The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 372: Craftsmen Gather to Make Trouble
While the war in Korea was raging, the capital of the Ming Dynasty was as prosperous as in a peaceful and prosperous era.

At this moment, the Ming Dynasty really shows signs of peace and prosperity.

People are getting richer and richer, travel is becoming more convenient, there are more and more shops on the streets, and the variety of goods is even more dazzling.

The most important thing is peace. The Ming army is becoming more and more powerful. The Japanese pirates in the south and the Tartars in the north can't invade the two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty at all. Everyone can live a stable life.

Only when you have a stable life can you work happily, and a peaceful and prosperous era usually starts with peace in the world.

The Ming Dynasty is now peaceful and stable.

However, the Zhejiang Party frantically submitted a memorial claiming that there were pirates on the southeast coast!
This is just a joke.

However, Wanli still decided to put on a show to fool the Zhejiang Party and the Japanese pirates.

At about 4 p.m. that afternoon, just as it was getting dark, another naval centipede ship quietly entered the imperial city.

Deng Zilong, Yu Zigao, Peng Xingu, Li Yuansheng and other naval commanders all came at once.

Wanli had already been waiting for them in the Grand Council Hall.

After the emperor and his ministers exchanged greetings, Wanli said solemnly, "The Zhejiang Party has been frantically submitting petitions requesting the suppression of pirates. It seems that Toyotomi Hideyoshi is a little overwhelmed, so he is anxious to get the Zhejiang Party to cooperate.

This guy wants to divert our navy ships so that we can't transfer reinforcements to Jeolla Province, Korea, and thus reduce the pressure on Korea. We have to put on a good show and fool them. "

Unexpectedly, Li Yuansheng took the initiative to say: "Your Majesty is wise, Toyotomi Hideyoshi is indeed a little overwhelmed.

Tokugawa Ieyasu sent word to my trusted confidants in Japan that Toyotomi Hideyoshi has begun frantically recruiting reserve troops. This time, the number of reserve troops he has recruited is 100,000. This guy is going to recruit all the existing samurai in Japan."

very good!

Toyotomi Hideyoshi absolutely could not afford to lose this battle, so he could only frantically recruit reserve reinforcements.

More importantly, there was a traitor in Japan. Tokugawa Ieyasu betrayed Toyotomi Hideyoshi for his own benefit!
This guy probably thought that Li Yuansheng really had to bribe court officials or Ming Dynasty generals to get the kerosene cans, so he deliberately leaked this news to Li Yuansheng. His purpose was to remind the Ming Dynasty to pay attention to Toyotomi Hideyoshi's reinforcements!

It seems that Tokugawa Ieyasu didn't know that Li Yuansheng was his man, the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty.

Li Yuansheng must make good use of the relationship between Tokugawa Ieyasu, so that he can not only obtain information about Toyotomi Hideyoshi from Tokugawa Ieyasu, but also trick Tokugawa Ieyasu into fighting Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

At this moment, Toyotomi Hideyoshi seemed to be reaching his limit. After recruiting 100,000 samurai, Toyotomi Hideyoshi could only capture able-bodied men as reinforcements. If too many able-bodied men were captured, it would arouse public anger.

He could easily use the Japanese tabloids to destroy Toyotomi Hideyoshi's dignity and reputation.

By then, they would annihilate the troops sent by Toyotomi Hideyoshi to Korea, a vassal state, and then arrange for Tokugawa Ieyasu to fight a war with Toyotomi Hideyoshi. There would not be much resistance left in Japan.

Wanli thought about it carefully, then asked, "Did Tokugawa Ieyasu urge you to deliver the goods?"

Li Yuansheng nodded repeatedly and said, "Tokugawa Ieyasu has been urging me to deliver the goods. I have prepared all the other goods, except for the kerosene.

I've even had someone explain to him that kerosene cans are difficult to obtain, and I won't make much from the one million taels he's offering. I'm simply doing him a favor by spending the money and effort to get this thing."

You are really smart.

Wanli nodded slightly and said, "Yes, that's right. The north wind is blowing now. Can you still deliver the goods?"

Li Yuansheng said without hesitation: "Yes, we can just use a fast boat to transport the goods to Dongfan, and then follow the Kuroshio Current across the Ryukyu Kingdom to reach Kyushu Island in Japan. There is also a Kuroshio Current from Kyushu Island to Edo, but the current is a little slower. We just need to spend a little more time and we can still deliver the goods to Edo."

That's good.

Wanli nodded slowly and said, "This time you will not only perform in the Southeast, but also in Japan.

You have to distance yourself from the Japanese tabloids, and you have to let Tokugawa Ieyasu know that you are working independently without the Zhejiang Party. The Zhejiang Party has close ties with Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and you are afraid that Toyotomi Hideyoshi will deal with you, so you secretly do business with him, so that Tokugawa Ieyasu will not suspect you. "

what?
Do I have to go to Japan to perform a play?

The scene in Southeast China is easy to handle, but how about the scene in Japan?
Li Yuansheng thought about it carefully after hearing this, then said carefully: "Your Majesty, I have only been to Edo once, and I don't have any of my men there. How can I perform this play?"

This play is actually very easy to perform. Wanli explained in detail: "While you are performing in the southeast, I will order people to print a batch of new Japanese tabloids. When the performance in the southeast is over, you can send your confidants to take the new Japanese tabloids to Kitakyushu to start distributing them.

At this time, you have evidence that you are not in Kitakyushu. You haven't even gone to Kitakyushu, but someone there has started distributing Japanese tabloids. Tokugawa Ieyasu will definitely not suspect that you have anything to do with the Japanese tabloids.

You then destroyed some of the 800-ton ships, blackened the sails of those 1,000-ton ships, repaired the holes caused by shells, and then shipped the goods to Edo along the Kuroshio Current.

After you delivered the goods to Edo, you told Tokugawa Ieyasu's people that you would no longer deliver goods to Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Toyotomi Hideyoshi was very angry. You left the Zhejiang Party alone and worked alone. The Zhejiang Party was also very angry. They used underhanded tactics and let the Ming Dynasty navy fleet encircle and suppress you.

You don't need to say anything else. Tokugawa Ieyasu will naturally think that after you delivered the goods to Edo, you completely severed your relationship with the Japanese tabloids, because at that time you were on your way to deliver the goods to Tokugawa Ieyasu, and it was impossible for you to arrange for people to distribute Japanese tabloids. "

Oh, that's how it's performed.

Li Yuansheng nodded repeatedly and said, "I understand."

Wanli thought about it carefully and said decisively: "Kemai, you lead fifty 2,000-ton Fuzhou ships and one hundred 1,000-ton Fuzhou ships, plus a few hundred centipede ships to the southeastern waters to show off to Yuansheng. Try to make a big show so that everyone on the shore knows that you are encircling and suppressing pirates.

Yunqing, you and Wuyang will take the remaining ships of the navy and stay in the waters south of Liaodong to transport reinforcements and be ready to block the Tsushima Strait at any time."

The generals agreed with a roar.

Immediately afterwards, a large-scale drama of the navy encircling and suppressing pirates was staged in the southeastern waters.

That guy, the navy's ships chased the pirate ship everywhere. The water columns stirred up by the shells could be seen from more than ten miles away, and the rumbling sound of the artillery could be heard from dozens of miles away.

Merchant ships and small fishing boats along the coast were so frightened that they dared not go out to sea, for fear that they would be sunk by pirates or even navy ships with a single shot.

When they were performing with great enthusiasm, something unexpected happened in the southeast again.

This time it was on shore, not at sea.

Moreover, this time something really happened, it wasn't just an act.

Around noon that day, Wanli was dining with his wives, concubines, princes, and princesses when Li Xuancheng suddenly poked his head in and said, "Your Majesty, the Prime Minister, Lord Shen, wishes to see you."

Shen Li?

It's already dinner time, why is this guy running here instead of going home to eat?
Wanli thought about it, then stood up and said, "You guys eat first, I'll go take a look."

He had just walked into the corridor outside Kunning Palace when Shen Li unexpectedly came up with a pile of urgent reports. He bowed and handed them to him, saying anxiously, "Your Majesty, this is bad. Something big has happened in the southeast."

Southeast is putting on a play, so it might be a bit noisy, but it’s not a big deal.

Wanli thought that Yu Zigao and Li Yuansheng were too scary and had frightened the officials in the coastal prefectures and counties.

Who knew that when he took the urgent report and took a look at it, it turned out to be not the case at all.

The Nanjing Military Department urgently reported that a large number of craftsmen from Suzhou Prefecture and Songjiang Prefecture in Nanzhili, Jiaxing Prefecture, Hangzhou Prefecture, Ningbo Prefecture in Zhejiang Province, and Fuzhou Prefecture in Fujian Province gathered outside the gates of the prefectures and county governments to demand their wages!
That large stack of urgent reports was sent by officials from these prefectures and counties to the Nanjing Military Department.

These local officials also investigated the reasons why the craftsmen gathered to cause trouble.

The craftsmen all said the same thing: because of the pirates looting the goods, the merchants suffered heavy losses and had no money to pay the workshops that supplied them. The workshops that supplied the goods had not paid the craftsmen for more than a year, and they could not survive.

As for why they gathered outside the provincial and county government offices to cause trouble, it was because someone told the craftsmen that maritime merchants did not actually make much money, and most of the money was given to local officials and officials of wealthy maritime merchant families.

They didn't dare to ask officials from wealthy maritime merchants for their wages, so they could only ask local officials.

This is another chain of tactics used by the Zhejiang Party!
These guys wrote, directed and acted out their own story, saying that a large group of pirates were robbing goods on the southeast coast, causing heavy losses to merchants. They then used this as an excuse to stop the supplying workshops from paying the craftsmen, forcing the craftsmen to gather together and cause trouble!

No, aren’t craftsmen afraid of the government?
This is impossible!
Would the craftsmen dare to cause trouble outside the government office?
This is not normal!
Wanli thought about it carefully, then said decisively: "Quickly summon Luo Sigong to come to the audience."

After a while, Luo Sigong walked over quickly.

After the emperor and his ministers exchanged greetings, Wanli instructed, "Hurry up and have the secret guards in Suzhou and other places find out why the craftsmen there dared to cause trouble outside the government office."

(End of this chapter)