Dragon Sea Empire

Because Xu Guangqi is always surrounded by some Western missionaries, You Wenhui, as a short-haired Jesuit monk, was also unanimously recognized by court officials as a Western monk like Matteo Ricci. He once went to Japan, or during the Wanli period During the Japanese invasion of Korea, as far as he was a subject of the Ming Dynasty, he was regarded as a foreign spy at that time, but he followed Matteo Ricci to preach in the interior for more than ten years, and no one doubted his identity at all.

During this period, many Chinese and foreign Catholics came and went in and out of China and Japan, but the Ming Dynasty did not know what these people were doing or where they came from. It can be seen that the Ming Dynasty at that time was not afraid of things that were only a few feet away from the country. Completely blinded, completely ignorant.

Jin Yiwei Qianhu of the escort mission was still doing his duty, and sent one of his generals to accompany You Wenhui to Guazhou to investigate the situation and contact the pirates. At the same time, he also found a living servant from the Yangzhou government office to guide them.

This person was always very unlucky and his name was Zhou Xiang. He was from a hereditary military family. He entered Jinyiwei because of his nepotism and was kicked out of the capital because he was not smart enough. Let the team go, this time, unlucky enough to draw lots, and had to accompany that Western monk to take an adventure in the pirate army.

Both of them put on Confucian gowns, and rode two horses out of the south gate of Yangzhou City. The Yangzhou government official dressed as a servant rode behind them on a donkey and walked south along the canal bank road. They are completely nondescript, neither businessmen nor Confucian scholars, anyone will regard them as suspicious characters.

Therefore, after the three of them walked for several hours, they were surrounded by a group of armed men wearing dark blue short jackets, leggings, and holding excellent firecrackers who suddenly appeared on the side of the road.

It is less than ten miles away from Guazhou, and it is already within the patrol range of the Chinese Army's mobile sentry.

You Wenhui has worked for Yin Feng for several years, and he knows the shapes of the various uniforms in the Chinese Army, as well as the meanings of the various armbands and badges. Brother of the third post, please inform your minister, we have something important to find him, "

The chief guard in Jinyi was clutching the dagger in his arms nervously without saying a word, and the servant dressed as a yamen servant was hiding and shivering. It was a very strange scene. surrounded the three of them with a flintlock musket with a good bayonet, and the leader of the sentinel was a sergeant sergeant, staring at You Wenhui's face, and asked in Mandarin with a southern Hokkien accent: "Who are you and how do you know?" The military ranks in our army, hehe, you must be spies from the government and the army...Brothers, tie them up and take them back to the camp!"

As soon as the words fell, several sentries of the Marine Corps immediately took action, knocked down General Jin Yiwei from his horse with the butt of his gun, and seized his hidden short knife. You Wenhui raised his hands and jumped off his horse: "Brothers, this sergeant, please take me Go to see your superior,..."

The sentries of the Marine Corps rushed forward and tied up the three of them. One of the sentries handed the dagger to the sergeant Shichang, and said, "There is a word engraved on the dagger, it should be from Jingshi Jinyiwei."

Shi Chang thought for a while and said, "Take it to Guazhou City and have it interrogated by people from the Military Information Department of the Squadron. We can't control the spies from the capital."

That Jin Yiwei couldn't be an official, but he was not a fool. Although he was being tied into rice dumplings, he heard the conversation between the two clearly at this time, and was very surprised: these patrolling soldiers can actually read and write.

In Guazhou City, the former Yamen of the Tongzhi Office of the Ming Dynasty is now the site of the old battalion of the [-]th Fleet of the Second Taiwan Fleet. Liu Xiang was called back from the canal wharf urgently by his subordinates. He walked into the main hall and wiped the sweat from his head. He said to the messenger who called him back: "What's the matter with the Ministry of Military Intelligence? I'm busy at the pier. I got too much stuff from Yangzhou this time. Everyone will have a share..."

Facing him, a supervisor of the Fleet Military Intelligence Department stationed in Guazhou was saluting him. Liu Xiang didn't dare to neglect the people of the Military Intelligence Department, and quickly returned the salute: "What's going on, it's the official army, oh, there is movement from the Ming army,"

"That's not true. The patrol sentry caught three people on the bank of the canal eighteen miles north of Yangzhou. They acted suspiciously. They kept calling to see our military supervisor. One of them had these things on his body."

Liu Xiang took the few things handed over by the other party, held up a small jade pendant, and frowned: "This, isn't this, a secret token of your military intelligence department? Where is this person now?"

"The three have been separated and detained in the backyard,"

"Lead the way, I'll meet the man with this thing,"

As soon as the door of the temporary prison in the backyard was opened, a gray-haired middle-aged man was holding a cross on his chest and praying silently. Liu Xiang exclaimed, "Mr. You, why are you here?"

Liu Xiang actually knew You Wenhui: About three years ago, You Wenhui, as Yin Feng’s personal painter and clerk, followed Yin Feng around all day long. I saw You Wenhui, who was dressed in a monk's robe and a Confucian uniform. You Wenhui was also a teacher in the field map-making course in the military academy. Liu Xiang had taken his class, and the two had a master-student relationship.

The two recognized each other as soon as they met. Liu Xiang knew that someone like You Wenhui must have something important to do here, so he hurriedly invited You Wenhui into the inner room, and then, You Wenhui had the task of connecting the court and the Chinese army Almost half done.

Five days later, dozens of imperial envoys from the imperial court of the Ming Dynasty were in a state of anxiety in Yangzhou City, wondering whether the three of You Wenhui had disappeared, and at this moment, You Wenhui came back.

He brought the handwriting of Liu Xiang, the defender of Guazhou of the Chinese Army, declaring that the front line of Guazhou had ceased fighting, and that envoys could go to Suzhou from Guazhou: The president asked Yin Feng to reply.

Everything is going well, it seems that the matter of appeasement is clear, but Liu Xiang requested that the appeasement mission not need too many guards except the civil servants of various ministries, and that the Dongchang spies are not allowed to enter the Chinese Army's jurisdiction. group.

The people in the mission group were all very angry and clamored one after another: "...the pirates are so lawless, how dare they disrespect the envoys of the Celestial Dynasty..."

Some people even said that they would take a team of officers and soldiers to Guazhou to see if the gang of pirates dared to close their doors.

Xu Guangqi ignored these unrealistic and ignorant remarks. He tried his best to resist all opinions and insisted on following the requirements of the other side in the southward movement of the recruiting mission.

Several censors in the mission had already made up their minds about the matter, and immediately went back to their room to write bullets, impeaching Xu Guangqi for "behavior inappropriate", "disgraceful to the dignity of the court" and so on.

The few Dongchang eunuchs and spies who were excluded had no objection. They were all little people in Dongchang who came out to mix their seniority, but they would be uncles if they stayed in Yangzhou City. Therefore, these people were unwilling to go to the "bandit area" for business. It was a very dangerous job, but they did not say anything good about Xu Guangqi and his entourage in the secret report to the imperial court.

On April 29th of the third year of the Apocalypse, the Imperial Envoy of the Ming Dynasty officially began to carry out the mission of "recruiting pirates" one month after leaving the capital.

On this day, the mild spring sunshine flooded the earth, the fields on both sides of the canal were lush green, and the wildflowers on the roadside gradually revealed their colors, creating a scene full of vitality.

At this time, the news that the imperial court was going to appease the pirates had spread throughout Yangzhou City.

Many Yangzhou people have not recovered from the catastrophe of the previous days. They hid behind their own doors and saw through the cracks in the door that a large group of high-ranking court officials rode sedan chairs and horses through Nanmen Street. The south gate goes out of the city.

Xu Guangqi sat in a four-person sedan chair, holding a small silver cross in front of his chest in his left hand, and silently recited the verses in the "Praise to Our Lady" translated by Matteo Ricci. After a while, he unfolded a Chinese translation of "Elements of Geometry" , began to mentally calculate a geometry exercise.

The rest of the mission couldn't do Xu Guangqi's energy-raising skills. Although they all heard that the Chinese army and pirates had good military discipline, they were not really top-notch rogue and pirate figures. However, after all, this is going to an area controlled by hostile forces, and various risks always exist.

Deputy envoy Sheng Yihong, the Ministry of Rites, the Ministry of Officials, and the entourage of Jin Yiwei all left Yangzhou City in a state of panic.

……

In May, the Chinese Army posted notices in the occupied areas along the Yangtze River: Because of the start of peace negotiations with the Ming Dynasty, the Chinese Navy will withdraw its troops from Zhenjiang and the upper reaches of Guazhou along the Yangtze River within one month. Evacuate the area around Jinling City, but retain the occupation of Zhenjiang, Suzhou, Songjiang and other prefectures.

On the front line of Wuchang, from the end of March to the beginning of April, the Ming army organized the southwestern Miao and Yao barbarians to launch a counterattack in an attempt to regain Wuchang City. This information was quickly picked up by the Ministry of Military Intelligence.

Mai Dahai, the supreme commander of the Wuchang area of ​​the Chinese Army and commander of the Taiwan Fleet, had heard about the bravery and skill of the barbarians in the Southwest, so he withdrew his troops from Jingzhou, Yuezhou and other places. battle.

However, among the troops assembled by the Ming army in the south of Wuchang City, some Miao soldiers came from the chieftain soldiers of Yong'an Chieftain She Chongming.

Fan Long and Fan Hu, who were originally conscripted to fight against the Chinese Army, launched a rebellion a year ago and killed the governor, the Taoist government, and the general because the Ming government defaulted on their military expenses. More than [-] officials and other officials occupied Chongqing. After Chongqing was occupied by Fan Long, He Chongming called himself "Daliang", set up five officials such as the prime minister, and commanded the department and tens of thousands of barbarians from outside, and separated from Fan Long to Chengdu. Attack, successively captured Zunyi, Huzhou.

The barbarians outside the city of Wuchang were the chieftains of Shechongming who had been dispatched along the Yangtze River in advance, or those under the jurisdiction of the chieftains of the Shechongming Alliance. In addition, these barbarians started the rebellion first, planning to fight all the way back to Sichuan and join their own people.

The Ming army's counterattack against Wuchang turned into a farce before it even started. The camp was in chaos first. The troops formed by mature seedlings in southern Hunan firmly supported the Ming government and stood on the side of the Han officers and soldiers to fight the rebellion. The Miao and Yi chieftain soldiers fought,