Idle courtiers

Chapter 276 Rumors Follow Like a Shadow
When the yamen servant heard the words, he slandered in his heart, you called other people's wives over in the middle of the night, and asked about the case?
Can't the answer be asked in court, but one-on-one.Told me to open the door, but ordered everyone to back off.This is trying to cover up, this is Sima Zhao's heart, and everyone knows it.

He could only murmur in his heart that Zhou Xingren had just sent all the soldiers who guarded the squad to do hard work at the military building. He heard that it was very miserable.

Zhou Nan took a closer look at the woman again, but saw that the woman had a plump body, with spring eyebrows, and she was obviously a flamboyant woman.Although he looked pretty good, there was a burst of disgust in his heart for no reason.Said: "Miss woman Shi, you get up and talk."

"Thank you, Mr. Zhou." The woman stood up and looked at Mr. Zhou indifferently.

Zhou Nan was even more displeased, threw the toothpick in his hand on the ground, and said lightly: "Shi, you must have a clear idea of ​​the case, and you also know why my lord has told you to come here now?"

"I know, women's eyes are not blind, and their minds are not confused. My mother accused Yu Er of disobedience, such a felony, and the master let him go without asking. Now he let our family live in the public house. It can be seen that I have nothing to do with my aunt and grandma. There is friendship. Today, my lord sent the mistress over here, apparently to ask about the adultery between the military man and the mistress, but in fact he wanted me to withdraw the lawsuit. My lord, is the mistress right?"

She spoke one adult at a time, which made Zhou Nan furious, and said lightly: "Sure enough, you are a slut who has seen countless people. You are a smart person. Since you know that my lord has a relationship with the Yu family, you should know the consequences. The road is chosen by yourself. Don't make mistakes."

"Hehe." Mistress suddenly laughed lowly, her brows twitched.

Zhou Nan's face sank: "What are you laughing at?"

Mistress: "My lord, although a woman from a brothel is a good person, she is still a lowly person. To be honest, she is as low as dust, and the house and land of Yuer's family are my only chance to stand up. How can I miss it. Since your lord has already ruined the marriage between the civilian woman and the military officer, I will naturally seize this opportunity. It is easy to solve this case, and it is easy to divorce Yu Er. It is up to me."

Zhou Nan: "Have you talked about terms with my lord?"

Mistress: "My lord, as I said just now, women come from brothels, and they make friends with all kinds of sects, so they are quite knowledgeable. Once the case of disobedience comes out, it will also affect your career, my lord. The Yu family's property is not your lord's, so award it to me." That’s it, what is it compared to your future?”

Zhou Nan laughed angrily: "What a tricky woman, aren't you afraid that my lord will torture you?"

In ancient times, there was no such thing as civilized law enforcement. Officials allowed torture to extract confessions when trying cases.Even if he was beaten to death, at worst he would be punished by his superiors. It would be better to get a verdict during the evaluation than to be immediately dismissed from office or even exiled.

The lady teacher laughed again: "That's right, my lord can order the women to be beaten to death on the spot. However, if the women don't get the property of Yu's family, it would be better to die than to live a hard life. Besides, in my opinion My lord has no murderous look in his eyes, and he doesn't want to let his hands be stained with blood. Are all scholars like this?"

"You are really a stone in a hut—stinky and hard!" Zhou Nan was furious in his heart. This tricky woman has rich experience in society and is extremely difficult to deal with.In front of her, it was as if he had been seen through.

Mistress: "It's not that the women want to fight against the lord. Three years to clear the magistrate, one hundred thousand snowflakes, the house and land of the Yu family may be nothing in the eyes of the elder, but it is related to my life and death. Anyway, the women are now It’s also nothing, so naturally we have to do our best.”

"The Law of Blood Remuneration", in an instant, Zhou Nan thought of this term.

The so-called blood reward is the reward for working hard.The value of blood rewards depends on what is up for grabs.The poor have no land to stand on, and the most valuable thing is a life. The [-] mu of land and a big house under the name of the mother of the ninth son are indeed worth the life of the teacher.

It doesn't matter if you lose, since she had nothing before anyway.If you win, you win the whole world.

"Haha, haha, talking to Mrs. Shi, I have gained a lot from talking to you. At least I understand the thoughts of your class. It can be regarded as a class investigation!" Zhou Nan laughed suddenly: "Mr. Do you have nothing? I think about it, right, you have a child, what is his name, Brother Yi, right? Well, is he naturalized? According to my "Law of the Ming Dynasty", no household registration is considered a refugee, and he should be exiled to the border. My lord can't say that I have to act according to the law."

The lady teacher took a good time: "Returning to your lord, my Yi brother has registered his household registration since he was born, even though he is a lowly one. In the same sentence, there is nothing else for a peasant husband, but he has more knowledge than ordinary stupid village women, and he happens to know There is such a law."

While speaking, she looked at Zhou Nan provocatively.

Zhou Nan had expected that she would respond in this way, and asked suddenly: "Mr. Shi, I heard that you can read a few words."

"nature."

"Look for yourself." Zhou Nan suddenly threw a booklet on the ground: "This is the sixth page of this issue of the Mansion Newspaper."

The Di Bao is the internal reference for later generations, once a month.Uploading the imperial decrees of the emperor, memorials of ministers, newly promulgated decrees by the court, the list of imperial examination candidates for the year...all kinds of things are related to the national economy and the people's livelihood.After careful consideration, the political direction of the Ming Dynasty is in my hands.

According to the system, the mansion report is only sent to officials of the seventh rank.However, copying and circulation are not prohibited.Wang Ruoxu and Zhou Nan had a good personal relationship, and whenever the newspaper came out, he would give Zhou Nan a copy.

Zhou Nan said: "Your Majesty has a decree for this issue. Most of the servants in the palace have grown old for many years, and one of them will be abolished. In addition, there is a severe shortage of staff in the ban, so I ordered Bei Zhili to pick a group of suitable staff. Your child is an illegitimate child. , and born smart, but he is the right candidate. Mistress, didn’t you commit adultery with a military officer? The child of a criminal, and an illegitimate child, is just right. I plan to report it to Yousi.”

"What, you want my adoptive son to be a eunuch?" Mistress cried out in a shocking voice: "No, no, don't!"

The voice was so shrill that it spread far away and echoed in the back yamen.

The yamen servant who was kicked out of the room by Zhou Nan earlier was grinding his teeth in the ear room with the two secretary offices. Hearing the screams from there, he was shocked, and grabbed the Yanling knife and rushed to protect the Lord and rescue him.

A book office stopped the yamen servant and asked, "What are you going to do?"

Yamen servant: "There seems to be something wrong in the Grand Master's house, don't call it a bitch and hurt passers-by."

Secretary office: "The elder is tall and strong, how could he be hurt by a weak woman?"

The yamen servant struggled: "But something happened to the old man, if I don't go, I'm afraid I will be assigned to build that side."

Secretary office: "If you go over now, I'm afraid you're going to be assigned."

"What's the point?" The yamen servant was stunned.

"Listen to me, that's right." The secretary said with a smile: "Don't you really know what kind of temperament the old man is? I heard that Zhou Xingren has a hobby. He likes widows and married women the most. The older ones are the most interesting. As for the big girl of Huanghua, she doesn't care at all. Listen, listen, the teacher's wife is screaming so badly, it is obvious that our elder is executing the execution, and the attack is very ruthless. You Isn't it a good thing for the bad old man to pass now?"

Yamen servant: "Is there such a saying?"

The secretary office: "Nonsense, for such a master as a servant, it is natural to find out his origin and temperament. Our old master used to be involved with many widows and wives when he was an official in Huai'an. It is really very human Very serious!"

The other secretary who had been snickering beside him finally couldn't hold back "Puchi, Mrs. Shi is still screaming so badly, in my opinion it is..." Painful and happy.

Zhou Nan didn't know that his lustful reputation in Huai'an spread to the capital. When he traveled to the Ming Dynasty, his status was humble, and he struggled to survive in the jungle world, using no means to do things.But it doesn't mean that he has no limit to being a man. Although the teacher's wife is hateful, she still can't do such an unconscionable thing as sending her son to be a eunuch, that is, to verbally frighten her.

Most of the eunuchs in the Ming and Qing dynasties came from the suburbs of the capital, such as Beijing, Hebei, Shandong, and Shaanxi.

There are roughly three reasons for eunuchs to enter the palace: one is a lazy person who has nothing to do, sees other people becoming eunuchs and has money, and he is jealous, so he kills him, and then entrusts others to enter the palace, satisfying his character of being lazy and loath to work;

The second is that some people want to avoid corvee, and there are many children in the family, so they pick one and call it a clean man. If there is a chance to enter the forbidden area, in addition to exempting the family, relatives and neighbors may even be exempted from corvee.

The third is from war.When the Ming Dynasty conquered the south, more than 1000 children were arrested at one time, and they were purified and enlisted in the palace to serve.

Although there were wars in the southeast during the Jiajing year, the wars all took place in the country. It is impossible to castrate their own citizens, right?

Moreover, the local economy in the interior is not bad, and the common people can still afford food, and no one is free to cut and play by themselves.

Therefore, most of the people who enter the palace now are lazy and careless people, the quality is not high, and the number is limited.As a result, there was a severe shortage of people in the palace, so they ordered Beizhili to be selected.

Bei Zhili also felt a headache, so he issued an order, implemented it to the local officials, and included it in the assessment.

According to the system of the Ming Dynasty, the government cannot arrest good family sons into the palace.Then, we can only start with the family members and illegitimate children of serious criminals, which is also legal and compliant.

If Zhou Nan reported Yigeer, the local government would naturally accept it.

"Officer Dog, I'm going to fight you!" Mistress cried out sadly, she opened her arms and wanted to rush towards Zhou Nan.

Zhou Nan just looked at her coldly.

The teacher's wife cried loudly: "My lord, please forgive me, my lord, please forgive me!"

Zhou Nan saw that the teacher's wife, who was still so rampant just now, had a mental breakdown, and she was very happy, and said: "What a cunning woman, you still want to disrespect me, you go down and think about it, and then come back when you think about it, I will give you a night." You are a smart person, so you can clearly distinguish between the serious and the serious."

After finishing speaking, he shouted loudly: "Come here, take this tricky woman down."

Hearing Mr. Zhou's words, the yamen servant in the ear room rushed over, grabbed the hand of Mrs. Zhou and pushed her outside.

With this grasp, I just feel the warmth in my hands.He praised in his heart: This teacher's wife looks ordinary, but she doesn't want to buy such a wonderful one, the old man has a good eye.

Seeing her disheveled hair and tear-stained face, she was so pitiful, and she thought again: This is over in just a few snaps of the fingers, it seems that the old man's body is not finished, this teacher is useless, I must be sad in my heart.

Zhou Nan naturally had no way of knowing what his subordinates were thinking, so he only touched his chin with his hand, and said to himself: "Is this official looking a little ugly today... Hey, it's annoying for this mud horse to be a small official. Rolling around in the mud. If you want to be a modest gentleman, if you want to be gentle and elegant, you have to be a high-ranking official!"

If Mrs. Shi is not stupid, if she wants to keep her son, she will know what to do.

My lord has passed the difficulty of disobedience.Zhou Nan felt relieved for a while, and began to think about how to deal with Duan Chengen, a student from Shuntian Mansion tomorrow. This old man is not easy to deal with!

But he didn't know that a rumor was spreading in the Armament Bureau's office: "You know, our Master Zhou just called Mrs. Shi to serve in his room at night."

"Hey, there is such a thing, I wonder why the Elder Master arranged the teacher's wife's family to live in the public house, it was just for convenience."

"It's not for the sake of convenience. Do you know who the Ninth Young Master who came during the day is?"

"Isn't he Yu Er's nephew?"

"You know what a fart, it's a niece."

"Ah, it's a woman, how is it possible?"

"How can it be impossible? I have been disobedient all my life, and men and women can still be clearly distinguished. Do you know who that Miss Nine is, the wife of our grand lord?"

"Ah, it's the old lady's wife. Doesn't the old lady have another wife in Huai'an? Why did another lady come out?"

"It's Ping Wife." The one who spread the rumors spat at his companion: "Ping Wife, do you know that she is equal to Da Wife, and she is formally welcomed in by three media and six hires. I heard that Miss Nine is also the daughter of a wealthy family in the capital. , the elder has given the dowry, and the date of the wedding has been fixed. Think about it, once we get married, Yu Er will be the elder's uncle."

"It's no wonder Elder Zhou let her go as soon as Miss Jiu arrived at the yamen, and still took care of her like this. It turned out to be a family. No... no..." The man suddenly took a breath of air: "The elder and his wife's aunt Mother... this, this, this..."

"Shut up quickly, and be careful not to spread it to the ears of the old man, and send you to do hard work."

"Yes, yes, I didn't say anything, so don't hurt me, brother!"

The rumor seemed to have grown wings, and it spread throughout the Military Weapons Bureau overnight.

Even Lao Guo heard it, shook his head, and said to the servant who served him: "Impossible. As a clean gossip officer, how could Zhou Xingren do such a thing to ruin his reputation? Moreover, the Elder , is a moral gentleman. If you continue to chew your tongue, you will not be forgiven."

He has been in contact with Zhou Nan for a long time, and he knows that Zhou Xingren has always disliked going to brothels and Chu houses, and he has little interest in matters of men and women.

Lao Guo was probably the only person in the yamen who didn't believe this rumor. If Zhou Nan knew about it, he might be moved to tears: wise man, confidant!

(End of this chapter)