Late Ming Dynasty: Oops, I am surrounded by the Donglin Party

Chapter 661 How can I allow others to sleep soundly beside my bed?

Seeing this, Zheng Zhihu took the letter from Zheng Zhilong and read it. After reading it, he handed it to Zhibao and Zhibiao, and finally the letter fell into Zheng Sen's hands.

"It seems that I have really miscalculated." Zheng Zhilong sat weakly on the mahogany chair, his face full of regret.

The reason why he dared to disobey the imperial edict so blatantly was partly due to the strength of the Zheng family navy, and the other part was naturally due to the recruitment of the imperial court's powerful enemy - the Qing Dynasty.

At that time, Zheng Zhilong was in a good position and had the best of both worlds. In addition, he had been enjoying himself in his hometown of Jinjiang in recent years, and had lost the ability to control the crisis.

But even so, there was still no trace of fear on Zheng Zhilong's face.

"Since Huang Taiji is not up to the task, my Zheng family cannot be blamed. No matter how good the title is, it is useless if it is not recognized by the world.

Alas, I shouldn’t have taken such a big risk.”

Zheng Zhilong's words could not hide his reluctance. The reason why he dared to bet on the Qing Dynasty was that he saw that the Eight Banners soldiers were brave and good at fighting, and they rarely suffered defeat in all the battles with the Ming Dynasty.

What's more, there is a proverb that says if there are less than 10,000 Eight Banners, they are invincible.

Bah! It must be Huang Taiji who asked someone to spread the rumor himself!

One hundred thousand elite soldiers were killed in one battle. If the person who went to inquire about the news was not a close confidant of the Zheng family, Zheng Zhilong would have thought the news was wrong.

Even if there are 100,000 pigs, it will take some effort to kill them all on the grassland.

"Brother, the situation is already like this. What are your plans now?" Zheng Zhihu said with a little concern.

"What else can I do? I can't rely on Huang Taiji anymore. At worst, I can write a memorial to the court and surrender." Zheng Zhilong said bluntly.

"But brother, can the court swallow this?" Zheng Zhibiao said.

In any case, the Zheng family has not followed the imperial edict in the past three months. Not only that, they also arbitrarily transferred the navy to the East China Sea.

The delivery date for the warships and grain transport ships that the court had originally placed with the Zheng family has now passed, but the Zheng family has not delivered them on time.

In fact, the ship for this order had been completed long ago, but it was held back by Zheng Zhilong.

The imperial court had been urging them to do so before, but there has been no response for the past two months. It is obvious that the imperial court already knows that the Zheng family has ulterior motives.

Under such circumstances, Zheng Zhibiao was very worried that the court would not be willing to compromise, especially those court officials, who had little ability and were all very concerned about their reputation.

"You have to swallow it even if you can't. My Zheng family has more than 2,000 ships!" Zheng Zhilong said dissatisfiedly.

Even if all the ships of the imperial court, including the small fishing boats of the people, were counted, the number would never exceed two thousand. This was Zheng Zhilong's confidence. The imperial court could not do without his Zheng family.

But even so, Zheng Zhilong only dared to say this at home. After that, he continued:

"A few months ago, I sent people to the capital to give gifts to those important officials. Now I think I can finally use them.

In short, if we give in and some court officials speak in our favor, this matter can be settled.

But from now on, I'm afraid we brothers will have to keep a low profile.

I forgot about Qin Yiming. I will write him a separate letter later and give him a big gift. I think it will be enough for him to get his job done."

The great gift that Zheng Zhilong was talking about was naturally the Chen San sent by Huang Taiji.

This man actually dared to alienate the relationship between the imperial court and the Zheng family's subjects, and even worse, he tried to bribe him. He really underestimated Zheng Zhilong.

Zheng Zhilong's loyalty to the court is evident to all.

Chen San, as Huang Taiji's chief spy in the interior, seemed to know many secrets of the Qing Dynasty. He thought that he could be of greater use if he came into Qin Yiming's hands.

Zheng Zhihu and Zhibao thought this made sense, but Zhibiao didn't seem to agree. He turned around and looked at his nephew Zheng Sen.

Zheng Sen did not say a word during the entire conversation. Seeing that his father was still so stubborn at this point, Zheng Sen could not help but sigh inwardly.

"Father, haven't you ever thought about why this happened?" Even though he had just made his father very angry, Zheng Sen still insisted on speaking out.

Zheng Sen insisted that the reason why his father failed at every turn was for one reason only - the Duke of Zhenguo of the current dynasty.

He fell into such an unfavorable situation because of his father's ambition and his failure to follow the footsteps of the Duke of Zhenguo.

If the Red Haired Barbarians and the Little French had not communicated with the Duke of Zhenguo, how could they have come all the way to offer help?

The imperial court has always looked down on foreign vassals, and its maritime policy has always been conservative and xenophobic. How could it possibly take the initiative to ask foreign vassals for help?

The imperial court had always been in an extremely unfavorable situation in the war with Huang Taiji. In one battle, 100,000 enemies were annihilated, and they were all elite troops. Zheng Sen didn't think that except the Duke of Zhenguo, anyone else could achieve such an amazing record.

It’s not that Zheng Sen wants to boost others’ morale and undermine his own prestige, but that’s the fact.

Ever since the Duke of Zhenguo spent more than a year to completely suppress the rebellion of the gentry and bureaucrats and wiped them out, Zheng Sen believed that there was only one way for the Zheng family to maintain stability.

That is to follow closely in the footsteps of the Grand Marshal of the Army and the Duke of Zhenguo.

Zheng Sen was stunned when he learned that the Grand Marshal, who was only a few years older than him, actually dared to become an enemy of the gentry class.

This is definitely a battle between life and death. Either you die or I die.

But the generalissimo won.

Later, he became worried that the emperor would be wary of the Grand Marshal. After all, he controlled the entire nation's military. If he put himself in his shoes, even he would probably be uneasy.

However, a series of signs showed that the emperor was not afraid of this, but seemed to trust the young marshal even more.

All along, everything the Grand Marshal did was what he believed to be good things that would benefit the country's economy and people's livelihood.

There was such a powerful person sent from heaven, but the Zheng family did not follow him. Zheng Sen could not imagine anything worse than this.

“That kid is quite capable.

But now that things have come to this, we can only try to mend the situation. ” Zheng Zhilong was not angry this time, and said in a low voice.

"As my father just said, the imperial court might be concerned about maritime issues and not turn against my Zheng family.

But I’m afraid…I’m afraid that the Duke of Zhenguo won’t tolerate my Zheng family!”

The implication is very simple. Just think about what the Duke of Zhenguo has done in recent years and you will understand.

If the Duke of Zhenguo was a cautious person, how could he be so decisive in taking action against the gentry of the world?

How much courage does that take?

The Zheng family is so disobedient. How can we allow others to sleep soundly beside such people?

……