Prince Chongzhen

Chapter 297 Confused
"What do you think of Zheng Sen?"

When this statement spread in the warm room, not only Ma, Yuan, and Zhu were shocked, but even Qian Qianyi, the teacher who chose his name, looked at Zhu Cilang with a puzzled look on his face: "Your Majesty, do you want to use this opportunity to appease the Zheng family?"

First, I took away my military power to prevent you from becoming too powerful, and then I entrusted my son with an important task to show that the court would allow your family to become rich and powerful.

Shenzong had already used such a method.

At that time, Li Chengliang had been in charge of Liaodong for decades. Although he was not a separatist regime, he was still deeply rooted.

As a result, Shenzong took advantage of the impeachment of the censors to deprive him of his military power, and later replaced him with his eldest son Li Rusong.

Coincidentally, between this period of time, Japan sent troops to Korea, just like the Dutch raid on Guangzhou.

With such past events, it is understandable that Qian Qianyi would have such doubts.

just
"If you want to appease the Zheng family, you can reward them with titles and salaries, but you absolutely cannot order them to lead the army."

It was not known whether Qian Qianyi was anxious or for some other reason, but after asking the first question, he did not wait for the emperor to answer before asking another question.

He understood clearly that when Emperor Shenzong allowed Li Rusong to succeed his father, he had the intention of appeasing this group of people. But it was undeniable that Li Rusong was already over 40 years old at that time. Not only had he experienced training in various towns in the nine borders, but he had also made considerable military achievements in several major battles.

Appointing Li Rusong as the successor under such circumstances, even if there were considerations of court struggle, his ability had actually reached the point where he could resolve the hidden dangers in Liaodong without bloodshed, creating a good story between the monarch and his ministers.

But what about Zheng Sen?
He had been studying the eight-legged essay since he was brought back from Japan, and he might have even forgotten what a warship captain looked like.

In such a situation, His Majesty still ordered him to lead the troops to meet the enemy. How could Qian Qianyi not be anxious?
"Oh? Isn't Zheng Sen a student of Mr. Qian? How..."

"Your Majesty, Zheng Sen is indeed smart, but he has not been tempered after all. He is not like Li Zhonglie during the reign of Emperor Shenzong. If the war goes wrong and his family is affected, it will be fine. I am afraid that the situation in the southeast will be ruined because of it. By then..."

Having said this, Qian Qianyi stopped talking and just looked at His Majesty with hopeful eyes. It was obvious that the appointment of Zheng Sen had made him a little flustered.

Why?

The emphasis in his sentence was not on "the situation in the southeast was deteriorating because of it", but on the words "affecting his family".

The reason is not difficult to understand. People can't help but worry about being affected.

Zhu Cilang could roughly guess about Qian Qianyi's concerns, but when he was thinking about what reason to use to dispel his doubts, Zhu Datian said something straightforward.

"Your Majesty, although Zheng Sen is young, his uncles are all experienced generals. With their assistance, the Dutch will surely return home in defeat."

He said this not to upset Qian Qianyi, but because he really thought this method was quite appropriate.

To put it bluntly, there are only a few people in the entire Ming Dynasty who are capable of commanding the navy. Even after removing those who are used to wandering around inland rivers, the only ones who can lead ships to fight are the Zheng brothers.

Previously, he had excluded the Zheng family from consideration for various reasons. But now, during the conversation between His Majesty and Qian Qianyi, he suddenly realized that letting Zheng Sen be included in the list was actually a far better method than any other.

As a result, the Minister of War, who was reluctant to let the court struggles affect his own power and responsibilities, would naturally be the first to speak out.

"Your Majesty, the Ministry of War's words are reasonable, but the Guangzhou incident cannot be resolved by a naval battle alone. Moreover, Gannan should have dispatched troops to rescue. With Zheng Sen's prestige in the army, it will be difficult to get those generals who have just won a great victory to obey his orders."

"How difficult is this? Your Majesty only needs to issue an imperial decree to let Zheng Sen lead the naval forces. Is there anyone who dares to disobey the imperial decree?"

Zhu Datian spoke with full confidence, as if he had forgotten that the towns had previously ignored the orders of the central government.

It's not that he is overconfident. After all, the current Majesty is not only different from the previous Hongguang, but even if he was several generations ago, he would also be an extremely special existence.

After all, among so many emperors of the Ming Dynasty, how many of them personally led troops into battle?
Don't be fooled by the fact that this Majesty looks weak and like a scholar who is powerless.

But since he started the uprising, he not only commanded the Ming army to win one victory after another, but he also personally went into battle several times, leaving an indelible impression on the hearts of the Ming troops participating in the war.

At first, the officials in the court only knew that Your Majesty had great prestige in the army, but they did not know what this prestige represented.

But a while ago, after Wu Zhikui, several captains of the Jinyiwei were able to eliminate possible military chaos with just an imperial edict and a few words.

At this point, everyone realized that Wu Zhikui's half-life management could not defeat His Majesty's order, and they also realized how high His Majesty's prestige in the army was.

With the endorsement of such a powerful person, Zhu Datian naturally dared to say "Who dares to disobey the imperial edict?" What's more, the army in southern Jiangxi had fought hard battles beside His Majesty, and the binding force of the imperial edict on them was even greater than that on Wu Zhikui's troops.

Under such circumstances, how could he worry that the reinforcements from southern Jiangxi would not obey Zheng Sen's orders?

"My lord, I second the proposal."

"My lord, I second the proposal."

Having said this, Qian Qianyi couldn't help but murmur in his heart: It seems that this student of his is really a more suitable person to lead the troops than He Tengjiao and Qu Shisi.

Afterwards, he did not hesitate. Seeing that everyone present thought this method was feasible, he agreed.

"Your Majesty, now that this matter has been decided, we will go and draft the decree."

Normally, now that the commander of the troops had been decided, the ministers should go back to discuss the details. But who would have thought that just as he was about to lead the others to leave, he heard His Majesty say something that sounded somewhat doubtful.

"The Tartars' plan has not yet been figured out."

Before he finished speaking, everyone was stunned.

Plot?

Naturally, they had noticed the recent large-scale mobilization of troops and supplies in Jiangnan, and wanted to use this method to lure the Dutch into the game, so that the Ming Dynasty could not concentrate all its energy on conquering Jiangxi.

These are all obvious things, why do we need to discuss them specifically?
Zhu Cilang saw the expressions on everyone's faces. Although he felt helpless and disappointed about the performance of his ministers, the situation was like this and he could only organize his words in his mind.

Although these people are still needed, they may seem like the tallest among the short ones.

After all, among these people, except Ma Shiying who was still in power during the Chongzhen period, the rest were all losers in the political struggle.

Of course, this does not mean that there is a big gap between their ability to do things and those winners. It is just that when they suddenly reach a high position, it is inevitable that mistakes will occur because the way of thinking cannot be changed immediately.

This often leads to problems of one kind or another.

Just like Ma Shiying and Shi Kefa, who had just crossed the river to the south, one of them was just a local governor, and the other simply retired in Yingtian. Their resumes determined that they had no grasp of the overall situation, which led to the fact that the Qing court was sharpening its knives and they were planning to negotiate with it.

Zhu Cilang had a clear understanding of this point thanks to the massive amount of information from later generations.

It was precisely because of this that he brought Ma Shiying into the cabinet when everyone thought that Ma Shiying's official career was over.

"There are many ways the Tartars could use to delay us. Why did they choose this and not the others?"

this.
As soon as the words fell, the confusion on the faces of the four old ministers immediately turned into contemplation.

Indeed, since the Tatars have already noticed the movements here, they can achieve the desired effect whether they launch a feint attack somewhere or strengthen their defenses in advance.

But now they have gone to great lengths to choose to bring the Dutch into the game. No matter how you think about it, they should have had some other plans.

just
"I am a dull person, and I hope Your Majesty can give me some advice."

Everything that needed to be said had been said before. Whether it was to put the Ming Dynasty in a situation of fighting on the opposite side, or simply to delay the pace of attacking Jiangxi, these were all that the people present could think of.

Now that Your Majesty has posed the question in a different way, what else can anyone say except asking Your Majesty for advice?
"You may as well go back and think about it slowly, and try to think it through as thoroughly as possible."

As he spoke, Zhu Cilang sat back in his seat. When several cabinet ministers saw that His Majesty had thrown out a "homework", they knew that it was impossible to get the answer here, so they left the Qianqing Palace with full of questions.

Zhu Cilang didn't mean to keep people in suspense. The key point was that he just felt something was wrong, but he never thought about where the key point would be.

If he were in other people's shoes, his reaction would actually be no different from that of the cabinet ministers.

It's not that he is suspicious, or has any ability to predict good and bad fortune.

The pressure brought to him by the name Hong Chengchou was really too much.

Don't underestimate this man because he is a traitor, his abilities are the best among the ministers in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties.

During that period, the peasant army had already grown in strength, but the leaders of various factions repeatedly fled on their own under his attacks.

Later, when he was ordered to lift the siege of Jinzhou, if there had not been obstacles in the court and the country, and the troops he led were not of sufficient use, with only more than 100,000 troops and a year's worth of food and fodder, it is unknown how far the battle would have gone.

"comprehensive."

At this time, several cabinet ministers had already left, and only Zhu Cilang and Zhou Quan, who was almost always by his side, were left in the warm room of the Qianqing Palace. When Zhou Quan thought that the emperor would review the memorials again, he heard his own name.

"His Majesty."

"Write a letter to Zheng Sen."

After the words fell, Zhou Quan pretended to listen attentively, but after a long time, His Majesty still didn't speak. He couldn't help but murmur in his heart: I guess the death of General Xu II was too much of a blow to His Majesty.

The death of Xu Renjue did make Zhu Cilang sad, but there is always death in war. Even when he was defending Yingtian, he didn't think he would survive.

The reason why he didn't speak yet was that he was hesitating whether he should write the letter.

Zheng Chenggong's name is well-known in later generations, but Zhu Cilang knew that this King of the Country did not win many battles in the early days of his reign.

Of course, this was definitely due to the fact that his troops were not good at land warfare and that he had just started military affairs. However, his performance in the siege of Yingtian more than ten years later really demonstrated his talent in military affairs.
However, this alone was not enough to make Zhu Cilang think of writing a letter in private. The key point was that the enemy of the Ming Dynasty this time was the Dutch, and when facing such an enemy, the Zheng family's advantage would completely turn into a disadvantage.

If this Koxinga, who had not yet evolved into his full form, and the Zheng family generals had continued to fight head-on, the situation in the southeast might have really been completely ruined because the Dutch could see through the strengths and weaknesses of the Ming Dynasty.

just
"Forget it, I won't write it anymore. Tell someone to tell Marquis Annan that Zheng Sen is going to lead his troops to fight."

"Yes."

After hesitating for a while, Zhu Cilang finally gave up the idea of ​​directly interfering with the general's command.

It was not that he suddenly had confidence in Zheng Sen. On the one hand, the principal's micro-manipulation was too taboo for him, and on the other hand, he thought of Zheng Zhilong who was still in Yingtian.

Even though he had some resentment towards himself as the emperor for suddenly having his military power taken away from him, this was after all the first time his son led troops into battle.

If he really didn't warn them because of this, these people would probably have no choice but to die of illness.

Such a possibility

"Your Majesty, Minister of Works Li Yongmao requests an audience."

"pass."

Although he was the one who sent someone to call Li Yongmao, Zhu Cilang still felt a headache after hearing this voice.

The job of emperor seems glamorous on the surface, but if you really want to do it properly, you will still be very busy. What he didn't expect was that Li Yongmao had the same feeling in his heart.

In fact, he had not been away from the palace for a long time. At most, he had just enough time to reach the "factory" that was being built in the outer city.

But who would have thought that when the general just arrived there, Li Yongmao only had time to say a few words to a few managers before another eunuch hurriedly chased after him. Only then did he know that such a big event had happened in the south.

But he still didn't quite understand. If they wanted to discuss such military affairs, they would probably only need the ministers and the Ministry of War, plus at most the Ministry of Revenue. The emperor hurriedly called him, the Minister of Works, over, but he didn't know what the connection was.

"Li Qing, I think you already know about what happened in Guangzhou."

When Zhu Cilang saw Li Yongmao entering the warm room, he asked directly without waiting for him to greet.

"I understand. The Tartars are so cruel and crazy that they colluded with the Westerners to harm our general. This is unacceptable to heaven and earth."

Li Yongmao sounded heartbroken when he spoke, but Zhu Cilang did not call him back for this purpose.

Earlier, he had thought of sorting out all the basic things first and then putting the updating of firearms on the agenda, but now the Dutch have come to his doorstep, so how could he have the chance to act calmly?
Therefore, he planned to put more pressure on Li Yongmao and arm an army equipped entirely with flintlock rifles as soon as possible.

"As far as I know, the former Minister of War, Bi Maokang, was quite knowledgeable about firearms. Although he has passed away, he left behind many works," Zhu Cilang paused for a moment, and after half a breath, he continued, "Ask someone to find him. I want to build a workshop specializing in making firearms."

(End of this chapter)