Smuggling Daming

In addition to the soldiers of Dinghaiwei stationed in Ningbo Port, there is another very important court institution, that is, the Department of Shipbuilding, which specializes in managing foreign trade at sea, and its function is equivalent to the customs of later generations.

The Shibo Department, a government agency, originated in the Tang Dynasty and was the most prosperous in the Song Dynasty. Even the tax revenue of the Shibo Department accounted for more than one-tenth of the Song Dynasty's finances. Unfortunately, after the Ming Dynasty, due to the implementation of the sea ban, As a result, the functions of the Shibo Department were also greatly shrunk. Although Guangzhou, Quanzhou, and Ningbo still retained the Shibo Department, at most they were only responsible for receiving the tribute envoys from the Fan Kingdom, and the tax collected was also greatly reduced.

Among the three Shibo Divisions retained by Ming Dynasty, the Guangzhou Shibo Division should be the largest and most complete. After all, it is responsible for receiving the most foreign countries, and naturally collects the most taxes. With only [-] houses, in comparison, Ningbo and Quanzhou's Shibosi are far behind.

Take Ningbo's Shibo Department as an example. It is only responsible for receiving Japanese missions, and it can only pay tribute once every ten years. There is nothing to do, and the taxes collected have to be handed over, so Ningbo's Shibo Department has changed from a lucrative yamen to a Qingshui yamen.

Even from the period of Emperor Chengzu of the Ming Dynasty to the present, the chief executive of the Shibo Department has always been concurrently held by the Zhejiang Inspectorate, and the officials in the department are also incomplete. It was not until Zhou Zhong came to Ningbo that the cabinet ordered the Inspectorate to step down from the Shibo Department. For the post, a person was selected from within the Municipal Bureau of Shipping, and then some officials were transferred from other places to supplement the Municipal Bureau of Shipping.Only then did the officials of Ningbo Shipbuilding Department barely make up.

After Zhou Zhong handed over all the military drills to Shenying and the others, he rushed to the Shibo Department in Ningbo Port immediately, but when he came to this once prosperous customs office, he was caught by the people in front of him. The scene was startling.

He saw an extremely dilapidated courtyard in front of his eyes. Most of the surrounding courtyard walls had collapsed, allowing people to see the scene of overgrown grass inside. It looks like a ghost house that has been abandoned for many years, if it is not still standing there, there is a plaque on the main entrance of "Shibo Tijusi Yamen".I'm afraid Zhou Zhong can't believe it no matter what, this place is actually the legendary Shibosi.

"Wu Shan, are you sure this is Shibosi?" Zhou Zhong raised his head to look at the plaque on the main entrance, and still asked in disbelief.Speaking of which, there is a tradition of "officials do not repair government offices" in the officialdom of Ming Dynasty, which also makes many government offices very dilapidated, no matter how dilapidated.At least it looks like it can still be lived in, but like this Shibosi in front of me, it is almost like a deserted ghost house, but it is very rare, and it may even be the only one in the entire Ming Dynasty.

Hearing Zhou Zhong's question, Wu Shan also gave a wry smile and said, "My lord. This is indeed the Shibo Department, and my subordinates have asked someone to make sure. According to people familiar with the matter, because the The Shipping Department only receives envoys from the Japanese country once every ten years, so there is no one in the Shibo Department to work at all, let alone take care of it. That plaque. It was newly replaced by the newly promoted Yang Tong, Mr. Yang, after he took office."

Regarding Wu Shan's explanation, Zhou Zhong smiled helplessly after hearing it.He can understand the helplessness of the officials in the Shibo Department. After all, no matter who it is, if they stay in the Shibo Department's yamen, which is held only once in ten years, they will probably slack off in the end. Extenuating circumstances.

At that moment, Zhou Zhong raised his legs and entered the Yamen of Shibosi, followed the path full of weeds to the lobby of the Yamen, and wanted to meet the person in charge of the place, Yang Tiju, but unfortunately, there was no one on the way. Encountered, waited until he entered the lobby, only to see a gray-haired old official sitting under a pillar dozing off.

Zhou Zhong and his group of a dozen or so people entered the lobby, and immediately woke up the old official. When he saw so many people coming in the yamen at once, most of them were majestic Jinyiwei, and the leader was a magnanimous man. The extraordinary young official was also taken aback immediately, and hurried up to salute and said: "I have seen my lord, I don't know why my lord is coming to the Shibo Department?"

"Where's Yang Tiju from your Shibo Department, tell him to come quickly to see the admiral?" Zhou Zhong didn't need to speak to this kind of petty official, and Wu Shan who was next to him immediately ordered.

"Admiral?" The old official was taken aback when he heard this official position, and then immediately guessed Zhou Zhong's identity. His actions, especially the revocation of Cheng Quan's position as a commander, made his name spread throughout Ningbo Port. Now, both in the official circles and the people, everyone has heard about Zhou Zhong, the new admiral of the world.

"My lord, please wait a moment. My lord is working in the backyard. I'll report to you right away!" The old official turned around and ran to the backyard after speaking, secretly thanking his master for being an official fan, otherwise it would be hard to find him at this time.

In a dilapidated room in the backyard of the Shibosi yamen, the new Shibosi Tiju Yang Tongzheng was sitting there happily. He was holding his appointment document in his right hand, and playing with the newly-acquired Tiju official seal in his left hand. At the same time, he was also a little emotional. He thought that he would only be able to be promoted from the sixth-rank vice-president for the rest of his life, but he didn't expect that this time, the cabinet personally issued a document, which made the procurator hand over the part-time post of the city ship secretary. In the end, the position fell on his head. For Yang Tong, it was like a pie in the sky.

Yang Tong is over 50 years old this year. He used to be a Juren. After spending money on activities, he was assigned a ninth-rank small official. After years of hard work, he finally made it to the seventh-rank county magistrate. At that time, he was only 30 years old, and he was considered a promising official, but unfortunately he offended someone in the officialdom, and he was promoted from the county magistrate of the seventh rank to the deputy promotion of the city ship department of the sixth rank. It was promoted, but Shibosi is a cold yamen. People who come here either offend others, or come to retire, and there is no possibility of promotion at all.

Yang Tong has no other hobbies, he just likes to be an official, which is commonly known as an "official fan".When he was first transferred to the Shibo Department, he was also very unwilling. He tried his best to get out, even if it was downgraded. After all, as long as he goes out, he will have the possibility of promotion. But it is a pity that the person he offended was too powerful, so he never got what he wanted, and in the end he stayed in the Shibo Department for more than 20 years.

After so many years, Yang Tong has thought of all the ways he can think of, which also made him slowly give up, and he is ready to be his deputy for the rest of his life. Anyway, this is also a sixth-rank official position.But what he never expected was that, seeing that he was already in his sixtieth year, he would suddenly be promoted from vice-president to chief-president when he encountered such a good thing. It's also a little different. The higher-ups actually transferred a group of officials to add them. Although they haven't said what they want to do, but he has been an official for many years. Unexpected changes.

It is also because he sees that his future is promising, and he has just been promoted, which satisfies Yang Tong's own official fantasies. Therefore, since he took office, Yang Tong has come to the Shibo Department on time almost every day, and he can sit down for a while. One day, this is not just to live his own official addiction, but also to wait for the order from above. After all, the imperial court will not make up the vacancy of the Shibo Secretary for no reason, and even remove the promotion from the post. According to the independence of the procuratorate, these all show that the imperial court will definitely do something, and it will also use the Shibosi.

However, although Yang Tong sees things very clearly, not everyone is as shrewd as him. I didn't see the deep meaning of the imperial court's transfer of them to the Shibo Department, so after these people came to work in the Shibo Department, except for showing their faces on the first day, the rest of the time they stayed in their place dejectedly. No one can be found.

Thinking of those officials who were transferred to the Shibo Department, Yang Tong also snorted in dissatisfaction. After all, he was also the top leader of the Shibo Department, but because everyone knew where the Shibo Department used to be, those subordinates Don't take him seriously either.

Especially the two newly transferred deputy promotions, one of them is an old fritter in the officialdom, he speaks nicely, but he doesn't take his boss seriously in his heart, and the other is known as the number one genius in Suzhou, Originally, there was no hope for an official career in this life, but he didn't know what path he had taken to restore his reputation as a Juren, and he was also sent to the Shibo Department as the deputy promotion of the sixth rank.I think back then when he entered the official position as a human being, he only became a small official of the ninth rank, and it took him several years to reach the seventh rank, but he suddenly achieved the sixth rank.

Just when Yang Tong was slandering his subordinates, he suddenly heard a rush of footsteps outside, followed by his former old servant, Yang Fu, who was arranged by him to be a gangster in the city, ran away from the outside. Come in, run and shout: "Master, there is a big man outside, and I want you to meet him by name!"

"Big man? Who is it?" Yang Tong immediately lifted his spirits when he heard the old family's words. At this moment, he already had a premonition in his heart that the person he was waiting for finally came! (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets. Your support is my biggest motivation.)