Lu Ming

Chapter 159 The Big Bear is Coming
As the days went by, the Zhong and Huang families, each of whom had a bit of a secret to hide, coincidentally cooperated quite well in the matter of marriage.The whole thing went very smoothly for a time: the four preliminary procedures of Nacai, Wenming, Najib, and Nazheng were quite fast. Sudden suspension of the process - without it, Mr. Xiong Daxiong will come.

Xiong Wencan resigned from Beijing at the Golden Luan Hall in early March, but the North Canal hadn't thawed at that time—the thawing of the canal was slower during the Little Ice Age.In this way, Master Xiong's team had no choice but to go overland first, and after dawdling along the canal all the way to the border of Shandong, Old Xiong got on the official boat and started to play rafting.

By the time Huang Zhicheng's staff stationed in the official post came to report, it was already early April.After getting the news, Huang Zhicheng resolutely suspended the wedding process: he had to decide the next step based on the result of contact with Xiong Wencan.

Two days later, Desheng Bridge Official Station.

Mr. Huang Ping, who was dressed in a black wide-brimmed straight dress that Shi Lin defaulted as a formal suit, was sitting in the lobby of the official post at the moment, drinking tea and eating snacks, chatting and spanking with a bunch of low-level officials .

The official boat that Xiong Wencan was on was the Desheng Bridge that arrived before noon.Huang Zhicheng came here today for the purpose of submitting a post, recommending a letter, and responding to him—Old Xiong will definitely not see him today, but he must put on a straight posture and wait at the official post.

As the governor of a province, even if he is passing by, at the beginning of disembarkation, there will inevitably be people of the same level in Zhejiang official circles to come out to socialize. After that, he will wait in line, and when Lao Xiong is free to meet Juren, it will take two or three days. look.Therefore, in the past few days of waiting for the card to turn over, Huang Juren has to come here to work every day.

After entering the gate of the official post, there are traditional flower halls on the left and right sides, which are places for officials from all walks of life to sit idle.In the waiting hall of Deshengqiao official post, there are more officials, scholars, businessmen, and scholars like Huang Zhicheng running around than dogs every day. This place is very lively all year round, no less than the waiting hall of later generations.

These people who have been fighting for positions all day long in the official post will not be in a good situation. They are usually miscellaneous officials and candidates who have no background.Those who are really capable have already settled down with the official department and took office. Who still sits like a dog in the official post every day waiting for the big boss to summon?

From the next day, Mr. Huang brought good tea and snacks—these two days were the first time when Longjing went on the market in the Ming Dynasty, and it is now the 17th century. There is no such thing as selling Longjing on trucks, and ordinary people can’t drink it at all. from this expensive tea.

So Huang Ping, an outlier, has been very popular in the past two days. He is generous and elegant in conversation. While drinking tea, everyone intimately exchanges various experience in running an official.

Huang Juren's camp is full of Juren and low-ranking officials, and this belongs to the Husky team with the loudest voices.These people scolded the postmen all day long, yelled three times and drank four times, and the whole flower hall could be messed with by them.

Only when the door shouted: "Master XX is here", the scene will be quiet for a while, and after the big man in official robes walks by without looking sideways, the noise will remain the same as before.
On the side there is the quieter talent camp, this one belongs to Teddy's team, everyone's faces are full of passion, and they want to get angry when they see people, but no one responds.

The least sense of existence is the merchant camp in the corner.This group of people belonged to the Chihuahua team, each of them was covered in silk, with harmless smiles on their fat and round faces.

However, in such places where officials come and go, merchants are the least powerful category, and the harsh hierarchical oppression of feudal society is fully reflected here-no poor official dares to get close to merchants on such occasions.

In fact, even if these people's homes are full of money, here, they can only buy a bowl of the worst tea from the postman to quench their thirst-the grass people drink good tea and eat snacks?Where are the faces of the old men in the hall going?It would be nice if you didn't make you kneel down!

Huang Ping was in this kind of situation, forced to soak in the official post for three days, filled his belly with tea and snacks every day, and went home. Fortunately, there was a Hou Jian businessman named Xiong Dao who was even worse than him, and he didn't even have snacks. , drank bad tea, which filled Mr. Huang with a sense of superiority.

On the first day Xiong Da came to the post house, Mr. Zhang Yandeng, then the governor of Zhejiang, came to pay a visit.

The next day, Dong Chengshao and Sun Zhifang, chief envoys of left and right Zhejiang, came to visit.

On the third day, Mr. Lin Zhi, the envoy of Zhejiang Ti Xing Press, came to pay a visit.

On the afternoon of the third day, after Liu Mengqian, the prefect of Hangzhou, came to wander around the posthouse, Huang Zhicheng knew that it would probably be his turn tomorrow.

Sure enough, in the afternoon of the fourth day, when Mr. Huang was having fun with a group of waiting dicks, a servant wearing a soft hat (the style Zhou Xingchi ordered Qiuxiang) ran into the flower hall and asked loudly: "Is Huang Ping Huang Xiaolian in Hangzhou? My Master Xiong is here."

Hearing the sound, Huang Ping dropped half of the sweet-scented osmanthus peach cake in his hand, picked up the tea bowl and started rinsing his mouth. A few water blowing friends quickly handed over towels to wipe Mr. Huang's face and head, and after tidying up, he used the only special training tool in the crossing crowd to clean his mouth. He walked with his chest and head down in the Ming Dynasty, and followed the soft-hat family to the inner courtyard.

After a few steps inside, Huang Ping began to ask: "I don't know what to call this person?"

"Don't dare, little Xiong Qi."

"Well, the journey is tiring, Mr. Xiong, is your body still healthy?"

As he was asking, Master Huang flicked his sleeves, and a small ingot of water silk fine silver came out of Xiong Qi's hand in an instant.

Xiong Qihuan squinted his eyes with joy, and the pompom on the soft hat trembled: "Master Huang, my lord has a good look, and I just added a small bowl of rice."

"Oh, you look good." As Huang Zhicheng walked, he thought: "Don't let me spend the whole day and night thinking about it, as long as I don't have food and drink."

Xiong Wencangui was the governor of a province. When he took office, there were no less than a hundred people from all walks of life who accompanied his master, staff, family, bearers, and guards, so he set up three yards in the post house.At this time, Master Huang was led to sit in a side hall, and a cup of good tea was served by Xiong Qi later.

After the tea was turned from boiling hot to warm, Xiong Wencan, who was dressed in a pine-patterned Taoist robe, came out from the back hall.

Xiong Wencan is a native of Sichuan, with a thin body and a clean face. He is 53 years old and is in his golden years as an official.

Seeing the boss appearing, Huang Ping hurriedly got up and went to see him.

Here Huang Ping doesn't need to kneel down: not to mention in court, in private occasions, Juren's rank is equivalent to deputy division, and no matter how high Xiong Wencan's official position is, his rank is only Zhengdi (Jinshi), except for the three deputy divisions in Yijia. In addition, other people are half a level behind in the system, so there is no reason to kneel down.

This is the Juren who has passed the provincial examination on the right track—already a member of the ruling class.In all kinds of ancient ghost novels, scholars have always been deceived, slaughtered, and slept by fox spirits. Have you ever seen a master Juren being taken care of by a child?
Xiong Wencan is thin and small, but his lung capacity is not small, and his voice is like thunder: "Zhicheng doesn't need to be polite, my teacher and I have been inseparable for many years, and we will sit down and talk."

At this moment, the dividends of the "Operation Li Kui" that was spent a lot of time before traveling through the crowd began to appear.

It can be heard from Xiong Wencan's address that he has read the famous post and recommendation letter submitted by Huang Ping before.

The day after Huang Ping learned that he was going to join Xiong Wencan, a messenger went straight to Nanjing with an urgent letter from Mr. Huang—Huang Ping's tutor, Chen Meng, was the current Secretary of the Imperial Academy of Nanjing.After presiding over the Ding Maoke Township Examination, due to the increasingly severe party struggle between the DPRK and China, Chen Meng returned to Beijing, but was kicked from the Hanlin Academy to the Nanjing Guozijian.

Chen Siye and Xiong Wencan were both high-ranking officials from Sichuan when they were in the court, so they naturally had personal relationships.So when the teacher saw the messenger, after reading the letter of appeal for help from his most filial disciple, he immediately wrote a letter of recommendation for Xiong Wencan, and the messenger brought it back.

This is why Mr. Xiong called Huang Ping directly when we met today: the content of the old friend's recommendation is not the ordinary "Eight Elements", but an all-round recognition of Huang Ping.

After the guests and hosts were seated, Xiong Wencan knew that this person was here to answer the curtain, and after a few words of politeness, he began to test Huang Zhicheng.I didn't want to take this exam, but it surprised Xiong: the visitor gave him his words, he had unique insights, and he had a clear understanding of the situation in Fujian.

It only took a cup of tea, and Huang Zhicheng's straightforward, unobtrusive, and analysis of the situation mixed with some specific figures made Xiong Wencan look at him with admiration, in one sentence: There is something to be said.

This is very rare.Xiong Wencan spent half his life in officialdom, and he has seen many gentlemen from all walks of life, staff, advisers and advisers, and he knows how useful these people are: he is full of small talk and righteousness on weekdays, but he is helpless when things happen, and he just lifts out the dead principles in the book and applies them mechanically.However, there are many mentors and friends behind this generation who come forward to recommend sponsors, so in many cases, the old bear is holding his nose to take in.

To be honest, based on the recommendation letter from Huang Zhicheng's teacher, Xiong Wencan was originally determined to keep Huang Zhicheng today-as long as his performance is not too bad.As a result, Old Xiong never expected that this son actually gave him a surprise on the spot!
"Zhicheng is currently living in Hangzhou, how can he be so familiar with the situation in Fujian?" Xiong Wencan asked, staring at Huang Zhicheng with bright eyes.

"To be honest with the Fujun, since I saw the mansion newspaper in March and learned that the adults will go south to Fujian soon, the students have moved their minds." Huang Zhicheng's face was sincere at this time: "These days, the students only look up some old papers. In addition to the mansion report, I also visited a few sea merchants and inquired about some news from Fujian, Guangdong and foreign countries, so I dared to show off in front of my lord today."

"Zhicheng has a heart." Xiong Wencan nodded slightly when he heard this, and his heart became more and more satisfied: these days, there are not many people who can collect information in a down-to-earth manner, even if it is hearsay.

Xiong Wencan didn't care whether Huang Zhicheng's so-called analysis of the situation just now was accurate or useful. The news was not smooth these days, and when he came to Fuzhou in the future, he would naturally have accurate information for analysis.

What he cares about is only this son's talent. In other words, Huang Zhicheng has the ability to analyze the current situation by combining the information in his hands. It is Xiong Wencan's favorite.

(End of this chapter)