On May 3, the twentieth year of Chongzhen, Linqingzhou, the capital governor of the capital.

Groups of elite soldiers guarded inside and outside the line, and the guards were extremely tight. In the internal study of Xingyuan, Chen Yuezheng, the king of Qi, was discussing with the core strategists.

Shan Minglei, Qian Fenglin, Gu Junen, these important strategists of the Qi Palace, who were originally in charge of each other, were all summoned by Chen Yue. Qian Fenglin, who was originally in the office, arrived in Dengzhou by sea ship a few days ago.

"Ladies and gentlemen, everyone has read Wang Ge Lao's secret letter, and I will tell you your opinions." Chen Yue smiled.

Qian Fenglin said excitedly: "Congratulations to the prince, the time has come for us to dominate the four seas!" ”

Shan Minglei said: "Wang Ge Lao led troops into Fujian, with the cooperation of the Jiangxi army, it is not a problem to exterminate Ai Nengqi. Now that Ai Nengqi is destroyed, he can take the opportunity to take down Zheng Zhilong and wipe out the Zheng family's forces in one fell swoop! The Zheng family was destroyed, and our Dongfan forces will be the only one, and from then on, the maritime trade will be our family's sole control. With the huge profits brought by sea trade as the support, the prince can achieve great things! ”

Gu Junen didn't speak, and his face was filled with a smile of joy.

Although it is said that Dongfandao and the Zheng family are currently divided into two sea trades, after all, they are not as long as the Zheng family has been engaged in sea trade, and the foundation is far inferior, and the profits obtained from the sea are not as good. At the peak of the Zheng family, the annual income of silver was nearly 10 million taels, and the profit from the sea is only one or two million taels now.

It is conceivable that if the Zheng family's territory can be fully accepted, how much profit can Dongfan get from maritime trade? That's more than a year's tax revenue in the Ming Dynasty! And with such a big benefit, you can't do anything!

Although Wang Yin is a cabinet scholar, he is also an important figure in the Qi family, and with him as the supervisor, it will be twice the result with half the effort to fully accept the Zheng family's maritime power.

"The Zheng family has been at sea for more than 20 years, and it has been entrenched in Fujian for more than 10 years, and its power in Fujian is deep-rooted, and it is not so easy to overturn it all at once. If the dog jumps over the wall and enters the sea again to become a thief, it will bring great disaster to the coast. After thinking about it carefully, Chen Yue said slowly. The huge profits brought by sea trade are certainly gratifying, but there are also many difficulties, and the power of the Zheng family must not be underestimated!

Qian Fenglin agreed: "What the prince said is extremely true, the Zheng family brothers are all in charge of heavy troops, and the entire Quanzhou Mansion is their territory, and they occupy Kinmen, Xiamen, Nanao and other islands, if it causes a backlash, it will not be easy to exterminate it." ”

Chen Yue nodded: "The affairs of Fujian will be entrusted to Brother Fenglin, I will write a letter to the elder Wang Ge, and he will promote you as the governor of Fujian, and he will be fully responsible for receiving the Zheng family's maritime power, and Chen Yan of the Eastern Domain will fully cooperate with you."

Taking advantage of the fact that the southeast monsoon has not yet risen, you set off for Zhoushan with most of the sea vessels in Dengzhou. It is estimated that the Zheng family will be moved soon, and only with the presence of the sailor can the Zheng family's sailor not dare to move. ”

"But my lord, what should I do if I take all the ships here? You also need a sailor to deal with Manchu! Moreover, in the past year, more than 20 three-masted ships have been built in Zhoushan and various docks in Zhejiang, and as many as five Western-style Galen warships have been built, which is enough to deal with the Zheng family. Qian Fenglin said.

Chen Yue shook his head: "The Manchus don't have any naval armies, and they don't need big ships to deal with them." With the presence of the Dengzhou Naval Division, two more Galen ships will be left to control the entire Bohai Sea. The Zheng family's power is huge and should not be underestimated. ”

The matter was soon agreed, and Qian Fenglin returned to Fujian to cooperate with Wang Yin to deal with the affairs of the Zheng family in an all-round way. The huge profits of the sea trade are the foundation of the Qi Dynasty, and it is precisely with the huge income that Chen Yue dares to expand the army unscrupulously, and has artillery and armor equipment that far surpass the Eight Banners. If these rely on the little silver taels allocated by the imperial court, it is estimated that Chen Yue's soldiers are not much different from other Ming troops, and they are also poor and called Huazi, where else can they have combat effectiveness!

The layout of the Zheng family in Fujian has long begun, and now it has entered the implementation stage, Qian Fenglin has extraordinary ability, and he is very relieved of Chen Yue. The next step is to discuss the war.

Now the situation is very obvious, the defeat and retreat of Manchu is unstoppable, and now what the Northern Expeditionary Army has to do is to keep them as much as possible, and then recover all the Ming land.

But it can't be pushed too tightly, after all, the Manchu Qing still has more than 10,000 cavalry, and there are still 10,000 or 20,000 troops in Beijing.

If the Ming army quickly attacked Beijing, I am afraid that it would have to fall into a siege battle, and even if it could break through Beijing, I did not know how many casualties it would have.

Therefore, Chen Yue did not plan to attack the city as a last resort, which is why he did not rush into the army.

Of course, there are other reasons not to rush into the army, and that is the topic to be discussed today.

"The defeat is decided, and it won't take long to regain Beijing, so now is the time to think about the layout." Gu Junen said, he has been waiting for this day for a long time.

As a member of the scholars, Gu Junen chose to join the Shun army at the beginning and followed Li Zicheng to conquer the world, because he knew that the Ming Dynasty was corrupt and rotten from the roots. If you want to make the people of the world live a good life, you must retreat and overthrow the Ming Dynasty and reorganize the mountains and rivers.

At the beginning, Gu Junen pinned his hopes on Li Zicheng, thinking that Li Zicheng had the ability to overthrow the Ming Dynasty and dominate the world, so he did his best to assist Li Zicheng. But who knew that Li Zichengzhi was talented and the overall situation was too poor, although he captured Beijing and destroyed the Ming Dynasty as he wished, he was defeated by the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

The continuous defeats made Gu Junen know that his ideals were probably going to be shattered, so he gave birth to the idea of returning to the countryside. But who knew that Chen Yue was born out of thin air, repeatedly defeated the invincible Eight Banners, and turned the tide of the tide. Gu Junen was also betrayed to Chen Yue by Hao Shaoqi, and then plundered to the Eastern Domain Island, Gu Junen really broadened his horizons, truly knew that there was a sky outside the sky, and admired Chen Yue's insight, so as to become Chen Yue's real supporter.

In Gu Junen's view, Chen Yue is the one who can change the world. And now Chen Yue led the Northern Expedition to defeat the Eight Banners, and it is just around the corner to conquer Beijing and recover the country, and now the entire north is in a power vacuum after the Manchurian retreat, which is a good time to make a layout.

What Gu Junen, Chen Yue and others want to do is not to overthrow the Ming Dynasty and replace it, but to change the Ming Dynasty and the world according to their own methods. Driving away Manchu is just the beginning.

"Lord Wang, the time has come!" Shan Minglei also said excitedly. With the military victory, the prestige of Chen Yue, the king of Qi, is unparalleled for a while, and with the Northern Expeditionary Army recovering all places, everything will be done with half the effort!