Su Ze looked at Xiong Wu thoughtfully, but did not answer his question.

Seeing Su Ze's expressionless face, Xiong Wu was slightly disappointed and said:

"Sir, what else do you want to ask?"

Su Ze shook his head and said, "Originally, I was only guessing about 70% or 80% of the time, but now I'm 100% sure. It's uneasy and kind of you to stay in Changning Guard."

Su Ze continued: "From today on, you will stay in the penalty hall behind the family temple, and I will ask my old man to find someone to watch you."

Xiong Wu raised his broken arm and said, "What bad things can I do?"

Su Ze shook his head and said, "I don't believe you."

Xiong Wu didn't say any more, stood up obediently and said, "One more message to Mr. Zhu, Zhu Qi gathered a crowd on Meiyue Island overseas, set up a salt farm on the island, and made a living by selling salt. They gang of Japanese pirates probably There are more than 30 people who used to be salt workers from kitchen households, so it should be easy for the young master to exterminate them."

Su Ze escorted Xiong Wu back to his family temple, and told his grandfather about Xiong Wu.

The old grandfather immediately sent a young clansman to imprison Xiong Wu in the punishment hall of the ancestral hall.

The penalty hall is the place where the ancestral hall punishes people who violate the clan rules. This is a single cell.

After locking up Xiong Wu, Su Ze told the old man about what he had encountered in the ghost market, and the old man stroked his beard and said:

"This old man of Meiyue Island knows that this island is not far from the shore, and there is no fresh water on the island, so even a large group of pirates look down on this island. I didn't expect that Zhu Qi would occupy this island, but it's a pity This Zhu Qi didn't register as the chief commander in Beiwa, and he didn't have military merits if he was suppressed."

Su Ze asked suspiciously: "Didn't the imperial court issue a decree that there would be rewards for killing Japanese pirates?"

The old man of the family said: "The ones who get the rewards are the pirates who have been registered as the general manager by the Japanese. At least they are big pirates with a crowd of 500 people and more than three warships. Only those who beat such big pirates will be rewarded."

"Is that good enough?"

"Of course we can't beat them. Our Changning Guard has a hundred households, and there are no more than a hundred soldiers. There is only one warship left. How can we beat these big Japanese pirates?"

Su Ze was speechless for a while, and he asked again:

"Then the government doesn't care about pirates like Zhu Qi?"

"I don't know how many Japanese pirates like Zhu Qi are at sea, how could they be wiped out completely, the government will not send troops to wipe them out."

Su Ze was speechless for a while again. When he was a salt worker, he was squeezed to death by the guarding eunuch, but he was at ease as a Japanese pirate.

Su Ze asked: "What if Zhu Qi and his gang of Japanese pirates are captured and sent to the county government office? Will there be a reward?"

The old man shook his head and said:

"The location of Meiyue Island is between the two counties, so it's a bit troublesome to liquidate the gains."

"Why?"

The old man said: "Since Admiral Zhu's case, counting the gains has to be done by the local prefectures."

Su Ze Lv4's history came into play, and the context of Ming history that he had studied before traveling clearly emerged in his mind. He quickly remembered a major case in Fujian and Zhejiang during the Jiajing period.

"Admiral Zhu? But Zhu Zichun, the former admiral of Fujian and Zhejiang?"

The old grandfather glanced at Su Ze quite unexpectedly, nodded and said:

"It's Mr. Zhu."

Zhu Wan, courtesy name Zichun, was a famous minister during the Jiajing period. He used to be the admiral of Zhejiang and Fujian coastal defense military affairs, and the governor of Zhejiang. He was a well-known minister who led the anti-Japanese war a few years ago.

In the 27th year of Jiajing's reign, Zhu Wan defeated 7,000 Japanese pirates on Shuangyu Island, but was impeached by the censor soon after, saying that he killed good people and pretended to be meritorious.

The Emperor Jiajing asked him to return to his hometown to wait for a visit. Zhu Wan, who had a strong personality, committed suicide by taking medicine.

Today is the 33rd year of Jiajing, and Zhu Wan died in the 28th year of Jiajing, which is only five years away.

Su Ze has also studied this period of history. Zhu Wan's defilement involved a wide range of issues. Among them, celebrities from the Fujian and Zhejiang regions, and even officials from Fujian and Zhejiang were behind the scenes.

The historians have always had different opinions on how many of the pirates on the southeast coast were real pirates and how many were local merchants along the coast in the southeast.

However, one thing is certain is that a large number of Japanese pirates are local maritime merchants in the southeast. They complete smuggling activities in the name of Japanese pirates and earn profits from maritime trade.

Zhu Wan worked in the Forbidden Sea of ​​Fujian and Zhejiang, and offended the local rich families in Fujian and Zhejiang. Since he took office, he has been attacked continuously.

And after Zhu Wan committed suicide, the power gained after the inventory was transferred from the military administration system of the army guard to the civil administration system of the government office and county government office.

Calculating military merits is one of the most important tasks of the army. After the work of confirming the gains is handed over to the local government, the motivation of the local guards to eliminate Japanese pirates is greatly reduced.

The reason for this is naturally very simple. You worked so hard to kill the Japanese pirates, and in the end the magistrate said that this was not a Japanese pirate, so not only did you have no military exploits, but you may also be punished for "killing the good and pretending to be meritorious" just like Zhu Wan.

The old man said: "Zhu Qi rebelled by killing the young eunuch of Shibosi. The identity of the Japanese pirates is confirmed, and the county government dare not reverse the case."

"But there are more than 30 pirates in this group. The difficulty lies in the number of people."

Su Ze quickly asked, "Why?"

The old man of the family sighed and said: "The yamen of the capital has assessments for the prefectures and counties. Anyone who has more than 30 Japanese rioters in the local area will be demoted to the local officials. This Meiyue Island is between the two counties, and then it will be evasive. "

Su Ze was completely speechless now, no wonder the Japanese Rebellion in the southeast could not be stopped for decades, the Ming Dynasty really sucked.

The official army of the big pirates did not dare to suppress it, and the official army of the small pirates did not take credit for suppressing the achievements of the local officials.

The opening of the Chinese law has been corrupted. There have been no businessmen in Changningwei for decades. The guards can only rely on their own farms to support themselves.

What's more, some guards were directly involved in smuggling activities, or simply colluded with pirates to rob the village.

Su Ze is feeling emotional now, it is simply a miracle that the Ming Dynasty survived for ninety years before it perished!

"Then how do these pirates deal with it?"

The old man sighed and said:

"If the imperial court ignores those Japanese pirates who committed heinous crimes and killed people, the scholars in the village will spend money to offer rewards to recruit brave men from the village or ask the guards to send troops to exterminate them."

"Zhu Qi, who doesn't do much evil, let them go. Maybe they will fill up the vacancy of a certain guard and eat the emperor's rations."

Su Ze was really eye-opening. It turned out that in the Ming Dynasty, rebellion was still a roundabout way to pass the test.

I don't know how those people who struggled in the sea of ​​questions in later generations would feel when they knew that there was such a way of making preparations in the Ming Dynasty.

However, accepting Zhao'an in the Ming Dynasty was also extremely risky. The Ming court was notoriously prone to backtracking, and countless rebel leaders were killed after Zhao'an.

In contrast, the court of the Song Dynasty was more humane. Accepting Zhao'an was the shortest way for ordinary people to become officials, and it truly became a family of officials and gangsters.

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