Zeng Ying was first confused by Zheng Zhilong's 'the limit is coming', and ignored the words 'chaotic ministers and thieves' later.

But now it's coming to my senses.

Immediately said angrily: "Zheng Guogong said cautiously. Although I retreated to the south and the Northern Expedition was defeated, it was a small setback after all. His Majesty sits in the land of fish and rice in the south of the Yangtze River, with sufficient money and food, and there are many people there. Regaining strength is nothing more than a snap of a finger. Why is there such a thing as extinction? Ten years later, I will have recovered the Central Plains in the north, driven out the Tartars, and rejuvenated the world......"

"Alright, alright. It's just the two of us here, how can there be so many clichés? I'm afraid you won't believe what you say. Zheng Zhilong laughed and said, looking at Zeng Ying's eyes was the same as watching the storyteller tell a story, which made the latter's chest ache.

"I'm afraid that the gentry of the Northland have long been not of the same mind as the Ming Dynasty, you know the reasons and circumstances, and you should have heard about it before and after the Handan Incident."

"Isn't this a thank you Zheng Guogong for his foresight." Zeng Ying said angrily, if it weren't for Zheng Zhilong's sparseness, how could there be the current matter? Before, he thought that Zheng Zhilong couldn't tolerate sand in his eyes, but now he knows that this guy has already harbored evil intentions!

"I admit that I have long had bad intentions, and the gentry in this world are just like the rivers and mountains of the Ming Dynasty, and their roots have long been rotten. It has to be cleaned up. If I don't tell them to follow the Tartars first, how can I come down without any scruples? ”

It's also a mutated desire to get away with it.

Zheng Zhilong wants to speak freely today, and he speaks without concealment.

But this sinister intention can't hide his "grand ambition" - to cleanse the gentry of the world?

Zeng Ying was stunned.

"The gentry are the foundation of the world, you Zheng Zhilong are determined to be in the world, why should you have trouble with it?" Zeng Ying was very annoyed in his heart, but he couldn't resist his curiosity.

Zheng Zhilong, what does he think? He didn't know that in this way, it would be much more difficult for the Zheng family to seize the world?

"The gentry are the foundation of the world, but I didn't say it." Zheng Zhilong agrees with this sentence very much, just like the court of later generations, the foundation is also the gentry. But the difference between the two is that the latter is taxed.

But the gentry who did not pay taxes were not the foundation. Even if it's a foundation, it's a broken foundation. If I don't eradicate it, how can I bring my Han family back to life? ”

Zheng Zhilong said the word 'tax'.

"The officials and gentry are one and the errand is one to pay the grain? It's ...... all day," Zeng Ying was shocked after hearing Zheng Zhilong's thoughts. This is to abolish the privileges of the gentry and cut off their financial routes.

When China's feudal society entered the Song Dynasty, the economy of the clans and powerful families, who had mastered China's local resources for thousands of years, completely disintegrated, and the imperial examination system completely matured, giving birth to a new class of bureaucrats and gentry. It is also natural for the bureaucrats and gentry to use their ruling power and social influence after the Zhishi to seek financial and tax benefits for this group.

By the Jiajing period, this group finally formed a system of "the gentry did not need to pay food" from the law.

The current Jiake Jingguan is a first-class official, with 10,000 acres of free land, and the following decreases, and the eighth grade is free of 2,700 acres. Foreign officials halved. Six-tenths of this product is exempt; The maximum amount of land can reach 3,350 acres, and the field of 1,200 acres can be 1,200 acres; Eighty acres of students and prisoners.

It seems that there is a fixed number of taxes that can be exempted from each grade, but the base is too large at the beginning, so when it is implemented, there is basically no need to pay taxes.

Zheng Zhilong now calls the officials and gentry to pay for food as one.

This, this is the real rebellion!

Zheng Zhilong is not only rebelling against the emperor, but also rebelling against the gentry of the whole world.

"You're also a big player. Tell me, if all the gentry in the world also pay for the grain, how much will the court tax have? If the Ming Dynasty can do this, how can the court have no money and food in its hands? And as long as there is no shortage of money and food, the Tartars have long been suppressed and exterminated, why is there a scene of entering Guanzhong today and dominating the north? ”

"As far as the current generals of the Ming Dynasty, the three or two who have entered my Zheng Zhi Longyan, do you really think they can beat the Tartars? When the Manchu Qing Dynasty cleaned up Li Shun, the army went south, and drank the Yangtze River, do you really think that you can resist it with Liu Liangzuo, Gao Jie and other defeated generals? ”

"At that time, it was not only the Ming Dynasty of the Zhu family that died, but also the country of the Han family and the world of the Han family!"

Zheng Zhilong gasped.

The death of the country and the death of the world, this was proposed by Gu Jiang that is, Gu Yanwu, Zheng Zhilong didn't know if there was such a statement at this time, but he believed that Zeng Ying would definitely understand.

"You said that the imperial court sits in the land of fish and rice in the south of the Yangtze River, and there is enough money and food, but I expect that there will be a dragon and tiger battle between the emperor and the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River. If I have another 30 years, I will definitely carry a small bench, bring enough melon seed tea, and watch the excitement on the side. ”

"I want to see how Emperor Chongzhen can get money and grain from the gentry."

"The Northern Expedition was defeated, the military suffered heavy losses, and in order to deal with the crisis, the imperial court must expand the army and govern the army in the shortest possible time, and the money and food required are not small. If it costs a few million taels of silver, how can the Jinling treasury be able to get it? ”

Zheng Zhilong shook his head and shook his head to Zeng Ying to pull the taxes of the Jinling Imperial Court. Judging from the current income, Emperor Chongzhen's hands are indeed generous.

But the little money saved at the end of each year is nothing to say to an army of hundreds of thousands of people. Zheng Zhilong wanted Zeng Ying to understand that Emperor Chongzhen had to increase taxes and increase taxes, so that he could regroup in just one or two years.

But if taxes are increased in the south, isn't that just snatching food from the hands of the gentry?

Can Emperor Chongzhen get his wish? He didn't think it was reliable.

Moreover, as soon as the war started, more money and grain were spent, even if Jiangnan was the land of fish and rice, it could not be supported by Jiangnan's taxes. Raising taxes is the most direct and time-saving method for the imperial court, but to open up financial resources, clearing the acres of land is also a necessary means, and there is also a mining tax and commercial tax.

Just like the Lijin Bureau opened by Zeng Guofan, the Ming Dynasty wanted to collect taxes, so it was indispensable to set up checkpoints in various prosperous places.

Sooner or later, this rivalry between the emperor and the gentry will come.

"If the emperor can't collect taxes, he will die in his own world. If the gentry paid their taxes, they would have to damage their own interests. This is an irreconcilable contradiction, do you think the emperor holding the imperial camp in his hand will still sit back and wait for death like when he was in Yanjing? ”

"I'll tell you the truth, I really want to see which scene."

Zheng Zhilong's bad taste is very strong, Zeng Ying's mouth is wide open, Zheng Zhilong's sincere expression shows that he is absolutely serious. And as long as you imagine the reinforcements in your head, you feel that this thing is too ...... It's unpredictable.

"Dude, seriously, you should thank me. It's me Zheng Zhilong who has become a rebellious minister and thief, so that you can still be innocent. Do you know what you should be like according to my early deductions? It's Zuo Liangyu. ”

"You, as well as Zhang Kentang in Fujian, you should all be Zuo Liangyu."

"Don't think I'm insulting you, I'm looking down on you. When the situation is corrupt, you can think of organizing as many troops as possible under your control, and this is your greatest strength, and it is the biggest difference between you and other officials. So I'm optimistic about your family. ”

"Yes, your Zeng Zhongcheng's current strength is still very weak, and you don't have a territory that really belongs to you, so you can still be loyal to Daming. But if you transfer to Yanzhou, transfer to Huaishang, have a territory that you dominate, have tens of thousands of soldiers who can fight, and more importantly, the Ming Dynasty you are loyal to can't give you half a point of help, over time, can you continue to be brave and loyal, and you can still get an order from the imperial court, and hand over all the territory and soldiers and horses in your hand? ”

Zheng Zhilong believes that Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang never thought that they could raise a semi-independent team at the beginning of the army, and they could sit on hundreds of thousands of troops and dominate the overall situation of the world, so that this army looked at itself more important than the imperial court.

Their most direct purpose is to exterminate the Taiping Army, to promote themselves to wealth and wealth, and to make themselves famous in history.

It was the development of the situation that pushed them step by step towards the warlord domain.

"In order to get enough money and food, in order not to be dragged back by others, and in order to have greater autonomy in the war, you must gradually concentrate power in the palm of your hand. And when all these rights are concentrated in your hands, you will naturally become Zuo Liangyu's second. ”

"It's the same ones I sent you earlier."

"Now Denglai is obviously the world of my Zheng family, the strength and weakness are clear, and they are not far away from my Zheng family, now I give an order. Naturally, they were guided by the situation and all of them were included in our army. If the river flows into the sea, there is no barrier. ”

"But if it takes a long time, they are all promoted to high positions by you, and when they all have heavy troops, then naturally they will no longer rely on my words to clamor for the Dengzhou soldiers to surrender without a fight."

They are all the same for Zheng Zhilong, and Zeng Ying for Emperor Chongzhen, or Zeng Hu Zuo Li and the Manchu Qing.

"Don't think that my plot against the Ming Dynasty is a big rebellion. This is the old Zhu family's own immorality, they are exhausted, and they can't keep their dragon chair and the Han family's country, so they have to change someone who can keep it. ”

"What is the way of a mere Tartar? Zheng was worried about the history books before, and he didn't want to be that chaotic minister and thief. At the same time, the old plan of Taizu: build a high wall, accumulate grain, and slowly become the king. It is to lay a solid foundation, to overthrow the Zhu family by the hand of the Tartars, but also to use the hands of the Tartars to move the people, develop the South Seas, and then fight and conquer it, destroy the Tartars, get the righteousness in hand, gather the hope of the people of the world, so take the Ming Dynasty and replace it, and wash the world. It's a pity that the day is not a holiday......"

Zheng Zhilong sighed, he felt that he would be able to live for another thirty years, not only to live more comfortably, but also to beat the Tartars, the polar bears, the Europas, the South Seas, Japan, Australia, Central Asia, and even the Americas. He will definitely be able to brush the monument with vitality at one time, and make all the auspicious clouds turn purple.

It's a pity, it's a pity......

Zheng Zhilong informed Zeng Ying of a series of plans and preparations in Dayuan, and I have to say that Dayuan is really the logistics base of the Zheng family. Every year, a large number of soldiers with good quality can be born, and even if Zheng Zhilong is a full-strength rioter regardless of it, he can pull out 200,000 hot and cold mixed troops with complete clothes and armor in the blink of an eye.

There are also quite a few officials, big and small.

From township officials to state and county officials, the number of officials in reserve is already quite large.

With a big member, Zheng Jun is getting stronger all the time. Building high walls, accumulating grain, and slowly becoming king, this policy is simply tailor-made for the Zheng family.

Zeng Ying was not overwhelmed by Zheng Zhilong's big words, nor did he scold Zheng Zhilong for his evil intentions, although everything about the master was really beyond his imagination. even made him agree with Zheng Zhilong's arrogance.

If he really followed his original idea and waited for ten years, how unaffordable the Zheng family would be at that time?

But at this time, he was seriously considering a question again - is this Zheng Zhilong really bad?

Or else he ......

Zeng Ying's eyes fell on Zheng Zhilong's face, is there really a strong person with excellent complexion in this world who says that he will die soon?

"What's more, China's world has been passed down for more than 1,000 years, and it is time to change it. You've read the news, you know Europe, Africa and the Americas. At that time, the Europeans were beaten back and forth by the Mongols, and they had no power to fight back. Then they were repeatedly beaten by the Ottomans for 200 years, and many countries could not bear it when they gathered in one place. But what about now? It is a small Dutch country, and its homeland is still fighting against strong enemies, and it is only a group of merchants who have armed themselves and have clashed with the Ming Dynasty several times. Zhu Ming is certainly undefeated, but looking at the process of the war, I am the party concerned, to say a fair word, the Ming soldiers and horses under the same strength are far inferior to both land and water. ”

"The dignified Chinese nobles, the dignified Tian Dynasty Shangguo, actually dispatched ten times the number of troops to fight against the soldiers and horses of the small Xiyi countries that came from thousands of miles, which in itself was already a big defeat. How can it go on like this? ”

"In a hundred or two hundred years, will the combat power of the two be even greater? If the Europeans can conquer the Americas thousands of miles away, will they also conquer China at that time? ”

Zeng Ying looked at Zheng Zhilong with her mouth stammered, how ridiculous is Xiyi's conquest of China.

"Think I'm worrying about nothing? What is the difference between the Tartars outside the gate and the Xiyi? All fish and flesh are my people, life and death are taken away. The northern land can enter the hands of the Tartars, how can this world not enter the hands of the Xiyi? ”

Zheng Zhilong's question made Zeng Ying stunned again.