Chapter 674 773 South Australia

In a state of desperation, Liao Wang Zhu Xian actually hung a flag with the words "Sue for Injustice" on the roof of the palace, intending to express that he was persecuted by Zhang Juzheng and was wronged.

He did not expect that his action had another meaning, that is, to rise up in rebellion.

The official who arrived in Jiangling first was Shi Duchen, the deputy envoy of Jiangxi Huguang Censorate. When he got the news, he was overjoyed, because he immediately ordered 500 soldiers from the nearby guards to surround the huge Liao Wang Palace.

It was not a small matter for soldiers to surround the prince's palace, but the reason given by Shi Duchen was that "the Liao Wang rebelled."

However, he still knew the depth. Although the Liao Wang had done many unjust things in his fiefdom and caused many disasters, he was a prince after all. Before there was an imperial decree or the imperial envoy arrived in Jiangling, Shi Duchen did not order the soldiers to break into the Liao Wang Palace.

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

The "banner of appeal for injustice" was standing there, and both Hong Chaoxuan and Cheng Yaoxiang felt it was difficult.

Was Shi Duchen at fault for leading troops to surround the Liao Palace?

No.

He did not allow troops to enter the palace to search or arrest people, but waited for them to arrive and handed over the hot potato.

From this, the two knew almost instantly that the Liao King must have really offended the local officials in his fiefdom, and everyone hated him, which led to the situation.

Otherwise, the Jingzhou Guard would not have dispatched troops immediately after Shi Duchen issued the order, which was also a risk.

"Master Hong, Master Cheng, you are the imperial envoys. Look, the King of Liao has blatantly raised a big flag in the palace. Isn't this a rebellion or something?

I contacted the left and right to mobilize troops to surround the palace because I was worried that he would collude with someone outside and cut off their connection. I was also worried that something might happen again in the next few days.

Now, please make the decision, the two adults, what to do next."

In front of Hong Chaoxuan, the left assistant minister of the Ministry of Justice, and Cheng Yaoxiang, the commander of the Jinyiwei, Shi Duchen insisted that the King of Liao's uprising in the palace was a sign of rebellion, which made the two of them at a loss for a while.

"Master Shi, is there anything unusual in the Palace of the King of Liao these days?"

Hong Chaoxuan had to ask.

"In the past few days, several people in the palace wanted to go out of the palace to buy things. I asked the soldiers not to stop them, but just to follow and monitor, and found nothing unusual."

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

Whether the King of Liao intends to rebel, they, the local officials, know it well.

Therefore, they did not force the King of Liao to death, and normal purchases were not prohibited, but they just kept surrounding the palace.

In fact, they were also gambling, betting that Emperor Longqing did not like the King of Liao, and sent Hong Chaoxuan to go through the motions to punish him.

Although Zhu Xian had poor conduct and committed various illegal acts in the vassal state, he was still doing well in the Jiajing Dynasty because he and Emperor Shizong of the Ming Dynasty shared the same hobby of "cultivating immortals".

Emperor Shizong not only gave him the Taoist name "Qingwei Zhongjiao Zhenren" and the golden seal, but also rewarded and cared for him a lot. The Liao vassal state once "ranked first among all vassal states in terms of palaces, gardens, music, performances, dogs and horses".

However, after Emperor Longqing ascended the throne, Zhu Xian's good days were over.

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

It can be seen that Emperor Longqing really disliked Taoism at this time.

Although he knew that the new emperor did not like to practice Taoism and that his past deeds had been impeached by officials from Huguang, Zhu Xian was not afraid. This was the confidence given to him by his princely title.

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

Today, he received news from the palace gate and knew that people from the capital had arrived.

After all, they were imperial envoys who were ordered to handle cases, so they still had the necessary ceremonial guards.

Soon, the chief historians and the clerks in the palace rushed to the hall to discuss, but some of them were still drunk and most of them looked haggard.

They all knew the situation facing the Liao Palace. As the old saying goes, there are servants like the master. The people in the Liao Palace might have been normal when they were first sent by the court.

But after following Zhu Xian for a long time, they also followed Zhu Xian to bully men and women and do all kinds of evil.

Now that the court has come, they are actually the most frightened compared to the Liao King.

Once the Liao King is convicted, none of them can escape.

Maybe the King of Liao will be fine, but they will all be punished.

However, when the time comes, what can they do in front of the King of Liao?

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

Shi Duchen was very smart. He used this trick to put the people's anxiety at ease, knowing that the court might be serious about the King of Liao this time.

The King of Liao summoned the people and asked them to come up with a solution, but when the time came, what solution could they come up with? They all looked confused.

Just when the King of Liao was about to explode in anger, the guards at the gate came in to report that the imperial envoy had arrived outside the palace.

"Open the middle gate to welcome him."

The King of Liao glanced at his group of drunkards and gave vicious orders.

At this time, the King of Liao did not realize that the reason Shi Duchen attacked 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 definitely knock down the flagpole first and find a way to destroy it.

Even if there were witnesses, as long as there was no physical evidence, the King of Liao would not admit it, and the court and the emperor would 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 various princes every year.

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

After the biological 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 affairs of the Qian Dynasty, Cheng Yao, to take down all the officials of the palace for interrogation, and at the same time to conduct an inventory of the people in the palace of the Liao Dynasty. In fact, it has been expressed that the crime committed by the Liao Dynasty has been recognized by the court.

Inviting the King of Liao and Princess Wang to rest, Cheng Yaoxiang first commanded the Jinyi Guards to capture all the palace officials, and then began to conduct a search in the palace.

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

The reason was, of course, that the King of Liao might have rebelled, and the palace needed to be searched to confirm whether armor and other items were 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 officials 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 he 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 severely. 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 massive invasion of Japanese pirates in the 31st year of Jiajing, this place has also 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 Yiben found out 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 situation and attack other nearby coastal counties, but I heard that Yu Dayou ordered the naval warships from Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong provinces that had been assembled to go south to come back for reinforcements. There were also armed merchant ships assembled by Macau Chinese merchants to come to the rescue, so I made a decisive choice. Withdrew to the sea and first sold the spoils taken from the vicinity of 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 sailed 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 pirates Zeng Yiming and did not dare to fight in Guangzhou City.

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 reach 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 city, 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 allowed 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 find 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.