My Portable Ming Dynasty

Chapter 265 View of Beijing on the Sea
July 5th.

Wu Shaozu stood on the dock, watching the Ming Dynasty's fleet set sail.

The officials behind him knew that the magistrate was in a bad mood, and Wu Shaozu only stopped looking after the fleet disappeared on the horizon.

The Ming Dynasty fleet has left and is heading to Penghu for a patrol. After docking at the Penghu Patrol Office, they will return to Dengzhou and Laizhou.

While the fleet was able to return to port, Wu Shaozu, the chief of the Office of Transmission, didn't know when he would be able to return to his homeland.

The thought of this made Wu Shaozu angry.

If it weren't for the Japanese causing trouble in Ryukyu, I wouldn't have been sent to this place!

Wu Shaozu's heart was filled with hatred for the Japanese!
When the fleet arrived in Ryukyu, all the officials in the Ryukyu court who had colluded with the Japanese were dealt with.

Among them, the Mao family, one of the thirteen families, had its head secretly visit Shimazu Takahisa in Satsuma and collude with the Shimazu family to plot to control the lord of the country, Hisao, and to submit to the Japanese.

After the Ming fleet arrived, Admiral Li Chao personally led his guards in a raid on the Mao family's residence, where they collected a large amount of letters as evidence.

Then, under the command of Chen Hao, the Pacification Commissioner of the Ming Dynasty, a major purge was launched in Ryukyu, and all Ryukyu nobles who colluded with the Mao family were arrested and executed.

Wu Shaozu felt a chill run down his spine at the thought of the methods employed by the Pacification Commissioner Chen Hao.

This chief eunuch, who was in charge of punishments in the inner court, was ruthless when dealing with traitors within vassal states.

The Mao family was originally the most powerful and influential family in Ryukyu, holding a position similar to that of the Ryukyu Prime Minister for generations, but they were uprooted under Chenhao's command.

The Mao family, including collateral branches and in-laws, were all swiftly investigated and their cases concluded.

All 43 male members of the Mao family, the core members of the family, were taken to the port and executed by Chen Hao. The remaining members of the Mao family were taken away from Ryukyu as slaves and were said to be sent to plantations in Penghu to work as laborers.

This is just the Mao family.

Of the thirteen families in Ryukyu, six were in cahoots with Japan.

The Imperial Envoy showed no mercy, uprooting the remaining five families along with the Mao family.

Such ruthless methods terrified even the King of Ryukyu, Hisaji.

As a result, the upper echelons of Ryukyu now have a stress response to the Emperor Chen Xuanwei, and they instinctively kneel down when they see a Ming Dynasty man without a beard.

During this period, there were naturally some Ryukyu nobles who colluded with the Japanese to rebel.

But clearly, all this resistance was meaningless in the face of Admiral Li Chao.

The Mao family's resistance was the fiercest. When Li Chao attacked the Mao family mansion, the Mao family actually brought out twenty sets of Japanese armor and also hid thirty Japanese samurai, attempting to fight Li Chao to the death.

However, Li Chao clearly did not give them a chance. During the siege of Mao's mansion, Li Chao dismantled the ship's cannons and used them to blast open the wooden walls that Mao thought were sturdy.

These samurai, dressed in Japanese armor and wearing demon masks, probably thought their ornate armor could stop firearms, and charged straight at the Ming Dynasty's shotguns.

These cannons, equipped with special shot, would fire countless iron pellets when ignited. Under close-range bombardment, all the charging Japanese samurai were reduced to a bloody mist.

The scene was so brutal that Mao Guoding, the head of the Mao family, suffered a mental breakdown after the cannons were fired. When he was taken to the port to be beheaded, he was still shouting "demon" and praying for the protection of the goddess Mazu.

Li Chao, who was overseeing the execution, felt that Mao Guoding had defiled his Mazu faith, so he personally took the broadsword from the executioner and beheaded Mao Guoding.

Today, these heads still hang on the lighthouse in the harbor. Every ship entering or leaving the harbor can see the heads hanging on the lighthouse, which sway in the sea breeze, warning all merchant ships entering and leaving the harbor.

The Ryukyuans call it a "sea-based Jingguan" (a mound of heads), but Wu Shaozu thinks that it's just a few heads, how can it be called a Jingguan?
The Ryukyu king and his officials, who had also come to see them off, put on a show of "reluctance to part" at the dock, but Wu Shaozu knew that the entire Ryukyu community was eagerly anticipating the fleet's departure.

Wu Shaozu was unwilling to continue playing along with the Ryukyu king and his ministers, so he got into his carriage and returned to the Office of General Affairs.

Beside the dock was a bustling construction site, a Mazu temple built with funds from the Ryukyu Kingdom's ruler and remaining nobles.

Wu Shaozu heard that this was the Ryukyu king's way of currying favor with Li Chao, the war god-like admiral, and that some Ryukyu ministers even suggested making a clay statue of Li Chao and carrying it into a temple to be worshipped as a war god.

Wu Shaozu finally understood what Su Hanlin had said in the newspaper years ago: these tiny countries were all "afraid of power but not of virtue."

In the past, the Ming Dynasty treated Ryukyu and the Japanese with great courtesy, while Ryukyu and the Japanese secretly maintained friendly relations.

Now that the Ming fleet has arrived, those who purged the Ryukyu court are being worshipped as gods.

Wu Shaozu seems to have found his place.

Upon returning to the Office of General Affairs, Wu Shaozu looked at the courtyard.

The Office of General Affairs is located next to the Ryukyu Royal Palace. It is said that it was originally the palace of the Ryukyu Crown Prince, so there is a small gate connecting it to the Ryukyu Royal Palace.

The architectural style of Ryukyu is actually similar to that of Fujian, with a preference for ornate glazed tiles. Since this area was originally part of the royal palace, it is quite magnificent overall.

The size of the Ming Dynasty's Ryukyu Administration Office exceeded that of all other government offices in Ryukyu.

Of course, the number of personnel in the Ryukyu Administration Office also exceeded that of the Ryukyu government offices.

The Office of General Affairs had one chief official, Wu Shaozu, and two deputies.

Xu Jin, a centurion of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, was Wu Shaozu's deputy, responsible for security at the Office of Transmission and counter-espionage operations in Ryukyu.

The eunuch Tang Yuan, the Ryukyu Maritime Trade Office, was a nominal position under the Office of Transmission. He was specifically responsible for matters concerning Chinese merchants in Ryukyu, protecting their interests, and urging Ryukyu to apprehend smugglers and pirates.

In addition, there was a Clipper Express Officer, an official of the Office of Transmission, responsible for the use and maintenance of the Office of Transmission's clipper ships and for timely delivery of intelligence information to the Ming Dynasty.

These were officials, and there were also twenty members of the Embroidered Uniform Guard. They all obeyed Xu Jin's orders and were responsible for protecting the security of the Office of Transmission.

There were twenty clerks, all of whom were administrative staff of the Office of Transmission, responsible for related paperwork.

Actually, Wu Shaozu and his deputies were not in a very pleasant mood when they arrived.

One was a civil official, one was a member of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, and one was a eunuch.

Such a combination would cause endless chaos in any government office in the capital.

However, after arriving in Ryukyu, perhaps due to their shared sense of being fellow sufferers, the three put aside their prejudices and began to work together.

The intelligence regarding the secret collusion between the Ryukyu nobility and Japan was gathered by the three of them working together.

Wu Shaozu looked at his two unfortunate buddies, coughed, and said:
"The navy has left, but our mission must continue."

Xu Jin, a centurion of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, gave a murderous smile, while Tang Yuan, the eunuch in charge of the maritime trade, also revealed a sinister smile.

Wu Shaozu said:
"Although the pro-Japanese forces in the upper echelons of Ryukyu have been eliminated, there are still many people in the general population who have close ties with Japan."

"There are definitely still many Japanese spies lurking in Ryukyu, plotting rebellion. So our Office of Transmission must continue its efforts to capture all the Japanese spies in Ryukyu!"

Wu Shaozu's tone was also full of murderous intent. Since it was the Japanese who caused him to be exiled to Ryukyu, then he shouldn't blame them for being impolite to the Japanese!

Wu Shaozu remembered the human heads hanging on the lighthouse, and he decided to hang the heads of the Japanese spies on it so that the Ryukyuans could see what a "jingguan" (a mound of heads) looked like.
-
In Southern Zhili, outside Nanjing, a group of clerks were watching two officials in the fields.

One of the middle-aged men was wearing the official robes of a seventh-rank county magistrate, while the other, wearing a less prestigious official robe, strode across the field.

"Not in the proper order" is not an insult. In the Ming Dynasty, the official rank was nine grades, but there were always some positions without official rank.

The position of Education Commissioner was the most typical example of a low-ranking official. Their official robes did not have the insignia of civil and military officials, but everything else was the same as those of normal officials.

Two high-ranking officials in their boots stood in the field, while a group of lowly clerks stood in the middle of it—the scene was utterly incongruous. One of the lowly officials walked along the field, muttering to himself, and after a while addressed the seventh-rank county magistrate:

"Lord Shen, the area on the land deed is wrong."

"Brother, how much is missing?"

"The Zhou family's land is 75 hectares less than the land recorded in the accounts."

The officials in charge of fieldwork were covered in sweat. The Zhou family was a wealthy household outside Jinling City, and these officials were involved in the falsification of their land acreage.

However, the newly appointed Magistrate Shen, who was said to be a protégé of Governor Hai Rui, also learned from Governor Hai's incorruptibility and immediately took action against the Zhou family, ordering an investigation into their land holdings.

These corrupt officials thought they had done a perfect job. The Zhou family's land was divided into many plots, and they had hidden the underreported land among these fragmented plots. Without actual measurement, it would be difficult to detect the underreported land.

Moreover, the Zhou family's land was cut into irregular shapes, which made it difficult to calculate the land area.

Logically speaking, a new official encountering such a setback would probably just give up and back down.

Since they couldn't secure the land from the largest household in the county, the remaining land clearing work was just for show.

However, little did they know that the magistrate Shen had brought along this handsome scholar, Shuai Jiamo, who, instead of doing his job, meddlesomely helped magistrate Shen clear the fields.

What terrified all the veteran officials even more was that this educational commissioner could calculate the precise area of ​​the land simply by walking around the fields once.

His calculations were exactly the same as those of the best geomancers in the entire Jinling area!
After the officials left, Magistrate Shen said to Shuai Jiamo:
"Brother, your pushing step gathering method has improved again."

Shuai Jiamo shook his head and said:

"Lord Shen, this time I did not use the Push Step Gathering at the Top method."

"what?"

"This is Huang Shaoshi's method of differential and integral calculus."

Lord Shen was still completely bewildered. Neither the method of pushing steps to the top nor differential and integral calculus were areas he could understand.

However, Magistrate Shen knew about the young clerk Huang that Shuai Jiamo mentioned.

He asked somewhat excitedly:

"The young scribe has accepted you as his apprentice?"

Shuai Jiamo nodded repeatedly.

Magistrate Shen looked at Shuai Jiamo with some envy.

The Junior Historian Huang Ji came to Nanjing from the capital, I heard, to compile a new calendar.

This official in charge of the Imperial Observatory was also the Crown Prince's teacher. It was said that he was a close friend of Hanlin Su. All the officials in Nanjing knew that this Junior Historian Huang was destined for great success in the future.

However, Huang Shaoshi had a really strange personality. When he took office in Nanjing, he didn't like to go to the Qinhuai Lake with its oars and lanterns, and instead spent his days hiding in the observatory on the mountain to look at the stars.

Some people tried to curry favor with Huang Shaoshi by using astronomy and mathematics, but these people couldn't understand what Huang Shaoshi was saying at all. Let alone flattering him, they even had difficulty having normal conversations.

Of all the officials, only Shuai Jiamo went to the observatory and chatted with Huang Ji for a whole day and night.

After that, Shuai Jiamo would go up the mountain every now and then to discuss mathematics with Huang Ji.

Today, I heard that Huang Ji has officially accepted Shuai Jiamo as his disciple, and even Magistrate Shen showed an envious expression.

Just then, some government officials came rushing over, and Magistrate Shen recognized them as officers from the governor's office.

Then Magistrate Shen saw an official from the Court of Imperial Sacrifices. Was this some kind of imperial decree?

However, the officials from the Bureau of Personnel directly approached Shuai Jiamo.

But when he heard that the imperial court had appointed Shuai Jiamo as the county magistrate of Changxing County in Huzhou, Magistrate Shen was also dumbfounded.

Shuai Jiamo's status as a Juren (a successful candidate in the imperial examinations) was bestowed by the emperor. Although he was devoted to mathematics, he was not good at Confucianism and could not continue to take the imperial examinations.

His mentor was able to arrange for him to become the education commissioner of a county, which was already the best possible outcome.

But the imperial court suddenly appointed him as a county magistrate?

Or perhaps he was a county magistrate in a wealthy coastal region like Changxing County in Huzhou?

Moreover, logically speaking, shouldn't the Ministry of Personnel simply issue an official document for such an appointment? Why would the Court of Imperial Sacrifices need to issue an imperial edict?
Could it be that Huang Ji has made a move?

But if Huang Ji wanted to promote Shuai Jiamo, he should have let him join the Imperial Observatory, so why would he let him go to Huzhou Prefecture as a county magistrate?

At this moment, a constable from the Yingtian Prefecture government office said:

"Lord Shuai, Lord Hai requests your presence at the government office."
-
Shuai Jiamo emerged from the Yingtian governor's office still with a head full of questions.

Hai Rui personally received him.

Although this great Ming Dynasty swordsman is old, he has become even more mature and capable.

The sword's sharpness is concealed, but that doesn't mean it's not sharp.

After taking office, Hai Rui first investigated the land annexation problem in the ten prefectures of Yingtian, starting with the Xu family in Songjiang, and launched a land clearing campaign in Yingtian Prefecture.

The ten prefectures of Yingtian were furious when they mentioned Hai Rui, but they couldn't do anything about him.

In addition to clearing the fields, Hai Rui also oversaw water conservancy projects in the ten prefectures of Yingtian, took stock of and cleaned up the problems of the Ever-Normal Granary, stabilized the local security, and also cracked down hard on the problem of powerful local magnates setting up checkpoints and extorting money, eliminating several local magnates who had set up private checkpoints.

A while ago, there was a flood in southeastern China, which led to an outbreak of waterborne diseases.

However, the powerful families of the ten prefectures of Yingtian were very happy and prepared to join forces to impeach Hai Rui for his poor disaster relief efforts.

Unexpectedly, Li Shizhen emerged and solved this medical problem. Hai Rui then formulated corresponding policies and controlled the water poisoning disease.

This further enhanced Hai Rui's reputation.

After the disaster, the people spontaneously built the Medicine King Temple and invited Hai Rui and Li Shizhen into the temple.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Hai Rui launched land clearing campaigns in more places, distributing the land that had been seized by powerful families to landless people, which further enhanced his prestige.

However, Shuai Jiamo did not hear any inside information from the Yingtian Governor's Office.

Hai Rui simply told him to do his job well in Changxing County, to talk less and observe more, and that the court would naturally have a chance to use him.

However, Shuai Jiamo also knew that his promotion this time was somewhat unusual. After thinking for a while, he climbed up the Purple Mountain Observatory and found his teacher, Huang Ji.

Inside the observatory, Huang Ji was processing last night's star charts.

Shuai Jiamo entered the observatory, only to see an unusually plump pigeon standing on Huang Ji's desk.

Shuai Jiamo stared at the fat pigeon, trying to calculate its weight. The fat pigeon also looked at Shuai Jiamo, seemingly preparing to build its nest in his messy hair.

(End of this chapter)