This wharf in Haiyan Township is not a natural harbor, it is a small fishing port, and only when the tide is high can some big ships come in, and when the tide is low, it is a large tidal flat. But it's such a port, and now it's also bustling with people.

This is because several large commercial ports in Qingyuan Prefecture have been closed due to the ban on the sea -- the ban on the sea is, of course, only legal trade is prohibited, and illegal smuggling is not prohibited. Therefore, after the promulgation of the ban on the sea, small fishing ports like this, whose names are unknown, have become very prosperous.

A stiff sailing ship leaned against a newly built dock, and looking at the bed crossbow openly erected on the deck of the ship, it was known that this was an armed merchant ship legally registered in the Ming Dynasty. The hull is old in wood, with multiple damages and discounted plank patches. I don't know if it was damaged in a storm or during the battle with the people, this ship is not big, it is more than a thousand stones, and it is inconspicuous.

Scattered passengers are boarding the ship, most of them are elderly Confucian students dressed like Liang Chongru. The Confucian shirt is shabby, the face is vicissitudes, the beard is gray and messy, carrying a small burden, pressing the sword in one hand, and holding a privately engraved "Lecture Notes on the Heavenly Dao Scriptures" in the other.

The sword and the "Lectures on the Heavenly Dao Scriptures" were bought for one or two hundred copper plates in this nameless fishing port. This is Zhejiang, Zhejiang people may not be able to fight, but business is innate. Even fishermen in remote fishing ports have a keen eye and sense of smell in business. They often travel back and forth between Zhoushan and the mainland, and they know what the other side of the strait is like and what rules there are.

There are also Confucian scholars in Zhoushan on the other side, and there are also examiners who are officials. However, the rules are not quite the same as on the mainland. The Confucian scholars in Zhoushan all wear swords and carry swords, and there are special martial arts dojos on the island. There are martial artists who teach some superficial fencing skills - this is a skill that must be mastered as a petty official in the Ming Dynasty!

If you want to try your luck in the Ming Dynasty, you must bring a sword. Will play a few tricks. Therefore, this Ming science field is in the eyes of those young and vigorous talents who are full of wealth. It's a bit of a juggling of the rivers and lakes, which is not to be looked down on.

However, for those who have failed to test in the Great Song Dynasty, are getting older, their family wealth is almost exhausted, and they are about to die for the rest of their lives, as long as there is an official, let alone a few sword dances, they can endure even acting monkey plays.

Later generations only said that the scholars of the Song Dynasty were romantic, where did they know the hardships of this poor measure!

The Song Dynasty did not have the two fame of showing talent and lifting people. If you can't pass the Jinshi exam, you are the big one! Even if he is from a wealthy family, he is still poor, and at most he can get some food and clothing relief from the clan, and he can live a hard life. If you marry a wife and give birth to a son when you are young and romantic, you can still place your hopes on your offspring. If your vision was too high back then, you wanted to be named on the gold list first, and then you would spend candles in the cave. That's lonely and miserable together-the Song people married early, but the scholars and doctors often married late, and there were many people in their thirties who didn't have a wife!

If you are forty years away, you will not have high school. That's really similar to Fan Jin and Kong Yiji in the books of later generations.

When people come to this point, what romance, what ambition. What ambition is gone. The only thing that will interest them. It's only an official!

Now that I'm old, I don't want to be an official anymore. I'm going to die...... It was a miserable life!

As long as they can be officials, even if they are just a small official, what if they throw away the way of Confucius and Mencius and learn Chen Dexing's three classics of Tiandaoism?

Therefore, a "Lecture Notes on the Heavenly Dao Scriptures" came into being and was taken to this small dock by the traders to sell.

"This guest officer, you are going to Zhoushan Island to be raised, right? Little one wishes you high school first, and then I will push you a good book......"

A smiling bookseller stared at Liang Chongru, who was about to get on the boat, and Liang Chongru was carrying a worn-out sword with a worn-out scabbard and handle - this was a good knife, which was given to him by Hojo Tokiyori (the late Tokumune), and it is said that Tokiyori used it when he was a teenager, and looking at the worn appearance of the scabbard and handle, Tokiyori must have been a guy who often played with knives.

Because Liang Chongru already had a knife, the vendors who sold swords didn't come up, but Liang Dacai didn't have a book in his hand. Liang Chongru had already read the Three Classics of the Heavenly Taoism when he was in Japan, and even memorized them backwards, so he naturally would not be interested in the "Lectures on the Heavenly Taoist Classics", a quick version of the textbook that appeared in order to cope with the recruitment examination of officials in the Ming Dynasty.

"Guest officer, you can buy a copy, twenty copper coins, you can read it a few times on the road, and you can take the exam when you get to Zhoushan to keep it."

Seeing that Liang Chongru seemed to be a little hesitant, the peddler persuaded him repeatedly: "The little one knows that the guest officer is full of wealth and despises the truth of the Heavenly Taoism, but the other side is the world of the Heavenly Taoism, if you want to be an official, you have to read other people's scriptures, right?" ”

"Okay, I'll buy it." Liang Chongru didn't want to make trouble, and when he saw that everyone had bought this book, he took out twenty copper coins to buy a copy, held it in his hand, and got on the boat like other passengers.

The deck was very crowded, almost all of them were old scholars sitting on the ground, and Liang Chongru, who was forty miles away, was actually a young man among them. There are a few old fellows, who look to be sixty or seventy years old, half of their bodies have been buried in the ground, but the thoughts of being officials are still refusing to be extinguished......

Liang Chongru was not interested in "Lectures on the Scriptures of Heavenly Dao", so he took the initiative to talk to an old scholar next to him.

"This old man, what is your surname?"

"Free of expensive, surnamed Kong, Kong Jin." The old scholar has a western Zhejiang accent, and his voice is still full of energy, "Don't call him an old man, he is less than fifty years old, and he is not old." ”

Less than fifty? Liang Chongru looked at the other party's white beard and wrinkled face, and said in his heart, how can this be less than fifty? Too old, right?

"Your surname?" This old master Confucius didn't seem to be able to read the "Lectures on the Scriptures of the Heavenly Taoism", put down the book in his hand, and talked to Liang Chongru with a smile.

"Kazuo in Xialiang." Liang Chongru arched his hand.

Old Master Kong touched his white beard, squinted at Liang Chongru with triangular eyes, and suddenly smiled bitterly: "Brother Liang is really a talent, this trip to Zhoushan will definitely get what he wants, unlike the old man...... It's a decayed one! ”

"Old?" Liang Chongru didn't seem to understand.

There were people around who sighed, "Alas, the Ming Dynasty officials still depend on the age, at the beginning they were over 30 years old, and then they were relaxed to 40 years old, but now they are 50 years old." ”

It turns out that there is an age limit for the recruitment of basic officials in the Ming Dynasty, and at the beginning it was stipulated that they must be under 30 years old - the northern region is not very peaceful, if it is not for the strong and strong martial arts, they may be robbed when they leave the county, what kind of official should they be? Therefore, being too old is not suitable for a minor official in the Northland. Therefore, there is an age limit of 30 and 40 years old. As for the age of 50, it was a special case to win over Jiangnan scholars to be the leading party (leading the way is also individual work, the average life expectancy of the Song Dynasty was short, and people were old, and the sixty or seventy-year-old uncle couldn't lead the way). In the Northland, most of the 50-year-old people are grandfathers, what kind of sesame mung bean official should they be?

No wonder Old Man Kong said that he was in his forties, and it turned out that he was too old Chen Ming to ...... It's pitiful! Liang Chongru thought to himself. He knew that this old man Kong must be an old scholar who had spent his whole life, and it was estimated that he had never even married a wife.

"Where is Brother Kong?" Liang Chongru asked with a smile.

"Quzhou."

"Kong Clan's Southern Sect?"

"Where is that blessing? It's just that he has the same surname as the saint......" Old Master Kong paused and shook his head, "The current saint is not surnamed Kong anymore." ”

The current saint's surname is Chen!

As soon as these words came out, there was a sigh on the deck. They are all people who read the book of Confucius and Mencius, and when they see that the Huaxia Taoist system was taken away by the Heavenly Taoism, they naturally feel uncomfortable.

It was the embarrassing moment when a sailor suddenly roared. "Stand up, stand up, get out of the way!"

The big guy looked over, it turned out that the coolies were in pairs, carrying the bags on the boat, on the dock, there were a few taels of four-wheeled carriages full of bags, and there was a fat man in silk clothes on the side of the carriage, who was shouting and directing the coolies to carry the goods. The ship is mainly for cargo, and soliciting passengers is only incidental.

The passengers on board were talking again.

"What kind of cargo is this?"

"What else can there be, it's silk, tea, and porcelain."

"Didn't you say that the sea was forbidden? How can they still sell goods to sea? ”

"Forbidden sea and smuggling relationship?"

"Didn't you? What is the use of forbidding the sea and not forbidding selfishness? ”

"Nature is useful, see that fat man? That's the steward of Dinghaima's business......"

"Dinghaima? Isn't their family's Ma Zheen the deputy envoy of the Qingyuan Mansion? ”

"yes, that's why their family is able to do this smuggling business...... If you can't help the sea, what does the oil and water of the sea trade have to do with Lao Ma's family? The Ma family is not a maritime merchant, and they don't have a boat, how can they do maritime trade? ”

"What about the Great Song Navy on the sea?"

"Whatever, I've collected the money! A forbidden sea, I don't know how many people have made a fortune! ”

There are also local scholars in Qingyuan Mansion who go to sea by boat, and some are even the children of the Qingyuan clan, but they can't get into the fame and have no status in the clan. But they still know all kinds of insiders very well.

The original intention of the "sea ban order" was to ban the sea, but in the process of implementation, it became a major reshuffle of maritime trade interests. The interests were damaged, in addition to the purses of the two imperial courts of the Ming Dynasty and the Great Song Dynasty, that is, the maritime merchants who came and went in the wind and rain. They originally earned most of the benefits of maritime trade, but now, the maritime trade is still continuing, and the scale of import and export is not necessarily much less, but the profits of each maritime merchant have decreased by seven or eighty percent! And the lion's share of the interests of maritime trade now belongs to the wealthy families of the coastal state capitals who have the power to train the group!

The maritime merchants could only buy the specialties of Jiangnan at a high price from them, and the goods trafficked from thousands of miles could only be sold at a low price to the trading houses opened by these wealthy families. Otherwise, they won't want to eat the bowl of rice of Haimao anymore. (To be continued......)