However, it was said that Li Xianzhi was an official for the first time, and he was anxious because of the redundancy of county affairs, and suddenly remembered a person who could help him, and this person was He Tai'an, who had previously worked in the scene of the teacher Governor Jin.

Thinking of this, Li Xianzhi immediately took a pen and paper, wrote a letter, and invited Tai'an to come to Pinghu County. Before the letter was written, he suddenly remembered that he only knew that He Tai'an was from Shangyu County, Shaoxing Prefecture, and he didn't know where he lived. Moreover, at this time, the two have been separated for several years, and they are not registered, and it is not known, even if they write a letter, where will they go to vote? The little joy I had just felt vanished.

After thinking about it for a long time, he couldn't come up with a good way, so he had to call Jin Shun'er in, and called two clever messengers, one of whom rewarded ten taels of silver, and asked them to bring the letter to Shangyu County to inquire.

Seeing that there was money to earn, and they were able to marry the new master, the two errand officers happily took the errand and followed Jin Shun'er.

said that Jin Shun'er took two messengers out of the city and rented a boat and went straight to Shangyu County. There is nothing to say all the way, and it will be there in a few days. As soon as he entered the city, a messenger said: "Shangyu is a big county, with more than 100,000 men, women and children. I have a brother surnamed Zhao, who happens to be on an errand in Shangyu County, and he is a copyist and a bookkeeper, so it is better to find him first and ask him for help. I don't know what Jin Ye thinks? ”

Jin Shun'er pondered for a moment and said, "What you say is reasonable, so I will depend on you." ”

A group of three people found a nearby inn to stay, put down their luggage, and went to the county government again, to the head of the door, made two cents of silver, and asked the soap who guarded the door to invite the Zhao Shuban out to meet. After a while, Zhao Shu came out and exchanged pleasantries with the two servants. The officer introduced Kim Soon-a to him. The two of them are each bowed, and it is counted as a salute.

Jin Shun'er told her about finding someone, and Zhao Shuban twisted a few sparse beards, stared and thought for a long time, and said, "I don't know this Mr. He." ”

Jin Shun hurriedly bowed and said: "You are a native of your hometown, and you are familiar with people, so you can inquire about it." ”

When Zhao Shuban heard this, he didn't reply, but turned his face away and looked at the sky. Jin Shun'er knew what he meant, took out five taels of silver from his sleeve and handed it to him.

Zhao Shuban immediately smiled and said: "According to what Jin Ye said, this Mr. He has been the governor of the master's scene, he must not be an ordinary person, he must be famous in the township, it must not be difficult to play." I have a good friend, who is a household official in this county, surnamed Yang, who is in charge of the household registration of the villagers, and I took a few people to look for him. After that, he turned around and said a few words to the soap Li who was guarding the door, and then led Jin Shun'er and the three of them inside, turned left and right, and came to the place where the house was doing business.

At this time, Yang was sitting in front of the bookcase writing something, and Zhao Shuban stepped forward and said, "Brother Yang is busy?" ”

Yang raised his head and replied: "There are some mistakes in the household stalls in the neighboring townships, and the master is urging me to see it, and I will make up for it." Who are these three? ”

Zhao Shuban said: "These three are on an errand in Pinghu County, Jiaxing Prefecture, and they were ordered to come to the county to find people, but Brother Yang is in charge, so I ask you for help." ”

These officials in the yamen are accustomed to eating people, and Yang is no exception, and his hand keeps writing on the paper all the time, while asking: "Do you know which township and village the person you are looking for?" ”

Zhao Shuban said with a smile: "It is precisely because I don't know that I asked Brother Yang here." ”

Yang said: "Brother Zhao found me, I should help, but there are many people in this county, and finding someone is like looking for a needle in a haystack. ”

Zhao Shuban said: "These are also friends of the brothers' old acquaintances, so I ask Brother Yang to bother to help." As he spoke, he handed Jin Shun the color.

Jin Shun saw the meaning at a glance, and hurriedly took out five taels of silver in his hand, and secretly stuffed it in Yang Official's left hand.

Yang touched the silver, held it tightly, shrunk his hand in his sleeve, hid the silver, and said, "Since Brother Zhao is a friend of himself, I will open the door of the file warehouse, and you will check it yourself." As he spoke, he got up and walked to the library.

Zhao Shuban and Jin Shun said together: "It's hard work." "Walk along, too.

In front of the door, Yang picked up his clothes and took out a bunch of keys, Ding Ling looked for a long time before he found it, opened the door, and said, "Follow me." ”

Jin Shun, Zhao Shuban and the two errand servants followed in together, and walked to an ebony shelf, Yang Clerk pointed to the scrolls on it and said: "The county's population and household files are all here, you see." After saying that, he took his leave and left. Zhao Shuban also had something to do and left together.

Jin Shun and the three of them hurriedly took down the book from the shelf and flipped through it page by page. After a day, it was almost dusk, and the book had been half over, and finally found Mr. He's household file, and saw that the name and table were correct, and the year teeth were also the same, and the resume was written with the words "Xiucai Origin" and "Outside the curtain for many years". I'm sure I'm looking for Mr. He, there's no doubt. Jin Shun copied the address of his place of origin written on it on a slip of paper, put all the books in place, and then came out with two errands. After thanking Zhao Shuban and Yang officials, he left the county office and returned to his apartment, waiting to go to the countryside to find Mr. He the next day.

Early the next morning, Jin Shun urged the two servants to get up early, wash their faces, eat breakfast, hire an ox cart on the street, let the handlebar type double as a guide, and go to He Tai'an's house.

After walking for a long time, when I arrived at the village where He Tai'an was, I stopped an old farmer to inquire, and the old farmer said: "Looking at the highest family in the village, it is Mr. He's home." ”

Jin Shun thanked him, went to the village with two messengers, found a big mansion with a vermilion lacquer gate, and stepped forward to ask the doorman, and sure enough, it was He Tai'an's home. Jin Shun was overjoyed, and handed over an all-red post written by Li Xianzhi to Menzi of "old friends", and asked him to enter to report.

Menzi took the post and went inside.

Li Xianzhi only wrote a bald name when he was a child, and did not write down the official title. This He Tai'an saw Ti'er, I don't know what Li Xianzhi came to visit thousands of miles away, so he was taken aback, hurriedly put on a shirt, came out to greet him in person, and trotted all the way to the door, but saw that the person who came was not Li Xianzhi himself. felt that Jin Shun was familiar again, so he walked down the steps to carefully identify him, remembered that he was Li Xianzhi's personal scholar, and asked, "How is your son-in-law?" Why didn't you come, but you were sent here? ”

Jin Shun bowed deeply to He Tai'an, and replied: "Thanks to Mr. He's blessing, my son-in-law won the Jinshi of the new branch and was put in Pinghu County, Jiaxing Prefecture to be the county master. Here is a letter from the childe, please read it. As he spoke, he took out the letter and offered it with both hands.

He Tai'an took the letter, let Jin Shun and the two messengers into the mansion, sat in the main hall, and the servants came up to make tea. He Tai'an let Jin Shun and the two messengers drink tea, while opening the letter and reading it, reading it, putting it aside, and said: "When your son-in-law was a young man, I knew that he would be able to become a weapon, and now he has really become an official of the imperial court." He remembered me, and sent you to ask for a letter, and I was going to go on a trip, but I was afraid that I would not be able to come back for a while, so I asked you to go back first to get back to your son-in-law, and let me settle down at home, for more than half a month, or as little as a few days, and I will come to the appointment. ”

Jin Shun heard that Mr. He was willing to go, and hurriedly got up to thank him. He Tai'an let him sit down again, and ordered the kitchen to prepare food. After some gossip, Jin Shun stayed with the three of them for a night that night.

The next day, I got up early and had breakfast, Jin Shun and the two messengers said goodbye, and He Taian personally sent them out of the door. Jin Shun and the two messengers returned to Pinghu the same way. When Li Xianzhi heard that He Tai'an was coming, he was naturally overjoyed.

After the eleventh or twelfth day, He Tai'an really arrived as promised. Li Xianzhi was naturally overjoyed, personally went out to welcome him in, set up a banquet to catch the wind, talked about the aftermath, talked about their respective circumstances, and talked about the late Governor Jin, very embarrassed.

After the banquet, Li Xianzhi ordered him to withdraw from the banquet, replace it with tea, and talk while eating tea. Li Xianzhi said what he said in the letter about inviting He Tai'an to come into the curtain to help deal with county affairs, and said: "Pinghu District is a small county, with no more than 10,000 people. However, when I first entered the officialdom, the affairs were really unfamiliar, and I asked my husband to give me advice. ”

He Tai'an said with a smile: "Where did Xianzhi say, as early as in the Golden Governor Scene, I knew that you were an extraordinary person. Take Governor Jin as an example, he has been an official for many years, and there are not a few people he has seen, why do you have a blue eye? Don't you see if you can achieve great things in the future? Your coming here today to be an official is the first step to accomplish a great cause, and it is my blessing to be able to use me. ”

When Li Xianzhi heard this, he was naturally overjoyed, and talked with He Taian for a long time before they rested.

One day later, Li Xianzhi took out the little silver left, set up a banquet, and invited the county Cheng Qian Ruoju, the chief bookkeeper Miao Quan, the classic Zhao Wenhui and the county school teacher to Chen Zixi together, and enshrined He Tai'an on the upper seat, and said to everyone: "I am very happy to invite my old friends here today, so I take this opportunity to invite you all together for a while." This is my mentor, Mr. He Tai'an. ”

Everyone at the banquet got up and saluted with He Tai'an, and He Tai'an returned the salute one by one, and sat down after the ceremony.

Li Xianzhi said again: "When the official first entered the officialdom, the county officials were very unfamiliar, and they were afraid that they would miss their official affairs and lose the emperor's orders, so they asked Mr. He to come into the curtain and help with the cooking." This Mr. He has been trained from the governor's yamen, and in the future, I ask you to help each other, so that the lower official An Ansheng can complete this term of governor. With that, he got up and raised a glass.

Everyone at the table also got up, drank a cup with them, and sat down. Miao Quan said in a sharp voice: "If you want to say that it has become a common practice for this official to invite guests to do things, Mr. He is here, and it also saves us the matter, and I can't ask for it." As he spoke, he and Qian Ruoju glanced at each other, each thinking about it.

Li Xianzhi carefully observed the four of them, and saw that Zhao Wenhui and Chen Zixi looked like they had nothing to do with themselves, while Qian Ruoju and Miao Quan's faces were much uglier than before. After a short time, the two got up one after another and said goodbye. As soon as the two left, Zhao Wenhui and Chen Zixi couldn't sit anymore, so they also got up and said goodbye. Li Xianzhi got up and sent them out one by one, and still sat when he came back.

He Tai'an said with a smile: "Envy used me, Qian and Miao are quite displeased." ”

Li Xianzhi also smiled: "The more people are displeased, the more I have to use Mr., otherwise if I let the people below do nothing, wouldn't I become a dumb official with a vegetarian meal?" ”

He Tai'an joked: "According to me, if you are an official, you probably won't be a corrupt official, but it's unpredictable whether you will be a dumb official or not." ”

When Li Xianzhi heard this, he was very puzzled and asked, "How do you say this?" ”

He Tai'an smiled: "In my opinion, there are only two kinds of officials in this world who are not greedy, one is the one who has a noble character and is an honest person in his bones, such as Bao Longtu of the Song Dynasty and Haigang Peak of this Dynasty; The other is a person like Envy, who grew up in a pile of gold and silver since he was a child, and that is the one who really regards money as dung, and naturally will not ruin his reputation because of those petty profits. ”

Li Xianzhi interjected with a smile: "At this moment, I am also going up the mountain with a Luo pot, and the money is very tight." ”

He Tai'an asked, "Oh? But what's going on? ”

Li Xianzhi said: "When I went to Beijing to take a total of 1,000 taels of silver, I was entangled all the way here, and I met a master of Futai who loved money, and the rest was given to him, and even the horses I rode were spared." Don't hide it, sir, after preparing today's meal, I have nothing left. ”

He Tai'an asked, "Why did this Lord Futai embarrass you to make such a big move?" ”

Li Xianzhi said: "This Lord Futai has not embarrassed me, I was reminded by the Governor when I visited the Governor, and I did so." The Lord of Futai got the silver, but he was very polite. ”

He Tai'an was puzzled: "The governor is the honor of a province, how can he remind you like this?" ”

Li Xianzhi said: "On the day of the visit, the governor once asked me about Zhou Xuetai, the teacher when I entered the school and raised people, and I must have taken care of it with a letter. ”

He Tai'an asked, "Is it Zhou Chunren, who worships under Governor Jin?" ”

Li Xianzhi said: "Exactly. ”

He Tai'an said: "In this way, you have the help of nobles, and your official fortune will naturally prosper in the future." The two of them laughed for a while.

Li Xianzhi turned his head and asked, "I don't know how much screen silver Mr. He wants?" ”

He Taian smiled: "The friendship between you and me, just consider giving a few taels." ”

Li Xianzhi said: "Thirty taels in January, is it less?" ”

He Tai'an said: "I am in the Jin Governor's Curtain, but it is only three hundred and twenty-one years, and the affairs of the county are naturally not as cumbersome as those of Fu Ya, which is really much, twenty taels is enough." ”

Li Xianzhi waved his hand and said: "Mr. don't want to shirk, just talk about thirty taels, but I can't pay the money at the moment, so I have to delay for a few days." ”

He Tai'an said: "It's okay to do this. ”

After talking about business, the two of them talked about some gossip while eating and drinking, and the excitement was gone, and they each rested.