Crazy at the end of the Ming Dynasty

Seeing that Master Ling agreed, Wu Shigong saluted and said goodbye to Master Ling after exchanging a few words of pleasantries.

When Wu Shigong stood up and was about to leave, Master Ling seemed to have remembered something and stopped Wu Shigong.Wu Shigong looked at Master Ling in surprise, and thought: "Could it be that what happened just now has changed?"

However, Master Ling hesitated for a moment, but opened the bag, blocked half of the gold ingots with his hands, pushed them to Wu Shigong and said, "Here are these for you. After you get outside, don't mess around with the gold ingots." said."

Only then did Wu Shigong suddenly realize that Master Ling wanted to help the governor swallow the gold, so he wanted to share some of it with me as a hush money.

Wu Shigong quickly refused, Wu Shigong's original idea was to give the gold to the Governor and Master Ling.However, master Ling did not know how to do it, and he was determined not to those gold ingots that had been pushed to Wu Shigong.

Wu Shigong was a little puzzled: Could it be that the building of a clean government in the Ming Dynasty was so good?

Seeing that Master Ling's attitude was very firm, Wu Shigong had no choice but to find a piece of cloth, wrap up these gold ingots, and bid farewell to Master Ling again.

After Wu Shigong walked to the door, Master Ling said to Wu Shigong again: "Wu Qianhu, we have absolutely no problem with what you entrusted, but if there is any change in the capital's official department, we don't care about it here. !"

"Of course." Wu Shigong quickly replied.The purpose of meeting Master Ling today is of course to ask the governor to help here. The affairs of the capital depend on his father Wu Weizhong. It is impossible for the governor here to be responsible.

However, Wu Shigong was still very happy when he left because he got Master Ling's reassurance in the end.He also didn't notice the meaning of Master Ling's strange move of pushing him the gold ingot.

Seeing this, we may have two questions in our minds:

The first question is: Didn't Wu Shigong not want to show his face in front of Emperor Chongzhen?But why did he want those remaining credits?

This is because Wu Shigong left too little credit.Wu Shigong can only occupy the bottom corner of the credit book.And how could the Emperor Chongzhen, who had a lot of plans in the day, notice a small name in the bottom corner?It's like when we watch a movie now, we don't notice the name of the actor who played the role of "Bandit Armor" flashing across the screen.

But now, because Wu Shigong gave his credit to the fifth brother Wu Shiwen, his name would never appear in front of Emperor Chongzhen.

Of course, although Wu Shigong gave his credit to Wu Shiwen, the fifth elder brother, but just because of the fact that Wu Shiwen led his "brother" in the memorial to present the credit, at least Wu Shigong could make Wu Shigong feel better when he was with him. Yu Zilian successfully passed the lawsuit.As the saying goes: any word that appears in front of the emperor has great weight.

The second question is: Then the governor of Henan, why did he accept gold ingots worth 2000 to [-] taels of silver, and dare to help Wu Shigong move flowers and trees?You know, if this kind of behavior is exposed, from a serious point of view, it is a serious crime to deceive the court and the emperor.For the governor of Henan, the benefits and risks seem out of proportion?

In fact, this is the thinking of our modern people at work.In modern times, no matter what reasons a subordinate has, as long as he deceives his superior, once the superior finds out, the superior will definitely be very angry with the subordinate.And will deal with this subordinate seriously.This is derived from the modern style of seeking truth from facts.

Of course, the Ming Dynasty also followed this principle.However, there is one exception.In the Ming Dynasty, on top of national law and imperial power, there was another code of conduct that all ruling classes followed, that is-Confucianism.

As for Wu Shigong's act of giving himself credit to the fifth elder brother Wu Shiwen, the governor of Henan was not afraid of it being exposed at all.Because, even if other officials knew about such a behavior, they would not report this behavior to Emperor Chongzhen.Unless that official wanted Emperor Chongzhen to reward Henan Governor and Wu Shigong.

In addition, if Emperor Chongzhen knew about this incident, he would not punish anyone, and would even reward the Governor of Henan and Wu Shigong.

Why?Because of Wu Shigong's behavior, isn't it just like a live-action version of "Kong Rong Lets Pears" in the Ming Dynasty?Now we also understand.Why Master Ling agreed so readily, the reason for Wu Shigong's request.Of course, this is also the reason why Wu Shigong's behavior is harmless and will not affect the interests of the government and other officials.

However, Wu Shigong didn't know about these detours at all, and he did this kind of behavior completely by mistake.But in all fairness, it can be said that it is extremely rare for him to give up his credit to the fifth brother Wu Shiwen because of so many coincidences.

Let me emphasize here again that the entire ruling class of the Ming Dynasty regarded Confucianism as the highest code of conduct.Because later, this characteristic attracted an important person.And this character will greatly affect the pattern of the entire court in the late Ming Dynasty.Who is that character?Forgive me here for a while, and I will introduce it in detail later in the article.

After Wu Shigong came out, he stayed for a while, and the governor sent someone out to spread the word: Let some low-level civil servants join the feast to welcome the governor at night.And the name of Wu Shigong, a low-level military officer, was not included in the participating list.

County Magistrate Qi immediately came to Wu Shigong's side and told Wu Shigong, "Wu Qianhu will stay in Fucheng for a whole day tonight. Tomorrow morning, you and I will go back to the county together."

Wu Shigong nodded and agreed, "Okay."

When Wu Shigong left, he always felt a little uncomfortable.When those civil servants could use their military officers, they were still pleasant, but once they couldn't use them, they didn't take their military officers seriously.

Although, in his heart, Wu Shigong didn't want to participate in the feast tonight, because he didn't want to be forced to do "advanced mathematics" again, but the feeling of not being taken seriously is always uncomfortable.But this is the general climate of the Ming Dynasty now, and Wu Shigong had no choice but to leave.

Now Wu Shigong can do free activities.Wu Shigong asked someone to find an inn and arranged for his guards to stay there.In the evening, he took these guards to find a big restaurant and had a good meal.

But during the dinner, Shumo, who was sitting next to Wu Shigong, was always frowning and sighing.Of course Wu Shigong knew why Shumo was like this, so he ignored Shumo.

But at the end, Shumo couldn't bear it anymore.He begged and said: "Master, I really want to redeem her. I beg your permission. I don't want your money. This time I have already collected 250 taels of silver when I come out."

In fact, at this time, Shumo was no longer only concerned about his lust.The main reason why he wants to redeem that maid now is because of a man's self-esteem.

Shumo has already boasted in front of that maid, and will go to redeem her body for this maid.If Shumo can't do it, Shumo thinks that he will lose face.That's why he did it again and again.He made requests to Wu Shigong again and again.

Wu Shigong looked at Shumo's pitiful appearance, after staying together for such a long time, Wu Shigong and Shumo always had some feelings.Besides, Wu Shigong himself has five wives, big and small.He himself is not upright, so he has no reason to talk about the truth with Shumo.So, at the end, Wu Shigong nodded and agreed to Shumo's request.

After eating, accompanied by several guards, Shumo excitedly went to the brothel where the maid was, to redeem her body.

However, not long after Wu Shigong returned to the inn, Shumo came back listlessly.Because now is the time when Guide Mansion welcomes the governor to a banquet, the maid and the brothel's old bustard, of course, also went to the banquet venue, and did not stay in the brothel at all.Shumo was in vain.

This is God's will, because Wu Shigong and the others will escort Qi County Magistrate back to the county early in the morning, and there is no time for Shumo to go to the brothel to redeem the maid again.Therefore, Wu Shigong had no choice but to comfort Shumo a few words, and went to bed early.