Seeing that Master Ling agreed, Wu Shigong said goodbye to Master Ling after exchanging a few words.
When Wu Shigong stood up and was about to leave, Master Ling seemed to have remembered something and called out to Wu Shigong. Wu Shigong looked at Master Ling in surprise and thought to himself: "Did something change just now?"
However, Master Ling hesitated for a moment, then opened the bag, held up a small portion of the gold ingots with his hands, pushed it to Wu Shigong and said: "These are for you. When you get outside, don't mess around with the gold ingots."
Said."
Wu Shigong suddenly realized that Master Ling wanted to help the governor swallow this gold and wanted to share some with me as hush money.
Wu Shigong quickly refused. Wu Shigong's original idea was to give the gold to the governor and Master Ling. However, Master Ling didn't know why and was determined not to want the gold ingots that had been given to Wu Shigong.
Wu Shigong was a little puzzled: Is the Ming Dynasty's clean government construction so good?
Seeing that Master Ling was very resolute, Wu Shigong had no choice but to find a piece of cloth, wrap the gold ingots, and say goodbye to Master Ling again.
After Wu Shigong walked to the door, Master Ling said to Wu Shigong again: "Wu Qianhu, there is absolutely no problem with us here for what you asked us to do, but if something happens to the officials in the capital, we won't care about it here.
!”
"Of course." Wu Shigong replied quickly. The purpose of meeting Master Ling today is of course to ask the governor for help. Matters in the capital depend on his father Wu Weizhong, and it is impossible to hold the governor here responsible.
However, because he finally got reassurance from Master Ling, Wu Shigong was still very happy when he left. He also did not notice the meaning of this strange move that Master Ling gave him the gold ingot.
Seeing this, we may have two questions in our minds:
The first question is: Didn’t Wu Shigong not want to show his face in front of Emperor Chongzhen? But why did he still need those remaining credits at that time?
This is because Wu Shigong's remaining credits are too few. They can only allow Wu Shigong to occupy the bottom corner of the credit book. And how could Emperor Chongzhen, who was busy with everything, notice a small name in the bottom corner?
What? It’s just like when we watch a movie now, we don’t notice the name of the supporting role player of “Bandit Armor” flashing across the screen.
But now, because Wu Shigong gave up his credit to his fifth brother Wu Shiwen, his name will never appear in front of Emperor Chongzhen.
Of course, although Wu Shigong gave up his credit to his fifth brother Wu Shiwen, but just because the memorial showing the credit has the words - Wu Shiwen led his "younger brother", these two words can at least make Wu Shigong more successful in the fight with Wu Shigong.
Yu Zilian successfully passed the lawsuit. As the saying goes: every word that appears in front of the emperor has a huge weight.
The second question is: How come the Governor of Henan accepted gold ingots worth one or two thousand taels of silver and dared to help Wu Shigong to replace others? You must know that if this kind of behavior is exposed, from a serious point of view
For example, it is a serious crime to deceive the court and the emperor. For the governor of Henan, the benefits and risks seem to be out of proportion?
In fact, this is what our modern thinking is doing. In modern times, any subordinate, no matter what reason he has, as long as he deceives his boss, once the boss discovers it, the boss will be very angry with the subordinate.
and will deal with this subordinate seriously. This is exactly what comes from the modern pragmatic style of doing things.
Of course, the Ming Dynasty also followed this principle. However, there was an exception. In the Ming Dynasty, on top of national law and imperial power, there was a code of conduct that all ruling classes followed, and that was Confucianism.
As for Wu Shigong's act of giving credit to his fifth brother Wu Shiwen, the governor of Henan was not afraid of it being exposed at all. Because even if other officials knew about such behavior, they would not report it to Emperor Chongzhen unless it was that person.
Officials wanted Emperor Chongzhen to commend the governor of Henan and Wu Shigong.
In addition, if Emperor Chongzhen knew about this incident, he would not punish anyone, and would even reward the governor of Henan and Wu Shigong.
Why is that? Because Wu Shigong's behavior is just like a real-life version of "Kong Rong gives pear" in the Ming Dynasty? Now we understand. Why Master Ling agreed so readily, it was Wu Shigong's request.
The reason. Of course, this is also the reason why Wu Shigong's behavior is harmless and will not affect the interests of the government and other officials.
However, Wu Shigong didn't know these twists and turns at all. His behavior was completely accidental. But to be fair, because of so many chances and coincidences, he had to give his credit to the fifth brother.
Wu Shiwen's behavior can be said to be extremely rare.
Let me emphasize here again that the entire ruling class of the Ming Dynasty regarded Confucianism as the highest code of conduct. This is because later on, this characteristic attracted an important figure. And this figure would greatly influence the entire court in the late Ming Dynasty.
Pattern. Who is that character? Forgive me for being a little vague here, but I will introduce it in detail later in the article.
After Wu Shigong came out and stayed for a while, the governor sent someone out to convey a message: let some low-level civil servants attend the banquet to welcome the governor in the evening. However, the name of Wu Shigong, a low-level military attache, was not on the list of participants.
County Magistrate Qi immediately came to Wu Shigong and told Wu Shigong: "Wu Qianhu will stay in Fucheng tonight. Tomorrow morning, you and I will return to the county seat."
Wu Shigong nodded and agreed: "Okay."
When Wu Shigong left, he always felt a little unhappy in his heart. When the civil servants had use of military attachés like him, they were kind to them, but once they didn't use them, they didn't take them seriously at all.
Although Wu Shigong didn't want to attend tonight's banquet in his heart, because he didn't want to be forced to do "advanced mathematics" again, but the feeling of not being taken seriously is always uncomfortable. But this is now
Due to the harsh climate of the Ming Dynasty, Wu Shigong had no choice but to leave.
Now Wu Shigong could move around freely. Wu Shigong asked people to find an inn and arrange for his guards to stay there. In the evening, he took these guards to a large restaurant and had a good meal.
But during the dinner, Shu Mo, who was sitting next to Wu Shigong, always frowned and sighed. Of course Wu Shigong knew why Shu Mo was like this, so he ignored Shu Mo.
But at the end, Shumo couldn't bear it anymore. He begged: "Master, I really want to redeem her. Please grant me permission. I don't want your money. This time I will come out."
, we have collected two hundred and fifty taels of silver."
In fact, Shu Mo's problem was not just about his lust at this time. Now, the main reason why he wanted to redeem that maid was because of a man's self-esteem.
Shu Mo had already boasted in front of the maid that he would redeem the maid's life. If Shu Mo couldn't do it, Shu Mo himself thought that he would lose face. That's why he would do this again and again.
He made requests to Wu Shigong again and again.
Wu Shigong looked at Shu Mo's pitiful look. After staying together for such a long time, Wu Shigong and Shu Mo always had some feelings for each other. Besides, Wu Shigong himself had five wives.
The reason and Shu Mo were talking about nothing. So, in the end, Wu Shigong nodded and agreed to Shu Mo's request.
After eating, Shumo, accompanied by several guards, happily went to the brothel where the maid was to redeem her body.
However, not long after Wu Shigong returned to the inn, Shumo came back listlessly. Because it was now the time for the Governor's banquet in Guide Mansion. Of course, the maid and the brothel's madam also went to the banquet place.
I didn't stay in the brothel. The book and the ink were all in vain.
It was God's will, because early tomorrow morning, Wu Shigong and the others would escort Qi County Magistrate back to the county seat, and there was no time for Shumo to go to the brothel to redeem the maid. Therefore, Wu Shigong had no choice but to comfort Shumo with a few words, and went to the brothel early.