Imperial Master of the Ming Dynasty

Jiang Xuan's process of being deceived was not complicated at all. It could even be said to be the most simple one.

The most high-end scams often only require the most clumsy deception.

That's why Jiang Xuan came from Jingting Mountain hundreds of miles away, originally to collect Jiang Xinghuo's body. No one in the clan wanted to come, so she had to return to her roots.

But Jiang Xinghuo didn't die, and gave her the money she had accumulated from giving lectures in prison.

A few small gold beans, a dozen taels of silver, and some scattered copper coins.

The value of these properties, for Zhu Gaoxu, a top dignitary of the Ming Dynasty, is naturally not much, not even a drop in the bucket.

And the reason why Zhu Gaoxu gave this point was not because Zhu Gaoxu was picky about his Mr. Jiang, but because he was in prison!

Where to spend money, apart from bribing the jailer to buy some daily necessities, good food and drink, and at most buying some books and pens, what else can be expensive?

These belongings were enough for Jiang Xinghuo to live comfortably in prison.

In fact, this is also true. Jiang Xinghuo is not a frugal person. Why should he be frugal when he is dying? Anyway, everything that can be spent has been spent, but there is still this left.

Simply, except for the extra living expenses that he kept for himself, the rest was given to Jiang Xuan.

But the "not much" in Zhu Gaoxu's concept, when applied to ordinary people, is a huge sum of money that is unimaginable!

It should be noted that this was not yet the middle and late Ming Dynasty, and gold and silver from America and Japan had not yet flowed in in large quantities, so the price of silver was still quite strong. For this small bag of wealth, ordinary farmers would not be able to save it in a lifetime after deducting various expenses.

The result is that people who lack matching awareness really cannot keep their money.

Jiang Xuan's first reaction when she got the money was not to spend it lavishly.

The biggest squandering that a peasant girl who had never seen much of the world could think of was to buy dozens of pennies worth of rouge and gouache, and buy some cloth to make two new sets of clothes for her mother and herself.

Later, with so much money, Jiang Xuan wanted to take it home safely and leave it to her mother.

But the problem was that Jiang Xuan was staying with a distant uncle of the Jiang family in Xuancheng.

This uncle worked as an errand in Honglu Temple. He was not an official, just a lowly official, but for the small family in Xuancheng, he was already a great figure.

When my uncle saw Jiang Xuan, who was dressed in a shabby way, buying a new piece of cloth and gouache and went home, his usually cunning temper was immediately taken away from him.

Under the insinuation, even though Jiang Xuan was strict and hesitant and tried to keep the secret, her uncle still saw that she was getting rich.

If you think about Jiang Xuan's purpose of coming here, you will know that this is probably dead money.

As a result, my uncle was naturally tempted.

As for what kind of reputation is nothing compared to money?

Moreover, such a petty official, who has been in the center of the imperial court for many years, can defraud money without leaving any evidence, and there are not a hundred but also eighty ways.

The uncle just "inadvertently" mentioned a few words about the value retention rate of the newly issued Ming government bonds, and also showed off that he had a way to get them. When Jiang Xuan went out, she naturally knew what the Ming government bonds were that caused a shock in the whole city. thing.

One hundred Wen, five years later, becomes 140 Wen!

The imperial court guarantees that no one will be deceived!

Jiang Xuan also found out that now only officials can subscribe. Once officials get it, there are indeed people who are in urgent need of money and will transfer it privately.

This thing involves the share of the fertilizer factory. The share is based on the list of officials. National debt alone is useless.

But the premium for this first batch of government bonds is indeed high now, and they are being speculated on in the black market.

For example, didn’t it take five years to get the first batch of Ming Dynasty national debt to 140 Wen?

Now in the black market, if you sell it, you can get one hundred and twenty coins directly!

Moreover, for officials, it does not affect the share of the fertilizer workshop. As long as the national debt is compulsorily subscribed, it will be divided according to the head. It is up to you whether to sell the national debt in your hand. It has nothing to do with the imperial court. The imperial court will save a month for Beijing officials. The salary is gone.

And when her uncle and grandma were chatting "inadvertently", they talked about how the world is not peaceful now, and whose girl went away and was robbed of money and sex, etc. Jiang Xuan was frightened when she heard this.

Jiang Xuan is not worried about sex, after all, she has no sex either

Jingting Mountain in Xuancheng is not a remote place for official and serious carriage and horse riding. Within the radiation range of the Ming Dynasty's ruling center, safety issues are still guaranteed.

Jiang Xuan was worried, of course, that with so much property in her hands, if someone saw it, even a bad person would have evil intentions.

Jiang Xuan, who wanted stability, naturally tended to manage money conservatively, so after some thought, she asked her uncle about the Ming Dynasty's national debt.

At first, I just asked if there were any channels and whether they were reliable.

As a result, my uncle, who had been prepared for it, showed a disdainful attitude and said that these were sold for a minimum of ten coins. The implication was that he did not believe that Jiang Xuan had the money at all.

Jiang Xuan was agitated and wanted to tell her directly that it was from Jiang Xinghuo, but she was still smart enough to say that she still had some money left over from her aunt's road expenses and wanted to buy one.

The uncle said that because he was from the same clan and was her elder, he actually asked someone to get one.

Jiang Xuan learned that there were businessmen with connections in the nearby private trading market. After asking and comparing, she wanted to buy directly, but they did not accept strangers.

Jiang Xuan felt relieved after confirming the authenticity. She wanted to exchange her belongings for Ming Dynasty government bonds to maintain their value, and explained the origin of the money to her uncle.

The simple Jiang Xuan couldn't bear that her uncle's help was in vain, so she promised him a portion of the interest.

At this time, Jiang Xuan was still cautious and refused to give all the money to her uncle at once, but bought it in batches.

Then, as agreed, the uncle bought back a dozen large Ming government bonds in batches with the money given by Jiang Xuan.

Jiang Xuan finally felt relieved, sewed a lining on her bellyband, put away these precious Ming Dynasty national debts, and started on her way home.

If Jiang Xuan returns to Jingting Mountain in Xuancheng, then Jiang Xuan may only be able to discover the truth five years later.

But as luck would have it, Ming government bonds were so popular that private transfers were so common that many businessmen around Nanjing tried their best to snap them up.

Among them, there was a traveling businessman on the road who couldn't help but show off. He took out his Ming Dynasty national debt and showed it to the people on the carriage.

Jiang Xuan just took one look and noticed something was wrong.

The exquisiteness of the Ming Dynasty Treasury Bonds in the other party's hands is completely different from that of his own!

Jiang Xuan immediately realized that she had been deceived. When she arrived at the next transfer station, she took the return carriage back to Nanjing.

I went to my uncle's house first, but the building was empty.

Those belongings were enough for him to sell his house and replace it with a new one.

Went to Fangshi again, but it was also empty.

At this time, Jiang Xuan still didn't know that her uncle might have already hooked up with the businessmen in Fangshi, or in other words, they were in the same group.

Jiang Xuan felt ashamed and regretful. It was the first time in her life that the little girl had to cut leeks. Thinking that she would never make such money in her life, she was about to jump into the well on the spot.

Fortunately, there are still kind-hearted people in the world, and he was immediately stopped by a few ladies washing clothes by the well.

After all this trouble, she really didn't have much money left. Jiang Xuan was originally embarrassed to see her cousin, but after thinking about it, she didn't know what to do. She was really panicked, so she went to jail for a sentence. trip.

"Bring it over and show it to me."

After listening to Jiang Xuan's story, Jiang Xinghuo said.

Jiang Xuan timidly handed over the tightly held "Da Sun and Moon National Bonds".

Jiang Xinghuo took it and looked over it over and over again.

Jiang Xuan waited for a long time, thinking that her cousin would severely reprimand her.

But when Jiang Xuan looked at her cousin, she didn't look like she was angry.

Instead, a question mark on his face?

Jiang Xinghuo was speechless in his heart: "Why don't you give me the whole Kang Shuai Fu, Qipi Hen, Lei Bi, Da Bai Mian, Bai Shi Ke Ke, Lao Yu Ma, and Wawa Ha?"

Jiang Xinghuo thought about it carefully, seriously and seriously.

Such things as the Ming Dynasty's national debt did not exist 100% in the Ming Dynasty.

But now that it exists, it is also tied to the fertilizer factory to provide officials with salaries.

There is no doubt that although I don't want to believe it, there is still only one outcome.

That is, my lectures have caused changes in the historical line.

According to his experience in previous time travels, the only restriction he has is [not actively seeking death]. As for what he can do, there is no restriction, and it does not affect his continued time travel. There seems to be no fixed rules for the time line of the time travel itself. Not even affected by what he did.

Then, there seems to be a problem with the two laws he deduced through his previous time travel experience.

First, Jiang Xinghuo originally thought that [Ninth Life Time Travel] was the price of [immortality].

Because in every previous life, he seemed to be suffering.

Just like the Taoist "Jade Emperor's Collection of Sutras" records that the Jade Emperor "cultivated the Tao for three thousand two hundred kalpas before he realized the Golden Immortal, and was called the Pure Natural Awakening King Tathagata." Although it is not as good as the Jade Emperor's suffering, So many sins, but Jiang Xinghuo didn't want to be the Jade Emperor, right?

Therefore, Jiang Xinghuo's previous understanding was that if he wanted to achieve immortality, he would have to suffer nine lifetimes of hardships.

And in the eighth life, which was the Ming Dynasty, Jiang Xinghuo seemed to have never suffered much except lying on the Goulan on the Qinhuai River and listening to music, or lying in prison and giving advice.

Then, his previous conjecture was overturned.

In other words, the suffering experience of nine lifetimes is not necessarily the price of immortality.

Second, no matter how hard Jiang Xinghuo tries, he can't change the historical line.

There was no change in the historical line before. Even if he wanted to do something, he always seemed to be pushed back by the invisible power of historical correction. Of course, Jiang Xinghuo was not sure whether there was such a thing as the power of historical correction. It was just his guess.

The current experience has completely proved the error of the second law of speculation.

In other words, the reason why I have not caused changes to the historical line before is probably not that the historical line cannot be changed, but that the waves I can make are too small.

Then the problem arises.

What is the truth of the matter?

The two laws combined with his own speculation were overturned.

Jiang Xinghuo came to a new conclusion.

Returning to modern times and becoming immortal is the goal, but the process is not always painful, and the historical line is not unchangeable, so your bad mentality can be slightly corrected.

Isn't the reason why Jiang Xinghuo behaves badly because he thinks that no matter how hard he tries, he will suffer, and no matter how hard he tries, he can't affect the historical line?

So, if there is an opportunity to really change the historical line without suffering, can you do it?

Jiang Xinghuo hasn't thought about this issue yet.

It stands to reason that no matter how hard he tries, after traveling through nine generations and returning to modern times, the modern time point remains unchanged.

But after all, no one told him about this thing, and he didn’t have the system in the brainless white guy Shuangwen’s mind, which “dinged” several times every day.

Even the rules of time travel are some kind of unspeakable instinct that he learned.

Just like a baby knows to feed when he is hungry, the same is true for [not actively seeking death].

Everything is unknown and remains to be verified.

It's just that the cost of verification is too high, and Jiang Xinghuo has no reason or need to verify it.

Therefore, Jiang Xinghuo had a concern. If he changed the historical line, would it affect his next time travel and return to modern times?

Of course, objectively speaking, he doesn't need to consider this issue at all.

Because the line of history has changed.

Jiang Xinghuo shook his head and threw away these messy speculations and thoughts about his two ultimate secrets of [Ninth Life Time Travel] and [Immortality] from his mind.

Now, Jiang Xinghuo has to face a current and urgent problem.

Who is responsible for these changes?

The cause was, of course, Jiang Xinghuo himself.

If Jiang Xinghuo did not guide the country and pass on modern knowledge, he would not make any changes to the Ming Dynasty.

In Jiang Xinghuo's question "Who caused these changes", what you actually need to think about is how the person you are lecturing can cause such a thing that can change the entire Ming Dynasty without being released from prison.

In other words, two of his own students.

One is Gao Yu, a bearded man, and the other is Cao Jiujiang.

Who did this? Or did two people do it together?

From the very beginning, Jiang Xinghuo did not expect them to realize the content of his lecture.

It's just a pointer to the country, can you really make it happen?

But at the moment, it seems that the two of them have obviously given themselves a little shock of execution from the ancients.

——As long as you dare to say it, we really dare to do it!

But when talking about the Ming Dynasty’s national debt and fertilizers, neither of these two people was released from prison, and the linking of the Ming Dynasty’s national debt and fertilizer workshops obviously required the highest-level decision-makers of the Ming Empire to do it.

In other words, either two people can influence the highest decision-making level of the Ming Empire, or one of them can influence it.

In this way, there is an obvious problem with the identities of Gao Yu and Cao Jiujiang.

First let’s take Gao Yu as an example. Gao Yu’s identity in front of him is that he is the second son of the founder of the Hongwu Dynasty. He is a mid-level officer in the Southern Army who can lead thousands of people. He at least has the spirit of participating in the famous battle of Jingnan. Bi decisive battle.

If Gao Yu is really who he says he is, then he obviously does not have the ability to influence the highest decision-making levels of the Ming Empire.

It is obvious that there are not many of the founding nobles of the Hongwu Dynasty left, and the second generation of nobles have stood aside in front of the new nobles of Jingnan, with basically no ability to speak out.

Moreover, Gao Yu looks to be thirty years old at most (the beard makes him look older), and he also said that he is the second son. If his father is a founding figure, he must be one of the younger and less qualified ones at the founding of the country. At most, he is an earl. According to Gao Yu's words, he must still be alive.

But Jiang Xinghuo still found it hard to believe that an old earl who stood on the opposite side during the Jingnan War could influence Zhu Di's decision-making, even his suggestions.

So there are two conclusions.

First, Gao Yu's identity is real, and his ability to influence the highest decision-making levels of the Ming Empire is there, but it is small and can basically be ruled out.

Secondly, Gao Yu's identity is false, and he has the ability to influence the highest decision-making levels of the Ming Empire.

How can you influence the highest decision-making level of Ming Dynasty when you are less than thirty years old?

The emperor's son?

But I have never heard of any information about the son of Emperor Yongle being imprisoned in history. I vaguely remember that a cabinet member in Sanyang was imprisoned for ten years.

Emperor Yongle's son is his prison cellmate?

This kind of speculation is obviously not as reliable as the old earl's son telling the old earl that the old earl's letter influenced Emperor Yongle.

Therefore, Jiang Xinghuo followed the normal logic of speculation and temporarily put the possibility of Gao Yu causing such a change at the back of the mind.

The only student he has left is Cao Jiujiang.

Judging from his known identity information, Cao Jiujiang's identity is obviously higher than Gao Yu's.

Otherwise, when he asked Cao Jiujiang on the painting boat if he had heard of Gao Yu, Cao Jiujiang would not have said the words "What is Gao Yu?"

Cao Jiujiang is also the second generation of nobles. Cao Jiujiang has already inherited the title, but Gao Yu is still the second son who has not inherited the title.

Moreover, in the year before Yan Jun crossed the river, Jiang Xinghuo saw Cao Jiujiang's consumption level with his own eyes.

To say that he spends money like water is a bit exaggerating the value of money.

It's simply a waste of money.

Another known information is that after spending money to establish connections, the job Cao Jiujiang got after he was released from prison was to be an envoy to the Ryukyu Kingdom.

In the early Ming Dynasty, this position had to be held by nobles above the level of marquis or middle- and senior-level officials in the Ministry of Rites.

So, it can be inferred from this that Cao Jiujiang's identity is likely to be a marquis or even a duke.

Jiang Xinghuo's heart skipped a beat.

He is in his thirties, handsome, able to brag, very powerful in Nanjing, and belongs to the Southern Army camp in Jingnan.

Isn't this guy Li Jinglong?

Of course Jiang Xinghuo didn't know the name of Li Jinglong before time travel. He couldn't remember the name of historical figures except those who were particularly famous, but he still knew that it was Cao Guogong who was ennobled.

Thinking about it this way, the more I think about it, the more likely it is.

Moreover, a Duke-level figure like Li Jinglong is definitely enough to influence the highest decision-making level of the Ming Empire.

"No way? No way?" Jiang Xinghuo felt a little unbelievable in his heart: "Isn't it possible that Li Jinglong is my cellmate and student? In this case, I have to [test Gao Yu] to verify his true thoughts. ”

Jiang Xuan looked at her cousin who was holding the Ming Dynasty's national debt, her eyes were a little frightened, and she didn't speak for a long time. She felt even more apologetic, thinking that her cousin was devastated by the fact that she had been defrauded of the huge wealth he had given him.

So Jiang Xuan said, "Cousin, I'm sorry, I..."

"oh oh?"

Jiang Xinghuo came back to his senses and roughly understood what his cousin was thinking, and told him, "It's okay. I can still make money. Don't do stupid things. Don't worry. Don't worry."

Jiang Xuan wiped away her tears and nodded repeatedly.

Jiang Xinghuo thought for a while and then said: "I'll give you some more money. Don't go looking for any uncle. Find an inn nearby and stay for two months. I'll wait until I'm released from prison. You'll be alone. I’m really worried about walking another few hundred miles.”

After saying that, Jiang Xinghuo took out another two taels of silver from his arms and handed it to Jiang Xuan.

Jiang Xuan took the two taels of silver and sobbed for a moment, until she stopped crying.

Self-blame and emotion lingered in her heart.

Jiang Xinghuo didn't know how to comfort a woman, so it was hard to say anything at this time.

The short visiting time happened to be over, and the jailer urged at the door. Jiang Xinghuo could only gently pat his cousin's shoulder to comfort him.

Before getting up and leaving, Jiang Xinghuo said thoughtfully at the end.

"Don't think so much. For ordinary people, the biggest thing in the world is life and death."

"After all, only by living can you realize the meaning of living."

——————

"In my back garden, you can see two trees outside the wall, one is a jujube tree, and the other is also a jujube tree."

——Lu Xun's "Wild Grass Autumn Night"