Back to Daming to be a genius

Chapter 25 Meet Nine Thousand Years

(PS: The new week is here, and Pure Wolf once again launches a charge on the new book list, begging for ammunition support from all friends.)
In the Weiran Hutong near Xuanwu Gate in the south of Beijing’s west city, there is a luxurious courtyard with tall houses and large houses. .The black lacquered gate has a golden lacquered animal-faced tin ring, and on both sides are majestic white jade lions and groups of heavily armed Dongchang Fanzi, with big or small eyeballs staring fiercely at the passing people. Passers-by, like a hungry tiger pouncing on a sheep, may tear the person in front of him to pieces at any time. ——Needless to say, such an arrogant and domineering residence is naturally the residence of our 99-year-old Dacheng and Holy Father Wei Zhongxian, Eunuch Wei, in the capital.And it is also this mansion that actually controls the government and military affairs of Daming Jiangshan, and determines the life and death of the Ming court...

As usual, Wei Zhongxian’s sedan chair left the palace and returned home on time when it was unitary time, and Wei Zhongxian’s five think tanks, Cui Chengxiu, Tian Ji, Wu Chunfu, Li Kuilong, and Ni Wenhuan, known as the Five Tigers of the Wei Party, and Wei Zhongxian’s son-in-law Yang Liuqi, who actually wrote the pen, had already Kneeling in the back hall of Wei Mansion.After Wei Zhongxian entered the back hall, he didn't ask his five confidantes and son-in-law to get up, and sat directly on the grand teacher's chair in the middle of the hall. The four beautiful maids immediately walked to the chair from both sides without saying a word, one rubbed his shoulders, and two hammered legs, and the other wiped Wei Zhongxian's face with a hot towel, serving carefully and gently.

After finally waiting for the maids to serve comfortably, Wei Zhongxian waved his hands, and the four maids bowed and stepped back. Wei Zhongxian hummed sullenly again: "Get up, bring it in." Cui Cheng, who had already knelt so numb, Xiu, Yang Liuqi and others, as if they had been pardoned, sang in unison, "Thank you nine thousand years old." Then they got up from the ground and sat back in their seats tremblingly. The stacked official documents were placed in front of Cui Chengxiu and other six people, and they bowed and left the hall.

"Let's get started, our family is not in a good mood today, don't bother our family with trivial matters." Wei Zhongxian snorted again.Cui Chengxiu, Yang Liuqi and the others clasped their fists in agreement, and then opened the official document Wei Zhongxian brought from the palace, or shook their heads and read in a low voice, or discussed in whispers, or wrote quickly, and then held the memorial in front of Yang Liuqi. Yang Liuqi replaced Wei Zhongxian with the seal of approval, each performing his duties, and the efficiency was quite high. ——Seeing such a scene, people who don't know it will think that the accountant of the merchant is checking the accounts. Only those who know the inside story will understand that in fact, the life and death of thousands of people in Ming Dynasty is determined by this stroke. misfortune.

"Nine thousand years old, I have to ask you about one thing." Cui Chengxiu said cautiously: "Hu Tingyan, the governor of Shaanxi, said in the memorial that this year's drought in Shaanxi Province has caused at least [-] counties to lose their land. Hu Tingyan hopes that nine If Chitose can reduce or exempt the taxes and grains of these fifteen counties, is Nine Chitose not allowed?"

"No." Wei Zhongxian snorted.Cui Chengxiu did not immediately agree, and added, "Nine thousand years old, Shaanxi has been suffering from severe drought for several years. If there is no relief this time, the people of Shaanxi..."

"What's the use of getting it approved?" Wei Zhongxian snorted coldly: "Don't you know the virtues of those local officials? Even if our family approves the tax reduction and exemption, the order can't be sent to the local area, and the local officials have to work even harder. To collect taxes, money and food, because they can put all the money collected in their purses, and the court and our family are the ones who are scolded. But if our family can't help it, no matter how much money, food and taxes are collected, they are all from the court. If you force me to remind you, the common people will live more comfortably. Therefore, our family will not be fooled by this. If we can collect a little, we will not be able to collect it. Next year, we will forgive the debts of the people, but we will not let these corrupt officials take it all alone. Chance."

"Nine-thousand-year-old sage, I will obey your orders." Cui Chengxiu respectfully agreed.Tian Ji stood up again, cupped his hands to Wei Zhongxian and said, "Nine thousand years old, after Yang Lian from the Donglin treacherous party was arrested in our Dongchang Prison, although he was severely tortured, he still refused to confess that he accepted Xiong Tingbi's bribes." crime, and refused to confess to his accomplices. Xu Xianchun, who is in charge of the torture, is helpless, please show me."

"Helpless? What do you mean?" Wei Zhongxian narrowed his eyes.Then Tian Ji remembered that our Nine Thousand Years is illiterate and could only speak to him in vernacular, so he hurriedly changed his words: "Nine Thousands Forgiveness, Xu Xianchun means that he has nothing to do with Yang Lian, he can't pry his mouth open .”

"Trash!" Wei Zhongxian was furious, and shouted: "Go and tell Xu Xianchun, if he can't pry Yang Lian's mouth away, someone else will pry it. But Xu Xianchun has to go in and be Yang Lian's companion!"

"Your official should be cautious about the golden life of a thousand years old." Tian Ji agreed with an earthy face, and sat down quickly.Seeing that Wei Zhongxian was really in a bad mood, the others were so frightened that they didn't even dare to take a breath. Only Yang Liuqi, in order to please his father-in-law, approached Wei Zhongxian and whispered, "Old Taishan, someone sent 5000 taels of silver today. , and thirteen weaving workshops in the south of the Yangtze River jointly sent 6000 taels of silver, and the sons-in-law of the two families have already accepted it."

"Oh, what are they planning to ask our family to do?" Wei Zhongxian finally smiled.Yang Liuqi smiled and said, "I'm giving you 5000 taels. I want to be a Taoist priest in Sichuan; the thirteen household weaving workshops in the south of the Yangtze River, I hope that Lao Taishan will abolish the commercial tax and withdraw to the Jiangnan tax supervisor." At this point, Yang Liuqi added in a low voice, "Jiangnan No. [-] Textile Workshop also said that as long as you agree to this matter, Lao Taishan, then from now on, you will give it twice a year, with this amount."

"Dreaming!" Wei Zhongxian snorted coldly, "The one in Yanfa Road, Sichuan, promise him. The one in Jiangnan No. [-] Textile Co., the money will be kept, and people will drive away! Hmph! Commercial tax is abolished, what will our family use to pay the Liaodong army? ?”

"Yes, yes." Yang Liuqi nodded and bowed in agreement.On the other side, Cui Chengxiu stood up with another official document, frowned and said: "Nine thousand years old, the matter of Liaodong military salary is really on the table. You have allocated the military salary for the first half of this year before the end of March, and the military salary for the second half of the year, I hope you will send Jiuqian to Liaodong before the end of June."

"It's outrageous. It's only the fifth day of March, and Sun Chengzong wants to pay out the military salary for the first half of the year?" Tian Ji, Wu Chunfu, Li Kuilong, and Ni Wenhuan shouted and scolded, "There is still the military salary for the second half of the year. Was it issued before the end of June? Even if he wants to drink the blood of soldiers, he doesn’t need to be so obvious, right?” “Nine thousand years old, this matter needs to be investigated. Sun Chengzong urged the army’s salary so urgently, there must be something tricky in it!” “ What is the investigation? In my opinion, just arrest him and forget it."

"Shut up for our family!" Wei Zhongxian shouted suddenly, first calming down the group of demons dancing in the cronies, and then hummed: "Give it to him."

"To him?" Cui Chengxiu and others peeped at each other, and Cui Chengxiu asked cautiously: "Nine thousand years old, are you sure you want to allocate military salary according to Sun Chengzong's request?"

"What can we do if we don't give it to him?" Wei Zhongxian said slowly: "The war in Liaodong is related to the life and death of my Daming country and the safety of the capital, so nothing can go wrong. Isn't he, Sun Chengzong, getting closer to the Donglin traitors? It doesn't matter, doesn't he want to pay the military salary for a year before the end of June, it doesn't matter, as long as he can wipe out Jian Nu."

There was no sound in the back hall, and after a while, Cui Chengxiu whispered, "Nine thousand years old, the treasury doesn't have so much silver anymore."

"Out of the money from the internal treasury, our family will go and tell the emperor." Wei Zhongxian said lightly: "I will send a word to the tax supervisors in various places in the south of the Yangtze River. took his skin!"

"Of course." Cui Chengxiu, Yang Liuqi and the other six agreed together.At this time, a young eunuch suddenly ran into the back hall quickly, first held a gift list over his head with both hands, and said in a male duck voice: "I would like to report to my ancestors, this department will test Hua Zhang Haogu to ask for an interview. It is a gift list presented by him, please have a look at the ancestors."

"Zhang Haogu? Why is he here? Didn't our family ask someone to tell him not to meet with our family before the palace examination?" Wei Zhongxian frowned, and pouted at his son-in-law. Yang Liuqi understood, stepped forward to take the gift list and read Said: "Zhang Hao, a late family member, presented a hundred taels of gold, ten pearls, two pairs of emeralds, and two pairs of jade walls. I respectfully ask Dacheng to be rewarded at the age of nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine." After reading, Yang Liuqi added another sentence, "Hey, this kid is really thick-skinned. What kind of relationship does our family have with him? How dare he call himself late wife?"—Actually, Yang Liuqi has wronged our young master Zhang because our young master Zhang doesn't know late wife. This name cannot be used indiscriminately.

"Monkey boy, it's quite generous." Wei Zhongxian didn't bother to care about Young Master Zhang's shameless behavior of forcing connections, and turned to his six confidants and asked, "Tell me, can our family see this Zhang Haogu now?"

"Zhang Haogu?" Cui Chengxiu, Yang Liuqi and the other six murmured in their hearts together, "This kid caused so many troubles when he first came to the capital, and he became famous in the government and the public at a young age, but he is also a character. I met him earlier. , Let’s see what kind of character he is.”

…………

Our Young Master Zhang and his servant had already arrived at the gate of Wei Mansion with gifts, but when he handed the door stab to the gatekeeper, the Dongchang fan who was watching the gate did not know Taishan, and deliberately made it difficult for him to say that he was the nine-thousand-year-old Wei Wei. Gongzheng was discussing important national affairs with the adults, not only did he not hand over the gift list and name stabs for Young Master Zhang, but he also did not allow Young Master Zhang to sit and wait in the concierge.And our Young Master Zhang also knows the rules in the officialdom, so he took out a ten taels of silver door tribute and stuffed it into the fan's hand very sensiblely, and said with a smile: "It's a small thing, I invite the official to drink tea."

In the Ming Dynasty, silver was expensive, and ten taels of silver was enough to provide a middle-level family with no worries about food and clothing for a year. Wei Zhongxian's family seldom received such a sum of money when they received a respect from the door. Logically speaking, it should not be difficult , but after receiving the money, he caught a glimpse of Young Master Zhang's luxurious attire, as if he looked like a fat sheep-in fact, it was the same.Then he snorted again: "I said that Jiu Qiansui is busy and doesn't have time to see you, what are you talking about? Go quickly, and if you say another word, I will beat you away with a stick."

"Sun! A doorman these days is even more shameless than the town secretary, and he still doesn't do things after collecting money?" Young Master Zhang was furious, and when he was about to explode, a coquettish voice suddenly sounded, "Ouch, Isn’t this Zhang Haogu and Zhang Tanhua? I’m free today, have you come here to visit your ancestors?” Young Master Zhang turned around in surprise, only to see that the speaker was a fat, white, middle-aged eunuch, followed by six young eunuchs.The fat eunuch said with a smile, "Tanhua Gong, do you still remember our family? That day in the Imperial College, our family talked to you."

"Sun! There were so many people talking to me that day, it's strange that I will remember you." Young Master Zhang murmured in his heart.The fat eunuch didn't wait for Young Master Zhang to speak, and immediately turned to the six young eunuchs, pointed at Young Master Zhang with an orchid flower and said, "Monkeys, do you see that? This one is the undergraduate Tan Hua Gong, who is serving as our eunuch in the Imperial College." Rectify the name of that Zhang Tanhua! Hurry up and salute Zhang Tanhua, our courtiers have been slandered and slandered by those scholars for thousands of years, and only this Zhang Tanhua knows our goodness, knows that our courtiers are real heroes, and speaks justice for us. Alas, our family was moved to tears that day, if you were here, you would cry too."

"I've seen Mr. Tanhua." The six young eunuchs stepped forward together and saluted respectfully.Fan Zi, the concierge of the Wei Mansion, was taken aback at first, and quickly knelt down in front of Young Master Zhang, and said respectfully: "Tan Hua Gong, the villain just now had eyes that didn't recognize Mount Tai, please Tan Hua Gong forgive me."

"What's the matter? What happened just now?" The fat eunuch asked curiously.Those who dared to speak there were just hesitating, until the fat eunuch changed his face, and then he honestly explained what happened just now, but before he finished speaking, the fat eunuch's big ear slaps were overwhelming. hit him on the face, and scolded, "You're blind! Zhang Tanhua is a man favored by both Jiuqiansui and Wang Tigan's ancestors. He came to ask to see Jiuqiansui. Not only did you not report it, but you dared to Accepting his family respect? Are you dying? Return the money to Zhang Tanhua, and go in and report immediately!"

"Yes, yes, I obey." After being beaten all over the floor, he quickly took out the money and returned it to Young Master Zhang.Fortunately, Young Master Zhang is a generous person, he just waved his hand and said it was fine, he forcefully accepted it, and stuffed the fat eunuch with a silver note of 50 taels, and the six little eunuchs were also five taels each. The eunuchs laughed together, and praised our young master Zhang as a man of great talent, a man of great talent in the world.

After waiting in the concierge for more than a quarter of an hour, Wei Zhongxian uttered the words—reception!Only then did Young Master Zhang heave a sigh of relief, he hurriedly delivered the gift, and entered the mansion with the little eunuch he had introduced, holding a nanmu box. It was only then that the little eunuch led him into an extremely large living room.In the middle of the living room was an old man wearing a vermilion official robe, and there were six other officials in different court uniforms standing on both sides. Young Master Zhang didn't dare to neglect, and walked forward with the wooden box in his hand, knelt down to the old man, and kowtow respectfully Shouted: "Late-born Zhang Haogu, I met the 99-year-old Eunuch Wei! Eunuch Wei will enjoy immortal blessings forever, and his life will be as long as the sky!"

(End of this chapter)