My father is Jiajing

Chapter 444 Wang Zhi is here
In the 39th year of Jiajing's reign, the Japanese invasion of Zhejiang was coming to an end.

After several years of hard fighting and painstaking planning, Hu Zongxian not only won over Wang Zhi and others, but also made use of Qi Jiguang, Yu Dayou and others, allowing them to shine in the anti-Japanese war in recent years.

Originally, the court's opinion on how to deal with Wang Zhi was to kill him as a warning to the rest, in order to deter the whole country.

But Zhu Zaigui suppressed the matter.

Zhu Zaigui knew very well why some people in the court were so anxious to kill Wang Zhi. It was not because they really hated Wang Zhi's crimes and took them too seriously, but because Wang Zhi had been entrenched in Shuangyu Port off the coast of Ningbo for many years and gradually gained control of the greatest profits from maritime smuggling.

For many people in the court, these interests were also their own private interests, so they hated Wang Zhi to the core and wanted to execute him immediately to vent their hatred.

But why would Zhu Zaigui let Wang Zhi die like this?

Let’s not talk about whether Wang Zhi is a talent or not. First of all, if he died, with his current influence on the Ming Dynasty’s seas, once he died, the Ming Dynasty’s outer seas would be in chaos.

Although the imperial court has always looked down upon the interests at sea, that is because someone deliberately concealed the actual interests at sea and did not report them to the imperial court truthfully.

Therefore, after Emperor Jingtai, although Bao Zong also wanted to go to the West again, he was dissuaded by his ministers and the plan ended up in nothing. Gradually, the Ming Dynasty focused all its attention on the internal affairs and never looked at the sea again.

Now, Wang Zhi, a native of Anhui, has emerged as a rising star and made a name for himself in the smuggling business at Shuangyu Port. He has also taken away most of the smuggling profits that were originally controlled by Zhejiang and Fujian families. This will definitely make people hate him.

Now these people think that Emperor Jiajing and Zhu Zaigui are as easy to deceive as Emperors Jingtai, Baozong, and Zhengde. They think that since they have mastered the channels of information transmission, they can reverse right and wrong, saying that the interests at sea are nothing and the enemies at sea are weeds that cannot be killed.

He still wants to fool Emperor Jiajing and Zhu Zaigui into continuing to implement the maritime ban policy. Is he obviously treating Emperor Jiajing and Zhu Zaigui as fools?

If Zhu Zaigui did not have his current status and the knowledge before he traveled through time, he might have been deceived by these bastards.

However, Zhu Zaigui knew clearly that there were not only huge benefits at sea, but also more exciting overseas technology that was very different from that of the Ming Dynasty.

Then Zhu Zaigui would definitely not let Wang Zhi die like this.

Therefore, the official document that Zhu Zaigui approved to Hu Zongxian was to personally escort Wang Zhi, who had been tricked ashore by him and then captured by Wang Bengu, to Beijing.

Because Zhu Zaigui was also worried that if he let someone else escort Wang Zhi, he might die inexplicably on the road.

Hu Zongxian looked at the capital city after not visiting it for several years, and his heart was filled with emotion.

When he left Prince Yu's Mansion, he swore in front of Prince Yu that he would not return to Beijing until the Japanese pirates were eliminated.

Today, the Japanese pirates have only disappeared in Zhejiang, but are still rampant in Fujian in the south.

So when Hu Zongxian received Zhu Zaigui's order to have someone escort Wang Zhi back personally, he truly felt that his efforts over the past few years had failed the oath he had made in front of Prince Yu.

It was also Xu Wei's first time to go to Beijing. The young man was full of vigor and vitality at that time. He thought he could become famous through imperial examinations. By passing the provincial examination, he would go smoothly to the capital to take part in the metropolitan examination, and finally he would be ranked first on the gold list.

But fate just liked to play tricks on him. After Xu Wei passed the examination for the title of scholar at the age of 20, he took the provincial examinations eight times in succession. He failed to break through the shackles of the scholar and become a juren until he was 41 years old.

So now Xu Wei can only act as a behind-the-scenes advisor to others and give them advice in order to realize the dream that the imperial examination had not helped him realize. "Minister, is this the capital?"

Xu Wei looked at the wide road with green plants. Pedestrians and carriages on both sides were walking and galloping without interfering with each other. Pedestrians were on the sidewalk next to the green plants, and carriages were on the expressway in the middle of the green plants.

Xu Wei was really stunned by the scene before him. He had never thought that the road order in the capital could be so shocking.

Hu Zongxian pushed aside the curtain of the carriage and looked at the unfamiliar street scenes. He sighed, "I haven't been back to Beijing for several years. I didn't expect that the prince would manage the outer city of the capital to such an unexpected splendor! With this capital as a witness, who dares not believe that our Ming Dynasty will have another prosperous revival for thousands of years?"

Xu Wei was surprised and asked, "Is this all the work of Prince Yu?"

Hu Zongxian nodded slightly, "Yes, when I was appointed as the prefect of Shuntian Prefecture, the prince had already asked His Majesty to set up a special district in the capital in order to continue the construction of the outer city of the capital. At that time, no one believed that Prince Yu's special district could make any waves, and some even wanted to watch the prince's excitement."

"As a result, once the management system of the Beijing Special District was introduced, everything started like a dream. In the end, I had to learn from the management experience of the Beijing Special District and set up the Beijing Patrol General Office to be responsible for the security of the inner city of the capital."

"Later, I followed this example in Hangzhou and Ningbo and set up Hangzhou patrol police and Ningbo patrol police to manage the public security in the city. This not only improved the public security level of Hangzhou and Ningbo by several levels, but also greatly reduced my management costs. This gave me more energy to deal with these cunning and brutal Japanese pirates."

"So, my achievements in Zhejiang are all due to the trust of the prince. Otherwise, I would not have been able to achieve this."

Hu Zongxian now completely regarded himself as Prince Yu's man. When others addressed Zhu Zaigui, they would add Zhu Zaigui's title and call him Prince Yu, while Hu Zongxian would simply call him Prince.

The difference between these two characters can actually tell how close or distant a relationship is.

After expressing his feelings, Xu Wei asked Hu Zongxian another question out of concern.

"Minister, is Wang Zhi really going to be sent to the Imperial Prison? This doesn't seem to be in line with court rules. He should be sent to the Ministry of Justice's Heavenly Prison."

Hu Zongxian glanced at Xu Wei and said calmly, "Wang Zhi is not an ordinary criminal. To put it in a broader sense, he has been active on the sea for so many years, has controlled so many pirates, and has had dealings with so many small foreign countries. He can barely be considered a local lord. How can such a person be easily sent to the Ministry of Justice to be punished?"

"So, sending him to the imperial prison is just right. Otherwise, why would I have to escort him to the capital in person? Don't I have anyone under my command who can escort the imperial prisoner?"

After listening to Hu Zongxian's words, Xu Wei nodded in agreement. He also didn't want Wang Zhi to be handed over directly to the officials in the Ministry of Justice, although these people also hated evil and were upright.

But the situation on the Zhejiang coast was too complicated. If they really sentenced Wang Zhi to death and executed him publicly, wouldn't the remaining order collapse all at once?

By then, God knows whether these unrestrained smuggling pirates will become another group of bandits who disturb the peace in the southeast of the Ming Dynasty!

Therefore, Wang Zhi really cannot be killed so easily, he must be used well. Otherwise, the achievements of the anti-Japanese war in recent years may be lost because of Wang Zhi's death, and a few more years will be wasted.

And how many years of life can be wasted like this?

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The next chapter will definitely be out before twelve o'clock!!!
(End of this chapter)