Kunshan County, Suzhou Prefecture, South Zhili, was named Louyi in ancient times. During the Spring and Autumn Period, King Shoumeng of Wu once hunted deer here, so it was also called Lucheng.
This place is rich and has always been the most fertile land in the south of the Yangtze River. The textile industry, salt industry, and maritime trade are all developed.
According to the unspoken rules of the Ming Dynasty, wealthy families emerge from the land of anointed people. The largest wealthy family in Kunshan County is the Ye family. The Ye family in Kunshan is known as "Ye Bancheng" and is a popular family in the local area.
Originally, there was still the Gu family that could compete with the Ye family, but after the death of Gu Shaofu and Gu Xiang, the patriarchs of the Gu family, the new patriarch Gu Yanwu took the restoration of the Ming Dynasty as his own responsibility all day long and did not care about making money. He was also replaced by the Ye family leader Ye Fangheng.
After several assassinations, the family fell into decline, and the Ye family grew up alone in Kunshan.
It's May day, baby face, the weather is very hot and muggy, and it looks like it's going to rain, but it won't.
Ye Fangheng was sitting in the pavilion, staring at the green bamboos rustling in the wind outside the pavilion, with a gloomy expression. This man was a Jinshi, but not from the Ming Dynasty, but from the Manchu Qing Dynasty.
At that time, the situation in the Ming Dynasty was in crisis, and Ye felt that there was a future for taking the imperial examination of the Qing Dynasty. Brothers Ye Fangheng and Ye Fangai both participated in the imperial examination of the Qing Dynasty, and both won the Jinshi. Ye Fangai also served as an official at the Hanlin Academy, edited, served as a lecturer, and served as a student.
Bachelor.
It is said that if you have served as a captive official, if you have not surrendered anyway, you will be punished according to the crime of "collaborating with the captives", which can range from beheading to exile, and your family property will be confiscated. But the Ye family is lucky. In the past few years,
The Manchus and Qing Dynasties were engaged in memorials in the south of the Yangtze River. All nobles who refused to pay taxes to them in accordance with the rules were dismissed from office and had their honors removed. As a wealthy family in Kunshan, the Ye brothers were bound to evade taxes. Unexpectedly, the Tatars were serious about it, but they refused to do so.
After obediently paying the taxes, the two brothers were immediately dismissed from office, and their status as Jinshi was also revoked.
This saved Ye's life. After the Ming army came over, all the traitors, big and small, were in bad luck. Instead, they were dismissed from office by the Qing court and lost their honors. They were safe and sound. They transformed from big tax resisters into rebels.
Qingyishi.
"Brother, why are you so unhappy?" Seeing Ye Fangheng being unhappy, Ye Fang Ai asked.
"Hey! I heard that Yanwu of the Gu family has been promoted to a general. I am afraid that the Ye family's disaster will happen soon!"
Ye Fang'ai was stunned, and then said with a smile: "Brother, you are too worried. Ning Ren is a generous person. He only has public hatred in his heart and has no personal grudges. Besides, our family has returned the 800 acres of paddy field to the Gu family. He should not
I will worry about it again."
"What do you know? The Ye and Gu families have been fighting for so many years, and their hatred has become as deep as the sea. Even if Gu Ning doesn't care, what about the rest of the Gu family? Then Gu Yanwu has been rebelling against the Qing Dynasty and restoring the Ming Dynasty in these years, and he knows many high-ranking officials in the court;
Our family has passed the imperial examinations of the Manchu and Qing dynasties, and we have been admitted twice in one subject. If someone were to scrutinize us carefully, we would lose our heads! Alas!"
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There is a deep conflict between the Kunshan Ye family and the Kunshan Gu family.
Both families are wealthy families, and there are constant frictions due to the struggle for power and profit.
In the last years of Chongzhen, the patriarchs of the Gu family, Gu Shaofu and Gu Xiang, died successively, and the Gu family was taken over by Gu Yanwu. Gu Yanwu was a passionate young man who devoted himself to serving the country, but was not good at managing money. He donated a large amount of money to organize an anti-Qing rebel army, and there was a severe drought in Wuzhong.
"For a while, there was a shortage of money, taxes and corvee were rampant", and money gradually became tight.
Gu Yanwu, who was short of money, had no choice but to give 800 acres of his ancestral paddy fields to Ye Fangheng, the head of the Ye family, at a low price. Ye Fangheng didn't feel bad when he saw that Gu Yanwu was selling his father's land. He was a "prodigal son" and was overjoyed. He thought he would defeat the Gu family and dominate Kunshan.
The opportunity has come.
He had a vicious plan in mind, and instigated Yanwu's cousin to fight for the inheritance from Yanwu, causing trouble for the Gu family. At that time, the Ye family defected to the Manchus, and Ye Fang'ai also served as a lecturer at the Imperial Academy of the Qing Dynasty, giving lectures to the Manchu nobles.
, Gu couldn’t afford to offend him, so he had to endure it.
Unexpectedly, the Gu family had a slave named Lu En. Seeing the decline of his master's family, Gu Yanwu was busy fighting against the Qing Dynasty and restoring the Ming Dynasty. Sooner or later, he would be killed by the Eight Banners. For the sake of wealth, he betrayed his master and joined the Ye family.
Ye Fangheng was overjoyed and secretly ordered Lu En to accuse Gu Yanwu of being "transparent" and planned to kill him. After Gu Yanwu learned about it, he rushed back to Kunshan and killed Lu En immediately.
Ye Fangheng refused to give up and instigated Lu En's son-in-law to falsely accuse Gu Yanwu and imprisoned him in the Songjiang Mansion Prison. There was an uproar among the scholars, and his best friend returned to the village to seek help from Qian Qianyi.
Qian Qianyi was forced to surrender to the Qing Dynasty and had a bad reputation, but Gu Yanwu was a famous anti-Qing righteous man. He thought that if he could accept Gu Yanwu as his disciple, he would be able to restore his reputation. He said: "If Ning Ren were me,
disciple, it will be convenient for me to speak for him."
In order to save his friend, Guizhuang had to accept Qian Qianyi as his disciple on Gu Yanwu's behalf. When Gu Yanwu found out about this, he was furious. I am a man, how can I accept Qu Jie Shiluo as my disciple? He hurriedly asked people to find the disciples who returned to Zhuang to write the book.
Post. Unexpectedly, Qian Qianyi acted like a scoundrel and refused to cooperate. Gu Yanwu wrote a confession, stating that he had never been listed on the Qian family's wall, and asked people to post it everywhere on the thoroughfare. This made Lao Qian greatly embarrassed, and he laughed and said:
"Ning Ren was so impatient" that he had to return the student's post.
After Gu Yanwu was released from prison, Ye Fangheng sent assassins to follow and assassinate Gu Yanwu in order to eliminate the root cause. Fortunately, he was saved. Later, Ye Fangheng ordered dozens of gangsters to rob Gu Yanwu's home.
With such an approach, Gu Yanwu could no longer stay in his hometown, so he had no choice but to join the anti-Qing rebel army and join the army.
After the restoration of the Ming Dynasty, a group of Gu Yanwu's brothers, both living and dead, became high-ranking officials, and he himself became a general because of his bravery in battle.
Ye was very frightened, fearing his revenge.
Ye Fangheng and Ye Fangai came to apologize in person and wanted to return the 800 acres of prime paddy fields that Gu had pawned at a low price.
Unexpectedly, Gu Yanwu actually said: "Ye, the Gu family is just a private enemy. I have pledged myself to the country, and I only have hatred for the country and no personal hatred in my heart." Not only did he forget about it, he even refused to take over the paddy fields.
However, Ye was worried if he refused to accept the land deed. After Ye Fangheng said good things, he asked Gu Yanwu to accept the 800 acres of land, and then he felt relieved.
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"If you don't have long-term worries, you will have immediate worries. Brother Ye is very wise."
The two of them were chatting about the grievances and hatreds between the two families, when suddenly human words came from outside the pavilion, and a black shadow flew out from the edge of the bamboo forest outside the pavilion like a ghost.
Ye FangAi was shocked: "Who are you?"
The visitor chuckled, "Zhang Bin, the envoy of Jinyi Weinan Town".
"Jinyiwei?"
Ye Fangheng's heart trembled: There must be no good for this plague god coming here! He asked, "What does Zhang Zhenfu want from breaking into a private house?"
Zhang Bin actually didn't want to take this job. However, he was Tao Cheng's confidant, and naturally he was also a thorn in Ma Jixiang's side. Ma Jixiang sent him to do this dirty thing. If it succeeded, the credit goes to Ma Jixiang; if it failed, it was your incompetence. Zhang Bin framed the patriot.
A righteous man, no matter whether he succeeds or fails, Zhang Bin's reputation will spread all over the streets.
Even though he knew it was a trap, he had to jump because he wanted to harm the warrior Gu Yan, who was the supreme being in the world.
"I'm here to help Brother Ye get rid of future troubles. Please come forward and accuse Gu Yanwu, who relied on his power to commit lawlessness and robbed the Ye family of 800 acres of paddy field."
"But we voluntarily returned the 800 acres of paddy fields to the Gu family, and everyone in Kunshan knows this. If we sue Gu Yanwu for seizing the fields, we probably won't win the lawsuit." The Ye brothers felt that they had no chance of winning.
Zhang Bin laughed loudly and said, "Just sue Bao Er and wait for it."
"It seems that this person named Gu has offended someone who can't afford to offend him!" Ye Fangheng seemed to have realized something.