Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 52: Inviting Mr. Liu to Eat Bamboo Stir-fried Pork

Liu Shancheng has been in a good mood these days. It is already the twelfth lunar month and the Chinese New Year is coming soon.

The Liu family has made very good profits this year. Ever since he became the head of the Liu family, the family has been thriving, especially in recent years with the reopening of border trade with the north, which has allowed the Liu family to make a lot of money on the trade route to Mongolia. Looking at the increasing numbers in the account book, Liu Shancheng was very happy.

This year is much better than last year, and I think next year will be even better.

The route to the Jiezhou salt well has been opened. Although it cost a lot of money to bribe the mine supervisor, it was definitely worth it for Liu Shancheng.

In the early spring of next year, their Liu family will be able to completely monopolize the surplus salt in Jiezhou. This is no small amount. You must know that the amount of surplus salt in Jiezhou is much larger than the amount of regular salt. With so much surplus salt in the hands of the Liu family, the Liu family's share of salt sales to the grassland will increase several times in an instant.

That’s not all. In addition to salt, the Liu family also opened up a route to iron smelting from Wenyu Mountain in Xia County, giving the Liu family an advantage not only in salt roads but also in iron smelting.

Salt and iron are both strategic materials that are in urgent need on the grassland. As long as they can be transported to the north, the profits will be extremely huge.

Liu Shancheng himself has calculated carefully that by this time next year, their Liu family's wealth will be able to reach a new level, and the Liu family will be able to use this opportunity to become one of the largest businesses in all of Shanxi. This is something that Old Master Liu spent his entire life trying to accomplish but was unable to do, but it is now within his reach for him, Liu Shancheng.

Thinking about this, Liu Shancheng was so happy that he almost laughed out loud. He was thinking about his plans for after the spring. While he was thinking about it, a person hurried in from outside.

Liu Shancheng's face suddenly darkened, and he was about to yell. The Liu family had very strict rules. On weekdays, servants had to inform before entering his room. How could they just barge in? But when he took a closer look, he saw that the person who came was Lin Zhenzong, the housekeeper of the mansion. He stopped yelling, but also blamed him with some displeasure.

"Master, something bad has happened!" Lin Zhenzong rushed in without bothering to explain. He walked a few steps to Liu Shancheng and said.

"Something happened?"

"The prefectural government has sent someone to your house. Please go there immediately." Lin Zhenzong said in a low voice with a hint of urgency on his face.

"The prefectural government? The people who came are government officials? What's the matter?" Liu Shancheng was stunned and asked.

"Not only the yamen runners, but also Zhao Zaotou, who said that there is a murder case and asked you to go."

"A lawsuit involving a person's life? What kind of lawsuit involving a person's life?" Liu Shancheng was puzzled. What kind of lawsuit involving a person's life could possibly involve the prefectural government? Besides, Liu Shancheng and Li Tongzhi of Pingyang Prefecture were quite close friends. Even Jiang Tongpan had drunk a few meals together and they were brothers at the table. Logically speaking, if there was really something going on, they should have informed the government first. How could the government officials come directly to their door?

"Master, have you forgotten? Didn't Xiaohuan, the maid in Madam Xiangyu's room, die more than a month ago? I just asked Zhao Zaotou privately, and he said that Xiaohuan's family had complained to the prefectural government, and the prefect, Lord Yu, accepted the complaint, so he asked Zhao Zaotou to bring people to the door to invite Master to the court..."

"Xiaohuan?" Liu Shancheng frowned and thought for a while, then he remembered there was such a person. This maid was in the room of his concubine Xiangyu. She made a mistake more than a month ago and was beaten. Unexpectedly, the maid was weak and died a few days after the beating.

For a wealthy family, the death of a maid was nothing. Besides, Xiaohuan's family was just an ordinary poor family. If they had some property, they would not sell their children to the Liu family as maids.

Let him die, and he was buried in a mass grave outside the city. But who would have thought that Xiaohuan's parents went to the prefectural government to file a complaint about this matter, and directly sued Liu Shancheng, which instantly made Liu Shancheng furious.

"Assholes!" Liu Shancheng slammed his armchair hard, stood up and cursed: "Who gave them such courage? How dare they submit a petition to the prefectural government? It's simply lawless!"

"Master, the incident has already happened, the petition has been submitted, and the key is that the prefect has also taken over. Now the people from the prefect's yamen have arrived, and we have to go there no matter what. In my opinion, Master, you should condescend to come to court today, and then ask Tongzhi Li to negotiate the matter later. After all, it's just a maid and it's not a big deal. The most serious thing is to spend some money..." Lin Zhenzong certainly understood why Liu Shancheng was angry. For the Liu family, beating a maid to death was not a big deal, but now Liu Shancheng had sued them, and they had to go to the prefect's yamen. It was simply embarrassing.

Liu Shancheng was also a well-known figure in Pingyang Prefecture. Not only did he have a large family and a powerful business, he also had deep connections in official circles. Whether it was the Tongzhi or Tongpan in the county or Pingyang Prefecture, they were all friends of the Liu family.

It's embarrassing enough, but if things go wrong they'll have to spend money to bribe people. No matter how rich the Liu family is, they're just merchants. It's true that the Liu family has connections in official circles, but these connections are all built with money.

Liu Shancheng felt very uncomfortable when he thought of this, but what Lin Zhenzong said was right. The prefectural government had already sent people, and he couldn't avoid this matter at all.

Although he had a good relationship with Li Tongzhi and Jiang Tongpan, he had no friendship with the prefect Yu Zhida. Yu Zhida was transferred to Pingyang Prefecture as the prefect at the beginning of this year. Before that, he was the deputy of the Dali Temple. Although this official rank was not high, his status was not low, and he was also a Beijing official. The Dali Temple was one of the three judicial departments, equivalent to the Supreme Court in later generations. The Temple Minister was also one of the Nine Ministers, but the actual work was done by the left and right temples below, and the left and right temples had a deputy, and this deputy was called the Temple Deputy, and Yu Zhida's previous official position was this.

It’s not that Liu Shancheng doesn’t want to get in touch with Yu Zhida, but the problem is that Yu Zhida is a bit aloof and doesn’t pay any attention to him at all.

Originally, Liu Shancheng had planned to take advantage of the upcoming New Year to find a way to smooth things over, but he didn't expect that before he could do anything, people from the prefectural government arrived first.

Although he was angry, Liu Shancheng was not panicked at all. What was the life of a maid to him? Not to mention that he was actually sued by the peasant. Liu Shancheng had an idea in his mind at this time. After the court was over and the matter was resolved, he had to teach the peasant couple who dared to sue him a lesson.

After a while, Liu Shancheng changed his clothes, walked out of the house, and walked to the front yard with a swagger.

When they got there, several yamen runners were already waiting. The leader, Zhao Zaotou, was quite polite when he met Liu Shancheng. He bowed and said that he had no choice but to come to the house to ask for a favor today as Prefect Yu had spoken and he had official duties to attend to and hoped that Mr. Liu would not be offended.

Liu Shancheng was generous and waved his hand, saying that it was okay. Since there was such a thing, he would follow them. Then Liu Shancheng got on his own sedan chair, accompanied by the butler Lin Zhenzong, and the group went directly to the prefectural government office.

When they arrived at the prefectural government office, they got off the sedan chair and Zhao Zaotou led Liu Shancheng into the hall.

As soon as he entered the hall, Liu Shancheng looked inside and saw the prefect Yu Zhida sitting steadily in the hall in official uniform. Two ordinary men and women with gray hair were kneeling in front of the hall. Liu Shancheng did not know them, but if his guess was correct, they should be the parents of Xiaohuan, the maid who had reported him.

But what was strange was that there was a chair under the left side of Liu Zhida's seat, and a man was sitting on the chair. Liu Shancheng didn't recognize this man, and judging from his clothes, he seemed to be an ordinary person. But why was he sitting so steadily in the lobby?
In addition, there were also a yamen runner and a man dressed as a lawyer standing there. Zhao Zaotou entered the hall, saluted to the prefect Yu in the hall, and said that Liu Shancheng had been brought in. Hearing this, Yu Zhida, who had closed his eyes to rest, opened his eyes and looked down the hall, and his eyes fell on Liu Shancheng who followed Zhao Zaotou to the hall.

"Is that Liu Shancheng in the hall?" Yu Zhida's majestic and loud voice sounded.

"Greetings to your Excellency, I am Liu Shancheng..." Liu Shancheng bowed, but before he could stand up, Yu Zhida's voice came again.

"Liu Shancheng, do you hold any official position?"

"Return to the Mansion, no."

"But the students?"

"no……."

With a bang, Yu Zhida grabbed the wooden stick on the table and slammed it, then asked sternly, "You have no official position, and you are not a student. Why don't you kneel when you see me, a mere merchant? Someone, come here!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Liu Shancheng, who had not yet come to his senses, felt a heavy kick on his knee. He fell forward uncontrollably and fell to his knees on the ground with a thud.

Liu Shancheng was so dizzy from the fall that he was completely confused. Then he heard Yu Zhida shout, "Left and right! Give me ten slaps!"

As soon as these words came out, Liu Shancheng was terrified. Over the years, the Liu family's business has grown bigger and bigger, and Liu Shancheng has made more and more friends. He has always had a lot of dealings with people from the provincial government and the governor's office to the prefectures and counties below, and even the mine supervisors and tax supervisors sent by the palace to the local areas.

Silver was always a good thing, and drinking and having fun with these people was common. As time went by, Liu Shancheng became vague about his identity. Not to mention others, even Li Tongzhi and Jiang Tongpan of Pingyang Prefecture were guests of his Liu Mansion.

Moreover, this was the first time that Liu Shancheng had been in court in all his years, so when he met the prefect Yu Zhida, he was so careless that he forgot his identity.

In the early Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang reformed and established rules, and common people did not have to kneel when meeting officials. But now it is no longer Zhu Yuanzhang's era. Ordinary people must kneel when meeting officials, unless you hold an official position or have made achievements. Even ordinary people do this, not to mention the merchants who are at the bottom of the four classes.

As a merchant, no matter how rich Liu Shancheng was, he could not change his lowly status. If the people sitting in the hall had a vested interest in collusion with Liu Shancheng, he would naturally turn a blind eye to the matter.

But it happened that the person sitting today was Yu Zhida, who was a genuine Jinshi and the prefect of Pingyang who was transferred from the deputy of Dali Temple. He was particularly concerned about these rules. When he saw that Liu Shancheng, a merchant, saluted him carelessly without kneeling, how could he give him a good face in anger?
(End of this chapter)