Chapter One Thousand Six Hundred and Twenty Eight: All heading north together
Han Du nodded in agreement, "There are only 200,000 soldiers and horses in the Beijing camp now. It is true that they cannot be transferred away."
"Do you have any good ideas?" Zhu Biao had no choice but to put his hope in Han Du.
Han Du shook his head slightly, "I can't do anything about it, but I have an idea."
"Oh? Tell me about it?" Zhu Biao asked eagerly.
Han Du said, "I dare to ask the emperor, what is the greatest benefit of Japan to the Ming Dynasty?"
"Japanese slaves?" Zhu Biao thought for a moment, but he really couldn't think of anything else in the Japanese country that could be valued by the Ming Dynasty, so he had to take out Japanese slaves to fill the number.
Han Du smiled and shook his head. "In the past, we needed Japanese slaves because we had to dig the Tianfang Canal. But this canal is about to be dug, so we don't need Japanese slaves."
"If you have something to say, just say it." Zhu Biao was used to asking Han Du directly. Recently, he was a little tired and too lazy to think alone.
"I believe that the greatest benefit of Japanese slaves to the Ming Dynasty is in minerals." ??
After a pause, he continued, "The silver mines in the Japanese country are very rich, especially at Iwami Yinshan. I think it is best to order Tang Ding to retreat to Iwami Yinshan and dig out the silver first."
When he heard the silver, Zhu Biao immediately became energetic and no longer felt sleepy. "Okay, then I will order Tang Ding to go to Shi Jian and dig for silver!"
Tang Ding received the imperial edict. In the imperial edict, Zhu Biao patiently explained to him the reason why he could not send out an army now, and then ordered him to go to Shijian to mine silver.
"How can this be so? Don't we need to remove the places where we licked the blood with our swords?" A lieutenant general said very dissatisfied.
Tang Ding raised his head and glanced at his face, and said calmly, "What? If you are reluctant to let go, how about I tell the emperor to order you to stay here?"
"My lord, sir, please calm down." The deputy general quickly stretched out his hand to shirk him, "The general just said that this is a place where birds don't poop, so the general doesn't want to stay any longer."
"Humph! You also know that this place is not good, so why are you complaining?" Tang Ding shouted angrily.
Most of the Japanese country is covered with mountains and forests, and there are very few plains. It is indeed not a good place. And even in the plains, the land is relatively barren.
The navy officers had seen the fertile land in Nanyang that was harvested three times a year. How could they like a poor place like Japan?
"My lord, if you want to dig money, do you still need some Japanese slaves?" The deputy general rolled his eyes and thought of a way to claim credit in front of the lord.
"What? Do you have a way to get it?" Tang Ding was also very depressed. He did not expect that the emperor would give him such a decree.
Along the way, he adhered to the principle that Han Du once said, "The dead Japanese are the best Japanese." He left no survivors and no prisoners along the way.
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Now we can't let the soldiers of the Ming army dig out silver by themselves, right? So Japanese slaves have become very necessary.
"Don't worry, sir, I have been a mountain dweller before. Where there is water in these mountains and where people can be hidden, I can tell at a glance."
Tang Ding's eyes lit up and he said happily, "I didn't expect you to have this ability. Come on, let's catch the Japanese slaves!"
It took Chen Di half a month to return to his hometown. After all, he was a cabinet bachelor and a minister of the Ministry of Etiquette. As soon as he returned to his hometown, he was warmly received by the local county magistrate.
People in his hometown also regarded him as a local face and respected him very much.
Chen Di dealt with it for several days with a smile on his face before sending everyone away.
"Master, it's good to come back, we can live a pure life here from now on." Chen Di's old wife said.
Chen Di looked down at her, said nothing, and walked into the house with his hands behind his back.
In the next few days, Chen Di took advantage of the squire's respect for him and disposed of some of his family's properties one by one, leaving only an old house.
Although everyone was surprised by Chen Di's behavior, no one dared to ask and could only watch quietly.
And Chen Di didn't care. After all the property was realized, he took all his family members on a cruise on the grounds that he had never taken a good trip to the Ming Dynasty in his life.
Although the local squires were surprised by Chen Di's behavior, they did not delve into it. After all, in the Ming Dynasty, where transportation was not yet developed, who wouldn't want to travel all over the Ming Dynasty?
Now that Chen Di has such an ideal, it will only attract the envy of others.
On the edge of the Yangtze River, there is a hidden grassland.
Chen Di came here with his family.
The old wife had also seen people in the market. When she saw Chen Dijin going to a sparsely populated place, she couldn't help but feel worried.
"Master, what are you going to do?"
Chen Di looked at the boat slowly approaching on the river and said without looking back, "Aren't we going to go sightseeing? There happens to be an old friend in the north, let's go visit him."
After being silent for a long time, the old wife asked, "Master, are you really going to visit a friend? When visiting a friend, you need to bring the whole family with you?"
Chen Di turned back, glanced at her lightly, and said, "Of course. It is better to travel thousands of miles than to read thousands of books. Taking you out can also enhance your knowledge."
The old wife stopped talking, Chen Di was the head of the family, and no one could object to the decision he made.
Just after Chen Di crossed the Yangtze River, many people like him crossed the Yangtze River one after another with their families and families, either on fishing boats or on passenger ships.
And these people had just resigned from their jobs and returned to their hometowns. They sold their belongings before staying for a few days and went out to travel around.
There are many ordinary people in this world, but there is no shortage of one or two smart people.
A county magistrate noticed something was wrong. Although there was no evidence, he still passed on the news through a secret code. .??.??
After thinking about it, he wrote a memorial and submitted it to the court.
Then he just ignored it. Since everyone had left his jurisdiction now, he couldn't control it even if he wanted to.
The memorial passed through the post station and arrived at the General Affairs Department. When the official saw the miscellaneous matters reported in the memorial, he wanted to dismiss him casually.
However, there happened to be newly appointed officials in the General Affairs Department, and he knew how big a fuss was caused by these people's resignation. After thinking about it, he drew a circle and handed this memorial recording the miscellaneous matters to the cabinet.
Han Du was already very concerned about those who resigned, and when he accidentally saw this memorial, a flash of light seemed to explode in his mind.
"Something's wrong! There must be something wrong with this."
Han Du walked around the room several times with his hands behind his back, but it was like looking at flowers in a fog. He tried his best to see the reason clearly, but he couldn't see clearly.
"Someone is coming!"
"Master, please give me your instructions." An official came in and bowed his hands.
Han Du immediately said, "Send the order to find out where the people who resigned some time ago have returned. Ask the local county magistrate to write down these detailed movements for me to use." "My lord, this involves hundreds of people.
County!" The officials were a little surprised as to why the Duke of Zhen Guo wanted to go to such great lengths of war just for such a trivial matter.
The movements of these people who resigned from office are indeed an extremely small matter for the cabinet.
"Then send the order to hundreds of counties!"
Hearing that the master's tone became stern, the official did not dare to say anything more and quickly said, "Yes, I will go and deliver the order right now."
Due to different distances, the time it takes for the cabinet to receive replies from each county is also different.
However, the actions of these people were surprisingly consistent. After they returned to their hometowns, they did not buy land or real estate like ordinary people. Instead, they even sold off all their original property.
Then, they all used the same reason to "travel the mountains and rivers" and disappeared without a trace.
The more news he got, the angrier Han Du felt.
Wait until the last county
When the news came, Han Du immediately went to the palace to see Zhu Biao.
"Your Majesty, something bad is happening!"
Zhu Biao rarely saw anything that could change Han Dudu's expression, so he hurriedly put down his tea cup and stood up.
"What happened?"
Han Du handed over the memorials reported by each county to Wang Yue and said anxiously, "Your Majesty, after those who resigned from office returned to their hometowns, they sold their properties one after another, and then they all disappeared."
Zhu Biao was stunned for a moment, is this the case?
He casually took the memorial from Wang Yue and flipped through a few books, feeling relieved from the worries in his heart.
"It's reasonable for them to want to travel around, right? As for selling off their property, it's really a bit strange. It's not like they don't even have this little money."
Seeing that Zhu Biao had not realized the seriousness of the matter, Han Du quickly explained, "Please see, Your Majesty, the actions of hundreds of people are almost exactly the same. How could they have done this if they had not colluded in advance?"
Zhu Biao nodded in agreement, but then said, "But even if they are colluding, so what? They don't have any authority now, what can happen?"
Han Du didn't know what would happen.
According to common sense, there is no need to worry about these people now that they have no official position and power. But Han Du didn't know why, but he felt uneasy.
Han Du believed in his intuition very much. When he was at sea, he escaped several times just by trusting his intuition.
"Your Majesty, they are working together and must have some agenda."
Zhu Biao smiled softly, "They have all resigned. I can't send people to capture them all, right?"
Han Du was speechless. If these people are really captured, will Zhu Biao lose his face?
The gossip may say that Zhu Biao is mean and even refused to resign from office.
Seeing Han Du's unwillingness to give up, Zhu Biao waved his hand, "If you have doubts, then you can continue to investigate. If you find anything, come back and report it to me."
There is something in Zhu Biao's words, which means that if there is nothing discovered, then there is no need to report it.
I'm too lazy to listen!
Han Du suffers from the lack of sufficient evidence, so he can't ask Zhu Biao to do what he wants, right?
He had no choice but to sigh, "Well, I'll wait until I have some clues, and then I'll report to the Emperor."
Zhu Biao thought this was just a trivial matter and didn't pay much attention.
After Han Du returned to the cabinet, he thought twice and ordered all counties to pay attention to the whereabouts of these people.