Prodigal Son of the Ming Dynasty

  Chapter 344 The sky is falling

  Emperor Hongzhi stared at Fang Jifan and remained silent for a long time, as if trying to figure out something on Fang Jifan's face.

After a while, he snorted coldly and said: "You two are really like dogs! Today, I was scolded on the head! I just wanted to see, what did you say about the unity of knowledge and action, and what you said about understanding the sufferings of the people , then let me see how you arrange the refugees. "

  Finally, I didn't struggle with it in the first half, but now... Sure enough, I will finally start to test the results.

  Zhu Houzhao was not idle either, and exchanged a glance with Fang Jifan.

   Immediately afterwards, the two each took out a stack of documents from their sleeves.

so much…

  This is so eloquent, I'm afraid there are hundreds of thousands of words.

  The anger on Emperor Hongzhi's face has not dissipated, but he was stunned when he saw the documents Fang Jifan and Zhu Houzhao took out.

   What is this again?

   "Bring it..." Emperor Hongzhi said solemnly.

The prince just spoke plausibly, and he said it happily. If you are happy, then that’s fine. Let’s see how you helped the victims in Xishan. Can't swallow this breath.

  At this moment, Zhu Houzhao smiled slightly and said, "Father, this is wrong."

  Emperor Hongzhi raised his eyebrows and said, "What's wrong?"

Zhu Houzhao said earnestly: "Just now, the minister criticized the emperor because of the personal relationship between the father and the son! But the matter of helping the refugees is an assignment that the emperor promised to the minister. Then, it is an official business. Why don't you call the cabinet scholar to see him?" , to discuss together?"

   "..." Emperor Hongzhi was also convinced.

  Fang Jifan actually admired Zhu Houzhao's unafraid of death. At this time, he smiled at Emperor Hongzhi honestly, wanting to defuse his hatred.

  However, it seems that Emperor Hongzhi ignored him.

   This is a bit embarrassing.

  Emperor Hongzhi glared at Zhu Houzhao, and said: "You are not afraid of shame, but I am afraid of shame. Well, everything is up to you, come here, and call the cabinet scholar to have an audience!"

  …

  At this time, in the Ministry of War, a report from Quanzhou had been sent to the desk of Ma Wensheng, Minister of the Ministry of War.

  Ma Wensheng is doing pretty well these days, at least the matter of sailing to the West has been finalized, and naturally it is completely dominated by the Ministry of War!

Now the vanguard fleet of the Ministry of War has been in the sea for more than a month. After they come back and confirm that the position of the chart is correct, they will start to build more ships and train more sailors and helmsmen. It will replicate the grand occasion of Emperor Wen's time!

  Just thinking about it, Ma Wensheng was quite excited.

In any case, once voyages to the West become an important national policy, the position of the Ministry of War in the Sixth Ministry will naturally rise. The voyages to the West need a lot of money and food, which is naturally controlled by the Ministry of War, and it also requires a lot of manpower and skilled craftsmen, all of which... It means that the authority of the Ministry of War is about to expand.

  The most important thing is that Fang Jifan, the crow's mouth, finally went to Xishan with the prince, and there was no news for more than two months.

   This feeling is... not bad.

  In the past, whenever that guy made some remarks, the Ministry of War was choked up. Now that Fang Jifan has finally stopped, it is really... a happy thing.

  Today, he was on duty as usual and had nothing to do, but when a clerk hurriedly delivered the report from Quanzhou to his desk...

  His brows furrowed deeply!

I saw the writing on it: "Wang Qing, the magistrate of Quanzhou, reported: Recently in the open sea, a sea patrol found a sailor floating on a wrecked sampan. He had been drifting at sea for several days. It is known that the fleet of the military department is hundreds of miles overseas..."

   The fleet was sunk!

   After Ma Wensheng read the report in detail, he shuddered.

   It was the entire fleet of the Ministry of War, which was directly annihilated!

  They followed the original sailing route and headed south all the way. They originally planned to travel south along the coast of Annan Kingdom and then stop at Champa.

According to the report of the rescued crew member, their fleet ran aground after going to sea for several days. The route marked on the original chart was completely wrong. The islands that should have fresh water had no fresh water, or even insufficient fresh water. And the hidden reef that shouldn't have appeared.

As a result, the ship was pierced by a hidden reef, two ships were severely damaged, and the remaining ship was in a dilemma. It planned to go all the way west and use the only fresh water to maintain the minimum supply of the crew on board to reach the place where An Nanguo was located. Island, pity...

  The island on the map did not exist at all. At this time, they had no choice but to return immediately.

  Unfortunately...obviously it's too late.

There was no maintenance, no fresh water, and the food on board was empty. Diseases broke out in the fleet, and a group of disgruntled sailors began to riot. The officer of Qianhu in the fleet was killed, and some sailors who were loyal to Qianhu He quickly found a sampan and jumped into the sea.

  The lucky crew member relied on this sampan and drifted in the sea for several days. When the sea patrol found him in the offshore, he was already dying.

   After learning about the situation, the prefect of Quanzhou knew that the matter was of great importance.

  A fleet, hundreds of people, the whole army was wiped out!

   How important this is.

  The result of its destruction...it was only because of an error in the nautical chart.

  The islands that should be docked for repairs have no fresh water; the islands that should have appeared did not appear, and the sea area where there should be no hidden reefs is actually densely covered with hidden reefs.

  On the vast ocean, even a single mistake on the map may bring bad luck to a fleet, not to mention frequent mistakes. Such a map will directly ruin a fleet.

  So, he immediately rushed to the Ministry of War and reported to the Ministry of War.

   After reading the report, Ma Wensheng couldn't regain his composure for a long time.

  The maps and materials kept by the Ministry of War are completely wrong.

  He even thought in his mind, if it wasn't for the fleet exploring first this time, then it would not be this small fleet that was destroyed, but...

Soybean-like cold sweat broke out from his forehead, and then Ma Wensheng said angrily: "Check, let me find out who copied the map at the beginning, and all the officials who copied, verified, wrote, and cataloged, no matter where they are today. What position do you occupy, and whether you have sent scholars to return to your hometown, let me check and find out."

   The problem is obvious.

  The route that Sanbao **** found out by sailing to the West again and again, as well as the map drawn, must not be wrong. Otherwise, why did nothing happen during the seven trips to the West?

   There was nothing wrong when it was sealed up.

Then the only thing that went wrong, naturally, was the issue of the Ministry of War's storage, sealing, and re-transcription. The re-transcription and transcription during the Chenghua period had hundreds of mistakes and omissions. It was so perfunctory. People pointed out the problem, which led to this huge shipwreck!

  Hundreds of lives were lost, and even all the ships that the Ministry of War could use were involved.

   What's even more frightening is that since the current map and data are full of mistakes and omissions, then... everything has to be explored again!

  But the voyage to the West is imminent, this... how much time will be delayed, how much effort will be spent, and how much manpower and material resources will be sacrificed.

   "Fang Jifan is really...a crow's mouth..." Ma Wensheng cursed angrily, grabbing his heart.

  Why did he hit the mark again?

  He said with a ferocious face: "Investigate the bottom of the sky, if the person who dealt with it back then, even if he is in the cabinet now, he must find out!"

  The matter is so serious and the loss is heavy, why doesn't it make him worry.

Immediately, he picked up the report again and looked at it steadily, as if he was thinking about something, but it was obvious that his face was miserable for a long time, and his eyes were dark and unclear. After a long while, he suddenly said: " To the cabinet, to the cabinet!"

  …

Ma Wensheng is already ashamed to go to the Meridian Gate in a sedan chair. I really can't afford to lose this person. Although the mistakes were most likely made by the officials of the Ministry of War during the Chenghua period and had no direct relationship with him, this was a huge negligence of the Ministry of War after all. .

   No wonder.

   It’s no wonder that when there was an argument about going to sea, although the former Minister of the Ministry of War strongly advocated going to sea, a group of officials in the Ministry of War, headed by Liu Daxia, strongly opposed it. It turns out...

  There is such a strange thing here! Come to think of it... At the time of transcribing, no one took these maps and materials seriously at all. Everyone believed that the imperial court’s sea ban was already a national policy, and it was impossible for the Ming Dynasty to go to sea. It still needs to be transcribed and saved again according to the rules, but no one cares about it. All the people who handled it are actually perfunctory, and everyone finds it troublesome.

  Everyone can't wait to copy it casually, and then have a free time.

   As a result, a chain of errors led to a horrific shipwreck.

  By the time he got to the cabinet, he was out of breath.

   Liu Jian and others seem to be there.

  The crown prince entered the palace today, and they hoped that His Majesty would get along well with the Crown Prince. In this case, they, the foreign ministers, would naturally not disturb the reunion of His Majesty with the Crown Prince and his son.

  As soon as he saw Ma Wensheng coming in a hurry, Liu Jian felt that something was wrong.

   If it was just an ordinary matter, just send someone to deliver a note with a message, why would Ma Wensheng go himself.

   But as soon as he saw Liu Jian, Ma Wensheng actually knelt down with a thud.

   He… burst into tears, crying.

"Grand Liu, something serious has happened. I've been appointed Minister of the Ministry of War. Since I took office, I've eaten nothing but a dead body like an old dog. Not only did I not repay the kindness in the palace, but... it caused a huge disaster. The officer's negligence..."

  Liu Jian's heart skipped a beat, it must be a big deal!

  Even Xie Qian and Li Dongyang, who heard the news, also came after hearing the news, looking at Ma Wensheng in a panic, with horror on their faces.

  Liu Jian was still able to hold his breath, and he said with a dignified expression: "What happened, no matter what happened, what's the use of crying? You play first."

  Ma Wensheng entered the memorial without saying a word.

  Liu Jian took it, opened it, and saw that the complexion of this veteran who had gone through several dynasties completely changed.

  (end of this chapter)