Seeing Zheng Chenggong's genuine surprise, Gu Yanwu became more convinced of his guess.
He believed that Zheng Chenggong was not aware of this.
There is another layer of factors besides intuition.
That is, Zheng Chenggong was given the name by the current emperor!
This is a great honor.
If Zheng Chenggong knew about the smuggling but chose to turn a blind eye or deliberately concealed it, it would be equivalent to slapping the emperor in the face.
Does he dare?
"At present, it has just been exposed by someone, and the evidence has not been verified yet." Gu Yanwu said to Zheng Chenggong.
"Then why doesn't Master Gu check it out?"
"This person's identity is extraordinary. If we investigate directly, we will encounter great resistance!"
"Oh!" Zheng Chenggong suddenly realized.
It was not until this moment that he finally understood the purpose of Gu Yanwu's trip.
It was not an intention at all, but for smuggling.
Gu Yanwu is the magistrate of Quanzhou Prefecture. Who else could he be afraid of except Zheng's army?
Zheng Chenggong asked seriously, "Could the person who smuggled the gunpowder be a member of the Zheng family?"
"He is not a member of the Zheng family, but an official appointed by the imperial court."
"Master Gu, please don't keep us in suspense. Just tell me who it is! Just tell me his name, and I will investigate the matter and give you an explanation." Zheng Chenggong said seriously.
Gu Yanwu pretended to be silent for a while, and finally said with difficulty: "Someone exposed Shi Lang, the adjutant general of the Quanzhou Navy, for smuggling gunpowder."
Zheng Chenggong was very angry. He assured Gu Yanwu: "Don't worry, Master Gu, I will investigate this matter thoroughly."
"Deputy General Zheng, calm down," Gu Yanwu began to do the opposite. "In my opinion, this is most likely a false accusation. The purpose is to use Shi Lang to throw dirty water on the Zheng family. In order to disrupt Fujian, disrupt the court, and even affect the war situation in Liaodong."
Zheng Chenggong said seriously: "That is why I want to investigate thoroughly, give the court an explanation, and clear the name of the Zheng family!"
"Then I will wait for good news from Deputy General Zheng!" After Gu Yanwu told Zheng Chenggong all the clues he knew, he stood up and said goodbye.
After sending Gu Yanwu away, Zheng Chenggong wanted to find Shi Lang directly to question him.
But then I thought again and felt that it was not possible.
Ordinary people would always remain stubborn after committing a crime, so how could Shi Lang plead guilty?
What's more, he only had witnesses, no physical evidence.
What to do?
In fact, he had known about the smuggling of the Zheng caravan for a long time, but he chose to turn a blind eye.
After all, that was their family business, and what they smuggled were cotton, linen, tea, and porcelain.
There is a war in Liaodong now.
At this time, news of the smuggling of more than 100,000 kilograms of gunpowder spread, and he could no longer sit idly by.
Secretly investigate Shi Lang?
Disaster!
It is well known that Shi Lang was a man of his father Zheng Zhilong.
If he wanted to investigate Shi Lang, he could only let his trusted confidants investigate secretly.
His confidants were all old subordinates of his father Zheng Zhilong, and had a close personal relationship with Shi Lang.
No matter what he said or did, the news would reach Shi Lang's ears at the first opportunity.
These are secondary.
After all, if they only found out that Shi Lang was smuggling, they would just kill him.
But what would happen if his father Zheng Zhilong was involved?
Is it to sacrifice his own family for the sake of justice and expose his father to the court?
Or are you pretending to be ignorant and helping your father deceive the court and His Majesty?
The former is unfilial, and the latter is unfaithful.
Since ancient times, it has been difficult to be both loyal and filial. Zheng Chenggong experienced the feeling of confusion for the first time.
After an unknown amount of time, he stood up, left the courtyard, and rode his horse towards the camp where his soldiers were.
He wanted to find out the truth of the matter in another way.
In another room not far away, Zheng Zhilong was listening to the report from his servant.
"Master, after Gu Yanwu entered the young master's room, the door was closed. I hid under the window and listened for a while. I heard them talking about the black barbarians. They mentioned cotton, whips and so on."
"Cotton whip?" Zheng Zhilong didn't take it seriously.
Anyway, he already has a grandson, so even if Zheng Chenggong has problems with his sexual orientation, it will not affect the continuation of the Zheng family.
"Did you talk about anything else?" Zheng Zhilong asked.
"After discussing the matter of the black barbarians, Gu Yanwu talked to the young master about another matter. But they spoke in very low voices, and I couldn't hear them clearly from outside the window." The servant replied.
"What a waste!" Zheng Zhilong said angrily, "Didn't you hear a single word?"
"It seems that the word smuggling was mentioned," the servant said uncertainly.
"Smuggling?" Zheng Zhilong's eyes widened. "Did they talk about smuggling?"
"Their voices were too low, and I couldn't be sure. I just seemed to hear these two words vaguely." The servant answered in a panic.
Zheng Zhilong originally wanted to beat up the servant, but then he thought it was unnecessary.
If someone else were to do it, they might not necessarily do better than him.
"Go down first," Zheng Zhilong had just finished speaking when Shi Fu and his nephew Shi Lang walked in from outside.
The door closed and the three of them sat down.
Shi Fu was the first to speak: "Sir, a month ago, Shen Shouyue had a bad start and was defeated by the Jiannu navy on the sea. He has now been dismissed from his post by the court and is on his way back home."
"Should we recruit him to train the navy?"
"Shen Shouyue!" Zheng Zhilong read it three times before saying slowly, "Shen Shouyue is indeed good at training the navy, but I'm afraid he still cares about the court. In that case, recruiting him would be like inviting a wolf into the house!"
"It shouldn't be," Shi Fu said, "Shen Shouyue was promoted because Zhao Fei Shen Peiqing was favored. Now Shen Peiqing was banished to the cold palace for deceiving the emperor. There is no reason for Shen Shouyue to be as loyal as before."
Zheng Zhilong thought for a while and said, "Wait a few more months. If the court does not appoint him or Concubine Zhao does not regain favor, then consider calling him under your command."
"Yes," Shi Fu reported the situation and took a half step back to make room for his nephew Shi Lang.
"Sir," Shi Lang lowered his voice, "Why don't we temporarily stop trading with the Jiannu? I always feel like something is wrong."
"What's wrong?" Zheng Zhilong asked with a frown.
"It went too smoothly!" Shi Lang also frowned. "Since we started trading with Jiannu, no one has mentioned this matter since then, except for Huang Daozhou, then Nanjing's Minister of Personnel, who wrote a secret letter to the court about our secret dealings with Jiannu."
"The trade between us and the Jiannu is very large, and there are many people involved, so some news should have spread. But no one in the court mentioned this matter, which is obviously abnormal."
"Oh," Zheng Zhilong laughed bitterly, "We can't stop trading with Jiannu just because we want to! Before the trade, the initiative was in our hands. After the trade, the initiative fell into the hands of Jiannu."
"If we suddenly stop trade, they will threaten to inform the court. So... trade can only continue, not stop."
"If the imperial court finds out, I'm afraid..." Shi Lang continued to worry.
"Maybe it has been discovered!" Zheng Zhilong said calmly.
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