Su Ze looked at Xiong Wu thoughtfully, but did not answer his question.
Xiong Wu saw Su Ze's expressionless face and said slightly disappointed:
"My dear husband, what else do you want to ask?"
Su Ze shook his head and said: "Originally, I was only guessing at 70% or 80%, but now I am 100% sure. You are not doing well in staying in Changning Guard."
Su Ze continued: "From today on, you will stay in the punishment hall behind the temple. I will ask my old grandpa to find someone to watch you."
Xiong Wu raised his broken arm and said, "What bad things can I do like this?"
Su Ze shook his head and said, "I don't believe you."
Xiong Wu said no more, and stood up obediently and said: "One more news for my young husband. Zhu Qi gathered people on Meiyue Island overseas and set up a salt farm on the island to make a living by selling salt. Their group of Japanese pirates are probably
There are more than thirty people, and they used to be salt workers from kitchen households, so it should be easy for my young husband to destroy them."
Su Ze escorted Xiong Wu back to his family temple and told his old man about Xiong Wu.
The old man immediately sent a young clansman to imprison Xiong Wu in the punishment hall of the ancestral hall.
The punishment hall is the place where the ancestral hall punishes those who violate the clan rules. This is a single cell.
After locking up Xiong Wu, Su Ze told his grandpa about what he encountered in the ghost market. The grandpa stroked his beard and said:
"The old man of Meiyue Island knows this. This island is not far from the shore. There is no fresh water on the island, so most of the Japanese pirates look down on this island. I didn't expect that Zhu Qi actually occupied this island. It's a pity.
This Zhu Qi didn't prepare for the Japanese and put the commander-in-chief on the list, so there would be no military merit in destroying him."
Su Ze asked doubtfully: "Didn't the imperial court issue a decree that there would be rewards for killing Japanese pirates?"
The old man said: "The ones who are rewarded are the Japanese pirates who have been registered by the Japanese pirates general headquarters. They are the big Japanese pirates who have gathered at least 500 people and have more than three warships. Only those who fight such big Japanese pirates can get rewards."
"Can you beat it?"
"Of course we can't defeat them. Our Chang Ning Guard has a hundred households, only a hundred soldiers, and only one warship left. How can we defeat these big Japanese pirates?"
Su Ze was speechless for a while, then he asked again:
"Then the government doesn't care about Japanese pirates like Zhu Qi?"
"There are so many Japanese pirates like Zhu Qi on the sea, how can they be wiped out completely? The government will not send troops to wipe them out."
Su Ze was speechless again for a while. When he was working as a salt worker, he was squeezed to death by the guarding eunuch, but he became a Japanese pirate and was free and at ease. No wonder the Japanese rebellions in the southeast were rising one after another, and they could not be wiped out completely.
Su Ze asked: "What if we capture Zhu Qi and other Japanese pirates and send them to the county government office? Will there be any reward?"
The old man shook his head and said:
"The location of Meiyue Island is between the two counties, so it's a bit troublesome to clear the harvest."
"Why is this?"
The old man said: "Since Admiral Zhu's case, counting the gains has been left to the local prefectures."
Su Ze's Level 4 history came into play, and the history of the Ming Dynasty that he had studied before traveling came to mind clearly. He quickly remembered a major case in Fujian and Zhejiang during the Jiajing period.
"Admiral Zhu? But Zhu Zichun, former Admiral of Fujian and Zhejiang, Admiral Zhu?"
The old man glanced at Su Ze in surprise, nodded and said:
"It's Mr. Zhu."
Zhu Wan, whose courtesy name was Zichun, was a famous minister during the Jiajing period. He once rose to the rank of admiral to supervise the coastal defense and military affairs of Zhejiang and Fujian, and also patrolled Zhejiang. He was a well-known minister who led the anti-Japanese war a few years ago.
In the 27th year of Jiajing's reign, Zhu Wan defeated 7,000 Japanese pirates on Shuangyu Island. However, he was soon impeached by the imperial censor, saying that he had committed a crime while taking merit.
Emperor Jiajing asked him to return to his place of origin for treatment. Zhu Wan, who had a strong personality, committed suicide by taking medicine. From then on, the coastal defenses in Fujian and Zhejiang were in bad condition, and Japanese pirates, large and small, emerged one after another.
It is now the thirty-third year of Jiajing, and Zhu Wan died in the twenty-eighth year of Jiajing, only five years ago.
Su Ze has also studied this period of history. The scandal of Zhu Wan involved many people, including powerful celebrities in Fujian and Zhejiang, and even officials from Fujian and Zhejiang who were behind it.
There have been divergent opinions among historians on how many of the Japanese pirates along the southeast coast were real Japanese pirates and how many were local merchants and common people in the southeast coast.
However, one thing that is certain is that a large number of Japanese pirates are local maritime merchants in the southeast. They complete smuggling activities in the name of Japanese pirates and earn profits from maritime trade.
Zhu Wan's work on the forbidden sea in Fujian and Zhejiang offended the local wealthy families in Fujian and Zhejiang, and he has been under constant attack since he took office.
After Zhu Wan committed suicide, the power gained was transferred from the military and administrative system of the military guard station to the civil and administrative system of the county government.
Calculating military merit is one of the most important tasks of the army. After the task of confirming the gains was handed over to the local government offices, the motivation of the local police stations to eliminate Japanese pirates was greatly reduced.
The reason is naturally very simple. You worked hard to kill a Japanese pirate, but in the end the local official said it was not a Japanese pirate. Not only did you have no military merit, but you might also be punished like Zhu Wan for "killing a good person and taking merit for yourself".
The old man said: "Zhu Qi killed the young eunuch of the Shibo Division to rebel. His identity as a Japanese pirate is confirmed, and the county government does not dare to reverse the case."
"But this group of Japanese pirates has more than 30 people. The difficulty lies in this number."
Su Ze quickly asked: "Why is this?"
The old man sighed and said: "The Dusi Yamen conducts assessments for all prefectures and counties. If there are more than 30 Japanese rebels in the local area, the local officials will be demoted to one level after passing the exam. Meiyue Island is between the two counties, so there will be a lot of blame at that time.
"
Su Ze was completely speechless at this moment. It's no wonder that the Japanese rebellion in the Southeast continued for decades. The whole Ming Dynasty was really in a mess.
The officers and soldiers did not dare to suppress the big pirates, but the officers and soldiers suppressed the small pirates and affected the performance of local officials, which is not considered credit.
The Kaizhong method has been corrupted, and no merchants have come to the Changning Guardhouse for decades. The guardhouse can only rely on its own farming to support itself.
Some guards even directly participated in smuggling activities, or even colluded with pirates to rob the countryside.
Su Ze now feels sad that the Ming Dynasty could still survive for ninety years before perishing. This is simply a miracle!
"Then how to deal with these Japanese pirates?"
The old man sighed and said:
"If the imperial court ignores those Japanese pirates who commit heinous crimes and kill many people, the scholars in the countryside will spend money to offer rewards, recruit local warriors, or ask the guards to send troops to exterminate them."
"Those like Zhu Qi who have not done much evil will be left alone. Maybe when they are recruited, they will fill the vacancies in a certain guard station and eat the royal food."
It was really an eye-opener for Su Ze. It turned out that in the Ming Dynasty, rebellion was still a circuitous path to examination and compilation.
I don’t know how those who fought hard in the sea of questions in later generations would feel when they learned that there was such a way to enter the establishment in the Ming Dynasty.
However, accepting Zhao'an in the Ming Dynasty was also extremely risky. The Ming Dynasty was famous for its tendency to go back on its word, and countless rebel leaders were killed after Zhao'an.
In contrast, the Song Dynasty court was more humane. Accepting Zhao'an was a shortcut for ordinary people to become officials. It truly made officials and bandits one family.