The junior official was a master under the prefect, named Hua Shixiong. He was originally a failed candidate, but failed many times, ran out of money, and lived in the capital. The prefect Zou Xigui went to Beijing for a business trip and met Hua Shixiong on the street.
He had met him several times in the examination room and was considered an acquaintance. Seeing his condition, Zou Zhifu was particularly merciful and took him in.
It stands to reason that Zou Xigui is far inferior to Hua Shixiong in terms of talent and learning of literature and calligraphy. However, the Zou family has a strong family background, has people inside and outside the court, and spends a lot of money. Naturally, the poor scholar Hua Shixiong cannot be compared with him. Zou Xigui's father
In order to buy fame for his son, he scraped together 30,000 taels of silver and became a seventh-grade county magistrate. After Xiao Zou took office, he lived up to his parents' high expectations. He recovered his capital in just three years and still had a slight surplus. His father was overjoyed.
He spent another 20,000 yuan to clear his joints and got him a good job as a prefect.
Zou's father was an official in the court and Wang Shugui's best friend, so his son dared to be unscrupulous in the prefectures and counties, doing whatever he wanted, and plundering people's wealth and money. Zou Xigui served as an official in Huayang for three years and gained countless gold and silver treasures, all of which were simply bribes.
, invade and occupy, and take away every cent by skill. When the people of Huayang mentioned Zou Xigui, they all gritted their teeth and hated to eat his flesh and suck his blood alive.
At this time, Zou Xigui heard the harassment and noise outside the gate, and hurriedly sent someone out to check what was going on. The person sent came back in a panic and said:
"Sorry, Mr. Prefect, a group of people came outside the door, claiming to be the imperial envoys sent by the emperor. Master went to stop them from entering the house, but his pants were taken off. Sir, go and have a look!"
When Zou Zhifu heard that the imperial envoy had arrived, he immediately concluded that it must be a fake. The emperor sent the imperial envoy to inspect various places, and every time he did not send a letter to the place first, giving instructions to complete various reception tasks in advance, of course, the main ones were tax items, treasury, income and expenditure.
Wait. As soon as the imperial envoy arrives, he will check the accounts, listen to the people's sentiments, give a few words of admonition and comfort, bring some souvenirs along the way, fill his pockets with gold and silver coins, stay in the brothel for a few days, and then turn around and leave.
.The imperial envoy is not a thief. When he goes out, it will be earth-shattering. How could he come so suddenly? Is there any reason to be sneaky and elusive?
Zou Xigui sneered, changed his clothes casually, and summoned a dozen personal guards. He wanted to see with his own eyes that this group of bold thieves dared to pretend to be imperial envoys and go to the government office to extort money and defraud them in broad daylight.
.
Generally speaking, magistrates are very particular when going out. They do not go through the side door, but through the main door, which means the open and upright door. When a servant saw that the master was about to go out, he hurriedly opened the door. Zou Zhifu had just come out of the main door in a swaggering manner.
Master Hua Shixiong's pants fell down and fell on his head. Just as Zou Xigui was about to pull off his pants and was about to open his mouth to curse, he saw the little eunuch riding on the horse!
As mentioned in the previous letter, the young eunuch entered the court at the age of fifteen and became an official. He was the minister of the Ministry of War and was the second rank. The magistrate's official rank was generally between the fourth and fifth ranks. Although there were some differences in official rank, it did not mean that they never met.
Opportunity. The prefect governor has over a dozen or twenty county offices, including local troops that protect the city. The leader of the troops is called the general soldier. Although the prefect is a civilian official and is not under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of War, the general soldier and his troops are under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of War.
Under the circumstances, they did not have a direct relationship but had an indirect relationship. Therefore, every time the prefect came to Beijing to report on his duties, he had to go to the Six Ministries for official duties. The official rank of the six ministers was two or three higher than that of the prefect. Moreover, they were all people close to the emperor. In addition,
He said he had something to do, but even if he had nothing to do, he still had to find something to meet with the dignitaries of these important departments. He went to the capital once to meet once, and he met the young eunuch at least six times in total, and even gave him a lot of things. Zou Zhifu raised his head
When he saw the young eunuch, he would have to kowtow on the ground regardless of his official position, regardless of whether he was an imperial envoy or not. While Zou Xigui bent down to kowtow, what he was thinking in his heart was that his official career was over.
"Pan Shangshu, Master Pan, your Majesty the Imperial Envoy, I am a small official who didn't know that the Imperial Envoy was here, so I missed your welcome from afar. Please forgive me." Zou Xigui said lying on the ground.
"That's all!" The little eunuch waved his hand impatiently.
In the mind of the little eunuch, he came well prepared. Zou Xigui did many evil things and was by no means a good person. So many people complained before he set out, and he encountered so many evil people blocking him before he even entered the door. The prefect's Yamen was like a gate to hell, and besides, he was an imperial minister.
Given the difference in fate, it is conceivable that ordinary people in Li want to enter this door.
The young official who caused trouble just now knelt down and bowed down when he saw the magistrate. Only then did he realize that today he had violated the law of heaven and offended the true Buddha. He was suddenly like five thunders hitting his head, and his orifices were filled with smoke. He trembled and raised his buttocks and hurriedly knelt aside.
When the servants and guards heard that this was a real imperial envoy, who would dare not to kneel down?
The young eunuch said to the two brothers in the sedan: "Please, please bring someone in to search for me. If you find any good things, just move them out. The prefect and I are old acquaintances. We meet old friends in a foreign land. We are here."
Let’s chat for a while.”
Hu San and Wang Xiaowu went there with their people.
The little eunuch jumped off his horse, took two steps forward, took off the torn trousers above the magistrate's head and threw them to Hua Shixiong and said:
"Don't be embarrassed, scholar, get up and put on your clothes! Your problem is that you look down on others, you are self-righteous, and you are self-righteous. You have read more books than me, so I won't teach you how to be a human being. Confucius taught me early
It's over with you. Go ahead, help the people inside settle the accounts, provide information, and maybe I can even give you a bigger job."
Hua Shixiong climbed up from the ground in one fell swoop, then climbed down again and kowtowed three times, repeating over and over again:
"Sir, I listen to you. From now on I will be a loyal dog under you. I will bite whoever you ask me to bite!"
"Go ahead, go ahead, it's not time to bite yet!" The little eunuch waved his hand.
Hua Shixiong put on his trousers and ran away. Judging from the way he walked now, he was definitely not a scholar.
The little eunuch turned around and ordered the servants and others: "Get up, all of you. Go and do whatever you have to do. It's none of your business. Even if you kill someone, someone else instigated it. The fault is not yours."
Go help with the work!"
The group of people shouted in unison: "Your Majesty is wise, we listen to you!"
This group of people also left.
Someone moved a chair for the little eunuch to sit down and talk. The little eunuch kicked Zou Xigui who was still kneeling on the ground and said:
"Looking at the way you look today, I know you have a guilty conscience, am I right? Okay, stop kneeling, change your position, and let's talk."
Zou Xigui lay on the ground and begged, "I have nothing to ask for, I just want you to spare my life!"
"In this case, it's not me who has the final say." The little eunuch crossed his legs and took the cup of tea that was handed to him. He took a sip and said, "A pure magistrate is worth one hundred thousand snowflakes of silver! I
Knowing that you have been the prefect for exactly three years, what you take and give away and transfer does not count. Even if you have something on hand, the amount within one hundred thousand is yours, and anything over one hundred thousand is mine. Isn’t this reasonable?"
"It's reasonable and reasonable. You take all the money. I don't want any of it." Zou Xigui said, leaning on the ground.
"It seems there is something more important than money in this world!" the little eunuch sighed, "If I had known your life was valuable, why would I have collected so much money?"
"Don't I have a sense of luck? If I had known that I would risk my life, no fool would do it."
"What you do is worse than a fool."
"Yes, yes, what you are trying to teach me is that I am obsessed with my mind, I am obsessed with my mind!"
"Let's see, we are old acquaintances, so we have to show some kindness, right?" The little eunuch handed the tea bowl to Zhang Facun, stood up and stretched his legs, and then said, "Start from one hundred thousand, if you don't have one hundred thousand, you can continue.
Search, if it’s more than 100,000, we won’t say anything. If you treat me to a seafood meal, I’ll leave immediately.”
"You have to invite seafood, not to mention one meal, ten or eight. I am the host, and the imperial envoy is an old friend, so why should I not invite him?" Zou Xigui finally seized the opportunity to flatter him.
, bending down on the ground and muttering.
"Why are you so anxious? I haven't finished speaking yet!" The little eunuch leaned on the back of the chair, lowered his body and said sternly at Zou Zhifu, "If you exceed 200,000 yuan, I will kill you!"
"Sir, please forgive me this time. I will be a good official from now on and never do anything harmful to nature again!"
"Three hundred thousand taels is a lot of money. It's the cost of an army of 100,000 people for a year." The little eunuch pinched his fingers and said.
"My lord, let me give you another four hundred thousand!" Zou Xigui bargained.
"Three hundred and fifty thousand, it cannot be lower than this number." The young eunuch said without any doubt.
"Should furniture, antiques, etc. be folded?" Zou Xigui raised his face and asked.
"If it doesn't break, it will be treated as cash."
Zou Zhifu gritted his teeth and said, "I admit it!"