The Prosperous Era of Longwan

It was late at night in the capital of the Ming Dynasty.

"Bang bang bang dong."

The night watchman was walking on the street, beating the night watchman's drum. Two lanterns appeared in the distance, followed by a four-lift sedan chair that was swaying towards them.

There were several attendants and guards beside the sedan chair, all of whom were in a hurry.

The night watchman tactfully stepped aside, leaving the entire alley empty until the other party passed by him.

Soon, the sedan chair passed through the alley and entered the alley opposite, and soon stopped in front of a black door.

The attendant stepped forward and knocked on the door knocker, and soon there was a response from inside the door.

"Who?"

"Open the door quickly, the master is back."

Hearing the question from inside the door, the attendant outside immediately reported.

Hearing that it was the master who was returning to the mansion, he hurriedly released the bolt and opened the mansion door.

The sedan bearer behind the sedan chair lifted the sedan chair and let it tilt forward. With the help of the attendants outside the sedan chair, the drunken Wei Guangde got out of the sedan chair.

"Master, we're home, this way."

"Watch out for the threshold."

Two lanterns lit the way in front, and two followers supported Wei Guangde on the left and right as he walked into the mansion.

After entering the Wei Mansion, Zhang Ji, who heard the news, came to greet him after walking a few steps.

"Master, I have asked someone to prepare sobering soup."

"Yes."

Wei Guangde agreed vaguely, and was supported through the hall and the room to the backyard gate.

Here, Wei Guangde was handed over to the maid in the backyard to help him, and then he continued to walk in.

Although Wei Guangde was a little drunk, Zhang Ji still followed him step by step and reported what happened in the mansion today in a low voice.

"You said that the relatives from Tashanpu have arrived?"

Just at the gate of the courtyard, Wei Guangde suddenly stopped and turned around to ask.

"Yes, they arrived at noon today. Madam has seen them and arranged for them to stay in the mansion."

Zhang Ji said hurriedly.

The relatives they were talking about were naturally the people who were transferred from the inland garrisons when the Ming Dynasty developed Liaodong in the early years. They were considered to be the same clansmen of Wei Guangde many generations ago.

At the beginning, there was still correspondence between the two sides, but after all, transportation was inconvenient in this era, so over time, the letters became less and less, until they disappeared completely.

However, as the main family who stayed in Jiangxi, Wei Guangde still heard his father often mention the two branches that his ancestors had separated in advance, one went to Liaodong and the other went to Datong.

In the past, there was no such condition. There was only one hereditary position of a thousand households in the family. The official was weak and naturally had no way to find people to find these relatives.

Now it is different. Wei Guangde is already a cabinet minister. It is not a matter of a word to ask someone to help find someone.

It’s just that the transfer of military households in the Ming army is more complicated, especially Liaodong and Datong, which are both war zones and often change, so it is difficult to find them.

This is the relative who went to Liaodong, and it took the Ministry of War several inquiries to confirm it.

According to the inspection by the Ministry of War, he was initially assigned to Guangning, then transferred to Liaoyang, and finally, during the Zhengde period, he was stationed in Tashanpu under Haizhou, a garrison guarding the passage from Haizhou to Yingkou and Gaizhou.

It should be said that this location is still good, better than Guangning and Liaoyang, at least it is not on the front line, and generally no war will occur.

The Ministry of War also arranged for someone to ask the Wei family in Tashanpu, and confirmed that it was indeed separated from Jiujiang, and his hometown was actually in Mengcheng, belonging to Huaixi, and the information of the Wei family matched.

So, the two sides began to have correspondence again.

Compared with now, his relatives are already cabinet ministers, and even if they send letters, they don’t need to bother to find someone to carry them, but can send the letters through the channels of the garrison.

Moreover, because of Wei Guangde, the current commander-in-chief of Liaodong is still Qi Jiguang, who is the best at dealing with people. The Wei family of Tashanpu is just a hereditary general flag, but now they have squeezed out a merit and reported a hereditary centurion position in the Ministry of War.

Of course, this relative's visit is definitely not because of the promotion, to thank and so on.

In fact, Wei Guangde can guess it more or less, because the previous few letters were fine at the beginning, all describing the family's situation in recent years.

There are still many Wei family members in Tashanpu, and the oldest one now is considered Wei Guangde's grandfather in terms of seniority.

However, in the last two letters, the letters repeatedly mentioned that Liaodong was bitter and cold, and life was not easy.

Wei Guangde guessed more or less that this was to ask him to help say hello and find someone to help, and planned to leave Liaodong and return to the interior.

It's not to leave the military household status, it's actually not difficult to say.

Speaking of which, the Ministry of War and Ma Fang have asked people to inquire about the branch of the Wei family that went to Datong, but they have never found anyone.

After all, Datong has experienced war disasters many times over the years, and many people have died, and many have escaped.

Therefore, not finding someone does not mean that the person has died in the war, and it is possible that he ran away in his early years.

However, Wei Guangde also knew that if he really escaped, he would definitely run to Jiangxi. After all, when he was transferred to the north, he only got a general flag official position, which was the same as the one who went to Liaodong.

No one has gone to Jiangxi to recognize relatives for so many years, and the probability of survival is also extremely small.

It was in this era that people had a strong sense of clan, so Wei Guangde asked someone to inquire and contacted.

"What did they say this time?"

Wei Guangde stopped at the door of the backyard and asked with a strong smell of alcohol in his mouth.

"Just as the master guessed, they want to move back to the interior to settle down and don't want to stay in Liaodong anymore."

Zhang Ji whispered: "Madam said that this matter will be decided when grandpa comes back, and she didn't agree at once."

"Inside the interior? Go back to Jiangxi or stay in the capital?"

Wei Guangde shook his head and continued to ask.

"They didn't mention this. They just said that as long as we return to the inner city, it will be fine. They also said that the place outside the pass is big, but the population is small. The Tashanpu where they live has less than 200 people. Usually, except for the caravan, no one else is seen. It is troublesome to enter the city. It is very inconvenient."

Zhang Ji continued.

"Well, I know."

Wei Guangde turned around and walked into the backyard with the help of the maid. He just said casually, "You should also rest early. Please help take care of the relatives and arrange someone to take them out for a few days and go around the capital."

Wei Guangde entered the inner house, and naturally someone fetched water for him to wash up, and then drank the hangover soup, but the effect was just so-so.

These days, officials usually prepare yellow wine for banquets. Although this yellow wine has a light alcohol content and is suitable for long-term drinking, it has a strong aftereffect and needs a good sleep to eliminate the effect.

Although white wine has also become popular, it is still a low-end and cannot be served at formal banquets.

However, the officials had a good personal relationship and drank white wine when they got together.

At this time, Wei Guangde felt dizzy and was sent back to his bedroom to rest after being manipulated by a maid.

When he woke up again, it was the next day and it was bright outside.

Fortunately, it was not the first or fifteenth day of the lunar month, so there was no morning court today.

If he was asked to serve the workaholic Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang, Wei Guangde would not have enough heads to chop off.

In fact, since Emperor Zhengde, the emperors of the Ming Dynasty were relatively lazy, and not attending the morning court had become the norm.

Although officials used this to impeach the emperor from time to time and scolded the emperor for his laziness, only they knew what they were thinking in their hearts.

Anyway, the life of the Beijing officials in the middle and late Ming Dynasty was much better than those in the early Ming Dynasty.

"Wake up."

Wei Guangde opened his eyes and stared at the top of the bed quietly, and heard his wife's words in his ears.

Wei Guangde turned his head and saw his wife Xu Jianglan sitting there, with a close maid dressing her.

"Does your head still hurt?"

Just now, she saw the quilt on the bed moved, so she asked in her heart. Seeing that Wei Guangde didn't answer, she continued to ask.

"A little bit, but it doesn't matter."

Wei Guangde finally spoke at this time.

"Drink less in the future, you're so drunk and smelly."

Knowing that Wei Guangde had drunk, she didn't get up last night when she sent him back, and let the maids clean him up.

"Alas, I was forced to drink by those bastards Liu Tianxi and Zhao Guobin yesterday, which made me suffer."

Wei Guangde sighed.

"Just because of that land?"

Xu Jianglan learned from Wei Guangde that these two nobles had occupied a lot of land outside the city before, which caused great resentment among the people, and even the government had to report it to the higher authorities.

If Wei Guangde wanted to help mediate this matter, it would naturally be to make them spit out the fat meat they had eaten, which was of course not small.

Because the government was in the right, the two Hou Bos naturally couldn't say anything.

If they really had to go to court, they would still suffer.

In fact, the nobles can also scare people, but it depends on what the matter is.

If it is a small matter, officials will naturally protect each other.

But this time the matter is a bit big and cannot be resolved under the stage. It will only make them more embarrassed if it is brought to the stage.

But admitting defeat is one thing, and the unhappiness in the heart still needs to be vented.

So, Wei Guangde, the middleman, was remembered by them. Taking advantage of the wine to talk about this matter, they got Wei Guangde drunk, perhaps it was also a relief.

In this regard, Wei Guangde had no choice but to admit it.

People gave in at the wine table and agreed to return those lands that came from illegal sources to appease the people's grievances. What else do you want? Do you have to lose the face of the nobles?

"Why don't you just throw the matter to the Dingguo Mansion? Those nobles will naturally have ways to suppress them."

Xu Jianglan was still talking to herself.

It is difficult for civil officials to deal with nobles, because many people will be involved at any time, and it may even develop into a fight between civil officials and nobles.

Although civil officials have a lot of say in the court, the nobles will not give in when it comes to their own interests.

However, there are also levels within the nobles, and it is common for the great nobles to oppress the small nobles.

There is always someone in your family who wants to have a job in the Beijing camp or somewhere else, so you have to ask those dukes for help.

After all, the military power of the four-nine cities has always been held by several dukes in turn.

The situation of the Five Military Governors' Office is similar. If you want to have a good job and make money to supplement your family, you have to give face to those dukes.

That is an internal conflict, and there is no need to fight in the court.

"Official affairs, what's the point of leaving it to the Duke of Dingguo's Mansion."

Wei Guangde chuckled, "It's just a matter of drinking two more glasses of wine. Those two guys didn't end up well. Don't you know my alcohol tolerance?"

In the past, Wei Guangde's alcohol tolerance was not good, but after becoming an official, his alcohol tolerance has been rising.

There is no way, if it doesn't increase, I can't do it.

When I was a Hanlin, my colleagues would invite me to drink with them every now and then.

It was the same when I entered the court as an official. Even if I went to another government office to do some official business, I would go to a restaurant to drink with my colleagues.

Especially since Wei Guangde had risen very fast after entering the officialdom, no matter if they were from the same hometown, the same year, or colleagues, they would definitely invite him to the drinking party around them.

"By the way, Qi Jiguang from Liaodong sent you a letter yesterday."

As Xu Jianglan was talking, she remembered something important and asked the maid to bring a letter from the side.

"Put it aside for now, I'll read it later."

Wei Guangde agreed and didn't even get up to read any letters.

"By the way, last night Zhang Ji said that relatives from Liaodong were here and wanted to seek internal investigation?"

Just now, Wei Guangde was still recalling what happened after he was drunk, and then he remembered vaguely what Zhang Ji said.

“There is no rooster crow for thousands of miles in Liaodong, and they want to internally adjust the pass.

But I asked yesterday and they didn’t know where to go.

Jiangxi, maybe. The family seems to have gotten used to the weather in the north, and they're afraid they won't be able to adapt back there.

Speaking of which, they had lived in Liaodong for several dynasties, and they didn't know why they were still thinking about internal transfer. "

Xu Jianglan continued.

"Liaodong is a war zone after all."

Of course Wei Guangde knew why he wanted to make internal adjustments. Even though he had beaten the Jurchens badly before, his vitality had not been lost. He just killed Wang Gao, who was the most out-of-touch.

But some of Wang Gao's ideas actually represent the mainstream thinking of the Jurchens, but he just stood out.

"In this case, if you see them today and ask them again, they can be accommodated in Jingying, but the place may not be good."

Wei Guangde just pondered for a moment and said: "There is also Tianjin, which feels good. If you are willing to go there, it may be better than staying in Beijing.

If they are unsure about paying attention, arrange for someone to send them there to have a look. Otherwise, they can go to Baoding.

Since they are all back, let them walk around and see more, and choose a place of their own.

It's easy to just arrange a hundred households. "

The left and right just want to transfer away from the border to live a stable life in the mainland, which is naturally not difficult for Wei Guangde.

"Yesterday I asked them if they wanted to go to Jinling, where it would be easy to place them in Jingying."

Xu Jianglan smiled and said, "But they said they were afraid of not adapting, haha."

"How are the two boys doing with their studies? They have been socializing outside these days, but I forgot to ask them about their studies."

Wei Guangde thought of his two sons and asked.

"The sir said it was fine."

Xu Jianglan smiled and said, "In my opinion, even if you can't win the Jinshi, it shouldn't be a big problem to be promoted. That's what my husband said."

Wei Guangde knew in his heart that when the gentleman said this, he was probably saying that the two children were not good at studying. Unless they had some connections, they could gain fame as a civil servant.

"Well, it's still early anyway, let's take a look."

For Wei Guangde, it is not difficult to get a title of Juren under dredging.

Yes, the imperial examination has been screwed up a long time ago, and even the number one scholar can be placed on Zhang Maoxiu through the back door.

Of course, this does not mean that Zhang Mao is not good at writing, but it is a bit reluctant for him to win the top prize.

Moreover, this matter has not happened yet. A few years later, Emperor Wanli gave it to the Zhang family as a reward for his merit.

However, Wei Guangde really did not intend to force his son to take the imperial examination. He would just get the title of scholar and examiner, and enjoy some political preferential treatment. There is no need to force him into the court.

When they grow up and are interested, they can naturally do it, but there is no need to force it.

He knew exactly what kind of thing he was.

"Fetch water, the master is getting up."

Wei Guangde sat up from the bed as he spoke.

By the time he opened Qi Jiguang's letter, it was already two quarters of an hour later.

However, Wei Guangde frowned slightly when he read Qi Jiguang's letter.