On the main street of Neiqiu County, Shunde Prefecture, Ma Kuaizhou and Zhou Wenden led two archers and walked into the door of the "Drunk Guest House" restaurant in a swagger.
The so-called Ma Kuai refers to a policeman who is equipped with a horse. The policeman is originally a small number of official employees in the county government, and the policeman who is equipped with a horse is even more popular. They can stand up in front of the county magistrate.
On weekdays, Zhou Wenden did not personally patrol the streets and handle cases. He hired twelve "archers" to drive him. In the words of later generations, these archers were temporary workers in the county government.
These archers have almost no salary and rely on patrol money collected from shops in various streets in the county to survive. Because this practice has been passed down for hundreds of years, it has become a matter of course for archers to reach out to merchants to ask for money. In the eyes of the county merchants
Here, these archers are really more powerful than the county magistrate.
And Zhou Wenden, who controlled these archers, was naturally a domineering figure.
When the waiter in Zui Guest House saw Zhou Wenden come in, his face turned pale.
Zhou Wenden looked at the second floor of the restaurant and said, "Is the second floor empty?"
Just as the waiter was about to speak, Zhou Wenden had already gone upstairs on his own. When he reached the second floor, Zhou Wenden saw two vendors sitting near the window eating wine. Zhou Wenden looked at the two vendors and confirmed that they were
The two of them are powerless little people.
Zhou Wenden shyly waved his hand and said, "Since there is no one here, clear the second floor. Mr. Huang and I need to discuss things."
The waiter in the shop widened his eyes when he heard Zhou Wenden's words and secretly thought, aren't these two vendors human beings?
The waiter said sarcastically: "Master, the guests have already sat at the table to drink, how can I drive them off?"
Zhou Wenden's eyes widened when he heard this, and he looked the waiter up and down.
An archer next to Zhou Wenden shouted: "Where did you come from? How dare you not listen to what Tou Weng said? Tou Weng has something urgent to tell Huang Xianggong. This is an important matter related to Shilin in Neiqiu County. If someone
Is that okay? The boss wants you to clear out the second floor. Just do it quickly and don’t make any noise!"
The waiter was scolded by the archer next to him and was stunned there not knowing what to do.
He just came to this restaurant to work a few days ago, and he has never done anything to drive guests away from the table.
The waiter was in a daze when the owner of the restaurant rushed up. Seeing the dull waiter, the owner rolled his eyes and quickly said to Zhou Ma Kuai: "Touweng! You haven't come to the restaurant to have a drink in many days? You want to sit here?
Second floor? I'll clear it out for you immediately."
The boss went up and pinched the waiter's ears, and shouted loudly: "What do you think you can do? You see that the boss doesn't know how to do things? How dare you not do what the boss asked you to do?"
The waiter in the shop had his ears pinched by the boss, screamed, and crawled to the table of the two vendors.
Before he asked the guests to go downstairs, the two vendors stood up on their own initiative and walked downstairs carrying the drinking utensils. Who in this small county does not know Zhou Wenden? Who dares to confront Zhou Wenden to grab the banquet? Two people
Every vendor is a small person and does not need any explanation from the waiter, so he automatically avoids Zhou Wenden's limelight.
Zhou Wenden snorted coldly and sat down on a large table near the window. His two archers sat on another small table near the stairs, as if they were looking out for Zhou Wenden.
The restaurant owner laughed along and walked to Zhou Wenden's side to ask Zhou Wenden to order.
Zhou Wenden waved his hand and said: "Don't be anxious! When Mr. Huang comes, I will ask Mr. Huang to make a decision."
The restaurant owner said like a chicken pecking rice: "What the boss said makes sense, it should be like this, it is naturally like this."
After saying this, the restaurant owner sat down at the table next to the two archers and asked the waiter to serve pig ears, vinegared fish and other side dishes. He stopped doing business and stayed close to the two archers.
After a while, the real host of this "banquet", Huang Guiji and Huang Xiucai, finally walked up from the main street.
Seeing Mr. Huang walking up, Zhou Wenden burst into laughter, stood up from his chair, and walked to the edge of the stairs in a flattering manner. He bowed and said, "Sure enough, Mr. Huang gave Mr. Zhou some face. He is so far away from Hezhuang."
Come and have some of Zhou’s wine!”
Huang Guiji smiled bitterly, but his face was full of despair.
He did not return the favor to Zhou Wenden, but shook his head, sighed, and sat down on the table.
Zhou Wenden looked at Huang Guiji's face and found something strange on his face. He looked at the owner of the restaurant and found that the owner also had a puzzled look on his face.
Zhou Wenden waved his hand and said, "Let's serve the food! Pick up some dishes to go with the wine and bring them over."
After saying this, Zhou Wenden walked to Huang Guiji with Xiao and slowly sat down.
"I heard that Mr. Huang just came back from Fucheng?"
Huang Guiji said: "Of course, I went to see a few of the same year."
Zhou Wenden laughed loudly and said flatteringly: "It is indeed an elegant thing for scholars, and it is not something that rough people like us can understand."
Huang Guiji sighed and said: "The sky is falling!"
Zhou Wenden's face darkened and he secretly thought something was wrong.
Looking at Huang Guiji's appearance, it was obvious that something big had happened. Did the Huang family provoke a big shot? Or did they accidentally offend an official in the city? In short, it was obviously not a good thing.
Of course Zhou Wendeng didn't want anything to happen to Huang Guiji. It was really not easy for Zhou Wendeng to make friends with a "scholar" like Huang Guiji over the years. That was when Huang Guiji's family opened a cloth shop in the county town, and Zhou Wendeng took the initiative to come to help Huang Guiji drive away those people.
Huang Guiji pinched his nose and made friends with Zhou Wenden, a "catcher" who came to stir up trouble.
Having made a friend like Huang Guiji, a scholar, Zhou Wenden felt that his status in the county was higher. On weekdays, other detectives looked at him favorably, and even the boss of the restaurant was more polite when he greeted him.
Zhou Wenden has invested a lot of affection in Huang Guiji over the years, hoping that this young scholar can take a step further and win the imperial examination. If Huang Guiji wins the imperial examination, Zhou Wenden will really want to ascend to heaven and become a famous figure in the county. By then Huang Guiji
If he could speak a few words of praise for himself in front of the county magistrate, Zhou Wenden might become the head catcher.
However, Zhou Wenden looked at Huang Guiji at this time and seemed to be in big trouble.
Big trouble.
Have all your investments over the years been in vain?
Zhou Wenden looked at Huang Guiji and suddenly felt that Huang Guiji's appearance was a bit hateful.
Huang Guiji didn't pay attention to Zhou Wenden's expression, he just sighed.
After sighing several times, he said: "The King of Qi reported to the Emperor that the imperial examination has been suspended!"
Zhou Wenden was stunned when he heard this and didn't react for a long time.
Is the imperial examination stopped?
Where did the officials come from? Then what will the scholars be in the future?
