Qian County Cheng and Miao Zhushu came out of Hao Zhifu, hurriedly rushed back to Pinghu County, and took advantage of Li Xianzhi's failure to return, and gathered everyone to collect donations. Although everyone was reluctant to do so, no one dared to disobey Qian and Miao, so they scraped together another three hundred taels of silver and sent it to Hao Zhifu.

Hao Zhifu received the money, deducted half of it himself, sealed the rest, wrote a letter, and sent his henchmen to Jingshi to a Jinshi surnamed Fang in the same year. This old man Fang is the imperial history of Zhejiang Dao, and he is also attached to the eunuch party.

Yushi is a clear official, if he can't patrol the place, he will have no place to get money, and he can only live on a meager salary, and most of them are so poor that they will be clanging after a year.

This Fang Yushi was even more unlucky, raising seven or eight children, none of whom had never been married, and waited for food with his mouth open every day. Originally, I bent my knees and attached myself to the eunuchs, and I wanted to find a chance to go out of Beijing, but after three or four years, I didn't have a turn, and even my clothes were clean. It's summer now, and my wife and children are still wearing torn jackets at home.

The prefect of Hao's mansion sent someone to the Fang Yushi Mansion and handed him the letter and one hundred and fifty taels of silver. Fang Yushi saw the silver, and he was overjoyed.

Although this is not a lot of silver, it can always solve the urgent need, not only can I redeem what I have been, but also the rest can be used for a few days. He read the letter from the prefect of Hao, and also wrote a reply to the messenger, which was nothing more than some polite words and "what is entrusted in the book, I will definitely do it".

Fang Yushi sent the messenger away, and immediately sent the old servant to the pawnshop to redeem the things that had been lost, and then thought about how to fulfill the contract. Coincidentally, at this time, Futai, Zhejiang, who had taken care of Li Xianzhi, was angry with Wei Zhongxian because of the incident.

Wei Eunuch was furious, and assigned Fang Yushi to impeach him for the crime of "the party attached to Donglin", and several Beijing officials who had close contacts with him were included.

At this time, Fang Yushi had already drafted the bullet seal, and was about to transcribe it and throw it in. He had an idea, took out the bullet stamp, considered it back and forth, and at the end of the day, he added a stroke of weight and added Li Xianzhi to it.

Li Xianzhi, who was far away in Pinghu, naturally knew nothing about all this. At this time, he had collected the tax silver and grain, released it back to the county, and handed it over to the transit officer.

Soon, Fang Yushi's bullet seal was handed over. Wei Biao took the opportunity to manipulate the emperor to order that all the personnel listed in the impeachment be dismissed and handed over to the ministry for discussion.

"Criticizing Zhu" issued a ministerial meeting, and it was the "party people" who suffered, and the people of Donglin who were provoked were like ants on a hot pot, openly fighting for the death and reasoning, and secretly contacting everywhere to spend money to solve the crime.

But he said that this "Zhu Pi" bullet Zhang Zhou Langzhong naturally saw it. When he saw Li Xianzhi's name, he was really taken aback, thinking that he was really stirred in it. But after all, he has been in the officialdom for many years, extremely old and spicy, calmed down and read the bullet again, and saw that the sentence about Li Xianzhi was very abrupt, without any real evidence, and immediately understood that someone was deliberately making trouble. But even so, the disaster is not small. He is the master of Li Xian's hometown test, which is well known. If Li Xianzhi is allowed to be questioned this time, if someone in the eunuch party is not used to seeing him in the future, turning over old accounts, and impeaching him, he will not be able to escape with this relationship. Therefore, Li Xianzhi must be fished out.

So, Zhou Langzhong didn't dare to delay for a moment, and hurriedly found Liu Shilang from the headquarters. Liu Shilang was also attached to the eunuch party, and because of this, he was ranked in the third rank, but he didn't know that his subordinate Zhou Langzhong was a member of the Donglin party. In working together on weekdays, the two also have a good relationship. But Zhou Langzhong first thought of him, not because of the friendship between the two, but because of Liu Shilang's temperament - love money.

Zhou Lang found Liu Shilang and kept silent about the other impeached "party members", only begging him to help Li Xianzhi, the small Pinghu magistrate. Although Zhou Langzhong's move did not make Liu Shilang suspicious of his identity, it also caused a lot of confusion. Liu Shilang therefore said: "What kind of friendship does Brother Zhou have with this county master, but he wants to speak for him plainly?" ”

Zhou Langzhong did not deceive, and said bluntly: "When he was supervising Shaanxi Xuezheng, this Li Zhixian was a person under his post, and he had the affection of a teacher and a student. Besides, he is a new science and technology sergeant, and he has only been in office for a few months, so he will definitely not get involved with those people, and it would not be too heavy for him to be punished for such a crime. ”

Liu Shilang joked: "Brother Zhou is such a good teacher with affection and righteousness, it is really rare!" ”

Zhou Langzhong said: "My lord said that he was joking, if he was only a teacher and student in name, it would be easy to say, even if an insignificant person like him was involved, what did it matter?" When I came to see an adult, I had a different consideration. ”

Liu Shilang couldn't help but be a little interested, and said, "Brother Zhou, you might as well talk about it." ”

Zhou Langzhong said: "As far as I know, this son has some property in his family, if the adult helps Zhou Quan, after the matter is completed, he always has to thank him, not to mention more, there are always two or three thousand silver, I don't know if the adult intends to?" ”

Liu Shilang is a person who loves money the most, as soon as he heard that there was money to be made, he secretly calculated it in his heart, but he replied in another way: "What Brother Zhou said, the court trusts us, so that we can have today's glorious days of official clothes and hats, and we should not have the heart of exchanging power for profit." It's just that according to what Brother Zhou said, this Li Zhixian is young and shallow, and he really doesn't seem to be a heinous Donglin Party member. You can't ruin someone's future because of an unfounded word. Even if you don't look at anything else, you should also look at Brother Zhou's face, this fair word, I must say it. ”

Zhou Langzhong said: "My lord has agreed, and he will send this letter and ask him to send the silver." ”

Liu Shilang didn't want to ask for money directly, so he diverted the conversation and said, "Now this official doesn't look like an official." All of them are mercenary, needless to say, ordinary officials needless to say, even the imperial history of Kuangzheng officialdom actually started a business like a businessman, as long as he gave silver, he would participate in whoever he wanted, presumably Brother Zhou's high feet suffered from such a situation. ”

Zhou Langzhong said perfunctorily: "Young and vigorous, so as not to offend people, but this Fang Yu Shi has always had a good reputation, not like such a person." ”

Liu Shilang and Fang Yushi were originally a party, but unexpectedly, he accidentally revealed his bottom, and his face suddenly turned red. Fortunately, Zhou Langzhong was kind enough to help him cover up the past.

Liu Shilang calmed down, and said: "Your brother Zhou opened the matter of Chrysostom, I will do my best to help, and you can rest assured." ”

Zhou Langzhong said: "Lord Lao is bothered. After some polite remarks and some gossip, he got up and took his leave.

Liu Shilang sent Zhou Langzhong out of the door, went back to the house to think about it, and wrote a letter to Wei Zhongxian's right-hand man Cui Shaofu, saying that Li Xin of Pinghu County knew him, and the crime of rebellion was pure and unfounded, please raise your noble hand. After writing it, I sent someone to Cui Shaofu's mansion.

This Young Master Cui is both the Ministry of War and the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and he is a member of the first rank, three levels higher than Liu Shilang, how can Liu Shilang's letter work?

It turned out that although Liu Shilang's official position was not as good, he was the head of the household department, holding the Yamen of the God of Wealth with the first number of Tianzi, and Cui Shaofu had tens of thousands of silver written off here every year, so he didn't dare to offend him at all, so a letter would work.

Cui Shaofu accepted the letter, and saw that it was just a small magistrate, so he was happy to sell his personal favor, and erased Li Xianzhi's name when he informed the internal supervisor of the draft. Originally, Zhu Approval of the Imperial Court was a holy decree and could never be changed, but at this time, the Emperor of the Apocalypse didn't care about anything, and the approval of Zhu, the proposed edict, and the use of the seal were all handled by the internal supervisors under Wei Zhongxian, and the emperor didn't know at all. It can also be seen that the government and the rule of officials in the late Ming Dynasty are bad, which is breathtaking!

Within a few days, the edict was issued, and Li Xianzhi was indeed not on the list of officials to be investigated. Zhou Langzhong then took out of his own pocket and scraped together three thousand taels of silver to send to Liu Shilang's mansion and repay the favor. Not only did Zhou Langzhong help Li Xianzhi find a way, but the other officials who were involved also showed their powers. Send money, find a way, and those who can be punished will be reduced, and those who can be spared will be exempted.

Although there is an enmity between Donglin and the eunuch party, there is no enmity with the silver after all, and the success or failure in the future is still unknown, so some "people of insight" in the eunuch party have privately set up a friendship with the Donglin party, which has not only benefited but also left a way back, isn't it killing two birds with one stone?

In this way, the turmoil did not expand. Zhejiang Futai was the first offender, so he was dealt with more heavily, dismissed and returned home, and the rest were demoted and retained, and there was also a Nanjing household official whose name was erased like Li Xianzhi. In short, a catastrophe has subsided.

However, Li Xianzhi didn't know all this, although Zhou Langzhong wrote a letter to Li Xianzhi, he just told him to be careful in everything, and he didn't fall for the tricks of the gangsters, and he didn't mention anything about giving him money to avoid disaster.

A few days later, Zhang Fengyi, who served as the imperial historian in Beijing, wrote a letter, saying that he had changed his teaching to Zhejiang Province and would go to the province in the near future, and he explained the beginning and end of the previous incident in detail. By the way, I copied a copy of Fang Yushi's bullet seal and sent it with the letter.

Li Xianzhi read the letter and the bullet seal, and couldn't help but gasp, and invited He Tai'an to come and see, and He also smacked his tongue. The two sighed very much at Zhou Langzhong's kindness.

Li Xianzhi said: "The teacher's kindness to me from disaster is already difficult to repay, how can I let his old man advance so much silver for me?" So he wrote a letter to his family and asked his family to send 5,000 taels of silver to Beijing and send it to Zhou Langzhong's mansion.

Because Han Chuan has been to Jingshi together, and has been to Zhou Langzhong's mansion, he knows the road. Li Xianzhi asked Han Chuan to personally deliver the letter home, and told him that after returning home, he did not have to return, and after sending the silver to Jingshi, he would go south from the canal to Pinghu County.

Han Chuan received the letter, chartered a boat and sailed west early the next morning, and returned again within two days. There were seven or eight people who came together, and they went into the back office together to see Li Xianzhi. When Li Xianzhi looked at it, it was Xiao Shiqian who led a few small people in the mansion to come. I was very surprised, and I suspected that there was something at home, so I hurriedly asked, "Why did you come here?" ”

Xiao Shiqian said: "The government paid grain to the border land and exchanged it for 5,000 salt leads. The Lingzhou salt field is only enough to support 2,000 leads, and the Futai Lord played to the imperial court, and the household department issued an order, ordering the remaining 3,000 leads to Yangzhou to sell them in Henan and Shaanxi. I waited for this trip, it was a special trip to Yangzhou to pick up salt, and the old lady asked me to bring some gold for my son, so I crossed the river and met Brother Han halfway, so I came together. ”

Li Xianzhi saw that it was not an accident at home, so he let go of his heart and ordered Jin Shun to inform the room to prepare food. Xiao Shiqian said: "The boat carrying salt has entered the canal, there is only one deputy governor, we are afraid that the master will not be able to do anything in the hurry, we dare not delay, the gold is left to the son, and we will leave." As he spoke, he waved his hand, and a few attendants brought in two old wooden boxes, opened the seals and unlocked them, and the yellow and clear golden light flashed inside, all of which were gold ingots of ten taels and one ingots. The two boxes totaled six hundred taels.

Xiao Shiqian said: "Originally, I brought silver, the amount was too much, I was afraid that the road would be too ostentatious, there was a mistake, and it was exchanged for gold in Yangzhou. ”

Li Xian's plate fee has long been exhausted, and the monthly salary is pitiful, and it will be gone before it is used, and there is not even a broken silver to reward people. This time, Xiao Shiqian sent silver, and he was able to solve his urgent need.

After the gold was delivered, Li Xianzhi wrote the receipt and used the seal. Xiao Shiqian received the documents and was about to leave. Li Xianzhi said: "I'm not in a hurry at this moment, I still have something to send someone to Beijing, just so you wait for dinner and then set off together, rent a fast boat, and just catch a ride." ”

When Xiao Shiqian saw Li Xianzhi say this, he didn't say anything, quit the study with everyone, rested and waited for dinner. There are only two left in the study: Li Xianzhi and He Tai'an. I don't know what the two are going to say, but I'll talk about it below.