Although the route was changed temporarily, local officials were already aware of it.
After all, when a team of nearly a thousand people comes, they need to prepare in advance for food, drinks, and toilette. There is already a fast boat that has set off in advance to make arrangements.
The officials probably heard about the Emperor's temper, so the prefects and county magistrates all stayed in their respective yamen to work, and at the same time sent their confidants to Daming Town to wait at all times.
As soon as the fleet arrived, these confidants immediately returned to the capital and county to report the news.
The pier in Daming Town is very small and has been cleared half a month in advance. Ships are not allowed to stay here for a long time to prevent the Emperor's fleet from having no place to dock.
This was a real nuisance to the people. Many businesses in the town could not be opened, so that the Daming Town that Zhu Guoxiang saw was a little deserted.
Currently, there are only twenty-seven towns in the country that have Pinguan assigned to manage them. Except for Daming Town, the rest are all economically developed and densely populated.
The official official name of the town mayor is the town supervisor, and there are two types: the seventh rank and the eighth rank.
The supervisor of Daming Town was from the seventh rank and was called Shi Jizhi.
When he heard that the fleet was coming, he rushed out of the office and took a group of subordinates to the dock to greet them.
Actually, there are only three official staff, and the rest are white servants (temporary workers).
Formal officials must be approved by the superior department and reported to the Ministry of Personnel for registration. For example, formal officials in the county government must pass the assessment of the officials of the government office (or state government) and then report to the Ministry of Personnel at different levels.
As for the informal officials of the county government, the county government office can handle them, and state officials generally do not have to deal with them.
Even officials with the same rank are now divided into the pure and the unclean. Their own classification is not recognized by the court.
The civil servants in the central cabinet, ministries, courtyards, and temples call themselves "Confucian officials" and look down on officials at other levels of yamen. These people often have the reputation of being a scholar, and they only take the central official examination after failing to pass the examination many times. Even
There are still a few who have the reputation of being a civil servant.
The civil servants in the main departments of the provinces, prefectures and prefectures call themselves "jing officials" and look down on the officials in other yamen, among whom there are many who have the reputation of being scholars.
There are many such classifications, which have formed a chain of discrimination.
Scribe, scholar, code official, collector, etc., there are a lot of self-proclaimed unofficial titles!
The more elegant the name, the closer it is to the top of the chain of discrimination.
"The Emperor has returned to his hometown!"
"The Emperor has returned to his hometown!"
The shouts came one after another, spreading from the center of the town to the surrounding areas. Some people even rowed boats and chanted towards both sides of the Han River and its tributaries.
The crowds are getting bigger and bigger, and if you can't squeeze through, you go to the mountains and look out from the trees.
In fact, there are not many "aboriginals" in Daming Town.
Especially the original people of Daming Township, because they followed the Zhu family and his sons in the army, all those who survived became officials and generals. Those who died also received pensions and preferential treatment. In Henan and Hubei, their families were given more fertile land.
So people moved away one after another, and no more than 30% remained.
Most of the people in Daming Town in front of me moved here later, and they mainly fled from the mountains.
But regardless of whether they were "aboriginals" or not, they all regarded the Supreme Emperor as a fellow countryman, and Yourong Yan seemed to have a close relationship with the royal family.
After the town supervisor Shi Jizhi led the officials and people to visit him, he accompanied them cautiously: "Your Majesty, the streets in Daming Town have not been expanded much, and there is only one more inn in the town. The town government is also very small..."
"Just live as you arranged." Zhu Guoxiang said.
Shi Jizhi said: "After all, this area is surrounded by mountains and rivers, and there is not much flat land for camping. I have vacated many residential houses, and your Majesty's entourage needs to live temporarily in people's homes."
Zhu Guoxiang nodded and said: "Okay." He then ordered the eunuch beside him, "Remember to compensate the people who borrowed the houses to live in."
Immediately, an old friend came forward to pay his respects.
A man in his thirties came to Zhu Guoxiang with his wife and children: "Little Min Tian Zhifang, pay homage to your majesty, pay homage to the saint, pay homage to..."
Zhu Guoxiang immediately had an impression: "Is your father Tian Er?"
"Exactly, your Majesty still remembers it," Tian Zhifang said happily, "His Majesty himself gave the name to the little fellow back then."
"Why don't I remember?"
Zhu Guoxiang smiled and said: "My father and son passed through this place and lived and ate at your house. Where are your father and brother?"
Tian Zhifang said: "My parents, brother and sister are all in other places. My parents died of illness a few years ago. The eldest brother is working as a military attache, and the sister is married to a civil servant. The second brother died in the war with the Jin Kingdom, and one of his sons also became a military attaché.
, I also have a son who has been admitted as a scholar. I am the only one who is not good enough. His Majesty was still young when he started the army, so he stayed here to take care of some family business."
Zhu Guoxiang nodded and said, "It's okay to stay in your hometown. Where is your third uncle?"
Tian Zhifang said: "The third uncle's family has moved away. All the paddy fields and tea mountains of the third uncle's family were given to me. The dry fields of the third uncle's family were given to the village neighbors."
Zhu Guoxiang pointed to the old inn in the town: "Is this yours too?"
Tian Zhifang said: "His Majesty gave the inn to my father, and my father left the inn to me."
"Then you must be the richest man in Daming Town." Zhu Guoxiang joked.
Tian Zhifang chuckled and did not defend himself.
Shangbai Village is also under the jurisdiction of Daming Town, so the richest man in Daming Town must be Da Lang of the Bai family!
After chatting with Tian Zhifang, another middle-aged man came forward: "Zhang Lin, the boy from Mipu, pays homage to His Majesty and pays homage to the saint..."
Zhu Guoxiang had no memory at first, but when he heard about the rice shop, he immediately remembered it and asked: "How much rice can one penny buy?"
"A handful." Zhang Lin replied.
Zhu Guoxiang shook his head: "Not enough."
Zhang Lin said: "Then grab another handful."
Zhu Guoxiang laughed heartily.
Shen Yourong said: "I have never bought rice from your shop, but I have sold wheat in your shop."
Zhang Lin said: "The sage's wheat is very good, and the bran is winnowed cleanly."
Shen Yourong asked: "Now you open your own rice shop?"
Zhang Lin said: "Thanks to the reward from Your Majesty and the Saint, I now open a tea and rice shop. I sell not only rice, but also tea. The business is very good. Especially the tea comes from the tea mountain rewarded by Your Majesty. Businessmen from other places pass by by boat.
When I was young, I came to Xiaomin's shop specifically to buy tea, saying that drinking this tea would bring me royal aura."
Everyone present laughed.
"Are these your children?" Zhu Guoxiang asked.
Zhang Lin said: "The eldest daughter is already married. There is also a son who can go to school. When Bai Hou (Bai Sheng) returned to his hometown last time, he was already studying in the county school, and later he entered Yangzhou Academy.
.That boy has passed the scholar examination, and now he has transferred to Hanzhong Fuxue to study."
"Then I wish your son the best in high school." Zhu Guoxiang said.
Zhang Lin was overjoyed and said with a grin: "Your Majesty's golden words, if that kid fails the exam next time, I will break his legs!"
Zhu Guoxiang asked: "Did the candidate fail the examination?"
Zhang Lin said: "I took the exam once, but I didn't pass."
Zhu Guoxiang chatted with a few old friends for a while, and villagers from Shangbai Village and Xiabai Village came one after another.
The children who had listened to Ju Ming telling the story of Journey to the West were all in their thirties and forties, and they brought their children to pay homage to him.
There were also many old people who were so excited that they shed tears when they saw Zhu Guoxiang. They told confused stories about the time when the Zhu family and his son led the villagers to defend against bandits. They also said that if Emperor Zhu had not been brave, Shangbai Village would have been looted by bandits.
Bai Dalang also came by boat.
Zhu Guoxiang asked: "Your second brother did not return to his hometown after resigning?"
Bai Chongwen said: "The second brother liked the water town in the south of the Yangtze River. After resigning, he moved to Fenghua County, Ningbo Prefecture."
"He ran far away," Zhu Guoxiang complained.
Bai Erlang is very smart and knows how to take advantage of it. When he was the governor of Iwami Yinshan, he embezzled tens of thousands of guan. He was given land, houses, and shops and sold them for more than 10,000 guan. He also had other legal income and gray income.
income.
With a total savings of about 100,000 guan, he resigned and went to Jiangnan to "live in seclusion". And because he was old enough and at the same level, he could get a pension as long as he was still alive.
He didn't even live in the capital cities of Hangzhou and Ningbo, but chose to buy land and build a house in the suburbs of Fenghua County. The Emperor Tiangao became a wealthy man. In the past few years, he also started a small business, purchased some goods, shipped them to Ningbo Port and sold them to the sea.
business.
It's called living a carefree life.
To be continued...