1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 550 Alternate Officials
When Liu Qian was in a dilemma, the fleet of official ships departing from the Pearl River Wharf was heading down the river.The first stop of this fleet carrying more than ten officials was the Lijiazhuang Wharf in Panyu County, Guangzhou Prefecture.According to the arrangement of Haihan's Guangzhou Office, the fleet will meet the escorting Haihan armed ships at Lijiazhuang, and then continue its journey southward.

For the vast majority of passengers in this fleet, Haihan's surface armed forces are only known by name, and they have never seen the real thing with their own eyes.Everyone knows that Haihan's warships are just as capable of fighting as their militias, and they can even deal with enemies that the Daming navy has no way of fighting against. But how powerful the Haihan people's armed forces are, few people know exactly .

There are more than 80 miles of waterway from Zhujiang Wharf to Lijiazhuang Wharf, and it will take at least half a day to get there downstream. If you delay the time on the way, you may have to rest in the local area at night. With nothing to do, some people began to discuss how many armed forces Hai Han had in his hands.

Yan Mingjun is one of these curious people.He was originally a Juren in Fujian during the Tianqi period, and it took him nearly ten years to become a prefect of Luoding Prefecture from Qipin county magistrate. Although he is a colleague of his identity and background, there are not many peers who can compare with him.He was born in the 26th year of Wanli, and he is only in his early thirties now. Many people are still in the seventh-rank position at this age, and he is already a co-prefect of Zhili Prefecture.

However, this Luoding Prefecture has its advantages and disadvantages. In the fifth year of Emperor Wanli of the Ming Dynasty, Longshui County was promoted to Zhili Prefecture. The place is small and has no economic foundation. It is difficult for the incumbent officials to make any outstanding achievements.But because this is Zhili Prefecture, for the same position, the official rank is more than half a level. From the Zhizhou of the fifth rank, in Luoding Prefecture, it is the fifth rank.Yan Mingjun was only a deputy, and he had been in Luoding Prefecture for two years. At first, he wanted to finish his term slowly and wait for the chance of promotion step by step. However, his fate is so strange. He didn't have much ambition for official career, but the opportunity came It just happened to appear in front of him-a lot of official positions were vacated after Qiongzhou Island was attacked by pirates, and his qualifications were just enough to meet the threshold of an alternate official.

After Yan Mingjun heard the news, his mind became active. If he can seize this opportunity, it is not impossible to get promoted. Even if it is a transfer at the same level, at least this transfer can help his position That's it - a deputy in Zhili Prefecture, it should be a matter of course to become a full-time job in other states.

As for the remoteness of Qiongzhou Island, it is not a big problem in Yan Mingjun's opinion. After a few years of tenure, can't he be transferred back to the mainland?Besides, Qiongzhou Island is far away from the emperor because of its high mountains, so it will not be under the jurisdiction of Zhaoqing Mansion like in Luoding Prefecture. Yan Mingjun thinks that he can also have the opportunity to truly display his governing talents and accumulate some political capital for his future promotion.

Of course, Yan Mingjun is not as ignorant as he showed in front of Liu Qian about the Haihan people who have risen on Qiongzhou Island in recent years.You must know that although there is no special office set up by Haihan in Luoding Prefecture, there are quite a lot of Haihan products in the local market, and there are big merchants such as "Furuifeng" and "Golden Shield Escort" that cooperate closely with Haihan. , also has business development in the jurisdiction of Luoding Prefecture.Besides doing business in Luoding Prefecture, these merchants backed by Haihan also spread the culture of Haihan in various ways. Even if Yan Mingjun has stayed in Luoding Prefecture for the past few years and never went out, he still knows some rumors about Haihan people.

Haihan people are rich, powerful, intelligent, and courageous. This is the general consensus among the people, but from the standpoint of a court official like Yan Mingjun, he has to add the evaluation of "restless" to Haihan people.

When Haihan's tentacles first entered Luoding Prefecture, they were also resisted by the local business circles. However, those who opposed Haihan often couldn't hold on for too long, or they were defeated in the face of the unstoppable money offensive. It means dying unexpectedly or disappearing without a trace.Although the government also understands that these matters are probably inseparable from the Haihan people, but there is often no real evidence, and it is impossible to attribute the crimes to specific targets.

Of course, Haihan and their agents are not fools, they usually manage the government in advance, and Yan Mingjun himself has received money a lot, so he naturally turns a blind eye to such things, extremely I seldom ask seriously.Regarding these conflicts of interest among the people, the government's attitude is naturally that one thing more is worse than one thing less, and one thing less can still be paid for, so why not do it?

After the turmoil in Qiongzhou Island, the Haihan militia temporarily took over Qiongbei's government affairs and defense arrangements, and Yan Mingjun had heard about it a long time ago.He didn't think that the Haihan people would control the management of these areas at all, but thought that since the Haihan militia was stationed, the safety of these places should be better guaranteed in the future.After several twists and turns, he also took the line of Liu Qian, and then spent nearly 3000 taels of silver to get through the joints-almost all of his private savings.

After Liu Qian received the money, it took half a month before he sent someone to call him back, saying that the matter has been completed, and he just needs to wait patiently for the official document transfer order.Yan Mingjun waited left and right, and finally hoped for the official document to transfer him to Qiongzhou Prefecture to serve as the magistrate of Danzhou.It took several days to pack up his clothes, and he took his wife and belt, and a few servants, and rushed eastward from Luodingzhou to Guangzhou Mansion. He lived in Guangzhou City for two days, and only sent his luggage to "Furuifeng" entrusted to him yesterday. On a merchant ship hired for him.

In fact, the real ownership of this ship is the Haihan Shipping Department, but it still uses the name of a private shipping company to run the shipping. After "Furuifeng" reported the situation to the Guangzhou Office, Maliko specially arranged a boat for this side, and the price was far more favorable than the same-level sea-going ships on the market.

This [-]-sealing ship has enough cabins, so Yan Mingjun invited another alternate official to go with him.This man's name is Li Jin, and he is from the same hometown of Fujian as Yan Mingjun, but he is a military officer. He used to be a thousand householder in Nanxiang Office of Luoding Prefecture, and this time he also went to Danzhou to take over the position of local general.

When the two were officials in Luoding Prefecture, they had a little friendship because of their fellow villagers. This time they went to Qiongzhou Island to serve together, so they simply took the same boat.Li Jin is one year older than Yan Mingjun, but his wife died of illness early and did not remarry, and he has no children under his knees, so it is easy to be alone. This time he went to Qiongzhou Island and brought four soldiers and one old servant to occupy the boat. There are two cabins, but it will not make the living conditions on the ship crowded.

After the fleet left the Pearl River Wharf, Yan Mingjun ordered someone to boil water to make tea, and then sat on the deck with Li Jin, drinking tea and chatting while watching the river scenery along the way.

"Brother Li can stand out from the crowd of competitors this time. It's really gratifying and congratulatory!" Yan Mingjun said, "It is said that there are only two places for generals this time, and Brother Li won one of them without making any noise. , I really admire Yan."

Li Jin waved his hand and said: "Brother, you and I are not outsiders, and Li has nothing to hide from you. What is there to celebrate? It's not just money to clear the way and use money to do things! To tell you the truth, for this participation My family has already sold out the position. If I can’t get it, I’ll have to eat dirt for the next fucking year!”

Yan Mingjun asked: "The position of general should not be too expensive, right?"

Li Jin stared and said: "It's almost 4000 taels of silver, and it's not expensive! How much money do I need for a month as a thousand households? Basically, all the savings since I put on this skin have been poured in this time!"

"It's such a high price!" Yan Mingjun was also taken aback by what Li Jin said.If what he said is true, then it is obviously unreasonable for Li Jin to buy the position of general officer at a higher price than he paid for the position of magistrate.

Yan Mingjun shook his head and said, "Either you didn't find the right person, or the person you found cheated you! The price... is really too high!"

However, Li Jin said disapprovingly: "High? It may be higher than the price of civil servants. But the problem is that this time there is no other way to get an official position. Only Master Liu can operate it. He says as much as he wants." , and don’t even bargain, I can only buy peace of mind with a few thousand taels of silver!”

"Ah... so it turns out that you were also arranged by Mr. Liu." Yan Mingjun knew that Li Jin's path was the same as his own, but he still couldn't understand the price: "But why do military officers charge more than civilian officials? ? This is inconsistent with common sense!"

"The situation on Qiongzhou Island is quite special." Li Jin explained: "I have asked someone for advice on this matter. The garrison on Qiongzhou Island receives tribute from the Haihan people every year, called 'office funds'. Or it is paid out on an annual basis, which is said to be more than the amount of empty pay. There are positions like generals, 3000 to [-] taels per year. Moreover, the Haihan people will also arrange some ways to make money for the local garrisons, such as reselling the products produced by Haihan The glassware, refined salt and other things are also very profitable. In the past two years, none of the officers transferred from Qiongzhou Island is fat and oily, and all of them say that the Haihan people spend a lot of money. Brother Yan, you are a civil servant. I don't know how lucrative it is, but if I hadn't acted decisively and quickly this time, this position would probably have been taken by someone else."

"So that's how it is..." It is indeed the first time that Yan Mingjun has heard of such things happening on Qiongzhou Island. These Haihan people are so willing to spend money on Qiongzhou Island, and they don't know what the local situation has become.Anyone who has been to Yazhou in the past two years has come back full of praise for Haihan's local business conditions. It seems that the money of Haihan people has indeed fattened the entire civil and military officials of Qiongzhou Island.

Li Jin went on to say: "Not only that, a fellow from Fujian came to Luoding Prefecture to find me a few days ago. According to him, the commander-in-chief in Fujian sends at least a group of officers every year to learn various advanced tactics and weapons from the Haihan people. The technique of operation is used to deal with the pirates entrenched in Penghu and Dayuan. Moreover, Haihan also sent people to Fujian to help them train the army. The troops stationed in Guangdong and Guangxi are relatively slow, and they don’t know anything except cash registers.”

Yan Mingjun smiled and said, "Brother Li, aren't you planning to go to Qiongzhou Island to collect money?"

Li Jin sighed: "Of course the money will be collected, but I really want to see what kind of skills these Haihan people have, so that the Fujian generals can ask them for help."

"It's not just the general soldiers of Fujian!" Speaking of this, Yan Mingjun also remembered some rumors he had heard: "I heard that the Annan Civil War two years ago, it was the Haihan people who sent their militias across the sea to participate in the war, and only helped the people in the north. The small imperial court quelled the civil strife. According to the maritime merchants who came back from Annan, the largest port in the south of Annan, Hoi An City, and the largest city of Hue were all attacked by the Haihan militia. Even if Annan’s national strength is weak, if you want to come The strength of the Haihan militia should be on par with my Ming army."

Li Jin shook his head and said: "It's not that I'm talking about being discouraged. The combat power of the Haihan militia is probably still higher than our army. I heard that [-]% of the Haihan militia are musketeers and artillery, and the number of shield soldiers and gunmen is extremely high." It can be seen that its firearms are far more reliable than those used by our army. I heard that the governor asked Haihan to buy a batch of artillery half a year ago. After the test firing, he was very happy and immediately ordered people to send them to the north. Foshan Cannons are cast every year, but I have never heard of a year when the cannons cast can make the governor so excited."

"If I, Da Ming, can obtain the art of casting cannons from Haihan..." Yan Mingjun shook his head halfway through speaking: "The people of Haihan are so shrewd in their business, they will definitely not sell this secret art to Da Ming, if they sell it Secret technique, how will they sell cannons to Daming's army in the future?"

"The Haihan people not only know how to make artillery, but also know how to train soldiers. The most terrible thing is that they are very good at making money. If this group of people can't think about it one day and want to rebel, it will be a big trouble!" Li Jin frowned. : "After I go to Danzhou, if I can find out the shortcomings of the Haihan militia, I must report it to the imperial court to prevent future changes."

Yan Mingjun replied: "Brother Li is loyal, Yan admires him! It's just that Danzhou is under the control of Haihan people at this time, brother Li still needs to be more careful in his actions. Haihan people are not honest people, they are bold !"

"Thank you for reminding me, brother." Li Jin said again: "I heard from the Haihan man surnamed Ma earlier that they even sent a warship escort when they went south this time. Is it true that there is no one in my Daming navy? Master Liu doesn't know what to do. It was arranged, how could they find Haihan people to do this?"

"Brother Li doesn't know that although there are navy troops stationed at the mouth of the Pearl River, their combat power is far inferior to that of the Hai Han people. After the accident in the Qiongzhou navy, the Guangdong navy has not dared to go south to the Qiongzhou Strait for activities. Master Liu has no choice. , so I contacted the Haihan people." Yan Mingjun asked Liu Qian specifically about this before, so he understands the whole story better.

(End of this chapter)