prosperous age

Chapter 294 Chapter 293
"Clang, clang, clatter."

The big iron lock was opened after the key was turned, and the iron chain hit the prison door with a harsh sound.

"Crack."

With a sound, the cell door was pushed inward, and Wei Guangde, who was standing outside the cell door, could clearly see the environment inside.

It has been three days since Wei Guangde returned to the capital. On the second day, he went back to the Imperial Academy to sell his holidays. He gave the gifts he brought from Jiujiang to his colleagues. By the way, he inquired about the case of Yu Dayou, who was detained in Beizhen Fusi in the official circles of the capital. What a saying.

But to Wei Guangde's surprise, everyone in the Imperial Academy didn't seem to care much about the life and death of a chief military officer. They all knew about it, but not many people really cared about the case.

Gentlemen are noble and military are humble, which is vividly mentioned in the Imperial Academy. The colleagues around Wei Guangde are obviously indifferent to the life and death of a general, even though he has repeatedly made outstanding achievements in the anti-Japanese battlefield.

Perhaps, in this person's eyes, military commanders should be like this.

If you win a battle, you should be promoted, and you should be rewarded. If you lose a battle or make a mistake, you should be punished according to the law.

Distinct rewards and punishments, this is fundamental, and the system that maintains the operation of the court cannot be confused.

The next day, when Xu Jianglan and his wife Xu Jianglan visited Duke Ding's mansion, when Xu Jianglan entered the inner house to meet the women of the Duke's mansion, Wei Guangde inquired with Duke Ding Xu Yande about the statement of the Fifth Army Commander's Mansion on the case.

In the end, Wei Guangde was still disappointed. Now the nobles have really fallen. They are only busy making money and controlling their own basic board, and they don't pay attention to the life and death of other generals at all.

Yu Dayou was not a descendant of any honorable family, and his family was just a hereditary hundred households under the jurisdiction of Quanzhou Wei. Without honorable supporters, no one came out to speak for him at this time.

There have been two joint trials by the three divisions, each time Jin Yiwei sent someone to Beizhen Fusi to be sent to the lobby of the Ministry of Punishment for trial, and then escorted back to Beizhen Fusi Prison.

In fact, at this time, the nobles in the capital also noticed that Lu Bing seemed to want to protect Yu Dayou. The specific reason is not clear, but it was rumored that Yu Dayou brought thousands of taels of silver with him when he came to Beijing, so naturally the nobles thought that Yu Dayou had already lost the money. The filial piety was given to Lu Bing, and Lu Bing would protect him like this.

At this point, even if the other nobles knew Yu Dayou's outstanding military exploits, they were not willing to speak for him, and the reason why they got him out was to help Lu Bing make a wedding dress.

In fact, not all the people in the Xungui family are full of wine bags and rice bags. They also know that the ability of the family to make a fortune is military merit. Now no one in their family can go to the battlefield. Don't look at those who work in the Beijing camp. But if you really want to go to the battlefield, your calves will tremble, and you may not even be able to stand firmly.

They need a military general like Yu Dayou who has battlefield experience and is in distress. He can draw people to his side by extending a helping hand.

But they are not easy to contact when they are in the prison, and seeing Lu Bing make a move, they are naturally even less interested.

From Xu Yande's mouth, Wei Guangde knew that the case had been tried twice, but there was actually no result.

Yu Dayou's military achievements are displayed there. After the Japanese pirates rioted before, Yu Dayou was ordered to go to Zhejiang and Fujian coasts to fight against the Japanese. He fought hundreds of battles. He participated in all the battles to encircle and suppress Japanese pirates.

From Tuolin's suppression of the Japanese to Wang Jingjiang's great victory, the famous battles against Xu Hai and Wang Zhi all performed well, but no matter what, it is impossible to label the army as unfavorable. typed out?

As for Zongwo's escape to the south and Hu Zongxian's suggestion that Yu Dayou was a master of Japan, it is even more nonsense. He was just trying to get rid of the blame, and Yu Dayou was regarded as a blame man.

If he does not shift the responsibility to Yu Dayou, it is inevitable that there will be no clues to impeach him in the future.

To convict Yu Dayou, but there is no evidence and reasons, the officials of the Ministry of Punishment and Dali Temple naturally can't just stick to the label and beat him up.

Although they wanted to take him away from Jin Yiwei, Lu Bing refused very straightforwardly.

I am afraid that there is no one who knows this kind of operation better than Jin Yiwei. Zhao Wenhua was still alive, and his house was copied by Lu Bing's men. Sentenced to military service to repay the debt, the female family members were sold to pay off the debt, it was very miserable.

From Xu Yande, Wei Guangde at least knew that Lu Bing was still defending Yu Dayou.

Xu Yande still attaches great importance to people from Duke Wei's mansion in Nanjing. In fact, he knew about Wei's family and Xu's family just after they got married, and sent someone to Nanjing to send congratulatory gifts when they got married. Not surprisingly.

From Xu Yande's point of view, Wei Guangde is already a member of the Xu family. Of course, he is not a married man, but a very close in-law. He is worth investing in in the future.

They also want to gain the right to speak in the court, but they will be severely suppressed by the civil servants if they show any sign of it. Good job.

In fact, this is also the default rule within the civil service group, and people must give up something to give people enough benefits.

Although the civil official group is dominant in the imperial court, they don't want to really fight with the Xungui group. Civil servants are constantly being produced through the imperial examination.

Speaking of the latter, Xu Yande also told Wei Guangde that he would not run here if he had nothing to do in the future, and that Xu Jianglan could come to the mansion to contact the female relatives more in the future. After all, they are only a relative in the capital, and it is right to move around more. Information can also be passed on.

avoid arousing suspicion.

Wei Guangde understood Xu Yande's meaning and naturally nodded in agreement.

Anyway, in the eyes of outsiders, Wei Guangde is a promising new political star, so he naturally has to avoid some things, not to mention that he doesn't want to be branded as a noble group.

Today, Wei Guangde finally came to this place he didn't want to set foot - Beizhen Fusi Prison.

It was Wei Guangde's first visit to the Imperial Prison, and the moment he entered the door was quite in line with his imagination of the Imperial Prison. It was eerie, and there was a gust of wind blowing around, exuding a chilling atmosphere here.

The so-called prison is not actually a cell built on the ground, nor is it a dungeon. There may be a dungeon, but Yu Dayou was not imprisoned in it.

This is a half-buried cell, most of which seem to be built below the ground, but the windows on the top of the cell are on the ground, so the jailer can see the prisoners in the cell directly from the outside.

Walking through this row of cells made of huge stones, you can see the situation inside clearly through the windows. The cells are divided into small cells by wooden fences, and figures sitting or lying down can be seen faintly in the cells.

Wei Guangde had no intention of inquiring who they were, he knew that these people must have offended the emperor before, so he ordered the emperor to be arrested and locked up here.

Go through those cells and go to the back. In front is an independent house made of huge stones. There are two jailers with waist knives guarding the door. The guard who led the way stopped and said to Wei Guangde with a smile on his face. : "Master Wei, people are inside."

"It's work."

Wei Guangde nodded slightly, and when he cupped his hands, he stuffed an ingot of silver into the jailer's hand.

"How do you say this, the adults have ordered, you see."

The jailer took the money from Wei Guangde, but said.

"Drink, you're welcome."

Wei Guangde didn't want to talk to these people too much, he felt that these jailers and wardens seemed to have stayed in this prison for a long time, and they exuded a cold aura all over their bodies, which was really uncomfortable to watch.

"Open the door."

The jailer was probably used to receiving officials and lords like Wei Guangde, knowing that people with his status were not very well received by the officials and lords.

In fact, that is also human nature, who would want to deal with these people.

What's more, the group of subordinate officials has not been highly regarded by the officials and lords in the Ming Dynasty, and that has been the case since Zhu Yuanzhang's period.

There are roughly three types of civil servants in this era. The first type is naturally officials, who become official through the imperial examination.

The second category is the officials in the yamen. The officials are different from the officials. The officials are not in the mainstream. There are six rooms under the ordinary county government: workers, punishments, rituals, and soldiers. The ordinary clerks in the six rooms are the so-called officials, responsible for writing official documents, handling Archives and documents are the main force of the writing work in the yamen.

The third category is yamen servants, and there are three groups of yamen servants.

One is called Zhanba Zaoli, who wears a red and black uniform. In the Ming Dynasty, he also wore a square scarf and cut flowers. In the Qing Dynasty, the boots were of different colors, one red and the other black. When the trial was open, he leaned on a water and fire stick, shouted "Wei~wu~", and beat the prisoner with a board according to the master's instructions.

Second, the catcher Kuaishou is the criminal policeman who arrests criminals, a common character in martial arts novels.

Third, the strong class is strong, responsible for all kinds of miscellaneous work, some guarding the prison, some carrying sedan chairs, some guarding the gates and buildings, some responsible for transportation and logistics, and some managing the canteen of the government compound.

The above three categories are collectively called the three classes of yamen servants.

As a person in the yamen, the scribes are referred to as "li" for short, and the yamen servants are referred to as "xu" for short, and the two are collectively called "subordinate officials".

Officials are looked down upon by others, let alone Xu. The people of the Ming Dynasty were divided into four categories: scholars, farmers, soldiers, and craftsmen.

In addition to this, there is a class of untouchables, such as beggar households, fallen people, 疍hu, Lehu, yamen servants, and Wuzuo, all of which are classified as untouchables.

The jailer, although there is an official behind him, is actually just a small leader among the jailers. Although he works in Beizhen Fusizhao Prison, he is no longer in the Jinyiwei establishment. He is not a military household, but a pariah.

There was a sound of opening the door, and the cell door was pushed inward. What Wei Guangde saw was Yu Dayou lying on a rattan chair with his eyes squinted in a light shirt, fanning himself leisurely, and there was a jug on the table beside him. The fragrant tea is exuding a faint tea fragrance.

This is a world of difference from the treatment of those dark cells that Wei Guangde passed through before, and people have to sigh that "it's good to have people on the top".

"Who's here?"

Yu Dayou, who was lying on the wicker chair, didn't even open his eyes, and just asked a faint question.

"Uncle Yu is living a leisurely life in prison. The emperor thought that Uncle Yu had done a lot in the past few years in his conquests, so he came to the capital to rest for a while, haha"

Although Yu Dayou didn't look at him, Wei Guangde still bowed to Yu Dayou after entering the door.

In Zhejiang, Yu Dayou is considered to be his father, uncle and brother, and he can be regarded as Wei Guangde's elder, and his etiquette cannot be dismissed, let alone he is a member of the Imperial Academy.

When Wei Guangde was speaking, Yu Dayou had already opened his eyes, looked at Wei Guangde who was at the door and bowed to salute, the corners of his mouth raised, and a smile appeared on his dark face.

"It's you, boy. Is this the return to Beijing after the wedding leave?"

"Yes, please trouble Uncle Yu to remember."

After saluting, Wei Guangde stood up straight and looked at him with a smile.

"After arriving in the capital, I heard that your boy went back to Jiujiang to get married, and he married the daughter of Duke Wei's family. It's not bad."

Yu Dayou's lying body has sat upright at this time, his eyes are still staring at Wei Guangde so energetically.

Seeing this gaze, Wei Guangde couldn't help but recall that when he met Yu Dayou in the wild, he stared at him like this, which made him feel a little creepy, and unconsciously felt that he wanted to rob him again.

"hey-hey."

Wei Guangde laughed dryly, took out the letter written by his uncle and father to Yu Dayou from his bosom, offered it with both hands, and said in his mouth: "My father and uncle heard that Uncle Yu was imprisoned unjustly, and I was very anxious. I wrote this letter when I came to Beijing this time." Tell me to bring a letter and hand it over to Uncle Yu."

"Ugh"

Yu Dayou sighed, stretched out his hand to take the letter handed over by Wei Guangde, and opened it directly to read it.

Soon, after reading the two letters, Yu Dayou folded the letter and put it back in the envelope, then said in a low mood: "They also said at the beginning that the only person I have is not suitable for being an official and is easy to offend others. It's the ancestral tomb that is smoking."

For Yu Dayou, there is no problem in fighting a war. If he is to rule the army, rewards and punishments must be clearly defined, and everything must be done in advance.

In fact, Yu Dayou is suitable for mixing on the battlefield, which is also Yu Dayou's own cognition.

He will not follow others, will not bully the poor, and will not bribe the superiors, because he is different from other generals, the Yu family army can maintain a strong combat effectiveness, a very important reason is that he does not drink the blood of soldiers, relying on his strength alone A little salary is naturally a bribe without money.

Therefore, he believes that only by relying on his own ability to make achievements on the battlefield can his superiors look at him with admiration. After all, a general still needs to have generals who can fight, otherwise how can he win the battle.

It's just that he didn't expect that he would be thrown into prison just like that.

In fact, Yu Dayou is not stupid, he is not a pedantic person, he knows how to be flexible.

The Yu family inherited the position of a hundred households, and was the lowest military officer in the Ming army. He was a sixth rank, with an annual salary of 120 shi. There was no problem in maintaining food and clothing, so the family had spare money to send him to study. Yu Dayou lived up to expectations. Middle scholar.

It's just that I didn't continue to make progress in the future, and I don't know how many scholars have been stopped by raising people.

After the death of Yu's father, Yu Dayou entered the army and took over the post of Hundred Households, becoming a Hundred Household Officer of Quanzhou Wei.

The Ming army stipulated that without military merits and martial arts, you cannot be promoted. The proud Yu Dayou chose to go to Beijing to participate in the martial arts examination. He was ranked fifth in the list and won the Wu Jinshi.

It is a bit exaggerated to say that Yu Dayou was all-rounder in civil and military affairs, but Yu Dayou was indeed a rare all-rounder in the Ming army at that time.
(End of this chapter)