Idle courtiers

Chapter 334

Zou Yinglong: "Zimu, please tell me."

Zhou Nan: "Yunqing, you also know that I used to be a minor official in Huai'an Mansion. Zhejiang and Fujian were hit by war, and a large number of local people fled across the river. Even Huai'an Mansion also had tens of thousands of refugees."

Zou Yinglong nodded: "I know this. Back then, the imperial court ordered the local people to properly resettle the refugees. The Huai'an mansion posted a memorial for relief from work, and they embezzled a lot of money from river workers."

Zhou Nan: "When I resettled the refugees, many fugitives from Fujian and Zhejiang came to the Andong County where I lived. I heard them talk about the things there. Among them, there is always something to do with Xiaoge."

He paused, went through the materials he had read in his previous life, organized his thoughts, and said slowly: "The reason why the Southeast War has been delayed for a long time is not that the Japanese pirates are brave and good at fighting, but that most of the Japanese pirates are me. The sea bandits, refugees, and even local tyrants in the Ming Dynasty. Among them, [-]% of the real pirates are the real pirates, and [-]% are sea people. These sea people farm at home on weekdays, and go to battle in wartime. Once the war is unfavorable, they will be reorganized When they returned home for zero, the government couldn’t tell whether they were good citizens or bandits. That’s how the battle lasted for a long time.”

That's right, the Japanese pirate rebellion in the middle and late Ming Dynasty was actually a civil strife in the final analysis.

Fujian is mountainous, and the sea people live in poverty. They usually fish in places like the ocean where nothing is harvested, and they also have to fight pirates. They have extremely aggressive personalities.

This big fish has been dried for a year, and there is not much left after deducting all the taxes levied by the court. How can it be more enjoyable than snatching a passing merchant ship.

As a result, it has become common practice to farm when busy and be a Kou when idle.

In the beginning, it was just ordinary people with no means of livelihood who became pirates. Later, the local gentry saw the benefits and also participated in it.Large-scale and organized local armed forces began to appear, and the flames of thieves were blazing.

Later, Japanese pirates fled to the three provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Fujian, attacking prefectures and plundering counties.The local gentry saw that the local army of the Ming Dynasty was too weak. With all due respect, I can fight ten such military households.After all, the wealth of robbing a merchant ship at sea is limited, how can it be compared to a rich woman in a city.

As a result, the local gentry colluded with the Japanese pirates and joined the ranks of robbing the common people.

By the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, there were not many real Fusang people among the pirates in the southeast.

Yan Song was originally a southerner, and had a close relationship with the southern aristocratic family all his life in officialdom.Zhejiang and Fujian are his source of income. The money raised for Jiajing every year and the activities of the Yan Party all come from there, and many of them are Japanese pirates and pirates.

When Luo Longwen went to Fujian and Zhejiang to raise funds, he found that the funder was suspected of Japanese pirates, so he didn't dare to be careless and immediately reported to Xiao Yan.

For the sake of money and to consolidate the Yan family's power, Xiao Yan just pretended not to see it.Even privately communicated with these local tyrants and evil gentry about the song, and gave them more care.

In the end, the reason why the Yan Party completely collapsed was because of Yan Shifan's crime of colluding with the Japanese.Xiao Yan was also beheaded and abandoned the market.

This is how history is recorded, and Zhou Nan is also planning to use this method to get rid of Xiao Yan.

"This..." Zou Yinglong gasped uncontrollably.

Zhou Nan: "Yunqing was still blaming me why I offended Xu Qian. It was because I wanted to force him to testify against Yan Shifan. You think, Xu Qian, as the chief envoy of Fujian Province, is in charge of the distribution of food supplies for the army. Who else is more familiar with him? It’s not easy for him to find evidence because of the local people’s sentiments? Yunqing, let me ask you, if Mr. Xiaoge is beheaded, is there any chance for the Yan Party to stand up?”

After he traveled to the Ming Dynasty, he was in the officialdom, and his only principle was not to be stained with human blood.This time, in order to save the master, to save the ninth son, there must be an exception.

In the real history, Xiao Yan's death was already doomed, even without him, Zhou Nan would not have been able to escape this catastrophe.Besides, if you communicate with the Japanese, you are a traitor.Killing him is an act of justice.

Zhou Nan didn't feel any guilt.

Zou Yinglong's eyes widened, and he exclaimed: "Miao, it's so wonderful, let's do this. I will immediately go to see my mentor and ask him to come forward to find Xu Qian. But, is this plan able to put Yan Donglou to death?"

Zhou Nan said solemnly: "It must."

In real history, after the downfall of the Yan family and his son, Xiao Yan was imprisoned during the tribunal of the Tribunal, but he still remained calm. After all, Yan Shifan was extremely smart, and it is expected that the official censor would persecute him to death at most. The famous Yang Jisheng and others overturned the case, and at the very least they would be charged with corruption.However, the crime that the Ministry of Criminal Justice finally closed was the crime of collusion. Yan Shifan, who was wise for a lifetime, knew the news, and his heart sank. The history book said that Shifan heard about it and said in surprise: "He is dead."

Because he knew that the crime of Tongwa touched the political red line in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, and whoever touches it will die.

It turns out that although Emperor Jiajing was lazy all his life and did not go to court for more than ten years, Zhu Yuanzhang's blood flowed on his body. The two things he hated the most in his life were being a coward and committing crimes.

The Japanese plague in the middle and late Ming Dynasty was a headache for every son of tomorrow, and the emperors in the late Ming Dynasty were lazy.A group of Japanese pirates dare not fight head-on, and engage in guerrilla warfare every day. This is what bothers me the most.Don't talk about the people who understand the Japanese, the emperor has only one word, he must die.

Zou Yinglong listened to Zhou Nan's explanation of the key, and then he let out a long breath: "Yes, yes. However, how important it is to report on Yan Shifan, I think Xu Fantai will also be under a lot of pressure. Great fame is not enough to negotiate conditions."

Zhou Nan: "Master Xu's term of office has expired, and he probably will serve as Hu Zongxian's underling in Fujian. I'm afraid he's already thinking of leaving. Otherwise, why did he come to the capital himself this time? It's not because he wants an official."

Yes, although the Chief Political Envoy of the Ming Dynasty was a senior official of the second rank and was in charge of the civil affairs of a province, he was not a top official in the frontier.

In view of the corruption of the local government, the central government directly sent a governor to deprive the chief envoy of his power.

As a result, the chief envoy is useless, and the worst chief envoy was even sent out of the provincial capital to take care of a pitiful state.

Judging from Xu Qian's unrestrained and straightforward temperament today, I'm afraid he is also a person who wants to do things and pursue a career, so he is naturally not reconciled to dawdling in Fujian.

All along, Zou Yinglong regarded Zhou Nan as Xu Clan's junior junior.

Listening to what he said today, it is as if he knows the situation of all parties in the imperial court like the back of his hand, and it is calculated to the extreme.

Originally, he was a little unconvinced that Xu Jie valued Zhou Zimu so much, but today he has to admit that I am not as good as him.

At the moment, Zou Yinglong didn't say much, and went straight to see Xu Jie.

It was at the last juncture, Zhou Nan thought for a while that there was no point in staying in the General Secretary, so he slipped away and went to Wang Shizhen's house to study for a day.

On the second day, a person suddenly asked to see him.

The person who came was actually a secretary from the former Armaments Bureau, who said that the ambassador had ordered him to come and invite Mr. Zhou to collect the salary he owed.

It turned out that when Zhou Nan was kicked out of the Weapons Bureau, he hadn't finished working for a month.Seeing that he was in decline, the new ambassador naturally didn't have the heart to pay him any more salary, so he put A into his own pocket.

Now it is estimated that Zhou Nan voted under Xu Jie's family, and the Yan Party was dying, and it was precarious. Seeing that Mr. Zhou was about to become popular, he came here to please.

Zhou Nan was furious when he heard the words, and shouted: "It's just two taels of silver. Your ambassador wants to use it by himself. I, Zhou, really don't lack this money? Hehe, there are many villains in the world, your ambassador What's more. I didn't expect it, I didn't meet, I, Zhou Nan, didn't completely collapse as you wished. Go back and tell your lords, 30 years in Hedong, 30 years in Hexi, stay a line of life, so we can see each other in the future."

The secretary was sweating coldly, and couldn't stop apologizing.

After talking good things for a long time, Zhou Nan just didn't listen.

Seeing that the errand was going to be messed up, the secretary rolled his eyes and said, "My lord, when my ambassador first arrived at the Armament Bureau, he called the local gentry and merchants to discuss the matter of spring plowing, and invited the rest of the staff to attend."

Zhou Nan: "Which other member is outside?"

"It's just Yu Eryu, who is said to have an old relationship with your lord."

Only then did Zhou Nan realize that Yu Yuanwai mentioned by the book office was Ah Jiu's uncle Yu Er.

Then Ambassador Niao asked Yu Er to go over to discuss it, probably because he thought of him as Mr. Zhou, and wanted to kill a chicken for monkeys to see, for example, to increase taxes or something.If you, Mr. Zhou, don't show off your face, I'm afraid this ambassador will offend you.

If sold, we are all good friends.

Zhou Nan felt something was wrong, and hurriedly asked what was going on.

Sure enough, as he expected, the ambassador assigned ten people to Yu Erhe for overhauling water conservancy facilities according to the number of acres of land under the name of Ah Jiu's mother, and he was not allowed to pay money to cover the difference.In other words, Yu Er had to go to the construction site to work in person.

This is obviously punishing people. In ancient times, if you had no fame or official status, even if you had money, a small ninth-rank official could cure you to death.

Yu Er naturally refused, and quarreled with the yamen several times.

Ordinarily, his attitude was so bad that he had already been sent to a big prison.Strange to say, the new ambassador of the Armaments Bureau didn't do anything, but instead asked someone to invite Zhou Nan to collect his salary.

This guy is very shrewd to take this opportunity to get acquainted with Master Zhou.

Thinking of Ah Jiu's affection, Zhou Nan nodded, "Go back and tell your ambassador, thank you for his kindness. I will go to collect my salary early tomorrow morning."

The book office breathed a sigh of relief: "Thank you, Mr., you can go back to work with such a young man."

The current ambassador of the Military Weapons Bureau, surnamed Ma, is in his early forties. He is a typical bureaucrat with a thick skin.

On the second day, when Zhou Nan went to Baigezhuang, Ambassador Ma was very respectful to Zhou Nan, calling each one "pedestrian" affectionately.He also patted his chest and said that he knew that Yu Er's family had a relationship with Zhou Xingren. Since the pedestrians came here today, don't worry, the affairs of Yu's family will be the affairs of his horse in the future.

After finishing speaking, he mentioned without any trace that one of his nephews was originally a student of the Imperial College, and the prison was full, and he was going to be on duty in the Department of General Affairs. He also asked Zhou Xingren to take care of him.

It turned out that most of the supervising students of the Guozijian were the sons of nobles and honored nobles, or local talents who could not study and make up the number.Among these people, the sons of Xungui are just with a diploma, and in the future, they can hang on to an official title and live on their salary.

As for the scholars selected from the local area, their future prospects are limited.After sitting in prison, he went to the major yamen to be a basic miscellaneous person. If he really wanted to be an official, he still had to take the imperial examination.Also, because the education of Guozijian students is not very good, in order to reduce the difficulty for them, the examination room also specially set up supervision papers and admit them according to a certain number of places.

The nephew of Ambassador Ma probably wants to work as a clerk in the Department of General Affairs, so he would like to ask Zhou Nan to help with activities.

Now that Xu Jie is in the limelight, Zou Yinglong is almost the one who has the final say on the Secretary of the General Administration.

Zhou Nan thought about it, this Ambassador Ma is also a good-natured person, and it’s okay to sell him favors, so he agreed.

(End of this chapter)