A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 974: Exiled Together

When Wu Huaiyu saw Zheng Chongsi, he was very embarrassed.

This man of the fifth surname had disheveled hair, one side of his face was swollen very high, even the corners of his eyes were blue, and he had nosebleeds. There were also many dirty big footprints on his gorgeous brocade robe.

He was lying on the ground, his eyes dull,

How have the five noble surnames ever been in such a state of embarrassment?

If Wu Dutou hadn't stopped him, he would have been beaten to pieces.

Now, Wu Dutou asked his security guards to surround the Tianzihao Pavilion gate. Zheng Chongsi and his seven friends with the fifth surname were all blocked inside.

Those seven people were all in a state of embarrassment. They had received more or less punches and kicks. Their clothes were torn, their hats were broken, and their hair was scattered. They no longer looked like the aloof young men from aristocratic families just now. They were just lying or sitting on the ground one by one. , aimless and godless, I don’t know what I’m thinking about.

The atmosphere on the third floor is very strange.

It's also very quiet.

The Guanzhong gentry headed by the six surnames of Guanlong are slightly better. After all, they are the core of the Guanlong Group and created the four dynasties of the Western Wei, Northern Zhou, Sui and Tang dynasties. Officials and nobles followed each other, held important positions, and occupied high positions in the court. They are also recorded in the clan annals. Not a bad ranking.

The old gentry were severely suppressed, especially the old gentry in Shandong.

The Wu family in Bingzhou actually has two families ranked in the first class, but the Zheng family in Xingyang has the sixth family in the north, the fourth family in the south, and the fifth family in the middle family. These once-prominent Zheng families can only be ranked in the ninth rank, and even eight families Nothing.

There are also upstarts such as Qin Qiong, Cheng Yao, Jin Fan Xing and Li Ji. They used to be just powerful landlords from the common people, but now they are all superior.

"Zheng Chongsi?"

A serious son of the fifth surname,
It is different from those families with five surnames and seven families who have to lose their family wealth. Those who have to lose their family wealth are basically the descendants of the seven families with five surnames. Some are in ruins and sell their daughters at high prices based on the name of the five surnames. It's not that he is really poor, he just wants to marry the new rich of the current dynasty, but he prides himself on his high status, so he deliberately pays a high price to lose his family wealth, so as to take the initiative in the marriage relationship, and even use this to increase his worth.

People with real status in Chang'an actually know a lot of things more or less.
It can be said that this clan’s ambition is quite amazing.
It actually completely changed the practice of using county surnames as the mainstay since the Wei and Jin Dynasties.
People like the warrior Xun who were born as businessmen became the first class, and people like Ma Zhou who were born as poor scholars became the second class.

clan history,
This time it was formal, thorough, and merciless, exposing and expanding the contradiction between the new nobles and the old gentry.

A storm is brewing,

But the true direct descendants of the five surnames and seven families, which is what the people call the large direct descendants of the forty-four families with the five surnames and ten hopes, would never be able to do such a thing as directly asking the family wealth to sell their daughters at a high price, although they also sold Daughter, but they will not ask for money directly, they will exchange benefits in a more subtle way.

This happened,

Many people are waiting and watching,
There are also people who can't wait to get to the end and start a fight, such as the very brave Mr. Zheng.

This is no ordinary thing.

After this incident, the main building actually continued to operate, and the other pavilions continued to drink, sing, and dance.

The once prominent Beizu Donglinfang among the Zheng clan of Xingyang with the surname Jia was ranked ninth this time, ranking at the bottom.

Everyone is generally aware of what happened in Tianzihao Pavilion today.
The superficial reason is that Mr. Zheng thinks that the Chang'an wine that Fan Lou sells for 180,000 bottles is unpalatable, but in fact it is because the imperial court has finalized the newly revised clan annals.

The latest draft of the clan chronicle has been circulated.

Those eight people all come from five surnames and seven families, and they are basically the direct sons of the surname Fang. Except for the eight people who are not from the Wang family in Taiyuan and the Li family in Longxi, they are the Zheng family in Xingyang, the Cui family in Boling, the Cui family in Qinghe, and the Fan Yang family. The Lu family and the Li family of Zhaojun all belong to the five major families.

As for the warrior Ke who was a tofu seller in the Sui Dynasty, his son Wu Huaiyu, who came down from the mountain as a Taoist priest, also had the surname Jiamen.

In the Sui Dynasty, the warrior Yu who was a wood seller was dead, but his family could still be ranked first.

It's just that when everyone was singing, dancing, drinking and having fun, they were a little half-hearted and kept secretly staring at the Tianzihao Pavilion.

Wu Huaiyu called him coldly, "Get up, who are you lying like this to show me?"

Do you really think you can choose a car just by lying down after being beaten?

It doesn’t matter who is beating you, let alone who picked it first.

Zheng Chongsi continued to lie down. He raised his eyelids and looked at the man wearing a round-necked robe with a purple falcon and auspicious silk pattern.

His eyes were on the belt with nine jade rings and thirteen gold knives, and a goldfish bag was tied to it.

The falcon holding auspicious grass, the nine-jade ring and thirteen golden talons, and the goldfish bag, these things deeply stimulated Zheng Chongsi. They represented top power, were so expensive that they were purple, and even the most powerful ministers.

He thought that this man was only twenty-eight years old, the same year as himself, but now he was Dai Sikong, Prince Taifu, Kaifu Yitong Sansi, Shifeng Jiangzhou Biejia, and Fifteen Hundred Households , the Duke of Shangzhu State and Jin State also paid homage to the prime minister three times.
As for himself, he had just been insulted and even beaten by his watchdog. He was lying on the ground, his whole body ached, and he even felt that the bridge of his nose was broken.

But he is a dignified son of the fifth surname.
As for that guy, his father used to be a tofu seller. He went to learn Taoism when he was nine years old.

Life shouldn't be like this,

Normally, their identities should have been exchanged at this time. He, who is a direct descendant of a famous family with five surnames, should be wearing a purple round-collar official robe, a golden crotch belt and a goldfish charm, and then look down at the flat-headed Wu Huaiyu who was born in a small private family. , lying there with a bruised nose and a swollen face, waiting for the noble man to deal with him.

It shouldn't be like this,
There must be something wrong,
There is something wrong with this world,

He was right, but the world was wrong.

"Wu Huaiyu, your servants are openly committing murders and beating up the scholars. You, Wu Huaiyu, have succeeded, you are so arrogant!"

"I'm going to write a letter against you!"

Wu Huaiyu snorted disdainfully, then squatted down.

"What's your identity? Are you suing me?"

"You are just a student of the Imperial College. What qualifications do you have to write a letter or sue an important official of the imperial court? Do you know that the imperial court prohibits appeals beyond the level of the imperial court? You are told to complain to the county first, and then from the county to the state, from the state to Dali Temple, beyond the level If you complain, you will be punished by flogging.
You've never been hit by a brick wall, would you like to have a taste? "

Zheng Chongsi gritted his teeth, "You can't scare me, I can play Chang'an Deng's drum,"

"What's the reason? Why don't you have any grievances that can't be redressed? Wannian County won't accept your case? Without a valid reason, you'll get slapped on the wall just like beating the drum."

"Then I will go to Wannian County to file a complaint."

Wu Huaiyu smiled nonchalantly, "Master Zheng, you can travel all over the world with reason, but you can't move without reason. Do you think you are justified in today's matter?
To be honest, there is no need for you to file a complaint. Fan Lou has already reported the case to the Wannian County Government. This matter must come to a conclusion today. "

"Today's matter is not complicated. You came to Fan Lou for a banquet, but you ruined the place. Although you didn't hurt anyone, you damaged property, and even slandered Fan Lou's reputation. The damage caused is not small. Now you want to make a false accusation.
This is adding more crime to crime, good people, please wait for someone from Wannian County to come,"

"Wu Huaiyu, don't think you can sweep the sky with just one hand!"

Wu Huaiyu smiled, "Zheng Chongsi, don't think that because you are a member of the fifth surname, you can confuse right and wrong. If you are an ordinary restaurant or ordinary businessman, you can just use your power to bully others. Today you actually dare to blackmail me.

If I don’t give you something awesome, you really don’t know how much you weigh. "

After saying that, Wu Huaiyu was too lazy to pay attention to him anymore.

He came here in person to see who these eight people with the fifth surname were and how bold they were. Of course, I also thought that if these people knew that they were wrong, then they would just go with the flow and make the big thing smaller and keep it private.

Wu Huaiyu is not afraid of the Five Surnames and Seven Families, but he is not willing to easily start a war with them. In his early years, he was not afraid of the Five Surnames and Seven Families, and showed off his muscles to them. Even when Zheng Shanguo was demoted as the governor of Jiangzhou, he also secretly wrestled with Wu Huaiyu. Give the result of defeat.

Wu Huaiyu didn't like to make enemies everywhere, but if a war really started, he would never be afraid, or even show no mercy.

Seeing Zheng Chongsi's attitude, Wu Huaiyu no longer wanted to waste words with him.

Let the war begin,

Since the other party intends to provoke a war, then go ahead and start a war as he wishes, and fight happily.

They started this war, but it's not up to them to end it.

Regardless of whether this matter was planned and directed by the heads of the five surnames and seven families behind the scenes, it didn't matter to Wu Huaiyu. If he stretched out his claws, he would chop them into pieces.

I had a few words with the managers of Fan Tower,

Wu Huaiyu patted Wu Dutou's arm and said, "Watch these guys and hand them over to them when people from Wannian County arrive. Ignore the others who ask for help."

"You did a good job this time. If you record your merit, your shareholding dividend in Fanlou will be raised by half a level."

"Thank you Alang."

Wu Dutou was very grateful to this clan brother and was very excited. Although he was just a guard Dutou, he also received dividends from the top body shares in Fanlou. He was also considered the management. The top body share dividends were based on his position and seniority contribution. Leveling, you only have the right to dividends while on the job, and there is no ownership, but you can still get dividends and a much higher salary.
Especially after taking a management position,
Even if you transfer half a level, the increase in dividends over a four-year accounting period is a large amount of money, which can be used to buy another piece of land, buy more slaves, or change to a larger yard in Chang'an, or from The southernmost squares in Chang'an have been moved slightly to the north.

"We are all Bingzhou Wu clan, brothers from the same family, there is no need to be so polite."

After Wu Huaiyu left,
The county captain in charge of justice in Wannian County personally led a team to bring people. His legal officers, bad commanders, etc., brought dozens of people.

Zheng Chongsi and the others were happy to see people coming from Wannian County, but the county captain ignored them and took them all back to the county for interrogation.

The face of the Five Surnames is of great importance. How could a mere eighth-rank county lieutenant not give him face?

There are two counties in Chang'an City, and each county has six county captains, and these twelve county captains are only from the eighth rank. Such rank-and-file officials can knock down several of them with just a stone throw.

But today,
The name of the fifth surname is useless, not at all. Who asked them to come to Fanlou to cause trouble? The fifth-grade Feipao County Lord had already made it very clear when they came. Bring all eight people back.

"Please, gentlemen, please don't make things difficult for us. Otherwise, if you really need to be shackled, it will be you who will be even more embarrassed."

The bad handsome man of Wannian County is a veteran, even though he smiles, but he is known as the Smiling Yama in Chang'an. Those scoundrels in the market and other villains will be honest when they see him.
Wei Badshuai looked at these young masters and admired them very much in his heart.
Where do you get the courage to actually cause trouble in Fan Tower? This is the property of Madam Jin. Not to mention that Madam Jin is a direct descendant of Prime Minister Wu. Madam Jin is also the eldest daughter of Yingguo Duke Fan Xing.
Let’s talk about the old Chang’an people. Who doesn’t know that Mrs. Fan was once nicknamed Mother Big Chong and was good at wielding a horse-killing sword? She once stopped a group of dandy boys from the Xunqi family who were bullying her younger brother outside the Imperial Academy, and cut off seven of them with her sword. The head of a horse scared those dandy boys to the point of pissing their pants.

Later, the mother-in-law chased her lover for thousands of miles and went to Longyou to fight with Wu Huaiyu. As a female prostitute, like Princess Pingyang Zhao, she had actually killed and beheaded enemies on the battlefield.
Nowadays, people take care of their husbands and raise their children, but for a ruthless man like Wei Badshuai, his teeth hurt when he hears Mrs. Wu's name.

Aren't you tired of living in Mrs. Wu's place to cause trouble?
On this day, thousands of guests in Fan Tower witnessed eight people with the fifth surname being taken away by Wannian County, and this incident spread throughout Chang'an City as quickly as the wind.

Li Shimin learned the details in the evening.

The next day, the emperor's brother-in-law, Yongzhou Biejia Yang Shidao, reported the matter in person and asked the emperor to make a decision in person.

This is a big matter.

At this juncture when the clan chronicle has been finalized and is about to be published,

Such a thing happened,
It's not simple,
Especially now that things are fermenting rapidly, there is a lot of public opinion.

The matter no longer just stopped at the level of the five surnames and eight young masters making a fuss in Fanlou and a bottle of Chang'an wine costing 18,000 yuan, but also started a heated discussion about clan annals and the general decline in family rankings of the gentry with county surnames.
It is said that the samurai Yu who sells wood can be ranked first.
The noble clans with the surname of the county expressed their dissatisfaction and were unwilling to recognize this clan annals. Some people even began to impeach Wu Huaiyu, and many slanderous rumors appeared in the public.

"How do you plan to handle this matter?" Li Shimin asked.

Yang Shidao believed that major issues should be reduced to trivial matters and mediated privately.

Li Shimin looked at his brother-in-law who liked to write poetry and shook his head in disappointment. How could such a thing stay on the surface?

Those people used the Eighth Young Master's incident of smashing the Fan Tower to force the emperor to ban the destruction of the clan annals or to rebuild the clan annals. Naturally, what they wanted was the same clan annals as before.

But what would the emperor do with such clan annals?
The war has begun,
It was not a war between the Eight Young Masters of the Five Surnames and Wu Huaiyu, but a war between the old gentry and the emperor.

The emperor looked at the draft of the clan chronicle in front of him,

This is a revised version based on Wu Huaiyu's suggestion, and basically includes all the families with surnames from the original counties who have not reached the fifth level of actual work.

Although most of them were in the lower third class, in the eyes of the emperor, they were all kind enough.

If according to his original intention, he would only appoint officials of his own dynasty, and the fifth rank would be the red line. Most of the so-called Shandong gentry with five surnames, seven families and forty-four families would not be included in the clan annals.

But now that they are being promoted, they still don't appreciate it.

It's really an extravagance.

The emperor does not intend to make any more concessions, otherwise the consequences will be endless.

"Zheng Chongsi and other eight persons were handed over to the Yongzhou Yamen for trial and disposal. Their actions have violated the law. The facts are clear and they must not be punished."

The emperor instructed that the eight people headed by Zheng Chongsi, who were all students of the Imperial College and candidates for the imperial examination this spring, were now deprived of their qualifications for the imperial examination. Each of them was flogged forty times, and then exiled to Taizhou, the governor of the island, and punished with compensation and beatings. Fan Lou's loss was also punished by a fine of one hundred catties of copper per person.

"Those demons and monsters who are secretly spreading rumors and fanning the flames will be swept out and exiled to Changtaizhou!"

(End of this chapter)