Reborn Regent of Ming Dynasty

Chen Zilong was moved and persuaded: "Brother Ciwei, you might as well stay and do more things that are beneficial to the people's livelihood with my brother."

Wu Yingji laughed and said, "I don't know anything about farming, so I'm afraid it won't be beneficial to stay here."

"Ciwei brother is too modest..."

"You don't need to talk too much!"

Wu Yingji interrupted Chen Zilong with a firm attitude.Seeing that Chen Zilong was a little stunned, Wu Yingji said: "A few days ago, brother Tianru and I asked whether Denglai scholars could be suppressed or treated unfairly. What did Wozi say at that time?"

"It's nothing."

Chen Zilong said: "There is nothing to be done about it at all. The students from the prefectural and county schools were originally given only a bucket of rice salary. At the end of last year, the general gave the students double the monthly increase, and gave them wine and meat from time to time. The county students are all praised, how can there be any measures to restrain and subdue?"

"On the surface..." Wu Yingji chuckled, but swallowed the words back down his throat.

In the past ten days, they went to Jiaozhou Prefecture School and Jimo County School, and met many scholars who were studying hard.Taking the situation in Shandong as an example, in the early years of Chongzhen, Denglai was extremely poor, and there were refugees everywhere. There were tens of thousands of refugees in Liaodong, and there were many refugees in Henan in Dongchang, Jinan. Qingzhou Prefecture also had a human flesh market in the records of Chongzhen's early years. , are places that are too poor to be poor.

In the history of scientific research, Jiangnan must be the big head. There are also many provinces in Fujian, Jiangxi, Huguang, etc., but the number of students in Shandong and Shaanxi is seriously insufficient, and the culture is not good. Considering the exam questions and the general direction, most of the examiners are from the Jiangnan lineage. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, there were many families in Jiangnan who had studied and passed the Jinshi examination for four or five hundred years.

Just because the culture of Shandong is not as good as that of Jiangnan, Zhang Pu and others naturally pay more attention to the so-called seeds of reading.This time I have seen all over the Fushan area, and I have paid a lot of attention to those talented students.

Fortunately, county schools and prefectural schools are obviously repaired every year. The school officials receive two or three times more subsidies than other places. They all wear silk and satin, and their faces are shiny. In other prefectures and counties, school officials are such miscellaneous Guaner, unless you expect the boy to be a scholar, and the student will be given a red envelope when he is a scholar, and when the envelope of five cents to one tael is delivered, he will be considered as an extra income. Usually, it means more than ten shimi a year Living on twenty or so taels of silver and supporting a family, you can't lose your status, and your life is miserable.

The school officials here in Denglei live a good life, and the scholars receive a lot of food, and the learning atmosphere is of course not bad.

But Wu Yingji knew that what he saw was only the appearance.

More gentry are attracted by business. Jiaozhou, Laizhou, Dengzhou, Weihai, and Denglai have many outlets to the sea. Zhang Shouren single-handedly created foreign ocean trade. Thanks to huge profits, many gentry families are no longer interested in land. Instead, he took out the Tibetan silver in his hands and started building ships and engaging in business.

On the seaside of Fushan, there are huge felled trees everywhere, and the earliest ones have been in the sun for half a year.

If you want to build a large lucky boat or sand boat, you can't do it without good wood. The wood for shipbuilding must be sun-dried for at least one or two years to completely dry out the moisture, so that the sawn wood ship will not swell and absorb water and deform.

Fushan and Lingshan are the Qingdao area of ​​the later generations. The population was not large at that time, and there were many building blocks in the Laoshan Mountains. Attracted by huge profits, the big logs were almost cut down.

I heard that a businessman has already contacted Master Fushanshui, please use the official merchant ship to bring back wood from Liaodong.

Kuandian is short of everything, except that there is no shortage of high-quality wood, and when the boats are brought back, there is enough wood for shipbuilding.Under the mentality of being greedy for too many things, the merchant ships here plan to build [-] or [-] materials, and some even build more than [-] materials.

Here in Fushan, there are many shipbuilders from Fujian brought by the Zheng family fleet, as well as ship masters invited from Jiangnan. With a Suzhou accent, he thought in a trance that he had returned to Jiangnan.

Such a situation also made Zhang Pu and Wu Yingji feel heartbroken when discussing it in private.

If things go on like this, how can we talk about cultivating literary spirit, cultivating a real scholarly family, and using it to promote Ming Dynasty literature and education?Without rich households, the tenants would have nothing to support. Without Confucianism, the world would have no sense of shame and morality. What kind of world would it be?

Now all the gentry in Denglai are engaged in business and sea trade. The situation is much worse than that in the south of the Yangtze River. In addition, there is a powerful strong vassal guarding them. Who can predict that Yiyuhudi will be in the future? [

Because of this, Wu Yingji felt that Fushan could not stay, and it was not a place where scholars should stay.

There is also a doubt. He also saw a lot of newspapers in the Fushan area. Businessmen run newspapers, hospitals have newspapers, and official pond newspapers are also published and commented. They are very detailed. Compared with the Dichaotang in Jiangnan The report should be detailed and clear.

With so many newspapers, none of the students or gentry objected to Zhang Shouren. Wu Yingji and Zhang Pu also visited the homes of several gentry privately, and the reaction they got was the same. When mentioning Zhang Shouren, apart from sincere or false praise, there was no other reaction.

If you continue to inquire, you will encounter indifferent responses and attitudes, and eventually have to leave in embarrassment.

Such a situation is of course not right, it made Wu Yingji feel suffocated, but he couldn't find anything wrong, everything was just his feeling, the trip to Dengzhou was originally out of plan, and he also thought of Zhang Shouren's weak control In some places, see if there is anything to explore outside of Fushan Army Town.

"Brother Ciwei, I hope the two of us will see each other again."

"I hope so!"

At the last moment, the two bowed to each other and said goodbye, Wu Yingji suddenly said: "My son, no matter what I saw in Denglai, I will write a book when I return to the south, and someone will even publish it. Don't you blame me?"

"Of course not," Chen Longzi said with a smile, "what is there to be ashamed of what you have seen? It won't be as sad and vicious as you wrote in the Henan Journey in Chongzhen's early years, so that people can't bear to read it carefully, right?"

"Hehe, that's good."

In the early years of Chongzhen, Wu Yingji went to Beijing for a test, and when he returned to Zhili, he passed through Henan. Everything he described was to urge the people to flee after chasing Kelong. All kinds of tragic situations in a family make people feel angry all their lives after reading their articles.

Of course, Wu Yingji did not dare to shift the responsibility to the emperor, and he did not even dare to offend the bureaucracy and scholars. He attacked heavily, but turned a blind eye to the responsibilities of Jinshi officials and the emperor.

During this trip to Denglai, Chen Zilong came forward, and Fushan and the upper and lower sides also cooperated, and the intention was self-evident.

These scholars are well-educated celebrities in the world. Once the text came out, tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people copied it. This was a powerful force of public opinion that no one could replace at that time. On, the difference is too far.

If Donglin and Fushe keep attacking him, at least in Jiangnan and Fujian and Zhejiang areas, his reputation will be rotten all the way.

The reception this time can also be regarded as a public relations act, but the effect is unpredictable now.

When Chen Zilong and Wu Yingji were reluctant to say goodbye, Zhang Pu and Hou Fangyu were already on the official road from Jiaozhou east to Gaomi. They passed through this road, passed through Qingzhou, entered Qingzhou Prefecture, and communicated with officials and gentry in the government. Celebrities, you should do more things for celebrities. For their arrival, the direction of Qingzhou must be very welcome.

Even King Heng in Qingzhou Mansion would summon them, but under normal circumstances, celebrities are unlikely to make friends with pro-vassals, and self-destruction of their reputation is of no real benefit.

They arrived in Qingzhou on the 24th, and were delayed for two days. On the 26th, they took the road from Qingzhou to Jinan, and received a message on the way. Unable to know.

Although Zhang Pu was very dissatisfied with the fighting power of Liu Zeqing and his subordinates, at least Liu Zeqing was a town general he could rely on. After entering Jinan, he asked this guy to regroup and put them in several water transport centers and wealthy places from Jinan to Yanzhou in Dezhou. Zhang Shouren is a kind of control... With this kind of mind in mind, Zhang Pu and Hou Fangyu no longer delay in Qingzhou, but save time and rush towards the direction of Jinan Fucheng.

……

...[

"Brother Tianru, I'm really going to die of exhaustion."

On March 13, 28th year of Chongzhen, after a long journey, especially at the junction of Jinan and Qingzhou, the official road was high and uneven, and there was little rain in spring. In recent years, it has been dry, even though it is not as severe as Henan and Beizhi. It is enough to see that the road is full of dust, even Zhang Pu sitting in the sedan chair is unavoidable. Every morning when he gets on the sedan chair, he is fine, but when he gets off the sedan chair, his head, face and body are covered in dust.

After finally getting to Jinan, Zhang Pu did not go close to the city. He detoured for ten miles, bypassed the sheep and horse wall that stretched for dozens of miles in Jinan, walked from those villages to the east gate, and when he arrived, it was also sunset. Shen, if it's a little later, the sky will be completely dark.

Hou Fangyu rode a horse all the way, and his hair was covered with dust. His family has been an official for generations, and his father was the governor of Shangshu. Burning, even if Hou Xun is locked in the prison, because of Zuo Liangyu's relationship outside, not only is there no danger of life, but he may be released at any time. Of course, Hou Fangyu has never experienced the kind of suffering in front of him. He looks embarrassed But it was Zhang Pu who was in high spirits, and could not help complaining: "Brother Tian Ru, why bother to detour for dozens of miles and suffer so much!"

Zhang Pu didn't answer him, but said to himself: "It's been less than two years, the villages and towns have been completely restored, the fields have never been barren, pedestrians are coming and going, and businessmen are constantly coming and going. Well, Ni Fuyuan is very good. .”