In the Qianqing Palace, Emperor Jiacheng sits high on the dragon chair.
There are many officials standing under it, all of them are crimson, and they are all officials above the third rank. Only a few motleys stood at the back, but they were officials of the department.
"Okay, very good, the navy in the two places can't help a group of pirates. It seems that the money allocated to the navy by the court every year is wasted."
"Your Majesty, rest your anger. After investigation, most of the navy ships in Fujian and Guangdong are old and in disrepair, so this encirclement and suppression will return without success."
"Elder Feng Ge is probably wrong. This is not a return without success, but being beaten down. It's okay to lose in one place, and if you lose in both places, what's the face of the court? The court allocates two places every year. The navy has a lot of money, and only 2 million taels have been allocated at the beginning of this year to repair the ship. This money was reported by Mr. Feng himself, and after the cabinet voted, the money from the Ministry of Household was also allocated. Could it be that Feng Your memory is not good, so you forgot about this?" Zheng Yunjie was worthy of being a censor, and he went straight to the core when he saw blood.
"This..." Feng Chengbao's face flashed a trace of anger into anger, and said: "Although this silver was reported by my Ministry of War, it was the Ministry of Household who allocated the money. Besides, the money was transported all the way, and it took no time to repair and build ships? According to Zheng What does your lord mean, is this money because my military department is greedy for ink?!"
"This official does not dare to make such a rash assertion for something without basis and evidence. Of course, if Feng Ge is always afraid of the suspicion of the imperial court, he can report it to the account book for verification by the Ministry of Accounts. As for the innocence or not, it will come out!"
Feng Chengbao wanted to say something, but Wu Ge coughed twice.
Zheng Yunjie was born in a censor, with a Longquan sword on his tongue, and there is no blood in killing people. If he talks about his lip service, I am afraid that few people in the court can match him.
He said from the side: "Since Mr. Zheng is suspicious, when the two navy account books are sent back, Mr. Feng will hand it over to the Ministry of Accounts for verification, so why do you need to make unnecessary words here."
Feng Chengbao also sneered: "Then Mr. Zheng will wait for the results of the Ministry of Household, don't slander this official with red lips and white teeth. If you say something like this again, this official will ignore your friendship with the court and impeach you for slandering the courtiers and cabinet members. The name."
"Elder Feng Ge, this officer has never said a word that your Ministry of War is greedy for money, how can you be so angry..."
At this time, Chen Jian, who was in the middle of the matter, took a step forward, bowed to Emperor Jiacheng on the dragon chair, and said, "Your Majesty, in my humble opinion, the most important thing now is how to exterminate those pirates, not quarrel between the two places. Teacher practice is still not good, why not. Now that the navy in Guangdong and Fujian have all been defeated, we should choose other suitable candidates to promote our great national prestige."
"Chen Aiqing's words are very reasonable! In your opinion, who should you recommend to come forward to suppress the bandits?" Emperor Jiacheng said with a smile.
"Of course it's the Zhejiang navy!" Chen Jian's face was solemn, and he said loudly: "I have only three navy along the coast of Dachang. Among them, the Fujian navy is the oldest and the most famous, followed by the Guangdong navy and the Zhejiang navy. Newly formed. As Feng Shangshu said before, the reason why the navy of the two places will be defeated is that the warships of the two places are defeated. think."
Despite Chen Jian's impassioned speech, Emperor Jiacheng also nodded his head in praise, which did not mean that everyone had no opinion. So when Chen Jian's words fell, someone stood up to refute.
"Your Majesty, this minister opposes. Zhejiang is Zhejiang, Fujian is Fujian, and Guangdong is Guangdong. How can there be a reason for overtaking it."
"Your Majesty, this minister is also against it. After all, the Zhejiang Navy is a newly formed Navy, and the soldiers are all seconded from the Chaohu Navy. Although this Chaohu Navy is a Navy, it is just a name, a group of Caohu rations. Ding, how to fight the vicious pirates will only lose face of my Dachang."
"Your Majesty, this minister does not agree with what they said. What happened to the newcomers at the end of their studies? Master Xue, the Admiral of the Zhejiang Navy, is the newcomers at the end of their studies. But now, all of my Dachang's treasury income for the past two years comes from Zhejiang. Dinghai City is on the sea, but so far I have never heard of pirates looting. What this means, you must understand."
Of course I understand, my face was slapped, can I still not understand? !
But Xue Tingxiang first took over Zhejiang, and then let him go to contaminate Fujian and Guangdong. Who knows what he will do, so many courtiers are opposed.
There are various reasons for objection. The mainstream view is that Dinghai is the most important part of the imperial court. It must not be missed. Zhejiang and Fujian are too close. If the Zhejiang Navy came to Fujian and Guangdong to suppress bandits, the backyard would catch fire. How should it be.
All in all, everything is said, and experienced people know that it is impossible to discuss any results in a short while.
The above can be discussed slowly, but the following can not wait.
The two navy divisions in Fujian and Guangdong were all defeated and returned, which has caused panic among many businessmen. There are also those who are not afraid of death and continue to go out to sea, but in all likelihood they will be robbed.
That group of pirates is also amazing, not killing people, just robbing goods. After looting the goods, they will leave ships behind to allow these merchants to return to the land. Therefore, the name of this nameless pirate has spread almost everywhere and everyone knows it.
The reason why they say nameless pirates is because these pirates never hang flags, so they have no idea who they are.
However, because the other party doesn't kill people, there are still people who can't resist the temptation to try their best to fish in troubled waters. Most of these people have cooperated with those barbarian businessmen for many years. Tigers tend to go to Tiger Mountain.
It was not yet dawn, and the weather was foggy. Located in Langqiyu, Fuzhou, Fujian, more than a dozen people were loading goods on the ship like ants.
Boats are small boats, and big boats can't get into this place.
Most of the goods are raw silk, packed in several layers of sacks. A seemingly small package of goods can crush the backbone of a prime-age laborer.
They have been lucky all night, everyone is exhausted, and the only thing that can keep them going is the high price offered by the owner. After doing such a night, you can get a hundred taels of silver, so even the labor is desperate.
Finally, the goods are on board.
The laborers quietly followed the people away, and the boat slowly went out.
In the local area of Langqiyu, there is a lot of fog in this season. Generally, for the sake of safety, people will not go out to sea at this time. But forced by the pirates, they could only venture out.
"Steward Ma, you said we wouldn't meet that nameless pirate, right?" A young man who looked like a buddy said frightenedly, looking at the fog outside.
"Bah, you don't speak up, you definitely won't! In this weather, those pirates dared to go out, and I chopped off their heads and gave them a chair to sit on."
The guy thought about it and felt that it really made sense. They dared to come out this time, and the owner deliberately found a few old boatmen with decades of experience. They are like the old horses. Touching places at sea does not mean that there are such people among pirates.
The boat moved very fast, standing on Class A, fifty meters away was shrouded in fog.
They hoped to be able to leave the vicinity of Dongsha before the sun came out. According to their income, as long as they could get out of Dongsha's boat, they would rarely encounter unknown pirates.
The sky lit up a little bit, and Steward Ma said anxiously: "How long will it take to go out?"
Someone below replied: "In charge, it will take another quarter of an hour."
Two quarters
There is no use in hurrying, you can't put wings on the boat.
Just when Steward Ma was irritable and was about to enter the cabin, there was a sudden noise from the bow.
He hurriedly ran forward, without anyone telling him, he saw a huge black creature walking towards here a hundred meters away from them, walking through the thick fog.
Everyone was frightened. This kind of scene is extremely rare. Some people have never seen such a spectacle in their entire life.
Closer, closer, a big black ship.
There's no flag on the mast, that's-
"It's a nameless pirate!"
…
The crew of this boat is very honest, and most of them are aware of the rules of the unknown pirates, and they did not try to do anything to resist.
The pirates put all the goods on their ships and disappeared in the vast sea.
And those who were robbed and used as labor have no strength to speak. Can only look at the empty boat, want to cry without tears.
At this moment, a red light finally burst out from the east, piercing the thick fog.
While Fujian and Guangdong were in panic of unknown pirates, there were also people in Zhejiang and the coast of Suzhou who were suffering.
In the name of coastal defense, the Zhejiang navy set up temporary strongholds in the East China Sea for patrol purposes.
All sailors were dispatched, and one third patrolled the vicinity of Dinghai and Zhoushan Islands. The other two-thirds of the force, part of the patrol in the coastal areas of Zhejiang, the other part is extended to the Nansha, Huangpu River, the Yangtze River estuary.
Although not even a mosquito can't fly out, at least no boat can escape their eyes.
If there is a customs clearance certificate issued by Dinghai, it will be released, if not, it will be seized. Since entering February, the Zhejiang Navy has detained nearly 100 smuggling cargo ships.
It’s fine if you don’t take it seriously. If it’s serious, the cargo of these nearly 100 ships will probably cost hundreds of thousands or even millions of taels in exchange for commercial tax.
Once detained, it will be confiscated, but the Zhejiang Navy is relatively reasonable. If the detained businessman is willing to pay a high bail of silver taels, it will not embarrass these people. After receiving the money, it will be released, but there is no need to think about the goods.
For some small businessmen, they would rather fill in themselves than be filled in with goods, which are all money.
Among them, the Hongchang ticket number is the most overwhelmed.
As I said before, the Hongchang ticket number is the largest ticket number in the Jiangnan area, and it is indispensable to use the money in the ticket number to make various investments in order to maximize profits. In the early years, various mining, salt, tea, grain, etc., were involved in many, which is the main reason why Hongchang Tickets can quickly accumulate resources.
Since I found the way of maritime trade, those seem to be a little tasteless, so in recent years, the main energy of Hongchang Tickets has been on the sea.
The details of the period do not need to be described, even if it is Dinghai Kaifu, because Hongchang Bank has been in business for many years, the backing is strong enough, and it has never lacked business.
Difficult, it must be much more difficult than letting go of hands and feet before, but it is not impossible to do it.
But since the end of last year, the Zhejiang navy did not know what the madness was. Earlier, he was only patrolling the Dinghai and Zhoushan areas, but now he has crossed the border and came to Suzhou.
You must know that Suzhou is under the jurisdiction of Nanzhili, and it cannot be linked to Zhejiang. In the early years, there was also a navy master in Nanzhili, called Su Song navy master, who specialized in protecting the Suzhou-Hangzhou area. Later, it was withdrawn for unknown reasons, and there were no more water divisions in the area of Suzhou and Hangzhou.
The different land areas on the sea are clearly demarcated, and whose place belongs to whom, the boundary monument shall prevail. It is impossible to make a boundary monument at sea, and there is no navy in the area of Suzhou and Hangzhou, and it is not impossible for the Zhejiang navy to protect it.
It stands to reason that this is a good thing, after all, it is safe, but for those who want to smuggle, they can't wait for the navy's ships to roll as far as they can.
There are also local officials in Suzhou and Hangzhou, but they are all suppressed by higher-level officials. This kind of sparseness is obvious, and there is nothing to scold. If the court asks your local waterless division, why is it unwilling to do your duty by the Zhejiang marine division? How should you answer it
Could it be that we want to go to sea, so we think the Zhejiang Navy is in the way
Moreover, the Zhejiang navy only patrolled the coast and did not enter the inland, so no one could catch the other's problems.
The problem is that if the goods inside want to go out, they can only go out to sea. Once they enter the sea, they will collide under the nose of the Zhejiang navy.
Now it is a situation. There is a bird cage outside, and the birds in the cage can only flutter.
Hongchang ticket number has been detained three times, and the accumulated loss of nearly three million silver. A ticket number seems to have huge funds, but in fact there is not much cash that can be circulated on the book, which is all using the money of the depositors. However, with Xiang Qingshan's family background, it will not be ruined, but it will inevitably hurt.
Xiang Qingshan from the Wu family had already sent the message countless times, all of which were vague. Xiang Qingshan also endured and endured again and again. He simply stopped the business in the sea because the business of the ticket number was not all pointed at the sea. At this time, it is not something that a smart person would do.
But at this time, at the Wu family's side, it was Wu Wanqiong who correctly handed over the message, saying that he had met a sea merchant in Dinghai.
This barbarian businessman has a way in the Zhejiang Navy. If he trades with him, there is no need to worry about the goods being seized. However, relatively, the price of natural shipments is much lower than normal.
Xiang Qingshan asked the price. Although he made a lot less, he still made a profit. Moreover, there was a lot of vacancy in the ticket number, and now it is urgent to fill in the account, so I wrote to say that I am very interested in this business.