Dong Qichang noticed something strange in Zheng Haizhu's eyes.
This little woman obviously had a greater reaction when she heard the word "Yang Lian" than when she heard the name of the eunuch Wang An.
Dong Qichang tugged his beard and asked: "What? Miss Zheng is familiar with Mr. Yang Lian?"
Zheng Haizhu withdrew her moved expression and spoke eloquently: "When I accompanied Miss Han to Suzhou to learn embroidery, there were floods and droughts. I heard the people of Changshu talking about Yang Lian, the then magistrate. When he was in office, he would wear straw sandals and cloth shirts.
Inspection of water canals in the fields. Therefore, Magistrate Yang was ranked first among honest officials in the merit examination and went to the capital to serve as an official. Dong Gong just mentioned that the military affairs department was in charge, so I guessed that Yang Lian, the official, was Yang Lian, the county magistrate.
"
【In view of the general environment,
Dong Qichang nodded and continued to add Yang Lian's background concisely and concisely.
Zheng Haizhu listened calmly, but in his mind was the scene of Yang Lian's torture that later historians spent a lot of time describing.
In another five years, Yang Lian, the backbone of the Donglin faction who went to death to impeach the eunuchs, will be falsely accused of accepting bribes and imprisoned in a prison controlled by Wei Zhongxian's lackeys.
If ordinary torture was not enough, they used iron wire to brush the skin and flesh to pieces, used a copper hammer to break every rib on the chest, filled a cloth bag with soil to hold down the body, and used iron nails to drive in the left ear and pull it out from the right ear.
Even so, Yang Lian still refused to give in and wrote a blood letter "Cut the east wind with a knife, laugh and laugh again", and was eventually killed in prison by the eunuchs.
The power system of the Ming Dynasty, regardless of the warlords and military power of each side in the later period, the core of the court was composed of the power of the king, the power of ministers, the power of eunuchs and the power of officials. The king tried to use the latter three to check and balance each other, benefiting himself, and his ideas were not the same.
Poor, but unfortunately the heirs have different abilities. When encountering a cowardly and weak emperor, the situation will become that the last three powers sometimes fight against each other, and sometimes join forces to fight for the emperor.
Therefore, in the past few years of his career, Zheng Haizhu deliberately integrated the latter three powers, or at least, made friends with relatively clean figures among these three groups.
For example, she favored Ma Xianglin's father-in-law and Zhang Quan, the Minister of War. This father did not die in Liaodong as the original course of history, so he was expected to join the cabinet.
Zhang Yanke was like his best friend, and the Fujian governor Shang Zhouzuo who served as an aide was also whom Zheng Haizhu expected to join the cabinet. Therefore, after the Minghe naval war, Zheng Haizhu asked his nephew to go to Shaoxing merchants every six months.
I am sending a gift of gold to express my gratitude to Shang Zhouzuo for supporting the Navy in the Minhai area to buy guns from the Songjiang Firearms Factory.
Among the two factions of eunuchs and officials, Zheng Haizhu, who has a God's perspective, firmly likes Liu Shimin and Huang Zunsu. After their fateful friendship, their friendship is now stable.
Unexpectedly, I would be recommended by Dong Qichang this time to meet the more important eunuchs and officials, Wang An and Yang Lian.
It is natural to seize such opportunities.
"Dong Gong, Wang Gonggong and Yang have given me advice, how should I prepare a gift?" Zheng Haizhu asked humbly.
Dong Qichang looked like he was doing his best to treat his children kindly, and said warmly: "I have prepared it for you. The prince is a good calligrapher and painter, and I have found a landscape painting by Ni Zan. You can present it to the prince."
"Ah, thank you very much, Mr. Dong. I will write to Songjiang tomorrow and have someone send the banknote to Mr. Dong's house."
"Don't worry about it. Not counting the size of Ni Yuanzhen, you can pay just half of it, one thousand three hundred taels."
Zheng Haizhu secretly took a breath of air, and the two hundred muskets were gone. Dong Qichang, an old gangster, although he is not a gangster who likes to live in a fish and meat village like in the wild history, he is really good at settling accounts, which is equivalent to paying homage to the mountain.
In the name of building relationships, I allowed myself to sponsor half of his gift investment.
But after all, it was the prince’s eldest companion who was paying his respects. This ceremony was of a high level, and Ni Zan’s painting was worthy of being given away.
As a result, I have to think about how to fight Wei Zhongxian and the Hakka family. I don't want them to work together to kill Wang An in a year's time.
Just listen to Dong Qichang say again: "As for Yang Lian, he is exactly like a member of the Donglin clan. He is self-righteous and concerned about the people of his family and country. He doesn't care about rare antiques, gold, silver and jewelry. So be it, you follow me.
The boat sails north. The journey still takes about ten days. You can drive the Ming army in Fushun.
You told me about the drive against the Tartars, the naval battle against the red barbarians in Fujian, and your military training in Chongmin's reclamation, and I drew them, titled "Scenes from Mingxing", and gave them to Duke Yang."
"Ah, wonderful, wonderful." Zheng Haizhu praised happily, "Juniors will also offer money to polish their pens, please accept Dong Gong's smile."
Dong Qichang waved his hands: "Miss Zheng is a real person, and I don't want to be a stranger to you. I have spent a lot of money searching for the original works of the predecessors these years."
Zheng Haizhu accompanied him and hehe, he thought to himself, it is true that the scallops want to applaud after hearing this, they hit the right theme of giving gifts, and even sold their own paintings by the way. Anyway, it is idle during the trip.
Dong Qichang is really shrewd, but also shrewd and magnanimous. He does not treat people who make deals as fools, but shows you his cards in a friendly manner, which is quite interesting.
…
A few days later, Cao Xu, the guest of honor of the Prince of Lu Fan County, came to the Yanzhou Wharf on the canal with only one personal servant.
The three craftsmen at the Dianbao Office recognized that it was Cao Yibin who had stepped onto the boat, and they were so frightened that they knelt down and kowtowed.
However, Cao Xu made a gesture of no courtesy and said humbly and easily: "Masters, we will be in the same boat through thick and thin from now on, not only on the boat in this canal, but also on the boat to capture the city."
The craftsmen were frightened and silent for a moment, but their eyes were full of doubts.
The day when the bells ring and the cauldrons eat is something they never dare to dream about. Cao Yibin just doesn’t want it, so why not?
Zheng Haizhu waved them away to put their luggage in the cabin, then turned to Cao Xu and said, "If Yi Bin wants to change his mind, it's still too late."
Cao Xu said: "I'm even more afraid that Madam will change her mind now."
Then he said: "Madam, just call me Cao in charge from now on."
Zheng Haizhu suddenly felt emotional in her heart.
Cao Xu's appearance reminded her of Wu Bond.
In this world, no matter which life it is, at every moment, there are brave and beautiful lives that come to an abrupt end, and there are lives that break free from the gorgeous but barren cage and pursue the word "break" in the world.
Zheng Haizhu smiled and said to Cao Xu in a worried tone: "Manager Cao, I am in a hurry to get to the capital. I can't lead you south to see Kang Li of the Gu family. I have written to Zhenjiang, and my nephew Shoukuan will meet at the dock.
Meet you and accompany you to Songjiang."
Cao Xu calmly asked: "I have no intention of asking what business Madam has to do. I just want to ask, can Madam come back before the ship leaves Songjiang?"
"I don't know," Zheng Haizhu said calmly, "If you can't make it back in time, you should go to sea first and go to Taiwan. My sworn brother Yan Xuanfu may be able to receive you and send an interpreter and sailors to go with you.
Champa. But this trip is thousands of miles away, whether it is in the sea or on the shore, everything is changing rapidly, and there must be an accurate guide wherever you go. If Yan Xuanfu cannot accompany you, you have to go by yourself. The only one you can rely on is me.
How about the servants of Songjiang? Do you still dare to go?"
"Dare you," Cao Xu said without hesitation, and pointed to the suitcase on the ground, "There is no need to hide anything from my wife at this time. Ever since I saw a sea ship when I went to Dengzhou to visit my brother, I have been yearning to go to sea. In this box,
There are records of Gong Zhen, Fei Xin and others that I have found. They were all followers of the eunuch Sanbao when he went to the West. Although their writings are incomplete, they are extremely precious."
Cao Xu signaled his entourage to open the box and took out two volumes that had obviously been repaired. Zheng Haizhu recognized that one had "Xiyang Fan Guo Zhi" written on it and the other had "Xingcha Range Rover" written on it.
Cao Xu changed his slow and calm demeanor and said slightly excitedly: "If there is anything good about being a guest of honor in the royal palace, it is to obtain some rare books from the inner court, which is always more useful than the Confucian scholars outside. Madam, this
Fei Xin, who was a military commander in the Sanbao eunuch fleet at that time, wrote very clearly that he set sail from Fujian and set out twelve sails. With a favorable wind for ten days and nights, he could reach the country of Champa. The country has a port on the sea called Xinzhou. The treasure ship arrived
After capturing the city, the chief came to greet him, wearing a golden crown on his head, gold bracelets on his arms and ankles, riding an elephant, and behind him were hundreds of Tibetan soldiers. Those Tibetan soldiers..."
"Manager Cao," Zheng Haizhu smiled and interrupted him, "I think you know more about Champa than my sworn brother Yan Xuanfu."
Cao Xu was stunned for a moment, then stunned.
After several interactions with him, he always felt that the woman in front of him had a faint coercion when she spoke to him. On the contrary, she was more noble than the arrogant women in the palace who had a good tone but were actually strong on the outside but capable on the inside.
Slowness makes me even more nervous. I never thought that she would also praise others.
The boatman came to report that it was his turn to leave the lock.
Zheng Haizhu crossed the string of the boat and reached the shore. She turned around and said goodbye to Cao Xu. Without any further hesitation, she walked towards Dong Qichang's northbound boat.