Chapter 238 The Zheng Family
Xiong Wencan was imprisoned in the imperial prison of the Beizhen Fushi Department. Liu Qiao personally accompanied Liu Jun to the prison. ∑, the prison was detained with criminal officials. When Liu Jun arrived in front of Xiong Wencan, he found that Xiong Wencan was in a good prison.
It's not a gloomy prison, rats running around, moldy straw, etc., and there are no various torture instruments.
Although it was still underground, Xiong Wencan's cell was a large one. Except for the iron railings outside, it made Liu Jun feel a bit like a cell, but there was no way to see the cell in the prison.
Pear blossom wood shelf bed, official hat chair, screen, cabinet, desk, and bookcase.
Xiong Wencan was wearing a clean Taoist robe, holding a book in his hand and was sitting there watching. There was a bird cage hanging next to him, with several beautiful birds jumping around, and there was even a pretty servant pounding his legs inside.
This is not like being in prison, but rather like living in seclusion in the Qing Dynasty.
Liu Qiao was surprised when she saw Liu Jun and said, "Although Xiong Wencan was the imperial prisoner who was detained by the emperor's imperial order, he was originally a senior official of the governor of the five provinces, and his in-laws were also the current cabinet masters. In addition, Liu Qiao and Yao Minggong were also fellow villagers, so he also took care of Xiong Wencan. The most important thing is that Xiong Wencan is very rich. Some people are rich, so he naturally received special care in prison.
"Mr. Xiong, I'm so calm when it comes to changes." Liu Jun stood outside the iron railing and said with a smile.
Xiong Wencan heard the voice, put down the book, turned his head, and was a little surprised to see that it was Liu Jun. Then he was even more surprised to see Liu Jun sitting on the red robe on his body.
He stood up and looked at Liu Jun, "Are you?"
Liu Qiao waved his hand to let the prison unlock and said, "Mr. Xiong, let me introduce you to you. This is the nephew."
"Liu Jiye, the Marquis of Zhennan!" Xiong Wencan suddenly shouted, "I didn't expect that we would meet on such an occasion." When he spoke, Xiong Wencan was full of emotion. Back then, he was the governor of five provinces, and Liu Jun was just a small training chief, but he promoted Liu Jun as the garrison. At that time, he wanted to transfer Liu Jun to his own bid, and even pulled 50,000 taels of silver from his pocket.
Unfortunately, Zuo Liangyu's defeat caused him to be dismissed and arrested and imprisoned in Beijing.
Although in prison, Xiong Wencan was very clear about the outside world. After he knew that he had been dismissed, Mei Zhihuan took over the position of prime minister. Then he took Liu Jun into Sichuan, fought many major victories in succession, captured Zhang Xianzhong, and defeated Luo Rucai. In the end, Yang Sichang was forced to resign. On the contrary, Mei Zhihuan was promoted continuously due to his merits, and now he has become the chief assistant in the cabinet, and even Li Changgeng has entered the cabinet and become the second assistant.
According to his understanding of the bandit suppression, the success of Mei and Li was thanks to Liu Jun's ability to fight. Every time he thought of this, he felt endless emotion. If Zuo Liangyu had not been defeated at the beginning, if Liu Jun led his troops to Xiangyang and became his baton, and then he led Liu Jun to capture Zhang Xianzhong and defeat Luo Rucai alive, then the merit of defeating the thief would be his. Not only would there not be a prison disaster, he might also be able to enter the cabinet and become a Grand Secretary.
"Why did the Marquis remember to see me?" Xiong Wencan asked.
Liu Jun smiled, "Liu did not forget the 50,000 taels of silver that the old man promoted to the garrison in an extraordinary manner, nor did he forget the 50,000 taels of silver that the old man had transferred to Liu's troops."
"It's all the past, I don't have that blessing."
Liu Qiao smiled at the side, "Old Xiong, today I have great news to tell you. Today I will enter the palace to meet the saint. I have said a lot of good things for you in front of His Majesty, and I have pleaded for you specifically to ask Your Majesty to forgive you for being released from prison. Now, Your Majesty has decided to forgive you for your sins and will let you come out to do things."
"Really?" Xiong Wencan asked in surprise, a little unbelievable.
Liu Jun nodded, "Your Majesty has pardoned the elder's guilt and has also given you the important position of admiral Cao Jiang."
"Admiral Cao Jiang?" Xiong Wencan was a little surprised. Admiral Cao Jiang usually works in Nanjing and manages the defense of Shangxiajiang. It is a relatively important position. The specific position is to manage the navy. Generally, the assistant censor is the Censor of the Chief, so it is also called the Censor of the Chief, and it is the same as the governor of various places.
Xiong Wencan was still a little unbelievable, so he asked Liu Jun again, "Take it serious?"
"It's true, and an imperial edict will be issued later."
Xiong Wencan was inexplicably excited, but he was quickly thinking about why Liu Jun wanted to help him, and why he had such a great face, especially why the emperor appointed him as the position of admiral Cao Jiang.
After thinking about it, there seemed to be some clues. Admiral Cao Jiang and the Navy, was it related to Zheng Zhilong? Xiong Wencan has been an official for many years and his greatest achievement was not the prime ministers of the five provinces, but that he surrendered Zheng Zhilong when he was the governor of Fujian, and later when he was the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi and the governor of Guangdong and Guangdong, he wiped out pirate groups such as Li Kuiqi and Liu Xiang.
"Can the Marquis tell me what the specific situation is?" Xiong Wencan asked.
Liu Jun smiled. Xiong Wencan was a very smart person. When the imperial court asked him to serve as the prime minister of the five provinces to suppress bandits, he knew it long ago, so he proposed five difficulties and four things. In the end, Chongzhen forced him to drive him to the shelves. After he became the prime minister, his subordinates were all arrogant generals who did not listen to his mobilization, and they could not even establish a battalion. In the end, Xiong Wencan wanted to recruit him.
"Does the boss still have any contact with Fujian Deputy General Zheng Yiguan?"
When Xiong Wencan heard Liu Jun mention Zheng Zhilong, he immediately breathed a sigh of relief. Sure enough, he guessed it. He said, "Xiong has always been in contact with Zheng Yiguan. Is there anything wrong with the Marquis looking for Zheng Yiguan?"
"It was the court that asked Zheng Yiguan to have something to do." Liu Jun said, "Liu Jun wanted to ask the old man to help contact General Zheng, and meet him. Oh, by the way, the emperor has just appointed General Zheng as general."
"Xiong will contact Zheng Yiguan immediately." Xiong Wencan didn't deliberately grasp it.
Liu Jun and Liu Qiao personally took Xiong Wencan out of prisons and sent them back to his mansion in the capital. Then that night, Xiong Wencan sent someone to invite Liu Jun, "Someone in Zheng's family wants to see the Marquis."
Liu Jun rode his horse to Xiong Mansion. Xiong Wencan had already received the imperial edict during the day and formally appointed as the admiral Cao Jiang. When he heard that Liu Jun was coming, he rushed to the gate to greet him.
"There are people in the Zheng family in Beijing?" Liu Jun asked.
Xiong Wencan said while facing Liu Jun's house, "It happened that Zheng Zhilong's brother Zheng Zhifeng was in Beijing. He passed the Wu Juren exam this year, and now he is here to take the Wu Jinshi. I heard that I was relieved, so I came to visit him. This is not just right."
Zheng Zhifeng is only twenty-six or seven years old this year. She is a young man with a dark face. She is not too tall and ranks fourth in the family. When she saw Liu Jun, she immediately gave a kneeling ceremony and performed impeccably. However, this behavior made Liu Jun look at Zheng Zhifeng more and more arrogantly.
He knew better than others about the Zheng family's status in the Southeast Sea, which was the king of the sea. The Zheng family had thousands of ships and was unattainable at sea. Especially when Zheng Yiguan was very smart at the time, he was recruited by the court, in order to borrow the identity of the imperial official, to eliminate alien forces at the sea, and monopolize foreign trade in Fujian, Guangdong and other places. Zheng Zhilong did this.
He not only eliminated pirates such as Li Kuiqi and Liu Xiang.
Especially in the sixth year of Chongzhen, Zheng Zhilong, under the banner of the Ming Dynasty, invested more than 150 warships and tens of thousands of soldiers, and fought fiercely with the Dutch East India Company and Liu Xiang Pirate Alliance in the east coast of Kinmen, Fujian, and finally won a complete victory.
This year, the Dutch sent Langbiji Rico again to lead nine large warships to harass the Chinese coast and defeated the small fleet of the Ming Dynasty navy several times. However, they were eventually attacked by Zheng Zhilong, carrying bamboo tubes filled with gunpowder, and burned five ships in a row. Langbiji Rico was defeated and returned.
Now the Zheng group controls all sea control power from Japan to the South China Sea, and Zheng Zhilong is called Minhai Neptune. Any ship that trades at sea must spend money to buy Mingzheng's dictatorial flag. Without this flag, the probability of being intercepted on the East Asian sea surface is more than 50%. If it is on the coast of Fujian, it will be 100%. In the end, even the Dutch in Taiwan had to secretly purchase the dictatorial flag in the name of Japanese ships.
The Dutch were also forced to give up the means of force and instead fully cooperate with Zheng's trade.
Zheng's family controls maritime trade and earns tens of millions of taels of silver every year.
From the first year of Chongzhen to the twelfth year of Chongzhen, the Zheng family group has expanded quite rapidly. They not only defeated and eliminated other pirates on the sea, but also defeated the powerful Dutch and truly became dragons on the sea.
With such strong strength in the Zheng family, Zheng Zhifeng actually came to take the Jinshi exam. Even facing a young marquis like Liu Jun, he was not arrogant at all. This is because he was scheming and scheming.
Liu Jun pulled Zheng Zhifeng up and said, "Brother Zheng, get up quickly, there are no outsiders here, so there is no need to be so polite. Let's just be a little casual."
"Just Master Hunter just calls me Hongkui."
"Isn't Brother Zheng's name Zhifeng?"
"Hongkui is my newly changed name after the martial arts election this year." Zheng Zhifeng said.
"Hongkui, a good name." Liu Jun praised.
After a while, several people entered the study, "I heard from Lord Xiong that the Marquis had something to do to look for my elder brother?"
"Yes, there are both official and private matters. The emperor is very satisfied with the Zheng family protecting the coastal defenses on the coastal areas over the years. He has officially ordered the title of brother to be the general officer."
Zheng Zhifeng was a little excited, "Is the Fujian General?"
"No, Taiwan General Officer." Liu Jun said.
Zheng Zhifeng was stunned for a moment. Taiwan General... When did the imperial court have a general? Taiwan was still a remote island at this time, with only some coastal ports, some barbarians established some strongholds, and some merchants just planted sugarcane on the island.
"The general officer of Taiwan is also a general. Isn't it promoted to the governor of Fujian?" Liu Jun smiled, "Brother Zheng, there are both official affairs and private affairs here. I want to cooperate with the Zheng family. I wonder if you want to listen to private affairs first or official affairs?"
"What are private matters, what are official matters?"
"It is a good thing to make a fortune whether it is official or private matters." (To be continued.)
Chapter completed!