Ming Dynasty: Summoning game players at the beginning

Chapter 308 I went to bed at : and got up at :
He was ordered by his superiors to secretly investigate the "loyal minister" Li Mu.

Although Li Mu had some minor flaws that were criticized, his numerous military exploits for the country were well known. He was a truly loyal minister.

However, as a secret agent of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, Chen Jing'an never cared about whether the ministers were loyal or treacherous.

He was only loyal to the only ruler of the world, the Ming Emperor himself.

As the saying goes, if the king wants his subjects to die, the subjects have to die. The emperor does not need any reason to investigate or suspect anyone he wants. A loyal person may also be a treacherous villain.

Old Chen was ordered to go to Shanggu area, while General Li remained in Liaodong to pursue the remnants of the Jiannu. The "hometown" garrison was empty, which was a perfect time to move in secretly.

As an old spy who has risen through the ranks, Lao Chen is well versed in the art of lurking. He has been ordered to lurk in various places. He has tried his best to overcome the characteristics of accent, occupation, habits, etc., and assisted his superiors in completing many major cases.

Back then, he assisted a captain of the Embroidered Uniform Guard to catch up with Wei Zhongxian's team leaving the capital, forcing the eunuch who once had great power in the court to "commit suicide" in an inn. He was then promoted to a trial captain.

He didn't care whether Eunuch Wei had a good or bad reputation. He just wanted to do his job well.

But unexpectedly, His Majesty, for some unknown reason, wanted to abolish the Imperial Household Guards and recall all the eunuchs stationed in various places.

He, the trial centurion, was also abandoned and demoted several levels.

Later, His Majesty seemed to come to his senses and re-employed these "henchmen", and Chen Jing'an was promoted to the general flag.

Although his official position was a step backward compared to his previous position of Trial Hundred Households, it was a godsend to have a fixed salary and enjoy "gray allowances" and privileges in this day and age.

Occasionally, he would reveal his Jinyiwei badge, which would force local officials to be courteous, and thus they would cherish this job even more.

On the day Chen Jing'an received the order, he carefully collected information related to southern Henan, then disguised himself and set off for southern Henan.

He knew very well that there were many spies like him, but most of them did not know each other's identities and could only use some secret codes and passwords to summon and identify their "friends".

He did not foolishly contact local officials directly, but instead lived in the local area disguised as a merchant.

His first impression when he arrived in Gushi and Shangcheng was that the local social security was very good, so good that it seemed unreal.

Refugees, bandits, robbers, beggars... disappeared without a trace, as if all the evil spirits had been cleared away, and the sky was clear at a glance.

He did not need to travel with other travelers, and he did not have to fear bandits when sleeping alone in the wild.

In the past, when he dealt with local bandits, he had to haggle over weights and reveal his official status. But this time, he had a smooth journey and didn't say a single word.

Is this still the territory of the Ming Dynasty?

Even in capital cities like Beijing and Nanjing, bandits and robbers could be encountered dozens of miles outside the city. Bullies and gangs were also numerous both within and outside the city walls.

There are rebels everywhere in southern Henan, so how could there not be bandits and rebel soldiers?

The main force of the Black Flag Battalion is fighting outside, but the auxiliary troops and militiamen left behind can actually maintain public order better than the combat troops!

What's even more "weird" is that the official road here is quite flat, as if it were paved with a long gray stone slab, extending all the way to the end of the sight.

Cars, horses and pedestrians moved quite smoothly on the road, with much less dust than the previous official roads and loess roads.

The official road here is a hard dirt road that turns into a puddle of mud after rain. Once you step on it, your lower body will be covered in mud.

If you are wearing straw sandals, you can just find a big puddle to rinse. If you are wearing cloth shoes or official boots, you have to change clothes and wash up, which wastes time and the money for boiling water and firewood.

Chen Jing'an only sighed for a moment before realizing something was wrong.

Building roads has always benefited the country and the people since ancient times. Either the government allocates funds for maintenance, or local gentry and wealthy merchants raise funds for construction.

The former is deeply mired in official malpractices, and is obsessed with the idea of ​​"less trouble is worse than more" or making quick money. How could he be willing to take the initiative to allocate funds to repair official roads?

Don't even think about the latter.

Shang and Gu were just remote small counties near the mountains, and there were not many gentry and merchants who had the money to invest in building roads.

Besides, the current situation is chaotic and the wealthy just want to "live frugally" and are definitely unwilling to waste money on "reputation".

Could it be that the officials in charge of the two counties are very capable, so they can manage the remote small counties in such an orderly manner?

Chen Jing'an was not in a hurry to ask the local people, but instead rented a bungalow on the outskirts of the county town as a place to stay.

According to the rules, renting or buying a house requires "registration" with the local clerk. Unexpectedly, the local clerk who came to handle the matter completed his task and left without even taking the 200 coins "straw sandal money" he gave him.

If it were an ordinary clerk, he would at least have to hint repeatedly and raise the "standard money" to five or six hundred coins before giving up.

As the saying goes, clerks are more harmful than corrupt officials.

After all, corrupt officials are just temporary officials who will leave after making money for a few years, but clerks have been born in their hometown for generations. They all hold low positions but have great power and can sometimes even undermine officials.

It's really strange that the clerks here don't ask for bribes?

Chen Jing'an once thought that the sun was about to rise from the west.

He himself is a bureaucrat and does not believe that there are any "honest officials" in this world.

Even if there are truly impartial people, how long can they maintain their integrity in this corrupt environment? How can we control the greed of these "local tyrants"?

But those clerks seemed to have eyes watching them all over, and never even hinted at asking for bribes, as if doing their job was something they were supposed to do, and there was no such thing as asking for bribes.

The stone pavement on the street was also neatly repaired, with almost no damaged or waterlogged areas, and not even any manure from cattle and horses.

Even the urine buckets provided on the streets have been transformed into neat and tidy "public toilets", with illustrated notices with recent major government notices posted inside and outside the toilets.

My goodness, the chief official here even forgot to inform the people of his defecation and urination time. He really does everything he can.

Very strange.

Chen Jing'an suddenly became very curious about the county's chief official.

As the chief flag-fighter of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, he could see the county magistrate simply by showing his badge, but he had only just arrived here and it was not convenient for him to reveal his identity easily.

After all, what an official sees and what a civilian sees are two completely different pictures.

He is responsible for the "supervision" mission and must see the most real pictures and hear the most real voices.

Chen Jing'an suddenly had an idea and planned to have a conflict with someone and then go to the county magistrate to sue him, so that he could see the county magistrate.

You have to know that when ordinary people have a dispute, they either ask the local clan to judge the right and wrong, or take it to the government office.

As long as the status of the victim and the defendant is roughly equal, the victim will dare to go to court.

With the frequent occurrence of lawsuits in various places, the profession of "litigator" was born.

Chen Jing'an was naturally not afraid of being sued. However, he had been peddling goods from his loaded cart for several days without seeing any troublemakers, not even a single "street bully" who was behind on payment for his goods.

The public security inside and outside the county was surprisingly good, so good that he was a little uncomfortable with it.

Of course, he couldn't take the initiative to cause trouble. If the matter went to court, he would have to intervene so as not to reveal his identity as a Jinyiwei by taking out his badge.

In the past, when he was doing his job, he just wanted to complete it smoothly. Now, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get what he wanted!
What's funny is that without the clerks who take bribes and the beggars and bullies who blackmail people violently, he actually earns three or four times more by selling goods these days than he did before by pretending to be a vendor.

Chen Jingan thought to himself that if he wasn't a Jinyiwei, being a vendor here might be a good thing...

No! This won't work!
Shaking his head to get rid of the "evil thoughts" in his mind, Chen Jing'an seemed to be in a trance, his body and mind affected by the spell, and he took deep breaths to calm himself down.

To understand the "strangeness" of this place, you must see the county magistrate.

Fortunately, although he did not actively ask for information, he had lived here for many days and gradually learned a lot of information from passers-by, including local "common sense" and some "weird" information that few people believed.

Of course, what Chen Jing'an cares most about right now is the reason why this place is so weird, and he has no interest in that kind of weird story.

It turned out that not only Shanggu and the other two counties were in this state, but all the prefectures and counties south of the Huai River that had been occupied by the Qihuo bandits were in this state.

I heard that it was the beggar thief who killed the corrupt officials and severely punished a group of local tyrants and evil gentry. Those who should be killed were killed, and those who should be punished were punished. The gentry and local officials who survived were not perfect, but at least they did not arouse public anger.

With the cooperation of officials trained by the beggar bandits themselves, many states and counties were managed prosperously.

After Lord Li recovered the lost territory, he saw that these local officials who had been trained by the beggars were quite capable, so he left them alone.

Clerks, a semi-institutional and semi-hereditary "minor official", rely on their personal connections and family administrative experience. As long as no one pays attention to them, they can continue to control the grassroots.

Although General Li was a military commander, it was not considered "out of line" for him to forgive the clerks who had assisted the bandits. It would be considered interfering in local government affairs if the other party killed all the clerks.

After all, local affairs rely on the efforts of clerks. How can a few county officials alone handle miscellaneous tasks such as taxation, assignment of labor, manufacturing of tools, warehousing, transportation, etc.?

Fortunately, Chen Jing'an was lucky. Although he did not encounter the troublemaker, one of his old customers did.

It turned out that a relative of an old customer was hit by a carriage at the county border. Unexpectedly, the perpetrator was a wealthy man who had recently escaped from the rule of beggars and bandits.

The rich man relied on his official connections and not only felt no guilt, but also asked the injured person to compensate for the money used to frighten the horse.

The victim had no choice but to beg the rich man to let him go so that he could return home with his injuries.

Somehow, the news of the victim being beaten reached an old customer, who immediately stood up for his relative.

Upon hearing the news, Chen Jing'an didn't even have time to take the cart home. He just dropped it off in an alley and followed his old customer.

There are many people who follow the others and "stand up for the injustice", and they all seem to want to join in the fun.

Strangely, the old customer did not take the victim to the county government office, but went out of the county town and went west more than ten miles away.

What's happening here?
Could it be that the master went out for an outing, and the victim planned to "block the road and complain"?
Chen Jing'an was not familiar with the scope of his jurisdiction, nor did he know whether the group had entered the territory of other states, but he saw several bridges of about ten to twenty feet across the river to the west of the city.

These river bridges are different from ordinary stone arch bridges, nor are they long bridges made of staggered stone slabs. The bridge structure is quite stable, and there is no trace of stone slabs connected together. It is as if a whole piece of stone slab is placed on a series of stone piers.

Just like the "long stone slab" official road he saw when he entered southern Henan.

Half of the river bridges here are used by pedestrians and mule teams.

The other half was slightly larger and more stable, but there were very few pedestrians on the bridge. There were also armed soldiers guarding both ends of the bridge.

What was even stranger was that the bridge deck was paved with two rows of long, black vertical bars with horizontal sleepers in between, like a very long ladder embedded in the ground.

This "black ladder" originates from the mountains in the south and extends outward, passing the river bridge and continuing to expand to the northwest.

"What is this?"

Chen Jingan seized the opportunity to ask, he called himself the name in reverse in front of the people.

"Ha, I forgot you've only been here a short time, Old An. This thing is called a 'railway,' and it's made of fine iron that's been tempered a hundred times. Some say Lord Li learned a secret technique and hired someone to build it, others say it was forged by a master from the mountains, and still others say it was tinkered with by a local official left behind by the Beggars' Army..."

It was rumored that every night, iron war horses, laden with cargo, would gallop along this road, covering dozens of miles in half an hour, without stopping all night, and reaching Luoshan in less than a night.

But I don't believe it. I've never seen such iron horses galloping by in broad daylight, and I don't understand why the government would use such a thing to waste money."

Reach Luoshan in less than one night?
Chen Jing'an was stunned at that time.

This railway extends out from the mountain to Luoshan, which is at least two hundred miles long, and it takes less than three hours to travel in one night.

Chen Jing'an closed his eyes and used his simple mental arithmetic skills to calculate that this iron horse could actually travel sixty-seven miles in one hour?
The poorly trained government troops could only travel thirty or forty miles a day. How could the iron horses, loaded with cargo, travel the equivalent of two days' travel time in just one hour?
There are twelve hours in a day. If the iron horse was real, the distance it traveled in a day would be equivalent to the march of the government army.

Twenty-fourth.

Although the Jinyiwei were mainly responsible for guarding and spying, they were military personnel after all and understood the meaning of "speed is the essence of war."

You march for twenty-four days, while the enemy only needs one day. This difference in marching speed makes it easy to complete a campaign of defeating the enemy one by one.

Chen Jing'an was almost frightened out of his sanity, but he still tried to remain calm and asked the people around him what they thought of the iron horses.

Everyone has different opinions. Some people say that the iron horses really exist. If you go up to the roof at night, you can see the iron horses and the lights shining at key locations along the road.

Although the outline of the iron horse could not be seen clearly in the night, the grunting sound of the "beast" could be vaguely heard.

Of course, if you live in a county town or far away from the railway, you won’t be able to hear it.

Some people have bought shares in this railway, but the time for dividends has not yet come. The certificates in their hands are just like banknotes, and there is no way to verify the authenticity of the railway.

Other people thought that the iron horse was too strange, just like the increasing number of strange rumors in recent times.

In the mountains, "big Kun" takes off and lands, flying dragons appear and disappear in the clouds, and there is even a group of demon soldiers stationed in the mountains to practice evil magic...

A group of demon soldiers were training in the mountains. Two groups of people fought fiercely with real swords and guns, and the fight was bloody. The victorious side was the "most powerful" and the war leader was decided.

These demon soldiers are like mushroom spores. They are not afraid of death because the next generation will be produced quickly.

The demon soldiers kill each other just like refining poison. When the demon soldiers kill each other and become the strongest madman, they will rush out of the mountains and kill all the mortals in the world.

No?

What the hell is going on? How did it turn into a weird story?
Chen Jingan said that he came here to investigate "loyalty and treachery", not to collect weird stories and then write a strange novel.

Just when he was trying to find out more useful information, they arrived at their destination.

At an outdoor station, hundreds of onlookers formed a semi-arc, as if they were watching something exciting.

(End of this chapter)