Daming Yinghua

Chapter 136

The official post behind the Yamen in Ye County has only four rooms in total.

In most of the counties of the Ming Empire, it is a common sight for government houses and post offices to have only a few layers of tiles more than thatched huts.

Compared with the deep houses and courtyards of the gentry, they are as shabby as stables and barns.

The county lord was caught off guard by Zhu Yipai's convoy, and in panic, he wanted his subordinates to inform the top gentry in the county to clean up the house and receive General Zhen Guo and his party, but Zhu Yipai refused.

Zheng Haizhu reminded Zhu Yipai in advance that he was on Shiban Street, so he took the opportunity to ask the bookboy of Wang Yaliang, the inspector censor.

Wang Yushi is light and simple. After changing his official uniform today, he has already lived in that simple post house with a small survey from the Metropolitan Procuratorate.

Therefore, Zhu Yipai did not show the condescending gesture, but sincerely said to the county magistrate: "When the general and his wife were hunting in the mountains, didn't they also set up a felt tent to rest overnight? I will leave tomorrow without disturbing the people." .Give me and my wife a room, give Zheng a room, and the guards and servants will settle in the front hall, the kitchen and the woodshed.”

When Zhu Yipai brought people into the post station, Wang Yushi took the initiative to give up his big house and moved to the east chamber.

When Zheng Haizhu knocked on the door and invited Zhu Yipai to have dinner together, Wang Yaliang also agreed.

There are only Zhu, Wang and Zheng at this table.Unlike when facing Zhu Yipai, when facing a censor, Zheng Haizhu deliberately asked Wu Bangde to avoid him.

At this moment, after Wu Bangde covered the goods with linoleum, he asked Xu San to follow the guards sent by Zhu Yi to the front yard to get some buns.

He himself walked through the night-filled courtyard and walked outside the west wing room lit with candles.

Mu Zaohua was standing on the porch, facing the window, a ball of hot air that was illuminated by the light was curling up in her hand.

"Zaohua." Wu Bangde called her in a deep voice.

"Yeah..." Mu Zaohua shook her shoulders and turned around quickly. The hot air came from two big steamed buns in her hands.

Seeing Wu Bangde looking at him with no expression, Mu Zaohua's eyes grew more panicked.

Holding up the steamed bun, she murmured, "Yes, Miss Zheng took it out for me, and she said it's okay to eat."

Wu Bangde said: "I walked over there, didn't you hear the footsteps?"

Mu Zaohua recognized the reproach in the words and nodded honestly.

Wu Bangde made a gesture, and the two of them walked a little further away from the west chamber, and Wu Bangde said again: "There is Wang Yushi's book boy and His Royal Highness's chief guard inside, and there is no danger. Miss Zheng sent you out to guard, you You should be staring around instead of listening to what they are talking about, so that a big living person like me appears behind you without even noticing."

Mu Zaohua looked at her nose with her eyes and her heart with her nose, and listened with her head down.

Wu Bangde's tone added a bit of sternness: "You are just pretending to be a maid today, what if you will follow me to spy on the enemy in the future? Are you so absent-minded and leave your post without authorization? What were you listening to just now? You can hear what they said Do you understand?"

When Mu Zaohua heard the words "follow me to spy on the enemy", her heart skipped a beat, and when she heard the words "do you understand?", her heartbeat turned into a tingling pain again.

Yes, she and Miss Zheng are from two worlds.

Mu Zaohua somehow found the courage to answer.

"Mr. Wu, I think Ms. Zheng is amazing. I want to learn from her. The way she deals with nobles may be useful in the future. Ms. Zheng also said that we intelligence agents and people of all colors should learn to look like them."

This sentence sounded like talking back, but it didn't attract Wu Bangde's reprimand again.
He paused, pointing to the steamed bun in Mu Zaohua's hand: "Eat it while it's hot, it's really cold."

Mu Zaohua handed one over: "Mr. Wu also eats?"

"I'm not hungry."

Mu Zaohua took a bite of the steamed bun, saw that Wu Bangde's eyes were also cast on the bright window in the west wing, and said suddenly: "Young master, when I accompanied Miss Zheng to go in, I saw that the room was quite decent, with tables and stools. Get out, spread some straw, and you can sleep comfortably. After they finish eating, I will clean up, and the young master can live without firewood..."

"Zaohua," Wu Bangde interrupted the courteous girl, "Miss Zheng didn't hire you with money to serve me. If you are preoccupied with how to serve me more comfortably, then you don't have to go." Dengzhou and Liaodong are gone, now go back to the south and exchange for Chen Sanni."

Mu Zaohua's expression changed from cautious to calm.

Wu Bangde remained unmoved, but still said coldly: "Where's Li Daniu?"

Mu Zaohua cheered up: "He told Miss Zheng to go to the cemetery outside the city to pay homage to his family."

"Family? Isn't he the same as you? He used to be a farmer in Yanzhou, but why did he become a native of Ye County?"

"Returning to your son, Daniu's wife escaped from the famine in Ye County. This time, Daniu came to burn some paper money for his wife, and told the underground elders that he has a grandson."

Wu Bangde gave a low "huh" and stopped asking.

Mu Zaohua continued to eat steamed buns silently, and when she finally finished eating, that male intelligence officer, Li Daniu, stepped into the courtyard.

Wu Bangde walked over: "Have you found the cemetery?"

Li Daniu said sadly: "I found the place my daughter-in-law mentioned, but the grave was dug up by wild dogs, and I don't know which bones belonged to my father-in-law and mother-in-law.

I can only pick up the remaining bones, dig a hole and bury them again, and burn the paper money.

Come to think of it, the other bones in the pit are also my wife's fellow villagers, and I didn't eat her during the famine. I also thank her, and I should burn some paper.

After digging the hole, I found a few big stones to cover it tightly so that the wild dogs would not dig it out again.So I came back late, please punish me. "

Wu Bangde listened quietly in the shadow of the eaves.

He is no stranger to the scenes of wild dogs digging corpses.

Li Daniu's voice seemed to get farther away.

In Wu Bangde's ears, there was only the cry from his own throat. It was on the edge of a river beach in Liaodong. He was holding a light green skirt and crying. It was better than the wild dogs that he beat away like crazy not far away. Whimpering is still ugly.

Wu Bangde felt a coolness running down his cheeks.

Thanks to the night, even if it is close at hand, it will not let people see tears.

"It's snowing." Mu Zaohua suddenly called out.

Li Daniu also touched his nose, and stretched out his palm to face the night sky.

"Ah, it's really snowing," Xu San, who was holding a bag of steamed buns, came back from the front yard, handed the food to Wu Bangde and Li Daniu, and said, "Mr. Wu, we have to leave Dengzhou in five or six days. Otherwise, the ship will be frozen in the Liaohai Sea."

……

"Sir, it's snowing outside."

In the west wing, the bookboy turned around and reported to Wang Yaliang respectfully.

Wang Yaliang took a sip of the hot wine that had just been scalded, looked at Zhu Yipai, then at Zheng Haizhu, and said with a touch of teasing: "Miss Zheng, if you gave Yanzhou Lu Fan the idea of ​​digging coal half a year ago Let General Zhen Guo dig out the coal earlier, this season of ice and snow is really going to make a lot of money."

Zheng Haizhu bowed, smiled respectfully, and then said sincerely: "If it had been dug out earlier, the grass-mind furnace in Songjiang would have already been filled with coal, and the firepower should be much stronger than the furnace filled with firewood."

Zheng Haizhu seized every topic and lobbied Wang Yushi about her plan to make firearms.

During the dealings during the day, a meal of rough vegetables and thin wine at night, Zheng Haizhu initially felt that this Wang Yaliang and Wang Yushi, apart from Hai Ruifan's observance of etiquette, did not care about the current situation of the empire. Not rigid and empty, but rather down-to-earth.

His Royal Highness, Zhu Yipai, obviously listened to Zheng Haizhu's temporary exhortations. He attached great importance to the officials of the Metropolitan Procuratorate system, and even lowered his attitude towards the censor in front of him who was patrolling Shandong. .

As soon as the meeting started, Zhu Yipai put on an upright look and told Wang Yushihe the plan to open a large-scale coal mine in Yanzhou Lufan, such as the implementation plan of recruiting Liao people as miners and paying taxes and salaries. Including selling part of the coal to be used as fuel for the blast furnace in Songjiang Huoqifang.

According to Zheng Haizhu, these things are already a matter of horoscopes or waiting for the court to nod, and it is more useful to spread it openly to Wang Yaliang, who governs the province, than to anyone else.

Ke Dao censors and speech officials are obstacles and stumbling blocks for those who do great things in this era.

However, stumbling blocks can also become stone lions guarding the gate, and stumbling blocks can also become stepping stones for assistance. It depends on how to win them over.

Civilian and military generals, if they follow their definition of the pinnacle of their lives, it is possible to win them over.

Private visits in microservices, refusal of Yijin, etc., may be for the sake of Bo Qing's name, but an official's whereabouts in a certain place during his tenure can clearly tell the clues.

During the day, Zheng Haizhu found out from the mouth of the little book boy that Wang Yaliang, who was a patrol officer in Shandong, had just been to Liaodong.

After Nurhachi made himself Khan, Wang Yaliang was the first censor sent to Liaodong, and he met Tao Lang, the prefect, in Dengzhou. Come to Ye County.

What does this mean?
Explain three points.

First, the Ming court didn't care so much about the situation in Liaodong, and they didn't know it when they were lying in the crater.

Second, Wang Yaliang was in the rising period of his official career, so he was entrusted by the court with the duty of inspecting the Liaodong Peninsula.

Third, this person's personal ability is also very strong, and he is not a big Ming official who visited the north and south of the motherland just to get a circle of gift money from various states and counties.Because according to Xu San, the Dengliao Sea Road is easier to travel than the Laizhou direction, but Wang Yaliang took the Laizhou Sea Road on his return journey, obviously scouting the road dutifully.

Based on this, Zheng Haizhu deduced that Wang Yaliang cared about border affairs, and the courtiers who cared about border affairs would definitely care about military pay, and then state finances.

Therefore, since Zhu Yipai, a Lu Fan nobleman, has already sacrificed his own face during the day and raised Wang Yushi's official authority, Zheng Haizhu, who is tied to Zhu Yipai, will have to talk about it during the further friendship at the dinner table. Finance and taxation, talking about arms, can win the support of this civil official for himself while voting for what the censor likes.

When Wang Yaliang went back to Beijing to report on the situation in Liaodong, if he could mention something like "The guns made by Songjiang Firearms Workshop may be effective in defeating the enemy", it should be more powerful than Xu Guangqi who has never been to Liaodong and only learned from Hongyi people's sea battles. It is much more powerful when it is explained from the perspective.

And Wang Yaliang obviously liked to hear Zheng Haizhu talk about firearms.

Wang Yaliang drew three terrains on the paper brought by the book boy.

"Miss Zheng, I have visited Liaodong this time. After many inquiries, I learned that most of the Jian slaves who invaded came on horseback, or rushed to kill them on horseback, or shot them with heavy arrows after dismounting from their horses. Miss, tell me, you admire How do you defeat the enemy with the firearms you have prepared?"

Zheng Haizhu leaned forward and took a closer look at the three terrains, all of which were discussed by Xu Guangqi and Lu Xiangsheng before. It can be seen that the "due diligence" done by the civil servants in the imperial court with a sense of urgency is similar.

So she took a pen, first drew some marks on the various terrains, and then explained one by one: "Xianzun, please see, if the land is unobstructed, and the slave chieftains charge forward on horseback, the firecrackers will fight against the spearmen." Finally, the spears blocked and the firecrackers fired in turn. Qi Shaobao's chariot formation back then was actually similar, and the cavalry were not allowed to rush in. Our firearms attacked outwards from inside the formation. If the range of our firearms was extended, Jiannu would not dare to enter the formation. Dismount from the horse and use the step bow at a distance, because our front line can use the shield wall to block their arrows, but they can't stand our long-range firepower."

Wang Yaliang narrowed his eyes, nodded, and pointed to another place: "Where are the hills and slopes?"

"In hilly and sloping areas, no matter the enemy or us, the advantage of the cavalry is not obvious. The warriors sent by Jiannu, even if they are called Ba Yala, should be infantry who dismount and fight in close combat. The mandarin duck formation slightly improved their weapons, encircled and wiped them out, and the so-called firearms team alternated with the killer team."

"As for artillery," Zheng Haizhu thought for a while, and pondered, "Actually, Tiger Crouching Cannons, Big and Small Frankie Cannons, and Hongyi Cannons each have their own disadvantages. They are suitable for different battles and terrains. , the usage is different. For example, Hongyi Cannon, our people asked foreigners in Haojing that when firing a cannon, someone needs to use tools to measure it, use it with a telescope, and wait for the enemy to enter the range of the cannonball before firing. But this kind of cannon, It is very powerful to attack cities and pull out strongholds."

What Zheng Haizhu said, to be refined, is mainly about the range of artillery shells and ballistics. Of course, she does not have specific knowledge, but these two points are at least the key points to be considered in combination with actual combat.

Although Zhu Yipai, a nobleman of the clan, had never been on a battlefield, his habit of hunting on weekdays made him enjoy listening to the process of how firearms encircled and suppressed the "prey" of the enemy.

And Wang Yaliang, as a veteran of Xiantai who has seen countless people on the surveillance front, after listening to what he said, he admired this little businesswoman in front of him. .

Not to mention explaining the principle of the telescope to the two men.

"If you can defeat the enemy, why not learn from the barbarians and learn from others, what does Xianzun think?" Zheng Haizhu asked Wang Yaliang in a calm tone.

Wang Yaliang nodded thoughtfully.

Zhu Yipai rolled his eyes, and suddenly said: "Just be careful, don't let the slaves steal your lessons."

Zheng Haizhu secretly praised "excellent".Historically, after Nurhachi, Huang Taiji did imitate the artillery of the Ming army.

She then said earnestly: "It is inevitable for the two armies to fight and seize each other's weapons and firearms. I, Da Ming, fought against the Frankies at the mouth of the Pearl River for the first time decades ago, and I learned their alphabet blunderbuss secretly. The point is, we have to compete with Jiannu, and subdue them before they have money and craftsmen imitating our firearms in large quantities."

Hearing this, Wang Yaliang couldn't help but sighed softly, and said: "Miss Zheng, if you are a man who has already won the Jinshi, I should really recommend you to the imperial court to let you go to Taipu Temple to take care of the money bag, and buy some for the imperial court." Good horses, good guns, and decent military uniforms."

Taipu Temple?
Zheng Haizhu's heart skipped a beat, and he thought of Xu Dahua, the filthy young minister of Taipusi.

Well, my old lady is not the Holy Mother, she will definitely repay her grievances directly in terms of personal enmity, and in terms of justice, she can't see such a lustful bastard like you occupying such an important position in Daming's officialdom.

Looking back, we need to find an opportunity, maybe it is the hand of Wang Yushi who pulls you down.

(End of this chapter)