When Zheng Zhilong arrived in Nanjing, it was already early summer.
It is said that the King of Fujian was summoned to Beijing last year, and he received the order early. However, due to delays along the way, he finally did not arrive in Nanjing until the beginning of summer.
The Nanjing court was actually quite dissatisfied with the King of the Southeast Sea, especially many young officials of the Ministry of Science and Technology who were constantly making comments, but the emperor kept silent.
Zhu Yihai was very patient and did not urge Zheng Zhilong to enter the court. He even seemed to have forgotten that there was such an important minister. Zheng Zhilong, who originally wanted to stay on the road and wait and see, saw this but was a little unsure and decided to enter the court immediately.
Speaking of which, Zhu Yihai had only raised the flag for a year, and had just conquered Nanjing and ascended the throne. However, this man had already personally proposed the Northern Expedition of the Sixth Division twice, and even achieved a series of victories, especially after a year of fighting, annihilating the Eight Banners Manchuria.
There are more than 10,000 state soldiers, among whom there are tens of thousands of Tatars in Jianzhou alone.
Not to mention the many Eight Banners Han troops, the Eight Banners Mongolia were annihilated, and more Green Camps were annihilated or captured and incorporated.
The emperor had established a great reputation. Zheng Zhilong, who had been recruited as a guerrilla of the Five Tigers of the Ming Dynasty, had been in the southeast for a long time, but he was also very aware of the strength of the Jianlu.
Since Jiashen, the Great Tomorrow has been riddled with holes. Hongguang Dynasty was in a good situation at the beginning, but it only lasted eight months. When Zhu Yihai raised troops in Taizhou, the prefects of Taizhou were all surrendered, but he was able to single-handedly
He formed his own imperial army, fought all the way to Shandong, and restored Nanjing.
Zheng Zhilong is a maritime tycoon. This kind of person has no loyalty to the court. He only fears the strong. When he was doing business in Japan, he planned to rebel against the shogun. After failing, he went to Taiwan to occupy the island and become the king.
, he was later recruited because he was not strong enough.
However, when Chongzhen hanged himself and Hongguang was defeated again, he also took the opportunity to continuously seize military and political power in Fujian and further monopolize maritime trade.
If Emperor Shaotian were another Hongguang, or even another Chongzhen, with the current strength of the Zheng family's official party, he could separatize Fujian. Even if he did not establish himself as king, there would be nothing he could do if he did not listen to the Xuan imperial court.
But it was Zhu Yihai's strong performance that scared Zheng Zhilong, who was only in his early forties.
Especially when the news came that the Three Loyalty rebels in Hunan were being put down one after another, Zheng Zhilong's scalp went numb. Originally, a secret envoy from the Qing court came to see him on the way and named him the King of Fujian in the Qing Dynasty.
There were many favorable offers, but Zheng Zhilong only hesitated and refused in the end.
However, he did not report the matter to the court, nor did he detain or kill the Qing envoy.
Hearing that the emperor was planning another northern expedition, Zheng Zhilong even sent a speedboat back to Fujian on the way, and also transferred a batch of money, food, ships, firearms, etc. to accompany him on his northern expedition.
In addition, he asked Fujian to send many ships, guns, cannons, money and food to his son Zhu Chenggong's Fujian imperial camp. There were a total of twenty big bird boats, twenty large water boats, and four hundred large turtle doves and guns.
There were 20,000 bullets, twenty more dinghy boats, 240 turtle dove guns, and twelve thousand bullets. There were also 900 bird muskets, a large amount of ammunition, etc.
Give him two hundred thousand taels of silver and tens of thousands of dan of grain.
And the one he personally brought to Nanjing was even more generous, including one million taels of silver, one hundred thousand shi of grain, thirty large bird ships, twenty large water boats, and more than two hundred other warships and grain ships.
ship.
There are 5,000 shotguns and other types of firearms, and more than 300 cannons of various types.
There are also more than thirty red cannons.
He also brought more than a hundred young descendants of the main members of the First Official Party to Beijing.
This attitude is indeed very good.
The premise of all this is that Zhu Yihai is very good at fighting, especially since the emperor actually has an army of the emperor's royal camp directly under him, and now it has more than 100,000 troops.
When Zheng Zhilong just sailed into the Yangtze River Estuary, he had already sent envoys to Nanjing over and over again to write letters.
There was even a lot of news deliberately spread along the way, so he hadn't entered the capital yet, but the Nanjing officials, people, and gentry knew that Duke Ping was about to enter the court, and he also brought 8,000 Fujian navy troops, countless guns, cannons, money, and food, which was an entire navy.
The division was elite and even included an infantry unit from Fujian.
For a long time, the Zheng family's power in Fujian and the southeast sea has actually made the DPRK and the Central Government more afraid of this person, fearing that this person would create chaos and separatism in the rear.
He was unable to be summoned for a long time, which led to various speculations.
Now that we are finally here, and we have brought so many people with us, it is undoubtedly a relief.
The streets of Nanjing have gradually regained a lot of vitality. A restaurant has reopened and is still doing good business. Although there was a shortage of various grains, vegetables and meat during the war years, Nanjing is now the capital after all. There are a large number of honorable men, civil servants and even businessmen here.
Therefore, there are still many consumers and the consumption level is not low. Even if the prices are high, there is still a huge demand.
Moreover, the current emperor is a different emperor from the previous emperors of the Ming Dynasty. He no longer blindly emphasizes agriculture and suppresses business. The strategies he implements have a lot of flavor of the Song Dynasty and support the development of industry and commerce. Although some smart people say that the emperor
It involves raising chickens and pigs. When the chickens are raised, they lay eggs, and when the pigs are fattened, they are killed for meat.
It is far better to collect taxes from industrial and commercial trade than to increase taxes on poor people in the current dilapidated and corrupt situation.
Although some people think that commerce is a big hidden danger, and even cited the two Han Dynasties, they have been cracking down on the powerful, but they are still unable to suppress it. In the end, when they could not suppress it at all, the country perished. In the Jin Dynasty and the Jin Dynasty, under the rule of the scholar-bureaucrats, the industry and commerce were actually suppressed.
Because of his indulgence, he was weak and died early.
The biggest advantage of focusing on agriculture and suppressing business is stability. The entire society is strictly controlled and will not have much vitality, so it is very easy for the court to control.
And if we liberalize industry and commerce, it will lead to the rise of industry and commerce, and the prosperity of powerful people. Money and power will inevitably collude, making it more difficult for the court to control.
However, it is obvious that the emperor is not ignorant of this, but the current situation in Nanming makes the emperor have no choice but to choose a safe path to survive in this troubled world full of thorns.
"The Zheng family in Fujian is still very loyal to the country. You see, Zheng Zhilong sent his eldest son to the court and asked his nephew to lead a navy of 2,000 people to the north. In the past year, he has also paid tribute to a lot of money and food. Now Zheng Zhilong has personally received 8,000 people.
Fujian's elite navy went north and sent so much money and food, Zheng Zhilong is very loyal."
In the restaurant facing the street, a man in green official robes said.
After Zhu Yihai became emperor, he made some adjustments to the clothing system of the Ming Dynasty. For example, he restored the color system of officials in the Tang Dynasty. The third-rank and above uniforms were purple, the fourth and fifth rank were dressed in scarlet, the sixth and seventh rank were in green, and the eighth and ninth rank were in blue.
Brown, military uniforms are soap-colored, soldiers' military uniforms are red, etc.
"That's not necessarily true. A year ago, when the Qing army crossed the river, weren't it Zheng Zhilong's brother Zheng Hongkui and nephew Zheng Cai who led the navy to guard Zhenjiang? But didn't they just abandon the defense and escape without firing a single shot?
And after crossing the Qingjiang River, Zheng Zhilong of Fujian wanted soldiers, food, food, money, and money. Did any of you see Zheng sending troops north to King Qin?"
Another official in green robe said, "But Zheng's performance is not bad now."
"Huh, that's just because the emperor of today is a sage, a wise man, a warrior, and he has single-handedly formed a military camp that dared to fight, and even won a hundred battles, and gained a great reputation. Zheng Zhilong went north not because of his status as a monarch, but because he was afraid of the emperor.
The power of military force."
After stabilizing the south and restoring Nanjing, this big city in the south of the Yangtze River slowly regained its vitality and prosperity. Countless officials arrived one after another to enrich the six ministries and departments of the imperial court.
Even the Nanjing Imperial College has become lively now. The professors and gentlemen have returned, and many new students have even entered the prison. In order to raise military expenditures, the imperial court even increased the number of people admitted to the prison and opened special classes. There are many more
The children of the imperial camp generals and officials also received rewards, and some of their children were selected to be imprisoned.
There are nearly 10,000 supervisors in an Imperial College. Among these supervisors, there are not only tribute students selected from various places to join the prison, but also officials and relatives and other benevolent students to join the prison.
The qualifications of prison students can be bought with money, but no matter what kind they are, those who can enter prisons are basically from rich or noble families, and they are also the kind of people who have great spending power.
The tens of thousands of people in the Imperial College alone have restored a third of Nanjing's former prosperity and made the Qinhuai River bustling again.
Of course, the imperial court just held the Imperial Examination in February this year, which was the first Jinshi class after the emperor came to the throne. The emperor specifically ordered that all provinces have increased the number of examination qualifications. Even scholars from the occupied northern provinces can qualify as long as they have the status of a candidate.
If you are qualified for the general examination, come and take the exam directly.
Normally, not all the candidates in the Ming Dynasty are qualified to take the Jinshi examination. They have to take a qualifying examination first. The number of final admissions is limited, and usually only a few thousand people are admitted. Starting from the Jiajing year, there will usually be
The number of candidates for the examination is fixed at four thousand.
The number of Jinshi admitted is fixed at 300 to 320, and the admission rate is only about 7.5 to 8%.
Now Zhu Yihai has liberalized the scope of the examination and divided it into the Northern and Southern Ranking Jinshi examinations. In the Northern Ranking Jinshi subject, as long as northern scholars are qualified to be candidates, they can come to Nanjing and directly take the Jinshi examination.
Juren in the provinces south of the Yangtze River also do not need to participate in the qualification examination. As long as you can come, you can directly take the examination.
In the end, the Jinshi were admitted into two rankings: the North and the South. In previous years, about 300 Jinshi were admitted to each subject. This time, Zhu Yihai specially wanted to show mercy and directly admitted 500 Jinshi to each of the North and South rankings.
It has tripled compared to previous studies.
At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the number of students was very large. There were about hundreds of thousands of scholars. Even if they were elected, there were tens of thousands.
Although affected by the war, it is impossible for all the tens of thousands of people to take the exam, but this year there is such a special benefit, and those with conditions can certainly get it. Normally people have to pass a qualification examination to compete for 4,000 places to take the exam.
Finally, they will compete for 300 Jinshi places.
Nowadays, you can take the exam directly if you are promoted by the provincial examination. Whether you are promoted by the provincial examination or by the deputy list of the provincial examination, you can take the examination directly. After all, things like the imperial examination are sometimes about performance and luck, so failing in the examination does not necessarily mean that you are not capable.
One more exam means one less opportunity.
But now there is one less exam, you can take the exam directly, and the admission rate has tripled. Who wouldn't want to? Especially for the candidates in the north, most places are still in decline. How many people can take the exam?
?But no matter how many people come, 500 Jinshi will be admitted in the end. This opportunity is many times higher than that of the people in the south. How can this golden opportunity not come?
The provincial examination held last year also tripled the admission rate. In previous years, the total number of candidates admitted to the national provincial examination was about 1,200 to 1,440. In previous years, the number of talents who could qualify for the provincial examination was about 38,000 to 45,000.
The total number of students in the country has reached more than 500,000, and 500,000 people have to compete for the 30,000 to 40,000 examination places. The admission rate is only about 3%. On the contrary, the admission rate can reach about 10%.
Last year, when Zhu Yihai was still in charge of the country, he ordered to hold the provincial examination, but he relaxed the number of candidates for the examination to 100,000, and the final number of candidates admitted was 5,000. In this way, the admission rate for the candidates for the provincial examination reached 20%, and the admission rate for the candidates for the provincial examination was 100%.
Five-fifths.
More candidates were admitted to one subject than in all three subjects in previous years.
Although the emperor a little too expanded the number of people admitted to the provincial examination and the Jinshi examination, which somewhat devalued the value of the Jinshi, but for today's scholars who have experienced wars for a long time, this is what they expect and support.
As soon as the imperial examination started, scholars from all over the country tried their best to take the exam. After all, ten years of hard study will lead to a spot in the imperial examination. The imperial examination is the best way to change your destiny.
