1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 3812

As the power gap between the two countries continues to widen, in recent years many Ming officials have openly or secretly defected to Hai Han, including some Zhu vassal kings such as King De of Shandong.

Some officials with real talents and hard work were appreciated and reused by Hai Han after changing their jobs. Many of them were given higher positions than when they were working in the Ming Dynasty.

Of course, there are symbolic appointments of buying horse bones for a fortune, but Hai Han is indeed better at knowing how to use people and will arrange a way out for Ming officials who voluntarily submit to the government. Even if they cannot become officials, at least they can have no worries about food and clothing in Hai Han and live the rest of their lives as an idle rich man.

Yue Shizong was in Hangzhou, the new capital of Hai Han. Without having to ask around, he naturally came into contact with many officials who had jumped ship from the Ming Dynasty.

According to his estimation, in Hangzhou's current bureaucratic system, at least nearly one-third of the people have served in the Ming Dynasty government.

Officials of the fourth rank like the retired former Ningbo prefect Qu Yutong are not uncommon in the current Hangzhou officialdom. As far as Yue Shizong knows, there are at least a dozen of them, spread across various government offices in Hai Han, and many of them hold real power.

With so many successful people who have defected to Hai Han as "role models", there will certainly be a steady stream of imitators on the Ming side.

In particular, state government officials close to the de facto controlled border between the two countries often have many opportunities to come into contact with Hai Han, have a better understanding of Hai Han’s situation, and are more easily instigated by Hai Han.

The Ming court was certainly not completely unaware of this, but considering the negative impact, such acts of treason were generally kept secret and would not be actively publicized in the country.

However, the Ming Dynasty did not tolerate it blindly. There were always factory guards secretly investigating and monitoring local officials. Once there were signs of treason, they would be arrested.

It is also because of this that diplomatic officials like Yue Shizong who are to be stationed in Hai Han are, in theory, the group with the highest risk of defection, and their family members are strictly prohibited from leaving the country without permission, so as to prevent them from choosing to defect without scruples.

According to common sense, these former Ming officials who changed jobs should intentionally avoid meeting Yue Shizong, but the actual situation is not the case. Instead of hiding from Yue Shizong out of guilt, they would intentionally show off their achievements after changing jobs every time they met him, either explicitly or implicitly suggesting that Yue Shizong should also choose this path.

Therefore, it is not very difficult for Yue Shizong to collect information in this regard. As long as he cooperates with the factory and guard offices, he will definitely find some officials who want to leave but have not been able to do so.

However, he was already planning to relocate his family, so he inevitably felt a little reluctant about taking on this job.

After much deliberation, Yue Shizong decided to put this task aside for the time being. Even if he wanted to do this kind of work, he had to wait until his family was settled here.

With this contradictory mentality, Yue Shizong returned to the table. When his family asked him about it, he just said it was ordinary official business and would not interfere with the family reunion.

The next day, many New Year celebrations were held inside and outside Hangzhou. Although Yue Shizong's family were citizens of the Ming Dynasty, they were also quite interested in the New Year of the Hai Han calendar, so they begged him to take them out to see the excitement.

Yue Shizong couldn't refuse, and thinking that there was no urgent official business that required him to stay in the embassy during the holiday, he had to agree and took his family on a horse-drawn carriage to West Lake to enjoy the scenery.

Yue Shizong originally thought that the area near West Lake was open and should not be so crowded. However, when the car reached Yongjin Gate in the west of the city, it was stuck because there were too many people entering and leaving the city.

Yue Shizong lifted the curtain to look at the road and found that there were far more people traveling today than he expected. People were rushing in and out of the city. There were long queues of carriages and rickshaws of all sizes. In addition, there were vendors setting up stalls inside and outside the city gate, making it even more crowded. The gate of Yongjin Gate was only more than ten feet wide, and even if there were people directing traffic and maintaining order, congestion was inevitable.

Yue Shizong got back into the car and said to his family with a wry smile, "It's the Hai Han New Year, and probably all the people from the nearby counties and cities have come to Hangzhou. Normally, there aren't so many people entering and leaving the city. Now we can't turn around even if we want to go back, so we can only wait here patiently."

Fortunately, the traffic jam didn’t last too long, and the family finally got out of the city and arrived at the east bank of West Lake.

However, there seemed to be not much fewer people outside the city than at Yongjin Gate. Yue Shizong and his family got off the carriage and found that the lakeside was full of tourists. It seemed that there were too many people who had the same idea as him.

It seemed that he could no longer enjoy the Ten Scenic Spots of West Lake with peace of mind, so Yue Shizong simply took his family back to the carriage and drove north along the lakeshore.

It turned out that this was the right direction, and gradually there were fewer people coming.

When they arrived near Victory Square on the north side of West Lake, Yue Shizong stopped the carriage and took his family out for a tour.

Although there were quite a few people in the square, it was open and far less crowded than before.

Madam Yue asked curiously, "These buildings nearby look square, so they were probably not built by the Ming Dynasty, right?"

Yue Shizong said, "Madam, you are right. This Victory Square and the surrounding square houses were built by the Hai Han people in recent years. They may look plain and simple, but they are like their palaces. The places where the various Hai Han government offices handle official business are basically in these houses."

Madam Yue was surprised and asked, "Isn't this place like the Imperial City?"

Yue Shizong nodded and said, "Your understanding is correct. However, this place is not as heavily guarded as the Imperial City of the Ming Dynasty. Ordinary people can walk around in this square and enjoy the scenery at will. But to enter those buildings, you must have the corresponding procedures."

Madam Yue said, "Then my husband must come here often?"

Yue Shizong smiled bitterly and said, "I come here maybe 17 or 18 times a month! I can basically go to the wrong direction even with my eyes closed, no matter which direction the doors of these government buildings open to!"

Yue Shizong was not bragging. Regardless of whether he had official business or not, he would come to the various government offices here every now and then. On the one hand, he would collect various information, and on the other hand, he would maintain his connections in the Hai Han officialdom.

Even the staff who come here to report in every day may not be as familiar with the environment here as Yue Shizong. After all, ordinary officials usually only go in and out of their own yamen and rarely visit everywhere like he does.

As he was speaking, an official passing by actually recognized him and greeted him.

After the greetings, Madam Yue couldn't help but ask curiously, "Didn't they notice that my husband brought his family with him?"

Yue Shizong said: "Not many people here know that the Ming Dynasty forbids the families of officials from leaving the country without permission. Besides, Hangzhou already has many families of Ming Dynasty officials, so people are used to it."