The Prosperous Era of Longwan

In his desperation, King Zhu Xian of the Liao Dynasty hung the banner of "Litigation of Injustice" on the roof of the palace. His original intention was to express that he was unjustly persecuted by Zhang Juzheng.

He did not expect that his move had another meaning, which was to rise up.

The first official to arrive at Jiangling was Shi Duchen, deputy envoy of Jiangxi Huguang Police Department. When he received the news, he was overjoyed because he immediately ordered 500 troops from nearby guards to surround the huge Liao Prince's palace.

It was no small matter for soldiers to surround the Prince's Mansion, but the reason Shi Duchen gave was, "The King of Liao has rebelled."

However, he still knew the depth. Although the King of Liao did many injustices and caused many disasters in the fiefdom, he was still a prince. Shi Duchen did not order the sergeants to break into the Prince of Liao's palace before there was no decree or before the imperial envoys arrived at Jiangling.

Now, Hong Chaoxuan and Cheng Yaoxiang have to face such a scene.

The "lawsuit of grievances" was standing there, and both Hong Chaoxuan and Cheng Yao felt troubled.

Is it wrong to say that Shi Duchen led troops to surround the Liao Palace?

No.

After that, they did not send troops into the palace to search or arrest people. Instead, they waited for them to arrive and handed them the hot potato.

From this, the two of them knew almost instantly that this Liao king might have really made local officials hateful in his fiefdom and everyone hated him, which was why he developed to such an extent.

Otherwise, Jingzhou Wei Duan would not immediately mobilize troops after Shi Duchen issued the order, which is also because of the relationship.

"Master Hong and Master Cheng, you are imperial envoys. Look, the King of Liao blatantly raised a banner in the palace. This is not to rebel or something.

The low-level officials mobilized troops to surround the palace, just because they were worried about him colluding with someone outside and cutting off their contact, and because they were worried about another incident happening in the next few days.

Now, let me ask the two adults to decide what to do next. "

In front of Hong Chaoxuan, the left minister of the Ministry of punishment, and Cheng Yao, the commander of Jin Yiwei, Shi Duchen insisted that the rise of King Liao in the palace was a sign of rebellion, leaving the two of them at a loss as to what to do.

"Master Shi, is there anything unusual in the Liao Prince's Mansion these days?"

Hong Chaoxuan had no choice but to ask.

"In the past few days, people in the palace have come to the palace to purchase goods. I did not ask the soldiers to stop them. They just followed and monitored, and found nothing unusual."

Shi Duchen is not a fool and knows that everything is too much and too little is too much.

The local officials like them knew whether the King of Liao had any plans to rebel.

Therefore, he did not push the King of Liao to death, and there was no ban on normal purchases. He just kept surrounding the palace.

In fact, they were also betting that Emperor Longqing didn't like the King of Liao, so they sent Hong Chaoxuan to go through the motions, hoping to punish him.

Although Zhu Xian had bad conduct and committed various crimes in the vassal territory, he did well in the Jiajing Dynasty because he and Ming Shizong shared the same hobby of "cultivating immortals."

Emperor Sejong not only gave him the title of "Qingwei Zhongjiao Zhenren" and a golden seal, but also gave him a lot of rewards and care. At one time, the Liao vassal "the palaces and gardens were the best among all vassals."

However, after Emperor Longqing ascended the throne, Zhu Xian's good days came to an end.

All the Taoist titles and golden seals given by Emperor Jiajing were recovered. Even the Tianshi Mansion in Longhu Mountain was not spared, let alone the King of Liao.

It can be seen that Emperor Longqing really did not like Taoism at this time.

Although he knew that the new emperor did not like to practice Taoism, and the things he had done in the past were impeached by Huguang officials, Zhu Xian was not afraid. This was the confidence given to him by the prince.

But when someone came from the capital, he became restless.

I got news from the mansion today that someone from the capital has arrived.

After all, he is an imperial envoy with orders to handle cases, so he still has the proper honors.

Soon, Chang Shi, Dian Bo and others from the palace rushed to the main hall to discuss, but some of them still smelled of alcohol, and most of them looked haggard.

They all knew the situation faced by the Liao Prince's Palace. As the old saying goes, there are servants like the masters they have. The people in the Liao Prince's Palace might have been normal people when they were first sent by the imperial court.

But after following Zhu Xian for a long time, Zhu Xian began to bully men and dominate women, doing all kinds of evil.

Compared with the King of Liao, they are actually the most worried about the people coming from the imperial court now.

Once the Liao king's crime is proven, none of them will be able to escape.

Maybe nothing happened to the King of Liao, but they will all be punished.

But when things came to pass, what could they do in front of the King of Liao.

Before, they wanted to send people out to threaten the people around them, but after being surrounded by officers and soldiers, they knew that the situation was over.

Shi Duchen was very smart. He used this trick to directly put down the people's uneasy hearts, knowing that the court might be serious about attacking the King of Liao this time.

The King of Liao summoned people and asked them to come up with a solution, but when the situation came to a close, they had no idea what to do, and they were all confused.

Just when King Liao's anger was about to explode, the guard guarding the gate came in to report that the imperial envoy had arrived outside the palace gate.

"Open the middle door to greet us."

The King of Liao looked at the bunch of wine bags and rice bags under his men, and gave the order fiercely.

At this time, King Liao did not realize that the reason for Shi Duchen's attack on him was the flag erected high outside the palace.

Shi Duchen knew very well that if the King of Liao knew about this, he would bring down the flagpole first and find a way to destroy it.

Even if there is a witness, as long as there is no physical evidence and the King of Liao refuses to admit his guilt, the court and the emperor will not punish him for it.

When Hong Chaoxuan, Shi Duchen and others were welcomed into the palace, Hong Chaoxuan's face turned ugly when he saw the tall flag erected in front of the hall.

Before, when he was outside the palace, he could see the white flag flying over the palace from a distance, but now that he was getting closer, he felt something different.

The Prince of Liao's Mansion has prepared the ceremony for receiving the decree, which is a common thing.

In order to express the close relationship between the royal family, the emperor would routinely issue rewards to the princes in various places every year.

The ritual notes for receiving the imperial edict were very familiar to the palace.

After the birth mother of King Liao, the concubine Wang, came out, Hong Chaoxuan conveyed the imperial edict in public, making the faces of King Liao and the concubine very ugly.

Because the decree has been made clear, and the Jin Yiwei is ordered to direct the Qian affairs, Cheng Yao, to take down all the officials of the palace for interrogation, and also to conduct an inventory of the people in the palace of the Liao Dynasty. In fact, it has been expressed that the crimes committed by the Liao king have been recognized by the court.

Inviting the King of Liao and Princess Wang aside to rest, Cheng Yaoxiang first commanded the Jin Yiwei to capture all the palace officials, and then began to detach his team to search the palace.

In fact, neither Hong Chaoxuan nor Prime Minister Cheng Yao felt that the search was necessary, but Shi Duchen insisted on doing it.

The reason, of course, is that the King of Liao may have rebelled, and the palace needs to be searched to confirm whether armor and other items are hidden secretly.

The Ming Dynasty did not prohibit civilians from holding swords and guns, but armor, crossbows, arrows, etc. were still contraband and were prohibited from being kept privately. Even the palace guards could only equip them according to the number, not more.

The Huguang government may have too much resentment against the King of Liao. They actually hoped to find some contraband in the King of Liao's palace, firmly label the King of Liao as a rebel, and send him directly to Fengyang.

This has many benefits. It not only calms the anger of the people, but also reduces the number of clan members every year.

Huguang has to bear so much clan lumi that they can no longer handle it.

However, Shi Duchen's hope was dashed. He searched the Liao Prince's Mansion and found nothing about the armor, bows and crossbows they were expecting.

Although no illegal weapons were found, the flag and flagpole raised by the Liao King were preserved by them, which can be regarded as evidence to support the Liao King's intention to rebel.

At this time, the King of Liao realized the reason why the army surrounded the palace, and immediately regretted it.

However, the matter in the Liao Palace will not end so easily. They still need to verify the impeachment of Chen Sheng and Gao Guangxian.

If those crimes are found to be true, of course they will be dealt with strictly. If they are not true, Chen Sheng and Gao Guangxian will be punished and the reputation of the King of Liao will be restored.

This is the fundamental purpose of the imperial envoy's trip.

Next, Hong Chaoxuan and Prime Minister Cheng Yao stayed in Jiangling and issued a notice to let the people redress their grievances. The court would seriously investigate and clarify the rights and wrongs.

The people of Jiangling Mansion have been harmed by the Liao Prince's Mansion for many years, and the people's resentment has been boiling for many years. Finally, they have a chance to take revenge.

For a time, the people outside the imperial envoy's camp were crowded, and people came in from morning to night to complain about their grievances.

When Hong Chaoxuan, Cheng Yaoxiang, and Shi Duchen were overwhelmed with trying the unjust cases filed by the people of Jiangling, a fleet of dozens of large and small ships slowly docked at Nan'ao Island.

Nan'ao Island is located at the junction of Fujian and Guangdong and is under the jurisdiction of Chaozhou Prefecture in Guangdong. However, because it is isolated overseas, the government's control over it is extremely weak.

Since the Japanese pirates attacked in large numbers in the 31st year of Jiajing, this place has become a paradise for Japanese pirates, who often gather and repair here.

Whether it was Yu Dayou or Qi Jiguang, they captured the Japanese camp here several times during the siege and suppression. However, after leaving after the siege and suppression, new Japanese pirates would soon come back.

As an island, the Ming army really did not have the courage to station a large army here for a long time.

Therefore, the local government can only send people to investigate this place from time to time, but cannot send large troops.

The troops that were landing on the island at this time were of course not the Ming army. From their chaotic clothes and armor, you could guess that they were another group of powerful Japanese pirates who came here to repair.

Currently, there are only one pirate group of this size in Jiangnan, and that is the pirate group led by Zeng Yiben.

In June of this year, Zeng Benyi learned that Yu Dayou ordered the Guangdong Navy to go to Fujian, so he led his troops to sneak attack Guangzhou, hoping to plunder it.

The sneak attack was very successful. After defeating the nearby Ming army, they plundered the outside of Guangzhou and nearby areas, and then defeated the Ming army in Chiwan, Dongba and other places.

I originally wanted to take advantage of the trend and attack other nearby coastal counties, but I heard that Yu Dayou ordered the assembled naval warships from Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong provinces to go south to come back for reinforcements, and there were also armed merchant ships assembled by Macau Chinese merchants to come to the rescue, so I made a decisive choice. Retreat to the sea and first sell the loot taken from near Guangzhou.

When retreating, they also selected a few of the dozens of new warships built by the imperial court that were about to be completed and drove away, while the others were burned to the ground.

This battle was undoubtedly the most disgraceful time for Yu Dayou since he joined the army. He was surrounded by Zeng Yiming pirates in Guangzhou City and did not dare to fight.

The incident happened so suddenly that he had no time to prepare his troops for war.

And this time, it was also because we had not chosen a target to attack yet, so we temporarily docked at Nan'ao Island, intending to detect the movements of the Chinese army and make calculations.

The geographical location of Nan'ao Island is too special. If you go north, you can attack Fujian, and if you go west, you can attack the coast of Guangdong. If the Ming army is strong, it will immediately flee south.

As for the navy of the Ming Army, to be honest, Zeng Yiben really didn't even take a look at them.

The Ming Dynasty Navy, also known as the Ming Dynasty Navy, was the Chinese Navy that was once the world's largest. Its origin was the Chaohu Navy, one of the two main forces under Zhu Yuanzhang in the late Yuan Dynasty.

During the heyday of Emperor Chengzu of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty owned more than 3,000 ships of various types, including more than 1,000 patrol ships, more than 1,000 warships, 400 large ships and 400 grain transport ships stationed at the Xinjiangkou base in Nanjing. There are also many ocean-going treasure ships, as well as a large number of security and law enforcement ships and messenger ships that protect the ocean and patrol the rivers.

The famous Zheng He fleet was actually just a maritime mobile fleet of the powerful Ming Empire Navy.

In the early Ming Dynasty, a naval camp was set up at the mouth of the Xinjiang River in Nanjing, the capital, and built 400 ships. It governed the counties along the river, starting from Jiujiang and Guangji, down to Suzhou and Taizhou, including Anqing and Taiping.

In order to deal with the intrusion of Japanese pirates, twenty-four naval guards were set up, each with fifty ships and 350 sergeants to repair them. The Ming Dynasty Navy was officially established.

Later, Fang Mingqian proposed, "When the Japanese invaders come out of the sea, the Imperial Guard on the Sea will measure the land and set up guard posts, gather troops on land, and use water warships to stagger them. The Japanese pirates will not be able to enter, nor will they be able to land ashore, so that they can be controlled." "

This suggestion was affirmed by Zhu Yuanzhang and became the basic idea for coastal defense construction in the early Ming Dynasty.

But now, the guard system has long since collapsed. Since the Japanese pirates attacked again in the Jiajing Dynasty, the coastal officials have felt that the pressure on coastal defense has doubled.

In a hurry, they had no choice but to look for recruits in local areas as much as possible, especially in the Guangdong area where the maritime economy was developed, where a large number of smuggling merchants were used as fire fighters.

In the end, he was simply included in the establishment and became a navy recognized by the imperial court.

And Zeng Yiben, who was once one of the smuggling merchants, was naturally called into the navy by the government.

If the Ming Dynasty military pay can be fully paid without deductions or arrears, for most boat people, although their income will definitely not be as high as in the past, they can still barely accept it.

However, as far as the government's logistics for the Ming army was concerned, Zeng Yiben was quickly allowed to leave the Ming army system and start his own business.

Smuggling merchants are both traders and thieves, so Zeng Yiben didn't feel any discomfort at all when he returned to his old business. He was just wanted by the government.

On the sea, the government could not catch him.

As for his opponent, the Ming Navy, in addition to some soldiers recruited from the Coast Guard, many of them were his old colleagues.

Even though Yu Dayou was in charge, he was not afraid at all on the sea.

What's more, with the opening of Yuegang, the patrol and defense center of the Ming Navy has been moved to the vicinity of Yuegang, which made him feel that there was an opportunity to take advantage of it.

Standing on the bow of the big ship, watching the boats under his command docking at Nan'ao Island, Zeng Ben was filled with great ambitions.

"Boss, it's time for us to land on the island."

Footsteps sounded behind him, and a burly man stood behind Zeng Yiben and said.

"Have all the arrangements been made for the people sent out to inquire about the information?"

Zeng Benben didn't look back, he still looked at the big ships in front of him and asked.

"It's been arranged, boss."

The big man behind him replied.

"Okay, let's go to the island."

Zeng Yiben replied.