———The Zheng Group was defeated in the Battle of Penghu and was reported soon.

The Royal Daily News soon published news condemning the Shandong Navy's attack on the Fujian Navy. It was only two days after the Royal Daily News published the news that Zhao Yan received the battle report sent back by the First Fleet.

The first fleet uses sea to convey information, which is far less fast than land. After all, it is better to use a station on land than to speed up the 800-mile rush than the speed of a ship.

Soon Zhao Yan also counterattacked, saying that Zheng Zhilong did not pay taxes in Haitrade and even imposed a market tax on his own.

At the same time, the "Da Ming Dynasty Daily" also listed Zheng Zhilong's income list. The data on the table are not very accurate, but they are almost inseparable.

Since Zheng Zhilong was pacified, he has earned tens of millions of taels every year, which is more than the tax revenue of the entire Ming Dynasty. At the same time, Zheng Zhilong was a pirate in his early years. Not only did he sell his lives for the Dutch, but he also robbed merchant ships everywhere.

The cause of this naval battle was caused by Zhao Yan's exercise of the legal power of the Maritime Bureau. Zheng Zhilong was unwilling to lose his illegal income and took the initiative to send Fujian naval troops to harass the coast of Taiwan Province, so the First Fleet had to fight back.

Zheng Zhilong's background was not clean, and he was originally a pirate at the sea, so there were naturally many stains.

At the same time, the huge revenue of the Zheng Group that year was published, it made people envious. At the same time, Zhao Yan's supporters continued to increase, and soon "Royal Daily" fell into a disadvantage in the confrontation of public opinion again.

People condemned Zheng Zhilong as a thief who stole the national finances. However, the Royal Daily suddenly published it that Zheng Zhilong had not evaded taxes, but it had paid 10 million taels of taxes to the royal family.

The news from "Royal Daily" suddenly made Zhao Yan alert.

At this moment, the Zheng group has obviously moved closer to reorganization, which is not good news for Zhao Yan, because once Chongzhen gets financial resources, his army will be able to expand, and it is impossible to limit his development in terms of military expenditure.

Soon, Zhao Yan's speech appeared in the Ming Dynasty newspaper.

"We do not recognize the legal surname of Zheng Zhilong's tax payment. According to the Shandong Military Privileges Contract, the Daming Maritime Bureau is under the management of Shandong. The taxes of the Maritime Bureau should be collected by the Shandong Maritime Bureau. Since the first year of Chongzhen, the Zheng Group has accumulated leaks, with a total of at least 130 million taels of customs taxes privately levied, and the illegal income exceeds 300 million taels. If the Zheng Group does not leak, the private tax collection will be paid to the Shandong Maritime Bureau, our Shandong Military Group will take further action."

Zhao Yan made a naked threat in the newspaper. At this moment, Zhao Yan had made up his mind to solve the trouble of Zheng Zhilong first.

After solving Zheng Zhilong, Chongzhen lost foreign aid. At the same time, Zhao Yan could also obtain Fujian's shipbuilding industry, which would be very beneficial to overseas immigration.

When Zheng Zhilong stayed in Fujian, the Navy could not escape.

Solving Zheng Zhilong is a cost-effective action. Zheng Zhilong's family is as rich as a country, and is probably even richer than Zhao Yan. After all, the Zheng Group has accumulated more than ten years.

Therefore, Zhao Yan must create public opinion in order to start a war against the Zheng group.

Zhao Yan no longer has any hope for the Zheng group. Zheng Zhilong obviously wants to fight with him. Since he wants to fight with him, let him lie down.

...Zheng Zhilong, who is in Fujian, was angry and half-death after reading the "Da Ming Dynasty". He originally wanted to use Chongzhen to defend him and get rid of the excuse of stealing tariffs.

However, Zhao Yan brought out the "Shandong Military Group Privileges Contract" and directly forced him to a dead end.

"130 million taels? 50 million taels fine! #...%￥" Zheng Zhilong was so angry that he cursed in Minnan language, threw the newspaper to the ground, and then stomped it on his feet.

reject!

It is very likely that Zhao Yan was given an excuse to send troops to attack Fujian.

Obey!

Zheng Zhilong really couldn't afford so much money. Although the funds earned in more than ten years have indeed reached hundreds of millions of dollars, and it exceeded the 300 million taels estimated in the Ming Dynasty newspaper, this is a group, and not all the money belongs to Zheng Zhilong, and his vault is only more than 80 million taels.

The others were either distributed to their subordinates or spent on them himself. For example, the luxury house he built in the market cost more than 8 million taels.

Zheng Zhilong's money can only afford the fine of 50 million taels. If he really gets this money, he will not lose everything.

As for seeking peace, Zheng Zhilong couldn't do it.

Zhao Yan is different from ordinary people.

The court does not attach importance to the ocean. If the court is in one day, he will be the overlord of the ocean, and huge profits will continue to flow. However, Zhao Yan attaches great importance to the development of the navy. In just a few years, the Shandong Navy has developed to this point.

If he surrenders to Zhao Yan, he will not be able to retain his current power.

According to the original history, Zheng Zhilong surrendered to the Qing Dynasty. The reason for surrendering was this idea. He naively thought that the Qing Dynasty came just to change the court, and he was still the original Southeast overlord.

Sadly, Zheng Zhilong was controlled as soon as he surrendered, and then the Qing army looted the Zheng family's mansion, and most of Zheng Zhilong continued to be divided up by the Qing Dynasty.

In the end, Zheng Zhilong decided to resist to the end. He was betting whether Zhao Yan dared to send troops to Fujian. At the same time, Zheng Zhilong was quite confident in Fujian's defense.

Fujian is full of mountains. As the general of Fujian, Zheng Zhilong has become the overlord of Fujian with continuous expansion of the army. Fujian has many checkpoints. As long as the new army is trained until next year, the fifty Western ships in the shipyard will be built well, they will have the ability to challenge Zhao Yan.

Even if it is not victorious, at least it can be divided.

...Zheng Zhilong's letter was sent to the Forbidden City seven days later. In the letter, Zheng Zhilong was generous in his words and swearing to be incompatible with the Zhao bandits and wishing to honor the Emperor of Ming forever.

Chongzhen applauded and applauded. He was happy to see Zhao Yan and Zheng Zhilong's complete fall in love, which was equivalent to completely tying Zheng Zhilong to his chariot.

However, for Zhao Yan of Zhaojiabao, he was happy to see a fall in love with Zheng Zhilong, because this would occupy the moral high ground and solve the Zheng group.

Although Zheng Zhilong came together with Chongzhen, the problem is that they do not have the ability to unite against him. It will be simple to kill one of them before they have this ability.

Soon, Zhao Yan issued an ultimatum to the Zheng Group in the Ming Dynasty newspaper. If he did not pay the taxes and fines within two months, he would be responsible for the consequences.

At the same time, the General Staff also began to discuss the way to attack Fujian. In the end, the General Staff gave three plans. The first plan was to attack by land completely, mobilize five infantry brigades of the First Division to head south, and at the same time draw three mountain regiments from the three southwestern provinces to attack Fujian.

The second plan is to attack from the coast, draw the first fleet and concentrate it, and then send the guards and transport ships to the troops, first attack Fuzhou, and then go south to attack southern Fujian.

The third plan is to send the First Fleet to escort the troop transport ships to first capture Fuzhou, then go north along the Minjiang River, capture the checkpoints in northern Fujian, and open an entrance for the First Division.

"Let's just the third plan! Deliver the American Infantry Brigade to Fujian." Zhao Yan looked at the next three plans and chose the third plan. The third plan had few troops from the sea. The second plan was too heavy for the naval delivery task. It was not convenient for the army to go to the sea. If it could be transported without sea, there would be no sea transportation.

After all, the army was at sea and could not control its own destiny, and the soldiers were not suitable for boating. However, the soldiers of the American Infantry Brigade had undergone relevant training.

The First Division had also made a period of navigation adaptation to attack Liaodong, but after this expansion, many new recruits were mixed together.

"Yes, lord." Mao Yuanyi replied, "I will improve my detailed combat plan."

"Stay Fujian before the end of the year." Zhao Yan said only this, and then threw the task to the General Staff, and he accompanied his wife.

Yuan'er is now pregnant, so Zhao Yan naturally wants to be by her side anytime, and the task in that aspect is handed over to Yan Yuyao and Shalena.

The wedding date of Zhao Yan and Yan Yuyao has also been set, and it will be scheduled in mid-July, next month, and it will be done with Shalena's.

Salina can now speak Chinese more easily, and at the same time learn thousands of Chinese characters.

But Shalena is a concubine and Yan Yuyao is a fair wife.

Now Zhao Yan can still marry a fair wife and three concubines. However, Zhao Yan has no intention of looking for flowers and asking about Liu for the time being. After all, it is very rare for the three girls to get along intimately. If you look for it again, such a relationship will easily change. This state makes Zhao Yan feel very comfortable.

If there is a dispute at home every day, it will naturally be unhappy.

Because the three girls are intimate, Zhao Yan directly set up a big room, and the four of them live in the same room.

After Zhao Yan returned home today, he immediately went out to see the show with Yuan'er.

There is a stage in Zhaojiabao, and people are often invited to sing operas. There are more operas in the neighborhood outside Zhaojiabao, and there are more than a dozen theaters.

People usually go to the theater to watch opera when they are bored.

Originally, Zhao Yan didn’t have much feelings about opera, but after reading it, he found that it was very different from the Peking Opera in later generations.

There were many opera schools in the Ming Dynasty, each with its own characteristics.

In addition to the form of Peking Opera, there are also some clown dramas, that is, funny. At the same time, it seems that the current opera is much better than the later Peking Opera.

The so-called Peking Opera was developed in the Qing Dynasty, and is naturally completely different from this era.

In addition to opera, there are also many projects such as guzheng and qin music, and there are also many singing and dancing, not just drama.

However, today Zhao Yan brought Yuan'er to the theater to watch the show, and it still felt a bit monotonous!

"Yuan'er, why don't we open an opera house tomorrow, collect some folk artists, and then open a special art academy." Zhao Yan said to Yuan'er.

"Okay! Just like my husband." Yuan'er said happily.

faint!

I like whatever.

"Okay! Let's continue the order later." Zhao Yan nodded. Culture and art are still very important. This is another powerful weapon in addition to force.

This time I performed a singing and dancing troupe from Jiangnan. The singing and dancing performed was very interesting, and the music was played using the guzheng, flute, flute, pipa, and the music was very beautiful.

Zhao Yan was also fascinated by hearing this.

"I heard that the Qinhuai River is extremely prosperous and is the leader of the Ming Dynasty. I don't know what it looks like." Zhao Yan thought to himself, but Yuan'er is still pregnant now! Naturally, he couldn't go out to look for flowers and ask about willows.

After returning from the theater, Zhao Yan immediately found Song Yingxing.

Now Song Yingxing is in charge of the Ministry of Education, while the original Song Wenyuan was transferred to the Ministry of Justice as Minister. Song Yingxing is very busy now. He not only manages the Ministry of Education, but also joins the Denglai Academy of Sciences and Technology, doing various experiments all day long.

In fact, Song Yingxing had the idea of ​​doing experiments before coming to Zhaojiabao, but he was suffering from insufficient money.

Compared with other people's experiments, Song Yingxing's is more targeted. Most of his research is about production. He is a literati who attaches great importance to production technology. Many experiments mainly conduct practical application experiments on what the Academy of Sciences has developed.

Over the past year, Song Yingxing's research results have been relatively fruitful. Under his leadership, he and his students have studied more than ten kinds of chemical dyes, improved the threshing machine, and developed a livestock seeder, which has also improved the production technology of black gunpowder.

Song Yingxing was more obsessed with the research of agricultural machinery. He found that Shandong's agriculture is developing towards extensive planting and high personal output value, and better agricultural machinery is needed, so that individuals can complete more tasks and the efficiency of extensive planting is also higher.

Not long ago, I applied for a steam engine and planned to study the tractor mentioned by Zhao Yan. The steam engine can indeed make tractors, so Zhao Yan approved a steam engine for him.

Although the practical tractor of the steam engine is not that big, it can be used. Moreover, after researching it earlier, after the internal combustion engine appears, a practical tractor can be quickly made.

Although Song Yingxing has been in Zhaojiabao for a short time, he is rapidly growing into a great inventor with his accumulated solid foundation and the knowledge of physics and chemistry taught by Zhao Yan.

After Song Yingxing usually receives rewards for the results developed by his students, he usually only keeps some household use and gives the others to Denglai University for scientific research.

Therefore, Song Yingxing is very respected in Zhaojiabao. Song Yingxing, the Minister of Education, can also earn extra money subsidies by himself, which is indeed respectful.

Zhao Yan called Song Yingxing and assigned new tasks to the Ministry of Education.

"Tomorrow I will ask the Ministry of Finance to allocate one million taels to the Ministry of Education to establish a special art school, and collect artists from all over the world to record the current art schools and works." Zhao Yan said to Song Yingxing.
To be continued...