"Is this right here?" Xiao Changzi, who was about to end the deception mission in the first half of the year and go back to Luoyang to relax, couldn't believe that the general asked him to break two war horses and send a message asking him to put down all the work at hand and come to find the person.
It's what you see before your eyes.
"It should be..." Farewell to the happy days of being called uncle in Liaodong, Butler Tao now has a new identity. In order to facilitate his actions in the Jiangnan area, Tao Shangshu of the Ministry of Revenue specially asked Zhang Ruitu, who was in Nanjing, to help him get it.
After hearing that Luoyang had sent him a new mission, Governor Tao also volunteered to go out together.
Food.
"Go and ask around!" Xiao Changzi didn't understand why the general suddenly asked to find the boatman who he had not paid special attention to all these years, but the order was so urgent that he had to be very alert and take it seriously.
"There is a stone monument here!" The guard responsible for searching found a clue in a pile of weeds.
"Longjiang?" When Xiao Changzi and Governor Tao worked hard to get to the place and saw clearly what was written on it, they were dumbfounded. It seemed that the place was indeed found correctly, but how could it be here? What we are looking for
It is the birthplace of the legendary Ming Dynasty treasure ship. The once prosperous Longjiang Shipyard, where tens of thousands of people sweated and used their rough hands to build a Great Wall on the sea for the Ming Dynasty! How can it be like this shabby house in front of you?
A slum overgrown with weeds and without any sign of life?
"Master Tao, we have found someone for you!" The guard who was responsible for searching for the place in front of him that didn't look like a human being was really rewarded. Following him was a man with sparse white hair and a body.
An old man dressed worse than the refugees from Liaodong back then.
"Old man, is this really the Longjiang Shipyard of the past?" Governor Tao still held on to his last illusion at this time, hoping to get a negative answer, otherwise he would probably have to dig three feet deep to find it as the order said.
"Yes! Yes! This is the Longjiang Shipyard! Are you here to pay us, sir?" Governor Tao's voice was loud enough, and the old man could hear clearly and answered even more loudly. The most rare thing is that his presbyopic eyes are still there
You can clearly see that the person who came here is wearing an official robe. Although this person does not seem to be of high rank, he is definitely not a government servant who usually comes to destroy pots and houses to collect taxes.
"Huh? Pay?" What's going on? Governor Tao turned around and glared at Xiao Changzi, why are we so unlucky? We came to such a shabby place and asked for directions and met an old money man.
?
"Thank you, sir! Thank you, sir! It's been twenty years, it's been twenty years, and the court finally remembered us old craftsmen!" The old man obviously didn't notice Governor Tao's tone, and saw that he was magically transformed from bad to bad.
Fazai took out a small, extremely broken gong from his ragged clothes.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!" The old man didn't wait for Governor Tao to react. He knocked back and shouted at the same time: "Come out quickly, everyone. The imperial court has sent someone to pay us!"
"It's been paid! It's been paid!" As the shouts rang out, to the embarrassment of the guards who were searching everywhere just now, faces covered with dust suddenly appeared in the dilapidated room that was originally sure to be empty.
Even a group of people jumped out from the weeds not far away. Fortunately, everyone including Xiao Changzi had experienced the world, otherwise they might have been frightened into panic.
"You idiot, why are you chewing so hard?" The old man who played the gong rushed over and knocked off the tree root with countless teeth marks on the hand of a young man who looked relatively demented, and scolded him before he could cry: "
Hurry up and tell your father who is paralyzed in bed that the imperial court has sent people to give us rice!"
"Old... old man..." Governor Tao really wanted to cry. They were here to look for someone, not to show off their wealth. How could they have any money on them? Moreover, people said that the imperial court owed them twenty years of salary.
, just the nearly a thousand people you can see in front of you shouldn’t cost millions of taels?
"I shouldn't, I shouldn't call you that..." The old man apologized and yelled to the people who gathered around him: "Why are you just standing there stupidly? Go and clean up the best house in the village.
, please come over and have a rest! Find out the household stickers from each house and stay there for a while so that you can verify them!"
"Master Tao, what should we do now?" Xiao Changzi has been working hard to learn how to become a qualified businessman in the past few years. If he were to face those dignitaries, he would not be so at a loss; but as for the tricks in his belly
I really don’t know if it will work to deceive these honest people, and I really can’t bear it.
"What else can we do? Let someone go back and transport the money!" It seems that he is the one who has been taken advantage of today. Fortunately, the more than 20 million taels of silver that he cheated in the first half of the year have not been shipped, so Governor Tao has no choice but to make the decision and misappropriate it first.
He stabilized these people at first, and after completing the task, he would think of a way to slowly explain it to the fat man in Luoyang. "In this case, you can quickly take people back and transport one million taels for emergency use. I will delay here for now!"
"Sir, please stop!" The old man who was leading the way when passing by a huge mud pit suddenly grabbed Governor Tao and ordered the people who followed closely to prevent the official from running away like the small group of people just now:
"Why don't you hurry up and pave the way for your lord?"
"This..." The road was paved in an instant, and walking there would definitely not get mud on the soles of his feet, but Governor Tao did not dare to take a step. He has seen a lot of the world in his life, but he really doesn't
I know someone who will pave the way this way.
The old man leading the way thought that Governor Tao's hesitation was because he was afraid that the roadbed would be unstable, so he quickly made a promise: "Please, sir! Our road is solid, I guarantee you won't get your feet wet!"
"Old man, why don't we take a detour?" Dozens of young and old are lying in the mud and being trampled on. Is it possible to walk on this road? Not to mention what the consequences will be if the general who governs the country in Luoyang knows about it, it's your own
My conscience doesn't allow it.
"That's not possible. How can we let you take detours when you are so tired?" This is a nobleman sent by the imperial court to pay. If you offend him, you don't know how many years and months it will take before he is punished.
Thinking of it, the old man leading the way explained: "Sir, you don't know, this is the place where treasure ships were built in the past. As long as it rains, it will be like this. The detour will take at least a quarter of an hour. We can bear with you if your precious time is wasted."
I can’t afford it…”
Governor Tao still stubbornly refused the old man's hospitality. When he finally arrived at the so-called most luxurious guest house in the village, he really couldn't imagine what kind of life these people lived. Everything in this world is afraid of comparison.
Compared with the shabby houses I saw along the way, this is indeed the best place. At least the roof has thatch and a few broken tiles. The doors and windows are also hung with broken straw curtains. But if you go to Luoyang, it will be a pig house.
Everything is better than here.
"Old man, are all of you here?" Governor Tao looked at the people outside the house and was very suspicious that there were still people hiding. Except for the second fool he saw at the beginning, no one was young or strong.
.Is this the Longjiang Shipyard back then, or is it an abandoned shelter?
"Sir, we are all here!" These days, it is a serious crime for a craftsman to leave his place of residence without being beheaded. The old man quickly continued: "A few years ago, we also wrote to the court asking the court to relocate us to the Qingjiang Shipyard, but where they are
But the place that builds canal ships doesn’t even have enough to eat, so why does it need us who build sea-going ships to be a burden?”
"Then some of you will go to the south..." Governor Tao, who has been doing business abroad all year round, has come down these years. Would he not know that the south has a large fleet of scholars and large-scale pirates? Those people's ships will not fall from the sky.
Although the young general and his master in Luoyang are now embarrassed to have a head-on conflict with the Jiangnan gentry and cannot directly kidnap people from the private shipyards of those gentry, it will be enough as long as the craftsmen who build their ships have the slightest connection with here.
He was given a reason to go to Shandong.
"No! No!" The old man explained in panic: "We are all imperial craftsmen with craftsmanship, and ordinary people don't dare to use us. Besides, the craftsmanship passed down by our ancestors can't be used by them..."
"Oh!" After some explanation, Governor Tao understood that there are several types of ships. Nowadays, most of the ships used by scholars and pirates are sand ships or lucky ships that can enter and exit large and small ports at will, like treasure ships.
Although that kind of big guy has better performance in all aspects, no one is willing to spend money to build it because the design requirements for the port are relatively high.
"Is there anyone among you who can build treasure ships?" It seems that the first strategy is about to fail. Governor Tao is now concerned about whether he can still find people who can build sea ships here.
"Build a treasure ship? The court wants to build a new treasure ship?" The old man was refreshed, and then his eyes dimmed again and he said painfully: "It's gone, it's gone a long time ago! We haven't had anything to eat or drink in these years, and all the people who know this craftsmanship have died long ago.
…”
"All gone?" Governor Tao was really worried now. If I had known this would be the result, why would I bother to wade through this troubled water? Fortunately, now it was Xiao Changzi who was the only one who was shocked, but it became me
He also has to be tied up.
"It's really gone..." The old man handed over a broken bowl filled with clear water and a little tea foam, and began to tell Governor Tao about the past. It turned out that the Longjiang Bao Shipyard stopped manufacturing large sea-going ships during the Xuande period.
However, in the early years, the imperial navy had thousands of ships of various sizes, many of which needed maintenance. It could barely survive with the little property left by its ancestors. But as the scholars began to privately monopolize the sea
Trade vigorously advocated the benefits of forbidden seas in the court, and the Ming Dynasty Navy gradually declined. The last job the Bao Shipyard took was to repair the ships damaged in the Tuen Mun naval battle during the Jiajing period. Since then, let alone ships.
, there is not even a broken sampan here. There are no new ships or ships that need maintenance. Of course, the high officials of the imperial court will not support such a group of humble craftsmen in vain. Due to the strict household registration system, they cannot leave on their own.
When the older generation passes away, how can these people who spend all their time thinking about how to fill their bellies still have the mood to inherit any craft?
"Then...then do you still have the drawings from back then?" There is definitely no hope of finding someone now, and Governor Tao had no choice but to lower his requirements again.