Because this time it coincides with the opening of the sea during the Chung Yeung Festival, the sacrificial activities of the Mazu Temple are extraordinary. Wang Dachuan, the prefect of Ningbo, warmly invited Zhang Juzheng to come here to officiate. Zhang Juzheng thought that he was a Jinshi of the National Dynasty, a Qingguan of Hanlin, and his son was silent and strange, although this Mazu Lin Mo was awarded the title of Song and Yuan, he couldn't stir up her incense, and immediately smiled: "Since this official is a priest for the country, except for the Confucian saint, it is not good to sacrifice to the gods of other roads." Chunchen, how about you officiate this time? ”

As a eunuch, Feng Bao was originally very fond of being in the limelight, and he actually wished that he would be the chief priest himself. It's just that Zhang Juzheng and Yan Hong are in front, and he is not good at recommending himself. Now Yan Hong not only invited him to officiate, but also compared him with Zheng He, making Feng Baole laugh badly, and nodded again and again: "Yan Xiaoxianggong is so elevated, our family has no choice but to be respectful and obey his fate." Our family is a waste person, and we don't understand the etiquette law, but we still need more mentions from the bosses. ”

Yan Hong said with a smile: "Mr. Feng, you are always the master of ceremonies, and you are also the master of etiquette in the palace. If you don't know the etiquette. I'm a martial artist who has no choice but to go farming. The crowd burst into laughter.

Feng Bao got this errand. And he went to prepare in high spirits. He is the celebrant and eunuch, and he knows the process and etiquette of this ceremony as soon as he asks. Jiang Zhou, Chen Keyuan and others in the Qincha team were originally from Jiangnan, and they also came to help. As for the sacrificial text, Feng Bao himself is not shallow in knowledge, and he has the pen of his nephew Feng Bao, so he wrote a sacrificial text in a few hours. Feng Bao triumphantly showed it to the two Qincha. Zhang Juzheng looked at it, and he couldn't find anything wrong. When Yan Hong saw it, he was even more dumbfounded, he couldn't recognize many words in it, and immediately shook his head and said, "That must be excellent." ”

On the day of the Double Ninth Festival, hundreds of sedan cars came out of Ningbo Mansion, and under the support of hundreds of entourages, they went straight to the Tianfei Palace in Zhenhai, Ningbo. The first sedan chair was Zhang Juzheng, the envoy of the Qincha, the second was Yan Hong, the deputy envoy of the Qincha, and the third was the eunuch of the celebrant and the eunuch. Today's chief priest Feng Bao. After that, there were local officials such as Wang Dachuan, and the rest of the Qin cha team such as Jiang Zhou and Hu Baiqi had status attachés. and wealthy businessmen who have a lot of dealings with the government. The team of the government has already lined up ten miles along the main road, the outermost is the local guard soldiers and people, and the inner layer is Yan Hong's Jinyi guard team, three steps and one post, five steps and one sentry, and the vigilance is strict and solid.

arrived in front of the palace of the concubine, but saw a sea of people, and thousands of heads were crowded. A few miles in front of the palace, it was so crowded that it was impassable. In addition to watching the lively local people, there are performers, some set up snack stalls, some sell seafood and salted meat, some look at the face of the character, men, women and children, come one after another. On the stage, the famous Kunqu Opera troupe from Zhejiang was invited to sing babbling. When the officials and gentry arrived at the Tianfei Palace, they got off the sedan chair one after another, and everyone walked, under the escort of the brocade guards, through the bustling crowd, and entered the inner hall. When Yan Hong looked up, the statue of Concubine Tianniang was taller than a normal person, nearly seven feet high, although the carving was not very exquisite, but she was wearing a phoenix crown and a red robe, but she also looked kind and kind, and she was quite powerful.

When it comes to the good day, the drums and trumpets are ringing, and in the palace of the concubine, the cigarette smoke is around. The main priest is the celebrant and the priest Feng Bao, and the four people who sacrifice are Jiang Zhou, who is the secretary of Zhejiang City, Hu Baiqi, the county commander of Yinxian County, Liu Wenjian, and the local wealthy businessman Deng Fei of Ningbo, the master of ceremonies is Chen Keyuan, the master of ceremonies is Chen Keyuan, and the person who reads the blessing is Feng Xiaoxian, the official of Ningbo City. In the sound of drums and bamboos, with the praise of worship, worship, worship, and rejoicing, the chief priest Feng Bao led the people who participated in the sacrifice to salute Mazu Niangniang together. Tens of thousands of people outside the temple also followed and worshipped outside, kowtowing devoutly. Subsequently, Feng Bao personally went to the incense burner outside the main hall and burned the blessings, and the leading figures who participated in the sacrifice lit the paper money one after another. All of a sudden, sparks and paper ashes flew in the sea breeze, some of them went straight up to the sky more than ten zhang high, and some flew to the pier. The onlookers clapped their hands and cheered: "This paper is flying so high, Tianfei Niangniang must be happy, our Ningbo opens the sea and trade, it will be smooth!" ”

Zhang Juzheng and Yan Hongli watched the ceremony in the temple corridor, Zhang Juzheng choked on the paper ash, coughed twice, and said to Yan Hong: "I don't want Tianfei Niangniang to have so many believers here. ”

Yan Hong said: "It's not just here, as far as the students know, the people along the coast are very devout to Tianfei Niangniang. After all, everyone begs for a life at sea, coming and going in the wind and waves, and with such a goddess to protect them, at least psychologically peaceful. ”

Zhang Juzheng smiled slightly: "This Tianfei Niangniang has so many believers, and we are waiting to open the sea, but we can't do without her help." It's just that if someone gathers a crowd to make trouble in her name, she must not be in danger. ”

Yan Hong said: "This is not necessary, Concubine Tianniang is not the instigator of rebellion like the White Lotus Lady, she only protects ships at sea." Therefore, since the Song Dynasty, the imperial court has sealed it. ”

While the master and apprentice were discussing, they saw that the sacrificial procession had already left the temple gate and walked towards the sea. They hurried a few steps to keep up. Looking from a distance, the front of the team is still Feng Bao and his party, sixteen big men carry sacrifices, in addition to roosters, carp, fruits, there are even a pig and a sheep, that is the gift of "Shaojiao". The crowded local people, although blocked by the brocade guards, still struggled to crowd forward, wanting to get closer to the sacrificial procession. When everyone arrived at the pier, they saw that a medium-sized, richly decorated boat had already set up a gangplank. After Feng Bao and the others got on the boat, the sixteen big men also carried the sacrifices, the boat unmoored and anchored, and left the dock. There were also a number of boats in the docks, all crowded with people, following them. drove out of the place where there were about a few arrows, and suddenly the gongs and drums sounded in unison. Throw the offerings into the sea one by one. Suddenly. The crowd on the boat and on the dock thundered with joy. Some people kept kowtowing, some put their hands together, and some people burst into tears.

Seeing this, Zhang Juzheng said: "The people believe in Mazu so much, but in fact, the ocean is their way to make a living. From this point of view, since the people's will is like this, it is indeed inappropriate to blindly ban the sea. ”

Yan Hong said: "Exactly. It's better to find a way to take more taxes from it. ”

The master and apprentice looked at each other, and they had already made up their own minds in their hearts.

After the Chung Yeung Festival, the mission made proper arrangements for the affairs of Ningbo City, and then prepared to go south. The southeast of Zhejiang and Fujian are both mountainous, and it is more convenient to take the waterway from Ningbo to Fujian. This time, the number of people in the mission was huge, and Hu Zongxian not only specially dispatched three No. 2 Fu ships, eight sentinel ships, more than 10 Haicang ships, and 500 officers and men of the naval division, but also recruited dozens of civilian ships. Form a huge fleet and march south. Yan Hong's own four foreign ships. He was also dispatched over when he was in Ningbo Panhuan, and he was strong and strong.

The accompanying escort was General Liu Xian, who was also a member of the Zhejiang Naval Division. This Liu Xian is a native of Nanchang, Jiangxi, and he is a fellow countryman with Yan Hong, so they talk very well. Yan Hong thought at the moment that the fetus in Sun Yuerong's womb should be delivered in September. Now thousands of miles away, I don't know what the situation is. At that time, there was no Internet telephone and telegram, and almost all the messages were sent by post horses, and it took at least half a month on the way from Beijing to Jiangnan, and the key was to find the right person. It has taken me several months since I left Beijing, and it has only been a province to complete the work, so I am inevitably a little irritable. Liu Xian is open-minded, and Yan Hong said that his daughter-in-law is also pregnant, and she should give birth next year. He also said that his son came interestingly, the night before his wife dreamed, he dreamed that he took a big knife and pestle her stomach, the knife disappeared into the abdomen, and the next day he woke up and felt a slight throbbing in the abdomen, and invited the doctor to call the pulse, and found that he was pregnant. Yan Hong laughed secretly when he heard this, and couldn't help but have some unhealthy thoughts in his heart, and his thoughts and emotions were also diluted a little.

Needless to say, it was hard to sail on the shore along the way. Yan Hong and the others had already walked the sea route last time and were more adaptable; Zhang Juzheng is a native of Jiangling, Hubei, and has also played in the water on the Yangtze River since he was a child, and he barely succeeds at sea. The Beijing army and the group of landlubbers in the Beijing Jinyi Guard, but they had to vomit and diarrhea. Fortunately, everyone's bodies are strong and strong, and they all withstood it.

After a few days of sailing, they first arrived in Fuzhou, and Wang Xun, the governor of Fujian, led a group of officials of all sizes to greet them. The wine banquet is full of cloth, and it is not a problem. In terms of geographical conditions, Fujian is worse than Zhejiang, so the coastal residents of Fujian, in addition to fishing in the sea, rely on the same to catch some silver. Ten years ago, Deng Yi, a maritime merchant in Fujian, was the governor of Fujian Province because of the incident, and he died at sea and became a powerful force among the Japanese invaders, and was later exterminated by Zhu Su in Shuangyu Port. This time, Yan Hong opened the sea, and the Fujian businessmen were really overjoyed, burning incense one by one, and worshipping non-stop. The local officials in Fujian, who were previously troubled by the double oppression of the people's livelihood and the Japanese invaders, are now on the right path and can make money from it themselves, which is also a joy.

In particular, Zhang Juzheng, Yan Hong, and others had previously handled the opening of ports in Hangzhou and Ningbo in Zhejiang, and the local officials in Fujian had already sent people to investigate. Now that the Qincha team is here, it is even more convenient to set up a city division. Zhang Juzheng, Yan Hong and others also rejoiced. In addition, in recent years, it has been called a ban on the sea, and the construction of sea ships is actually prohibited, and there are many private sea ships in various places. Now that the will of the imperial court has come to light, it is equivalent to putting the original underground things into the open, so the ships prepared for the opening of the sea are almost ready-made. Seeing that Fujian's opening of the sea is about to come first, it is about to rush to the front of Zhejiang. As for the group of wealthy businessmen who came to beg for the ship's guidance, they had to give money and gifts, needless to say.

After thinking about it for a few days, seeing that the establishment of the Fuzhou City Ship Division was basically completed, Chen Keyuan was willing to take charge of the two city divisions in Fujian first, and only waited for the official appointment of the Ministry of Officials to take charge of the two city divisions in Fujian. After the affairs of Fuzhou were completed, the Qincha team went south to Quanzhou by boat.

The ship travels on the sea, but there are occasional white sails to practice, shuttling back and forth. Yan Hong invited Zhang Juzheng and Feng Bao to show off their might on their own Galen ship. Governor Wang Xun was also accompanied by the bow. Suddenly, I saw several clippers in the distance, heading north. Zhang Juzheng asked: "Those ships, the style seems to be different from the ships moored in Fuzhou port?" ”

Wang Xun sighed and said, "That's right, those are all ships from Yizhou, and they are the subordinates of the chief official Wang Zhi. ”

Zhang Juzheng sighed, and Wang Xun couldn't help but say again: "The two great masters of Qincha, it's not the lower officials who say it, the meaning of this court opening the sea is down, and I, the people of Fujian, naturally cheer endlessly." However, Wang Zhi, the chief official, occupies Yizhou, and there are hundreds of ships under his command, and they openly go to sea in groups these days, and they don't say that the ships can be led or not. When the officers and men of our Fujian Navy Division met them, they used to be Japanese robbers, and they could still fight a dozen, even if they couldn't beat them, they might as well put a few guns and shoot a few arrows. Now people are swaggering and going to sea under the banner of a long lawsuit. The lower officials were only worried that they would not be restrained by the fact that the ship would lead them out to sea. They don't need to get on the boat at these two ports in Fujian Province, and go directly from Yizhou, if they don't get it right, they will seduce the traitors in my Fu Province, and they will also go to Yizhou to seek refuge with Wang Zhi and share the profits and taxes of the imperial court. (To be continued......) (.com Wangshuge debut)