Gao Shishi wanted to go to his manor near Wangping Town, so he naturally had the intention of personally inspecting and making corresponding arrangements, but it didn't stop there. Previously, he instigated Gao Gong to say that Emperor Longqing was going to find a playmate for the prince, and now that Gao Gong had quietly done it, Gao Pragmatic naturally wanted to sneak out to observe, and then wait for the emperor to resist the pressure of the courtiers and call him back to Beijing to be the prince's companion.

This is actually for the courtiers to see, which is equivalent to an alibi - you see, I was honestly studying in the manor, but I didn't expect such a stubble!

As soon as Gao Gong said this reason, Gao Gong immediately agreed, after all, he is an official who pays attention to his reputation in these years, and his appearance must not be too ugly.

Originally, Gao Pragmatic planned to leave early the next morning, but who knew that something went wrong - in fact, it couldn't be called a mistake, but early the next morning, Uncle Zhang Siwei sent someone to ask Gao Pragmatic to come over to the house, so the time was delayed.

The whole manor over there in Wang Pingzhen was given by the uncle, since the uncle called him, Gao Shishi naturally couldn't go away, so he ordered to admire the moon and listen to the qin to wait in the Gao Mansion first, and he took Gao Xiaozhuang and Gao Mo to the uncle's mansion.

Gaofu is located in the former ladder alley, although it is not too far from the Forbidden City and the Liubu, but the area is relatively cramped, and Zhangfu is different, not only covers an area of more than three times that of Gaofu, but also the location is excellent - located on the east side of Hebao Lane, this place is further east, over the palace wall is the Taiye Pool, that is, the South China Sea part of Zhongnanhai in later generations.

Of course, as the right servant of Zhang Siwei's ministry, his family is a wealthy businessman who controls the Changlu Salt Farm, so it is natural to live here.

The doorman of Zhang's mansion had already recognized Gao Shishi, who had come once, and when he saw his carriage, he respectfully stepped forward to greet him: "Young Master Cousin, you have come really early." ”

Gao Pragmatic didn't have any big young master's shelf, and asked with a smile: "Is my uncle up?" ”

Menzi nodded and smiled, and said, "The lord got up, but it also happened that a distinguished guest came to the mansion early in the morning, and now he is being accompanied by the master himself...... If the young master is not in a hurry, it is better to go to the West Flower Hall to drink a cup of hot tea first, warm up and warm up, what do you think? ”

Gao was stunned, stopped, and asked, "So early?" Who is it? ”

Menzi glanced at the West Flower Hall and said cautiously: "Master Guo, Jinyi Wei commands the servant Li Gong." ”

Gao pragmatic opened his small mouth and said in his heart: Li Guifei's mason father Li Wei? Does he have a relationship with my uncle?

He smiled, took out a small piece of silver, threw it to Menzi, and asked casually, "Li Guozhang and my uncle have a good relationship?" ”

"Yo, the little young master of Xie Biao rewards." Menzi hurriedly accepted the reward, and said more diligently: "Young Master Mingjian, how is the relationship between the master and Li Guozhang, we don't dare to guess casually, but Li Guozhang will always come once or twice a month, which is true." Oh, by the way, sometimes the lord will have a banquet to entertain. ”

"Does Li Guozhang's family have a salt trade?" Gao asked again as he walked.

"I haven't heard of the salt trade, but ......" The man looked carefully left and right, and saw that there were no outsiders around, so he continued: "Young Master Cousin, this national father-in-law may have been poor and scared at the beginning, and now after practicing Zuo, his father gave the Jinyi Wei the command of the Jinyi Wei with his daughter's preciousness, and he wanted to make money in the Jinyi Wei within a few days of his arrival, but the idea he thought of was not very good, not that the imperial chariot was too old, and he wanted to replace it with a new one, and asked for a supervision ...... of it."

Gao pragmatically smiled: "And then, Zhu Xixiao disagrees?" ”

Zhu Xixiao is the younger brother of Zhu Xizhong, the Duke of Chengguo, and is currently the governor of Jinyi. These two brothers are the great-great-grandsons of Zhu Neng, the hero of Jingnan in the past, and they are even valued by the emperors of Sejong and Longqing, and Zhu Xizhong is now the leader of the Jingnan system, so Zhu Xixiao may not be able to treat Li Wei as a big figure - according to the habits of the Ming Dynasty, even if the crown prince succeeds to the throne in the future, Li Wei's grandfather may be knighted, it is not hereditary, and as long as the people who become the princes of the country are not stupid enough to rebel, they are the princes of the same country and the princes of the generations, and it is self-evident who has a higher status.

Sure enough, Menzi was surprised at first, and then said with a smile: "Young Master Cousin is really a genius, you can guess this!" Thinking about what kind of family background does Zhu Taibao have, how can he be deceived by him? At that time, he said to Li Guozhang: 'Today's treasury is in trouble, the world is in trouble, my holy son of heaven is virtuous, thrifty inside, all the courtiers do their best, assist outside, my generation of the son of heaven is close to the like, but also remember at that time. I see that this matter is a waste of money, and it will be criticized by the world, how can I do it? It made Li Guozhang very unable to get off the stage. ”

Gao Pragmatic smiled again and asked, "Is there anything coming from the palace?" ”

Menzi waved his hand and smiled: "No, no, they all say that the concubine is a reasonable person, how can she be open to her father because of this?" Not only did he not speak for Li Guozhang, but he also called Uncle Guo into the palace and scolded him. ”

Gao Shishi's heart moved, and he said secretly: This Li Guifei is quite good at being a person. Her father looks ugly, and as a daughter, she is not good at directly reprimanding her father, so she called her brother over to criticize her, which not only violates filial piety, but also shows her upright attitude to outsiders, which is really a double win.

Gao Pragmatism has never been a traditional gentleman who can be bullied, he often "does not look at people with the greatest malice", so he thought again: After Li Guifei made this attitude, even if Li Wei did anything ugly in the future, as long as she was not directly stabbed in front of Li Guifei, she could pretend that "the palace doesn't know anything" - a good means!

Gao Pragmatic didn't speak again, and suddenly two people who walked over from the East Flower Hall and smiled Yan Yan, Gao Pragmatic turned his eyes and saw that one of them was his uncle Zhang Siwei, and the other was a little short and thin old man, it was estimated that it should be that Li Guozhang.

Gao Shiran hesitated slightly, but decided to go up directly to say hello, he walked forward, and only after Zhang Siwei also saw him did Shi Shiran stand still and bowed: "My nephew has seen my uncle." ”

Zhang Siwei didn't care about him, stepped forward rashly, nodded with a smile, and introduced: "Pragmatic, I've come to see Li Guozhang." ”

Gao pragmatic is not hypocritical, and bowed slightly in a different direction: "The younger generation has seen the national abbot." ”

The short and thin old man Li Guozhang took out the appearance of an elder, touched a few sparse beards and nodded, and said casually: "Well, the little baby doesn't need to be polite." ”

Gao Shishi smiled secretly in his heart, but his face was calm, he bowed slightly, and stepped aside.

Zhang Siwei added with a smile: "Guozhang may not know that my nephew has a little name in Beijing recently......"

"Oh?" Li Guozhang was slightly stunned, turned his head and glanced at Gao Shishi: "What?" ”

Zhang Siwei smiled reservedly: "Xuan Weng returned to Beijing a year ago, and only one of the children of the Gao family brought pragmatic to come, and on the day he arrived in Beijing, he also introduced pragmatic to his colleagues, and many colleagues in the cabinet and various ministries praised this child. ”

Li Guozhang was taken aback: "Oh! He's the nephew of Gao Ge Lao? His face suddenly became extremely kind, and he bent down slightly towards Gao Shishi, and praised with a smile: "I heard that Mr. Xiao Gao is very happy with the saint, and when the old man sees it today, it is indeed unusual, good, good!" ”

Gao Shishi smiled and thanked: "Praised by Your Majesty and the princes, the kid is ashamed." ”

said it, but in his heart he was quite disdainful: although this old man's "color change" is fast, but the level of acting skills is really not very good, this attitude is obviously afraid of my third uncle's prestige and hope to always be consistent with the emperor's attitude, and then forced out, I guess my cheap uncle should see it very clearly - hey, wait, uncle is only afraid that he deliberately introduced me, right?