After listening to Zheng Cai's suggestion, Zhu Youzhen felt that this talented pirate was much more knowledgeable than the prisoners in the Guozi Prison.

However, after he praised Zheng Cai a little, he did not comment on Zheng Cai's proposal, but raised another question.

"Tell me what is the current situation on the island of Taiwan?" Zhu Youzhen's leapfrog thinking is very big.

Zheng Cai couldn't react a little, and he asked with some hesitation: "What does Your Majesty mean?" ”

"In addition to the Eighteen Zhi and the Dutch East India Company, what other forces are there on the island of Taiwan?"

Zheng Cai carefully sorted out his thoughts before he spoke: "The indigenous people of Taiwan are divided into Pingpu Shufan, who has a mild temperament and lives in the plains, and Gaoshan Shengfan, who is brave and ruthless, and lives in the mountains.

Last year, the Spanish Governor's Office in the Philippines sent Vals to Taipei with 14 warships and 200 soldiers to reconnoitre, and built the city of San Salvador on Sheliao Island near Jonlong Harbor. That's all he knows about Taiwan's situation. ”

"How many Spaniards are there in the Philippines? How many Chinese are there in the Philippines? Zhu Youzhen asked.

"The number of Spaniards settled in the Philippines was no more than 3,000. After the Spaniards massacred 30,000 overseas Chinese and Chinese businessmen in Luzon in the 31st year of Wanli, the number dropped to several hundred.

However, after more than 20 years of peace, and the Spanish re-recruited Chinese to settle in the Philippines, there are now about 20,000 or 30,000 people. Zheng Cai's tone became a little depressed when he talked about the massacre of the Chinese in Luzon by the Spaniards.

"Spain's population is only 3,000 now, isn't there only a few hundred people in the 31st year of Wanli, and their population is so small, how can they slaughter 30,000 Chinese at once?" Although Zhu Youzhen was angry, what he was even more puzzled about was the course of this massacre.

Zheng Cai sighed and said, "The royal city built by the Spaniards in Manila was not allowed to be inhabited by non-whites, and then they built a Balian city opposite the royal city as a residential area for the Chinese.

The Spaniards not only surrounded Balian with a high wall, but also built 8 forts around it, and the entire Balian was under the control of the forts, so when the Spaniards started, the Chinese were locked up in the city of Balian and bombarded by Spanish artillery.

Although the Spaniards were small in number, the unarmed Chinese had no ability to resist and had to die in vain. ”

Zheng Cai's words made Zhu Youzhen fall into contemplation, the sea of this era is a cruel world, and pirates and merchants are the masters of this world, which is also the prosperous period of the Age of Discovery, known as the Great Geographical Discovery.

When he first came to this era, he thought that with the more abundant resources he had mastered than Zheng Zhilong, he should be able to do more than Zheng Zhilong.

Lifting the maritime ban and expanding overseas trade. With enough merchant ships, there will naturally be enough sailors; With enough sailors, there will naturally be enough soldiers.

But if a few hundred Spanish colonists could slaughter Ming merchants so close to the Ming Dynasty, would they really be able to open up these risky sea lanes by letting these Ming merchant ships go farther to India, Africa, Australia, North and South America?

Again, if the Spaniards had not been punished for slaughtering the Ming merchants, then with the bandit nature of the European colonists in this era, I am afraid that the merchant ships of the Ming Dynasty would be regarded as the most delicious dessert on the sea.

After all, a merchant ship loaded with Chinese tea, porcelain, and silk is not much different from the value of a Spanish treasure ship, and the Ming merchant ship, which is weak in force, is much easier to plunder than a treasure ship armed to the teeth.

Zhu Youzhen thought for a long time before looking at Zheng Cai and cautiously asked, "What do you think of these Spaniards?" How do you think the imperial court should deal with them? ”

Zheng Cai had not yet been completely washed of his last conscience by his pirate career, and he replied a little angrily but cautiously: "These Spaniards are tigers and wolves, although they shout every day to save other people's souls, but they have no moral etiquette in their hearts.

The minister thought that the Ming should be wary of these Spaniards and not let them get close to the coastal areas of our Ming Dynasty, so as to prevent them from snooping on the reality of the Ming Dynasty and causing a rebellion.

But Manila and Japan are the only two places of trade for our Ming maritime merchants, and if they are at odds with the Spaniards, I am afraid that the overseas trade that His Majesty has just wanted to vigorously develop will encounter a setback.

In the view of the ministers, on the one hand, the imperial court wanted to rectify the coastal defense, and on the other hand, it wanted to declare the culture of the kingdom to these Spaniards. Let these Spaniards not attack the Chinese in Luzon again. ”

"Those who are not of my race will have different hearts. Yidi, the beast is also, afraid of power but not virtuous. After Zhu Youzhen silently read these two sentences, he casually asked a few words about Zheng Cai's family situation.

learned that he also has two younger brothers, one is named Zheng Lian, who is 19 years old this year, and follows him to earn a living at sea; One is Zheng De, who is only 14 years old and is studying at home.

"Zheng Qing's third brother, let's send it to Beijing to study at Yenching University." Zhu Youzhen commanded lightly.

Zheng Cai looked very happy, and after thanking Chongzhen, he said: "When the minister goes back, he will write a letter to his family and ask his brother to come to the capital to study." Your Majesty's grace, the minister is really frightened. ”

"There's no need to be in such a hurry, it's almost New Year's Day, and the New Year is coming. Just let your third brother spend the New Year at home, and the canal will freeze next spring. Zhu Youzhen said with satisfaction.

Seeing that it was not too early, Wang Chengen couldn't help but carefully remind Chongzhen a few words. Then the group left the house of the hundred households of the brocade and returned to the palace.

When the carriage passed through Xijiang Rice Lane, Zhu Youzhen stopped the carriage and let Wang Chengen come up behind, the two talked through the window for a while, Zhu Youzhen continued to move forward, and Wang Chengen and the carriage he was sitting in stayed.

Wang Chengen got back into the car, then ordered to turn north, and went directly into the Jinyi Guard's yamen.

Seeing the visit of the Dongchang factory, a group of high-ranking officials in brocade clothes ran out. After Wang Chengen glanced at the crowd, he frowned and asked Luo Yangxing, the commander of the capital, "Xu Xianchun, where is Xu Baihu?" ”

Luo Yangxing was obviously a little confused, and when he was about to turn around and ask his colleagues, the commander Liu Yingxun immediately whispered a report and said: "Xu Baihu, since he got the warrant from the master of the factory, he has closed the edict and no one is allowed to enter or leave. Now no one knows what he is going to do in prison. ”

Luo Yangxing saw that Wang Chengen didn't pay attention to Liu Ying's intention at all, and immediately turned around and severely reprimanded him.

"If you don't hurry up and find Xu Baihu, just say that the factory is going to summon him." Luo Yangxing then turned back to Wang Chengen and said affectionately: "It's better for the factory to go to the official duty room for a while first, Xu Baihu will come soon." ”

After entering the duty room, Wang Chengen drank a cup of hot tea, and his fatigue disappeared a lot. was drinking tea, and when the two were chatting without saying a word, Liu Yingxun happened to walk in with Xu Xianchun.

Wang Chengen waved his hand, Luo Yangxing suddenly got up and left the room, while Liu Yingxing was a little reluctant, he was still counting on being able to join the hot new powerful factory in the palace by the way.

However, after Luo Yangxing glared at him, Liu Yingxing suddenly walked out.

Wang Chengen beckoned to Xu Xianchun, and after signaling him to walk in front of him, he asked in a low voice, "How are things prepared?" ”

Xu Xianchun said sincerely: "The leader has been found, but the Jinyi guards are all serious offenders. Without a strict review, the lower officials didn't dare to let them out like this. If the Gyeonggi disaster is too serious, I'm afraid that the lower officials will also be in trouble.

Moreover, there are more officials in Jinyiwei Prison, and it is relatively rare to see thieves in the rivers and lakes, but there are many thieves in the prison of the Criminal Department. However, the officials of the Criminal Department did not allow the lower officials to take prisoners from the prison on the pretext that this was a warrant from the factory and not His Majesty's will. ”

Wang Chengen quietly took out a scroll from his arms and handed it to Xu Xianchun, "The miscellaneous family has expected it, so the miscellaneous family has written a letter to you." Besides, tomorrow these chosen prisoners will be on their way, and there is no longer any longer room for delay..."

Zhu Youzhen, who returned to the Qianqing Palace, turned around and went to the upper study after changing his clothes under the service of the chamberlain.

After entering the door, he habitually shouted: "Wang Chengen..." As soon as the words came out, he understood, and then changed his words: "Lu Qi, bring over the documents that I didn't read yesterday for me." ”

Since classifying the folds, Zhu Youzhen has reduced the number of folds he has to deal with every day from hundreds to dozens, which has given him a lot of time to deal with other affairs.

These days, he has been studying the way in which Fujian and Liangguang have approached overseas affairs, starting from the Wanli Dynasty.

After Zhu Youzhen read these documents, it was already dark. After thinking for a while, he took a blank piece of paper from the case and wrote a beginning to rehabilitate Pan Hewu, Guo Weitai and others.

“… In the twenty-first year of Wanli, the Spanish governor in the Philippines, Das Marinas, forcibly recruited Pan Hewu, Guo Weitai and others, who were the people of the Ming Dynasty, to serve as oarsmen.

During the period, day and night, everyone stopped to breathe, and then they were whipped, and even stabbed our Ming people with bayonets. and the fifth class could not bear the persecution, and asked the people to assassinate the governor Dasmarinas. This is a rebellion against the poison of the people, not a murderous rebellion.

Pan Hewu, Guo Weitai and others returned west with the boat, and the son of Dasmarinas deceived the governor of Liangguang and slandered him as a sea coward, and the local officials did not investigate for a while, and arrested Guo Weitai and 31 others and sent them back to Manila, which is really painful.

After this incident, the Yi people regarded my Ming as a weak and bullying country. In the 31st year of Wanli, the aborigines and Japanese merchants raised a massacre against our Chinese in Manila, causing 30,000 casualties among our overseas people, and I was very heartbroken.

In view of the miserable situation of our Ming people, I am determined to rehabilitate Pan Hewu, Guo Weitai and other righteous people, and ask local officials to compensate their descendants.

In the future, all the people of the Ming Dynasty who have not announced their renunciation of their identity after going abroad will still be regarded as the children of the Ming Dynasty and will be protected by our Ming Dynasty. Those who clashed with the Ming and Yi people had to be sent back to their homeland and interrogated by Ming officials.

All the judgment of the Ming people will be invalid, and those who dare to punish the people of the Ming Dynasty will be regarded as contempt for the laws of the Ming Dynasty, and the Ming Dynasty has the right to take any measures to fight back. ”