Crazy at the end of the Ming Dynasty

During the period when Xue Zhinong went to inquire about the situation of the bandits in Guide Mansion, Wu Shigong was not idle either. He would go to the homes of the soldiers who were killed and injured in order to condolences.

Fortunately, those soldiers lived nearby, and they lived relatively concentratedly, so it didn't take Wu Shigong a few days to visit these family members.However, Wu Shigong's condolences moved these family members very much. In addition, Wu Shigong also helped to solve some difficulties of those family members during the condolences. Therefore, this kind of behavior made Wu Shigong's "benevolence and righteousness" reputation among soldiers even more resounding. .

Afterwards, Wu Shigong established a system for his officers, so that they should also care about the families of the soldiers killed and disabled under their command in the future, and these families must not be allowed to encounter difficulties in life.

In Wu Shigong's Qianhusuo fortress, some visitors were also welcomed one after another.The first person to visit was actually Jiaoyu Gong Haoran.He brought some students from the county school to visit Wu Shigong and the others.

Knowing the arrival of Gong Haoran and those students, Wu Shigong was overjoyed.It's not because of the Ming Dynasty's bullshit tradition of lifting literati to the sky, but because the literati finally have a righteous heart and respect the behavior of warriors like Wu Shigong who sacrificed for the country.

Therefore, Wu Shigong immediately organized soldiers to line up, and gave Gong Haoran and his party a grand welcome and inspection ceremony.And in the conversation with Gong Haoran later, Wu Shigong expressed his idea of ​​building a martyr's shrine for the soldiers who died in the fortress of Qianhusuo.

Afterwards, Wu Shigong kindly invited Gong Haoran and the students to write a sacrificial oration for those soldiers who died in battle. Wu Shigong will erect a stone tablet at the entrance of the Martyr's Shrine, and this sacrificial oration will be engraved on the stone tablet.And the names of Gong Haoran and all the students in the county school will also be engraved.

Wu Shigong's approach most caters to the literati's habit of loving fame.So when Wu Shigong's invitation was put forward, these students were eager to try, and even Gong Haoran stroked his beard and couldn't sit still.

But Wu Shigong's way of making friends is not only that, he also promised that in the future, he will give every scholar in the county a certain amount of annual support every year, and if those scholars go to the government to take the exam in the future, or even go to the capital to meet in the capital after they pass the exam For the test, Wu Shigong will provide a certain amount of Chengyi.

As soon as Wu Shigong raised these two hands, everyone immediately enjoyed themselves, laughing and laughing continuously.Of course, this is also related to the fact that those students know that Wu Shigong is also a scholar, and he is also a literati like them.

Wu Shigong's actions were not aimless. There are only more than 100 scholars in this county, and Wu Shigong's annual expenditure is not much.Besides, when Wu Shigong came back this time, he wanted to serve as the spokesman for the ruling class of the Ming Dynasty, the literati and gentry. Therefore, recruiting these young and passionate students was the most convenient and cheapest way to improve Wu Shigong's reputation.

So at the end, when Wu Shigong proposed to Gong Haoran to introduce some more children as literate teachers for his soldiers, Gong Haoran immediately agreed.Gong Haoran knew that the children who came to Wu Shigong's place to teach in the past were treated very well. In fact, there should be no resistance in any way to doing this kind of introduction.

Then Yao Yuanwai and the gentry also invited Wu Shigong one after another.But at Yao Yuanwai's banquet, Yao Yuanwai introduced to Wu Shigong his in-laws, a Yuanwai named Li.

After Wu Shigong went to King Qin this time, there were six or seven local gentry families who wanted to acquire Wu Shigong's [-] mu of land, and Li Yuanwai was one of them.

Those gentry colluded to bribe a pawn in the county government, and asked the pawn to make some fake land deeds for them.Of course, these land deeds all have official seals, and from the outside, they are no different from the real ones.

After these gentry learned from the rumors that Wu Shigong might not come back, they used these fake land deeds to go to the county government to sue.

But although Yu Zilian, the county magistrate, had a personal grievance with Wu Shigong, he was no longer the passionate scholar he used to be. He had already transformed into a slippery bureaucrat.Unlike those gentry, Yu Zilian didn't know Wu Shigong's background very well, but did he know that behind Wu Shigong there were two behemoth-like marquises.

Therefore, Yu Zilian was unwilling to make a judgment rashly before the situation became clear.He only made a gesture of favoring those gentry in several court trials, in order to be worthy of the generous gifts those gentry gave him.Afterwards, Yu Zilian used procrastination to make a final judgment for a long time.

Yu Zilian's wishful thinking was that if he got accurate information about Wu Shigong's death and defeat, Yu Zilian wouldn't mind throwing Wu Shigong into trouble again.But in case Wu Shigong made military achievements and Yu Zilian did not tear himself apart with Wu Shigong, there was still room for maneuver.And because of the ignorance of those gentry, Yu Zilian can justifiably keep those generous gifts for himself without returning them to those gentry.

But when those gentry learned that instead of being defeated, Wu Shigong had made military achievements in the battle against the Tartars and was promoted to be the garrison of the Runing Mansion, they all panicked.

This time the gentry's attempt to seize Wu Shigong's land was led by a member of the Huang Yuanwai.At that time, Li Yuanwai, Yao Yuanwai's in-laws, learned of such a good thing, and happily joined in.

However, after Li Yuanwai joined, Yao Yuanwai, who knew Wu Shigong's strength better, once persuaded him, but Li Yuanwai, who was swayed by profit, did not listen to Yao Yuanwai's advice at that time.

But after learning that Wu Shigong would lead the victorious army back to Guide Mansion, Li Yuanwai, who was in a panic, immediately went to the home of his in-law Yao Yuanwai to ask Yao Yuanwai for advice.And today Yao Yuanwai brought Li Yuanwai to apologize to Wu Shigong.

After Wu Shigong learned that Li Yuanwai was a gentry seeking his land, of course he would not let him go so easily.So Wu Shigong immediately cursed, and then walked away with his clothes off.But Yao Yuanwai held Wu Shigong desperately, and Li Yuanwai kowtowed again and again, preventing Wu Shigong from leaving.Seeing that it was almost the end of the fire, Wu Shigong reluctantly agreed not to pursue Li Yuanwai's pursuit of his own land.

Afterwards, several gentry came to apologize to Wu Shigong for the same reason.Wu Shigong also received several generous gifts from them.Firstly, Wu Shigong was unwilling to offend all the local gentry who had entangled relationships, and secondly, he had to treat those gentry who sought their own land differently, so in the end, Wu Shigong basically forgave those gentry who came to make amends to him.

However, Huang Yuanwai, the gentry who took the lead in seeking Wu Shigong's land, did not come to Wu Shigong.Although he is now nestled in his own home all day long, he is also afraid of Wu Shigong's revenge.

On this day, two guests from Huang's family came to visit. They were also gentry who sought Wu Shigong's land and did not come to Wu Shigong to make amends afterwards.

A gentry asked Huang Yuanwai: "Huang Yuanwai, you have to make up your mind. Then Li Yuanwai from Nanzhuang and Ke Yuanwai from Jiguan Town went to Master Wu to make amends. We really have to deal with Master Wu Are you going to resist like that?"

After Huang Yuanwai heard this, he felt very irritable. He stood up from the chair and walked back and forth in the room: "I really didn't expect that Mr. Wu's life would be so serious. But when he was in a lawsuit with Mr. Wu, The few of us are the most violent. What if he doesn't accept our apology?"

"That's what I think. Let's put together another generous gift and send it to the county lord. Since we have already torn our faces, we will fight the lawsuit to the end. It may not be that Lord Wu dares to drive us all to death, just to fight for some land. , It’s not a big deal. If he dares to touch us, it’s a rebellion.” When Huang Yuanwai said this, he also felt a little lack of confidence.And the reason for saying this is nothing more than to embolden Huang Yuanwai himself.

Huang Yuanwai went on to say: "Even if the county lord and Mr. Wu protect each other, we lose the lawsuit. Then we just have to wait until Mr. Wu takes office in Runing Mansion. At that time, his hand will not be able to reach us. Come to Guide Mansion."

Listening to Huang Yuanwai's words did make some sense, the two gentry nodded.

On August [-]th, Wu Shigong led [-] cavalry, [-] infantry, and an artillery team with ten Franc cannons and two three-pound artillery pieces to suppress the bandits.Before setting off, Wu Shigong sent people to the county seat and Guide's mansion respectively, and asked them to submit their official documents on bandit suppression to the county government, government office, and Guidewei government office on August [-]th.Of course, along with the official document, there is also an expensive gift.

The reason why Wu Shigong wanted to make this time difference was because he was afraid that the news about his suppression of the bandits would leak out.Wu Shigong did not take all his troops out, he prepared [-] soldiers in Qianhusuo Fortress, preparing for another operation.

This time, the gentry who wanted to seek Wu Shigong's land, as well as the Huang family and other three families, had not yet given their sincerity to Wu Shigong. The soldiers Wu Shigong arranged in the fortress of Qianhusuo were prepared for them.

To be honest, Wu Shigong didn’t have any hard targets for suppressing bandits in Guide Mansion this time. The principle Wu Shigong followed was to suppress them if he could, or drive them away if he couldn’t. To maintain one's prestige, so it is for some false fame, and the benefits are not great.

However, the three gentry of the Huang family dared to seek Wu Shigong's land. This was a naked challenge to Wu Shigong. Wu Shigong decided to uproot these three gentry this time, and teach those gentry who were watching a bloody lesson.

As for the method to be adopted, it is very simple, catch a few bandits and make them confess that these gentry are in collusion with these bandits.And after getting these evidences of torture, Wu Shigong didn't plan to go to court to sue, Wu Shigong planned to cleanly and neatly confiscate and exterminate the three families of the Huang family.Therefore, it can be said that Wu Shigong's suppression of bandits this time was entirely out of ulterior motives.