Yongli Ming Dynasty

Chapter 1 Crossing
In late autumn, the sky is high and the clouds are light. The hot weather in the south since the beginning of summer has finally cooled down a bit.

In the backyard of the palace, the sweet-scented osmanthus trees are in full bloom, with a faint fragrance floating in the air

In the open space in the backyard, a young man wearing a round-necked, narrow-sleeved python robe was doing push-ups with his hands on the ground, one high and one low.

"Twenty-seven, twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty..."

The young man was panting, his forehead was covered with sweat. He wanted to hold on, but after bending his arms, his waist couldn't help but collapse, like a bent shrimp.
The young man shook his head and had to get up and rest.

Not far away, two palace maids in lake green long skirts and beautiful faces were standing by. When they saw the young man standing up, they were about to step forward to serve him, but the young man waved them away, so they could only retreat back to their original position in disappointment.

The young man took the towel that had been prepared by the stone table, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and sat down to rest.
At this time, the autumn scenery is just right. The breeze blows, and the sweet-scented osmanthus trees sway. In the small lake not far away, there are rockeries and strange rocks, and the lake water is turquoise.

The young man looked at the sparkling lake with a confused look in his eyes.
Half a month ago, Zhu Lang was traveling in Yunnan. He originally planned to go to Cangshan Mountain and Erhai Lake to cleanse his soul, but when he arrived, he found that the local prices were extremely high, so he simply turned to Kunming, prepared to have a big meal, and then went home.

After having a good meal and a few drinks, Zhu Lang wandered around the streets of Kunming and accidentally saw a monument to Emperor Yongli standing on the street.
Other people's inscriptions either eulogize their great achievements or record how many good deeds they have done by building bridges and paving roads. However, this one is good. It commemorates that an old emperor was beheaded here.
Zhu Lang was intrigued, and when he returned to the hotel, he started flipping through the history of the Southern Ming Dynasty. However, the more he read, the angrier he got, and his blood pressure rose. Finally, he got so angry that he threw down the book and went out to relax.
Zhu Lang was eating barbecue and singing in the small park next to the hotel. He accidentally fell into the lake. When he opened his eyes, he found that he had traveled through hundreds of years and became a vassal king of the Ming Dynasty.
It stands to reason that when other people travel through time, some start out with nothing, some become refugees, so it's already quite nice of him to be a prince.
Although the princes of the Ming Dynasty were not allowed to leave their fiefdoms without imperial decree and could not exercise military power, they were well treated.

He holds tens of thousands of acres of royal land, does not need to pay taxes, and has a high status.

Zhu Lang doesn't have to do anything like robbing women. He can just spend his days raising chickens and walking dogs, eating delicious food and drinking spicy drinks. That kind of life is so beautiful that I dare not even think about it.
But unfortunately, the prince he traveled through was named Gui, with the surname Zhu, the name Youlang, the grandson of Emperor Shenzong of the Ming Dynasty, and the name Zhaozong.

It was the Yongli Emperor who had his head chopped off!
"This emperor is not worthy of being called"

Zhu Lang, or now Zhu Youlang, clenched his fists, his face full of determination.

If the records of the previous life are correct, it won't be long before Zhu Youlang ascends the throne and begins an extremely tragic career as an emperor.
Less than a month after ascending the throne in Zhaoqing, Guangdong Province, the Qing army invaded Guangdong Province, and then he lived in exile for a long time.

He first fled to Wuzhou, but within two days the Qing army invaded Guangxi Province, so he fled to Guilin. When he arrived in Guilin, the Qing army followed closely, so he fled again and ran to Nanning.
Then he was lured to Hunan by a small military leader named Liu Chengyin. The great emperor of the Ming Dynasty was actually controlled by a small warlord who only controlled one prefecture.
From then on, Zhu Youlang began a career of being manipulated by various warlords.

From east to west, from west to east, he kept on fleeing, and was constantly controlled by various warlords. It was not until Sun Kewang of the Dashi Army took him to Guizhou that he was able to enjoy peace for a few years.

But the good times did not last long. With the internal strife of the Dashi Army, Yunnan, the last fulcrum of the Ming Dynasty, collapsed. The great Ming emperor was forced to flee to the small country of Burma, where he was lured and captured by the Burmese monarch and ministers, and all the ministers were killed.
Finally, he was sent to the Qing Dynasty by Burma and killed by Wu Sangui in Kunming. This was Zhu Youlang's wonderful life after he ascended the throne.
How can he be called an emperor? With Zhu Youlang's experience, he could win the Running Man competition. Maybe he could even get the nickname Zhu Paopao.

"This emperor is not worthy of being called"

Zhu Lang looked grim, clenched his fists, and said fiercely again

If you want to change your miserable fate in the future, the first step is to never become a regent emperor.

It is now 1646. In 1644, Chongzhen died at Coal Hill. In 1645, Emperor Hongguang was captured. In 1646, two months ago in August, Emperor Longwu was killed in Tingzhou. In just three years, three emperors died.
This is not even being an emperor, it's simply a death warrant

The Qing army is now sweeping across the country. Whoever becomes emperor will be the target of the Qing army. It is basically like shouting in front of the battle line, "Who dares to kill me?"

Whoever wants to be the emperor can be the emperor, but Zhu Lang will never be the emperor. Thinking of the various actions of the Southern Ming emperors and ministers in the book, Zhu Lang became more determined.

He had already planned it out. As long as he did not become the emperor, he would not become the primary target of the Qing army's attack. Now was a time of great chaos, and the old system that princes could not command the army no longer existed.
With the knowledge and technology he brought to later generations, he first made a few small inventions, such as soap, glass, and perfume. Then, relying on his status as a vassal king, he bribed officials from top to bottom, monopolized and dumped products in the areas controlled by the Southern Ming court, and even smuggled them to the Qing Dynasty!
The Ming gentry, seeing their country destroyed and their families ruined, were still desperately fighting for power and annexing land. Emperor Chongzhen asked the ministers and nobles in the capital to donate some silver to recruit soldiers to defend the city, but the officials in the court cried poor, and in the end they only raised a few tens of thousands of taels of silver.

After Li Zicheng broke into the city, the Ming ministers who were happy to welcome the imperial army were tortured by Li Zicheng and extorted millions of taels of silver. After Li Zicheng was defeated, the Qing army entered the pass, and the good days of the gentry finally came.
You said you were the Shangshu of the Ming Dynasty. So, you want to use the official position of the previous dynasty to block the knife of the Qing Dynasty?

Countless gentry and landlords were confiscated and exterminated by the Qing army, and most of China's wealth was plundered by the Qing government.

Zhu Lang couldn't bear to see the silver of the Ming Dynasty suffer, so he would raise the price five times, no, ten times, to earn back the silver of the Ming Dynasty.

After making the first pot of gold, he let the Ming Dynasty take the lead while he secretly recruited several thousand soldiers. What if the emperor found out about the recruitment?

I have money and power, thousands of elite soldiers and firearms, the emperor, who is the emperor, go to that table like a child

Of course, the Southern Ming Dynasty was not able to stop the Qing army with its moral character, but it didn't matter. He had already found a way out. He would not go to Taiwan, which was Zheng Chenggong's anti-Qing base.

He is just a small person who has received the nine nine six blessings. Although he can't overthrow the Qing Dynasty, if someone insists on doing so, he must help the situation.

In addition to this reason, Zhu Lang did not choose Taiwan, and there are two other small concerns
First, Taiwan is too close to the mainland and could face the Qing Dynasty's military at any time.

The second reason is that Zheng Chenggong's fleet had too many people. According to statistics from the past, the Zheng family had 200,000 soldiers at its peak.
Of course, the main reason was that Zhu Lang could not bear to attack these anti-Qing and restoration-Ming heroes. The number of 200,000 or 200,000 soldiers was a secondary factor.
Taiwan is not an option, and the mainland is losing its defense. Where is Zhu Lang going? He is going to Vietnam. This is not Zhu Lang's brainstorm. In his previous life, when he was reading daily trivia, he accidentally discovered that Saigon, Vietnam, was actually built by the Chinese.
Moreover, it was the Southern Ming survivors who failed in their fight against the Qing Dynasty who founded Saigon. Since the remnant of the Southern Ming army could gain a foothold in Vietnam and build a city, there was no reason why he, the vassal king of the Ming Dynasty who had been planning for a long time, could not do the same.

Once they have established a firm foothold in Vietnam, with the craftsmen, firearms and armies they have gathered on the mainland, they may even be able to wipe out the backward and corrupt feudal dynasties there and establish another Ming dynasty in the south.

Since these Vietnamese people are always shouting about Little China, Zhu Lang simply lets them feel what the orthodox Chinese culture is, which can be regarded as fulfilling their wishes.
By then, he would control Vietnam and unite with the Zheng-style fleet on Taiwan Island. The entire Nanyang would be his, and Han Chinese clothing and customs could be re-established in Nanyang.
The more Zhu Lang thought about it, the more he felt it was feasible, and his face became excited.

"Luckily I came here in September. If it was a month later, I might have been tricked by those insects into taking the throne and started my life in exile," Zhu Lang breathed a sigh of relief.
"I have asked Queen Dowager Wang to speak up for me. Those people in the previous dynasty probably already know that I don't want to be regent, so this matter shouldn't be a big problem."

Zhu Lang's expression became relaxed when he thought of this. He did not think this matter would be that difficult.

This world lacks everything except people who want to be emperor. If Zhu Lang doesn't want to be emperor, there are plenty of people vying to be emperor.
There are millions of Ming imperial family members. If you are willing to look for them, you can find not only ten but even a hundred.

To Zhu Lang, the Southern Ming Dynasty was about to fall, but to the world, the Ming Dynasty in their eyes still held Yunnan, Guizhou, Huguang, Guangdong, Guangxi, half of Jiangxi and half of Fujian, a total of seven provinces.
The Ming Dynasty still controls half of the country. As long as we hold on firmly, there will be a way.
Under this understanding, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, who owned seven provinces, would be a popular choice, and there was no need to worry about not being able to choose an emperor.
Even if the entire Ming imperial family was frightened by the Qing court, not to mention the distant past, there was still a Lu Regent in Zhejiang. Zhu Lang thought it would be a good idea for him to be the emperor.

Thinking of this, Zhu Lang felt more cheerful. There was clearly an emperor who was the regent, but a group of old men were still thinking of appointing another regent. These old men were really bad.
Want to split up the Ming Dynasty royal family, he was the first to disagree
As long as Lu Jianguo, who was on the edge of Zhejiang, could buy him two years, he would be confident that he could use his status as a vassal king to pull out a team of several thousand people in the rear.
If the situation turns out to be wrong, he can gather a group of craftsmen and firearms, set sail directly, and rebuild the Ming Dynasty.

The more Zhu Lang thought about it, the more pleased he became, and the more satisfied he became with his plan.
Just as he was still imagining whether to counterattack the Qing Dynasty or develop Australia and Song after dominating Nanyang, the sound of footsteps interrupted his thoughts.
Zhu Lang looked outside the garden with dissatisfaction, and saw a dozen eunuchs happily walking in from the courtyard gate.

When the eunuchs came close, they stopped and automatically formed two rows. The young eunuch in the lead came forward with a look of joy on his face.

"My Lord, great joy, great joy!"

The eunuch bowed respectfully and shouted joyfully:

"Eunuch Wang Kun from the front yard has sent me here to report that the leaders of the previous dynasty have arrived outside the palace, and are asking His Majesty to take the throne as regent," the young eunuch said with a delighted look on his face.
"What did you say?"

Zhu Lang looked surprised and asked subconsciously

"I mean, the elders of the previous dynasty came to the palace to submit a petition to persuade the prince to take the position of regent."

Seeing that his prince was so happy that he couldn't speak, the young eunuch said it again:

"No, I said I don't want to be the regent"

Zhu Lang was shocked and angry. He suddenly stood up from the stone table and shouted at the eunuch fiercely:
"I understand."

The young eunuch's expression remained unchanged, with a look of understanding on his face, and the corners of his mouth slightly raised, revealing an evil smile.

How can you be the emperor just because you are asked to be the emperor? Do you still want to be decent? You have refused three times. How will people in the world see you?

"The King of Gui's oral order was passed on, but His Highness refused to accept it."

"His Royal Highness King Gui will not accept your stubborn words"

The two rows of eunuchs outside the courtyard gate also shouted loudly at this time. The loud voices echoed throughout the courtyard, and there was a faint commotion in the front yard.

The young eunuch looked at His Royal Highness Prince Gui, who looked expressionless, and could not help but admire him.
As expected of a royal descendant, look at his bearing and self-restraint, just like what is described in the book. Even when he knew he was going to be the emperor, he was still so calm.

What do you call this? This is called not changing your color when Mount Tai collapses in front of you.
"I have to go back to the front yard to report. I will take my leave now."

The young eunuch left a memorial on the stone table, and then led the eunuchs out of the courtyard.
"I understand, you understand nothing"

Only then did Zhu Lang come to his senses from his shock and started cursing.
"What went wrong? After the Concubine Dowager met with the ministers, no one has come to him to mention the regent recently. What went wrong?"

Zhu Lang looked confused. He was furious and kept searching for the cause of the sudden change. At the same time, the monument to the martyrdom of Emperor Yongli flashed through his mind. His face was filled with fear.

I have started a new book. I am new to history. Please support me.

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(End of this chapter)