Women Wearing Men: The Growth Path of the Bastards of the Aristocratic Family

Chapter 454 Involving the Xu family
Seeing his wife, Gu Yunji immediately calmed down his anger and looked gentle: "Why aren't you sleeping yet?"

Xu Shuhua laughed at his sudden change of expression and joked: "Aren't you still asleep? It's late at night. Even if Mr. Gu is worried about official duties, he still needs to take care of his health, right?"

"It will be ready soon." Gu Yunji looked at the mountain of business affairs piled up on the table, and his mood sank again, "There are already a lot of things to do, and procrastinating them will only become more troublesome and unpredictable. Can you go to bed first? Later I'll come back to accompany you after I've finished taking care of it."

Xu Shuhua knew what he was busy with recently. Hearing this, he just shook his head, his eyes fell on the official business in front of him, and he whispered: "Isn't the investigation going well?"

Speaking of this, Gu Yunji had a headache: "Fortunately, the inventory process was not difficult to carry out. The main reason is that the shops that were found to be open to Japan were not only large in number, accounting for one-third of the relevant shops in the city, but also they were His attitude towards this was very negative and he did not realize his mistake at all.”

"I went to check the shops, and nine out of ten of them would say, 'Whoever you sell to is not selling, you are making money anyway, and there is no difference between selling to Japanese pirates and selling to other people.' From the bottom of their hearts, they think that their behavior is at best a little It's immoral, and they even think that I'm making a fuss out of a molehill and using the chicken feathers given by my superiors as arrows."

"Some people have complained to my senior brother, saying that I am a tyrant, use my official power to coerce people, and persecute good people like them. Do you think I can not be angry?"

Xu Shuhua pondered: "Punishment of Japanese shops only treats the symptoms but not the root cause. The key is to help the people change their minds and let them know that Japanese pirates are Japanese pirates and are enemies at odds with the imperial court and all the people of Daxia."

Gu Yunji nodded: "I understand this, but it takes time, so you have to do it slowly. These days, while I am checking the shops, I am spreading knowledge to the merchants. At the same time, I have also summoned the district chiefs and officials from various places to teach them. The people at the bottom help the people establish national concepts.”

"And Su Qi, he knows everything about food, drink, and entertainment. He actually came up with the ingenious idea of ​​making a story about the Japanese pirates killing people and telling it to the people through the storyteller's mouth. Don't tell me, this method is quite useful. I passed by a teahouse during the day, and all the guests inside were so angry that they wanted to rush to the battlefield to kill the two Japanese pirates."

Xu Shuhua smiled and smoothed his frown: "You already have such a complete plan, which is both punishment and education, both soft and hard. The rest is just a matter of time, so what are you worried about?"

"Since you became an official, I have never seen you fail to accomplish anything you have set your mind to. The current difficulty is just a temporary one, and you will definitely solve it. I believe in you."

Listening to his wife's gentle words, Gu Yunji suddenly thought of something and his eyes flashed.

He held Xu Shuhua's hand, with complex emotions welling up in his heart, and said anxiously: "Shuhua, if...I'm talking about if, if the Xu family breaks the law, I have to touch them...what would you think? ?”

Xu Shuhua was startled, and then he understood: "The matter of Tongwa Shop involves the Xu family, right?"

Gu Yunji was silent for a moment, and then said truthfully: "Yes."

"How serious is it?"

"...It's a bit serious." Gu Yunji didn't dare to look her in the eyes and said bravely, "A considerable number of the shops that were inspected were under the names of the Xu family, and they were all confirmed to have engaged in Japanese treason. Moreover, Compared with others, they sold more materials to the Japanese pirates, the quantities were larger, and the circumstances were more serious." In fact, Gu Yunji was euphemistic, and the real situation was more serious than this.

Although there are many merchants in Tongwa, most of the plots are relatively minor, nothing more than selling hundreds of kilograms of grain and dozens of pieces of cloth.Some of the more important goods, such as salt, are basically sold by people from the Xu family, and the amounts involved are large, ranging from hundreds of taels of silver to nearly a thousand taels of silver.

This is not unusual. How could a powerful family not have some shady business behind it?Not to mention that this was Jiangnan, where the gentry had the power and money, owned the largest amount of land, and ran the widest range of businesses. It was inevitable that men would bully women and men would bully women.

Families such as the Gu family and the Xu family mostly encourage their direct descendants to join the officialdom and guarantee their status with official honors; as for the descendants of the collateral descendants, they tacitly allow them to penetrate into all walks of life, accumulate wealth, and expand their influence.Even if it is overturned once, the direct descendants can still be preserved and can make a comeback at any time.

To put it bluntly, feudal society is also a clan society. Even if Gu Yunji cannot get to the root of the problem, he can still set an example to serve as a warning to others and punish these big families.It happened that the Xu family was his wife's family and Xu Shuhua's natal family. Such a relationship made him very embarrassed.

There was no emotion on Xu Shuhua's face, and he just asked him: "What are you going to do?"

Gu Yunji considered the words: "...What do you want me to do?"

"Look at what you said." Xu Shuhua chuckled, "If the Xu family commits a serious crime, will you still bend the law because of me? This is not like your style, Mr. Gu."

Gu Yunji's cheeks heated up: "It's not a serious crime... You know, the fundamental reason for the Japanese merchants is that they didn't realize the seriousness of the matter, and subjectively they didn't make any big mistakes. Senior brother told me long ago that this time as punishment Because if you just sell things to Japanese pirates, you will basically be fined, and there won’t be any heavy penalties.”

As he said that, Gu Yunji hesitated again: "...Although it doesn't involve life, the fine is not a small sum. This is your natal family, and I'm afraid you will be sad."

"What do I have to be sad about? When I was a child, I followed my father in the capital, and later went to Luxi Academy. I didn't spend much time with the Xu family, and I didn't have a deep relationship with them." Xu Shuhua smiled easily, and then said seriously, "You will be punished if you make a mistake, not to mention this is not an ordinary mistake."

"I have seen with my own eyes how busy you were in fighting the Japanese, and I know how hard you, Su Qi, and your senior brother tried to restore peace along the coast. Not only did I fail to help you, but my natal family is still there. I am the one who should feel guilty for holding you back and making things difficult for you."

Gu Yunji softened his heart, pulled her over and sat in his arms, and said warmly: "Shuhua, don't say that. This has nothing to do with you. You have already helped me a lot."

Xu Shuhua looked into his eyes: "In short, I believe you, you will not wrong anyone. As long as the evidence is conclusive, there is nothing you can't do to arrest even the Xu family in order to restore peace along the coast. Just go ahead and do it."

Hearing this, Gu Yunji was moved and thought of another point: "But if I just deal with the Xu family like this, will the teacher..."

(End of this chapter)