Although the route was changed temporarily, local officials were already aware of it.
After all, when a team of nearly a thousand people comes, they need to prepare in advance for food, drinks, and toilette. There is already a fast boat that has set off in advance to make arrangements.
The officials probably heard about the Emperor's temper, so the prefects and county magistrates all stayed in their respective yamen to work, and at the same time sent their confidants to Daming Town to wait at all times.
As soon as the fleet arrived, these confidants immediately returned to the capital and county to report the news.
The pier in Daming Town is very small and has been cleared half a month in advance. Ships are not allowed to stay here for a long time to prevent the Emperor's fleet from having no place to dock.
This was a real nuisance to the people. Many businesses in the town could not be opened, so that the Daming Town that Zhu Guoxiang saw was a little deserted.
Currently, there are only twenty-seven towns in the country that have Pinguan assigned to manage them. Except for Daming Town, the rest are all economically developed and densely populated.
The official official name of the town mayor is the town supervisor, and there are two types: the seventh rank and the eighth rank.
The supervisor of Daming Town was from the seventh rank and was called Shi Jizhi.
When he heard that the fleet was coming, he rushed out of the office and took a group of subordinates to the dock to greet them.
Actually, there are only three official staff, and the rest are white servants (temporary workers).
Formal officials must be approved by the superior department and reported to the Ministry of Personnel for registration. For example, formal officials in the county government must pass the assessment of the officials of the government office (or state government) and then report to the Ministry of Personnel at different levels.
As for the informal officials of the county government, the county government office can handle them, and state officials generally do not have to deal with them.
Even officials with the same rank are now divided into the pure and the unclean. Their own classification is not recognized by the court.
The civil servants in the central cabinet, ministries, courtyards, and temples call themselves "Confucian officials" and look down on officials at other levels of yamen. These people often have the reputation of being a scholar, and they only take the central official examination after failing to pass the examination many times. Even
There are still a few who have the reputation of being a civil servant.
The civil servants in the main departments of the provinces, prefectures and prefectures call themselves "jing officials" and look down on the officials in other yamen, among whom there are many who have the reputation of being scholars.
There are many such classifications, which have formed a chain of discrimination.
Scribe, scholar, code official, collector, etc., there are a lot of self-proclaimed unofficial titles!
The more elegant the name, the closer it is to the top of the chain of discrimination.
"The Emperor has returned to his hometown!"
"The Emperor has returned to his hometown!"
The shouts came one after another, spreading from the center of the town to the surrounding areas. Some people even rowed boats and chanted towards both sides of the Han River and its tributaries.
The crowds are getting bigger and bigger, and if you can't squeeze through, you go to the mountains and look out from the trees.
In fact, there are not many "aboriginals" in Daming Town.
Especially the original people of Daming Township, because they followed the Zhu family and his sons in the army, all those who survived became officials and generals. Those who died also received pensions and preferential treatment. In Henan and Hubei, their families were given more fertile land.
So people moved away one after another, and no more than 30% remained.
Most of the people in Daming Town in front of me moved here later, and they mainly fled from the mountains.
But regardless of whether they were "aboriginals" or not, they all regarded the Supreme Emperor as a fellow countryman, and Yourong Yan seemed to have a close relationship with the royal family.
After the town supervisor Shi Jizhi led the officials and people to visit him, he accompanied them cautiously: "Your Majesty, the streets in Daming Town have not been expanded much, and there is only one more inn in the town. The town government is also very small..."
"Just live as you arranged." Zhu Guoxiang said.
Shi Jizhi said: "After all, this area is surrounded by mountains and rivers, and there is not much flat land for camping. I have vacated many residential houses, and your Majesty's entourage needs to live temporarily in people's homes."
Zhu Guoxiang nodded and said: "Okay." He then ordered the eunuch beside him, "Remember to compensate the people who borrowed the houses to live in."
Immediately, an old friend came forward to pay his respects.
A man in his thirties came to Zhu Guoxiang with his wife and children: "Little Min Tian Zhifang, pay homage to your majesty, pay homage to the saint, pay homage to..."
Zhu Guoxiang immediately had an impression: "Is your father Tian Er?"
"Exactly, your Majesty still remembers it," Tian Zhifang said happily, "His Majesty himself gave the name to the little fellow back then."
"Why don't I remember?"
Zhu Guoxiang smiled and said: "My father and son passed through this place and lived and ate at your house. Where are your father and brother?"
, I also have a son who has been admitted as a scholar. I am the only one who is not good enough. His Majesty was still young when he started the army, so he stayed here to take care of some family business."
Zhu Guoxiang nodded and said, "It's okay to stay in your hometown. Where is your third uncle?"
Tian Zhifang said: "The third uncle's family has moved away. All the paddy fields and tea mountains of the third uncle's family were given to me. The dry fields of the third uncle's family were given to the village neighbors."
Zhu Guoxiang pointed to the old inn in the town: "Is this yours too?"
Tian Zhifang said: "His Majesty gave the inn to my father, and my father left the inn to me."
"Then you must be the richest man in Daming Town." Zhu Guoxiang joked.
Tian Zhifang chuckled and did not defend himself.
Shangbai Village is also under the jurisdiction of Daming Town, so the richest man in Daming Town must be Da Lang of the Bai family!
After chatting with Tian Zhifang, another middle-aged man came forward: "Zhang Lin, the boy from Mipu, pays homage to His Majesty and pays homage to the saint..."
Zhu Guoxiang had no memory at first, but when he heard about the rice shop, he immediately remembered it and asked: "How much rice can one penny buy?"
"A handful." Zhang Lin replied.
Zhu Guoxiang shook his head: "Not enough."
Zhang Lin said: "Then grab another handful."
Zhu Guoxiang laughed heartily.
Shen Yourong said: "I have never bought rice from your shop, but I have sold wheat in your shop."
Zhang Lin said: "The sage's wheat is very good, and the bran is winnowed cleanly."
Shen Yourong asked: "Now you open your own rice shop?"
Zhang Lin said: "Thanks to the reward from Your Majesty and the Saint, I now open a tea and rice shop. I sell not only rice, but also tea. The business is very good. Especially the tea comes from the tea mountain rewarded by Your Majesty. Businessmen from other places pass by by boat.
When I was young, I came to Xiaomin's shop specifically to buy tea, saying that drinking this tea would bring me royal aura."
Everyone present laughed.
"Are these your children?" Zhu Guoxiang asked.
Zhang Lin said: "The eldest daughter is already married. There is also a son who can go to school. When Bai Hou (Bai Sheng) returned to his hometown last time, he was already studying in the county school, and later he entered Yangzhou Academy.
.That boy has passed the scholar examination, and now he has transferred to Hanzhong Fuxue to study."
"Then I wish your son the best in high school." Zhu Guoxiang said.
Zhang Lin was overjoyed and said with a grin: "Your Majesty's golden words, if that kid fails the exam next time, I will break his legs!"
Zhu Guoxiang asked: "Did the candidate fail the examination?"
Zhang Lin said: "I took the exam once, but I didn't pass."
Zhu Guoxiang chatted with a few old friends for a while, and villagers from Shangbai Village and Xiabai Village came one after another.
The children who had listened to Ju Ming telling the story of Journey to the West were all in their thirties and forties, and they brought their children to pay homage to him.
There were also many old people who were so excited that they shed tears when they saw Zhu Guoxiang. They told confused stories about the time when the Zhu family and his son led the villagers to defend against bandits. They also said that if Emperor Zhu had not been brave, Shangbai Village would have been looted by bandits.
Bai Dalang also came by boat.
Zhu Guoxiang asked: "Your second brother did not return to his hometown after resigning?"
Bai Chongwen said: "The second brother liked the water town in the south of the Yangtze River. After resigning, he moved to Fenghua County, Ningbo Prefecture."
"He ran far away," Zhu Guoxiang complained.
Bai Erlang is very smart and knows how to take advantage of it. When he was the governor of Iwami Yinshan, he embezzled tens of thousands of guan. He was given land, houses, and shops and sold them for more than 10,000 guan. He also had other legal income and gray income.
income.
With a total savings of about 100,000 guan, he resigned and went to Jiangnan to "live in seclusion". And because he was old enough and at the same level, he could get a pension as long as he was still alive.
He didn't even live in the capital cities of Hangzhou and Ningbo, but chose to buy land and build a house in the suburbs of Fenghua County. The Emperor Tiangao became a wealthy man. In the past few years, he also started a small business, purchased some goods, shipped them to Ningbo Port and sold them to the sea.
business.
It's called living a carefree life.
After chatting about the current situation for a while, when Zhu Guoxiang asked about the situation of his children and grandchildren, Bai Chongwen sighed: "My sons are all useless. They can't pass the imperial examination and can't run an industry. The eldest grandson and the second grandson don't like to study either, so they just can't do it."
The eldest son of the second child is somewhat decent and can be ranked in the upper reaches of the county school."
"Children and grandchildren will have their own blessings," Zhu Guoxiang comforted.
Accompanied by everyone, Zhu Guoxiang went to various places in Daming Town.
A lot of places have been modified, but it's still basically the same.
Zhu Guoxiang personally presided over the construction of the inn, and now several Datongpu have been expanded to provide rest for caravan workers and poor people passing by.
The original village school has been upgraded to a branch of a county primary school, with the institutional establishment of a government school. This is the only one in the country.
At that time, Wang Anshi established a four-level official education system of primary school, county school, state school, and Taixue University, which did not have high requirements for primary school principals. However, in this primary school in Daming Village, the principal must at least have the status of an academician and be personally evaluated by the academic envoy.
Then we went to see the tea mountains on the riverside downstream, where the father and son met the cornucopia.
"Why is this still tied with red cloth?" Zhu Guoxiang asked, pointing to a tea tree.
Town Supervisor Shi Jizhi explained: "Two of your majesty's old friends said that when the officials were in Daming Township, they once said that this tea tree entangled the Pegasus' cornucopia. The villagers all said that the mountains in Daming Town are all dragon veins, and this tea tree is
It is the eye of the dragon vein. The Pegasus is spiritual and has been ordered by God Haotian to wait for the arrival of the Emperor beside this tea tree."
Zhu Guoxiang couldn't laugh or cry: "It's nonsense."
Shi Jizhi said: "Many villagers would come to the tea tree to pray for blessings. Even in Hanzhong Fucheng, people came by boat to pray for blessings. Over time, the tea tree was no longer pruned and was allowed to grow for worship.
"
Tian Zhifang also said: "This tree is regarded as the god of tea. Tea garden owners throughout Hanzhong Prefecture, as well as local tea merchants and passing tea merchants, will come here to worship the tea tree."
"Is it effective?" Zhu Guoxiang said amusedly.
Tian Zhifang said: "Everyone says it is extremely effective. We are discussing building a temple for the Tea God."
Zhu Guoxiang said: "It is okay to build temples, but not to occupy cultivated land, not to own temple fields, and not to be allocated money by the government."
Just think of it as tourism development.
Shi Jizhi quickly asked: "Can your Majesty write a plaque for this temple?"
Zhu Guoxiang shook his head very solemnly.
Shi Jizhi smiled awkwardly and lowered his head, as if he might have misunderstood.
Zhu Guoxiang looked at the tea tree for a long time. When he left, he said to the eunuch: "Xiao Zhong, tie a red cloth on it too."
