General Constitution of Ming Dynasty

Chapter 149
The Zou family's sedan chair was seized.

Ning Jue didn't listen to Gu Qing's nonsense anymore.

Instead, they turned around and went straight to Wuxi City, but instead of rushing into the city, they searched along the Wuxi City Wall from north to west.

The residences of dignitaries are often not in the city, but in the suburbs.

By the time Ning Jue arrived at Wuxi Xiguan, it was already evening and the lights had just come on.

Looking from a distance, a huge mansion at the foot of Huishan was brightly lit, and there was an endless stream of servants coming in and out.

From that mansion to Wuxi Xiguan, there is not a single residential building along the way.

Only the rubble piled up on both sides of the road proves that there used to be dwellings here.

Ning Jue rode on the road towards the mansion.

Not long after, they saw a hut, but there was a maid standing outside the hut.

In the shack, there was an old woman in gorgeous clothes, who looked out of place with the surrounding ruins.

Ning Jue glanced at Gu Qingnong who was following behind her, and immediately understood something.

"Stop."

"Officer, are we not going any further?"

"Going forward? You are not tossing about in vain."

Gu Qingnong immediately closed his mouth.

Ning Jue jumped off the horse and walked towards the hut. After a short pause, he said in a soft voice, "Dare to ask the old lady, but is it the grand lady of Nandu Dazong Bo Gu's family?"

"No! The family surnamed Gu is dead! He was forced to death by his Zou family!"

The maidservant outside the shack ran into the shack after hearing the words.

"Mrs. Tai, the elder master and the second master have difficulties."

Listen to the conversation between the master and servant.

Ning Jue gasped involuntarily.

This is really taking care of the family!
It doesn't matter whether the Ministry of Rites of Nandu is a yamen for the elderly.

He, Gu Kexue, is a veritable Jiuqing.

He was forced to this point by someone!

What about the strict party's power? !
Ning Jue looked at the old woman with some doubts and asked, "Madam Tai, you don't seem to be short of money, why did you commit yourself to this shack?"

The old woman raised her head and stared at Ning Jue with a slightly sullen expression.

"I'm not short of money, does it matter where I live?"

"The ancestral house of Wuxi Gu's Fu Wuzhi is right under your feet! Gu's ancestors have lived here for generations! Even if I am rich, where should I live?"

As she said that, the old woman's expression became more and more excited.

"His surname is Zou, because it is inconvenient for his mother to do business, so he demolished the houses along the way to Xiguan."

"Is he the only one with the surname Zou who has a mother in this world?! Others are afraid of him, but I am not! As long as I have breath, I will live here in the ancestral house!"

Ning Jue looked back.

Only then did I see a slightly wretched figure standing under a pedestal to worship.

The maid beside her hurriedly whispered in the old woman's ear: "Mrs. Tai, the Eldest Master is back."

"His mother is dead, tell him to stay in Jinling and not come back!"

The old woman pointed in the direction of Gu Kexue, and could not swear, Ning Jue also frowned and walked towards Gu Kexue.

"Gu Butang?"

Gu Kexue looked at Ning Jue with a smile, and then said: "Ning Qianxian, let's meet again."

"If this is a play, then Gu Butang really has lost his money."

Gu Kexue smiled and shook his head, pointing to the ruins in front of him: "My family has lived in the ancestral house for six generations, and my mother is six in her [-]s. If this is really a drama, I, Gu Kexue, But you won’t have the face to see your ancestors.”

"Why didn't Gu Butang speak directly to Ning?" Ning Jue looked at Gu Kexue suspiciously.

"From the first day when the villagers said that I was the Master of Urinary Refining, I told people that I was no longer. Has anyone heard of it?"

"People's words are not in my hands, nor is the history pen in my hands!" Gu Kexue looked at his ancestral house and said leisurely: "Everyone is innocent, but pregnant is guilty."

"I only consider myself to be an official in the court and rank among the nine ministers, and I am no longer an ordinary man." Gu Kexue's emotions became more and more agitated, and tears rolled in his eyes.

Ning Jue sat at the side, pouted at Gu Qing who was not far away.

"Come on, Gu Butang, it's been a while, and you still pretend to be angry. It's true to be angry, but you say that you are kind, and you don't believe it yourself?"

Gu Kexue resigned in embarrassment.

"Sure, then I'll have a fight with Ke Zhong."

"My family has more than [-] acres of land here in Wuxi, but I'm not afraid of you taking over my land."

Ning Jue looked at Gu Kexue with some doubts.

"Why?"

Gu Kexue pointed at the Zou family and said with a smile: "He, Zou Wang, demolished my ancestral house. I ordered the prefect to take Zou Wang into prison. Guess how he got out?"

"Ten miles inside and outside the county city, the city has been ordered to stop the market. My Gu family can't even buy a single silk thread in Wuxi!"

"There are more than [-] people in my family, and there are almost no vegetables and rotten fish to eat! That night, Zou Wang replaced the official seal I carried with me with tiles from my ancestral house."

"Urine Refining Book..." Gu Kexue showed a bit of bitterness: "If the old man is really powerful, how dare they call him the Urine Refining Book?!"

Gu Kexue took out a family letter from his pocket, and said loudly: "My two brothers have entered the court as officials, and it's unbelievable that we can't even keep an ancestral house."

Ning Jue asked with some doubts: "What position does your younger brother have?"

"Yuxin is currently the deputy envoy of Guangdong's procuratorate, presiding over the provincial examination in Qiongzhou."

Ning Jue looked up at Gu Kexue in disbelief and asked, "Gu Yancha, preside over this year's Qiongzhou Prefecture Examination?"

"Huh? Does Qian Xian know about my brother?"

Gu Kexue's heart tightened, and Ning Jue shook his head and said, "No."

"The way of heaven is watching, Gu Butang doesn't have to worry, even if there is no Ning, there will be someone who will vent this anger on behalf of the Gu family in the future."

Gu Kexue didn't understand the deep meaning of the words.

Ning Jue knew that there would be a 35-year-old scholar in Qiongzhou Township Examination this year who would be appreciated by Gu Kexue's younger brother Gu Kejiu and thus passed the exam.

And that poor scholar's name is Hai Rui.

But any scholar in the south of the Yangtze River who knew the prestige of this Hai Gangfeng would not be so hasty to give Hai Rui's uncle the reputation of being a master of urination.

What is loyal is like an ant, what is filial is like a beast.

He called Hai Rui's uncle a master of making urine, and demolished Hai Rui's master's ancestral house.

When Hai Rui was practicing whipping in Jiangnan, whenever he blinked, it was because Hai Gangfeng was disloyal and unfilial.

After a long time, Gu Kexue, who was standing in the wind, stroked his beard and looked at Ning Jue and asked, "Dare to ask Qian Xian, when will the Wuxi Whip Law be implemented?"

It's just that Gu Kexue didn't expect that Ning Jue looked at him with a smile on his face.

"anytime."

Before Gu Kexue could figure out the meaning of Ning Jue's words.

Ning Jue has already taken out the official seal from his arms and put it in Gu Kexue's hand.

"The official seal of the next official."

Gu Kexue's expression changed, he frowned and said, "What does Ke Zhong mean?"

"The water in the south of the Yangtze River is deep, and Ning, an outsider, how can he put his beak?"

"If something happens, Ning will be responsible. If Zou Wang, a gentleman in Wuxi, holds grudges, he will only hold grudges against Ning."

"The opportunity for revenge is right in front of Zongbo."

"Uncle Zong is willing to let Ning sit back and enjoy the success?"

Gu Kexue was dumbfounded.

Originally, he wanted to pull Ningjue into the water.

How could it be that he, Ning Jue, dragged himself into the water? !

Before Gu Kexue could open his mouth, Mrs. Gu Jiatai's reprimand suddenly sounded behind her.

"Evil! Hurry up and kneel down! This is the benefactor of our Gu family!"

"Your father, your grandpa, and your great-grandfather are all watching you in the sky! Do you want me to visit you in the sky too?!"

Hearing Mrs. Gu Jiatai's scolding, the smile on Ning Jue's face became brighter.

no way.

Been with those old foxes for a long time.

You can never learn nothing.

The old lady heard that she could take revenge, so she didn't care about so much.

Gu Kexue has been in the officialdom for so many years, and this is the first time he has seen someone hand over his official seal to take the initiative to take the initiative, but his intuition tells him that there must be other pits under this pit.

But he couldn't refuse this condition.

Everyone in the city watched as Zou Wang rode on Gu's neck and defecated everywhere.

If Zou Wang was not punished, how could the Gu family gain a foothold in Wuxi in the future.

"I did it!"

Gu Kexue's face darkened, staring at Ning Jue and said loudly: "I'll help the imperial court clear the fields in Wuxi!"

The last time Gu Kexue served the imperial court sincerely was during the Zhengde period.

When he served as a counselor in Zhejiang, he was left idle for more than [-] years because he offended the big family in central Zhejiang.

It wasn't until Yan Song joined the cabinet that Gu Kexue won the favor of Jiajing and re-entered the court with a "Medical Prescriptions".

After finishing speaking, Gu Kexue turned around abruptly, knelt down and kowtowed towards the ruins of his ancestral home, and said, "The ancestors are above all, and the unworthy descendants can learn from it. This is to avenge the Gu family!"

After Hou Gu Kexue got up, he made his surroundings take a few steps back and forth, and ran into his mother's shack, after tossing about for a while, he took out a rough map that couldn't be rougher.

"Ke Zhong, this is the map left by my ancestors in the Gu family."

Ning Jue looked at the map and was silent for a while.

It's just a piece of old rice paper with a few rivers, a few lines, and then some strange patterns.

"Are you sure your family calls this a map...?"

"Ke Zhong, you don't understand now. No one in the whole city knows that my Gu family has this picture. Even if they know it, they can't understand it. This is Huishan, this is Dongli Lake, and further west, Here, in Taihu Lake...the sericulture and fishing in various fields are all clearly visible."

Seeing that Ning Jue really didn't understand, Gu Kexue casually put away the picture.

"In short, without this map, the imperial court would not be able to clear the fields in Wuxi for two years."

"What about this picture?"

Gu Kexue snorted coldly, and then said: "Before Ying Tianqiu enters this year, this old man can turn Wuxi upside down!"

In the early morning of the next day, a cavalry team composed of more than two hundred clan members appeared on the streets of Wuxi.

And in the solemnity of the team, Ning Jue, who was riding on a horse, was followed by a slightly delicate entourage, and beside Ning Jue was a four-carriage sedan chair for a woman.

A group of people marched straight into the Wuxi county government office.

"Idlers and others, all leave the county government office!"

"Presumptuous! This is my government office."

Before the county magistrate finished speaking, Ning Jue, who was riding on a horse, looked at the Wuxi county magistrate and said with a smile: "Not anymore."

"you!"

Before the county magistrate finished speaking, two lieutenants of Fengguo stepped forward and "invited" the county magistrate out.

After everyone retreated one after another, looking at the back office with no one around, Ning Jue said softly to the sedan chair next to him: "Mr., there is no one else, get off the sedan chair."
-
Jinling, Heming Tower.

A dusty servant ran into the restaurant in a hurry.

"Master, something big happened in Wuxi!"

"What's the panic?"

"The old lady's sedan chair was sealed by the people from the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and Wuxi has already started to clear the fields!"

On the counter, Zou Wang looked up in disbelief and asked.

"Then Gu Kexue didn't stop him?"

"The Gu family's field was finished in less than a day, and now those royal relatives have already rushed to our family's land, and the fields in the west of the city are all plowed!"

The abacus in Zou Wang's hand fell to the ground with a "crash", and the beads of the abacus rolled all over the place.

Zou Wang also rolled his eyes, fell backwards and passed out.

Zou Wang's family had never had a name before Jiajing, and since Zou Wang's death, they have rarely been heard of.

In Wang Shizhen's eyes, after Zou Wang's death, Zou Wang's "millions" of family property were "destroyed by the government" because of the "competition" of the family property by the two sons in just a few years.

Are brothers fighting against the wall really?
　1. The record of Zou Wang's family property comes from Wang Shizhen's "Guo Chao Cong Ji", but there is no record of Zou Wang's life, only Yan Shifan in the article said that his family property "will be in the millions".

　　2. The story of Gu Kexue and Zou Wang comes from "Flower Village Talk" in the early Qing Dynasty. This book cannot be found on the Internet, so I can only go to the library to try my luck. This part of the content is quoted in a paper "...Reflections on the View of the Rich" written by Tianjin University Ph. He praised Zou Wang so much that he shifted all the responsibility for the Qing army's entry to Chongzhen's miserliness. Although it is not very reliable, he quoted a lot of folk rumors in the late Ming Dynasty, so let's have fun.

　　3. In the second year of Longqing, Governor Ying Tianhou of Hai Rui rebuilt the ancestral hall for his teacher (personal speculation should be the original site of Gu’s ancestral house demolished by Zou), which is not far from the west side of Zunxian Building in Huishan Ancient Town, Wuxi today. Dongyang Temple.

　　ps: The story of a leader punishing a local snake after being overtaken by a local snake after returning to his hometown, the earliest prototype is the story of Gu Kexue recorded in "Flower Village Talk", but the end of the story is that Zou Wang, a "village sage", almost took Gu Shangshu Scared to death.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)