On the official road less than a hundred miles away from the capital, a horse team of more than ten people moved forward slowly.
The northern fields in winter are desolate.
The sunny weather over the past few days has caused most of the heavy snowfall of the previous year to melt. Looking around, except for a few shady places in the fields, the fertile black soil is displayed in people's field of vision.
Several huge crows jumped back and forth in the fields, looking for voles that came out to feed.
"Xiao Chen, in this trip to Yizhou, in addition to killing the two fish that slipped through the net, we also obtained nearly one million taels of silver. How to deal with it, do you want to keep it?" Looking at Xiao Chen with a serious face,
Duan Tianming asked in a low voice.
"Leave one hundred thousand taels as our working capital, and the rest will be handed over to the factory official, who will forward it to the emperor." Xiao Chen said calmly.
His goal is not silver. Leaving one hundred thousand taels behind is enough for Dongchang to take action. The rest is left to the emperor to control.
Over the years, the Emperor's Northern Expedition has never stopped. The hundreds of thousands of troops have never exhausted the people and money. Although the territory has been expanded and the border defenses have been consolidated, the huge financial expenditure behind it is an undeniable fact.
While handling the case, if you contribute a little to the court, you will not be in vain as a minister.
After taking a look at the horse under his crotch, Xiao Chen greeted everyone: "It's almost time to rest. Let's hurry back to Beijing."
As he spoke, he clamped his legs together and rushed forward quickly.
Returning home was as fast as an arrow, and the good horse was galloping at full speed. Two hours later, Xiao Chen arrived at the Dongchang station.
After entering the gate, he threw the reins into the hands of the captain on duty, and Xiao Chen and Duan Tianming hurriedly walked towards the East Factory Hall.
At this time, Lin Shangli was holding a tea bowl and leaning on the back of his chair, thinking about how to deal with the unanimous targeting of Dongchang and Xiao Chen by a group of civil servants in the DPRK.
"Mr. Factory Master." Before entering, Xiao Chen's voice had already reached Lin Shangli's ears.
Immediately afterwards, two figures quickly entered the hall and knelt on one knee in the center of the hall: "Dongchang Colonel Xiao Chen and Duan Tianming return to the factory."
"Quick, get up." Lin Shangli said hurriedly, putting down the tea bowl in his hand.
Duan Tianming should salute him, but Xiao Chen is now wearing purple clothes. If he just sits and receives the salute like this, even if he is the owner of Dongchang Factory, it will be a bit too much.
After standing up, Lin Shangli went to help Xiao Chen.
Before Lin Shangli could raise his hand, Duan Tianming had already raised a thick stack of banknotes in his hand.
Lin Shangli was stunned: "What are you doing? Are you going out to handle a case, or are you going to rob?"
"Of course I'm handling the case. But by the way, I also dealt with the corrupt officials in Yizhou." Xiao Chen stood up and said with a smile.
After taking the banknote, Lin Shangli counted it and was even more surprised.
"Eight hundred and fifty thousand taels, how many people have you taken care of?"
"Hey, there's not much, just a magistrate who has been corrupt for many years, and a family that violates laws and disciplines." Without waiting for Lin Shangli's instructions, Xiao Chen walked to the table, turned over two tea bowls, and picked up the kettle.
, and fell down.
"Is Yizhou City so wealthy?" Lin Shangli put the banknotes in his hand on the table and sat on the chair.
He picked up a tea bowl and handed it to Duan Tianming behind him. He picked up another tea bowl and drank it all in one gulp before Xiao Chen sat on the chair.
"Yizhou is rich in Yishui inkstones. There are many merchants coming and going, and they are indeed very fat." Xiao Chen said with a smile after wiping his mouth.
"What about the business?"
"The two fugitives have been killed on the spot. By the way, the factory master summoned us back in such a hurry. What is the emperor's important business?" Xiao Chen went straight to the topic.
When mentioning this matter, Lin Shangli frowned: "The Emperor has nothing to do, but you have something to do?"
"What's wrong with me? What's wrong with me?" Xiao Chen was a little confused. He was hundreds of miles away on official business, how could the factory owner say that he was in trouble?
"The officials in the imperial court have started to stir up trouble in response to the fact that you killed Cang Cheng outside the Meridian Gate. I think their purpose may be to take off your unicorn purple clothes." Lin Shangli said with a frown.
"Take off my purple clothes and then find a way to get rid of me?" Xiao Chen snorted coldly.
Without this purple uniform, I can still serve Dongchang. But if they want to get rid of me, these people may be thinking too much.
In this Ming Dynasty, except for his master "Old Guy", he believed that no one could easily threaten his safety.
"In any case, you should not be careless. I suspect that someone is behind this incident. Maybe this is not just an incident, but a conspiracy." Lin Shangli said softly.
"What did the emperor say?" Xiao Chen asked calmly.
This purple dress is a gift from the emperor. If they target him, they are targeting the emperor. Xiao Chen does not believe that the emperor will allow these people to target him uniformly.
"The emperor has suppressed this matter for the time being. However, it is difficult to say whether they will bring it up again after a while. Therefore, I hastily summoned you back just to prevent you from taking any action recently.
Give them another chance to mention this matter." Lin Shangli said.
Xiao Chen shook his head: "The more I dare not come forward now, the more they will think that I am in the wrong, and the more they want to take off my purple clothes. It is just a pretense for them to seek justice for Cang Cheng.
They are just afraid now that they will end up like Cangcheng."
"Recently, there have been two voices of opposition in the DPRK. One is against your purple clothes, and the other is against Eunuch Zheng's sixth voyage to the West." Lin Shangli said.
"Against the voyage to the West? Why is this?" Xiao Chen was a little confused.
This voyage to the West not only exchanged the Ming Dynasty's silk, porcelain, and tea for a large amount of real gold and silver, but also promoted the national prestige of the Ming Dynasty to the outside world. Are they against this? Are they out of their minds?
"All officials in the court believe that Eunuch Zheng's voyage to the West used a lot of manpower and material resources and could not make ends meet, so we should not continue to engage in war." Lin Shangli said.
"Have you not been sailing to the Western Seas before? Why did you suddenly object this time? The emperor just allowed these voices to exist?"
"Eunuch Zheng's voyage was originally scheduled to start on the 30th of the first lunar month. In the morning, Eunuch Zheng submitted the application for this trip to the emperor, and he encountered many objections. If other people objected, the emperor would definitely ignore it. But this time
The one who objects is the prince." Lin Shangli sighed and said.
"Prince? Hasn't the prince always opposed this?"
"In the past, the prince objected, and no one in the court dared to agree because they were afraid of the emperor. This time, because of the Cangcheng incident, all the officials also spoke out at the same time."
"Hahaha, that's interesting." Xiao Chen laughed.
It seems that the person behind this has a big plan, and even the prince has taken advantage of it.
