"Huh?!"

From August of the seventh year of Yongli to February of the eighth year of Yongli, in just half a year, Zheng Chenggong scraped tens of millions of taels of land in Fujian. It must be known that the current maritime trade capacity of the Zheng Group, counting the profits of the five merchants of Shanhai and the sea, the salaries of Fujian and Guangdong provinces, etc., is about 2 million taels in a whole year. Now it's only half a year, but it is already more than five times the maximum income of Zheng's Group, and if it is converted into one year, then it is ten times the profit!

In this, the profits of those goods shipped to Japan, Korea, Ryukyu, Dayuan, Nanyang, Jiangsu and Zhejiang have not been calculated, if you count those, this figure is even more jaw-dropping, and it is no wonder that Zheng Hongkui is like this at this moment.

"How can there be so many?"

The corners of Zheng Hongkui's mouth twitched a little, and he looked at Zheng Chenggong, while Zheng Chenggong looked at Chen Kai with a smile, and even followed with Zheng Hongkui's gaze.

"Virtuous son-in-law?"

Historically, Zheng Chenggong of the Qing Dynasty had the intention of "calculating the plan, borrowing food and salary, and enriching the soldiers and food" from the very beginning, and all actions were carried out in accordance with this principle.

From August to February of the following year, the Qing court sent an edict envoy to Dongshan Academy in Anping Town, Quanzhou Prefecture to announce the edict to no avail, during this period, according to historical records, Zheng Chenggong often "supervised the capital Governor Huang Kai to chase the southern Jinnan local salary of 200,000 yuan", "sent the former governor Huang Ting to collect 50,000 stone of rice in Yunxiao place", "sent Huang Xing of Zhongquan Town, Wanli of Qianchong Town and other towns under his jurisdiction to enter Longyan and levy 200,000 yuan", "sent He Wenxing of Qianfeng Town, Chen Liuyu of Beizhen Town, Yang Chaodong of Youchong Town and other towns to Hui'an, Xianyou and other places to levy 300,000 yuan".

After calculating before and after, in half a year, Zheng Chenggong collected a total of more than 4 million taels of silver in Zhangzhou, Quanzhou, Xinghua and Fuzhou!

As a result, Zheng Chenggong relied on such huge resources not only to recover the losses in the Battle of Fengchao Mountain and the Battle of Haicheng, but also to further enhance his own strength and provide strong support for the counteroffensive operations in the following years.

However, in history, Zheng Chenggong's method of requisitioning grain and wages was "sending rich households to chase after them, and all the officials went to the prefectures and counties to settle down, but did not enter the city", to put it bluntly, it was to send a large army to the nearby prefectures and counties, and did not enter the city, but only sent personnel to the countryside to oppress the rich and the people. In this way, Zheng Chenggong did harvest a large amount of food, but he offended the local gentry, wealthy families and ordinary people in Fujian.

Therefore, in the eighth year of Yongli, the gentry and people in Fujian rose up to resist donations, and Zheng Chenggong had to send more troops to attack the villages that refused to pay the salary, and the resentment between the two sides became thicker and thicker, so that in the following years, Zheng Chenggong was able to get far less support in Fujian than before the peace talks, and had to turn the focus of development to other places.

"Speaking of which, my method is a little more complicated, but now the people who go to collect grain and wages are all Tartar officials, and they are offending the gentry and people of Fujian. In this way, our hands will be clean, and with the opening of a porridge factory and the issuance of silver money to Confucian students, the resentment will be more directed to the body of the Tartars. ”

"In addition, the Tartar government has an organizational chain in each prefecture and county, from the prefect to the village elders and the lizheng, and the familiarity with the place is by no means comparable to our rough understanding through intelligence...... Let's go to collect grain and pay in person, the rich can go into the city, the people can hide in the mountains, and they can receive very little; However, the rich and the common people can only be squeezed by the Tartar government when they are attached to the organizational chain, they only need a piece of official paper, and the officials below will take the fish scale book and the yellow book, and instruct the officials, helpers and even the green battalion soldiers to squeeze it on a large scale, and the efficiency is far stronger than ours, and the money collected is naturally more huge than that of our own hands. ”

Chen Kai acted in a play in the distant Huizhou Mansion, and through this play, he took the initiative in his hands. The Fujian government of the Qing court became a passive party, so it could only lend money and grain as a sign of sincerity. And in this way, with the existence of kickbacks, it only takes one time, and those officials and green camps will consciously and automatically do things for the Ming army, because with kickbacks, they have been tied to the same chain of interests, people's hearts are greedy, and greed is endless, and what Zheng Chenggong has to do next is to sit at home and wait for the officials of the Qing court to send the white flowers and silver to the door.

"So, okay?"

"Thousands of miles of officials are only for money, why not!"

In this way, the Ming army collected more money and grain by sharing profits. However, all this is built under the condition of peace talks, and once the peace talks break down, the officials and generals in Fujian will naturally not continue to intersect with Zheng Chenggong.

So, when the edict envoy of the Qing court arrived, Chen Kai and Zheng Chenggong, including Zheng Hongkui, teamed up to perform another play. In this way, they can not only delay the progress of the peace negotiations, but also continue to raise the price to the Qing court, and as long as the Qing court still wants to continue to talk, then they can only follow Chen Kai's baton and continue to walk towards the abyss from which there will be no return!

"It's a pity, Guangdong received less than 30,000 taels, or the number after the valuation of all things is over, and it's not enough to even plug the gaps."

Chen Kai's face was full of helplessness, but he made Zheng Chenggong and Zheng Hongkui laugh. The gap between the two is so huge, in the final analysis, it is because the two provinces have different attitudes towards appeasement. There is a way that the king of Chu has a thin waist, and there are many starvations in the city. Even if it is less than 30,000 taels of silver, it is still fished from Pinghai and Dapeng, and other places don't take it seriously at all, and their mouths are full of perfunctory words.

"That can't be helped, there are already two kings in Guangdong, and it is estimated that Li Shutai and Li Qifeng will not dare to scrape the ground anymore. Otherwise, I'm afraid that we won't have to do it. ”

Looking at each other and smiling, with this Qing Zheng peace that had been played bad by Chen Kai, their Ming army had an unprecedented good situation. Such a situation is caused by many reasons, and it is also irreproducible, and there is only one opportunity, so it is necessary to seize all opportunities to maximize the advantage.

"Since it will be delayed, I will write another letter and bargain with the Tartars."

This is the proper meaning, at this moment, Zheng Chenggong didn't mention the pen, but directly turned out a dozen manuscript papers from the case, and then found a few more pieces of paper, and copied them in front of Chen Kai and Zheng Hongkui.

"Last year and June, Zhang Jing Shaosi, Huang Zhengming, Li De, Zhou Jiwu and others received the edict and Haicheng Gongyin; In October, the imperial court issued a text, and Xu Degong was sent to Fuzhou; On the 14th day of the first month of this year, Zheng Kuna of the Inner Court and Jia Rena of the Military Department replied to the edict and hung the seal of General Jinghai, and the seven prefectures of Zhang, Quan, Xing, Chao, Hui, Qiong, and Wen were stationed. When the favor came again, he dared not to accept it, so he set up an incense case in the first three days of February to honor the order, in order to obey the long life of Jane; Those who have not yet dared to open the seal of the practitioners, their situation, respect the court of sincerity and straightforwardness. ”

"Ji'an Shanhai is a credit hero, and Haojie has a good appearance, always in Anshan and Hai. Therefore, the employer must regard his talents, and if he uses small talents and uses them greatly, he is not competent; If you use a lot of talent and use it little, you will not be comfortable. Whoever believes will be of his own heart. Guess each other, be close to the same hall and be embarrassed; Heart to heart, far away and benefit from each other. Since ancient times, there has been no use of people, and there is no one who does not use it, and there is no one who does not use it externally, and who can do it internally, and who is also used by others. ”

When I put pen to paper, there are occasional pauses, which are nothing more than changing words and sentences according to changes. Zheng Chenggong had a clear mind, and it was obvious that after discussing with Chen Kai earlier, he had already thought about how to perfunctory the Qing court. At the beginning, Zheng Chenggong mentioned his dealings with the Qing court, and deliberately mentioned the release of Xu Degong. With this matter as a foundation, he bluntly accused the Qing court of not believing him, and it was not a good way to use people.

"The edict of the Qifu Zhai Camp is not more than 300,000 soldiers, and it is calculated to be scattered enough to support more than 10,000 people, and now there are hundreds of thousands of elite soldiers, with many years, all of them are wolves and wild fierce, no wife to bind their hearts, no field houses to fruit their intestines, once they collapse, gather tens of millions, unfathomable disasters, and the worries of this place are also."

"And this whole Fujian place is full of thieves, and the northern soldiers are guarded, the ground is uneven, the horses are in vain, and Kou Zhi is on the throne to defend himself, and he is silent; Kou went to cover up the attack, thousands of miles of red land, and the court's care of the whole Fujian can also be said to have its name but not the truth. Therefore, since entering Fujian, there has been no time for horses, no money and grain, and no place for peace. ”

"If the whole Fujian committee guards the town, now the elite soldiers are well distributed, and their salaries are used to use their strengths, which are known to the Xidong and Serval Caves, and the list of Shiwu Baojia, the people and places are suitable, and the soldiers are served, then the town and Fujian horses can be adjusted, and the soldiers are practical. Fujian Province is supplying Beijing, and the salary is real. This so-called person who has both name and reality. The court is sincere, there is no distinction between each other, there is no comparison between the old and the new, and how can there be entrusted by others and repeatedly disbelieve, if there is no excuse, it will be lost, and if there is a reason, it will fly. Therefore, we are determined to swear muscles, solve the suffering of the people's side hanging, and express the worries of the imperial court in the south. ”

With the saying that there is no doubt about employing people, Zheng Chenggong criticized the Qing court's behavior of shaving hair first and then announcing the edict. Immediately, the conversation changed and pointed out the shortcomings of the allocation of garrison prefectures and counties, and compared the disadvantages of the northern soldiers with the advantages of the Fujian soldiers, hoping that the Qing court could give him full power regardless of each other.

"As for the defense and suppression at sea, it is quiet and quiet, especially not easy to say, and it is not the sea south of the big river. Kou Dongxia is in Jiaoguang, and the south is in Wuyue, and Zhoushan and other places are especially the throat of thieves. Now in Zhoushan Town, the non-soldiers are disadvantageous, the armor is not good, and the northerners are not familiar with water warfare, so that the whale salamander drum waves, how to do it, brewing on a different day, riding the wind in the north and south, not only the harm of Fujian and Guangdong, but also the worry of the south of the Yangtze River. ”

"Therefore, the atmosphere of the sea will be pacified, and the Fujian soldiers will be stationed in Zhoushan, and then they can be suppressed by the Haikou; The soldiers were especially paid first, and had to pay for the nearest Wen, Taiwan, Ning, Shao and other places to support the soldiers of Zhoushan. Fuzhoushan is a lonely island in the sea, its place is not a projectile, and Fujian and Zhejiang are isolated, the flood is not frequent, if the sea of the two Zhejiang has a police want to transfer the Fujian soldiers, there is not only the trouble of whip length, but also want to save the Fujian salary more bitter gods and ghosts to transfer the labor. The old example of guarding the Fujian general army and taking charge of the whole temperature place is wrong, and the good has a deep meaning. If the five prefectures of Wen, Taiwan, Ning, Shao, and Chu are appointed to Tunzha and dispatch to respond to Zhoushan, so that Kou has no place to steal and the place is quiet, this can solve the suffering of the common people's upside down, and express the worries of the imperial court. ”

"From Zhejiang to Fujian and Guangdong, there is no one who raises waves. If this is the case, it is good to play the skin, and it is obtained by counting the days, and the appointment of the imperial court in the sea is endless! ”

Zheng Chenggong immediately took advantage of the fact that Zhoushan was repeatedly used by the Ming army to ask that Zhoushan Island and the five prefectures of Wenzhou, Taizhou, Ningbo, Shaoxing and Chuzhou be handed over to him to install generals, and put forward the concept of using Fujian soldiers to guard the maritime frontier.

With such a sky-high asking price, there is always a time to repay the money on the ground. Next, Zheng Chenggong confessed that he refused to shave his hair because he was worried about the current arrangement of the Qing court.

The reason is nothing more than that the provinces assigned to him are still guarded by the northern generals and soldiers, and have not yet been withdrawn; The last edict was written, please show the town guard Quanzhou and other places, this time only write the seal of General Jinghai, do not mention the town guard, there is a possibility of painting cakes; The third is that the Qing court last stated that the selection of the Ministry of Literature and the Ministry of Military Hearing was appointed, but under such circumstances, the Qing court even appointed a Han army banner man named Liu Zhongjin as the general army of Xinghua, so that he and his generals could not believe that the Qing court would fulfill the terms of the peace agreement.

"On the occasion of bowing down to Yang, the grace of the real bottle is paid, in addition to the seal of the commission, the Anping Office, the special committee official Zhai Yu guarded to the order, and the solemn payment was given and then peaced. In short, if there is little food, the soldiers will be scattered, and the place will be in danger. Today's invitation is not for the land, but for the place of appeasement. Seeing that hundreds of thousands of people are waiting to be given, the district is painted, and the installation is complicated, and Fu Wei is wise and decisive. ”

After writing with a large pen and drying the ink, Zheng Chenggong handed the letter to Zheng Hongkui and Chen Kai. Looking closely, the two laughed out loud from time to time, and at the end, when Zheng Chenggong asked how it was written, he put down the letter, and Chen Kai immediately replied in the affirmative.

"It's reasonable, if I'm a slave chieftain Fulin, I won't be able to find a crack to get into the stinginess earlier after reading this letter."

Next, there was a burst of laughter, and the study was filled with a cheerful atmosphere. However, outside the study, Dong Yougu's face who had passed by since then seemed a little unnatural, at least in her opinion, it seemed that Zheng Chenggong was much happier when he was doing things with Chen Kai than when he was with her.

After the play, and the major events have been agreed, Chen Kai set off to return to Chaozhou. Zheng Xiyuan was pregnant, and Chen Kai's mother-in-law was not at ease, so she took a large group of maids and servants to Chaozhou with the boat to see her daughter, and estimated that she would not return to Zhongzuo before the confinement was completed.

Being on the boat, Chen Kai watched Zhongzuo gradually disappear into the sea and sky, but suddenly remembered the deeds of Zhang Mingzhen and Zhang Huangyan who had gone to Nanzhili mentioned by Zheng Chenggong.

I remember that there was a saying in later generations that Zheng Chenggong and Zhang Huangyan cooperated with each other in the southeast to resist the Qing Dynasty, which effectively dealt a blow to the living forces of the Qing court. For this reason, some people gave them the name of "Shuimu Combination" based on Zheng Chenggong's number and Zhang Huangyan's words.

However, judging from historical data, the strength and status of Zhang Huangyan and Zheng Chenggong are extremely unequal. The Ming army of the Lu Wang system is still insisting on maintaining a certain degree of its own independence, and Zhang Mingzhen's department is just a vassal of Yang Fujian's snort, and Zhang Huangyan's really able to speak of the position of secretary of the military department is far from being appointed.

On the contrary, Chen Kai, who appeared as Zheng Chenggong's assistant, is now controlling the military and political affairs of the Guangdong battlefield, and the two cooperate with each other to calculate the Qing court, which is more like a pair.

"Zhang Huangyan and Zheng Chenggong are a combination of water and wood, so they want to enter the Yangtze River three times and float to the Zhenjiang River; My Kaizi is a mountain, and the soil is a mountain, so isn't it a combination of civil engineering, and it should still be a fortress. Hey, after so many years of tossing, it turns out that the metaphysical doorway of the southeast to resist the Qing Dynasty is here. ”

Chen Kai occasionally realized, and when he laughed out loud, he looked at the helmsman and sailors on the ship for a while. It's just that after laughing, Chen Kai inevitably continued to diverge on the thoughts just now - perhaps, Zhang Huangyan has too little water to support Zheng Chenggong's big boat.

"After so many years of accumulation, it is not impossible to plant two trees on my mountain!"

PS: Yesterday's, today's, two chapters completed.