prosperous age

The main gate of the Wei residence, a gate that is rarely opened, has been kept open for several days, with a constant stream of guests coming and going to pay their respects.

After a few days of excitement, it was time to come to an end.

Although fewer guests came in the last two days, the gates were never closed. However, today the gates were filled with servants from the Wei family, a scene no less impressive than the procession that welcomed the angels a few days ago.

Before long, several carriages slowly drove up from the side gate and stopped outside the main gate.

Before long, Wei Guangde, accompanied by his wife, the women and men of the household, slowly walked out and got into their carriages in the order that had been arranged beforehand.

The guards, who had been prepared in advance, rode tall horses to the front and back of the caravan. After the masters were all seated in their carriages, they led the way toward Chaoyang Gate at Zhang Ji's signal.

As the masters of the mansion left, the gates of the Wei mansion finally closed slowly.

This also means that this door will not be opened again for more than two years.

Those who remained in the mansion could only enter and exit through the side gate.

The convoy stopped shortly after leaving the city.

Wei Guangdeng opened the carriage curtain and glanced inside. He then got out of the carriage, exchanged pleasantries with the officials who came to see him off, drank three cups of wine, and then bowed to them to take his leave.

Wei Guangde's career as Grand Secretary came to an end at this moment, and he needed to pause for a while.

The Ming Dynasty court will continue to operate according to the original system, only now Shen Shixing has taken the helm.

When Ming Dynasty officials traveled south from the capital, they would usually choose to take a boat from Zhangjiawan in Tongzhou, where the waters were wide and there were many docks along the shore, making it convenient for the boats to berth.

As for the Tonghui River outside the city, it is slightly worse, as the river channel is narrow and not conducive to travel.

Two years ago, Wei Guangde had the dirt road from Chaoyangmen to Zhangjiawan converted into a stone road to facilitate the travel of officials in Beijing.

This decision was made after hearing complaints from officials from Jiangnan who were traveling to the capital to report on their duties, during a banquet. These officials complained that both Chaoyangmen and Guangqumen were dirt roads, which became muddy and difficult to traverse after rain.

The capital city is the imperial capital. The streets inside the city have been improved and have become clean and tidy stone-paved roads. However, outside the city, the main roads are still dirt roads, which is really an insult to the dignity of the court.

The carriage traveled much better on the stone road than on the dirt road, and it was also much faster.

In half a day, the convoy had already arrived at Zhangjiawan Wharf.

Several official boats were already waiting here; they were the newest and best boats prepared by the local postal service.

When Wei Guangde went to attend the funeral, the court naturally had to show him the respect due to its officials, and Emperor Wanli would certainly grant him that.

Along the way, the courier service was arranged to receive and transport passengers at the highest level, and numerous altars were bestowed upon them.

At this time, all the officials below the Tongzhou prefect were chatting with Wei Guangde on the dock, while several cartloads of goods were being loaded onto the boat.

At this time, Wei Guangde was also eager to return home, but he just went through the motions.

Once everything was moved, he immediately said goodbye to everyone.

With sails hoisted and the cold winds blowing from the north, several large ships slowly sailed south along the river.

Fortunately, they made it before the ice froze; otherwise, their journey south would have been limited to land travel. Wei Guangde wouldn't have thought much of it, but it would have been difficult for the dozens of family members behind him.

Wei Guangde was also standing at the stern of the boat, watching the Tongzhou officials waving goodbye on the shore. Only then did Wei Guangde bow deeply to them.

Even after the boat had sailed far away, Wei Guangde remained standing at the stern, gazing silently in the direction they had come from.

"Sir, it's cold, why don't you go and rest in the cabin?"

Xu Jianglan, already wearing a cloak, came to the stern of the ship and spoke to Wei Guangde.

"I feel a sense of emptiness when I leave this time."

Wei Guangde said in a low voice.

"Master has already made all the arrangements. He will naturally return in two years."

Xu Jianglan said softly.

"It's not that I care about official rank."

Wei Guangde paused here, then sighed after a long while, "Well, let's test Shen Shixing's mettle and see if he can really govern the country well."

The current situation in the Ming Dynasty is good. Although the lives of the people in the north have only improved slightly, in the south, according to Wei Guangde, the people are already quite wealthy.

This is also related to the rapid development of commerce in the south. In the north, apart from the few chambers of commerce he supported that have grown, the number of private merchants has always been weaker than in the south.

In fact, judging from the throughput of the four major ports opened by the Ming Dynasty, Tianjin Port was the weakest among the four.

If it weren't for the huge volume of grain transported by the Grand Canal, the goods entering and leaving Tianjin Port would be extremely meager.

It's not even as good as Moon Harbor.

It should be noted that apart from having a head start, Moon Harbor has no other advantages.

Back then, Yuegang relied on goods from Fujian, Guangdong, Zhejiang and Jiangxi to export large quantities of Ming Dynasty products overseas.

Nowadays, goods from Guangdong are shipped out of Guangzhou, while Songjiang Prefecture takes over the production from various provinces along the Yangtze River, as well as Zhejiang and Southern Zhili. It has emerged as a dark horse and has far surpassed Guangzhou to become the number one of the four major seaports.

Even now, sitting on the boat, Wei Guangde is still thinking about how to improve the economy of the north. It's just that he's been in that position for too long, and it's an unconscious thought.

Wei Guangde's fleet naturally sailed smoothly on the canal.

Even when passing through sluice gates and customs checkpoints, officials would simply drive away the boats already in line to make way for their own official vessels.

Today, the canal remains bustling on both banks, but it is no longer as congested as it once was, with boats blocking the banks for kilometers or even tens of kilometers.

Nowadays, apart from the designated grain transport boats destined for the canal granaries, all the grain transported to Tongzhou is now transported by sea.

While the waterway on the canal is now clear, some congestion is inevitable due to the inspections at the sluice gates and customs.

But there's nothing we can do about it. Even without ETC, ships still have to be released through the sluice gates in batches, and cargo ships are taxed based on the value of their goods.

To have achieved what it has today is already quite remarkable.

These past few days, Wei Guangde has enjoyed sitting at the cabin door, where he can find shelter from the wind and enjoy views of both banks.

These vivid scenes could not be found in official documents.

Quietly observing, one can sense that although there are far fewer ships coming and going, and commerce has inevitably been affected, it is still within an acceptable range overall.

In fact, the imperial court's biggest concern about changing the canal transport to the sea was that the canal workers would lose their livelihood.

Although the number of goods transported via the canal has decreased somewhat, the purchasing power of the major cities along the canal remains, so the reduction in cargo ships is limited.

Wei Guangde silently counted how many cargo ships he saw along the way, estimating the impact on the economy along the canal.

Especially when he saw the canal workers on the shore chatting together because they had no work to do, Wei Guangde couldn't help but be moved by their sturdy physiques.

The Ministry of War's abolition and merger of military garrisons has been a difficult process to implement.

Because these garrisons involved population, military farms, and other factors, there was strong resistance.

The population decline was due to a large number of people fleeing their homes earlier, which led to a sharp decrease in the population of the garrison, while various parties also encroached on the military farmland.

The merger and abolition inevitably involved taking stock of the population and land, and the people below resisted, which the imperial court had long been aware of.

However, the Ming Dynasty's garrisons do need to be abolished and replaced, especially in newly acquired territories where garrisons need to be stationed permanently, which inevitably requires taking their families with them.

Seeing the canal workers on both sides of the canal, Wei Guangde suddenly had an idea.

That is, they recruited soldiers here. These canal workers were actually just laborers, helping to load and unload goods and earning meager wages.

Besides sheer strength, it seems like she has nothing else.

Recruiting young men from here to form new military camps and transferring them to overseas territories seems like a good idea.

The original garrison was dealt with more vaguely.

The garrison was abolished and became a thousand-household garrison, which was then abolished and became a hundred-household garrison.

Except for the existing soldiers, all others were re-registered as civilians. The military farmland that had been divided up was absorbed under the pretext of resettlement.

In any case, even if the money is kept in the accounts, these military households won't get a share.

In the end, they all became tenants of military leaders and gentry, but this also gave them freedom and freed them from worrying about the future.

Wei Guangde had no intention of settling scores with the families who had benefited from the schemes; in fact, it might have even led to the emergence of another Li Zicheng. Rather than simply burying the hatchet and vaguely erasing this mess, he was not going to do so.

They are the beneficiaries, so they naturally know what to do.

With this in mind, Wei Guangde kept it in mind and planned to remind Zhang Ke when he returned to Jiangxi and wrote to the capital.

Let him handle it at his discretion, and first absorb a batch of young and strong people from both sides of the canal. We can't wait until something really happens before we think of a solution.

There is still work to do, and although the income is less than in previous years, it seems that I can still make ends meet.

Then we should transfer some people; that way, the remaining income will last for a while.

As he observed the daily lives of ordinary people along the way, one idea after another kept popping into Wei Guangde's mind.

These are things that never happened before.

Sitting in the cabinet office, it seemed that my thoughts were also affected by those endless memorials, influenced by those words, and my thinking was skewed.

Now that I've put down these documents, it seems my mind has been opened up again.

From the Grand Canal to the Yangtze River, and then upstream back to Jiangxi, the local atmosphere along the banks becomes increasingly vibrant.

When the fleet passed Bengshan Fort, Wei Guangde couldn't help but stand on the bow of the ship, tiptoeing and peering for a long time.

Two days later, the fleet finally arrived at Jiujiang Prefecture. When the ships docked at the pier, Wei Guangde saw that his cousin and elder brother had arrived, along with officials from all levels of Jiujiang Prefecture.

After exchanging a few brief words, Wei Guangde handed the Ministry of Rites document to the prefect of Jiujiang, asking him to take it back and handle it. He then boarded the prepared carriage and entered the city.

When an official was in mourning, he needed to register in the local area with a document from the Ministry of Rites. This was also a system for the court to manage officials.

However, Wei Guangde did not need to go to the yamen in person; he only needed to hand the documents to the local officials.

After staying in Jiujiang Prefecture for half a month, Wei Guangde led his family to escort the coffin back to his ancestral home.

My cousin was already the Vice Commander of Jiujiang Guard, and my elder brother was also the Left Army Commander. We just dropped each other off in the county town on the way.

The mourning period system in the Ming Dynasty only applied to civil officials; military officers were exempt from this system.

Come to think of it, if even a general in a border town has to observe a period of mourning, what will happen when there is war?
Therefore, people usually just wear plain clothes and do not need to attend funerals or return to their hometowns to observe mourning.

At home, only Wei Guangde was capable of doing these things.

In Bengshan Fortress, the Wei family mansion already occupies nearly half of the entire fortress city.

Although no one lives here normally, as the old residence of the Wei family, it has been carefully renovated and is in no way inferior to the residences in the prefectural city.

This is also a Chinese tradition: when people become successful outside their hometown, they usually renovate their old home, even if they only live there a few days a year.

Many people returned with Wei Guangde, and the area was large enough to accommodate them all.

Dressed in plain clothes, Wei Guangde, followed by Zhang Ji, often appeared on the stone-paved road inside the fort.

"It feels like a lot of people are missing."

Wei Guangde suddenly said.

Bengshan Fortress is still Bengshan Fortress, the walls are still there, but it feels like it's lost a lot of its human presence.

"Sir, the fort is now mostly barracks; the families have long since moved to the county town."

Zhang Ji said in a low voice.

"No wonder, a dignified centurion's office, I was wondering why there were so few people, and only a dozen or so children."

Wei Guangde said softly.

"There are only sixty households in the fort now. It's because the men are registered in the Hundred Household Office that people are left at home."

The rest went to work in the city.

My eldest brother works for the magistrate in the military garrison, and my second brother went to the prefectural city to open an inn. Now, only my family remains in the fortress.

Zhang Ji said in a low voice.

"Going out is the right thing to do; staying here won't lead to anything."

Wei Guangde smiled. If it weren't for the conscription of soldiers from the military households, he estimated that if the Wei family relaxed the restrictions, the military households in the fort would probably all run away.

After all, working in the city would pay much more than being a tenant farmer for the Wei family.

As for the Wei family's fields in the surrounding area, there will naturally be people to cultivate them, so there's no need to keep these military households trapped there.

"Actually, there are still some families in the fort who have moved to the back mountain to farm nearby, so they don't have to travel back and forth so much."

Although Zhang Ji had been living in the capital for many years, he was still quite familiar with his hometown, so he told Wei Guangde about the situation.

Those with some skills all flock to the city; it's a quick way to make money.

Those without skills sold their houses and land deeds to the Wei family when the houses were suitable, and then built new houses on land they rented elsewhere.

Besides continuing to farm, they have no other way to make money.

All the children in the family are sent to school in town.

Wei Guangde emerged from Bengshan Fort, which was the envy of those around him, and everyone wanted to see if their own children could pass the imperial examinations.

In any case, the centurion of Bengshan Fortress always allowed it to pass and never obstructed it.

They all grew up in the fort, and the Wei family lived in the county town, so naturally they would be accommodating if possible.

Of course, apart from Wei Guangde, Bengshanbao has only produced a few so-called students in recent years, not even a Xiucai (a successful candidate in the county-level imperial examinations).

It is said that Wei Guangde has absorbed all the literary energy of Bengshan Fortress, so no more literary stars will emerge from it.

"Uncle Li, how come you, a centurion, are taking on the job of guarding the gate?"

Upon reaching the city gate, he saw the current commander of Bengshan Fortress on the fortress wall and jokingly remarked.

He was the hereditary commander of Bengshan Fort. There were two commanders in a centurion's office, and he was the only one whose position was hereditary. In the past, they would transfer people out to promote others.

However, the Ming Dynasty is currently reducing the number of soldiers in its garrisons, and the current Bengshanbao Hundred-Household Garrison is actually only maintaining the size of a single banner.

After the Wei family left, they promoted the Li family and made them concurrently serve as centurions.

In short, who knows, maybe one day someone from the Wei family will come back to inherit the position of centurion.

“Master Wei, it is my duty to stand guard.”

Li Baihu had already quickly descended the fortress wall and was very obsequious to Wei Guangde.

Zhang Ji followed Wei Guangde out of the fortress gate and then smiled and said, "Master, Uncle Li has been guarding there these past few days."

"Since you're living in the fort, you'll definitely need to be extremely vigilant."

"The Jiangnan region is still relatively peaceful and prosperous, so where would there be any criminals who commit crimes?"

Wei Guangde just smiled and said something.

When they arrived at the grave, Wei Guangde paid his respects and then sat down to rest in the thatched hut built next to it.

Drinking tea and reading books are his daily routine.

He couldn't live in a thatched hut, sleeping on a straw mat and using clods of earth as a pillow, but he still had to abide by the taboos of simple meals and no entertainment, and he still had to perform the morning and evening mourning rites. (End of Chapter)