Ming Dynasty man

Chapter 637
When Coquera led his troops to surrender, Sun Meng meant to kill all the Spaniards, because Li Jing gave them the order to kill all the Spaniards in Luzon.

But Sun Chuanting disagreed with Sun Meng after seeing the mine.Sun Chuanting thought that instead of killing these people, it would be better to leave them to mine in the mine. This is a labor force of several hundred, and each of them is tall and big, and they are much better than the thin, dark Luzon natives in their work.

Sun Meng didn't want to disobey Li Jing's order, but he also felt that what Sun Chuanting said was reasonable. After thinking for a long time, the two decided to only say that Corquila led his troops to surrender, not how to deal with it.

It is best for Li Jing not to ask. If Li Jing asks how these people have been dealt with, he will say that they have been killed. Anyway, these people will never come out of the mine in this life. It is no different from killing them. Li Jing will never go a long way Come all the way to Luzon to check if they killed these people.

But Sun Meng and Sun Chuanting never thought that Li Jing would ask them to escort him to Beijing.

Li Jing wanted to escort Kekuila to Beijing for another purpose, because De Bauer came to China.It is self-evident that De Bauer came to China to discuss the trade issues between the two countries with Li Jing.

If the Netherlands wants to go to war with Ming Dynasty, they will never send people to China to Beijing in the way of Westerners.Westerners do things simply and directly, they fight when they want to fight, how can they reason first and then send troops?

Since it was a trade negotiation, the Dutch opponent, Li Jing, of course had to take advantage of it.

It was precisely because of De Borr's visit to China that Li Jing had to change his itinerary. De Borr was already on his way to Beijing. Judging from the time when the courier delivered the letter, De Borr would arrive in Beijing in about ten days.

This is the first time that Ming has formally started trade with a foreign country, and its importance is definitely more important than visiting the shipyard.

Of course, Li Jing had to solve Kong Yanzhi's problem before returning to Beijing.

Ling Wenqing brought a group of foreign technicians to Rongshan Shipyard, and ordered all the guards to protect the queen, wearing Zhu Youjian's guard of honor to slowly provide relief and condolences behind. Rush to Qufu.

Along the way, I saw officials from all over the country rushing to Jinan Mansion and waiting to meet him. Li Jing smiled wryly and said to Zhu Youjian: "Your Majesty, did you see that? This is my strict order that officials from all over the country should not meet you. If there is no such order, I'm afraid Shandong officials have already reached the Shandong border."

Zhu Youjian shook his head, sighed, and said, "Put the cart before the horse! These officials didn't understand why we came to Shandong. How serious were the disasters we saw along the way? They didn't pay attention to the disaster, but went to Jinan Prefecture to wait Then pick up the driver. I really don't know what to say!"

Li Jing also sighed and said: "There is no way, this bad habit in the officialdom cannot be changed for a while, so take your time."

Zhu Youjian nodded silently.

After traveling for several days, Li Jing and his party arrived in Qufu.

The county seat of Daming is centered on the county government, but Qufu County is centered on the Confucian Temple. This kind of layout of the county is the only one in Daming. To put it bluntly, Qufu County was built to protect the Confucian Temple.

The Confucian Temple covers an area of ​​more than [-] mu. Entering the city from the south gate of Qufu, the outer gate of the Confucian Temple is just one street away.On the east side of the Confucian Temple is the Confucian Mansion, also known as Yanshenggong Mansion. The Confucian Mansion covers an area of ​​more than [-] mu, while the Qufu County Government occupies an area of ​​less than [-] mu.

To the north of Qufu City is the Confucius Forest, also known as the Most Sacred Forest. It is a dedicated cemetery for Confucius and his family, covering an area of ​​more than [-] mu.

From this we can see how the past dynasties respected Confucius and his family.

Getting off the carriage, Li Jing and Zhu Youjian walked slowly into Qufu County with the flow of people.

Seeing the people in the city talking and behaving very politely along the way, Li Jing couldn't help but nodded secretly. As the saying goes, those who stay close to Zhu are red, and those who stay close to ink are black. It is also different from the common people in other places, even if they are dressed in rags, they do not break the etiquette.

However, Li Jing will not let the Kong family go just because the Kong family has educated the people of Qufu.

Confucianism is to educate all people to pay attention to etiquette. If even the people in Qufu don't know etiquette, then the descendants of Confucius will be too incompetent.

Seeing Li Jing walking aimlessly in the city, looking around from time to time, Xiao Wu quickly walked up to Li Jing and asked, "Father, are you looking for the county government office?"

Li Jing waved his hand: "I'm not busy, just look around and talk about it."

Li Jing pointed to the front and said, "It seems to be a rice shop in front, let's go and have a look."

Zhu Youjian laughed and said, "Xiao Wu, don't you know what your father wants to see when he comes to Qufu? This is what your father wants to see."

Xiao Wuqi said: "My father already knows the price of grain in Qufu, right? Why don't you go and see it yourself?"

Zhu Youjian said with a smile: "I thought so before I went to Tianjin, but after visiting so many grain shops in Tianjin, I realized that some unscrupulous grain merchants would mix brown rice with polished rice and sell it as polished rice. The prices of brown rice and polished rice are different, and there is a difference of several qian per stone."

Li Jing shook his head and said, "It's not a big deal. There are still sorghum rice mixed with polished rice, and some even mixed with sand."

After a pause, Li Jing continued: "However, I went to the rice shop not only to see if the grain merchants exchanged things in the rice, but mainly to see how the grain shop's business was."

Xiao Wuqi said: "What's the use of this?"

Li Jing sighed: "We have traveled through many prefectures and counties along the way, and the business of the grain shops in each prefecture and county is good or bad. Do you know the reason?"

Xiao Wu hurriedly shook his head: "My child didn't pay attention to those."

Li Jing smiled and said: "Yeah, you didn't put your mind on that, because you want to protect us, why would you pay attention to those things? But I have to look at these things.

Don't forget, in order to let the people of Shandong survive the locust plague this year, the imperial court mobilized more than 200 million shi of grain to Shandong.

There are a total of 89 counties in Shandong, more than 20 counties have not suffered from locust plagues, and there are more than 60 counties left.The rest of these counties are large or small, with large or small populations, and the degree of disaster is not the same.

Although the 200 million shi of grain is not enough for the people in the disaster area to support the summer grain harvest in the coming year, it can last for several months.In other words, it is unlikely that ordinary people will go to the rice shop to buy grain at least in the past few months.

However, many of the rice shops we saw along the way were ordinary people buying grain there, and the rice sold was adulterated. What does this mean?It shows that the people who buy the food are real people, so the rice shop sells food that dares to adulterate, and at the same time it shows that the food provided by the government for disaster relief has not been distributed in place. "

When Xiao Wu heard the words, he suddenly realized: "So that's the case, my boy understands. But since you discovered these problems, why didn't you investigate those officials immediately?"

Li Jing smiled and said: "Hehe, if I want to come forward to investigate those officials, won't I just show up and hide? Then there will be rumors in many places, so I won't be able to find the problem in other places."

Xiao Wu scolded bitterly after hearing the words: "*****, these guys are quite courageous, knowing that you and Huang...Mr. Huang are here to inspect Shandong and dare to do this."

Li Jing said with a smile: "Two days before the arrival of the car, they cleaned up the head and tail. Therefore, no problem can be found by patrolling with great fanfare."

While speaking, everyone came to the door of the rice shop, Li Jing waved his hand, and Shi Shiran entered the rice shop.

As soon as I entered the door, I heard someone shouting in the shop: "Shopkeeper, why do you have so much brown rice in your polished rice? I might as well buy brown rice if I buy such polished rice?"

"Buy brown rice? Big brother, half of the brown rice is sand, so it's unedible." Another person said.

Immediately, someone shouted: "What are you talking about? Who said there is sand in our rice, which eye did you see? Believe it or not, the police will arrest you."

Li Jing looked up, but saw that it was the shopkeeper of the rice shop who was speaking.

At this time, the shopkeeper also found that Li Jing and Zhu Youjian had entered the shop. Seeing that Li Jing and Zhu Youjian were both wearing long gowns and literati hats on their heads, the shopkeeper hurriedly came out from the counter and said, "Do you want to buy rice, gentlemen? "

Zhu Youjian laughed and said: "The shopkeeper's question is interesting. What do we do in the rice shop if we don't buy rice?"

"Hey, from your accent, it seems that you came from the capital, right? Could it be that you are going to participate in the Confucian Memorial Ceremony next month? You guys came early enough!" the shopkeeper hurriedly said.

Zhu Youjian said with a smile: "The shopkeeper really has eyesight, he can tell what we are here at a glance."

The shopkeeper said with a smile: "It's not difficult to guess. At this time of year, students from all over the world come to participate in the Confucian Memorial Ceremony. Many students don't stay in the hotel after they come, but rent a house by themselves. My business is particularly good at this time of year. "

Zhu Youjian smiled and opened his fan and fanned it lightly.

Walking to the counter, Zhu Youjian opened a ticket inside: "May I ask what the price of rice here is?"

The shopkeeper said with a smile: "The best polished rice costs three taels of silver a stone, the second-best milled rice costs two taels of silver a stone, and ordinary polished rice costs two taels of silver a stone."

Zhu Youjian pointed to the polished rice that the person wanted to buy just now and said, "Then what is the price of this kind of rice?"

The shopkeeper said with a smile: "This kind of rice is worse than ordinary polished rice. It costs one tael and eight silver coins a stone. I'm afraid the gentlemen won't be able to eat this kind of rice."

Zhu Youjian shook his head and said: "We are all poor students, and we can't afford good rice. We can only eat this kind of rice and brown rice. I wonder how much brown rice is here?"

Hearing Zhu Youjian's direct confession that he had no money, the shopkeeper suddenly showed contempt, and said angrily: "Brown rice costs one tael or six silver coins per stone."

Zhu Youjian nodded, and waved to the guard at the door: "Buy five buckets of each."

The guard hurried forward and took out two bags, and a waiter came over and filled five buckets of each of the two kinds of rice.

While Zhu Youjian was talking to the shopkeeper, Li Jing stepped forward and grabbed a handful of each in the rice trough, and then inspected it carefully.

After reading it, Li Jing nodded slightly. Among the rice, only the two kinds of rice that Zhu Youjian wanted and the ordinary polished rice were adulterated. The polished rice was mixed with brown rice, and there was a lot of fine sand in the brown rice.Presumably, these rice are specially sold to poor people.

Seeing the guard taking out the money to pay the bill, Li Jing suddenly said, "Shopkeeper, why is the price of rice here much more expensive than that in Beijing?"

The shopkeeper said contemptuously: "Do you know that we have been plagued by locusts this year? In every disaster year, how can food be cheap? Don't buy it if you think it's expensive!"

(End of this chapter)