Forty-eight years of Qianlong

Chapter 37
Zhao Xinchong Lu Shoushan shook his head: "I'm not a banner man."

Zhao Xin remembers very clearly that ten years ago, his father took him to visit a relative in his family.In terms of seniority, his father wanted to call the old lady Seven Grandma.

During the conversation, the grandmother of the seventh ancestor mentioned that our Zhao family moved from Jiangsu in the early Qing Dynasty, but the old lady can't tell where it is, it seems to be Yancheng.

"None of us are your subjects of the Qing Dynasty. Don't you understand when you look at our dress?" Wu Siyu explained to Lu Shoushan.

"Yeah, we don't have any pigtails here. They say they are overseas survivors."

After Lu Shoushan heard this, he felt relieved.Like the Xu family brothers, he also has tattoos on both sides of his cheeks, "disobedience" is tattooed on his left cheek, and "Ning Guta" is tattooed on his right cheek.

And this is also the reason why the four of them did not dare to hide in a populated village; anyone who looked at them knew that they were runaways, and they could receive money if they were caught and sent to officials.

Lu Shoushan begged: "Master, let me take a look at the young master, I won't wake them up."

However, Zhao Xin didn't say anything, he actually walked to the side of the car, gently twisted the car door, and waved to Lu Shoushan who was behind him.

Lu Shoushan tiptoed to the front, and looked into the door with his head, which startled him a lot.

When he was in the Xu family before, he had never seen such rich decorations.

Zhao Xin pushed behind him and let Lu Shoushan get into the car, while he followed and closed the door.He patted Lu Shoushan on the shoulder, and then pointed to the bed where the two children were.

After getting into the car, Lu Shoushan was dazzled by the furnishings around him, and took in a breath of cold air.He didn't dare to move at all, and following Zhao Xin's fingers, he saw that the two brothers were sleeping under the quilt, and the quilt rose and fell with his breathing.

"Sir, where's my brother?" Lu Shoushan slowly turned around and asked Zhao Xinyi.

Zhao Xin turned and pointed to another bed.When Lu Shoushan looked, it wasn't Pan Xiucheng, his face turned to the outside, and he was also sleeping soundly.

He was relieved.Seeing Zhao Xin waving at him, he followed Zhao Xin out of the car.

When Zhao Xin closed the door, he returned to where he was standing.Lu Shoushan stepped forward quickly, knelt down and kowtowed to Zhao Xin.

"If you keep kneeling like this, I'll leave you alone." Zhao Xin said to Lu Shoushan with a serious face.

Lu Shoushan still respectfully kowtowed three times, then stood up and said to Zhao Xin: "These three heads, I am thanking the master for the Xu family. If there is no master to save the Xu family, the Xu family will never end. already."

"Xu's family?" Zhao Xin thought about it, but he didn't have any impression. "Can you tell me what happened to the two of you?"

"Master, can you find a quiet place, there are many people here." Lu Shoushan looked around at the refugees who were busy in the camp.

"Okay. Angkor, come with you too." After Zhao Xin finished speaking, he turned to Liji who was standing by and said, "Find a tent with no one and ask two people to come over and stare, don't let anyone listen."

In fact, this is what Lu Shoushan said. Except for Zhao Xin and the other seven in the camp, who can understand it.

What no one noticed at this time was that Liu Sheng turned and left.

Li Ji went in a hurry, and trotted back after a while, saying that the tent was ready.

So Zhao Xin asked Li Ji to lead the way, and he, Lu Shoushan, and Wang Yuanfang came to a tent on the outermost side of the camp.Just after sitting down for a while, Liu Sheng, Ding Guofeng, Zhao Liang, and Deng Fei also came. It turned out that he was going to call someone.

Everyone sat cross-legged on the cotton cushions in the tent.Soon, Shino and A Miao entered the tent with a pot of tea and a few cups.

After pouring tea for several people, Zhi Nai withdrew, while A Miao stayed outside the tent and waited, so that Zhao Xin had something to give.

Lu Shoushan held the teacup, thought for a while, and asked Wu Siyu, "Master, you can speak our Dongtai dialect, but do you know Yizhulou in Dongtai County?"

Wu Siyu shook his head in confusion and said, "My ancestors were from Yangzhou, and I only learned a little of Dongtai dialect after hearing it."

Lu Shoushan saw that he didn't know, so he said: "The matter of the Xu family happened five years ago. However, the root of this matter has to be talked about more than 40 years ago..."

As Wu Siyu translated some dialects and local languages ​​in a group, Lu Shoushan narrated a past event that made everyone feel sad.

Lu Shoushan used to be called Xu Shan. He used to be Xu Shounan's grandfather's attendant. He also read some books when he was young.Because he joined the Xu family as a servant since he was a child, he took the surname Xu; as for Pan Xiucheng, who was still playing a swing, he was the driver of the Xu family, and he was originally called Xu Xiucheng after the main family's surname.

Lu Shoushan followed Xu Shounan's grandfather for many years. When he grew up, he was very appreciated by the Xu family because of several errands.Later, he was asked to change his surname back to his original surname and added the word "shou" to his name.

To say that the Xu family was originally the largest squire in Zhucha Town, Dongtai County, near Taizhou, Jiangsu.The matter has to start from the great-grandfather of Xu Shounan, the grandfather of the Xu family, Mrs. Xu.

This old lady Xu, formerly known as Xu Shukui, styled Xiaowen.

In the third year of Qianlong (1738), Xu Shukui was 35 years old and passed the provincial examination.But because he wrote a sentence in the answer of the examination paper, "the one who is polite, the one who commits suicide is also the one who commits suicide", which violated the examiner's taboo.Therefore, he failed to pass the examination of the Ministry of Rites, and was also disqualified from participating in the future examinations, and has since missed the officialdom.

This thing was rumored in Dongtai Town in those days.Lu Shoushan had listened to his master Xu Huaizu a few times and remembered it.

It is said that Xu Shukui had to return to his hometown to study knowledge and write poems under the disappointment of all kinds.He built a library in his courtyard.Because there is a large pillar in the center of the book building, and the roof beams rest on this pillar like umbrella bones, and it was later named "One Pillar Building".

In the 27th year of Qianlong (1762), Xu Shukui died in depression, not yet 60 years old.

After Xu Shukui's death, Xu Huaizu, also known as Xu Shounan's grandfather, invited two of his father's students, Xu Shoufa and Shen Chengzhuo, two scholars, to sort out his father's legacy.This is "One Pillar Building Poems".

In the more than ten years since then, no one has ever suggested to Xu Huaizu that there are fallacies in his father's books.

Until the 42nd year of Qianlong (1777), Cai Jiashu, the second son of the Cai family in the same village, had grievances because of a field dispute with the Xu family.

To put it simply, the eldest of the Cai family sold his land to the Xu family because of the downfall of the family.But the Cai family's ancestral tomb is in this field. At that time, the Xu family set aside one mu of land around the Cai family's ancestral tomb and returned it to the Cai family.

Then Cai Jiashu collided with Xu Huaizu in words because of the donation from the village; Xu Huaizu used Cai Jiashu's son to shave his head on National Shirts Day, and sued the Cai family to the county government, forcing the Cai family to make donations.Cai Jiashu held a grudge for this.

In the summer of this year, Xu Huaizu suffered an emergency and died.

The head of the Xu family was replaced by Master Xu's son Xu Shitian, the father of Xu Funan and Xu Shounan.

After the winter of that year, Cai Jiashu came to the door and said that he wanted to redeem the land that was sold for 400 taels that year for 960 taels.How could Xu Shitian agree to this request, so he was kicked out on the spot.

As a result, before going out, Cai Jiashu said that Xu Shitian's grandfather's "One Pillar Building Poems" contained the words "destroying this dynasty" and that he was going to sue the official.

Xu Shitian immediately found his grandfather's disciples, Xu Shoufa and Shen Chengzhuo, who were also the organizers of the works.As the proofreaders of Yizhulou's anthology, these two old scholars are listed on the first page of the book. ("The first hair is washed" implies dissatisfaction with the Qing court's shaving of hair)
Several people carefully scrutinized the words and sentences in the book and found that some words would indeed arouse criticism.However, in the literary world at that time, it was generally believed that a good poem must have a strong character.

Moreover, among the people who wrote the preface to the "Yizhulou Poems Collection", in addition to Yao Delin, who was the ambassador of Yanchang at the time, the other was once called "the old famous person in Jiangnan" by Qianlong. Qi, Shen Deqian, a great Confucian in Suzhou, who entered the Temple of Xianliang to worship.

After a few discussions, Xu Shitian decided to hand over the printed and published books and editions to the county government.

After Cai Jiashu on the other side went back, at the instigation of his housekeeper Tong Zhilin (who wanted to study in Taizhou in his early years, but was not allowed by Xu Shukui, so he held grudges for many years), the two found the "words of disobedience" in Xu Shukui's writings, so He submitted a petition to the county government, and the petition mentioned the dispute over the land between himself and the Xu family.

When Tu Yuelong, then the magistrate of Dongtai County, interrogated the case, he also noticed that there were verses in the book such as "destroying my clothes is really hateful, destroying the nest in the Ming Dynasty".But because he didn't want to directly conflict with the big country gentry like the Xu family, he sent the manuscripts, stereotypes and books to Jiangning Bookstore for processing.

In the judgment, the magistrate Tu first praised Cai Jiashu's behavior.However, it is said that the Xu family had already handed over the engraved books to the county government before the Cai family came to file the first complaint, so they were exempted from prosecution according to the law; as for all the writings of Xu Shukui, he will send people to Jiangning Bookstore for review; as for Cai Xu Due to the disputes over the land property between the two families, the Xu family was ordered to allocate ten mu of cemetery land to be redeemed by the Cai family at the current price.

After the county pronounced the verdict, Cai Jiashu refused to accept it.In the 43rd year of Qianlong, he continued to appeal to the Jiangning Feudal Secretary.

Tao Yi, who was Jiang Ning's political envoy at the time, didn't care about such trivial matters at all, so he let one of his capable staff, Lu Yan, handle it on his behalf.

After some understanding, Lu Yan issued a license to Xie Qikun, the prefect of Yangzhou, to try the Dongtai County case.He believed that the first lawsuit against Cai Jiashu was "to fall into the hands of the mischievous people". (Lu Yan finally wrote this paragraph in the card letter sent to Yangzhou Prefecture: "If you talk about classics and biography articles, even if you publish them as songs, if the words and sentences are not checked, they are suspected, and there is no disobedience to the actual facts, they will be brought up. The person in the lead will sit back and follow the law on the basis of the falsely accused crime, with clear rules. If Cai Jiashu is suspected of accusing him, and his intentions fall, he should strictly implement the proposal.”)
Tao Yi, the political envoy, didn't make any changes after reading the card text. At that time, he just laughed and said that Lu Yan was jealous of evil, and it appeared on the paper.Tao Yi didn't think at all at this time that it was his own inattentiveness, which eventually led to a catastrophe.

Xie Qikun, the prefect of Yangzhou, immediately issued a document ordering Dongtai County to detain the first accuser and the defendant in the case after receiving the card issued by the vassal, and sent them to Yangzhou.

Xie Qikun went through the interrogation in the open court, and then carefully read "One Pillar Building Poems".In the end, it was determined that there were indeed offensive and disobedient terms in the poetry collection.

After the second inquisition, Xie Qikun escorted the tagged collection of poems, the case files of Dongtai County, and all books and editions to the governor's yamen.

Who knew that before the reply from the vassal had arrived, Cai Jiashu's son and housekeeper Tong Zhilin brought a letter to the Jiangsu Xuezheng Liu Yong who was staying in Yangzhou.

That's right, that's Liu Yong.

When Liu Yong's staff received the letter and the poetry collection as evidence, they found out that the matter was serious and immediately reported it.

And this Master Liu first noticed that the preface in the book was written by the great Confucian of Suzhou, Shen Deqian, and it was full of compliments; most importantly, he noticed that in the poetry collection there was "Qi Zhenhe of the Ming Dynasty, went to the Qing capital in one fell swoop" , "The sons of tomorrow meet again, and put the pot on the side" such words.He immediately understood that this was another big counter-argument that was no less than "word-for-word".

(In the 42nd year of Qianlong, Wang Xihou, a native of Xinchang (now Yifeng), Jiangxi, was reported for compiling "Zi Guan". Qianlong said that "the crime cannot be punished, so we should follow the law of the Great Rebellion." Wang Xihou was executed and all seven of his descendants were arrested Sentenced to beheaded, relatives "filled Heilongjiang, and served as slaves to armored men", and all officials involved were questioned.)
Since the matter was serious, Mr. Liu, who was "daring to serve", immediately sent a memorial to Qianlong and ordered the immediate arrest and custody of the person involved in the case.

(Liu Yong wrote on the memorial to Qianlong that "if there is any disobedience, it should be handled strictly; if there is no disobedience, it should also be written off, so as not to confuse people's customs. It is now transferred to the supervisor.")
Qianlong was furious after receiving Liu Yong's report, so he ordered a strict investigation.

As a result, the case was infinitely escalated because of Liu Yong, and the involvement was extremely widespread.The Xu family in Dongtai was the first to bear the brunt, followed by Xu Shoufa and Shen Chengzhuo, the Suzhou Shen family, the family of Tao Yi, the political envoy of Jiangning, the family of Tao Yi's aide Lu Yan, and all the officials who handled the case.

As long as it is stained with "One Pillar Building Poetry Collection", it will not be missed.

All of the above, etc., were searched and then punished.

(End of this chapter)