Late Ming sea owl

Chapter 223 The Ten Deadly Sins of Wei Eunuch

Li Shi glanced at Shan Sinan, who was standing next to him expressionlessly, without saying anything. It seemed that he was indeed scared by him in the mountains yesterday.

Only then did Lin Hai realize that he had forbidden the old eunuch to talk, and he immediately felt a little funny: "I've given you permission to speak."

"Thank you so much, good man!" Li Shi hurriedly knelt down and kowtowed. Now he had been completely punished and lost his temper. He no longer had that arrogant attitude.

"Let the rules be agreed upon first. Let your nephew get the money. I will send a boat to take your nephew back. Just give the money to my people. I will let you go after I receive it."

Li Yong was overjoyed when he heard this, so Lin Hai said to him again: "Don't think about playing tricks. If anyone follows my ship, your uncle will be dead."

Li Yong nodded in agreement, and Li Shi told his nephew: "Do everything as the good man said. You know how many hateful things you have done. If our family dies, think about what will happen to you." "

After telling his nephew, Li Shi said to Lin Hai: "Whatever money the good man wants, just ask, and our family will accept anything."

Seeing that the old eunuch was so righteous, Lin Hai stopped talking nonsense to him and said directly: "I don't want any more, just one million taels. I want to see the money within three days."

Li Shi was shocked when he heard this: "The good man said one million taels? Our family doesn't have that much money!"

Li Shi's blindfold was taken off. Under the faint moonlight, in front of him was a tombstone with four big characters written on it - Tomb of Five People.

Lin Hai sent a small sand boat, and Feng Yidao and other confidants who participated in yesterday's operation escorted Li Yong back to Hangzhou. He himself boarded the old lock boat and went straight to Sijiao Shanshui Village.

Lin Hai took out the official seal from his arms and hung it on Li Shi's neck: "You old dog, do you recognize grandpa now?"

Three days later, Feng Yidao and others returned with 500,000 taels of silver. Lin Hai took Li Shi and took a sand boat up the Yangtze River.

"If I personally come forward to raise funds, it will be no problem to raise three million taels within a month. But now I can only ask my useless nephew to come forward, and at most I can raise another six to seven hundred thousand..." Li Shi did not dare to say too little. , but he didn’t dare to say too much, because he really didn’t know what he was thinking.

Li Shi was imprisoned in the dark bottom cabin. He didn't know where he was. He vaguely remembered that after eating six or seven meals, he was put on a blindfold and escorted out, and then he was carried on his back for an unknown distance.

"It seems that the color you gave him is not enough!" Lin Hai ignored the old eunuch and said directly to Shan Sinan.

Lin Hai still had a sullen expression and only winked at Shan Sinan, who immediately freed Li Shi from hell.

Lin Hai suddenly changed his expression and said: "A dignified Suhang weaving eunuch can't even get out one million taels. I think you old dog wants money rather than his life..."

Lin Hai's expression did not change. Li Shi endured the severe pain and shouted over and over again: "Good man, please forgive me. Good man, please forgive me. I haven't finished my words yet..."

"No, what I said is that you will see the money within three days. It's not impossible for you to delay for a month. I am reasonable. It depends on how much interest you want to give me."

"Good man, I don't have that much cash, but I can still get 500,000 taels right away. If I want one million taels, it will take some time to raise money. Please allow me, good man, for a month..." "Li Shi gasped for air, his face still looking frightened.

"That's it. Within three days, I will see the five hundred thousand taels first. If you can't see it, you can wait to see the King of Hell. After a month, I will see the other 700,000 taels. By then , you can continue to go back to being your Suzhou and Hangzhou weavers..."

He really didn't believe that Li Shi couldn't come up with one million taels of silver. After all, Emperor Tianqi's annual cost of weaving robes was more than one million taels. The status of Suzhou and Hangzhou in the Ming Dynasty's economy was comparable to that of Shanghai and Shenzhen in later generations. As a person, The weaving eunuchs in Suhang couldn’t even get one million taels?

On the third day of May, in Tiger Hill in the west of Suzhou City, everything was silent, and a new crescent moon rose.

This is the tomb of the five martyrs, Yan Peiwei, Yang Nianru, Shen Yang, Ma Jie, and Zhou Wenyuan, who stood up during the Suzhou Civil War. Li Shi was frightened when he saw it, and looked at Lin Hai tremblingly: " Who are you?"

Without saying a word, Shan Sinan touched Li Shi again. The old eunuch's face suddenly became distorted, and he was sweating profusely as he cried for his father and mother...

Of course there are people in the world who are looking forward to his life, but there are even more people who are looking forward to his death. These people will not take the initiative to contribute money. They will definitely shirk the blame or give some token money. Only those like Wu Mengren who will be counterattacked if they leave him will be willing to give generously.

After these words were spoken, Lin Hai finally believed it. Since the old eunuch was willing to be a hostage for one more month, it seemed that he really had no choice. The eunuch was a man who was serving his sentence and had no children or grandchildren. Why would he keep so much money? He might as well send it to a temple to seek good fortune in the next life.

"I will never change my name, I will never change my name, I am the thousand households in the mountains of Dinghaiwei, Ming Dynasty!"

"Good man, have mercy on me! This slave really can't come up with such money in such a hurry..." Seeing Lin Hai's change of expression, Li Shi immediately kowtowed as if he were holding a candle, with snot and tears on his face, and he couldn't even claim to be He has become a slave from our family.

"Are you from Zhoushan Qianhu? Why do you want to harm me?" Li Shi asked in horror. This guy extorted 50,000 taels of silver from Lin Hai, but he didn't even remember his name for a moment.

Lin Hai stopped talking nonsense to him and directly gave the order: "Do it!"

Feng Yidao and others stuffed a ball of rags into Li Shi's mouth, then drove a wooden stake on the ground, tied the old eunuch's hands to the wooden stake, and knelt in front of the tomb of the five people.

Then, Li Shi was blindfolded again, and two wooden signs were inserted behind his back. One said "Working for the Tiger" and the other said "Cruelty to Zhongliang".

Then, a large piece of rice paper was pasted on the tombstone. On it was an heroic article denounced Wei Zhongxian, with Lin Hai's official seal and private seal stamped underneath.

This heroic article had been prepared long ago. The full text was drafted by Lin Hai himself and polished and written by Wang Minzheng, Wei Zhongxian's former confidant. At the beginning of the article, Wei Zhongxian's various crimes were enumerated, and a total of ten major crimes were summarized. This was actually a plagiarized memorial written by Jiaxing Gongsheng Qian Jiaqiang to impeach Wei Gong half a year later.

After doing all this, Lin Hai and others quickly evacuated. At this time, there were still five hours before dawn, and the small sand boat could travel nearly 200 miles using both sails and oars. This was enough to allow them to travel to the ocean via the Xitang River, Lou River, and Liuhe River, and enter the Yangtze River Estuary from Liujiagang in Taicang Prefecture.

Liujiagang was the departure port for maritime water transportation in the Yuan Dynasty and the early Ming Dynasty. It was also the anchorage for Zheng He's voyages to the West. Two hundred years ago, it had the reputation of "the first dock in the world".

Today, this port has long been in decline due to silt deposition, but it is still no problem to transport a small sand boat with a few dozen tons. Moreover, the Yangtze River estuary here is as wide as 80 miles, and when you reach the forest sea here, it is like a dragon entering the sea. The old lock ship carrying 500,000 taels of silver is parked in the river not far from Liujiagang. Although it still takes two hundred miles to sail to the Yangtze River estuary, with such a strong ship and cannons, who can Can you stop Lin Hai?

Lin Hai boarded a sand boat and headed eastward. Along the way, he dropped thousands of bamboo tubes in the Lou River and Liu River. These bamboo tubes contained his anti-Wei Xiong article, in order to ensure that this article could be spread. Come on...

But he was indeed overly worried. In the early morning of the next day, shortly after Lin Hai boarded the old lock ship in the middle of the river, the first person to discover Li Shi appeared in front of the tomb of the five people in Huqiu.

This person is a young scholar from Suzhou. He is going to visit Huqiu today and pays homage to Yan Peiwei and others. Because the identities of these five people were relatively sensitive, the scholar came to Huqiu early alone without a servant.

He saw Li Shi kneeling in front of the tomb from a distance, and thought he was a relative or friend of the five people. However, when he looked closer, he discovered that this person was tied to a stake behind his back.

Li Shi heard the footsteps of someone approaching and cried out with a rag in his mouth, his voice was miserable and sharp. Soon, the rag in his mouth was removed, and the old eunuch opened his mouth and said: "Save me quickly, our family is a weaving eunuch from Suhang. As long as you save me, I will ensure that you will not enjoy all the glory and wealth in this life... …”

As soon as Li Shi finished speaking, a thick layer of phlegm suddenly flew towards his face. The scholar didn't dare to hit him, but he still dared to spit on him. Anyway, this guy still had a blindfold on his eyes...

In the end, the scholar ignored Li Shi's plea for help and just tore the article off the tombstone and secretly circulated it among his friends, along with what he had seen and heard this morning.

Soon after, many of the bamboo tubes floating in the Lou River and Liu River were picked up. Due to the huge number of bamboo tubes, Lin Hai's article spread throughout Kunshan County east of Suzhou City within one day. , Taicang Prefecture and other places.

North of Loujiang, in Kunshan County School, a young scholar aged fifteen is studying. However, what he read was not the Four Books and Five Classics required for the imperial examination, but Sima Guang's "Zizhi Tongjian".

At this time, his classmate and friend Guizhuang came to him: "Ning Ren, Ning Ren, come out, hurry up..."

"What's the matter with Erli?" The young scholar put down the book in his hand, with a calmness and peace in his expression that belied his age.

"Let me read you a unique article." Guizhuang winked at his friend. His temperament was quite out-of-touch, and he didn't know how he became close friends with the old-fashioned young scholar.

"Could it be "Xiang Ji Xuan Zhi"?" The young scholar still didn't laugh when he said this, although he was indeed joking.

"Xiangjixuan Zhi" was written by Gui Youguang, who was known as "the best in clear writing", and his classmate and friend Gui Zhuang was Gui Youguang's great-grandson.

All joking aside, the young scholar went out with his friends. Returning to the village, he took him to a deserted pavilion, took out a roll of articles from his sleeve and handed it over: "Come on, come on, I'll ask you, Brother Gu Jiang and Gu Ning, to comment on this article."

It turned out that this young scholar was the later great thinker Gu Yanwu, but at this time his name was still Gu Jiang.

He was born into a wealthy family in Kunshan. He lost his father when he was young, so he grew old at a young age. Before becoming a scholar at the age of fourteen, he had read many books by historians and military strategists. It can be said that he paid attention to the study of state affairs and practical application since he was a child, so he was able to compile it later. "The Book of Benefits and Diseases of the Prefectures and Countries of the World" is a majestic historical geography work in 120 volumes.

Young Gu Yanwu took the volume of articles from his friend's hand, unfolded it and glanced at it, and was immediately shocked: "Er Ming, where did you get this article?"

Guizhuang proudly looked at Gu Jiang's frightened look. He had never seen his usually calm friend so surprised: "How? Is it worth putting down Sima Wen Gong's book?"

"This article is a disaster! Erming, haven't you shown it to others?" Gu Jiang rolled up the article and looked left and right outside the pavilion.

"Be at ease, be at ease, I naturally know the pros and cons of it. My boy found this article in a bamboo tube by the Lou River. So far, only a few people have read it since I returned home. My father and brother strictly forbid it to be spread outside, but they are not willing to burn it. So I secretly copied a copy and brought it to you, brother."

Guizhuang looked smug, and then said to his friend: "If I didn't believe in your character, how could I dare to do this?"

"Good brother!" Gu Jiang patted her friend's shoulder gratefully, and then said, "But you are still a little rash in bringing this article to the county school. Just follow me..."

Gu Jiang said as she put the article in her sleeve, hurriedly left the pavilion and headed straight outside the county school. Guizhuang followed his friend's footsteps and laughed behind him: "Young boy from the Gu family, you are as timid as a mouse. You look like a coward. I, Gui Er, will remember you for the rest of my life!"

The calm Gu Jiang ignored his friends' teasing and just hurried on. Finally, he arrived at an abandoned temple with no one outside the city.

Gu Jiang took out the article again in the temple, read it carefully several times, and finally recited it aloud unconsciously:

"Therefore, there are ten major crimes committed by eunuchs in the Wei Dynasty: first, annexing the emperor, secondly contempt for the queen, thirdly, engaging in military affairs, fourthly, not having two ancestors, fifthly, cutting off the title, sixthly, not having a saint, seventhly, seventhly, having no title, eighthly, hiding one's merits, and ninthly, the people. , Ten joints. If a person does not eliminate these ten sins, God will punish him..."

"Yan Peiwei, Yang Nianru, Shen Yang, Ma Jie, and Zhou Wenyuan were all born in the army. They have never heard the instructions of poetry and books. They are passionate about righteousness and do not care about death. Is this the same reason? Because the world is rising and falling. , Every man has his responsibility..."

"Although Hai is a warrior, he always admires the righteousness of these five people, so he destroyed Ni Ni's ancestral temple in Qiantang, bound his eunuchs and minions in Gusu, and attached himself to the righteousness of these five people..."

"The sage said: 'If the Tao is not good, ride on a raft and float in the sea.' If the sea is lucky enough not to fall into the hands of the eunuchs, you should hang up the seal and seal the knife and go away, and swim overseas from the red pine tree! Look at the Holy Emperor's candle shining thousands of miles away, and you will have insight into the overseas world. The painstaking efforts of the lonely minister will sweep away the evil atmosphere in the court, and then the minister will have no regrets even if he dies in the waves..."

Gu Jiang read Lin Hai's article several times, and finally praised him repeatedly: "This man is really a righteous man!"

He hesitated for a long time, and finally said to Guizhuang: "Er Ming, I plan to spread this article!"

Guizhuang was shocked when he heard this. He had just said that his friend was as timid as a mouse. He didn't expect that he would dare to do this. He immediately jumped up and said: "Gu Ningren, are you crazy? You want to behead!"

"Every man is responsible for the rise and fall of the world! This warrior from a thousand households in the forest is still able to make such enlightening words. How can I, a scholar in my generation, bear the hope of the world and forget my righteousness and cherish my own body?"

The young Gu Yanwu was righteous and had an iron face. His friend Guizhuang, who was born in the same year as him, heard the words and applauded: "What a good Gu Jiang, I, Gui Erming, did not misjudge you. I am the one who is responsible for this!"

(End of this chapter)