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When Captain Liu of the Embroidered Uniform Guard heard that Commander Tang Du had arrived, he would have happily come out to greet him under normal circumstances. However, this time, Captain Liu asked his men to close the door and strictly instructed them not to let Tang Tong into the house.
This time, Tang Tong's incident caused a big stir. Captain Liu was not sure whether he was guilty or not. At this time, he wanted to cut off all ties with Tang Tong to avoid being implicated.
Tang Tong had no choice but to rush to Jinling to meet Ning Jiechu, the eunuch guarding Jinling. Over the past six months, Tang Tong had given this eunuch a lot of benefits. It would be best to ask him to solve the Jinyiwei's affairs, but this guy was very greedy for money, and a little bit could not satisfy his appetite.
It must be said that Eunuch Ning had a very good impression of Tang Tong, because when he was free on weekdays, Tang Tong would bribe him quite a lot. In Eunuch Ning's heart, Tang Tong was gradually regarded as his own disciple.
In official circles, relationships such as disciples and protégés are inevitable. A eunuch in power usually pays attention to cultivating his own trusted subordinates. For a eunuch who is greedy for money, whoever gives him the most money will generally be classified as his trusted subordinate. After all, eunuchs are not stupid. Flattery from the mouth can never be as practical as money.
In fact, in the memorial accusing Tang Tong of spreading false information and misleading the public, Eunuch Ning was also very concerned about Tang Tong. Tang Tong made such a big fuss, and so many scholars jumped out to complain. It was not easy for Eunuch Ning to conceal it for Tang Tong, so Eunuch Ning had to write a memorial accusing Tang Tong of spreading false information and misleading the public. In this memorial, Eunuch Ning only mentioned Tang Tong's crimes in a light-hearted manner, but focused on how those scholars and candidates surrounded the gate of his mansion and how they affected his daily work and life. It seemed that there was no complaint, but in fact it gave Emperor Chongzhen the impression that these scholars and candidates were making trouble unreasonably. This is one of the reasons why Emperor Chongzhen favored Tang Tong in his heart. Wang Chengen had a good relationship with Eunuch Ning, so Wang Chengen put this memorial at the top.
Eunuch Ning was a man who always took advantage of others to repay a favor. When Tang Tong arrived at his house, he proudly told Tang Tong everything he had done for him, without waiting for Tang Tong to ask anything. Tang Tong expressed his gratitude verbally and presented the gift, but he was secretly surprised in his heart, thinking that he had been misled by the history books.
The Northern Song Dynasty was the period with the most freedom of speech in history. The Ming Dynasty was also relatively free in speech. Tang Tong had seen many such comments on the Internet in his previous life. The censors in the middle and late Ming Dynasty were very powerful. They jumped up and down and found fault with the emperor for no reason. These guys were not upright and righteous, but because the emperor rarely killed those censors, which gave these guys the courage to gain political capital for themselves. If this happened in the Qing Dynasty, anyone who dared to say that the emperor was wrong would be killed, so the whole court was full of slaves.
It was because of this understanding that Tang Tong dared to publish a newspaper called "The Shout". He was usually very careful not to let the content of "The Shout" contain any suspicion of rebellion. Unexpectedly, despite being so careful, someone still accused him of spreading false information to mislead the public.
Eunuch Ning was quite satisfied to see that Tang Tong had sent him many gifts again. He thought that Commander Tang was quite sensible. When Tang Tong said that three of his men were captured by the Jinyiwei and hoped that Ning Xixi could help release them, Eunuch Ning thought for a moment and agreed. Eunuch Ning knew very well why these three people were captured. Whether these three people were guilty or not, it was not a big deal. He immediately wrote a note to Tang Tong and asked him to take it back.
After Tang Tong said goodbye to Eunuch Ning, he hurried back to Changzhou. When Captain Liu of the Embroidered Uniform Guard saw the note from Eunuch Ning, he removed the names of the three people from the Embroidered Uniform Guard without saying a word, and then let Tang Tong take them away.
Tang Tong then knew why the three men were arrested. Seeing that they had suffered this misfortune just to protect him, Tang Tong, Tang Tong was very moved and comforted them with kind words. The next day, the three men heard that Tang Tong had begged people for help on their behalf and had spent a lot of money to bribe the eunuchs guarding Jinling. They were also very moved and vowed in their hearts to follow Master Tang for the rest of their lives.
Ten days after this incident, the imperial edict from the capital came down, which made Tang Tong completely relieved. Although the imperial edict said that a fine of 300,000 taels of silver would be imposed, it was obvious that there was no intention to pursue Tang Tong's false rumors and mislead the people. Moreover, Tang Tong was promoted to the deputy general of Nanjing, in charge of pirates and smuggling activities in Jiangsu. On the surface, this was a thankless job, but Tang Tong knew in his heart that this was a position with huge benefits to be made, because at that time, although the Ming Dynasty did not collect commercial taxes, there was no place specifically collecting customs duties. Tang Tong could completely control the maritime trade in the richest areas of the Ming Dynasty, such as Suzhou and Hangzhou. By then, let alone 300,000 taels of silver, he would even have 1 million taels of silver.
Tang Tong first took over the navy of Taihu Lake. Although this navy was in name only, Tang Tong wanted this legitimate name, otherwise it would be difficult to expand his navy. As for other navies of the Ming Dynasty, Tang Tong could not get them. Only this navy stationed in Taihu Lake could Tang Tong bring it under his jurisdiction with the imperial edict.
Later, Tang Tong established the Maritime Anti-Piracy Column and the Maritime Trade Center. The maritime trade center and the navy's base camp were set up in the Wusongkou area in later generations. This place now only has a small fishing village and no city, but this place has one advantage, that is, it controls the exit of the Yangtze River and Hangzhou Bay, which is a very advantageous terrain for controlling those who want to go out to sea to do business in the Suzhou and Hangzhou areas.
The extra-staff army under the name of Taihu Navy officially returned to Tang Tong's hands. Although Tang Tong now had many ships, he only had two large sea ships, and only one of them had four outdated cannons. He had 3,000 breech-loading rifles. Since the workers were now very skilled, the scrap rate was very low, and iron hydraulic machine tools were used. The processing accuracy was greatly increased, and the cost was also reduced a lot. Therefore, the cost of a breech-loading rifle now only cost 25 taels of silver. It was just that Tang Tong did not have much money, so he did not vigorously produce it.
Tang Tong found merchants with whom he had business dealings and borrowed 260,000 taels of silver at an annual interest rate of 20%. He bought two ships and 16 Western cannons. As for the four outdated cannons on the original ship, he sold them to other merchants.
Tang Tong recruited another 500 young men aged 18 to 22 from the refugees to join the navy. When Tang Tong was ready and preparing to lead the team to sea, Su Da, the incense master of Jinling Yutang of the Suhuai Salt Gang, came to Tang Tong.
Su Da has had a hard time these days. Tang Tong's move was equivalent to taking away all his personal money, making him a pauper, and also causing the gang's property to suffer a partial loss. He did not dare to retaliate against Tang Tong, so in order to make up for the loss of the gang's property, he had to find a way to make more false accounts in the gang's account book. In the end, the gang leader Fang Ruo discovered the flaw in the account book.
Fang Ruo'e would not care if his subordinates embezzled some of the gang's private property, as long as it was not a lot. However, this time Su Da was too ruthless in the account, and Fang Ruo'e could not let him go easily. Originally, if Su Da had honestly explained the situation to the gang leader Fang Ruo'e, nothing would have happened. However, Su Da did not want Fang Ruo'e to know that he was blackmailed by Tang Tong.
This world of martial arts, on the surface, is a place that values loyalty, but in reality, it is a world that only values strength. If the news of Su Da kneeling and begging for mercy spread, he, Su Da, would have no chance of staying in the Suhuai Salt Gang. It was for this reason that Su Da was unwilling to talk about that incident. Although he was Fang Ruo's confidant, after what happened to him, Fang Ruo would no longer keep him, Su Da, in the position of incense master of Jinling Yutang. You have to know that Fang Ruo has more than just him as a confidant, there are many people who are jealous of this position.
Fang Ruo'e found the problem in the account book and first asked Su Da about it. His original intention was to hope that Su Da would return the embezzled money himself, but the problem was where would Su Da get the money to fill the hole? Seeing that Su Da had not filled the hole for a long time, Fang Ruo'e began to doubt Su Da and wanted to transfer Su Da from the position of Jinling Hall Incense Master. But how could Su Da be willing to give up the position he had worked hard for more than ten years? At this time, he happened to hear that Tang Tong was promoted to deputy general, so Su Da made up his mind and found Tang Tong, expressing his willingness to join Tang Tong's men.
Tang Tong had no intention of caring about such trivial matters at the moment. Later, when Su Da said that Fang Ruo'er had a net worth of at least 200,000 taels of silver, Tang Tong was tempted. So, under the leadership of Su Da, Tang Tong took Yagyu Saburo and 600 soldiers and set off overnight.
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