Lu Ming

The traveler Zhang Dongdong knew that after Zheng Zhilong recruited peace in history, many official documents were sent from the capital asking him to lead his troops to the north to relieve the emperor's worries.

However, Zhang Dongdong carefully calculated the time at this time, and felt that the possibility of the official document coming from the capital was not high: it was the beginning of July, and historically Yuan Chonghuan would kill Mao Wenlong only at the end of this month.

The death of Mao Wenlong led to the complete loosening of the flanking battlefield where the Jiannu Group had been restrained, and the first entry of the Manchu Qing Dynasty triggered by this will begin in October.Therefore, there should be no major incidents happening in the capital right now, and Chongzhen will not summon himself to be King Qin at this point in time.

After figuring this out, Zhang Dongdong guessed the origin of this official document based on the recently received social information bulletin about Guangdong: "Could it be an official document from Guangdong?"

"Hahaha!" Xiong Wencan laughed loudly: "Good guess! It was sent by the governor's office in Guangdong."

Having said that, Lao Xiong handed the official document to Zhang Dongdong.

Although he had never been exposed to ancient prose before, Zhang Dongdong had earnestly studied relevant knowledge since he became a puppet.Although it is almost meaningless until now, he can already understand the official documents with fixed format and standardized words and sentences.

At first glance, the content of this official document is very messy and rambling; but after Zhang Dongdong read it carefully, he understood the core meaning of it: to use his teacher to help suppress the pirate Liu Xiang.

"It seems that Lao Liu really pushed Wang Zunde into a hurry." Zhang Dongdong nodded secretly at this moment: "Then I will be promoted again."

After thinking about it, General Cao raised his head and said to Old Xiong: "I don't know what your lord thinks about this matter? Should the general go or not?"

Xiong Wencan nodded his head at this time, very satisfied with General Cao's attitude: No matter from the perspective of political experience or allies, Cao Chuan should first seek his own opinion on this matter.

Now that Cao Chuan did the right thing, he also expressed his thoughts: "In my opinion, the general should work hard."

Chapter 375 The Origin of the Official Document

Rewind time to March of this year.

At that time, the only remaining group of big pirates, the Liuxiang Group, had to go south from its old nest in the Chaoshan area due to pressure from the north, and finally entrenched in the Pearl River Estuary.

This matter was actually planned by Transcendence.The purpose of letting Liu Xiang go south is to divert trouble to the south, forcing the Guangzhou officialdom to respond under pressure and invite Cao to enter Guangdong to suppress the bandits.

So during this period of time, what happened to the official circles in Guangzhou that they hastily issued official documents to borrow teachers to help suppress them?

Regarding this matter, it is inseparable from Liu Xiang's own efforts and the strong support of the cross-travelers.

What is different from the history is that the depth and breadth of the Liuxiang Group's occupation of the Pearl River Estuary this time has far exceeded that of the past.

Historically, Liu Xiang and Zheng Zhilong, who had been recruited, turned against each other, and the two sides were always hostile along the coast of Fujian and Guangdong.It was not until seven years later that Zheng Zhilong wiped out the other gangsters, and finally freed up to kill the last pirate Liu Xiang.

In this process, Guangdong, as Liu Xiang's rear, did not feel too strong.Liu Xiang usually retreats to the Chaoshan area during the rest period. At this time, he will divide his troops to rob some ships at the mouth of the Pearl River, and collect some tolls by the way.

However, these harassing behaviors in Guangzhou are less intense than Liu Xiang's invasion of Fujian and Zheng Zhilong's lair in Min'an County, which led to "burning, looting, looting, emptying of Bishe, fleeing of townspeople, and shaking of the provincial capital". Not high.

Because Liu Xiang's strategic focus has always been on Fujian: fighting for control of trade with Japan, attacking Zheng Zhilong's trading ships, plundering coastal towns in Fujian, prompting discord between the government and Zheng Zhilong...all for the sake of trade routes.

……

But in the plane of Transmigration, history has been completely changed.

This time, Liu Xiang, at best, went south under pressure, at worst, he was driven to the Pearl River Estuary like a bereaved dog.

From the moment Chaoshan left, Liu Xiang never had the chance to return to his hometown—the small gunboat with white sails had already included the surrounding areas of Nan'ao Island in the scope of investigation, and would wander around Shantou Port from time to time, provoking The pressed taste is strong.

Under such circumstances, it is naturally impossible for Chief Liu to think about the bullshit trade with Japan. What is before him is another very realistic question: how to survive?

Although the area around the Pearl River Estuary is a sea trade hub and a place where wealth flows, Lu Xun said it well: You can't catch a sheep but you can squeeze it hard.If a large group of pirates has been entrenched in the Pearl River Estuary for a long time to blackmail merchant ships and go ashore to plunder, then other forces will naturally respond to this and respond.

This includes not only the Guangdong garrison, the regiment training of the guards in various places, but also the Portuguese in Macau and other forces that eat sea trade.In addition, the business travelers are not fools, knowing that there are car robbers and road tyrants, they go to die, so the sea trade that has been hit has also begun to shrink, and the forces behind the business travelers have begun to complain.

Therefore, the longer Liu Xiang entrenched in a certain place, the lower the marginal effect, and he would be attacked by other forces in the future.

Under normal circumstances, he, Liu Xiang, Uncle Liu, patted his ass for a few votes and then left. The above situation will not happen.In history, he traveled to the three provinces of Fujian, Zhejiang and Guangdong, and it would take him a year just to grab a lap along the way.

But now he is in trouble: the north of Chaoshan has been sprayed with the fog of war by a certain force, and there is no way to go again.

What about going south?Going south is also a dead end: Vietnam, Khmer, Siam, Luzon, Java... Just look at these names and you will know that it is a place where savages are entrenched.

Even though it was already on the verge of collapse, the Ming mainland in the seventeenth century was still the birthplace of wealth and a real paradise for products.Merchants from all over the world are trying their best to obtain commodities from the Ming Dynasty, such as raw silk, porcelain, and daily necessities.

The opposite is that group of peripheral boys, including those tribute crooks in Japan and South Asia.The daily necessities market in all these small countries has been dominated by Ming products for a long time, not to mention emerging cities like Manila and Batavia. Will the savages produce iron nails and gilded fans?

So for a large pirate group like Liu Xiang, going to South Asia, which is barren, is equivalent to being hit by dimensionality reduction.

In the Ming Dynasty, when Liu Xiang went ashore, he could grab silver, daily necessities, silk, and porcelain in weakly defended townships; while in South Asia, what Malay pirates could grab every day was coconuts and sago. , the brown-skinned wild woman with the milk bucket hanging on her belly is a good one.

The bigger the plate, the stronger the parasite.The wealthy coastal areas of the Ming Dynasty not only supported Liu Xiang, but also supported more pirate gangs in history.

In South Asia, except for those few cities, the rest of the places, to put it bluntly, even if those savage tribes did not resist, it would not be enough for shopkeeper Liu to rob them.As for those cities... Blocking Manila Bay can grab merchant ships, but there are Spanish fleets in addition to merchant ships in the bay. Shopkeeper Liu probably doesn't think his life is too long.

The most important thing is the channel issue.The pirate group seems to come and go like the wind and move thousands of miles away, but they still need logistical support.The "house owners" all over the coast of the Ming Dynasty helped the pirates sell their stolen goods while providing supplies and information to the pirates; leaving these nest owners, the pirate group would become deaf and blind. In addition, shopkeeper Liu could not allow his subordinates to fill their stomachs with porcelain ? ...and this kind of host does not exist in South Asia.

All in all, all in all, as the decision-maker in charge of the Gang of Ten Thousand People, Liu Xiang is actually in a dilemma for his future strategy after occupying the Pearl River Estuary: he will be taught to be a man if he goes north, and if he goes south, let alone he can't take it away. Many people, even if he can take them away, these people will be consumed like sand in the archipelago of South Asia, savages and diseases, and there will never be such a comfortable life as Da Ming.

So shortly after settling in Guangdong, Liu Xiang immediately made a series of decisions: the first was layoffs.A large number of peripheral shopkeepers were released immediately to fend for themselves.This kind of gathering and separation among pirates is normal, so soon more than half of the troops scattered and went their separate ways.

Then Liu Xiang contacted the Portuguese.In addition to hoping to get some military support, Liu Xiang also tried to get some commercial cooperation from the Portuguese.

In addition, Chief Liu is also considering a way out: the relationship between Portuguese and Spanish who also believe in Catholicism has always been relatively close. Liu Xiang believes that if there are more connections with Spain and Portugal through the bridge of Macau, if it really comes, he has to choose On that day, at least he can find another way to go to Manila to work for the Spaniards, instead of having to surrender to those thieves.

Of course, while looking for a way out, Liu Xiang is still carrying out his main business: looting.

It is impossible not to loot.Even if more than half of the peripheral pirates were let go, Liu Xiang still has 4000 men and [-] ships under his command.The supplies consumed by these people and ships every day is an astronomical figure. If they don't do business, they will soon be empty.

In addition, the thousands of people who were let go will not disappear out of thin air. Most of these people will still form scattered gangs to "do business" nearby.Therefore, for the prefectures and counties in Guangdong, it means that on the basis of the original banditry, a gang of [-] people suddenly increased in a short period of time, and the situation suddenly deteriorated.

Soon, snowflakes of report documents flew into the governor's office of Guangdong and Guangxi, the chief envoy, the procurator, and the general army's office.These documents include reports from local prefectural and county officials, as well as letters of complaint from maritime merchants and people behind them. The business travelers are complaining a lot, and I hope you guys can quickly figure out a way to deal with it.

But the big guys have a fart way.The governor's yamen of Guangdong and Guangxi couldn't come up with any good ideas other than strictly ordering the guards in various places to strengthen their defenses and increase the number of watchtowers.

As for Liu Xiang setting up cards abroad to pump water... let him go, anyway, there is no Liu Xiang in the Pearl River Estuary, and there are Wang Xiang and Ma Xiang.

However, Liu Xiang could not "self-defeat" this time, because the road to the north had been blocked by the thieves, and the head of Liu Xiang didn't want to go south. The looting incident far surpassed the same period in history.

Of course, the help of a certain vicious regime is indispensable: the actions of the Liu Xiang Gang at the mouth of the Pearl River only brought scale effects, but to make the word "painful" feel in Guangdong official circles, it depends on romantic figures.

... The "Debang" special pirate squad, which was originally fighting against the hostile business routes along the coast of Zhejiang, was transferred to the Pearl River area by the Intelligence Bureau before that.Due to the relatively generous meeting gift, the small team joined the big gang smoothly as soon as Gang Leader Liu came to Guangdong.

The pirate team that was headed by Chen Erye back then, except Comrade Ma Liu is still the head of the pirate team, the rest of the sailors and ships have already been updated several times, and the strength of the small fleet can be said to be reborn.

After the pending order was under the command of shopkeeper Liu, the Debang squad began a precise attack full of technological content-the agents at Guangzhou Station would telegraph the travel information of certain sea-going ships to the squad, and then these sea-going ships The ship will be accurately intercepted, regardless of day or night, regardless of location, even if it does not leave the Pearl River, it will be robbed.

Naturally, the hijacked ship did not end well.It is certain that the goods will be robbed, and the ship will be pulled away or scuttled. The vicious "pirates under Liu Xiang" might even kill two sea merchants to serve wine.

After this the rest of the unlucky ones are let go.Then soon the shopkeeper of the firm will get the news, and then the major shareholders of the firm will also get the bad news-these major shareholders are all officials and gentry in Guangzhou without any surprise.

It is impossible to collect the goods on a sea ship without tens of thousands of 10,000+ taels of silver, so whenever the team easily makes a deal, there will always be a certain "powerful person" in Guangzhou who is in pain. Heartfelt.

So when Liu Gangzhu's large-scale operations and the small team's precise strikes were carried out at the same time for several months, Comrade Wang Zunde, "Governor of Guangdong, Guangxi, military affairs, food and pay, management of salt law, governor of the Guangdong Military Department, and the right censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate" Under the pressure of many officials under him and the gentry in the city, he finally couldn't sit still.

Chapter 376

One emperor and one courtier.The current governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, Wang Zunde, was previously the governor of Guangxi. Because he presided over a strong bandit suppression operation in office and had a clean reputation, Chongzhen promoted him to governor of Guangdong and Guangxi and governor of Guangdong after he came to power.

It can be seen from the long list of titles that this monarch has great power.However, there is a word called equal rights and responsibilities: since Wang Zunde is responsible for the military and government of Guangdong and Guangxi, he will now be responsible for solving Liu Xiang's disaster.

It's a long story: in fact, Lao Wang didn't intend to go to war at first.

Wang Zunde was promoted to an official from the governor of Guangxi at the beginning. When it comes to his political achievements, being a clean and honest official cannot be counted, mainly because of his strong suppression of bandits.That is to say, in dealing with banditry, Wang Zunde's governance philosophy tends to be more forceful "suppression" rather than weaker "appropriation".

However, Lao Wang's ideals encountered challenges after he came to Guangdong: back then, both Guangdong and Fujian were plagued by bandits, and everyone had their own headaches, and the eldest brother did not talk about the second brother.

Things changed suddenly one day: Xiong Wencan came from the north, and he appeased a group of "maritime merchants" on Yizhou Island with his words, and then the coast of Fujian became "clear and clear" overnight. Someone helped the old lady across the road.

This extremely strong contrast made Guangdong officialdom a little uncomfortable at first.

Although the complaints about Xiong Wencan's "raising tigers for trouble" and "causing a group of pirates to become big" have never stopped, but no matter how much he complains, the coast of Fujian is stable and stable, and it is true that Xiong Wencan even paid full taxes to the court on time in disaster years ——To be able to exchange "Ai Qing" from Chongzhen, this is what Xiong Wencan bought with real money.

Guangdong officials quickly gathered the correct information from official documents, letters from the same year in Fujian, and businessmen who had invested in their own shares: Hoklo's life is indeed getting better and better.Now the next door has not only wiped out the banditry, but also started a big business. All the goodies that have been popular in Guangzhou recently were all created by the Yizhou gang!

Thus came the first wave of criticisms against Wang Zunde's tough policy of suppressing bandits: It seems that the policy of appeasement is also very good?May we try it too?

Wang Zunde felt the pressure at that time.

However, changing course is not so easy.Lao Wang has always been pursuing a tough policy of uncompromising, and now he can change it if he wants to change it. Doesn’t that mean that Lao Wang was an idiot before?

So many things are so helpless.Even in later generations, some wrong things can only be changed after new people, new leaders, new presidents, etc. come to power.

Wang Zunde actually responded at that time-he convened high-level military attaches in Guangdong to discuss the matter of suppressing bandits, and planned to implement his governance philosophy firmly.

However, he soon discovered that Guangdong is not Guangxi: the cost of suppressing pirates is much higher than that of suppressing mountain bandits. Needless to say, building a fleet and buying enough cannons can cost his old man As for whether the endless pirates can be dealt with by officers and soldiers after having a ship... only the ghost knows.

So this matter was so embarrassingly dragged down.

However, the world is impermanent, and soon, Pharaoh couldn't even procrastinate because Liu Xiang came.

Everything has a limit, and if it exceeds the upper limit, there will be a qualitative change.In history, it took Liu Xiang several years to use various methods including looting, killing, false recruiting and kidnapping officials, etc., to completely annoy the official circles in Fujian and Guangdong, and incur a special attack.

Now, due to the secret troubles of some bad water forces, the damage to the officialdom in Guangdong has exceeded the threshold in just a few months-cutting a person's fortune is like killing his parents, this is the greatest hatred in history.

As a result, the official documents and statements sent to the governor's office not only became more and more violent, but also followed by "swearing posts".

It's not that only later generations forums have scolding posts.In ancient times, it was common for officials in the field and gentry to post posts and write letters criticizing the princes of the dynasty.The so-called court struggles and party struggles are carried out through posts, memorials, and articles.The opposition bigwigs of the Donglin Party will feel uncomfortable if they don't post a few posts and scold their political opponents.

This time Wang Zunde was not only scolded face to face by some retired officials in Guangzhou city, but he also got definite news: these people have already started to impeach him for the crime of "sit on the corpse and watch the remnants of the giant canal".

What should the leader do if a group of veteran cadres come to your door to scold you, and then encounter the veteran cadres jointly writing a letter to the central government?The leader is also very helpless... In fact, Wang Zunde can do nothing but appease.

Now is the seventeenth century, the proportion of literati is very small, and the power of the field scholar-bureaucrats is much greater than that of retired veteran cadres in later generations.These people can pass the papers of impeachment of Wang Zunde to Chongzhen's desk in minutes through the relationship between old students, in-laws, the same party, the same year... and so on. Political opponents left a handle.

Wang Zunde knew that it would be impossible not to respond.Looking at the official documents with more and more violent words, you can know that if this continues, the first thing I will lose is the support of lower-level officials-the decree will soon be unable to get out of the Governor's Mansion.

Followed by the emperor's family.

Before this, it was considered as an emotional dispute between my family and Xiong Wencan. However, when things have developed into the current bad situation, if I continue to be stubborn, Chongzhen's good sense of himself will soon be changed by the impeachment papers-after all, Fujian is very good. The situation is there, and Chongzhen is not blind.

Therefore, Comrade Wang Zunde had to be under the strong public opinion created by the Guangdong officials and gentry, at the end of June 1629, he held a "special military meeting to combat Liu Xiang's bandits" in the Zhaoqing Governor's Mansion where the Governor of Guangdong and Guangxi was stationed.

……

The level of this meeting is relatively high.

In addition to Wang Zunde, the governor and governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, the participants included Lu Wenli, the left governor of Guangdong, Wang Daoyuan, the right governor, and Zhang Bingwen, the inspector; there were also a group of senior generals from the commander in chief He Rubin... Civil and military leaders were wiped out.

Sitting in the lobby of the governor's yamen, He Rubin, the commander-in-chief with a clean face, elegant appearance and three black beards, is sitting on the official hat chair without squinting, listening attentively to the conversation among the civil servants in the hall. answer.

He Rubin, who has written military works such as "Bing Lu" in history, is undoubtedly a Confucian general.Confucian generals are naturally smart: He Zongbing, who is well versed in the rules of the officialdom, is just like the military officers sitting below him at this moment, keeping silent and playing the role of a good listener with his heart.

In fact, if he really wanted to talk about major military affairs, Wang Zunde would never call so many people at once.First discuss with the staff in secret, and then discuss with the relevant people one by one. This is the formal procedure for discussing major issues.

And this so-called "enlarged military and political meeting", the convener usually has two purposes: one is to assign responsibilities, such as raising taxes in the whole province; the other is to throw the blame, such as a sudden change in policy.

So today's so-called meeting, in front of officials of He Rubin's level, has long since had no secrets at all - to put it bluntly, this is a "meeting to save face".Old Comrade Wang Zunde had to succumb under heavy pressure, and was forced to admit that the old Xiong's appeasement policy won the final victory, so the old man was upset and wanted to call everyone to lay the steps for him.

What a warrior can understand, how can a few literati not understand?It's just that these people have also been given a splitting headache by Liu Xiang recently. Now that Lao Wang is finally planning to change course, everyone is relieved.As for helping Pharaoh pave the steps... This is too simple, literati, who doesn't want to save face?Hooray for understanding.

So in the lobby of the Governor's Mansion, several civil servants started singing as soon as they came up:

"Now that Liu Xiang is so powerful, it is actually difficult to control the land in one province. In my opinion, the army might as well write about Fujian and Zhejiang. It is a good idea to invite the two Fujuns to discuss this matter."

"Now the treasury of the vassal is empty. If the army wants to raise troops to suppress the bandits, the vassal may not be able to do it."

"Then Liu Xiang was actually driven here by the Xiong Fujun from Fujian. According to this officer, he, the Xiong Fujun, cannot get away with it. He might not have sent some soldiers over here. It is justified to surrender the bandits together."

... Several civil servants talked to each other, unknowingly, all the steps were paved, and the responsibility was also passed on to Xiong Wencan, who had not completely suppressed the bandits. Now we are waiting for Wang Zhijun to nod. Today's matter Even if they are all alive.

However, Wang Zhijun still had to struggle for a while.After listening to the opinions of all the senior officials, he stared at Confucian general He with wide eyes: "He Zongzhen, what about Liu Xiang, as the commander-in-chief, do you have a plan to suppress the bandits?"

He Rubin didn't expect that there would be extra drama, but fortunately he was also experienced in many battles, so he replied immediately after being clever: "Marshal, it's not because our army is incompetent, but because Liu Xiang is too cunning and never confronts the officers and soldiers directly." The enemy...if the Xiongfu army in Fujian can send some fast boats to help suppress it...probably...it would be good too."

"Come on! Come on!" Hearing this, Governor Wang shook his sleeves deeply, got up and left: "Since you all agree, I agree with you."

……

With Wang Zunde's sigh, the battle between Fujian and Guangdong to suppress bandits, which lasted for many years, finally came to an end and opened a new chapter.

Not long after this meeting, an official document issued in the name of He Rubin, the commander-in-chief guarding Guangdong, requesting a joint suppression of bandits, quietly came to the Yamen of the Fujian Commander-in-Chief.

However, the new Fujian General Soldier recently was a fierce man.This person's name is Xie Hongyi, and he was the champion of martial arts in the Wanli period.Xie Hongyi once served as the commander-in-chief of Fujian during the Tianqi period, and participated in organizing the battle of Penghu in the Ming Dynasty to drive out the Dutch with the governor Nan Juyi. It was actually Xie Hongyi.

After that, Xie Hongyi was dismissed from office because of party disputes and went home for a while.At this time, another attribute of him broke out: this gentleman is not only the champion of martial arts, the general soldier, but also a famous dramatist in the late Ming Dynasty, the author of the Kunqu opera "Butterfly Dream"... He is really capable of writing and martial arts.

When Writer Xie saw the official document from Guangdong, he was still a little confused when he just took office, so he honestly transferred the official document to the governor's office.

Then when Old Xiong saw this official document, he couldn't help laughing out loud.He saw through the tricks of the Guangdong officialdom at a glance: Wang Zunde, an old man, has given in!Well, come here, quickly invite General Cao to come to the house to discuss matters.

"Here!"

Chapter 377

After figuring out the background of the official document, Xiong Wencan immediately summoned Cao Chuan to the governor's office, and then he almost couldn't wait to express his views on the matter.

Yes, I just can’t wait——Cao Chuan asked “I don’t know if the general should go or not.” Xiong Wencan didn’t delay, didn’t make decisions, and didn’t analyze the situation. Instead, he set the tone: “The general still has to work hard. Better."