I am a temporary worker in Jinyiwei, how did I become a powerful official?

Chapter 131: Zheng the Butcher at the Pork Shop in Big Nose Alley, Thick Phlegm Street
Two days later, in Xuanfu City, in the dining room of Xuanda Governor's Mansion.

Yang Shun set up a banquet with ten tables to entertain Lin Shisan and his entourage.

Yang Shun smiled and said, "Little brother Lin, please come and sit down. Xuanfu is our home. Coming to Xuanfu is like coming home."

Lin Shisan bowed and said, "Yang Bu Tang, the palace sent me to catch insects this time, please help me."

Yang Shun said, "Of course! Only when we catch good insects and present them to the palace can the emperor be happy. Only when the emperor is happy can the ministers and junior ministers be happy. If they are all happy, it will be easier for us to do our jobs."

Lin Shisan looked around at the thirty or so young girls serving in the dining room: "I didn't expect that there are so many fair-skinned women in Xuanfu."

Yang Shun waved his hands and said, "You are wrong! Xuanfu is not a place where beautiful women are born. I sent people to buy them from Yangzhou. They are skinny horses. Two pieces of meat for two pieces of silver."

Lin Shisan was stunned: The best skinny horse in Yangzhou is worth two pieces of meat and two pieces of silver. These more than 30 girls, must be worth 20,000 to 30,000 pieces of silver? They always say that the border troops are short of food and money, but it turns out that the front is short of food and the back is short of food.

Yang Shun smiled and said, "Whichever one you like, you can take it back to your bedroom and enjoy it at any time."

"Oh, I was a top scholar in the imperial examination. I was placed in a barbaric place like Xuanfu by the imperial court. My temperament gradually became like that of a soldier. Soldiers never shy away from being brothers."

"Sometimes the Jiaofangsi sent a convicted official's wife to Xuanfu, and she could be married to 20 soldiers at the same time, and they would take turns to use her."

Lin Shisan saw the dishes on the table, which were exactly the standard of the Yan family banquet in Beijing. Shark fins, abalone, sea cucumbers, scallops, etc., were rare in the inland areas, let alone the border areas? Here, they were all available.

Inspector Lu Kai said, "Lin Chuanfeng, I heard that you recently married the old housekeeper Yan?"

Lin Shisan raised his hands above his head and said, "That is the matchmaker that the young minister has given me. I am just a small centurion, and it is a great honor for me to marry into the Yan family."

Lu Kai said, "What do you mean by 'small centurion'? Lin Chuanfeng is too modest! We are all family, so we don't speak politely, but only speak from the heart."

"You are now a favorite of the Emperor. You also helped the cabinet's disciple Hu Zongxian to take the post of Governor-General of Zhejiang Province with the help of a white deer."

Lin Shisan took the opportunity to flatter Yang Shun: "Governor Yang is in the north, and Governor Hu is in the south. They are the southern and northern pillars of the Ming Dynasty, and the twin pillars of the empire! And both of them are students of the old man. Good teachers produce good students!"

Yang Shun was quite pleased: "What national pillar? That's an exaggeration. There are only two people in the Ming Dynasty who can be called national pillars. One is the cabinet minister, and the other is the junior cabinet minister. The burden of the two capitals and thirteen provinces is all on their shoulders."

Yang Shun clapped his hands.

Four burly soldiers carried up two boxes, one large and one small.

Yang Shun said: "This small box is for you, little brother Lin. You came to Xuanfu, I can't let you return empty-handed."

"The big box is for the elder and younger cabinet ministers. Take it with you when you return to Beijing."

Lin Shisan's thick skin gave him a disguise, and the core members of the Yan Party all regarded him as one of their own.

Lin Shisan said, "Yang Bu Tang is so kind and friendly. If I don't accept it, wouldn't it be shameless? It would be disrespectful for me to refuse it!"

Yang Shun smiled and said, "They are just some local specialties. They are not worth much. Oh, by the way, I heard that Lao Luo went to Japan?"

Talking about Luo Longwen, Lin Shisan's nose suddenly soured. After a year of getting along, he really regarded Luo Longwen as a close relative. What's more, Luo Longwen had saved his life?

Lin Shisan said: "Doctor Luo risked his life for justice, and went deep into the dragon's den and the tiger's lair for the great cause of resisting the Japanese pirates. I prayed for him at the Xianliang Temple before leaving Beijing. May the Buddha bless him to return safely."

Yang Shun sighed: "The half-used piece of good She ink on my table was made by Lao Luo himself and given to me. Come on, let's drink this glass of wine to wish our Doctor Luo a safe and sound escape, promotion and wealth."

There are both capable and mediocre people in Yan's party.

Luo Longwen is a capable man, while Yang Shun is a mediocre person.

In fact, Emperor Jiajing in the palace had already begun to consider abandoning Yang Shun.

First of all, the military power in the South and the North cannot be handed over entirely to the Yan Party.

Secondly, during the four years that Yang Shun was in charge of the border, the situation at the border became worse and worse.

However, Emperor Jiajing had not yet found a reasonable reason to remove Yang Shun.

After the meal, Yang Shun said, "Brother Lin, since you are here to do business in Xuanfu, I will definitely help you. Come with me to the training ground in Xuanfu Town. I have prepared a generous gift for you."

Lin Shisan and others followed Yang Shun out of the Governor's Mansion and rode to the parade ground.

There were tens of thousands of civilians standing in the parade ground, all of them in ragged clothes, with numb and stiff expressions.

Yang Shun smiled and said, "It takes a lot of manpower to catch the insects. I have conscripted 10,000 laborers for you. You can use them as you like until you catch the insects."

Lin Shisan looked at the poor people. They were the backbone of their families. If they were conscripted for a few days of corvée labor, their wives, mothers, and children would have to starve for a few days.

For the sake of these poor people, Lin Shisan knelt down in front of Yang Shun.

Yang Shun asked: "What's going on?"

Lin Shisan bowed and said, "Yang Butang has been very kind to me. He has collected tens of thousands of corvée labor to help me. This makes Shisan burst into tears of gratitude. Please accept Shisan's greetings!"

After saying that, Lin Shisan kowtowed heavily to Yang Shun.

Yang Shun smiled and said, "We are all family. No need for all the false formalities. Please stand up quickly."

Lin Shisan stood up and changed the subject: "But what you don't know, Yang Butang, is that catching insects is different from fighting a war. The more people there are, the better."

"Especially for catching top-quality bugs, the person catching them needs to have skills. If so many people are spread out, it will scare the top-quality bugs away."

"I appreciate Yang Butang's kindness. But these are useless people. Not only can they not help, but they will make things worse."

Yang Shun nodded: "Ah, I see. It's my fault for being so abrupt."

He ordered his Xuanfu governor: "Let these poor Koreans go. Humph, they got five meals of bran porridge in the parade ground."

The poor people had a miserable life. The government invited them to come and dismissed them. Yang Shun used them as if they were talking two-legged animals.

This was not the case when Yang Bo was the governor of Xuanda four years ago. Yang Bo cherished the people of the border very much. He never conscripted people on a large scale unless it was absolutely necessary. Even if he did, he would give the people some food as a subsidy.

Yang Shun said, "You have been tired from the long journey. Go back to the Governor's Office and take a rest. I will pick a few skinny horses to warm your beds."

Lin Shisan refused disrespectfully: "Thank you, Governor Yang."

The daily affairs that Governor Xuanda had to deal with were very tedious. Naturally, he had no time to coax Lin Shisan all the time.

Lin Shisan and others returned to the bedroom in the back hall.

He, Zhang Bo and Sun Yue gathered around the two boxes given by Yang Shun.

Sun Yue said: "Yang Bu Tang said that these two boxes are full of local specialties. Hey, Xuanfu is a deserted place, what local specialties can there be? I think they must be gold, silver and treasures!"

Lin Shisan nodded: "Of course."

Sun Yue couldn't wait to open the small box which was two feet square.

There were seven or eight gold ingots of different sizes in the small box, weighing about eighty or ninety taels.

There were thirty or forty other items, such as pearl necklaces, jade carvings, gold hairpins, and gold bracelets, each of which was worth more than a hundred taels.

This box is for Lin Shisan. Zhang Bo stroked his beard and said, "As expected of a high-ranking official, he is very generous. A random gift is worth several thousand taels of silver."

Sun Yue opened the big box that Yang Shun asked Lin Shisan to take back to Beijing to hand over to Yan Song.

Twenty gold ingots were neatly stacked in the big box, and jewelry and jade articles were piled up beside them, the quality of which was much better than the one given to Lin Shisan.

Zhang Bo was born into a family of high-ranking officials, and had seen and eaten before. He flipped through the boxes and roughly estimated, "This box must be worth at least 20,000 to 30,000 taels of silver."

Lin Shisan said, "One of the charges Shen Lian brought against Yang Shun was that he treated military pay as his property and was corrupt. He also treated official positions as vegetables and sold them at will. It seems to be true." "Forget it. Put everything away. Let's take a break in the afternoon. In the evening, we will go to contact the secret agent of the Southern Pacification Office."

At this moment, ten Yangzhou skinny horses came in. The leader of the skinny horses bowed to Lin Shisan.

The thin horse said, "The master ordered the servants to come and wait for the officials to rest. Please choose whatever you like."

Lin Shisan thought to himself: In order to stabilize Yang Shun, I will suffer a little loss and take a nap.

Greed and lust are the nature of ordinary people, and Lin Shisan is no exception.

Lin Shisan glanced at Sun Yue and said, "Don't be polite. You choose first."

Sun Yue rubbed his hands excitedly: "Master, how can I choose first in this matter? Wouldn't that be considered as betraying the master and the ancestors? Master should choose first, and after he chooses, you can choose."

"Give me all the leftovers you two elders have picked out!"

Lin Shisan frowned: "You want to fight eight people alone? Aren't you afraid of dying on your bed?"

The three men each picked a skinny horse they liked and took it back to the bedroom to rest.

In the evening, the three men left the Governor's Office.

The gatekeeper standing guard at the door asked, "You three officers are going out? Should I send my comrades to escort you?"

Lin Shisan smiled and said, "No need. Let's take a good walk around Xuanfu City and try some local snacks."

The three of them asked as they walked and finally arrived at Big Nose Alley on Nongtan Street in Xicheng District.

There is a butcher shop at the entrance of Big Nose Alley. There is a sign on the butcher shop that says "Guangjinyuan Pig Butcher Shop"

During the reign of Emperor Wuzong, the word "pig" was banned due to taboos on surnames, and was replaced by "swine", "pig" and "pork".

In this dynasty, the butcher shops no longer avoided this taboo and did not avoid the word "pig" on their signs.

Lin Shisan thought: It is indeed a butcher shop opened by the secret agent of the Southern Pacification Bureau. Otherwise, they would not avoid "pigs".

The three of them entered the butcher's shop.

The butcher came forward. He was a big, strong man with a full beard. It was hot, and he had his shirt uncovered, revealing a slap of hair.

The shopkeeper asked, "How much meat would you like to have?"

Lin Shisan sat on the chair: "Give me ten pounds of lean meat, without any fat on it. Chop it into fine pieces."

The shopkeeper's eyes lit up, and he ordered his waiter, "Go chop it up quickly."

Lin Shisan said, "They are clumsy, so you cut it yourself."

The shopkeeper followed the order and chopped ten pounds of lean meat and wrapped it in oil paper.

Lin Shisan added, "Give me another ten pounds of fat meat, not a bit of lean meat, and chop it into fine pieces."

The shopkeeper said nothing, and continued chopping with the knife. By the time he was done, he was sweating profusely.

Just after wrapping the fat, Lin Shisan said, "Cut another ten catties of inch-gold cartilage. There must not be any meat on the cartilage. Chop it into minced meat."

The shopkeeper asked with a smile: "Sir, are you playing a trick on me?"

Lin Shisan said sternly: "I originally turned my heart to the bright moon."

The shopkeeper replied: "How can the bright moon shine on the ditch?"

After a series of operations, the head was finally connected.

The shopkeeper said with a smile: "Brothers, someone is coming from the capital! Close the door!"

It turned out that this butcher shop was the secret base of the Southern Pacification Division in Xuanfu. The shopkeeper was a captain of the Southern Division, and the apprentices were all comrades of the Southern Division.

Lin Shisan laughed and said, "Did the Southern Division official who came up with this secret code go crazy after reading The Loyal and Righteous Water Margin?"

"This is not a meeting at all. It's clearly Lu Tingjie coming to beat up Zhen Guanxi."

The shopkeeper nodded and said, "Who knows which wicked superior it is. Just contact him, but he also asked me to chop ten kilograms of lean meat and ten kilograms of fat meat. It's exhausting."

"The officials sitting at the desks in the Southern Pacification Office usually have nothing to do. They love to make up these messy contact codes to trick the people working below them."

Lin Shisan took out his badge and revealed his identity: "I am Lin Shisan, a captain of the Northern Pacification Division of the Jinyiwei."

The shopkeeper bowed and said, "I am Zheng Dazhu, a secret agent of the Southern Pacification Division stationed in Xuanfu."

After hearing this, Lin Shisan laughed and said, "Your last name is Zheng. No wonder the superior decided to use this Water Margin joke as the signal for the meeting."

Captain Zheng asked, "Have you three eaten yet? I'll ask them to cook some meat so we can talk while we eat."

Sun Yue said at the side: "Well, I have been working hard all afternoon. It's time to eat some meat to replenish my body."

Captain Zheng ordered his men: "Hurry up and cook ten pounds of prime rib to reward the brothers who came from the capital."

Captain Zheng turned to Lin Shisan and said, "There's a letter from above via carrier pigeon. It tells me to do my best to assist you in your mission in Xuanfu."

Lin Shisan asked: "Have you been informed of my mission?"

Captain Zheng nodded: "I have told you. Your official job is to catch short-winged crickets. Your real job is to catch the demon Taoist Yan Hao."

Lin Shisan asked: "You have been in Xuanfu for a long time, do you have any news about the demon Taoist Yan Hao?"

Captain Zheng said, "Well! Catching folk demons who pretend to be gods and ghosts is also my duty. I have been asking around for news about Yan Hao five years ago, hoping to catch him."

"The Emperor believes in Taoism and hates false Taoism. If I can catch Yan Hao, this false Taoism monster, it will be a great achievement. Will I be promoted back to the capital? But this person's whereabouts are mysterious and there is no place to catch him."

Lin Shisan was surprised: "Is there no clue at all?"

Captain Zheng replied, "I only know that this man is about fifty years old. He is good at magic tricks. He exaggerates his magic tricks into being some kind of Qimen Dunjia to deceive the people. Moreover, this man is unscrupulous in making money and often goes to the grassland to sell border military intelligence to the Tatars."

Soon, Captain Zheng's men brought in two large pots of cooked prime rib and served each person a bowl of chive sauce.

Lin Shisan didn't have the slightest appetite. Even the local tyrant Zheng Baihu didn't know where Yan Hao was. How could he arrest him?

The more he thought about it, the more worried he became, and he could not think of a way to catch him.

At this moment, Sun Yue's words reminded Lin Shisan: "Master, we need to catch both people and insects. Catching people and insects is very difficult."

Lin Shisan's mind moved: catching bugs?

In fact, catching people is no different from catching insects.

Catching bugs is looking for pets. There are usually two ways to find pets. One is stupid, and the other is clever.

The dumb way is to take the initiative to look for it, and to defeat cleverness with force. For example, when looking for golden turtles, let Shuntian Prefecture collect 20,000 corvées to pull nets through the river in the capital.

The clever method is to lure the pet to show up on its own initiative, such as using honey to lure Ye Wulong and using fruit wine to lure Sun Wukong.

It’s hard to find someone in such a big border.

What if we can lure Yan Hao to show up?
Lin Shisan asked Zheng Baihu: "What does a demon leader like Yan Hao care about the most?"

(End of this chapter)