The Prosperous Era of Longwan

Wei Guangde became more and more confused at first, but then he suddenly had an idea and figured out what was going on.

It has to be said that empiricism kills people.

The people who carried out the work from top to bottom in the Ming Dynasty were all from gentry families, and they were all people with a good reputation, so they would naturally speak to their own side.

They claimed that the imperial court's regulations on exemptions and exemptions were for the imperial court to exempt those with meritorious status from taxes and servitude, and to pass on the taxes and servitude that should have been borne by themselves to ordinary people.

Wei Guangde threw the "Daming Huidian" in his hand on the table, leaned back on the chair and closed his eyes in meditation.

I have to admire the person who thought of this method, he is really smart.

Under the temptation, the entire group of scholars fell to his side, and all operated in a direction that was beneficial to their own interests from top to bottom.

With fame, no need to pay taxes or do hard labor, what could be happier than this?

Not only that, they also spread propaganda to the people below to make people believe it.

It seems that most people in later generations also thought so.

This trick of deceiving the superiors and concealing the inferiors is really a slippery slope.

Wei Guangde could only admire the unknown senior in his heart.

But does this have anything to do with him?

It has become the consensus of the people in the world that people with meritorious status are exempted from taxes and servitude. Naturally, Wei Guangde will not dig his own grave, not to mention that it is not in his interests.

Wei Guangde chose, like all scholars, to treat exemptions as exemptions by default.

Throughout the 32nd year of Jiajing, Wei Guangde spent most of his time studying in Jiujiang Prefecture, except for returning to Pengze twice to attend the weddings of his cousin and eldest brother.

At this time, Wei Guangde couldn't help but think of his own future.

It seems that at that time, people in small cities and rural areas got married earlier, but people in big cities generally got married later. This is actually the case now.

Zhang Hongfu is about the same age as his eldest brother, and he has not heard of any marriage plans yet.

In Wei Guangde's impression, he vaguely heard that Zhang Hongfu had an unmarried daughter-in-law, but he didn't know why he didn't talk about getting married for so long.

Without an inducement, Wei Guangde would naturally not ask.

As for the loan business that Wei Guangde had high hopes for, he has yet to find a suitable one.

There is no way, there are only a few types of people doing big business these days.

Salt, tea, cloth, porcelain, etc., and the market interests of these consumer goods in the Ming Dynasty have long been divided up.

There was a golden period for the private lending business in the past few years. In fact, most of the bosses who borrowed money at that time invested their money in textile factories in Suzhou Prefecture and Songjiang Prefecture. Most of the products were smuggled and traded overseas through maritime merchants. , to make huge profits.

After the Japanese pirates caused trouble in Zhejiang in the 31st year of Jiajing, the entire coastal state capital of the Ming Dynasty was now in a state of turmoil and war. They were very afraid of attracting Japanese pirates.

Ordinary people don't know, but those who are officials are naturally well-informed about what Zhejiang was like after being ravaged by Japanese pirates.

The guardsmen were all incapable of fighting, and the Japanese pirates were extremely vicious.

Businessmen, as the people who had the most contact with those officials, naturally knew the situation.

Before, many of them were friends with these maritime merchants and called them brothers, but now they no longer dare to recognize any of them.

These days, wouldn't it be life-threatening if someone knew you knew these people who are making a living at sea?

In the past, these maritime merchants still did serious business with merchants. Although it violated court laws, they were fine as long as they were not caught.

But now, they have found a way to get more money, which is to take the Japanese pirates directly to the shore to rob them and do business without capital.

When Wei Guangde was in Jiujiang City, almost every time he went to a restaurant or teahouse, he could hear businessmen complaining about the difficulty of doing business, the increasing number of pirates along the coast, and the unfavorable news of the encirclement and suppression by the imperial army.

During these years, the government and the military had the fastest channels for transmitting news, with post stations all over the country and postmen running back and forth on the post roads. They raced against time to deliver news happening across the country to the places where they were needed.

Various battle reports about the ongoing wars in various parts of the Ming Empire were immediately collected in the northern and southern capitals, and then spread out from there.

Zhang Hongfu and Wei Guangde, the disciples from the guard station, also learned a lot of information at home.

It can be said that the entire 32nd year of Jiajing seems to have never stopped since the first month.

Since the first month of the first month, warnings have been issued in coastal prefectures. Small groups of Japanese pirates have landed in various prefectures from Nanzhili to Fujian. Only Wenzhou General Tang Kekuan led his troops to repel the Japanese pirates who invaded Wenzhou Prefecture. All other areas have achieved success. Not big.

Furthermore, Shanghai County of Songjiang Prefecture was burned down by invading Japanese pirates, resulting in a huge loss of property.

When the Japanese pirates in the south of the Yangtze River were causing panic, Ada Khan in the north led tens of thousands of captives to break through the Yansui defense line and went south from Mizhichuan to invade Yanzhou, Ganquan and other places.

Reports of the North-South war reached Jiujiang Prefecture through various channels and were sent to the Jiujiang Guards Command and Envoy Department. The commanders of Jiujiang Guards who had just experienced a battle were frightened.

The Ming Dynasty, which had been peaceful for hundreds of years, seemed to become turbulent overnight.

"Guangde, the very powerful general you mentioned, the news I saw yesterday said that he was suspended from duty a few months ago for failing to fight against Japanese invaders."

On this day, Wei Guangde followed his father to the Zhang Mansion. His father and his uncle went to Zhang Tongzhi's study to discuss matters, while he and Zhang Hongfu found a side room to drink tea and warm up by the fire.

It was already the beginning of December of the 32nd year of Jiajing. Almost the whole year, the Jiangsu and Zhejiang coasts had been in a state of war. Before, Wei Guangde had sworn to express his optimism about Taizhou General Yu Dayou, who had been suspended from his post due to unfavorable conditions in the war. That's why Zhang Hongfu did this. One thing to say.

Wei Guangde had known this news for a long time. To be honest, he was extremely surprised when he saw this news. Who would have thought that Yu Dayou would also suffer defeats, and he would lose miserably. Taizhou under his jurisdiction Most of the coastal villages and forts were captured by Japanese pirates.

In sharp contrast to his poor record, Wenzhou General Tang Kekuan, although he also had many defeats, was generally praised by the court for his performance.

Wei Guangde not only reads books, but also likes military affairs. Zhang Hongfu discovered this a long time ago, so he also likes to sit with Wei Guangde and discuss the current situation. If the conversation is casual, then it will be impossible to have a pleasant chat.

"I didn't expect that either."

Wei Guangde spread his hands and said, "I thought he had a good record in suppressing bandits in Qiongzhou and Guangxi, so I took it for granted that he could easily capture the Japanese pirates."

Wei Guangde was actually wondering in his heart, who was Tang Kekuan and how could he be so good at fighting?

Judging from the current situation, it seems that he can fight better than Yu Dayou, but it seems that he has never heard of such a number one person, which is really strange.

"Which one of the southern Japanese and northern pirates is more powerful?"

Zhang Hongfu asked again.