Ye Xianggao, the governor of Tianjin, was nearly forty years old. In terms of age, he was four years older than his teacher Gao Jingshi. From the day he jumped over the dragon's gate, Ye Xianggao was known for his gentleness and gentleness. His words and deeds were smooth and there was nothing out of the ordinary. To some extent, he is even a bit of a homebody.
But today, Ye Xianggao went against the norm and held a grand scene at Jinghua Pier to welcome his mentor's triumphant return. Under the roar of gongs and drums, there are smiling faces, which is in sharp contrast to the desolation and sorrow when the Japanese army retreated to Hakata and Nagoya.
After singing his praises, Gao pragmatically got off the boat and greeted the officials who came to greet him one by one. Of course, with his high status and reputation, the so-called greetings are mostly just a return greeting, and there are only a few people who are worthy of his greetings.
To be more precise, there were only four people who deserved to be taken even remotely seriously. These four people are: Zhao Youji, the eunuch who guards Tianjin, Ye Xianggao, the governor of Tianjin who is in charge of military affairs, Ni Shangzhong, the chief military officer of Tianjin, and Zhang Zuozhi, the deputy envoy who oversees Tianjin's coastal defense.
Among these four people, Zhao Youji was nominally ranked first because he was an "imperial eunuch". However, in fact, everyone knows that no matter who the Tianjin garrison eunuch is, his only role over the years is to count money for the emperor, and other things are basically irrelevant to him.
In addition, in terms of background, Zhao Youji can be regarded as a member of Huang Mengyu's faction in the Wanli Dynasty's inner court. He was one of Huang Mengyu's godsons when he was in power. In other words, they are people who are highly pragmatic.
"The Exotic Land Development of Vegetable-Growing Skeletons"
Although Huang Mengyu has retired and been "honored", his faction still exists because he and Chen Ju had a good relationship back then, and his nephew Liu Ping was also a favored eunuch in the palace. For people like Zhao Youji, Gao Jingshi only needs to be polite on the surface. Generally, there is nothing to discuss with him other than money. Even if Gao Jingshi really wants to talk to him, Zhao Youji will just treat him like a chicken pecking at rice. A nodding puppet.
Governor Ye Xianggao of Tianjin needs no introduction. What else can be said about Gao’s pragmatic direct disciple? As the de facto "top leader" of Tianjin, his presence here means that Tianjin is firmly in Gao Pragmatic's hands.
Tianjin Commander-in-Chief Ni Shangzhong has not been mentioned before, but as long as he reports his place of origin, there is no need to say more about his background: Ni Shangzhong, a member of the Longmen Guards of Xuan Prefecture, originally from Yancheng County, Huai'an Prefecture, South Zhili. In the sixth year of Xuande (1431), his ancestor and commander Ni Kai was ordered to be transferred to Longmen Guards in Xuanfu Town and became the ancestor of the Ni family in Longguan.
Obviously, as a member of the Xuanfu generals, Ni Shangzhong's political spectrum flashed with a big "high" character.
Ni Shangzhong inherited his family training and practiced martial arts since he was a child. He has a majestic appearance, great strength, and is good at using heavy swords. When fighting against enemies, his style is outstanding: powerful and heavy. This man had a prosperous official career in his early years. In the first year of Longqing, Ni Shangzhong, who was only 17 years old, became a hereditary commander and began to garrison the Jinjiazhuang, Nanbeizhakou and Sanchakou areas of Chicheng County in later generations. He even made some achievements. .
In the sixth year of Wanli, Ni Shangzhong was twenty-eight years old. He had been promoted from the commanding officer to the staff general. At that time, he was the staff general of Chaigoubao, Xiaxi Road, Xuanfu, and officially entered the ranks of senior generals.
In the thirteenth year of Wanli, Ni Shangzhong transferred Xuanfu West Road to serve as the left-hand general to defend the left and right guards, Zhangjiakou and other places. In February of the following year, he was promoted to deputy commander-in-chief of the Xuanfu due to his military merit. In the first month of the 19th year of Wanli, he was promoted to deputy general of the Datong Defense Force due to his meritorious service in fighting against the Yuan army. On the sixth day of October of that year, he was promoted to the chief military officer guarding Baoding.
In the 20th year of Wanli, Toyotomi Hideyoshi launched a war of aggression against Korea. Due to the convenience of the Haihe River, Gao pragmatically decided to use Tianjin as the transportation center, prompting the imperial court to send troops to aid Korea to fight against the Japanese. Therefore, Ni Shangzhong was transferred to Tianjin. All matters such as dispatching troops, recruiting ships, and manufacturing equipment were all carried out in Tianjin. From then on, Ni Shangzhong also became the first general military officer stationed in Tianjin.
In short, this is also a direct lineage of high party generals.
The first three are either Gao Party members or Pan-Gao Party members, and they all have a very close relationship with Gao Pragmatism. Only Zhang Zuozhi, the last deputy envoy to organize Tianjin's coastal defense forces, was different from them.
Zhang Zuozhi, also known as Simo, was born in Caipu Village, Yunxiao, Fujian Province. He later lived in the neighboring village of Xilin. He was a Jinshi in the Jiaxu Division in the second year of Wanli, two divisions earlier than Gao Jingshi. Among officials at the level of deputy envoy of military preparation, he is regarded as a senior official in the imperial examination. Relatively old. Of course, in other words, this man is not doing well in officialdom, and he is probably a hard worker.
This is indeed the case. After Zhang Zuozhi passed the mid-term examination, he first served as the magistrate of Gaochun County and served in Changxing and Gaoming counties. He was famous for his diligent and honest administration, accurate diagnosis and consideration of the hidden feelings of the people.
Because Gao Gong was in power at that time, land was measured across the country to update the field registers. As a grassroots official, Zhang Zuozhi was asked to measure the land. It is said that he personally went into the fields for a long time to ensure that they did not lose their size. This relieved many unreasonable land tax burdens on the farmers under his rule and was favored by the people. Adored.
Later, he was transferred to Qingyang Prefecture, and supplemented the affairs of Shaoxing Prefecture, and was also in charge of Shangyu and Zhuji counties. During that time, Gao Gong vigorously promoted the examination method under Gao Pragmatic's suggestion. As a result, in the imperial court's assessment of foreign officials, Zhang Zuozhi was recommended to participate in the ten-year examination given by the imperial court because of his reputation for integrity and outstanding political achievements. The six people held a "clean and honest banquet" and were promoted to the prefect of Jinhua and the prefect of Ningbo.
During this period, there were two major cases that Zhang Zuozhi was able to uncover during his investigation, namely, the case of Jinhua Shuangfu's injustice and the case of murder and abandonment of corpses in Dinghai. Among them, the latter is especially famous throughout the country.
The eucalyptus is actually very simple and not complicated at all. It is said that there were bandits in Dinghai who killed people and abandoned their corpses in the river. The corpses floated upstream and just happened to float to the side of the official ship. The chief officer on the official ship at that time was Zhang Zuozhi.
But the problem is that Zhang Zuozhi was actually just passing by at the time. Generally speaking, officials passing by would not care about local affairs. Even if Dinghai County was under his rule, the matter should be handed over to the Dinghai County Magistrate according to procedures.
However, Zhang Zuozhi didn't care about that. He inspected the corpse himself and said that judging from the corpse, the victim had not been dead for a long time, so the thief was not far away. So Zhang Zuozhi immediately sent people to arrest him, and he was indeed captured. Zhang Zuozhi immediately interrogated him. The murderer couldn't stand the cross-examination and quickly summoned him.
Although the eucalyptus is simple, Zhang Zuozhi is praised for his decisiveness and wisdom in it, so he is called Shensheng by the locals. In particular, he dared to break the rules, discovered the fate without delay, and immediately completed the investigation, which was praised by the court.
However - he is afraid of the word "but" in everything - although his unconventional approach seems smooth and has been praised by local people for many years, officialdom has its own rules and regulations, and not everyone can be a high official or a high official. pragmatic.
Zhang Zuozhi did not have the unlimited trust of the emperor like the second high-ranking official. He had the holy scroll carried by the emperor even if everything was revealed. Therefore, although the elders of his faction in the court had praised him several times in public, his official position was Never moved much again. Even if they were to be moved, they would basically be on a level basis, and they would always be transferred to places where public sentiment was worrying and the situation was difficult.
He had been working in Zhejiang for so many years, and finally got an opportunity because of his pragmatic requirements in the past few years to establish a new governor of Tianjin.
Zhang Zuozhi is not a figure from the Real School. He is actually from the Xin School, but his status within the Xin School is not very good and he is a relatively marginalized official. So why is Gao Pragmatic's request to establish the Tianjin Governor's Council an opportunity for him?
The reason is actually simple: before the establishment of the Tianjin governor, the highest-ranking civil servant in Tianjin was the military officer, so the deputy envoy for the rectification of Tianjin's coastal defense military and preparedness was obviously a powerful position at that time.
However, once the governor of Tianjin was established, especially Gao Pragmatic, who recommended his protégé Ye Xianggao as the first governor of the army, and Ni Shangzhong, a direct general of his Xuan Dynasty, as the first commander-in-chief of the army, the power of Tianjin's military armament was actually He was ignored—unless this person was also a direct descendant of the high party.
The positions that were emptied out were unattractive in the eyes of the Heart School. Other officials from the Heart School could have taken their turn in military preparation, but they were obviously not willing to be clay puppets.
As a result, Zhang Zuozhi, who was a fringe figure of the Xin School, was "valued" by the new leader of the Xin School, Shen Guangyuan, for no reason, and he was immediately promoted to "advancement" and served as the deputy envoy for the rectification of Tianjin's coastal defense forces. He took office immediately. .
Originally, Gao Pragmatic didn't take it seriously. Although the imperial court was worried about Japanese pirates attacking the coast of the Ming Dynasty, Tianjin was the key to coastal defense in Gyeonggi Province, so it was the top priority of coastal defense work.
However, for Gao Pragmatic, he did not take the so-called "Japanese navy invading our coast" seriously at all - just kidding, as for Toyotomi Hideyoshi, your navy invaded the coast of Ming Dynasty. It exists, right?
Therefore, Gao Pragmatic's instructions to Ye Xianggao and Ni Shangzhong at that time were that as long as the transportation transfer station is completed, it will be a great achievement, and you don't need to worry about other coastal defenses. As a result, Ye Xianggao and Ni Shangzhong strictly implemented Gao's pragmatic orders and focused entirely on the transshipment work. They were also busy building and repairing frontline soldiers' armor and uniforms.
As for the most important food issue, Gao Pragmatic, as the Minister of Household Affairs under the "Big Household Department" system, had already assigned various tasks to them. They didn't need to worry about anything. They only needed to "transfer".
However, something unexpected happened at this time, that is, they all underestimated Zhang Zuozhi's "subjective initiative" as an official. Because Zhang Zuozhi had a limited rank and belonged to different political factions, he was not very aware of Gao Pragmatic's arrangements.
But he felt that as a Tianjin soldier, he was responsible for this job according to past practices. So in order to meet the needs of military supplies and wages, he took the initiative to organize Tianjin's military and civilians to reclaim tens of thousands of acres of farmland near Tianjin. He identified many of the abandoned military farmlands one by one, and then arranged for people to plant crops properly.
Not to mention Ye Xianggao and Ni Shangzhong were stunned by this operation, even Gao Pragmatic was amazed - Damn it, there are officials in Ming Dynasty who are as proactive as me?
Originally, according to the highly pragmatic style, although the deputy envoy for rectifying Tianjin's coastal defense armaments could be replaced by his own people, it was best to replace him with his own people. Moreover, this is not difficult for Gao Pragmatic, and he has even begun to think about when to replace him.
As a result, Zhang Zuozhi performed this operation. Gao Pragmatic's eyes lit up when he saw it, and he decided to let him continue to do it. It didn't matter if he was a faction or not - he was an unpopular marginal person in the Heart School anyway. .
However, what no one expected was that another accident happened at this time. This accident originated from the "Reed Tax", commonly known as "Reed Lesson".
What does Wei Ke mean? This is probably because many places in the coastal areas of the Ming Dynasty are exposed to ocean tides. The soil is heavily salty and unsuitable for farming, but it is very suitable for growing reeds and sun salt. Let’s not talk about sun salt. This book has already talked about it a lot. Let’s talk about the reed issue here.
Because the land near the seaside is not convenient for growing grain, it is popular in the area to grow green grass on the tidal flats, harvest reeds, and make reed mats for sale. The economic benefits are actually quite good, so a tax is created, which is the so-called "Reed Class".
This seems to have nothing to do with Zhang Zuozhi, but it is not. He opened up a lot of land, many of which were originally reed fields. In fact, these lands are not salinized. It is just that the military settlements have been abandoned for many years, no one has planted them, and they happen to be not far from the sea, so they have been "turned into" reed fields.
Zhang Zuozhi took back these lands and continued to grow grain according to the military garrison yellow list. It was said that he was completely abiding by the rules and regulations, and there was nothing wrong at all. However, the matter was obviously not that simple - the Lu Ke thing was not taken away by the Ministry of Revenue, but by the internal affairs department. The money is collected, in other words, it is collected by the eunuch.
From time to time, eunuchs went to Tianjin to collect reed taxes, and found that the number of reed stocks that year had suddenly decreased by nearly 40%. Is this okay? The eunuch thought to himself, if we bring this report card back, it will be designated as a failing grade.
However, the people who paid the taxes said that they had no choice, because it was not that they were not cooperating, but that there were fewer reed fields, and the output plummeted, which naturally reduced their income. There was nothing they could do.
The eunuch became angry on the spot and immediately took Zhao Youji, the eunuch guarding Tianjin, and they went to find Zhang Zuozhi together. The request of the tax eunuch is very simple: We don’t care what you do with the reed field. As long as the reed tax is not reduced compared with previous years, everything else will not work.
However, Zhang Zuozhi refused and stood up to fight. He said that his move was not only to uphold the ancestral system, but also to bring order to the chaos. Your lesson should be as much as it should be. Just because you have been wrong for many years before, you cannot continue to be wrong now.
After this back and forth, the two sides refused to give in. Zhao Youji had no choice but to side with the "inner court" and had to look down his face to find Ye Xianggao. Who knew that when Ye Xianggao heard this, he said that he would talk to Zhang Bingbei, but turned around and immediately informed Gao Jingshi of the news - at this time, Gao Jingshi had not left for the expedition and was in the capital.
Gao pragmatism hated exorbitant levies and miscellaneous taxes the most. He hoped to implement institutionalization and formalization, and the main tax targets should be wealthy businessmen and not ordinary people, so he became energetic when he heard about this.
Early the next morning, Gao pragmatic went directly to Shu and questioned the emperor about the Lu Ke issue. He believed that there was a problem with the original quota of Lu Ke in Tianjin. Now it was easy for an official who really dared to do things to "rectify the chaos". How could the imperial court not Distinguish right from wrong and continue to make mistakes?
Originally, Zhu Yijun always faced off against the civil servants for things like this, but there were always exceptions - Zhu Yijun stopped pretending to be dead when it came to the questions raised by Gao Pragmatic. Gao Pragmatic went to the office in the morning, and Zhu Yijun's Zhu Pi came out of the Supervisor of Ceremonies in the afternoon: "What this officer (Zhang Zuozhi) did is reasonable and reasonable, and Lu Ke should be punished based on the truth."
Then at the same time, he ordered the tax eunuch to charge him as much as he should collect. He would not collect the illegal portion from now on, and he should quickly complete the errands back to the palace.
Because of Gao Pragmatic's intervention, Zhang Zuozhi avoided the boss's troubles and settled the matter, so naturally he couldn't help but feel grateful. I wrote a letter in person to express my gratitude to Gao Pingshi. In the letter, I also vaguely criticized the two new elders of the Heart School for their indifference to this matter.
Gao Pingshi also responded to the letter in person and praised Zhang Zuozhi greatly, and the relationship between the two parties suddenly became closer. After a few years, no one can tell whether Zhang Zuozhi is still of the mind school, or whether he is already considered a pragmatist school.
After the reception banquet, Ye Xianggao and Ni Shangzhong were originally going to discuss some matters with Gao Pragmatic, but Gao Pragmatic temporarily invited Zhang Zuozhi, which seemed to mean that Tianjin had become more "high".
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Thanks to book friends "Cao Mianzi", "Excellent Speaking", "Niu Nv Qiao Yuan", "soviet2003", "Sheng Ru Xia Hua 980705", "", "malyvu" for their monthly ticket support, thank you!
PS: It’s so funny that the chapter “Views on Nationality” has indeed been blocked. Blind blocking without looking at the content or tendency, I can only say that this is no different from officials being lazy in their administration.
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