national surname chiming

Chapter 20

With Shen Shuren's skill, if he wants to mediate, he must have a way to solve the relationship problem with Gong Dingzi or Hou Fangyu.

However, being able to do it and being willing to do it are two different things.

Shen Shuren was able to make good friends with Yang Sichang and Shi Kefa before, it was because Yang Sichang and Shi Kefa did not have the stigma of being a thief in history.

But Gong Dingzi and Hou Fangyu are different. Some of these people have been traitors in history, and some of them are at least actively trying to become an official in the Qing Dynasty (but failed, the Qing Dynasty does not want him to be an official)

Shen Shuren knew that he was going to pursue a great cause in the future. As a great man of ZTE, it was not worthwhile to leave a flaw in his resume that "some of the friends you made became traitors later" for this little profit.

Therefore, at this official meeting, he always maintained a wait-and-see attitude, and never tried to curry favor with those people.He believes that there are always other solutions to problems.

After waiting and watching, he really discovered some methods.

As the literary meeting was halfway through, there were fewer and fewer flatterers surrounding Gong, Hou, and Zhu.Later, there even appeared a few middle-aged people who didn't seem to get along well with them. After bargaining in secret words, they left in a huff, saying that they wanted to find another way out.

Shen Shuren couldn't understand these people's charades at first - because they never said it explicitly when they bought an official, they were all hints in current affairs topics.

It was Gu Yanwu who was well-informed and quietly helped Shen Shuren translate, so he knew what was going on.

Shen Shuren couldn't help being curious:
"Eh? Brother Gu, didn't you just say that if you want to buy a vacancy for an official grant, you have to follow the three of them to clear up the management. If you don't manage it, even if you pay enough money for business, you will only be thrown into a job without power go up.

But why do these few seemingly tough seniors still expect to buy another official after talking to them? "

Gu Yanwu looked accustomed to it: "There are always exceptions to everything. In the early years, if you bought an official here in Nanzhili, you basically couldn't escape the help of the broker.

But now the country is in trouble, and thieves are rampant.Since Zhang Xianzhong destroyed Fengyang Emperor's Mausoleum in the eighth year of Chongzhen, most scholars in the south of the Yangtze River regarded going to the north of the Yangtze River as officials in fear.The closer the local officials are to the front line of the thieves, the less valuable they are.

In addition, there are many vacancies killed by thieves, and there will always be unsold ones in the end.You don’t need to please those brokers for these worthless things, you can just do business and pay enough money to do it—won’t the younger brother also want to be those insurance officers?If that's the case, you can just talk to Wu Shanzhang directly. "

Shen Shuren suddenly realized that not all official positions are in short supply, only those vacancies are in short supply.

"You didn't say it earlier!" Shen Shuren was in a good mood, and immediately stood up, unabashedly stepped forward with a glass of wine, and walked directly in front of Wu Weiye.

"Shan Zhang, today's grand meeting is just in time, and the students also want to find a chance to serve the country. Please make it happen, Shan Zhang."

Shen Shuren was generous, and directly said that he wanted to buy an official in front of a group of people.

Wu Weiye was originally chatting with Qian Qianyi, but he was surprised to hear him go straight like this.

Of course he knew that many people came to talk about buying officials today, but no one would come so clearly.Then how to help run the vacancies fat and thin, how to bargain?

Wu Weiye still wanted to help him, so he winked to the side, trying to introduce Shen Shuren to Gong Dingzi, and gave him a step down:
"Shuren, since you were imprisoned, I haven't given you any knowledge. Today is rare, and this is the first time you have seen Mr. Zhilu, right? He is not a few years older than you, but he has been famous for a long time. Young Master Hou is also a source of family education, you should not miss it, and ask them for advice on poetry and articles."

After finishing speaking, Wu Weiye turned to Gong Dingzi and Hou Fangyu, and said seemingly casually: "My dear brother and nephew, today's Wenhui, you each have to meet a beautiful woman, you can't indulge in a gentle hometown, you still have to support the young people with knowledge. .”

Gong Dingzi understood: "Brother Wu made fun of it. We were poor and kept our bodies, so why bother to talk about it. Talented and talented women, you can hear them with your ears, and you can see them with your eyes. Just let nature take its course."

Wu Weiye stroked his beard: "Hey, a gentleman has the beauty of being an adult, and Shen Sheng is a person who is anxious about public affairs and righteousness, and donates money. You have all heard of the name of his father, the head of the household department, Shen Sheng?"

Gong Dingzi pretended to have just learned about it, and nodded to Shen Shuren with a smirk.

These remarks seem to be saying that we should focus on learning and don't care about the few singing and dancing girls seen at today's literary meeting.But the subtext made it clear that it was to help make connections, asking Shen Shuren to pay for a woman to be given to Gong and Hou, thinking of it as an "intermediary fee".

Shen Shu's heart was clear, and he couldn't help laughing:

In the opera "Peach Blossom Fan" written by Kong Shangren in the Qing Dynasty, it is mentioned that when Hou Fangyu groomed Li Xiangjun, it was because his family had not yet recovered and he couldn't afford the money. It was his friend Yang Wencong who paid for it.

How similar is the scene today!It turned out that the so-called "friend treat" was because Zuo Liangyu threatened his father, the former Minister of the Household Department, to be released from prison and reinstated!
How could Shen Shuren do such a thing? If he was involved in such a dirty thing, even history books would disdain to write about it in the future. If he was included in lace kunqu opera, he would not be able to bear it.

At the moment, he replied very clearly: "The mountain leader is kind, and the students appreciate it. But in today's troubled times, the modification of poems is useless to the country, and the students have no time to learn those things. The students come today because they want to donate officials according to the law. Please report to the mountain leader. .”

He spoke very frankly, and his volume was raised by one point, which shocked everyone.

Just now so many people showed off their poems and essays, which caused many times of mutual flattery, but none of them were as violent as this time.

"You... are insulting to gentlemen!" Gong Dingzi and the others who had their face brushed off were quite out of breath.

"Sure enough, he is the son of a merchant. I heard that his father is the second year of Chongzhen. After the court officially allowed the donation of officials, he donated immediately." Some voices were whispering in the distance, and it was unclear who said it.

Even the beauties of the Qinhuai River playing the piano and singing and dancing on Tingzhou were alarmed by the movement here, stopped playing the music, and watched curiously this farce that went straight and ignored the elegance.

Shen Shuren still didn't change his face, like a spring breeze: "Wu Shanzhang, do you think so? I do everything according to the court's laws, why should I be insulted?"

After all, Wu Weiye still has a conscience, he is not exactly the same as those people, and his old face blushed immediately: "I didn't say you were insulting gentlemen, since everyone has their own ambitions, I won't stop you either.

Seeing you like this, you are so eager to donate an official, you won't take part in the test in the future.You have to think clearly, if you act so unconventional, it will probably ruin your popularity in the future. "

Bad popularity?Will being unrefined ruin your popularity?Shen Shuren disagreed with this.

Six years later in history, when Dorgon Duoduo's knife was on their necks, among the group of people around Wu Weiye, except for Wu Weiye himself, the other three surrendered.

I didn't see how popular Dorgon was, he had to sing it before they were told to sing it.

"Shan Zhang, with all due respect, for thousands of years, people all over the world have been shy about donating officials, and I am embarrassed to say it directly, but how many people have really thought about the truth?

It's nothing more than thinking that after buying an official position, they will use their power to seek personal gain, seek the people's anointment, or that incompetent people will miss the country's major events if they get the official position and are incompetent.But as long as you are really talented and don't want to make money as an official, what is there to be ashamed of?As an official student, donate in an open and aboveboard manner. "

Shen Shuren dealt with Wu Weiye, then turned to Gong Dingzi calmly, and said politely:

"Mr. Gong, you won't take revenge on me just because I didn't ask you about rhetoric in poetry, right? Are you planning to find a county in Luzhou Prefecture or Anqing Prefecture that is the poorest and the most evil and close to the thieves, and assign it to me?"

Shen Shuren took the initiative to run on the words, which made Gong Dingzi feel uncomfortable for a while, and the same happened to Hou Fangyu.

Among the three brokers, Zhu Guangshi and the Shen family were the only ones who had already broken each other, and he knew the inside story of the job vacancy. He immediately stopped Gong Dingzi with a roll of his eyes, and said with a fake smile:
"Mr. Gong is a great Confucian in the world. Don't judge the heart of a gentleman with the heart of a villain. Don't worry, you won't be allowed to donate to the magistrates in the occupied land. There are still some gaps here for the Anlu army to supervise the military supply. That's a fat vacancy. It depends on whether you have the ability to contribute to the country."

Shen Shuren would not be moved after hearing this.Of course he knew the grievances between Zhu Dadian's family and Shen's family, Zhu Guangshi suddenly jumped out, and he must be dealing with him.

However, as long as he was on an errand for Yang Sichang, Zhu Dadian would not be able to frame him.Even if there is a flaw in the logistics at that time, it will be thoroughly investigated to find out which link is the problem.

The Zhu family was in the open about this matter, and the Shen family was in the dark. The Zhu family didn't know that Yang Sichang protected and valued the Shen family.

The Shen family seems to be in danger, but as long as they are capable of handling things, they are not afraid.

Shen Shu accepted this challenge generously, and made a decision with Wu Weiye to donate an official, and also donated one to his cousin Zhang Huangyan by the way.

Then the two brothers drifted away without talking nonsense with those rotten scholars.

This kind of style can be regarded as a clear stream in the market that day, and the buyers were so stubborn in buying, and they didn't feel embarrassed at all.

Moreover, there were some juren and supervisors who didn't intend to buy an official, but wanted to take the exam for a scholar, and they had a faint admiration for Shen Shusheng.

……

After the literary meeting was over, I waited for more than ten days, during which I paid money, and the appointment came down very quickly.

Shen Shuren spent 8000 taels of silver and was thrown into the "Su Songguan River" as a pawn.

According to the size of the jurisdiction, the river officials in the late Ming Dynasty were both fourth-rank and fifth-rank, and they were in charge of canal water conservancy and material transportation.During the war years, he also temporarily worked part of the work equivalent to the Qing Dynasty's "Duoliang Road".

Although the rank of Guanhedao yamen is not low, there are middle-level officials such as treasury envoys and Zandian under the Daotai officials, generally of the sixth to seventh rank.The pawns further down, since they all carry the word "official", are actually eight-rank petty officials, who are in charge of grain transfer, transportation, and account settlement in one or several county jurisdictions.

The Shen family is a native of Suzhou, and it is supposed to be very easy for Shen Shuren to be thrown back to his hometown to transport food.Even considering the current war, it is necessary to transport grain to Yang Sichang Shi Kefa's army in Anhui to listen to it, there is no risk.

But Shen Shuren knew very well that Zhu Dadian's family was willing to let him take this position because they wanted to deal with him, and by dealing with him, they would deal with their father Shen Tingyang.

If things are done well, it is easy to get results, but if things are not done well, it will depend on the Zhu family's framing tricks.

And Shen Shuren's cousin, Zhang Huangyan, was not treated as highly as Shen Shuren.

His uncle was only willing to donate 5000 taels to him as an official, and finally donated the history of Tongcheng County, Anqing Prefecture, to be responsible for the security and armed forces of a county.

Tongcheng County is less than a hundred miles away from Huoshan Mountain, where the Gezuo Fifth Battalion is entrenched, and it belongs to the edge of the Dabie Mountains.The county magistrate, Cheng Dianshi and other officials there were all killed by thieves in June, and there was a gap.

Those dog officials who have the power to assign positions put the newcomers who have paid but have nothing to do with them into those dangerous positions.Fortunately, when Zhang Huangyan took office, it was almost winter, and the bandits should not attack the city aggressively in the mountains in the twelfth lunar month.

(End of this chapter)