On the eighteenth day of the first lunar month in the twenty-sixth year of Emperor Chongzhen’s reign, Emperor Chongzhen dispatched Wang Chengen to convey two imperial edicts to Li Ruolian.
The first edict ordered the Brocade Guard in Nanjing to prepare for the arrest of Xu Wenjue, Zhu Gubi, and their associates. The second edict ordered the Brocade Guard in Fujian to prepare for the arrest of Zheng Zhilong. However, the edicts only instructed them to make preparations; they specified neither the timing of the arrests nor how the suspects should be handled afterward.
Upon hearing these instructions, Li Ruolian suspected he had misheard. He asked, "Did you perhaps relay the imperial edict incorrectly, Eunuch Wang?"
Chapter 1214