Zheng Chenggong died violently and died with his last wish
In ancient times, it was considered a blessing for a child to inherit the family business. When the first son of a family is born, it is a symbol of joy, especially for those who are in a powerful family, and the birth of the eldest son is of great significance.
There is a person in history who has made outstanding achievements and was given the "national surname" by the emperor, ruling one side and having unparalleled power. However, he died suddenly and violently in the prime of life, and before he died, he demanded that his own son be killed.
So, why did he do it?
During the Apocalypse of the Ming Dynasty, there was a famous multinational maritime merchant named Zheng Zhilong in the coastal areas of Fujian. He was bold and careful, and in his early years, he went to the East and other places with his uncle Huang Cheng to conduct business activities, and in just a few years, he accumulated a huge fortune and became a huge wealth.
He was very famous among the Japanese, and people were proud to have met him, and even though he was still a minor at the time, he was still revered as the "old official". (Zheng Zhilong's nickname is "Yiguan") In the third year of the Apocalypse, Zheng Zhilong came to the territory of the Japanese princes Matsuura clan, and was warmly entertained and respected as a guest.
The Matsuura clan even acted as a matchmaker for him, marrying Tagawa Matsu, the daughter of his retainer Emperor Tagawa Yu, to him, and gave birth to his eldest son, Zheng Chenggong, the following year.
During the Age of Discovery, the Dutch invaders had reached the waters of the East China Sea, and they were attracted by this rich sea and showed their greedy eyes. They turned from maritime merchants to pirates, extended their clutches to merchant ships sailing in this area, and occupied the treasure island of Taiwan.
Zheng Zhilong's business has been severely affected as a result. However, when he reported the problem to the imperial court, the imperial court did not care about it. There were two reasons for this: first, the Ming Dynasty had a weak navy and was unable to resist the Dutch invaders; Second, the Ming Dynasty did not attach importance to the marine economy, so it was unwilling to take military action.
Zheng Zhilong realized that the problem could not be solved through official channels, so he began to find a solution on his own. In his opinion, the only viable option is to fight back.
Since the Dutch can attack our merchant ships, we can naturally attack their ships as well. Since they can hijack our merchant ships, we can hijack their ships too.
Zheng Zhilong began to recruit troops due to the plague of the Japanese and built a sea force to fight against Dutch ships. He led his team to plunder Dutch ships many times, and was known as the "Pirate of the Dutch".
In the seventh year of the Apocalypse, the Dutch army gathered all its strength to fight a decisive battle with Zheng Zhilong, but Zheng Zhilong's team fought bravely to kill the enemy, and the Dutch army was defeated. In the first year of Chongzhen, when there was a severe drought in Fujian, Zheng Zhilong led the victims to immigrate to Taiwan, generously providing money, land and cattle, which received a response from tens of thousands of people.
His exploits were reported by the imperial court, and Emperor Chongzhen greatly appreciated this, believing that he carried forward the prestige of the Ming Dynasty, so he gave him the post of chief soldier.
In the third year of Chongzhen, Zheng Zhilong established his own mansion in Anhai Town, Jinjiang City, Fujian Province, and he not only brought his wife Tagawa Matsu and six-year-old son Zheng Chenggong back to his home in Japan, but also hired a private school teacher for him, so that he could learn the Four Books and Five Classics from an early age.
In the eleventh year of Chongzhen, Zheng Chenggong, who was only fourteen years old, had already won the show, and then he was admitted to the imperial court's "Liao Shan Sheng" and enjoyed the benefits of the country. Zheng Chenggong's talent, coupled with Zheng Zhilong's background, the marriage threshold of the Zheng family has been broken.
In the end, Zheng Zhilong selected Dong Shi, the niece of Dong Yangxian, a waiter in the Ministry of Rites, for Zheng Chenggong, and the two became husband and wife, and gave birth to their son Zheng Jing a year later.
It turned out that the fall of the Ming Dynasty was not achieved overnight. After Emperor Chongzhen took the coal mountain, Wu Sangui opened the gate of Shanhaiguan and led the Qing army into the customs, and the Ming Dynasty could only retreat step by step and established a small court in the Southern Ming Dynasty.
In this process, Zheng Chenggong always allegiance to the Ming Dynasty, whether in the face of chaos or the threat of other forces, he always insisted on his beliefs.
However, the rule of the Southern Ming court was not stable. Emperor Hongguang was a man who could only eat, drink, and rob the people's daughters, and he was arrested by the Manchu Yu King Duoduo in his first year of power, and was given to Shunzhi as a gift.
Then, Emperor Longwu Zhu Yujian ascended the throne in Fujian, and he handed over everything to the Zheng family, because in Fujian and other places, Zheng Zhilong's power was unmatched, and Emperor Longwu even needed to look at his face to act.
In this process, the contradiction between loyalty and filial piety becomes more prominent. Although Zheng Chenggong was loyal to the Ming Dynasty, his power could not be exerted in the Southern Ming court, because the rulers of the court could not give him enough support and trust.
At the same time, he could not accept the rule of the Qing Dynasty because it was contrary to his beliefs. This contradiction makes Zheng Chenggong even more helpless and tragic in the long river of history.
In order to win Zheng Zhilong's alliance, Emperor Longwu tried his best, especially treating Zheng Chenggong with favor. When Zheng Zhilong took Zheng Chenggong into the palace to see Emperor Longwu, Emperor Longwu patted Zheng Chenggong on the shoulder affectionately and said with emotion: "Your son is so good, I really want to have a daughter and become a family with you immediately." ”
Saying that, Emperor Longwu gave Zheng Chenggong the position of Governor of the Imperial Forest Army and the position of Captain of Yitong Horse, and even gave him the national surname "Zhu" of the Ming Dynasty, so Zheng Chenggong was called "the national surname Ye".
However, a year later, the Longwu regime was defeated by the Qing army, and Emperor Longwu was captured and died on hunger strike. After Yongli Emperor Zhu Youlang succeeded to the throne, Zheng Zhilong was defeated in battle, and the Qing Dynasty promised him the position of governor, and finally he chose to surrender.
However, Zheng Chenggong resolutely refused to return, and he cried to Zheng Zhilong: "If my father doesn't come back, then I will consider him killed, and I will avenge him!" ”
Zheng Chenggong did not forget his family feud and led his troops to the sea to fight against the Qing army, like a young child supporting a dangerous wall, saving a glimmer of hope for China. Although Zheng Zhilong surrendered to the Manchus, the Manchus still continued to persuade Zheng Chenggong to surrender, but Zheng Chenggong always angrily reprimanded: "My father has been killed by you, how dare you persuade me to surrender again!" ”
When the Manchu court forced Zheng Zhilong to write a letter to persuade Zheng Chenggong to surrender, and even threatened to kill himself, Zheng Chenggong was heartbroken, but he still resolutely replied: "If the father is killed, it is the destiny of heaven that cannot be violated, and the son is willing to wear filial piety clothes to kill the enemy, and be loyal and filial." ”
Seeing this, the Manchu court was furious and imprisoned Zheng Zhilong.
In the fifteenth year of Shunzhi in the Qing Dynasty, Zheng Chenggong raised troops from Fujian to recover Nanjing for the Yongli court of the Southern Ming Dynasty, but in the end he was unsuccessful. After the defeat, Zheng Chenggong's troops suffered heavy losses and were extremely short of food and grass.
It seemed that the imperial court was unreliable, and the Yongli Emperor and his gang couldn't take care of it themselves, so Zheng Chenggong listened to the advice of his adviser He Bin and decided to cross the sea to Taiwan again as his logistics base.
In the eighteenth year of Shunzhi, Zheng Chenggong set out from Kinmen and went straight to Taiwan. Before leaving, he left his son Zheng Jing behind, put him in charge of guarding Xiamen and Kinmen, and told him to take care of his family.
Zheng Chenggong's fourth and fifth sons have been born one after another, and the Zheng family has become a big family. In order to allow Zheng Jing to better fulfill his responsibilities, Zheng Chenggong found a strong "foreign aid" for him, that is, he married Tang Shi, the granddaughter of Tang Xianyue, the former secretary of the Ming Dynasty's military department.
His father, Zheng Zhilong, was executed by the Qing Dynasty's Auxiliary Minister Suke Saha Jiao Zhao at Caishikou in Beijing, and he was unable to see his son accomplish similar feats with him and protect his own efforts.
This news made Zheng Chenggong heartbroken.
Zheng Chenggong's son Zheng Jing came with the news that his son Zheng Kezhang was born, but this child was not born to Zheng Jing's wife, but to his concubine. Zheng Chenggong was still immersed in grief because of Zheng Zhilong's murder, so he didn't think much about the news, but just rewarded Zheng Jing with some silver, hoping that he could take good care of this eldest grandson.
However, a month later, Zheng Chenggong received a letter from his "in-law" Tang Xianyue, in which Tang Xianyue angrily accused Zheng Chenggong of not being strict with his family's discipline, so that such a shameful thing happened, how can this kind of behavior govern a place well?
After Zheng Chenggong heard this letter, he was puzzled, so he sent someone to investigate the matter, and it turned out that Zheng Jing's "concubine" was actually Chen Zhaoniang, the nurse of his fourth son Zheng Rui.
It turned out that after Chen Zhaoniang became Zheng Rui's wet nurse, she was favored by Zheng Jing by chance.
Zheng Jing is only nineteen years old, while Chen Zhaoniang is thirty-six years old. Despite the obvious age gap, Zheng Jing fell into the charm of Chen Zhaoniang, and the two fornicated and had a son, Zheng Chenggong's eldest grandson.
However, Zheng Chenggong's wife Tang who was selected for Zheng Jing kept the empty house alone, and the matter spread in Xiamen, and people accused the Zheng family, especially the scholars, who criticized the Zheng family, which made Zheng Chenggong feel disgraced.
When Zheng Chenggong heard the news, he was so angry that his eyes were dark, and a mouthful of blood spurted out and fell to the ground. After waking up, he immediately sent an order for Zheng Jing to execute Chen Zhaoniang.
However, Zheng Jing was reluctant to do so and decided to hide Chen Zhaoniang with his mother Dong. When Zheng Chenggong learned the news, he was furious again and scolded Zheng Jing for being a rebel.
He ordered his brother Zheng Tai to return to Xiamen and personally execute Dong, Zheng Jing, Chen Zhaoniang, and Zheng Kezang. However, Zheng Tai saw that Zheng Chenggong's anger had lost his mind, so he discussed the matter with everyone.
Everyone unanimously agreed that Chen Zhaoniang could be executed, but the Dong family was a sister-in-law, and Zheng Jing and Zheng Kezhang were both flesh and blood of the Zheng family and could not be executed easily. Zheng Tai followed everyone's opinion and decided to execute only Chen Zhaoniang, and let Dong, Zheng Jing and Zheng Kezhang go.
Zheng Tai returned to Xiamen and only killed Chen Zhaoniang, and then went to restore his life. This made Zheng Chenggong angry, he felt that no one could trust him anymore, and everyone was disobedient to him. So he sent people back to Xiamen to "kill his whole family".
However, his subordinates disobeyed en masse, and no one moved. Zheng Chenggong was heartbroken, but to make matters worse, he received the news that the Yongli Emperor Zhu Youlang had fled to Burma but was betrayed by the Burmese king Mang Bai, and was eventually strangled to death in Yunnan by Wu Sangui's subordinate Wu Guo with a bowstring.
This news was the final blow to Zheng Chenggong, and he felt that his life was dark. His father was killed for his non-surrender, which was indirectly killed by him; His wife and son kept it a secret from him, and even did ugly things to make people point fingers at him; His subordinates openly disobeyed his orders and did not listen to his orders; The emperor to whom he had been loyal also died, and his country perished.
I'm sorry for the Emperor! With that, he died at the age of thirty-nine.
After Zheng Chenggong's death, Zheng Jing of Fujian and Zheng Xi of Taiwan each succeeded to their positions, which led to a fierce battle. In the end, Fujian was victorious, and Zheng Jing began to rule Taiwan.
Zheng Chenggong, a famous patriotic general, has indelible achievements in his life, but unfortunately, he can only face the end of "broken family", he was hit by a series of bad news in just a few months to death, this is really providence.