Yin Feng handed a roll of letter paper to Zeng Qi, the government manager of the ruling region of China Company, and said with a smile: "My father-in-law, please take a look at this document,"
Zeng Qi raised the reading glasses with one hand. This was the reading glasses made by Yin Feng specially asked the European glass maker to make. He picked up the document with the other hand and looked at it for a while. He smiled bitterly and said to Yin Feng: "Use this kind of conditions to negotiate with the court, Feng'er, aren't you saying clearly: We don't actually want to talk about peace?
Yin Feng sat on the main seat of the inner hall of Yingtian Prefecture, crossed his legs and said, "Oh, I really have to want to negotiate with the court, but we have to seize the initiative in negotiations."
The room in the inner hall was originally the study of the prefect of Yingtian, but now it is Yin Feng’s office in the temporary old camp in Nanjing. Now there are only two men in the room, including him and Zeng Qi.
Zeng Qi sat down, shook his head and sighed: "Although we won battles in the north and south Kyotos, the foundation of the court is still there, and the remaining power of the Ming Dynasty for a hundred years is still there... With the nature of the imperial lords and the current emperors, isn't it? Maybe we are negotiating with us according to your conditions. What you mean by taking the initiative is the so-called control of the initiative. However, now, we have controlled the lifeline of the court and are in a timely manner to retreat to advance and ask the court to recruit peace. We may be able to successfully Have a peace talk with the court,"
In a letter to the court, Yin Feng stated the reasons for the rebellion "Seven Hates" and also put forward the negotiation conditions, "Cece the land and make peace". The specific content is: discussing the division of Taiwan, and the king of the southeast coastal islands, He also rewarded the army with one million taels of silver. From then on, he could curb the enemy in the court, and especially use his strong troops to help guard the sea and border, but he did not serve as a pilgrimage.
This is the negotiation conditions proposed by Yin Feng based on the principle of asking for a lot of prices and returning money. He did not seek the opinions of the former Ming Dynasty officials led by Zeng Qi in advance. Under the leadership of Zeng Qi and his students, there are now hundreds of scholars and scholars. Joined the administrative department of the Chinese company, including some unsuccessful local officials of the Ming Dynasty. They were led by Zeng Qi and formed a faction that advocated a gradual policy towards the court, and the other faction was the Chinese military officers and the Chinese company. Criticized the original shareholders, who had no feelings for the Ming Dynasty and radically demanded to treat the Ming Dynasty toughly.
...
This negotiation condition is now placed in the court and in front of all civil and military officials.
Emperor Wanli rarely attended the morning court for the tenth consecutive day.
He looked through the letter with Yin Feng's negotiation conditions and asked the ministers coldly: "What's this discussion? Now the pirates have cut off the grain transportation, the capital is empty, and the national affairs are urgent. The ministers can decide it in one sentence."
The cunning Fang Congzhe was afraid of taking responsibility, so he kept saying a word and bowed his head. The restless Emperor Wanli stood up, took a few steps, leaned against the dragon throne, and asked his ministers again: "Everyone, the pirates don't know now. Why, he did not siege or attack the capital, but he divided his troops to plunder the capital, and the royal army was defeated repeatedly. You guys are at a loss when they move here. What do you want to do?”
The ministers were frightened and looked at each other. Zhao Xingbang, the military officer, made a speech: "Your Majesty, for the sake of this plan, we will temporarily agree to the conditions of the thief party in exchange for the pirates' retreat. Then the court can train troops to prepare for war and then try to eliminate the consequences of ,”
The Censor Guo Tingxu, who is a political enemy with Zhao Xingbang, immediately jumped out and said loudly: "Zhao Xingbang is a treacherous minister. I am a dignified heaven and the emperor is orthodox. How can I negotiate peace with the bandits? The Taiwanese pirates disturbed the two capitals, and the crime is so great. How can I let go of They split the land and became kings. Throughout the dynasties, those who advocated peace with the bandits were all treacherous ministers."
Wanli was furious when he saw that the court meeting was about to become a place for the party to fight against the differences. He immediately became furious and patted the imperial throne with a serious face, and said coldly: "The state affairs are so critical, please make a decision quickly. I want the cabinet to come to see you tomorrow... …” After Wanli finished speaking, he coughed several times, and the eunuchs on both sides helped him to turn back to the palace.
The ministers looked at each other again. Under the pressure of the emperor, the chief minister of the cabinet, Fang Congzhe, convened an emergency meeting between the six officials of the cabinet, including Taiwan and other officials in the room next to the Dezheng Hall on the same day.
Everyone talked for a long time and discussed it until late at night. The final meeting result was: they sternly rejected all the conditions of the Chinese army, planned to arrest Yin Feng's nine tribes, and declared that all personnel belonging to the Chinese company were rebellious.
It's ridiculous that the ministers of the court were completely confused about the internal situation of the Chinese company, except for Yin Feng, Zeng Qi, Zeng Jingshan, and Zhao Tie, Li Xing, Mai Dahai and others who had hundreds of households and thousands of official positions in the Chinese army. , the rest of the people were not clear. Chen Zhongji, the general manager of the Northern Front Army, knew that he was from Haicheng, Fujian, and was a student and apprentice of Yin Feng, and he didn't even know how old he was. As for other aspects of the Chinese army The Ming Dynasty court knew nothing about intelligence.
At this moment, the north-south canal transport passage of the Ming Empire was cut off, and communication routes such as post roads and residences were cut off. The information from the north and south was blocked. The imperial court's refusal to negotiate was only transmitted to the Ming army camps in Huzhou, Guangde and other places two months later. At that time, the Chinese army's southern line had already passed through the sea route and learned the news more than a month in advance, and was preparing to carry out a large-scale military operation before the beginning of winter.
Yin Feng issued a notice to the entire army, claiming in the name of China United Company that "the court does not want to negotiate peace, and as long as we kill, we can only advise the soldiers to the end."
The Chinese army's forces on the north and south sides did not increase. Instead, they drew more than 3,000 sailor musketeers from the southern line and a flying warship back to Taiwan. Just last month, a small British fleet carried dozens of them. The cannon suddenly broke into Luzon, and used the excuse to replenish supplies, intending to forcibly break into Manila Bay, and was finally repelled by heavy artillery from the war island (Corregido Island).
At the same time, indigenous peoples from all over Java, under the instigation of the Dutch, tend to provoke trouble, and another serious problem threatens the security of the rear base of the Chinese army: after taking in more than a thousand Catholic exiles from Ryukyu, about 10,000 were found. Most Japanese Catholics who were expelled from the shogunate ban came to Taiwan and Luzon.
Xu Hongji proposed to use these Japanese Catholics as laborers to Taiwan and use them in various military farms in Luzon. However, Zeng Qi and others hated the Japanese and advocated sending them to Nanyang to mine. Before they made a decision, they went into exile. Japanese Catholics in Luzon and indigenous Catholics in Luzon joined forces to raise flags and rebel in the mountainous areas of northern Luzon under the leadership of several Jesuit missionaries lurking deep in the mountains. Therefore, Taiwan's garrison forces had to send people to support Luzon. The troops on the southern front of the Chinese army had to mobilize their troops to visit Taiwan.
At this time, the domestic situation in the Ming Dynasty was becoming more and more chaotic, especially in Shandong. Xu Hongru, the leader of the "Wenxiang Sect" (a tribe of the White Lotus Sect), joined forces with Wang Sen, Wang Haoxian and his son, while the Shandong government army was transferred. Going to the capital and Denglai, defenses are empty everywhere, and the Juye Cult is launched to uprising. The leader is from Xujie, Juye County. He has organized White Lotus Cult in the Juye area and has been secretly engaged in 18 years. Now He finally found an opportunity and led his people to raise the riots in the west of Juye, south of Dancheng and Fan County, urging the uprising of Yang. He used red scarves as a sign and quickly gathered more than 100,000 religious people and captured Dancheng, Zou County, and Ji County one after another. , plundered canal canal ships and attacked Qufu. Shandong General Li Liang confronted the Chinese army in Dezhou. Shandong Deputy General Yang Zhaoji and others gathered more than 10,000 troops to suppress them.
During the same period, the riots of people in Sichuan finally turned into riots. There were peasant riots in Chongqing and Chengdu, including plundering the royal palaces, the landlords of officials, gentry, and landlords, and capturing the county towns.
Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan, Huguang and other places were in a state of chaos, and governments in various places were in a state of turmoil and in a hurry.
After the war in Jingdong, the Chinese army divided the troops everywhere and plundered all the prefectures and counties around the capital. However, they were all fighting but not defending them. They plundered the government treasury and left. By November, the north was already covered with ice and snow. , The war operation was blocked by heavy snow, Chen Zhongji's northern army occupied the Beijing-Tianjin area, Jinzhou, Lushun, Penglai in the Shandong Peninsula, and the islands at the Bohaikou. The combat operations were temporarily stopped. The northern troops of the Ming army After being severely damaged, there are no strategic mobile troops available, so we can only hope for the king-supporting soldiers in various places.
The situation on the southern line is very delicate. After the battle of the eastern suburbs of the capital, the Ming army gathered 100,000 troops in Huzhou and Guangde. Due to the great pressure on the Chinese army in the capital, the imperial court has repeatedly urged various places in the south. The troops went north to aid Beijing. Under the pressure of the court, Nanjing was under the supervision of the government. Zhang Heming, the Minister of War, had to order troops to launch a tentative attack on the north.
The Chinese Army has now deployed a strict intelligence network in Jiangnan. As soon as the official army left Huzhou City, the old camp of the Chinese Army in Nanjing knew about it. So, the Fifth Brigade of Yan Siqi's troops marched south from Jurong overnight and went to the sailors west of Suzhou City by Taihu Lake. The musket team joined forces and attacked the Ming army with a force of 9,000. To the east of Taihu Lake, the Chinese army used the firepower of warships on the lake to launch a sudden attack on the columns of the marching officers, and then launched During the war, the Chinese army blocked the chaotic attack of the officials with a wide frontal infantry front. Then Yan Siqi personally led an assault force to attack the central position of the Ming army, and opened the way with light artillery shots, and the infantry kept firing with ten rows of deep square formations. , suppressed any long-range firepower of the official army. Finally, Yan Siqi led his team to launch a bayonet charge at 50 steps in front of the official army. In one battle, it defeated the Ming army's central front and caused the entire Ming army to be defeated. In this battle, it used firepower to resist the Ming army. When the army attacked and finally resolved the battle, it relied on hand-to-hand combat, proving that the Chinese army not only had powerful firearms, but also had no inferiority in hand-to-hand combat with the official army.
The government army suffered heavy losses. The army that had finally assembled was killed in battle, missing, more than 30,000 were captured, and the rest of the troops collapsed. Only more than 30,000 were able to return to Huzhou, Yao Guofu, the chief minister of the Sixth Camp of Nanjing. The former deputy general Jiang Wanhua, Liuyang garrison Xu Jiusi, Zhejiang Bing Battalion Zhou Yiming and others were all killed in the battle of Suzhou.
However, the situation in the Chinese military occupied areas in Jiangnan was extremely harmonious.