Since Yu Zigao's army failed, there would be no reinforcements in Tongshan City. Zheng Zhilong pulled the captured Ming army artillery over and joined his fleet to jointly launch saturation bombardment on Tongshan City. The army rushed forward and attacked Tongshan City in turn. The defenders were powerless to resist. Hong Wanchun was hit by a shell and died on the spot. Lu Yuying saw Hong Wanchun's death tragically, and then killed several Zheng army soldiers who had climbed the city.

The remaining defenders saw the two main generals dead and kneeled down to surrender. Zheng Zhilong captured Tongshan City in just two hours, seized countless soldiers, armor, guns and cannons, and obtained thousands of Ming army prisoners of war, destroying Xu Xinsu. For a while, the surrounding pirates were all over the place. Zheng Zhilong's strength developed tremendously. A few days after the Tongshan War, he fought a battle with the Dutch East India Company fleet entrenched in the north and south of Taiwan, killing the Dutch people.

After defeating the Dutch at sea, Zheng Zhilong had no worries. He set up all three armies along Tongshan City and successively captured the two counties of Dongshan and Zhangpu. At this time, there were only less than 3,000 old and weak troops left in Xiamen. Zheng's army besieged 20,000 people besieged the city. In less than a day, they captured Xiamen's commander Zhang Degong. However, after Zheng Zhilong entered the city, he strictly enforced military discipline and did not harass the people. He confiscated all the money of the rich in the city to help the poor.

He opened the warehouse and released grain to help drought victims from northern Fujian and southern Zhejiang. For a time, he won the hearts of the people. Many victims wanted to build a temple for Zheng Zhilong, offering tablets, and calling him a living Bodhisattva. Zheng Zhilong recruited soldiers and spoke of the words and said that the family had ten taels of silver and one stone of rice. The applicants were enthusiastic. Half a month after capturing Xiamen, his troops soared to nearly 40,000. When he heard Zheng Zhilong's name on the coast of Ming Dynasty in Japan, Korea, he truly achieved the reputation of Toyotomi Hideyoshi in the Three Kingdoms. The south of the Yangtze River was shocked and the capital was shocked.

(This battle took place in September to October of the seventh year of the Apocalypse. For the sake of the story coherence and the butterfly effect brought by Liu Yi, this book has advanced the battle three months in June of the seventh year of the Apocalypse. At this time, there are still two months before the sudden death of Emperor Apocalypse.)

The entire Ming Empire had just been immersed in the joy of the Ningjin victory. In less than half a month, it was poured with cold water by the war on the southeast coast. Emperor Tianqi was furious and instructed the three departments to conduct a trial and convict Yu Zigao in Beijing. Emperor Tianqi rarely summoned Wei Zhongxian, Huang Liji, Wang Shaohui, Li Chunye, Zhang Heming and other civil and military officials to come to the Qinzheng Hall to discuss the issue of the war in the southeast.

Emperor Tianqi asked, "You all think how to deal with the war in the southeast." When a group of ministers saw Wei Zhongxian as if he was in a meditation, they did not dare to say much.

When Emperor Tianqi saw that all the ministers did not answer, he raised his voice and said, "Huang Aiqing, tell me, as the chief minister of the Ming Dynasty cabinet, you must have unique insights."

When Huang Liji heard the emperor named his name, he just wanted to be the chief minister who ruled inaction. Anyway, there was nine thousand years above him. He just had to listen to the orders of nine thousand years. However, the emperor had to answer the orders. Huang Liji had to bite the bullet and bow and said, "Long live, since the founding of Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, the country has not made any compromises with the enemy. Now the Ningjin victory is great, and the morale of our king is strong. All the people in the world are full of confidence in the court. The pirates in the southeast were powerful. As early as the Wanli period of Jiajing, Japanese pirates appeared and were wiped out by Qi Jiguang. Wanli aided Korea and even exterminated the power of our heavenly kingdom..."

"Can you please tell me the point? I ask what good ideas do you have?" Emperor Tianqi said impatiently. Huang Liji cleared his throat: "Your Majesty, for the sake of this plan, we should send a general who can conquer and fight to the southeast, and annihilate the Zheng bandits in one fell swoop, so that we can lose our great power in the future."

"Well, I also agree with it, but who should I send to supervise the Southeast?" Emperor Tianqi asked.

"This... Old minister, old minister has not found this best candidate yet." The sweat beads on Huang Liji's forehead dripped.

Zhu Youxiao looked unhappy and said to the ministers in the lower leadership: "My dear friends, who should I recommend to the Southeast?"

The new Minister of War Zhang Heming stepped forward and said, "Report to Your Majesty, I have a memorial."

“But it’s okay.”

"I recommend one person to take on this great task."

"Oh? My dear, let me tell you quickly." Zhu Youxiao said anxiously.

At this time, Wei Zhongxian, who was standing beside Zhu Youxiao, suddenly opened his eyes and stared at Zhang Heming motionlessly. What was the situation of Lao Zhang today? How dare he recommend a candidate without his own instructions? Although Zhang Heming was misunderstood by everyone in history as a eunuch party, he was actually in Cao's camp and was in Han. He didn't like party disputes. He just wanted to do something for the Ming Dynasty. However, if he didn't rely on the eunuch party, he could do nothing. In this overall situation, he could only defect to Wei Zhongxian. He had to commit himself to the eunuch party for the sake of his ideals.

But at this moment, he had to stand up. The southeast is not far from Nanzhili, and the Fujian soldiers are no longer useful. If Zheng Zhilong continues to attack in one go, Zhejiang will probably be unable to protect him. When Zhejiang comes to Nanzhili, the war in the north has been decayed. If something happens to the south, the consequences will be unimaginable. Originally, he wanted to suggest that Emperor Tianqi recruit Zheng Zhilong, but in the flash, he suddenly remembered a person, and the state affairs were corrupt, so Zhang Heming had to stand up and then made a list of suggestions.

"Your Majesty, the person I recommend is the Liaodong governor Yuan, Chong, Huan." He said word by word. "What? What? Yuan Chonghuan?" Zhang Heming said in a shocking voice. There was a huge uproar in the court, and even a cold light flashed in Wei Zhongxian's eyes.

Did Zhang Heming take the wrong medicine today? Who doesn’t know that Yuan Chonghuan and him are not going to be with him? Yuan Chonghuan just resigned and left Beijing, and Zhang Heming was going to re-activate him. Isn’t this against him, Wei Zhongxian? Zhang Heming is usually respectful to himself. Do you want to rebel today? Let’s hear what he says.

"Yes, the person I recommend is Yuan Chonghuan. There are two reasons. First, Yuan Chonghuan resigned from office a few days ago and left Beijing. He went south along the Grand Canal of Beijing. His hometown is in Guangdong. He must have gotten off the ship in Hangzhou or rode back to Guangdong. I have been in Southern Zhili for a long time. The guards and troops in the southern provinces are not as strong as those in the northern border troops, and the provinces are not subordinate to each other. If a strong person cannot tie them together, this battle cannot be won. Soldiers are very fast. At this time, we should immediately send troops to put down the bandits while Zheng Zhilong is not stable and the new recruits have not yet trained. At this time, it is better to directly go straight to Hangzhou Prefecture to pass the orders, let Yuan Chonghuan receive the orders on the spot, governor of Nanzhili, organize the Zhili Su'an Guards and Zhejiang soldiers, and the remaining troops and horses of Fujian to suppress Zheng Zhilong.

Second, the southern region is rich, Fujian is close to Suzhou and Hangzhou. Most of the taxes in our Ming Dynasty come from Jiangnan. The Liao salary of tens of millions of silver per year cannot be lost. If we cannot send a large army to quickly destroy the Zheng thieves, the turmoil in the south will be even more unfavorable to our Ming Dynasty. I originally wanted to recruit Zheng Zhilong, but then I thought that the way to recruit Zheng Zhilong was to use both suppression and comfort. Zheng Zhilong won a new victory, and when the morale was high and the spring breeze was proud, there would be many harsh conditions for recruitment. He must first hurt him before he could implement the policy of recruitment. If he could be eliminated, it would be better." Zhang Heming finished his point of view in one breath.

After hearing this, Zhu Youxiao nodded frequently. Yuan Chonghuan had just won the victory of Ningjin. He resigned from his post because of his disagreement with Da Clan. Donglin and Qingliu were preparing to stand up and create a public opinion offensive. If he recovered him at this time, his ears would be more purified and focused on studying woodworking. The emperor's technique lies in the way of balance. It would be impossible to lose anything without Da Clan in the court, and it would not be possible to fight a general like Yuan Chonghuan. Especially Jiangnan is the Qiancang granary of the Ming Dynasty, and he should not be able to lose money. He did not want to be the emperor who lost the city and lost the land. He should indeed give these thieves a fierce battle.

(Zhu Youxiao was described as a fool emperor by various historical books. He only knew how to study carpentry and handed over the government to Wei Zhongxian, which led to the eunuch party's misunderstanding of the country. However, the fisherman believed that this was just a slander of Zhu Youxiao by history. First of all, the historical books of Zhu Youxiao were generally written in the Qing Dynasty. In the history books of the Qing Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty emperors had no seriousness. Some played the role of a general who only killed several people when fighting rebellions, some favored eunuch party's misunderstanding of the country, some were carpenters, some practiced Taoism, and some were extremely cruel and cruel to kill ministers at all times. The fisherman was not named here, and everyone should know it.

But have you ever thought that if all the emperors of the Ming Dynasty were like this, the Ming Dynasty would be so brilliant? You should know that the industrial revolution was in its infancy in the late Ming Dynasty. If there were no subsequent events, we might have caught up with the progress of the West, and we would not have been able to fall behind and be beaten. So the emperors of the Ming Dynasty were not that stupid, and the cabinet system of the Ming Dynasty was actually similar to the cabinets in the West today. The emperors of the world were not determined by the emperor alone. This was fundamentally different from the later dynasties. The cabinet grand scholars of the later dynasties were all the same.
Chapter completed!