Chapter 145: The chaos in Penglai

After two days of rest, the fleet set sail and continued to sail towards the Bohai Sea. At this time, the fleet divided into two groups, one by Yang Fan, Qianhu, led 20 warships and 30 empty cargo ships to the Yangtze River Estuary to participate in the task of transporting military rations. The remaining ships were led by Li Weizheng, first returned to Penglai Port, and then according to Zhu Yuanzhang's order, the 300,000 taels of silver obtained from selling military goods were transported to Tianjin Wei as military expenses for the Northern Imperial Mongolia. As for the 30,000 taels of silver compensated by Yoshihiro Ouchi, he reported it to Zhu Yuanzhang before he said it.

That morning, the fleet finally entered the Bohai Sea. Li Weizheng came to the bow with great enthusiasm and used the telescope he had just made to observe the situation on the sea. This telescope was made of the skilled craftsman in his army with the best crystal he obtained. Li Weizheng still remembered the experiment he did in high school physics class. A convex lens was used as an objective lens and a concave lens as an eyepiece. Then he used the smallest hand gun to transform it into a lens barrel. After several debugging, he made the later Galileo glasses. The effect was very good and he could clearly see objects more than ten miles away on the sea.

The monocular telescope was a sensation. Almost all officers rushed to see its magic. Everyone was shocked. Everyone called it a clairvoyance without any objection. The top crystal was made into only five pairs of monocular telescopes in the end. One of the largest pairs of the Danluo Island defense Goryeo, one for the treasure boat viewer, and the other pair was prepared to be presented to Zhu Yuanzhang. Li Wei was using one as the commander, but he was careful and

The fifth pair of monocular telescopes, which are the smallest and most effective, was secretly hidden and told everyone that they accidentally fell into the sea while observing at night, which caused everyone to regret. Li Wei was assured that after picking up the good crystals, he would make a few more, which calmed down the public's anger. But he also knew that the best crystals that Gao Yan gave him were difficult to be born again. Even if he found a good crystal, the glasses he made would not have the effect of these five pairs in front of him.

"Sir, let me see it too!"

Li Wei was turning back and saw Lai Yongguo standing behind him, his eyes full of longing. Li Wei handed Qianliyan to him and smiled: "If you want to see Qianliyan, go and be a lookout officer, please be sure to see enough."

Lai Yongguo smiled, he took Qianliyan and closed one eye to look at the sea. There seemed to be nothing on the sea. He slowly looked at the sun in the sky, and was held down by Li Weizheng, "I said, if you don't look at the sun, it will burn your eyes."

Lai Yongguo was so scared that he quickly put it down and continued to observe the sea. When Li Wei saw that he was addicted to seeing it, he smiled and said, "You can watch it slowly! I'll go back to the cabin first."

As soon as he took two steps, Lai Yongguo suddenly shouted: "Sir, there is a boat!"

At this time, the lookout officer shouted from the mast: "Sir, I found a civilian boat ahead."

Li Weizheng was stunned. How could there be a civilian ship in Bohai? He rushed to the side of the boat, and he snatched the Mile of Mileage. Looking at the sea in the north, he also saw it. It was indeed a civilian ship. He clearly saw that the civilian ship was loaded with cargo. Several people were visiting here nervously. The fleet was huge and they discovered it. Seeing their outfits, they were clearly from the Ming Dynasty. Li Weizheng couldn't help but be surprised. This was the first time he saw the Ming Dynasty smuggling ship in Bohai. Under the harsh sea ban, there were still people who dared to go out to sea to smuggle. Although Li Weizheng did not want to ask, as the commander, it was his negligence.

Li Weizheng immediately lowered his face and said, "Send someone to catch them for me."

Several warships headed north. Half an hour later, the warship came back with a small cargo ship. Several people involved were taken to the treasure ship and "Kneel down!" The soldiers pushed them to Li Wei's front and kneel down.

A soldier reported: "Sir, the cargo ship is full of food. They are smuggling food from Goryeo."

Li Wei was looking at them. There were five people in total. The youngest seemed to be only fifteen or sixteen years old. According to the sea ban issued by Zhu Yuanzhang, all those who went to sea privately would be beheaded. They were all very frightened and knelt down in front of Li Weizhen and begged: "Sir, please spare me! Sir, please!"

"You are so brave. You dare to smuggle illegally. Do you really don't want to live?"

"Sir, we dare not violate the ban, but if this is the case, more than 100,000 people will starve to death." An older fisherman cried.

"What's going on?" Li Wei was surprised. He asked quickly: "Tell me honestly, and you can't hide a word."

"Sir, since the autumn ended, the rain had not fallen on the Shandong Peninsula. This spring, the drought worsened, famine began to spread, and locust plagues began to rise again. At first, a dump of rice was a silver bar, but later there was no money to buy food. I heard that there was a tragic situation in Qingzhou Prefecture that people were eating people. More than 100,000 refugees were squeezed into our Penglai County, and they all depended on the government's daily relief porridge to survive. But later, the food in Penglai County was almost gone. Seeing that more than 100,000 people were about to starve to death, Zhao Gong was helpless, so he ordered us to go out to sea to catch fish and then go to Goryeo to buy food."

"Wait!" Li Wei suddenly heard the clue. He looked at the four of them and asked incredible sense: "Did it be the Prime Minister Zhao who ordered you to do this?"

Several people found that they had missed their words, and they all lowered their heads and did not dare to say anything. Li Weizheng had already fully understood that this must be Zhao Liangcheng's decision, but why did the Penglai Navy ignore it? Bao Xin and Zhao Liangcheng have always had a disagreement, and they could actually reach an agreement? This really made him unable to understand.

"Take them down and order the fleet to accelerate and return to Penglai Port as soon as possible."

Two days later, the fleet finally returned to Penglai Water City, which had been away for nearly three months. The fleet was by the port, and the soldiers got off the ship and returned to the military camp to rest. One hundred young men selected by the Danluo Kingdom also got off the ship to rest. There were also a few soldiers in the army who knew Goryeo and became their translator.

Li Wei was getting off the boat, and a hundred households waiting on the shore stepped forward to meet, "Sir, the commander."

Seeing that Bao Xin, deputy Qianhu, did not come to greet him, Li Weizheng asked coldly: "Where is Deputy Qianhu? Where are others?"

"Report to the Lord, Deputy Qianhu Bao happened to go to Jinan Prefecture yesterday. It seems that the King of Qi has something important to summon him."

Seeing that there were no outsiders, Li Wei immediately lowered his voice and scolded: "You are so brave. You dare to let fishermen go out for fishing and indulge in smuggling!"

"Sir, this is the order of Deputy Qianhu Bao, and his subordinates can only obey the order." Baihu hesitated for a moment and hesitated: "Actually, we have not been on patrol for two months. Deputy Qianhu Bao said that the Japanese pirates will not attack now."

Li Wei was furious and had not gone to sea for two months. Wouldn't the military affairs be abandoned? He suppressed his anger and ordered: "Now, send people to sea to patrol normally, and fishermen are not allowed to go out to sea to fish again."

"Yes!" Baihu ran to make arrangements, and Li Weizheng stopped him again, "Tell brothers not to hurt people and drive the fishermen back."

The patrol boat in Penglai Water City began to go out to sea again. Li Weizheng ordered people to send Yao Ji to his mansion, and he took dozens of personal soldiers to the prefect's office to question the crime.

Li Wei returned to Penglai County after several months. At this time, Penglai County was no longer as clean and quiet as he left. The streets were dirty and messy, full of pungent fishy smell. Refugees with yellow skin were everywhere, helping the elderly and young to go to the porridge relief site. A month ago, the court urgently allocated a batch of grain to Dengzhou Prefecture, but it was still far from enough to provide relief to the victims. They could only rely on the government to secretly send people to sea to catch fish and smuggle food, which barely allowed more than 100,000 victims to survive.

Li Wei was passing by the square porridge shed in front of the prefect's office. He looked at the situation inside and saw three men extremely busy. One of them collected the cards and checked the cards. One of them scooped the porridge, and the other one put a small piece of cooked fish into the porridge bowl. Everyone behind them stared at the little fish left in the pot, fearing that it would be gone.

A man suddenly saw Li Weizheng. His face changed drastically and he hurriedly ran to report, but Li Weizheng pointed at him with a whip and said, "Continue to provide relief porridge, don't leave."

As soon as he urged the horse, he led his subordinates to rush straight to the yamen.

Since he decided to go fishing more than two months ago, Zhao Liangcheng has been spending his time almost every day. At first, he was very afraid that things would be exposed, but as the fish caught in the sea and smuggled rice saved a large number of hungry people, his heart calmed down. Even if he was convicted of it, he had no regrets.

Zhao Liangcheng was reviewing official documents in the yamen at this time, and suddenly a yamen runner came to report in a panic, "Master, the big thing is not good, the commander is back and is waiting in the lobby."

"I understand, why are you panic!" Zhao Liangcheng put down his pen, took a deep breath, and the things he should face finally came.

He sorted out his clothes and walked slowly to the lobby. Li Wei was standing under the plaque hanging high with his hands behind his back, his face as deep as water. He hurried forward and bowed: "Secretary Zhao Liangcheng, please see the commander."

"Master Zhao, do you know that you are guilty?" Li Weizheng didn't look at him, but just asked coldly.

Zhao Liangcheng sighed and said, "Sir, this is not a place to speak, please follow me."

Li Weizheng sneered and followed him into the second hall. Zhao Liangcheng closed the door. He suddenly 'stop' and knelt in front of Li Weizheng, begging mercilessly: "Please commander and commander to let me go once."

Li Wei was just understanding what he meant, so he took a step back and said calmly: "Master, I intercepted the smuggling ship you sent at sea. You are too brave. You disobey the ban on going into the sea to fish and send someone to smuggle. Do you think you can escape the blame if I hide it for you?"

Zhao Liangcheng shook his head gently and said, "Sir, I am not responsible for myself. I will bear the blame for disobeying the sea ban. But I don't know how to support more than 100,000 people. I tried my best, but more than 10,000 people died. I have no choice but to ask the adults to turn a blind eye and let us continue to go out to sea and survive this famine."

"Why don't you ask the court for help and take risks?"

"Why don't we ask the court for help? The court also sent food, but it was not enough at all. The governor said that the court also had difficulties, so that we could overcome difficulties by ourselves. The only way we thought was to go fishing in the sea, and buy food from Goryeo! Could it be that people still need to eat people?" Zhao Liangcheng's voice gradually increased and he became sad and angry.

Li Wei was staring at him, and after a while, he asked, "Where did you get the money to buy grain in Goryeo? Have you opened the official treasury privately?"

"No, the victims raised nearly 10,000 taels of silver to buy grain in Goryeo."

"Aren't you afraid that someone will impeach you for personal corruption?"

"Private greed?" Zhao Liangcheng couldn't help but laughed wildly.

"What are you laughing at! Even if you are not greedy, how can you prove your innocence?"

"Of course I can prove it!" Zhao Liangcheng laughed and said incredibly sadly: "My parents all died of illness and starvation. Are there such greedy prefects?"

"What!" Li Wei was pulling him up and shouting sternly: "Take me to your house and take a look."

The scene in front of him shocked Li Wei. All the rooms were empty, with only a large bed and a few torn mattresses left. There were several large bowls on the ground. The wife of the prefect, wearing patched clothes, was sitting by the bed holding a few pale and thin children, dazed. Seeing Li Wei coming in, she couldn't help but turn her head and cry in a low voice.

Zhao Liangcheng sighed behind and said, "Sir, I don't have any private greed for one or two silvers. Not only that, I have transported all the items in my house to Goryeo and sold them. I beg you to let me go this time for the sake of the people."

Zhao Liangcheng's wife also knelt down with the child, "Sir, please spare my master! He really has no choice but to do anything for the sake of the people."

"Give me aside my dad!"

Li Weizheng's nose was sore and his eyes were a little wet. He sighed and walked out of the room quickly. He walked to a corner. He wiped away the tears from his face and said to Zhao Liangcheng with his back: "I can't tell you, but you can't go out to sea to catch fish, let alone smuggling. I can't let a good official like you die in this matter. There are still five or six thousand stones of rice on the boat at the dock. I can provide you with disaster relief first. I will write to the prince in a few days and ask him for help."

"Thank you, Commander!" Zhao Liangcheng bowed deeply. He was impatient to go to the dock to see the food.

Li Wei suddenly remembered something and hurriedly called him, "Why did Deputy Qianhu let you go into the sea?"

Zhao Liangcheng's face showed a look of shame. He lowered his head and said helplessly: "In order for the civilian ship to go into the sea, I used the 3,000 taels of silver bribes to him with the food raised by the people to exchange for his silence. This is a stain of my life and I will never be able to wash it off in my life."

Li Weizheng nodded silently. He took out the token and handed it to a personal soldier, and resolutely ordered: "I have passed my order and all the food on the ship is handed over to local disaster relief. From today on, a civilian ship is not allowed to go into the sea. Those who violate the order will be killed without mercy!"

After saying that, Li Wei ignored Zhao Liangcheng and turned around and strode. Zhao Liangcheng stared blankly at his back, and a turbid tears rolled down his face.

Li Wei was walking out of the prefect's office. He exhaled a long period of depression in his chest and immediately ordered his subordinates: "Go to the military camp to find some furniture and daily necessities to deliver to the prefect Zhao's house, and give him some rice every day."

Li Weizheng was deeply moved. To be honest, although Zhao Liangcheng is admirable, it is not worth imitating. Li Weizheng can't do it. If something happens, the first thing he wants to protect must be his family. If even his family can't be protected, such a man...ah! It's better not to mention it.

Li Weizheng sighed and turned over. He began to quickly think about how to hide this matter for Zhao Liangcheng. Zhu Yuanzhang must not know about this matter, otherwise Zhao Liangcheng would not be able to escape death. It should be said that this is a case. Officials at all levels in Penglai County should participate. It is unlikely that it will be exposed from the inside. Li Weizheng was worried about Bao Xin, the deputy family member. This person's background is too complicated. Now he may not say anything because of the benefits of 3,000 taels of silver. But once the conflict with the local area becomes sharp again, he is very likely to take the blame. However, Bao Xin happened to go to Jinan Prefecture and could not find out his words for the time being.

Li Wei was thinking while walking. When he passed by an alley, he suddenly heard someone shouting and scolding. Li Wei was squeezing and swearing. He saw several soldiers running out in the alley in a hurry. One of them was Zhang Baihu, who was responsible for logistics. He suddenly remembered that when he got off the boat, he asked them to send Zhou Ming home. Could something happened to Zhou Ming?

He turned over and dismounted, walked up quickly and asked, "Why are you here?"

Zhang Baihu suddenly saw Li Weizheng. He was startled and said quickly: "Sir, Zhou Ming's father died a month ago, Zhou Ming went crazy."

As soon as he finished speaking, a man heard a loud shout, and a kitchen knife rushed out with his hands. His hair was disheveled and his eyes were red. It was Zhou Ming who was driven home by Li Weizheng. He suddenly saw Li Weizheng, stunned for a moment, then let out a shrill scream and rushed forward, "Li Weizheng, I want to kill you!"

"Sir, be careful!" Several personal soldiers rushed forward, grabbed the kitchen knife from Zhou Ming's hand, and pressed him tightly to the ground.

While struggling, Zhou Ming shouted vaguely: "Li Weizheng, you cheated me away and killed my father. I will not spare you."

"Sir, he seems to be a little crazy." Zhang Baihu said with lingering fear: "He heard about his father's death and was stunned for a moment, and then he shouted and wanted to kill people. Fortunately, we ran fast."

At this time, two soldiers brought a woman, Zhou Ming's wife. She stepped forward and knelt down and begged, "Please forgive my husband."

Li Weizheng winked at his personal soldiers and ordered them to let Zhou Ming go, then said to Zhou Ming's wife softly: "Don't worry! I won't make things difficult for him. I'll ask you, how did Zhou Ming's father die?"

The woman looked embarrassed and couldn't answer for a long time. Finally, she had to whisper: "Report to my grandfather-in-law bought a few fake porridge cards to get the porridge, but it was discovered. The yamen runner paraded him in the streets and he hanged himself that night after he came back."

Seeing her look ashamed, Li Wei knew in his heart that he might not have bought it. Zhou Ming's father made fake porridge cards himself, but whether it was bought or done, this matter cannot be said to be wrong in the yamen runners. After all, it is related to the lives of more than 100,000 people. He pondered for a moment and said to Zhang Baihu: "Let Zhou Ming's father find a good place to bury him again, and leave three hundred taels of silver and fifteen stones of rice for his family, which is considered compensation for Zhou Ming's trip to Japan."

Zhou Ming's wife kowtowed in excitement, and she went to pull Zhou Ming to kneel down again, but Zhou Ming snorted, looked at the sky with a squint, and ignored Li Weizheng. Li Weizheng sneered and said to him: "I, Li Weizheng, have always been a clear relationship with my grudges. At the beginning, I told you that it was five stones of rice per month and ten taels of silver. You have been a staff member for me for three months. I will give you ten times the silver. I will be considered to be the most kind and righteous. From today on, you have nothing to do with you and I. You should do it yourself!"

After saying that, he took his men and walked to the entrance of the alley but heard Zhou Ming 's "Bah!" behind his back. The soldiers were furious and turned to rush back. Li Weizheng waved his hand and stopped them. A murderous intention flashed in his eyes, and then he whispered to the two soldiers: "Stay on him and don't let him run away."

"Yes!" The two personal soldiers walked towards both sides of the alley.

The group walked to the city gate. Li Weizheng was stunned. Seeing a few personal soldiers who sent Yao Ji home and took Qianqian into the city, several personal soldiers were saying something to her. Qianqian suddenly saw Li Weizheng, and she jumped up happily, "Brother, I'm still going to the dock to find you! So you are here."

Li Wei was turning over and dismounting, walked up and asked in surprise, "Qianqian, haven't you been back?"

"No, we just arrived yesterday. Sister, Su Tong, grandmother, and your two little babies are here."

Li Wei was shocked. He was stunned for a while, and suddenly he took Qianqian's hand and ran towards his mansion.
Chapter completed!