Ming Dynasty man

Chapter 519 Bestowing the National Surname

As long as Zheng Zhilong is not stupid, he can see the stakes.

Now Zheng Zhilong bluntly said that he would give up the fleet and was willing to move his family to Beijing, which shows that Zheng Zhilong has understood Li Jing's intentions, so he puts his stance even lower.

In this way, if Li Jing wanted to recruit Zheng Zhilong, he had to make a condition worthy of Zheng Zhilong.

However, Li Jing really wanted to recruit Zheng Zhilong this time. He did this only to warn Zheng Zhilong not to make too much demands. In fact, Li Jing had already thought about a position for Zheng Zhilong.

It's just that Zheng Zhilong put his attitude down so low, Li Jing felt that the previous arrangement had treated Zheng Zhilong a little bit badly.

It's like two people discussing business. One person says that you can give a price at will, but the other person wants to lower the price but is embarrassed to lower the price, and even raises the original psychological price a little bit.

Looking at Zheng Zhilong, Li Jing smiled wryly and said, "As expected of being a businessman, this calculation is really good."

Gently tapping on the table, Li Jing pondered for a moment and said, "Brother Zheng, before we met, I promised you that as long as you return to the imperial court, your rebellion will be wiped out, and the past will not be blamed.

But doing so will set a very bad precedent. In the future, someone will use your example as an example, rebel if they feel that the court has done something wrong, and then accept the recruitment. What will the majesty of the court be? "

Before Li Jing finished speaking, Zheng Zhibao, who was beside Zheng Zhilong, took a step forward, pointed at Li Jing and said angrily, "Li Jing, what are you talking about? Are you going to backtrack?"

Seeing this, Liu Er was stunned, and jumped up against the case: "Presumptuous! What are you, An dare to be rude in front of the commander. Come here, take it down for me!"

Hearing this, Li Jing looked at Liu Erlen and said coldly, "Huh? Liu Erlen, what are you doing? With me here, when is it your turn to give orders?"

"Marshal, Er Leng dare not, Er Leng made a mistake, please don't be angry." Liu Er Leng said hastily.

"Hmph! Does the chief envoy have no official duties? Or do you not want to do it anymore? If you don't want to do it, go back to Hongshanling to farm!" Li Jing said coldly.

Liu Er was taken aback, and knelt down in front of Li Jing: "Brother! Brother knows his mistake, can you forgive him once?"

When Zheng Zhilong saw it, he hurriedly got up and said, "Master Shoufu, it's my younger brother who was rude first, no wonder Master Liu."

After finishing speaking, he turned around and kicked Zheng Zhibao: "Asshole, how can you speak here, why don't you apologize to Master Li and Master Liu?"

Li Jing waved his hands and said with a smile: "Mang Er has a straightforward personality, how could I care about him?"

After speaking, he snorted at Liu Er in a daze and said, "Since Mr. Zheng begged for you, I will spare you this time, and I will not back down."

Liu Er kowtowed in surprise, stood up and cupped his fists at Zheng Zhilong and said, "Thank you Mr. Zheng for pleading."

Zheng Zhilong smiled wryly when he heard the words, and hurriedly returned the courtesy: "Master Liu is polite, it's my sister-in-law's fault, Zheng apologizes to Lord Liu on behalf of my sister-in-law."

Li Jing said with a smile: "Mang Er has a simple and straightforward personality, so there is no need to make amends."

Zheng Zhilong sighed inwardly, cupped his fists at Li Jing and said, "Thank you for your generosity, sir, for not haggling with my younger brother."

After a pause, Zheng Zhilong continued: "Zheng knows that this crime will not be forgiven, and handing over the fleet to the imperial court is to show his heart to the imperial court. If the Lord thinks of Zheng, he still has some merits, so that Zheng will not die. I couldn’t be more grateful.”

Li Jing shook his head and said with a smile: "Brother Zheng was too worried. I was interrupted by Brother Ling before I finished speaking. I'm afraid Brother Zheng also misunderstood me. What I mean is, let's discuss the crime first and then the merit. Wash off Brother Zheng's charges first, otherwise, if Brother Zheng makes a small mistake in the future, someone will definitely bring up the matter again, and that may be detrimental to Brother Zheng's career."

Zheng Zhilong said with a smile: "Your Excellency is very considerate, and Mr. Zheng depends entirely on your arrangement."

Li Jingjing nodded, made a gesture to Wen Qing beside him, and said solemnly: "The crime of rebellion should be punished, but Li Jing made a mistake in this matter first, and Zheng Zhilong corrected it when he knew his mistake, and was willing to make up for it. On the one hand, Zheng Zhilong will be exempted from the guilt."

After Li Jing finished speaking, Wen Qing swiped his pen and wrote quickly. After a while, Wen Qing finished writing and handed the transcript to Li Jing.

Li Jing took it and looked at it, ordered Xiaojiu to use the seal, and then handed it to Zheng Zhilong, saying: "You should keep this pardon carefully. If someone brings up this matter again, you can show him the pardon."

Zheng Zhilong was overjoyed, and bowed to accept the pardon: "Thank you, sir."

Li Jing smiled and continued: "Let's talk about your merits. This time you captured Manga, expanded the territory for the Ming Dynasty, and then repelled the Dutch fleet. For your achievements, the emperor thinks that being a knight is not enough to commend your achievements, so he issued a decree to grant you a national surname and a third-class Marquis of Jinghai."

After speaking, Li Jing ordered Xiaojiu to take out the iron coupon of the Danshu and hand it to Zheng Zhilong.

Zheng Zhilong took it with both hands, and solemnly knelt down to the north and kowtowed three times: "My minister, Zheng Zhilong, thank the emperor for his kindness."

Then he knelt down and kowtowed to Li Jing, "Thank you for your support, sir."

Li Jing smiled and pulled Zheng Zhilong up: "Brother Zheng is very polite. Now let me talk about the job arrangement for you. I plan to appoint you as the deputy commander of the Daming Navy and the admiral of the Second Fleet of the Daming Navy."

Zheng Zhilong was overjoyed when he heard the words, and hurriedly clasped his fists and said, "Thank you, sir, for your attention."

"What's the matter with the Second Fleet? Does Daming still have a fleet?" Zheng Zhibao asked.

Li Jing smiled: "Of course, the fleet that Sun Chuanting belongs to is the First Fleet."

"What? Sun Chuanting's fleet is the First Fleet? How many ships does he have? How dare he call it the First Fleet?" Zheng Zhibao said disdainfully.

Li Jing said with a smile: "Do you think Sun Chuanting's lack of ships is not worthy of being called the First Fleet? Naval battles cannot be won with more ships. The key is to look at weapons."

"No matter how powerful Sun Chuanting's weapon is, can it be as powerful as the red-haired ghost's weapon?" Zheng Zhibao asked doubtfully.

"Hehe, Mang Er, when you attacked several coastal fortresses a while ago, it seems that you did not suffer from coastal artillery?" Li Jing smiled.

Zheng Zhibao was shocked when he heard the words: "What kind of artillery is Sun Chuanting's boat equipped with?"

Li Jingjing nodded: "It's a pity that the artillery produced by Daming is not enough to equip so many warships."

At this time, Zheng Zhilong said: "My lord, I have seen the power of those artillery pieces. They are indeed very powerful, but I think the range is not enough. In addition, the artillery fires explosive shells, so I am afraid it cannot destroy large ships."

Li Jing smiled and nodded: "You observe very carefully. Sun Chuanting also mentioned this problem when he wrote to me. However, in order to win at sea, we don't necessarily have to destroy the enemy ships. If we can defeat the enemy ships, then the enemy In the end, I can only obediently hold my hands back."

Zheng Zhilong suddenly realized when he heard the words: "My lord means..."

Li Jing smiled and nodded: "We can't destroy the enemy ship, but we can destroy the sail of the enemy ship. This is the biggest threat to our artillery."

At this time, Sun Meng said: "Master Sun has been conducting live ammunition training at sea these days. Originally, Master Sun wanted to come back to accompany the commander in chief to see you, but the commander said that the training is important, so he didn't let him come back."

Zheng Zhilong smiled wryly, knowing that Sun Chuanting didn't come to see him just for training, it was because when he rebelled last time, Sun Chuanting didn't dare to dispatch ships to fight him in order to preserve his strength.

This incident was a great shame to Sun Chuanting, so Sun Chuanting was unwilling to meet him before the fleet was built into a battle-ready division.

If Sun Chuanting didn't come to see him, Zheng Zhilong would naturally not go to make fun of himself.

After thinking for a while, Zheng Zhilong said: "I wonder if the humble fleet can be equipped with this kind of artillery?"

Li Jing said with a smile: "Of course there is no problem, but I'm afraid it won't work now, the main reason is that the shells we produce are only enough to support the number of existing artillery pieces. If there are no shells, then no matter how many artillery shells we manufacture, it will only be a decoration.

In addition, if your ship wants to install this kind of artillery, you must change the original gun position, because your original artillery is installed on the side string of the ship, that is to say, you must turn the ship sideways to attack the enemy ship. Will waste a lot of time.At the same time, when you attack an enemy ship, the enemy ship can also attack you. "

Zheng Zhilong heard the words and sighed: "Unexpectedly...the commander-in-chief even knows how to fight at sea."

Li Jing shook his head and said with a smile: "You are wrong. Sun Chuanting told me. Speaking of which, Sun Chuanting also accidentally discovered the benefits of changing the gun positions."

"How do you say that?" Zheng Zhilong wondered.

Li Jing smiled and said: "In the previous battle between Penghu and Jinmen, Sun Chuanting captured some of your ships, and you removed the cannons on these ships. In order to make these ships fight, Sun Chuanting adopted Li Guozhu's suggestion. Install the artillery on the bow and stern of the ship. During training, Sun Chuanting found that although the installation of artillery in this way cannot cause substantial damage to the enemy ship, it can destroy the sail of the enemy ship."

Hearing this, Zheng Zhilong felt ashamed for a while. He failed several times in his attacks, but he didn't want to but strengthened Sun Chuanting's fleet, which made Sun Chuanting discover such an attack method.

Sun Chuanting now has nearly a hundred ships in his hands. If they all install artillery in this way, when he is proficient in using it, he may be defeated by him.

Smiling, Li Jing continued: "Brother Zheng, don't worry. In the coming year, I will order the military factory to produce shells at full capacity to ensure the demand for artillery. At that time, I will give priority to deploying your fleet."

Zheng Zhilong was overjoyed upon hearing this, stood up and bowed to Li Jing, "Thank you, Commander."

Li Jing waved his hand and signaled Zheng Zhilong to sit down: "Brother Zheng, it's winter now, and I can't mobilize troops to garrison Manjiga for the time being. During this time, you must guard Manjiga. I will send troops to Manjiga in the spring of next year." Garrison and garrison."

Zheng Zhilong clasped his fists and said, "Don't worry, Commander, the humble job guarantees to keep the manjaga."

Li Jingjing nodded: "Manlajia, especially the Manlajia Strait is of great importance. If the Manlajia Strait is guarded, the ships of the Western Yi will not be able to enter our Daming sea area, and the mainland of Daming will not be threatened."

"I understand that before the commander-in-chief sent troops to Manjijia, I would have to defend Manjijia even if I died." Zheng Zhilong said solemnly.

(End of this chapter)