Chen Ju saw that Wanli's face was cloudy and uncertain, and he looked very entangled and contradictory, so he suggested in a low voice: "The Holy Lord might as well give him some nominal rewards, so that he will not continue to sit big and become a trouble for the imperial court, but also envelop him, so that he will think that the Holy Lord is still in favor of him, and he will not be in a hurry to rebel, and it will not be too late to clean him up when the Holy Lord has free his hands......"

"A nominal bounty?" Emperor Wanli raised his eyebrows, his heart moved, he had an idea, waved his hand and said, "There is!"

Minister, you draw up a decree for me, Guo Zhiyuan defeated the Japanese Kou, strengthened my Ming national prestige, and made meritorious service to the country, named him a fourth-class earl, and was named Dongfan, which is worthy of him, and other requests for expanding the number of troops and building a shipyard are not allowed! ……”

Chen Ju was stunned when he heard it, you must know that the Ming Dynasty is very strict about the reward of the title, generally speaking, only the clan and the relatives who have made great contributions can be knighted, and there are only three civil officials in the entire Ming Dynasty who have been knighted for their merits, the most famous of which is the famous Wang Yangming, Wang Yangming's merits needless to say, the other two Wang Ji and Wang Yue ordinary people may not be familiar with it, but they are also pivotal figures in the Ming Dynasty. The soldier (the second-in-command of the military department) Chai Che, Xu Xi and others went to the border to resist the enemy, but to no avail, as a last resort, Wang Ji could only go out by himself, personally serve as the overseer, 60 years old out of the fortress, and then put down the chaos in one fell swoop. Later, he pacified the rebellion of Luchuan Xuanxuan and comforted Si Renfa, and was awarded the title of Jingyuan Bo, becoming the first civil official in the Ming Dynasty to be knighted for meritorious service.

Compared with Wang Yangming and Wang Ji, another knighted civil official Wang Yue has been active on the battlefield for the longest time, from the third year of Chenghua (1467) to praise the military affairs, to the eighth year of Chenghua to start the military affairs of the governor, to the tenth year of Hongzhi to resume the military affairs, Wang Yue led the battle of Hongyanchi, the battle of Weininghai, the victory of Yansui, the battle of Helan Mountain and other major battles, three out of the fortress, after more than a dozen battles, recovered the Hetao area, can be described as a meritorious service, and was awarded Wei Ningbo. (Note: The title system of the Ming Dynasty is slightly different from the rank division of dukes, hou, uncle, and son-male titles in other dynasties that we are familiar with, only the duke, hou, and bo)

But whether it is Wang Yangming, Wang Ji, or Wang Yue, they were all old men in high positions and rich qualifications when they were knighted, and it is absolutely unprecedented for Guo Zhiyuan to be awarded the title of earl at such a young age!

However, Chen Ju is worthy of being the closest minister who knows Emperor Wanli best, and immediately understood Emperor Wanli's intentions, Emperor Wanli really has no way, the emperor can reward his courtiers is nothing more than a promotion and reward, Emperor Wanli does not want Guo Zhiyuan to continue to sit big, naturally he can not be promoted again, as for the reward, he himself is still short of money, and he also pointed to Guo Zhiyuan to give him tribute tax silver, how can he give Guo Zhiyuan a reward, and he can only get this nominal title.

Understanding Emperor Wanli's intentions, Chen Ju hurriedly flattered: "The Holy Sage, the Holy Emperor named Guo Zhiyuan as the fourth class earl, it can be described as the emperor's grace, then Guo Zhiyuan can only do things for the Holy God to repay the emperor's kindness, if he rebels in the future, he will be spurned by the world and bring about his own destruction!" ……”

Emperor Wanli shook his head and said with a wry smile: "At present, the court is shaking, the current politics are difficult, I can only do this extraordinary thing, I hope that Guo Zhiyuan's kid can know how to advance and retreat, don't play with me anymore, otherwise I will not spare him!" ……”

Sure enough, Emperor Wanli's will caused an uproar in the court, no one expected that under the crazy impeachment of the Zhejiang Party and the Donglin Party, Emperor Wanli not only did not dispose of Guo Zhiyuan, but gave him such unprecedented glory, and directly named him Dongfan Bo, and the ministers opposed it in the court, but Emperor Wanli had made up his mind, and Guo Zhiyuan's military exploits were indeed unprecedented, worthy of such a reward, and at this time, the cabinet because Shen Cheng and Shen Li had gone to office, and the successor Zhu Geng was not strong enough, So in the end, it was successfully passed.

When the will reached Dongfan, Guo Zhiyuan was also stunned for a while, he didn't expect Emperor Wanli to give him such a big hat, but he quickly figured out Emperor Wanli's intentions, and said with a wry smile to the people who congratulated him: "The emperor has already killed me, and wants to roast me on the fire......

However, at this time, Guo Zhiyuan really didn't care about what Emperor Wanli thought, swept away the threat of the Japanese Invaders, Dongfan has entered the fast lane of development, he can't stop because of the suspicion of the Wanli Emperor, anyway, this defeat of the Japanese pirate coalition brought Guo Zhiyuan a lot of benefits, although the Fujian official has been deliberately blocking the news, the coastal people of Fujian still know the good news, they have been poisoned by the Japanese for a long time, naturally they are happy, and regard Guo Zhiyuan as Qi Jiguang alive, This also made Guo Zhiyuan's reputation among the people of Fujian reach a new peak.

Prestige is still very beneficial, now Fujian maritime merchants know that the sea area of Dongfan is the safest, have run to Dongfan to do business, even many ordinary people have followed the boat to Dongfan to beg for a living, spontaneously set off a wave of immigration to Dongfan**, fortunately, Guo Zhiyuan has long been prepared, when he did the planning of the city, he specially demarcated the free trade zone and the goods storage area, and now the shops in the free trade zone have been fried to 20,000 tael, and it is difficult to find a shop, You must know that at this time, 20,000 taels of silver can buy a luxury yard in the capital, this is still Guo Zhiyuan does not want to be a black-hearted real estate developer, deliberately limiting the rise in housing prices, and at the same time in order to take care of those small traders who can't afford to buy shops, a free market has been opened next to the free trade zone, allowing small traders to set up stalls, only charging very low booth fees and management fees, so it seems that a lot of money has been made less, but the free trade in Dongfan has become extremely prosperous in a short period of time, and it is very popular, and it is crowded every day. Compared with the highly developed commercial Suzhou and Hangzhou regions, it is not bad at all.

This is not the most pleasing to Guo Zhiyuan, what makes him most happy is that there are many scholars and talents who are also inspired by his prestige, regard him as a national hero, and have come to serve, which has greatly alleviated Guo Zhiyuan's talent crisis, now Guo Zhiyuan is most lacking is the grassroots cadres who can read and write, and at the same time, the construction of Dongfan College has also come to an end, and teachers are urgently needed.

On this day, Guo Zhiyuan had just come back from his inspection outside, and Wang Xi ran in ecstatically, panting and puffing: "Less... Young master, come... Here it comes! ……”