In addition to these soldiers stationed in Dinghaiwei, Ningbo Port also had a very important imperial court organization, that is, the Municipal Department of Shipping, which specialized in the management of maritime foreign trade, and its functions were equivalent to those of later customs.

The government agency of the city ship division originated in the Tang Dynasty, the most prosperous in the Song Dynasty, and even the tax of the city ship division once accounted for more than one-tenth of the Song Dynasty finance, but it is a pity that after the Ming Dynasty, because of the implementation of the sea ban, the function of the city ship division has also shrunk greatly, although Guangzhou, Quanzhou and Ningbo still retain the city ship division, but at most it is only responsible for the tribute of the envoys of the country to the court reception, and the tax collected is also greatly reduced.

Among the three city divisions retained by the Ming Dynasty, Guangzhou's city division should be the largest and most complete, after all, there are the most people responsible for the reception, and the taxes collected are naturally the most, and even the post station responsible for entertaining the delegation of the country is twenty houses, in comparison, the city ships of Ningbo and Quanzhou are too different.

Taking Ningbo's Municipal Department as an example, it is only responsible for receiving the Japanese envoys, and it can only pay tribute once every ten years, that is to say, the Municipal Department only has the opportunity to work once every ten years, and the remaining nine years have been idle and have nothing to do, plus the taxes collected must also be handed over, so Ningbo's Municipal Department has changed from a rich Yamen to a Qingshui Yamen.

Even from the Ming Dynasty to the present, the highest governor of the city department has been concurrently served by the Zhejiang according to the inspector, and the officials in the department are also incomplete, until Zhou Zhong came to Ningbo, the cabinet ordered the envoy to step down from the promotion of the city department, and selected a person from within the city department to be promoted, and then transferred some officials from other places to supplement the city department, which reluctantly made up the officials of the Ningbo City Department.

After Zhou Zhong handed over all the training matters of the army to Shen Ying and others. The first time rushed to the city of Ningbo Port. It was only when he came to this once prosperous customs yamen. But he was taken aback by the scene in front of him.

I saw that what appeared in front of him was a dilapidated courtyard, and most of the courtyard walls around it had collapsed, allowing people to see the scene of overgrown grass inside, and even the front buildings inside had also collapsed a lot, looking like a ghost house that had been abandoned for many years.

"Wu Shan. Are you sure this is the city? Zhou Zhong looked up at the plaque on the main entrance, and still asked in disbelief. Speaking of the Ming Dynasty, there is a tradition of 'officials do not repair the government', which also leads to many official yamen are very dilapidated, but no matter how dilapidated, at least it looks like it can still live in people, but like the city in front of me, it is almost like a deserted ghost house, but it is also very rare, and maybe even the entire Ming Dynasty is only this one.

Hearing Zhou Chong's question, I saw Wu Shan also smile bitterly and said, "Lord Qiyu." This is indeed the City Division, and the subordinates have asked someone to inquire about it in order to confirm it. As a result, according to people in the know, because the city department only received the envoy of the Japanese state once every ten years, there was no one to work at the city department at all, let alone take care of it, resulting in no one coming to the city department all year round. ”

For Wu Shan's explanation, Zhou Zhong also smiled helplessly after listening to it, he can understand the helplessness of the officials in the Municipal Shipping Division, after all, no matter who it is, staying in the Yamen of the Municipal Shipping Division, which only runs a public office once in ten years, I am afraid that the most reckless will slack off, and it is understandable that the Yamen has become like this.

When he raised his legs again and entered the Yamen of the City Bo Division next week, he came to the location of the Yamen Hall along the path full of wild grass, wanting to meet Yang Tiju, who was in charge of this place, but unfortunately he didn't even meet anyone on the way, and waited until he entered the lobby to see an old man with gray hair sitting under a pillar dozing.

Zhou Zhong and a group of more than a dozen people entered the lobby, and immediately woke up the old official, when he saw that so many people came to the yamen at once, most of them were majestic brocade guards, and the leader was a young official with extraordinary bearing, he was immediately startled, and hurriedly ran up and saluted: "The villain has seen the adult, I don't know what the adult is important when he comes to the city?" ”

"What about Yang Tiju of your city's Bo Division, let him hurry up and come to see Lord Admiral?" For this kind of little official, naturally there is no need for Zhou Zhong to speak in person, and Wu Shan next to him immediately ordered.

"Lord Admiral?" After all, after Zhou Chong came to Ningbo Port, he immediately carried out a series of actions on Dinghaiwei, especially the removal of Cheng Quan's position as a commander, and his name spread all over Ningbo Port.

"Wait, my lord, Lord Tiju is working in the backyard, I'm going to Tongyu!" After the old official finished speaking, he turned around and ran quickly to the backyard, and at the same time secretly congratulated that his master was an official fan, otherwise it would be really difficult to find him at this time.

In a dilapidated room in the backyard of the Yamen of the City Ship Division, the new City Ship Division promoted Yang Tongzheng and sat there happily, only to see him holding his appointment document in his right hand, and playing with the newly arrived promotion official seal in his left hand, he was happy and at the same time a little emotional, he thought that he could only do it in his life from the deputy promotion of the sixth grade, but he did not expect that this time the cabinet personally issued a document, so that the envoy handed over the concurrent position of the City Ship Division, and the most embarrassing fell on his head, which was for Yang Tong, It's like pie in the sky.

Yang Tong is in his fifties this year, and he used to be a lifter, and then he spent money to do a little bit of activity, and then he was assigned a petty official of the ninth grade, and then after his years of hard work, he finally got to the position of the county commander of the seventh grade, when he was only thirty years old, and he was considered a more promising official, but unfortunately he offended people in the officialdom later, and as a result, he was promoted from the county order of the seventh grade to the deputy promotion of the city department of the sixth grade, which seems to be a promotion, but the city department is a cold yamen, and the people who come here are either offended people, Either they are here to provide for the elderly, and there is no possibility of promotion at all.

Yang Tong has no other hobbies, he just likes to be an official, which is commonly known as an "official fan". When he was first transferred to the City Shipping Division, he was also very unwilling in his heart, desperately drilling the camp and wanting to be transferred out of the city, even if it was a relegation, after all, as long as he went out, he would have the possibility of promotion, and he didn't have to stay in the city to eat and wait for death, but unfortunately, the person he offended was too powerful, so he had not been able to do so, and he stayed in the City Shipping Division for more than 20 years.

After so many years, Yang Tong has thought of all the ways he can think of, which also makes him slowly die, and he is ready to do his own deputy promotion with peace of mind for the rest of his life, so this is also an official position from the sixth grade. But what he never expected was that seeing that he was already about to reach the age of the sixtieth year, he encountered such a good thing, and suddenly he was promoted from a deputy promotion to a positive promotion, and the city ship division that was originally a cold yamen seemed to be a little different, and a group of officials were transferred from above to supplement it, although he had not yet said what he wanted them to do, but he had been an official for many years, and he was already keenly aware that his small city office might have some unexpected changes.

It is precisely because he sees that his future is promising, and he has just been promoted, which satisfies Yang Tong's own official fandom, so since he took office, Yang Tong will come to the city office on time almost every day, and he will sit for a day, this is not just to pass his official addiction, but he also wants to wait for the order from above, after all, the imperial court will not make up for the vacancy of the city department for no reason, and even separate the promotion position from the envoy, which shows that the imperial court will definitely have some moves, and it will also use the city department.

However, although Yang Tong saw things very clearly, not everyone was as shrewd as him, such as those officials who had just been transferred to the City Ship Division from other places, they still stayed in the previous impression of the City Ship Division, and they didn't see the deep meaning of the imperial court's transfer of them to the City Ship Division, so after these people came to the City Ship Division, except for the first day of appearance, the rest of the time they stayed in their own place of residence with their heads down, and they usually couldn't even find anyone.

Thinking of those officials who were transferred to the City Ship Division, Yang Tong was also very dissatisfied and snorted coldly, no matter how he said that he was also the leader of the City Ship Division, but because everyone knew what the City Ship Division was before, those subordinates did not take him seriously.

Especially the two newly transferred deputy promotions, one of them is an old fritter in the officialdom, who says it well, but he doesn't take his boss seriously in his heart, and the other is known as the first genius in Suzhou, who has no hope in this life, but he doesn't know what path Lu Dao has taken, so that he has restored his fame, and he was also sent to the city to do the deputy promotion from the six products. I think that when he entered the government as a person, he became a nine-grade petty official, and it took several years to achieve the seven-grade, but people did it all at once, and they were more angry than others.

Just when Yang Tong was slandering his subordinates, he suddenly heard a rush of footsteps outside, and then his former old servant, Yang Fu, who was now arranged by him to mix in the city, ran in from outside, and shouted as he ran: "Master, there is a big man outside, and he wants you to meet him!" ”

"Big shots? Who is it? Yang Tong immediately perked up when he heard the words of the old family, and at this time he already had a premonition in his heart that the person he was waiting for was finally here! (To be continued......)