That night, Zeng Tai moved into Wu Zhuangyuan's house.
Wu Bozong is forty-five years old this year and is born with a handsome appearance.
Legend has it that during the imperial examination, there was supposed to be someone else who was number one.
However, after Boss Zhu saw the appearance of the proposed number one scholar, Guo Chong, he felt that he was too shabby and unworthy of being the number one number one scholar in the Ming Dynasty.
At this moment, a handsome guy in the crowd caught Boss Zhu's attention. This man was Wu Bozong.
Then the emperor personally made policy inquiries, and it was found that his literary talent was not inferior to Guo Chong. Zhu Yuanzhang was so happy that he designated Wu Bozong, who was both talented and beautiful, as the number one scholar on the spot. This also helped him achieve the achievement of "three yuan in a row".
Guo Chong, who was supposed to be the top pick, had no choice but to be ranked second.
Of course, Wu Bozong absolutely disagrees with this statement. Whoever mentions it to him is the one he is worried about. The top scholar won the exam based on his strength, how could he rely on his appearance?
~~
The relationship between Wu Bozong and Zeng Tai was much closer than that of Luo Guanzhong. The two had been in the East Palace together for many years. The latter was able to be released to Jiangxi and Taiwan, and the former also made great efforts.
Zeng Tai's status was not what it used to be. To show his solemnity, Wu Bozong called two other East Palace officials - Song Lian's eldest son Song Zan and Zhang Yi's third son Zhang Cunhou to accompany him and hold a banquet for him.
"Come on, let's toast Brother An Ding together." Wu Bozong warmly greeted the two of them and toasted Zeng Tai.
Song Zan and Zhang Cunhou also raised their glasses together. After the four of them had a drink together, Song Zan said with a smile: "Among our group of officials in the East Palace, Brother Anding is the most promising right now. It can be said that he got there first."
"Yes, yes." Zhang Cunhou also smiled and said: "Brother Anding is now a second-rank official. If we meet outside, we have to kowtow."
"Don't do this." Zeng Tai laughed and scolded: "I don't know what happened to you. You guys couldn't stand me at the beginning, so they worked together to push me out."
"Hahaha." The three people couldn't help laughing and said, "So you know."
"On the one hand, I couldn't stand you being such a tough guy," Wu Bozong said sternly, "but on the other hand, we recommended you to go to Jiangxi because you had been a local official and were very capable, unlike us scholars who have high ambitions and low abilities
.”
"Yes." Song Zan also smiled approvingly and said, "Facts have proved that we were right about the person. You have made outstanding achievements in Jiangxi and are already a world-famous official."
"I praise you so much, so I can't argue with you, right?" Zhang Cunhou said with a teasing smile.
"Why can't you do anything?" Zeng Tai smiled sheepishly and said, "I didn't mean to be arrogant, I just couldn't help it - Brother Yu actually didn't do much in Jiangxi. It's all the credit of your two highnesses."
"Haha, there are no outsiders here, so there is no need to praise Brother Anding." Seeing that the smile on Wu Bozong's face was a little unnatural, Song Zan hurriedly smiled and said.
"I'm really not trying to be arrogant - you are not in Jiangxi and don't know how difficult the situation was at that time. Without King Yan's decision to kill, without King Chu's strategizing and clever tricks, it would be sheer fantasy to try out the Yellow Book successfully!" Zeng
Tai said very seriously.
The gangsters are usually very serious. Especially those who are cheating without knowing it, they simply can't do anything against their will.
Zhang Cunhou couldn't help but cough lightly and reminded him in a low voice: "Brother Bo Zong's family is from Jiangxi."
"Oh?" Zeng Tai suddenly slapped his forehead and said, "Yeah, how could I forget about this? Why didn't Brother Bo Zong remind me?"
"Ah, well... we don't have many acres of thin farmland at home," Wu Bozong said with a forced smile, "There's no need to cause trouble to Brother Anding."
"That's it..." Zeng Tai nodded, then frowned and said, "That's not right, isn't your family a scholarly family with hairpins for generations? Your great-grandfather was the minister of the Song Dynasty, Mr. Soochow, your father-in-law, was also a Jinshi of the Yuan Dynasty. The family has been prosperous for hundreds of years.
How can we only have a few acres of thin farmland?"
"Ahem." Zhang Cunhou and Song Zan coughed hard, trying to get Zeng Tai to stop.
Unfortunately, he was the kind of person who would choke himself to death if he didn't say anything, and there was nothing he could do about it. He couldn't help himself in front of Lao Liu, let alone in front of Wu Zhuangyuan.
"Brother Bo Zong, don't get me wrong. I'm not questioning you, I just feel a little abnormal and I'm not happy about it." Zeng Tai apologized.
"It doesn't matter." Wu Bozong smiled bitterly and shook his head:
"Well, you Zeng Gangtou. Now that you have returned to Beijing to become an official, we will have to suffer a lot in the future... Well, to be honest, my family does have a lot of land, but most of them are in my family's name.
's. As a result, you cleared the land and compiled a yellow book, and our family was in a terrible situation - we have to pay taxes according to the yellow book from now on, and my father is so worried at home that his head turns gray."
"Then why didn't you tell me?" Zeng Tai said sincerely, "I can also ask His Highness to be accommodating."
"At that time, I thought Brother Anding was in a difficult situation, so I didn't cause any more trouble for you." Wu Bozong sighed and said, "Oh, if I had known that you were the popular person in front of His Highness King Chu, I should have begged you."
"Haha, actually it won't be of much use if you beg me." Zeng Tai almost choked Wu Bozong to death.
"With two His Highnesses watching, who dares to play tricks? For the sake of fairness, Your Highness will not say anything. The most I can do is give you some convenience within reasonable limits. I won't dare to open the back door."
"Haha..." Wu Bozong felt disgusted in his heart. What the hell are you talking about?
In fact, he thought that Zeng Tai would protect his family without saying hello himself. But he didn't expect that this guy would pretend to be confused, saying that he had forgotten that his family was also from Jiangxi. As it turned out, last year, their group had tricked his family.
Not light.
Not only was the hidden land owned by the Wu family found out, there were dozens of families with hundreds of people who were forced to leave their hometowns and immigrate to Huguang to become husbands. Can the family not blame the No. 1 Scholar behind his back? How could such a trivial matter be covered up?
Can’t live with it? Still ranked number one...
Wu Bozong felt extremely uncomfortable and hated the fourth and sixth laos in his heart. Of course, the one he hated the most was Zeng Tai who refused to save him.
It's just that Zeng Tai rose through the ranks and became a second-rank official in the border areas. Now that he is in the capital, the crown prince will definitely re-employ him, so Wu Bozong had to "knock out his teeth and swallow the blood in his belly." Not only could Zeng Tai not be blamed, he had to find ways to win over Zeng Tai.
he……
Isn't this a kind of tauren?
~~
"I know you have to be selfless. We have been brothers for many years, but we can still give you a problem at this time?" Wu Bozong smiled and clinked glasses with him. "What, is it interesting?"
"Enough, absolutely enough!" Zeng Tai nodded hurriedly. The other two people also cooperated and talked about their old friendship. Only then did the embarrassment disappear.
As Zeng Tai went out for a spin and his skill in arguing became more and more profound, the three people at the banquet party only dared to talk about romance and did not dare to say anything useful, lest they be slapped in the face again and lose face.
Until the two guests left and only he and Zeng Tai were left, Wu Bozong invited Zeng Tai to move to the study to have tea.
There was no third person in the study, so Wu Bozong asked quietly:
"Do you know anything about Guozixue?"
ps. The next chapter is coming very soon, maybe an hour.
