But there is another powerful person in the cabinet, and that is Zhang Siwei! Zhang Siwei was born in Shanxi and is a true northerner. Naturally, northern officials and scholars regard him as their spokesperson! Moreover, Zhang Siwei was extremely powerful in combat. When Zhang Juzheng didn't say anything, he actually fought evenly with Shen Shixing and Wang Xijue! As for Zhang Han, he can only be regarded as a make-up!
Therefore, when the courtiers were fighting with each other and saw that the cabinet was fighting so fiercely, they did not pay too much attention. However, many discerning people can see that there is something fishy in this!
In fact, regardless of Zhang Siwei and Shen Shixing, Wang Xijue's fight was full of anger, but in fact both sides were very measured! To put it bluntly, it’s just a show for outsiders!
But since they are discerning people, another problem arises. They can see what the elders are doing, and naturally understand the consequences of exposing this trick! So they had to hold their noses and play with the elders! Therefore, the entire court maintained a relatively balanced situation for a while.
As for Zhang Juzheng, as the most powerful person in the Ming Dynasty, it was even more impossible to express his attitude easily. He prefers to push the boat along when one party has the upper hand! And he has a more important thing, which is the reform of the imperial court!
Therefore, through his influence on the court, he always suppressed both parties and actively promoted his own reforms. This prevented the court from stagnating due to the struggle between the north and the south!
But for Zhang Juzheng himself, he was increasingly finding it difficult to control the situation in the court! So he is now weighing repeatedly how to express his position? When did you take a stand?
Just as the fighting in the imperial court intensified, several ships loaded with cargo sailed out from various docks along the Yangtze River. These ships are quite low-key when loading, and the cargo they carry is ordinary cargo. As for them carrying some goods needed by the Japanese country, it was already customary, so no one cared at all.
These ships were not very fast when traveling in the Yangtze River, but when they got together, they turned into a large fleet of ten ships. At this time, they all worked hard to speed up and went down the Yangtze River!
This afternoon, Zhang Liuwang got up from the damp bed. He had just caught up on his sleep and was now ready to go out of the warehouse to take a look. According to his estimation, the fleet is now close to the Yangtze River outlet.
Zhang Liuwang, as you can tell from his name, he is from a farm family. Liuwang naturally refers to the prosperity of the six animals! But no one expected that he, who was born in a peasant family, would become the leader of the sea!
Zhang Liuwang is in his forties this year, but he has been at sea for more than 20 years and has very rich experience! Moreover, I had met several pirates in private and had some connections. Therefore, after so many years of sailing, although there were several risks and money was lost, my life was saved!
Not long ago, Wu Ningbo started to encircle and suppress pirates. Zhang Liuwang felt that the limelight was not right, so he returned to the shore to recuperate on the grounds of illness. But not long after, someone came to his door and offered him a large sum of money to become the leader of a fleet!
Zhang Liuwang originally didn't want to agree, but on the one hand, because the money offered by the other party was too much, he couldn't resist the temptation! On the other hand, the other party promised him that there would be no danger at all except for the wind and waves, and showed him the legendary Green Dragon Tooth Flag, so he agreed to make this trip. Read the book
And he was also thinking that if the opponent's Azure Dragon Tooth Flag was really effective, he would be happy to agree to sign a long-term contract. After all, there is no personal danger at all. As for risks, people who run on the sea care about the risks!
As soon as Zhang Liuwang stepped out of the hatch, a burly man walked over quickly and said loudly: "Head, Sansha is in front of us. Let's stop in Sansha for one night, right?"
This big man's name is Liu Xiaoman. He got this name because of Xiao Mantian's birth. He is also his old boat running buddy and his apprentice. Now he is second only to Zhang Liuwang on the ship! And the Sansha in his mouth refers to Chongming Island.
In fact, when Chongming Island first appeared, there were only two sandbars. During the Wude period of Tang Dynasty, two sandbars emerged from the water south of Dongbuzhou (today's Lusi area). The two continents are separated by more than 70 miles of water and were named Dongsha and Xisha at that time. This was the predecessor of Chongming Island.
In the third year of Tiansheng of the Song Dynasty, Yao Liusha (named because Yao and Liu lived first) appeared in the northwest of Dongsha and bordered Dongsha. In the first year of Jingguo's reign in the Song Dynasty, Sansha rose up 50 miles northwest of Yao Liusha. It was caused by three superimposed rises, so it was called Sansha! It is also said that it got its name because Zhu, Chen and Zhang from Jurong first settled here.
At the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the East Sand collapsed, and little of the West Sand remained. The Sansha rose to the north, and the Yao and Liu Sha collapsed to the north and gradually joined the Sansha. Since the early years of Jianwen in the Ming Dynasty, more than 30 sands have emerged, including Ma'ansha, Chenensha, Gaomingsha, Xiaoyinsha, Changsha, Yuanjiasha, Xiangsha, and Gaotousha, and Chongming Island has taken initial shape. Therefore, many people still call Sansha according to the old habit.
Zhang Liuwang looked at both sides of the river bank and knew his position. Then he looked at the sky and said, "This time we won't stop at Sansha, we will go directly to the sea!"
Liu Xiaoman said in surprise: "But it's getting late now, and even if we leave the Yangtze River estuary, we can't run far! And it's too dangerous to sail at night, and accidents can happen easily!"
Zhang Liuwang raised his hand to twist the wind and said slowly: "Of course I know this. But don't you know who the owner of our cargo is? Now the North and the South are fighting so hard. If someone makes a fuss about it, the ship will be lost. Goods, how do we explain to the owner?"
Liu Xiaoman patted his head and said, "Yes, we all forgot that this batch of goods from my boss is going to Tianjin! But it will be troublesome to rest after leaving Haikou. If there is a storm, we may lose goods and manpower!"
Zhang Liuwang took back the hand that sensed the wind and said: "It doesn't matter, we can find a small harbor nearby to rest. It doesn't matter if we can't fit all the boats. Looking at the wind direction today, it doesn't look like it's going to blow. Go and inform the people behind. Let’s go to the fleet.”
Liu Xiaoman agreed and ran to the stern of the boat, took out a piece of red cloth from his waist and started rowing towards the boat behind. At this time, the people of the Ming Dynasty had not yet invented a complete semaphore, but they could still express a few simple meanings through some means.
The signal sent by Liu Xiaoman is "Follow!" The ships behind will know what the leader means when they see the signal, and they will pass the signal to each other one after another.
