Chapter 253 The sword points to Zheng's governor Lingnan
"Your Highness, battles have never been fought like this since ancient times." He Tengjiao sighed.
Zhu Yihai disagreed, "The Ming Dynasty has been fighting with the Tatars for almost thirty years. The year I was born, Nurhachi vowed to rebel against the Ming Dynasty with the Seven Hatreds. The court and the Tatars also exhausted their strategies, but which one worked?
Now we have only half of our country left. The old road is no longer viable. We must find a new road. Even if the future is uncertain, we must bravely test it. Otherwise, what is the point of walking down that dead end?"
"Mr. He Ge, I admire your loyalty very much, but the current situation requires flexibility in addition to loyalty. Everything is for the recovery of ZTE!" Zhu Yihai said with heartfelt words, "The reason why I called Mr. Ge into the court before was also
Knowing Ge Lao’s true attitude towards the Loyalty Camp, recruiting them was just forced by the situation, but Ge Lao never really trusted them, so if Huguang wants to open up the situation or even maintain it, Ge Lao can’t do it.”
He Tengjiao blushed and wanted to refute, but Zhu Yihai continued, "Mr. Ge knows what Gu said is right. There is no need to fight."
"Actually, I didn't ask Mr. Ge to come and talk about these things today. It would be too boring to talk about these things without sleeping in the middle of the night. I asked Mr. Ge to come because I value his loyalty, so I want to entrust him with an important task. Fujian and Guangxi are the chief officials of the imperial court.
The rear area, but since the death of Emperor Lieutenant, the rear area has not been peaceful either.
Especially Zheng Zhilong from Fujian. You also know that he was originally a pirate from Fujian. He was also a merchant and a thief. He was recruited in the early years of Chongzhen. The court used him to eliminate other pirates in the southeast, but he also became a problem. The Zheng family
Dominate the southeastern sea.
After the fall of the two capitals in the Ming Dynasty, the Zheng family's ambitions continued to expand. Now they only superficially respect me as the supervisory state, but in fact they regard Fujian as their independent kingdom.
Did you know that Zheng Zhilong was good at power and authority? Although he was the governor of Fujian, he regarded himself as the king of Fujian. In the past few months, he appointed and dismissed local civil and military officials in Fujian at will, from the general soldier to the prefect, from guerrilla to
The county magistrate, the officials of all sizes in Fujian, can confer whatever he wants, and let him go as he pleases.
All the taxes, money and food from Fujian are now in his hands. He can deliver as much as he wants to the imperial court, completely at his whim, without any ledgers.
Gu sent orders to the Zheng family several times, asking them to build customs there, collect taxes, clear taxes, and even open the port for trade with the Fan people, but the Zheng family ignored Gu's orders.
I asked Zheng to organize his troops and compile records, but there was no response.
Now in Fujian, Zheng's rules are more effective than the royal laws of the imperial court.
If this continues, is it okay?
He Tengjiao also heard about the Zheng family in Fujian, "His Royal Highness made him a marquis and granted him the governorship, and he treated the Zheng family so kindly. They are indeed greedy."
Zhu Yihai sighed, "In the final analysis, the imperial court lacked means of checks and balances and lacked the power to suppress, which is why the Zheng family was so arrogant and domineering. Although they are still polite on the surface, this kind of courtesy is just a show. It's just because of being alone.
The north can still hold on, but if it cannot intervene in time to check and balance, Fujian will inevitably lose control.
Mr. He Ge, I know that you are loyal and capable. So after much thought, I want to ask you to go to Guangzhou to supervise the two provinces of Fujian, Guangdong and Guangxi. I hope that you can represent the imperial court, restore the dignity of the imperial court and clean up the affairs there.
Taxation, rectification of the official army, promotion of trade and investment, and making it a truly reliable rear area for the imperial court, instead of like today, where we are fighting bloody battles with the Tatars on the front line, while the Zheng family and others are self-reliant in the rear area. We do not want to fight the Tatars on the front line.
, and you have to always be wary of someone stabbing you from behind.”
"Now that the front line is tense, I can only allocate one town of Beijing camp to you to serve as a guide for you to move south. In addition, I will transfer ship personnel from the four towns of the navy to go south under the command of Ruan Mei, and I will listen to your control."
The situation in eastern Zhejiang is now stable, and it has even begun in-depth reforms, with good results. However, it is impossible for just a few prefectures in eastern Zhejiang to support the Northern Expedition.
It is necessary to integrate the entire southern provinces and use half of the country's manpower and material resources to compete with the Tatars. Therefore, it is impossible for Zhu Yihai to give up on the three provinces in the rear, Fujian, Guangdong, and Guangxi.
It was impossible to get involved before, and even the prefectures in eastern Zhejiang were not fully controlled, so for other provinces that were more distant, the only way to win over was through official appointments and promises.
As long as they are willing to read the edict and support it, Zhu Yihai will be very polite to these people.
If the Zheng family was powerful, Zhu Yihai not only gave Zheng Zhilong the first title of marquis, but also granted his family three counts, a governor, an admiral and three general military officers.
This treatment is unique to Scorpion, and he even hinted that he would marry his daughter to Zheng Sen in the future, and finally give her a national surname.
As a result, his show of kindness was regarded as weakness by Zheng, as he was beyond his reach and could no longer control them.
Now he is acting more and more arrogantly, even more unscrupulously than during the Hongguang Dynasty.
He appoints and removes officials without permission, levies money and grain at will, withholds taxes, and even monopolizes the benefits of maritime trade. He will give two to three hundred thousand taels of silver to the court if he likes it, but will not give it if he doesn't. He completely regards Fujian as his own. Even the former governor Zhang
Kentang was dissatisfied with Zheng Zhilong's behavior and said something to him. As a result, Zheng Zhilong actually sent troops to force Zhang Kentang to Zhejiang.
There was also a censor who was sent to supervise. Because he accused Zheng of being domineering, he was stopped by a group of people on the street. He was pulled out of his sedan chair and beaten violently. All his teeth were knocked out, and his tongue was cut out cruelly.
The seriously injured censor died of his injuries that day, but Zheng Zhilong actually just sent a memorial to the court, saying that the censor demanded bribes from businessmen and forced them too much, which led to some people being angry and bribed thieves to take revenge on the streets.
This is a complete reversal of black and white, mistaking a deer for a horse.
All these things forced Zhu Yihai to face up to the Zheng family, and he even had to free up his hands to deal with Zheng Zhilong in this chaotic battle on the front line.
Although he wanted to send Jin Yiwei directly to Fujian to arrest people, he also knew that Zheng Zhilong dared to be so arrogant because he had the capital.
If the imperial court really sent Jin Yiwei to arrest people, Zheng Zhilong would definitely kill them all without saying a word, and finally find some excuse to deal with it, such as meeting bandits on the way, etc.
I was so desperate that I had no choice but to rebel directly.
Zhu Yihai really doesn't have the ability to conquer Fujian by himself, so he can only find another way. At least he must send someone to balance it.
After much deliberation, although Ding Kuichu, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, was still loyal to the court, he was unable to suppress Zheng Zhilong.
In the end, he still planned to let He Tengjiao go to Guangzhou to take charge of the three provinces with the title of bachelor.
Use the power of Guangdong and Guangxi to check and balance the Zheng family in Fujian. We don't want anything else, but we want to make Zheng family more honest first. As long as we don't go too far, or even stabbing people in the back, we will be satisfied.
It is impossible to make the Zheng family obedient with just one governor. In the end, the Zheng family has to rely on hard power. He believes that as long as he maintains his strength in the north, is not defeated by the Qing army, and still has a base, then
After all, Mrs. Zheng did not dare to take that step easily.
But Zhu Yihai was not satisfied with the Zheng family not openly rebelling. He also needed Fujian's money, food and material resources, and Fujian's real reliability, so he had to send an important minister there.
Although He Tengjiao had many shortcomings, his loyalty was guaranteed. In addition, Ding Kuichu, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, was actually the same type of person as He Tengjiao, but not as capable as Tengjiao, so He was definitely the right person to use against Ding.
"The mission of Mr. Ge's trip south this time is very clear. According to the current rectification in eastern Zhejiang, he will carry out reforms there, abolish guard posts and military camps, organize taxes, open Guangzhou Shipping Department, Fuzhou Shipping Department, etc., and open a lijin bureau.
Reorganize and train a new force of Guangdong and Guangxi battalions capable of fighting to provide the imperial court with a steady stream of food and wages."
These words and this trust made He Tengjiao extremely excited.
"Mr. Ge is the third supervisor sent out by Gu Gu. He has high hopes."
"I am deeply honored!"
He Tengjiao originally thought that the Jianguo was unwilling to reuse him because he had no personal connections, so he summoned him from Huguang to the court and sat on the bench. During this period, he did say a lot of complaints, but he
Unexpectedly, supervising the country is not like that.
"Your Highness, the troops on the front line are tight. I can go south alone. The seal of the Governor and the King's flag given by Your Highness are enough."
"The soldiers should remain on the front line."
Zhu Yihai said, "In such troubled times, just the title of Superintendent is useless. Just like me, the supervising country, if there are no ten towns of imperial camps in hand, how many of them will truly respect and obey me? If I don't have these ten towns alone,
Yuying, I still don’t know how many people in this world are called lonely and how few are ignorant.”
"In troubled times, even Fang Guoan and his ilk know very well that only by having soldiers, horses and swords and guns can people be respected. Especially in Fujian, there are powerful people like the Zheng family. Even Ding Kuichu, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, has soldiers and horses at hand. Ge Laoruo
Without soldiers and horses to protect him, I'm afraid I won't be able to give the order to move him."
Ding Kuichu was made a count by Zhu Yihai last time because of the rebellion of King Jingjiang. The general was also made a count. He Tengjiao came to the post alone. He dared to say that Ding Kuichu would definitely ignore him.
"Don't worry, Gu is not fighting alone now. In addition to eastern Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Anhui, Huguang and even Sichuan are all fighting back. There are also many people in western Zhejiang, Susong and other places. Therefore, we dispatched a team from the Beijing Camp
It’s still okay for me to go south with you.”
"Besides, I have high hopes for Mr. Ge's trip. The focus of this investment is also to hope that I can get more returns. The taxes, money and food from the three provinces behind me, and even the benefits of sea trade, are what I urgently need."
If Mr. Ge can rectify the three provinces as soon as possible, not to mention other things, the land silver alone can be as much as several million taels of silver. And if the sea can be mined and levied lijin, the salt tax can also be collected, and another
A few million is no problem. If you can have tens of millions of silver to fill the national treasury, how can you be afraid of a protracted confrontation with the Tatars?"
"Let's start with Guangdong and Guangxi. Qu Shiqi, the governor of Guangxi, met Gu before he came to court. He had a long talk with him. He is a loyal and capable man. After you arrive in Guangzhou, you must rely on him. In addition, I will appoint Zhang Mingyang as the Admiral of Guangdong, who will also serve as your
General Pavilion Commander."
"Step by step, first Guangdong and Guangxi and then Fujian, we must pay attention to the methods and methods of the Zheng family. There is a prerequisite. We must not force the Zheng family to rebel. At this stage, we cannot withstand the Fujian rebellion."
He Tengjiao knew that this would be difficult, but with this Zhenjing camp as his cabinet standard, he was greatly emboldened to move south. Moreover, Guangxi also had a supporting governor, Qu Shishu.
"Zhang Kentang will go south with you, and he will still serve as the governor of Fujian and the minister of the Ministry of War, Youqiandu censor. I will send Xiong Rulin, the minister of the Ministry of War and the admiral of Qianniu Town, who was an official in Fujian, as the governor of Guangdong."
One governor, three governors, two governors, let them fight.
