Yan Shifan revealed his identity on Tsushima Island, which meant that Ming Dynasty's strategy towards Japan entered a new stage.
"The Master said on the river: 'The deceased is like a man who never gives up day and night.'"
"Uncle Yan laments that things are changing too fast, or should he cherish the time and be brave and diligent?"
Next to him was Wang Zhi, who was transferred to a new position and rushed to Tsushima Island.
Yan Shifan was an old acquaintance with him, and now he just grinned: "No. From this year onwards, I can really see the dead here full of people, day and night."
Wang Zhi was speechless.
Co-authoring means that when the two of us came here, we saw a river full of corpses, and then we lamented that people who disobey would die like this day and night?
This is too hellish.
In order to prevent the Zong family from being too uneasy, the Huizhou Maritime Trading Company's ships actually had another anchorage, which was a bay between the northern and southern islands of Tsushima, called Asamao Bay.
The two are now located on a peninsula east of Asana Bay, known as Daoshan.
There is another peninsula to the southwest, and the two peninsulas form a small bay in Qianmao Bay.
"In the future, the best place to build a city is the Jizhi Fishing Village." Wang Zhi has not been idle these days, traveling around in the name of being familiar with the business here.
Yan Shifan was a little surprised: "Don't use their mansion?"
Wang Zhi shook his head: "That place can be the capital of the Eastern Protectorate, but the most suitable port city is next to Asana Bay. Tsushima Island is only half the size of a county. In the future, it will control the East, but it needs a capital, There are three cities: the port city and the military city. The Sangen County of the North Island also has a good harbor, from Plank to Sangen, which can be the location of the Dongyang Guards Army in the future."
"... Let's draw up the map and send it to the capital first." Yan Shifan didn't care about this for the time being, "When will Marquis Xue arrive?"
"Next year at the earliest." Wang Zhi laughed, "We have to wait until the puppet emperor and some general in Japan have a reply. In addition, I heard from Marquis Xue that the steam engine was completed, and His Majesty wanted to see it. Let’s see if we can make a steam ironclad and try it out.”
Yan Shifan was dumbfounded: "How long do we have to wait?"
"Uncle, can't we just let them kill the dead one by themselves first? Why worry?" After saying that, he asked curiously, "When uncle returned to Beijing, didn't he see the steam engine? How magical is it? It can make you a prince. ?”
"...This, I just listened to what my father said..."
The two of them chatted while walking towards the mountainside of the Daoshan Peninsula, where Huizhou Sea Trade's commercial store on Tsushima Island was located.
In fact, the coast on the southeast side of the peninsula, which is close to the sea, already looks like a small town, with endless houses and Ming Dynasty-style cornices. Of course, when the seaside is humid, there are also bases supported by stones or wooden pillars.
Now, at the pier opened here, there are more than twenty ships longer than three feet. The largest one is nearly twenty feet long, followed by a wave-cutting class hired from the Great Wall Company of the Sea. Escort battleship.
As for the small boats that shuttle back and forth, there are more.
On the shore, there are many restaurants and teahouses, and there are also wandering girls who make a living here. They can be found in hotels, restaurants, teahouses and specialized traveling girls' houses.
In today's era, Japan has not yet developed a formal geisha culture, but the ancient industry will never disappear. Due to the boom in maritime trade in Tsushima in recent years, many of the wandering girls on the island were even brought from Kyoto.
When they arrived at the business hall, they met another general who worked for the Great Maritime Wall Company and specifically contributed to the Japanese branch of Huizhou Maritime Trade.
"General Feng, you have to manage your troops well and don't break your waist because of the Japanese girls. A big event is coming. Don't take the credit but not get it."
"...Don't worry, uncle, the general will know what's appropriate."
This General Feng only serves as the guerrilla general of the Dongyang Road of the Maritime Great Wall Company, and his military rank is now a major.
There are four guerrilla generals like him on Dongyang Road, each with one large, four small and five ships underneath. The actual number of soldiers is 300 sailors and 200 marines.
In fact, his strength is not weak anymore, but after Yan Shifan came back and became Dongbo Bo, he naturally became the last general.
"We have made an agreement with the Zong family. General Feng, you will send two shrewd and resourceful people to follow Zong Qingkang's son to visit their capital and Kansai and Kanto to explore the road."
"The last general takes command!"
When he went to work, Yan Shifan felt a little unhappy: "With these crooked Japanese people, Your Majesty only needs to send the Eastern Fleet, plus the people from the Shipping Bureau and the Maritime Great Wall Company, and there will be a force of ten thousand or eight thousand. The war in Japan is over now, so why wait until next year or even longer?”
"...Uncle, after all, it is the largest territory among the vassal states, at least much larger than North Korea. When you go on an expedition, you must make preparations in advance. Why are you so anxious?"
"Seven years! This year, I will have been here for seven years!" Yan Shifan said simply: "Japan is very mountainous, and there are not many powerful cavalry. Now they are still fighting with swords. If nothing else, if Hanhaihou can If he brings his mandarin duck soldiers, he won’t need 8,000 troops, only 5,000 will be enough!”
"Where are the grain, grass and military supplies?" Wang Zhi was speechless, "Tsushima Island is still too small. My uncle is first thinking about how to level their Kyushu and Four Kingdoms, so that the shipping bureau and civilian merchants can continuously transport grain, grass and military supplies. "
"...Robbing. What kind of guards are they? They all boast that their mountain city is easy to defend and difficult to attack. Isn't it just a matter of a few cannons?" Yan Shifan dismissed it. "They levy and plunder food, grass and military supplies. Their mountain city has a lot of them." Yes. Since it is an expedition, it is natural to support war with war."
"...Uncle, I dare to remind you. I was only made an earl last year. Even if you are eager to make contributions, you have to wait a little longer, right?"
Yan Shifan sighed, and finally said: "Brother Wang is right. Since you are here, let's make a serious plan. In my opinion, we must defeat the Nizi clan first. That stone sees Yinshan, I heard that now a One million taels of silver are produced every year..."
With the help of the "Ming merchants", the Zong family on the isolated island of Tsushima also joined the chaos of Japan's "battle for hegemony" during the Warring States Period.
The people of the Ming Dynasty still don't know how "the dead died like this" there.
Now everyone in the Ming Dynasty is struggling with the new weights and measures standards.
This year, various countries will be invited to send envoys to the Ming Dynasty to conclude a convention, and the Ming Dynasty will naturally start to implement it first.
First of all, the 20th year of Jiajing, which was originally very smooth, became 2382 AD, which is very strange.
In addition, many things like inches, feet, feet, miles, two, etc. that we were used to before have to be changed.
Fortunately, since so many sets of standard weights and measures were given out as national gifts on the Longevity Festival last year, wouldn't the officials be prepared?
"Everything in the future will be made more and more sophisticated. Wouldn't it be good to set the rules?" The grassroots officials are always the most difficult. "I don't want you to change it immediately now, but I will inform every village that this is Order from the imperial court! We haven't complained yet, what do you call us? Only the children in the village who can read and do math should learn from it and tell the fellow villagers. Every primary school and social school has been ordered to set up a system. You will grow up in the future. I have to use it to take the imperial examinations and pay land taxes to fellow villagers."
It is indeed the government that has the biggest workload at the moment. Not only do the standards in official documents need to be changed, but in the future, they will also have to bear the responsibility of conversion when handling many official affairs - ordinary people can still use the old standards to do things, but they can't. All records and archives must comply with the new standards.
"You're familiar with it, just get used to it!"
After so many years, the system of rural sages has been established. At least every township will have some Qin Ye Lang, Qi Jia Lang, and An Xiang Lang.
Now, they are also leading the mission to assist the court in implementing these.
Although they don't quite understand why they need to do this.
"Brother Ming, Brother Zhang, you two are well-informed, can you help the old man persuade the villagers?"
In a village on the bank of the Yellow River in Huai'an, Zhu Zaiyi heard this and looked at Zhang Juzheng: "Uncle, can you tell me?"
The three of them traveled here to visit the Huanghuai construction site.
Since we are traveling, we naturally cannot stay in prosperous places all the time. Last night, they were introduced by friends and stayed at the home of a local Anxiang Lang. There was a scholar in their family, and now he went to the Prime Minister Hedao Yamen on errands. The old man in the family also got the title of "Anxiang Lang".
Hearing that something like this happened today, the three of them naturally came to meet them.
Zhang Juzheng lamented that the imperial decree had already entered the stage of implementation in the countryside so quickly after it arrived in Huai'an. After thinking about it, he said to An Xianglang who summoned the heads of various households in each area and said: "This new regulation is not to trouble you. Let you don’t understand and the officials will understand, and then they will deceive you.”
"But weren't the old buckets and steel scales used strangely?"
Zhang Juzheng smiled: "I just want to say one thing. In the past, the buckets and steel scales used by the government to collect grains were bought from all kinds of sources. Have you ever suffered a loss when you paid grains to the villagers?"
Although his childhood memories were indifferent, he had experienced it after all, and his grandfather and father were still there.
In the past, his grandfather Zhang Zhen farmed, so naturally he could not escape the summer and autumn grain levies every year. Zhang Juzheng knew the secret.
After looking at Zhu Zai'an, he gave an example: "The old regulations have always been in place, but the imperial court did not care about lifting buckets, steelyards, and weights in the past. When subordinate officials got the goods from the countryside, they were either insufficient or inaccurate. Isn’t that what they said? They all say that there are three major factors in harvesting grain: scale, dendrobium, and feet. I don’t need to elaborate on these truths.”
There are plenty of ways to exploit people's wealth and wealth.
After weighing, a hundred kilograms of grain may be weighed ten or twenty kilograms short. Measuring dendrobium, ten buckets may become eight buckets. Another kick, and he fell down again.
Zhang Juzheng looked north and raised his hands above his head: "Now that His Majesty's grace has established new regulations, some hands and feet may be unavoidable. But the villagers do not need to be literate, they only need to recognize the monograms on the buckets, steelyards, and weights."
"What monogram?" an old farmer asked.
Zhang Juzheng saluted Mr. Anxiang and said, "Mr. He, please give me the "Chinese People's Imperial Constitution and the Ming Dynasty Standards of Measurement" to the boy."
"Brother Zhang, you're welcome." An Xianglang hurriedly handed him the booklet in his arms.
"Mr. He doesn't know much about literacy, but this kid can read it all. I also looked at it at Mr. He's home last night. Everyone, please look here!"
Zhang Juzheng opened the book to a page and pointed to a passage in it: "Since AD 2382, that is, starting from this year, the measuring tools used in official business in all prefectures and counties in the Ming Dynasty have been purchased and shipped to various places by the Ministry of Civil Affairs. Measuring tools used for official purposes are temporarily only allowed to be manufactured by the supervision department, and they will all be engraved with the supervision mark and stamped with the verification mark of the Standards Department of the Ministry of Industry."
He turned to the end again and pointed to the two pictures: "Did you see it? This is the emblem of the original Queen's General Supervisor. This is the emblem of the newly established Standards Department of the Ministry of Industry. The Queen's General is the Supervisor of Construction, and the Standards Department Verify the accuracy of each steelyard, each bucket, and each weight, and then engrave the standard design of the Standards Department."
Zhang Juzheng showed them the two patterns and finally said: "In other words, in the future, when officials come to the countryside to collect grain, or you have to ask the government to weigh whatever you want to do, as long as the things they bring out are not You don't need to recognize these two markings as official scales or official promotions. There may still be officials who dare to make false claims, but if they are found out, they will be dealt with severely."
"I'm sorry to bother you, it's unavoidable. But because of the new regulations on measuring tools such as rulers, steelyards, buckets, weights, etc., now we can only make them accurately and with the technology that supervisors have. This makes it difficult for officials who want to harm the people to do what they want. Do you think it's worth the trouble?"
An old farmer looked at the two monograms on it and was speechless: "This is Zhang Xiucai! This monogram is so beautiful, can it be engraved on an iron scale?"
Zhang Juzheng smiled: "Exactly. If the monogram looks changed and the pattern is unclear, it may be a fake. In order to run this good government well, His Majesty and the court actually don't know how much more money and labor they have to spend. Is it just In order to harm you? Not to mention anything else, it is the standard flower of the Standards Department. The ruler under Sanchen. If you take the old ruler to compare, the standard flowers on the steelyard, weights, and buckets are the same length. .”
At this time, other villagers naturally praised Zhang Juzheng, saying that he was well-informed and would be the number one scholar in the future.
Zhu Zaiyi was also curious about how he knew so clearly. He also took a look last night, but he didn't know how the newly established Standards Department of the Ministry of Industry operated.
He didn't ask Zhang Juzheng until he was on his way to the river control construction site on the other side of the Yellow River.
"I read with Brother Ming, and the princes in the court took great care of me." Zhang Juzheng replied calmly, "I read Ming Pao before, and I wrote to ask for advice, and Liu Guolao wrote back and analyzed it to me."
"……I see."
Arriving at the construction site next to the Yellow River, taking advantage of the dry season before spring and summer, a scene of busy work appeared in front of the three of them.
"...Is that? The general's flag of the Huaiyang commander? Where are the generals?" Zhu Zaiyi was surprised.
"Although it was not published in the Ming Pao, there was a notice in the Di Bao. Last year, Mr. Tang of the Tang Dynasty asked him to regulate the Huai River affairs. His Majesty ordered the Huaiyang generals to protect the embankments and guard the summer and autumn floods. Later, they indeed made great contributions. His Majesty announced the commendation in the Di Bao. , It is said that the generals and soldiers of the provinces in the hinterland should not think that they have no merits. Disaster relief and construction assistance are all merits. The Ming Dynasty established the army to defend the land and calm the people. The eternal merits of curing the Huanghuai floods are not a great contribution to calming the people."
Zhang Juzheng picked it up again, and Qi Jiguang on the side couldn't help but look at him.
Although I had heard Zhang Juzheng's name many times when I was around Wang Shouren, it was only during this period that I realized how extraordinary he was.
He almost always pays attention to the latest news, and because of his status as the prince's companion, he has good connections with the court.
And he can remember everything he has seen, and he can also think about some of the principles.
In just a few months, Qi Jiguang was already in awe of him: if he continues like this, Zhang Juzheng will definitely be the chief assistant in the future.
"Brother Ming, I am afraid that the Prime Minister Hedao Yamen will have to comply with the new standards. But now that the project is busy, Mr. Tang can't take care of it. There are so many stones, wood, grains and rice coming and going at this construction site that the head of the accounting department is already big. Even though we can't work hard, how about staying here for a while and helping them with some paperwork?"
Zhu Zaiyi thought that he had also contributed a little to the governance of Huanghuai. If the news came back to his father, he would be very popular with the Holy Heart.
So he immediately nodded: "That's exactly what it should be."
Qi Jiguang blinked: Then I can only carry the bag?
Zhang Juzheng, known as Zhang Xiucai, was not in a hurry to test his background, but it was already February and the imperial examination in Beijing was finally about to reach the final hurdle.
Zhu Wan became Minister of the Ministry of Culture and Education, and Yang Bo was transferred from the right minister of the Ministry of Finance and Taxation to the chief of the imperial study. The threshold for the chief of the imperial study is getting higher and higher. He has to be a third-level official first.
Nowadays, the Chief of the Royal Study Room attends the national policy meeting, and his qualifications and rank are more and more worthy of his reputation.
After Yang Bo took over as the chief of the imperial study, his first important special task was this examination.
Naturally, there will be no major changes in this year’s examination. Tang Shunzhi and Zhu Wan, who are in charge of the Ministry of Culture and Education, are still studying the "scientific" meaning of the imperial examination, the Academy of Sciences and the new examination syllabus, but this year's imperial examination will be very different.
Those who pass the general examination will be Jinshi, and those who pass the palace examination will not be eliminated.
But this year's palace examination will decide an important matter.
As the first year of the Yuan Dynasty, AD 2382, the emperor opened the system department again.
This time the system of science is different from the system of science in Jiajing six years. The threshold for participation is no longer a low-grade official or a letter of recommendation, nor is it the Jingguo Military Strategy Department and the Dingguoan Civil Affairs Department.
If you want to participate in this system, you must take a special category during the palace examination: the direction of the Academy of Sciences.
The palace examination is divided into three specialized directions: government, enterprise, and academy of sciences.
Each person can only choose one direction. Once selected, the investiture will correspond to different outlets.
No need to think about it, most people will definitely choose the government direction.
However, this year's manufacturing majors include only the economics and economics major for enterprises and the Tiangongkaiwu major for the Academy of Sciences. If you want to participate, you can only choose these two directions, and be among the best.
This makes people confused: after all, this year, there are still two earl positions released.
It cannot be said that Zheng Kui was unattractive since he was a marquis in front of him. Tang Shunzhi and Li Mo, the two leaders of the previous academic system, have already occupied the position of minister of state, which is even more exciting.
But for Yang Bo, the difficulty was that he had to prepare three sets of questions for the imperial examination.
Who can take the place of this topic from the academy of sciences and industry?
He looked at the emperor: "Your Majesty, have you finished the questions?"
Zhu Houcong rubbed his eyebrows and said, "First sort out the policy strategies presented by the newly appointed officials from the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Agriculture. I will also take time to select the six new members of the harem, and then I will go to the Heavy Industry Park." . I have already finished the questions for the enterprise direction, and for the questions for the Academy of Sciences, I will just be at the Heavy Industry Park to discuss it with the first group of academicians who have been selected by the Academy of Sciences."
Yang Bo was helpless: "I'll ask you tomorrow."
"Huang Jin, let's go."
What can Zhu Houcong say? For the sake of the blueprint in my heart, I have to swallow the pain I seek.
Before going to the Heavy Industry Park to study the problem of putting steam engines on ships with everyone, let's first go and see the beauties from various places who have been recommended to the palace.
Needless to say, Sun Lan and the other five people were not selected as early as some people had guessed. They had to balance the thoughts of many people in the court.
Is that necessary for Zhu Houcong today?
If people of all backgrounds choose one, the symbolic meaning is indeed there.
But for Zhu Houcong: I really worked hard for the Ming Dynasty, and there was nothing else to enjoy.
What's more, with our great plans now in full swing, I can indeed have more sons!
The Qianqing Palace, just like last time, was decorated in a "you can choose" style.
When Zhu Houcong walked to the gate of Qianqing Palace, he was in a trance.
Back then, his mother was sitting here, and Sun Ming was the first to be led up by him.
Fast forward twenty years.
The deceased is like a man who never gives up day and night.
But the steam engine aroused Zhu Houcong's passion again, and he also wanted to have more majestic vitality.
Who doesn't like being young?
(End of chapter)
