The next morning, Wu Shigong welcomed a pair of strange guests. They were the former wife of Qianhu, Tao, and her eldest son Tao Xin. Tao Xin was the one who would inherit the position of Qianhu six years later.
Ten year old boy.
Wu Shigong originally decided, and it was also out of etiquette, that after he settled down, he wanted to visit the family members of the first thousand households.
But now that Wu Shigong had just arrived at the Qianhu Office and his buttocks were not even hot, Tao and Tao Xin couldn't wait to come to him. This behavior made Wu Shigong very strange.
After the two parties sat down and exchanged a few polite words, Mrs. Tao immediately showed her true nature. She looked like a living shrew. Wu Shigong was even more surprised. She had just arrived here and there was nothing she could do to offend Mrs. Tao. Why did she?
How should we treat ourselves with this attitude?
Finally, from Tao's confusing words, Wu Shigong finally understood the reason why Tao came to find him.
It turns out that an agreement was reached with the death of the former Qianhu. There is a tail issue in this agreement that has not been resolved. That is, the money and food that the Qianhu Station turned over to Li Bingbeidao this time still left a gap of 1,800 shi of food.
It hasn't been handed in yet.
When Mr. Tao returned to Qianhu, he remembered this incident. He also knew that Wu Shigong, the agent of Qianhu, had arrived in the town. Therefore, Wu Shigong was asked to promise today: If Li Bingbei came to ask for the Qianba
If one hundred shi of food were needed, Wu Shigong would have to bear it.
As for Mr. Tao, he must have tasted the benefits of being noisy and noisy in the Bingbei Road Yamen last time. Therefore, when he met Wu Shigong today, he acted like a shrew. There was one possibility: Wu Shigong would not agree to come down today.
, Tao is going to cause an uproar here.
After Wu Shigong understood this, he would certainly not agree to Mr. Tao's unreasonable troubles. Why should Wu Shigong bear the debts of the first thousand households?
However, he couldn't explain this to the shrew Tao. Moreover, he couldn't speak harshly to Tao. Otherwise, his reputation of bullying orphans and widowers would not be good. Besides, Li Bingbei said
He hasn't come to me yet to ask for the eighteen hundred shi of food.
Therefore, Wu Shigong vaguely agreed to Mr. Tao: wait until this happens. Finally, Mr. Tao was persuaded to go back.
In the afternoon of that day, when Wu Shigong announced to the ten households gathered together that they would collect labor in Qianhusuo to build the Qianhusuo fortress, these households all looked embarrassed.
Among the military households in the late Ming Dynasty, hundreds of households were actually equivalent to the role of some village chiefs. They did not receive much benefit, but they always had to take the lead in completing the tasks of collecting money, food and labor required by their superiors.
And the folks in their own households always look up and down, and it is difficult to be cruel. Therefore, whenever the superiors collect money, grain and labor, it is always a problem for these households.
However, after hearing Wu Shigong's announcement that the labor service would be reduced and half of the money and food would be handed over next year, the expressions of these hundreds of households relaxed. In this case, the work of collecting and distributing labor would be much easier. Therefore, it was decided
After three days, these hundreds of households gathered at the fortress of Qianhusuo with their assembled laborers.
Therefore, when Wu Shigong invited these hundreds of households to drink in the evening, they were all in a happy mood. Wu Shigong took advantage of the good atmosphere and then announced to those hundreds of households that he would select the best 200 soldiers from the labor service.
Those hundreds of households didn't know that Wu Shigong would pay military pay to these soldiers. Therefore, while they were chatting with Wu Shigong, they thought in their hearts: "This young agent Qianhu is really naive. He will be admitted on a merit-based basis. When the time comes,
Who wants to be a soldier?"
Wu Shigong didn't know. On this very day, Wu Shigong's father-in-law Xue Lian was also suffering.
When Emperor Chongzhen drove the Hakka family out of the palace, it was actually a test move against Wei Zhongxian and a signal sent to the court.
Wei Zhongxian did not react to this. In other words, Wei Zhongxian did not dare to react. Instead, in the court, impeachment memorials against Wei Zhongxian appeared sporadically. Although Emperor Chongzhen's current attitude towards these memorials is basically
They all ignored it, but everyone in Wei Zhongxian's party gradually panicked.
And Xue Lian was already in the palace, kneeling and begging Emperor Chongzhen for three days of love. However, Emperor Chongzhen just let Xue Lian kneel like this and refused to receive Xue Lian.
It was raining that day. Emperor Chongzhen was sitting on the dragon chair and asked Wang Chengen who was standing aside: "Wang Banban, is Xue Lian still there and refusing to leave?"
Wang Chengen quickly stepped forward and replied: "If I return to the emperor, Marquis Yangwu will still be kneeling in the rain."
"Why are you so shameless?" Emperor Chongzhen became angry and shouted: "Fortunately, Xue Lian came from my father's palace, but he was so flattering to Wei Zhongxian. He simply lost his backbone as a human being. Just let him
He is kneeling like this. I will never see him."
"Your Majesty is wise." Wang Chengen quickly said with a smile, "Then Marquis Yangwu is still thinking of using that cruel trick to blackmail the Emperor. Now he is asking for trouble. He can no longer kneel down and can only lie down on his waist.
It’s on the ground.”
Wang Chengen's words suddenly touched Emperor Chongzhen's nerves, and he remembered that Xue Lian broke his waist just for him.
After pondering for a while, Emperor Chongzhen said to Wang Chengen: "I am not a heartless and ungrateful person. Wang Banban, go outside and tell Xue Lian: Let him go back to his Yangwuhou Mansion, and nothing will happen in the future."
Don't come out. I don't want to see him again."
When Wang Cheng'en announced the edict in front of Xue Lian, the young eunuchs and palace guards on the side hurriedly lifted Xue Lian up in the rain, and wanted to carry Xue Lian to the waiting carriage outside the palace at Yangwu Marquis Mansion.
The moment he lifted it up, Xue Lian glanced at Wang Chengen with grateful eyes. Wang Chengen also calmly signaled to Xue Lian with eyes that could not be noticed by the people next to him.
A few days ago, Xue Lian sent people to send 25,000 taels of silver to Wang Chengen. The request he made was that Wang Chengen should mention it to Emperor Chongzhen at an appropriate time, as long as the lives of Xue Lian's family, old and young, were saved.
Today, Wang Chengen can be said to have overfulfilled his task. Emperor Chongzhen just put Xue Lian under house arrest in his own home. Even Xue Lian's title of Marquis of Yangwu was saved.
Xue Lian thought in his heart: "When I go back, I will give Wang Chengen another generous gift."
When Xue Lian was carried home and laid down on the bed, Mrs. Zhang beside her burst into tears, and Xue Lian himself was also in tears.
However, when her daughter Xue Yufei, who received the news, and her nurse holding Xue Chenglin entered the house together, a smile immediately appeared on Xue Lian's face.
Xue Lian asked the wet nurse who was holding Xue Chenglin to come to the bedside. Xue Lian stretched out his hand, touched the gadget in Xue Chenglin's open pants, and smiled happily. He said: "It's worth it, it's all worth it. Finally, I can keep everything."
Already."
After sighing, Xue Lian continued: "It seems like we did the right thing by sending Shi Gong out of the capital. I hope he will be well in the local area."