"What happened to my father? What trouble did he cause again?" Zhu Yong was furious.
Zhang Anshi said: "It's nothing. Your father is going to Jiangxi soon, right?"
Zhu Yong frowned and nodded.
Zhang Anshi sighed: "I'll tell you some good news and some bad news."
Zhu Yong said without thinking: "I'll tell you the bad news first."
Zhang Anshi said: "If we go here, I'm afraid there will be danger."
Zhu Yong was happy: "In this world, except the emperor, who dares to do anything to my father? I'm not bragging, and His Highness the Crown Prince can't do anything to him."
Zhang Anshi was angry and said angrily: "Why do you want to mention my brother-in-law?"
Zhu Yong smiled and said: "It's just an analogy. Don't be angry, brother. Don't be angry. Don't worry about my father. Don't worry. My father is an old fox. No one is more cunning than him. What's the good news?"
Zhang Anshi was speechless for Zhu Yong's words for a while, and then said: "The good news is... if your father can escape this time, he will make a fortune."
"Make a fortune?" Zhu Yong was stunned.
Zhang Anshi said: "Okay, stop rambling, let's start now, and our next itinerary will be kept secret."
Zhu Yong immediately felt that the matter was not simple. He and Zhang Fu looked at each other and then said: "What happened?"
In this regard, Qiu Song performed very well. He just stood aside lazily, looking as if he was indifferent to it, and he didn't know what he was thinking in his mind.
Zhang Anshi said calmly and calmly: "Don't ask too many questions that shouldn't be asked. All in all, this time will definitely be a tough battle. We need to bring more gunpowder."
As soon as the word "gunpowder" came out, Qiu Song became interested, and his whole body became visibly energetic. He said, "Brother, is this true?"
As he spoke, he untied his belt, then pulled up the skirt of his clothes. He then opened his coat with both hands, and tied a ring of gunpowder inside his clothes.
Zhang Anshi's eyes widened and he shouted: "Don't come over..."
…
Two hours later, Zhang Anshi led a group of people, dressed like merchants selling goods, to the ferry in a mighty manner.
Here, dozens of ships were already waiting, and then Zhang Anshi saw Zhu Di.
Zhu Di was led by dozens of Jinyi captains under the leadership of Chen Daowen.
He stood at the bow of the ship with his hands behind his back, waiting for Zhang Anshi to board the ship. Then he turned back and looked at the rushing water at his feet: "Why don't you see Zhu Yong and the others?"
Zhang Anshi said: "Another ship has been arranged."
Zhu Di said: "I also want to meet those three boys and give them a beating. Why are they on different boats?"
"this……"
Zhu Di looked at Zhang Anshi's strange expression and said, "What?"
Zhang Anshi said: "I dare not hide it. It is my fourth brother, Qiu Song. He... insists on holding a pile of gunpowder with him. I feel that it is a bit dangerous, so it is better for your majesty to stay away from him.
"
Zhu Di: "..."
After thinking about it, he seemed to think that people like Qiu Song were indeed a bit perverted, so Zhu Di said: "What about Zhu Yong and Zhang Fu?"
"I arranged for him to be on another boat. If I let the second and third brothers come on the same boat, the fourth brother may have a sensitive temper and feel something is wrong. I am afraid that he will have random thoughts. If he can't think about it, it will be bad. I asked the second and third brothers to accompany him.
Then he will not doubt his existence."
Zhu Di: "..."
After a pause, Zhu Di said: "Qiu Fu is obviously a very stable person."
He sighed, but said nothing more. Zhu Di had nothing to say to a spirited young man like Qiu Song.
Zhu Di said: "Since they are your brothers, you should teach them how to behave in the world. Don't be so confused at such an old age. After they are honorary ministers, they will succeed and fail. They will inevitably be contaminated.
Some weird tempers are probably caused by the people around them being too arrogant towards them. You are the elder brother and should be taught strictly."
Zhang Anshi only said yes.
Zhu Di then looked at Zhang Anshi with a smile and said, "Have the arrangements been made in the capital?"
Zhang Anshi didn't expect Zhu Di to ask this suddenly.
But soon, he realized that there was something in Zhu Di's words.
So he smiled at Zhu Di in a tacit understanding and said, "It's been arranged."
Zhu Di said with some emotion: "On the surface, the trouble happened in Jiangxi, but the real trouble is right under my nose! You guys can understand my deep meaning."
Zhang Anshi smiled and said: "His Majesty is still a wise man and unpredictable. I tried very hard to figure out His Majesty's thoughts, but I could barely understand 30% to 40% of them."
Zhu Di waved his hand: "Stop talking such nonsense."
Zhang Anshi wisely ran to the stern of the boat and was too lazy to wait on him. The old man was getting more and more erratic and couldn't afford to wait on him.
Two days later, the ship arrived in Jiujiang.
The caravan boarded the dock.
At the pier, there was a team of patrolmen, making a lot of noise.
Zhang Anshi led the people ashore first.
Then someone shouted: "Everyone who is young and strong needs to build a railway without any mistakes..."
Several people swaggered in front of Zhang Anshi. The leader held a knife, his eyebrows were angry, and his whole body was filled with murderous intent.
Zhang Anshi threw him a piece of silver directly: "Go away."
The man weighed the weight, his face was sullen, and he immediately grinned, and then said: "It turns out that he is a businessman. The businessman is a foreigner and his household registration is not in this province. It's okay. Please, please..."
At that moment, everyone from Zhang An and others came ashore one after another.
Zhu Di's face turned pale and he murmured: "My money!"
The inspection officers bid farewell to Zhang Anshi and others. The leader held Zhang Anshi's silver in his hand and trotted to catch up: "Boss, those people... saw that they were rich, so they just took such heavy money."
I think... we can catch them back, maybe..."
Before I even finished saying this, the meaning was already obvious.
"Bastard!" the leader shouted and said angrily: "What do you think we are? We are official servants, not bandits. Do you think you are water bandits from Poyang Lake?"
The person who spoke was scolded and looked embarrassed.
The leader's eyes flashed, and he continued: "The person who can give rewards so easily must be a big businessman. In these days, which big businessman has no one behind him? It's just that they don't want to trouble the people above, so they can just take it.
Give the brothers a small amount of money to drink tea, which can be regarded as spending a small amount of money to ward off the disaster. Do you really think that we can control him? It has really made us anxious, and it has reached the point where the fish and the net are broken. Do you and I live or die?
do not know yet."
"Ah...that's it."
The leader glared at him and said: "When doing things like this, the most important thing is to have bright eyes. If you don't even have the slightest wink, you won't even know you are dead by then."
After the man finished speaking, he pointed at another person and shouted: "Stop that man, that man looks like a water bandit from Poyang Lake!"
Jiujiang is a thoroughfare. It is close to the Yangtze River and connected to Poyang Lake. It is also a step away from Nanchang. This place has been famous for its prosperous commerce since ancient times.
But upon entering Jiujiang City, what Zhu Di felt was desolation.
It was desolate, and there were only a few people walking on the street.
When people went to inquire, they said that the place had been attacked by thieves, or that there were thieves everywhere. It was said that just one day ago, there was a bandit who directly attacked the county seat.
But...the only change in Jiujiang City is the construction of a station.
It's actually built.
Zhu Di looked ugly all the way here.
However, this was generally the case in local areas. Banditry was the norm in this era. Historically, during the Yongle period, there were dozens of large-scale rebellions involving more than 10,000 people.
The momentum is so great that tens of thousands of people can even gather.
And this... can be considered a relatively peaceful period in ancient times.
If in the middle and late dynasties, dozens of rebellions and civil commotions every year were almost commonplace, and if dozens of counties were not massacred in a year, it would be considered a peaceful year.
Such things were simply unbelievable to Zhang Anshi in his previous life.
After all, his understanding of the prosperous age at that time was definitely not like this.
But now Zhang Anshi has actually been paralyzed for a long time.
What are prosperous times? Prosperous times are opposite to troubled times!
In troubled times, ten houses and nine are empty, the land is thousands of miles away, and 70 to 80 percent of the population will die at every turn. People exchange their children for food.
During the Yongle period, the common people might only suffer banditry once or twice and natural disasters a few times in their lifetime. Isn't this a prosperous age?
Therefore, when I learned that there were thieves, no one was surprised at all. I just thought it was normal.
But the station was actually built, which still made Zhu Di and Zhang Anshi excited.
At that moment, under the guidance of one person, everyone arrived at a station without stopping.
Standing here, looking at the lonely station in the distance. From a distance, this station really looks like this.
So Zhu Di and Zhang Anshi walked closer with expectation.
Upon closer inspection, I was shocked again.
There is nothing here except the station.
There was no railway, only a roadbed extending less than a hundred feet, and then... nothing more.
Zhu Di: "..."
Zhang Anshi asked doubtfully: "Is it because the railway has not been laid yet? Did it start from Nanchang Prefecture?"
Zhu Di's face became more and more gloomy, but he only said: "Wait here."
"His Majesty……"
Zhu Di said with a livid face: "Stop talking, wait a minute!"
Sure enough, after waiting for less than half an hour, a team of guards arrived.
These policemen had obviously heard something and learned that a group of people suddenly came to the station, which was very suspicious.
So they came in a hurry, and the leader waved an iron ruler and shouted loudly: "What are you..."
Zhu Di stepped forward and raised his arms.
The leader of the police force had not yet reacted. He only felt that his vision was blurred, and he subconsciously tried to block the iron ruler in his hand.
But... it's too fast.
Then he saw Zhu Di slap him in the face with a slap like a palm fan.
The man's vision went dark, his face seemed to have been hit hard, his body was swaying, and he fell to the ground with a bang, fainting immediately.
The policemen behind were shocked and shouted: "It's a thief, it's a thief... It's a real thief, run, run quickly."
Zhu Di said sternly with a sullen face: "Who dares to run away!"
The officers suddenly felt as if there were nails under their feet. They fell to the ground one by one and kowtowed: "Spare my life..."
Zhu Di said: "I want to see an official, please take me there."
One of the thin servants, who should be a civil servant, said hurriedly: "Master Thief, my county master is a rare good official. He never harms the people, he has a clean mind, Master Thief... just spare him."
Zhu Di was furious: "Come..."
"Go, go." The clerk said happily: "I will take the thieves with me... no, I will take the grandfathers with me."
Zhu Di looked calm, but only he knew that he was feeling dizzy at this time.
The strange phenomena he saw before his eyes made him feel unbelievable.
Zhang Anshi was also confused and quietly walked up to Zhu Di. He wanted to say something, but felt that there was nothing to say, so he picked up the clerk by the back and said, "Which yamen are you from?"
The civil servant said tremblingly: "This is the county government of Dehua County."
Dehua County is the administrative place of Jiujiang Prefecture. In later generations, because there was also a Dehua County in Fujian, the Dehua County in Jiujiang was changed to Jiujiang County.
Zhang Anshi asked again: "Who is your county magistrate?"
"My surname is Chen, I keep my name secret to enter the industry."
This place is not far from the county government office, when a group of people appeared in great force.
Zhang Anshi winked at the county official: "We are going to meet at the Houya."
The civil servant did not dare to say anything, so he obediently said to the officer in front of the door: "I'm here to pay homage to you."
At that moment, he led Zhu Di and others straight to the back office.
The route is almost smooth.
Obviously this civil servant should have quite a bit of prestige in the county government.
We waited until we arrived at the shack of Houya.
But I saw a person sitting in the hall, holding a book and reading.
The clerk then shouted: "Master, there is someone..."
The person in the hall is none other than the county magistrate Chen Jinye.
When Chen Jinye saw someone rushing in, he was surprised at first, then put down a volume of books and shouted: "How dare you make a mistake!"
Zhang Anshi didn't hesitate and took the lead to step forward and get in front of Chen Jinye.
The rest of the people quickly dispersed and were on alert around them.
Zhang Anshi took out a waist card from his sleeve and waved it in front of Chen Jingye.
When Chen Jingye saw it, he was shocked. He quickly raised his hands and said: "Your Majesty, Chen Jingye, I have seen..."
He didn't know what to call him for a moment.
Zhu Di was furious and shouted: "Are you Chen Jingye?"
"Yes...yes..." Chen Jingye had noticed Zhu Di's extraordinary personality and hurriedly said: "I wonder what business you have here from the capital?"
Zhu Di said solemnly: "Jiujiang Prefecture is building railways, but so far, not even an inch of railways has been built? Where did all the money go?"
"This this……"
When Chen Jingye heard this, he immediately looked distraught.
He shuddered, and later Ai Ai said: "This... the official... the official..."
Zhu Di was angry and laughed: "Three and a half, five million taels of silver, where did they go?"
When Chen Jingye heard about five million taels, he immediately understood something.
"Could it be that it's Duke Chengguo..."
He looked at Zhu Di and remembered the rumors that Duke Cheng Guo was coming to Nanchang Mansion.
I probably thought that Duke Cheng Guo should have taken the water route, arrived at Jiujiang Prefecture from the water route, and then took the land route to Nanchang Prefecture.
After thinking about it, he immediately said: "This... this... the seventh-grade county magistrate of Xiaguan District, is really... really..."
Zhu Di sneered and said: "What a mere seventh-grade county magistrate! This station is in Er County. Five million taels of silver, how many hands did you pass through? How much did you take away?"
Zhu Di's teeth were almost broken.
In his original expectation, he felt that...even if it was five million taels, Tan Mo would still be able to accept two to three million taels.
But now it seems that things are obviously worse than imagined.
After Chen Jinye heard this, his face turned pale with fright, and he immediately cried out: "I'm wronged, I'm wronged! I'm wrong, I'm wrong! I've never been greedy, I'm..."
He was eager to defend himself.
Zhang Anshi winked.
As a result, people began to search the mansion.
Immediately, Chen Daowen came in a hurry and whispered: "After checking, here... there are only some broken silver and a lot of books. Apart from that, there is nothing else. Oh, there are some left.
The leftovers of soup, this person seems to have eaten pickles and an egg drop soup at noon, and nothing else."
Zhang Anshi: "..."
After hearing this, Zhu Di just smiled contemptuously. How could he believe these things? So he smiled even more fiercely.
Chen Jinye cried and said: "This has always been the case since I took office. If my superior doesn't believe me, I can investigate thoroughly. Everyone in the county knows that I am a scholar and I have no intention of being greedy for ink."
Zhu Di said sternly: "I don't believe it..."
He spoke word for word, as if he didn't believe it at all.
"It seems that if he is not tortured, he will not confess. Someone..."
Chen Jinye was so frightened that he lost his mind.
On the other hand, the civil servant who was leading everyone here knelt down and cried out: "The county master is really a good official with clean sleeves! Not to mention that he lives a simple life on weekdays, even if he has some salary, he also spends some of it.
, the servants under Zhou Ji said that it was not easy for everyone to do the work, and they also knew that the villains had no salary and it was difficult to support their families, so they warned us not to blackmail the people because of this... The villains dare to use their heads as security."
As soon as he said this, Zhu Di felt that everything in front of him was like a joke, and it was not only the official in front of him who was funny, but also himself.
Zhang Anshi said coldly: "How much money did the county allocate to build the railway?"
Without waiting for Chen Jinye to answer, the official said: "The total is 370,000 taels."
Zhu Di said angrily: "Where is the money?"
"The railway is being built," the civil servant said.
Zhu Di's mind was buzzing and he subconsciously said: "Where is the railway?"
"The railway has not been repaired yet."
"What about the money?"
"The flowers are gone." The clerk said.
Zhu Di: "..."
Zhang Anshi, standing aside, kicked the clerk and said, "How dare you be dishonest? I just ask you, why is the money gone before the railway is repaired?"
The civil servant hesitated for a moment and then said: "What Shangguan doesn't know is that this railway... is a road... a road must be built on the ground. This land... belongs to the people. It must be purchased before it can be built.
"
"Have you spent hundreds of thousands of taels to buy land?" Zhang Anshi looked at him coldly and said, "How much land did you buy?"
"It's not much. If we allocate another seven to eight hundred thousand taels, this land should be enough."
Zhang Anshi cursed angrily: "If your mother pays another seven to eight hundred thousand taels, I can buy half of your county's land!"