Fenghou

Chapter 1560 Vulnerability
In Xianyang County, a middle-aged man hurriedly walked into an alley called Chunshui Lane.

The man's name is Kong Yuan, and he was appointed as a master craftsman by the official. He has no fame. He first turned from a civilian officer in the army to a professional officer. It is also because of his lack of fame. Kong Yuan has been hovering in the eighth-rank official for these years, and it is difficult for him to be promoted. .

Kong Yuan walked to the end, knocked on the door, a young lady opened the door, she turned around and shouted: "Ma'am, it's the master!"

Immediately afterwards, a three or four-year-old child ran out, opened his arms and shouted, "Daddy hug!"

Kong Yuan hugged his son joyfully, "My dear son, I miss my daddy!"

A young woman came out of the room, she was very pretty, she smiled and said, "When did you come back?"

"Just came back, haven't come home yet!"

"Then can the master spend the night here?"

"can!"

The young woman was overjoyed, and quickly took some copper coins and handed them to the maid, "Go buy some wine and come back, do you have any vegetables at home? By the way, take Xiaobao with you."

Watching the maid take the child away, Kong Yuan picked up the woman and walked into the house, "My dear, do you miss me?"

"Let me go, she'll be right back."

Kong Yuan chuckled, "No, she is sensible."

The two chatted in the room, but the maid did not come back, put on her clothes, Kong Yuan put ten taels of silver on the table, "This is for you."

"Master, I have given it this month."

"Take it! There is a lot of waste this month, so I made some money."

"Master, what about the title you agreed upon?"

Kong Yuan's face suddenly became bitter. This young woman used to be a singer. She was taken care of by Kong Yuan, and she was very competitive. She gave birth to a son for him after only one year of support.

But young women want titles, they can't be wives, concubines are fine, but Kong Yuan is not qualified to take concubines, he doesn't meet the three qualifications for concubines, he has no honorary officer, no fame, and he is two levels away from the seventh-rank official.

The key is that he has no talent, his ability is mediocre, and he is rated as middle or above every year. If he wants to be promoted, he must have at least three years in a term of office. , if the evaluation is low, he will be demoted.

If he has no money to donate to an honorary officer, he can't be promoted to an official position, and he can't pass the exam for fame. He has no hope of marrying a concubine. Of course, there is another way to divorce his wife and marry a bride. But his wife's natal family is very powerful, and he dare not divorce his wife .

Seeing that he didn't say a word, the woman said aggrievedly: "It doesn't matter if I have a name or not, but Xiaobao is four years old, and he is still an illegitimate child. Don't you feel sad?"

The woman's words hit Kong Yuan's life gate, and he sighed, "I'll go and find a way!"

He got up and walked out, but the woman quickly stopped him, "Master isn't staying here for the night?"

"I'm going to find a friend to find a way, and come back in two days."

The woman couldn't stop her, so she had to watch the man go away, feeling remorse in her heart, that she shouldn't have forced him.

Kong Yuan found Yao Kaishan, Wei of Xianyang County. Yao Kaishan was his good friend. He also sympathized with Kong Yuan. He was in his 40s and only had two daughters. .

The Yong Dynasty had very strict management on concubinage qualifications, mainly to encourage childbearing, so that women of the right age had the opportunity to have more children, and the emperor himself set an example. The palace maids at the age of 20 were all released to marry and have children, usually married to guards .

Another more ruthless thing is that those who have taken a concubine for five years and have not given birth must remarry. Like Zhou Kuan's several concubines, who have been a concubine for five years and have not given birth, they have to pay a sum of money to let the concubine go back to his hometown and remarry.

Although this move was ruthless, the final result was good. Zhou Kuan's concubines all gave birth to children after remarrying and became mothers.

Yao Kaishan sighed and said, "I have two suggestions for you. First, you should write an agreement with that woman. She has nothing to do with you. Do you understand? If she wants to find a man or marry someone, it has nothing to do with you. But son, you recognize that the money you gave is for raising the son, and has nothing to do with her."

Kong Yuan knew what Yao Kaishan meant. It was a big taboo to raise a housewife. Once an official was found out, he would lose his official position or be convicted of a crime. If people cannot be fined, they will be punished.

As the population grows, the strict regulations on taking concubines and keeping other housewives may be gradually relaxed in the future, but they will not be relaxed for at least ten or twenty years.

Kong Yuan was silent for a moment, then asked again: "What about the second suggestion?"

"The second suggestion is to take her as a concubine as soon as possible. Does your wife allow it?"

Kong Yuan sighed, "If she has a son, she should allow it, and she has promised it before, but the point is that I can't get the right to be a concubine!"

"It should be fine to donate an honor officer, you are now Captain Yunqi!"

"I also know that I am now a captain of Yunqi. I have to upgrade two levels to be a captain of Xiaoqi, and I can only take concubines when I am a captain of Xiaoqi. I have to spend at least two thousand coins. Where can I get it? Sorry!"

"Not so much, five hundred coins is enough!"

Kong Yuan was taken aback, "Why?"

Yao Kaishan smiled slightly and said, "You can also donate food."

"I know it's okay to donate food, but I also need to donate five thousand shi of grain, isn't it the same as two thousand guan?"

Yao Kaishan smiled, "There is a loophole in it, it just appeared, and the court hasn't patched the loophole yet, it may disappear in a few days."

"What loophole?"

"The imperial court has just announced that corn is recognized as food, but the price of corn is very low now. I just got the news that corn only costs a hundred pennies a stone, and five hundred coins can buy five thousand stones of corn. Donate it to the government. I can treat it as food." .”

Kong Yuan saw hope all of a sudden, five hundred guan is enough, five hundred guan is what he has at home,
Yao Kaishan said again: "Once this loophole is discovered, someone will take advantage of it, and the court will plug the loophole, so you have to be quick, it's best to buy food and donate it to the government within a few days."

After leaving the county government office, Kong Yuan was worried again. Although his family could afford five hundred guan, it was his wife’s dowry. All the money and extra money are used to support women and sons.

One of the lucrative things in Kong Yuan's job is the disposal of waste distiller's grains. The leftover distiller's grains after brewing in the distillery under the craftsman supervisor are all handed over to him for disposal, and are usually sold to farmers to feed pigs.

However, the brewing workshop of the craftsman is quite wasteful, and the remaining distiller's grains are still useful. Some wine merchants buy them back and continue to brew, and they can brew some more stored wine. Although it is not worth much, it cannot hold a large amount. Generally, wine merchants will return the squeezed distiller's grains to him, and give him a little money, and he will sell the distiller's grains to farmers for public account.

In this way, there is no problem with the account at all, and he can probably get an extra money of ten taels of silver every month. In the past few years, he has used this extra money to raise his son.

Sure enough, at night, Kong Yuan asked his wife to donate five hundred guan to the honorary officer. His wife immediately guessed his purpose, and she was furious, and drove him out of the house together with him and the quilt. Lay all night.

In the early morning of the next day, Kong Yuan got a bit of a cold, and came to the official office in a muddleheaded manner. His official office was in Xianyang, not in the Jingzhaojiang Supervisory Office. He was an official dispatched to Xianyang.

Kong Yuan sat in front of the table in a daze for a moment, he took out a booklet from the bookcase, the booklet was densely written with his business experience, he worked as the master craftsman for ten years, it can be said that he has a deep network, he He can get hot goods from the official workshop, such as high-quality sake, he can buy them at a price of [-] Wen per catty, resell them to various wineries, and earn [-] Wen per catty, and distribute them to the masters of the wine shops. With twenty coins in charge, he can earn three pennies a day for one hundred catties.

There are also several best-selling medicines from the pharmacy, such as Feilong Baoming Dan and Jinchuang Hemostatic Cream. These are very popular medicines among the people, but they are difficult to buy, but he can get them.

It's a pity that he will lose his official position if he does this kind of thing, and he is reluctant to part with his official position, so these business contacts can only be discussed later.

But what troubles him now is, where should he get the five hundred coins?He is in urgent need now.

At this moment, the tea boy ran to the door and said, "Master Kong, someone is looking for you outside, and they say they want to talk to you about ways to make money."

Kong Yuan was taken aback, and reprimanded the tea boy, "Don't talk nonsense, be careful and drive you away!"

Kong Yuan quickly got up and walked outside.
(End of this chapter)