Zheng Zhilong, General Zheng Da has been particularly unhappy these days.

In fact, ever since he heard that Shorthair was going to stop selling illicit salt, this "unpleasant" feeling has been following him. Especially along the way, I saw that the white salt goods on my ship were replaced by more white silver taels, and this feeling became more and more intense.

It stands to reason that this is a very happy thing. The Zheng family has earned more money this month than they have earned in the past year, and the bookkeepers in charge of their own trading have not stopped smiling recently, but Zheng Zhilong is thinking in his heart that "such a good deal, but it can only be used for the last ......" - naturally he is more and more unhappy when he thinks about it.

He also knew that there was something wrong with his thinking, and that the short hair of the people was righteous enough - they also had their own salt farms, and the amount of salt stored was much more than that of his Zheng family, but they were not so engaged in dumping. didn't stop their dumping, and just watched the Zheng family make a lot of money. If the two sides changed positions, Zheng Zhilong believed that he would never be patient, and he would have broken up a long time ago.

So he can't tell others about his depression, even if it is with his closest brother Zheng Zhihu, he has only mentioned it a little, but Zheng Zhihu can't understand it at all, but grinned and said Brother, you think too much, let's not be good now: the route of the Japanese country is making money every day, and recently it has made a lot of money from selling salt, and the house in Anping's hometown has also been built, and the whole family has moved into the big yard to enjoy the blessings...... That's all good news!

Zheng Zhilong was right to think about it, but he was just not happy in his heart. He didn't know what the reason was. But if Pang Yu is here, as a modern person who has a fatalistic complex and understands the "real" deeds of Zheng Zhilong in history, he may sigh a few words such as "historical inertia".

Historically, Zheng Zhilong and the entire Zheng family during this period should have been in a stage of rapid prosperity at this moment, since the defeat of the main force of the Dutch fleet in the Battle of Liaoluo Bay, the Zheng family's fleet was rampant in this East Asian sea, and the toll tax of up to 3,000 taels of silver was collected from every merchant ship here. And no one dares to disobey. Earn tens of millions a year, no problem.

In terms of politics, Zheng Zhilong also became an official all the way, which can be called a bright spot in the generally bleak Ming officialdom. From a miscellaneous official of the "Five Tiger Guerrilla Generals" who was originally born to fool him, to the top general of a province in the regular military attache system of the Ming Dynasty: the Fujian General Army, it only took about ten years, which can be called a god speed in the normal promotion system.

However, now, although the Zheng family made a fortune by selling smuggled salt and running Japanese routes, after all, it is still the type of honest business, and it is definitely much worse than the direct robbery in the original history - with the Qiong Navy suppressing it, don't even think about the latter way. In terms of official career, although the battle of the Tamsui estuary not long ago also achieved quite a brilliant victory. But in the face of the results of the total destruction of the Spanish expeditionary fleet by the Qiong Navy, this victory did not stir up any waves in the imperial court, and at most people said "Oh, the south has won again...... and then revealed it.

It was even more bitter because the ships of Qionghai Town participated in this battle. The imperial court naturally exempted the Zheng family from the obligation of post-war rewards - when the Qiong Navy accepted Zhao'an, it was agreed with the Ming Dynasty: Qiongzhen fought abroad, and if it wins, it does not need to be rewarded by the imperial court, and if it loses, it does not need to be compensated by the Ming Dynasty. But again, the court was not allowed to judge their spoils.

In practice, Qiongzhen kept his promise, but the Ming court was a little unauthentic - not to mention the cheeky big ship. It was in the former article that the short-sighted bureaucrats of the Ming Dynasty extended the concept of "Qiongzhen Battle" to all "battles in which Qiongzhen participated" - such as the previous Battle of Dengzhou. After the end of the day, the imperial court should have sent out a large number of official hats as rewards, and the reward for merit could not be more than a million taels - if it was really handled according to the beheading reward.

However, the civil officials led by Zhu Dadian adopted very strict standards when recording meritorious service after the war, and almost settled accounts with those Qiu Ba head by head - these people were obviously killed by short-haired guns, and you want to repay the merit by cutting off the head of a dead man? In the end, the Huangxian county was only broken by the Thunder God artillery hired by the imperial court in Qiongzhen, and you are not afraid of losing face if you report the merit of breaking the city?

…… After all kinds of twists and turns, the gang was originally elated. The generals who thought that they could always make a big fortune after winning the battle were all disgraced, and they were not easy to refute - that battle was indeed basically fought by Qiongzhen soldiers and horses, even if they had the opportunity to play, they did not grasp it, and in the end, they still relied on the terrifying Thor artillery of Shorthair to finally win, which was watched by many eyes. I can't rely on it. Not to mention that those Jinshi civil officials are all sharp-toothed, and they can stir up three points unreasonably, and this time they take up the reason, and they refuse to let it go at all.

As a result, after the merit was completed, people found out that there were not many rewards for such a great merit as quelling the Dengzhou rebellion, and most of the credit was recorded on the head of the Qiong Navy. But the Qiong Navy itself did not receive any reward for this - even if they did not consider their agreement with the Ming court, the surname Xie was full of nonsense, and the court did not punish the crime strictly, even if it was polite, and still wanted to be rewarded?

In the end, in addition to the Guanwai Liaozhen also rewarded some silver for the purpose of entrapment, in addition, there were also the military commanders and the eunuchs who supervised the army's "strategizing and praising with the army", which was not related to the short-haired birds, and it was still necessary to vigorously reward them, and most of the other reinforcements came from how they came and how to roll back. For those who are far away, such as the Sichuan army, the imperial court can reimburse part of the travel expenses and food salaries, which is already an additional favor.

The civil servants and eunuchs, who were in charge of the meritorious service, were glad to report to the emperor - they had not only saved a great deal of silver taels for the treasury, but had also succeeded in attributing the resentment of the armies to the short-haired army - the civilians were the best at this kind of provocation. Those local troops who returned home disappointed were complaining that the short-haired ones were too ruthless in grabbing the merits, and they obviously couldn't get any benefits, so they had to snatch all the credit, harming others and not benefiting themselves.

As for the recurrence of such a thing in the future, whether the local troops are willing to come to their aid enthusiastically...... So who cares? Anyway, the Ming Dynasty has stumbled to the present, and it has lasted for more than 200 years, and even the emperor has taken prisoners, so he can always hold on, right? P