Shen Tingyang did not stay in Lushunkou for long. After his fleet unloaded the grain and fodder transported to Jinhai Town that night, he led his team out of the port the next morning.

Of course, Shen Tingyang personally came to Lushunkou to request orders and report. He did not just receive orders from Yu Liangtai, the chief military officer of Denglai East Road who was guarding Denglai's maritime gateway.

But before he set sail from Huai'an this time, he received the latest decree from Emperor Chongzhen.

After Emperor Chongzhen asked him to escort grain and grass to the north, he changed his station from Huai'an to Dengzhou in the future, and used Dengzhou as a distribution center for grain and grass transported by sea.

However, the defense of Denglai Town was led by Jin Haibo and Yang Zhenjian.

In particular, Dengzhou Water City, which is most suitable for him to park grain ships to transfer grain and grass, is currently being garrisoned by the Jinhai West Road Naval Battalion under Yang Zhen.

Therefore, if Shen Tingyang wants to stay in Dengzhou and successfully complete the errands assigned by the emperor, no matter from which point of view, he should come to see Yang Zhen and obtain Yang Zhen's support.

And this was the main reason why he went north to Lushunkou in person.

As for transporting 50,000 shi of grain and fodder to Jinhai Town, it was just a matter of convenience.

Of course, after hearing about Shen Tingyang's intention, Yang Zhen immediately agreed and agreed to Shen Tingyang's request to borrow Dengzhou Water City.

According to Yang Zhen's previous order, Yuan Jin will soon select warships and men to go north to Changxing Island to prepare for war. As one of the permanent residences of the Jinhai West Road Naval Regiment Camp, Dengzhou Water City will soon be idle.

At this time, it is beneficial to both public and private interests to dock and use the maritime water transport fleet temporarily lent to Shen Tingyang.

Needless to say, Yu Gong, there is no better and safer place near the coast of Dengzhou than Dengzhou Water City, which was used as a distribution center for grain and grass transported by the imperial court by sea.

Personally speaking, Shen Tingyang's maritime water transport fleet used Dengzhou Water City as a distribution center, which also helped Yang Zhen keep track of the food and grass supply situation of the entire Pinglu and Liao army.

There is a saying that before troops and horses move, they must first move forward with food and grass. The supply of food and grass to each group of soldiers and horses is sometimes the most telling information about the truth about army mobilization.

However, it is said that after Yang Zhen sent Shen Tingyang away on the morning of March 22, the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, in the afternoon of the same day, he met Li Ji and others who were returning to Lushunkou from a business trip to Laizhou Prefecture.

At this point, a month has passed since Li Ji took the order to go to Laizhou Prefecture on business.

"Why have you been gone so long?"

"Reporting to the Commander-in-Chief, I first went to several camp heads on Denglai West Road."

"Well. Have you settled the matter on Denglai West Road?"

"Replying to the Governor, everything has been done! Please rest assured, Governor!"

"It didn't have any impact, right?"

"Reporting to the Governor, I went to investigate the matter under my humble command, and everything was handled secretly. The people around were just some slave laborers from the Qing Dynasty, and no one cared about it."

"Yeah. Okay, that's it. That's it."

After listening to Li Ji's report, Yang Zhen certainly knew what he meant.

Of course, after asking this question, Yang Zhen understood why Li Ji and his party had been away for so long.

After all, it does take some time to go to the relief camps and isolation camps at Denglai West Road Station and secretly investigate and follow the clues.

Thinking of this, the dissatisfaction in Yang Zhen's heart dissipated slightly.

"So, how did it go when I asked you to invite Tang Ruowang and others?"

In fact, as soon as Li Ji and others' ship docked at Shuangdao Bay, someone immediately reported the news of Li Ji and others' return to Yang Zhen.

Moreover, the only people who came back with Li Ji were a few of Li Ji's confidants at the Statistics Office, and not a single foreigner.

From this point, Yang Zhen had actually guessed that Li Ji and the others had handled the matter "properly".

It’s just that you still have to ask if you should ask, and you still have to give the treatment that needs to be given.

Sure enough, when Yang Zhen asked, Li Ji, who was still bowing to answer the question, immediately fell to his knees on the ground with a plop, and then said:

"Reporting to the Governor, the Governor asked me to go to the capital of Laizhou in person to discuss the establishment of a church in Jinhai Town, and urged Mr. Dao Wei and his colleagues to return to Jinhai Town. Mr. Dao Wei called his friends and readily agreed, and summoned seven foreign priests.

, thirty-one followers.

"In my humble position, I led a team to escort Mr. Dao Wei and others in three boats, two large and one small. They set sail from the coast of Laizhou Prefecture on the ninth day of March. It went smoothly at first. Unexpectedly, at noon on March 13, while passing through the waters of Salmon Island,

The wind was strong and the waves were rough, and the two ships hit the rocks one after another and sank.

"Biji was able to escape the disaster because he was lucky enough to board the boat. However, the ship on which Mr. Daowei and seven foreign priests were riding was seriously damaged and sank into the sea before he could get help. Mr. Daowei and others were killed.

Only two of the thirty-one servants survived.

"This matter was all caused by the humble position not knowing the sea conditions of the sea route in the Salmon Island area in advance. The humble position failed to do the job assigned by the governor and failed to bring Mr. Daowei and others back safely. The humble position is willing to accept the punishment. Please punish the governor!"

After Li Ji finished saying these words, he immediately kowtowed to the ground and remained motionless.

Yang Zhen looked at him quietly, expressionless, but he breathed a sigh of relief in his heart, and even looked at him with admiration.

Yang Zhen hoped that Western missionaries like Tang Ruowang would disappear, but he did not want to cause an uproar and make everyone aware of it.

Although it was increasingly urgent to deal with these malicious foreign missionaries, he did not want to incur other unexpected consequences for himself by dealing with them.

Therefore, letting them die in an accident is the best solution at the moment.

In particular, Li Ji knew to leave two followers of Tang Ruowang, or free servants, as witnesses.

In this regard, Li Ji did a good job in this matter.

However, although Yang Zhen was satisfied in his heart, he still insisted on "punishing" Li Ji.

At that moment, Yang Zhen let out a long sigh, stared at Li Ji and said:

"Are you sure that Tang Ruowang, oh no, Mr. Dao Wei, has been killed?"

"After Beizhi and others boarded the boat and were rescued, they immediately searched for Mr. Daowei and others in the waters there. In the following two days, they searched and rescued the coast of Salmon Island and found 11 bodies that had been washed up on Salmon Island by the waves."

Hearing Yang Zhen's inquiry, Li Ji lay on the ground and thought about it.

"Four of them belong to foreign priests, but there is no body of Mr. Daowei. However, based on the judgment of the humble officials and others, the sea area of ​​​​Salmon Island was very windy and violent, and the undercurrent was turbulent. The people fell into the sea. If they were not rescued in time, there would be no survivors.

The truth.”

"In that case, you have done your best. This is a natural disaster. Once it happens, it cannot be undone by human power."

After Yang Zhen concluded that Tang Ruowang and his group of foreign devils were buried in the sea, he first took the initiative to explain something to Li Ji who was kneeling on the ground, and then he pondered for a moment and added:

"However, after all, during your trip, you failed to bring Mr. Dao Wei and his party back to Lushunkou safely to see me. Therefore, it is necessary and appropriate to give you a punishment for incompetence.

"Let's do this. You will be dismissed from the post of assistant secretary of the town's capital office. You will be demoted to the camp chief with immediate effect. Dai Zui will be promoted to the statistics office and will be fined 500 taels of silver. He will take people to and from the state tomorrow.

The city of Fucheng will collect the remains of Mr. Daowei and build a tomb for him."

In an instant, Li Ji was relieved of his position as Chief Secretary of the Town Hall, which he had worked so hard for the past two years, and was directly demoted to the position of Chief Qian before the Great Movement.

At the same time, the position of assistant assistant of the Assistant Camp Affairs Office, which previously qualified him to participate or even intervene in various affairs of the Assistant Camp Office, was also deprived this time.

However, Yang Zhen's handling of him obviously has a mystery.

First, the removed positions are fictitious.

Both of them, even if they were demoted back to President Qian, they were still ordered to remain in office and promoted to the Statistics Office.

As for the fine of 500 taels of silver and the order to collect Tang Ruowang's relics and repair the tomb, it was a matter of honor, and was done for those who did not know what was going on.

Of course, Li Ji, who was a county official, understood Yang Zhen's intentions.

Therefore, when Yang Zhen told him about his punishment, Li Ji not only had no excuse, but also immediately kowtowed and said:

"Thank you to the governor for not killing. It is indeed a derogation of duty. I am willing to accept the punishment for my humble duty!"

On the morning of March 23, the 15th year of Chongzhen, Yang Zhen announced the death of Tang Ruowang and his party who died in a shipwreck. He also announced the secrets of the general secretary of the town government, the deputy assistant of the camp affairs office, and the statistics office who had failed to handle the affairs well.

Li Ji was promoted and punished by a series of dismissals, demotions and silver fines.

People who didn't know the inside story were lamenting the difficulty and risk of sailing on the sea. At the same time, they were lamenting that Li Ji had worked hard for several years, but returned to a few years ago overnight.

Some people who knew the inside story were secretly surprised by Yang Zhen's changes in the past few years and how dark and ruthless Yang Zhen was now.

Of course, at the same time, he also became more wary of Li Ji.

Fortunately, the people who know some of the inside story are only a very small number of people at the level of commander-in-chief and deputy general.

And these people are Yang Zhen's die-hard subordinates.

Of course, there are also some people who think that Yang Zhen's treatment of Tang Ruowang is completely making a fuss out of a molehill and is completely unnecessary.

However, they had nothing to say about Yang Zhen's final treatment.

After all, Tang Ruowang had no friendship with them, he was just a blond and blue-eyed foreigner with ulterior motives.

Such a person will die when he dies.

Not to mention one or a few dead, but dozens or hundreds of them, what does it matter?

Therefore, the discussion about Tang Ruowang's unfortunate death in a shipwreck only spread for a while in a small area in Lushunkou, Dengzhou City, Laizhoufu and other places.

As word spread about Yang Zhen's punishment of Li Ji, especially when Li Ji led people to Xiguan, the capital of the state, to purchase land, collect Tang Ruowang's relics, and repair Tang Ruowang's tomb, all the discussions disappeared.

Yang Zhen himself has never mentioned this incident to anyone since he punished Li Ji.

Naturally, the reason why Tang Ruowang and other European missionaries were treated in this way was never explained to anyone.

Of course, if he had to give an explanation, Yang Zhen's only explanation was that he never believed that these European and American missionaries came all the way to Ming Dynasty for the good of Ming Dynasty.

They come here, let alone for the good of China.
Chapter completed!