"Ah?" Shi Lang was shocked. "What do you mean by that, sir?"
After Zheng Zhilong informed Shi Lang of all the news his servant had heard, he instructed him, "Gu Yanwu mentioned smuggling when he was talking to Chenggong. You should check carefully to see if there was any leak of information."
"If you don't have it, that's the best. If you do, check and fill the gap immediately!"
"I understand!" Shi Lang nodded heavily, knowing well that to fill in the gaps meant killing people.
"Sir." Shi Lang began to report another matter. "The Jiannu have just brought a shipload of mountain products from Korea, including wild ginseng, deer antlers and furs. They want to exchange for equivalent food, gunpowder, soap, tobacco, armor and..."
"And what?" Zheng Zhilong perked up.
The main reason why he was willing to do business with the Jiannu was to make money.
Especially wild ginseng.
During the Wanli period, the price of wild ginseng from Liaodong was as high as fifteen taels of silver per catty.
During the Chongzhen period, the price soared to sixty taels per catty.
The price the Jiannu offered him was only forty taels per catty.
He could earn twenty taels of silver for each pound he sold.
Not to mention deer antler fur, which was a hot commodity in the Ming Dynasty.
"And...the Rumi gun that doesn't require a matchlock." Shi Lang replied.
"This thing is not easy to do..." Zheng Zhilong began to worry, "As far as I know, there are only three troops equipped with the Rumi gun that does not require a matchlock. One is the three major camps of the capital, one is the Yongwei camp of the capital, and the other is some troops of the Ping Liao army."
"The Jiannu don't want much and they are offering a high price. We are willing to buy 100 of them at the price of 30 taels each."
"Tell the Jian Nu people that if they are willing to offer fifty taels for each stick, I can try. If they can't offer fifty taels, forget it."
"I understand." Shi Lang turned and was about to leave.
"Wait, the trade with Jiannu must continue to be kept secret from Chenggong." Zheng Zhilong advised with some concern: "Chenggong likes to get stuck in a rut, and he will definitely investigate smuggling in the future. So any smuggled goods should not leave the port in the near future, and wait until Chenggong goes to Nanzhili to escort merchant ships."
"I obey your command." Shi Fu and Shi Lang left together.
As Zheng Zhilong had expected, Zheng Chenggong did begin investigating the smuggling.
But he did not investigate in the usual way.
The conventional approach is to find the whistleblower first and then ask him to identify other people.
Then use various methods to obtain confessions from everyone.
Finally, compare the confessions and find clues or flaws.
His father, Zheng Zhilong, was extremely powerful in Quanzhou.
Whatever clues he found, they would be lost the next day.
Witnesses may change their statements or even disappear.
So his method is to find physical evidence!
Physical evidence is irrefutable evidence.
As the saying goes, ironclad evidence is as strong as a mountain. As long as he finds the physical evidence, all cover-ups will be ineffective.
"Send orders to all units to gather all the warships outside Yuegang for training!" Zheng Chenggong came to the camp and gave orders to all the generals under his command.
Military orders are as heavy as mountains, and no one dares to disobey them.
As a result, more than a hundred warships of all sizes gathered outside Yuegang.
In name it was an exercise, but in reality it was an inspection of the cargo of passing merchant ships.
Especially merchant ships leaving the port.
After checking for more than half a month, Zheng Chenggong did not find any supplies related to military supplies.
As another batch of merchant ships went out to sea from Shanghai Port, Zheng Chenggong had to leave Yuegang and go to Shanghai Port to escort them.
After he left, smuggling in Yuegang continued to be as rampant as before.
Gu Yanwu, the magistrate of Quanzhou Prefecture, seemed not to care about this.
In addition to his daily duties, he would have the officers escort the criminals to the fields to do farm work.
The officers supervised the work of the black guards, while Gu Yanwu sat in the distance with paper and pen, writing.
He knew that he was in a low position and had little power to change the status quo, so he could only accept his fate of being pushed forward by the tide of the times.
The only thing I could do was to follow Chongzhen's instructions and write down all my thoughts on paper.
Amid the sound of whips and go work, he wrote countless words.
Although Chongzhen, who was thousands of miles away, did not have the specific details of Zheng Zhilong's smuggling, he had confirmed the fact of his smuggling through various channels.
Especially the fact of trade with the Jiannu.
Putting down the secret letter in his hand, Chongzhen looked calm.
Zheng Zhilong's behavior is tantamount to treason.
But the question is...is Zheng Zhilong the only one who betrayed his country?
Of course not.
The truth will come out sooner or later.
No matter how cautious Zheng Zhilong was in smuggling, the news would eventually leak out.
No matter how powerful he is in Fujian, there are always local officials who do not get along with him.
But the question is, why didn’t those officials report to the court?
Afraid of retaliation?
You should know that there was a secret memorial system in the Ming Dynasty.
The Imperial Observatory, the Cabinet and all officials in charge of supervision could write and seal memorials and send them to the emperor through the Ministry of Public Security.
As long as secret memorials are used, there will be no possibility of leaks.
And not a single supervisory official in the entire Fujian province submitted a petition to him.
In other words, the officials in charge of supervision in Fujian all approved of this behavior.
Behind those officials are local gentry and businessmen.
On the surface, it seemed that it was Zheng Zhilong who was betraying the country, but in fact it was the gentry and merchants of the entire Fujian who were betraying the country.
If we expand the scope a little bit, the vast majority of gentry and merchants in Jiangnan believe that it is okay to sell out the country...
Li Ruo Lian, the commander of the Jinyiwei, knelt down and said: "I have only just discovered that Zheng Zhilong was secretly communicating with the Jiannu. This is my dereliction of duty. Please punish me, Your Majesty."
"Get up," Chongzhen shook his head gently: "The Jinyiwei is not omnipotent. It's good enough that they can find out the facts clearly."
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