King Luhuang of the Ming Dynasty: My father, Ming Taizu

Zhu Tan knew it very well. Perhaps it was because of what he called "changing one's ways" that Liu Jian and others valued him so much.

Maybe there was something I hadn't thought through clearly, so I invited him to come over and talk about it. This is a very private matter.

However, this did not stop Zhu Tan from taking the opportunity to raise the banner. He was always very serious, and he immediately stood up and bowed to Zhang Mao and others.

"How dare I refuse the kindness of the three masters? I hope Duke Ying and Duke Qian will forgive me. Big brother, third brother, please take good care of me. I would like to greet the three masters first."

Zhu Tan made all the necessary gestures, but he failed to sweep away even a single cloud.

Only Zhang Mao and others were left looking at each other, and then they discovered that Zhu Tan was actually floating in the air.

Since he could talk to three grand secretaries, his status was naturally different.

Xu Guangzuo and Guo Ning agreed, and Ma Cong followed Zhu Tan.

The atmosphere of today's dinner was obviously directed at his father, Ma Wensheng, so he didn't want to stay any longer, lest he get into trouble.

While traveling together, Ma Cong was still giving advice to Zhu Tan.

"My Lord, we should talk to Mr. Liu Jian first. Mr. Liu is a minister in the court after all, and his status is the highest. You can't offend him."

Next came Li Dongyang and Xie Qian, who followed closely behind.

Ma Cong was no pushover either. He was very familiar with the information of the ministers in the court. He put Li Dongyang in the position of Xie Qian because Xie Qian was the second person to enter the cabinet, just after Li Dongyang.

Zhu Tan nodded and said, "I guess Liu Jian and the other two came here to discuss changing the world. Please prepare a detailed reply for me on the way back."

Ma Cong was overjoyed. He had heard about this matter from Zhu Tan a long time ago and had a general understanding of it.

With his talent, he could definitely write a memorial.

Zhu Tan's attitude towards Liu Jie was not the slightest bit neglectful.

Liu Jie was the son of Liu Jian's second wife, and Liu Jian was the only son. His two sons had both died.

Different from Ma Wensheng’s education method, Liu Jie was appointed Shangshu at a very early age.

Liu Jie did not hide anything and told Lin Yuan everything he knew.

Liu Jian invited Zhu Tan to his house to discuss some earth-shaking matters. He had some questions to ask Zhu Tan, and Liu Jie, like the princes and nobles in the hall, was full of interest in Zhu Tan.

Who is his father? He is one of the most capable and important ministers in the entire court. Yet he politely asked him to invite a distant relative like Earl Jianchang. This was the first time!
Liu Jie was very surprised by Zhu Tan's brief conversation.

It is said that Jian Changbo is a nerd, but these few short sentences make him look like an illiterate who can't keep up with Zhu Tan's thinking at all!
Liu Jian and Zhu Tan had met once in the palace. Without any polite conversation, they directly started talking about changing one's ways.

When Zhu Tan came, he asked Ma Cong to prepare all his information. Based on his experience in his previous life, he put forward several suggestions that could make up for the shortcomings, which were recognized by Liu Jian.

No matter what kind of person Zhu Tanfeng is, at least Liu Jian still has some good feelings towards him.

Afterwards, he met Li Dongyang, a man with a square face but a very charming voice.

However, Zhu Tan felt that the man was a little pretentious and seemed narrow-minded.

Li Dongyang looked down on Chu Tianxian from the bottom of his heart. He just asked some questions that he didn't understand and then sent her away.

Finally, Xie Qian came, and Zhu Tan was very curious.

Xie Qian had a big beard, comparable to Guan Yu.

Xie Qian’s question was more detailed and took the longest time.

Zhu Tan's deepest impression of Xie Qianzhen was that he was very good at talking, so good at talking that he made him dizzy.

After leaving Xie's house and taking a deep breath of fresh air, Zhu Tan said sincerely: "Great scholar, you are so lucky!"

Ma Cong smiled and said, "The three great talents are known as the three wise men in the world. There is a saying in the Ministry of Personnel that Li Gong is good at planning, Liu Gong is good at decision-making, and Xie Gong is good at justice. Your Excellency is right."

Zhu Tan recalled himself wandering back and forth in front of the three ministers, nodding his head continuously.

"You are right. Li Dongyang is a sinister and cunning guy, Liu Jian is a decisive person, and Xie Qian is a chatterbox!"

Ma Cong didn't dare to say anything more to the three of them, but Zhu Tan's words made a lot of sense, so he laughed too.

At this time, the sun was setting, and Zhu Tan had no intention of returning to the Duke of Yingguo's Mansion to deal with those people.

He was satisfied with the benefits he received from the three grand secretaries and turned back to his own residence.

Ma Cong insisted on sending Zhu Tan away, so something happened in front of the Earl's mansion that made Zhu Tan lose all face.

Jia Zhang and Zhang Laoliu actually brought the little daughter abducted by the eunuch Jiang Lun back to their own mansion.

No one knew what Jia Zhang had done to make a young girl cry like that, and Ma Cong saw it all.

Zhu Tan really wanted to kick Jia Zhang twice. The emperor's brother-in-law and eldest sister, Empress Zhang, also wanted to act as matchmakers and arrange a "blind date" for him and Ma Cong's daughter!
Wouldn't it be embarrassing to let your future father-in-law see this scene?

Ma Cong recognized him at a glance, and when he saw Zhu Tan's unhappy look, he knew that he had ruined Zhu Tan's plan.

He quickly bowed and left, not giving Zhu Tan any time to prevaricate or explain himself.

Zhu Tan stared at Jia Zhang, "What on earth did you do?"

Jia Zhang didn't realize that his flattery had backfired, and he flattered, "My Lord, this woman has lost her family and is all alone. We can't just stand by and watch her die! If we stay with you, we can still survive. It's much better than being in a seven-story pagoda!"

Zhu Tan was stunned and then spat out a mouthful of saliva.

"Why didn't you say so earlier? You had to wait until Ma Cong left. You're such an idiot!
Seeing that the young lady was crying and didn't seem to be taken away by force, Zhu Tan didn't say anything more.

I've been very busy today, so I'd better take a bath and relax!

“Uncle” appears on the Internet every day. Can Zhu Tan continue to stay healthy?
When taking a bath, there was green bamboo to wipe his back, a towel, and two beautiful maids to massage his legs and shoulders. How comfortable it was.

When he was in the mood, Zhu Tan really let go and fired three shots at Qingzhu.

He shook his head and said, "This kind of life is so comfortable! It's good like this."

That night, Zhu Tan did indeed do something ridiculous. Perhaps because he had been suppressed for too long, his fighting power became exceptionally strong.

Hence the nickname "Seven People in One Night".

In the morning, he walked out from a group of women, and a smile appeared on Zhu Tan's face. Among the cosmetics, he also saw the little girl who cried last night. When did he sleep with her? How come he didn't remember it at all?

Rotten, rotten!
With his meridians unblocked, Chu Mu did not feel any discomfort. On the contrary, his mood became even better. He reached out and rubbed the face of Qingzhu who had just woken up.

"Go eat first, then I'll take you home."

The Censorate was established in the Ming Dynasty. It was responsible for supervising officials, advising on officials, filling in the gaps, picking up omissions, reviewing and sealing and rejecting imperial edicts, refuting memorials from various departments, and supervising the Six Ministries and impeaching officials. It complemented the Censorate.

In addition, he was also responsible for organizing and supervising the work of various departments; he served as the chief examiner for the provincial examinations, the chief examiner for the metropolitan examinations, the examiner for the palace examinations, and was the chief and deputy envoy for conferring honors on clan members, vassal states, or announcing imperial edicts to foreign countries, and hearing appeals, etc.

It is of low grade and light weight. It started from the fifth grade, then adjusted several levels, and finally settled on the seventh grade.

The salaries of officials in the Ming Dynasty were pitifully low.

If calculated based on the salary of an ordinary person, it is probably not enough to fill one's stomach, let alone support a family. Even after Zhu Yuanzhang's inhumane massacre, it was still difficult to curb corruption. This is the reality of salary.

Ye Shen was a seventh-rank official, one of the lowest officials in the capital.

He couldn't even afford a house in the capital, so he could only rent a two-story house in a remote alley.

The house is very old, drafty in winter and leaky in summer, which makes people very worried.

Zhu Tan accompanied Lu Zhu back home. The car he was riding in couldn't even fit into the alley, so he had to go down.

More than twenty strong servants, carrying boxes of gifts, attracted the attention of people in the alley.

This Ku Shui Lane is so poor. Most of the people inside are from the society and have never experienced such a scene.

They all knew that there was an official in the alley, but the official did not live a good life. He would not let them starve, nor would he let them feel like an official.

And when Ye Shen was in the court, he was also a sight to behold.

Ye Shen was not on duty today. Together with the imperial envoy Zhang Jin, he impeached Li Guang and his two uncles, which attracted a lot of criticism. His status in the court was not very high.

Although there were rumors that he had a good chance of being promoted to Shangshu of the Shangbao Division, he was not happy at all.

Having been an official for many years, he naturally knew that the Emperor wanted to remove him from the position of Censor.

His wife, Wang, got up even faster and started grinding rice with the only servant in the house, an old woman.

Most of the salaries of officials in the Ming Dynasty were paid in kind, but the estimated prices were often higher than the market prices.

Ye Shen just received his monthly allowance yesterday, and not only was the rice of extremely poor quality, he had to grind it himself, and listen to Wang's rambling on and on, it was a kind of stale rice, a musty smell.

Ye Shen shook his head slightly. He was an upright man. In his opinion, as long as they were not starving to death, it was fine. Compared with the neighbors in the alley, it was already good enough for their family to have something to eat.

His stomach was rumbling, but Ye Shen didn't care. He ground the ink and started writing a report.

One of them is the current Minister of Justice Xu Qiong, who said that he was not fully prepared for this exam and the entire court was shrouded in darkness.

He had just put down his pen when he heard the old lady's wife, Wang, and the old woman talking to someone.

His voice became louder and louder, and it was obvious that someone was collecting a debt.

My family is not well off and I have to rely on my own money every month to make ends meet. In order to make ends meet, I have to borrow money, which is why I am heavily in debt.

Although Ye Shen was an official, he was no exception. What's more, he remembered the salary of Ye Shen's family clearly, so he would definitely come.

The Wang family is an educated and well-mannered family, so debts must be repaid. The rice received yesterday was used to repay the debt.

But the creditors said that the quality of the rice was too poor and wanted a discount, but Wang naturally would not agree.

The three of them argued back and forth, and finally even the debt collector was irritated. He pointed at Wang with an angry face and said, "Look, this is rice from a year ago. It's rotten. Can it still be drunk? I'm giving you a 50% discount to give face to Mr. Ye. Don't bother me again."

Wang gritted her teeth and said stubbornly, "But that's also food! Could it be rice? If you lower the price, I will tell Shuntian Palace about this."

The debt collector laughed out loud.

"Miss Ye, why don't you check who is borrowing money on this street? Even if you dare to sue me, I am not afraid! Our master is a noble appointed by His Majesty Taizu, you have to think it through."

"Do as I say. You'll have to haul five pounds every month. If next month is still like this, we'll only be able to haul six stones."

When Wang heard this, she was immediately unhappy. Her family already had enough to fill their stomachs, and if all five kilograms of grain were transported out, they would go hungry for a month.

She took a step forward, trying to stop it, but was grabbed by the old woman.

But, how can these two women be a match for the men?
After three and two pulls, Wang's man was pushed to the ground, and his head hit the rice mill, causing bleeding.

As soon as Ye Shen went out, he saw his wife bleeding. He was immediately furious, "Stop right there!"

The debt collector stopped the two younger brothers but ignored him.

Ye Shen was very influential in the official circles, but they were not from the government, and there was no need for them to pay attention to a poor scholar.

"Mr. Ye, you should pay back your debts, right? Mr. Ye, check it yourself. I got it from Mr. Ye. The quality is too different. Even if you feed it to pigs, no one will want it!"

Ye Shendun felt humiliated, but what the other party said was right, there was a musty smell in the room.

"That's true, but you can't hit people."

The two debt collectors were getting impatient and interrupted Brother Seven: "Brother Seven, stop talking nonsense with him. Our rules are still in place. For debts, we can cut off our own arms or break his legs."

Ye Shen's face darkened when he heard this. In the court, he could make all officials look at him with awe. Even the emperor's decree could be vetoed outright. But now, he was like a scholar being beaten by a loan shark.

She reached out a hand and tried to poke him with a finger, but her mouth was no longer in control.

Just when the Ye couple and the old woman were about to be beaten, Zhu Tan arrived at the door with Lu Zhu and several servants.

Seeing that her parents were about to be beaten, Lu Zhu screamed and shouted, "Dad, Mom!"

Zhu Tan was also puzzled. Not only was Ye Shen’s situation difficult, but he was also being bullied like this?
He winked at the servant next to him, and Jia Zhang, Zhang Laoliu and others immediately surrounded him.

Some pulled his arms, some pulled his hair, and started beating him.

The three debt collectors were beaten so hard that they screamed and their bones were broken. Soon they could no longer make any sound. (End of this chapter)