Zhang Liangpeng promised that he would give an explanation within a month and solve the person behind the disturbance at sea, but no one would not do what they should do because of this promise.
During this period, in order to ensure their own safety, all merchant ships traveling to Shanghai were organized into more than ten ships, and each ship was equipped with additional armored guards and ship doctors.
In addition, Dazhou accelerated the expansion of its navy. The ships ordered from major shipyards in the Song Dynasty alone cost more than 200,000 yuan, and more than 4,000 elite soldiers were gradually mobilized from the north to go south, using Haizhou as a base to travel by boat to maintain the safety of the waterway.
When the Zhou navy assembled in Haizhou, the ferocity of the Da Shi pirates put tremendous pressure on the military states along the coast of the Song Dynasty.
Not that the officials of the Song Dynasty cared about this delicate disease.
Not to mention Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, there are four hundred or four thousand pirates who are nothing but tyrannical on the ocean. As long as they don't burn, kill and plunder under the eyes of local officials, they will either die as sea traders or live in exile. The landless refugees at sea have nothing to do with the imperial court. The Song Dynasty had always been peaceful with singing and dancing, and the court did not need to know about the existence of pirates.
Therefore, many pirate leaders were killing people and stealing goods at sea while working as wealthy country squires on land. Their identities were semi-public at all.
However, the behavior of that group of predatory pirates was really too much. They showed no scruples in using their cruel tactics on land, watching other pirates killing them indiscriminately. As a result, in many military states, a large number of coastal private ports and walled cities were looted and burned, and even the prefectural and county cities were endangered by military fronts.
Under this situation, military and state officials had no way of hiding and not reporting the incident. Once reported, no one would praise them for their vigilance in coastal defense. It would only give people the impression of poor governance. Not to mention, these accusations are likely to involve many local officials and affect many people's futures and money.
As a result, the chief officials of the Sixteenth Military Prefecture along the coast were all irritable. When these officials with real power had the same attitude, the pressure created was far greater than an order issued by the central court there.
Xuan Zhen, who went south to investigate on behalf of Prime Minister Shi, had always felt that there were invisible nets everywhere, trying to cover his and Prime Minister Shi's ears and eyes; so much so that he had been busy for two months, but he had not heard any valuable news.
However, as the chief officers of the military states along the coast were all intolerable, the pressure and unspeakable conflicts were violently transmitted under the water, and finally triggered a torrent visible to the naked eye. What he couldn't see clearly at first, he could see clearly in an instant.
In the spring of the third year of Longwu in the Great Zhou Dynasty and the eleventh year of Jiading in the Great Song Dynasty, Shi Tianni came to Fuzhou again and entered the city of Fuzhou grandly.
The administrative center of Fujian Road is in Fuzhou, so most of the local nobles gather here. And because the Fujian Shipping Department was stationed in Quanzhou, Fuzhou's local maritime trade was less restricted and therefore particularly prosperous.
When Shi Tianni and his party entered the city, there were so many ships on the Min River that the water surface from the Jinshan Tower down was almost crowded, from the Tangjing Gate to the Shipyard Gate, not to mention the river surface, and the official road parallel to the river surface. There are also business travelers coming and going.
If you go further north, to the Pingshan area, you can still see merchants coming from Jiangnan East Road and West Road. I heard that among them were representatives of several marshals from Jiankang Prefecture, who came specifically for ginseng and pearls from Liaodong. Instead, they were war horses. Because the court spent huge sums of money to buy many of them in the past two years, the marshals did not value them.
The prosperity is as good as ever, but there seem to be more homeless people and beggars in the city than before.
The weather has been bad in the past two years, with floods and droughts raging in turn, and even hailstorms. However, the local gentry have benefited a lot from maritime trade and are keen to buy land. They have traveled across the country to annex the poor. Produce. Therefore, in the wealthy military prefectures along the coast, the number of people running away from famine and begging has been increasing.
However, with the prosperity of the Song Dynasty, the refugees had enough to eat. Shipyard owners and maritime leaders were always recruiting people everywhere.
Shi Tianni and others entered the city through Tangjing Gate, passed through Haiyan Gate, and passed through Hujie Gate, where they saw the Yamen of Fuzhou Zhizhou.
This place is the most prosperous place in the city. The streets are filled with the sedan chairs of nobles and the mules and horses of merchants. The streets are lined with rows of official shops or shops opened by wealthy merchants. Some ordinary people passing in front of the store will inevitably be looked down upon by the slaves.
However, even the most outspoken people dare not approach Shi Tianni and others. They were clearly armed under their robes. Pedestrians could feel their murderous aura from afar, and they quickened their pace, not daring to stay beside them. Some of the nearby official stores even hurriedly came to the door.
After a while, a servant from the Zhizhou Yamen rushed out, waving a stick amidst shouts and curses, as if to drive away Shi Tianni and others. But when they ran closer, they immediately felt the pressure of dozens of indifferent eyes.
There was almost no emotion like vigilance or anger in this look, but simply a lack of regard for these government servants, as if they were all pigs and dogs about to die.
The officials suddenly thought of something. The person at the front stopped suddenly and was knocked down by the person behind. They rolled around on the ground twice and dropped the sticks in their hands. After standing up, some ran back to the yamen, while others simply darted into the streets and alleys, disappearing out of sight.
Shi Tianni looked at his own attire, then looked at his companions behind him, and confirmed that everyone was dressed as a local wealthy businessman, and the clothes were bought by local Zheng Guang. Zheng Guang was a scholar, so everyone now calls him Master Zheng, knowing that he will never make mistakes when doing things.
Shi Tianni smiled and guessed that it was because of fighting for several months that his ferocious momentum could not be suppressed for a while.
Fortunately, we will soon be able to see the initial results of this trip south, and everyone can feel a little relieved. Today, the mastermind behind the pirate attack is going to die in this government office.
"Isn't this the Yamen of Fuzhou Zhizhou?"
Shi Tianxiang raised his eyes and looked at the tall main entrance, then at the Drum Tower and the two rows of halberds behind the main entrance: "I heard that Hu Ju, the governor of Fuzhou, was a close aide of the Prime Minister of the Southern Dynasties. Could it be that we have been busy for a long time because of the people around him? Someone has a problem?"
Shi Tianni pulled out half of his waist knife and put it back: "It's not just the people around him who have problems. The person who secretly incited the pirates to attack our merchant ships, causing huge losses, is Hu Ju himself."
Behind the main entrance of Zhizhou Yamen in Fuzhou is the Yimen, behind the Yimen is the main hall, behind the main hall is the side hall, and through the side hall is the Huangtang where Zhizhou's daily life is.
The specifications of these buildings all exceed those of normal state offices, and they inherit some of the style of the governor's mansion in the Tang Dynasty. Sitting in the yellow hall, Hu Ju's face was pale. He could no longer see the fierce demeanor he had in Lin'an in the past when he was the lackey of the prime minister.
Xuan Zhen, who was sitting face to face with him, was heartbroken: "Zhong Fang, why are you? Why are you so dizzy?"
