In the fifteenth year of Wanli, spring.

As soon as the rainy Jingshi City arrived at noon, Shi Xing, the right attendant of the military department, walked out of the military department with an elephant wat in the ya.

And as soon as he came out, he furrowed his brows.

Because the streets were wet after the rain, he couldn't bear to put his new shoes on them.

It wasn't until the slave who brought the carriage to pick him up saw this and crawled on the ground that he went down the steps and stepped on the back of the slave to prepare to enter his carriage directly.

Syllable!

But as soon as he boarded the carriage, he saw a brocade guard coming, and immediately stepped on his empty foot, and the whole person fell to the watery ground, and the wat board also fell to the ground, directly into two pieces.

However, these brocade guards were just passing by and didn't pay attention to Shi Xing.

Shi Xing's face softened slightly, and then the house slave helped him into the sedan chair, and helplessly frowned and asked the house slave outside the sedan chair: "Is my uncle back?" ”

The house slave outside replied, "I'm back." ”

Shi Xing didn't say anything after hearing this, only closed his eyes and recuperated, but the smell of horse manure on his body made him really unable to calm down.

So after a while, he couldn't help but look at the brocade guard outside the sedan chair.

Since Zhang Jingxiu and Zhang Maoxiu's brothers entered Jinyiwei, Jinyiwei has made the civil and military officials even more frightened.

To know.

In the past, although the Jinyi Guard had the right to monitor the hundred officials, basically because the Jinyi Guard officials were afraid of offending people and wanted to be safe, they took the initiative to turn a blind eye to the hundred officials.

What's more, if this is the case, the foreign ministers will also turn a blind eye to the Jinyi Guard.

But after Zhang Jingxiu and Zhang Maoxiu brothers entered Jinyiwei, they strictly rectified Jinyiwei, and Jinyiwei's internal promotion was only based on ability, regardless of relationship background.

Therefore, today's Jinyiwei also makes the civil and military officials feel that Jinyiwei is simply back to the Lu Bing era.

It seems that Jin Yiwei did not easily torture anyone, and did not take people easily, but in fact, the surveillance is stricter and the surveillance is everywhere, and the investigation of the case is not concealed, which makes the civil and military officials feel afraid, especially after some officials have done bad things, they will always feel that the Jinyi guards on the street are staring at themselves.

Many officials couldn't stand it because of this, and instigated the officials to impeach the Zhang brothers, for example, the two embezzled and accepted bribes amounting to millions of dollars, and they also opened a nest of prostitutes and gambled in the edict prison.

But Zhu Yijun didn't listen.

Therefore, the officials could only endure it, and secretly hated Zhang Juzheng for teaching the emperor the Taizun teacher, and even the teacher's son trusted him very much.

The Wanli reform, since the core purpose of "enriching the country and benefiting the people", has been carried out to the present, the world has prospered to the point of enriching the people day by day.

Therefore, as the richest Gyeonggi region in the north, it is full of splendid flowers in the spring of the fifteenth year of Wanli.

The entire Shuntian Mansion did not increase the number of hungry people who went to the city to beg for food because of the spring famine, but increased the number of young people who spent a lot of money.

The street outside Chongwenmen, which Shi Xing passed by in a sedan car, is even more full of flowers and things, and the goods are dazzling.

And because the domestic demand market on this street has become more and more huge, it has gradually developed into a sales book.

And the number of people who are willing to spend is indeed increasing.

Especially after the price of the Jingshi horse was reduced a lot, many scholars began to take the initiative to sell books and read to the people with a smile in order to make money from the people.

Nowadays, what the literati who sell books are selling to the common people is books such as "The Documentary of the King of Chu's Rebellion".

Other than that.

Under the secret guidance of Jin Yiwei, in order to make money from the people, these book sellers have begun to instill in the people that buying this book can prevent them from losing their land and family property in a daze, and combining the incident with the interests of the people to preach, so that the people will become interested in political events, and they have begun to say that the rebellion of the king of Chu was caused by the gentry who tried to annex their property.

Shi Xing couldn't stand it after listening to a few words by chance when he passed by in a sedan chair, so he pulled down his face, secretly hating these poor literati for being willing to be cheap for profit, and actually talking about political scheming with the puppet.

Shi Xing wanted to stop it, but after seeing Jinyiwei appear, he decisively gave up this idea, and became even more uneasy.

He was afraid that Jin Yiwei would notice his face just now and report it to the top as a matter of great importance, which would make the emperor dissatisfied with him!

After Shi Xing returned to his house and got off the sedan chair at the hanging flower door, he couldn't help but look back to see if there were any brocade guards with him.

After stopping and watching for a while, and didn't see a brocade guard coming, he breathed a sigh of relief, and only called his son-in-law Ma Wenqing to his side in his own courtyard, and asked:

"How?"

Ma Wenqing lowered his head: "I missed Zhao Mengbai!" ”

After hearing this, Shi Xing glanced back at Ma Wenqing suddenly.

Ma Wenqing couldn't help but bury his head lower: "He suddenly went out, and our people didn't have time to give up at that time!" ”

"Thinking that Zhao Mengbai is a gentleman, he will not confess to anyone at will without evidence."

"But people don't know it."

Shi Xing said a few words in his heart at this time, and then looked at Ma Wenqing:

"You immediately go to the south and tell Mr. Donglin about Zhao Mengbai's situation, so that they can find a way to let Jinyiwei release Zhao Mengbai in the name of rescuing Zhao Mengbai, and after he comes out of the edict, he will be able to make a fuss!"

Ma Wenqing asked: "Why bother like this, it's better to buy Jinyiwei directly and let him die violently in the edict." ”

"Confused!"

Shi Xing said in a low voice: "What can you think of, can the Zhang brothers think of it?" I don't want to think about who is actually in charge of Jinyiwei now! ”

Ma Wenqing said: "What Yue Weng said is true! ”

……

Although the emperor of the Ming Dynasty was in Beijing, the country's economic lifeline was in the south.

Suzhou, Songjiang and Yangzhou are all the industrial centers of the Ming Dynasty in this era, and it is no exaggeration to say that they are also the industrial centers of the world.

Silver mined from the Americas, Japan, and other places would gather in these places, and the goods from here would be shipped out and sold to Japan, Luzon, Mughals, Europa, and other places.

Meantime.

The domestic trade of the Ming Dynasty was basically purchased by merchants from these places, and then sold to the northern Jingshi and Jiubian through the canal, which were consumed by the powerful bureaucrats and wealthy merchants of the Beijing Division, as well as the officials and generals of the Jiubian Pass and the nobles outside the Jiubian Pass.

In addition, there were also merchants who purchased goods from these places and transported them to Huguang and Sichuan through the Yangtze River, and were eventually consumed by the Southwest Tusi or went north to Hexi through Shu Road, and then sold to Hexi.

In short, most of the goods carried by these trade routes, whether international or domestic, came from the important towns in the south of the Ming Dynasty.

And this, of course, means that there are rich economic benefits.

And Zhu Yijun was able to take away a lot of benefits from the new policy of silver dollars in the hands of the imperial court, not to mention that he also controlled the trade rights of several important trading points in Nagasaki, Hirado, and Haojing in the hands of the imperial court.

Therefore, the old forces are always unwilling to be taken away from their monopoly interests.

But they can't stop the trend of centralization, and they can't change the reality that the division of the interests of the world will inevitably be dominated by the Ming Emperor, so they can only struggle behind their backs and do something, even if it is to change the master.

However, after the last attempt to let the emperor fall into the water failed, they had to be more cautious, and did not dare to attack the emperor directly, for fear that the emperor would fish, and they could only think of choosing a few easy bait from the vassal kings to oppose the imperial court.

But the king of Chu was quickly defeated after being chosen by them and successfully fooling him into rebellion.

This still disappoints them.

"The side of the king of Chu Qingjun did not succeed, and Wang Bihe's efforts to restore the preferential exemption of the gentry, return the power to the six ministries, and return the punishment and reward to the public are still in vain."

Wu Hongji, who was about to enter Beijing to serve as the imperial historian, looked at the mighty blue waves on a cruise ship on Wuxi Lake on this day, and said to his friend Gu Xiancheng.

Gu Xiancheng also couldn't hide his disappointment and said: "Since Hu Runing impeached Duke Yu and Wu Daohe for colluding with the King of Chu to rebel, this matter is doomed to be unsuccessful. After all, this is not the Son of Heaven alone who refuses to follow the public opinion, it is a bunch of mercenary villains and a large number of fools who are attaching themselves to him and treating the Son of Heaven as a saint! ”

Gu Xiancheng said: "However, I have to admit that when today's son is too shrewd, after knowing that the king of Chu wants to collude with the gentry to rebel, he directly made your conspiracy public!" ”

"This forced the ministers of the world to draw a clear line with the King of Chu, and flatly denied that the King of Chu had his own involvement in the rebellion, and I don't know if Zhang Juzheng taught him so well, or if there was another master who taught him so well?"

As Gu Xiancheng was talking, he saw Ma Wenqing coming by boat under the leadership of his younger brother Gu Yuncheng.

Gu Xiancheng asked Gu Yuncheng after they came: "Is the matter of Jingshi done?" ”

"Nope! Zhao Mengbai is still alive! ”

"It happened suddenly, which we didn't expect."

Ma Wenqing couldn't wait to answer before Gu Yuncheng.

(End of chapter)