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Chapter 514 Prime Minister’s Mansion

After Yang, Lu, Zhangtu and the four family heads discussed important matters, they all left without staying too long. No one noticed that there were four men in the woods not far away. One of them climbed up a big tree and was holding a tree. The cylinder looks this way through the branches and leaves.

"Sixty-six, who should we keep an eye on?" Seeing the three carriages leaving one after another, the man on the tree sent a signal to the people below.

"...That group of Shanxi businessmen came from the Tu family. You three go and keep an eye on him. Me and Er Yiyi from the back door will stay here!"

These four people are the team led by Zhu Sanliu, with a total of 11 people. Excluding Zhu Sanliu and the two who followed the Shanxi merchants northward, and excluding the two who stayed in Guangzhou, there are currently only six people available in Ningbo. Wu Commander Zhu Liuliu is in charge.

He arranged two people at the back door of Lu's house, and he led the other four people to guard the front door. Although there is a severe shortage of manpower, it does not affect enthusiasm. Being able to leave the Kaikou Division to serve the emperor and receive awards for meritorious service is something that every orphan in the Kaikou Division has understood since childhood. I don’t know why, just like when a person is hungry he must eat.

"If there is an emergency and you cannot leave information at the contact point, don't take risks. Keep an eye on the target and make your own progress. Regardless of whether they go north or south, they must always enter the jurisdiction of other teams and then look for opportunities to seek assistance."

Seeing the three companions leading the horses to leave, Zhu Liuliu thought of another question and quickly made a supplement. Then he picked up the telescope and climbed up the tree branch, continuing to look in the direction of Lu Mansion.

Moon Lake is not the only beautiful place in Ningbo City. There is also a large lake two miles east. It is round in shape, like the sun at noon, so it is called Sun Lake by the locals, which corresponds to Moon Lake.

On the east bank of Rihu Lake, not far from the Fenghua River, there is also a large mansion with a plaque hanging high on the door, "Shen Mansion". However, Ningbo locals call it the Prime Minister's Mansion because there lives a high-ranking official whose position is comparable to that of prime ministers in previous dynasties. He is the former chief minister of the Ming Dynasty, Shen Yiguan.

It has been nine years since he sadly resigned in the first year of Jingyang (1605), and Shen Yiguan has become an old man over eighty years old, with white hair, a hunched back, and all his teeth.

Away from the battles in the court, and without the worries of partisanship, there is no need to intrigue and deceive you to death. Now what he likes to do most every day is to sit on the wicker chair in the garden and slowly rock, looking at the clouds in the sky in a daze.

Although he is no longer the chief minister of the dynasty, and does not even have an official position, the quality of life in the Shen Mansion is still quite acceptable. It is neither in disrepair nor withered vegetation. It is still bustling with traffic and crowded with guests during festivals. It can be said that it is still the cause and effect that was planted when he was in office.

Because he secretly used various methods to win over Zhejiang officials, he was jealous of the emperor and lost his high-ranking official and generous salary. But after he stepped down, he was not ostracized and bullied by officials in his hometown because he lost his official position and offended the emperor. On the contrary, people often came to his door to inquire about his welfare and showed great respect.

Even during holidays, people come from all over Zhejiang to visit us with heavy gifts. And these people were all officials from Zhejiang who were promoted and re-employed by him back then. Whether it was a blessing in disguise or not, even he himself didn't know clearly.

No matter how you put it, the Rihu Shen family is still one of the largest families in Ningbo at this moment, with thousands of acres of fertile land, many mansions and estates, and high-ranking officials and wealthy families coming and going, and the scenery is still the same. As an official who was forced to take up his official position, it was pretty good to get this ending.

But as the saying goes, life is unsatisfactory nine times out of ten, and there are no perfect people or things in the world. Shen Yiguan also has a heart problem, that is his only son Shen Taihong. Shen Guanyin was born into a family of officials. He was not outstanding when he was a child. He did not pass the Jinshi examination until he was almost 40 years old. He got into the cabinet by relying on his endurance and good luck. He also took advantage of the conflicts between the factions in the DPRK to win the position of chief minister of the cabinet. The journey along the way cannot be said to be bumpy, but also very tortuous.

During the period when he first became the chief minister of the cabinet, he did not have a good time. He was also excluded and impeached by officials from different factions, and he was very uneasy.

His only son, Shen Taihong, showed signs of genius from an early age. He was a high school student at a young age, and his poetry skills were unparalleled among the prefectures near Ningbo. If you go to take the national examination, I can't say that you will definitely get the top three. There will definitely be no problem in getting the second or third place.

But his son's academic performance was so good that it became Shen Yiguan's worry. At that time, the DPRK and the Central Government were quarreling over the fact that someone engaged in malpractice for favoritism in the last imperial examination. For this reason, many officials were demoted.

Seeing that the date of the general examination is approaching, if Shen Taihong becomes a high school scholar as soon as he comes, officials from the rival factions will definitely make a big fuss, which may affect the position of the chief minister of the cabinet.

What to do? Shen Guanguan was also a ruthless person. In order to keep his official position, he even coaxed and deceived him into transferring his son's academic status from Zhejiang to the capital, and then used Yin En's method to get an official position, the sixth-rank Shangbao Sicheng.

To say that this official position is not too low, even if you win the Jinshi, you may not be able to get it immediately. But Shen Taihong not only didn't appreciate his father's love, but also turned against him on the spot. From then on, he regarded him as an enemy and had no contact with him.

Why would a son be so ignorant and take his father's good intentions as an insult? It turns out that it's not that Shen Taihong is confused, but that Shen Yiguang cherishes feathers too much and ruins his son's life.

According to the laws of the Ming Dynasty, after being elected as an official, you can continue to participate in the joint examination and the palace examination, but there are exceptions for several official positions, such as Shangbaosi. This department is in charge of the emperor's seals, talismans, and seals. It is not a high-level department, but it has too many contacts with important officials and even the emperor, and it is easy for them to engage in personal favoritism.

In this way, Shen Taihong will not be able to take the scientific examination. For a young man in the Ming Dynasty, not being able to enter the official career with a high-level Jinshi background is equivalent to cutting off his future prospects. No matter how hard he works, he will most likely not be promoted to the top position. , the reputation is not good to hear.

Although Shen Guanyin was forced to resign and it did not affect his son's official position, Shen Taihong was still involved in the case of raising his son. Fortunately, it was not serious enough and he took the initiative to resign. But after Shen Taihong returned to his hometown, he was still unwilling to reconcile with his father. He always found various excuses to avoid seeing him when he could.

When a person gets old, no matter what his temper was before, he will always miss his son and grandson involuntarily, and look forward to having children by his side and a harmonious family. But no matter how hard Shen Yiguan tried, he still couldn't win back his son's heart.

He often looked at the sky in a daze, and what he was thinking about was not the family business, let alone the court and the country. He was recalling the little moments when he had his old wife and son by his side. Although it didn't help, it was better than nothing.

(End of this chapter)