Chapter 901: The beginning of the 21st year of Jiajing
The 21st year of Jiajing is about to come, and the eve of the first lunar month is the old year's New Year's Eve. This may be the most deserted New Year's Eve that Qin Dewei has experienced since time travel.
Except for Mrs. Li, none of her family members are around. At most, she only has a half-bred relative named Li Chengliang.
Qin Zhongtang couldn't stop sighing. This was probably because he had no control over his officialdom. In order to reunite thousands of families, he had to leave town and endure the isolation and loneliness of the governor of Zhejiang and Fujian.
After much deliberation, he decided that if he still wanted to be lively on this New Year's Eve, he could only stay up late with the shogunate's staff.
Among the current members of the shogunate, those from Jiangnan like Tang Shunzhi and Wang Shizhen, whose hometowns are not far from Hangzhou, are only a few days away, and they all took leave to go back to their hometowns to celebrate the New Year.
And Chen Feng, who has a close relationship with him, was sent to Ningbo and is still angry about not coming to Hangzhou to celebrate the New Year.
As for the people recruited locally in Hangzhou, they will definitely go back to their hometowns. There is no reason to abandon their families and spend the New Year with Qin Dewei.
So after looking around, Qin Zhongtang seemed to have no choice but to call Wu Chengen together.
"If we have nothing else to do tomorrow night, let's watch the New Year's Eve together!" Qin Zhongtang greeted Wu Cheng'en, who was still on duty in the reception room, in an amiable and approachable manner.
Wu Chengen was stunned, and said a little embarrassedly: "Student, I already have another appointment, and I want to spend the holidays with Xu Wenchang."
Qin Dewei said in surprise: "Isn't he from Shaoxing? He's so close and he hasn't gone home yet?"
Wu Chengen said sympathetically: "He said he no longer has a home, so he won't go back."
Regarding Xu Wenchang's life experience, it is still worthy of sympathy. After Qin Zhongtang finished sighing, he suddenly asked suspiciously: "How did you two get together? Where are you going to celebrate the festival?"
Wu Chengen laughed "hehehehe" a few times. No need to say it clearly, even a man would understand.
As the saying goes, there is heaven above, and there are Suzhou and Hangzhou below. As a prosperous metropolis, Hangzhou is naturally indispensable for the business of Qinlou and Chuguan, and the quality is not bad.
It's quite fashionable. Are you going to have a New Year's Eve carnival? Qin Dewei couldn't help but scolded: "Now is the period of national mourning, no entertainment is allowed!"
Wu Chengen explained: "They are not open for business, they are just getting together with close friends to celebrate the festival together! Could it be that because of the national mourning, even the Spring Festival cannot be celebrated?"
Qin Zhongtang urged again with earnest words: "The shogunate gave you a high salary of fifty taels, not just for you to spend it all on debauchery!
You can just go by yourself, and if you take Xu Wenchang with you, you are not afraid of leading young people astray and leading others astray!"
Wu Chengen looked at Teacher Qin in astonishment. When he failed the Nanjing Provincial Examination and was discouraged, which thirteen-year-old boy sent him to Qinhuai Old Hospital to enlighten him, and then opened the door to a new world?
"How about we go together, teacher?" Wu Chengen thought for a long time and felt that the crux might be here, so he tentatively invited him.
Qin Dewei yelled again: "How could I follow you and mess around! What are you thinking about?"
It is now a period of national mourning, and his status is too eye-catching. If someone reports him for impeachment, there will be no other way out except resignation.
Wu Chengen sighed secretly. At this time, Teacher Qin seemed to have a sense of "the older you get, the less courageous you become."
After finishing work today, Wu Chengen met Xu Wenchang and walked out excitedly, preparing to go to the scheduled New Year's Eve carnival.
The two of them walked to the alley outside the shogunate gate when they suddenly heard someone calling: "Little brother! Little brother!"
Wu Chengen turned around and saw that the person calling was an old man in his fifties, and he couldn't help but be filled with suspicion.
He must have recognized the wrong person, or called someone else. Wu Chengen was about to continue walking away, but the old man chased after him and blocked the way forward.
Before Wu Chengen said anything, Xu Wenchang, who was next to him, suddenly came up to him and said in a cold voice to the old man: "Brother, why are you here?"
The old man said to Xu Wenchang again: "It's so hard for you to find me for my brother!"
Wu Chengen was startled and looked at Xu Wenchang, who was only twenty years old, and then at the fifty-year-old man opposite.
There is such a big age difference between the two of them. Some people believe that they are father and son, but they are actually brothers?
Xu Wenchang turned to Wu Chengen and said, "Senior Wu, please go over first! I'll have a few words with my brother."
Wu Chengen didn't mind and said, "It's okay, we'll talk about it later. If you really can't go, I'll go there by myself."
It turns out that Xu Wenchang's life experience was indeed quite tragic. He was the son of his father in his later years, but his father passed away a hundred days after his birth. Then when he was young, his biological mother was kicked out of the house by her aunt.
After Xu Wenchang partnered with Qin Dewei to do cross talk in Nanjing, even his aunt passed away, and Xu Wenchang has been following his eldest brother Xu Huai ever since.
Xu Huai was more than thirty years older than Xu Wen. The two brothers had no affection at all. Xu Huai himself was not very wealthy, and he naturally didn't treat Xu Wen well either.
So when Xu Wenchang followed Xu Huai, he lived under someone else's roof and had a very bad life.
Later, Xu Wenchang couldn't bear it anymore and ran away from home in anger and went north to join Qin Dewei.
Fortunately, he was taken in by Qin Zhongtang and treated fairly well, so Xu Wenchang finally lived a comfortable life for a few days.
The shadow of his childhood was so profound that in Xu Wenchang's heart, he no longer wanted to recognize his relatives and regarded himself as a loner.
Unexpectedly, Xu Huai took the initiative to come over today, especially at the end of the year, when the family should be reunited.
Although Wu Cheng'en didn't quite understand the inside story, he could probably guess it. It was actually a story of "rich people live in the mountains but have distant relatives".
Xu Wenchang's relatives, who had been treated coldly and indifferently at that time, now came to visit them again when they heard that Xu Wenchang had become prosperous and had become a key figure in the Southeast Shogunate.
Xu Wenchang did not avoid Wu Chengen, and said to his elder brother impatiently: "What are you doing here?"
Xu Huai smiled and said: "I was waiting around at home, but I didn't see my little brother coming home to celebrate the New Year, so I came over to have a look."
Xu Wenchang still said very coldly: "No need, you and I brothers have already separated. We can each live our own lives!"
Xu Huai pretended to be angry and said: "Brother, what are you talking about? You haven't even gotten married, so what do you mean by separating the family?
Is it possible that now that you are rich, you don’t want to recognize your poor relatives?”
Xu Wenchang's temperament is one of extreme love and hate. He immediately said: "So what if you don't recognize me? Didn't you also not want to recognize me as your younger brother?"
Xu Huai jumped to his feet and said: "Xu Wei! You really don't want to recognize your relatives! I have raised you for so many years in vain!"
In order to avoid Xu Wenchang's embarrassment, Wu Cheng'en did not want to listen to the conversation between the brothers and stood a little further away.
Not long after, I saw Xu Wenchang walking over and said, "Let's go!"
Wu Chengen asked: "Aren't you going to accompany your brother anymore?"
"Just do whatever you have to do!" Xu Wenchang said angrily.
Wu Chengen inexplicably remembered a saying that Qin Zhongtang often said: Today you ignore me, but tomorrow I will make it impossible for you to reach high.
Then he said with great concern: "Are you okay over there?"
Xu Wenchang replied: "What can happen?"
As an outsider, Wu Chengen couldn't say anything about other people's family affairs. He just praised him sincerely: "I just think that your father is in good health."
Xu Wenchang: "."
Wu Cheng'en truly admires him. It can be seen from the age difference between the brothers. When Xu Wenchang was born, Xu Wenchang's father must have been already very old, and he could still have children. He couldn't accept it.
When the two were about to turn around and leave, Xu Huai suddenly shouted loudly from behind: "Xu Wei! Don't you want to know the whereabouts of your biological mother?"
Xu Wenchang immediately stood still, as if he had been subjected to a restraining technique. He was confused for a moment and didn't know whether he should talk to him or not.
When he was young, his biological mother was kicked out of the house by his aunt, which was Xu Wenchang's biggest childhood shadow.
Wu Chengen sighed. It seemed that he might be the only one to go to this New Year's Eve party. It was also good. The two beauties he booked could all be his own.
Qin Zhongtang didn't know what happened to his subordinates, so in the end he had no choice but to drag Lady Li along and spend the most deserted New Year's Eve.
But starting from New Year's Day, the desertedness no longer exists. After all, this is the shogunate, and the owner of the shogunate is the Grand Scholar of Muyingden!
How could the entire city of Hangzhou not come to the shogunate to pay New Year's greetings as long as it had something to do with the official name?
For general New Year greetings as a courtesy, just drop a post at the door. But if you want to send New Year greetings to Qin Zhongtang, you must be present in person to show respect and sincerity.
As for whether Qin Zhongtang will see him or not, that is Qin Zhongtang's business.
In this way, it has been the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, and the New Year Festival in the 21st year of Jiajing has been completed. People's production and life have gradually switched from the festival state to the normal mode.
The members of the shogunate also gradually returned, and all work began to operate again.
Xu Wenchang's main job in the shogunate was intelligence collection and analysis. In early February, he took the latest situation summary and reported to Qin Zhongtang:
"The rural soldiers of Ningbo Prefecture have been formed, and their number is three thousand, which has just reached the upper limit stipulated by the imperial court."
Qin Dewei asked in surprise: "It's so fast?"
He originally thought that it would have to wait until February for the formation of rural soldiers from Ningbo's wealthy families, but he didn't expect that these wealthy families were so impatient.
Although the combat effectiveness of the rural soldiers is definitely not very good, the formation speed is indeed as fast as lightning.
You know, several months have passed since Qi Jiguang and his son went to Yiwu to recruit troops, and they are still training and getting used to it.
Xu Wenchang analyzed it smoothly: "First, Ningbo has already formed rural soldiers, which has a certain foundation, and it is not completely starting from scratch;
Secondly, Ningbo’s local big business owners do have money. As long as they have money, it will be easier to do things and recruitment will be faster.”
Then Xu Wenchang went on to say: "Nowadays, in the name of preparing for Japanese invaders, these rural soldiers guard the land and water routes from the interior to Ningbo.
Then, in the name of strictly preventing Tongfan and the Japanese, they strictly inspected business travel. Anyone with large quantities of silk, tea, porcelain, etc. would definitely face difficulties.
The lighter case will result in a penalty of 1/12 points, while the worst case will be all confiscation! Therefore, the channel for transporting goods from the mainland to Ningbo has encountered huge obstacles, and merchants have already complained!
Moreover, there is news from Yan Shifan that the number of ships released has also dropped sharply recently. The bottom line is that the cargo has decreased, and the number of ships taking the ships out to sea will naturally decrease."
The goods have been blocked by the soldiers at various checkpoints in Ningbo Prefecture, so of course there will be fewer goods that can be transported to the seaside and put on the ship.
Qin Zhongtang sneered a few times and said sarcastically: "These people are really capable. I gave them a chance to form rural soldiers. They didn't think about protecting their families and serving the country, but they were used for personal gain!"
Xu Wenchang said: "They are not stupid, and there is not much problem in name. After all, the officers and soldiers of the guard station can only guard the coast and the city of Ningbo. The inland direction requires supplementary defense by rural soldiers.
What's more, the rural soldiers guarding the water and land checkpoints are in the name of preparing for Japanese pirates, and there is no problem with this."
Qin Dewei asked in detail: "Then in what name did they allocate the goods? Who gave them the power?"
Xu Wenchang looked at the information and reported: "Whenever a large amount of goods is shipped to Ningbo, they will definitely ask the owner of the goods to explain their whereabouts.
But Zhongtang, you also know that in actual circumstances, Hongshang dare not tell the whereabouts of the goods, and they cannot publicly explain how a large amount of goods are digested in Ningbo.
So this gives an opportunity to take advantage of, and they will confiscate the goods or draw points for the crime of collaborating with the Japanese.
And they openly stated that all these forfeits and points deductions were to be used to maintain the ranks of the rural soldiers!
So from beginning to end, at least on the surface, they are defensible."
Qin Dewei continued to sneer: "In the name of preparing for Japanese invaders, you can do whatever you want?"
Xu Wenchang reminded: "At the official level, it is indeed difficult to condemn and reprimand them. Their actions are indeed in line with the will of the court! If the central court wants to make a fuss, it can only find other ways."
Qin Dewei turned to Li Chengliang on the other side and ordered: "Go and send the order, the officers and soldiers of Biaoying are ready to go out, and be ready to go to Ningbo Prefecture within three days!
In addition, 2,000 men and horses from the nearby guard post will be mobilized to accompany them to increase the momentum!"
The work of the shogunate is divided into many aspects. Most people are only responsible for one aspect and do not know much about other aspects. This is also Qin Zhongtang's intention to prevent leaks of secrets.
So Xu Wenchang was a little surprised when he heard this. Is Qin Zhongtang planning to go out on a large scale to directly wipe out the local soldiers?
Then Qin Dewei said: "I need someone to go to Ningbo first, but there is no suitable person. The remaining people are all loyal and honest gentlemen."
Xu Wenchang suddenly remembered something: "My brother and nephew arrived in Hangzhou recently and came to ask for my help in finding some errands."
"Tell me the truth, what is their character like?" Qin Dewei asked with a half-smile, "Can they be used?"
Xu Wenchang felt that this was a test. After thinking about it, he gritted his teeth and said: "My brother has a temperament that flatters others and suppresses others. He has a successful face and is very vain. Give him a little sunshine and he will be brilliant!"
No matter what, you can't cheat Qin Zhongtang, just do whatever you want.
If you rely on concealment, even if you are lucky for a while, it will only arouse Qin Zhongtang's anger and disgust in the end.
Qin Dewei laughed "haha" a few times, then slapped the table and shouted: "Isn't this the talent I need?"
Xu Wenchang: "."
Qin Zhongtang doesn't seem to have a fever, so why is he so confused and talking nonsense?
5555, please bear with me for a moment. The current situation regarding masks has been like this recently. We are in the pilot area and all the family members are like this. How can we have the energy and mood to think carefully. But today is fine. My family has survived this time. Tomorrow