Chapter 151                                                             

What should Zhou Mengchen do?

He knew very well that such a well-behaved, sensible and obedient person was like a kitten that could be ravaged by you. When he left here and was out of reach, he would become a human-eating tiger again. But he had no choice.

On the one hand, any action is based on strength. They don’t give much food to this order, but they give it to many servants or village soldiers. More than 10,000 people claim to be obeying Zhou Mengchen’s orders, but if you think about it carefully, isn’t this a shock?

Now these Fujian clans have only one few people. You must know that these people are all masters of tens of thousands of people. During the Yongzheng period, Emperor Yongzheng ordered several times to prohibit armed fighting in Zhangzhou and Quanzhou.

On the other hand, gentry always talked about the basis of the rule of the Ming Dynasty. It has always been a taboo to attack gentry.

Zhou Nengchen was at most beaten the gentry in Jiangnan, and it was impossible to take serious measures against the people here. It seemed to be a pleasure to kill all directions. However, when the news came back to the court, Zhou Mengchen could easily become the target of public criticism.

In other words, Zhou Mengchen could only continue with the kindness of the gentry in Fujian. This is a solution to the current situation. In this way, Zhou Mengchen insisted on working hard on the gentry in Fujian and clan forces. Not only did he find any trouble, he would also encounter great resistance in the current situation.

Zhou Mengchen could only admit one thing, that he could not solve all problems at once. Many things have to be done step by step, and the maritime ban is settled first. Only the southern clan forces will deal with it when they have time. But Zhou Mengchen knew that it is very likely that he would never be able to eliminate this system in his life.

You should know that even now, the clan forces of Chaoshan are still very famous, and Zhangzhou is only a provincial border away from Chaoshan.

Zhou Mengchen said, "Okay, let's lead the prefect Deng to attack Yuegang."

Lin Shiyuan was slightly stunned and then said, "Sir, don't talk to me, just give orders."

Zhou Mengchen said, "Then I know."

He knew that such orders were actually useless. These so-called strong men would not fight desperately when attacking Yuegang. However, the waste was used at that time, giving Yuegang a little pressure.

And such pressure was quickly fed back to Yuegang.

There are mixed things here in Yuegang, and they are generally divided into two factions, one is the local faction and the other is the foreign faction.

The local faction is the people born and raised in Yuegang. They lived here before Yuegang rose. This place turned out to be their territory, and it also entered a share of the pie in the rise of Yuegang. It even dominated the development of Yuegang for a time. However, as Yuegang grew stronger and stronger, all parties gathered in maritime merchants, and the local faction still retained a certain amount of strength, but it was no longer the biggest force in Yuegang.

The biggest force is naturally an external faction.

However, compared with the situation where the local factions are married and united with each other, the Yuegang expatriates are very complicated. The twenty-four generals of Yuegang, the most powerful of which is Zhang Wei and Hong Dizhen. I won’t say whether there are any differences between these two people. Because in addition to the twenty-four generals of Yuegang, there are also a large number of other pirates involved among the outsiders of Yuegang.

Just think about it, Yuegang, as the largest private port in Fujian, can not deal with other pirate forces?

In this way, the pirates in the sea were also self-developed in Yuegang, especially when Wang Zhi was defeated, and various pirates were driven south by Yu Dayou. Some of them voted for Wu Ping, and most of the remaining remained in Yuegang. The reason is very simple. The internal unfairness of Yuegang is not as good as Wu Ping and going to join Wu Ping, and he will definitely become Wu Ping's subordinates. But it is not the case for him to join Yuegang.

Among these three major sects, they are divided into different factions. Each sect has different factions, and the local sect is a little more united. The leader of the local sect is Xie Bin.

He is not an ordinary person, but an official. He was a Jinshi in the 23rd year of Jiajing, one year higher than Zhou Mengchen. He served in the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Works. Two or three years ago, he served as the governor of Guangzhou. It seems that he was a group of people kicked out of the capital by Yan Song. As mentioned in the previous article, foreign officials are different from those in Beijing.

The Xie family has accumulated over the generations and the family is rich. Xie Bin is an official, just for power.

Therefore, he was as honest as a few posts, and even paid some money to help his colleagues when he was doing business, which was very prestigious. However, Yan Song kicked him to the prefect of Guangzhou. Although the prefect of Guangzhou was not a small official, it would be difficult for Xie Bin to transfer back to the capital in the future, so he could only do anything to do it outside.

So Xie Bin was in office as the prefect of Guangzhou, severely ruined Yan Shifan's good deeds and disrupted Yan Shifan's business in Guangdong. Although not only Yan Shifan could retaliate, he resigned from office.

He also made a famous name.

At that time, Xie Bin was a little bit tantrum, but at this moment, he was secretly grateful. If he hadn't been tantrum in Guangzhou, he was not at home at this moment, and he didn't know what a catastrophe would have encountered in the Xie family.

Among the natives like Yuegang, Xie Bin was the only one who was famous and the most official. Naturally, he unanimously recommended Xie Bin as their person in charge. He made a big move and spent money to bribe Zhou Mengchen, which was Xie Bin's suggestion.

But this suggestion didn't work.

The prefect Deng from Zhangzhou led the troops from Wanyue Township to approach Yuegang. The one who was hit hardest was not others, or the local faction led by the Xie family.

As for why? This is a geographical issue.

It is actually not far from Zhangzhou Prefecture to Yuegang. If you take the water route, it is even faster, but there is no fleet among the troops provided by these gentry. Not to mention the fleet of Fujian gentry, Wu Ping and others, it is almost the same. Just saying that these Fujian gentry are now suspicious. Reporting these ships would give Zhou Mengchen a handle.

Since you are a good citizen who is a law-abiding citizen, why do you do so many boats? Don’t you know the sea ban?

Therefore, they could only attack from land. To attack from land to Yuegang, it was necessary to cross a mountain. The mountain was not high and the mountain was not wide. In later generations, Zhangzhou City was connected with Haicheng, and this mountain became a park called Ziyun Park. Under the current infrastructure, it did not feel that it was difficult to conquer. This mountain was a line of defense against the government army. Moreover, this mountain was owned by local factions such as the Xie family.

Fortunately, Xie Bin is also a person in the career path. Before the fight started, he sent someone to take care of Xie Bin first.

After hearing this, Xie Bin immediately summoned several major surnames from Yuegang to discuss. Soon after they discussed, Xie Bin set the tone and said, "Our Xie family is determined not to fight with the official army. This is the first principle. All of them can run away, but our ancestors are buried here, where can we escape?"

As soon as this was said, the leaders of the tribes nodded and said, "Mr. Xie said it very well. They are all rootless duckweeds. We have been rooted here for hundreds of years and have lived here for generations. How can we do it just by saying that we can do it."

"It's just this business?" an old man said carefully.

Although all the major families still farm, many of the things they grow are supplied to Yuegang. In addition, several major families also have businesses within Yuegang, and even among the ships going to sea, there are members of several major families. It can be said that sea business is the biggest source of wealth for these major families.

This is also something they are unwilling to give up.

Not to mention anything else, if you don’t have money, Xie Bin can’t get into the Jinshi all the way. Although this money cannot be used directly to bribe the examiner, it doesn’t cost money to do academics, apprenticeship, and study. Without this huge income from the sea, the Xie family, the previous generations still didn’t know a single person. Can a Jinshi be trained from generation to generation?

Xie Bin was also hesitant.

Without the support of the Xie family's financial resources, could Xie Bin be so free in the officialdom? However, the Xie family is better than other families. Even if the Xie family gives up everything, relying solely on Xie Bin's reputation as a Jinshi, he will make a comeback. Even if he is not as rich as he is now, he can still squeeze into the upper class.

But Xie Bin was also worried about one thing, that is, Zhou Mengchen could really let go of Yuegang and be able to do whatever he had done before Yuegang? He would acquiesce to many things in the Xie family and not pursue them.

If this can be done, Xie Bin is naturally willing to help, but if it cannot, Xie Bin must think about it carefully. After all, in front of Zhou Mengchen, a simple Jinshi is easy to use.
Chapter completed!