Chapter 99 Maritime Merchants
The most worried issue of the court before was that Zheng Zhilong and Lion opened their mouths and offered a price everywhere, but no one expected that the Nan'an Hou of the Longwu Dynasty would be very low-key. As long as he maintained his glory and wealth, it would be enough.
Therefore, Tong Yili said with great disappointment: "Zheng Zhilong, in name, had to start and end well with the King of Tang, so he only asked a Fujian Censor to maintain the Zheng family's foundation. His Majesty originally wanted him to be the governor of Fujian, but Zheng Zhilong refused to mention any request."
Zhang Guoji immediately asked: "Does Zheng Zhilong have no requirements for his title?"
Tong Yili immediately replied: "The King of Tang appointed him as Marquis of Nan'an. Now his request is still to be Marquis of Nan'an. After all, Nan'an is his hometown. If you don't return home for wealth, you will be like walking in the night in luxury!"
Zheng Zhilong is from Nan'an, Jinjiang, so he was named Nan'an Marquis in Longwu. Now his qualifications are so low, which makes the court feel that it is not easy to deal with: "The King of Tang has been operating in Fujian for so long. If Zheng Zhilong refuses to take responsibility, there may be a lot of trouble!"
Although the Tang King actually only lasted half a year to operate in Fujian, there must be many close friends and outlaws in half a year, and Zheng Zhilong refused to take responsibility, so there might be many chaos: "What arrangements does the imperial court have?"
Tong Yili lowered his voice and said, "The court meant to ask Prime Minister Lu Zhenfei to temporarily take charge of the aftermath of Fujian. In addition, he also named Zheng Sen, the son of Nan'an Marquis, to supervise Fujian's military affairs!"
Zhang Guoji nodded and said, "This must be what Your Majesty meant. Although Zheng Zhilong only wants to be a rich man, he can't stop his son from making achievements for the court. This is indeed a solution!"
Tong Yili also agreed: "Lu Prime Minister is highly respected. If he is in charge of Fuzhou, there should be no trouble! It is a pity that Zheng Zhilong is just that. If he is beautiful in this matter, he will definitely not be able to escape the position of Duke. He will even have the chance to be the king!"
Although Lu Zhenfei only defected to Chengtian Dynasty two months ago, he was originally the governor of Huai'an of the Ming Dynasty, and he also had the history of establishing three rules with the governor of the country, Empress Yingtian, and supported Emperor Hongguang. Therefore, he entered the cabinet directly as soon as he entered the dynasty. Although he is a waste of talent in Fujian, it also shows the importance of the court paying attention to Fujian's favor for the land.
But Zhang Guoji was concerned about another thing: "I can't understand why the Nan'an Hou was not good at Fujian Governor, so why is he still thinking about his maritime business? Is it really that profitable to be a maritime business?"
Tong Yili also had similar ideas, but this matter was a bit sensitive, so he kept burying such questions in his heart. However, since Taikanghou asked him, he naturally said truthfully: "It is hard to say how much money the maritime merchants make? But the Zheng family has 20,000 yuan each on the water and land, and they are all income from maritime merchants."
Tong Yili didn't say how much wealth Zheng Zhilong had, because it didn't make much sense to a person of Taikang Marquis Zhang Guoji. After all, the Empress of Yingtian Jianguo is Zhang Guoji's biological daughter. She can have as much family business as she wants. However, the fact that Zheng Zhilong can raise an army of 20,000 on both sides of the water and land still made Zhang Guoji feel extremely moved.
"Everyone says that Zheng Zhilong's command can be called elite troops and can raise tens of thousands of elite troops. It seems that the maritime business is really making money!"
Raising tens of thousands of troops is not an easy task. Although the Chengtian Dynasty occupied the most prosperous Jiangnan land in the world, it still felt very difficult to support more than 100,000 field troops and tens of thousands of prefectures and counties with the power of a country. Zheng Zhilong supported tens of thousands of elite troops through sea trade, which only shows that the maritime business is really making money.
Tong Yili already understood Zhang Guoji's true thoughts: "Half Taikang is moved? As long as Empress Yingtian agrees, Your Majesty will agree!"
Zhang Guoji immediately laughed: "I have such an idea, but the storm on the sea is ruthless. Even if I want to make money, I have to find out the situation clearly!"
Among all the royal relatives of the late Ming Dynasty, Zhang Guoji, the Marquis of Taikang, can be said to be one of the more stunning ones. Although he had always wanted to make a lot of money, he knew very well that only by being in a strong country could the glory and wealth of the Marquis of Taikang, and such things must not be so.
The reason why Tong Yili was willing to date Zhang Guoji was because Zhang Guoji always knew how to judge the situation: "Then I will wait for good news from Taikang!"
But when this news reached Liu Yongxi's ears, it had changed a little: "Horse Taikang wants to cooperate with Marquis Nan'an at sea? This is indeed a good thing. Since Marseille Nan'an wants to make a fortune, we must give Marseille Nan'an's chance to make a fortune, but we can't let Marseille Nan'an look down on him, so let Marseille Taikang buy a few more boats!"
Queen Zhang immediately understood Liu Yongxi's opinion: "Your Majesty doesn't need to use the treasury. I just handed over some private money to Marquis Taikang to take care of him, so he asked him to buy two sea boats first and try the waters!"
Liu Yongxi laughed when he heard this: "Well, since Marquis Nan'an wants to be a rich man, we can naturally help him, but the ironwork needs to be strong himself. We cannot rely on Marquis Nan'an at sea for everything!"
Zheng Zhilong now controls one of the best merchant fleets in the entire East Asian ocean. With such a merchant fleet, he will naturally make money every day. In the future, Zheng Cheng's ability to compete with the Qing army at sea was largely due to the huge benefits brought by this merchant fleet.
But because this merchant fleet brought real gold and silver, Zheng Zhilong now has lost the enterprising spirit of his youth, and is only satisfied with being a rich man and enjoying all his wealth and glory. He is even trying to obtain excess profits by monopolizing maritime trade. This is exactly what Chengtian Dynasty and Liu Yongxi cannot tolerate.
Now Liu Yongxi and Empress Zhang told the truth: "Nan'an Hou has defected to the ocean, and the Yangtze River in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang oceans are fully opened to his fleet. In the future, all the oceans under the sky and the rivers will be opened to Nan'an Hou. This is at least several times the profit in the past, but Nan'an Hou cannot dominate the oceans. Everyone must benefit and benefit each other!"
Empress Zhang already understood that Zhang Guoji, the Marquis of Taikang, had seen the right direction this time: "Your Majesty really needs to take out the treasury, but we are just ready to go into the sea and may not be able to compete with Marquis of Nan'an!"
Liu Yongxi said clearly: "If you can't fight, you can't fight. Since it is mutual benefit, there are many places in Nan'an Marquis who want us, and we can't kill them all. Moreover, our family is not Taikang's mansion and family go into the sea!"
After Liu Yongxi said this, Queen Zhang was completely relieved: "Then it would be the best. Since the Nan'an Hou should give him enough sweetness, he still had to clean up when it was time to clean up!"
Liu Yongxi nodded and said, "The matter of Nan'an Hou will be left to Lu Zhenfei to handle. Sister Yan, I'll ask you something, how about Xuzhou being handed over to Zhang Boyi to guard?"
Queen Zhang felt warm when she heard the title of "Sister Yan". Zhang Boyi was also a relative of Taikang's Mansion, so she immediately laughed: "Since Xiaoxi wants him to guard Xuzhou, that's definitely right, let alone Zhang Boyi performs well every time he stands alone!"
Whether staying in Beijing or sticking to Huzhou, Zhang Boyi performed exceptionally well. If Zhang Boyi had not taken Huzhou at the first time and persisted for a long time, there would have been no reversal of the battle between the southeast. Therefore, although Liu Yongxi considered a lot of candidates, he still thought that Zhang Boyi was the most suitable candidate.
After all, Xuzhou is the most important northern town in the inheritance of the Heavenly Kingdom. As long as Xuzhou is defended, Jianghuai will naturally be foolproof. However, if Xuzhou cannot defend, not only will the Jianghuai defense line be the first to be affected, but even the whole country will mobilize Liu Yongxi and can only return early. Therefore, Xuzhou must send a powerful general to guard: "I feel relieved if Sister Yan says this!"
Zhang Yan had no objection to Zhang Boyi's guarding Xuzhou. She just asked softly: "Is Xiaoyi preparing to personally conquer Huguang?"
Liu Yongxi nodded and said, "I originally wanted to stay in Nanjing for a few days, but after receiving the letter from Queen Fengtian, I had to set off early!"
For Empress Zhang and Liu Yongxi, although there were countless cumbersome ceremonies and procedures during this period, it was also an extremely rare happy time. After all, there was also the Forbidden City in Nanjing and Hongguang was in power and repaired during his reign. As long as the palace gate was closed, no one knew what was going on in the palace.
So Queen Zhang was a little sad when she heard Liu Yongxi's answer: "When Xiaoxi takes Jiangxi, Huguang will come back early. I originally wanted to fight with Xiaoxi, but this time it won't work!"
The inheritance of the Celestial Empire can now be said to be the new creation of the country and the whole world is full of prosperity. Although Liu Yongxi specially selected Zhang Boyi to take charge of Xuzhou and arranged three troops between the Jianghuai River and Huai River, under the circumstances of Liu Yongxi's personal conquest of Huguang, there must be someone in Nanjing to take charge. Queen Changping seems too young in any aspect, so Queen Zhang must stay in Nanjing to take charge.
Liu Yongxi was also a little worried: "I am worried that Jianlu will take the opportunity to move south in a large scale. With the lessons of the blessing king, we must not repeat the same mistakes. No matter how the situation changes, we must stick to Nanjing!"
Before the Qing army reached the city of Nanjing, Emperor Hongguang himself ran away first, but the situation became uncontrollable. When Huang Degong saw Emperor Hongguang, he said that giving up Nanjing and running away was his biggest mistake. However, Duoduo and Haoge lost Nanjing, the situation was similar. If they had not been thinking about the retreat to the north, they would have never reached that point.
Nanjing has one of the most solid cities in the world, and Liu Yongxi left several powerful troops and more than 20 red-clothed cannons near Nanjing. Normally, it would be no problem to stick to ten days and half a month. If the defenders show tenacious fighting will, there would be no problem to stick to it for two or three months.
Chapter completed!