Late Ming sea owl

Chapter 285 Everyone gets what they need
"Don't be modest, Tianru. Even if you can't compare to Zhuge Wuhou, you can at least compare to Zhang Yi and Gongsun Yan."

Lin Hai smiled and praised Zhang Pu again. With the current foundation of Yingshe, it was able to unify literary societies across the country within two years. This was indeed largely due to Zhang Pu's painstaking planning and maneuvering.

If this guy had been put in the Warring States Period when people were good at talking, he would have made a name for himself in history just by his eloquence and his bad intentions.

Zhang Pu was not humble this time. After all, the reputation of the diplomats in ancient times was not very good. Lin Hai's words sounded a bit like an insult to him.

He continued, "Brother Deng Wan, you just asked how to overwhelm Yang Weidu and Zhou Jiesheng. I think this is not a problem at all. Yang Weidu is intolerant, Zhou Jiesheng has no ambition, and his uncle is one of the ten dogs of the eunuch party. These two can still keep pace with me in Ying Society. If the literary societies in the world are unified, I dare to assert that I will be the leader!"

Zhang Pu's words were not entirely bragging. Not to mention his uncle Zhou Zhong, who was a member of the eunuch party, he was indeed not the type of person who would necessarily fight with others.

The case of Ai Nanying is a typical example. Zhou Zhong had discussed the selection criteria with him through letters several times before, but later found that neither could convince the other, so he just laughed it off as "a corrupt scholar who does not know the changes of the times." Later, when Ai Nanying approached him again, Zhou Zhong simply ignored him and did not have the energy to overwhelm him.

Zhang Pu was different. He made a big fuss about this incident and eventually made Ai Nanying deserted by his friends and relatives. The person who most actively followed him around at that time was Wu Changshi, who later had both legs broken by Chongzhen in the Golden Palace.

As for Yang Tingshu, he was a man who prided himself on his integrity and was always arrogant. He never had a good face towards people he disliked.

In comparison, Zhang Pu was much more humble. He could get along well with local tycoons like Yang Yi and Wu who had no literary talent, and he also accomplished many things through them.

At that time, there was a student in Jiaxing named Sun Chun Sun Mengpu. As early as the period of joining the society, this person had been running around to serve for the affairs of the society, so he got the nickname "Sun Pu Si", the so-called Pu Si refers to the postman.

As a result, Yang Tingshu looked down on this man who had made great contributions to Yingshe. Sun Chun ignored his invitations to him several times and instead scolded him, saying, "We have never seen such a person in our society!"

Of course, there was a reason for this. That was that Sun Chun founded the Fushe Society with Wu and others from Wujiang County at the end of the first year of Chongzhen, which made Yang Tingshu very unhappy.

This matter was most likely planned by Zhang Pu, because he was teaching at the Wu family at the time, and Sun Chun had always been serving Zhang Pu and Zhou Zhong.

Zhang Pu did this in order to merge Yingshe into the newly established Fushe. There are at least two benefits:

First, under the original system of Yingshe, it was difficult for Zhang Pu to overwhelm Yang Tingshu and Zhou Zhong, especially Yang Tingshu, but things were different after he changed his allegiance.

Secondly, there was relatively less resistance from other literary societies to merging into Fushe. After all, even Yingshe had been merged into the newly established Fushe. If it had been directly merged into Yingshe, it would have seemed like it had been swallowed up.

The latter point is probably one of the reasons why Zhang Pu was able to convince Yang Tingshu, Zhou Zhong and other leaders of Yingshe to finally agree to merge Yingshe into Fushe. In addition, there are two other reasons that cannot be ignored: first, the then Wujiang County Magistrate Xiong Kaiyuan supported large-scale gatherings under his rule, which was quite sensitive to the local government; second, Wu, Shen Yingrui and Pan Kai, three local rich men in Wujiang, were willing to pay, and of course, if you use other people's money, you have to use their names.

Zhang Pu's move was a stroke of genius. While balancing the demands of all parties, he also maximized his personal interests.

Since the first national meeting of the Fushe, Yinshan Conference, Zhang Pu became the undisputed leader. He not only issued the alliance speech and the rules of the society, but also controlled the election of the Fushe. The Fushe's collection of contemporary essays was named "Guobiao", which was renamed "Guomen Guangye" after the ninth year of Chongzhen.

It was not until the fourth year of Chongzhen that Zhang Pu passed the imperial examination and handed over the election of the Fushe to Zhou Zhong again, because according to convention, once a Jinshi was passed, it was not appropriate for him to join a reading club or select and engrave contemporary essays.

In the 12th year of Chongzhen, Zhou Zhong also passed the imperial examination, and Zhang Pu decided to hand over the election work of Fushe to Xu Fuyuan of Jishe. This was actually to win over the Yunjian Jishe, which was gaining fame at the time, because Jishe had always been relatively independent after joining Fushe.

It can be said that Zhang Pu is the most suitable leader of the Fushe Society. He is the one who is best at balancing the interests of all parties in the eyes of the original Yingshe leader. If Yang Tingshu or Zhou Zhong were to lead the Fushe Society, I am afraid it would not last long and would fall apart.

Lin Hai certainly did not doubt that Zhang Pu could overwhelm Yang Tingshu and Zhou Zhong. He skipped over the matter and asked, "Tianru, no matter how good the Longzhong Plan is, we have to conquer the world step by step. What specific plans do you have next?"

Zhang Pu said, "I hope that Brother Deng Wan will know that I have been granted the Imperial College as a tribute student, and I will leave for the capital at the end of February. This year is the annual imperial examination held every three years, and scholars from all over the world will gather in the capital. I plan to go north with Yang Weidu and Zhou Jiesheng to persuade literary societies in various places to join our society. As for subsequent plans, it depends on the results of this trip to the capital."

"Very good." Lin Hai nodded and put forward his first request. "I will send someone to go north with you. You must accept this person into Yingshe. From now on, he will be my representative in Yingshe. I will also give this person 100,000 taels of silver every year and sponsor Yingshe in his name. I will not have any connection with Yingshe, and in principle, I will not contact other leaders of Yingshe."

"Brother Deng Wan, I am deeply grateful for your kindness!" Zhang Pu was overjoyed when he heard this. Lin Hai finally decided to target him as the investment target, and he didn't even want the name of funding. In this way, his position in the literary society would be more stable.

Lin Hai continued, "The man I'm talking about is called Xu Yilong, and he is a student of Zhangzhou Prefecture School in Fujian. The Xu family is one of the largest merchants in Fujian, so it is reasonable for him to sponsor Yingshe. From now on, there won't be too many overt contacts between you and me. If anyone asks why I came to visit you this time, you can say that I was asked by Xu Yilong to introduce him to Yingshe."

"I understand. Everything depends on Brother Deng Wan's orders." Zhang Pu nodded repeatedly. "May I ask when can I get the 100,000 taels of silver?"

"In a month, Xu Yilong will come to you with the money." Lin Hai said, "Of course, it's not entirely up to you how to spend the money. I have some requirements on my side as well."

"Brother Deng Wan, please speak. I am all ears." Zhang Pu pricked up his ears when he heard that. He knew, of course, that Lin Hai was definitely not here to do charity. The two of them were working together for their mutual benefit.

(End of this chapter)