When it comes to fighting with Wang Yuan, Wu Liande should be the number one person in the capital.
Before Wang Yuan passed the imperial examination, he single-handedly pursued the bandits, and Wu Liande followed them all the way to pick up the heads. Later, Wang Yuan led 200 heavy cavalry out of Beijing, and Wu Liande was also the sentinel leader in the army.
Today, Wu Liande is forty-eight years old, and his official rank is Tongzhi (from the third rank) to the commander of the Jinyi Guards.
Jin Lei took a few Dali Temple personnel, and Wu Liande took two hundred imperial guards, and left the capital in a mighty manner for Qufu.
The Beijing-Tianjin Railway has been completed, and the performance of the trains has been improved again. It can pull 200 people at a time and has a speed of 15 kilometers per hour. From Beijing to Tianjin and from Beijing to Jizhou, new locomotives are used, and the old locomotives are thrown into the coal mine in the western suburbs of Beijing.
The fare is expensive, but not expensive.
Take the Beijing-Tianjin Railway as an example. Adults pay half a tael of silver, young children pay 3 taels of silver, and gifts of goods cost 1 tael of silver for every twenty kilograms.
To transport 20,000 kilograms of goods over a distance of two hundred miles, the shipping cost is only one hundred taels of silver.
Naturally, we don’t dare to buy products with low profit, but we like to take the train for products with huge profit. Firstly, the train runs fast and will not stop during the whole journey; secondly, we are not afraid of illegal banknotes and can save gray expenses.
Due to the central government's emergency mission, the Railways Department specially operated an extra train.
Two steam locomotives, carrying two hundred Dali Temple and Jinyi Guard personnel, as well as their accompanying belongings, "speeded" toward Tianjin at a speed of 15 kilometers per hour.
After arriving in Tianjin, we took an official ship south to Jining, and then headed to Qufu.
However, there was one person in Jinyiwei who continued to take a boat south, heading straight to Quzhou, Zhejiang.
This man rushed around at night, and in less than a month, he had arrived at Kong's house in Quzhou.
Both descendants of Confucius, the Confucius family in Quzhou was in great misery because they were deliberately suppressed by the imperial court. The Ming Dynasty was as suspicious of the southern clan of the Confucius family as it was of the vassal kings. Because they were afraid that the southern clan would compete for the Duke of Yansheng, the imperial court set special rules.
: "It is not easy for the Northern Sect of Qufu to seize the title for thousands of years. If the Southern Sect starts a dispute...it will be placed in the official record and will never be recorded!"
Before the Zhengde Dynasty, the Southern Sect of the Kong family could not even get a small official position, let alone the Duke of Yansheng.
In addition, because the imperial court deliberately suppressed it and local officials understood it, the southern sect of the Confucius family returned more and more in the Ming Dynasty. As a result, many officials could not stand it anymore and repeatedly requested that Nan Kong be granted an official title. It was not until the Zhu Houzhao period that he was granted the title of "hereditary doctor of the Five Classics".
A doctor of the Five Classics of Hanlin Academy, a minor official of the eighth rank, is a common scholar born in the third rank, and even those who stay in the Hanlin Academy are above this rank.
The contemporary leader of Nan Kong is named Kong Chengmei. In terms of seniority, he is the grandfather of Kong Wenshao and Kong Wenli from Qufu.
Kong Chengmei is in his thirties this year, with good looks and a reputation for talent. He changed his name to "Chang Weng" and nicknamed himself "Linghu". When you hear it, you can tell that he is a scholar. At least he writes poems and articles much better than Bei Kong.
"Sir, there is a young man asking to see you," the servant came to inform. "The man did not hand over a name card. He only said that he had something important to discuss."
Kong Chengmei said: "It would be extremely rude not to hand over the name card. I will not see you."
The servants and disciples both received the red envelopes, and of course they had to do things for them. They reminded him: "Sir, this man is of extraordinary ability, not a mediocre person. I'm afraid he really has something important to do."
Kong Chengmei frowned and said, "Then invite him in."
Not long after, a young man came to the living room, cupped his hands and said, "Meet Dr. Kong."
Kong Chengmei became more and more dissatisfied: "It's okay if you don't hand over the name card. We don't know our names after we meet. Are you deliberately humiliating me?"
The young man took out a sign, held it tightly in his hand, and showed it to Kong Chengmei alone: "Dr. Kong, please stand back."
Kong Chengmei's pupils shrank and she immediately said: "You all get out."
There were only two people left in the room, and the atmosphere was a bit delicate.
Kong Chengmei asked: "Why did Jin Yiwei come to Quzhou for thousands of miles?"
The young man said: "I am acting under your Majesty's secret order. Does Dr. Kong know that just some time ago, most of the main hall of the Confucius Temple in Qufu was burned down?"
Kong Chengmei asked: "Did you get struck by lightning again?"
The young man shook his head: "Kong's family in Qufu burned it himself."
"How is that possible?" Kong Chengmei asked in shock.
The young man then told what happened in detail: "The Confucius family in Qufu disobeyed the king's orders and continued to use the title of the previous dynasty. After being investigated by the court, in order to escape guilt and denial, they actually surrounded and killed the chief envoy and burned the main hall of the Confucius Temple. This incident
, His Majesty and all the ministers in the cabinet were furious, but due to the reputation of Kong Sheng and the Kong family, it was inconvenient to directly order a thorough investigation."
Kong Chengmei digested it for a while and asked doubtfully: "Beikong burned the ancestral temple, why did he send Jin Yiwei to Quzhou?"
The young man said: "Beikong has been in Qufu for many years, like a country within a country, and the court is very dissatisfied. Now that he has done such evil things, His Majesty and the elders can't bear it, and want to move Nankong to Qufu to hold sacrifices!"
These words made Kong Chengmei's heart beat wildly, and her brain almost fainted with her blood.
Nankong has always privately considered himself authentic and has wanted to return to Qufu for generations. Even during the Yuan Dynasty, Nankong would kneel down to Kublai Khan without saying a word if he had the slightest chance.
The Nanzong's virtue of humility and his willingness to give up the title of Duke of Yansheng are all beautified by later generations!
The real reason is that Southern Kong was canonized by the emperor of the Song Dynasty, and when Northern Kong surrendered to the Jin Kingdom, a branch of the Northern Kong army surrendered to Mongolia. At that time, neither Southern Kong nor Northern Kong were in trouble. The real ones were the Kong Yuancuo lineage who had surrendered to Mongolia early.
(Kong Yuancuo had no heirs after his death, but he identified his successor before his death).
As for which one is more authentic, the Southern Sect or the Northern Sect?
None of them are authentic. In the early Yuan Dynasty, all the main clans of the Kong family died out.
Beikong promoted the small sect to the big sect, that is, after the death of the main sect, the first six generations were pushed forward to find him. The eldest brother of the first six generations, the second brother, all died out, and the first three brothers born to the third brother also died out, and the third brother of the third brother died.
The descendants of the fourth son inherit.
Nankong is even more remote, and it took eight generations to find an heir!
In terms of closeness of bloodline, the Beizong is actually closer, so this issue cannot be discussed.
Kong Chengmei managed to maintain his rationality and said: "The country has a dynasty system, and the Nanzong is not allowed to compete for the title, otherwise it will be placed in a serious ceremony and will never be recorded. This... this cannot violate the ancestral system."
The young man smiled and said: "Dr. Kong, Nan Kong doesn't have to fight for titles. He only needs to benefit the place, build bridges and pave roads, and accumulate reputation. The court will make its own arrangements by then."
"That's very good." Kong Chengmei was overjoyed.
Since there is no need for Nankong to come forward, there is no risk. Even if he cannot get the title back, there is no loss for Nankong.
After the young man left Quzhou, Kong Chengmei immediately donated money to the government schools and supported the poor scholars in Quzhou.
He also heard that in the mountains near Jiangxi, many people who had been hit by disasters a few years ago had become refugees and bandits in the mountains. Against all opinions, he donated thousands of acres of the Kong family's private land to the government, and transferred it from Quzhou
The prefect recruited refugees from the mountains to cultivate the land.
This move caused a sensation throughout Quzhou and even half of Zhejiang.
Because the Kong family in Quzhou is far inferior to the Kong family in Qufu. The thousands of acres of private land were already a strain on Nan Kong. The Kong family in Quzhou donated more than 60% of their private land!
For a time, Confucian scholars in Zhejiang praised Nan Kong one after another and praised him as a descendant of Confucius.
Except for the leader of the Nankong clan and Kong Chengmei, no one else knew what was going on. Even the Nankong clan members all got into a quarrel over this, blaming them for spending money to support their family.
The Kong family has a patriarch, and it has nothing to do with the officials appointed by the imperial court.
For example, in the early Yuan Dynasty, three members of the Kong family held the positions of the Kong family in Qufu, Yan Shenggong, the clan leader, and the county magistrate of Qufu.
In the Ming Dynasty, the emperor could not appoint the magistrate of Qufu, but he could appoint the chief of the Qufu clan!
The Qufu patriarch at this time was Kong Wenli who ordered the burning of the Confucius Temple.
While Nan Kong was frantically raising his sights, Jin Lei was also investigating the case in Qufu and paying close attention to the Zheng clan members in Beikong.
When the ancestors' temples are burned down, there will always be people who are dissatisfied, so they will be pushed out to fight.
In April of the second year of Shaofeng, there were many lawless children of the Kong family in Qufu, which was due to the ineffective teaching of the clan leader Kong Wenli. Emperor Zhu Zaiyi ordered that Kong Wenli be removed from his position as clan leader, and his uncle Kong Hongren was elected as the clan leader of the North Kong family.
Things suddenly became joyful.
Kong Hongren has an extreme personality and has always been out of tune with his clan. After he took over as the clan leader, he was unable to control clan affairs, so he took the initiative to throw out a bunch of evidence and asked Jin Lei to find Kong Wenli's confidants, hoping to dig out Kong Wenli's foundation and take control of it himself.
the Kongs.
Dozens of illegal cases were uncovered in succession, and several of Kong Wenli's confidants were captured by Jin Yiwei.
Kong Wenli also jumped into the trap and framed Kong Hongren, leading Jin Lei to investigate his uncle, and brought up many old cases.
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Jin Lei didn't even have to take the initiative to investigate the case on his own. Someone would obediently send him the case every day. The sight of the Kong family's dog biting the dog in Qufu was laughable.