Anhai Town, Quanzhou Prefecture.
Outside the gate of Anping Prefecture, Gu Yanwu's sedan chair slowly stopped.
Anping Prefecture is the name of Zheng Zhilong's residence.
Looking at the three big characters on the plaque, Gu Yanwu's butler's legs went weak.
He asked through the curtain of the sedan chair: "Master...you said to send the trouble to other people. Could those other people be people from the Zheng Mansion?"
"Of course, no one except him would dare to take this trouble."
"Master, please think twice..." The butler felt a knife hanging behind his neck, making his neck feel cold.
"Stop talking nonsense and go report it quickly." Gu Yanwu scolded softly.
The housekeeper gritted his teeth and said to the doorman of Zheng's house, "Hurry up and report to Deputy General Zheng, and tell him that the judge of Quanzhou Prefecture, Mr. Gu, is here to discuss official business."
The servant did not dare to delay and delivered the news to Zheng Zhilong and Zheng Chenggong respectively.
Deputy General Zheng was Zheng Chenggong.
It was only natural to inform him.
As the head of the family, Zheng Zhilong also needed to inform him.
"Master," the servant came to Zheng Zhilong, "Gu Yanwu, the magistrate of Quanzhou Prefecture, came to visit you to discuss official business."
"Official business?" Zheng Zhilong narrowed his eyes and pondered for a moment. "If it's official business, then you should go to the government office to discuss it. Why do you have to come to the mansion?"
The servant didn't know the answer, so he could only keep silent.
"Look here," Zheng Zhilong whispered in the servant's ear, "You arrange for someone to sneak into the young master's yard and listen to what they are going to say."
"Yes," the servant turned and left.
At this time, Zheng Chenggong had already arrived outside the palace gate to greet him. When he saw Gu Yanwu's sedan chair, he immediately shouted, "Master Gu, how are you?"
Gu Yanwu stepped down from the sedan chair and bowed: "Deputy General Zheng is here to greet you personally. I am flattered!"
After the pleasantries, the two came to Zheng Chenggong's yard.
I walked into the room and closed the door, and the servant immediately brought me hot tea.
The two exchanged pleasantries for a while, and Zheng Chenggong could not help asking, "Master Gu said he had some official business to discuss. What is it?"
"It's about the blacks!" Gu Yanwu deliberately said in front of the servants: "Yuegang is the port of the Ming Dynasty's ocean trade. I just arrived and found that there are many blacks there."
"There are indeed quite a few illegal immigrants," Zheng Chenggong said halfway when he realized there was a servant in the room, so he waved his hand and asked him to leave.
After the servant left, Zheng Chenggong continued, "Did these black barbarians cause trouble for the government?"
"Indeed," Gu Yanwu nodded seriously, "Only a very small number of these black tribes abide by the laws of the Ming Dynasty. The vast majority of the rest are lawless and have seriously disrupted local public order."
"Recently, the people have been reporting the various evil deeds of the Hei Fan, and requested the court to punish them severely."
"These people did not commit capital crimes, so they cannot be sentenced to death and can only be detained in prison."
"Isn't this good? Why is Lord Gu still frowning?" Zheng Chenggong asked.
"Putting them in jail not only takes up cells, but also wastes food. The expenses of the Quanzhou government office are limited, and I don't want to waste a penny on these black foreigners!"
"Oh," Zheng Chenggong immediately understood the purpose of Gu Yanwu's visit. He asked, "Does Master Gu want to put them in the navy's prison?"
"No," Gu Yanwu smiled and took out a document from his arms and handed it to Zheng Chenggong: "I have reported this matter to the court, and His Majesty has replied. But I don't understand the content of the decree, so I would like to ask Deputy General Zheng to help me with some advice."
As a scholar, how could Gu Yanwu not understand the content of the imperial edict?
Zheng Chenggong didn't know whether to believe it or not.
He took the document, opened it, and quickly scanned it, finally setting his eyes on Chongzhen's red comments.
When a minister had something to report to the emperor, the emperor would use a red pen when replying, also known as red comments.
Chongzhen only wrote three lines of words in red pen on the question, and each line of words was very simple.
The first line of words is cotton.
The second line of words is whip.
The last line of words is in Western language.
Influenced by Zheng Zhilong, Zheng Chenggong had some knowledge of Western characters.
Since the Western language written by Chongzhen was very simple, Zheng Chenggong understood it immediately.
"Deputy General Zheng, what does the last sentence in Western language mean?" Gu Yanwu asked.
"Go work," Zheng Chenggong read it out very smoothly, "This sentence means go to work."
After listening to the translation, Gu Yanwu said curiously: "Your Majesty can actually write Western language, this is too strange."
"There's nothing strange about that," Zheng Chenggong explained. "The four foreign languages at the capital are all full of talented people who are proficient in both Eastern and Western languages. With your Majesty's talent, you can learn it if you want."
"Then your majesty, is there any deep meaning behind these three lines of words?" Gu Yanwu was even more confused and could only continue to ask Zheng Chenggong for advice.
"This..." Zheng Chenggong was also confused by these three lines of words.
He could understand each line of words individually, but not when they were put together.
"Cotton...it should be cotton, no other meaning." Zheng Chenggong said uncertainly.
"If that's the case, then a whip is a whip?" Gu Yanwu muttered to himself.
The two pondered for a while, and Zheng Chenggong suddenly said: "Your Majesty wants these black foreigners to work."
"Could you please clarify my doubts, Deputy General Zheng?"
"Look," Zheng Chenggong pointed at the word "cotton" and said, "those black barbarians violated the laws of the Ming Dynasty and should be severely punished. It is said that black barbarians have endless energy, and it is a waste to lock them up in prison. Your Majesty's idea is to let them pick cotton."
"This way, we can earn wages from the cotton farmers through them, and we can also use the money to buy food for them. This will not only punish these illegal immigrants, but also not take up a penny of the Quanzhou government's expenses. It can be said that the dilemma is solved!"
"What does the whip mean?" asked Gu Yanwu.
"If they don't work, beat them."
"What's the deep meaning of the last sentence in Western language?"
"You have to shout slogans when you smoke. This Western phrase is a slogan." Zheng Chenggong explained without any instruction, "It's like shouting "Go" when driving cattle to plow the land, urging the cattle to keep working and not stop."
"Oh!" Gu Yanwu suddenly realized, "Thank you, Deputy General Zheng, for clarifying my doubts. I am very grateful."
"Sir Gu, that's not right. We are all colleagues, no need to thank me." Zheng Chenggong said with some pride.
"There is one more thing," Gu Yanwu suddenly lowered his voice, "Recently, a fisherman reported to me that someone was smuggling gunpowder. I wonder if Deputy General Zheng has also received relevant information?"
"Smuggling? Gunpowder!" Zheng Chenggong was shocked. "This is a big case. How come I don't know about it?"
Gu Yanwu stared at Zheng Chenggong, carefully observing the changes in his facial expression.
He is thinking...
Zheng Chenggong is the eldest son. Did he know about Zheng Zhilong’s smuggling?
I definitely know some, but probably not much.
Officials want their sons to continue to be officials, but pirates don't want their sons to continue to be pirates.
on the contrary.
The pirate would try his best to separate himself from his son and prevent him from knowing and getting involved in his own bad deeds.
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