At the beginning of the trial, Shi Fenglai was still resisting and refused to explain the source of the huge amount of property, until Qiao Yunsheng sued him, Jin Yiwei was already investigating him and had already infiltrated his mansion.

Shi Fenglai's face suddenly turned pale, he understood that it was the emperor, and it was the emperor who was preparing to establish authority in the imperial court, and because he had no eyes, he became a victim of the emperor's prestige.

Knowing his situation, Shi Fenglai no longer resisted any questions from Qiao Yunsheng, in fact, at this time, even if Shi Fenglai kept his mouth shut, he would not be able to escape the punishment of the law, so many assets from unknown sources would be death in the final analysis.

When Shi Fenglai was escorted down, he didn't forget to tease Qiao Yunsheng: "Lord Qiao, Xiaguan, no, the offender's today is the tomorrow you are waiting for, since the emperor has placed Jinyi Wei next to me, won't he put it next to you?" Ha ha...... The prisoner has to go first. ”

Qiao Yunsheng was silent, he waved his hand and asked people to take Shi Fenglai down.

The Donglin Party's influence in the DPRK is still quite large, but that is for the hundred officials, in front of Zhu Youzhen, who has established great military achievements, they still dare not be presumptuous.

Besides, Shi Fu did confiscate an astonishing amount of property, Shi Fenglai's greed for ink can be said to be a sure thing, if he pleads with Zhu Youzhen for Shi Fenglai at this time, he will get into trouble if he doesn't do it.

The ministers gradually understood Zhu Youzhen's methods.

The judicial court soon pronounced a verdict on Shi Fenglai's embezzlement of ink: Shi Fenglai was sentenced because of the huge amount of embezzlement, his family was exiled to Lingbei Province, and all his property was confiscated into the state treasury.

Shi Fenglai's case also involved many officials in the court, but Zhu Youzhen did not want to implicate too widely, so that the government was in a vacuum, and many of them happened before Zhu Youzhen ascended the throne, and the Judicial Yuan did not file the case again, but Zhu Youzhen summoned the ministers involved in the case to the Qianqing Palace and reprimanded him severely.

When the court meeting was convened again, Li Chunye, president of the National Defense Yuan, once again asked the court to discuss the draft military reform, and since three of the three articles had already been approved by the court, Zhu Youzhen only asked the ministers to discuss the matter of military knighthood again.

The ministers all looked at each other, and no one dared to talk nonsense, which means obviously, the people who oppose the most fiercely are now separated by yin and yang, who is willing to hit the muzzle of the gun? But we don't support your ≌dǐng≌diǎn≌小≌ say, .2→3.》os_(); Policy, if you want, sing your one-man show.

No one answered, and Huang Liji proposed a compromise plan: "Your Majesty, Chenjian yì, since soldiers can be awarded a certain title according to military merits, then if Wenchen can make meritorious contributions to the country or make special contributions to his post, he can also be knighted." ”

Zhu Youzhen praised, Huang Liji deserves to be a good minister, "Huang Aiqing is right, since they are knighted, Wenchen should also have a share, as long as they can make contributions to the country, whether it is defending the territory, opening up the territory, or making outstanding contributions to the Ming Dynasty in ordinary posts, they can be knighted." ”

The Ming Dynasty originally had a knighthood system, but in the past, there were only three titles of duke, marquis, and earl, and the number of titles was small.

Now that Zhu Youzhen has agreed to Huang Liji's construction and promoted the fifth-class title to Wenchen, the chance of Wenchen being knighted will also be greatly increased.

Li Chunye, Yan Mingtai, Qin Yongnian, Cao Wenzhao and other people from the National Defense Yuan first expressed their support for Zhu Youzhen, and they did not oppose the knighthood of Wenchen, as long as it did not affect the knighthood of soldiers.

Subsequently, Qiao Yunsheng, Tang Jishi, Bi Ziyan and others also expressed their support.

Under their leadership, the ministers unanimously supported Zhu Youzhen and the National Defense Yuan's draft military reform.

Although a few people are still ready to oppose it, the reform of the court is irreversible, and they will never be like Shi Fenglai, who will no longer fight the emperor.

The four contents of the second military reform were all obtained in the court, although Zhu Youzhen used the method of investigating corruption and ink to force the ministers to agree to this plan, and there was no way to win without force, but Zhu Youzhen could not care about so much.

He must establish his authority in the court, otherwise in the future, he will have to use troops in certain places that others do not attach much importance to, or carry out certain reforms that others cannot understand, and those ministers in the court who do not open their eyes will probably set off a huge wave of opposition again.

In the long run, for the Ming to establish a modern state, it is necessary to weaken the imperial power, but now is not the time, it is necessary to strengthen the imperial power now, take advantage of the centralization of power, and seek greater external benefits for the Ming Dynasty.

Under the condition that the people's wisdom is fully enlightened, the imperial power can be slowly weakened, and finally the transition to a constitutional monarchy can be guaranteed.

There will be changes in the future, and irreconcilable contradictions may arise in the country, but these contradictions will only be resolved through guò political zhì# struggles, not military civil wars that destroy a qiē social wealth or even cause the country to split, and their own children and grandchildren will not be eradicated by the new dynasty.

On August 1, the fourth year of Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty (1631 AD), the imperial court finally decided to recover Taiwan.

When Li Chunye proposed the use of troops against Taiwan at the court meeting, the ministers knew very well that this was Zhu Youzhen's meaning.

Li Chunye stressed: "The use of troops against Taiwan is, on the one hand, to recover the homeland of the Ming Dynasty, so that the artillery of Xiyi will not be erected near the coastal area of Fujian in the Ming Dynasty, and at the same time, it is also to test the combat effectiveness of the South China Sea Fleet, and the scale will not be too large, and there will be no need for the army to participate in the war." ”

Hearing that the army did not need to participate in the war, the minister believed that the scale of the operation would not be too large, and Zhu Youzhen had just beheaded Shi Fenglai, so there was not much opposition at the court meeting, and the sporadic discord was quickly drowned out.

Taiwan is located in the southeast of Fujian Province, with an area of about 36,000 square kilometers, about 750 miles long from north to south, and about 300 miles wide from east to west.

Taiwan has extremely important strategic significance for the Ming Dynasty, but the whole island is not flat, the coast mountain range, the central mountain range, the snow mountain range, the Yushan mountain range, the Alishan mountain range and other five mountain ranges, from the northeast to the southwest, parallel nest on the island of Taiwan, so Taiwan's topography, mainly mountainous, the central part of the mountain, has been extended to the east to the sea, only in the west coast there are some plains and basins.

The Dutch began in the second year of the Apocalypse (1622 AD), logged in Taiwan, and in the fourth year of the Apocalypse (1624 AD), they established a merchant house in Shanwei in southern Taiwan, and in the fifth year of the Apocalypse (1625 AD), they established the city of Relansha in Dayuan in southern Taiwan, and established the Chichicheng City in Shanwei, and gradually occupied the villages of Xingang Society and Mujia Tuowan Society on the Inland Sea Plain of the Taijiang River.

In the sixth year of the Apocalypse (1626 AD), the Spaniards came to northern Taiwan and established the city of San Salva in the chicken coop, and in the first year of Chongzhen (1628 AD), they established the city of San Domingo on the north bank of the mouth of the Tamsui River.

According to the spies sent by Zheng Zhilong, in addition to the merchants, the Dutch garrison on the island of Taiwan has about 500, and the Spanish also has 300 professional soldiers.

Zheng Zhilong had been to Taiwan many times in his early years, and he was very familiar with Taiwan's various forces, terrain, and population, and he did not bring the entire fleet, but only 20 Guangzhou ships, 20 Fu ships, 10 new-style Fu ships, and 100 Cangshan ships.

In addition, there were more than a hundred transport ships transporting the 4th Marine Division, and the transport ships followed the ships and received the protection of the ships.

The Canton ship was a three-masted ship, with two decks, a total of 12 guns on the left and right sides, all of which were flowering shells, and a crew of 88 people, including 24 sailors and 64 soldiers.

The Fukufu was a brig with only one deck, a total of eight guns on the left and right, and a crew of only forty-six people, including fourteen sailors and thirty-two soldiers.

Although the tonnage of the new Fuchuan battleship is about the same as that of the old Fuchuan, all the commercial cabins on the ship are excluded and all are used for deploying artillery, and a total of fourteen guns are installed on the left and right sides of the ship, two more than the Guangzhou ship.

When the sky was bright, Zheng Zhilong bid farewell to the officials who saw him off on the shore, and personally led the fleet to set off from Xiamen Port in Fujian, relying on the compass to navigate, and the fleet sailed beyond due east.

Between Xiamen and Penghu, there are only about seventy-five nautical miles, but the speed of ships in the sail era is generally very slow, especially for large ships such as the Guangzhou ship, the speed is only seven knots per hour, plus the tailwind, not even eight knots, although the speed of the Fu ship and the Cangshan ship is fast, in order to maintain a complete formation, it can only maintain the same speed as the Guangzhou ship.

After noon, when there was no fleet of other countries on the calm sea, Zheng Zhilong ordered ten of the Cangshan ships to speed up and arrive at Magang in Penghu first, and join up with the Cangshan ships that had arrived in Magang in advance, and choose a place of call for the Guangzhou and Fu ships, and at the same time send people to land and arrange food and lodging for the follow-up soldiers.

There is only a breeze on the sea, but the sea still sets off waves half a foot high, fortunately, the soldiers have lived by the sea since childhood, and they have seen bigger winds and waves than this, and they will not get seasick.

Although there are no ships from other countries on the sea, there are occasional merchant ships, mostly flying the Dutch tricolor or the Spanish coat of arms.

The Ming navy on the battleship has not dared to relax, especially the sentry in charge of lookout, and he did not dare to be careless for a moment, these merchant ships are basically armed, and even have artillery, once they find themselves threatened, it is common to shoot and shoot.

However, the fleet of the Ming army was large enough that these merchant ships did not dare to approach at all, and as long as the Ming army did not provoke, they did not dare to take the initiative to provoke the Ming army.

In the late autumn weather, the days began to get shorter, and unconsciously, the sky gradually darkened, and the visibility on the sea surface was greatly reduced, Zheng Zhilong was secretly anxious, although there were compasses on the battleships, but in case they deviated, the vast sea, this boundless night, there was really no way back.

Suddenly, the lookout soldier waved the flag: Two small boats were found in front, suspected to be the Cangshan boat of the South China Sea Fleet.

Zheng Zhilong was overjoyed: "You must be here to answer us, but you can't be careless, be careful." ”

After a while, the lookout soldiers in front of him waved the flag again: Sure enough, it was the Cangshan ship of the South China Sea Fleet.

The two Cangshan ships slowly approached the flagship of the South China Sea Fleet, the Nanhai Fleet, and the soldiers climbed the gangway to the Nanhai and verbally reported to Zheng Zhilong on the situation in Ma Harbor.