Chapter 128 Shipyard storm

Weihaiwei is located in Dengzhou Prefecture to the north of the Shandong Peninsula. It has three thousand houses, including Qishan District, Jinshan Left Office and Baichiya Houshou, with more than 5,000 troops. The entire north of the Shandong Peninsula belongs to its garrison area. The main task is to prevent Japanese pirates. There is a special harbor within the jurisdiction of Weihaiwei, namely Penglai Port, which is one of the important ports of the Ming Dynasty. The Goryeo envoys who come to worship the Ming Dynasty every year usually get ashore from here, and some official trades between the Ming Dynasty and Goryeo also deliver goods here.

Penglai Port, also known as Beiwo City, is a water city built in the ninth year of Hongwu. There are 200 most powerful naval warships in the Ming Dynasty, which are under the control of the 3,000 naval divisions of Penglai Qianhu Institute.

At noon that day, Li Weizheng, who came to Weihaiwei to take up his post, arrived at Dengzhou Prefecture City, close to Penglai Port. The mountains were continuous in the distance, and Dengzhou Prefecture City was built by mountains. After coming from the capital, they walked for half a month. It was still 300 miles from the Penglai Navy to Weihaiwei. It would take at least four days to take a carriage. Therefore, Li Weizheng decided to take up a post at the Qianhu Office of Penglai, and then go to Weihaiwei by water. In addition to his girl Qianqian, there were the thirty personal soldiers of the Jinyiwei brought by him. This was Zhu Yuanzhang's special permission to select 30 high-skilled military captains from the Jinyiwei as personal soldiers to go to Weihaiwei, and in the future, he would deal with Japanese swordsmen among the Japanese pirates.

"Brother, that's Dengzhou City!" Qianqian poked her head out of the car window and pointed to the city two miles away and asked with a smile.

After leaving the capital, she remained silent. Li Weizheng thought she knew nothing and did not ask about what happened to her. It was not until after passing Xuzhou Prefecture that Qianqian's mood gradually improved and she began to talk and laugh.

Li Wei looked at the thug curtain for a while, nodded and smiled, "It should be."

The carriage accelerated and headed towards the city gate along the straight official road. When they were still three hundred steps away from the city gate, everyone saw the three words "Penglai County" engraved on the city gate. This is indeed Penglai County, the prefecture of Dengzhou Prefecture.

There were more than a dozen people standing in front of the city gate. Jiao Sanlang, the personal soldier who went to report the news, said a few words to them. The group immediately came up. The leader was a middle-aged civil servant. He was of medium figure and had long beards. The long-term sea breeze made his skin look slightly dark. He was wearing a big red woven golden kirin official robe and a black gauze hat. He was more than ten steps away from Li Weizheng. The man smiled and bowed, "Mr. Commander has worked hard all the way. Zhao Liangcheng, the governor of Dengzhou, is here to welcome the arrival of Commander."

Li Weizheng quickly turned over and got off the horse, stepped forward and greeted him and said with a smile: "Prince Zhao came to greet him in person, but Li Weizheng really dared not take it."

Although the rank of the prefect is only the fourth rank and the first rank of the commander, because the military officers implement the hereditary system, it is easy to get an official, and the official title is far less tough than the civil servants. Therefore, the actual status of the commander is similar to that of the prefect. However, Li Weizheng had been a thousand households of the Jinyiwei, which made all officials feel a natural sense of fear of him.

Li Weizheng looked back again, and thought that the representatives of the Penglai Qianhu Institute would come to welcome him, but the dozen people behind Zhao were civil servants, and none of them were officers. He couldn't help but ask in surprise: "I wonder who is the Penglai Qianhu Institute now?"

"Two deputy thousand households, one deputy Lai Qianhou, and the other deputy Bao Qianhou, the other deputy Bao Qianhou has a higher status. Deputy Qianhou Lai has gone to patrol the sea. As for Deputy Qianhou, I didn't tell him, the commander arrived." Zhao Gongfu was very disdainful of this Deputy Qianhou, as for Deputy Qianhou, as it was not very harmonious.

Zhao Magistrate smiled and introduced Li Weizheng to the person who came to greet him, "This is Han Tongzhi, this is Li Tongzhi, and this is Ma Tutor." The last one was introduced was Yang Magistrate of Penglai County. Yang Magistrate was thin. He hurriedly bowed and said, "The commander and commander are expected to come with his family, so he specially found several official houses. The adults can choose one of them as their own houses. Of course, the adults can also go to Weihaiwei to settle down, which is for the adults to choose."

The prefect Zhao next to him also advised: "Sir, the conditions in Weihaiwei are poor, far less than those in Penglai County. The former Commander Zhou set up his family in Penglai County. Moreover, the adults also served as the thousands of households in Penglai. It makes sense to settle their home here, whether it is reasonable or reasonable."

Seeing that they tried their best to persuade him to settle down in Penglai County, Li Wei couldn't help but feel a little surprised. He didn't ask much, and then smiled and said, "Okay! I'm not familiar with the situation. I'll stay here for a few days to see the situation."

The civil servants were overjoyed and surrounded Li Wei and headed towards the city.

This is the county town of Penglai County and also the capital of Dengzhou Prefecture. The population of Dengzhou Prefecture is not very large. In the Ming Dynasty, it can only be considered a medium-sized prefecture. Penglai County town is not big. It is composed of several major streets and the layout is square. A mountain range penetrates the city from the east. It is noon, but there are not many pedestrians on the street, and the houses on the street look a little old, but it is very clean and tidy, with dense trees, and you can hardly feel the sea breeze. It is far from dry and cold as if it is blown by the sea breeze outside the city.

As the prefect Zhao Liangcheng walked, he introduced to Li Weizheng: "It turns out that Penglai County is always on the sea to eat, and the people are relatively rich, but after the Ming Dynasty banned the sea, people are not allowed to go to sea to fish, and all the fishermen living on the outer islands were moved back to the mainland, so Penglai County began to go downhill. In addition, there are many mountains here, the land is relatively barren, and the harvest is not high. The people are getting poorer and poorer. Many of them go to Qixia County and Laiyang County. However, three years ago, the imperial court built it in the west of the city.

A large shipyard has attracted many supporting workshops, which has led to the Penglai people who are trapped in a desperate situation to have another way of life. Of course, the main body of shipbuilding is the craftsmen, but the sporadic work is taken over by ordinary people. Currently, 70% of the families in the city are engaged in shipbuilding. Not long ago, the imperial court suddenly wanted to build 30 foreign grain ships here, and the shipbuilding workshop suddenly became busy, so this is why there are few pedestrians on the street."

Li Weizheng nodded. He heard from the prince that Zhu Yuanzhang was preparing to use sea transportation to transport military rations to the north, and needed a large number of grain transport ships, which affected Penglai Shipyard.

After a group of people walked around, they came to the Dengzhou Prefecture Office. The prefecture Office is located in the north of the city. It is an old house with a history of hundreds of years. It is really a bit dilapidated. However, they did not ask Li Weizheng to enter the government office, but went to see the house prepared for Li Weizheng. Several official houses were all near the government office, including the old house left by the former commander and the house of the criminal who was confiscated by the government office. The Dengzhou government obviously invested a lot of money to keep Li Weizheng in Penglai County. These houses cover more than five acres of land, are covered with green trees, and the surrounding environment is very quiet and pleasant.

Of course, as the commander, Li Weizheng usually had to live in the military city of Weihai Guard, but there were no clear requirements for his family. Another commander of the guard was not a senior military leader who affected the security of the Ming Dynasty. Unlike Lan Yu, Fu Youde, etc., who were just intermediate generals, so his family did not need to stay in the capital as a qualifier and could live with the army.

According to the general Ming Dynasty tradition, officials above the county magistrate were not allowed to serve in their hometowns, so most officials' wives and children stayed in their hometowns to serve their parents-in-law, but officials also needed someone to take care of them to solve certain physiological needs. In this way, the identity of a "concubine" emerged from the sky. Officials at all levels who were officials in a foreign land had their own houses for their concubines to live in. This house actually became the house of officials, which had formed a kind of official atmosphere. The officials of Dengzhou Prefecture hoped that Li Weizheng's house could be settled in Penglai County.

Li Weizheng was actually very satisfied with the several housing provided by Dengzhou Prefecture, but he did not agree to anything immediately. He was the commander of Weihai Guard. His residence should be arranged by the army. However, the enthusiasm of the local government in Dengzhou to interfere in his affairs made him a little doubtful. He even smiled and did not answer after seeing three houses. The prefect Zhao Liangcheng realized something, so he had to tell the difficulties.

"The adults don't know that there are 3,000 naval troops stationed in Penglai, and together with their families, there are 15,600 people. According to the court's regulations, each military household has 50 acres of land. In fact, there are many mountains around Penglai and the land is barren. It is difficult to achieve 50 acres of each household. In addition, the court's sea ban, the fishermen who originally lived on the sea were forced to transfer farming. The little land they had finally reclaimed was often confiscated by the military and converted into military fields, which caused conflicts between military households and the people, especially after the establishment of the Penglai Shipbuilding Factory

Although the main body is operated by craftsmen, fine wood, paint, iron parts, trench, trench, cable, cable, etc. all require a lot of labor. Most of the shipyards and workshops recruited by military households, and some heavy and rough work are given to the households. The wages paid are very different, which triggered serious confrontation between the military and the civilians. In the past two years, the droughts in Shandong have been frequent, and everyone's life is not easy, so the conflicts have become more acute. Bloody conflicts occur frequently. Five days ago, there was an armed fight, and three people died, and the mortals are still pending."

Speaking of this, Zhao Gonggong sighed repeatedly. This is why he hoped that Li Wei could live in Penglai County. He hoped to resolve the conflicts between the military and civilians with consultation, rather than the tough attitude of Deputy Qianhu Bao to blindly demand concessions in civilians.

Li Weizheng's face still maintained a friendly smile, but this smile was a little bitter. He thought that he could ride the wind and waves to attack Japanese pirates after taking over the new position in Weihaiwei, but unexpectedly, the conflict between military and civilians' struggle for profit came to the forefront. After all, it was the issue of sea ban, which cut off the livelihood of coastal fishermen. In the past, everyone was poor and could not show any contradictions. However, the shipyard three years ago seemed like a fuse, directly breaking the peace between military households and civilians.

At this moment, several yamen runners ran with anxiety and fear on their faces, "Sir, something happened."

They ran to Zhao Liangcheng panting and stammered: "On the shipbuilding workshop... the two groups gathered together, and they were about to fight again."

Zhao Liangcheng jumped up in shock. He hurriedly said to County Magistrate Yang: "Sir Yang, please arrange the commander, and I will rush to the shipbuilding factory immediately."

He warned Li Wei that he got into the sedan chair and rushed out of the city in a hurry. Seeing that the matter had started and he could not stay out of the matter, Li Wei immediately asked his personal soldiers to take Qianqian and a few servants to accompany the magistrate to take a temporary retreat. He himself took Shisanlang and more than 20 other personal soldiers, led by several yamen run to the shipbuilding workshop.

At this moment, the shipbuilding workshop was like ignition oil boiling, and the violent momentum was about to break out. On one side were more than a thousand military families, and on the other side were four or five thousand men and women. They held wooden sticks and iron tools, shouting and cursing each other a hundred steps apart. Dozens of yamen runners were trying their best to dissuade the conflict between the two factions. However, their number was too small and drowned by overwhelming shouts and scoldings. Zhao Prefect has arrived and is trying hard to persuade more than a dozen leaders of both sides tolerate themselves.

The fuse that caused the military-civilian conflict occurred seven days ago. Since Zhu Yuanzhang decided to transport military rations by sea, he ordered major shipyards to build large quantities of sea ships for the ocean. Penglai Shipyard received a task of building thirty large ships within a year, of which ten large ships must be taken out before April. The task was quite urgent. Therefore, the officials in charge of the shipyard ordered all personnel to work overtime, among which only the craftsmen had subsidized money and grain, and other military households and civilians who did nothing to work.

There were no households, which caused dissatisfaction among the army. Deputy Bao Qianhu led 200 soldiers to question the crime. The deputy envoy of the shipyard did not dare to offend him, so he gave the same amount of money and grain subsidies for the military households. The problem lies here. More than a dozen young military households went to humiliate the civilians who did not receive money and grain subsidies. As a result, the agitated the long-saved anger of the civilians. More than a dozen military households were beaten to death on the spot, which triggered a large-scale conflict between the military and civilians.

The two factions were finally comforted by the prefect Zhao, but the prefect Zhao also knew that the conflict would break out at any time, and it would be out of control if only a little spark was needed. Before the situation was out of control, the prefect Zhao hurriedly found the officials of the shipyard to negotiate countermeasures. There were two officials in charge of the shipyard, all sent by the Ministry of Works, one was the ambassador of the ninth rank, and the other was the deputy envoy of the ninth rank. Although the official position was humble, he came to manage the shipyard on behalf of the court. The prefect Zhao was very polite to speak to them.

At this time, the two officials were extremely scared. They did not expect that the overtime money and food subsidy would cause such a stir. The trouble was second. If the ship could not be handed over on time, their heads would not be saved. The first thing he thought of in the face of civilian and military trouble was to shirk responsibility.

"The prefect, the subordinates are doing things according to the rules. I have given the subsidies that should be given, and I have given the subsidies that should not be given. From me, there is no problem. The craftsmen I manage have not participated in causing trouble. This shows that it is not a problem with the shipyard, but the responsibility of your local government. If you do not manage the people effectively, if the superiors investigate, I will not bear this responsibility."

Prefect Zhao originally wanted to discuss it, but unexpectedly the other party pushed the blame to him first. He was filled with anger. If the shipyard had not favored one and the other, would such a big thing have happened? But he also knew that now is not the time to act irritating, and the first thing to do is to calm the conflict that is about to break up.

He suppressed his anger and said, "Mr. Wang, now is not the time to discuss responsibility. You should first calm the possible conflict, otherwise someone will die. No one can bear this responsibility, either me or you."

Ambassador Wang spread his hand and said, "What can I do? I just care about the craftsmen and not cause trouble. The rest of the matter should be solved by Lord Zhao himself. Moreover, Lord Zhao must ensure that there is no accident in the shipyard, otherwise I will sue you to the Ministry of Works."

"You!" Zhao was so angry that he couldn't even speak.

At this moment, a roar of roars suddenly came from outside, and the officials in the room were stunned. I wonder what happened? A yamen runner rushed in to report: "Sir, the army is coming, and it is beating ordinary people. The situation is about to get out of control."

Prefect Zhao was shocked. He ran out with deep and shallow feet, his heart full of anger and anxiety. The thing he was most worried about finally happened. The arrival of the army would not calm the situation, but would only push the contradictions to a greater extent. In fact, the deepening of the contradiction between the military households and the civilian households was largely caused by the partiality of the army.

On the open space of the shipyard, thousands of soldiers on the side cheered loudly, carrying wooden sticks and iron tools. More than 300 soldiers, led by Bao Vice Qianhu, rushed to suppress them with full arms. Nearly a hundred people were knocked over to the ground and rolled and moaned in pain. Thousands of ordinary people retreated while hissing and shouting wildly, with their expressions extremely angry, and stones were thrown at the army soldiers from time to time.

Deputy Qianhu Bao looked ferocious and was about to order the soldiers to release their hands to suppress him. Prime Minister Zhao rushed forward in anger and shouted, "General Bao, are you going to force the people to rebel?"

Deputy Qianhu Bao slowly turned his head, stared at Zhao's prefect with cold eyes, and smiled sinisterly, "Mr. Zhao, you were wrong. I am now suppressing the people's rebellion."

The eyes of Zhao Gong almost spit out of fire. He sternly rebuked: "But if you do this, not only will you not solve the problem, but you will deepen the hatred between the military and civilian factions. There is nothing wrong with it. You are provoking and instigating again and again, which will form today's military and civilian hatred. Bao Xin, you will be a sinner in Dengzhou. I want to participate in you with the emperor!"

Deputy Qianhu Bao raised his head and laughed wildly, "I thought that since Lord Zhao was born as a Jinshi, there should be much more in his belly than us. Unexpectedly, now he seems to be just a childish three-year-old child. Who do you think the emperor will listen to?

"The emperor will listen to me." A low voice suddenly came from beside him.

Bao Deputy Qianhu laughed wildly and stopped, looking at people in surprise. He first saw a very powerful horse, strong and powerful, with a long tail fluttering in the wind. There was a man sitting immediately. He was tall and burly, tall and tall, with a grim expression on his face and indifferent eyes. He was pulling the reins and looking at him coldly. Behind him were there were also more than twenty burly knights.

"Who are you?"

Bao Deputy Qianhu shouted angrily and reached out to draw the sword, but as soon as his hand touched the hilt, a sword had already pressed against his throat. A one-armed man whose hair covered half of his face stared at him with murderous intent and said coldly: "If you dare to draw the sword, you will be dead."

"Shisanlang, retreat!" With the man's order immediately, the one-armed man retreated ten feet away instantly, his figure as fast as a ghost. The prefect Zhao next to him couldn't help but rub his eyes.

The man immediately urged the horse to slowly come to Deputy Qianhu Bao, and smiled faintly and said, "Let's be Li Weizheng, the new commander of Weihai Guard."

Deputy Qianhu Bao was shocked. He knelt down, kowtowed, and said nervously: "I don't know that the commander-in-chief is here. I have misunderstood. Please forgive me!"

"General Bao, please get up!" Li Wei was turning over and dismounting, helping Deputy Qianhu Bao up. Even if he had any objections to this Deputy Qianhu, he would go back and talk about it. He could not lose face in front of outsiders.

When Bao Deputy Qianhu saw that Li Weizheng did not favor the prefect Zhao, he gave up his heart slightly. He quickly reported: "Sir, our military family members were bullied by local unfair people. The brothers couldn't bear this tone, so they came to protect the interests of the military family."

Deputy Qianhu Bao was not stupid. He was afraid that Li Wei was leaning towards Zhao's prefect, so he first used a big hat to make a conclusion about the matter. The implication was that if you don't help your own people, you will be unable to convince the public in Penglai in the future.
Chapter completed!