The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 243 Pretending to be confused

Noon is approaching and the sun is at its highest point.

Spring is a good time to ship goods.

The cargo ships and speedboats on the Qinhuai River are coming and going like crucian carp crossing the river.

Longjiangkou, which is the entrance where the Qinhuai River flows into the Yangtze River Jiajiang, is the busiest Sanchajiangkou.

Because cargo ships and express boats coming from the north and south all enter the Qinhuai River from here and deliver the goods to Jinling City.

This pointed corner is where the Longjiang Treasure Shipyard's office is located. Many merchants passing by are familiar with the industrial office within the circle of walls, because many of the merchants ordered their ships from the Longjiang Treasure Shipyard.

Many vendors even knew Pan He, the head of the Ministry of Industry who was in charge.

This guy is very dark!
If they wanted to order a cargo ship from Pan He, in addition to the ship price, they had to give this guy money, otherwise they would not be able to get a number and might have to wait for a year or two.

Nowadays, if you have some connections, you can earn back the money you spent on buying a boat in a year or two. No one can wait, so they have to give this guy money.

However, although the price of ships from Longjiang Baochuan Factory is high, they are really good.

Cargo ships built by private small shipyards usually have many problems after five or six years of use and need to be repaired every year. After ten years of use, they cannot be repaired at all.

The ships built by Longjiang Baochuan Factory only need to be repaired after seven or eight years, and they can be used for more than ten or twenty years with some repairs.

In addition, Longjiang Baochuan Factory built ships very quickly, so as long as enough money was paid, the goods could be received within half a year. Therefore, many merchants came to Pan He to buy ships.

In fact, many vendors can recognize this guy's voice.

What is this guy howling about in there?

When Pan He's screams were heard, many vendors who were transporting or delivering goods passing by were filled with surprise. What could have caused Pan He to scream like a pig being slaughtered?
This guy is naturally getting beaten.

Wanli, following the principle that it was a rainy day and he had nothing to do, was beating this guy up.

Pan Hedu had been beaten up three times, and after sixty lashes of the cane, he could hardly bear it anymore.

Fortunately, Pan Jixun arrived.

At this time, Pan Jixun, the Minister of Works of Nanjing, had already disembarked from the dock next to the yamen on a speedboat.

He heard Pan He's screams from a long distance away.

However, he did not get angry out of shame. In fact, there was no anger on his face, only a solemn expression.

Because they knew that the little emperor was likely to come to Jinling.

The urgent secret report from the capital city had already been transmitted eight hundred miles away. The little emperor suddenly left the capital by boat and was heading south. They had to be careful.

This kid is very rebellious. He does whatever he wants and will hack people if he is not satisfied!

When they received the news, they naturally did not dare to take it lightly. They had already known about what happened at the Chang'an Street Wharf and the Jinling Imperial City yesterday. They even knew that tens of thousands of cavalry rushed out of the Imperial City and headed towards the Stone City Gate early this morning.

These are most likely the imperial guards sent by the young emperor!

After listening to the descriptions of those yamen runners, he vaguely understood that the young emperor might have heard from somewhere that the Baochuan Factory was building ships for Japanese pirates, so he sent the imperial guards to investigate.

Oh, how will this end?

Pan Jixun walked to the side door of the shipyard office and looked up, the solemn expression on his face became even more serious.

It’s really the Imperial Guards!
Although these imperial guards changed into new uniforms, it was only the fabric that was better and some more colorful threads were embroidered on them, but the style remained the same as before.

He had been to the imperial palace in the capital, so he naturally recognized the military uniforms of the imperial guards.

What should I do now?

He was just thinking about how to get away with this when the imperial guards at the gate shouted, "Who are you and what are you doing here?"

Oh, you bunch of bastards.

This is our territory, okay? We just left for less than half a day, and it has become your territory?

The foreman of the yamen runners angrily shouted, "You are blind! You can't even recognize the color of the official robes. This is our Shangshu Lord Pan."

He is just the Minister of Works of Nanjing, nothing more than a piece of shit.

The imperial guardsman at the gate said coldly, "What's wrong with the Shangshu? Can the Shangshu just run around and do whatever he wants?"

Is this what we call wandering around?
This place is originally under the jurisdiction of the Nanjing Ministry of Industry!

The foreman of the yamen runners was about to shout, but Pan Jixun quickly raised his hand to stop him and said carefully, "I heard something happened here, so I came here to take a look. Can we go in?"

Your attitude is pretty good.

The imperial guard officer said sternly, "Wait a minute, I'll go ask."

After saying that, he turned around and walked quickly inside.

Wanli was bored at the moment.

Pan He didn't know if he was truly weak or just playing dead, but after sixty strokes, this guy just lay on the ground like he was dying, groaning and whimpering, pretending not to hear the questions and refusing to answer. It looked like there was no fun to be had now.

He was just wondering if he should get a bucket of water when a soldier from the Imperial Guard suddenly walked in quickly, clasped his hands and bowed, and said, "Announcement, the Nanjing Minister of Works, Pan Jixun, has arrived."

The real owner has finally arrived.

Wanli was about to nod and let the other party come over when Pan He, who was lying on the ground, suddenly came to life. He propped himself up with his hands, raised his head and shouted, "Master Pan is here at last. You have been lynching and assaulting court officials. You are lawless. I will make you taste the pain of being slapped with a stick. Sixty strokes of the cane, double the amount."

Oh, you are really pretending.

You're paying double?
I want to see how you return it.

It’s not sixty boards now.

Seeing this, Wanli said without hesitation: "Drag him out and give him twenty lashes of the cane."

You still dare to hit me!

Pan He shouted frantically, "You are really lawless, aren't you? If anyone dares to make a move, believe it or not, I will let Master Pan kill you."

I don't believe it.

None of the imperial guards believed it.

They dragged Pan He out without hesitation and beat him up again.

Seeing this, Wanli said calmly, "Let Pan Jixun come in."

When Pan Jixun saw Pan He still being beaten with a stick outside the lobby, he couldn't help but frown slightly.

Who is in here?

You knew I was coming, but you still hit me. Are you trying to intimidate me?
Pan He saw this, as if he saw a savior, and shouted: "Sir, help me! They are lynching me without permission. I have been beaten with nearly eighty sticks."

I don't have time to care about you. Eighty lashes won't kill anyone. As long as you have the strength to scream, it's okay.

Pan Jixun pretended not to hear and walked straight into the lobby.

When he came to the lobby and took a look, he was stunned.

The Prince of Wei was actually standing in the lower row, and on the right. Who was the first person on the left?
Also, who are those two people standing behind the desk?
The court is the place where hierarchy is the most important. Even the prince of Duke Wei can only stand below. Is the person sitting to judge the case more noble than the Duke of Wei?
He took a closer look and his eyes almost popped out of his head.

The one sitting there to judge the case was actually the little emperor!
He quickly bowed and said, "Your Highness, your humble servant is here to pay his respects."

Do you still remember what I look like?
Wanli said expressionlessly, "Are you building ocean-going warships for the Japanese pirates?"

This one.

The little emperor saw it with his own eyes, how can this be explained?
If you can't explain it, you can only pretend to be confused.

Pan Jixun pretended to be clueless and said, "Your Majesty, I have just taken over as the Minister of Works in Nanjing. I have never been to the Treasure Shipyard before, and I have no idea what kind of ship they are building here."

This guy had indeed just taken over as the Minister of Works in Nanjing not long ago, because the former Minister of Works in Nanjing, Lu Guangzu, had just been transferred to the capital.

However, this guy was obviously pretending to be confused.

Pan He also has the surname Pan, and he obviously got to his position through connections. More importantly, Pan Jixun rushed over as soon as Pan He was arrested. This shows that Pan He must be a member of the Pan family.

This means that the Pan family has been in charge of the Baochuan Factory for a long time. How could this guy not know what his family is doing?
You are pretending to be confused in front of me, should I pretend to be confused with you?
Wanli thought for a moment, then asked, "I've heard that they're building giant ocean-going warships for the Japanese pirates, and I saw it with my own eyes. How come you don't know?"

I know.

How can this be explained?
Pan Jixun thought about it hastily, then pretended to be suddenly enlightened and said, "Oh, I remember now.

It is true that huge ocean-going ships were built here for Japanese pirates, but not now, but during the Jiajing period.

It is true that Yan Shifan of the Jiajing Dynasty secretly colluded with Japanese pirates and used the shipyard under the Ministry of Works to build ships for them. I have also heard of this.

"However, Your Majesty, there are no Japanese pirates along the coast of the Ming Dynasty now. This huge ocean-going ship should not be built for them."

Are there no more Japanese pirates along the coast of the Ming Dynasty?

it's out of the question!

There was a famous man named Zheng Zhilong in history. He had seven or eight hundred ships during the Tianqi period.

Were there no Japanese pirates during the Wanli Dynasty?

The reason why there are no Japanese pirates along the coast right now is because you are cooperating with them and making money by doing illegal overseas business. There is no need to make trouble.

If I issue an order to thoroughly investigate the prohibited overseas business, there will definitely be Japanese pirates along the coast.

You are secretly collaborating with the Japanese pirates, and the ocean-going giant ships you built are used to do business with the Japanese pirates!
The question is, do we want to break up now?
Now the most important thing is to expand the navy.

The navy hasn't even developed yet and we've already fallen out with these guys. The Japanese pirates will definitely wreak havoc along the coast again!

Are you pretending to be confused?

I am pretending to be confused too!
(End of this chapter)