"My lord, you can leave now," the guard asked Zhang Fan about the time to leave.

"Well, let's get on the road," Zhang Fan nodded and got into a carriage.

In addition to Quanzhou City, the carriage team drove to the north, and arrived ten miles outside Quanzhou City, where officials of all sizes in Quanzhou were waiting here, and even some officials from other prefectures and counties in Fujian also made a special trip to see off Zhang Fan, because Zhang Fan's trip to Fujian this time was only to Quanzhou to deal with some things, so when he returned this time, although he would pass by Fuzhou Mansion, he would not stop more, so the officials in Fujian chose this place to see Zhang Fan off.

Dozens of officials from Fujian came to Zhang Fan to say goodbye and drink a glass of water and wine with him, although the water and wine in the canopy were not strong wines, but after drinking so many cups, it was still a little uncomfortable.

Because Zhang Fan was delayed a lot of time because of what happened in the morning, and the officials from Fujian who came to see them off had been waiting for them here for a long time, and now the hour was almost close to noon, and it was now a hot summer, most of these officials and men who were weak scholars were hot and sweaty, their faces were beads of sweat, and the hand towels that wiped the sweat had already been wet, and now they didn't care about etiquette, and they wiped their faces with their sleeves when no one was paying attention.

But because of Zhang Fan's identity and the purpose of his visit to Fujian this time, these officials and gentlemen are hot and uncomfortable, and they all show a sunny expression on their faces, and they dare not be disrespectful or unhappy at all, after all, few of these people are clean, although they are confident, Zhang Fan can't find anything about them, but after all, as the old saying goes: "Don't do bad things on weekdays, don't be afraid of ghosts knocking on the door in the middle of the night", as long as you have done something bad and want to hide it from others, Then you will always have a little bit of a weak heart.

In fact, Zhang Fan had thought about it and ordered to arrest all the smiling people present, but in the end he held back, after all, he also thought that he had received a lot of bribes from these people in the past few days before leaving, although Longqing had given instructions that the money could be freely disposed of by Zhang Fan himself, but Zhang Fan still planned to put these assets into charity, and after thinking about it, these people in front of him also contributed a lot to this matter, so Zhang Fan temporarily let them live.

When the farewell ceremony was about to end, Wen Ruchun and He Kuan came to Zhang Fan's side.

"Lord Qincha," the two saluted Zhang Fan.

"Two adults," Zhang Fan also returned the salute to the two, and said, "This time Zhang left, I didn't want to bother the two adults to see them off, something happened earlier today to delay the time of travel, plus the weather is hot now, and it is really a sin to let the two adults come out of their busy schedules to suffer this sin," said, Zhang Fan apologized to the two of them.

"What did the lord say," Wen Ruchun hurriedly said, "Your Excellency came this time not only for the official business of the imperial court, but also to solve the problem of the looting of the Japanese invaders for the merchant ships returning to the sea, and it is really the benefactor of the fathers and elders in Fujian, and we should come to say goodbye to the adults this time,"

"Speaking of the fact that the adults are on the official affairs of the imperial court, how is the investigation of this matter," He Kuan looked around to prevent someone from eavesdropping, and asked cautiously.

Zhang Fan also looked at it very vigilantly and said: "Although there is no major progress in this matter, I have already found the general direction, and when I return to Yangzhou, I will immediately start investigating this matter,"

"That's good," Wen Ruchun said, "The day before yesterday, the official lost his temper with the adult, it's really a little undeserved, and I should accompany the adult here," Wen Ruchun said that Wen Ruchun was about to think about Zhang Fan bowing and saluting.

"Lord Wen, get up quickly, this can't be helped," Zhang Fan quickly stopped him, and helped him up with both hands, "What Lord Wen did the day before yesterday is precisely because of the adult's honesty and integrity, and Zhang also admires it deeply,"

As mentioned earlier, before Zhang Fan left, there were many big and small banquets, and many officials took the opportunity to bribe Zhang Fan again, and these people didn't want to think about it, if they didn't have a ghost in their hearts, why would they send money to people twice in three rooms, and Zhang Fan also accepted all of them without refusal.

After Wen Ruchun knew about this matter, he was very angry, and came to Zhang Fan alone to ask about this matter, Zhang Fan was also forced by him to have no way, coupled with many days of verification, he now also knows that Wen Ruchun is really a clean official, although he will not do things with people everywhere like Hai Rui, but there is no benefit to anyone, and after three trade-offs, he also told him that he had Longqing's holy decree of "bribery without punishment".

At the beginning, Wen Ruchun also didn't believe Zhang Fan's words, and he was not to blame, after all, no emperor in all dynasties had ever issued such a ridiculous holy decree to his ministers, didn't this force his courtiers to commit crimes, Zhang Fan had no choice but to show him the holy decree that Zhu Yijun brought from the capital when he came, and told him his intention and purpose of accepting bribes, Wen Ruchun was relieved.

"Lord He, all the merchant ships that returned to the sea this year have now returned, you can rest assured this time," Zhang Fan said to He Kuan on the side, "But Lord He should not relax when playing, and always beware of those Japanese robbers coming ashore to plunder,"

"Please rest assured that the responsibility of resisting the invasion of the Japanese invaders is unshirkable, and he will definitely not disappoint the expectations of the court and His Majesty," He Kuan said very firmly, but in a blink of an eye, he was a little annoyed, "It's just that the lower officials have something to ask your lordship, and now the matter of the return of the sea ship has ended, but in less than half a year, after the spring of next year, there will be a lot of merchant ships going to sea, and if the Japanese are robbing from the sea, how can this be good,"

"Lord He doesn't have to worry about this matter," Zhang Fan said with a smile, "When I return to Beijing, I will definitely raise this matter to the imperial court immediately, and then I will tell Your Majesty that this is very powerful, and I believe that when the time comes, the imperial court will definitely give a way to protect the merchant ships going to sea,"

"That's good," He Kuan also sighed, "In fact, the lower officials are also a little sympathetic to these businessmen, since ancient times, it has been said that businessmen are profit-seeking, ruthless and unrighteous, but these days, seeing these things happening here, how can I not feel emotional, those businessmen are just for their own better life, but they have to risk their lives to go to the unknown place to earn that hard-earned money, although the return is really rich, but this is also what they deserve, Moreover, when the merchants who returned safely saw the great grief of the families of those who did not return, they also did their best to help them.

"And although the merchants in the inland of my name don't have to pay taxes, but the maritime merchants are not among them, every year they can pay a lot of taxes to the imperial court, which is not much better than the agricultural tax collected, but because of their identity as merchants, when they report the tax details in the household department every year, they can't even leave their names, although this is the ancestral etiquette system, it is difficult to change, but if it is here, the lower officials and others can not keep their safety, which is really to make the lower officials unhappy,"

Zhang Fan listened to his words, in addition to the emotion in his heart, he also looked at He Kuan differently, the previous He Kuan's impression of Zhang Fan was nothing more than a good governor, a good officer, in addition to strict management of the army, but also honest and honest, but he always gave Zhang Fan a feeling of being a little unkind, as if as long as it was a matter of principle, even if it was a small and forgivable thing, he would not give a chance to act according to the law, but now his words made Zhang Fan feel different, and gradually he found out, He Kuan's serious expression all day long may have been trained because of his perennial needs to run the army, and it has nothing to do with his own character.

"What Lord He said is," Zhang Fan said, "These maritime merchants actually contributed a lot to my Ming Dynasty, no matter how much silver they earned back, they always had to spend it, and this is not still spent here in the end, when the people are rich, the world will be more peaceful, and their contributions are more than that," Speaking of this, Zhang Fan looked to the side.

The two followed Zhang Fan's gaze and happened to see Richard and Joanna.

"What does it have to do with these two foreign devils," Wen Ruchun remembered Zhang Fan's name for them clearly, and felt that it was very appropriate, no one was a ghost or a ghost, and He Kuan on the side was also puzzled.

"The two adults must not know," Zhang Fan said, "These two people are the Francois from thousands of miles away, and this time they came back with one of our merchant ships,"

"These subordinates also know," He Kuan still looked puzzled, not knowing what Zhang Fan was going to say.

"But the two adults don't know," Zhang Fan said, "it is precisely because the merchants of our dynasty have transported goods to them to sell, these things have never been seen before, and now they have become indispensable in their lives."

"It is also like this, in their minds, my Ming Dynasty can be described as extremely rich and powerful, although my name is like this, but no one knew it before, now they know, to my Ming can be said to be very respectful everywhere, these two people are located Francois originally wanted to invade a country in the southwest of my country, the matter that has been decided, but after seeing the beauty of the products brought by the merchants of my dynasty, they became afraid to act without permission, and now they are here to seek advice,"

Wen Ruchun and He Kuan were also amazed after hearing it, the two of them never thought that an ordinary businessman who was originally in their eyes would bring such an effect, after all, in their eyes, a businessman is not a rich person who can be ranked, even He Kuan, who has some understanding now, although he has some agreement with the businessman, but this does not change his long-term concept, and now when they hear Zhang Fan say this, how can they not be surprised, but surprised, The two also have some contempt for the people of other countries, and it is ridiculous that a mere businessman can make these people think about it, but the two do not intend to expose it, after all, it can have such an effect, so that other countries are afraid of themselves, which can be regarded as a good thing.