"Mr. Gao is truly remarkable!"
On the southbound carriage, Li Ruolian closed her book, a hint of admiration in her eyes.
A few days ago, he received the imperial decree and hurriedly traveled south from the capital, first arriving at the confluence of the Yellow River and the Grand Canal.
Waiting for the new recruits in advance.
Throughout the journey, he kept reading that political book.
“Mr. Gao’s book is truly full of gems.”
"It's a pity I can't go to see Mr. Gao in person and learn from him for a while."
Hearing Li Ruolian praise Gao Qingyun so highly, a child sitting opposite him chuckled softly.
"General Li, you're speaking too soon!"
The child kept shaking his head.
“If you were to actually take classes with Mr. Gao, I’m afraid you wouldn’t be able to stand it for more than a few days.”
Li Ruolian frowned slightly, a hint of dissatisfaction rising in her heart.
He didn't care that the child was contradicting him.
The child is only a few years old. Even if he points at him and curses him, let alone just argues back, the child will just think it's innocent childish talk.
What he was unhappy about was that the emperor seemed to be treating his place like a nursery.
"I just got rid of an older one, and now they've sent me a younger one!"
The older man Li Ruolian was referring to was naturally Li Zicheng.
After they returned to the capital, Zhu Youjian knew that if Li Zicheng was not allowed to return to class, Gao Qingyun would definitely become suspicious.
So they let Li Zicheng return to the palace.
This relieved Li Ruolian.
He still felt somewhat uncomfortable being with Li Zicheng, a disciple of the imperial advisor.
Before he left the capital this time, Zhu Youjian sent him another child, also claiming that he was Gao Qingyun's disciple.
He must take this person with him on his journey south.
Thinking of this, Li Ruolian couldn't help but sigh.
"Xiao Zheng, we're almost at Yanggu."
"How about I treat you to steamed buns then?"
Little Zheng rolled his eyes and said in a childish voice:
"I'm from the south, I only eat rice, I don't like steamed buns."
"But if the wife who sells steamed buns is pretty, I wouldn't mind eating some."
Li Ruolian gave her a disapproving look.
"I didn't expect you to be such a little pervert!"
Xiao Zheng chuckled and said, "So, General Li, you haven't heard of Water Margin?"
Li Ruolian was stunned for a moment before realizing that Yanggu County, where they were going, actually had some historical background.
He shook his head and realized that this young Zheng seemed to know quite a lot.
So their attitude improved considerably.
"Little Zheng, why exactly did the Emperor send you south with me?"
Xiao Zheng's face turned serious: "That's naturally because of my father."
“My father has already surrendered to the imperial court and accepted the amnesty.”
"With my father's help, the opening of the fishing season will be much easier this time we go to Jiangnan."
Li Ruolian asked suspiciously, "Is your father really that powerful?"
Xiao Zheng puffed out his chest proudly: "That's right!"
"Who in the entire South China Sea hasn't heard of my father's name?"
"Even the Japanese in the east know my father's name."
This so-called "Little Zheng" is naturally Zheng Chenggong.
His father, Zheng Yiguan, was a notorious pirate.
Zheng Yiguan had always wanted to serve the imperial court, but he had never had a way to do so.
Historically, it would take several more months for a drought to occur in the southeast, causing widespread suffering.
The Japanese pirates are showing signs of making a comeback.
Having no other option, the government offered Zheng Yiguan a position of amnesty, assigning him to defend the southeastern coast.
This time, however, Zheng Yiguan was much luckier.
Zhu Youjian learned from Gao Qingyun that his son was a very loyal minister.
They simply issued an imperial edict ordering him to accept the amnesty, in exchange for sending his son to the capital to study.
Zheng Yiguan assumed that the imperial court was demanding hostages from him and didn't pay much attention.
They just sent their son away like that.
As for Zheng Chenggong, he wasn't originally called that. It was Zhu Youjian who thought it was too much trouble and decided to go for it directly.
He was given this name many years in advance.
Zheng Chenggong said, "I have already contacted my father in advance and asked him to take the ships north."
"After you lead your troops south, you can join my father."
"By then you will have tens of thousands of army troops under your command, and he will have tens of thousands of navy troops."
"The local gentry in the southeast have no choice but to accept their fate!"
After listening, Li Ruolian thought about it and realized that it made perfect sense.
"That's true. Zheng Yiguan has been a pirate in the southeast for a long time. I'm afraid no one knows better than him how the gentry in Jiangnan bypassed the Maritime Trade Office to do business with foreigners."
"When the time comes, he will bring the navy and cut off the sea trade routes, and I will bring tens of thousands of people to suppress the opponents."
"Then this matter can be accomplished, right?"
His mood immediately improved, and he reached out to rub Zheng Chenggong's little head.
"I didn't expect you to know so much at such a young age."
Zheng Chenggong shook off his large hand and said irritably, "Of course I know a lot more!"
"Don't you know that even His Majesty has high hopes for me and changed my name to Chenggong?"
"Don't worry, I'll go south with you this time, and you'll definitely succeed."
If an adult had said that, Li Ruolian would definitely have thought he was being arrogant.
But when a child of a few years old makes this gesture, he just finds it cute.
Hehehe.
He laughed a few times and stopped talking about it, instead urging the carriage to speed up.
They should have traveled south by boat, which would have been much faster.
However, Li Ruolian was worried that Zheng Chenggong was too young and would get seasick, so she deliberately abandoned the ship and boarded the carriage.
They waited in Yanggu County for almost half a month before finally receiving the news.
A group of Imperial Guards hurriedly disembarked at the ferry and headed straight for the post station.
"Is General Li here? We've come from Guanzhong."
"Lord Zhou is leading a large force, and they are only thirty li away from here."
"The first few thousand people have already disembarked. You should go and make arrangements for them as soon as possible."
Upon hearing this, Li Ruolian jumped up from her chair and exclaimed excitedly, "They've finally arrived!"
He had been waiting anxiously for the past two weeks.
"Let's go, let's go, let's go over there now."
"By the way, how are the new recruits doing?"
He asked the Embroidered Uniform Guard.
The Imperial Guards were quite honest in their statements.
"Reporting to General Li, their situation is not very good."
"Those people were disaster victims, and their stomachs had been empty for a long time."
"Although they were able to eat their fill after being recruited into the army, it was inevitable that they would suffer from acclimatization problems after traveling thousands of miles over such a long distance."
"Of Lord Zhou's more than 70,000 new recruits, over 10,000 have already fallen ill."
Li Ruolian's heart tightened.
"Is that so?"
"Then I'd better hurry over and take a look!"
When he arrived at the dock, he found that the Imperial Guards had indeed not lied to him.
Of the first few thousand people who disembarked, several hundred actually fell ill.
As for the remaining people, they were all timid and hesitant, and their expressions were very dejected.
He kept looking around, seemingly a little scared.
Li Ruolian frowned and said, "Why do they look like this?"
At this moment, the precocious Zheng Chenggong spoke up.
"Isn't that simple? They were suddenly pulled away from their hometowns, even though the imperial court said it was for them to train in the southeast."
"But the credibility of our Ming government is already almost gone."
"Of course they're afraid."
Having studied under Gao Qingyun for so long, Zheng Chenggong had absolutely no trust in the officials of the Ming Dynasty.
He knew very well that it was already quite an achievement that Zhou Yanru was able to bring so many people over.
They must have been verbally and physically abused and threatened a lot along the way.
If their expressions are normal, then something is definitely fishy.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com