Today, after Xu Wenchang and Qin Zhongtang talked secretly for a while, he felt that his outlook was completely ruined. He suddenly left the shogunate office and came to a small hotel two intersections away.
His half-brother Xu Huai, who is more than thirty years older, lives in this small hotel.
Xu Wenchang and Xu Huai had little brotherly affection, otherwise they would not have run away from home to join Qin Zhongtang.
But he didn't expect that Xu Huai would find him after he heard that Xu Wenchang had become a confidant of Qin Zhongtang.
Ever since Xu Huai arrived a few years ago, he has refused to leave, and even refused to reveal the whereabouts of Xu Wenchang's biological mother, clearly wanting to gain some benefits from Xu Wenchang.
Although Xu Wenchang is extremely talented, he is still only a twenty-year-old young man, and his talent is not in the world of people. He really can't cope with his rogue brother.
Moreover, the elder brother obviously wanted to take advantage of the privileges of the shogunate to do something for personal gain. Although Xu Wenchang was a close confidant of Qin Zhongtang, he was still too young and could not bear to do such a thing.
But Xu Wenchang, who was a clean and self-sufficient man, never expected that Qin Zhongtang would actually force him to do something about using power for personal gain today!
After entering the house, Xu Huai said to Xu Wenchang dissatisfied: "I've been waiting for more than a month, why can't you get something done?
They say you are a close confidant of Qin Zhongtang, is that true? Even if you are not a close confidant, just because you work in the shogunate, you should be able to help me a lot."
Xu Wenchang said angrily: "I've hired you a job! The shogunate will hire you as an official!"
The previous generation of the Xu family had been officials, and this generation was all well-educated, and Xu Huai was no exception. He was fully qualified to serve as an official.
Xu Huai was overjoyed when he heard this. Is there such a good thing? Originally he just wanted to get some errands and make some money, but he didn't expect to directly join the system.
Xu Wenchang was too lazy to tell Xu Huai more, "There is a mission coming soon. I have also asked the Zhongtang for instructions and sent you to do it!"
"What kind of mission?" Xu Huai said, rubbing his hands excitedly. Anyone who knows anything knows that only with missions can there be success.
Xu Wenchang replied: "I will appoint you as the commissioner to inspect the soldiers in Ningbo Prefecture! Eliminate unqualified soldiers!"
So Xu Huai became even more excited. These are real powers! This time he didn’t come to Hangzhou in vain. It was a dreamlike result!
It can also be seen from this that Xu Wenchang is definitely a confidant of Qin Zhongtang, and he can be bolder and make more money.
After thinking about it, Xu Huai said hypocritically: "Don't worry, I will do my job seriously and will never embarrass you."
Xu Wenchang stared straight at Xu Huai and said what was probably the most against his will in his life: "If it's not for money, why should I use you?"
Xu Huai was stunned for a moment, and responded with surprise and joy: "As the saying goes, brothers working together can cut through gold! With your words, I feel relieved!"
Then he couldn't wait to ask: "To avoid a long night and many dreams, when do you want to set off?"
Xu Wenchang really couldn't bear to see Xu Huai's face, so he turned around and replied: "Go to the shogunate tomorrow to complete the formalities, and you can set off the day after tomorrow!"
Exactly as Xu Wenchang said, Xu Huai spent the most dreamy two days in his life, joined the shogunate in the blink of an eye, and became the inspection commissioner in the blink of an eye.
The word "commissioner" is said to have been invented by Qin Zhongtang. According to Xu Huai's understanding, it is equivalent to the "imperial envoy" sent by the shogunate.
I heard that even the son of the chief minister of the dynasty, Yan Shifan, who was born in the fifth rank, was only a commissioner in the shogunate.
However, Mr. Yan's commissioner was the fattest commissioner. Xu Huai did not dare to think about it. He would be satisfied if he could just be a commissioner inspecting the rural soldiers, especially in such a fat place as Ningbo Prefecture.
So Xu Huai took two official ships and about a dozen guards, assumed the title of shogunate, and set out in high spirits.
Enjoying the preferential treatment at the inns along the way, he felt that he had lived for more than fifty years and finally looked like a human being.
It was not until before departure that Xu Huai revealed the whereabouts of Xu Wen's birth mother, who turned out to be a slave in a wealthy family in Shaoxing Prefecture.
Originally, Xu Wenchang thought that now was a critical moment and thought about searching for his biological mother after this month.
But when Qin Zhongtang learned about it, he gave Xu Wenchang leave and asked him to go to Shaoxing Mansion to pick up his biological mother so that they could have a family relationship.
Qin Dewei knew that the main reason why Xu Wenchang became mentally ill in history was that he had encountered family misfortunes continuously since childhood.
So I hope that finding the biological mother who was kicked out of the house ten years ago can reverse Xu Wenchang's fate, and that time travelers will always do some good deeds.
The organizational form of the rural soldiers here in Ningbo is a little different from that of the official army. There are one hundred people in one armor and five hundred people in one general.
The three thousand rural soldiers were divided into six general groups and thirty A-groups. Of course, the leaders of each group were members of the major families.
With the addition of these three thousand local soldiers, the confidence of the major families suddenly and inexplicably became stronger. With the backing of force, the feeling was different.
Sometimes I think about it, and I am really grateful to the pirates. If it weren't for the pirates causing trouble, how could the imperial court allow big families like them to form rural soldiers?
There was a younger brother of the Zhang family, Zhang Qishu, who originally worked as a dentist in Sanjiangkou and exploited merchants for a living. Unfortunately, he accidentally offended the shogunate's goods and Yan Shoufu's son, and was seriously injured in the end.
After the injury healed, all the smuggling channels were taken away by the shogunate and Sankaiwei, so he couldn't be a fan.
Fortunately, the local government began to recruit more rural soldiers. Zhang Qishu, relying on the Zhang family's background, became a top official and led a hundred rural soldiers to guard the inner canal waterway between Cixi County and Ningbo Fucheng.
In Zhang Qishu's eyes, although he was originally a Yaren and now a leader of the rural soldiers, his occupation was different, but the things he did were the same.
Aren't they all blackmailing merchants and exploiting property? How much difference can there be? It's just that in the past it was in the name of intermediary fees, but now it is in the name of preparing for Japanese pirates.
[To be honest, I’ve been using the Changing Source app recently to read and catch up on new books. It allows me to switch sources and read aloud with many different sounds. It’s available on both Android and Apple.]
Who knows that Ningbo is a treasure land? Foreign merchants want to traffic goods to Ningbo, so they must accept the rules of local wealthy families!
The only thing that makes Zhang Qishu doubtful is that the number of merchants and goods has begun to decrease recently. I wonder if it is the result of the rural soldiers blocking the road and drying up the lake for fishing.
But these issues are not something Zhang Qishu, a grassroots leader, needs to worry about. He believes that the elders of major families will consider them.
Although the spring in early February was still a bit cold, it was already much better than the cold winter. Zhang Qishu sat in the sun and dozed lazily.
Behind him are the inns and small towns. Travelers and merchants passing by will usually rest here. They will arrive in Ningbo at noon after setting off tomorrow.
Suddenly, two rural soldiers who were in charge of the lookout woke up Zhang Qishu, "A fleet is coming! There seem to be many cargo ships!"
Zhang Qishu trembled and asked him to wake up immediately. The presence of a cargo ship meant that money was coming in again.
Zhang Qishu immediately came to the edge of the river and saw seven or eight ships docking, but the first two ships were different from the others.
When we got closer, we saw the signs "Shogunate" and "Inspection" printed on the two ships.
This made Zhang Qishu's heart skip a beat. The last time he was unlucky, he encountered the shogunate's goods. Could it be happening again this time?
"Forget it, let's go!" Zhang Qishu greeted the village soldiers, turned around and left, pretending not to have seen him.
But someone on the bow shouted "Stop", and immediately some people got off the boat. Among them was an old man in his fifties, wearing a short winged scarf unique to officials and a green robe imitating official uniforms.
Zhang Qishu was very surprised. Instead of looking for someone else, someone else actually came to him. He looked at the old man again, wondering if he was an old official from the shogunate.
Then I saw this old official walking up to Zhang Qishu and asked arrogantly: "Are you the country soldiers guarding here?"
Zhang Qishu nodded and asked, "Who are you?"
The old official immediately showed a card and said to Zhang Qishu arrogantly: "I am Xu Huai, commissioner of the shogunate, and I have been ordered to inspect the local soldiers in Ningbo! You stand still and listen to the order!"
Zhang Qishu looked confused. People who patrol places like this usually send people to notify the front station. How can they arrive just as soon as they say so?
Xu Huai seemed to see Zhang Qishu's doubts and snorted coldly: "If you don't notify in advance, the only thing you can prevent is fraud! Now you gather the soldiers together immediately, I want to check it myself!"
Zhang Qishu looked at it again and again and concluded that the ticket was not fake and that it also had supporting official documents from the shogunate.
So although he was confused, he still gathered the rural soldiers on guard. There were about sixty or seventy of them, standing in several rows.
Xu Huai frowned and said: "Isn't it true that a hundred people have one armor? Why are there only these?"
Zhang Qishu rolled his eyes and was too lazy to answer.
The rural soldiers were established with money from local big families. What does it have to do with your shogunate? Even if you take a look at them, they are working together, but you still want to find fault?
Or are you, just a little bastard, really taking yourself seriously?
After Xu Huai glanced at it for a few more times, he suddenly shouted to Zhang Qishu: "I think your team is unusable, so we should all be eliminated! Disband now!"
Zhang Qishu was stunned and asked subconsciously: "You said we should eliminate them?"
Xu Huai replied: "This is the order of the shogunate's inspection commissioner! Do you dare to disobey?"
Then Xu Huai turned around and left. Zhang Qishu chased after him again and asked, "What do you mean?"
Xu Huai stopped and responded to Zhang Qishu: "If you don't want to be eliminated as a team of rural soldiers, each of you will receive three taels of silver. One hundred people will be three hundred taels! Before I leave tomorrow, you can hand over the silver." ."
Zhang Qishu was furious, are you kidding me? You already have to pay for the formation of rural soldiers out of your own pocket, but you still have to pay for it?
"There is absolutely no truth to this!" Zhang Qishu protested.
Xu Huai sneered: "If there is no money, we will all be eliminated! This is the opinion of the shogunate commissioner!"
Zhang Qishu angrily pointed at several cargo ships behind the two official ships and said, "Is this what the commissioner should do?"
"Bah!" Xu Huai spat at Zhang Qishu's face, "How do I act? How can you, a small country soldier leader, talk too much?
Are these merchants afraid of extortion by your local soldiers, so they voluntarily follow our official ships?
Speaking of which, I have to thank you for your tyranny of the local soldiers, otherwise these merchants would not rather give me money than follow me."
Zhang Qishu's anger has boiled up before. He has never seen such a disgusting old man!
Could it be that the shogunate sent such a thing just to disgust the place?
A strong dragon doesn't overwhelm local cowards, and it's not even a strong dragon! Are you really going to be a weak commissioner who doesn't even have an official position, and can you manipulate people from the four major families at will?
After thinking about it in his mind, Zhang Qishu warned Xu Huai: "The elimination and disbandment are not yours to decide! Commissioner Xu had better stay here for a few days to see if the Ningbo government is willing to disband this team of rural soldiers!"
Xu Huai rolled his eyes and said contemptuously: "What? The little country soldier still wants to detain this commissioner?"
Zhang Qishu waved his hand and asked his rural soldiers to surround Xu Huai: "I'm not detaining you, I'm just asking you to stay and then ask for instructions from above to solve the problem!
And I suspect that you are smuggling goods, and they are all connected to Japan! The cargo ships behind may be evidence, and we need to investigate them one by one!
This is also the duty of our rural soldiers to guard Guanjin, even if the shogunate Qin Zhongtang came in person, he would still say so!"
Xu Huai roughly pushed away the soldiers around him and shouted: "Here are the shogunate cards, who dares to stop me!"
While the two sides were confronting each other, someone suddenly exclaimed: "It's on fire! The official ship is on fire!"
Everyone turned around and saw that the shogunate commissioner's ship was on fire.
Xu Huai, who had only enjoyed the treatment of an official ship for once in his life, became anxious. Without thinking, he grabbed Zhang Qishu by the collar and shouted: "You bastards, how dare you burn the ship!"
Zhang Qishu was a little confused for a moment, feeling that this scene seemed familiar.
The last time he burned the official ship of the shogunate in front of him, this time he burned the ship in front of him again!
Damn it! Is this bullying an honest person? Why don’t you try another method?
Xu Huai waved his hand and slapped Zhang Qishu hard in the face, shouting: "If you burn the ship to detain me, just wait, the shogunate will definitely cut you into pieces!"
With a slap, Zhang Qishu woke up from his brief confusion.
The evil fire in his heart could no longer be suppressed. Zhang Qishu couldn't think of anything else. He grabbed Xu Huai with his backhand and raised his fist to hit him.
Xu Huai probably didn't expect that the other party would actually dare to attack him, a commissioner of the shogunate. Could it be that the shogunate's signboard couldn't scare people?
Then he shouted in horror: "Wait a minute, if you pay another two hundred taels, I won't care about burning the boat!"
I'm sorry for being paralyzed! Zhang Qishu's mentality was about to explode, and he punched him with his fist. If I don't beat you to death, you old guy, you won't be able to understand your thoughts!
A dozen guards brought by Xu Huai rushed forward to rescue the people, but local soldiers also surrounded them. With sophisticated weapons and large numbers, a melee broke out immediately.
In the end, it was the rural soldiers who had the upper hand due to their large numbers, and many of the commissioner's guards could not defeat them and fled.
Xu Huai, the commissioner of the shogunate, was old and frail and was no match for Zhang Qishu. He had been beaten to death and fell to the ground unable to move.
There were people nearby clapped the horse and applauded, "How magnificent! In ancient times, there was Zhang Yide who whipped the postal supervisor angrily, but today there is Zhang Qishu who angrily beats the commissioner!"
Zhang Qishu came back from his self-abasement and wanton venting of emotions. Looking at the half-dead Commissioner Xu, his heart suddenly felt cold.
Two days later, Qin Zhongtang ordered Ningbo Prefecture to disband all rural soldiers on the spot!
Another day later, Qin Zhongtang personally led thousands of troops from Hangzhou City, marching by land and water, heading east in a mighty manner, aiming directly at Ningbo Prefecture!