Optimus One Pillar of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 57 The Chinese Spiritual Backbone
Wang Daoqiu didn't know that Fatty was wondering how many political connections Shen Yishi, the richest man in Zhejiang, gave his son-in-law.Anyway, he followed Yang Jinshui's instruction just now and came to Di'anmen West Street.

On the way, I asked people about it and came to a coal shop on this street.As soon as I arrived here, I saw that the door of the assistant was crowded with people, packed with mules, horses and vehicles, and the business was very booming.

Wang Daoqiu squeezed into the crowd and asked an older brother standing in front of him: "Brother, are they selling briquettes here?"

"Yes! But young master, if you want to buy briquettes today, I'm afraid it's impossible. Just now, several officials' families have placed large orders. Among them, Xia Cifu's family has ordered fifty briquettes stoves and chimneys. Son, 100 pieces of briquettes, more than [-] taels of silver! The inventory in this store must be used by those officials first. We ordinary people should just buy coal to burn!"

After finishing speaking, the eldest brother sighed, and he made no secret of the loss in his heart.Seeing his eldest brother's appearance, Wang Daoqiu comforted him: "Brother, don't be too disappointed. If you believe me, you can buy enough coal for your family for a month. In a month, this briquette and briquette stove will be enough." The supply is normal.”

The normal supply will be available in one month. Wang Daoqiu said that the normal supply will be available in one month. The elder brother immediately expressed dissatisfaction with Wang Daoqiu's words. He said to Wang Daoqiu with contempt: "Young master, what are you talking about?" How about briquettes? Coal is easy to talk about, and Wanping has plenty of it. But the briquette stove and chimney must be made of wrought iron. A stove and a chimney, the thinnest one costs [-] to [-] catties. Our small family If our family has five people, we have one house for the adults, one for the son, and one for the daughter. That would require at least three stoves and hundreds of kilograms of wrought iron."

"And there are a total of 14 households in our capital city. Calculated as one hundred catties of wrought iron per family, that would be tens of millions of catties of wrought iron. If you add those in the palace, government offices, Beijing camps, and households For the Dianfu inn, then we need 2000 million catties of wrought iron! But how much wrought iron will we produce in a year? Young master, you are too young. If everyone wants to use it, they will have to wait at least three to five years."

The elder brother's calculation was correct, but what he didn't know was that Emperor Jiajing, a money fanatic, had already ordered the felons in the capital, Beizhili, Shanxi, Shandong, Liaodong, and Henan to send all able-bodied criminals to Hongshishan to mine iron ore.Moreover, the blast furnace that Wang Daoqiu built at the Jinyiwei Weapons Bureau a few days ago is now in non-stop production.

In order to improve efficiency, Emperor Jiajing also ordered to stop the production of steel and only produce wrought iron.At the same time, he also ordered to build another blast furnace in Jinweiyi Weapons Supervision, and strive to increase the daily output to more than 50 jin.The Yongding River is also rushing to transport iron ore day and night, all of which are piled up in the original granary of the government.

The elder brother didn't know these things, and it was inconvenient for Wang Daoqiu to publicize the emperor's plan to make a fortune.So Wang Daoqiu could only smile and leave when his elder brother laughed at him for being young and ignorant.

Knowing that he squeezed in and couldn't buy briquettes today, Wang Daoqiu didn't bother to squeeze in any more.But he didn't want to just go back and be laughed at by Yin Zhengmao and the others, so he wandered around the street, wanting to see if he could buy dozens of briquettes to go back through other means, and deal with it tonight first.

Wandering around, Wang Daoqiu asked a few restaurant customers to find out if they had briquettes, so he could buy them at a higher price.But the result is that unscrupulous businessmen set the price on the ground, and they have to add [-]% to [-]% of the price before they are willing to transfer.

Wang Daoqiu couldn't bear the psychological gap of being taken advantage of by spending money, and after asking a few, he gave up his little thoughts.

Wandering aimlessly on the street, he was suddenly grabbed from behind by someone. When he turned around, he saw a middle-aged scholar with an angry face and cheeks as angry as a toad.

Looking at the scholar carefully, Wang Daoqiu couldn't remember that he knew this person.So Wang Daoqiu turned around, bowed his hands to the scholar, and asked, "Brother, what do you want?"

"What's the matter? Boy, you were the one who broke into the night last night, right?"

The words "Last night committed the night" reminded Wang Daoqiu of who this middle-aged scholar was.So he bowed again to the middle-aged scholar, and then said: "I misunderstood you last night, how about you, brother, Wucheng soldiers and horses didn't make things difficult for you, right?"

"Embarrassed?" Wang Daoqiu's word "embarrassed" seemed to arouse the raging anger in the middle-aged scholar's heart.

He gritted his teeth and repeated the word "embarrassment", and then he was filled with righteous indignation and said through gritted teeth: "They accused me of committing crimes, resisting arrest, and accusing me of insulting and beating the sergeants patrolling the city. In the name of frugality, I asked Shangfeng for instructions to get rid of my name of juren. My fellow villagers were afraid that if they did that, they would ruin my future, so they begged in every possible way and spent money to get me out of prison. Although it is against the law for fellow villagers to do so, it is for my own good, and I cannot let them pay for me.”

"So afterward, I returned all the money I had on my body to them, and set up a stall in this street market to write letters and read letters for others, and earn some copper coins to make ends meet. Boy, you made me miserable I think that I, Jieyuan from Nanzhili, actually want to make a living by setting up street stalls and selling characters in this Beijing city. Boy, you go to the Yamen and the Metropolitan Procuratorate with me now, and I will sue the soldiers and horses of the five cities The company engages in fraud and extortion. Let’s go, boy, go quickly.”

While talking, the middle-aged scholar pulled Wang Daoqiu forward, and Wang Daoqiu also pulled the middle-aged scholar at this time, and said in a flat tone: "Brother, there are many people here, can you take a step to talk? "

"Why do you take a step to talk? You don't want to be fooled by your smooth tongue. Yuan still has a bit of character and doesn't like gold and silver. I have to drag you to the Metropolitan Procuratorate today, boy, don't talk too much, go quickly."

"Brother, brother, you and I are both scholars. It's really degrading to gossip in public. So brother, let's go to the side, listen to me, if I can't convince you within a quarter of an hour , then you don’t need to be dragged by Xiongtai, whichever Yamen Xiongtai says, I will go to that Yamen with Xiongtai. And when we arrive at the Yamen, I will never deny my behavior of walking on the street at three o’clock last night.” "Is this true?"

"Heaven and earth are witnesses."

"Okay, come over to the side and I'll listen to your excuses."

After saying this, the middle-aged scholar walked to a deserted place on his own, not caring whether Wang Daoqiu would run away.

A gentleman is magnanimous and has a sunny heart. He will not always guard against others with a dark heart.I really envy this scholar with a clean heart, but it's a pity that in the last life, he lived in the jungle world where the jungle preyed on the weak and the strong, and was taught to be a human again and again. Wang Daoqiu's heart can't do it anymore, and he doesn't want to guard against others.

Lamenting the darkness of his own heart, Wang Daoqiu followed the middle-aged scholar to the corner, and before the middle-aged scholar made trouble, Wang Daoqiu took out his own admission certificate and handed it to him.

The middle-aged scholar took Wang Daoqiu's qualification certificate in surprise, and took a closer look: "What, you are the one at the gate of the Zhejiang Gongyuan..."

"Ahem, cough, cough, brother, brother, let's not talk about that matter at the gate of Zhejiang Gongyuan, let's not talk about it anymore."

As soon as the other party figured out who he was, he mentioned the scandal at the gate of Zhejiang Gongyuan that day. Wang Daoqiu interrupted with a cough.

At this time, the middle-aged scholar, after knowing Wang Daoqiu's identity, his face obviously softened, and after handing back the qualification certificate to Wang Daoqiu, he said: "Which family did I mistakenly think Wang Jieyuan belonged to last night?" Dude, it’s Yuan Menglang. Let me introduce myself, my surname is Yuan, my name is Hong Yu, and my style name is Yizhi. I’m from Wu County, Suzhou Prefecture, and I’m Xie Yuan for this Nanzhili Township Examination...”

Yuan Hongyu, this person is Yuan Hongyu. Upon hearing this name, Wang Daoqiu felt as if he was looking up from a high mountain. He couldn't listen to Yuan Hongyu's next words.

According to the historical data from the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty that Wang Daoqiu checked in the library: Yuan Hongyu, whose courtesy name is Yizhi, was born in Wu County, Suzhou Prefecture in the south, and lived in Liuhuafang, the county seat.That is, the later generations of Suzhou City Horse Medicine Lane people.

In the 25th year of Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty, Yuan Hongyu took an examination in Zhili Township in Zhongnan, and was a Jinshi the next year.Yuan Hongyu's human nature is straightforward, upright and unyielding, and he has been like a day for 70 years.

Not long after he became an official, he impeached Yan Song, the chief assistant of the cabinet at that time, and was later transferred to Fujian Qianshi. Later, he successively served as Henan Counselor, Shandong Tixue Deputy Envoy, and Huguang Participation in politics. Praise for the place.

After Yan Song fell from power and the so-called "Qingliu" headed by Xu Jie came to power, he was promoted to Nanjing's eunuch Shaoqing and Taichang.During the reign of Longqing, he successively served as Youshilang of Nanjing Ministry of Industry, Yushi of Youdu, Minister of Rites and Minister of Officials.In the 15th year of Wanli, he retired and returned to his hometown. The Emperor Wanli valued his integrity, added the crown prince to protect his title, and let him serve as an official.

It is recorded in the history that Yuan Hongyu has been an official for 40 years, and his residence does not increase by one rafter, and he does not take a sedan chair or ride a horse when he goes in and out, but walks. When he died at the age of 74, it was the poor governor Zhou Kongjiao who donated money to handle his funeral.After Emperor Wanli heard about this incident, he was grateful for Yuan Hongyu's Qing Festival, and named him Prince Taibao, posthumously titled "An Jie".

Yuan Hongyu has been an official for 40 years. He is not afraid of superiors. He will take on those who don't lead and take the lead if they don't agree. He will do it if he doesn't accept life and death. He doesn't bully his subordinates. During his tenure, he promoted many famous officials such as Hai Rui and Wang Shizhen.

What's even more rare is that even if he later became an official of the Ministry of Rites and Minister of Officials, he walked every time he went in and out, and he didn't even have a funeral deposit after his death.For an official of Yuan Hongyu's level, he didn't have a car, and he walked in and out on foot. After his death, he was so poor that he couldn't even afford a funeral.Do future generations dare to think about such a thing?
Future generations will always have questions about why so many people miss the Ming Dynasty, and the Ming Dynasty is no different!Yes, Ming Dynasty is not a perfect society, it has many dark sides.But in his soil, he can grow Hai Rui, Yu Qian, Yuan Hongyu, Shen Jin, Yang Jisheng, Gao Yi, Sun Chengen and countless other honest officials.

And such honest officials, this kind of social atmosphere of morality and human relations, and the strength of scholars, after the Ming Dynasty, my Chinese...So when we miss Ming Dynasty, what we miss is actually our nation, the lost spiritual backbone.

(End of this chapter)