The literary giants of the late Ming Dynasty began by copying books

Pan Xiang, a middle-ranking tax collector in Jiangxi Province, has always been hated by the people of Jiangxi Province because of his excessive taxes. A few days ago, when he was leaving the government office in a sedan chair, he happened to encounter a student taking the annual examination who was chewing his tongue.

The medical staff were blind and pointed at Pan Xiang while talking. Even a fool could see that they were laughing. Pan Xiang couldn't bear it and took the four of them into the Yamen and beat them seriously without any explanation.

Then parents came looking for me.

Only then did Pan Xiang understand why these four students were so indifferent - they were all rich people in Jiangxi, and the one he was pointing at and laughing at was from the clan. This time, he didn't want to take the scientific examination in the provincial capital, but came to see him. His clan uncle, General Fuguo, was an official through connections.

After hearing this, General Fuguo was angry, and then contacted the princes and relatives of various factions in Jiangxi.

Pan Xiang was also afraid. It didn't matter that he was bullying civilian officials and military attachés in Jiangxi, because until he had the emperor as his backer, Emperor Wanli would protect him no matter how miserable he made other officials. But only attacking the clan will not work, because they are the relatives of Emperor Wanli.

There is also a reason for the anger of General Fuguo and other clan members. Emperor Wanli is the nephew of General Fuguo. No matter how powerful Prime Minister Pan is, he is only a eunuch slave of his nephew's family. The student who was beaten is still far away from Wanli. Where's the younger brother?

Is it ridiculous for a slave raised by Emperor Wanli to come to Jiangxi and catch his younger brother and beat him?

Moreover, Pan Xiang beat people so hard that they were basically disabled.

The clans in Jiangxi were also accustomed to being domineering, so they mobilized their own servants to surround Prime Minister Pan's mansion. According to historical records, "every clan made a fuss and destroyed the door." The clan servants killed a group of Prime Minister Pan's men. , Pan Xiang escaped and escaped death.

After Pan Xiang escaped, he wanted to regain his position, but he did not have the courage to disturb the clan, so the officials of Shangrao County where his residence was located were unlucky. Pan Xiang was beaten in order to vent his anger and sue Shangrao County Magistrate Li Hong for instigating the clan and retaliating for old grudges.

Emperor Wanli also had trouble dealing with the clan and wanted to support Prime Minister Pan, so he dismissed the magistrate of Shangrao.

Emperor Wanli just wanted to use these eunuchs to collect money. These eunuchs went to various places to make things too ugly, which was not good for him. It happened that the eunuchs were unable to fully retaliate this time, so Wanli informed the world about this. , urging the eunuchs to restrain themselves.

Gao Yin received a letter from the emperor in Fujian. It was impossible to restrain himself from the burial, but face work had to be done, so he asked Lin Shiqing to write a letter of apology and asked him to send it to the "Xun Bao".

When Wang Wenlong heard what Lin Shiqing said, he suppressed the smile on his face.

Pan Xiang's behavior in Jiangxi was only a little better than that of Gao Yin in Fujian, and the clan in Jiangxi was a model for raising pigs for two hundred years in the Ming Dynasty. Unless someone hit them on the head, they didn't want to stand out at all, and they often did evil things. .

Neither side of this conflict is a good person, and their dog-eat-dog behavior makes Wang Wenlong feel comfortable that evil people will be punished by evil people. Eunuchs are rampant in the world, and in the end they can only rely on the clan to kill Wei Feng, which is quite sad when you think about it.

Gao Yin asked "Xun Bao" to publish this letter, which would do no harm to "Xun Bao", so Wang Wenlong naturally agreed.

He also had to leave the prime space of the second page to Gao Yin. For this reason, he could only push a few commercial advertisements that originally cooperated with the "Xun Bao" to the fourth page - they were unwilling to put them on the third page and Gao Yin. He is so shy that he is afraid of offending customers.

Gao Yin was actually willing to pay for advertising, but Wang Wenlong was too lazy to take the money. After repeatedly declining, the money was finally confiscated.

Lin Shiqing left the editorial office with satisfaction. As soon as he reached the door, he saw Pan Xiu rushing in with some manuscripts.

When Lin Shiqing saw Pan Xiu, a smile appeared on his face, he reached out and patted Pan Xiu's shoulder, and said to Wang Wenlong: "Pan Bofeng is also a good young man in your editorial department."

Pan Xiu's face instantly showed a bitter look.

Wang Wenlong sent Lin Shiqing away. As soon as he returned to the editor-in-chief's office, Pan Xiu ran directly to Wang Wenlong and said pleadingly: "Jianyang, Lin Shiqing has been blackmailing me. He has extorted hundreds of taels of silver from my family. My family is really being bullied." He was forced to the point of desperation. I still have thousands of taels of money at home, but after he found out about it, he even wanted to extort all of it."

Everyone in the editorial department also knew about Pan Xiu being blackmailed by Lin Shiqing. Xu Zhonglin couldn't help but said angrily: "This Lin Shiqing took advantage of Gao Yin's reputation to do evil. If this generation of shameless scholars hadn't been protected by eunuchs, I would have taken people to kill him." Got him."

Zhang Xie said quickly: "Mr. Xu, don't be reckless. Gao Yin is in great power at this time, and Lin Shiqing is pretending to be powerful. We have no way to offend him yet."

Xu Zhonglin said: "It's really unpleasant. One day I can take his head with a flying sword like in the novel."

Everyone was talking a lot, but Wang Wenlong suppressed his laughter and watched Pan Xiu's performance.

After everyone had finished speaking, Wang Wenlong said to Pan Xiu: "If you stay in Fuzhou, you will inevitably be targeted by Lin Shiqing again. If you are willing, why not go north to Suzhou with everyone in our newspaper office and establish the Suzhou branch first? We will see the situation at that time, either stay in Fuzhou or Suzhou, or call both sides, just avoid Lin Shiqing."

The reason why Pan Xiu performed this act was to get close to Wang Wenlong. When he heard this, his face showed a look of surprise and said: "This is the best."

Deng Zhimo also said: "I also want Jianyang to transfer you to Suzhou. The new society there needs capable people to open up."

Wang Wenlong's face showed a thoughtful look: "It's just that if your family's money is in Fujian, it will inevitably be coveted by others. We have to find a way..." Pan Xiu didn't know what he meant, and then heard Wang Wenlong suddenly say: "It's better You deposit the money on the Trinity Sect's grain platform first, and use it to reclaim Da Yuan Island. Anyway, the Trinity Sect has a lot of money. When you want to use it, just ask your family to go to the sect to get it. The Trinity Sect is very powerful, even if Even Lin Shiqing can't get money from them."

He nodded and said: "The money from the Trinity Sect is used to cultivate the big people, and it can also generate interest income in the future. My family has saved a lot of it. The Trinity Sect must value your more than one thousand taels of silver. I will help you go to them." Let the elders negotiate a suitable interest rate."

Hearing Wang Wenlong's words, Pan Xiu was stunned.

He said that he still had more than a thousand taels of free money at home just to think that Lin Shiqing might squeeze more money from him and create enough reasons to follow Wang Wenlong northward. Who would have thought that Wang Wenlong was so thoughtful and directly arranged a thousand taels for him? Where to go for an extra tael of silver.

"This..." Pan Xiu hesitated for a long time. He had been planning bribes and asked the Dutch for the money. Maybe he could get it, but if he asked the Dutch for more than a thousand taels of silver, Li Jin would probably scold him to death. , but if you say that you have no money to save at this time, wouldn't you be revealing your secret?

After a while, Pan Xiu could only force out a smile and said, "Thank you, Mr. Jianyang, for your help. Pan Xiu will never forget it."

Everyone in the editorial department also nodded and expressed Wang Wenlong's benevolence and justice.

Wang Wenlong laughed heartily, patted Pan Xiu on the shoulder and said, "I don't need to thank you. Firstly, it can relieve your worries. Secondly, these more than a thousand taels of silver can also help open up Damuan Island and recruit Fujian refugees. It will be of great benefit to the people." It makes a contribution and everyone is happy, so I am naturally happy to do it."

Listening to everyone's praise, Pan Xiu's heart was so painful that he could only go back to his hometown to withdraw the money from his own property.

In the past, he hoped to create some obstacles for Fujian to reclaim Taiyuan Island so that he could please the Dutch. But at this moment, he suddenly hoped that the Trinity Church would succeed in reclaiming Taiyuan Island, so as not to lose his family's money.

……

As July approaches, Deng Zhimo has taken the first group of key people north to Suzhou. Wang Wenlong cannot leave yet. Fuzhou is short of a large number of manpower, and the editorial department is even busier. Wang Wenlong must personally control the situation, and Pan Xiu follows Wang Wenlong.

This guy works cautiously and sincerely every day. Wang Wenlong is happy that he investigates everywhere and directly promotes him as his assistant. Anyway, he can't find anything. Instead, because he has something on his mind, he works very clearly, which relieves Wang Wenlong a lot of work burden.

Early that morning, it was already time to start work, but Wang Wenlong stayed at home with his wife. He waited until mid-morning to send someone to notify Pan Xiu that there was any letter for him to be delivered to his home.

Pan Xiu took the key and unlocked the door of Wang Wenlong's office, and then went to get the letter from the penthouse.

Analyzing the contents of the letters, Pan Xiu couldn't help but his eyes froze when he saw one of the letters sent from Macau.

Finally I saw the letters between Wang Wenlong and foreigners!

But Pan Xiu quickly calmed down and pretended that nothing happened. After sorting out some letters, she took them to Wang Wenlong's home.

When it was time to have lunch, Pan Xiucai came to Wang Wenlong's house and saw Wang Pingbao at the concierge. Pan Xiucai said attentively: "Brother Wang, is Mr. Wang inside?"

Wang Pingbao said with a smile: "He will go out to eat later. Why don't you rest outside for a while and talk about things after eating."

Pan Xiu shook his head and said, "Sir, if you want me to deliver the letter, I will naturally be more diligent."

There were not many people around Wang Wenlong who knew that Pan Xiu was a foreign spy, and Wang Pingbao was one of them. He looked at Pan Xiu's way of catching up with his son. He felt funny in his heart, but it didn't show on his face at all. He nodded and said: "You are still hardworking. .”

Pan Xiudao: "What's the point?" He hurriedly went in. It wasn't until he walked away that Wang Pingbao laughed softly behind him: "This idiot."

Pan Xiu knocked on the door and waited for "Please come in." Then she carefully opened the wooden door and walked into Wang Wenlong's study.

They saw that Shen Yixiu and Li Guoxian were also there. They didn't know what to do just now, but now they all blushed, nodded at Pan Xiu and walked out.

After the two ladies left, Pan Xiucai said to Wang Wenlong: "Sir, these are the letters and invitations sent today. There is also a letter from Xiangshan Ao."

"Oh?" Wang Wenlong was quite interested. He looked up from a copybook and said, "Please help me read it, Bo Feng."

(End of this chapter)