A knife in love

Chapter 1136

After hearing this, the fat man shook his head and said, "No wonder everyone wants to be an official. There are so many benefits."

Zhu Shishi said: "In order to curb the corruption of officials, Emperor Gao used severe punishments and laws. Even if he embezzled 60 taels of silver, he would peel the skin and pull the weeds. If he is still alive, the officials of the Ming Dynasty may not be enough to kill him."

The short fat man played with the wine glass in his hand, pondered for a moment, then turned his head to Li Qiufeng and said, "Feng'er, you are working in Jinyiwei, are you not corrupt?"

Li Qiufeng was startled, then gave a wry smile, and said: "Master, my apprentice has been taught by you for many years. If I dare to be greedy for a penny, I am afraid I will not serve in front of you today. What's more, the apprentice is working in Nansi, and I have no desire to be greedy." Go somewhere."

When Li Qiufeng said this, he glanced at Zhu Shishi, and then said: "The prince just said that no official is not corrupt, and I don't agree with it. There are indeed countless dirty officials in the court, but there are still some good officials. I will I have seen a few officials whose families are utterly desolate, but they don’t take a penny of ill-gotten wealth. According to folklore, Jin Yiwei is domineering, but according to what I have seen, most of Jin Yiwei only rely on their salaries to eat, and there are not many opportunities to extract money..."

Before Li Qiufeng finished speaking, Zhu Shishi sneered and said, "That means they have no chance to be greedy! If you don't believe me, put them in the various departments of the Ministry of Household Affairs, or directly send them out to various places to serve as magistrates and officials." County magistrate, if they are not greedy, they will see a ghost."

Li Qiufeng remembered that when he was in the capital, whenever his colleagues were sent out to be magistrates, they would all set up wine to celebrate, and bluntly said that they would be able to get promoted and make a fortune from now on, instead of being an errand in the capital, where they were only two or three taels of silver a month and had to be paid. Officials such as Zhenfu Envoy, Commanding Envoy, and Yushitai suppressed it.Perhaps it is true as Zhu Shishi said, the officials he saw who were not corrupt just had no chance to be greedy.

Seeing that Li Qiufeng was silent, the short fat man couldn't bear to ask any more, and turned to Zhu Shishi: "If the prince has silver, would he give it to the poor people?"

Zhu Shishi was stunned, then gave a wry smile, and said, "Mr. Liu, aren't you mocking me? You have seen the situation in the palace. It can be said that the family is completely destitute. If Mr. Li hadn't gifted a few hundred Two silvers, I am afraid that within three days, the palace will run out of food. With my current situation, it is not easy to support a family of six, and I really have no spare energy to help others."

The short fat man smiled and said, "My lord, you didn't hear what the grassroots said. What I said was 'if your lord' had money, would you be willing to help the poor people?"

Zhu Shishi said: "If I have silver, I will help the poor and not be a rich and unkind traitor!"

The short fat man nodded and said: "This is the best. Those who have experienced hardships know how painful it is when they are helpless. Although the prince has experienced many hardships these years, he also knows the sufferings of the people. If the emperor of the Ming Dynasty , Officials, like a prince, can understand the sufferings of the people, maybe the Ming Dynasty's national fortune still has something to look forward to."

Seeing that the short fat man said such words in a cloud of mist, Zhu Shishi didn't know what his intention was, and while he was thinking about it, the old servant came in with a plate of food.I saw him put two jugs of wine on the table, and said with a smile: "The wine has been hot, please use it slowly."

After the old servant finished speaking, he retreated on his own.After the old servant left, the short fat man said to Zhu Shishi: "This old man is very loyal to the prince."

Zhu Shishi nodded and said: "Uncle Wu was entrusted by the old prince, and he was the most honest man. At that time, the palace was still prosperous. In addition to the farm outside the city, there were two pawnshops in the city. One year, Wu Uncle's father was seriously ill and had no money to treat him. In desperation, Uncle Wu ran to the pawnshop opened by the palace to pawn his own arm. The shopkeeper and staff of the pawnshop thought that Uncle Wu was making trouble on purpose, so they quarreled with him The two sides quarreled more and more fiercely, and finally started a fight. Uncle Wu was knocked down by several pawnbrokers and tied up with ropes. Earlier, the shopkeeper had been punched by Uncle Wu in the chaos, and his left eye was black and blue. It was the time when he was in a state of desperation. Seeing that Uncle Wu was held down by the clerk, he was about to send Uncle Wu to the Yamen for punishment. It happened that the old prince went to the pawnshop to pick out dead antiques. Why did the uncle come to make trouble? Uncle Wu told the story again, and wept bitterly. The old prince was very filial to him, not only did he not send him to the official, but also gave him 20 taels of silver, asking him to find a doctor to treat his father. It's just that his father was seriously ill, and it was too late to send him to the doctor, and he died a few days later. Uncle Wu sent the remaining money back to the palace, and swore in front of the old prince that he would return the money he spent. The old prince saw that Uncle Wu was honest and honest, so he left him to work in the palace. For decades, he went from being a servant cleaning the courtyard to being the housekeeper of the palace. The former king and I were both watched by Uncle Wu. If you can’t trust him , then I will no longer be trusted in this world.”

After the short fat man finished listening, he said to Zhu Shishi: "It's the best. There are some things that the prince doesn't want to come out to, so I can leave it to Mr. Wu."

Zhu Shishi was taken aback, and said, "What does Mr. Liu mean by that?"

The short fat man chuckled and said: "The grass people want to send a sum of money to the prince. But this money is not for the prince to spend, but to be given to the poor people in Chengdu Mansion through the hands of the prince."

Zhu Shishi became more and more confused, and stared at Humpty Dumpty with wide eyes.The short fat man took a sip from his wine glass, and said, "Since the magistrate Yamen and Wang Jingcheng have scraped so much money from the common people in Chengdu, we may have to let them spit it out again."

Zhu Shishi was taken aback, and said in a trembling voice, "Mr. Liu, you mean..."

The short fat man smiled slightly and said: "I didn't say anything, the prince doesn't know anything. It's just that tomorrow morning, there will be a sum of money in the palace. The prince will use this money to buy some fields outside the city and give them to the poor people Cultivation. Rent can be collected or reduced. In times of disaster, you might as well donate some porridge and rice to the victims. The rest of the money can be used to do business, earn money, and help the poor. It’s just that the prince is inconvenient to do these things. Just leave it to Mr. Wu as much as you can."

When the short fat man said this, he paused for a while, and then said: "Your Majesty doesn't have to worry about money matters, I will naturally do it seamlessly. It's just that the matter of buying land should be done at least half a year later, lest the Chengdu government These officials, big and small, suspect the prince."

The more Zhu Shishi heard it, the more frightened he became. He just looked at the smiling face of the short fat man, but he didn't dare to ask more questions.The four drank a few more cups, and it was already dusk outside the hall.Zhu Shishi was in doubt, but he didn't dare to ask more questions. Before he knew it, he was already very drunk.When he was dazed, it seemed that the old servant came in and helped him out of the main hall.He only remembered that Humpty Humpty told the old servant to be careful, so he could no longer hear everyone talking.

When Zhu Shishi woke up from the dream, he felt a splitting headache, dry mouth, and fire seemed to be spewing from his throat.He struggled to sit up, only to find himself lying on the bed in the backyard with all his clothes on.This room was originally used as a guest room, but the family has fallen, and no one has come to the house, so all the tables, chairs and bookcases in the room have been sold for money.Only one wooden bed was left alone in the room.

Zhu Shishi sat on the bed for a while, and slowly remembered the drinking with Humpty and the others.He hurriedly jumped from the bed to the ground, put on his shoes and socks in a panic, and walked out of the room in three steps at a time.But I saw the sun hanging in the western sky, and it was almost dusk.The setting sun fell on the withered grass in the yard, like golden corn scattered all over the ground, not as chilling as it was a few days ago.

Zhu Shishi stood in front of the door for a while, then walked towards the main hall.When he opened the door and entered the room, he saw the princess sitting beside the bed in the inner room, wiping her tears with her head down.Seeing Zhu Shishi walking in, she hurriedly stood up and said, "My lord, are you awake? This concubine is going to prepare hot tea for you..."

Without waiting for her to finish speaking, Zhu Shisi waved his hands and said, "Where did Mr. Liu go?"

The princess said tremblingly: "They left the palace at noon."

Zhu Shishi's heart trembled, and he couldn't help turning his head to look at the bed.I saw that the bed was empty, and the youngest son who was lying on the bed had disappeared.Empress Zhu Sicang took two steps back, her knees softened, she sat down on a chair, and said dejectedly, "They...will they take our son away?"

The princess nodded and stood there for a moment, two lines of hot tears flowed down her cheeks again.

(End of this chapter)