Zhu Yijun and his ministers stayed in Nanyuan for a day, half relaxing and half inspecting, and gave a lesson to the Hanlin Academy. He told everyone that if they want to work under the growing emperor, they should play poems, songs, and eight-part essays.
Definitely not.
On that day, the emperor was shy and accepted everyone's compliments saying that his lyrics were good, which made the literary scholars of the Hanlin Academy speechless and choked.
However, this incident also made it clear to everyone in the court: as long as the emperor performs meritorious service, the rest - including his own face - can be ignored.
Later, when Dai Xun heard his colleagues return to the hospital and tell what happened, he realized that he had been used as a raft by the emperor and had set a negative example.
From then on, he changed his nickname of "Incompetent layman" and called himself "Ling Yunsou", secretly taking the meaning of "High Aspirations". Others thought that his nickname came from "Hanlin Song", which is not surprising.
.Colleagues who knew about Nanyuan knew that he was frightened and just laughed.
...
As the time entered August, Yu Maoxue was still in the imperial prison, with unknown moss-like objects growing on his body. No one in the court thought of this number one critic of the Wanli Dynasty.
Zhang Siwei was completely relieved and asked to see Zhang Juzheng one after another. He kept himself low and wasted money, and at the same time cried and repented. Finally he was forgiven and went back to compile "Records of Emperor Shizong" and waited to be admitted to the cabinet.
The first court dispute in the Wanli Dynasty was diverted by Zhu Yijun's move of "Lianghuai Surplus Salt Case" to divert the focus. Killing two chickens not only beat the officials who were noisy like monkeys, but also did not
We wiped them out completely, reviewed the six departments, and other functions were running smoothly.
...
Outside Gule City in Liaodong, the iron cable blocking the water surface of the Suzi River drips with water in the summer sun.
On the south side of the iron chain, Chamberlain, who had run away from Langmanzi's manor, was standing on a blocked boat, using Jurchen language to negotiate with the soldiers on the river bank.
A fifteen or sixteen-year-old soldier jumped on the boat and inspected it carefully. He saw that there was nothing on the boat beside the two horses except salt, tea and a few rolls of cotton. He confirmed that Chamberlain was a smuggling merchant from the Ming Dynasty.
.
As usual, Chamberlain took out a palm-sized cloth bag, filled it with large grains of salt, and put it in the hand of the soldier. The soldier opened the bag, took a look, picked up a grain, and threw it into his mouth to taste it.
After tasting it, my face looked much better.
He jumped from the pedal to the shore and shouted a few words. The prisoner in charge of the chain loosened the chain on the cow's back and let it slide quickly around the wooden pile on the shore, and the middle part sank into the water with a splash.
The boat could only carry two horses, so the two-man boat continued to move forward, slowly moving along the current to the intersection of Wulong River and Suzi River. There was a bay several acres in size, with willow trees on the shore and a wooden structure built on the water's edge.
The simple pier is the starting point for entering Gule City.
On the small pier, there were many soldiers, and they all looked wary. Although Chamberlain was an old man in uniform, he was still worried when he saw this. He searched among the people on the pier, and his face suddenly showed joy.
Shouted loudly: "Uncle Atai!"
Atai is Wang Gao's eldest son. He is just in his early twenties. Like his father, he is young and has a pair of thick eyebrows, a full face with beard, a small nose and small eyes that peek out from the pile of hair.
outside.
He was sitting on a wooden stool on the dock when he heard someone calling him. He looked up and saw Chamberlain, smiled and waved.
Chamberlain waited for the boat to stop, led the horse onto the pier, came to Atai's side and knelt down to salute.
Atai held his arm and jabbered in Jurchen dialect: "Why did Manager Zhang come here just now? What did you get this time?"
Chamberlain understood and replied with a smile: "This time I got two hundred kilograms of salt and eighty kilograms of tea. It's enough for the city." After hearing this, Atai frowned and said: "I'm not telling you that you can use less salt.
There is more tea, why is there so little tea?”
Hearing this, Chamberlain showed an embarrassed look on his face and whispered: "Uncle, Fushun is very strict. I bought these teas little by little in Fushun and Tieling. I bought salt-baked meat and salted fish in bulk."
To be fair, I can only save a few kilograms of tea at a time."
After hearing this, Atai let out a long sigh and said with a sad face: "No ironware?"
Chamberlain smiled bitterly and said: "The ironware workshops in Liaodong have all been registered by the governor-general of Jiliao. Even if they make a hoe, they have to be fingerprinted by Han people before they can sell it. There is really no way. But -"
Atai heard that there was a change in his words and quickly asked: "What?"
Chamberlain glanced around and whispered: "This time in Tieling, I used the old ginseng that my uncle rewarded last time to save a blacksmith's wife. He promised to secretly save some iron materials for me. I think I can save some for me next time.
Bring a few hundred kilograms here."
After hearing this, Atai felt that a few hundred kilograms was too little, but it was better than nothing. At least the arrowheads were better than those made from bones and stones in Gule City today.
Zhang Zhang was very smart in his work and was much better than those Han profiteers who had eyes that could see through mink velvet and couldn't pull it out, but were extremely exploitative in business. Atai was still willing to deal with him.
The great defeat this spring left Gule City's family in ruins. His father, Wang Gao, only escaped with his own life and took three soldiers to work as hunters in the old forests of Liaodong. They wandered around for three months before running home.
When Atai met some of his father outside the city, he thought it was a wild girl who came to rob them, so he almost shot him with his bow.
Atai suddenly recalled the hunger he felt during the lean days of Gule City, and the heartache of killing horses for meat. He quickly shook his head to throw away this shadow.
Seeing Chamberlain's stern eyebrows, he looked at himself with a mysterious smile on his face. Atai frowned and said, "If you have anything to say, just say it. Why are you looking at me like this?"
Chamberlain saluted and said, "I heard that I'm going to have my first child, but I haven't congratulated you yet." After saying that, he took out a small cloth bag from his arms and said, "This is my little thought, sir.
decline."
When Atai opened the cloth bag and looked at it, he found it was a hairpin worn by a Han woman. It was made entirely of gold and was brilliant. The phoenix on it was trembling and swinging as if it was about to rise in the wind. It was an ingenious workmanship.
Atai had never seen such a beautiful thing. Even though it was for a woman’s household use, he was dumbfounded. He stammered: "This...how much does this cost?"
Chamberlain smiled and said: "This is one of the Ming soldiers who sold the boss to the younger one. He got red from gambling before he sold it. It is said to be the in-house jewelry made by the Capital's 'Rishenglong'. The younger one doesn't know whether it is true or not, but it looks good.
I bought it for thirty taels. - Later I found out and got a bargain in the casino. It was worth seventy taels outside."
Atai's tongue stuck out from his beard and said, "Is this little thing worth three horses?"
Chamberlain smiled and said: "Sir, that horse is a companion and can save lives. It's just a toy. No matter how expensive it is, good men don't care about it. It's just a small thought."
Atai still stuttered: "You said... you are right, but it is too expensive." Although Chamberlain was right, Atai still wrapped it in cloth and kept it in his pocket.
In arms.
He turned around and gave some instructions to the people around him, straightened his clothes, and said to Chamberlain in Chinese: "Let's go up the mountain. I'll treat you to some game. The wild boar we just hunted yesterday was fat. But there's no wine."
,pity."
Chamberlain showed a stern expression again, rolled his eyes left and right, signaling him to be silent. Atai was surprised and happy, and whispered: "Is there that one?"
Chamberlain took a handful from his arms and showed him a corner of a small sheepskin bag. Atai was so surprised that he almost screamed, but he suppressed it and led Chamberlain away quickly.
Gule City is said to be a city, but it is actually a large village located on Longtou Mountain. This Longtou Mountain is four or five miles long, only three hundred steps wide, and less than two hundred steps high. It is not very steep, because it is far away from the mountain.
The intersection of the two rivers is close, so Wang Gaocai chose this place to build the city.
Therefore, this place was the main hub of waterways and land routes in the Jurchen region. Wang Gao used Gule City to control the mutual traffic of many large Jurchen tribes such as Hada and Ula, and used this to gather the strength of various ministries, which eventually became a serious problem in Liaodong.
After this year's defeat, Wang Gao's troops under his personal control were only 3,000. As the power accumulated over the years was still there, there was no new leader to challenge his authority yet.
But in the Gule City headquarters, because every family had relatives who never came back, the tribesmen were already seriously dissatisfied with Wang Gao's rule, and they just tolerated it secretly.
Gule City was built on the top of the mountain. It was a wooden and stone city wall that could be more than two feet high. The battlements and watchtowers above were well-equipped after the Han people learned from them.
Although Chamberlain had been here several times before, he was only allowed to enter the city when he followed Lang Maozi two years ago.
As he walked, he secretly kept track of the defense situation. He saw that the security was much tighter than before. He knew that Wang Gao was afraid that Li Chengliang would raise troops to attack, so he was trying to embolden his troops. Seeing Atai walking very fast, he stopped him and said, "Uncle
, slow down, I want to tell you something."
After hearing this, Atai slowed down, his little eyes sparkled, and he smiled and said: "I just said that if you give me a big gift, there must be something going on, let's talk about it."
A shy look appeared on Chamberlain's face, and he said: "Sir, Marfa's former slave girl, Third Sister, I heard that she was... Is she still alive?"
After hearing this, Atai said in his heart that it was just as I expected. You, the thief, looked at the third sister's face in the past and it was not right.
He nodded and said: "To live is to live, but together with other Han women, Mafa threw her in the village to pick up guests. You can sleep with her with eight pheasants or half a wild boar - you want her?"
After hearing this, Chamberlain, although he had expected it, his face changed color slightly and his eye circles were red. He tried his best to smile and said: "When I first came to Mafa's house that day, I thought the third sister was pretty. I am homeless and unemployed.
She's not too picky about her travels, as long as she's good-looking. Master, can you... can you give her to the younger one? Next time I come, I'll give you a hundred catties of iron for free."