Emperor Ming Fengyunlu

Volume 2 Rampant Qilu

Chapter 2 Rafting across the sea and setting off on the return journey

Section 1 Franc Man

In the middle of May of the forty-seventh year of Wanli (the fourth year of the Later Jin Heavenly Mandate), Lushun.

After resting for three days in Jinzhouwei, Liu Yunwei led the Hanwei battalion to continue south, and it took only one day to arrive outside Lushun City. At this time, it was still early, so Liu Yunwei asked the soldiers of the Hanwei battalion to rest temporarily in the open space next to the official road, and sent Lu Ying to lead people into the city to inform the guards.

During the break, Liu Yunwei looked at the crowded Lushun City, and was very emotional in his heart, and said to the people around him: "This Lushun City is our last stop in Liaodong, and it is also the beginning of our new journey, and now it is finally here." ”

Yuan Mingxuan said on the side: "Little general, the preparations for this sea rafting are not something that can be completed in one day, we estimate that we will have to stay in this Lushun for a few days, just take the opportunity to visit this Lushun City, and then take a look at the scenery of our Liaodong." ”

Liu Yunwei nodded and said to Cheng Shiyong: "By the way, Shiyong, are you familiar with this Lushun?" ”

Cheng Shiyong said: "It's not very familiar, I've visited Qian Daguan a few times here before, and I also walked around during the period, but I didn't look too carefully." ”

"Oh." Liu Yunwei originally wanted Cheng Shiyong to be the guide and take everyone around Lushun City, but who knew that he was not very familiar with him.

Cheng Shiyong continued: "However, the few times I have been here, I have seen a lot of Franco-machine people who came here to do business (at that time, the Ming Dynasty people were collectively referred to the Portuguese, Spanish, and Dutch), those people were all yellow, brown hair, blue eyes, very different from the Chinese people, after entering the city, everyone can see them. ”

Everyone was very curious when they heard this, and they started to talk about it. Zhao Kaishan also asked Cheng Shiyong: "Is the Francophone man shaving his hair like a Tartar?" ”

Cheng Shiyong said: "That's not it, but they all have short hair, and they don't grow hair." ”

Everyone talked again, and Lu Yingcai came back with someone. Seeing that Lu Ying's face was not good, Liu Yunwei secretly said bad in his heart.

When he got to him, Liu Yunwei asked, "How is it?" What did the city guard say? ”

Lu Ying said angrily: "Big brother, the garrison in this city said that the soldiers in our battalion were not allowed to enter the city, saying that there were many merchants in the city, and they were afraid that the army would disturb the people by entering the city, so let us camp outside the city." No matter how much I communicated and asked to enter the city, the garrison just didn't agree! ”

Before Liu Yunwei could speak, Yuan Mingxuan on the side asked, "What unreasonable demands did the garrison adults make?" Or do you ask us for money? ”

"Not really." Lu Ying said: "In addition to not letting us enter the city, the garrison is also very kind. By the way, the garrison also promised to provide us with ten days of food and grass. ”

Liu Yunwei was very strange when he heard this, and said: "That's weird, why didn't the garrison let us into the city?" Is it really because we are afraid that we will disturb the people? ”

Yuan Mingxuan thought for a while and said, "Little General, I think we will obey the arrangements of the garrison." I don't think this garrison is trying to embarrass us, it's really for the sake of the people, don't forget our identity. ”

Liu Yunwei snorted coldly when he heard this, and said: "If this is the case, then the courage of the garrison is too small, our Hanwei Camp has a reputation, when has it disturbed the people!" ”

Yuan Mingxuan smiled and said, "It's not so much that I'm afraid of disturbing the people, but I'm afraid of disturbing the merchants." ”

After Yuan Mingxuan's explanation, everyone came to their senses. Lu Ying said in disbelief: "Then the garrison lord would care so much about and protect the merchants? Among the Shinong industry and commerce, the merchant is the lowest status, how can it be? ”

"Money!" Yuan Mingxuan said: "The maritime merchants in Lushun are not ordinary rich, but rich. I think the garrison is indispensable for the filial piety of those maritime merchants, so I think I will act like this. ”

Liu Yunwei thought for a while and said, "Since that's the case, let's camp outside the city." Order: The soldiers of the whole battalion retreated two miles back and set up camp, and I took Lord Yuan, Cheng Shiyong, and Wen Poyu into the city to do business; Lu Ying, you take everyone to sit in the camp. ”

"Yes!" Lu Ying and others received the order together. Immediately afterwards, everyone led the Hanwei camp to slowly retreat. Liu Yunwei took Yuan Mingxuan, Cheng Shiyong, Wen Poyu, and twenty guards into Lushun City.

As soon as they entered the city, Liu Yunwei and his entourage were stunned by the scene on the street: they saw that the streets of Lushun were full of all kinds of goods, melons and fruits in the south, leather goods in the north, and even strange objects from overseas countries, which were dazzling and countless; Densely packed shops make a burst of shouting on both sides of the street, and customers come in and out like crossing the river. There was an endless stream of pedestrians coming and going on the street, in addition to the people of the Ming Dynasty, everyone also saw a lot of people from Fanbang: Japanese people, Korean people, and Francophone people.

Wen Poyu kept looking around, and said to Liu Yunwei: "Big brother, don't look at this Lushun City, but this city is really prosperous, so many people, and there are so many Yi people, how did the prefect in this city govern Lushun so prosperous?" ”

Liu Yunwei shook his head and said, "Where would I know, maybe the prefect has a good way of governing it." ”

"Haha." Yuan Mingxuan, who was on the side, smiled and said: "The prosperity of this Lushun City really has little to do with the governance of the prefect, just because the location of this Lushun City is really good, it is located at the end of the sea route in Liaodong and Shandong, as long as it is shipped to Liaodong, nine times out of ten it will pass through Lushun, so it will be so prosperous here." ”

Only then did everyone understand a little, and Liu Yunwei said: "Then how much tax can the government of Lushun City collect?" ”

Yuan Mingxuan was dumbfounded, and then Cheng Shiyong said: "Big brother, you should have been able to collect a lot before, after all, trade is prosperous here; However, since the bigwigs of the imperial court have continued to persecute His Majesty and forcibly lowered the commercial tax under the guise that the imperial court cannot compete with the people, the government has not been able to collect much tax. I think it's the same in Lushun now, seeing that the merchants are gathering and prospering, but they can't collect the money alive or dead. ”

Liu Yunwei said angrily when he heard this: "These civil officials only know how to talk about articles, but they will not do things to govern the world, and they do not collect a lot of commercial taxes, but raise taxes on the poor people; On the one hand, they still can't come up with the money to transfer troops to fight, so that this national war is defeated and lost, and what they do is also called personnel! ”

Yuan Mingxuan shook his head and said, "Don't be angry, little general, let's just do our own thing." ”

Cheng Shiyong also changed the topic and said: "Yes, big brother, where do you think we go first?" ”

Liu Yunwei scolded two more sentences, and then said: "In this way, let's go buy some gifts first, and then go to meet the officials of Qian Daguan, and talk about the matter of crossing the sea as soon as possible." ”

So, Liu Yunwei and his entourage bought some heavy gifts, and then went through the streets and alleys to Qian Mansion under the leadership of Cheng Shiyong.

Just as everyone passed through a relatively narrow alley, more than a dozen red-haired and blue-eyed Francophiles came over. I saw that these people were all tall and strong, everyone was drunk, and their beards looked very sloppy, and the people in the places they passed avoided one after another, for fear of provoking these red-haired ghosts who had drunk too much.

Soon the two sides met in the narrow alley, Liu Yunwei and the others, except for Cheng Shiyong, saw the Francophone for the first time, and they all looked at each other in surprise at this time, and did not care that the road was blocked.

At this time, one of those Franc machine people walked out, and I saw that this person was unusually tall, with an unknown animal tattooed on his exposed chest, and a very disgusting smell of alcohol emanating from his body. Seeing that Liu Yunwei and the others were blocking the way, this Franc machine man immediately became angry, and scolded Liu Yunwei and others loudly in Franc Machine. The companions behind him immediately burst out laughing, and pointed at Liu Yunwei and the others, as if they were looking at a group of monkeys.

Although Liu Yunwei and the others couldn't understand what the other party was saying, they knew in their hearts that they were provoking and insulting themselves, and they couldn't help but be furious.

Wen Poyu turned over and dismounted and stepped forward, knocked the tall Buddha Langji who was scolding to the ground, and then pulled out his waist knife against his chest, and said, "Don't you see that we are the Ming Dynasty officials!" You and other Yidi mongrels dare to be presumptuous here! Look for death! ”

Who knew that the Franc machine man who had fallen to the ground didn't know what to say to his companions, and those Franc machine people pulled out long swords like large embroidery needles and very delicate handcuffs, and saw that the posture was about to start.

Seeing this, Liu Yunwei and twenty guards dismounted one after another, and quickly formed a formation to meet them with spears and bows, and the two sides confronted each other for about a cup of tea, and neither of them dared to act rashly.

Yuan Mingxuan was very worried at this time, looked at the other party's handcuffs, and whispered to Liu Yunwei: "Little general, once the fight starts in a while, you must kill those few Yiren with handcuffs first, otherwise we will definitely kill a lot of people!" ”

Liu Yunwei also stared closely at the few Franc machine people holding handcuffs, and as soon as he heard Yuan Mingxuan say, he glanced at the several guards behind him who bent their bows and arrows, and those guards turned the arrows slightly and aimed at the few Franc machine men holding handcuffs.

And Wen Poyu was also very nervous at this time, not because he was afraid of these Franc people, but because he was worried that Liu Yunwei and Yuan Mingxuan would be injured in a while. So, while trampling the Franc machine man who fell to the ground, Wen Poyu stared at the opponent's men and horses, preparing to stand up in front of Liu Yunwei and Yuan Mingxuan once the fight started.

At this time, a rush of footsteps came, and I saw several Franco-robots running into the alley and rushing directly to the group of Franco-robots with weapons in hand.

One of the few people who ran in looked like a headman. I saw that the man scolded those Franc machine people, and in the reprimand, those Franc machine people reluctantly put down the weapons in their hands and retreated to the side of the alley.

Seeing this, Liu Yunwei also waved his hand, and Wen Poyu and the guards behind him also put away the weapons in their hands, but they were still on strict guard.

Yuan Mingxuan whispered to Liu Yunwei: "The person who just came here seems to be the leader of this group of Franc machine people. ”

Liu Yunwei nodded and said, "Let's see." ”

A moment later, after the man finished reprimanding his men, he scolded the Franc machine man who fell at Wen Poyu's feet, and his face was red with anger. Although the Franc machine man did not fight back, he was obviously still very unconvinced, and in the end, he ignored the man and took the group of Franc machine people away.

Liu Yunwei smiled dumbly when he saw this, and said, "This head man doesn't seem to have any prestige." ”

As soon as he finished speaking, the man walked towards Liu Yunwei and the others with a smile on his face.