prosperous age

Chapter 285 Chapter 284
"Three provinces came to see me yesterday and told me about you"

Zhang Juzheng saw that Wei Guangde was so young, maybe he couldn't help but think of himself nine years ago, and he wanted to talk to him.

The three provinces in his mouth naturally refer to Zeng Xingwu, although Zhang Juzheng does not admit it, but every time Zeng Xingwu sees him, he is a teacher-student gift.

Last year, Zeng Shengwu wrote a letter to him after he went to Beijing to catch up for the exam. In the letter, he mentioned that Wei Guangde, a friend from his hometown in Pengze County, had passed Chuanlu.

But Zhang Juzheng didn't take Wei Guangde seriously at that time, even if he read the report later saying that Wei Guangde chose Shujishi, it was just repeating his own way back then.

Selecting a concubine, for those who were eliminated, is naturally full of envy, but for Zhang Juzheng, he naturally knows that choosing a concubine is actually useless, it only means that you can and are qualified to stay in the Imperial Academy, but want to After passing the Hanlin Academy and finally entering the cabinet, without the support of nobles, it would be nothing.

As far as he is concerned, if it is not for the intentional or unintentional help of his teacher Xu Jie, it would be difficult to do the review and revision of the Imperial Academy.

More Shujishi were transferred to other yamen after being selected by the library, instead of being left in the Imperial Academy.

In a short period of time afterward, this Wei Guangde broke the three-year selection rule for Shu Jishi, and was directly appointed an official by Emperor Jiajing. It was only at this time that he began to pay attention to Wei Guangde.

Of course, this attention is just to pay more attention to the news about Wei Guangde, and it has not risen to the level of becoming a political opponent.

After all, everyone's official positions are actually very humble, and it is really laughable to say that they are opponents.

Seeing Wei Guangde today and seeing Wei Guangde's youth naturally made Zhang Juzheng think of himself involuntarily. If Gu Lin, the governor of Huguang, hadn't deliberately shrunk himself down, he would have been elected at a younger age, and perhaps he would have rushed to the capital without hesitation. Participating in the examination and becoming a 13-year-old Jinshi is also unknown.

Taking a step back, he should have entered the Hanlin Academy at this age, maybe Emperor Jiajing would also look at him differently.

According to Gu Lin, the reason why he failed the ranking was that he hoped that Zhang Juzheng would be honed more and become a great talent in the future.

Afterwards, Zhang Juzheng's road to the imperial examination went smoothly, which seemed to confirm what he said back then. In the past, Zhang Juzheng was still a little complacent about this in his heart, but at this moment, when he saw Wei Guangde, for some reason, he felt a little bit of respect for Gu Lin. dissatisfaction.

Zhang Juzheng returned from his illness and returned to the court. For a seventh-rank official, it was just a little bit of excitement in the Hanlin Academy, and it didn't last long.

On the contrary, after Wei Guangde's request for leave came out from the General Secretary, it quickly fermented in the official circles of the capital.

Officials with a keen sense of smell have already known that Wei Guangde's family should be married to the Duke Wei's mansion in Nanjing, a hereditary family of the Duke of Wei, hehe.
For a promising official like Wei Guangde, this marriage is actually not the best choice. It would be more conducive to Wei Guangde's career development if he chooses a marriage among the civil servants.

However, of course no one would say such a thing.

The order of the parents and the words of the matchmaker, where should others take care of this matter.

Xiyuan Yongshou Palace, Emperor Jiajing saw Wei Guangde's memorial and had no reason to reject it, so he naturally nodded in agreement, and the subsequent approval procedures were logical.

There are three great happy events in life, meeting an old friend in a foreign country, getting a title on the gold list, and the wedding night in the bridal chamber.

Within three days, the memorial submitted by Wei Guangde returned to him, and the cabinet and the supervisor of ceremonies above had already given instructions, and the rest was naturally Wei Guangde's request to see Yintai and Yin Zhangyuan to confirm the date of leave.

Naturally, Emperor Jiajing would not give special care to Wei Guangde, they were all approved in accordance with the imperial court's regulations, and the wedding period lasted for two months.

It’s just that in this era, because of the inconvenience of transportation, the imperial court still has specific requirements for this. Simply put, the holiday starts from the moment Wei Guangde arrives home, and the time spent on the way home is not included in the holiday. .

In addition, in fact, the officials of the Ming Dynasty also played out one of the most important ways to increase holidays, that is, not returning after the time limit.

The Ming Dynasty imposed relatively loose penalties on officials who did not return within the time limit after asking for leave or falsely reported false incidents. First, because everyone did this, and it would be sent to themselves someday, and second, it was naturally because they did not return to nature after a long period of time. You can put your own people in the position, and you can't let the official duties be delayed.

During the time of Hongwu, Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, a system was set up, such as family visits, ancestor worship, etc., except for the round-trip journey, the allowed leave time was one month. However, during the Hongzhi reign of Emperor Xiaozong of the Ming Dynasty, some officials complained that the leave was too short, so Emperor Xiaozong of the Ming Dynasty ordered the allowed leave time increased to two months.

As for the review and approval of returning home to visit relatives, it was the most stringent in Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang's Hongwu period. Both internal and external officials had to report for leave. After Zhu Yuanzhang personally adjudicated, the Ministry of Officials would reapply.

Things changed during the Hongxi reign of Emperor Renzong of the Ming Dynasty. In the first year of Hongxi, this benevolent fat man basically approved all the memorials for home and abroad officials returning to their hometowns.

It is not good if the atmosphere is bad, and there was no corresponding punishment system at that time. Many officials and students were overdue. Overdue.

During the Chenghua period of Emperor Xianzong of the Ming Dynasty, further regulations were formulated to regulate this kind of behavior in response to this phenomenon. In the 11th year of Chenghua, it was stipulated that officials in Beijing who had been away from home for more than ten years were allowed to return home on leave, otherwise there was no way!

Perhaps the conditions were too harsh. In the 23rd year of Chenghua, the emperor issued an edict to relax the policy slightly, from ten years to six years. Officials who have not returned to their hometowns in six years are allowed to take leave to visit their relatives if they pass the review.

In fact, there is one thing I forgot in Wei Guangde's leave memorial. If Emperor Jiajing hadn't received Jinyiwei's memorial before, there is a high probability that he would send back Wei Guangde's memorial. Can.

It's just that it's rare for people like Wei Guangde to be unmarried before being admitted to Jinshi.

For most Jinshi in this era, the age of high school is mostly in their thirties, and the Juren gentlemen of this age have already been married.

There are also many Jinshi in their twenties, but the Ming Dynasty did not practice late marriage and late childbearing, and it is normal for men and women to get married at sixteen or seventeen.

Once the system is relaxed, officials will take advantage of the loopholes to seek personal gain. Emperor Chenghua made a small opening, which was quickly torn apart by the officials and became a big gap, which can no longer be blocked.

Since the imperial court strictly scrutinized leave applications, most of the officials who took the leave chose not to return after the time limit. It is rare to have a time to relax and rest, and they can do a lot of things by relying on their official status.

When the time came to the third year of Emperor Wuzong Zhengde of the Ming Dynasty, Zhao Song, the Prime Minister of Guanglu Temple, failed to return for four or five months, so Zhao Song was fined for three months.

Emperor Wuzong Zhengde of the Ming Dynasty was still dissatisfied, and ordered the Ministry of Officials to thoroughly investigate how many officials were overdue.

The law does not blame the public, and Emperor Zhengde couldn't deal with so many officials at once, so he had to order that those who failed to return after the time limit would be forgiven for three months, those who had been punished for four or five months would be fined for three months, and those who had not returned for six or seven months would be arrested. Ask, it takes eight or nine months to become an official, and it takes more than ten months to cut a loan to become an official.

With the existence of this decree, it actually gave Wei Guangde a period of overdue, that is, a two-month holiday, but in fact it was a five-month holiday, not counting the time on the way back and forth.

Thinking about why there are so many celebrities writing poems and inscriptions in those famous mountains and rivers in China, there is a high probability that this is the case.

There doesn't seem to be much difference between rushing on the road and traveling all the way back, anyway, it doesn't take up the leave time.

Wei Guangde had three errands at the same time. The errands of the Hanlin Academy were originally Wu Qing's job, and Wei Guangde continued to take on them when he felt it was easy. Now that he talked to Yin Tai, he would naturally go to Wu Xueshi's too.

Afterwards, there were both Taichang Temple and Zhan Shifu. Although they were idle jobs, Wei Guangde still went to visit the officials in charge honestly.

Time has entered October, and a full moon hangs high in the sky, casting boundless silver moonlight covering the entire river.

With the howling north wind, the weather gradually began to cool down, but at this time on the quiet river, there was the sound of "crashing" ships breaking through the water.

From far to near, a large tank boat with two sails appeared in front of it, and the moonlight reflected on the water surface continued to move forward. The second and third tank boats appeared one after another in the gray, and they followed the front one. The tank boat went all the way south along the north wind.

Wei Guangde was going back to Jiujiang Mansion to get married, the news spread in the capital, and naturally also reached the ears of Jiangxi businessmen in Beijing.

Wei Guangde planned to go back to his hometown this time by taking the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. When he came to the capital last time, because the Tianhan Canal was frozen, they entered Beijing by land.

In the Ming Dynasty, it would be a pity if we could not take a trip to the antique Grand Canal.

The merchants were naturally happy about this, because without him, the northern goods they had hoarded before could return to the south along the way.

The construction of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal began in the Spring and Autumn Period. The State of Wu dug Hangou in order to attack the State of Qi. The Sui Dynasty greatly expanded it and connected it to the capital Luoyang and connected Zhuojun. When the Yuan Dynasty renovated it, it abandoned Luoyang and took it to Beijing.

In fact, the so-called Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal is a waterway built by making full use of the water systems along the way. The water systems are opened up by artificially excavating channels, so as to ensure that the tank boats can go directly from Hangzhou to Tongzhou or even the capital.

It’s just that the cost of building and maintaining the Grand Canal is huge, so successive dynasties have also collected tariffs on ships passing through the canal. In the Ming Dynasty, due to effective collection and management, bill tariffs became an important source of central fiscal revenue, and went directly to the inner court and the Ministry of Households every year. More than 20 taels of folded silver.

What needs to be explained is that although the Ming Dynasty had tens of thousands of ships traveling on the canal at this time, only merchant ships were required to pay customs duties, and as an important source of north-south transportation, tank ships were actually an important carrier.

Because eating and taking cards has almost become an unspoken official rule of the Ming Dynasty, which made life difficult for the soldiers, but they have a lot of responsibilities, so most of them are unwilling to ship grain.

In order to compensate them, the imperial court also gave preferential treatment, that is, the tank boats can carry [-]% of private goods, and part of the freight of these goods and the evaded customs duties go into the pockets of these tank soldiers.

These tens of thousands of tank boats are the main carriers of goods on the canal, carrying the huge commodity trade of the Ming Dynasty from south to north, while private merchant ships are much less.

The Canal Chaoguan is directly under the yamen of the capital, so it is difficult for merchant ships to avoid paying taxes, but it is not impossible. The simplest and effective method is to invite Jinshi and Juren to use their identities to avoid taxes.

From Beijing to Jiujiang, their goods have to go through the six Chaoguan wharves of Hexiwu, Linqingguan, Jiningguan, Xuzhouguan, Huaianguan and Shangxinheguan. As for the last Jiujiang Chaoguan, for them on the ground There are ways to avoid it.

With six banknotes, a toll of nearly a hundred taels of silver is needed for a boat to run down. They have collected five large tank boats to transport the goods this time, which is a few hundred taels of silver.

The merchants selected a representative to find Wei Guangde, and the person who came was naturally Erye Lin of Huitong Trading Company. The purpose was naturally to hope that their merchant ships could go south with Wei Guangde, and take care of him along the way.

In return, the chamber of commerce will give Wei Guangde a reward of 100 taels of silver for preparing the cabin on the ship, that is to say, Wei Guangde not only does not need a boat fee when he returns home, but also earns a net profit of 100 taels of silver.

These days, Wei Guangde agreed to do what everyone did.

If you don't agree, you can't. According to the information disclosed by Lin Erye, most of the consignors are businessmen from Jiujiang. If you don't agree, there may be some unfavorable rumors from your hometown.

Sometimes, it doesn't mean that everyone wants to take advantage of the court and harm the public and private interests, but it is really a last resort.

Let’s talk about how valuable that hundred taels of silver is to Wei Guangde. In fact, Wei Guangde really doesn’t like this amount of money in his heart, but he still has to agree, with a smile on his face.

Wei Guangde's boat was naturally at the forefront of the fleet, and when he crossed the Chaoguan wharf such as Hexiwu and Linqingguan, Wei Guangde directly contacted the Chaoguan officials.

As an agency directly under the imperial court, Chaoguan did not spread the news as fast as the Beijing Yamen, but it still knew the news of Wei Guangde's southward travel in advance. It was the first battle in Baoanzhou last year.

Wei Guangde is now a little famous all over the world, but he doesn't know it yet.

Everything went smoothly. Wei Guangde carried all the procedures on his body, whether it was official seals or official documents, he could easily take them out, and the bank officials would let him go after a little inspection to confirm his identity.

They have long been familiar with such things. Wei Guangde is not the only official who travels to and from the canal. Countless officials do this, and they do it themselves, so it is convenient for others.

This seems to be an unwritten rule within the civil official group of the Ming Dynasty, just like the tax exemption for people with fame and reputation, everyone is actually tacit.

Driven by the north wind, the fleet passed Huai'an soon, and in a few days they will cross Zhenjiang and enter the Yangtze River waterway, which is very close to their hometown.

(End of this chapter)