Chongzhen personally issued an edict to suspend the encirclement and suppression of Zheng Zhilong's pirate group and recruit security. Not only did it reassure the Fujian gentry, but it also relieved the officers and soldiers of the Fujian Navy Division, and Yu Zhigao also took advantage of Chongzhen's will to make Xu Xinsu and An Haishang have to give in.

And Chongzhen then ordered Yu Zhigao, Xu Xinsu, Zheng Zhilong and others to go to Beijing, although Yu Zhigao, Xu Xinsu and Zheng Zhilong and other pirate leaders were not in harmony, they had to obey the will at this moment and accompany Lu Jiude to the north.

Yu Zhigao and Xu Xinsu believed that Zheng Zhilong and other pirate leaders wanted to go north through the inland canal. And Zheng Zhilong and other pirate leaders also couldn't trust the government and insisted on entering Beijing by sea.

Lu Jiude, Lian Shanxiang and others, because they had been out of Beijing for too long, were a little homesick and wanted to return to the capital before the lunar month, plus some foreign crops they collected in Fujian and Guangdong, and the farmers who were familiar with planting had to bring them back to the capital together, and it would be quite inconvenient to take the land route.

Therefore, under Lu Jiude's decision, he finally chose to enter Beijing by sea. Zheng Zhilong's ship is the tallest and strongest, and the large ship at sea is relatively stable, so Lu Jiude and others chose to take Zheng Zhilong's ship.

Although Liu Xiang paid to buy a representative seat from Lu Jiude, his distrust of the imperial court was much stronger than that of Zheng Zhilong, and he did not go to Beijing himself, but sent his brother Liu Yong to the north with a medium-sized ship.

As for Xu Xinsu, he naturally wouldn't go to Zheng Zhilong's ship, and also drove his own ship north. Yu Zhigao wanted to take Xu Xinsu's ship north, but because Lu Jiude was on Zheng Zhilong's ship, he, the general of the defeated army, did not dare not accompany the emperor's close attendants, hoping that the emperor's close attendants could say something good to himself in front of the emperor.

As for Bill, the temporary consul of the Dutch East India Company's Taiwan Merchant House, he also followed Lu Jiude north. However, the ships of the East India Company had their own tasks, and Bill, the temporary consul, could only manage the land affairs of the Taiwanese merchants, and without Peternats' orders, these merchant ships would not follow Bill's orders to go to a northern city where trade could not be traded.

The sea voyage was much faster than on land, and in less than 20 days, three ships had arrived off Tianjin.

Entering the mouth of Dagu, the three boats carefully lowered their hard sails, in this strange place where he did not know the hydrogeography, Zheng Zhilong did not want to run aground because of blind driving.

The port of Tianjin is a river port, and it is necessary to sail up the Haihe River for a while to reach the port. Zheng Zhilong was thinking about sending someone to get off the boat and go to the nearby to find a villager who was familiar with the waterway to guide him, when a water finger pointed to the distance and said that someone was coming.

Zheng Zhilong saw that it was two soldiers wearing Ming military uniforms walking over from the snow-covered river embankment, and immediately ordered someone to send someone to pick them up on the boat.

After getting on the boat, after Wen Daolin, a small banner of the Gegu Coastal Defense Battalion, got on the boat, he saw a general, a eunuch, several Jinyi guards, and some southerners who didn't look like good people, and his heart suddenly became a little nervous, and he didn't know what the number of these people was.

Lu Jiude stepped forward and ordered Wen Daolin, who saluted him: "The miscellaneous family is Lu Jiude, a close attendant of His Majesty's side, who was ordered to go out of Beijing on an errand, you go to find a villager who is familiar with the waterway and let him bring these ships into the port." ”

Although Wen Daolin didn't know who Lu Jiude was, his style was completely like a palace eunuch, and he also quietly looked at the outfits of Lian Shanxiang and other brocade guards at this time, which were genuine brocade guards.

Wen Daolin naturally didn't dare to slack off, and he immediately replied respectfully: "This sergeant Liu Dayou next to the lowly rank is a person who is familiar with the river, please rest assured, the lowly rank will definitely properly introduce the ship into the dock." ”

Hearing Wen Daolin's words, Liu Dayou, who was on the side, suddenly took out a red cloth from his arms and waved it towards an earthen platform on the shore, so that the sergeants in the beacon tower did not need to be vigilant anymore.

With the help of two sergeants who were familiar with the Haihe River, the ship of Zheng Zhilong and others arrived at Tianjin Port very smoothly.

And Wen Daolin introduced the geography of the Haihe River to Lu Jiude on the side, which also made Lu Jiude full of good feelings for this little flag.

On a trip to the south, Lu Jiude not only opened his eyes, but also let him know why His Majesty attaches so much importance to coastal defense.

If in the future, the sailor can get a piece of the maritime trade, then the sailor will become a treasure that the Ming magnates are eager to see.

Although Lu Jiude is young, he still can't resist this huge wealth. But he also knows that with his current shallow qualifications, if he wants to meddle in overseas trade, he is afraid that he will be swallowed by others.

And whether it is Zheng Zhilong or Yu Zhigao, they all want to use him to gain the trust of His Majesty the Emperor now, rather than really wanting to befriend him.

It is estimated that when they meet the more powerful eunuch in the palace, they will kick him to the back of the head, how can they allow him to get involved in the interests of maritime trade.

The little flag of the Gegu Coastal Defense Battalion was gentle and talked well, and he had a good understanding of coastal defense matters, which made Lu Jiude think something different.

When he got off the ship at the port, Lu Jiude took out a silver medal from his sleeve and threw it to Wen Daolin and said: "You sergeant, you have some insight when you speak, this is the miscellaneous family to reward you for drinking wine to ward off the cold." ”

Wen Daolin pinched the weight of the silver medal in his hand, it was about two or two, and he immediately thanked happily, "Thank you, Lord for the reward." ”

Zheng Zhilong turned a blind eye to the scene in front of him, and just asked his entourage to give the two of them a silver ingot of 5 taels as a reward for diverting water.

Looking at the figure of the group in the distance, Wen Daolin touched the silver in his arms, and said to Liu Dayou beside him: "Today is a good thing, with this silver, our brothers don't have to suffer on the beach." ”

Liu Dayou looked at the backs of Lu Jiude and the others with some regret, shook his head and said: "This is a good thing, you shouldn't have taken these rewards just now, if you can make this noble person remember you, you may not be able to leave the shabby place of the coastal defense camp in the future." ”

Wen Daolin said nonchalantly: "As far as the officialdom of Daming is concerned, if you want the nobles to remember, you have to come out with real money." And even if you leave the coastal defense camp, it is not the same as being influenced by the birds of those who read. Don't say anything, it just so happens that you and I will invite Zhao Baihu to eat a good table, and we can transfer the brothers back. ”

Huang Yuntai, the governor of Tianjin, was worried about his constant impeachment by the Donglin Party.

Although the character of this Tianjin governor is a little worse, he is also dedicated to his own work.

The governor of Tianjin supervised the distribution of Liaodong's military salary, and Huang Yuntai naturally understood what it meant to be paid in a timely manner.

The Liaodong defense line blocked Gyeonggi, but the 80,000 soldiers in Liaodong plus tens of thousands of people depended on the supply of grain from Jiangnan. Tianjin, as a transshipment place for grain from the capital and military from Liaodong, is naturally the top priority.

Although the military rations of Liaodong and the grain transported to the capital also came from the south of the Yangtze River, the capacity of the canal was limited, so there was naturally a problem of sorting. In the eyes of the eunuchs supervised by Caoyun, the order of grain to maintain the supply of the capital is naturally above the military rations of Liaodong.

Since then, Liaodong military rations have been giving way to Caoliang, which has led to the problem of frequent delays in transportation to Tianjin.

In order to ensure that the Liaodong military rations were transported to the hands of the soldiers outside the customs in a timely manner, the governor did something to intercept the grain.

Although there was no shortage of military rations in Liaodong, the grain supplied to the Beijing camp in the capital was insufficient, and the interests of the officials in charge of the camp were damaged, and they were naturally dissatisfied with the governor of Tianjin.

Huang Yuntai offended the Beijing officials by intercepting the grain, but he did not get any good results. He took the risk to intercept the grain, which was burned by the Houjin in Youtun and Juehua Island, and looted more than 200,000 stones, plus other places that were looted and burned by the Houjin, the total loss of military grain in Liaodong reached 6, 700,000 stones.

In other words, because Huang Yuntai worked too hard to deliver military rations to Liaodong, after Ningyuan's victory, Liaodong fell into a food shortage. And Jin Qiliang, the general judge who was in charge of managing the military rations in Liaodong, died in the battle of Ningyuan by setting off artillery at the head of the city.

After Huang Yuntai learned the news, his heart suddenly cooled half. As soon as Jin Qiliang died, no one could tell the accounts of the military rations in Liaodong. He knew very well in his heart that the price of grain in Liaodong was expensive, the price of rice was 7 or 8 taels per stone, and the price of millet was 2 or 3 taels per stone.

But even Jin Qiliang, the judge of the grain management, died so mysteriously, and the amount of military rations stolen and sold should not be a small number.

The price of grain in Houjin was said to be as high as 80 taels and one stone, and under such a high grain price, Houjin could still launch wars against the Ming Dynasty, Mongolia, and Korea, and his military rations obviously fell from the sky.

Although Huang Yuntai was not so innocent when he transferred the Liaodong army rations, and he also drifted away the materials according to the usual practice, the Liaodong Army's practice of taking advantage of the enemy's invasion to bleaching the entire account was really a bit excessive.

It is no wonder that when Liaodong Jingluo asked for a slight increase in the number of guards, food, and garrisons in Jinzhou, Youtun, Xiaolinghe, Songshan, Xingshan and other places, and retreated to Shanhaiguan, Yuan Chonghuan, a mere Ningqian Dao, was able to encourage Liaoxi to defend Ningyuan and not withdraw.

It's not because these Liaoxi generals suddenly realized that they still had the responsibility to defend the territory, but because they really couldn't withdraw the grain that was transported to the front line, so they could only grit their teeth and wait for the Houjin army to loot so that they could write off the debt.

This sentence Jin Qiliang probably saw that he could not escape the blame, and committed suicide in a state of confusion.

Later, after Jin robbed the supplies near Guangning, he took the initiative to retreat, which saved the lives of Yuan Chonghuan and Liaoxi Jiangmen. Then they fooled the court with Ning Yuan's victory, and by the way, they covered up their theft and sale of military rations.

But Huang Yuntai didn't get any credit, but because of the interception of Caoliang, he hated the magnates in Beijing, and the most important thing is that he originally had the support of Gonggong Wei, but now that Gonggong Wei is gone, he has become a helpless sea of people.