Why did Zheng Zhilong oppose the court's currency reform?

Because currency reform will harm his interests!

One tael of silver could only be exchanged for a silver coin containing nine cents and one cent of silver, which was more painful than killing him.

Zheng Zhilong was a businessman and a pirate.

He is not responsible to anyone but himself.

There is no record in history of how much property Zheng Zhilong had, but a rough estimate is that it was at least tens of millions of taels of silver!

He has two sources of income.

One is to make money through ocean trade, and the other is to make money by selling flags.

The former is already a lot, but compared with the latter, it is just a drizzle.

Zheng Zhilong had started the flag-selling business long before he surrendered to the imperial court, and he sold flags even more unscrupulously after surrendering to the imperial court.

At that time, Zheng's fleet imitated the Dutch in making ship flags, and he sold the flags to passing ships.

Any passing ships flying Zheng’s flag would not be robbed.

Otherwise, it will be looted by Zheng Zhilong's men!

Since Zheng Zhilong had many warships and strong combat power, and three thousand taels of silver was not much for a merchant ship, passing ships paid money to avoid disaster.

The price of a ship's flag was generally three thousand taels of silver per ship per year.

From this item alone, Zheng Zhilong could earn nearly 10 million taels of silver every year.

The reason why Zheng Chenggong was able to compete with the Qing Dynasty in history was that he had financial support, otherwise he would have been defeated long ago.

pity.

Most of this money was obtained by the Qing Dynasty, among which the most famous was the Haicheng Rebellion in the tenth year of the Yongli reign (1656 AD).

In the tenth year of the Yongli reign, Huang Wu, the commander of Qianchong Town (now Haicheng), opened the city gate, let the Eight Banners soldiers enter the city, and surrendered to the Qing Dynasty.

Haicheng fell!

Haicheng was a strong city built by Zheng Chenggong at a huge expense. It not only stored 3,000 firearms and matching gunpowder bullets, but also countless food and fodder, military pay and nearly 100,000 sets of armor!

If converted into money, these things would be worth at least tens of millions of taels of silver.

Unfortunately, Huang Wu gave it all to the Qing Dynasty.

These supplies were like timely help to the Qing Dynasty!

In order to commend Huang Wu's achievements, Shunzhi immediately named Huang Wu as "Duke of Haicheng", gave him an imperial seal, and established a government in Zhangzhou.

The following year, Huang Wu's ancestor was posthumously honored and awarded silver to build a clan temple in his hometown.

You can see how much supplies there are!

Later, in order to deal with Zheng Chenggong, he offered "Five Strategies to Suppress the Bandits" to Oboi and Kangxi, including banning the sea and relocating people to inland areas.

In order to commend Huang Wu, Emperor Kangxi conferred him the title of Duke of the First Class and allowed him to inherit the throne twelve times.

Zheng Zhilong has money, power and soldiers!

It's not easy to deal with him.

The previous trade war only raised the price of grain in Fujian, but failed to achieve any other goals. It can almost be described as a failure.

What to do next?

Force him to rebel, and then send troops to pacify him?

No!

Not only is it not justified, it will also cause the Ming Dynasty to fall into internal strife.

Impact on the upcoming pacification of Liao!

Speaking of pacifying Liao, Chongzhen remembered that the court was short of money.

In order to pacify Liaodong, Chongzhen had to prepare at least an additional 15 million taels of silver.

There are military pay, equipment, food, pensions, and a reward of twenty taels of silver for every person killed!

Yes, a head of the Northern Tartars (Mongol and Jiannu) was worth twenty taels of silver.

When pacifying Liaodong, money can be saved on anything except this amount.

"Money, money!" Chongzhen said to himself with a wry smile, "My treasury is not short of money, but this news cannot be spread out, otherwise everyone will target the treasury!"

"How can we get the money to pacify Liao?"

After thinking for a long time, Chongzhen decided to start with Zheng Zhilong.

Not only was he rich, he also monopolized the maritime trade in the southeast and put the money that originally belonged to the court into his own pocket.

Let’s put aside for now whether to spit out the money we have earned, the monopoly on trade must come to an end!

After making up his mind, Chongzhen went to the harem to look for inspiration.

The next morning.

Chongzhen got up early and summoned Li Ruolian.

Chongzhen met Li Ruolian in the small garden next to the Qianqing Palace.

"Your Majesty!" Li Ruolian took two quick steps to Chongzhen and bowed.

"No need to be so polite!" Chongzhen waved his hand at Li Ruolian.

"Have you had breakfast?" Chongzhen asked.

"I had just taken a bite when I received the order from the Lord of the Attack Front, so I rushed here without stopping." Li Ruolian answered very honestly.

"Let's eat together!" Chongzhen said.

"I am...terrified!" Li Ruolian couldn't help swallowing his saliva while speaking.

Wang Chengen, who was standing next to him, couldn't bear to watch it anymore. He glanced at Li Ruolian and said, "Commander Li, don't panic. Wipe your saliva first."

Li Ruolian didn't dare to offend Wang Chengen and kept nodding to show weakness.

Soon after the group arrived at the Palace of Heavenly Purity, breakfast was served.

Breakfast is simple and light: soy milk, fried dough sticks and pickles!

As for the soy milk...

There was some among the people, but Chongzhen was not used to drinking it, so it was not introduced into the palace.

The king and his ministers ate and chatted.

Chongzhen drank a mouthful of hot soy milk and said, "Commander Li, in two or three months the Mongols will send a group of hostages to Beijing."

Li Ruo Lian put down the fried dough sticks and asked, "Hostages? How does your majesty want them to die?"

Chongzhen was confused: "Don't kill anyone."

"Oh..." Li Ruo Lian suddenly realized, "I have presumed to have the Holy Spirit, please forgive me, Your Majesty."

"Exonerated," Chongzhen said with a wry smile in his heart.

He had killed too many people before, which caused the Jinyiwei from top to bottom to want to kill people at any time.

It's not a bad thing, but it's not a good thing either.

Too much desire to kill will make people lose patience.

Some Jinyiwei, however, require patience to do their job well.

Thinking of this, Chongzhen instructed: "Try not to reveal your murderous mood to the outside world."

Li Ruolian was a smart man. He immediately understood what Chongzhen meant. He stood up and saluted: "I will obey your command."

"Well," Chongzhen waved for him to sit down, "Let's eat and talk."

After Li Ruolian was done, Chongzhen asked again: "Is there anyone in the Jinyiwei who is good at spending money?"

"Spend money?" Li Ruolian was a little surprised by this word.

"Yes, he spends money! He is good at eating, drinking and having fun." Chongzhen's brain worked quickly and he said, "I'm not afraid that he will spend money recklessly, but I'm afraid that he doesn't know how to spend money! Is there such a person in Jinyiwei?"