Chapter 378: Funny Truths

Zhang Anshi ordered all his men.

Nor do they tell them what they are about to do.

Instead, he called Zhu Yong.

Smiling, he looked at Zhu Yong.

Zhu Yong heart hairy: “Big brother, what happened?”

“Your Dad ……”

“What happened to my father? What has he gotten himself into again?” Zhu Yong became furious.

Zhang Anshi said, “It’s nothing, your father is about to go to Jiangxi, right?”

Zhu Yong frowned and nodded.

Zhang Anshi sighed, “I’ll tell you one piece of good news and one piece of bad news.”

Zhu Yong thoughtlessly said, “You first say the bad news.”

Zhang Anshi said, “This trip, I’m afraid it will only be dangerous.”

Zhu Yong, however, was happy: “In this world, besides the emperor, who dares to do anything to my father? It’s not that I’m bragging, His Highness the Crown Prince can’t do anything about him.”

Zhang Anshi fell furious and huffed, “You people, what are you doing mentioning my brother-in-law for a good reason?”

Zhu Yong smiled sarcastically and said: “It’s just an analogy, big brother don’t be angry, don’t be angry. Big brother also 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?”

At Zhu Yong s words, Zhang Anshi was speechless for a while, and then said, “The good news is that …… this time, if your father can escape from life, he is going to be very rich.”

“Make a fortune?” Zhu Yong froze.

Zhang Anshi said, “Alright, cut the nagging, starting now, the rest of our trip is uniformly confidential.”

Zhu Yong immediately sensed that things were not simple, he and Zhang Yoking exchanged a glance and then said, “What happened?”

This, Qiu Song’s performance is very good, he only lazily stood aside, looking like indifferent to this, his mind also do not know what is thinking.

Zhang Anshi calmly said, “Don’t ask too much about what you shouldn’t ask, all in all, this time it must be a tough battle, bring more gunpowder.”

Gunpowder this two words out, Qiu Song this is born interest, the whole person flesh visible spirit gas, only to see him say: “Big brother, is not it so?”

With that, he unbuckled his belt, then pulled his lapel, and at that moment he held his outer garment open with both hands, and a ring of gunpowder inside was tied inside his garment.

Zhang Anshi’s eyes widened and he exclaimed, “Don’t you come over ………”

……

Two hours later, Zhang Anshi led a group of people, but they were dressed as press merchants, and came to the ferry in great numbers.

And here, there were dozens of ships waiting here, and immediately afterward, Zhang Anshi met Zhu Di.

Zhu was led down by dozens of brocade-clad lieutenants, led by Chen Daowen.

With his hands behind his back, he stood at the bow of the boat, waiting for Zhang Anshi to board the boat, then he turned back, looking at the turbulent flowing water at his feet and said, “How come I don’t see Zhu Yong and his three men?”

Zhang Anshi said, “Arrangements have been made for another ship.”

Zhu Di said, “I still want to meet those three boys and knock them around a bit, how come they don’t have a different boat?”

“This ……”

Zhu Di looked at Zhang Anshi with an odd look on his face, so he said, “What?”

Zhang Anshi said, “I dare not hide, it is my fourth brother, also known as Qusong, he …… has to hold a pile of gunpowder in his body, I think it is a little dangerous, it is better to let your majesty away from him.”

Chu: “……”

After thinking about it, he seemed to think that people like Qiu Song were indeed a bit perverted, so Zhu said, “What about Zhu Yong and Zhang Yoking?”

“I arranged for him to be on the other ships, if I let the second and third brothers come on the same ship, the fourth brother is sensitive in nature and may feel that something is wrong, I’m afraid that he’ll have a wild imagination, if he can’t think of anything else, it’ll be bad, if he lets the second and third brothers accompany him, he won’t be unquestioning.”

Chu: “……”

After a pause, Zhu said, “Qiu Fu is clearly a very stable person.”

He sighed, but didn’t say anything more; Zhu didn’t have much to say to a spirited young man like Qusong.

Zhu Di said: ”They are your brothers, since they should be properly taught the reasoning of how to conduct themselves in the world. Don’t be so old and confused. They are after the ministers, success is also Xiao He, defeat is also Xiao He, it is inevitable to be contaminated with some eccentric temper, I think this is the people around them are too arrogant for their sake. You are the elder brother, you should teach them sternly.”

Zhang Anshi only said yes.

Zhu Di then looked at Zhang Anshi with a smile and said, “This side of the capital, it’s already been arranged, right?”

Zhang Anshi did not expect Zhu Di to suddenly ask this.

But soon, he realized that there was something in Zhu’s words.

So tacitly, he smiled at Zhu and said, “It’s already set up.”

Zhu Di with a few feelings said: “On the surface of the accident is Jiangxi, but the real heart of the big trouble, but in my eyes ah! You, this guy, can pay attention to my deeper meaning.”

Zhang Anshi smiled and said, “It is still Your Majesty who is so sage and inscrutable. I am trying very hard to figure out Your Majesty’s mind, and I can only barely comprehend 30 or 40% of it.”

Zhu Di waved his hand, “Cut the bullshit.”

Zhang Anshi then ran to the stern of the ship, lazy to serve, this old man is now more and more eccentric temper, can not serve.

Two days later, the ship arrived directly at Jiujiang.

The caravan boarded the dock.

At the pier, but a team of inspectors, at this time making a mess.

Zhang Anshi led the men ashore first.

Then someone shouted, “All young men and women need to build railroads without fail ……”

Several people swaggered to Zhang Anshi’s front, the leader of which pressed his sword, cross-eyed, and covered with a murderous aura.

Zhang Anshi directly threw him a piece of silver, “Go away.”

This person weighed the weight, taut face, suddenly grinned, then said, “So it is actually a merchant, the merchant is a foreigner, the household registration is not in this government, this is all right, please, please ……”

At that moment, Zhang Anshi and the others went ashore.

Zhu Di’s face turned blue as he muttered under his breath, “My money!”

Those few inspectors sent off Zhang Anshi and others, the leader of the people holding Zhang Anshi’s silver in his hands, a person jogging to catch up with the head: “Chief, those people …… look at the family is not very expensive, directly to take such a heavy gift, I see … . catch them back, maybe ……”

The words weren’t finished, but the meaning was obvious.

“Asshole!” This leader bellowed and said angrily, “What do you think we are? We are officials, not robbers, do you think you are the water bandits of Poyang Lake?”

The speaker was scolded and embarrassed.

This head of the man in the eyes flashed light, then said: “can so easily reward, must be a big merchant, this year, which a big merchant behind no one? Just people don’t want to trouble the people at the top, just casually take a little money to the brothers to drink tea, is to spend a little money to eliminate disasters. Do you really think, rely on us these people can pinch him? Really provoke anxious, to the point of fish death, you and I these people are dead or alive do not know it.”

“Ah …… so it is.”

The leader of the man glared at him and said, “When this kind of thing, the most important thing is that the eyes should be bright, if there is not even a little bit of color in the eyes, then it is really dead also do not know.”

After this man said that, he pointed at another person and shouted, “Stop that person, that person looks like the water bandits from Poyang Lake!”

Jiujiang is a thoroughfare, adjacent to the Yangtze River and connected to Poyang Lake, and a step away from Nanchang, which has been known for its commercial prosperity since ancient times.

But when he entered the city of Jiujiang, what Zhu Di felt was depression.

The streets are already deserted and there are few pedestrians.

Waiting for someone to inquire, but said that this place has been thieves, or rather, everywhere are thieves. It is said that just a day ago, there has been a thief, directly attacked the county town.

But …… the only change in this Jiujiang city is that a station has been built.

It’s really built.

Zhu came all the way here with a hard look on his face.

However, the local, in fact, is also largely so, the bandits in this era is the norm, history, the Yongle years, the larger scale, the number of people in the scale of more than 10,000 people in the rebellion, there are dozens of times as many.

The loudest ones can even gather crowds of hundreds of thousands.

And this …… has been considered one of the more peaceful periods of antiquity.

If it is in the middle and late dynasties, every year dozens of rebellions and civil unrest, almost a common occurrence, a year down, do not slaughter dozens of counties, are considered to be a peaceful year.

Such things, in the view of Zhang Anshi in his previous life, were simply unimaginable.

After all, his understanding of pomp and circumstance at that time was by no means this.

But now Zhang Anshi, in fact, had long been paralyzed.

What’s a heyday? A heyday is the opposite of a chaotic world!

Nine out of ten rooms are empty in the chaotic times, the land is thousands of miles bare, the population dies at every turn by 70% or 80%, and the people eat their children easily.

During the Yongle years, the people were only subjected to bandits once or twice in their lives, and suffered from natural disasters a few times, so this was a prosperous time.

Therefore, when I learned that there were thieves, I was surprised that no one was surprised at all, but only felt that it was too normal.

But the station was actually built, but it still invigorated Zhu Di and Zhang Anshi.

At that moment, led by one man, the crowd hoofed it to a station.

Standing here, looking at the lone station in the distance. The station, from a distance, looks like such a thing.

So Zhu Di and Zhang Anshi raised their steps a little closer with anticipation.

This is a closer look, but it’s a shock.

There’s nothing here but the station.

There was no railroad, only a roadbed that extended less than a hundred feet, and then …… there was no more.

Chu: “……”

Zhang Anshi said doubtfully, “Is it that this railroad has not yet been laid? Is it paved from Nanchangfu?”

Zhu Di’s face grew more and more somber, but he only said, “Wait here for a moment.”

“Your Majesty ……”

Zhu Di said with an ironized face, “Don’t say anything, wait a minute!”

Sure enough, after waiting for less than half an hour, a team of errand boys came.

These policemen, apparently, had also heard what was going on, and learned that a group of people, suddenly coming to this station, was very suspicious.

So they came in a hurry, and the leader waved his iron ruler and shouted sternly: “What …… are you doing?”

Zhu stepped forward and swung his arm.

Before this leader of the head of the police force could react, he only felt a flash in front of his eyes, and the iron ruler in his hand subconsciously tried to block.

But …… fast, too fast.

Then he saw Zhu Zhu’s bushel-like slap, falling directly on his face.

The man’s eyes went black, his face seemed to have violently suffered a heavy blow, his body staggered, and with an ah-ah sound, the man had fallen to the ground, directly fainting.

The officers at the back were shocked and shouted under their breath, “It s a thief, it s a thief …… It s a real thief, run, run.”

Zhu sank his face and snapped, “Who dares to run one!”

The errand boys immediately seemed to have nails under their feet, and one by one they fell to the ground and kowtowed as if they were pounding garlic, “Spare your life …….”

Zhu said, “I want to see the officials, so lead me there.”

One of them is a thin servant, should be a civil official, at this time, busy said, “Thief master, my county master is a rare good official ah, never harm the people, two sleeves clean, thief master …… just spare him.”

Zhu Di was furious: “Come ……”

“Go, go.” The clerical officer was quick: “I will take all the thieves …… no, it is to take all the grandfathers to go.”

Zhu Di looked quite calm, but only he himself knew that he was dizzy in the head at this moment.

The grotesqueries he witnessed before his eyes struck him as unimaginable.

Zhang Anshi also confused, quietly to the front of Zhu Di, want to say something, and feel that there is nothing to say, so he picked up the rear lapel of the clerical officer said, “Which Yamen are you?”

The clerk tremblingly said, “It is the county office of Dehua County.”

Dehua County was the capital of Jiujiang Prefecture, and in later times, because there was also a Dehua County in Fujian, the Dehua County of Jiujiang was changed to Jiujiang County.

Zhang Anshi asked again, “Who is the magistrate of your house?”

“Surname Chen, secret name Jinye.”

It wasn’t far from the county office, and when a group of people appeared in great numbers.

Zhang Anshi made a wink towards that county official, “We’re going to meet at the back office.”

The clerk did not dare to say more, so he dutifully said to the officer at the door, “This is to pay a visit to His Lordship.”

At that moment, leading Zhu and the others, he went straight to the back office.

It was almost unobstructed along the way.

Obviously this clerk should have quite a bit of prestige in the county office.

Wait until you reach the light house in the back office.

But he saw a man, sitting in the hall, holding a book and reading it.

This clerk then exclaimed, “Master, someone …… is here.”

The person in the hall was none other than the county magistrate Chen Jinye.

When Chen Jinye saw someone rushing in rashly, he was first surprised, but then he put down a volume of books and shouted, “Who are you, how dare you!”

Zhang Anshi didn’t hesitate and took the lead to go forward to this Chen Jinye.

The rest of them, quickly dispersed, on guard around the perimeter.

Zhang Anshi took a waist plate out of his sleeve and waved it in front of this Chen Jingye.

Chen Jingye was shocked when he saw it, and he was busy arching his hand and saying, “My official Chen Jingye, I have seen …… you.”

He didn’t know what to call it for a moment.

Zhu Di, however, was already furious and shouted, “Are you Chen Jingye?”

“Yes …… yes ……” Chen Jingye has detected Zhu’s extraordinary, busy: “I do not know what official business you all have come here from the capital? ”

Zhu Di said in a deep voice, “Jiujiang Prefecture is repairing the railroad, why is it that so far, not even an inch of the railroad has been repaired? So much silver, where did it go?”

“This …… this ……”

When Chen Jingye heard this, he immediately revealed a soulful look.

He winced, and then period, “This …… subordinate …… subordinate ……”

Zhu Di was furious and smiled back, “Before and after, grain silver five million taels, where have they gone?”

When Chen Jingye heard five million taels, he immediately understood what was going on.

“Murphy, it’s the Duke of Cheng ……”

He looked at Zhu and remembered the rumors that Lord Cheng was about to arrive in Nanchang Province.

Heart thought, Cheng should go is the waterway, from the waterway arrived in the Jiujiang province, and then take the land to Nanchang province to go.

Thinking like this, he immediately said, “This …… this …… next official district seventh grade county magistrate, really …… really… …”

Zhu sneered and said, “What a district magistrate of the seventh rank! This station is in Er County, five million taels of silver, how many hands did you go through? And how much did you take?”

Zhu’s teeth were on the verge of crunching.

In the original anticipation, he felt that …… even if it is five million taels, the greed has gone away two or three million taels, and he can accept it.

But now it seems clear that things are worse than expected.

This Chen Jinye heard, scared face white, immediately shouted out loud injustice: “The next official wronged, the next official wronged ah! The next official has two sleeves of clean hands, has not coveted the slightest bit of ah, the next official ……”

He rushed to his own defense.

Zhang Anshi, however, made a wink.

So, someone began to search the light house.

Immediately after, Chen Daowen hurriedly came and whispered, “Checked, here …… is only some broken silver, and a lot of books, in addition to this, there is nothing else. Oh, there are also some leftover scraps, this person ate at noon seems to be salted vegetables and an egg soup, and nothing else.”

Zhang Anshi: “……”

When Zhu Di heard this, he just laughed contemptuously, how could he believe these things, so he laughed even more morosely.

Chen Jinye wept and said: “The next official since the office, has always been so, if you do not believe, you can thoroughly investigate. County up and down, everyone knows, the next official is a scholar, there is no greed and ink heart.”

Zhu Di snapped, “I don’t believe it ……”

He said it word for word, with a look of utter disbelief.

“It seems that if he is not tortured, he will refuse to confess. Come on people ……”

Chen Jinye was scared out of his wits.

But it is the side of the guide everyone to the clerks, snapped a kneel down, crying, said: “County master really is a good officer of the two-sleeved clean! Not to mention the weekday life is simple, that is, there are some salary, but also take out some to help the next head of the servants, said everyone is not easy to do business, also know that the small people do not have a salary, difficult to support their families, warned us not to blackmail the people …… small people dare to use the head of the people as a guarantee.”

The words came out, Zhu Di only feel everything in front of him, are like a joke, and the funny is not only in front of this official, but also their own.

Zhang Anshi then said in a cold voice, “How much silver has the county allocated for this railroad repair?”

Without waiting for Chen Jinye to reply, the clerical official said, “Totaling three hundred and seventy thousand taels.”

Zhu shrieked in anger, “Where’s the silver?”

“Fix the railroad.” The clerk said.

Zhu’s brain buzzed and he subconsciously said, “What about the railroad?”

“The railroad hasn’t been built yet.”

“What about the money?”

“Spent.” The clerk said.

Chu: “……”

Zhang Anshi on the side, kicked the clerk and said, “Still dare not be honest, I only ask you, the railroad has not been repaired, why the money is gone?”

The clerical official hesitated for a moment before saying, “Your Excellency does not know, this railroad …… is a road …… is a road to be repaired on the ground, this land …… is the people’s , it is always necessary to purchase the land to repair it.”

“Hundreds of thousands of taels, all taken to buy land?” Zhang Anshi looked at him coldly and said, “How much land was bought?”

“It’s not much, if another 700,000 to 800,000 taels are allocated, it should be enough for this land.”

Zhang Anshi scolded angrily, “Into your mother, allocate another 700,000 to 800,000 taels, I can buy all the land in half of your county!”