"This crazy man's name is Xu Tai, he was the largest businessman in our county, his family has thousands of acres of fertile land, countless houses, his family has been doing maritime transportation business since the beginning of the Song Dynasty, and has become a famous ship merchant in Zhejiang since his father's generation.

"This Xu Tai since childhood is brilliant, very smart, piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, all fine, his father naturally regards him as the pearl of the palm, carefully cultivated, as long as the child wants to learn, please invite the best teaching, including sticks and swords, Xu Tai this child also lives up to expectations, learn anything will be learned, the people he befriended, are also the dragon and phoenix among the people, when he was 16 years old, he was already famous, broke into the fame."

His father also intended to gradually transfer the family property to him, which Xu Tai was very business-minded, and the profits often exceeded his father's several times, so when he was 21 years old, his father officially handed over the power of the family to him, and the Xu family was further carried forward in the hands of Xu Tai. East to Japan, Goryeo, south to Siam, the Xu family's fleet became the Ming Dynasty's premier caravan, and Quanzhou's Chen Sipan, Suzhou's Xiao Xian, Guangzhou's Ye Ma three people collectively called the Ming Dynasty "four Jiao in the sea", fame for a while, at that time, it is said that there are more than 500 servants in his family, and the property is countless, even the governor of Zhejiang, all regard it as a guest, where there is a major event, must send an invitation to invite Xu Tai to attend. ”

"However, good flowers do not bloom often, good times do not always exist, Jiajing 20 years, the imperial court suddenly strengthened the sea ban, the board is not allowed to go to the sea, and to burn or confiscate private large sea ships, this is Xu Tai, it is a bolt from the blue, no shipping, no ship, his family's business will be paralyzed, so he is anxious to find the imperial court, hoping to be able to open the net, at that time, the original familiar governor of Zhejiang has just been transferred, the new governor is surnamed Zhu, this person has a strong temperament, is thinking of making some political achievements here, so he angrily to Xu Taidao, The imperial court has long had the law of prohibiting the sea, but over the years, the law has been lax, and many illegal businessmen have taken advantage of loopholes, and now the imperial court has re-emphasized the law of prohibiting the sea. ”

"Soon after, Xu Tai was imprisoned on charges of colluding with the Japanese and smuggling prohibited goods, all the property of the family was confiscated, the sea ships were confiscated, and the burned ones were burned, and on the day of the burning, the people of the whole county flocked to watch the shipwreck, and the fire burned for three days and three nights, and countless giant sea ships with carved beams and paintings were burned, which made people sigh more than that."

"This Xu Tai's whole family was copied, suddenly from a rich family to destitute, all the servants were scattered, and the family also went their own way, to find their own way to survive, his father saw that Nuoda's family business was wiped out in a blink of an eye, vomiting blood for three days and died, some of the wives and concubines took the opportunity to roll up their belongings and ran away, and some couldn't stand the stimulation and hanged themselves, Xu Tai heard about this change in prison, and his heart did not come out of his breath, and he went crazy at that time, and the government locked him up for two years, and felt that it was boring to be locked up, so he was released. It is really sad to pity a person who is a dragon and phoenix, and is suddenly thrown into the eighteenth layer of hell. Yang Daochang sighed.

"This Xu Tai's situation is really embarrassing, but I don't know if the charges of colluding with the Japanese and smuggling contraband goods are true, or is it that the governor and Xu Tai have an agreement before they are arbitrarily pressed?" Yun Qi asked.

"Hey, you little brother, do you really don't understand or are you stupid?" Yang Daochang glanced at Yun Qi dissatisfied, then put down the dishes and chopsticks, burped, and touched his stomach comfortably, looking satisfied.

"Please also ask the Taoist to solve my doubts!" Yun Qi bowed his hand and said, he was really confused in his heart at this time, eager to know all the news about the Japanese Invaders, anything related to the Japanese Invaders might be useful clues for him.

Yang Daochang looked left and right, and said in a low voice: "This is not the place to speak, let's change places and take our time." ”

Yun Qi looked at the small shop, although there were not many people, but there were a few sitting, maybe this Yang Dao Chang wanted to say some secret words to himself, it was really not appropriate here. Hurriedly beckoned to Xiao Er and settled the account.

"Guest officer, one or two or six pieces of silver." Xiao Er said with a smile on his face.

"That's a lot, enough for half of my boar." Although Yun Qi was in pain, he still took out the money and paid it to Xiao Er.

"My brother turned out to be a hunter, I said how do you feel different." Yang Daoshi said.

"Yes, I live in the mountains and forests, I rarely go out, and I was laughed at by the Taoist chief, let's go, let's talk about it in another place." Yun Qi hurriedly pulled Yang Daochang out of the shop.

At noon in late autumn, the sun is very warm, and it is the most pleasant thing to sit in a sheltered place and bask in the sun at this time.

Yang Daochang took Yun Qi three times and two turns, and came to his feng shui treasure land, which is the side of a high wall, just leeward to the sun, Yang Daochang took out a futon from his backpack, threw it to the ground, and then sat on it, Yun Qi looked left and right, so he had to untie the burden behind him, put it on the ground, and then sit on it.

"I said little brother, what about this ordinary person, I won't tell him, because now the wind is very tight, talking nonsense, that will be arrested, but you are a foreign hunter, so I can rest assured, there are some things I can say to you, but you can't spread them outside, what I said today came out of my mouth and into your ears, leave here, I don't admit it, do you understand?" Yang Daochang said with a straight face.

Yun Qi arched his hand and said, "Dao Chief, please rest assured, I will definitely keep my mouth shut." ”

Yang Daochang took out a piece of grass from the futon, stuffed it into his mouth, dug between his teeth, and then said: "This Xu Tai was arrested, do you say he is wronged or not?" Of course he is wronged, but he is indeed not wronged, is his crime true? The answer is, it's true, there's no problem at all, but everyone sympathizes with Xu Tai, do you know why? ”

Yun Qi was confused: "Dao Chief, why can't I understand what you said?" ”

Yang Daochang pointed at Yun Qi and Brother Yile: "Silly boy, what do you think, as the largest merchant on the sea and the largest ship king in Zhejiang, how does he generally do business?" It must be to transport inland things overseas, and then bring in overseas things to earn the difference. ”

"This business naturally has to meet all kinds of people, including the Japanese, the Ryukyuan, the Siamese, the Koreans, etc., you do business with them, you have to have a relationship with them, you need to walk around from time to time to give gifts to each other, but, we seem to forget a point, since the time of Taizu, the imperial court has set a ban on the sea, although for so many years, there has been no strict adherence, shipping has always been an important source of tax for the Ming Dynasty, but no one said to abolish this, so although these families are doing bigger and bigger, the route is going farther and farther, But strictly speaking, all of this business is illegal. ”

"Did Xu Tai collude with the Japanese Bandits? He must have colluded, if he didn't collude, how he would transport goods from Japan, how he would transport Chinese goods to Japan if he didn't collude, did he smuggle them? Of course, smuggling, all his goods are smuggling, but this form has lasted for hundreds of years, and no one has taken care of it, everyone thinks that the imperial court has legalized it, and even many court officials and families are also involved, so the merchants are more and more unscrupulous, and after the incident, everyone finds out that all this is not visible. Therefore, Xu Tai's crime is not unjust at all, but it is indeed more unjust, do you understand? ”

Yun Qi nodded, but he suddenly remembered something: "Dao Chief, why doesn't the imperial court let this Xu Tai do serious business with outsiders?" Even if you are a foreigner, you don't have to break the law of the country. And why did the imperial court have to ban the sea? ”

Yang Daochang sighed and said: "Back then, Taizu once said such a sentence: I use the sea road to lead to foreign countries, so I try to ban their contacts and refrain from it, and people will be confused and fall into the criminal constitution. They feel that land is the foundation of everything, and doing business is a side door, which is full of treacherous deception, especially doing business with foreigners, it is simply a shame to hurt the country, people can not only fight for interests, can not only drill in the eyes of money, therefore, instead of waiting until everyone does business, it will damage the national dignity and let the people be damaged in character, it is better to directly plug this loophole, if you do not trade with them, naturally there will be no mistakes, which is the direct reason for the ban on the sea. It can be said that the starting point of the imperial court is good, but it is the suffering of these people who rely on the sea to eat by the sea. ”

Yun Qi pondered, "What is the matter with the Wako? ”

Yang Daoist stroked his beard: "After the sea ban, the Ming people can't go to sea, and outsiders can't come over, and those Japanese also have to live, so the smuggling situation is very frequent, because they are all unsightly, there are some people who have bad ideas, do black and black business, there are looting, there are also fights, this coastal will be quiet day by day, of course, there are many other reasons for this, you will change in the future, but boy, you must distinguish between the many different Kou in this world, The bad guys who hide in the mountains are called the mountain bandits, the robbers who hide in the lakes are called the water bandits, and the people who do evil are called the water bandits, so not all the people who beg for a living in the water are called the water bandits, and there is also a kind called fishermen, do you understand? ”

"Huh?" Yun Qi touched his head suspiciously, Yang Daochang's words seemed to imply a lot of subtext, what did he want to express?

"Little brother, we have talked so much, there are a lot of words, it is only suitable for private talk, you can't spread it randomly, after this time, you must not say that I said it. Okay, then, I'm going to calculate your fate for you. ”

"Dao Chief, I won't count my life for the time being, if I count my good life, I will naturally be happy, but if you calculate that my life is not good, I may worry every day in the future, but it is not beautiful. My grandfather told me that the boat will naturally go straight to the bridge, and everything should be premeditated in advance, but it must not be worrying about the sky, if I know everything in the future, it will be too boring, so I should be optimistic while walking. Yun Qi bowed his hand to the Taoist chief and expressed his gratitude.

"Hehe, you little guy, it's quite interesting." The Taoist Chief's face couldn't help twitching, he only deceived him for a meal, and dinner hadn't settled yet, this kid wanted to run away, no, I couldn't let him go easily. "Little brother, seeing that you are in a hurry, you came from afar, since you came here for a difficult matter, I don't know what clues you have?"

Yun Qi smiled bitterly and shook his head.

Daoist Yang's eyes lit up, stretched out his fingers like chicken feet, and said a little cloud: "If I show you a broad road, would you be willing?" ”