In early spring and February, Shangjinbei Village, Ningde County, Funing Prefecture, Fujian.

Miao Ruiyun's maid Zhuxiang stepped down from the ox cart.

At noon, it is the best time of the day, and in front of almost every house in the village, there are women of all ages, gathered together, carving horn combs.

Fujian's horn comb, not only popular in the Ming Dynasty, but also is the most sought-after goods in the sea trade of Yuegang. Finally, the foreigners who looked forward to the Ming Dynasty opening the country again like Song and Yuan saw the gold edging grate in the Fujian horn comb for the first time, and were stunned by the amazing craftsmanship of the oriental craftsmen.

On a grate, which is only half the width of an adult's palm, seventy or eighty toothed needles are carefully and evenly spaced, with straight needles and rounded heads, which can comb through the most tangled and knotted hair in the most gentle and comfortable way.

It's not easy to do something like this out of wood, let alone the horns.

And if those stunned foreigners are willing to pay more than one penny for each handful, they can buy categories carved with exquisite flowers and plants, landscapes and pavilions, and even beautiful ladies. Crossing the waves, returning to the Middle East or Europa, such a bull's horn can make adventurers four or five times more profitable.

The Fujian horn comb, which can be supplied in large quantities and is small and lightweight, does not occupy a space, has brought a lot of silver for the big tomorrow.

However, few people know that in this era, the really expensive gold-covered horn comb did not come from Fuzhou, but from this small village in Ningde County, Shangjinbei.

It was not sold to a Western merchant in Tsukigang, but appeared in the center of the hair bun of the Japanese aristocratic women......

The maid Zhuxiang greeted the villagers casually, and walked all the way to the mansion at the east end of the village.

The man in his usual clothes, who was fishing by the stream, stood up to greet her.

"Miss Zhuxiang, General Zheng has already gone up the mountain."

Zhuxiang nodded at him, didn't say hello much, and walked straight along the mountain path with the shadows of the trees to an ancient temple in front of him.

When the smoke of the incense was approaching, Zhuxiang did not step into the temple gate, but continued to climb the stairs from the side to a cemetery hidden in the dense forest on the mountainside.

"Cangchang", several guards drew their swords at the same time, and when they heard Zhuxiang singing "Jiangzuo's relics, loyalty and righteousness are clear", they took back their weapons one after another.

One of the guards came up and clasped his fists and asked softly, "Who is the honorable driver?" ”

"The county lord of Songjiang is kneeling, Miao Zhuxiang."

The guards became more and more respectful, leading the way and carrying the bamboo incense to the depths of the cemetery.

As soon as Zhu Xiangfu stopped, he knelt down beside the tall cyan pillar made of cyan striped stone, and after reporting his identity again, he kowtowed a few times to the tower tablet in front of him, and said respectfully on the ground: "The county lord and General Liu, say hello to Zheng Ge Lao and Zheng Shen." ”

In front of the stupa engraved with the inscription "The Pagoda of the Third Generation of the Zen Master Canghaizhu of the Imperial Golden Buddha Riyuanming", two men sitting on a futon look at the bamboo incense.

The monk in a robe, known as the elder of the pavilion, is close to the age of sixtieth, with gray eyebrows and a kind face.

The "general" opposite the monk was a middle-aged man in his thirties, with sword eyebrows and leopard eyes, and a cold expression.

"Put down the news of the county lord, you go down the mountain, and go to worship and worship your family." The old monk said gently.

Zhuxiang looked up and said yes, took out a letterhead, and held it to the little novice beside him.

The middle-aged general also squeezed out a little bit of joy and said: "Miss Zhuxiang, when you came up, you were in the mansion, but you met Zheng Xu fishing?" ”

"Back to the general, I met Brother Zheng."

"Well, I'm sorry for you to go to him again. This year, I left fifty of the best gold-wrapped horn combs, engraved with paintings of Ma Lin that the county lord can see, you bring it back to Songjiang and present it to the county lord, and she can keep it for appreciation. ”

Zhuxiang was about to thank him, but he heard the old monk say slowly: "Don't take it." The Songjiang switch is imminent, and Dongying is only afraid that many goods will return to Jiangnan. If those warriors are down, they will sell the golden comb back to the Ming Dynasty and appear in Songjiang......"

The middle-aged general immediately realized that he was not considerate, and hurriedly said: "The elder of the pavilion has taught right. ”

Zhuxiang then bowed and left.

The two descendants of Zheng Qia, the "relict of Jiangzuo", faced the relics pagoda again, like the sons and nephews of the Zheng family in previous generations, and only returned to the meditation hall of the Buddhist temple after paying tribute to Emperor Jianwen in the spirit of heaven.

……

The old monk is Zheng Qia's sixth eldest grandson, Zheng Lang. The middle-aged man is Zheng Lang's cousin Zheng Yi, and his current public identity is the general of the water division under the command of Yu Zhigao.

Two hundred years ago, when Zhu Di, the king of Yan, "his uncle made a nephew's rebellion" and captured the city of Nanjing, Zhu Yunwen, the emperor of Jianwen, disguised himself as a monk and fled south with his eldest son Zhu Wenkui, accompanied by Zheng Qia and other ministers. Fang Xiaoru, a Hanlin scholar who remained in Nanjing, was killed outside Nanjing for refusing to draft an edict for Zhu Di.

According to folk legends, Fang Xiaoru was ordered by Zhu Di to "punish the ten clans", which was more than the "nine clans" and the "protégé" clan.

But in fact, many members of the Fang family were blessed by righteous people from all walks of life who respected Fang's filial piety, and many people were rescued, and they survived incognito. Liu Shimin, Wang Yuesheng, etc., are all descendants of the Fang family.

Miao Ruiyun's father is Zheng Qia's fifth grandson-in-law, and his mother is Zhu Wenkui's sixth princess.

After Emperor Jianwen fled to Ningde, Fujian, he ordered a part of the Wenchen military general Zhu Wenkui, the seven-year-old prince of Fuzuo, to sail out to sea to preserve the bloodline for his own branch, while he and Zheng Qia stayed in Fujian to hide.

The regime that was washed by King Yan's blood that year was like a grassy slope that could not be eradicated by fire.

When the usurper began to taste the lusciousness of imperial power, the grass seeds flew to the ends of the earth in various ways, tenaciously surviving in the shadows inside and outside the territory of the Ming Empire.

The Zhu family, the Zheng family, the Fang family, and twenty-one other courtiers who followed Emperor Jianwen spread out and had a huge group of descendants and relatives. Two hundred years is not enough to eliminate the hatred of "prosperity collapsed overnight" and "wives separated in an instant", and the heroic Zheng Qia and his children and nephews have worked hard to maintain the order of dignity and inferiority in the dark web world and perform their duties.

If the descendants of Zhu Di in the Forbidden City who are obsessed with fighting beasts, like drugs, or refuse to go to court, they will definitely be ridiculed contemptuously in the Zhujia family in this dark web world, the monks in the small mountain village of Ningde are called "Shoufu", the eunuchs without roots are called "generals", and the old women who have been palace maids under the eaves of the enemy are called "county lords".

But if there is really a ghost, Zhu Di underground knows that the descendants of Emperor Jianwen have already crossed the territory of the Ming Dynasty, and even absorbed strong reinforcements like Ma Xianglin, who have a grudge against his father with the faint king, and then look at his unscrupulous descendants of the frogs at the bottom of the well, Zhu Di's coffin board may not be able to cover it.

】

In the inner room of the meditation hall, Zheng Lang tore open the fire paint letterbag, took out Miao Ruiyun's letterhead, saw the secret number on the letterhead, turned around and took down a Buddhist scripture from the bookshelf, opened it, compared the numbers on the letterhead, copied the Chinese characters in the Buddhist scriptures, and then connected them to read through.

After a while, he summoned Zheng Yi, who was waiting outside, to come in.

The county lord said that the more than 10,000 Sichuan troops trained by Ma Xianglin in Tongzhou were successively sent to Shanhaiguan and other places. After General Liu took charge of the Suzhou and Hangzhou Weaving Bureau, as of the end of last year, about 200,000 taels of silver had been made. ”

Zheng Yi listened, thought for a while, and said happily: "General Liu has a great prestige in Nanzhili, and from officials to businessmen, they all understand that he has made great contributions to the Songjiang switch. These people are the most sophisticated, and they must understand that in the first year of Songjiang's switch, the amount of silver sent by General Liu into the inner treasury will increase significantly compared to that of Yuegang, and the one on the dragon chair will ignore the complaints of those old gentry and dealers who are smuggling in Zhezhi. ”

Zheng Lang nodded: "It's this reason, just like your General Yu Dabing, you have a lot of silver to honor the inner treasury every year, so General Liu should be more abundant next." ”

After a pause, he said: "Ah Yi, General Liu's 50,000 taels of silver will come over soon, you take it and recruit people for Liu Xiang." ”

Zheng Yi rushed to Ningde to see Zheng Lang from the Xiamen Health Center on the pretext of returning to his hometown to worship his ancestors, and he really wanted this money.

In the secret room where there are no outsiders, Zheng Yi is much closer to Zheng Lang, the "first assistant".

"Uncle, there was no need to be in such a hurry. Unexpectedly, the Zheng family that the county lord and uncle said was the old friend of Yan Siqi, who said that Xu Xinsu was moved, and Xu Xinsu said that he moved General Yu and really wanted to fight the Dutch. ”

"It's a good thing to be anxious," Zheng Lang closed his eyes slightly, twisted the Buddhist beads, and said in a surging voice, "We asked Liu Xiang to leave Hirado and rush to Taiwan to join Yan Siqi, just to let him take the opportunity to recruit troops for Yan Siqi to transport our people from overseas into Taiwan." Now is a good opportunity not to make Yan Siqi suspicious. It's good to fight the Dutch, practice and train soldiers, and look at Yu Zhigao's good cannons, how to use them. Besides, on the Japanese side, several daimyo who had been friends with Frankie hated the Dutch the most, and this time we just went to lobby and it was our idea to persuade Yu Zhigao and Yan Siqi to join forces to clean up the red hair. ”

Zheng Yi echoed and said yes, was silent, and finally couldn't help asking: "Uncle, that Zheng Haizhu has a good idea." She's really not one of ours? ”

Zheng Lang opened his eyes and showed regret: "No." Not since her grandfather's generation. Or the lord has the mind of a holy monarch, and I believe that your uncle is just unwilling to inherit the duties of the Zheng family, but he will abide by the secret. Otherwise, if an envoy had been sent from overseas to kill your uncle, where would there be this little granddaughter of the Zheng family who was favored by the county lord now. ”