After coming out of the Dongchao room, everyone gradually dispersed. Now that things have happened, the outcome of the court election does not seem to be that important. The emperor's awakening is the most important event that outweighs everything else. The more senior and powerful people are, the more important they are.
After the courtiers waited for two days, Emperor Jiajing did not hold a court meeting or make any public appearance.
He just issued an edict to let the prince continue to supervise the country, and the queen also continued to be regent. They remained unchanged for the time being, and they would report to the emperor if there were any major events.
This led the courtiers to speculate that the emperor had not fully recovered, or was damaged in some way and needed to rest, and was unable to handle daily government affairs mentally.
Sancho, the censor of Zuoqiandu, and Chen Chun, two backbones of the Qin Party, were chatting in the Metropolitan Procuratorate. Chen Chun asked Sancho: "Senior Sang, did you mean to say that Qin Banqiao went to Zhejiang?"
Sancho didn't understand why and said: "What is intentional?"
Chen Chun expressed one of his guesses, "After the emperor wakes up, whoever is in power in the court will be unlucky. They will definitely be subject to suspicion first. This is the embarrassing situation that Mr. Yan Ge faces.
Has Qin Banqiao already seen this, so he went to Zhejiang to escape? Anyway, the court has Teacher Zhang and the two kings and princes, so it will be no problem for him to last for a year and a half." Sancho was stunned, no one could have calculated it.
Is that so? He subconsciously asked, "What if the emperor doesn't wake up?"
Chen Chun replied: "If the emperor has been in coma for a year and a half and still doesn't wake up, he will probably never wake up. If Qin Banqiao finds a chance to return to the court, he won't suffer much loss."
Sancho was not very scheming and calculating. After listening to what Chen Chun said, he just found it unbelievable. Do you really have to be so calculating to succeed in the high-level affairs of the imperial court?
Qin Zhongtang, who was being endlessly speculated by his party members, had already moved to Ningbo Prefecture. At this time, there was no local wealthy family to continue to oppose.
Because most of the people in Qin Zhongtang who rebelled have become prisoners.
Mr. Yan Shifan, who successfully deceived a wealthy family into colluding with Japanese pirates and had hidden his merits and fame, was lying in the ship inspection commissioner's office at Sanjiangkou, northeast of Ningbo City.
Although he was "forced" to make great contributions, he was still a small shogunate commissioner, but he didn't mind. Without it, he would have more money and less work.
When he was thinking about which fans to invite to accompany him for dinner, suddenly a soldier from the express delivery shop delivered an official document to Mr. Yan.
Mr. Yan opened it and looked at it. It turned out to be a family letter from his father, Mr. Yan Ge. It was just that he had used the name of the official document under the guise of Gongji and could use the imperial court's postal system to send it to him.
This was the only letter home from my father in the past six months. Mr. Yan read it carefully. In the letter, his father earnestly told him that he must kneel down and lick Qin Zhongtang.
This made Yan Shifan very surprised. His father wrote such a letter in half a year. What the hell is this?
There is no better son than a father. From between the lines, Yan Shifan saw one word, coward!
Could it be that my father suffered a disastrous defeat in the capital? That's not the case, at best, my father is unable to make progress, so self-preservation should be no problem at all.
Then Yan Shifan realized that some major changes must have occurred in the capital, which directly changed his father. Could it be that the emperor had woken up?
Thinking of this, Yan Shifan's heart suddenly moved. If this is really the case, it seems that something can be done?
To be honest, most of what Qin Dewei did in Zhejiang was against the law and discipline. If it were done by someone else, beheading would not be impossible...
He, Yan Shifan, is a person who is familiar with Qin Dewei's illegal and disciplined affairs, and he personally handles many things!
Now that the emperor is awake, maybe he can try it out?
At this moment, a loud noise suddenly came from outside the courtyard gate, interrupting Yan Shifan's train of thought.
So Mr. Yan impatiently shouted to the servants around him: "What's going on outside? Disperse!"
The servant hurriedly went out to take a look, but came back a short time later and reported to Yan Shifan: "There is a public parade outside!"
Yan Shifan then asked: "Who was paraded through the streets? Did they catch a man and a woman having sex with a woman?"
The servant replied: "It was the thieves who lured the Japanese pirates ashore and into the city. There were dozens of them. They were all escorted by the shogunate officers and soldiers and paraded through the city! There were many people watching, and they were all scolding them!
Moreover, Qin Zhongtang, the shogunate, said that how to punish these people should be decided by local public opinion! The people should be sentenced as they say, so as to show the public opinion!" Yan Shifan took a breath, Qin Zhongtang's method not only killed people, but also
It’s time to be heart-wrenching!
Moreover, by inciting the common people to participate in the trial, those wealthy people who were caught were afraid that they would never be able to stand up in their local area.
Thinking about the fate and consequences of those wealthy people, Mr. Yan immediately retreated from the idea of making trouble.
Forget it, forget it, the time has not come yet, let’s continue to endure it!
It's not that he's afraid of Qin Dewei, it's mainly because if he can't kill him with one blow, it will only scare the enemy, so he has to keep waiting!
Just as Yan Shifan guessed, most of the people in the city were ordinary people. These wealthy managers actually wanted to lure Japanese pirates into the city. This was simply a deliberate attempt to harm the villagers.
After Qin Zhongtang's vigorous propaganda and the criminals parading in the streets, it directly aroused the anger of the people in the city, and several big families directly turned from the lights of the place into the rats on the streets.
In addition, the smuggling system re-established by Qin Zhongtang directly broke the monopoly of the wealthy families and extended some of the benefits to the middle and lower classes. Therefore, after more than half a year of hard work, the shogunate finally gained a firm foothold in Ningbo.
At this time, there was a meeting within the shogunate, but in the middle of the meeting, Qin Zhongtang also received two anonymous secret letters.
One was sent from the Yuanfeng bank channel, and the other was sent from Jiangxi. The news was that the emperor had woken up and that Xia Yan had set off from Jiangxi.
From the capital to Jiangxi, the edict summoning Xia Yan to return to the capital must have been transmitted the fastest, and it was first passed to Xia Yan.
But because Jiangxi is adjacent to Zhejiang, Xia Yan's message from Jiangxi was sent to Qin Zhongtang first.
It can be said that when people are in Ningbo, melons come from the sky.
Qin Dewei put down the letter and sighed to himself, how good would it be for the emperor to wake up a year later? He could calmly complete his layout in the southeast without restraint and lawlessness, and then he could go back with peace of mind.
Now that there is an additional emperor, not only is there an additional layer of constraints, but there may also be more variables.
After Qin Zhongtang thought twice, he put down the letter and said, "Continue the meeting!"
Wu Cheng'en held the battle report and continued to tell everyone: "After Yiwu's five thousand new soldiers took turns stationed at Shuangyu Island, they lured the Japanese pirates to the island. They had four battles and four victories, and more than 1,300 people were beheaded."...
The young version of Qi Jiguang is like the protagonist of an online novel. He takes his grandfather with him and goes to Yiwu to recruit soldiers.
Because Qin Zhongtang had sufficient funds and Father Qi personally came forward to do the work, the number of soldiers recruited was much higher than in history, with a total of 5,000 people recruited.
After training until the spring of this year, he was ordered to be transferred to Dinghaiwei and Changguowei for deployment.
Immediately after, they took turns to board Shuangyu Island, waiting for the enemy to fight with the Japanese pirates who came to stop for supplies. The current results are still very good.
Moreover, most of the Japanese pirates who came to Shuangyu Island to supply supplies were preparing to invade Ningbo and the coast of northern Zhejiang. They were wiped out on Shuangyu Island, which can be regarded as temporarily bringing peace to the coasts of northern Zhejiang and eastern Zhejiang in the near future.
"Have all the soldiers recruited from Yiwu seen blood?" Qin Zhongtang asked Wu Chengen.
Wu Chengen replied: "We all went to the island to experience it, but now the Japanese pirates have learned that Shuangyu Island has fallen into the hands of the government, and there are no more Japanese pirates."
Qin Dewei nodded: "It's normal. Japanese pirates are not fools and cannot fall into this trap forever. Let Yiwu Camp come back temporarily and continue to deploy in Dinghaiwei and Changguowei."
The deployment that Qin Dewei has prepared for most of the past six months is as follows. The Qi family and his son led the Yiwu Battalion and stationed in Ningbo; Yu Dayou led the Guangxi local soldiers and stationed in Wenzhou, Taizhou, southern Zhejiang.
Lu Boring returned to Fujian and took the selected soldiers who had been trained in the attack on Shuangyu Island to station in Quanzhou, Zhangzhou, southern Fujian.
This deployment seems to be comprehensive, and there are tens of thousands of elites in total, which seems not too small, but in fact it is still far from enough.
The main reason is that the southeastern coastline is too long, and the 10,000 elites are very thin compared to the coastline that is thousands of miles long.
Moreover, the southeastern coastline is very winding, and there are too many harbors that can dock ships. Qin Zhongtang does not have the ability to deploy elite soldiers at every harbor.
Moreover, these elites mainly deal with large groups of Japanese pirates. Dozens or hundreds of Japanese pirates cannot appear randomly, and large armies must be mobilized across regions.
Therefore, except for the places where the three armies of Lu, Qi, and Yu are stationed, other lines of defense can only rely on the original guard posts.
If those guard posts could still be attacked, or if they had the intention of resisting Japanese pirates, they would not be in danger of Japanese pirates.
Qin Zhongtang also knew that many coastal soldiers and civilians would even provide logistical supplies to Japanese pirates in order to make money.
Otherwise, in history, when thousands of Japanese pirates would gather to attack a city, where would the food and drink come from?
"So the existing deployment is definitely insufficient, and we must think of other ideas!" Qin Zhongtang said decisively.
Wu Chengen looked at the other staff, but no one spoke, and then said to Qin Dewei: "If you have any instructions in the middle hall, please tell me."
We are all so familiar with it, and everyone knows very well that Qin Zhongtang's tone is not asking for opinions, but he has new ideas that he wants to announce for everyone to implement. So don't talk too much, just listen with your ears.
Qin Dewei said thoughtfully: "I want to create a bounty model and tell you about it.
First, this year, as long as any maritime people, regardless of their status or nationality, bring the heads of Japanese pirates to Shuangyu Island, they will be entitled to purchase five pieces of silk at cost price!…
Second, this year, all citizens of the Ming Dynasty on land, no matter what their status, as long as they can present the heads of Japanese pirates, can obtain the right to traffic five pieces of silk to Shuangyu Island, without having to pay additional Japanese silver!
Third, those who can hand over more than 100 heads of Japanese pirates, whether on land or at sea, will have priority in obtaining trade rights!"
This reward sounded very important, and all the staff were stunned and fell into deep thought.
As we all know, with Qin Zhongtang’s efforts, Shuangyu Island will definitely become the central hub of the southeastern silk trade.
Under this premise, the conditions offered by Qin Zhongtang are quite tempting. Each Japanese pirate head can be exchanged for a price difference of five bolts of silk. After calculation, it is worth three or four taels of silver. The key is that this money does not need to be paid by the government.
cash.
And more importantly, it is very attractive to have priority in obtaining trade rights.
Some people were a little worried and said: "There are fish and dragons mixed in the sea. Those whose heads were beheaded and handed over are not necessarily Japanese pirates. There must be some sea people who kill each other and use their heads to pretend to be Japanese pirates."
Qin Zhongtang asked back: "Then the Japanese pirates are not a mixture of people? Are all the Japanese pirates Japanese?"
In the eyes of this Central Hall, the current lawless people on the sea are not under the control of the Ming Dynasty anyway. It doesn’t matter if we let them kill each other in the early stage, as we can always kill a group of real Japanese."
Everyone finally understood Qin Zhongtang's thoughts and couldn't help but gasp.
After the introduction of this policy, one head is worth three or four taels, and I am afraid that the East China Sea will become a Shura field.
Even those who secretly dock in coastal harbors are no longer safe and may be killed at any time.
Wu Chengen couldn't help but ask: "If you were a Japanese pirate and killed another group of Japanese pirates, would you still get this discount?"
Qin Dewei emphasized: "I just said that regardless of nationality, everyone will abide by the same conditions! If Japanese pirates kill Japanese pirates, they will be recognized as such!"
Anyway, it’s just one word, encouraging mutual killing! The more intense the mutual fighting in the East China Sea, the safer the coastal areas will be.
Suppressing bandits is not only a military war, but also an economic war. The wool comes from the sheep. What Qin Zhongtang took out was only the money from the smuggling industry, which was not originally money from the imperial government.
If forces large and small at sea, including Japanese pirates, can be allowed to fall into the trap of killing each other, then the pressure on land and coastal defense will naturally be reduced.
After everyone had finished digesting it, Qin Zhongtang added: "Of course the policy cannot remain unchanged. After a while, new policies will be introduced to adapt to the new situation in the future."
Wu Chengen asked curiously: "What will happen next?"
Qin Zhongtang is simple
To put it bluntly: "A licensing system will be implemented. Anyone who wants to kill Japanese pirates in exchange for trade rights and preferential treatment must register with the government before they can enjoy the policy.
Maritime residents and ships that are not registered with the government do not enjoy preferential policies. If they are treated as Japanese pirates, no one can blame them."
Everyone finally understood it. Let Haihai kill each other randomly first, and the rest are the ones who can be used.
Moreover, it is also required to have a foothold on land to successfully register and obtain legal authorization.
Anyway, the shogunate is Qin Zhongtang's one-word hall. What Qin Zhongtang wants to do, the most others can do is help check for omissions and fill in the gaps.
The meeting was about to end, but Xu Laosan, who was attending the meeting, spoke again: "Lu Bo from Fujian has something to ask the shogunate, and he asked me to tell Brother Qin."
Xu Shi'an and Lu Bor were "comrades in arms" who attacked Shuangyu Island together, and they had formed a friendship, so it was not surprising that he helped Lu Bor pass the news.
Qin Dewei said strangely: "What else does he have to do? If it's a matter of promotion, don't rush it. The court has its own rules."
Xu Laosan replied: "Lu Bo wants to build a place similar to Shuangyu Island off the coast of Yuegang. What do you think?"
Qin Dewei thought for a while, nodded and said: "That's okay! The Shuangyu Island side is backed by the hinterland of Jiangnan and is mainly made of silk, while the Yuegang side can be mainly tea.
The East China Sea is so vast and the demand from the East and West is so great that it can be fully accommodated by another double island.