With no colleagues, no political participation, and no official recommendation, all the affairs of the seven counties of Quanzhou Prefecture fell on Gu Zhengchen. Master Li Chengyi suffered such a heavy blow that he was in a state of despair. He was locked in a small dark room all day without going out. It was impossible to expect him to share the burden.
Among the officials around him, only Huang Fei and Wei Jingzhi have some abilities. However, Huang Fei is in charge of household affairs and needs to be responsible for arranging people to buy grain in various places and keep an eye on land reclamation matters in various places. He also accepted a new task: Inspect disaster preparedness granaries in each county to ensure that relief grains are in place.
Wei Jingzhi is in charge of the ceremonial room, and he has been very busy recently. The school needs to be repaired, and the students must be called back to study. He also needs to supervise various places to do a good job in education. There are people who do good deeds, people who are extremely filial, and chaste martyrs. It needs to be verified. Who should be rewarded with plaques? Award plaque, the reward plaque of the reward plaque...
As a result, Gu Zhengchen has few available people around him, such as Lin Baifan, Zhang Pei, Liang Hua and others. They can do things according to orders, but it is too difficult for them to analyze documents, find problems and propose countermeasures.
In desperation, Gu Zhengchen could only endure hardships, processing official documents in the morning, reviewing cases in the afternoon, meeting with the Sixth Fang at dusk, summoning local elders, and auditing the accounts at night...
In addition, Quanzhou Prefecture has accumulated many unjust cases over the years. Some people have been sentenced to beheading or exiled for thousands of miles. It is not easy to find problems in these files.
No matter what, Gu Zhengchen persevered with his strong will. He made up to 60 decisions a day, approved 26 official documents from seven counties, and handled 11 cases.
One incident after another, one official document after another, and one case after another are like tempering Gu Zhengchen.
Growth itself means forging ahead, and the process of forging ahead is bound to be heavy, painful, and tormenting. If you don't bear these, how can you sharpen your edge?
This is the same as jade that cannot be cut into pieces.
From county magistrate to magistrate, Gu Zhengchen faced complicated situations, strong opponents one after another, and accumulated mountains of documents. Day after day, he finally gained a calm attitude.
Because of Gu Zhengchen's efforts to bring order out of chaos, rectify the officialdom, exempt two taxes, appease the people, support the almshouses and reshape filial piety, correct education in the Kuangzheng Mansion, and reorganize Chang Pingcang in response to natural disasters, in just half a month, the people of Quanzhou Prefecture have experienced great changes. The spirit has taken on a new look. In the past, the dull-eyed people wandering around the city and the hawkers who were selling hard but with sad faces disappeared. Instead, there were many smiling faces.
Without the worry of two taxes, Gu Zhengchen suppressed seven counties again and was not allowed to recruit people to do hard labor without authorization. This allowed the people of Quanzhou Prefecture to cultivate wasteland with peace of mind and look forward to a relaxing New Year.
On this day, Zhao Sanqi announced: "Quanzhou Port Navy Commander Meng Wanli and Meng Qianhu are asking for an audience."
Gu Zhengchen quickly let him in.
Meng Wanli saluted respectfully, then took out a document and presented it with both hands: "Prefect Gu, I have received news that General Wu's fleet will arrive at Quanzhou Port early tomorrow morning."
Gu Zhengchen took the document, looked at it, nodded slightly, and asked, "Commander Zhang, is it going well for the navy in Quanzhou Port?"
Meng Wanli looked a little strange and smiled: "It went smoothly, very smoothly."
Since Zhang He came, he not only took over the navy forcefully, but also took over the city shipping department, along with the 300 sergeants transferred from the Quanzhou Guard.
During the recent period, Zhang He has been training continuously, and every morning he kicks people into the water, euphemistically called training water skills.
Magistrate Gu sent a group of fishermen and boatmen, but Zhang He also held them down and threw them into the water. After looking at it, he found that these people could swim faster than the navy sergeants, and they could even hold back their dive for longer, so Ever since, the navy sergeant was even more unlucky...
Zhang He is a fierce man who can't afford to offend anyone, so he simply lets him do whatever he wants.
Meng Wanli thought of something and said: "Gu Zhifu, Commander Huang and Zhi want to go sailing together, but it's hard to say anything, so let me wait for the news."
Gu Zhengchen frowned: "As the leader of the first guard, he should not leave."
Meng Wanli knew that Gu Zhengchen would not let go easily, so he gave a second reason: "Commander Huang said that Commander Zhang has made meritorious service, and if he makes new achievements in the future, he may not be able to stay in Quanzhou for a long time."
Gu Zhengchen stared.
What Huang Senping meant was that Zhang He was capable, and capable people could easily be promoted. If he was transferred away, someone would always need to take over the navigation affairs of Quanzhou Prefecture.
In other words, Huang Senping wanted to be Zhang He's deputy.
Chu Xing and Meng Wanli were on temporary errands at Quanzhou Port. They were from Huai'an Guard, and their whole family was there, so it was impossible for them to stay in Quanzhou Prefecture all year round.
Gu Zhengchen thought for a while and said, "Let Huang Senping and I welcome Marquis Jinghai tomorrow."
Meng Wanli responded and left.
Gu Zhengchen lowered his head and pondered. Huang Senping had experience in water warfare, so there was no need for him to hesitate to go to sea. Moreover, there was an upright and loyal Yu Siye among the Quanzhou Guards, so it didn't matter if Huang Senping was gone for a while.
The problem lies in history. According to the original historical trajectory, Huang Senping will go to sea next year, which is the eighth year of Hongwu. Of course, his going to sea was appointed by Lao Zhu as an envoy.
But the problem is, I don’t know what happened to Huang Senping, so much so that he dragged his family and many people out of the sea...
Damn, this is not smuggling, this is large-scale immigration.
It is no longer known whether Huang Senping's decision at that time had anything to do with the dark officialdom of Quanzhou Prefecture, or whether it had anything to do with Bu Jiacun. With the government's style and the strength of the Bu family, it is not impossible to bully the Huang family and make them lose their footing.
After all, it wouldn't take long to cripple a family, and at that time, Huang Senping didn't have the strength to fight against behemoths like the Fu Yamen and the Bu family. The best way out was to take people out to sea...
However, according to Gu Zhengchen's guess, Huang Senping is very likely to have a certain relationship with the government and the Bu family. For example, the Bu family used Huang Senping's status as an envoy to transport goods. Otherwise, who else provided Huang Senping with several large ships?
The people in the Shibo Division are not blind. You are on a mission, not moving. Who would bring so many people to a small country when the Ming Dynasty is an envoy? They can't afford to receive them.
As for Huang Senping's exile on Bago Island and his heavy losses, it's hard to say whether this was because Huang Senping led his men to kill the Bu family's men and took advantage of the situation to go into exile.
Of course, all of this is Gu Zhengchen's speculation about that vague and fragmentary history.
The current history is completely different from the history in the history books.
Now Huang Senping is no longer an inconspicuous envoy, but a fellow commander of the Quanzhou Guards. There are not so many corrupt officials in the Quanzhou Prefecture, and the Bu family has been completely wiped out. The Huang family is still fine and has not been bullied.
The most important thing is that the Shipping Department is under the control of Gu Zhengchen, and Huang Senping has no chance to take his clan and a group of people to sea.
Judging from the historical records of Huang Senping running away and taking everyone with him, this guy is very family-friendly and it is unlikely that he would go overseas to reclaim wasteland alone. Without a foundation and no manpower to support him, he would not be able to accomplish anything even if he went into exile overseas.
This life is completely different.
Early the next morning, Gu Zhengchen took Zhang Pei and Lin Baifan to Quanzhou Port.
Zhang He, Chu Xing, Huang Senping, Chen Dahe and others were already waiting and stepped forward to salute.
Gu Zhengchen looked at the Dafu ship parked at the port and asked Zhang He, "How is the training going?"
Zhang He said solemnly: "You can sail at any time."
Gu Zhengchen looked at Chen Dahe, Wang Futu and others, saw them nodding, smiled with satisfaction, and said to Zhang He and others: "After Marquis Jinghai delivers the things, you need to make final preparations for sailing within five days , and once there is no problem, we will set sail on November 20th."
Zhang He, Chen Dahe and others nodded.
Gu Zhengchen was walking on the dock and seemed to think of something. He looked back at the port shore and asked: "Where are those dismantled big bowl-mouth cannons? Send them to the government office and find someone to melt them and beat them." Utensils.”
Chu Xing lowered his head and looked at the shoes. The thumbs of his feet were still pointing up.
Meng Wanli turned around and looked at the scenery.
Zhang He said in a carefree manner: "I don't know which idiot actually took the big bowl-mouthed cannon off the ship without permission. I have had someone put it back again. Although the big bowl-mouthed cannon has many disadvantages, the key point is It can also play a role sometimes. If you are lucky, it will be no problem to kill a few Japanese pirates."
Gu Zhengchen's face looked a little ugly, and he gritted his teeth as he watched Zhang He.
Zhang He didn't know it yet: "Chu Xing and the others are also incompetent. So many large cannons were dismantled and piled up at the port without knowing who did it! If I catch that hateful guy, I have to kick him into the sea." No."
"Prefect Gu, you seem to be unwell?"
Zhang He finally noticed that something was wrong with Gu Zhengchen's face and eyes.
Gu Zhengchen shook his sleeves: "You want to kick me into the sea?"
"ah?"
Zhang He was a little dumbfounded.
Gu Zhengchen was furious: "Ah, what, I am the fool you are looking for! It's the big cannon I ordered to be dismantled! Lin Baifan, throw Chu Xing and Meng Wanli into the water!"
Chu Xing and Meng Wanli were also dumbfounded.
Chu Xing felt aggrieved: "Prefect Gu, it was Commander Zhang who ordered us to move back. As you said, the port is subject to his arrangements. This has nothing to do with us..."
Meng Wanli nodded.
Gu Zhengchen didn't care about this. These two bastards knew clearly that they had given the order, but they didn't tell Zhang He. In addition to wanting to see Zhang He's jokes, I'm afraid I just can't bear to part with these scraps of metal and really regard them as treasures!
Only then did Zhang He realize that the guy he was scolding these days was Magistrate Gu, my own mother...
No, Chu Xing and Meng Wanli must go into the water. These two guys are cheating on me!
After Zhang He glared at Chu Xing and Meng Wanli, he said to Gu Zhengchen: "This big cannon is a good thing. Having it on the navy ship can deter Japanese pirates. They will run away even though they are far apart."
Gu Zhengchen snorted and said with great dissatisfaction: "What the navy wants is not to intimidate them, not to scare them away, but to destroy them on the sea! Go and give me all the cannons." Take it down!”
