The Ming Dynasty took an unconventional approach

Pan Jun refused to admit it: "I just don't favor him, how can it be considered annoying?"

She looked around and asked, "How are they? Are they still obedient?"

Xue Shao hummed and said, "Let's not talk about the abilities of the people who were selected to come aboard. They know exactly what they are doing and are very obedient."

Pan Yun: "Most people were going out to sea for the first time. I remember that there were two doctors on each ship."

Xue Shao: "Everything has been arranged. The medicinal materials have been placed in three boats. Everyone has signed a life and death agreement."

Pan Jun nodded and looked at the cabin behind him. There was the Japanese sent by Masuda Shinta to test the ship.

Xue Shao also looked back and whispered, "They made a scene on the island, but were suppressed by Captain Chen's men. Two people died. Now they seem to be behaving themselves."

Pan Yun: "I wrote a letter and asked Wang Xiaojing to take it to Wang Cong. He will ask Masuda Shinta for an explanation on my behalf."

She turned around and said to Song Dalin, "These Japanese are cunning and good at hiding. You should be careful on the road. If they dare to cause trouble, kill them and throw them into the sea to feed the fish. Just leave one alive and take it back."

Song Dalin agreed. He looked at Xue Shao, then glanced at the cabin, and said depressedly, "Master Pan, didn't you say you had three ships? This one is going to be given to the Japanese, so there will only be two left, right?"

He has so many brothers, but he is only responsible for two boats. This is too few.

Pan Yun glanced at him and said, "Don't worry, if we say three, then we will have three. Just follow the boat. You will be responsible for the things on the boat, and leave the driving and the things under the boat to the captain and the helmsman."

Pan Yun's captain and helmsman were borrowed from Chen Wen, and she paid a lot of money for it.

Except for Ashin and a few others, the rest are new faces.

But Ashin and his companions were no longer the same as before. During this period, they deliberately grew beards and didn't even take care of their hair. In addition, they changed their clothes, looking sloppy and rough. At first glance, they looked like bandits.

Song Dalin felt that Axin was more of a traitor than he was, full of banditry, so he was very convinced of Axin as the captain.

Wang Xiaojing was just the opposite. He liked Xue Shao very much. He felt that Xue Shao's temperament was very familiar and comfortable, so he kept following him around.

Xue Shao gave him two books and a set of writing brushes, inkstones, and paper. "You can read them when you are bored. Since you want to follow Pan Yun to run a business, in addition to learning all the characters, you also need to learn some arithmetic. When the ship comes back, if you have finished reading these two books, I will give you a booklet I compiled. It contains my account books. You can learn by comparing them. With your intelligence, I believe you will be able to work as an accountant soon."

Wang Xiaojing's eyes lit up and he nodded vigorously.

Song Dalin folded his arms and watched from the side: "Master Pan, you really don't want to go to Japan with us?"

Pan Yun: "You go ahead, I'll go over there."

She wanted to wait and see how the court would deal with Japanese affairs.

Now the court's actions have not been made public. Whether it is the Navy Yamen, Quanzhou Prefecture or Cao Jixiang, they are all cooperating with her in private. From this, it can be seen that the court has not yet reached a conclusion.

They are still in the process of bargaining, and that is why her three ships can enter and leave Quanzhou Port.

However, the convenience gained through gambling is inappropriate after all and is far inferior to the legal and aboveboard ones.

She could pay heavy taxes as long as she did it above board.

Because taxes are visible costs, and the cost of turning a blind eye may not be lower than them.

If maritime trade is to develop and if people in the southeast coastal areas are to live a good life, a complete and healthy ecology is needed.

Some people just wanted to keep the people on the land and farm it, so they hoarded a large number of fields and people;
There are also some people who clearly remember the lessons of the Han Dynasty, remember Zhang Jiao's words "Huang Tian should be established", and remember Zhang Zai's "Establish a destiny for the people", so they try their best to find a better way out for the people of the world.

Yu Qian, who was in the area ravaged by rebels, was writing a memorial to the emperor, asking him to send people to recruit Deng Maoqi, Ye Zongliu and others.

He believed that their rebellion was justifiable, especially Deng Maoqi and his group, "because the land rent in Fujian was extremely high, and the landlords abused the people's labor. A family of five worked hard for a year, but the remaining food was only enough for three months. Therefore, they dared not eat full during the busy farming season, and only had one meal during the slack season. In winter, the porridge could only contain a few grains of rice.

Working hard but still suffering from hunger and cold, suffering from famine year after year, how could the people not despair? Therefore, Deng Maoqi's call was responded to by hundreds. "

Yu Qian believed that their rebellion was justifiable and could be pacified.

But the news that the emperor had sent additional troops arrived earlier than Yu Qian's letter.

Because Liu Ju and others had been unable to quell the rebellion for a long time, Deng Maoqi's rebels had captured several cities and might threaten Quanzhou and Nanjing.

Quanzhou is now a place that the emperor values ​​very much. It has one of the largest seaports on the southeast coast and is convenient for entry and exit. At present, it is most convenient to transport silver from Japan to Quanzhou.

Therefore, the emperor would never allow Quanzhou to be lost.

Not to mention Nanjing, which is the old capital and has a complete court team.

Therefore, the emperor sent Ningyang Marquis Chen Mao to lead an army of 100,000 south and ordered him to quell the rebellion in Fujian as quickly as possible.

Yu Qian was hiding in the area occupied by the rebels, so the news was delayed. Xue Shao in Quanzhou received the news faster than him.

Hearing this, he felt heavy-hearted and could not help but say to Cao Jixiang, "Lord Cao, Deng Maoqi has a chivalrous heart and we can talk. The imperial court has already dispatched 50,000 troops. Why send another 100,000? It would be better to ask someone to recruit him."

Cao Jixiang: "We can't set such a precedent. Otherwise, whoever wants to be an official will recruit a group of bandits to rebel. If this happens a few times, won't the court be full of bandit leaders?"

"Didn't Lord Yu Qian just persuade the rebels in Yushan County to surrender?"

Cao Jixiang: "That's different. The rebels in Yushan County only numbered over 2,000 people. They just robbed the county government office once. It wasn't a big deal. Besides, Lord Yu didn't serve as an official for the bandit leader."

Xue Shao said quickly: "If the officials in the court are worried about this, I am willing to be a lobbyist and persuade Deng Maoqi to surrender without giving up my official position."

Cao Jixiang said with a smile: "Master Xue is too naive. Deng Maoqi has already conquered ten cities. Even if he doesn't want to be an official, don't his subordinates want to be either? It would be as difficult as ascending to heaven to recruit people without spending any official position, right?"

Xue Shao: "How can we know if we don't try? As long as the court promises to treat the people other than the bandit leader well, reduce the land rent, and guarantee the people's livelihood, I think Deng Maoqi will consider surrendering."

Cao Jixiang's face turned cold: "What do you mean, Master Xue? Do you think it's justifiable for those unruly people to rebel, just like those rebels?"

"It is indeed understandable," Xue Shao said honestly, "If they could survive, they would not have been oppressed to the extreme, so why would they rebel?"

"How dare you!" Cao Jixiang stood up suddenly, but still lowered his voice and said, "Master Xue, fortunately this is in Quanzhou. If it was in the capital, you would have been imprisoned long ago." Pan Yun, who had been watching the fight, immediately put down the steamed bun in his hand and grabbed the sleeves of the two men with his greasy hands: "Don't be angry, don't be angry, we are just chatting, you say one sentence and I reply one sentence."

When Cao Jixiang saw her greasy hands, veins on his forehead jumped. He pulled back his sleeves and sat down: "You can't say such things."

Pan Yun looked at Cao Jixiang and shook his head and sighed, and then shook his head and sighed again.

Cao Jixiang's forehead was covered with black lines: "Master Pan, what do you mean?"

"It seems that Wang Zhen's reinstatement has had a great impact on Lord Cao," Pan Yun sighed, "I still remember Lord Cao's honesty when we were in the capital. It's only been a short time, and you have learned to cover your ears and steal the bell."

Cao Jixiang was stunned and remained silent.

Pan Yun sighed and said, "The existing problems will not disappear if we don't say anything. We are just deceiving our superiors and hiding the truth from our subordinates."

Cao Jixiang's shoulders slumped, and his whole body lost half of its energy.

At the beginning of the year, when Wang Zhen was imprisoned in the imperial prison, Cao Jixiang temporarily replaced him and his power in the palace reached its peak.

But after Wang Zhen returned, in less than a month, most of Cao Jixiang's power was taken away. Although he could still be around the emperor, his duty time became shorter and shorter, and his opportunities to see the emperor became fewer and fewer. Before leaving the palace, he had been squeezed into a corner.

Oh, you can see how badly he was marginalized from the moment he was squeezed out to take the thankless job of Quanzhou Maritime Customs.

Pan Yun came close to him and asked in a low voice: "Master Cao, are you going to imitate Wang Zhen?"

Cao Jixiang thought blankly, so I am imitating Wang Zhen?
Seeing him stunned, Pan Yun sighed and said, "Master Cao, you are not that kind of person. No matter how much you study, you can never become like Wang Zhen. Why do you lose your own characteristics and character?"

Pan Yun said: "When Wang Zhen and I were imprisoned together, he said a lot of things that I didn't agree with, but there was one thing that I agreed with very much. He said that no one could replace his position in the emperor's heart, and his power in the court."

Cao Jixiang: ...

Pan Yun asked him, "Lord Cao, when did you enter the palace?"

Cao Jixiang didn't understand why she suddenly jumped to this topic, and said, "My family was poor when I was seven years old, and my father wanted to find a wife for my eldest brother, so he sold me to the palace. So my family has no relatives, unlike Wang Zhen, who entered the palace and has six unclean roots. He has many relatives and friends at home and abuses his power for personal gain."

Eunuchs in the Ming Dynasty were allowed to learn to read in the palace.

We have to mention the good things about the Zhu family.

Perhaps because he grew up in a poor family and lacked cultural knowledge, Zhu Yuanzhang was obsessed with reading.

After he became emperor, he attached great importance to education.

First of all, all children in the community had to go to school at the appropriate age, so he opened a large number of schools among the people.

Although the popularization rate is far lower than after the founding of our country, the illiteracy rate has indeed been greatly reduced after the establishment of the Ming Dynasty.

Because the law stipulates that if children of school age do not go to school, their parents are guilty. It is similar to the nine-year compulsory education, but it is difficult to implement.

Later, his son, grandson, and great-grandson followed suit and brought this policy to the palace.

The eunuchs in the palace needed to assist the emperor in handling government affairs; the palace maids needed to help the empress in handling palace affairs, so everyone in the palace had to learn to read and write.

Therefore, the blindness elimination rate was the highest in the palace.

Cao Jixiang learned cultural knowledge after he was castrated. He was not only good at writing, but also good at fighting.

He had followed the late emperor in the expedition against the Uriankhai and had been in charge of the Beijing camp. He was a eunuch with real military merits, much better than Wang Zhen, who was good-looking but useless.

Unfortunately, the emperor didn't like him.

Not only Cao Jixiang felt sorry for this, but Pan Yun also felt sorry for him.

If the little emperor had liked a different eunuch, even if she did not support him, she would not have been so opposed.

There were quite a few eunuchs of high quality in the palace, but they respected the emperor too much. In order to please the emperor, they had to rely on Wang Zhen.

"Master Cao, put yourself in my shoes. If you grew up in a well-off family, had loving parents, a wife and children, were literate, and passed the imperial examination, would you still enter the palace?"

Cao Jixiang was silent, and silence was the answer.

Pan Yun: "You see, you don't have Wang Zhen's courage and ambition."

"Let me ask you again, when His Majesty was nine years old, could you have kneeled in the courtyard under the sun for a whole day, ignoring his crying, just to ask him to lower his head and take a look at the memorial?"

Cao Jixiang said nothing.

Pan Yun: "You see, although you are upright, you are not tolerant enough, but Wang Zhen can. Otherwise, why would the civil and military officials in the court, including the Three Yangs, think that he is a good man and another eunuch Sanbao, and even hand over the emperor to him for education?"

Wang Zhen had a good reputation in his early years. In the palace, he would advise the emperor during the day to be close to virtuous people and read more books. At night, he would comfort the emperor's little heart, feeling sorry for him for having to read so many books and handle so many state affairs at such a young age...

Pan Yun: "He felt bad even when a drop of mud splashed on the corner of the emperor's robe, but you didn't think it was a big deal when the emperor stepped into the mud."

Cao Jixiang knew what she was talking about and defended himself, "You mean His Majesty went out of the palace to look for you? At that time, you deliberately led His Majesty to that messy alley, and the ground was covered with mud. How could he avoid it?"

Pan Yun: "If Wang Zhen were here, he would definitely find a way to get the emperor to avoid it."

Cao Jixiang frowned.

Pan Yun said quickly: "Master Cao, I am not asking you to learn from Wang Zhen. What I mean is that you are not a hypocritical person. There is no need to learn from him. It is good for you to be so upright.

This is also your characteristic. In the future, whenever His Majesty wants to employ this type of person, he will definitely think of you."

Cao Jixiang: ...(End of this chapter)