Chapter 110: Meet the Black Boat at Night

From the capital to Guangdong, you can divide it into land and water routes. Although the Ming Dynasty attached great importance to the construction of official roads and post stations to ensure smooth personnel and information, this was only limited to economically developed areas such as the Central Plains and Jiangnan. Guangdong is located in Lingnan, with high mountains and dense forests, blocked traffic, and inconvenient connection with the Central Plains. It takes about a month to walk by land, and the journey is very difficult, so many merchants and officials would choose to go south by sea. However, in the early Ming Dynasty, when the sea was forbidden in the Ming Dynasty, except for military ships and official ships of the canal transport, the court did not allow a piece of wood to go into the sea. All merchants and people who went to Guangdong who visited relatives and friends could only go south by land.

The Jinyiwei led by Li Weizheng was different. They chose sea routes. In mid-July, Li Weizheng led 300 Jinyiwei to Ningbo Prefecture first by land, then boarded the boat from Ningbo Prefecture, and took the official ship for grain transport to Guangdong.

In early August, the fleet arrived on the sea surface of the Lingdingyangkou. The three-masted ships were shaking waves in the waves of the sea. The blue sky was endless, and the mountain-like white clouds were piled up at the end of the sky. Several seagulls were hovering on the roof of the ship, making sharp screams. Li Wei was on the boat for more than 20 days. In addition to docking on the coast of Fuzhou Prefecture to replenish fresh water, he had been living on the boat. He had already gotten tired of the magnificent scenery of the sea, and he was used to the bumps of the big ship, and he spent every day in boredom.

At this moment, Li Wei was standing at the bow of the boat, looking at the land looming in the distance. He knew that hundreds of years later, that land would be filled with humiliation and blood and tears of the Chinese nation. That land was Hong Kong in later generations, but at this time, it was an uninhabited deserted island. Under the Ming Dynasty's ban on sea, there was no soil for fishermen to survive. Because of this, the deserted island has become a paradise for smugglers.

"Sir, this trip to Guangdong, I'm afraid our Jinyiwei will be killing us." Luo Guangcai walked up from behind, and said with a hint of expectation in his eyes: "The Minister of Revenue in Guangdong has been inspecting, but the emperor sent us out. The intention is self-evident, which is to use the toughest means to deal with these corrupt officials. It is really exciting!"

Li Weizheng glanced at him and smiled, "It seems that you hate corrupt officials to the core. Why is this?"

"Adults are also from the lower class officials, so how can they not see through this?" Luo Guangcai shook his head and said extremely seriously: "Many people sympathize with the meager income of middle and lower class officials. They think that they are just to support their families. They all have sympathy. However, they don't know that if a person grees for a penny, they want to be greedy for another silver. If one greedy for a penny, they want to be greedy for another silver. If one greedy for a penny, they will lead ten greedy for a penny. If one greedy for a penny, they will lead hundreds of greedy for a penny. If the upper beam is not right, the lower beam will be liked.

The people are all terrible, and the sufferings are all the people. It is even more terrible that once indulge in this way, this kind of greed will soon form a trend, form rules, and form a bunch of rats who share the benefits. At that time, when I want to fight corruption, it is tantamount to dreams. It will only become more and more intense. If you don’t take anything, you won’t be greedy for any official. We will sooner or later be destroyed on this Ming Dynasty. So my view is to kill each other when you find it, and you will never tolerate it. You would rather kill a hundred people by mistake than let one person go."

"But my Ming officials' income is low, which is an ironclad fact. They also have to support their staff. If they are not greedy, wouldn't the whole family drink the northwest wind? What should we do?" Li Wei looked at him with a smile.

"Everyone thinks that the salary of the Ming officials is low. In fact, I think it is not a lot. The salary of the first-rank official is about 1,000 stone a year, but this is rice, which requires 2,600 stones of rice processing. This is the output of 900 mu of rice fields. How many farmers and how many oxen oxes are needed, and only three liters of three liters of tax per mu of land is needed. How much land tax grain is needed to support it? Besides, a county magistrate's annual salary of 90 stones is also required to produce more than 70 mu of land. Five farmers specialize in producing it. This salary is really not low."

Speaking of this, Luo Guang sighed softly. He looked at the vast sea and wanted to control his emotions, but hundreds of thoughts poured into him, making him unable to calm down. His emotions became more and more excited.

"As for the supporters who are said to be raising a staff member, as long as they are diligent in government affairs, they don't need any staff member at all. They say they are all parents, wives and children. They can live in the back yamen, and they can't wear cloth or eat rice. What's the salary not enough? The key is that they want to take concubines, maids, servants, buy beautiful houses and fields, and buy property for their children and grandchildren. In this way, the salary is of course not enough, but the power is to let them do things for the people, not to seek wealth for them. If you want wealth, don't be an official. If you do business, no one will stop them."

Li Wei was observing his radical ideas, which were quite a bit like a proletarian in later generations. Can officials adhere to poverty and everyone do Hai Rui? Zhu Yuanzhang designed the salary only for a family of five. Of course, he felt rich, but in fact, he couldn't let the magistrate's wife buy vegetables and cook like an old mother all day long! The population of officials' families is generally large, and it is also true that the salary is not enough; but if the salary is too small, Luo Guangcai's account can also be calculated clearly. How many farmers should an official need to support him? So the key is that the Ming Dynasty's fiscal revenue was too small and he could not afford the higher salary of officials. Zhu Yuanzhang was devoted to land to collect finances. It would be strange if the Ming Dynasty's finances were not embarrassed. In comparison, how much tax revenue was in the Song Dynasty.

Li Weizheng did not argue with him, but shook his head and smiled.

At this time, there were more and more Jinyiwei on the deck. Suddenly, a captain pointed to the sea in the distance and shouted: "Look, it's a smuggling boat!"

Everyone ran to the side of the ship and looked into the distance. They saw a medium-sized cargo ship in the blue sky was sailing eastward, trying to avoid them. If it were official ships or military ships, they would hang Ming flags, but the ship had nothing, and it was obviously the legendary smuggling ship.

Li Weizheng also began to get excited. This was the first civil cargo ship he saw along the way. Although it was smuggling, it was of great significance. It preserved the last bit of incense of overseas trade of the Han people in them. I recall that there were hundreds of large and small ports in the Tang and Song dynasties, and tens of thousands of ships gathered. Overseas trade was prosperous, and merchants benefited farmers and the country flourished. But today, Zhu Yuanzhang used the excuse of preventing Japanese pirates to prevent the people from going into the sea. He also punished the merchants and fishermen who secretly went out to sea with severe punishment. Once captured, he beheaded on the spot. Even the smuggled vassals were not allowed to be bought and sold, and he was destroyed as soon as he was found.

The cruel maritime ban policy has led to the fact that the seaside people have no way out, and they are famine-promoted. The poor people often go into the sea to follow the pirates and roar and die. The Japanese pirates are still rampant. This is actually Zhu Yuanzhang's small peasant thought. He wants to restore a simple agricultural society where chickens and dogs are heard and never interact with each other. Even domestic commerce has been reluctant to lift the ban, let alone overseas trade. There is no doubt that the maritime ban is indeed a major mistake in Zhu Yuanzhang's administration. Compared with the prosperity of the Song Dynasty and the financial abundance, the demise of the late Ming Dynasty was also related to its financial difficulties throughout the dynasty, and this is due to the policy of optimizing agriculture and suppressing commerce in the early Ming Dynasty.

The smuggling ships went further and further away, gradually leaving the fleet's vision.

In the evening, the grain transport fleet approached Xin'an County, the first county in the Pearl River Estuary, and rushed northeast on the sea thirty miles south of Xin'an County. At this time, the commander of Ningbo Guanhaiwei, who was responsible for escorting the grain, came to Li Weizheng and said: "Sir Qianhu, Xin'an County will be here soon. If the adults want to get ashore here, they will have to pack up their things."

According to the plan, Li Weizheng's Jinyiwei did not go ashore in Guangzhou, but in Xin'an County. After two days of rest, he secretly rushed to various parts of Guangdong. Although Li Weizheng received a secret order to investigate the case of smuggling silver by the Nanhaiwei, he could not alarm the case. He could only use this case as a secret line. The open line still had to investigate the corruption of local officials in disaster relief food, and he had to make a statement.

When night fell quietly on the sea, three large ships of the Jinyiwei boarded slowly landed. On a small bank, three hundred Jinyiwei and their horses and their luggage came ashore one after another, making the originally deserted coast lively. After the three large ships unloaded the Jinyiwei, they turned around and continued to head north.

This recession was built on an island called Tuen Mun. It was specially built for the supply of the Nanhai Guard patrol boats. It was rare for a boat to dock in ten days and a half months. Therefore, only two old men guarding the island lived in an isolated stone house. There was originally a fishing village on the island. After the sea ban, most of the fishermen fled to Nanyang or Annan to make a living, while the rest of the fishermen were moved to the mainland, and the entire island was deserted.

The arrival of the Jinyiwei alarmed the two civilians guarding the island. They came out to check the situation, but in the dark, they saw hundreds of fully armed men. They were so scared that they shouted wildly and fled in panic, "Japanese pirates! Japanese pirates are coming."

The Jinyiwei was ridiculous and immediately rushed up and caught the two of them back. They knelt on the ground and kowtowed repeatedly, begging for mercy, "Grandmaster, spare my life!"

Li Weizheng was too lazy to explain and asked coldly: "I ask you, are there often Japanese pirates here?"

The two of them slowly woke up and said that the person who came was speaking the official language of the capital, which could not be the Japanese pirates. They were shocked and then learned the official language and replied: "Report to Master, the Japanese pirates come almost once or twice a year, but in the future this year, we think..."

"I thought we were Japanese pirates, right?" Li Weizheng smiled slightly and asked again: "How many people are there in Xin'an County? How far is it from here?"

"There are only a few hundred families in Xin'an County, about five miles away from here. You can see it by walking north along the beach. This area is very desolate and the people cannot make a living. Most of them go to farm near Guangzhou."

"Okay! I will give you my own reward when you lead the way and go to the county town."

Regardless of whether they were willing or not, the two lieutenants pulled them onto the horse. After a while, the Jinyiwei slowly headed towards the county town. The coastline near Xin'an County was broken and tortuous, with reefs, and many small harbors. It was easy to hide ships. Everyone walked along the coastline. On the left were cliffs. The sea breeze was howling in the night. Only the sound of waves slamming against the reefs was heard in his ears. There were bare huge rocks around him. There were no family. After traveling for more than three miles, the outline of the city wall was faintly seen in the hazy night. Everyone couldn't help but speed up.

Suddenly, a captain whispered: "Look, it's a ship!"

Everyone looked down with his fingers, and they saw a large ship moored in a bay, as if it was the one I saw during the day. Just as everyone was focusing on the boat, a civilian who led the way suddenly ran towards the edge of the cliff, and heard him waving his hands desperately, as if he was reporting the message. Without taking thirty steps, an arrow shot towards him and hit his calf. He screamed and rolled to the ground. He immediately ran up to hold him down and grabbed him.

Needless to say, Li Weizheng guessed that the civilian must have something to do with this smuggling ship. He said to a hundred households: "Interrogate them to me and ask for all the confessions!"

In front of the Jinyiwei, how could they survive? In just a moment, they even explained the affairs of the eight generations of their ancestors. After the interrogation, the Baihu stepped forward to report: "Report to the Lord, every family in Xin'an County has people involved in smuggling and made a living. This ship is just one of them. There are about fifty people on the ship. Just returned from Annan and sent rice to the families in the city. Both of them have relatives involved in smuggling."

At this time, all the Jinyiwei looked at Li Weizheng. Waiting for his decision, Li Weizheng pondered for a moment and said, "We can go to the boat to see it, but remember, if the other party does not resist, don't hurt people, ask about the situation before talking."

The lieutenants agreed and immediately went down, and more than 200 people went down, and the remaining people looked at the horses. The Jinyiwei lieutenants were all skilled in martial arts. Although the cliff was steep, they still quickly found a way out from the cliff. It took only a quarter of an hour for more than 200 people to climb down the cliff and groped to the side of the boat. Li Weizheng also slowly went down. He quickly came to the side of the boat and saw that the boat was about twenty meters long, five meters high, with a huge mast, and all the canvas were placed. There were pedals under the boat, so they could leave the small harbor when there was no wind.

At this time, the ship was very quiet. It seemed that the crew members had returned to the county town. There was no one on the side of the ship. "Go!" Li Weizheng ordered, and the Jinyiwei immediately took out the claws of the city and threw them up. Dozens of lieutenants went up lightly like monkeys. After a moment, they climbed onto the ship and then threw down several pairs of rope ladders. At this moment, a terrifying shout came from the ship, followed by a heavy beating, and the shouts stopped abruptly.

After almost all the lieutenants went up, Li Weizheng calmly climbed up along the rope ladder. He jumped over the side of the boat and saw the Jinyiwei pulling his sword in his hands and forming a large circle. There were more than a dozen people kneeling on the deck, all of whom were crew members caught from the cabin. They all looked frightened and trembled all over. They were caught by the officers and soldiers, and they would surely die.

The leader was a man in his thirties with a wide face and a very big nose. His leopard eyes were bright in the dark. He stared at Li Wei and was walking over and shouted loudly: "I am the owner of the ship. This ship belongs to mine, and it is also my own smuggling. It has nothing to do with these crew members. If you want to kill or cut, just attack me alone."

Li Wei was just hearing that his accent was like a northerner and his voice was majestic, without any fear. He smiled and asked gently, "What's your name? You don't have a Cantonese accent."

Li Wei's gentle tone aroused the hope of a man's survival. He immediately replied: "The villain is Chen Wanli, a native of Dengzhou, Shandong. He grew up with his father since he was a child. The Ming Dynasty's ban on the sea cut off everyone's life. I had no choice but to go to the sea to trade in the South China Sea for a living. I am the owner of this ship and am willing to accept any punishment from the adults, just to ask the adults to let my subordinates go."

"What goods are loaded in your ship?" Li Wei was sitting down and asked with interest.

"Report to the master, the ship is filled with 800 stones of rice trafficked from Annan. This year, Guangdong has encountered a storm that has not been encountered in a century. I heard that the rice price has soared, and one stone of rice can be sold for ten taels of silver, so we want to bet on this."

"How much does your 800-stone rice purchase price?"

Chen Wanli lowered his head and did not dare to speak. After a while, he whispered: "Sir, Annan only costs one tael of silver for a stone of rice."

"Hmph! Ten times the huge profit, no wonder you don't even want your life." Li Weizheng snorted coldly, "According to the Ming Dynasty, all smugglers will be beheaded, what else do you have to say?"

Chen Wanli sighed and lowered his head and said, "I have violated the criminal law of the Ming Dynasty and am willing to die. The boat and rice are also willing to hand over to the adults to deal with, just ask the adults to spare their lives."

Li Wei was staring at him. After a long time, he suddenly laughed and turned to his subordinates and said, "So far, we will get off the boat and go back."

"Sir, if you let them go?" Luo Guangcai said anxiously: "They violated the criminal laws of the Ming Dynasty, how could they be careless?"
Chapter completed!