It was June 17, the first year of the Hongguang reign of the Ming Dynasty.
Xi'an, the capital city of Quzhou where Zhejiang and Fujian meet, the sun was three high, the city gates were still closed, and the streets were very quiet, even a little deserted and dead.
Soldiers stood at the city gates and streets, guarding with guns and knives. The curfew was strictly enforced. Anyone who dared to violate the night curfew would be killed by these soldiers. Several unlucky people were hacked to death at various city gates in one night.
On the street corner, although some of them just violated the ban unintentionally, the soldiers directly hacked them to death as spies.
Some of the luckier ones only received a severe beating and were locked in a corner with bruises and faces, waiting for the arrival of dawn.
In fact, just one day ago, this capital city of Quzhou experienced a war.
The defenders of the city were the young and strong village warriors in the city led by Tongzhi of Quzhou Prefecture, while the attackers were Zheng Hongkui, who was awarded the title of General of Zhenjiang by Emperor Hongguang and had the seal of General of Zhenhai.
The cause of the incident was that Zheng Hongkui led his troops to enter the city, but the prefect who was guarding the city refused, and the two sides argued. In the end, the angry Zheng Hongkui directly ordered an attack on the city.
There were not many soldiers in Quzhou City, and although Zheng Hongkui lost Jiang Fang and fled with little resistance when the Qing army attacked Zhenjiang, after all, Zheng Hongkui was also a Fujian pirate, and was the fourth brother of the great Fujian pirate Zheng Zhilong.
His real name was Zheng Zhifeng, but he later changed his name to Zheng Hongkui when he took the martial arts examination. In the late Chongzhen period, he became a royal guard. During the Hongguang Dynasty, on the order of his brother Zheng Zhilong, he took Zheng Bing from Fujian to Nanjing and became the chief military officer.
Zheng Hongkui did not dare to attack the Qing army, but he easily won the empty Quzhou without any scruples.
After entering the city, Zheng Hongkui ignored the opposition of his colleague Zhu Yujian, the king of Nanyang, and sent troops to kill all the Tongzhi and other officials who dared to resist his entry into the city. He also sent troops to loot the wealthy gentry in the city and plundered a lot of gold, silver, money and food.
They even forced thousands of strong men into the army.
Poor people in Quzhou City encountered a military rebellion for no reason. Before the Northern soldiers could move south, they were plundered and killed by Zheng soldiers holding the banner of the Ming Dynasty.
Many houses in the streets and lanes of the city hung up white lanterns and held funerals.
At the corners of streets and alleys, crude woodblock notices of martial law printed on the fly are still posted.
Although the riot was over, the atmosphere in the city was extremely depressing.
In the prefect's Yamen, Zhu Yujian was coughing and in a gloomy mood.
As the ninth grandson of Taizu Emperor Gao and the tenth grandson of Taizu's 23rd son, Prince Ding of Tang Dynasty Zhu Kuang, Zhu Yujian's life was also very bumpy. When he was only three years old, his grandfather, Prince Tang Duan, doted on his concubine.
, was bewitched by him, so he imprisoned his legitimate son. Three-year-old Zhu Yujian was imprisoned along with his father.
When he was eighteen years old, King Duan of the Tang Dynasty did not ask the court to grant him a name. Later, the prince was poisoned to death by his younger brother. King Duan of the Tang Dynasty wanted to directly make his beloved concubine the prince. Fortunately, Chen Qiyu, the Taoist priest at the time, came to express his condolences.
Feeling that it was too much, he warned Queen Tang Duan before the matter was done. King Tang Duan later had to ask the court to appoint Yu Jian as his grandson.
In the fifth year of Chongzhen, the thirty-one-year-old Zhu Yujian finally waited for his mediocre grandfather to pass away and inherited the title of King of Tang.
The young king of the Tang Dynasty was determined to show his talent. He built a Gaoming Tower in the palace and invited celebrities from all over the world. He even killed two uncles with a stick to avenge his father's poisoning. In the ninth year of the Qing Dynasty, the Qing army entered the fortress. Zhu Yujian ignored the ban and recruited
Xiangyong went north to Qinwang.
This incident made Chongzhen furious. He deposed him as a commoner, imprisoned him in the royal clan prison of Fengyang Gaoqiang, and changed his brother to the title of King of Tang Dynasty.
When he was young, he was imprisoned by his grandfather for sixteen years. After becoming the king of Tang Dynasty for only a few years, he was imprisoned in Fengyang High Wall for seven years.
It was not until Chongzhen hanged himself last year and King Fu ascended the throne in Nanjing that Zhu Yujian was released and granted the title of King of Nanyang. The Ministry of Rites of Nanjing requested for him to restore his old title of King of Tang, but Hongguang refused and asked him to move to Pinglefu in Guangxi.
Because he had been imprisoned in Fengyang for seven years, Zhu Yujian, who was in his forties, suffered from injuries and illnesses. He was old and haggard and could not walk. He could only stop and go. When the Qing army invaded Nanjing, Zhu Yujian was still in Suzhou and went south to Zhejiang.
He took refuge in Jiaxing and went to Hangzhou in early June. He asked King Lu to supervise the country, but he refused. He asked Chen Fanglue to go to court, but he refused.
Zhu Yujian, a once ambitious vassal, could not help but feel helpless. He talked about the current situation with Zheng Hongkui, the commander-in-chief of Zhenjiang, Su Guansheng, the minister of household affairs, and Huang Daozhou, the minister of rites, and burst into tears.
Later, Zheng Hongkui decided that King Lu of Hangzhou could not hold it, so he wanted to return to Fujian, and asked Zhu Yujian to accompany him.
As he went south, Zhu Yujian gradually discovered that General Zheng's purpose was not simple. He took him south because he saw the current situation was turbulent and wanted to hold a vassal prince in his hands.
Along the way, Zheng Hongkui had hinted and expressed several times that he would be asked to supervise the country and ascend the throne.
Zhu Yujian never agreed.
The reason is naturally that he is only the King of Nanyang now, and the King of Tang is his younger brother. Even if he is still the King of Tang, he, the ninth grandson of Taizu, actually has no chance at all in terms of qualifications to inherit the throne.
His eighth generation ancestor was the 21st son of Taizu and the brother of Chengzu. No matter how the Ming Dynasty throne was passed down, it would definitely be among Chengzu's descendants.
After King Lu and others surrendered, the most qualified person now is King Gui Zhu Changying, the seventh son of Emperor Wanli Shenzong.
However, for Zheng Hongkui, King Gui granted the vassalship to Hengzhou in Hunan and had no connection with the Zheng family in Fujian. It is said that now that King Gui has arrived in Guangxi, if he wants to support Gui, it must be Qu Shichu, the governor of Guangxi, who has the first chance.
In comparison, how could the King of Nanyang, Zhu Yujian, who was in his own hands, be more suitable?
"Your Highness, at the bandang meeting, it is not enough for Taizu to be a vassal to restore Xiang's great cause. I invite your highness to take over the throne and supervise the country."
Huang Daozhou stood up and paid homage to Zhu Yujian.
Huang Daozhou was a great Confucian at that time, with a great reputation, but he was not reused in the Chongzhen Dynasty. He once served as a bachelor and lecturer in the Hanlin Academy. In the Hongguang Dynasty, he was called the Minister of Rites, and later the Minister of Rites.
After Nanjing was defeated, he went south to Hangzhou, asked King Lu to supervise the country, and asked Ma Shiying to be killed. Seeing that King Lu was weak, he planned to go south to support King Gui, reestablish the court, and organize a fight against the Qing Dynasty.
He was from Fujian, and he and Zheng Hongkui were fellow villagers, and they traveled together all the way. Zheng Hongkui valued Huang Daozhou's reputation and always persuaded him to support the Tang Dynasty. He even said that Liu Xiu of the Eastern Han Dynasty started the business of restoring the Han family in Nanyang, and Zheng Hongkui said that the old Nanyang was restored since ancient times.
Take it out.
Of course, the one who finally convinced Huang Daozhou was Zheng Hongkui who said that the Tang King was brave and courageous, and that he was the most needed leader in today's chaotic situation.
In comparison, although King Gui is legally more qualified to succeed to the throne, King Gui is already weak in character and sickly. Now he has fled from Hunan to Guangxi. Everyone is far apart and it is not known whether King Gui is still alive.
In comparison, Zhu Yujian, who is in his forties, is younger on the one hand, and he has been in prison for more than 20 years in his life, and can persevere in adversity, which is more suitable for the current situation.
It was under the impetus of Zheng Hongkui that this small group of civil servants and generals who fled south planned to support the Tang king on the throne and supervise the country, and then go to Fujian to establish a court again.
Fujian is the base camp of the Zheng family. Since the Zheng family accepted the recruitment, they have defeated all forces at sea and become powerful in the southeast sea.
A brave and responsible vassal prince, coupled with the strength of the Fujian Zheng Group, this is undoubtedly a good combination.
Zhu Yujian sat there, still dissatisfied with Zheng Hongkui's previous attack on Quzhou and the wanton looting after entering the city. At that time, Zhu Yujian recruited a group of King Qin's troops to go north. Although he followed the peasant army along the way, they fought with each other, winning or losing, but in the end they did not arrive.
When Beijing fought with the Tatars, they were ordered to disband and return. However, the Qinwang army commanded by Zhu Yujian never plundered the people.
Zheng Hongkui's domineering and arrogant attitude poured cold water on Zhu Yujian, who was originally full of enthusiasm and planned to go to Fujian for ZTE's great cause.
Now that he is like this, how can brothers Zheng Hongkui and Zheng Zhilong really obey his will when they are on the territory of the Zheng family in Fujian?
He began to reflect on whether he should go to Fujian.
Zheng Hongkui was impatient because he could not persuade Zhu Yujian. Today he specially invited Huang Daozhou and Su Guansheng to persuade him.
Huang Daozhou was also very dissatisfied with Zheng Hongkui's attack on Qu, but at the current situation, he could only rely on military ministers. If he wanted to rebuild the court in the southeast to resist the Qing Dynasty, he had to rely on the Zheng family. After a lot of blaming, he finally had no choice but to press the button.
The overall situation is important.
"Your Highness, the Qing Dynasty is forcing martial arts, and people have no solid ambitions. The traitors and ministers want to kneel down, and the whole country is ashamed of their faces. Thinking of the difficulties of Emperor Gao's founding, every step taken back is a step lost. For the plan of ZTE and recovery, we should do it as early as possible.
Yi Yishi. Fortunately, we should keep the plan of the clan and society, and do not consolidate the ties of local officials."
"The divine weapon cannot be left unused for a long time, and this decree cannot be carried out from time to time. We urgently need to take charge of Yaoshu to serve as the leader!"
"A country cannot be without a king!"
"If the country had no king, the hundreds of millions of people in the Ming Dynasty would be like a piece of scattered sand, and it would be difficult to unite to fight against the great cause of rejuvenation of the Qing Dynasty."
"Please, Your Highness, for the sake of our ancestors and the country, and for the welfare of the world and the people, please take up your position as soon as possible!"
Zhu Yujian was still a bit aggrieved, and he had already seen through the idea that Zheng Huangsu and others had previously described how they could revive the great cause after arriving in Fujian.
"Unless absolutely necessary, I don't want to come out to take charge of this matter. I want to make a three-part agreement with you. If you accept it, I will temporarily supervise the country. If you don't want to, don't mention this matter again."
"Your Highness, please tell me, don't talk about three chapters, just thirty chapters and three hundred chapters. I will certainly agree to it." Zheng Hongkui saw that Zhu Yujian finally relented and quickly answered.
Zhu Yujian coughed a few more times and stretched out a finger.
"The first chapter of this agreement is that from now on General Zheng and other generals must restrain their troops and must not harm the people or rob innocent people. We want to revive the great cause, not be bandits in troubled times."
Zheng Hongkui was very dissatisfied with this statement and felt that it implied that he had been a pirate.
"I obey the decree."
"Chapter 2 of this covenant, I have thought about it over and over again. In our Ming Dynasty ancestral system, the emperor guarded the country and the king died in the country. Now that the Tartars are marching south, the situation is urgent. I think that I should stop here and recruit Qin Wang's soldiers...
······”
As soon as these words came out, Zheng Hongkui's face became very ugly. He had reluctantly agreed to the first point just now, but what did he mean by not leaving?
"Your Highness, please forgive me for not agreeing to this second chapter. Now that the two capitals have fallen and Jiangnan has been lost everywhere, Quzhou cannot stay here for a long time, let alone defend it. We should immediately go south to Fujian, establish the capital and ascend the throne, and then build the imperial court is the top priority."
Zhu Yujian glanced at Zheng Hongkui and then waved.
"Huang Gong, Su Gong, Gu have made it clear just now. Since Zheng Gong refuses, then you don't want to talk about anything else. It's better to say goodbye here. You will go south to support King Gui and supervise the country as emperor. I want to stay here.
Recruit volunteers to defend the land and resist the invaders!"