The second year of Hongxing in the Ming Dynasty, the first year of Delong in the Li Dynasty of Annan, 1649 AD.

The sixth day of the sixth lunar month in the Chongzhen calendar.

The sky is clear and the scorching sunshine once again shines on this narrow strip of land close to the sea in the southern part of Annan.

On the north bank of a large river called Xiangjiang, there is a square Chinese-style city with a circumference of about seventeen or eight miles.

The fluttering Nguyen flag indicates that the owner of this city is Nguyen Phuc Bin, who rules Hue, Quang Nam and Tai Ninh in southern Annam. This is Fuxuan, the base city of Nan Nguyen.

The land of Sanfu ruled by Nguyen Phuc Bin was called "Quang Nam Kingdom" by Westerners and Ming people who traded with each other. However, the successive Nguyen lords, including Nguyen Phuc Bin, never called themselves the Lords of Quang Nam or the King of Quang Nam.

Although Lord Nguyen has all the power that a king of a country can have, he is the de facto monarch in the lands of Hue, Quang Nam and Tai Ninh.

However, in the country of Annam, which is deeply influenced by Confucian culture, justice and honor are still important. Lord Zheng in the north has the power of life and death over Emperor Li, but he still considers himself a minister of the Li Dynasty and does not dare to usurp Li as Zheng.

Although Lord Nguyen in the south has run an independent kingdom and has been separatist and ruling power for four generations, he still does not openly establish a kingdom and declare himself king. Moreover, he still uses the banner of "Zhongli" to confront Lord Zheng in the north.

Similarly, although the Later Li Dynasty regarded themselves as emperors in Annan, they still had to regard themselves as ministers when facing the Ming Dynasty. They even worried about the "Zhongxing" of the Later Li Dynasty for the sake of the title of "dutong" and "king".

"In the past few years, Annan's envoys have asked the Ming Dynasty for the title of king more than once.

However, the Northern Kingdom, even though it was caught in internal and external troubles, did not relent on this issue.

However, all the forces in Annan have become accustomed to this matter. Annan has to adhere to the principle of justice and honor, and the northern celestial kingdom also likes this. Tongtongsi is an internal vassal, while Annan is an external vassal!

If the internal vassal becomes an external vassal, it will lose ground on the books, so naturally it cannot be done.

The Annan kings and ministers who knew this set of rules had little hope at all. When they asked for the title of king for Emperor Le, they were also playing with the concept of "title". In fact, they all called themselves emperor behind closed doors.

However, Ruan Phuc Bin did not expect that the matter of Emperor Le's reinstatement as king suddenly came to light. The newly-elected Emperor Hong Xing of the Ming Dynasty did not know what he thought. He was interested in Annan, Champa, and Chenla. Last year, he sent out

A heavyweight envoy came by sea. Not only did he express his willingness to consider restoring the status of the Kingdom of Annam, but he was also willing to mediate the civil war in Annan, which could lead to a stable situation in which the four principalities jointly protect the King of Le.

As for giving back, in the past, the Celestial Empire only wanted to save face and didn’t care much about actual benefits, but this time they seemed to have changed their temper and actually wanted to acquire the Jin Mau land in Chenla for reclamation. This made the previous Nguyen Lord Ruan Fulan embarrassed for a while.

!But at that time, Lord Zheng happened to invade the country, so Ruan Fulan relaxed.

I originally planned to defeat Lord Zheng and then try to disrupt the Ming Dynasty's reclamation of Jin'ou Peninsula, but who knew that the Ming Dynasty's envoy was an unreasonable barbarian and actually went directly to Pu with two Western warships?

Brother Li An, he was still firing dozens of 24-pound Hongyi cannons in the Jiulong River!

After several rounds of volleys, Puliango’s deputy king of Zhenla, Ude, agreed to everything.

The way the Ming Dynasty handles things now is really worrying!

But at that time, the Ruan family had no intention of taking care of Shuizhenla. They had to be busy dealing with the battle of Chang De Lei.

Although the battle of Chang De Base was bitter, the Ruan family army finally tasted the sweetness of victory. The only regret is that Ruan Lord Ruan Fulan died of illness before the end of the battle. This death of the Ruan family will have to change power. For the time being, there is no

I took advantage of the victory and pursued it.

I thought that Zheng Jie, an old immortal, had escaped another disaster, but I didn't expect that even more sensational news reached Fuchun City. The 50,000 Ming army took advantage of the defeat of Lord Zheng and was seriously injured, and marched from Yunnan along the Tao River (Lihua).

Jiang) came to kill and captured Shenglong Mansion in a surprise attack!

Overnight, Annan Kingdom once again faced the difficulty of survival!

In this case, that old fox Zheng Jie also used the name of Emperor Li to issue an edict to "stop private wars and unite to resist the Ming Dynasty".

At the same time, Zheng Jie's grandson Zheng Qiao also visited Changde Base and proposed an armistice, reconciliation, and unanimous resistance to the Ming Dynasty.

Just when the Nguyen family's monarchs and ministers were a little undecided, Nan Ruan's spy who was ambushing Thang Long sent another shocking news.

King Yunnan of the Ming Dynasty who occupied Thang Long seemed to be a good man. He did not want to destroy Annam, nor did he intend to seize the Annan capital of the Li family, nor did he even want to stay in Thang Long for a long time.

He just used the land of Annam to escape because he was defeated by the rogue bandits. As a result, the old guy Zheng Zhen misunderstood and entered Thang Long City by mistake. This sounds ridiculous! Ruan Phuc Ping does not understand at all.

believe.

But what happened next was that the King of Yunnan in the Ming Dynasty gave the Lord Mo a fiefdom to protect the Lord, and Ruan Phuc Bin could not take it lightly.

The family of the bitter bones in these two tombs has a mansion!

How could something be so cheap in the world? My family and Master Zheng had fought and killed each other for more than 20 years, but they hadn't even managed to capture even half of the mansion. They sent people to Thang Long, and the whole family got one mansion.

Is this Ming Dynasty King of Yunnan really a good person?

Just when Nguyen Phuc Bin was wondering whether he should also send an envoy to Thang Long to see if he could be deceived into returning to a province, a good man from the Ming Dynasty came to his door and arrived at Hoi An Port in Quang Nam Province (known in the West as

Port Fairfield).

And it’s not just one good person, but a whole group of thirty ships. Five of the ships are Western-style Galen warships, which are very large (500 tons), much larger than the largest warship of the Nan Ruan Navy!

The remaining twenty-five ships are Chinese-style big bird ships, which are similar in size to the five Western-style ships. They should be the war fleet of Duke Zheng Zhilong of Quan State.

"Lord, the Ming Dynasty's fleet was led by Zheng Zhilong's second son Zheng Jianguo. The mission was to escort the Ming Dynasty's Jinou camp envoy Chen Yongxi and deputy envoy Shi Daxuan to Chaigun. Among them, Chen Yongxi also brought an autograph from the chief minister of the Ming Dynasty cabinet.

Letter, and hope to come to Fuchun to meet the Lord in person."

The person reporting to Lord Nguyen the visit of the "good people of the Ming Dynasty" is Ruan Youjin, the admiral of the Nguyen Navy. Hoi An Port is not only a commercial port, but also the base of the Nguyen Navy.

In the recent Battle of Changde Base, the navy commanded by Ruan Youjin rushed into the Linghe River, cutting off Zheng's army's retreat and making great contributions to the Ruan army's victory.

Ruan Youjin's father-in-law was Tao Weici, the founding military advisor of the Ruan regime. With this relationship, he could be considered a core figure of the Ruan regime.

"What did the letter say?" Ruan Phucin asked directly without reading it himself.

"My lord, Wei Zaode, the chief assistant of the Ming Dynasty, proposed a way to easily capture the city by raising the dragon. He hopes that we can use the rising dragon to exchange for our suzerainty over the city. Then let the army of the Ming Yunnan King take the sea route to capture the city."

"Humph, isn't this going to lead the trouble to my backyard?" Ruan Phuc Bin snorted coldly.

"Lord," Ruan Youjin said, "but this is also an opportunity for us to bypass the three prefectures of Yi'an, Qinghua and Yanzhou and go straight to Thanglong! The three prefectures of Yi'an, Qinghua and Yanzhou are the Zheng family's lair.

It is deeply rooted there and it is difficult for us to conquer it quickly. If the war lasts for a long time, our population is too small and we cannot afford to consume it!

If we can get Shenglong or Xin'an Prefecture (prefecture on the northern coast) from the Ming Dynasty, the Lord can share the Northern Dynasty with Lord Mo, Lord Bao, and the Zheng family.

Maybe it will be possible for the four masters to jointly protect King Li!"

Ruan Youjin's words have already moved Ruan Phucin's heart. Although he controls three prefectures, and also owns two vassal states of Champa and Nanpan (also separated from Champa), the territory is not small, but the population under his control is always too small.

hurt.

Otherwise, with the combat effectiveness of the Nan Ruan army, they would not have been suppressed by Beizheng all the time.
Chapter completed!