With Chen Shuren's skills, if he wanted to mediate, he would definitely have a way to resolve the interpersonal relationship problems with Gong Dingzi or Hou Fangyu.
However, whether you can do it and whether you are willing to do it are two different things.
Chen Shuren was able to make good friends with Yang Sichang and Shi Kefa in the past. That was because Yang Sichang and Shi Kefa did not have the stigma of surrendering thieves in history.
But Gong Dingzi and Hou Fangyu are different. Some of these people have been traitors in history, and some of them are at least actively trying to become officials in the Qing Dynasty (but they failed, and the Qing Dynasty did not want them to be officials).
Shen Shuren knew that he wanted to pursue a great cause in the future. As a great man of ZTE, it was not worth it to leave the flaw on his resume that "some of the friends you made became traitors" just for such a small profit.
Therefore, during this official sales meeting, he always maintained a wait-and-see attitude and would never try to curry favor with those people. He believed that there were always other solutions to the problem.
After waiting and watching, he really discovered some ways.
As the literary meeting passed, there were fewer and fewer flatterers surrounding Gong, Hou, and Zhu. Later, there were even a few middle-aged people who seemed not to be able to get along with them. After some coded bargaining, , and walked away, saying that he wanted to find another way out.
Chen Shuren couldn't understand these people's charades at first - because they never explicitly stated their purchase of an official position, but only hinted at it in current affairs topics.
It was Gu Yanwu who was well-informed and secretly helped Shen Shuren translate, so he knew what was going on.
Chen Shuren couldn't help but be curious:
"Eh? Brother Gu, didn't you just say that if you want to buy an official vacancy, you have to follow the three people to coordinate and manage it. If you don't manage it, even if you pay enough for official business, you will only be thrown into a job without power. Go up.
But why do these seniors, who seem to be tough-minded, still hope to buy another job after negotiating with them?"
Gu Yanwu looked accustomed to it: "There are always exceptions to everything. If you had bought an official position in Nanzhili in the early years, you would basically have been unable to escape the help of brokers.
But now the country is in conflict with Japan, and bandits are rampant. Since Zhang Xianzhong destroyed the Fengyang Imperial Mausoleum in the eighth year of Chongzhen, many scholars from the south of the Yangtze River have been afraid of going to Jiangbei to serve as officials. The closer they are to the front line of bandits, the less valuable they are. .
In addition, there are many positions that have been vacated by bandits, and there will always be more to sell in the end. For these worthless positions, there is no need to please those brokers, and they can just do business and pay enough money-Xiandi doesn't think so too. Are you going to be one of those insurance officers? If that’s the case, you can just talk to your Chief Wu directly.”
Chen Shuren suddenly realized that it turned out that not all official positions were in short supply, but only the fat ones were in short supply.
"You didn't tell me earlier!" Shen Shuren was in a happy mood. He immediately stood up, unabashedly walked forward with a glass of wine, and walked directly in front of Wu Weiye.
"Chief Shan, today's grand gathering coincides with this. The students also want to find an opportunity to serve the country. Please give me your permission, Sir."
Shen Shuren was very generous and said directly in front of a group of people that he wanted to buy an official position.
Wu Weiye was chatting with Qian Qianyi, and was shocked when he suddenly heard him being so direct.
Of course he knew that many people were here today to talk about buying an official position, but no one would come so clearly. Then how could he help with the operation of job vacancies and how to negotiate the price?
Wu Weiye still wanted to help him, and winked to the side, wanting to introduce Shen Shuren to Gong Dingzi and give him a step down:
"Shuren, since you entered prison, I have never given you any knowledge. Today is a rare occasion. This is your first time meeting Mr. Zhilu, right? He is not much older than you, but he has already had a literary name. This The princes are also related to family studies, so don’t miss it and ask them for advice on poetry and articles.”
After saying that, Wu Weiye turned to Gong Dingzi and Hou Fangyu, and said seemingly casually: "My dear brother and my dear nephew, at today's literary meeting, each of you will meet a beautiful woman. You can't indulge in the gentle countryside. You still have to support the underachievers in learning. ."
Gong Dingzai understood: "Brother Wu is making fun of me. We are poor and poor, why do we need to say these things. Beautiful and talented women, their ears will recognize their voices, their eyes will recognize their beauty, so just let nature take its course."
Wu Weiye stroked his beard: "Hey, a gentleman has the beauty of an adult, and Shen Sheng is a man who is eager for justice, loyal to justice, and spares money. Have you all heard of the name of his father, Chief Shen of the Household Department?"
Gong Dingzi pretended to have just learned about it, and nodded to Chen Shuren with a feint.
These words seem to be saying that learning should be the most important thing, and don't care about the few singing and dancing girls we saw at today's literary conference. But the subtext is clearly to help build relationships, and let Chen Shuren pay for each to redeem a girl as a gift. Gong, Hou, think of "agency fee".
Shen Shu's heart was bright and he couldn't help but laugh:
In the opera "The Peach Blossom Fan" written by Kong Shangren of the Qing Dynasty, it was mentioned that when Hou Fangyu groomed Li Xiangjun, it was because his family had not recovered and could not afford the money, so his friend Yang Wencong paid him for it.
Today's scene is so similar! It turns out that the so-called "friends treat" is because his father, the former Minister of Revenue, has a chance to be released from prison and reinstated due to Zuo Liangyu's threats!
How could Shen Shuren do such a thing? If he was involved in such dirty things, even if history books would not bother to write about it in the future, he would not be able to bear it if he was written into the lace Kunqu opera.
At that moment, he responded very clearly: "The mountain leader has kind intentions, and the students understand them. However, in today's troubled times, embellishment of poetry is of no use to the country, and students have no time to learn those things. The students came today because they want to donate officials in accordance with the law and ask the mountain leader to report ."
He spoke very candidly, and his volume increased even more, which shocked everyone.
There were so many people showing off their poetry just now, which caused many mutual compliments, but none of them were as violent as this time.
"You... are insulting to gentlemen!" Gong Dingzi and others were quite angry after being humiliated.
"As expected, he is the son of a businessman. I heard that his father was the emperor in the second year of Chongzhen. After the imperial court officially allowed the donation of officials, he donated it immediately." There were voices whispering in the distance, but I couldn't tell who was speaking.
Even the Qinhuai beauties who were singing and dancing on Tingzhou were alarmed by the movement here, stopped playing music, and looked curiously at this farce that went on and on without any regard for elegance.
Chen Shuren's expression remained unchanged, as if he were basking in the spring breeze: "Chief Wu Shan, do you think so too? I do everything in accordance with the laws of the imperial court, why should I be so polite?"
After all, Wu Weiye still has a conscience, and he is not exactly the same as those people. He immediately blushed: "I didn't say you were disrespectful to gentlemen. Since everyone has their own ambitions, I won't stop you.
Seeing that you are like this and are so eager to donate your official position, you won’t be able to participate in conferences and auditions in the future. You have to think clearly that acting in such an unconventional way will probably ruin your popularity in the future.”
Ruining popularity? Will not being polite ruin people's popularity? Shen Shuren disagrees with this.
Six years later in history, when Dorgon Duduo put his knife to their necks, the other three people in the group around Wu Weiye, except Wu Weiye himself, surrendered.
I don’t see how popular Dorgon is, so he has to sing praises even if he is not allowed to praise them.
"Captain Shan, please forgive me. For thousands of years, people all over the world have been shy about donating officials. They are embarrassed to say it directly, but how many people have really thought about it?
They just think that after buying an official position, they will use their power for personal gain, plunder the people's wealth and support, or that incompetent people will miss the national affairs if they get the official position and fail to fulfill their duties. But as long as you are really talented and don't seek wealth as an official, then what is there to be ashamed of? Students are like this Official, donate openly and honestly."
Chen Shuren dealt with Wu Weiye, then turned to Gong Dingzi calmly and said politely:
"Mr. Gong, you won't retaliate against me because I didn't ask you for advice on poetry and rhetoric, will you? Are you planning to find a county in Luzhou Prefecture or Anqing Prefecture with the poorest mountains and rivers close to rogues to give me a job?"
Shen Shuren took the initiative to talk things over, which made Gong Dingzai feel uncomfortable. Hou Fangyu was in the same situation.
Among the three brokers, Zhu Guangshi was the only one who had already broken up with the Shen family and knew the inside story of the relevant positions. He rolled his eyes and immediately stopped Gong Dingzi and said with a smile:
"Mr. Gong, a great scholar in the world, don't judge a gentleman with a villain's heart. Don't worry, we won't let you donate to the local officials in the occupied areas. There are still some gaps here for the Anlu army to supervise the military supplies. That's a good job. It depends on whether you have the ability to contribute to the country."
Chen Shuren would not be agitated after hearing this. Of course he knew the grievances between Zhu Dadian's family and Shen's family. Zhu Guangshi suddenly jumped out and was definitely going to deal with him.
However, as long as he was running errands for Yang Sichang, Zhu Dadian would not be able to frame him. Even if there were any flaws in the logistics, he would thoroughly investigate and find out which link caused the problem.
The Zhu family was in the light and the Shen family was in the dark about this matter. The Zhu family did not know that Yang Sichang protected and valued the Shen family.
The Shen family seems to be in danger, but they are not afraid as long as they are capable of doing things well.
Shen Shuren accepted this challenge generously, finalized the matter of donating an official position with Wu Weiye, and also donated one to his cousin Zhang Huangyan.
Then the two brothers drifted away without talking any more nonsense to those corrupt people.
This style of work was a breath of fresh air in the market that day, and the buyers were so determined that they didn't feel embarrassed at all.
Moreover, there were some candidates and supervisors in the room who had no intention of buying an official position but wanted to take the exam to become a scholar. They actually had some faint admiration for Shen Shuren.
…
After the cultural meeting, I waited for no more than ten days, during which time I paid money, and the appointment came quickly.
Shen Shuren spent eight thousand taels of silver and was thrown to "Susongguan River" to work as a pawnbroker.
River officials in the late Ming Dynasty were divided into fourth- and fifth-grade officials according to the level of their jurisdiction. They were in charge of canal water conservancy and material transportation. During the war years, they also temporarily performed part of the work equivalent to the "Grain Supervision" of the Qing Dynasty.
Although the level of the Guanhe Dao Yamen is not low, there are middle-level officials such as Treasury envoys and Zandians under the Daotai officials, who are generally sixth to seventh grade. Since the Dian officials below them all have the word "li", they are actually eighth grade. Pin Xiaoguan is responsible for the delivery, transportation and accounting of grain in one or several counties.
The Shen family is a native of Suzhou, and Shen Shu was sent back to his hometown to be responsible for transporting grain. It is said to be very easy. Even considering that the war is now going on and the grain needs to be transported to Yang Sichang Shi Ke in Anhui for the French army, there is no risk.
But Shen Shuren knew very well that Zhu Dadian's family was willing to let him take this position because they definitely wanted to deal with him and use it to deal with his father Shen Tingyang.
If things are done well, it is easy to achieve results. If things are not done well, it will be up to the Zhu family to see what tricks the Zhu family has to frame them up.
As for Chen Shuren's cousin Zhang Huangyan, his treatment was not as high as that of Chen Shuren.
His uncle was only willing to give him 5,000 taels to donate his official position, and finally donated it to Dian Shi of Tongcheng County, Anqing Prefecture, to be responsible for the security and armed forces of a county.
Tongcheng County is less than a hundred miles away from Huoshan Mountain where Gezuo Wuying is entrenched, and it belongs to the edge of the Dabie Mountains. The county magistrate, Cheng Dianshi and other officials there were all killed by bandits in June, leaving a gap.
Those dog officials who have the power to allocate positions put newcomers who have paid money but have no trust in those dangerous positions. Fortunately, by the time Zhang Huangyan takes office, it will be almost winter, and the thieves will not be in the mountains in the cold winter. Aggressively attack the city with troops.