I am a temporary worker in Jinyiwei, how did I become a powerful official?

Chapter 165 Soul Transfer Water ( words)

For four days, the sheepshead snapper schools seemed to have disappeared from the mouth of Tanggu.

Actually, they didn’t disappear. Due to the wrong wind direction and tide, the sea breams hid in the deep sea. Fishing lines and nets couldn’t reach them at all.

Lin Shisan was getting anxious. He had found a fish trainer with great skills, but he was short of a few sheepshead bream with eggs.

Is it really that God is against Mingyi trade?

In one more day, the fasting period will be over.

According to Li Mushao, if there is no soul-transferring water to help the water phoenix transfer its soul to another sex at the end of the fast, then the five days of fasting will be in vain. Everything will have to start all over again.

Emperor Jiajing used the excuse of seclusion to gain only seven days. If the phoenix in the water is still the same after seven days, the clean officials will definitely use this as an excuse to attack the trade like a pack of hungry wolves.

Lin Shisan only had twelve hours left to find the sheepshead sea bream with eggs.

In desperation, he found an old fisherman who was famous in Tanggukou to ask for advice.

The old fisherman sat on a rock, fishing for pike with a feather float while chanting a Tianjin joke:
"I came to Tianjin, but I didn't learn anything. I learned how to drive a horse-drawn carriage, but I killed more than 200 people."

"The bailiff came to look for me. I was so frightened that I rolled and crawled into a rat's nest."

"I entered the rat's den. Hey, it's really nice inside. I looked left and right and it's really spacious."

"When the mouse saw me, it was so frightened that it trembled. It bowed and knelt down to kowtow."

"Uncle, uncle. You are really good-looking. The pockmarks on your face are so numerous."

"You don't need to bring a container when you buy soybeans. A nest of soybeans can hold more than two kilograms."

Lin Shisan brought a group of comrades in official uniforms to the side of Lao Yu Bashi, which scared Lao Yu Bashi.

The old fish master asked: "My lords, have I committed a crime?"

Lin Shisan and his accomplices hurriedly said, "Don't panic, old man. We are from the palace, and we are here to fish for sheepshead snappers on the orders of the emperor. But in recent days, there are no sheepshead snappers at all in the large Tanggukou."

The old fish master was a little puzzled: "Someone from the palace? The emperor wants to eat sheepshead bream?"

Lin Shisan said perfunctorily: "Well, yes."

The old fisherman said, "The wind and tide are not right. If we want to catch sheepshead bream at Tanggukou, it will take at least ten days."

Li Gao was a little anxious: "Ten days? The daylily is cold!"

Lin Shisan said: "Old man, is there really no way?"

The old fisherman replied, "There is a way. There is a pool of water on the west side of Hutou Cliff. There is a cliff in front and a pool below. The cliff is twelve feet high and the pool is thirty feet deep."

"There should be sheepshead bream in the pool. If you want to fish there, you have to use 16-foot-long fishing line to fish the bottom."

The longer the fishing line, the more expensive it is. A fishing line of 16 meters long sells for 10 taels of silver in a fishing tackle shop in Tianjin. Ordinary fishermen simply cannot afford it.

But for Lin Shisan now, ten taels of silver is just a drop in the ocean.

Lin Shisan quickly ordered two of his men to go to the city to buy long fishing lines.

Then he gave the old fish master ten taels of silver and asked him to take him to the Hutouya Jishuitan.

Lin Shisan stood on the Hutou Cliff and looked down, only to see that the cliff was steep and there was a pool of water under the cliff.

Li Gao said: "Master, success or failure depends on this one shudder."

Lin Shisan said: "I hope the sheepshead bream bursts, so that Li Mushao can quickly make the soul-transferring water."

Half an hour later, his men brought back a 16-zhang long fishing line. To be on the safe side, Lin Shisan asked his men to buy ten rolls of fishing line.

There is no need for a feather float when fishing for sheepshead bream. Just use fishing line, sinker and hook.

Lin Shisan and his men hung sea worms on the fish hooks and slowly lowered the fishing lines to the bottom of the cliff, and the hooks and baits fell into the pool of water.

After a moment, one of the comrades shouted, "Master Thirteen, there seems to be some movement here!"

Lin Shisan hurried over and asked, "Isn't it stuck?" He took the fishing line and gently reeled it in. There was a huge shaking force coming from the other end of the fishing line.

It was a fish, not a bottom fish! Judging by my hand, it was a sea fish weighing about one pound.

Because the cliff was too long, Lin Shisan carefully reeled in the line, fearing that the line would break or the hook would come off accidentally. Lin Shisan took a full quarter of an hour to reel in the sixteen-foot fishing line.

What was caught turned out to be a sheepshead snapper.

Lin Shisan took off the fishhook and was a little disappointed. It was a male sea bream and had no seeds.

But it doesn't matter. Sheepshead bream is different from grouper. Grouper swims alone, while sheepshead bream swims in groups.

If you can catch one fish in a pond, you can catch eight or ten.

Sure enough, his men caught fish one after another. When the fourth fish came ashore, it was finally a female fish with eggs!
An hour later, the group harvested a total of ten sheepshead sea breams with eggs, the small one weighed half a pound, and the big one weighed two pounds.

Lin Shisan hurriedly took the ten fish back to the wooden house on the beach.

Li Mushao was waiting there. Lin Shisan brought the wooden barrel to Li Mushao and said, "Do you think these are enough? They are all female sheepshead seabream with eggs."

Li Mushao nodded: "Enough, enough!"

The method of making soul-transferring water is very clever. Li Mushao picked up a small knife and made a small hole in the belly of a female sheepshead bream.

The small opening is where the fish roe is.

He then threaded a rope through the fish's gills and hung the female over a large pot.

The big pot was not burning very strongly, the water in the pot was boiling over low heat.

Li Mushao explained: "Each fish roe is a life. What I want to extract is the life juice of the fish roe, which is the soul-transferring water. To extract the life juice, you have to use water vapor to slowly steam it."

After two moments, a drop of milky white liquid flowed out from the cut on the mother fish's abdomen.

Li Mushao used a porcelain bottle to catch the drop of milky white juice and said, "This is the soul-transferring water."

Slow work produces fine work. It took Li Mushao three full hours to collect more than forty drops of soul-transferring water from ten fish and put them in a porcelain bottle.

You're done!

Li Mushao handed the porcelain bottle to Lin Shisan: "These are enough to change the soul of the water phoenix."

Lin Shisan shouted, "Prepare the horses! Return to the capital!"

That night, next to the fish tank outside the Yongshou Palace Hall.

Emperor Jiajing came to watch the fun in person, while Lü Fang and Huang Jin stood by.

Li Mushao said, "Your Majesty, I will transfer the soul of the water phoenix and change its gender."

Emperor Jiajing nodded: "Yes."

Li Mushao tore off the black gauze on the fish tank and carefully dripped the soul-transferring water in the porcelain bottle into the tank.

The milky white soul-transferring water gathered into a white water ball in the tank, and the water phoenix kept circling around the water ball.

After careful observation, Li Mushao came to the conclusion: "Your Majesty, the soul transfer and nature change has been completed. The water phoenix's protective nature has come out. The hostility has turned into kindness."

Emperor Jiajing ordered: "Lin Shisan, go to the goldfish room and get ten goldfish, and put them in the fish tank to try."

Lin Shisan hurried to the goldfish room, brought back ten goldfish and put them in the tank. An incredible scene happened!

The originally violent and vicious water phoenix was now living in harmony with the ten goldfish.

Emperor Jiajing asked: "What's going on?"

Li Mushao explained: "The water phoenix became dull and stupid after fasting. It was deceived by the soul-transferring water and mistakenly believed that these goldfish were its children."

"Fish are just like people. How can they bear to attack their own children? They can't even protect their cubs in time."

Emperor Jiajing clapped his hands and said: "Excellent. Lu Fang, tell the civil officials that I will leave the border in two days. Invite them to the palace to enjoy the foreign fish together."

Lu Fang cupped his hands and said, "As you wish."

At this moment, Lin Shisan made a bold move. He reached into the fish tank, grabbed a goldfish and tore open its gills.

Lu Fang and Huang Jin were horrified. What on earth was going on with Little Thirteen?

Emperor Jiajing frowned: "Lin Shisan, what do you mean by killing in front of me?"

Lin Shisan knelt down and said, "Your Majesty, I did this to paralyze the civil servants outside the palace."

"You can spread the word outside the palace that ten goldfish were killed tonight by the water phoenixes with their gills ripped out. As a messenger, I am in a state of panic beside the fish tank."

Emperor Jiajing's brows relaxed: "You are showing weakness in military tactics."

Lin Shisan took the opportunity to speak well of Qi Jiguang who was in the southeast: "Your Majesty, this is the truth I figured out when I was in the southeast and witnessed Qi Jiguang's fight against the Japanese invaders."

"Qi Jiguang was a master at using troops. If the Japanese pirates came aggressively, he would first create a false impression to confuse them and make them complacent."

"I think that dealing with the Japanese pirates is similar to dealing with the censors. Both are like eating people without leaving any bones."

Emperor Jiajing was delighted: "Well said! Those people in the court who talk about loyalty, filial piety, benevolence and kindness all day long are actually hungry wolves who eat people without leaving any bones."

"You can draw inferences from one instance, which shows that your two trips to Jiangnan were not in vain. Lu Fang, reward Lin Shisan and Li Mushao with a silver ruyi each."

Lin Shisan shouted: "Thank you, Your Majesty, for your grace!"

Late that night, at Xu Mansion.

Xu Ying came to his father Xu Jie's study room in high spirits: "Dad! There is finally news from the palace!"

Xu Jie asked: "Oh? What news?"

Xu Ying replied: "Tonight, Lin Shisan got ten more goldfish and put them in the same tank with the water phoenix. In the end, all of them died after their gills were torn apart by the water phoenix!"

"When the Yongshou Palace holds a fish-watching party in two days, the water phoenix will definitely bite and kill its own kind."

"At that time, the Water Phoenix will become a bad omen! This is a bad omen sent by heaven to tell the world that Mingyi cannot trade. If we do trade, it will bring disaster!"

Xu Jie nodded, but did not speak. He thought to himself: If we can use this as an excuse to stop the trade with the French in Tianjin, we can also give an explanation to the Jiangnan clans.

At the same time, at the residence of Gao Gong, the Minister of Taichang Temple.

Gao Gong was a proud man. There were few people in the world whom he looked up to. Even Xu Jie, the second assistant minister of the cabinet, was just a greedy and mediocre person in his eyes.

Tonight he unexpectedly hosted a banquet for Zhang Juzheng, his former deputy at the Imperial College.

I have to say that Zhang Juzheng’s pen name is too flattering - Shuda.

Gao Gong personally poured a glass of wine for Zhang Juzheng: "Uncle, whether the trade between Ming and Yi is more harmful than beneficial or more beneficial than harmful, you and I both know it clearly."

"What I mean is that if Xu Cifu and his people oppose the opening of the customs and the sea, the two of us should argue with them."

Zhang Juzheng smiled slightly: "You and I are both regarded as the core members of Xu's party. The core members of Xu's party rebel against Xu's party? Isn't this just rebelling against Tiangang?"

Gao Gong said sternly: "Uncle, stop pretending. In your eyes and mine, Xu Jie has never been our master! We only have one master, and that is the kind and benevolent Prince Yu!"

"Prince Yu will succeed to the throne sooner or later. The world will belong to him sooner or later. For the sake of Prince Yu and the people of the world, we should also support the opening of the customs and the sea."

"I heard that some people want to use the water phoenix presented by the jester Lin Shisan to cause trouble and oppose the opening of the sea. You and I can't get involved with them."

Zhang Juzheng poured himself a glass of wine and said, "Brother Suqing has said so much, I can no longer pretend to be confused. Opening the border and the sea will benefit the country and the people. This is obvious."

"It's just that opening the border and the sea would threaten the interests of the great families in Jiangnan. That's why the upright people in the court are opposed to it."

"For the sake of the country and the people. What if I offend all the honest officials in the court?"

At this point, he suddenly changed the subject: "It's just that those who have accomplished great things in ancient and modern times have made finding a replacement their top priority. The powerful Yan Party supports the opening of the border and the sea, so why do you and I need to stand up and wave the flag and shout?"

"As long as you and I don't object, it will be the greatest support for customs clearance and opening up the sea."

Gao Gong said something from the heart: "Alas. I only regret that my position is not high enough and my power is not great enough. If I were to take power one day, I would definitely open up the customs and the sea completely!"

Zhang Juzheng did not respond, but thought to himself: I am the same! Are you, Gao Suqing, the only one who wants to get the position of Prime Minister of the Cabinet?
Two days later, a banquet was set up outside the main hall of Yongshou Palace. In the center of the banquet was a fish tank.

There is no goldfish in the fish tank, only a water phoenix.

Emperor Jiajing hung a green gauze curtain at the head of the banquet.

Lu Fang shouted, "The fish feast is about to begin!"

Zou Yinglong came out and said: "Your Majesty, beware of the barbarians! The barbarians are treacherous and cunning, they eat raw meat and drink blood, they have no sense of propriety, righteousness, integrity and shame, they are a group of uncivilized barbarians."

"They are bloodthirsty and violent, just like a bunch of savages! The fish of the Western Yi are like the people of the Western Yi. I heard that this so-called auspicious water phoenix is bloodthirsty and murderous."

"Any goldfish from the Ming Dynasty that enters that fish tank will be killed by the water phoenix."

"How can this be considered a good omen? It is clearly a sign of great misfortune!"

"This is also a warning from heaven. Mingyi cannot trade with us!"

"Please issue an order to punish Lin Shisan for his crime of mistaking evil for good; and to strictly stop the trade with the Western barbarians; and drive the Western barbarian fleet at Tanggukou out of the Ming sea."

A group of upright civil servants echoed: "Your Majesty, Zou Yinglong is absolutely right. Our Ming Dynasty is a great country. We have everything that the Western barbarians have. We also have things that the Western barbarians don't have. If we do business with the Western barbarians, the Ming Dynasty will only suffer losses!"

"Your Majesty, a glimpse of the whole picture is a glimpse of the fish. A glimpse of the barbarians reveals the barbarians themselves. The barbarians of the West harbor evil intentions, and we must never trade with them!"

"Your Majesty, closing the borders and banning the sea is an ancestral rule. Ancestral rules cannot be violated!"

"Your Majesty, I don't know how many benefits Lin Shisan received from the Western Barbarians, but he actually concealed the evil and called it auspicious. He should be punished according to the law!"

"Your Majesty, the firearms of the Western barbarians are nothing more than gimmicks and childish toys. To quell the Japanese invasion in the south and suppress the barbarians in the north, we must rely on the bows, arrows, swords and guns of the Ming Dynasty!"

The fish-viewing banquet became a stage for upright censors to perform murderous acts of verbal abuse.

Emperor Jiajing said nothing, the Yan Party said nothing, and the eunuch party said nothing. They just watched their performance quietly.

Lin Shisan had informed Yan Song and his son in advance that the Water Phoenix had been properly trained. The excuse that the group used to attack Tongshang was totally untenable.

The father and son of the Yan family were now able to sit back and relax, very calm.

Finally, the sound of bronze chimes was heard from the green gauze curtain.

Lu Fang cleared his throat and said, "Everyone, how did you hear the rumor about the water phoenix killing the goldfish?"

"The water phoenix and our Ming Dynasty's goldfish can obviously live in harmony!"

"Lin Shisan, go get twenty goldfish!"

(End of this chapter)