On the Yangtze River, several sloops are sailing down the river. These are the common sand boat shapes in the Yangtze River estuary. They have flat bottoms and round heads. They are suitable for sailing in the gentle shallow sea near the Yangtze River estuary and the coast north of the river mouth.
Soldiers from the Chinese Army's special battalion were working on the boat. Mr. Song from Nanjing was also on the boat.
Yin Feng and his party were not on the boat. After taking a trip along the Yangtze River, they still went south along the canal to continue their investigation. The special battalion carried Mr. Song down the river. They used the special agents of the Military Intelligence Department stationed in Jinling early in the morning. The boat is ready. The purpose is to attract the attention of possible pursuers. If nothing goes wrong, they will join the Chinese Navy Navy Clippers cruising near Chongming Island at the mouth of the Yangtze River.
When Yin Feng and others left Beijing and headed south, they had already agreed with Mai Dahai's escort fleet at several meeting points along the coast. Currently, the Sea Spirit was cruising at the mouth of the Qiantang River, and the Dingyuan had arrived at the Zhoushan Islands.
Because Yin Feng and others disguised themselves as businessmen when they were adventuring in Nanjing City. In order to avoid being pursued by the government, they now disguised themselves as officials going to the border areas.
Now, Yin Feng was the first-ranked candidate in the imperial examination the year before last. He went to Yazhou Prefecture on Hainan Island under the Chief Secretary of Guangdong to serve as a state magistrate. All the forged official documents and seals of the relevant imperial court came from the Zhangjia Movable Type Printing House in Taiwan. They have long been After inspection by Mr. Zeng Qi.
It was normal for officials at that time to serve as local officials and bring a bunch of entourage with them. So this time everyone got on the carriage publicly, with servants guarding them in a powerful manner on both sides. There were also female dependents in the carriage. It was completely ready for the new official to take office. It looks like scraping the ground.
In the newspaper obtained in Nanjing, the attached memorial was published by Zhang Fenglai, deputy envoy of the sea route, and Luo Weiping, the Xingquan road soldier. After the two men were driven out of Taiwan Island in despair, they jointly submitted a memorial demanding that the imperial court strictly enforce the maritime ban and send troops to annihilate it. Taiwan pirates.
Therefore, Yin Feng decided to speed up his trip. The original plan to go all the way south to Guangdong was cancelled. All the personnel went to sea from the coast of Zhejiang and directly ended the inspection trip and returned to Taiwan. In the eyes of Xu Hongji, Zeng Shan, Chen Zhongji and others around him, the Ming Dynasty was full of The disease has been revealed everywhere. All that is left is a huge and empty frame. Small-scale civil uprisings and mutinies are constantly coming from various places. People's livelihood is in decline in places north of the Yangtze River, especially north of the Yellow River. Extremely.
…
Yin Feng and others were a little worried at first that they would be unable to move forward after the incident. However, everything went smoothly in the past few days. They paid attention to the news in Nanjing along the way from Nanjing to Suzhou, but they never found anything from the government. action.
When I arrived in Suzhou, I was still the shopkeeper of Huaxing Co., Ltd. who was stationed there. He was also an agent of the Ministry of Military Intelligence. The distant nephew of the Han Ping family found out the news through businessmen:
It was not until the third day after the accident that the door of Danyan Book Apartment was broken open by Yingtianfu officers.
The servants of Song Guogong's family thought at first that their young master was just going to have fun and party like before. But after two days of no news, they finally felt that something was wrong. Song Guogong sent people to investigate along the Yangtze River for a long time. He also assigned People went to all the fireworks and willow alleys in the city to inquire, but they could not find Young Master Song. There was also no news about the marquis and the earl's children who traveled with Young Master Song. At the same time, the Danyan Book Apartment did not open for two consecutive days. This got everyone's attention.
The Yamen of Yingtian Mansion was finally alerted. The Yamenmen broke open the door of Danyan's study apartment and rushed into the garden... As a result, most of the Yamenmen immediately rolled and crawled out again. They were scratching the wall and vomiting: there were blood stains all over the yard. It was shocking enough. But the dozens of corpses floating in the garden pond filled with flies completely frightened the government officials.
Madam Lin Erniang was very clever. As soon as she woke up that morning, she immediately swept away all the property she could bring with her. She dismissed all the people in the courtyard number ten. She also put on makeup and escaped from Nanjing early in the morning. She knew very well. Death After marrying so many people from noble families, her light smoke apartment was destined to be sealed. Most of the people in the other courtyards were outsiders. They received a severance package. Fortunately, Lin Erniang was not stingy. . They also dispersed out of the city immediately and went back to their hometowns. So many people died in the yard overnight. Even if you let them stay there and continue working, they would be unwilling.
Therefore, during the search on the third day, the government officials only rescued a dozen half-dead noble lords in the back room and warehouse. None of the people who were working in the yard were found.
For the families of those nobles and nobles, they did not want to make this matter public: after all, it is not a good thing to cause trouble in a brothel and cause lives; and these deceased are all scoundrels. In the eyes of those officials, gentry and nobles, Come on. The value of such a person's life is completely negligible. As long as his own children are safe and sound. Yin Feng ordered not to harm these young masters. It is indeed a wise move.
These noble families are afraid that if the incident gets bigger, they will be cited by those foul-mouthed censors. Although it is said that no big thing will happen based on the influence of each family, it is an ugly and unpleasant trouble after all.
There were too many government officials and neighbors who knew about this matter. With the ability of Yingtian Mansion, it was impossible to completely bury this matter. Therefore, the various nobles involved in the matter, Yingtian Mansion, Nanjing Guarding Eunuch and other forces interacted with each other. After some discussion, a sea arrest document was issued in the name of the Nanjing garrison eunuch. A gang of pirates who committed murder and swindled goods was wanted. The document did not mention where the pirates came from. Moreover, it was not even clear how many people there were in the gang. The manhunt in Nanjing was complete. It's just a pretense. Governor Yingtian doesn't want this matter to become a big deal and become an obstacle to his official career. Therefore, the investigation of the case is all about thunder and rain.
Those police officers who were ordered to go out to investigate the matter were also perfunctory. They did not want to pursue the matter seriously at all: they were joking. They could kill dozens of people in a short period of time. They could also escape from Nanjing quietly without alerting anyone. City. To chase such a murderer. Isn't this looking for death? Such a fierce gangster. It is said that there are dozens of killers. It has never been heard of in the past dynasties. The government officials never thought that this case could be solved.
The only one who took this matter seriously was Song Guogong. They secretly issued rewards to all parties and tried their best to find the missing eldest son of their family. Finally, they finally found out: Song Gonggong left the city from Taipingmen that day. Someone saw them coming to the Yangtze River. By the way, the servants sent by Song Guogong were indeed attracted by the boats on the Yangtze River and chased them along the river.
Yin Feng and his party were not affected at all by the Nanjing Danyan Book House Incident and continued to travel around Suzhou.
"Ahead is Xuanmiao Temple, the busiest place in Suzhou." Xu Hongji led the way. As he walked, he introduced: "Xuanmiao Temple existed in the Western Jin Dynasty. It was called Zhenqing Taoist Temple at that time. It was renamed Xuanmiao Temple in the Yuan Dynasty. Many buildings were burned down during the period. Second time. The current hall was rebuilt during the Chunxi period of the Southern Song Dynasty."
Yin Feng asked with a smile: "It has been more than a thousand years since the Western Jin Dynasty. It's really a long time. Mr. Xu, do you know this mysterious view very well?"
Xu Hongji shook his head and smiled bitterly: "Haha. I remember that when I first wandered around the world, I stayed in this Xuanmiao Temple for several months. It was here that I changed into Taoist robes and then traveled around the world."
Yin Feng and others walked along the downtown area. Along the way, they saw embroidery shops, silk and satin shops, grocery stores, pawn shops, banks, grain stores, pickle shops, porcelain shops, antique shops, and painting shops. They were all lined up in rows. And in the sun. Inside and outside the Taoist temple, there are opera singers, martial arts performers, jugglers, storytellers, calligraphy stalls, and so on.
Chen Zhongji sighed and said: "The prosperity of Suzhou's market is even better than that of our Taiwan Port."
Yin Feng patted Chen Zhongji on the shoulder and said with a smile: "Suzhou has been a prosperous place since the Song Dynasty. Our Taiwan Port has only been established for ten years. How can we compare with it?"
Zeng Shan suddenly pointed to the front and asked: "Why do so many people gather here?"
Sure enough, in the open space in front of Xuanmiao Temple, a group of ragged middle-aged people gathered in small groups. They were either chatting or looking around. There were about a hundred people.
Xu Hongji said: "These are local casual workers. Every morning they gather at the entrance of Xuanmiao, waiting for big households to call them to work. As long as they can work, they can earn a few cents of money to eat every day. Those big households also have one day. If you don't turn on your phone, you will be helpless. If you don't have a day's work, you will go hungry."
Yin Feng's heart moved. He remembered the legend about "the bud of capitalist production relations" in his own time and space. He asked Xu Hongji: "How many machines are there in the largest computer shop here?"
Xu Hongji thought for a while and said: "It has been several years since I left Suzhou. I remember that the largest machine shop in Suzhou at that time was the adopted son of Li Shi, the eunuch of Suzhou weaving. There were probably dozens of machines. But he did not worry about the lack of machinists for the machines. To work. The Suzhou government yamen often gave prisoners in the prison to work for free. Therefore, the adopted son of the eunuch sold the fabrics at the lowest price, causing other powerless machine households to go bankrupt. And these odd jobs in front of him were busy farming. I go to the countryside to help during the season. During the slack season, I wait here for workers to be dispatched. Life is difficult."
Yin Feng couldn't help but sigh. He thought that although Jiangnan was rich, the wealthy people, except for the bureaucrats, gentry and big businessmen who were responsible for buying and selling, were the big employers who owned many looms. As for ordinary people, they could afford to buy just one loom. A small retail trader is fine; but once you become a hired worker, especially a casual worker, your life will be too difficult.
Xu Hongji continued: "Even for those large businesses, most of their sales are controlled by officials and merchants. They all have to look at the eyes of the gentry, officials and merchants. Most of the large and small shops here have to be attached to the name of a certain gentry and bureaucrat. Otherwise, there will be no business at all. Unable to open."
Yin Feng looked behind him. The descendant of the Han family who accompanied him on the inspection, a subordinate of Han Xinghai, the local Huaxing joint shop owner, understood. He said softly: "Our company's local business store also has Suzhou weaving eunuch Li Shi. He also specified that when we buy silk, we must go to his relative's silk shop. Otherwise, he will let the officers and soldiers search our warehouse. And the price of silk here is 30% or 50% higher than elsewhere."