As night fell, the lights of thousands of homes lit up in the entire capital.

There was a lot of traffic in front of the joint auction house that had just been listed in the east of the city. Carriages and sedan chairs gathered in front of the door, and then arranged to park elsewhere.

"Mr. Chen, long time no see!"

"Mr. Liu, your complexion is getting better and better!"

"Shopkeeper Zhao, how much does the silver charcoal you have in your hand cost now?"

...

Several guests in various clothes met at the door, their faces were filled with smiles, but they started to communicate.

The banquet last night will be different. Most of the guests who came this time were gentry and wealthy businessmen, and there were also a few officials or juren, and another group of noble children were among them.

Although this is a unique auction, businessmen value profits in their bones. Many merchants are not absorbed by auctions, but are more regarded as an opportunity to increase their connections or seek business opportunities.

This is also the reason, and with the appeal of the joint business group itself, almost all merchants in the capital gather here.

They came to the door and handed over a famous post, and were taken to a special table by a maid or servant. Pastry and tea had been prepared here, and wine and food were also provided.

In the center of the hall is a festive circular stage with a large long table on it, and next to it is a dazzling gong.

Auctions are not very new. As early as the Tang and Song dynasties, "selling clothes" with auction nature appeared, and all of them will not exceed the scope understood by the world.

Of course, an auction of such a large scale and regulations is naturally the first time in China, so there is some freshness everywhere here. No wonder a large group of noble children come to participate.

But in anything, some surprises and discord will inevitably occur.

"If you are blind, you dare to stop me?" A tall middle-aged man brought his companions over and faced the request to show the invitation, he immediately scolded the staff in front of the door.

A chief officer hurriedly ran out when he heard the news, but he recognized that the person who caused trouble was Xu Fan, the young minister of Dachang Temple. He immediately said with a smile: "It was Xu Shaoqing who was here, but this kid was timid. Please come in!"

Pooh!

Xu Fan's throat was phlegm, and he immediately spitted the thick phlegm from his mouth on the guard.

this……

The head of the head looked at this scene and the smile on his face was slightly stunned.

The guard was a young man. When faced with the thick phlegm on his face, tears couldn't help but burst out. But he knew very well what kind of era this was. The fists in his sleeves were clenched tightly, but he silently looked down at his feet.

"Remember this face of my body, so that I can't even know how to die if I die!" Xu Fan's chin raised slightly, and he said with condescending words.

The head sighed secretly, and could only wait to comfort the loyal guard later. Then he raised his hand with a smile and said, "Xu Shaoqing, he must remember you, please come in!"

Xu Fan snorted coldly, then he stepped inside with his head held high and his chest raised.

I suddenly came to this charity auction tonight. Of course, I didn’t want to join in the fun or “picking up bargains”, but wanted to see which officials were cheated by Lin Shiran.

It was precisely with this thought that after dinner, he specially brought Hu Yingjia, Zhang Xianchen and Ouyang Yijing to come together to witness the wonderful scene.

Although Hu Yingjia had just been slapped loudly by Lin Weiran, when he realized that a new opportunity had appeared, he ran over happily, and even had paper and pen and paper in his sleeves.

It is said that failure is the mother of success. If he wants to fight more and more courageously, he must firmly fight against Lin Weiran.

The guests had arrived almost, and as soon as they entered the main hall, a wave of heat came to their faces.

The head of the director did not arrange Xu Fan and his group in the main hall, but led them to the second floor and came to this more noble second floor, where the table was arranged in front of the guardrail.

Lin Xuran did not attend this charity auction tonight, but Wang Bai, the new left deputy censor of the Censorate, has come here and resolutely reveals the taste of conquering the market here.

Wang Bai was a Jinshi in the 17th year of Jiajing. Because of his contribution to offering ambergris, he was promoted by the emperor to the position of deputy envoy of Guangdong Censorship and deputy envoy of Guangdong's patrol sea route.

Later, after the posts of Guangdong's Left Governor and Nanjing's Minister of Justice, he returned to the capital as the Left Deputy Censor of the Censorate and returned to the power center of this dynasty.

During the Jiajing Dynasty, a local official wanted to return to the court to take important positions, which not only required a certain degree of strength, but also required someone in the court to support him.

It is obvious that the person who promoted Wang Bai was undoubtedly Lin Shiran, the current cabinet master, and Wang Bai had already been marked by the Lin Party.

Wang Bai was wearing ordinary Confucian uniforms, much older than before. Her hair was already gray, but her whole spirit was very good, especially the Confucian aura on her body was very strong.

Yang Futian, the Yunnan Department of the Ministry of Revenue, and Ning Jiang, the deputy chief of the Ministry of War, also attended the charity auction, accompanying Wang Bai from left to right, resolutely being the patron saint of this charity auction.

Like the small conflict at the door just now, someone came to report to them immediately.

"please!"

The chief led Xu Fan and his group up and arranged it at a table.

cough……

When Xu Fan saw Wang Bai and the other two sitting at the next table, he did not sit directly, but coughed gently.

As the eldest son of the chief minister's family at that time, no matter where he went, everyone would respect him. Facing the two doctors and a Zuo Deputy Censor who had just climbed up, he put on the airs of the chief minister's eldest son.

Yang Futian and others naturally knew about the arrival of Xu Fan and his group.

After hearing the movement, Ning Jiang pretended to turn his head and look at Xu Fan, then smiled and said to Wang Bai: "Mr. Wang, Xu Shaoqing is also here to participate in this charity shooting!"

This sentence was said casually, as if it was saying something insignificant, which made Xu Fan's face dark immediately.

"Xu Shaoqing, Xu Fan? I have heard of this person, the young master of our Yuanfu family, but it seems that he has not passed the exam, right?" Wang Bai nodded gently, and then responded casually.

"Mr. Wang, Xu Shaoqing is not completely unfair. He got the fame of a student in the exam that year!" Yang Futian continued, then turned his head to look at Xu Fan who was deliberately coughing and asked, "Mr. Xu, what about this?"

All Jinshi officers present, and a student’s fame is not worth mentioning, and it is even a stain on his personal life.

Xu Fan originally wanted to take up the airs of the eldest son of the prime minister, but never expected that these people would not be able to use this trick at all. He even exposed his shortcomings in front of him, and looked both hatred and angry on his face.

Hu Yingjia and Ouyang Yijing exchanged glances, but smiled helplessly, and a sense of pride surged in their hearts.

In the Ming Dynasty, the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty, the Jinshi officers could look down on the juren officials, and the juren officials were also officials who were in charge of the officials. This had already formed a chain of contempt.

Although Xu Fan was the son of the chief minister of the dynasty and now the fourth rank of Taichang Temple Shaoqing, he was born in the official position and was at the bottom of the contempt chain.

Like Hai Rui beat Mr. Hu Er back then, this incident seemed to offend Hu Zongxian, but Hu Zongxian was not easy to attack. If someone sells your face, then your son is naturally a personal character. If someone doesn't sell your face, it will be useless to beat him.

Yan Shifan is a good example. His official and royal children not only sat on the throne of the Left Minister of Works, but also stole the patriarch's pledge to exercise the ticket, but were hated by many Jinshi officials.

"Zhang Xianchen, the chief officer of the officials, has met Lord Wang!" Zhang Xianchen exchanged glances with Ouyang Yijing and others, and also went forward to salute Wang Bai in a regular manner.

Since Wang Bai did not sell Xu Fan's face, as a subordinate official, he naturally wanted to salute the noble and deputy chief censor of the third-rank Censorate.

Xu Fan's face became gloomy, but he still swallowed his anger silently and stepped forward to salute Wang Bai and said, "Xu Fan, the young minister of Xiaguan Dachang Temple, has met Lord Wang!"

Wang Bai also grasped the measure, nodded gently, and said a few more polite words.

"Xu Shaoqing, we still have another seat here, so why not sit here!" Ning Jiang did not intend to salute Xu Fan, but pointed to the last seat and invited him.

Xu Fan glared at Ning Jiang hatefully, and then sat down in front of the table next to him, but took the account to his heart.

Ning Jiang is the chief minister of the Ministry of War, the fifth rank, and Xu Fan is the chief minister of the fourth rank, Dachangji Shaoqing. Although the power of the two is not on the same level, this is undoubtedly a crime below, but it will not cause much negative effects.

After all, Xu Fan did not belong to the real official circle. Other Jinshi officers naturally protect their "people" and why many senior officials are more willing to train their sons to get fame and fortune.

After not much time, the auction officially began. There were more than 100 people present this time, and the entire hall was also distributed in an orderly manner, forming a large umbrella-shaped area.

The auctioneer is a beautiful woman in purple clothes. Facing many VIPs, he said without any fright: "You are welcome to take your time to attend this auction. On behalf of the Joint Auction House, I welcome it...!"

This is a very ordinary opening remark. After explaining the purpose and process of the auction funds, the first item was sent to the high platform as a gong rang out.

"this……"

When the guests present saw the first competitor, everyone couldn't help but look at Xu Fan on the second floor.

But no one expected that the first competitor was a gift from Xu Jie, the chief assistant of the dynasty. A calligraphy and painting written by Xu Jie himself, with five big words written on it: "The country of women is not worthy of men!"

Although Xu Jie did not attend the banquet last night, he also gave Lin Pingchang a handwritten handwriting.

In this era, giving away calligraphy and painting is a relatively interesting move. Of course, in order to please Shangguan, some officials often gave away paintings from famous masters from the previous dynasty, which is commonly known as "elegant bribery".

This was the case in the Ming Dynasty. As long as you can stand to a certain level and don’t have to make money yourself, the people below will definitely try their best to bribe you.

Like the popular Bing Jing and Tan Jing, the behavior that makes people unable to find faults is undoubtedly a type of bribery, but this behavior has been "legalized".

The corruption problem in the Ming Dynasty became increasingly serious. It was not because of this behavior that was uncontrollable, which caused the people above to "turn a blind eye" and the officials below to make money frantically.

"This is the handwritten book by Mr. Xu. The starting bid we have formulated is 200 taels of silver. Please raise your bid!" The woman in purple said with a smile after displaying her work.

Two hundred taels of silver?

When everyone heard this price, they couldn't help but look at each other. Although this was not very high, Xu Jie was not a famous artist after all, and it was not worth such high money at all.

The woman in purple looked at the surroundings and said with a smile: "In order to prevent the fake calligraphy and paintings, this auction house has guaranteed reputation for all the works participating in this auction and stamped them with our special anti-counterfeiting logo to ensure that the calligraphy and paintings have higher reputation, and may also be taken back to our auction house to continue bidding!"

"This woman is talking nonsense!"

"Are we worried about fakes? We are worried about whether it is valuable!"

"Even if it's been left for two hundred years, it's probably worth less than one hundred taels!"

...

The merchants present were all smart people. This time they came to find a bargain. They were not enthusiastic about such behavior that they would definitely lose money, but they whispered.

"Two hundred taels!"

Xu Fan heard the whispers around him, but raised his hand with a calm face and said.

Although his main purpose of this trip was to record the list of officials who gave generous gifts, and also hoped that Lin Shiran would not raise enough money at this auction, he did not want his father's works to be so unwilling to be seen by the attendant.

"Two hundred taels, once!"
To be continued...