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

Ye Zhou saw Wang Wenlong's family in the distance, and there were all men in front of him, so he didn't blush when Feng Menglong said it: "How can you write a book without eating flower wine?"

When Yuan Wuya heard this, he suddenly felt like a bookseller and asked, "What other books did Wentong get recently?"

Ye Zhou pointed to the boat: "I had a feeling in the boat last night, and I have started annotating "Pipa Ji"."

"Wentong's annotations are always good!" Yuan Wuya was overjoyed when he heard this. "Pipa Ji" has been a popular folk opera since the Yuan Dynasty, and it became more and more abundant as it was performed. By the Wanli period, it had already been recited from household to household.

He said: "At that time, Wentong's review book will be published by me. As long as you write your name, Ye Zhouze, there is nothing that will not be sold."

"It doesn't matter if I publish it for you," Ye Zhouze said with a smile, "It's just that I want to change my pen name."

Yuan Wuya frowned and said, "Change your pen name again?"

Ye Zhouze's family was very poor in money, and he wrote books just for entertainment. He didn't have much thought of becoming famous. This is why later generations commented that he acted strangely.

After others comment on the novel and become famous, he will naturally fix a pen name to make money, but this man often changed his pen name randomly out of his own whim. His pen names passed down in later generations include: Ye Wuye, Ye Jinweng, Liang Wuye, Ye Zhou, Ye Zhouze, etc., these are still known to others, and he probably has many other pen names that are not known to future generations at all.

Wang Wenlong asked curiously: "What name will Brother Wentong change this time?"

Ye Zhou looked at the flower boat in the distance and said with a smile: "Last night I was inspired to comment on "Pipa". I thought that after this review book comes out, my pen name will be 'Ye Buye'. I can remember this red and pink battle!"

Well, this is how the famous Ye Buye came to be, and Wang Wenlong has learned a lot.

Everyone was about to get on the boat when they suddenly saw dozens of gangsters rushing towards them. Taking advantage of the fact that it was still early and the boat had not yet been dispatched from the pier, the gangster leader shouted directly: "Get off the crew! Pay the tax and then take the boat out." !”

The boat owners on the pier cursed softly, but no one dared to act recklessly. They walked honestly on the gangplank to the shore and lined up to pay.

Wang Wenlong was quite curious when he saw this situation: "Are these tax inspectors?"

Ye Zhou nodded and said: "The trouble has been going on for half a month, and they are all tax supervisors under Liu Cheng."

Wang Wenlong thought that Liu Cheng would calm down a little after suffering losses in the White Dragon Temple incident last time, but he didn't expect that they would still behave like this. He asked curiously: "Why are they so rampant again?"

Yuan Wuya explained: "I have the emperor's mandate, and I want to give a birthday gift to the current saint."

"Holy birthday gift?" Wang Wenlong sweated and finally realized that Liu Cheng became rampant again because Emperor Wanli suddenly discovered that these eunuchs were so rich after Gao Yin's death, so he ordered tax eunuchs from all over the country to give him birthday gifts for his fortieth birthday.

Gao Yin was killed by Wang Wenlong. Indirectly, this incident was caused by his butterfly wings.

Wang Wenlong asked curiously: "An incident has already happened once. Liu Cheng collects taxes like this, isn't he afraid of the people's backlash?"

"Oh, Eunuch Liu has learned a lot this time," Feng Menglong said with disdain, "He summoned a lot of staff from Beijing to give him ideas for collecting money, and he especially controlled the scale."

Wang Wenlong was speechless: "Can it still be like this..."

Wanli's expulsion order indeed drove a group of treacherous guests out of the capital. These guys were not idle when they went to various places. They were quickly absorbed into the government by tax eunuchs and corrupt officials in various places and found jobs again.

On the first day in Nanjing, Wang Wenlong settled down with his family and went to the Imperial Academy to cancel his leave. On the second day, after midnight, Wang Wenlong skipped work and went to the Xuanwu Lake to attend a banquet.

The banquet was held by the Zhang family in Shaoxing, Zhang Dai's grandfather's family.

Zhang Dai's father's Zhang family and mother's Tao family are both prominent families, with many high-ranking officials and Jinshi. The Zhang family held a banquet this time because Zhang Dai's father, Zhang Yaofang, came to Nanjing to make friends. Zhang Yaofang wanted to take the imperial examination this time and try to find ways to do it, but he didn't care about it because he actually didn't need to take the imperial examination to become an official.

Also present were Zhang Yaofang's brother-in-law and Zhang Dai's uncle Tao Yunjia.

Tao Yunjia was only admitted as a scholar, but he also had an official status at this time. After receiving tribute, Tao Yunjia became an eighth-grade minor official. Now he is a fellow officer of the Fujian Salt Transportation Department. Wang Wenlong also met him in Fujian before.

In these days, only those with positions that have something to do with salt have a lot of money.

Others paid tribute and were assigned to remote counties to serve as county magistrates, but even the imperial rations were insufficient all year round. Tao Yunjia paid tribute and directly became a salt official - this is the power of his family.

Why should you take the imperial examination if you are born into such a family?

"Dai'er, come here to meet someone."

After Wang Wenlong arrived, Zhang Yaofang quickly called his children to meet him.

Zhang Dai in the distance quickly got off the deer after hearing this.

That’s right, deer.

It's not the elk that can be seen occasionally in the south of the Yangtze River, but the Eurasian moose with big horns. It was a birthday gift from Zhang Dai's grandfather Zhang Rulin.

As soon as Wang Wenlong entered the garden, he saw Zhang Dai's "big-antlered deer" with a shoulder height of nearly two meters, muscular shoulders and neck, and a bulging back. The horns on both sides were spread out by more than two meters. Wang Wenlong instantly understood that no wonder Chen Jiru met Zhang Dai in his previous life. I still have a vivid memory of his mount - being able to give this thing as a birthday gift to a child really made Wang Wenlong sigh: What kind of family...

Zhang Dai was very polite. When he came to Wang Wenlong, he bowed respectfully and said, "Hello, Mr. Jianyang."

Yuan Wuya on the side smiled and said: "Friend Chen calls you my little friend, and you call Wang Jianyang your husband. Doesn't it mean that your seniority is downgraded?"

Growing up in such a family, Zhang Dai was also a young genius. He could write poetry and paint at the age of seven. Chen Jiru chatted with him and responded fluently, so Chen Jiru directly called him "little friend".

Zhang Dai said obediently: "Father said that all scholars in the world are friends, friend is a title, and sir is a seniority. Mr. Chen calls me your little friend, but I still have to call him sir, otherwise my father will scold me."

Everyone laughed when they heard this.

Tao Yunjia said to Zhang Dai: "It's windy by the lake, go in early."

Zhang Dai said: "But I still want to ride a deer for a while."

Zhang Yaofang said seriously: "You are weak, don't get phlegm again."

After all, Zhang Dai was still a child. After being spoken to by his father and uncle, he nodded and entered the house. He reluctantly looked back at his big horned deer along the way.

Tao Yunjia explained to Wang Wenlong and others: "This child has suffered from phlegm disease since he was a child. My grandfather collected several baskets of authentic Niuhuang pills for him in Guangdong and Guangxi before his death, and he took them every day to suppress the disease."

Everyone nodded after hearing this, but Wang Wenlong clicked his tongue in his heart. Angong Niuhuang Pills in Guangdong and Guangxi were already a valuable pill in this era. It could cure convulsions and strokes, and even kill people when they were about to die.

One piece of this stuff can be sold for several taels of silver. When Zhang Dai's grandfather was an official in Guangdong and Guangxi, he actually collected several baskets for him in one go and gave them to his children as health supplements every day.

Wang Wenlong still remembered that Zhang Dai wrote in his memoirs that he didn't finish eating these bezoar pills until he was sixteen years old... This family is so wealthy. Compared with them, the Shen family in Wujiang is just an ordinary family.

(End of this chapter)