My Portable Ming Dynasty

Chapter 39 Side Mission
Xu Wei, a native of Shaoxing, was named Wenchang and was also known as Qingteng Laoren.

In his previous life, Su Ze once participated in an art exhibition, and the exhibition hall commented on Xu Wei as "the Van Gogh of the East".

Su Ze had some objections to this. What was Van Gogh? How could he be compared with Xu Wei? To say that Van Gogh was the Xu Wei of the West was flattering him.

Xu Wei was not only a calligrapher and painter, but also a writer, military strategist, and politician. Not only did he unify the Ming Dynasty in literary and artistic attainments, he also helped Hu Zongxian fight against Japanese pirates and made many contributions.

During the anti-Japanese war, Xu Wei joined the front-line troops many times, wrote down the specific battle situation of the anti-Japanese war, and put forward specific military suggestions to Hu Zongxian.

Xu Wei also planned for Hu Zongxian, helping him capture the Japanese pirate leader Xu Hai and pacify the pirate Wang Zhi.

Unfortunately, after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Hu Zongxian, as a backbone of Yan Song's party, was inevitably involved in the anti-Yan political turmoil and eventually died in prison.

Shen Yikuan and Su Ze squeezed in the carriage. As a native of Zhejiang, he had naturally heard of Xu Wenchang.

He also wanted his good friend to hire Xu Wei as his assistant and give him a stable life.

But he was also worried that Xu Wei's identity was too sensitive and would affect Su Ze's career.

In this way, with a nervous mood, the carriage arrived at a dilapidated courtyard in the north of the city.

Before getting off the carriage, Shen Yiguan said, "Brother Zilin, Xu Wenchang is a bit of a lunatic. If he says anything outrageous, don't take it to heart. He's always angry with the scholars over a few words. If the scholars didn't have sympathy for his background and talent, they wouldn't have made such a request."

Su Ze nodded and said:
"I know, this is where Xu Wenchang settled?"

The layout of the capital is square, with the imperial palace at its center. There is a saying in the capital that "the east is rich, the west is noble, the south is poor, and the north is humble."

The north of the city is the place with the lowest rent in the entire capital. This alley is filled with a foul stench and even carriages cannot pass through, which shows the difficult life of Xu Wenchang in Beijing.

A generation of anti-Japanese patriots ended up in such a situation. Su Ze couldn't help but clench his fists.

Shen Yikuan led Su Ze into the alley and pushed the door open to enter a dilapidated courtyard. There he saw an old man in plain clothes sitting in the courtyard. He had his hair untied, letting the wind blow his white hair around.

The old man closed his eyes, but held a pen in his hand and unfolded a scroll on the stone table.

Shen Yiguan's uncle Shen Mingchen and Xu Wei were friends and became known as the "Ten Friends of Yuezhong." Therefore, Shen Yiguan, acting as a nephew, said to Xu Wei:

"Junior Shen Yiguan, I pay my respects to Mr. Xu."

Xu Wei ignored Shen Yikuan and kept his eyes closed.

Su Ze walked forward and saw a scroll spread out on the stone table. On the scroll was an old vine, and then some ink balls, which looked like grapes on a vine.

In the upper half of the painting, two lines of poetry are written: "Half a lifetime of desolation has made me an old man, sitting alone in my study, whistling in the evening breeze."

Xu Wei's cursive script is also very distinctive. He was unruly and wild, and claimed to be the master of the school. Zheng Banqiao of later generations once studied Xu Wei's calligraphy and painting, and once said with emotion that he "would like to be a running dog under Qingteng", indicating that his calligraphy and painting were all learned from Xu Wei.

It seems that Xu Wei had finished the painting and written half of the poem, but he didn't know how to write the second half, so he closed his eyes and thought.

Su Ze said without hesitation:
"I have no place to sell the pearls from my pen, so I just throw them among the wild vines."

After saying this, Xu Wei suddenly opened his eyes, and stared at Su Ze with a pair of clear eyes.

Then Xu Wei wrote the second half of Su Ze's sentence on the painting with great speed.

Then Xu Wei started laughing, "What a 'throw it among the wild vines'!"

Su Ze looked at the painting, wondering how much this famous painting, which was selected into the Chinese language textbooks of later generations, was worth. When he laughed until he cried, Xu Wei put away his brush, wiped his tears with his clothes, and said respectfully to Su Ze:
"Xu Wei from Shaoxing, greetings to my dear husband."

Shen Yikuan was also stunned. He had heard about Xu Wenchang from his uncle and Zhu Dashou. He only knew that Xu Wenchang was arrogant because of his talent. Except for the days when he served under Hu Zongxian, he rarely had a good face to dignitaries.

But after carefully thinking about the half sentence of the poem said by Su Ze, Shen Yikuan felt that this half sentence was so perfect. It not only fits the idea of ​​the painting, but also directly writes out Xu Wei's frustration.

"Su Ze of Taicang, I pay my respects to Lord Xu."

Xu Wei picked up the wooden hairpin on the table and tied up his hair. The sloppy and crazy old scholar suddenly calmed down.

Shen Yikuan was even more shocked by the overwhelming momentum. He then remembered that although this man had failed in the imperial examinations many times, he was a talented man in Zhejiang who was as famous as his uncle.

Shen Yikuan immediately put away the contempt he had when he first joined the sect. A talented man who was valued so highly by his uncle and other scholars must have earned his reputation in vain.

Xu Wei invited Su Ze and the others to sit down, put away the scroll and said:

"I already know the purpose of Su Hanlin's visit. As a consultant, there are also rules for being a consultant."

Since the mid-Ming Dynasty, the difficulty of the imperial examination has further increased, so many scholars who failed repeatedly either became staff members and advisors to officials or opened private schools to teach, thus forming the culture of staff members.

Compared with the dependent relationship between guests in the Han and Tang dynasties, the Ming Dynasty's retainers were more like the commercial employment of professional managers. It was a two-way choice, where the two parties received money to serve others. If the two parties really couldn't get along, the relationship could be terminated by simply returning the betrothal money.

For example, Xu Wei worked as an aide to Li Chunfang. Although Li Chunfang had a good temper in the cabinet, he was extremely strict in managing his subordinates. The Li family had strict rules, and Xu Wei couldn't stand it and wanted to leave.

Li Chunfang refused and sent people to ask Xu Wei for the betrothal money. However, Xu Wei had already spent the betrothal money on wine. In the end, it was his good friends like Zhu Dashou who pooled the money and returned the betrothal money to Li Chunfang, which allowed Xu Wei to terminate the engagement.

Xu Wei's eyes became cloudy again, and he continued:

"Let me introduce myself. I, Xu, have had a rough life, achieving nothing. My second brother died young, I've been married three times, I've been a hanger-on everywhere, I've learned a lot, all my relatives have left me, I've been wrongfully imprisoned seven times, and I've failed eight exams. Even with all this, is Hanlin Su still willing to hire me?"

Shen Yikuan on the side was dumbfounded. Was it Xu Wei begging Su Ze to hire him, or was it Su Ze who asked to hire him?

As a behind-the-scenes agent, everyone has to demonstrate their talents and abilities to the owner in an effort to negotiate a good price.

The last time Xu Wei broke his promise to Li Chunfang, in order to repay the money his friend had advanced him, he sold all his property in his hometown of Shaoxing and is now penniless.

But even so, he still said this. Isn't this trying to discourage people?
Shen Yiquan looked at Su Ze, but found that Su Ze lowered his head.

It looks like there's no hope. Shen Yikuan feels a little sorry, but he doesn't know that Su Ze is checking the system.

[Side quest: Fulfill Xu Wei's wish and help redress Hu Zongxian's wrongdoing.]

[Task Reward: Item Lottery Chance*1]

task?

Su Ze decisively accepted the task. He looked up at Xu Wei and said:

"I heard that Hu Bu Tang invited Xu Gong three times before he came out of retirement. I am not as good as Hu Bu Tang, but I don't mind running a few more times than Hu Bu Tang."

Hearing the words "Hu Butang", the turbidity in Xu Wei's eyes dissipated, and he said:
"No need for three times, Xu is willing to be Su Hanlin's advisor!"

(End of this chapter)