Smuggling Daming

The process of inviting Xu Na out of the mountain was very smooth. After all, this era is no longer the ancient Wei and Jin Dynasties, and there are no real hermits among the scholars. They study hard all the year round in order to sell what they have learned to the court. The same is no exception, so when Zhou Zhong and Wang Shouren expressed their intention to come, Xu Na agreed without hesitation.

Originally, Zhou Zhong and Wang Shouren were visiting in microservices this time, and they did not notify the local officials. They even planned to rush back to Songjiang immediately after persuading Xu Na. After all, both of them are now in high positions and have countless His official business needs to be managed, so naturally he can't stay here in Jiangyin for a long time.

But what Zhou Zhong didn't expect was that Xu Qia, who had led them here before, immediately told the elders in the clan about his arrival and Wang Shouren's arrival. His reputation has been damaged. Although he still has some affection with Li Dongyang, the chief assistant of the dynasty, it is still difficult to stop the decline of the Xu family. It has been a long time since no officials have visited the Xu family. Now that a governor like Zhou Zhong has come, it naturally arouses Xu's whole family was shocked.

It was precisely because of this that when Zhou Zhong and Wang Shouren had just persuaded Xu Na, a few old people from the Xu family rushed outside and insisted on asking Zhou Zhong and Wang Shouren to stay for dinner. Seeing each other trembling slightly, Zhou Zhong and Wang Shouren couldn't refuse, so they had to stay and have a meal with everyone in the Xu family. During the meal, the members of the Xu family finally knew the reason why they invited Xu Na out of the mountain.

Speaking of which, Xu Na was not well-known in the Xu family, but some offshoots who were not valued in the Xu family followed him to study, in order to be able to master a branch in the future.In the future, it will be used to find mines for businessmen.It is also a lucrative livelihood.As for other people who have the conditions to participate in the imperial examination, they are not willing to send their children to study under Xu Na.

But now it is completely different. According to Zhou Zhong and Wang Shouren's introduction, there are a large number of newly occupied land overseas that need to be explored for mineral deposits. The government's reuse, as long as enough mineral deposits can be found in the future.Getting promoted and getting rich is definitely not a problem, even as long as Xu Na goes to the Governor's Mansion, it's okay to be an eighth-rank official at the beginning. As for what rank he can be promoted in the future, it all depends on his own efforts.

Although the Xu family is very rich and has a good reputation as a heir to the family of poems and books, in fact, in this generation, no one in the family has held official positions in the court. disaster.Even if this continues, the Xu family will completely degenerate into a family of merchants.The reputation that has been accumulated with great difficulty for generations will be destroyed in one go.

It is precisely because of this that Xu's whole family naturally attaches great importance to Xu Na's ability to become an official this time, and many people even come to Xu Na one after another, discuss with him in a low voice, and send their children and grandchildren to Xu Na's family Regarding the study, Xu Na could not refuse the request of the elders and brothers in the clan. In addition, Zhou Zhong also signaled him to recruit more disciples. There is also America, so it is better for Xu Na to train more talents in prospecting. Zhou Zhong even thinks that if necessary, he should open a separate geological school and let Xu Na teach this knowledge. Maybe after many years, Xu Na will also become the originator of geology.

When they came, there were only Zhou Zhong and Wang Shouren, and some other guards, but when they left Jiangyin, they brought more than a dozen people with them. Most of the people in the car were Xu Na's new students, and most of them were Xu's children. There are a few old scholars with gray hair who have never been admitted to Juren in their entire lives. This time they have the cheek to worship Xu Na as their teacher, and they are going to use their last little time to fight. No matter how bad they are, they will get a good reward position, improve life at home.

It is also worth mentioning that not all of Xu's children left with Zhou Zhong this time, because many people need to arrange their families, so they will go to Songjiang a few days later. Therefore, when the second group of people leave, the scale will be even larger. Even Xu Na smiled and said to Zhou Zhong that this time he almost took half of the young children under the Xu family as disciples. There were over a hundred of them, and together with the children of other foreign families who had good friends, Xu Na's disciples had reached 60 in the end, which made Zhou Zhong more determined to set up a geology school for Xu Na.

However, the Geology School is not opened immediately, at least it needs Xu Na to make certain achievements. After he has made achievements, it will be reasonable for Zhou Zhong to set up a special school for him, and there will not be too many at that time. Some people would object, and it was straightforward to do things, so when Xu Na brought a group of people to Songjiang, he arranged the family members in the shortest time, and then he brought the first batch of more than 30 students, and then The guards and guides arranged for them by the Governor's Mansion went to Nanyang by boat.

Zhou Zhong also attached great importance to Xu Na's trip to Nanyang. He not only equipped them with the best manpower and preparations, but also greeted officials from Nanyang and other places, asking them to cooperate well with Xu Na and others.In fact, there is no need to remind Zhou Zhong. After those Nanyang officials knew the purpose of Xu Na and his party, they all wanted to confess each other as their grandfather. A large number of immigrants will also promote the local economy and people's livelihood, so they are extremely welcome to Xu Na.

After sending Xu Na away, Zhou Zhong turned his attention to Edo Bay of the Japanese Kingdom again. Shenzhou and Li Anliang had already led the fleet to open the situation there. After cleaning it up, the Japanese servant army formed by Li Anliang was dragged into the battlefield by them after a simple drill, and began to launch an active attack on the remaining Japanese forces in the surrounding area, and these Japanese servants fought fiercely. There is almost no grass growing everywhere.

However, the brutality of the Japanese servant army has also aroused the hatred of other Japanese people. Now that the Japanese servant army attacks any force, it will cause the opponent's desperate resistance. After all, it is better to resist on the battlefield than to be massacred by the servant army after defeat. Repel the opponent's attack.

It is precisely because of this that the battle losses of the Japanese servant army are also huge, with thousands of casualties almost every month, but Li Anliang doesn't care about these casualties at all. Anyway, there are many Japanese who are willing to join the servant army. Even among the newly conquered Japanese, they quickly forgot their hatred for the servant army and joined the well-paid servant army for the benefit of their own families.

Regarding what Shenzhou did in Edo Bay, these were specially instructed by Zhou Zhong before. Edo Bay is also the Tokyo Bay of later generations, and Edo is also the predecessor of Tokyo. It is a natural and excellent harbor that allows ships to Avoid the strong wind and waves from the Pacific Ocean, and in the northeast of Tokyo Bay, there is a west-to-east ocean current that can take ships all the way to the Americas. In this way, the originally inconspicuous Edo Bay became the gateway of Ming Dynasty to America. A must pass.

It is precisely because of the important location of Edo Bay that Zhou Zhong wanted to occupy it a long time ago. However, although the Wa Kingdom was in a state of war, Zhou Zhong was worried that if he rashly sent troops to the Wa Kingdom, it would cause joint counterattacks from all the great names in the Wa Kingdom. He has never dared to do anything, but now that Ashikaga Yoshiki and Hosokawa Takakuni have become a meat grinder, the entire Wa country's daimyo is focusing on the capital, and has no time to pay attention to remote places like Edo , so Zhou Zhong made a decisive move.

Facts have proved that Zhou Zhong's judgment is correct. After Shenzhou brought the fleet to Edo Bay, although it caused panic and hostility among some Japanese daimyos around, under the attack of Shenzhou and Li Anliang, these Japanese daimyos either directly Destroyed, either lowered his head to show his respect to Da Ming, and did not dare to confront Da Ming's fleet head-on.

However, as Zhou Zhong's ally in Wa, Ashikaga Yoshisai sent Ashikaga Ikki to find Shenzhou and question why they sent troops to Edo. After all, he is still the nominal general of Wazhong and has the right to ask Daming about Wa. Territory invasion.Regarding this, Shenzhou just said that he had obeyed the order from above, and he didn't know the reason at all, so he pushed Ashikaga Ikki back with a very strong attitude.

Afterwards, Kazuki Ashikaga went to Songjiang to find out Zhou Zhong's explanation, but Zhou Zhong played Tai Chi on this matter, saying that he didn't know, maybe Shen Zhou misinterpreted his order, so he rashly sent troops , He also expressed his apologies for this, but now that Edo has been occupied by Shenzhou, he has nothing to do, so at most he can only give Ashikaga some compensation in other aspects.

In fact, Ashikaga Yoshiki didn't really want to ask Zhou Zhong for an explanation, he just wanted to use this matter to ask Zhou Zhong for some benefits. After all, he and the Hosokawa family were fighting to death, and they didn't have the energy to care about the Japanese country territorial integrity.So when Zhou Zhong proposed compensation, Ashikaga Kazuki, who had already been instructed by Ashikaga Yoshinai, immediately agreed, and offered to hope that Zhou Zhong could support a batch of weapons and food they most needed.

Regarding Ashikaga Kazuki's reaction, Zhou Zhong had already expected it. After all, when he provoked the Ashikaga clan and the Hosokawa clan to fight each other, he originally wanted them to have no time to care about other places in the Wa Kingdom, so that he could take advantage of the opportunity.

It is also worth mentioning that in addition to giving Ashikaga Yoshiki some food and weapons, Zhou Zhong also reached another deal with Ashikaga Yoshiki, which was also exchanged for the interests of the Wa Kingdom.Although Ashikaga Yoshiki knew that making a deal with Zhou Shige was tantamount to seeking skin from a tiger, but in the current situation, they couldn't care less. (to be continued..)