Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 185 Unrest in the Central Plains
"The catastrophe is coming, the world is dark, the Mahayana is triumphant, the sun and the moon are dark..."

In July, when the land division operation was launched in Liaodong, a series of rebellious slogans also appeared in Shandong, Henan and other places in the pass.

"Why would the people listen to other people's bewitching when the imperial court provides such disaster relief? Sigh..."

On the long road in Zoucheng, Yanzhou Prefecture, Confucian scholars, old and young, dressed in Taoist robes, were watching some children wearing red scarves shouting slogans, shaking their heads and sighing.

A diner at a snack stall on the side of the road also said:

"Why should Dr. Meng care about them? In this world, isn't it normal for some sects to cheat money every few years?"

"Having said that, it would be nice if it was really just cheating some money." The [-]-year-old Confucian scholar called Dr. Meng shook his head, and after shaking his head, he also said to the seventeen or eighteen-year-old boy next to him :

"Honglue, if there are monsters making trouble in the future, you must be loyal to the imperial court, and you must not disappoint the court's kindness to my Meng family."

"Father, don't worry, I will never forget." Hearing this, the young man bowed in response.

Seeing this, Dr. Meng could only shake his head and sigh:
"Let me just sit back and watch, but I still can't do it. Since I saw it, I must go to the imperial court."

"After you return home, Honglue, ask someone to go to Qufu to inform Duke Yansheng, and ask Duke Yansheng to go to school with me."

"Father, please don't worry. I will write a handwritten letter after returning to the mansion and order it to be sent to the Confucian mansion." The young man responded, and then Dr. Meng shook his head and led the young man around Zoucheng.

It's okay if you don't look at it, but when you look at it, you find that it is not only children with red scarves tied on their heads, singing the anti-nursery rhymes, but also some woodcutters and trackers.

Such a scene made Dr. Meng speed up his pace of going home, and finally the two stopped at the gate of a mansion covering an area of ​​more than [-] mu.

This mansion is designed in a hard mountain style with three couplets and single eaves. There is a plaque hanging in the middle of the lintel, and the three gilded characters "Yasheng Mansion" are written on it.

On the black lacquered gate is a painted door god about seven feet high. A tall screen wall is built in the south of the gate. A pair of finely carved stone lions stand on the left and right sides of the gate. On both sides of the gate steps are a pair of square stone platforms for riding horses and carriages. .

This mansion shows the identities of the two, namely, the descendant of Mencius, and Dr. Meng is Meng Chengguang, the [-]th generation direct descendant of Mencius, who is the hereditary "Doctor of Five Classics" of Ming Dynasty.

When the two returned to the mansion, Meng Chengguang immediately polished his writing, preparing to use the false title of "Doctor of the Five Classics" to report to the chief envoys of the capital and Shandong at the same time.

At the same time, his eldest son Meng Honglue also invited his grandmother Kong to write in handwriting, hoping to invite Kong Yinzhi, the sixty-fourth grandson of the Confucian family, Gong Yansheng, to go to the school together.

However, when Meng Honglue worked so hard to send the handwriting written by his grandmother to the Confucian Mansion in Qufu, Kong Yinzhi who received the letter only glanced at the content, then put the letter on the table, and then told the mansion The head reprimanded:

"In the future, don't hand over such useless letters to me."

"Yes..." The manager lowered his head helplessly, and Kong Yinzhi also waved his hands to signal the manager to step down.

After resigning from the position in charge, Kong Yinzhi looked through the records of this year's harvest of the fields under the Kongfu's command, and whether there was any disaster in any place.

His inaction is the same as most officials in Shandong.

On the contrary, after Meng Chengguang's handwriting was sent to the chief envoy of Shandong Province, Yuan Keli, who was diligent in political affairs, saw it.

He carefully read the contents of the handwriting, and then called the officials of the chief secretary to say:
"Dr. Meng of the Yasheng Mansion wrote in his hand that there are some believers in Lunan who shout anti-Yi slogans and wear red scarves. Have you ever heard of it?"

"Forehead……"

The two officials who were called looked at me, I looked at you, and finally bowed at the same time:

"Reporting to the governor, the chief secretary has not received the letter from the land of southern Shandong, and the subordinate officials do not know."

"Immediately order people to go to the counties in southern Shandong to investigate." Yuan Keli frowned, and immediately gave the order.

"I obey orders!" Hearing Yuan Keli's words, the two officials responded respectively, and then withdrew from the Chief Secretary's office.

On the contrary, after the two left, Yuan Keli ordered someone to call his trusted Jimo camp general Li Xingzhong and Wendeng camp general Zhang Erxin.

Li Xingzhong and Zhang Erxin are both Liao people. After Nurhachi captured Kaiyuan, Tieling and other places, they believed that Liaodong was unstable, so they moved south with their family.

Later, because of being excluded in Shandong, it happened that Yuan Keli reorganized the third battalion in Shandong, so he joined the army, and then he emerged and was promoted all the way to the general.

Therefore, the two respected Yuan Keli very much, and when Yuan Keli saw the two coming, he also said straight to the point:

"There are monsters in Lunan who are trying to make trouble. Although the old man sent the chief secretary to investigate, I still feel a little uneasy. You and the other two choose your cronies to go to Lunan. I want to know if there are really demons in Lunan, and if there are monsters. Quantity is geometry again.”

"Governor, please don't worry, the two of us will order people to investigate the matter of Lunan." Li Xingzhong and Zhang Erxin bowed to each other in response, and Yuan Keli also waved his hands and said:
"Go."

"The final general will retire!" Seeing this, the second general retreated, and Yuan Keli continued to organize the memorial.

At the same time, the Chief Secretary officials and battalion soldiers went to the land of southern Shandong to investigate.

It's just that the Chief Secretary officials seemed to know something, so they didn't put the investigation first, but wandered around the counties in southern Shandong like a business trip, aimlessly.

Their speed was extremely slow, which gave the officials below enough time to prepare.

Therefore, whenever he came to a county, the local Wenxiang believers were expelled, thus creating a scene of peace in the world.

The government's expulsion naturally attracted the attention of the top management of the Wenxiang Sect, so they also began to order the believers to be careful about lurking.

This led to the fact that when the spies of the battalion came to the land of southern Lu, they did not see too many Wenxiang believers wearing red scarves and chanting slogans.

They patrolled for a few days and found out some news before returning to Qingzhou. The officials of the chief secretary also returned with a lot of rewards after receiving a lot of benefits from the counties.

After returning to Linzi, the two reported the situation in southern Shandong, and said to Yuan Keli:
"Governor, although the victims of the earthquake in Yanzhou Prefecture received relief, some ignorant people regarded the so-called earthquake as the beginning of a "big catastrophe" and privately ridiculed the imperial court for its dishonor."

"However, the lower officials inspected for several days, and did not see so many monsters as mentioned in Dr. Meng's letter. Perhaps there are only a few dozen fools in a county."

The two Chief Secretary officials responded neither humble nor overbearing. If they only looked at their expressions, perhaps others would really believe it.

However, Yuan Keli had already obtained the report from the camp soldiers in advance, and according to the camp soldiers, although there were not many demons from the Wenxiang Sect, there were hundreds of people in one county, not as few as the two said.

But even so, Yuan Keli still didn't say anything, but waved his hands and said: "Since there is nothing to do, then step back."

"Yes!" Hearing what Yuan Keli said, the two were overjoyed, and then they left.

But after they left, Yuan Keli sent someone to send the generals of the third battalion, and ordered the three of them to reorganize the army. If there is a monster rebellion in the jurisdiction, it will be suppressed immediately.

After the three of them agreed to leave, Yuan Keli attached Meng Chengguang's letter, wrote another memorial himself, and sent it to the capital.

When the memorial was sent to the capital, discussions on Yuan Keli's letter also started among the cabinet.

"The joint report between Yuan Liqing and Meng Yongguan said that there are several counties in the south of Lunan, and there are hundreds of demons in each. Please allow him to arrest the demons. What do you think?"

Ye Xianggao held in his hand the memorabilia of Yuan Keli and Meng Chengguang's joint Shangshu, and asked the ministers of the cabinet, six ministries, and six departments sitting in the main hall, and Yang Lian immediately said:
"If the thief has signs of rebellion, there is nothing wrong with suppressing it."

"But Yuan Liqing also said in the memorandum, it's just a guess, Yang Du may have reacted too much to the matter."

As soon as Yang Lian opened his mouth, Yao Zongwen immediately stood up and sang the opposite tune.

"The catastrophe is coming, the sky and the earth are dark, the Mahayana is triumphant, the sun and the moon have no light... Isn't this slogan clear enough?" Seeing his friend being refuted, Zuo Guangdou immediately refuted.

But as soon as he refuted, the five parties of Qi, Chu, Zhejiang, Xuan, and Kun became interested. Not long ago, Feng Sanyuan, who was manipulated by Zhu Guozuo and transferred to the official department, also replied:

"If you only focus on the words and accuse people of treason, then as long as you write the poems of the sun and the moon, you will be betrayed and charged with treason?"

"Absurd, even if you don't talk about the sun and the moon, what about the first three sentences?" Yang Lian frowned and retorted, and at this time the cabinet minister Shen Yun also coughed:
"It's not appropriate to arrest and suppress thousands of people with just one slogan."

"We still have to let Yuan Liqing catch the evidence that the demons intend to rebel, such as swords, guns, halberds, armor and gunpowder..."

"Shen Gechen..." Liu Yixiu saw that Shen Li was going off the stage, and immediately followed suit and said:
"You also said, thousands of people..."

Speaking of this, Liu Yixiu glanced at the people in the main worship hall, and then continued: "Thousands of people shouted the same slogan, can't this be used as evidence?"

"So what?" Yao Zongwen retorted:
"When tens of thousands of people shouted that a person is a thousand years old, Liu Cifu was not impeached..."

As soon as Yao Zongwen opened his mouth, he meant Qi Wang Zhu Youjian, which everyone could hear.

The current Zhu Youjian, that is, he doesn't like to get involved in political affairs, otherwise, during the three-day regular court, he might be the one who is mobilized and attacked every time.

It is precisely because he knows what he will face when he goes to court, so Zhu Youjian has been avoiding the court all the time.

"Ahem! Yao Du is in the middle of the matter, these words are a bit too much."

Zhu Guozuo took the initiative to smooth things over for Yao Zongwen's words, but of course he didn't want to help Zhu Youjian speak well. Instead, after reprimanding Yao Zongwen on the surface, this guy continued to speak:

"Jinyiwei's Nanbei Town Fusi is divided into Chabian Town, Two Capitals and Fourteen Provinces. Since the so-called slogan has been spread in the southern Shandong and eastern Henan regions, the Nanzhen Fusi will naturally know if there is any suspicion of treason."

Zhu Guozuo did a good job. He pushed the cabinet's discussion on whether to suppress it to Jin Yiwei.

It was as if, without Jin Yiwei speaking, this matter could not be settled.

In this way, if the Fusi of Nanzhen said that Wenxiang taught everyone to be a rebel, then the Fusi of Nanzhen would be useless after the suppression, and if the people of Wenxiang had no intention of rebelling, then Fusi of Nanzhen would be punished. Impeach.

If Nanzhen Fusi doesn't speak up, well, this matter is that Nanzhen Fusi's picketing is not good, and it is even more of Nanzhen Fusi's problem.

His method of "putting aside the facts" was a bit flexible.

Of course, he was not aiming at Cui Yingyuan, the commander of Nanzhen Fusi, but Zhu Youjian, king of Qi.

If Nanzhen Fusi made an intelligence error, then he could pour dirty water on Zhu Youjian.

Why didn't the intelligence-sensitive Fusi of Nanzhen detect the conspiracy of the Wenxiang sect?Is there someone who can cover it?If someone covers up, who has the ability?

All kinds of evidence will point to Zhu Youjian under Zhu Guozuo's operation.

For a while, Liu Yixiu and the others frowned, but while they were still frowning, some officials from the Six Divisions and Departments of the Donglin faction followed suit.

"That's true. If Jin Yiwei didn't investigate the news, it would be a bit abrupt for Yuan Keli to suppress the people."

"Jin Yiwei should go to investigate the news first..."

"That's right..."

Many officials were arguing, and seeing his own camp turn against each other, Yang Lian clenched his teeth and clenched the corner of his clothes so tightly that his teeth were bleeding.

Zhu Youjian's words resurfaced in his mind again. At this time, he couldn't help asking himself:
"Are opinions really everything?"

There was no time for him to think of an answer, so Zhu Guozuo said, "This memorandum, I suggest shelving it for the time being, and it won't be too late to deal with it when Jin Yiwei finds out the situation."

"The old man seconded"

"Seconded……"

"Seconded……"

All of a sudden, more than [-]% of the more than [-] officials in the Lord's Hall seconded the proposal, and four of the six ministers in the cabinet also expressed their approval.

As a result, the memorandum was temporarily put on hold, and Yang Lian immediately walked out of the Wenhua Palace and walked towards the Xuqin Palace after the proposal was completed.

Some officials who walked out of the Wenhua Palace saw Yang Lian's leaving back, and immediately sneered:

"Some people are innocent on the surface, but they are actually lackeys of others..."

"Hey... how can you call it like that? It's really rude, it should be called... Eagle! Dog!"

"Hahahaha... It's extremely, extremely!"

Among the many mockers, there were many Donglin officials, and they also sneered at Yang Lian.

Yang Lian quickly walked into the East Palace, and then came to the front of the Xuqin Palace with a few turns, but when he opened the door, he saw Zhu You standing under the canopy umbrella, who was drawing pictures of Yang Ai's sisters teasing cats. check.

Yang Ai and Yang Yuanai sat in the middle of the courtyard, surrounded by a few lions and cats walking lazily.

Yang Lian entered the palace, and without waiting for Jin Yiwei to report, he pushed away the two people around him, walked into the courtyard, and said to the lazy cat: "Go, go!"

He drove the cat away, and then came to Zhu Youjian with crotch steps, shouting: "What a mess outside! You still have the intention to tease the cat and draw pictures here!"

After all, he looked down...

Hey, it looks like a nice drawing.

"What's the rush, the southwest is pressing harder and harder, and the Liaodong Guard is abolished, and everything is peaceful."

Zhu Youjian continued to draw cats calmly, but Yang Lian immediately grabbed Zhu Youjian's pen when he saw this, and cursed:

"Don't you know how many rioters there are in southern Shandong and eastern Henan?!"

The pen was robbed, Zhu Youjian was a little helpless, raised his head and said to Yang Lian:
"Didn't Yuan Keli go to school? You just deal with it. Otherwise, what are the cabinet, six departments and six departments?"

Zhu Youjian responded, bowed his head and prepared to take a pen from the pen holder to describe.

Yang Lian glanced at it, this time he didn't snatch it, but told about the farce in the Lord's Hall just now.

When he opened his mouth, Zhu Youjian frowned immediately, and Cao Huachun, who was standing behind Zhu Youjian, also itched his teeth with hatred after hearing Zhu Guozuo's thoughts.

But frowned, Zhu Youjian still painted calmly, and responded:

"They are not afraid of rioters attacking Jiangnan and Zhejiang. What am I afraid of?"

"This Ming Dynasty belongs to your Zhu family. If you don't share the burden, who will share it?!" Yang Lian was irritated by Zhu Youjian's seemingly sloppy words, and asked back with his hands on the table.

Zhu Youjian had no choice but to draw the last stroke of the painting, and then raised his head and said, "Why don't I care about it, why don't I share it? It's not like the Yumajian didn't pay for it during the earthquake in the three provinces."

"Now that the money and food have been released, the Tianjin Shipyard has also recruited more than [-] disaster victims. Isn't that enough?"

"Hmph! The old man has already told you the matter, you'd better tell Long Live about it!" After finishing speaking, Yang Lian snorted coldly, and the moment he raised his hand, he actually tore away the picture scroll on the table, cursing:
"Playthings lose their ambitions!"

"Hey!" Zhu Youjian, Cao Huachun and the others were stunned as Yang Lian pulled away the painting he had just drawn, and then walked out of the palace without looking back. Hua ran out of Xuqin Palace.

"I..." Zhu Youjian clenched the pen in his hand, cursing in his heart.

It took him half an hour to finish that painting, why did he just take it away without saying hello?Besides, he hasn't settled yet!
"Your Highness, why don't you... repaint..." Seeing Yang Lian running away, Cao Huachun could only ask cautiously.

"Draw a..." Zhu Youjian was about to yell, but a Jinyi guard at the door came in and bowed:
"His Royal Highness, the newly-appointed Vice-president of the Ryukyu City Shipbuilding Department, Shen Tingyang, seeks an audience..."

"Tell him to come in." Being interrupted, Zhu Youjian didn't bother to scold anymore, but put the pen on the pen holder, and then sat down on the chair.

At this moment, a twenty-seven-eight-year-old young official dressed in the uniform of a civil servant of the sixth grade walked into Xuqin Palace, and was about to kneel down and salute.

This move made Zhu Youjian frown slightly, and when Cao Huachun saw this, he quickly reminded:

"Your Highness doesn't like people kneeling, just bow."

"It's... Shen Tingyang, vice-president of Xiaguan City Shipping Department, named Ji Ming, see Chitose."

Shen Tingyang saluted, and then straightened his back, and Zhu Youjian also looked him up and down.

He is not a tall man, only five feet four or five inches. He is a bit thin, and his appearance is not unusual, but his eyes are piercing.

Zhu Youjian looked him up, and then said:

"What do you think about transferring you from the Imperial College to the Ryukyu Mansion for reclamation and organizing city ships to collect taxes?"

"Thank you, Your Highness, for your support..." Seeing Zhu Youjian's inquiry, Shen Tingyang expressed his gratitude neither humble nor overbearing, and then said:

"In the area of ​​Ryukyu, the officials often checked it when they were in the Guozijian. It can be said that if you control the Ryukyu Mansion on the sea road, you can control the sea road in Fujian."

"Even if you can't control the sea route, you can still use sea transportation to transport some timber needed by the imperial court to the north."

"Huachun, bring the chart." Zhu Youjian did not respond to Shen Tingyang, but turned around and asked Cao Huachun to take out the chart.

Cao Huachun ordered someone to take out the chart, put the table in front of Shen Tingyang, and spread the chart out.

While the content of the chart unfolded, Shen Tingyang's eyes lit up.

The content of the sea chart is the East Asian maritime trade map and the map of the mainland and islands drawn by Zhu Youjian.

The routes and the like were also marked out by him with Jin Yiwei's information.

As soon as the route was marked, the importance of Ryukyu Prefecture was instantly reflected, and Zhu Youjian also said:

"The reason for the abolition of the Shipping Department of the three provinces and cities and the establishment of the Ryukyu City Shipping Department is to master shipping."

"You should know that Huang Long, the commander-in-chief of the navy's three guards, will be promoted to the city ship department, so the navy's three guards will completely take over all the waterways in a few months and supervise all ships in the waterways."

"The East-West Nanyang maritime trade earns no less than six million taels of profit every year, and the Ryukyu Prefecture can go to the Ryukyu Kingdom, Japan, and Korea in the north, and Annan in the south, Luzon, Java, Nibala, and Manlaga. country."

"If you were to propose for the Shibo Secretary, how would you collect taxes?"

Zhu Youjian gave Shen Tingyang time to think, and Shen Tingyang also knew that this was a school exam, so he racked his brains to think about it.

After a while, Shen Tingyang opened his mouth and said:

"If the next official is promoted, all maritime merchant ships along the coast should be eliminated, and all ships should be ordered to hang the imperial flag and iron plates."

"All the goods of the ships need to be purchased from the imperial store before they can be traded. In addition, Nanyang and Western maritime merchants are restricted from trading in Ryukyu South Port. All trade must also go to the local imperial store to purchase goods."

Shen Tingyang proposed two things, one is to bring all maritime merchants under the imperial shop of Yumajian, and the other is to restrict the trading locations of European merchant ships.

But in fact, these two are one, that is, let the maritime trade buy goods in the imperial stores in various places.

This is different from Zhu Youjian's direct trade with the Huangdian fleet. In essence, it still encourages private sea trade, but only limits the trading location.

In this way, the imperial court can effectively collect taxes, and the maritime merchants mainly earn errand fees.

But the disadvantage is that the coast is too big, once you buy goods in other places, it is still difficult to get certified.

It's just that this problem is not difficult. It is still the same as Zhu Youjian originally thought, setting up a sea patrol department to patrol the coast.

The production capacity of Tianjin Shipyard is huge. As long as there is money, there will be motivation, and thousands or even tens of thousands of ships of [-] or [-] materials can be built.

At that time, the large and small ships of the Maritime Inspection Department will patrol the coastal and inland seas. Not only can they check whether there are people drying salt or cooking illegal salt along the coast, but they can also monitor whether there are people traveling by land and secretly transporting materials to Shanghai ships.

In the past, the Daming Navy had too many functions. If Zhu Youjian wants to take the lead in the next big sailing business, it is necessary to split the functions of the Navy.

The outer seas are under the responsibility of the future navy, and the inner seas are under the responsibility of the Coast Guard.

The Department of Coast Guard, Department of Salt Inspection, and Department of Shipbuilding must form a virtuous circle in order to eliminate most of the smuggling trade and smuggling of salt.

Therefore, Zhu Youjian opened his mouth and told Shen Tingyang about the Department of Shipping, Sea Patrol, and Salt Inspection that he thought about.

After the long description, Shen Tingyang also said by analogy:
"In order to distinguish, all marine merchants can also use the ships of Tianjin Shipyard, and the shipyard can mark the ships as private marine merchants."

"In addition, Huangdian needs to send the delivery note to the sea merchant. If the delivery note does not match the goods, the goods can be seized."

"However, in the case of Ming's coast, the Sea Patrol Division needs at least tens of thousands of ships and more than [-] people."

"But it's easy to reduce the number of manpower. It is to let the sea merchants use standard large-scale ships, thereby reducing the number of seagoing ships in the Daming Inland Sea."

"For example, in the past, Ming Dynasty had [-] sea-going ships of [-] materials, so they were required to purchase [-]-material ships from Tianjin Shipyard, so that the number of ships could be reduced to [-]."

Shen Tingyang's idea is good, because the total amount of trade will not change suddenly, so allowing maritime merchants to purchase large ships and reduce the number of ships can also reduce the pressure on the Coast Guard.

But regarding this, Zhu Youjian still said:
"We still need to take care of the small sea merchants. The big ship with [-] materials is too big, so let's set it at [-] materials."

"Afterwards, there will be shipyards in Beigang and Lushun one after another. I will ask people to give you the cost of sea-going ships. You and the three major shipyards will negotiate the ex-factory price of the ships. After the north and south ports are built, I will ask Huanglong to recruit soldiers and recruit seagoers. It's staffed by the inspector."

"I obey orders!" Shen Tingyang immediately complied when he heard the words, and began to draw a blueprint for the trip to Ryukyu in his heart.

"Retire." Zhu Youjian waved his hand, and Shen Tingyang also withdrew from Xuqin Palace.

But after he left, Zhu Youjian looked at Yang Ai and the two who were still teasing cats, and remembered the painting that Yang Lian had snatched away, and couldn't help cursing:

"Old man..."

　Four o'clock and one more

　　
　
(End of this chapter)