Fang Mingqian came out from the place where He Rong and others were sent off to receive the decree. As he walked, he muttered: "Why is there a decree for me now? I am still thinking about what I said to Tang Mi..." Mr. Xin Guo
(Tang He) is my benefactor, and his descendants cannot ignore him."
Not long after, Fang Mingqian arrived at the place where the person who came to deliver the order was.
Then Fang Mingqian saw the person who delivered the order and immediately greeted him with a smile on his face. This made Li Ding, a former graduate of the Jiangwu Hall who was tasked with delivering the order for the first time, a little at a loss.
However, Li Ding was from a Qianhu family and had been in the officialdom for more than two years (graduated in the twelfth month of the 29th year of Hongwu). He did not get lost in Fang Mingqian's words. After being at a loss for a while, he said: "
Fang Tongzhi, let’s take the order first.”
After that, the incense table was set up to receive the order. Li Ding opened the imperial edict and said: "The Emperor Chengyun has issued an edict, and ordered the commander of Zhejiang and Guangdu to command Fang Mingqian, the governor of Zhejiang Province. After receiving the order, he immediately entered the palace to see the Holy Spirit. I admire this."
After receiving the order, Fang Mingqian wanted to get close to Li Ding to know the purpose of Yunxi's order, but how could Li Ding give him another chance? After successfully resigning, he was waiting to return to Beijing with Fang Mingqian tomorrow.
Fang Mingqian couldn't think of anything. Moreover, several of his brothers were officials in the capital, and he was the only one in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, so there was no one with whom he could discuss the matter. He could only report it to the capital commander and then report to the capital the next day.
went.
When they arrived in the capital, Li Ding went to the palace to repeat the decree. Fang Mingqian thought that he would not see Yunxi for a while, so he came to his cousin's house.
The three brothers of the Fang family, Fang Li, Fang Guan, and Fang Xing. Today is not a rest day prescribed by Yunxi, so the two officials, Fang Li and Fang Guan, are not at home now. Only the third brother, Fang Xing, studied with Song Lian.
After Song Lian was almost killed by Zhu Yuanzhang, he never became an official, so he stayed at home.
When Fang Mingqian saw his cousin, he didn't do anything mysterious because he was a member of his own family. He asked directly: "Third brother, your Majesty asked me to come to Beijing to meet the saint the day before yesterday. Do you have rumors in the capital? Do you want me to come in?"
What are you doing in the palace?"
Although Fang Xing was not an official, his eldest and second brothers were both officials and knew about this matter. However, Fang Xing shook his head at Fang Mingqian's question and said, "Brother, I don't know what it is for. This decree
My eldest brother was puzzled for a long time after seeing it."
Fang Mingqian was a little frustrated when he didn't get any news from Fang Xing. But he immediately cheered up and wanted to ask what was happening in the capital these days to see if he could deduce anything.
But at this moment, the concierge at the gate announced that someone had announced that he was entering the palace to see the emperor.
Fang Mingqian and Fang Xing were both stunned for a moment, surprised that Yunxi summoned Fang Mingqian right away.
‘What on earth happened? Your Majesty is so anxious?’ Fang Mingqian thought to himself.
But Fang Mingqian didn't dare to delay. Because of his special background, the Fang family has always been relatively isolated among the generals. You have to think twice before you move other noble families, but you don't need to think too much about moving the Fang family.
Therefore, the Fang family never dared to delay the emperor's orders. After Fang Mingqian changed his clothes, he immediately followed the messenger into the palace.
Fang Mingqian followed him into the palace and waited in a side hall of Qianqing Palace. While waiting, he heard in a daze: "Why are the envoys from Korea coming again? When His Majesty Taizu was still there, although Korea was allowed to have two meals a year,
Pay tribute, but in the past, North Korea always made one trip before and after the Chinese New Year, and one trip between the Dragon Boat Festival and the Double Ninth Festival. How could it be possible to send people again after just over two months?'
Another person said: "Who knows? Who knows what the king of North Korea thinks."
Although Fang Mingqian heard it through the distance, he felt that it had nothing to do with him. He didn't have the heart to care about North Korea's affairs, so he just heard it.
After a while, a young eunuch came in and said to him: "Master Fang, your Majesty has summoned you, please follow me."
Fang Mingqian smiled and said: "Yes." Then he quietly took out two taels of gold and said to the young eunuch: "This is the first time we meet. It's not respectful. If I do something inappropriate later, please ask my father-in-law to help me.
."
Unexpectedly, the eunuch immediately retracted his hand and said, "Master Fang, what are you doing! Take it back quickly! Take it back quickly!"
This young eunuch was Huang Fu. After all the eunuchs around Yunxi were wiped out, he was promoted and became a more important eunuch around Yunxi.
Huang Fu thought to himself: 'Don't you know that it has only been less than ten days since the anti-corruption campaign in the palace? Even Wang Gong has been driven out of the palace. If I am found out after taking the money, I will probably die. You are sincerely framing me! Who is it?
People are deliberately scheming against me when they see that I am favored?' Huang Fu, who always thinks more, immediately became intrigued.
Fang Mingqian really didn't know about the corruption case in the inner palace. He was an official from out of town, and such a thing was not reported to the newspaper. How could he know it so quickly? He didn't even have a phone call these days. Fang Xing and others knew about it, but
I didn't dare to tell him about it in a letter.
Fang Mingqian tried several more times, but when he saw that Huang Fu really refused to accept it, he had no choice but to accept it, and then followed Huang Fu to see Yun Hei.
After a while, Fang Mingqian came to the palace where Yunxi was located. He took a quick look and saw the person sitting in the seat wearing the emperor's clothes. Then he immediately knelt down to salute.
Yunxi looked at Fang Mingqian in front of him, and other things besides Fang Mingqian's resume came to mind.
To talk about Fang Mingqian, we must first mention Fang Guozhen. Fang Guozhen, one of the big private salt dealers in the late Yuan Dynasty, was still with Zhang Shicheng. Later he went to sea to become a pirate, nominally defected to the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty several times, and betrayed several times. Later, he once betrayed Zhu Yuanzhang
After surrendering, he rebelled again. In the end, he probably felt that it was inevitable for the Ming Dynasty to conquer the world, so he surrendered again. Zhu Yuanzhang did not kill Fang Guozhen, but allowed him to die a good death, and his sons also received hereditary official positions.
Fang Mingqian was Fang Guozhen's nephew, who was originally also in the capital. Later, when the Japanese pirates invaded the sea, Zhu Yuanzhang asked Tang He to quell the Japanese pirates. Tang He took Fang Mingqian with him, and then succeeded in making the "Japanese pirates" basically gone. Fang Mingqian also stayed.
Zhejiang became an official.
So yes, Fang Mingqian was the commander-in-chief chosen by Yunxi to explore northward.
There are two reasons for choosing Fang Mingqian: First, Fang Mingqian has been fighting on the water for a long time and has rich experience. Although he is a little worse than Zhang Xiaodong, he is also an extremely good water general, and his prestige is high enough to hold down the situation.
Second, the special status of the Fang family makes it difficult for his generals to agree with him, so it is not easy for him to betray him. Now Yunxi must take the issue of betrayal into consideration when thinking about problems.
Yunxi observed Fang Mingqian for a while, and then said, "I heard that you once followed your uncle floating on the sea and visited many places?"
Fang Mingqian didn't know what Yunxi meant by asking this, so he said cautiously: "When I was young, I did go boating with my uncle on the sea and visited some places."
Yunxi continued to ask: "Where have you been?"
Fang Mingqian made an assessment and felt that Yunxi was still young and was curious about things in other places, so he talked about other things before talking about serious things, so he said: "Your Majesty, when I went boating with my uncle on the sea, I was actually very happy.
I have been to many places." Then he talked about the places he had been to and the local customs and customs one by one.
When Yunxi heard this, he realized that Fang Mingqian had been to many places, including Siam, Mandalay, and Sri Lanka. At that time, Fang Guozhen was also a person who loved the world and traveled around.
Then Yunxi heard what he wanted to hear. He only heard Fang Mingqian say: "I also went to District 11 with my uncle. The people in District 11 are normal, but the nobles there are called Gongqing's family.
They are all dressed up in weird and weird ways, I really can’t stand it.”
"Oh," Yunxi said at this time: "Have you been to District 11? Have you been further north?"
Fang Mingqian replied: "Your Majesty, my uncle once wanted to visit the Far North and wanted to know what was there. So he once sailed out from Zhoushan in the summer and resupplied at Tsushima Island along the way.
To the north."
Yunxi asked at this time: "Then what exactly did you see?" Yunxi was curious about where they had been. Could it be that they really reached the North Pole?
Fang Mingqian said: "We went straight north, and after a few days we saw a land in the west. Then we walked north along the land and saw the mouth of a big river."
"The mouth of this big river is very wide. Although it is not as wide as the Yangtze River, it is about as wide as the Pearl River and the East River. It is much wider than the Yellow River, Huaihe River, Liaohe River and other rivers."
"Then not long after heading north, the land in the west disappeared. Then I continued to go north, and I can't remember how long it took, but I encountered another land, and it ran across it from east to west."
"My uncle once entered Hangzhou and found a navigation book from a Mongolian family. So at this time, my uncle measured the latitude there. By comparing it with Mongolian records, he found that the same latitude area in the west is also the Mongolian grassland.
Part of it, so I concluded that there is no sea route to the west and wanted to try to go east."
"But that place is already very cold. There are rumors among the crew that if they really reach the far north, they will quickly freeze into lumps of ice and they will stay in the far north forever."
"So the crew didn't want to continue sailing. My uncle had no choice but to return."
After listening to Fang Mingqian's words, Yunxi thought in his mind: "The land to the west should be the place where Nurgandusi is, and the big river should be Heilongjiang. As for continuing north, it will enter the Sea of Okhotsk."
.As for the last six places encountered, it should be the Magadan region in later Russia.'
'It turns out that there are also such people in the East who are dedicated to exploration. Let me just say, the people in the East are not just resettling, they also have warriors.'
'As for the rumors about the crew, haha, it turns out that the East and the West are the same. Around this time, when Prince Philip of Portugal in the West organized a fleet to sail south along the west coast of Africa, the crew also spread rumors that after passing the Horn of West Africa,
If you go south, you will instantly become black and never come back white.'
Yunxi was very happy that there were such brave explorers in the East, and almost laughed out loud. Then he immediately stopped.
Yunxi felt that he was really lucky. He chose a commander to explore north. This man happened to have been to the Sea of Okhotsk. God helped me.
Yunxi suppressed his laughter and said, "Fang Aiqing has been to so many places. And he has also been to such a northern place, which is really rare."
Fang Mingqian said: "Your Majesty, thank you very much."
Yunxi immediately changed his tone and said: "Just in time, I have an idea, which is to send a fleet to explore north to see what is on the sea at the same latitude as the Mongolian grassland, and also explore the sea near Area 11.
.”
"Originally, I was still hesitating about who should be the commander-in-chief. But I just heard that Fang Aiqing went there, so let's take Fang Aiqing as the commander-in-chief."
After hearing Yunxi's words, Fang Mingqian wanted to slap himself in the mouth, he was so mean! He was not willing to leave his lovely wife and concubine to do such hard work.
But since His Majesty has already called his name, Fang Mingqian didn't want to know the consequences of refusal at all. So he bowed and said, "I will obey the holy order."
Although Fang Mingqian concealed it well, Yunxi still guessed that he was unwilling. So Yunxi said: "Although this mission is not a war, the severe cold in the north is no less threatening to the soldiers than at sea.
of pirates.”
"And the sea area on the sea is also the territory of the Ming Dynasty. Countless sea people rely on the sea for food. Its value to the sea people is no less than the value of the forests on the ground to the mountain people."
"Back then, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty sent Zhang Qian as an envoy to the Western Regions, and later he was granted the title of Marquis of Bowang. You should explore it carefully. I will not begrudge you the title of Marquis!"
Fang Mingqian was immediately shocked. The titles of the Ming Dynasty are very precious, and even non-hereditary titles are rare. Yunxi actually promised a marquis? He couldn't be fooling me, right?
But Fang Mingqian recalled that Yun Xi had not betrayed his promise in the past few years. Of course, it might be because he didn't know about it. However, Yun Xi's credibility was pretty good.
Fang Mingqian decided to think that Yun Xi's words were true. Anyway, he had no choice. It was better to have hope than to have no hope.
So Fang Mingqian said happily: "I thank the Lord for your kindness."
Yunxi was also in a good mood, so he smiled and said, "Fang Aiqing is exempt from the courtesy."
Yunxi then said: "Then you go back and prepare immediately. It is already the end of March, and summer is not far away. It is still warmer over there in summer, so go out and explore as soon as possible."
Of course Fang Mingqian also knew this truth, so he agreed: "Yes, Your Majesty."
Yunxi thought for a while and said: "Since we are just exploring the road, we don't need too many people. We can just transfer two thousand-household ships from the Zhejiang garrison to explore the north."
Fang Mingqian continued to answer: "Yes, Your Majesty."
However, although to the Ming Dynasty, the ships of two thousand households were nothing, but at this time in the east of Manlajia, the ships of two thousand households were also a powerful force, and ordinary countries could not defeat it. Shipbuilding technology
It's too far gone.
Yunxi then explained: "We must explore every inch of the sea area and record everything in detail. The focus is on the sea area to the east of Area 11. Try going north along the way." Yunxi thought of the sea area from Hokkaido.
The Kuril Islands can go all the way to the Kamchatka Peninsula, so I would like to remind you.
After that, Yunxi explained a few more words, and then asked Fang Mingqian to withdraw.