Jiajing Chengming

Chapter 228 The imperial envoy took action first, and blood splattered all over the hall!

After a while.

Zhang Jie slowly stood up and asked Fei Hong in confusion:

"What is the elder going to do?"

"There is a will!"

At this time, Fei Hong took out the secret decree from his sleeve.

However, many bureaucrats and wealthy people, including Chen Lianghan, and even the commander-in-chief of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, did not kneel.

Fei Hong didn't say much, just said: "There is an imperial decree, as soon as Zhang Jie arrives in Fuzhou, he will be arrested immediately!"

boom!
Dai Yi, who had already known the order, suddenly took the sheathed goose feather knife in his hand and slashed at Zhang Jie's back.

Zhang Jie fell directly on the table, knocking over a lot of cups and plates.

The two lieutenants beside Dai Yi, who had received orders in advance, immediately rushed in and pressed Zhang Jie on the table, making Zhang Jie's mouth and eyes full of grease.

At the same time, other soldiers around Dai Yi also drew their swords, rushed into the house, and surrounded Zhang Jie, forcing Zhang Jie's followers and servants to stop where they were after they heard the noise and rushed in.

puff!
puff!
Zhang Jie's followers and servants were first killed by the more well-trained and brave soldiers around Dai Yi.

Suddenly, the whole room was covered with blood.

Many wealthy and powerful people in Fujian turned pale when they saw this scene.

Chen Lianghan was able to keep his composure. After he understood what was going on, he looked at Lin Jun and asked, "Why did you betray us?"

Lin Jun just said calmly: "Our Lin family really can't do anything that involves foreigners."

Chen Lianghan suddenly fell down on his chair in dismay and smiled bitterly.

He didn't expect that Fei Hong would take action first. He was planning to wait for the arrival of the Xiyi people and then join forces with the Xiyi to attack Fei Hong.

"Master Fei!"

"The late Emperor Xiao Miao treated you well, why are you unwilling to uphold his rule? Are you doing him justice by doing this?!"

At this time, Zhang Jie squinted his eyes, struggled, and questioned Fei Hong loudly.

Fei Hong said: "The legal lineage of the Xiao Temple comes from the Xian Temple. Now it is Your Majesty who inherits the legal lineage of the Xian Ming. How can I betray Your Majesty and do something disloyal? You Jinyiwei should understand this even more and not be disloyal to Your Majesty."

Wang Shizhong also asked Fei Hong at this time: "Why did the elder suddenly order the arrest of the thief at this time? Why didn't he inform me in advance?"

"Of course, the secret decree requires this."

Fei Hong replied.

After hearing this, Wang Shizhong said nothing more.

Because he only knew that Yang Tinghe told him to listen to Fei Hong in everything before he left.

"Former Right Vice Minister of Nanjing Military Department, Chen Lianghan."

Fei Hong then read out the name and looked up after reading it.

at that time.

The soldiers under Dai Yi walked over and lifted Chen Lianghan up from the chair.

"Shi Jichao, the Left Governor of Fujian."

"Zheng Jingtian, the provincial governor of Fujian."

"Former Baoding prefect Cheng Jian."

"Ling Yong, former deputy commander of Shandong."

"Former Imperial College Academic Recorder Zeng Zonghan."

……

Every time Fei Hong read out a name, a Fujian bureaucrat or a local gentry was taken down.

"Mr. Lin, you betrayed your in-laws, have you ever thought about the consequences of doing so?!"

Even after being arrested, Chen Lianghan began to loudly question Lin Jun.

Lin Jun said: "What I am more afraid of is the consequences of Tongyi being discovered."

Chen Lianghan couldn't help but raise his head and close his eyes.

Fei Hong then said to Fujian Governor Fan Jizu and other officials who had not been arrested:

"Your Majesty has ordered that Deputy Censor Wu Hong temporarily serve as Censor. From now on, your Censorate will immediately send letters to all prefectures, counties, and cities to send troops to detain the nine clans of wealthy and powerful people involved in the case! Seal off their houses and confiscate their property! No mistakes can be made."

Fan Jizu and others bowed their heads and agreed.

then.

After Fan Jizu and the others stood up, Fei Hong said to Fan Jizu: "In the past, the wealthy and powerful gentry in Fujian colluded with the local provincial governors and officials, making it difficult for you to exert your influence in Fujian. Today, you should take this opportunity to survey the corresponding land and implement the new policy of the official system. First, select local poor scholars as new officials, so as not to delay the summer tax and autumn grain next year."

Fan Jizu bowed and said, "I will follow your instructions."

Fei Hong smiled slightly and continued with the banquet.

……

……

In the blink of an eye, it is New Year's Eve on the 30th day of the twelfth lunar month.

Chen Lianghan and others were all imprisoned in Fuzhou Prefecture and were guarded by officers and soldiers from the capital.

The homes of the wealthy and powerful gentry in Fujian who were involved in the case also began to be confiscated.

Soon.

The Fujian government seized a lot of evidence from these people's homes, and all of them were handed over to Fei Hong and Wang Shizhong by the local government.

Checked by Fei Hong and Wang Shizhong.

Fei Hong threw the evidence involving his own crime directly into the brazier.

Wang Shizhong looked at Fei Hong in amazement and said, "Sir, shouldn't you ask me, the Chief Justice, before you do this?"

"Don't be surprised, this is a favor granted by His Majesty to me."

Fei Hong replied with a smile. Wang Shizhong laughed and said nothing more. He just stared blankly at the new evidence.

Then, Wang Shizhong threw the evidence into the fire basin.

Fei Hong grabbed the evidence and asked, "Is this the public's evidence?"

Wang Shizhong laughed and said, "How dare I! This belongs to the Grand Tutor. Since His Majesty asked the elder to destroy the evidence himself, I think he will also sit back and watch the Grand Tutor's evidence being destroyed, right?"

"Your Majesty did mention that I should handle matters involving the Grand Tutor myself."

Fei Hong replied.

Wang Shizhong said with his hands behind his back, smiling, "Isn't that the end?"

Fei Hong said: "But I didn't say I would destroy the evidence of the Master's crime!"

"what?"

Wang Shizhong couldn't help but open his mouth wide, then looked at Fei Hong:
"Lord, we can't be like this. Yours can be destroyed, but the Master's should be destroyed even more!"

Fei Hong said, "How is the old man?"

"The Holy Spirit wants me to deal with it myself, not to destroy it directly."

Fei Hong replied.

Wang Shizhong said: "But this is related to the reputation of the Grand Tutor. As both you and I are the guardians of etiquette, shouldn't we protect him?"

Fei Hong looked at Wang Shizhong: "Daofu (Wang Shizhong's name), we can't fail to make progress!"

"The most important thing for an official is to think twice!"

"In this situation, how can you be sure that the emperor won't want to protect the Grand Tutor one day? At that time, won't he blame us for hiding the evidence of the Grand Tutor's crime and accuse us of concealing the truth?"

"But, is it not the way of a gentleman for us to keep the handle on the Grand Tutor like this?"

"And His Majesty has also let you handle it yourself, which clearly shows that he wants to let the Grand Tutor off!"

Wang Shizhong said.

"Your Majesty, this is not about him letting the Master off, it's about whether I want to let the Master off!"

Fei Hong emphasized.

Wang Shizhong asked, "Doesn't the elder want to let the Grand Tutor go?"

Fei Hong said: "A gentleman should not lie. You can only keep silent for the time being, but you can't cover up the truth!"

then.

Fei Hong added: "Also, you have to know that even if Taifu can regain power in the future, he may not be grateful to us for destroying his evidence."

"I am not Wang Yangming, and no one knows Yang Xindu better than me! So I won't do the same thing as Wang Yangming."

"Daofu, you and I are destined to work together. I will tell you one thing: in the officialdom, you should not be kind to anyone!"

"Especially for people who hold higher positions than you, they will not be grateful to you for this, and may even feel more confident in betraying you!"

"This evidence is the knife that can be used against Yang Xindu. It's better for us to hold the knife in our own hands! If we destroy this evidence, we will have no knife in front of him!"

After Fei Hong said this, he continued to check other evidence.

Wang Shizhong was in mixed feelings, and after thinking about it, he wrote a letter to Zhang Cong, the Minister of Dali Temple, that night, informing Zhang Cong of Fei Hong's hiding of the evidence of Yang Tinghe's crime.

After all the evidence had been seized and the relevant criminals had been interrogated, Fei Hong ordered his men to deliver the evidence and the case closure report to the capital via an express delivery of 800 miles.

……

……

During this time.

Wang Hong did wait for the Portuguese to arrive in Pinghaiwei.

As soon as the five Portuguese armed merchant ships led by Godinghuo arrived at Pinghaiwei City, they first sent Lei Ge, one of the commanders in the Battle of Tuen Mun, to lead an armed merchant ship to enter the water fort for a test.

After Wang Hong learned about this, he immediately ordered Ke Rong to send troops to attack.

However, Ke Rong asked Yu Dayou to lead the troops to attack first.

Pan Dinggou, a centurion under Ke Rong, could not help but say to Ke Rong: "Master Ke, I'm afraid he has never killed anyone. Letting him go first is not a good idea! If anything happens, it will be difficult to explain to the deputy governor!"

"What do you know? The deputy commander has always been a man who claims to love his officers and soldiers but is actually ruthless. He will not take any action against those who disrespect him, but will retaliate against them in secret!"

"If we don't understand what he means, he will blame us too. It would be better if he died at the hands of the Portuguese. If not, the secretary will take credit for him!"

"Besides, now that we are in Fujian, we will become officials of Fujian sooner or later. Why don't we take this opportunity to see the true strengths and weaknesses of the officers and soldiers under the Fujian Navy and how to rectify them in the future?"

After Ke Rong said this, Pan Dinggou said nothing more.

At that time, Yu Dayou had led his warships into contact with the Portuguese.

At present, the naval battles of the Ming Dynasty were basically boarding battles, and the new artillery made by the Beijing Armory Bureau had not yet been popularized to the local garrisons. Therefore, Yu Dayou's way of fighting against the Portuguese warships was to use a large number of small boats collected from the public in advance to load flammable firewood, and then use fire attacks to force the Portuguese's faster large warships to stop, and then drive his own warship to engage in boarding battle, and then jump off the ship when the situation became clear.

Yu Dayou usually trained his soldiers diligently, so his soldiers were well-trained in archery and firearms, at least no worse than the Portuguese who acted as pirates and merchants. In fact, because Yu Dayou called on them to fight to protect the villagers and their families, they became more fearless than the Portuguese.

After Yu Dayou seized the opportunity and jumped onto a ship on the opposite side that was obviously a main warship, most of his soldiers followed him, drawing their swords and engaging in hand-to-hand combat with these Portuguese.

At that time, Wang Hong also came on Ke Rong's boat and saw this scene. He asked Ke Rong: "Whose subordinates are they? They are so brave!"

Wang Hong then asked, "Could it be Pan Dinggou again?"

Pan Dinggou came over at this time: "Qianxian, I didn't go, that was Yu Dayou!"

"I thought you were brave enough, but I didn't expect this person to be even more powerful than you!"

Shortly after Wang Hong said this, Yu Dayou's side captured the ship's commander, Lei Ge, and ten Portuguese. The rest of the Portuguese and the Japanese hired by the Portuguese were all wiped out.

Seeing this, the Portuguese commander-in-chief, Godinghuo, had to hastily lead the other four ships to evacuate.

Ever since the defeats in the Tuen Mun and Sai Cao Wan naval battles, he had to be cautious. Even with five warships in his command, he did not dare to easily force his way through the Ming coastal defenses. This time, if it were not for the cooperation of the Fujian local tycoons, he would not have come rashly.

After the Portuguese retreated, Wang Hong sent an urgent message to Zhu Houcong, informing him of the Portuguese retreat.

……

At the end of the first month of the third year of Jiajing, Zhu Houcong received reports from Fei Hong and Wang Hong almost at the same time.

(End of this chapter)