1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 3187
On March 1657, 31 in the Haihan calendar, Hangzhou, the west of the city and the Golden Gate.

Yongjinmen was first built in the period of Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, and it got its name from the rumor that a golden bull once emerged in the nearby West Lake.

Perhaps because of this good luck, many government offices in Hangzhou were gathered in Yongjinmen, such as the General Office, the Metropolitan Administration, the Weaving Bureau, the Government School, the Chief Secretary, the Salt Transport Department, etc., all concentrated in this urban area.

However, after Haihan took over Hangzhou, the management authority in various fields was collected in the hands of the management committee, and most of these government offices were also given new functions.

The Chief Secretary’s Yamen became the office of the Hangzhou Management Committee. The original government school was renamed Hangzhou No. [-] Middle School. The Weaving Bureau was put on the signboard of the Military Intelligence Bureau. The city defense army serves as the headquarters.

After Yangzhou salt merchants collectively took refuge in Haihan, the salt transportation department that managed the salt industry in Jiangsu and Zhejiang naturally had no use for it. However, Haihan did not use the salt transportation department for other purposes, but left this place for Daming, the diplomatic mission stationed in Hangzhou is located here.

The Yamen of Yanyun Department is next to Yongjin Gate, so it is very convenient to enter and leave the city. It is only three or four miles away from the Haihan Government Office District, which is currently being built on the north side of West Lake.

Although Daming lost Hangzhou, there are still many Ming people living and working in Hangzhou, so this official office that has changed the signboard of "Daming Embassy" is usually very lively and receives a large number of visitors every day.

However, since last night, the roads around the embassy have been suddenly blocked. At least one company of the Haihan army has set up armed checkpoints at several intersections around the embassy, ​​prohibiting personnel in the embassy from going out.

After Yue Shizong, the person in charge of the embassy, ​​was urgently summoned by Haihan officials, he closed the door of the embassy when he returned, and put up a sign saying that it was temporarily closed.

By this morning, the gate of the embassy, ​​where people usually come and go, was already empty, and people who entered and exited Yongjinmen took the initiative to walk around this place, lest they be tainted with bad luck.

According to the Ming Dynasty's diplomatic tradition, foreign institutions such as embassies are usually in charge of the Rites and Pedestrians.

In a small place, the Pedestrian Division will assign an eighth-rank pedestrian, and for those with a slightly higher rank, usually the seventh-rank person in charge of the Rites Department will be in charge.

But Hangzhou is obviously an exception, because Yue Shizong, who is the chief official of the embassy here, is a doctor of the Ministry of Rites and an official of the fifth rank.

Yue Shizong's ability to take up this position that is valued by the court has a lot to do with his personal resume.

He was originally from Huzhou Prefecture, Zhejiang Province. He was a Jinshi in Chongzhen for ten years. He was a county magistrate in Zhejiang Province. He was later promoted to Honglu Temple in the capital.

Regardless of his understanding of Zhejiang's local conditions and customs, or his work experience in the diplomatic service, Yue Shizong's personal situation is very suitable for this position.

More importantly, when Haihan took over the Huzhou government, his family took the initiative to sell their properties and moved the whole family to the Ming Dynasty's ruling area, which was regarded by the court as an expression of loyalty.

As the head of the embassy in his capacity, it must be regarded as a low-ranking high-ranking officer, but it also highlights the importance of this position.If he can achieve some impressive results in his tenure, it is not impossible to be promoted to the Minister of Rites after returning to the capital.

After Yue Shizong took office, the diplomatic relationship with Haihan was handled fairly well. Every year, he held regular formal meetings with Shi Diwen, the consul of the East China Sea Region, and the relationship between the two countries gradually eased.

Haihan moving the capital to Hangzhou is bad news for Daming, but it is not necessarily a bad thing for Yue Shizong personally.

The Hangzhou embassy used to be just one of the many diplomatic institutions sent by the Ming Dynasty to Haihan. It was not much different from the embassies in Jinzhou, Dengzhou, Fuzhou, Guangzhou and other places. up a level.

But after the capital was moved, the importance of the Hangzhou embassy immediately caught up with the Sanya embassy, ​​and Yue Shizong's status would rise accordingly, becoming an important figure in the diplomatic field of Ming Dynasty.

Haihan is going to hold the [-]th anniversary celebration of the National Day in Hangzhou and announce the decision to move the capital. This is really a humiliation for Daming, but for Yue Shizong who was invited to participate in the ceremony, it is undoubtedly an opportunity to consolidate the relationship with the high-level Haihan. opportunity.

Yue Shizong thought that if he could establish friendship with the senior officials of the Haihan Executive Committee, maybe he could monopolize Daming's diplomatic affairs with Haihan in the future.

But the plan was not as fast as the change. On the day the executive committee arrived in Hangzhou, the murder case against the executive committee actually happened.What's worse, Haihan officials notified Yue Shizong that the murderer turned out to be a member of the factory guard sent by Daming.

This news was like a bolt from the blue to Yue Shizong. He really couldn't understand why the court would use this third-rate method of self-destruction of the Great Wall when the situation was improving.

Therefore, Yue Shizong did not accept Haihan's statement at first, thinking that there might be something strange about this matter, at least the identity of the assassin has yet to be verified.

However, Haihan's subsequent reaction obviously did not agree with his defense.

Armed blockading the embassy and prohibiting embassy personnel from going out is undoubtedly a hostile approach.And Yue Shizong finally realized that Haihan's attitude towards this matter was not a joke. Once the situation got out of control, this matter might escalate into a more serious conflict.

After he returned to the embassy last night, he immediately called a meeting of his staff to discuss countermeasures.But the meeting continued into the morning without much substantive progress.

"Haihan's statement is a serious slander against me, Daming! No matter what, we can't let the other party confirm such an argument!"

This was one of the few keynotes that had been confirmed during the meeting. Yue Shizong knew very well that once the responsibility of the Ming officials in the incident was confirmed, the Haihan people who had reasoned would definitely not settle the matter easily.

But now that Haihan has blocked the embassy, ​​this action obviously has the intention of letting the situation continue to ferment, which is definitely not good news for Yue Shizong.

The only thing he can do now is to use his status as a diplomat to request a meeting with senior officials of the Executive Committee and lodge a complaint against the investigation and trial of this case.

But when he saw the just-issued Donghai Times delivered in the morning, he was struck by lightning—the conspicuous news headline on the front page was actually "News: Ming gangsters who intended to assassinate our country's political leaders have all been arrested."

Yue Shizong knew that Donghai Times would confirm the content of each page one or two days before the publication date before it could be typeset and printed.But the assassination case that happened yesterday actually appeared in the newspaper today. This is not like the usual practice of the newspaper office. It is obvious that the original content was temporarily adjusted and the report of the assassination case was added overnight.

Whether it is the newspaper's high efficiency in doing things, or someone ordered it, Yue Shizong can guess to a certain extent.

The trial of the assassination case is not yet over, and such a title obviously intends to put the charges on Daming first.Once the public accepted this point of view and formed a one-sided public opinion, it would be very difficult for Yue Shizong to clear Da Ming's name.

(End of this chapter)