Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 333 A War Comes From the Southwest

Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youjian set the tone, and other officials in the Grand Marshal's Mansion naturally couldn't say anything more, and just like that, Zheng Zhilong and Gu Sanmazi were both made earls.

Whenever wars are frequent, it is the time when the title is high. Now there are several earls thrown out by Zhu Youjian. Fortunately, Zhu Youjian killed many relatives in the 17th and 18th years of Chongzhen. Now Adding a few earls and marquises would not increase the burden on the court much.

Zheng Zhilong was officially granted the title of Uncle Yunyang. For Zheng Zhilong, this was indeed something that made him quite happy. It also made him more interested in the future expansion of the territory, which can also be said to be the expansion of the colony. positive.

However, what Zheng Zhilong didn't expect was that Gu Sanmazi could also get an earl for beating a pirate.

Moreover, with the help of his Zheng family, especially his eldest son Zheng Chenggong, the pirates were pacified. Although his own son was also promoted as a governor, Zheng Zhilong still felt a little dissatisfied with Gu Sanmazi, although he dared not say clearly that this was the case. The imperial court deliberately did this, but they also began to regard Gu Sanmazi as their enemy in their hearts.

Zheng Zhilong naturally knew that Emperor Chongzhen Zhu Youjian wanted to support Gu Sanmazi to check and balance him. After all, people like Gu Sanmazi who have no foundation are more likely to be loyal to the court.

And once the imperial court supported Gu Sanmazi, that is, when the Ming Navy was able to suppress or even crush its own Zheng's group, it was when all the privileges of the Zheng's group disappeared.

And now that Zheng Zhilong has tasted the preferential taxation and political treatment by the court for being the strongest navy in the Ming Dynasty, he naturally does not want to see Gu Sanmazi rise.

Even if the Ming Navy is going to rise, he hopes that his cronies will control the Ming Navy, so he secretly encourages his two brothers and his son who hold important positions in the Daming Navy to take the opportunity to win over the naval officers and train his own Zheng family in the Daming Navy. power.

And Liu Kongzhao also secretly asked Gu Sanmazi to cultivate his own power in the military camp, so as to counter the Zheng Group.

But Zheng Chenggong, the son of Zheng Zhilong, is not such an obedient child.

In fact, in the original history, Zheng Chenggong was not a person who only obeyed his father's orders. Now, after receiving various educations in this era, plus staying in the Guards for more than a year, Zhu Youjian There is a loyalty that is different from that of his father.

Therefore, after receiving the entrustment from his father's person, he resolutely chose to have an audience with Zhu Youjian, and informed Zhu Youjian of Zheng Zhilong's involvement in the Ming Navy.

After Zhu Youjian learned about it, he immediately sent someone to reprimand Zheng Zhilong, and ordered Zheng Zhilong not to secretly cultivate his own power, otherwise all Zheng's family members would be expelled from the Ming Navy.

Now Zheng Zhilong really doesn't want his family members to leave the Daming Navy, so he can only accept Zhu Youjian's reprimand instead of blatantly entrusting his brother and son to cultivate power in the Daming Navy.

Zheng Zhilong himself was really angry, he never thought that his own son would put him on the same side, which made the whole court more vigilant towards Zheng's family.

"Loyalty comes first, filial piety comes second. You have done a good job. It is not only to protect the Daming country, but also to protect your father's reputation throughout his life. Your father is lucky to have a son like you."

Zhu Youjian praised Zheng Chenggong very satisfactorily, and Zheng Chenggong's mixed feelings became more firm at this time: "I would like to follow your majesty's admonishment, the humble minister is first of all the minister of the Ming Dynasty, and the son of the guards is the son of heaven. Army, and then Zheng's son!"

At present, the relationship between Zhu Youjian and the Zheng family is very subtle and complicated, and this subtle and complicated relationship is embodied in Zheng Chenggong.

Zheng Chenggong has both loyalty to the imperial court and filial piety to the Zheng family. Before the intensified conflict between the imperial court and the Zheng family, Zheng Chenggong can still be well between the two, playing a perfect man who is both loyal and filial.

The situation of the Zheng Group has been described so far.

Since Kui Yi and other Dutch colonial prisoners of war were escorted to Nanjing, they have been escorted to the boss of the Ministry of Punishment to wait for the ruling.

In the past history, prisoners of war must be directly executed, and the young ones may be castrated and directly become eunuchs.

But now Zhu Youjian does not intend to deal with it in this way. He told the Ministry of Punishment to interrogate these prisoners of war separately to find out whether he has oppressed the Han people in Dongfan Island. , to blame it for following the enemy's fault.

If there is and the severe case is sentenced to 100 years in prison, if there is no and the light case is sentenced to 50 years in prison.

Of course, Zhu Youjian did this not to forgive them, but to exhaust their labor force, ordering them to serve in shipyards and ordnance stations. Those with skills will continue to manufacture various machinery for Ming Dynasty, and those without skills will serve as hard labor. Those who can do meritorious deeds can have their sentences reduced or their treatment improved a little.

Kui Yi, a trainee officer in the Netherlands, will naturally be sentenced to 100 years in prison.

The equipment of the Dutch colonists in Taiwan was also re-used in large quantities in the Ordnance Institute and Zhijiang Shipyard, and even mirror-making equipment, which filled the vacancy in the mirror-making industry of the Ming Dynasty.

In fact, Zhu Youjian has no clear concept of what constitutes an industrial country. In his opinion, perhaps when one day the main national economy of Ming Dynasty is dominated by industry, Daming can be regarded as a real country. Industrial country.

But in the current Ming Dynasty, agriculture still occupies a dominant position, so it is not considered an industrialized country.

However, the industry of the Ming Dynasty has indeed begun to achieve significant development. The system of the Daming Ordnance Institute is becoming more and more perfect. From artillery to firearms to unconventional weapons and basic heavy industries, there are dedicated research and development and production departments. In terms of theoretical construction There are also Daming Academy of Engineering and Daming Academy of Sciences.

In terms of light industry, since the appearance of Han's spinning machine, the spinning machine has been continuously improved, and the development of the spinning industry has been enhanced by the use of hydraulic drive.

Xu Wenjue, Duke of the State of Wei, had begun to formally establish a glass production workshop, and Li Ruolian, the commander-in-chief of Jinyiwei, and Gong Yonggu, the captain-in-law, also started the development of civil industrial products and theoretical research on natural science in Yangqingke.

But many of these were produced by Zhu Youjian. The industrialization of Ming Dynasty has not yet entered an active evolutionary process, and people have not generally realized that industry can earn more profits and wealth.

Zhu Youjian felt that starting 20 years after Chongzhen, in order to further enter industrialization in Ming Dynasty, it was necessary for Ming Dynasty to have a complete industrial chain and ecological system from natural science theoretical research to application research and product production.

But now Zhu Youjian doesn't have the energy to figure out how to speed up the emergence of this phenomenon, because he still has to keep an eye on the border affairs of the Manchu Qing going south and southwest again.

On the day of June [-]th, Wu Mengming, the commander of Jinyiwei, hurried over:
"Your Majesty, I just received news from Sichuan that Zhang Xianzhong launched the Southern Expedition in the second half of 19, and has now captured Jiadingfu County and Qijiang in Chongqing; Zhan retreated to defend Zunyi, and in Chongzhen in March this year, Zunyi also fell, Dongchuan and Wumeng also fell one after another, and the peak of bandits pointed directly at Qujing in Yunnan!"

(End of this chapter)