lcionline Chapter 488 Things change and people change
Chapter 488 Things change and people change
Hearing the emperor promise that he wouldn't have to stay and would even receive a reward, Lin San happily knelt down and kowtowed: "Lin San thanks the emperor."
Cao Huachun rolled his eyes. Who said this guy didn't know any manners? He doesn't need anyone to teach him to kneel and kowtow when he receives a reward. It seems he was probably just pretending to be stupid before. But the emperor buys into it, so what can he do?
The minor incident passed just like that, and apart from Emperor Chongzhen's slight regret and Eunuch Cao's slight frustration, it didn't cause any further waves.
Lin San completed his mission and embarked on his return journey with the rewarded gold and the title of Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard. Accompanying him were the eunuch who delivered the imperial edict, a vice minister from the Ministry of War, and several officials from the Ministry of Revenue—these men carried a mission that could not be told to outsiders.
One of the officials in the Ministry of Revenue was actually an old acquaintance of Lin San—Zhao Yue, the former Assistant Prefect of Qiongzhou Prefecture.
Back then, it was Zhao Yue who was sent by Prefect Qin Bingyan to pacify Liu Ye. Liu Ye did not show up, but sent Lin San as a puppet to deal with the situation. Although almost five years had passed, they still remembered each other, and Zhao Yue had a particularly vivid memory of Lin San, the fierce bandit leader.
Zhao Yue was the first to greet him: "General Lin, how have you been?"
Lin San recognized the highest-ranking Han Chinese official he had ever met and replied with a smile, "Zhao Tongzhi, how have you been these past few years?" Back then, apart from the county magistrate, he knew nothing about the titles and ranks of Han Chinese officials. After following Liu Ye, his horizons broadened considerably, and now he had even met the emperor. Over the years, he had at least gained a fairly good understanding of the officialdom in Qiongzhou, knowing that the Tongzhi was the second-in-command of the prefectural government.
Zhao Yue sighed: "I am no longer the prefectural assistant prefect. Now I am just a sixth-rank principal officer in the Huguang Bureau of the Ministry of Revenue." He then explained the change in his official position.
It turned out that since Liu Ye's rise to power in Qiongzhou, life had become increasingly difficult for officials of all ranks in Qiongzhou Prefecture: neglecting their duties was considered dereliction of duty, and they would be held accountable if investigated by the court; however, if they offended Liu Ye by exercising their official powers, their lives would be in danger, as exemplified by Lu Gengyu, the former magistrate of Changhua County. Zhao Yue, as the assistant prefect, was caught in the middle, suffering from both the Qiongzhou military camp and the prefect. Qin Bingyan always pushed him to the forefront, not daring to directly offend the Qiongzhou military camp. Over the years, Zhao Yue's hair had turned quite white. To end this torment, he spent all his wealth and eventually found his former mentor—Wu Zongda, the Minister of Revenue and Grand Secretary of the Wuying Hall—and secured a position as a principal clerk in the Ministry of Revenue, thus escaping his misery.
Although it seemed like a "demotion" for Zhao Yue to be promoted from a fifth-rank Assistant Magistrate to a sixth-rank Principal of the Ministry of Revenue, Wu Zongda promised him that the Director of the Guangdong Provincial Administration Commission was getting old and would soon retire, so he would recommend him to fill the vacancy. Being a fifth-rank official, a Director of the Ministry of Revenue was far superior to a Prefectural Assistant Magistrate, making it the best possible career path for a junior official like Zhao Yue—after all, progressing step by step from Assistant Magistrate to Prefect in Qiongzhou, and then slowly climbing the ranks to positions like Councilor, Councilor, or Provincial Administration Commissioner, was an impossible task for him.
Lin San didn't know whether it was better to be a chief clerk in the Ministry of Revenue or a local assistant prefect. He didn't plan to ask too many questions he didn't understand. He just smiled and replied, "Lord Zhao, I am now a guard of the Qionghai Army... no, a captain. I have also been awarded the title of commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard by the emperor. Hehe."
Zhao Yue was filled with envy. He had also heard about Lin San's entry into the palace. A bandit leader from Qiongzhou Prefecture had not only become a military officer in the imperial court, but now he had actually been personally appointed as a commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard by the emperor. Even if it was just a nominal title, it was still a stroke of good luck. Compared to his bumpy career, Lin San's success was much smoother.
A few years ago, the two were enemies, an official and a thief. Now, things have changed, and there's no longer any conflict of interest. They share a bond from Qiongzhou Prefecture, and after a few sighs about the impermanence of life, they get along quite well on their journey. Lin San didn't know what Zhao Yue's mission was in Nanjing on behalf of the Ministry of Revenue, nor did he care. He hadn't asked, and Zhao Yue was happy to keep quiet, since both the Ministers of War and Revenue had repeatedly instructed them to keep the "donation of funds" a secret, lest it leak and damage the dignity of the court and the emperor.
The group traveled by water, which was much faster than by land, and soon arrived in Nanjing.
During the time Lin San traveled between Beijing and Nanjing, the Qionghai Navy was not idle either. In addition to settling the wounded soldiers, their biggest task was to transport the refugees captured in the Battle of Qiuyushan from Nanjing Port back to Lingao via the Yangtze River.
The allied forces of Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong claimed to number 100,000, but their actual strength after entering Anhui was only over 50,000. They suffered heavy losses when attacking cities such as Hezhou Prefecture, and tens of thousands were killed or wounded at the foot of Qiuyu Mountain. However, they also recruited many poor people along the way to replenish their ranks. Although the people of Anhui were in slightly better condition than those in Shaanxi, Gansu, and Henan, many were unwilling to follow the locust-like bandits, which meant that the expansion of the refugee army could not compare with that of the aforementioned places. After the battle, nearly 30,000 refugees were captured.
When the Qionghai Army entered Nanjing, they naturally didn't take these people with them. They were temporarily settled along the Yangtze River, with only a few companies of soldiers guarding them. Although the number of guards was far less than the number of refugees, there was no trouble. These refugees were already content as long as they had food to eat and didn't have to go to the battlefield as cannon fodder. In addition, a row of warships on the riverbank had set up cannons and were watching them intently. Having experienced the suffering caused by cannons, the refugees had no intention of escaping—besides, where would they get enough to eat if they ran away? If they were alone, they would be caught and punished by the government.
Organizing a long-distance transport of tens of thousands of people was no simple task, but the Qionghai Army had accumulated considerable experience in Shandong and developed a relatively complete process. First, preliminary screening was conducted, mobilizing the masses to identify the leaders of the refugee army mixed in with the crowd, then executing them one by one to eliminate potential sources of riots. Then, they were divided into several groups according to their physical condition and age, boarding the ships in rotation. The elderly, weak, and sick stayed behind to recuperate, while the relatively healthy young and strong went first. The usual mobilization procedures in Shandong, such as providing resettlement allowances, were skipped—these refugees from Shaanxi, Gansu, and other places were different from the local Shandong starving people; they were all people who had left their homes and were homeless. As long as they were shown a way to survive, that was enough; no mobilization or explanation was needed.
Because of the fear that the long journey and densely packed cabins would cause a large number of people to fall ill or die en route, even with enough transport ships, the number of refugees arranged in each batch was very limited, not exceeding five thousand people at a time, and each round trip took more than a month. Therefore, Liu Ye was not in a hurry to leave Nanjing and stayed behind to oversee the situation. After all, Nanjing was not like Shandong. As a secondary capital, its status was very sensitive, and its power structure and officialdom were much more complex. Moreover, there were no people like Lin Tianming who were his own. If someone like Chang Kun were to cause trouble, Liu Ye himself would not be able to handle it.