marquis of jingan

Chapter 77
Jiangdu is only [-] or [-] miles away from Jiankang, not to mention riding a horse, if you leave early in the morning, you will be there in a day by horse-drawn carriage.

Naturally, the delivery speed of the official station was not slow. The letter was still in Jiangdu in the afternoon, and it had already been delivered to Jiankang Capital City at night, and to the residence of Zhao Changping, the minister of household affairs.

This is the beginning of October in the fifth year of Hongde. Although there is still some time before the end of the year, as the servant of the household department, Zhao Changping has already started to count the expenses for the first half of the year and the items for the autumn harvest. All of them were ledgers sent by his subordinate officials, and Zhao Shilang was carefully looking through them one by one.

The servant of the household department, surnamed Zhao, named Zhao Zhi, named Changping, was born in Runzhou Prefecture. He went to Jiangdu Ganquan Academy to study when he was a teenager.

Mr. Lu was a No. 20 Jinshi in the scientific examination back then, and he was No. 2 in the second class, but this Zhao Shilang was a No. [-] Jinshi in the first class, and he was the second in the eight classics.

Master Lu had been an official in the capital for several years. After his wife passed away, and the court was controlled by the "Turtle Faction", he was a little discouraged, so he resigned and went back to Jiangdu to study, while Zhao Shilang stayed in the capital all the time. , worked hard in the officialdom, coupled with sufficient professional ability, all the way to the top, and sat in the current position of Minister of the Ministry of household affairs.

The Household Department is in charge of the imperial treasury. Although its status is not particularly high among the six departments, its power is extremely heavy. Even in this Jiankang capital, Zhao Shilang can already be regarded as the number one figure.

If Mr. Lu is the dean of Jiangdu Ganquan Academy, then this Zhao Shilang can be said to be the backbone of the "Oasis School" in the capital. Now that the emperor has gradually begun to take charge of the government, Yang Jingzong and Yang Xiang may gradually stay away from the center of power. According to the rumors in Kang Fang, this minister Zhao is very likely to be one of the future prime ministers.

While Zhao Shilang was dealing with official business, someone knocked on the door of his study, and an old servant stood at the door of the study, bowing his head respectfully: "Master, I have a letter from you."

Zhao Shilang subconsciously frowned.

"Didn't I say, don't disturb my work."

The old servant bowed his head again and said: "Master, it was a letter from Jiangdu, and it was delivered to the house overnight."

In the study room, Zhao Shilang took a deep breath, clamped a bookmark on the account book in front of him, then closed the account book, leaned back against the back of the chair, closed his eyes, and exhaled a long breath.

"Send it in."

The old servant quickly lowered his head, opened the door carefully and came in, then came to Zhao Shilang, and handed the letter to Zhao Shilang with both hands: "Master, letter."

"It seems to be sent by Master Zhang, but it is not a letter from Master Zhang."

As a student of Zhao Changping, Zhang Jian often visited his teacher when he was in Jiankang, so everyone in the Zhao family knew Zhang Jian.

Zhao Shilang didn't speak. After opening his eyes, he took the letter over. After seeing the words "Brother Changping" on the envelope, he recognized Lu Anshi's handwriting.

The strange thing is that Lu Anshi did not sign the envelope.

He frowned, sat up straight first, then looked at his servant, and said, "Okay, you go out."

The old servant bowed his head respectfully, turned around and went down.

Only then did Zhao Shilang open the letter.

The content of the letter is not short, there are three or four pages.

After all, Zhao Shilang was born at the second place, and he was also a famous child prodigy when he was a child. Not to mention ten lines at a glance, there must be no problem with three or four lines at a glance. He quickly read the whole letter roughly, and then took the first one The letter paper read it carefully from beginning to end, and then he silently brought the oil lamp beside him to him, lit the letter paper and the envelope one by one, and burned them to ashes.

Involving the scientific examination, even if it is just the county examination, is one of the most serious matters in the court, and even he, the servant, cannot leave anything that may be manipulated by others.

This is also one of the reasons why Lu Anshi did not sign the name.

After burning the letter, Zhao Shilang looked at the pile of ashes in the brazier in front of him, frowned and said, "Fan Chu is considered number one in the court, and he is known for his intelligence and determination. An incompetent person?"

After muttering this sentence, Zhao Shilang walked to the window, looked out the window at the bright moon that was about to climb to the sky, and after hesitating for a while, he still called out to the door: "Old Zheng."

The old servant quickly opened the door and walked in, respectful.

"master."

"Prepare the car and go to the house of Fan Shilang from the Ministry of Punishment."

Speaking of this, Zhao Changping rubbed his temples and asked, "Where does Fan Shilang's family live, north of the city or east of the city?"

Old Zheng lowered his head slightly, and said: "Master, Fan Shilang's family is in the east of the city, and the young master of Fan Shilang's family was engaged before, and you asked this old slave to deliver things."

"Ah."

Zhao Shilang stretched his waist and said, "Then let's go, treat it as a late-night visit to friends."

Old Zheng bowed his head: "Yes."

Although it was not midnight yet, it was already approaching midnight. There was a curfew on the street, and there were occasional street patrollers who would arrest suspicious people on the street.

However, Zhao Shilang's car was obviously not within the inspection range of these Fang Ding. Zhao Shilang's carriage arrived at the gate of Fan Shilang's Fan Mansion in Dongcheng unimpeded. The door, and then communicated with the Fan family's concierge.

As a servant, Zhao Changping, the servant of the household department, must be slightly taller than Fan Chu's servant of the punishment department. Therefore, not long after Lao Zheng became famous, the side door of Fan's mansion opened. Wearing wooden clogs, he stepped out to meet him.

Obviously, this Fan Shilang probably got out of bed.

But when he got up from the bed, he also had a lot of time to take care of his appearance. The reason why he walked out in such a hurry was to show his goodwill to Zhao Changping.

"In the middle of the night, what wind brought Brother Zhao here?"

Fan Shilang smiled all over his face and greeted Zhao Changping who was standing not far from his door.

Zhao Shilang also had a smile on his face. He looked Fan Shilang up and down, and said with a smile: "Brother Fan is already asleep? I heard that Brother Fan just took a concubine's room not long ago. He wanted to come to Mr. Zhao to bother Fan late at night. Did brother wake up from the gentle village?"

"Ashamed ashamed."

Fan Shilang chuckled: "As you get older, you won't be able to endure as much as before. When the time comes, you will be so sleepy that you can't keep your eyes open."

"I'm envious of Brother Fan, you have a leisurely job."

Zhao Changping smiled and said, "It's not like my errand, let alone the end of the year and the beginning of the year, I'll be very busy in the second half of the year. I would like to go to bed early, but the errand is on my shoulders, and I can't close my eyes."

Fan Shilang turned sideways to invite Zhao Changping into the mansion, and said with a smile: "Our Ministry of Punishment has fewer errands, which means that the Holy Son of Heaven is in power, and the prime ministers are well assisted, and the world is at peace, so there are not many cases to handle."

The two servants of the imperial court chatted and laughed, and entered the gate of Fan's house.

At this moment, the Fan family had already started to prepare food and drinks, Fan Shilang led Zhao Changping all the way to the backyard, and the two servants sat opposite each other at a low table.

Fan Shilang picked up the wine glass, toasted Zhao Changping, and said with a smile: "I don't know if Brother Zhao came to the humble house late at night, what can I teach you?"

"I don't dare to give advice."

Zhao Shilang picked up the wine glass, touched Fan Shilang, and said with a smile: "Just tonight, Zhao received a message from Jiangdu that the son of the Fan family wanted to demolish Ganquan Academy."

"Brother Fan also knows that Mr. Zhao was born in Ganquan Academy back then. I miss the old days, so I came here to ask Brother Fan for favors."

He glanced at Fan Shilang with a calm expression.

"Brother Fan is also from Jiangdu. Brother Fan, please look at Jiangdu and look at me, Mr. Zhao, and tell your son of the Fan family to stop and spare our academy."

Hearing Zhao Changping's seemingly low-profile words, Fan Shilang's hair stood on end with horror.

He froze with the wine glass held in mid-air, then glanced at Zhao Changping, took a deep breath, and smiled wryly.

"Brother Zhao, Jiangdu's hometown, I haven't been back for several years. I don't know much about the things there. If Brother Zhao has any orders, you might as well just say it..."

(End of this chapter)