Prince Chongzhen

Chapter 441 Both the fish and the bear’s paw want it

"The Emperor

The edict said:

I have inherited the mandate of heaven and succeeded the Ming Dynasty. I have inherited the teachings of my ancestors, and I have been concerned about the troubles of the world. I have worked hard to govern the country, and I have been working hard day and night, with the goal of restoring the prosperity of China and preserving the legacy of my ancestors. Fortunately, thanks to the spirits of my ancestors, the soldiers have obeyed my orders, and I have personally led six divisions to recover several provinces. Although the territory is now half lost, the people's hearts have been gathered, and the morale is high. It is just a matter of time before we can drive out the Tartars.

However, the prosperity of a country is not only based on military achievements. The Queen of the Inner Palace is the mother of the world. Her virtue and talent are related to the rise and fall of the imperial family and the peace of the country. Therefore, I have opened up a wide range of talents among my ministers and sought ladies, hoping to find virtuous people to work together with me on national affairs, so as to stabilize the country and resist foreign aggression, and revive the foundation of the Ming Dynasty.

Today, there is the Duke of Wei's mansion, which has been blessed by the emperor for generations and has made outstanding achievements. Its legitimate daughter Shao Yue is both talented and virtuous, gentle and virtuous, and a good wife. She is indeed a good match for me. When I heard her name, I was very pleased with her, so I sent an envoy to ask for her name. The Duke's mansion also regarded state affairs as important and agreed generously.

It is decided that on a certain day of a certain month in the first year of Jingwu, the wedding ceremony will be held in Yingtian, the secondary capital, with Xu Shaoyue as the queen, and they will tie the knot and rule the world together. The preparations for the wedding should be solemn and simple, with consideration for the people's strength, in accordance with the way of heaven and earth, and in line with the will of the people. The Ministry of Rites and the Imperial Observatory should do their best and live up to my expectations.

My subjects should celebrate this grand ceremony together and pray for the prosperity of our country and a long imperial reign.

Announce this to the whole world, let everyone know. This is my order! "

After reading aloud the hastily drafted imperial edict in one breath, Qian Qianyi looked towards the warm room with a little trepidation.

According to his original idea, His Majesty should ask the Ryukyu envoy what his intentions were after meeting the Queen Mother. However, who would have thought that as soon as His Majesty entered the palace, he asked the Cabinet to draft the imperial edict for the wedding, and stayed with Queen Mother Zou for half an hour before coming to check the progress of the task.

If others thought about it, drafting an imperial edict would be a piece of cake.

However, this imperial edict was drafted for His Majesty's wedding. They spent nearly a quarter of an hour looking through the materials from the Ministry of Rites, and only a small half of that time was spent on drafting the document.

"Okay, that's about it. Let's send it out once the Imperial Astronomical Observatory sets an auspicious date," Zhu Cilang said, sitting down in his old seat. After adjusting his posture, he continued, "Just one or two months. Don't delay it for too long."

"Your Majesty, aren't you in too much of a hurry?"

As soon as Zhu Cilang finished speaking, the three elders were stunned for a moment.

An ordinary wedding requires more than half a year of preparation. If auspicious dates are taken into account, it is not impossible that a year will pass from the time the matter is decided to the wedding day.

What's more, it seemed a bit hasty to send Liu Zongzhou, who opposed the marriage, to Zhejiang.

It would be better to wait for a while and then talk about the wedding after things are settled. It would be more appropriate.

This is of course the truth, but Zhu Cilang still has his own plans. As soon as Qian Qianyi finished speaking, he waved his hand and then began to speak lazily.

"We can't delay. Lianghuai has not been recaptured yet. If the Tartars come to their senses, it will be troublesome."

He thought clearly that the victory in Jiangnan and Ganzhou was due to the advantage of the navy, while the recapture of Sichuan and Hanzhong was a benefit for the fisherman.

After suffering so many losses, even a fool would have changed his mind. What's more, the Dorgon brothers were all outstanding men of their time. They would not just sit there and wait for death while the Ming Dynasty relied on weapons.

Therefore, in his plan, he just avoided the farming season in these few months, and after the Tartars dispatched troops to Lianghuai, he would take advantage of the opportunity when their deployment was not yet complete to attack again.

After all, the technical threshold for firearms and warships at that time was not very high, and there were even more craftsmen in the North than in the South.

Once they realized that there was no hope of defeating the Ming Dynasty without the help of powerful weapons, it was reasonable for the Dorgon brothers to make some changes.

This was not Zhu Cilang's fantasy.

When Huang Taiji was still alive, the Later Jin Dynasty spent a lot of effort on its firearms forces. Not to mention how many they built themselves, they also purchased a large number of muskets and cannons from Westerners.

However, it became difficult to find a rival enemy later on, and the Han army composed of Wuzhen Chaoha was gradually marginalized by Dorgon, and the progress of the war's firearms was naturally interrupted.

In contrast, nowadays, the Ming Dynasty has repeatedly won victories by relying on its superior weapons, and has severely damaged the Eight Banners of Manchuria.

If Zhu Cilang still thinks that the enemy will maintain their original behavior, then he is underestimating the heroes of the world.

just
"Your Majesty, do you want to use troops?"

"Well, since we have not recovered the lost territory, we must continue to use military force."

Faced with Zhu Cilang's obvious intention, Yuan and Ma just looked at each other and said nothing more. However, Qian Qianyi, the chief minister of the court, became a little uneasy.

Although the small Yingtian court had already controlled all the areas south of the Yangtze River at this time, Nanzhili, Hunan, Jiangxi and the three southwestern provinces had all been devastated by the war. Among the remaining Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian and Zhejiang, only Zhejiang was considered a traditional tax-paying area.

As a result, the imperial court has only collected more than 3 million in taxes and grain this year. Even if the spoils in Sichuan are included, there is still a big gap, let alone using troops again?
Zhu Cilang naturally knew these things, but he also knew that things are always developing and changing, and one cannot look at the powerful enemy in the north with the old perspective.

Moreover, he had no intention of restoring the Ming Dynasty only by relying on the money and grain dug out of the ground. When he saw the three ministers of the cabinet fell in dismay because of his confirmation, he continued to speak.

"You don't need to worry about the money and food. The war with the Dutch was not fought in vain. We can earn some money in a month or two. Besides, Mr. Liu will not return empty-handed after going to Zhejiang."

Zhu Cilang's words were calm, as if this was nothing unusual, but the atmosphere in the warm room became weird because of this sentence. Even Yuan Jixian, who had been extremely cautious since entering the cabinet, could not control his facial expression.

To ordinary people, His Majesty had suffered a great injustice, but they were not ordinary people. When Lu Shaochun came to report, they had already figured out the whole story.

Zhejiang only collected 1.2 million taels this year, which accounted for a small half of the court's revenue, but was still a big difference compared with the Chongzhen period.

It is obvious that this place is trying to get away with it, intending to save such a sum of money by taking advantage of the war surrounding it.

Everyone can see this clearly, but Zhejiang had repeatedly resisted taxes in the early years, and the Ming Dynasty was in urgent need of stability at this time, so several ministers discussed it and decided to just accept the matter and deal with it again next year.

But to their surprise, His Majesty actually did this and asked Liu Zongzhou to investigate the Liu family's hidden land properties.

I have to say this move is indeed vicious.

They were all important figures in public life, and they knew that Liu Zongzhou valued his reputation more than his life.

If he can investigate the case impartially and not miss any clues, His Majesty will probably give him some respect after completing this task. But if he dares to show any favoritism or corruption, he will not only have to bear the reputation of seeking fame and integrity, but also the crime of corruption and abuse of power.

By then, the reputation he had painstakingly accumulated for most of his life would probably have completely vanished.

"Your Majesty, Zhejiang" "I know what you mean," seeing that Ma Shiying had something to say, Zhu Cilang interrupted him directly, and then the warm room fell into silence. After three or two breaths, his voice was heard again: "The country is in crisis, and the people of the Ming Dynasty are doing their best, but Zhejiang wants to take advantage of this opportunity to get away with it. Do you think that my sword can cut the Tartars but not them?"

Zhu Cilang's words were full of murderous intent, which seemed to be a far cry from the earlier emperor who resolved conflicts within the rules.

But when these words fell, Qian and Yuan were not at all surprised by Zhu Cilang's murderous words. Instead, they glanced at Ma Shiying with complicated eyes and then returned to their calm state.

If ordinary people were to think from their perspective, Ma Shiying would have used the stability of the overall situation to persuade Zhu Cilang not to be too radical.

But everyone present was a discerning person, and everyone knew that this was an attempt to flatter Zhejiang.

Going back to the roots, Your Majesty is no longer the same as before after his return, and Zhejiang is acting recklessly relying on its status as an important source of money and grain. If Ma Shiying is going to miss such an opportunity, then his Hongguang reign will probably be slightly better.

In any case, Zhu Cilang had already made his attitude clear to the three cabinet ministers. Facing the emperor who had just returned in triumph, they would certainly not bring bad luck to themselves for the sake of their political enemies.

Afterwards, they exchanged a few more words and waited for His Majesty to summon the Ryukyu envoy. After the matter was settled, they would return. However, to their surprise, Jin Yingyuan was clearly waiting outside the palace, but His Majesty summoned the envoy of the King of Spain first.

"The French envoy Du Chen pays homage to His Majesty the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty."

The three people in the cabinet had no other thoughts about the Franky envoy, but Zhu Cilang felt like he was watching a spy drama.

Du Chen was both the customs agent appointed by him and the secretive Governor of Macau of Portugal. Now he had even become the Spanish envoy for marriage proposal. However, he didn't know which side he felt a stronger sense of belonging to.

"With the salary from these three companies, I'm afraid it won't be long before you can retire, right?"

"Your Majesty, you misunderstood!" As soon as Zhu Cilang finished speaking, Du Chen actually fell to the ground like a Ming official: "It is true that the King of Spain could not find a suitable candidate, so he came to me. It is absolutely not my intention to have any connection with foreign countries!"

The so-called money and silk move people's hearts.

Although he had only been appointed as the customs agent for three or four months, the power was too great.

Because of the Taiwan War, the Ming Dynasty's power in the South China Sea has tended to surpass that of the Dutch.

The most direct result of this is that merchant ships, no matter where they come from, will obey the arrangements of the Ming Customs, and he, as the customs agent, can also gain some insignificant benefits from it.

Of course, this benefit is definitely not achieved by manipulating tariffs. After all, Sterling has been watching closely. Coming from a commercial nation, he knows the difference between having one meal and having two meals.

"Okay, get up. I'm just curious. Isn't Portugal independent? Why did Philip come to you?"

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

At this time, Du Chen was like an ordinary minister of the Ming Dynasty. When he heard Zhu Cilang's voice, he bowed before standing up from the ground.

"Your Majesty, Europeans are different from the Ming. As long as there is no blood feud, we will still maintain contact even if we become independent. Of course, I have been influenced by the Ming and am different from those barbarians who do not know propriety, righteousness, integrity and shame. I have sworn to God that I will be a Ming person in life and a Ming ghost in death!"

"puff!"

This warm room was not very big, and a light laugh was heard immediately after Du Chen finished speaking. But when Zhu Cilang was about to see which important official was sneering at his important official, he saw that everyone in the room had a blank expression on their faces, and even Du Chen seemed not to have heard it.

Seeing this situation, he would not add any unnecessary details. After praising her for a few words, he went straight to the point.

"Tell me what Philip wants to do."

"Your Majesty, Spain actually wanted to seek help from the Ming Dynasty, but they thought of proposing marriage because they were afraid that giving up Luzon would have a negative impact."

"Help? How does he want me to help?"

Du Chen's statement basically matched Zhu Cilang's guess, but he still couldn't help being shocked.

To put it bluntly, Philip IV just wanted to use Luzon to exchange something from the Ming Dynasty, and the little princess was just a bonus.

However, the Ming Dynasty was more than ten thousand miles away from Spain, and even if Zhu Cilang agreed to send troops for Luzon, it would still feel out of reach.

What's more, the Ming Dynasty at that time was actually not much different from Spain. If it did not sort out the internal rebellion, it would probably be unable to intervene in European affairs.

I'm afraid he is just trying anything possible.

When he thought of this, all the information appeared in Zhu Cilang's mind again.

The war in Europe has been going on for many years, and the level of chaos seems to be even more chaotic than that of the Warring States Period in China.

But this is just the surface. If you look closely, you can find that at this time Europe has only one main line, which is the siege of the Habsburg family.

Spain belonged to the Habsburgs, and so did the Holy Roman Empire.

However, these two countries have almost reached the point of exhaustion under the siege of European countries. In a few years, not only will their hegemony be completely shattered, but even their overseas colonies will gradually slip out of their control.

At this time, the British royalists were fighting with Cromwell. With such a powerful enemy gone, Philip could only make a final struggle.

Thinking of this, Zhu Cilang suddenly realized a problem. If the European countries really allowed the Habsburgs to be defeated, wouldn't they be able to free up their hands to expand overseas?

"The King of Spain meant that it would be best if he could send troops. If not, converting Luzon into gold coins would also be fine."

Du Chen was not an orthodox minister of the Ming Dynasty after all, and his ability to read colors was always a little lacking. In the eyes of the three ministers in the cabinet, their emperor's thoughts had obviously reached the critical point, but he still spoke at this juncture.

Sure enough, his voice clearly reached His Majesty's ears, but there was no response from His Majesty at all.

The three of them saw clearly that their Majesty was quite tempted by the Spanish king's proposal, but the main reason why he did not accept it was that he was short of money.

It's such a large piece of land, but I don't know how much money it will cost. Don't agree to it.

(End of this chapter)