Emperor Qianlong: the beginning of his glory

Chapter 4 Master Qian Afraid of Misfortune and Feared Disaster
"The dredging of the canal must be done quickly, and it must be completed before Bailu." Li Wei glanced at Qian Du, and said with a smile to the two senior officials, "You thieves, do it well! Brothers, when they come to Beijing, they must go to heaven to say something good." !" When the two of them left the Moon Cave Gate, Li Wei turned around and greeted Qian Du with a smile, "Is it Mr. Qian? What are you doing standing there? Come in and have a chat!"

Qian Du didn't expect him to be so easy-going, so Lao Gao was half relieved, and walked in steadily. Seeing that Li Wei had already sat down, he greeted An with all his hands, and carefully handed over Governor Sun's letter of recommendation. , smiled apologetically and said: "Sun Futai repeatedly told the villain to pay tribute to the adult: take good care of your body. Let me bring two catties of ice flakes and two catties of white fungus, saying that these are made by the adults..." Li Wei opened the letter while Said: "Sun Guoxi is still strong, isn't he? What else did he say--his handwriting has improved!" Qian Du guessed Li Wei's temperament, which was very bold, so he boldly smiled and said: "Sun Guoxi Futai scolded you, saying that you are like an old skinny dog ​​that is about to fall apart, and you are so stingy and reluctant to eat..."

"Oh?" Li Wei paused, then burst out laughing, coughing and said, "...Okay! Good scolding... This son of a bitch still misses me!" He read the letter as he spoke.Probably because there were too many characters he didn't understand, he casually threw the letter on the table and said, "Isn't it just to recommend you to be a teacher? Well, I'll keep you."

"Thank you, Mr. Tai-"

"Wait." Li Wei waved his hand, the smile on his face disappeared, and he said solemnly: "My rules are known all over the world. One is sincerity. I can't read, so I value this one more. Play tricks with me. If you fool me with words, I will ask Shang Fang to kill you. The second article, I will give you 250 taels of silver salary every month. No one in the world is willing to give so much to the master. If you don’t ask me clearly, I just want to use the word 'Lian'. If a ghost plays with a mallet in my yamen, I will only die. I was born as a beggar, and I will first be a villain and then a gentleman. Ugly words will come to the fore-don't say that the words are not predictable. !” He suddenly uttered a sentence, and he stopped it with a smile.Qian Du had already stood up, Zhengyan said: "Dong Weng, it is because of your admiration for your character and talent that students have traveled thousands of miles to join you. Don't worry, Qian Du is a real man!" Just as he was talking, a Goshha came in Reported: "There is a young man outside, about fifteen or sixteen years old, who said that the inner court sent him to Suzhou to urge the tribute satin. He asked the little one to report that he has something to see the adults."

"Where are the famous thorns? Take a look."

"Back to the adults, he said it was inconvenient and didn't bring it."

"Huh? No name?"

"Fucha family, Fu Heng."

Li Wei trembled, got up quickly, and said, "Hurry up, take me to meet you—" He coughed suddenly, and even spat out a mouthful of blood. He quickly covered it with a handkerchief, gasped for a while, and said, "Fu Heng is Prince Bao." My brother-in-law is my half-master——Mr. Qian, please tidy up this room, and I’ll come as soon as I go.” Qian Du immediately urged the waiter and servants to sweep the floor and wipe the table, and personally took away the documents scattered on the table The case files were packed one by one, and then I heard Li Wei laughing: "Master is used to wearing shoes made by my mother-in-law, and said that although they are not as good as the official ones in Suzhou, they fit well. I made two more A pair of soap boots with black satin and green cloth layered soles, I thought I would bring them in when I came to Beijing on New Year's Day. Since the sixth master is here, it's a lunch box..." He picked up the curtain himself and followed Fu Heng in.

Qian Du's eyes lit up immediately, and he saw that Fu Heng was wearing a moon-white solid gauze gown, a purple corduroy Baturu button-up vest, and a crimson crouching dragon bag tied around his waist, with only the beige tassels slightly exposed. A pair of soap boots were half worn, the bottoms seemed to have been powdered and washed white.On the delicate face, there are two black jewel-like pupils, looking forward to shine, and the chic and elegant posture is just like a jade tree facing the wind, which makes people forget the world at first sight.Qian Du couldn't help thinking to himself: "The boy who played Guanyin at the temple fair is not so beautiful. I don't know his sister—that must be a fairy!" Fu Heng was already sitting in a daze. Fu Heng hurriedly said: "Forget it, you are in poor health." After finishing speaking, he glanced at Qian Du and asked, "I haven't seen you last time, this is..." Qian Du is a person who is full of news. The smart man moved as soon as he pressed it, and hurriedly stepped forward and said: "I am not talented, the 26th generation grandson of King Qian Mu of Qiantang came to Li Zhitai's mansion to be a guest of staff-the etiquette cannot be discarded, I will pay my respects to you on behalf of Dong Weng." Already!" Saying this, he bowed, stood up and bowed again, Li Wei laughed as he watched from the sidelines.

"You are very clever, this rewards you." Fu Heng smiled reservedly, took out a few golden melon seeds from his sleeve and threw them into Qian Du's hand, then turned to ask Li Wei, "How is the Texas case? Oh, don't get me wrong." , I don’t interfere with your government affairs. It’s just that the emperor is very concerned about this matter. He said that he has always seen officials who owe money commit suicide, but he has never heard of debt collectors committing suicide. The emperor has ordered the Ministry of Officials and the Ministry of Punishment to find out the cause of death. The Seventeenth Prince wrote a letter asking me to ask you when I pass Shandong. I will just take your words back to Beijing.” Li Wei pondered for a while, and said: “This case is handled by Tang Junheng, and I also feel very strange. Tang Junheng has agreed with Liu Kang went to the court several times, and all the confessions were reported to me by flying horses. The prefect of the yamen and the prefect yamen will conduct an autopsy, and it is true that he died by hanging. The doors and windows were closed from the inside, and it was not homicide. Like forcing himself to commit suicide because of love and hatred. I was a little suspicious of Liu Kang, because He Luying went to investigate his deficit, but the Fan Treasury reported that Dezhou only had a deficit of more than 3000 taels, so there was no reason to kill people for it. The store clerk testified that there was nothing unusual about He before his death, and that when Liu Kang visited that night, He sent him out in person—this matter has been recalled several times by Fu Si and Shi Si, and today he is still saying that the case will be closed by suicide. Don't worry, let's discuss it later."

Qian Du was listening, admiring Li Wei's fineness.He thought for a while, and then said slowly: "Zhatai, please allow me to interject. This is a suspicious case, and it must not be closed hastily. When I came to Jinan, I heard about this case. It's difficult to understand. As for claiming death by 'injustice', I think it's even more outrageous. The sixth master will naturally report to the emperor when he returns. This case cannot be decided at the moment, and it will be reasonable to wait and see." "Yes," Li Wei He smiled and said, "It's just 'suicide is not going well, and homicide is difficult to reason'. You are a master!" Fu Heng nodded while listening, glanced at Qian Du appreciatively, and changed the subject and asked: "Do you have any questions?" No fame?" Qian Du hurriedly bowed and said, "The late student was a supervisor who paid donations in the sixth year of Yongzheng."

"Students can also take the exam." Fu Heng said and stood up, "I don't want to disturb you here, I have to go back to the post house, and I will go back to Beijing tomorrow. I won't bother you this time, and we will meet again in a few days. Yes." Li Wei got up and said with a smile: "Master Liu is not in a hurry, what's the point of waiting for a few days? Oh——you have something in your words, do you have any news?" Fu Heng just pointed upwards with his hand, and resigned without saying anything go out.

A month later, as expected, the inner court sent a letter from the court, because the governor of Zhili was vacant, and ordered Li Wei to make up for it.Governor Yue Jun of Shandong Province is temporarily in office.The governor's yamen immediately became bustling like a pool turned over, with people coming and going to pay their respects, to celebrate, to drink, and to explain official business.Li Wei had no choice but to deal with it with all his strength, but he couldn't hold on anymore, so he retreated as soon as he bowed, and asked his master to accompany him on his behalf.When Qian Duxin first arrived, he was unfamiliar with people and it was inconvenient to receive guests, so he asked for an errand to deliver official documents to various yamen. Every day, he sat in Li Wei's green cloth eight-person official sedan chair to go around the yamen in Jinan City. The scenery is comfortable.

In the past half a month, I was returning from the money casting department in the east of the city to explain the formalities. I passed by the gate of the inspector's office. Through the glass window, I saw a middle-aged woman wearing a white cloth, holding two children, walking all the way. cry.The woman came to the sedan chair, rushed to Lu Dangyang, knelt down on her knees with her hands up, and cried out in a mournful voice:

"Master Li, Li Qingtian! You are the master of the women, you are wronged!"

Qian Du was terrified by this sudden situation, and suddenly broke out in a cold sweat.According to the Qing system, only foreign officials, the governor, the governor, and the officials in the border region could sit in a sedan chair for eight people.He took advantage of Li Wei's transfer period to discuss the sedan chair addiction with the sedan chair house on his own initiative, which violated the system.What is even more difficult is that there was a strict edict in the second year of Yongzheng, no matter whether it is a prince, noble, civil or military official, whoever stops the sedan chair to call for grievances, they will all stop the sedan chair to receive them, "it is an eternal rule".What can I do now as a counterfeit?Sweat suddenly broke out on the tip of Qian Du's nose.While he was in a daze, the big sedan chair had already landed steadily.When Qian Du came to the fore, he calmed down and was not so gentle.He picked up the curtain of the sedan chair and walked out. Seeing the crowd of onlookers gradually gathering around him, he quickly waved his hands and said, "Bring the big sedan chair back first, and I will walk back by myself." went.

"Sister-in-law, I'm not Li Zhitai." Seeing the sedan chair going, Qian Du put his heart down, stepped forward with a smile and put his hands on his hands, and said, "But I'm working next to Li Zhitai. Why don't you blame me if you are wronged?" Siyamen file a complaint?" The woman sobbed, "I am He Li, from Ningbo—" Before he finished speaking, Qian Du already understood in his heart that this is He Luying's wife.She must have realized that the cause of her husband's death was unknown, so she rushed to Jinan to file a complaint.Seeing more and more people gathered around, Qian Du knew that he couldn't stay, so he smiled and said: "This is not a place to talk, please follow me to Zaotai Yamen, if you can see Li Zhitai, can you say it quickly? "

He Li nodded with tears in his eyes, took the two children and followed Qian Du to the side of the street, along the south wall of the Governor's Office to the Governor's Office.But he didn't lead him to the main hall, he only brought his mother and son to the study room, and then he felt relieved, and said with a smile: "The place is a bit rough, please wait, please sit down." He Lishi refused to sit, and said with blessings in his hands : "I'm not here to be a guest, please tell Master Li Zhitai, if he doesn't come out, I have no choice but to go out and play the drums."

"Please sit down, Mrs. He." Seeing her dignified manner, neither humble nor overbearing, Qian Du became more convinced of his guess: "If I'm not wrong, you are a child of Jinan Grain Reserve's congratulatory inspection, and a person with orders , how can I let you stand and talk?" Mrs. He Li was haggard and covered in dust; she had two children, a boy and a girl.They're all about the same age, and they're all ugly with dark eyebrows.Seeing that Qian Du recognized her identity at a glance, the woman couldn't help being surprised, nodded and sat down, and asked, "How do you know? Is it an old friend of your ex-husband?" Qian Du nodded vaguely, and went out to grab a Ge Shiha whispered a few words, and Nagoshha agreed to go in.Only then did Qian Du turn back and sit down, and sighed: "I had acquaintance with He Jianjian once, and now he has passed away, which is a pity. However, as far as I know, Mr. He committed suicide. Why did Ru Ren die?" How about stopping the sedan chair and complaining?"

Mrs. He Li had just sat on the cold bench in the yamen of the inspector, and when she saw Qian Du treating her so attentively, her ears were hot and her nose was sore, tears rolled down her eyes, she choked up a bit, and said, "Your sir—" Qian Du leaned over and said "I dare not, my surname is Qian." "Mr. Qian's guess is right, I am He Luying's first wife." She wiped away her tears, and said again, "But it is wrong to say that Luying committed suicide. My husband The violent death in Texas was caused by someone poisoning and then hanging to death!"

"what?"

Qian Du was taken aback, he almost stood up with his legs stretched, sat back down again, and said in a trembling voice: "Ru Ren, human life is not a trifling matter!"

He Li shook his fingers to untie the bundle.There was a mess inside, there were clothes and silver, and a court dress, robes and boots, spread out on the table, pointing and saying: "This is the murder certificate, the murderer is the prefect surnamed Liu!"

(End of this chapter)