A mule cart came from Qingyuan County, Baoding.

It was said to be a car, but there was not even a carriage, just a mule dragging a wooden frame.

A middle-aged man, sitting on a carriage to drive a mule, with a large wooden box strapped to his back, and bulging sacks of burlap.

More than 300 miles away, the middle-aged man was not in a hurry, and drove the naked car for six days, and he could already see the city wall of Beijing in the distance.

Suddenly, a caravan caught up, and the leader clenched his fist at the middle-aged man: "Zhang Zhixian!" ”

The middle-aged man returned the salute and smiled.

The leader of the caravan asked, "What is on Zhang Zhixian's car?" The wheels eat deep soil. ”

The middle-aged man said, "Some things are not worth mentioning. ”

"That's not looted gold and silver treasure!" The caravan leader sneered.

The middle-aged man stopped talking and didn't bother to argue.

"Catch him!"

Gradually came to the south of the city, the leader of the caravan suddenly burst into drinks, and the attachés rushed over one after another, dragging the middle-aged man out of the car in front of the officers and soldiers guarding the city.

"Bold, I am the court...... Hmmm! ”

As soon as the middle-aged man scolded half a sentence, his mouth was gagged, and his hands and feet were tied.

The officers and soldiers defending the city were stunned, and then asked, "What do you want to do?" ”

The leader of the caravan explained: "Master Jun, we are good citizens of Qingyuan County, Baoding Prefecture, and this person is Zhang Yue, the magistrate of Qingyuan County. This guy is in Qingyuan Fish and Meat Township, and the people's grievances are boiling, and the people are eager to peel it and eat meat. Now, taking advantage of the fact that this guy is full of the entrance examination in Beijing, I want to report it to the Ministry of Officials! ”

The officers and soldiers defending the city were amused, pointed to the mule cart and said, "Just this broken car, you say he is a corrupt official?" ”

The leader of the caravan said, "This man is accustomed to pretending to be incorruptible, and his mule carts are dilapidated, and his chests and pockets are full of gold and silver treasures. ”

"Hmm......" Zhang Yue struggled to defend himself, but he couldn't speak at all.

The leader of the caravan shouted: "The fathers and elders of the capital, come here to make a certificate, I will send this corrupt official to the ministry!" ”

There were more and more spectators gathered at the gate of the city, and even the officers and soldiers guarding the city did not dare to offend the anger of the people, so they could only let them enter the city and go straight to the officials' headquarters. Soon passed through the Zhengyang Gate and came to the Daming Gate, and it was another commotion, and the officers and soldiers guarding the door had to go to the official department to report.

The officials of the Ministry of Officials arrived in an instant, and the onlookers retreated, and only the caravan leader and Zhang Zhixian were allowed to enter the inner city.

Lu Wan, the secretary of the ministry, Mao Cheng, the left attendant of the ministry, and many officials of the ministry, were all shocked by this incident. Because it was so abnormal, the county officials went to Beijing to report on their work, but they were actually tied up by the common people and sent to the officials to denounce them.

According to the law of the Ming Dynasty, if there is a grievance, it is not allowed to go beyond the level to denounce, regardless of whether the grievance is true or not, the person who crosses the level to report must be assigned to the army.

What's more, this person is still a civil prosecutor!

But then again, the "Da Ming Law" only stipulates that if there is a grievance, it cannot be sued. The person in front of him is not crying out for injustice, but reporting official corruption, and it seems that he does not need to be assigned to the army.

Chang Lun has just completed the formalities, received the documents in the Ministry of Officials, and can go to Zhejiang at any time.

Hearing the noise outside, Chang Lun ran curiously to watch. I saw that the officials of the Ministry of Officials had already come in with boxes and bags, and Zhang Yue was tied up and thrown in front of the hall.

Mao Cheng frowned and said, "Imperial court official, how can you be so insulting, quickly untie his rope!" ”

Lu Wan also said: "Untie it." ”

Zhang Yue, the magistrate of Qingyuan, regained his freedom and stood there for a long time, having already regained his composure, and only said: "I am not a corrupt official. ”

The leader of the caravan sneered: "Greedy or not, just open the box." ”

"Unboxing!" Lu Wan ordered.

The wooden box was locked and violently pried open on the spot.

Lu Wan and Mao Cheng went over to search in person, glanced at each other, their faces were gloomy, and they left separately.

Gong Shi Langzhong also came to check, and immediately said angrily: "Send this Diao Min to the Criminal Department!" ”

The criminal department is not far from the next door, and it will be there in a blink of an eye.

The leader of the caravan was set up and dragged away, and he was so anxious that he shouted: "You officials protect each other, I don't accept it!" ”

Kao Gong Lang shouted: "Let go of him and let him come and see for himself!" ”

The man immediately rushed over and found that the box was full of books. He threw them out one by one, and searched the bottom of the box, but he didn't find half a tael of silver.

Immediately afterwards, the fellow went to untie the sacks and poured out all the soybeans that had been fed to the mules.

"How so? How so? ”

The leader of the caravan sat on the ground in despair, and then wailed: "Master, you can kill me, what are you sending me to the capital to do!" ”

Zhang Yue slowly picked up the books, put them all back in the wooden box, took out the local evaluation documents, handed them to the examination Shi Langzhong and said: "Zhang Yue, the county governor of Qingyuan, has completed the examination in seven years." ”

The test was taken by Lang Zhong, and the local assessment was "competent" (first class), and the comments of the prefect of Baoding were attached: "Honest as water, love the people as sons". The examiner said with a smile: "Zhang Zhixian is really a Qing official!" ”

Zhang Yue, Zhengde's two-year jinshi, Zhengde's three-year test failed.

Because of the appreciation of the enlightenment, he was recommended as the county of Tang Zhi. After only one year as an official, he made the local gentry want to die, and pooled money to buy officials for them and transfer them to other places. Subsequently, he was transferred to Qingyuan, which was attached to Guofu City, to be the magistrate of the county, and after two years, he forced the local gentry to scrape together money to buy officials.

As a result, Liu Liu and Liu Qi killed, and Zhang Yue led the army and civilians to defend the city. Therefore, he won the appreciation of the prefect of Baoding, and he was an official in Qingyuan for six years, and only now did he come to the ministry to report on his work.

Historically, Zhang Yue became a well-known Qing official because of today's incident, and was promoted to the head of the household department in Nanjing, responsible for managing the rich Huai'an tariff. He eliminated the accumulated disadvantages in Huai'an, made "angry and resentful", and was promoted to the prefect of Changde before his term of office expired, and directly fought with King Rong in Changde.

At this point, Zhang Yue's official can be regarded as the end, although he has excellent political performance in the examination, he has been going around all over the place, and he can be the prefect until he dies. Who made him just a lifter, and offended countless powerful people?

Chang Lun had been standing at the entrance of the official department and waiting, and after a long time, Zhang Yue drove the mule out. He stepped forward and greeted: "Zhang Zhixian is so honest and honest, and I admire it so much!" ”

Zhang Yue replied: "Dare to ask Your Excellency?" ”

Chang Lun said: "Chang Lun, the contemptible Qiantang magistrate, is Mingqing, and he has not yet taken office. ”

"It turned out to be Changzhi County," Zhang Yue said with his fists clenched, "The contemptible Zhang Yue is a despised person." ”

Chang Lun smiled: "Brother Huode, I'll take you to meet someone!" ”

Zhang Yue was not allowed to refuse at all, so Chang Lun pulled him away, and the mule and bookcase were all taken care of by someone in the ministry.

Wang Yuan was checking the archives in the military department, and soon Chang Lun came in with Zhang Yue after a notification.

"Ruoxu, a rare incident happened in the Ministry just now...... Chang Lun repeated the situation, and introduced: "Brother Huode, this is Wang Yuan, the right attendant of the Ministry of War, Wang Ruoxu!" ”

Zhang Yue was in awe, bowed and said, "I've seen Wang Shilang!" ”

Wang Yuan smiled: "Huode has heard of me? ”

Zhang Yue said: "Who in the world doesn't know the name of Wang Shilang? ”

"Sit down," Wang Yuan asked casually, "Can you know about shipping?" ”

Zhang Yue asked rhetorically: "Does Wang Shilang want to change the transportation to sea transportation?" ”

"How dare you think about it?" Wang Yuan said happily.

Zhang Yue said: "Shipping is naturally convenient, but there are two difficulties that need to be solved. ”

Wang Yuan asked, "Which two difficulties?" ”

Zhang Yue talked eloquently: "First, how to deal with drifting for thousands of miles at sea? Second, how to solve the livelihood of tens of millions of soldiers and civilians who depend on transportation for their livelihoods? ”

"Be open-minded!" Wang Yuan immediately knew that this person was capable of doing things.

One of the reasons why ministers have always opposed the shipping of grain is that it is too risky at sea. This risk comes not only from natural disasters, but also from man-made disasters!

Walking on the Cao River can play the trick of floating, drifting on the sea for so long, there is no way to supervise along the way, I am afraid that it will not give you "capsized" many times a year, and the grain transport officer swallows more grain than it is transported to Beijing.

Secondly, there is the issue of the livelihood of the Caoyun soldiers, which is the business of millions of people to eat.

Wang Yuan asked again: "Can Huode be in favor of opening the sea?" ”

Zhang Yue spoke straightforwardly and did not hide it: "I am from Jiaodong and grew up by the sea since I was a child. I think it's still good to open the sea, but there must be one thing to be aware of. The benefits of opening the sea and the mutual market cannot be all done internally, when some of the household departments and some of the local three divisions, otherwise it will be difficult to open the sea. ”

"Who told you that the benefits of opening the sea are all internal money?" Wang Yuan smiled, "But what you said is also reasonable, you should indeed share the benefits." ”

The internal money is the emperor's private property, not to mention later generations, even the officials in the middle and late Ming Dynasty thought that all the money Zheng He got from the West was taken away by the emperor.

During this time, Wang Yuan has been looking for information and found that Zheng He is doing business, and the profits are also to be handed over to the treasury.

That's a real thing!

During the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of the Ming Dynasty, Huang Fu, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry, said to the emperor: "During the Yongle period, Beijing was built, Jiaozhi was conquered in the south, and the desert was expeditioned in the north, and there was a lot of silver in the treasury. In recent years, there has been no major construction work, no southern conquest and no northern war, and the money is only just enough. What should the imperial court do in the event of a catastrophe? ”

These words were to ask the emperor to find a way to get silver, alluding to continuing to go to the West.

Only two months later, Ming Xuanzong ordered Zheng He to go to the West again to collect some silver and come back to enrich the treasury.

The fatal flaw of Zheng He's voyage to the West was that the official monopoly on the ocean-going trade and its refusal to cede profits to private maritime merchants.

Wang Yuan felt that Zhang Yue was quite talented, and asked: "If you open the box in front of the Ministry of Officials, the name of the king will inevitably spread throughout the capital, and I am afraid that it is possible to go straight to two levels." ”

"The food of the king, the matter of loyalty to the king, that's all." Zhang Yue is not sad or happy, he is in his forties, far more calm than Chang Lun and Gui Cao.

Wang Yuan asked, "Are you willing to go to Zhejiang with me to open the sea, and only give you a seventh-grade official position?" ”

Zhang Yue was silent and pondered for a long time, and asked rhetorically: "Wang Shilang really wants to open the sea?" ”

Wang Yuan did not deny it.

Zhang Yue asked, "If I go to Zhejiang, what position will I hold?" ”

Wang Yuan said: "The director of the Zhejiang Nanguan Engineering Department is specially for me to raise timber for shipbuilding!" ”

Zhejiang has only two six-part divisions, one is the Beiguanhu Division, which is responsible for supervising grain and collecting part of the commercial tax; One is the Department of Nanguan Industry, which is responsible for collecting timber and collecting timber tax.

The chief officers of these two departments, although they are only the seventh grade, are so rich that they are eye-catching.

Therefore, the imperial court has long stipulated that the term of office of the head of the sub-department is one year, and he cannot be re-elected for multiple terms, so as to prevent long-term retention and aggravation of corruption.

Moreover, they are basically new science and technology scholars, and they are thrown to the local area to be the head of the branch, after all, the Leng Qingtou does not dare to be so greedy. For example, Wang Qiong, the secretary of the Ministry of War, his first position was the director of the Department of Nanguan Industry in Zhejiang.

After thinking about it carefully, Zhang Yue nodded and said, "I am willing to follow Wang Shilang!" ”

Yes, I have to go to the emperor to ask for an official again.