Ming Dynasty: My Father Zhang Juzheng

In the center of Malacca, there is a restaurant about four meters high, called Sifanglou, which is only three streets away from Song Ming’s mansion.

Because of his superior position and high character, he was praised by dignitaries from all sides in Malacca.

If anyone wants to do something, coming here to discuss it is a sign of great respect.

Just after noon that day, a team of guards escorted a carriage slowly into the long street and finally stopped in front of the Sifang Building.

As soon as the carriage was steady, the curtain was gently opened and Zhang Yunxiu bent over and leaned out.

He got off the carriage and looked inside.

Two half-human-high blue and white porcelain figures were sitting and lying at the entrance of the restaurant, and a fine silk red carpet stretched from the entrance all the way inside.

On the carpet, Song Ming, wearing a red robe, smiled and led three blond-haired and blue-eyed Frenchmen to greet them.

"Hahaha, Censor Zhang is indeed punctual." Song Ming stepped forward and shook Zhang Yunxiu's hand, then personally led Zhang Yunxiu to the box upstairs.

The rest of the soldiers stood in a row and surrounded the restaurant.

When they sat down on the third floor, Song Ming asked Zhang Yunxiu to sit at the main seat and he sat next to him. The remaining French people followed the order and surrounded the square table to form a circle.

As soon as the two parties sat down, Song Ming, the middleman, took the lead in pointing at Zhang Yunxiu and introducing him: "Everyone, let me introduce you, this is the confidant of the Ming Emperor, Zhang Yunxiu, the Chief Censor of the Censorate."

Everyone showed fear in their eyes and kept laughing and saying respectfully.

Since a figure like Song Ming is praised so highly, I think this person's identity must be extraordinary.

Then Song Ming looked at Zhang Yunxiu again, pointed at the French people opposite him and introduced: "The first one over there is Mr. Philip, he is the crown prince of France."

As soon as he finished speaking, the first middle-aged man on the left with a high nose bridge and a heroic face nodded slightly and smiled at Zhang Yunxiu.

Zhang Yunxiu saluted with a smile. Song Ming had already told him the information about these people yesterday. He was not scared by this person's so-called identity as the crown prince.

He just concentrated quietly, listened to Song Ming's introduction, and memorized the faces of these people.

The man next to Philip was a fat man named Carl, and to his right was a tall, thin man in his early forties with slightly graying temples, named Charlie.

After the introduction, Philip II took the lead and said in awkward Chinese: "Dear noble sir, I know that the Japanese are now attacking your Ming army, so you want our help, right?"

Zhang Yunxiu nodded.

Seeing Zhang Yunxiu admit it directly, the three of them smiled at each other. Carl in the middle waved his hands and shouted exaggeratedly: "Oh, you know, we have always loved peace. Many people will die in war. Our people cannot be sacrificed in vain."

Song Ming narrowed his eyes and smiled, interrupting, "Mr. Karl, I remember that your fleet has always been the most domineering on the sea. As long as there is a conflict of interest with you, as long as the strength is weaker than you, you will use force to resolve it?"

"Slander. Blatant slander!" Carl was so angry that his cheeks trembled. He defended himself with a red face, "If they hadn't offended us first, why would we have fought with them?"

"Hahaha, is that so?" Song Ming laughed and looked at Carl with a smile.

There was a hint of cat-and-mouse playfulness in his eyes.

Feeling uncomfortable with this look, Carl grabbed a glass of wine from the table and gulped it down. He took the opportunity to turn around and pretend to appreciate the beautiful sea view outside the window.

At this time, Charlie, one of the three, suddenly spoke up: "Sir, you also know that we have no choice but to cross the ocean. In your Chinese language, this is called leaving your homeland."

"Mr. Charlie has some understanding of Chinese culture." Zhang Yunxiu responded with a smile.

"So, I would like to ask what benefits you can give us?" Charlie asked directly without responding.

As soon as these words were spoken, Philip and Carl also looked at Zhang Yunxiu with burning eyes.

Zhang Yunxiu was not in a hurry. He met Charlie's gaze and asked, "Excuse me, Mr. Charlie, what do you want? Tea, silk, or porcelain? Or silver?"

Charlie smiled, and a shrewdness suddenly flashed in his blue eyes: “No, no, no, although these things are precious, they can’t make us work for you.”

"Then what do you want?" Song Ming became alert, fearing that these guys would ask for too much.

Without any hesitation, Charlie looked at Song Ming and said, "We are going to do business in your Ming Dynasty. We hope you can give us legal status so that our ship can enter your territory."

"Impossible! You must be crazy." Song Ming screamed.

From what these guys said, they wanted to sail the ship to the heartland of Ming Dynasty.

How can I allow others to sleep soundly beside my bed? If this condition is agreed, even Zhang Yunxiu will have to bear the consequences.

The three men did not show any surprise when they saw Song Ming directly rejected it. After smiling at each other, they looked straight at Zhang Yunxiu who had his head lowered.

I thought to myself: Okay, now it’s not that we don’t give you face, but you can’t agree to our conditions.

Zhang Yunxiu grinned, suddenly looked up at the three people and said: "Okay, I can agree to your request. I can also promise you that after we conquer the Japanese island, I can let you have a bite of the cake over there."

Song Ming had a look of astonishment on his face, and the three people opposite him also widened their eyes and suddenly stood up from the table.

The three thought they had misheard and looked at Zhang Yunxiu in disbelief. After a moment's pause, Charlie confirmed again: "Sir, when we say entering Daming to do business, we don't mean going to Zhejiang or Fujian, but anywhere in Daming."

"That's true." Zhang Yunxiu said sincerely, "Don't worry, as long as you are willing to send troops, the Ming Emperor will definitely meet your demands. I can also propose to the Ming Emperor to confer you the title of Viscount."

The three of them looked at Zhang Yunxiu's confident face and murmured in their hearts: This guy is so arrogant that he can agree to such a thing.

Zhang Yunxiu continued, "For your peace of mind, let's write the contract now and then print it. How about that?"

Philip was the first to react. As long as they signed a contract, they didn't have to worry about the man cheating. So he immediately slammed the table and agreed: "Oh, that's great. Your Excellency is really courageous."

Zhang Yunxiu nodded and chuckled, then ordered someone to bring paper and pen, wrote the contract, signed his name openly, and handed it to the three people.

The three of them grabbed the contract and huddled together to read it for fifteen minutes, wishing they could engrave it in their brains.

After a long time, the three of them looked at each other, nodded, and turned to look at Zhang Yunxiu.

"Sir, we will go back immediately to reorganize the army and settle our subordinates. In five days, we will follow you to march to the Japanese island." The three of them said in unison, fearing that Zhang Yunxiu would go back on his word, and they stomped down the attic.

Until then, Song Ming, who had been puzzled, smiled cunningly.

At first, when he heard that Zhang Yunxiu was going to agree to these people's conditions, he was immediately shocked. This was selling out the country and being a traitor, which was absolutely unacceptable.

As a result, these people only took Zhang Yunxiu's contract and treated it as a treasure.

It would be strange if this thing could work without the emperor's seal on it.

He seemed to have foreseen the scene where these people would fight to the death on the Japanese island and finally find out that they had only got a piece of waste paper and would be furious.

Zhang Yunxiu looked at his sly grin, nodded with a smile, and followed him down the attic. When he walked out of the door, Han San, who was squatting below, came to greet him quickly. Zhang Yunxiu smiled at him and said, "Come on, walk with me. Sooner or later, everyone in this place will have the surname 'Zhang'."

Han San smiled lightly, waved his hand to let his men disperse, and followed Zhang Yunxiu to stroll around the city.

Perhaps because they were in the city, the area around them was particularly prosperous. The streets were lined with shops, people were flowing, and carriages and horses were like dragons. Shouts and shouts echoed in the streets.

Crowded.

Walking along West Street, white women wearing short sleeves and exposing their navels would occasionally cast seductive glances at the two of them.

Unlike the traditional conservative and reserved Chinese women, these white women are hot and bold.

There is no such thing as being so particular about matters between men and women.

Although Zhang Yunxiu was not a gentleman, he was not that hungry. He glanced at Han San and urged him to move forward quickly. He stopped only after walking out of West Street in one breath.

"Sir, those big foreign horses are damn hot." Han San grinned and praised, "The hips, the millstones, and the pair of big peaches that look like winter melons, I'm sure they taste very different."

"Do you know what it means to poke a nostril with a toothpick?" Zhang Yunxiu paused and asked.

Han San had no idea what this meant and looked confused. Zhang Yunxiu leaned over and whispered something in Han San's ear. Han San's resolute face showed something strange.

He didn't expect that the young master could tell such a ridiculous dirty joke.

And that Portuguese thing, is it really as big as a donkey?
Just as I was thinking about it, there was a sudden noise in the alley in front of me on the left, and it sounded like children.

The two men walked forward quickly and looked inside. They saw five or six tall children surrounding a child and beating him against the wall.

Although the child's nose was bleeding, he still looked unyielding and continued to fight back with his fists.

Not far from the battle circle, there was a fat child with purple eyes.

Seeing this, the fat child waved his hands and shouted angrily, "Beat, beat this fatherless bastard to death."

"Ah?!" Upon hearing this, the child suddenly rushed out of the crowd, his eyes bloodshot. He jumped to the side of the fat child and swung his little fist to hit the fat child's nose hard.

With a "wow" sound, the fat child's nose started bleeding and he fell on the ground on his back.

The child pressed his entire body on the fat child, waving his fist vigorously: "I let you say it, I let you say it, I let you say it. I let you bully me, I let you bully me!!"

When the fat boy's younger brothers saw this, they rushed forward and continued to punch and kick the child.

The child didn't care and continued to beat the fat child under him.

"What are you doing?!" Zhang Yunxiu liked the kid's ruthlessness, so he stepped forward and shouted.

All the children raised their heads and looked at the two of them.

Seeing that the two men were dressed in luxurious clothes and that Han San was holding a knife in his hand, they were immediately frightened and ran away in all directions.

Suddenly, the stubborn child was the only one left in the narrow alley. Zhang Yunxiu stepped forward to help him up, patted the dirt off his body, and asked softly, "Little guy, what's your name?"

"Zhang Chongwen." The child was not afraid of strangers. He widened his dark eyes and looked at the two of them and answered.

"Sir, this kid has the same surname as you." Han San said with a smile.

Zhang Yunxiu also smiled. He felt close to the little guy and wanted to send him home. Zhang Chongwen rolled his eyes and thought: My mother said that we are not allowed to fight or talk to strangers.

Now, I've made all of these mistakes.

We must never take them back.

Shaking his head, Zhang Zhongwen broke away from Zhang Yunxiu and ran forward quickly: "I don't need you to send me home. My home is just ahead."

Zhang Yunxiu laughed loudly, but still afraid that the children would cause trouble for him, he stepped forward and followed the child's footsteps.

The three of them came to an exquisite courtyard. Zhang Chongwen stopped and looked back with a vigilant look.

"You. What do you want to do?"

"Nothing, just sending you home." Zhang Yunxiu smiled warmly, gestured to Han San, turned and left.

At this time, the wooden door slowly opened with a creak, and a female voice came from behind: "Child, didn't your mother tell you to go to school and study hard? Why did you end up like this?"

Then came the child's indignant voice: "They scolded me first, and now they scold you."

"Then you can't do it either! Only a brainless person would use fists to talk about everything."

Zhang Yunxiu felt that the female voice sounded familiar, so he turned around and took a look.

The person was about twenty-three or twenty-four years old, with delicate features, fair and moist skin, and beautiful hair tied up in a bun at the back of her head.

She was wearing a bright yellow long skirt with white socks and white shoes.

It looks like a person walking out of a painting.

"Why is it her?!" Zhang Yunxiu was shocked.

This person turned out to be Sun Yahan, with whom he had some friendship in Japan.

Although four years have passed, the woman's appearance has not changed much from four years ago.

On the other side, Sun Yahan also noticed the presence of Zhang Yunxiu and the others. At this moment, he had a long beard, looked mature and steady, and had a great demeanor, so she didn't recognize him for a moment.

She thought Zhang Yunxiu was looking for trouble, her face turned pale, she stepped forward, looked at him pitifully and begged for mercy: "Sir, if my son has offended you in any way, I will apologize to you on his behalf."

Zhang Chongwen rushed in front of his mother and opened his arms to protect her: "Don't bully my mother."

Looking at the mother and son, Zhang Yunxiu felt sad. He lowered his beard, stared into Sun Yahan's eyes and asked, "You really don't recognize me, Miss Sun?"

Sun Yahan shivered as if she was stung by a bumblebee. She hadn't heard anyone call her like that for a long time.

She covered her lips and turned her eyes to look at the man in front of her, and the memories gradually overlapped in her mind.

"You are Zhang, Zhang Yunxiu?" Sun Yahan screamed.

"Yeah, I didn't expect Miss Sun to come here." Zhang Yunxiu laughed at himself, "I thought so, I couldn't find any trace of you no matter how hard I looked."

Upon hearing this, Sun Yahan's heart trembled, and her eyes turned red and painful. (End of this chapter)