Upon hearing the question from the leader of the pseudo-Tang Dynasty officials in front of him, Dong Songan immediately said: "We, the Dong family, have always been from a scholarly family with farming and studying heritage. We are definitely not bad people. Now our family of more than 30 people is temporarily living here to avoid the war.
, there are many female relatives at home, I am afraid that this examination will disturb the female relatives, please be accommodating!"
When he said this, the boy beside him had already handed the silver to Qu Guangtai!
Qu Guangtai did not push the money away selflessly, but took it. This was five taels of silver, more than his monthly salary, and the money did not belong to him alone. There were a bunch of brothers waiting behind him.
It's quite moist.
However, collecting money does not mean letting them go. Money must be taken and things must be done. As a retired soldier of the new army of the Tang Dynasty, he is so principled.
This has something to do with his status as a former soldier. The military laws of the New Army of the Tang Dynasty have always been strict, and those who dare to disobey orders and neglect their duties have always been severely punished.
Therefore, he would not dare to neglect his duties in a short period of time, but people who are afraid of poverty will not let it go easily when they see money.
It can also be seen from this that the current rules and regulations of the Tang Dynasty are not perfect, and the administration of officials can be regarded as a blank.
While Qu Guangtai calmly accepted the money, he was secretly thinking about the origin of the Dong family and whether it would cause any trouble to his village.
Dong Songan's simple words before basically explained the origin of the Dong family and the reason for coming here. After hearing this, Qu Guangtai nodded slightly, because even if Dong Songan didn't say it, he could probably guess the reason why the Dong family appeared here.
.
Because wealthy families in their situation basically flee, and as long as they don't make any extreme confrontational reactions, the Tang Dynasty will generally not make things difficult for them and treat them the same as other gentry and wealthy families!
Even if you are a pseudo-official family, as long as you don't cause trouble, don't publicly preach that my family was a high official in the Ming Dynasty, and I will kill all you idiots when the imperial army comes back. The Tang Dynasty often turned a blind eye.
One eye is closed.
There is no way, these days the rich families of the gentry are often the families of scholars, and the scholars studied hard for ten years in order to take the imperial examination and become officials, so those really wealthy families must have someone who was an official in the Ming Dynasty
.
If all of them were caught and killed, then to be honest, there would not be any truly wealthy and scholarly families left in Xingquan Mansion.
Furthermore, if you kill all the family members, those high-ranking officials in the Ming Dynasty will not be able to focus on instigating the court to send troops to suppress the Tang Dynasty.
Today's Tang Dynasty needs time, so in many things, it is better to do less than to do more. Anyway, as long as these gentry families are wealthy, then it is a family whose family members were officials in the Ming Dynasty. As long as they do not take the initiative to cause trouble, they will be honest.
If you pay taxes, the Tang Dynasty will not take the initiative to cause trouble.
Therefore, even if Qu Guangtai guessed that the Dong family might be an official family, he did not intend to cause more trouble. However, Qu Guangtai was planning to say a few words to tell them to stop causing trouble, and then take the money.
When he was about to go back, something suddenly came to his mind, and he said to Dong Songan in a very serious tone: "You said that your Dong family is a scholarly family inherited from farming and reading? Where is it from? Is it the Dong family of Zhengtai?"
After hearing this person's words and seeing his serious expression, Dong Songan secretly thought bad!
How could the leader of the pseudo-Tang Dynasty officials suddenly say the four words "Zhengtai Dong"? Did they know that they were Zhengtai Dong and that their father was an official in Jiangnan?
Dong Songan’s guess was right or wrong!
Qu Guangtai did guess that the Dong family was an official family, but the reason why he asked about the "Zhengtai Dong family" was because he accidentally heard the officers above him say that their Queen Dong family of the Tang Dynasty was the Zhengtai Dong family.
The daughter of the clan.
The Dong family of Zhengtai is one of the most prestigious scholarly families in Zhengtai County. People in the past dynasties have taken part in the imperial examinations to become officials. It is said that the Dong family master passed the top three Jinshi examinations more than ten years ago and is now serving as an official in Jiangnan. I heard that
It is said that he is still a magistrate.
Such a Dong family is naturally a real scholarly family, a family of officials, and the Queen Dong is a real lady.
Although this rumor was only circulated on a small scale within the Tang Dynasty, he occasionally heard it from the officers above him. He didn't think it was anything before, but after seeing the Dong family today, he immediately made a guess.
, this Dong family, could it be the Dong family of Zhengtai? The maiden family of the Queen Dong family?
After Dong Songan heard this, he was slightly stunned, but he said: "No, our Dong family originally lived in Xingquan Fucheng, and we are not the same family as the Zhengtai Dong family!"
No matter why the fake Tang official in front of him asked this, Dong Songan would not admit it foolishly, but in his heart he had already made up his mind that he could not stay in this village any longer and must leave here as soon as possible.
It's too dangerous to say.
After hearing this, Qu Guangtai showed a trace of doubt. He suspected that this person was telling lies.
But even if he told a lie, he would not be able to force his way in for a while, because if this person really told a lie, and they were the Zhengtai Dong family, this person would be the uncle of the country, and he would force his way into the queen's natal family.
, disturbing the female family members, if the superiors were to blame the subordinates for this crime, I, a little thief-catcher, might not be able to bear the burden.
He immediately suppressed the doubts in his heart, then nodded slightly and said: "Well, in that case, I'll go back first!"
Having said that, he didn't stop here and just left with the people.
But after he got far away, he ordered his two men: "Keep an eye on the Dong family, and report them to me if they make any moves!"
After leaving people to monitor the Dong family, Qu Guangtai quickly sent people to the town and reported the relevant situation to the sheriff.
The town sheriff is also a retired soldier, but before he retired, he was an officer, and before he retired, he was a lieutenant platoon leader.
It's just that he was born as a bandit in his early years, and Li Xuan has now successively cleared out those officers who were born as bandits, either transferred to the garrison camp or transferred to the position of peace officer, and he is also one of them.
Although this man is not good at fighting, he still has the cleverness of a bandit. As soon as he heard about the situation of the Dong family, he immediately guessed that this matter might not be simple. He could not say for sure that the Dong family might actually be Dong Zhengtai.
surname, the queen’s natal family.
Immediately, he quickly sent someone to report the relevant situation.
In less than a day, the news reached the ears of the person in charge of looking for the Dong family at the Hanlin Academy.
However, the relevant person in charge of the Hanlin Academy did not inform Li Xuan immediately, because there had been several false starts before, saying that they had found the Dong family and excitedly reported to Li Xuan, but later it was officially confirmed that it was not
Dong family.
This time, they planned to find out whether the Dong family was the Zhengtai Dong family and then report it to Li Xuan.
Immediately, they sent people to the house where the Dong family originally settled in Xingquan Mansion. They took away several servants who were looking at the house and two people who had met the owner of the Dong family, and prepared to go to Guanghe Village to identify them.
.
The next day, seven or eight people rushed to Guanghe Village. In the evening, Qu Guangtai saw the visitor.
When he saw the visitor, he was startled because the identity of the visitor was not simple.
Not only his immediate superior, the town sheriff, but also the town mayor and a fifth-grade bachelor of the Hanlin Academy and the chief of the intelligence department.
Although the restructured Hanlin Academy also followed the example of the Hanlin Academy of the Ming Dynasty, with titles such as academic master, ministerial scholar, ministerial lecturer, ministerial scholar, ministerial lecturer, etc., it also established a total of eight departments, each of which
The chief of the department is the real powerful figure, and he is served by the assistant lecturer.
There are only a few bachelor's degree attendants, and they usually serve as Li Xuan's secretaries. As for the bachelor's degree in charge, they are naturally the heads of the Hanlin Academy.
The staff of each department are served by attendant readers and attendant lecturers. In addition, there are editors, editors and other officials with no fixed number. The position in each department is the trainee clerk.
He was a lecturer at the Hanlin Academy and the chief of a section. He was considered a mid-level official within the Tang Dynasty. Qu Guangtai had never seen such a high-ranking official.
After meeting this bachelor lecturer, my legs were trembling a little!
After talking about the situation of the Dong family intermittently, the scholar said: "Let's go to the Dong family and have a look!"
This lecturer has been responsible for searching for the Dong family for a long time, but there has been no progress. Now that he has a clue, he will not let it go. For this reason, he did not hesitate to drive a day to Guanghe Village.
As a result, Qu Guangtai and his group of more than ten people were preparing to go to the Dong family manor again.
At this time, the Dong family was packing their things and preparing to leave under the cover of darkness.
Qu Guangtai's performance yesterday made Dong Songan suspicious. His intuition told him that he could no longer stay in Guanghe Village. He originally thought of leaving overnight last night, but they had been traveling all the way for so many days, and the family had already
They were exhausted, especially the women, who were too tired to walk, and it was not suitable to escape during the day, so they were prepared to wait until tonight.
They packed up their belongings, hitched up the carriage, and waited for night to fall. However, it was not yet dark when servants hurried in to report that officials from the Puppet Tang Dynasty had come again, saying that it was today.
During the day, the Ming Army spies were discovered, and the people in the village were to be investigated in detail to prevent the Ming Army spies from escaping into the Dong family manor.
"These thieves are really lawless. I just gave them money yesterday. Why did it happen again in one day!" Old Man Dong couldn't help but curse at this time.
Immediately said: "An'er, go out and send those thieves away!"
Dong Songan took the order and went out, but on the way out, he had a very bad intuition in his heart!