Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 237 Bombardment of Xiamen
Zhu Shenzhui had never thought about what Xu Xiancheng said. He had always been thinking about finding out who was behind the plot against him, and then taking action after figuring out the target.

This idea cannot be said to be wrong, because this is the most normal reaction for most people.

But doing so now ran into a problem. Who were the people who attacked his caravan on the grassland, who bribed the caravan's deputy captain, and who instigated Liu Ce to implicate himself through impeachment? Zhu Shenzhui couldn't figure out these things for a while.

If we want to investigate further, since the clues have been cut off, there is a chance that we will catch the other party's tail next time. But now the mastermind is making one move after another, and it is not good to always respond passively. Just like this time, the solution to Feng Quan's problem seems simple, but in fact Zhu Shenzhui mobilized a lot of forces, Zhang Xijun helped a lot in the capital, and happened to encounter Zhang Shengming's situation to take advantage of, otherwise how could Feng Quan be so easy to deal with?

If something similar happens again, it will be troublesome even if it can be solved. Apart from other things, once the Emperor Tianqi hears his name too many times, wouldn't he think too much? As an ordinary member of the royal family, it is not a good thing to be remembered by the emperor. The fewer times he knows, the better. If Zhu Shenzhui was just a freeloader, it would be fine, but Zhu Shenzhui had a plan in secret and made a lot of preparations in private.

Although some things were kept secret, they could still be found out if they were really investigated. If something was found out by accident that day, the consequences would be imaginable if it was discovered that I had secretly opened a mine, built a workshop to make weapons and firearms, and trained soldiers in Zhaowuling, not to mention the other things.

If he continued to be so passive, he would be in even greater trouble in the future. In the absence of finding the mastermind, Zhu Shenzhui could not completely solve the problem. But now Xu Xiancheng's suggestion gave Zhu Shenzhui a new idea. This idea was that there was no need to find the real mastermind. He only needed to select a few targets by striking at them, and then use these methods to see how others would react, so as to dig out the person behind the scenes and solve the problem.

This is a good idea. Zhu Shenzhui's previous thinking was in a blind spot and he had never thought of this method. At the same time, Zhu Shenzhui suddenly remembered the information about several Shanxi merchants that he had given Feng Quan when Feng Quan returned to Beijing. He originally gave these Shanxi merchants to Feng Quan in order to allow Feng Quan to give an explanation to Emperor Tianqi after returning, and secondly to disgust the Donglin Party.

Isn't Liu Ce a member of the Donglin Party? Since you, Liu Ce, brazenly said that there were merchants in Shanxi engaged in smuggling trade, and that some members of the royal family had interests in it, then Feng Quan, as the person sent by Emperor Tianqi to Shanxi to investigate, found that there were indeed merchants doing these things, but the people behind them were not members of the royal family but officials. Doesn't this prove that your petition was correct?
More importantly, there was no sign of royal family connections behind these businessmen. Instead, they had backgrounds of other court officials, and these court officials were more or less related to the Donglin Party, or were even members of the Donglin Party themselves.

Didn't the Donglin Party claim to serve the country and the people? How could you collude with businessmen in private to do these things? These evidences are not difficult to verify. With these evidences, Wei Zhongxian, the eunuch, will naturally like it. As for the Emperor Tianqi, the same is true. When the time comes, we will see how you, Liu Ce, will explain it.

Xu Xiancheng's suggestion instantly opened Zhu Shenzhu's mind. In addition, his previous unintentional move of using Feng Quan to involve the Donglin Party in the matter and muddy the waters was somewhat similar.

If you think about it carefully, you can take advantage of this opportunity to launch attacks from two places at the same time. On the one hand, you can use Feng Quan and Wei Zhongxian in the capital to pursue the Donglin Party relentlessly. On the other hand, you can use the power in Shanxi to suppress these businessmen, so as to destroy the other party at the root and obtain solid evidence. Then, the troubles you are facing may be solved by scaring the other party with these means.

In addition, even if it cannot be solved for the time being, at least it can let the major business houses in Shanxi see his attitude and let everyone know that Hengtong Business is not a soft persimmon that can be easily manipulated. If other business houses want Hengtong Business to raise their hands, the initiative will be in Zhu Shenzhu's hands. At that time, Zhu Shenzhu can use this reason to force other business houses to endorse Hengtong Business to avoid similar things from happening again in the future.

As the saying goes, the barefoot are not afraid of the ones wearing shoes, and the bold are afraid of the ones who don't care about their lives. Everyone's purpose is to do business, and doing business is nothing more than gold and silver. There is nothing wrong with legitimate business competition, but it is another matter to do dirty work behind the scenes. If you dare to do dirty work, I dare to drag all the Shanxi merchants into the water. Zhu Shenzhui wants to see who has the courage to cause trouble for him.

The more he thought about it, the more relaxed Zhu Shenzhui became. He didn't expect that Xu Xiancheng's words would solve the problem that troubled him. His brother-in-law was really not an ordinary person. Zhu Shenzhui was delighted and wanted to recruit talents. He even planned to bring Xu Xiancheng into the team. If Xu Xiancheng could work with him, wouldn't he have a powerful helper?
However, after careful consideration, Zhu Shenzhui temporarily gave up this idea. After all, Xu Xiancheng was his brother-in-law, and what he was plotting was so huge that even his wife Xu Jingqiu didn't know about it until now. In addition, the Xu family was a scholarly family, and his father-in-law had always placed his hopes on this son.

Xu Xiancheng was very smart when he was young, and he was a good student. He just passed the imperial examination last year. Although he failed to pass the imperial examination this year, it was only a matter of time before he passed the imperial examination. The Xu family had been in decline for many years, and everyone was looking forward to Xu Xiancheng's success. If he followed me to do something like that, I didn't know whether my father-in-law would agree. I'm afraid Xu Xiancheng would not agree, right?

Furthermore, Zhu Shenzhui's plan was too big, and he was not sure whether Xu Xiancheng would follow him. If he told him now, he had no idea what Xu Xiancheng would think, so he might as well leave it alone and talk about it later.

With a plan in mind, Zhu Shenzhui quickly made arrangements. This was not a difficult thing to do. Apart from the operations in Shanxi, the only thing involved was the operations in the capital.

Zhu Shenzhui doesn't have to worry about Zhang Xijun being in the capital, and there will be no problem in Shanxi with the assistance of Wang Rong and Zhou Anmin. As for business dealings, Kang Youfu is a natural businessman and will not let Zhu Shenzhui down. Apart from these, Zhu Shenzhui also plans to start from Mongolia and use Ashitemur's channels to suppress other businesses. As long as these moves are made at the same time, other businesses will feel great pressure.

Thinking of Mongolia, Zhu Shenzhui could only wait until spring to make plans. It was already winter, and the trade route to and from the Mongolian grasslands was no longer accessible. Because of Feng Quan, all the caravans of Hengtong Trading Company were sent to Mongolia. It would be impossible to contact them until spring came and the trade route was restored.

But it doesn't matter. The arrangements in the capital and in Shanxi can be made first. Anyway, we have nothing to do in the winter, so we might as well make these arrangements early and start them all together when the time comes.

While Zhu Shenzhu was thinking about how to arrange it, Emperor Tianqi was in a bad mood in the capital. A memorial sent from Fujian to the capital made him look very ugly. The chief minister Ye Xianggao suddenly asked to see the emperor. Emperor Tianqi met Ye Xianggao in the Palace of Heavenly Purity. Ye Xianggao handed over the memorial from Nan Juyi, the governor of Fujian. Eunuch Wei Zhongxian took it from Ye Xianggao and handed it to Tianqi. Tianqi took a few glances at it, and his body, which was originally sitting casually, suddenly sat up straight, with a hint of anger in his eyes.

"Why are you reporting the events of October only now?" Emperor Tianqi closed the memorial and asked in a stern face.

"Your Majesty, Nan Juyi was appointed Governor of Fujian in September. Such a major event happened right after he took office. Since then, Nan Juyi has been busy mobilizing troops and preparing for war in Fujian. Plus, Fujian is far away from the capital, and the sea is blocked right now. It takes time for news to be delivered to the capital by land. Judging from the time of the previous report, Nan Juyi was not delayed. I hope Your Majesty will understand." Ye Xianggao replied neither arrogantly nor humbly.

Emperor Tianqi opened the memorial again, carefully looked at the time it was submitted, and calculated the distance from Fujian to the capital in his mind. Only then did his expression ease.

"Wei Banban..."

"The slave is here!"

"Show me a seat, sir."

"Yes!"

Wei Zhongxian agreed immediately and quickly moved an embroidered stool over. Ye Xianggao said something polite and then sat down steadily.

Although he was not fond of the Donglin Party and was even on high alert against it, Emperor Tianqi still had a good impression of Ye Xianggao.

Ye Xianggao is a big shot of the Donglin Party, but compared to other Donglin Party members, Ye Xianggao is very capable and rarely brags. He is quite competent after taking over the position of Prime Minister. Moreover, he had served as Prime Minister as early as the Wanli period, and now he is even more comfortable serving as Prime Minister for the second time.

Today Ye Xianggao asked to see the emperor because of the war in Fujian. In October, a big incident happened in Fujian. Eight Dutch warships suddenly attacked Xiamen Port and opened fire on Xiamen. The Xiamen defenders were caught off guard but had no way to deal with the Dutch warships with their strong ships and powerful guns.

The Ming army suffered a great loss in this battle. Not only did it fail to repel the Dutch warships, but the indiscriminate attacks by the Dutch warships also led to the sinking of nearly 80 Ming merchant ships in Xiamen Port, causing hundreds of casualties.

As for the Dutch, only dozens of people were killed or wounded in the counterattack of the Ming army. After the war, the Dutch warships sailed away, and the Ming side was in ruins.

After the great victory in the first battle, the Dutch became even more arrogant. They not only sent troops to land in Penghu to build fortresses, but also increased the number of warships from the initial eight to eighteen.

That’s not all. Relying on the large number of their warships and powerful artillery, the Dutch directly blockaded the Ming ports by force, and at the same time sent people ashore to propose rude conditions to the Ming Dynasty.

There were three conditions: first, to allow the Netherlands to trade with other countries along the coast of the Ming Dynasty; second, to cede Penghu to the Netherlands; and third, to prohibit China from trading with Portugal and Spain.

These three conditions were almost the same as the demands of the British and French allied forces in later generations to knock on the door of the Qing Dynasty with cannons. When these three conditions were put forward by the Dutch, the newly appointed Fujian Governor Nan Juyi was so angry that he slammed the table and without saying a word, he ordered his men to be beaten out with sticks. He rejected the other party's unreasonable demands, submitted a memorial to the court on the one hand, and on the other hand urgently began to prepare for war.

(End of this chapter)