Yang Xuan told An Qing that he was leaving Beijing, and the latter also expressed understanding.
And packed the luggage for Yang Xuan.
After a brief farewell, Yang Xuan also promised Anqing that he would come back as soon as possible.
He left the capital with the two hundred brocade guards assigned to him by Zhu Di.
Shortly after leaving the capital, Yang Xuan detached one hundred Jinyi guards and secretly rushed to Fujian City's Ship Division.
He took the remaining one hundred Jinyi guards and hurried on at normal speed.
In less than half a month, Yang Xuan also arrived in Fujian, not very far from Shibosi.
The group of people found an inn and stayed there first.
Then contact the Jin Yiwei sent earlier to learn about the situation.
They only came for a short time and found only a few clues.
But this is enough, as long as it can be confirmed that the Fujian/Jian Shipping Department is not so clean.
The next day, Yang Xuan set off again.
Everyone worked hard and arrived at Shibo Department in the afternoon.
Officials from the Shipping Department received the news in advance, prepared fine wine and food, and gave Yang Xuan and his party a warm reception.
As the old saying goes, you can't hit someone with a smiling face, so Yang Xuan didn't get in trouble and just went with them to play along.
Eat, drink, and have fun.
Yang Xuan then smiled at the accompanying officials and said: "Everyone, I am here to follow your majesty's order to check the accounts of the Shipping Department."
"However, I believe that you are all honest, so you can just take a look at the account books."
"As for those who embezzled the imperial tax money, they have been found out before, so don't worry."
"Yes, yes, the Marquis said yes!"
A group of officials sent kind words to Yang Xuan again.
But they didn't really believe Yang Xuan's words.
Everyone knows this guy's reputation in officialdom.
They still believe in themselves more.
They had already dealt with the account books, but the people sent by the imperial court had not found out. They did not believe what Yang Xuan, the Marquis of Changping, could see.
After a good day's rest, Yang Xuan started checking the accounts the next day.
He tabulated all his expenses and compared them carefully.
This method is simple and clearer.
It took a few days to finally find out that there was a shortage of more than 100,000 taels of customs duty.
In this regard, Yang Xuan did not alert the enemy.
He gave the results of the accounts and the situation found out by Jin Yiwei and asked Jin Yiwei to secretly send them back to Zhu Di.
He also suggested that Zhu Di wait until he has finished investigating the Jiangsu and Zhejiang shipping companies before taking action and catch them all.
Otherwise, if we attack the officials of the Fujian/Jiang Shipping Department now, the officials of the Jiangsu and Zhejiang Shipping Department will definitely be prepared and it will be more difficult when the time comes.
Officials from the Shipping Department saw that Yang Xuan had checked the accounts for several days but did nothing, so they felt that he had found nothing.
The dignified Chang Pinghou is just a false name!
The thought of mentioning it gradually relaxed.
These days, their attention is on Yang Xuan and the one hundred Jin Yiwei who came with him.
Naturally, they didn't know about the one hundred Jin Yiwei who were in the dark.
This also created conditions for the hundred Jin Yiwei secretly.
By the time all the evidence is collected, half a month has passed since Yang Xuan arrived here.
By chance, a maritime merchant returned and brought back a lot of goods. After hearing the news, big businessmen from all over the country prepared to come to participate in the auction.
Yang Xuan planned to wait until the auction was over before leaving.
The auction process has long formed a set of standards, and the roles played by each department are clear.
Yang Xuan did not intervene randomly and chose to be a spectator.
Officials from the Municipal Shipping Department are still busy preparing for the auction.
However, they didn't know that they were on the sea not far from Shibosi.
Densely packed boats were heading towards the coast.
The people on the boat were holding knives and chattering in the language of birds.
Their expressions were indifferent, and their eyes revealed ferocity.
"Warriors, the Ming Shipping Department is on the shore. We have received reliable information that a large number of Ming shipping merchants have returned from overseas."
"They brought back countless treasures."
"There are also big businessmen from all over the Ming Dynasty who also gathered at Shibosi."
"Bringing countless gold and silver treasures, preparing to participate in the auction."
"As long as we can successfully rob the Daming City Shipping Company, we will no longer be short of money."
Yes, these people are Japanese pirates.
They are of a complex composition, including wandering ronin warriors from the Japanese country, Han pirates, and pirates from Southeast Asia who cannot survive.
However, most of them were ronin warriors from Japan.
Since the beginning of the great inventory, Zhu Di discovered the wolfish ambitions of the Japanese country and imposed economic sanctions on the Japanese country.
They are used to silk and other good things from the Ming Dynasty, and they are naturally not used to it being suddenly cut off.
However, they also knew how powerful Ming Dynasty was and had been enduring it.
After enduring this for about half a year, they prepared to send people to gather the scattered pirates and Japanese pirates to go to the Ming Dynasty and rob them.
At the same time, it was also a test of Daming's attitude.
The Ming Dynasty's most powerful naval fleet was far overseas.
The navy that was expanded later also protected important waterways, and the ships that usually patrolled the coast were not big ships.
Of course, this is compared to the treasure ship.
Compared with the small fishing boats of Japan, they were still huge.
However, because the coastline is too long, Japanese pirates can still easily find loopholes and dive offshore.
…
After several days of preparation, big businessmen from all over the country have almost arrived.
The auction officially begins.
Government officials and soldiers were patrolling outside.
Today's shipping department not only has a large number of goods of extremely high value, but also the payment for goods brought by major merchants.
Alertness must be raised to the highest level.
Once it is robbed, it will not only lose customs duties, but also have a very bad impact on the court.
In short, the auction must be concluded safely and smoothly.
In a room on the second floor of the auction house, one could hear the smooth transaction of goods one after another.
Yang Xuan was relieved.
Today, the Shipping Department has become an important source of tax revenue for the imperial court.
A thousand naval troops are permanently stationed at the port, and a guard station is set up dozens of miles away, with three thousand soldiers stationed in the field.
The purpose is to protect this important source of tax revenue.
In the middle of the auction, an official burst into the room in panic.
"Hou...Master Hou, something bad is going on."
"What's going on?" Yang Xuan asked with a stern expression.
"Japanese pirates...Japanese pirates have landed." The official gasped.
"lead the way!"
Yang Xuan said calmly.
Completely opposite to the panicked officials around him.
"How many Japanese pirates have come?" Yang Xuan asked as he rushed out.
"Returning to the Marquis, the soldiers who came to report the news reported that there were tens of thousands of people."
As soon as these words came out, the expressions of other officials of the Municipal Shipping Department changed drastically.
It is not that no Japanese pirates have landed here in Shibosi, but the largest scale is hundreds or thousands of people.
Tens of thousands of people, this is the first time!
There are currently only a thousand naval officers and soldiers in the Shibo Division.
Another two thousand navy troops were resting in the military camp after completing the escort mission.
Even if we inform them now, there is not enough time.
The most important thing at the moment is to block the Japanese pirates and wait for reinforcements.
…
