million , to see how they can support themselves,"

Fundamentally speaking, these officials of the Ming court regarded the administration of the Zhonghua Company in Jiangnan as a temporary policy of favor. They judged from their own experience that no one could maintain the political power solely through industry and commerce. The company carries the big burden of Jiangnan, and then kills itself.

……