Zhu Yijun and his ministers spent a day in Nanyuan, half relaxing and half inspecting, and taught the Hanlin Academy a lesson. Let me tell you that if you want to work under the growing emperor, you will definitely not be able to play poems, songs, and eight-part essays.
On that day, the emperor was shy and accepted everyone's compliments saying that his lyrics were good, which made the literary scholars of the Hanlin Academy speechless and choked.
However, this incident also made it clear to everyone in the court: as long as the emperor performs meritorious deeds, the rest - including his own face - can be ignored.
Dai Xun later heard his colleagues return to the hospital to tell what happened, and then he realized that he had been used as a raft by the emperor and set a negative example.
From then on, he changed his nickname of "incompetent layman" and called himself "Ling Yunsou", which secretly means "high ambition". After hearing this, others thought that his nickname came from "Hanlin Song", which was not surprising. Colleagues who knew about Nanyuan knew that he was frightened and just laughed.
...
As the time entered August, Yu Maoxue was still in the imperial prison, with unknown moss-like objects growing on his body. No one in the court thought of this number one critic of the Wanli Dynasty.
Zhang Siwei was completely relieved and asked to see Zhang Juzheng one after another. He kept himself low, spent his life throwing away money, and at the same time cried and repented. He was finally forgiven, and went back to compile "Records of King Sejong", waiting to be admitted to the cabinet.
The first court dispute in the Wanli Dynasty was diverted by Zhu Yijun's "Lianghuai Surplus Salt Case" to divert the focus. Killing two chickens not only beat the officials who were noisy like monkeys, but did not completely weaken them, the review of the six departments and other functions were running smoothly.
...
Outside Gule City in Liaodong, the iron cable blocking the surface of the Suzi River drips with water in the summer sun.
On the south side of the iron rope, Chamberlain, who had run out of Langmaozi's manor, stood on a blocked boat and negotiated with the soldiers on the river bank in Jurchen language.
A prisoner of fifteen or sixteen years old jumped on board and searched carefully. Seeing that there was nothing besides salt, tea leaves and a few rolls of cotton next to the two horses on the boat, it was confirmed that Chamberlain was a smuggling businessman from the Ming Dynasty.
As usual, Chamberlain took out a palm-sized cloth bag filled with large grains of salt and placed it in the hands of the soldier. The soldier opened his pocket, took a look, grabbed one, threw it in his mouth and tasted it, and his face looked much better.
He jumped from the pedal to the shore and shouted something. The prisoner in charge of the chain loosened the chain on the cow's back and let it slide quickly around the wooden pile on the shore. The middle part sank into the water with a splash.
The small boat, which could only carry two horses and two people, continued to move forward, slowly moving along the current towards the intersection of Wulong River and Suzi River. There is an inlet of several acres with willow trees on the shore. A simple dock built with wood on the water's edge is the starting point for entering Gule City.
On the small pier, there were many captive soldiers, and they all looked wary. Even though Chamberlain was an old man in Jinyiwei, he still felt excited when he saw this. He searched among the crowd at the pier, his face suddenly showed joy, and he shouted loudly: "Uncle Atai!"
Atai is Wang Gao's eldest son. He is just in his early twenties. Like his father, he is young and has a pair of thick eyebrows, a full beard, and a small nose and small eyes that peek out from the pile of hair. outside.
He was sitting on a wooden stool on the dock when he heard someone calling him. He looked up and saw Chamberlain, smiled and waved.
Chamberlain waited for the boat to stop, led the horse onto the pier, came to Atai's side and knelt down to salute.
Atai held his arm and jabbered in Jurchen language: "Why did Manager Zhang come here just now? What did you get this time?"
Chamberlain understood and replied with a smile: "This time I got two hundred kilograms of salt and eighty kilograms of tea. It's enough for the city." After hearing this, Atai frowned and said: "I'm not telling you that you can use less salt. There is more tea, why is the tea so small?”
Hearing this, Chamberlain showed embarrassment on his face and whispered: "Uncle, Fushun is very strict. I bought these teas little by little in Fushun and Tieling. I bought salted meat and fish in bulk." To be fair, I can only save a few kilograms of tea at a time."
Atai heard this and sighed. Then he said with a sad face: "No ironware?"
Chamberlain smiled bitterly and said: "The ironware workshops in Liaodong have all been registered by the Jiliao Governor's Office. Even if they make a hoe, they have to be fingerprinted by Han people before they can sell it. There is really no way. But -"
Atai heard that there was a change in his words and asked hurriedly: "What?"
Chamberlain glanced around and whispered: "This time in Tieling, I used the old ginseng that my uncle rewarded last time to save a blacksmith's wife. He promised to secretly save some iron materials for me. I think I can save it next time. Bring a few hundred kilograms here."
After hearing this, Atai felt that a few hundred kilograms was too little, but it was better than nothing. At least the arrowheads were better than those made from bones and stones in Gule City today.
This manager is smart and smart, which is much better than those Han profiteers who can't pull out old ginseng, but are extremely exploitative. Atai is still willing to deal with him.
The great defeat this spring left Gule City's family in ruins. His father, Wang Gao, only escaped with his own life. He led three soldiers to become hunters in the old forests of Liaodong. They wandered around for three months before running home. When Atai met his father outside the city, he thought it was a wild Jurchen coming to rob them, so he almost shot him with his bow.
Atai suddenly recalled the hunger he felt during the lean years of Gule City, and the pain in his heart of killing horses for meat. He quickly shook his head to get rid of this shadow.
Seeing Chamberlain's stern eyebrows, he looked at himself with a mysterious smile on his face. Atai frowned and said, "If you have anything to say, just say it. Why are you looking at me like this?"
Chamberlain saluted and said, "I heard that I'm going to have my first child, but I haven't congratulated you yet." After saying that, he took out a small cloth bag from his arms and said, "This is my little thought, sir. decline."
When Atai opened the cloth bag and looked at it, he found it was a hairpin worn by a Han woman. The whole body is made of gold, not to mention the brilliant gold. The phoenix on it is trembling and swinging, as if it wants to ride on the wind, which is ingenious.
Atai had never seen such a beautiful thing before. Even though it was for women to use at home, he was dumbfounded. He stammered: "This...how much does this cost?"
Chamberlain smiled and said: "This is one of the Ming soldiers who sold the boss to the younger one. He got red with gambling before he sold it. It is said to be the in-house jewelry made by the Capital's 'Rishenglong'. The younger one doesn't know whether it is true or not, but it looks good. I bought it for thirty taels. - Later I found out, and I got an advantage in the casino, and it was worth seventy taels outside."
Atai's tongue stuck out from his beard and said, "Is this little thing worth three horses?"
Chamberlain smiled and said: "Sir, that horse is a companion and can save lives. It's just a toy. No matter how expensive it is, a good man won't care about it. It's just a small thought."
Atai still stuttered: "You said... you're right, but it's too expensive." Although Chamberlain was right, Atai still wrapped it in cloth and kept it in his pocket. In arms.
He turned around and gave some instructions to the people around him, straightened his clothes, and said to Chamberlain in Chinese: "Let's go up the mountain. I'll treat you to some game. The wild boar we just hunted yesterday was fat. But there's no wine." ,pity."
Chamberlain showed a sinister expression again and rolled his eyes left and right, signaling him to be silent. Atai was surprised and happy, and whispered: "Is there that one?"
Chamberlain took a handful from his arms and showed him a corner of a small sheepskin bag. Atai was so surprised that he almost screamed, but he was busy suppressing it and led Chamberlain away quickly.
Gule City is said to be a city, but it is actually a large village located on Longtou Mountain. This Longtou Mountain is four or five miles long, only three hundred steps wide, and less than two hundred steps high. It is not very steep. Because it is close to the intersection of two rivers, Wang Gao chose this place to build the city.
Therefore, this place is the main hub of water and land routes in the Jurchen region. Wang Gao used Gule City to control the mutual transportation of many large Jurchen tribes such as Hada and Ula, and used this to gather the strength of various ministries, which eventually became a serious problem in Liaodong.
After this year's defeat, Wang Gao has only three thousand troops left under his control. Due to the power he has accumulated over the years, there are no new captive chiefs to challenge his authority yet.
But in the Gule City headquarters, because every family had relatives who never came back, the tribesmen were already seriously dissatisfied with Wang Gao's rule, but they just tolerated it secretly.
Gule City is built on the top of the mountain. It is a city wall with a wooden and stone structure. It can be more than two feet high. The battlements and arrow towers on top are all based on the solid models of the Han people.
Although Chamberlain had been here several times before, he was only allowed to enter the city when he followed Lang Maozi a year ago.
As he walked, he kept a mental note of the defense situation, and saw that the security was much tighter than before. He knew that Wang Gao was afraid that Li Chengliang would raise troops to attack, so he was trying to embolden his troops. Seeing Atai walking very fast, he stopped him and said, "Uncle, slow down, I want to tell you something."
After hearing this, Atai slowed down, his little eyes sparkling, and said with a smile: "I just said that if you give me a big gift, there must be something going on, let's talk about it."
A shy look appeared on Chamberlain's face, and he said: "Sir, Mafa's former slave girl, Third Sister, I heard that she was... Is she still alive?"
After hearing this, Atai said in his heart that it was just as I expected. You, the thief, looked at Third Sister's face in the past and it was not right.
He nodded and said: "To live is to live, but together with other Han women, Mafa threw her in the village to pick up guests. You can sleep with her with eight pheasants or half a wild boar - you want her?"
After hearing this, Chamberlain's face changed color slightly and his eye circles became red even though he had expected it. He tried his best to smile and said: "It was the first time I came to Mafa's house that day, and I thought the third sister was pretty. I don't have a family or a job, and I don't have the luxury of being poor. As long as she has good looks. Uncle, you... .Can you give her to the younger one? Next time I come, I will give you a hundred catties of iron for free."
