Chongzhen Chat Group

This man was obviously familiar with the imperial court, and the countermeasures he proposed were very practical. However, he was wrong about one thing.

Even if it was true as he said, pirates were raging everywhere, and Zheng Zhilong was exhausted because of insufficient troops. With Emperor Chongzhen as his backer, he would not be punished for this. It will only mobilize the power of the court to solve the problem of insufficient troops for Zheng Zhilong and create sufficient conditions for Zheng Zhilong to defeat the pirates, just like this war.

Although Zheng Zhilong is indeed the most authoritative and wise among the pirates, and he is also on guard against Liu Xiang and the others, it is hard to say how this war will end if he fights alone.

Thanks to Dongchang's intervention, the call of Liu Guoneng's troops, and the secret reports from people in the chat group, Liu Xiang and other pirates made the wrong decision, luring them into a trap, and dealt a heavy blow to the pirate. The alliance not only further enhanced the prestige of the imperial court and gave confidence to maritime merchants, but also forced the Zheng-Destroying Pirate Alliance to disband, and many pirates became scattered again.

Emperor Chongzhen was also very happy after receiving the battle report of the Battle of Taiping Port in the chat group. The scale of this war, although compared to the wars in the north that often involved tens of thousands of people, seemed a bit small. But its significance in Ming Dynasty maritime affairs cannot be ignored.

This battle was the biggest war on the sea after the opening of the sea. The corpses of pirates proved that the court decided to open the sea. No matter how many pirates there were, they could not stop the court's determination. The seemingly rampant pirates, but once the court really shows its intentions, they will be like a mantis blocking the car, and they will be vulnerable to the court's general trend of opening up the sea.

One thing is that that person was right. After Sun Chuanting had to abide by the law and enforce the law strictly to collect commercial taxes, although Emperor Chongzhen had expressed the court's attitude in the form of a salary penalty, there were still many people who wanted to impeach Sun Chuanting. Memorials, even memorials calling for the punishment of Zheng Zhilong, were constantly sent to the palace, with the excuse that the waves were difficult to calm. There are even some radical memorials calling for the sea to be banned again, on the grounds that pirates will not be given room to live and they will starve to death.

Emperor Chongzhen's original approach to these memorials was to leave them in silence. At this time, Emperor Chongzhen summoned Cao Huachun, the eunuch in charge of the ceremony, and said to him with a smile: "This morning in Taiping Port, Fujian, Sun Zhongcheng killed pirates in one fell swoop. For the specific results, I can ask Wang Chengen." Those memorials that have been left behind can be approved and made known to the world."

When Cao Huachun heard this, he knew it was a great victory. He was so happy that he quickly bowed to receive the order.

Watching him retreat, Emperor Chongzhen remained in a good mood. Sun Chuanting has already reported the sea tax revenue for the past six months. If the pirates are wiped out and sea trade is strong, the goal of annual income of tens of millions can be achieved soon. This started a steady stream of silver income, which could effectively solve the court's financial difficulties.

However, to achieve such a goal, the Ming Navy will surely sail to the South Seas to protect the Ming maritime trade ships, and even sail to Europe, America and other places in the future. And this conflicts with the interests of those European countries, and sooner or later there will be war on both sides.

In this case, let's start with the Dutch and destroy or expel the Dutch fleet in Taiwan. In the original history, the Ming army gained experience in dealing with these Western muskets and artillery after many bloody lessons, but now, this process can be omitted. Besides, now that the imperial court attaches great importance to the research and development of firearms, the firearms in the hands of the Ming army may not be worse than theirs.

With this in mind, Emperor Chongzhen asked Li Zhiqi again about the location of the Denglai Navy, then clicked on Sun Chuanting's icon and chatted with him privately: "Inform the Macau Fo Langji people about the Taiping Port war, and request a request for help regarding the missionary Tang Ruowang. They gave an explanation and purpose to force them to assist our Ming Dynasty Navy in attacking the Hongyi people in Taiwan and transporting grain from Nanyang!"

What Liang Xiaozhen said before about sending navy to capture Tang Ruowang was indeed true. It's just that most of the sailors who went out were killed and shot back.

After Sun Chuanting received the private message, he immediately agreed and sent Hong Yunzheng to discuss the matter in person and send him to Macau.

Emperor Chongzhen naturally did not worry about these details. What he is concerned about now is the food issue. At present, some provinces have given feedback on the food crops promoted by Xu Guangqi during his inspection tour last year.

I have to say that Xu Guangqi's running out last year was still useful. The sweet potatoes, corn, potatoes and other crops he promoted did not occupy the original farmland, so no matter how much they were, they were supplements to the original grain.

In the first year, despite the experience introduced by the experienced farmers led by Xu Guangqi, it was somewhat affected because it was the first time to plant, and the output was not large. However, as an imperial envoy, Xu Guangqi required someone to be responsible for planting wherever he went. Moreover, it was made clear last year that the cultivation of these crops will be an important aspect in the assessment of local officials.

Adding up these factors, although this year's income can basically only be used as seeds or cultivate new products for the province, and can be used as food for the people, that is, only in a small part of Fujian, Guangdong and Zhejiang.

Emperor Chongzhen had reason to believe that after a few years of persistence, the food problem of the Ming Dynasty would definitely be solved. As for the past few years, let’s save money and get food from other countries!

Thinking of these things, he issued another order to the Ministry of Personnel, emphasizing the promotion of high-yielding crops by local officials. Thinking about it was not enough, and he also issued a decree to the cabinet to take this matter to a higher level. The high-ranking officials in various places, such as governors, governors, etc., must also be responsible for this as an assessment indicator.

As a result, the promotion of high-yielding crops in the early seventeenth century received countless higher levels of emphasis than it had in the original history.

After finishing this matter, Emperor Chongzhen was concerned about whether Eqirtu and the others had arrived at Guihua City, so he went to the chat group again and prepared to ask Hong Chengchou how the situation was.

Unexpectedly, as soon as I joined the chat group, I received a private message from Li Deming. It was news from North Korea. Ye Bushou, who was sent out, finally got the news back. He said that the current situation in North Korea is very bad, with nine out of ten houses empty, farmland abandoned, and no roosters crowing for thousands of miles.

The activities of Jianlu were mainly around the big cities, and most places have been abandoned. Over in Seoul, there were rumors that Jianlu had brought grain from Japan. I learned from the rebels on the North Korean side that there seemed to be Jianlu who went to Japan by boat.

Seeing this private chat, Emperor Chongzhen's spirit was lifted for some reason. Was the Japanese also involved?

With this in mind, he immediately replied to Li Deming and asked the Dongjiang Army to send additional troops overnight to investigate the situation in North Korea.