A merchant ship flying the flag of "Zheng" was moored at Yanziji Pier. Shi Jiuke led almost 50 scholars wearing robes and walked out from the gangway.
On the deck of the merchant ship, more than 50 scholars were waving goodbye.
The leader was an old Confucian scholar wearing a gray gown. His name was Xu Baiyu, and he was the official of Changjiao of Xinxian County.
"Mr. Bai Yu, the Zhengji Merchant Ship will send you all the way to the Zhejiang Guild Hall in Beijing. The meals and dinner have been taken care of along the way, so you don't need to worry."
"Thank you so much, Shopkeeper Shi."
The old Confucian scholar thanked him, but his face was extremely reserved.
This is an old-school Confucian scholar. Although the Shi family is a wealthy person in Xinchang, in his eyes, they are just the last among the four people. If it weren't for the tea, wine and food being served along the way, he wouldn't even bother to pay attention.
Shi Jiuke didn't care. He clasped his fists and bowed to the more than 50 scholars on the boat: "Then Shi is here to wish all of you fellow countrymen that you can go to high school in the capital."
Good guys, these more than 50 talented people on the Qingqing ship are going to take the imperial examination in Beijing.
As for the scholars who disembarked with Shi Jiuke, they undoubtedly wanted to apply for the Nanjing Imperial College.
Xinchang is only a small county with a population of more than 100,000 people, but there are actually hundreds of talented people taking the exams. It can be seen that in recent years, with the improvement of Xu Yingwei's reputation and the huge financial support of the Shi family, culture and education have become very prosperous.
After seeing off Xu Baiyu and others, Shi Jiuke said to the more than 50 Xinchang scholars who had disembarked: "Let's go into the city."
However, as soon as he finished speaking, a scholar suddenly let out a frightened sound, and then said with a grimace: "Oops, my math textbook seems to have been left on the boat. It's really hard."
"It's okay, it's just a math textbook."
Shi Jiuke said calmly: "I'll just buy another one."
The scholar said a little shyly: "I am short of money."
Only then did Shi Jiuke discover that the scholar's shirt was patched.
"It doesn't matter." Shi Jiuke said, "The prices of books in bookstores have dropped a lot now. A mathematics textbook only costs 50 cents. I will pay for it for you."
"Thank you, shopkeeper Shi Da." The poor scholar burst into tears of gratitude.
Shi Jiuke smiled and said to the other scholars: "My fellow countrymen, if you don't mind the poor conditions of the guild hall, just stay at the Xinchang guild hall. All expenses will be charged at the lowest price. If you really don't have enough money, you can also pay on credit first, and then wait for
I'll pay in the future when I have more money, and of course, if you have any acquaintances or relatives in Nanjing, I'll just ask you to do so."
After saying that, more than a dozen people left on the spot, all of whom were acquaintances in Nanjing or had personally signed up.
However, the remaining thirty or so were all poor people, so they had no choice but to follow Shi Jiuke to the Xinchang Guild Hall.
As soon as more than thirty juniors from the same village were settled, the clerk came to report that the boss of Wuji Garment Shop was visiting.
Shi Jiuke hurriedly welcomed him out of the guild hall, but saw Wu Rongrang, the chief shopkeeper of Wuji Garment House, already waiting with an anxious look on his face.
Wu Ji is a big customer of the Shi family, and the two companies have a very pleasant cooperation.
"Brother Shi, you must help me this time." Wu Rongrang begged continuously as soon as they met.
Shi Jiuke didn't dare to agree easily, because he had already guessed what Wu Rongrang wanted to say, and he really couldn't help with this matter, because several of their Shi family's workshops were also experiencing labor shortages.
Especially the newly opened silk reeling workshop outside Shangfang Gate is about to stop working.
Sure enough, Wu Rongrang said as soon as he opened his mouth: "Brother Shi, your Xinchang County is located in a remote area, and there should be a lot of spare labor. I don't expect a skilled master, I only need a tailor apprentice, what do you think?"
"Brother Wu, this matter is really difficult to handle." Shi Jiuke said, "Brother, I can't recruit anyone here. No, the manager of the silk-cutting factory outside Shangfangmen just came to me and said that dozens of people were poached.
A worker."
"Oh, what can we do?" Wu Rongrang stamped his feet anxiously.
"If we can't find any more tailors, Wu Ji will break the contract."
"Brother Wu, this matter cannot be rushed. I heard that the Ministry of Internal Affairs is already thinking of a solution."
After a pause, Shi Jiuke added: "It is said that this extraordinary congress of the General Chamber of Commerce was convened by Chairman Kang in accordance with the Holy Spirit's decree. The Holy Spirit has personally dealt with this matter, and I believe it will be resolved soon."
"There is a shortage of people everywhere now. Where can we find such an easy solution?"
Wu Rongrang was not very optimistic: "The Holy Spirit can't transform him into a living person."
"Brother Wu, haven't you heard?" Shi Jiuke lowered his voice and said, "I heard that the Holy One is going to lead troops to capture Japanese people, and all the captured Japanese will be sold to various factories and workshops at low prices as slave labor.
"
"Slave workers?" Wu Rongrang asked, "Brother Shi, what do you mean by slave workers?"
Shi Jiuke continued: "The so-called slave workers are equivalent to bought-out domestic slaves. As long as they are given food, they can be forced to work day and night. If they dare to disobey and cause trouble, they can be beaten, scolded and taught at will. It doesn't matter if they are beaten to death."
"That's good." Wu Rongrang was overjoyed when he heard this, "This way we can save a lot of costs."
"Who says otherwise?" Shi Jiuke said with a smile, "We really have a good emperor."
"Then you have to go early in the afternoon. My little brother will go first." Wu Rongrang bowed his hands and turned around to leave.
Shi Jiuke also hurried back to Xinchang Guild Hall for lunch. He had been traveling all morning and hadn't eaten yet.
…
Chongzhen hasn't had lunch yet.
Because the Secret Investigation Department informed Zhang Huang that Zhang Huang had arrived in Nanjing during the incident and brought the trends of various forces.
Although there was no rush to exterminate the traitors of the hypocrites and Zhang Xianzhong, it was still necessary to keep track of their movements at all times, otherwise they would not dare to send troops to the Japanese country with confidence.
"Zhang Xianzhong sent two adopted sons, each leading 20,000 rebel troops, to attack eastern Sichuan and Jiading respectively, but they were repelled by the Sichuan troops led by Marquis Zhongzhen. After that, Zhang's thieves did not make any big moves."
"The puppet and submissive side are working day and night to reinforce Tongguan."
"Reinforce Tongguan?" This was somewhat beyond Chongzhen's expectations.
Did Li Zicheng stimulate the Ming artillery on the Baliqiao battlefield?
Are you worried that Guancheng in Tongguan cannot withstand the cluster bombardment of Ming army artillery, so you are going all out to reinforce Guancheng?
But, no matter how strong Tongguan is, what's the point? Even if the cannon can't blast it, I won't go to Tongguan anymore. You can't build a city at every intersection, right?
"In addition, Pseudo-Shun seems to be working hard to build flintlock guns and camel revolving guns."
Zhang Huangyan added: "Since Zuo Gong's return, Xi'an's intelligence has not been as good as before, so this matter can only be speculated because all the blacksmiths in Shanxi have been requisitioned and sent to Xi'an."
"Haha, it seems that Li Zicheng was really stimulated." Chongzhen smiled and said, "Unfortunately, it is useless to build flintlock guns and camel revolving cannons at this time, because the Ming Dynasty is about to produce ammunition.
.”
Once the blooming bomb is released, even the most basic blooming bomb can crush pseudo-Shun and pseudo-West.
As the God of Land War matures, the Ming Army has no rivals in this world.
After a pause, Chongzhen asked again: "Where are the remnants of Jiannu? Do you know where they have fled to now?"
Zhang Huangyan said: "In order to find out the information about the remnants of Jiannu, I went through a lot of tricks, but in the end I was able to spy on the information about Jiannu through Fan Yongdou, the leader of the eight imperial merchants of Jiannu."
"Fan Yongdou?" Chongzhen said with a smile, "You actually jumped in the opposite direction?"
Zhang Huang said: "Not just Fan Yongdou, all the so-called eight imperial merchants betrayed him."
"That's true, if you continue to follow Jiannu, you will only die. Only by returning to the Ming Dynasty can you have a way to survive." Speaking of this, Chongzhen said with a straight face, "It's just that if they think they can just provide a few pieces of information,
It would be too naive to wash away the crimes committed in the past. I can remember the crimes they committed."
The eight major locust merchants must be eradicated, and no one should be spared.
After a pause, Chongzhen said again: "Oh, by the way, we talk about building slaves."
Zhang Huang said: "The person in charge of Jiannu now is nominally the pseudo-emperor Fulin, but in fact it is Bumubutai. This woman is quite scheming and skillful. She took advantage of Omubu Chubo shortly after escaping to Guihua City.
You and Shanba, the situation in Tumut Mongolia has now been controlled by Bumbutai mother and son."
"It's a pity." Chongzhen sighed. "The Battle of Bali Bridge only captured the Eight Banner Mongolia, but allowed Tumut Mongolia and Chahar Mongolia to lose 20,000 cavalry. Otherwise, no matter how powerful Bu Mu Butai's methods were,
It’s useless.”
Zhang Huang said: "Even so, Bumbutai may not be able to control the Mongolian tribes."
"Hey, this woman Bumu Butai should not be underestimated." Chongzhen shook his head and said, "This woman is very skillful."
Zhang Huang said: "I don't mean to underestimate Bumubutai, but the Mongolian grassland is really chaotic right now. Even if Bumubutai controls the Tumut and Chahar tribes, they may not be able to fight."
With the support of Oirat in Sanggar, not to mention the Khalkha tribes in Mobei who are eyeing us, the grassland is now full of heroes vying for the throne."
"It's good for heroes to compete for deer," Chongzhen said. "When heroes compete for deer on the Mongolian grassland, our cavalry can defeat them one by one, and it will become much easier to clear the plow courts of the Mongolian tribes."
"Speaking of cavalry, King Ding encountered a strange thing."
Zhang Huangyan said: "In recent months, a group of strange cavalry suddenly appeared on the Horqin grassland. They are neither Mongols nor Jiannu. They have never been seen before. "Fortunately, the number of this group of cavalry is not large.
, there were only a dozen cavalry, so they were easily annihilated by the scout cavalry led by King Ding himself."
When Chongzhen heard this, his heart moved, that should be the Cossack cavalry.
After taking control of the Heilongjiang River Basin, the vanguard Cossack cavalry of Tsarist Russia finally extended its black hands to the fertile Songnen Plain. This also meant that the two empires were finally going to face off.
However, Tsarist Russia at this time was probably not an empire yet.
After all, Peter the Great wasn't even born yet.
Moreover, the military strength of Tsarist Russia at this time should still be very weak.
If it weren't for the distant geographical separation, Ming Dynasty could easily destroy Tsarist Russia.
At that moment, Chongzhen asked again: "How is the formation of the five cavalry divisions going?"