Late Ming Dynasty: Oops, I am surrounded by the Donglin Party

As Zhang Shenyan spoke, he took a wooden box from the servant and opened it. Inside was a whole stack of silver notes totaling one million taels.

It was quite embarrassing to say. As the current Minister of Personnel and a big shot in the Donglin clan, it was already a very embarrassing thing for him to personally give gifts to a crude pirate leader.

What made him feel most embarrassed was that Zheng Zhilong refused to accept it!

Zhang Shenyan still remembers that he was angry for several days and cursed Zheng Zhilong's eight generations of ancestors.

When he returned to Nanjing and his colleagues asked him about it, he just said that everything was going well.

What else can I do? Will I have to endure the humiliation I have suffered again in front of my colleagues?

"Not accepting it? So much money was delivered to his doorstep, why wouldn't he accept it?" wondered a Nanjing official present.

They studied hard for ten years, took the imperial examination like a giant army trying to cross a single-plank bridge, and then worked hard to climb to their current position.

For what?

Is it really for the sake of loyalty to the emperor and patriotism?

The salary at the court was so low that after ten years of hard study and another ten years of ups and downs in officialdom, the salary was not even enough to feed and clothe the family.

The natural reason for being an official is to have fine clothes and delicious food!

But even so, the official's total assets were less than one million taels after being so corrupt.

He simply couldn't understand why the pirate leader Zheng Zhilong would refuse to accept such a large amount of money when it was delivered to his doorstep.

"Alas, don't you know anything about maritime trade? The Zheng family controls the entire South China Sea and East China Sea, so they may not be short of the one million taels of silver."

Xu Hongji thought for a moment and expressed his guess.

The people present were all staunch supporters of the maritime ban, and they did not want the imperial court to get a piece of the pie.

They all have people engaged in maritime trade to some extent, of course, all relying on smuggling.

But even so, if you want to sail smoothly, you have to pay protection fees to the pirate leader Zheng Zhilong.

Otherwise, the fleet would surely encounter an accident as soon as it left Ming Dynasty.

One ship is worth three thousand taels of protection money. Even if the people present are not personally involved in the business, they should know this.

"Of course we are not short of money. I think everyone here is not short of money. Will you refuse the money that is delivered to your door?" someone else suggested.

Xu Hongji's face turned dark. Now that things have come to this, what's the point of worrying about whether Zheng Zhilong will accept the money?

These people are obsessed with money, right?

I don’t know when Xu Hongji started to regret it. How could he bring down the traitor Zhang Shikang by working with such a group of insects?

"Imperial Censor Liu, right? Let me ask you, if you were a wealthy man and someone only gave you one or two taels of silver as a gift, would you accept it?" Xu Hongji asked back.

Even though he was very dissatisfied with this group of Donglin Party members, he had already boarded the pirate ship and could not get off, so he could only bite the bullet and act as the navigator.

Just as his metaphor suggests, the wealth in your eyes and the wealth in the eyes of the pirate leader Zheng Zhilong are completely not on the same level.

Upon hearing this, Censor Liu fell silent. Giving him only one or two taels of silver as a gift, wasn't that an insult?

"Please don't dwell on this issue any more. The most urgent matter is how to deal with the next counterattack from that bastard!

If we can't solve this problem, we'll all die!" Qian Qianyi was very smart and immediately put an end to the meaningless speculation and got to the heart of the matter.

But after these words were spoken, no one spoke in the hall for a long time.

Without the navy, the Northern Expedition is completely impossible. Without the power to control the river, those bastards can cross the river at any time.

Although they claimed to have 300,000 soldiers, the bastard could only mobilize 60,000 to 70,000 troops when he went south this time.

But Gao Jie's retreat without a fight was still fresh in people's minds, and the navy was completely annihilated. Morale was at its lowest point, and no one had any confidence left.

After a long stalemate, it was finally Xu Hongji, who knew a little about military affairs, who spoke first.

"I don't know what you are thinking, and whether you know exactly what will happen to us after our defeat.

But now I have to put the problem on the table. There are only two paths before us.

One is to surrender, or run south, in the end you will still surrender." Xu Hongji said in a resounding voice.

He absolutely could not tolerate this group of scholars still wavering between defending and escaping at this time, as they were playing with their own lives.

Just as he said, if everyone wants to run, then act now, whether it means abandoning your family or running away alone, but you must be decisive.

If you are reluctant to give up your property and land in Nanjing, and are unwilling to make a desperate move, that would be a real way to death.

But where can we go if we run south?

The defense lines of Chizhou, Taiping, Nanjing, Zhenjiang, Changzhou, and Suzhou are all along the river, so they are always protected by natural barriers.

If this line of defense is lost, the morale of the army will inevitably be greatly damaged. To the south, the road is basically flat and there are no solid walls to defend.

Even if they escaped into the mountains, it would be difficult to avoid the searches of the factory guards. They were all pampered people, how could they endure such a life?

Apart from this, there is only one option, which is to escape overseas by ship.

But this is definitely a life-or-death choice.

Everyone here is over 50 years old. The idea of returning to one’s roots has long been ingrained in their hearts, but at this age, they still have to wander around and drift overseas.

It would be better to just die.

"I think none of you want to choose the first one. Sir, there is no need to hide it. Just tell us the second idea directly." Zhang Shenyan urged.

"The second is, of course, to defend the Chizhou-Nanjing-Suzhou line with all our might.

Send more people to keep an eye on them day and night. Even without the navy, as long as we find the landing place of the thieves, we can send elite troops to intercept them as soon as possible and prevent them from crossing the river.

Besides that, we should also collect more money and food. Doesn’t the pirate leader Zheng Zhilong think it’s too little?

Then give him the amount he thinks is appropriate!

At the same time, he gave double military pay to the soldiers below to boost their morale.

Now that a knife is hanging around my neck, should I still care about those properties?

As long as we can convince the Zheng family, or bring them to our side, our advantage will be far greater than a little bit."

Xu Hongji said meaningfully.

"Okay! Sir, what you said makes sense. Now that things have come to this, if I still don't want to spend the money, it would be really short-sighted.

I know that it is not easy for you to save up some property, but you must understand that once we can get rid of that bastard, the property we have lost will be taken back many times over.

I, Zhang Shenyan, am willing to donate all my family property to donate 1.1 million taels." Seeing that no one else took the lead, Zhang Shenyan immediately expressed his opinion.

This remark attracted the attention of those present. Although everyone present knew that they were all greedy, no one directly reported their family assets.

This is a very sensitive topic for them.

But sometimes it is like this, once things that should not be put on the table are put on the table, they will have unexpected effects.

As the Minister of Personnel of Nanjing, Zhang Shenyan was considered a leader in the officialdom. He could show such an attitude. Of course, other officials also followed suit and reported the amount of donations according to their own ranks.

They absolutely did not believe that that was all of Minister Zhang's property, but it was an example for them anyway.

Xu Hongji glanced at Qian Qianyi again, indicating that it was his turn to set an example.

……