"What? What's up? How to take him? ”

Hearing that Shang Cheng was reluctant to be the governor of Yanshan, Aunt Seventeen was so surprised that she couldn't even close her mouth. She didn't understand what was going on, so she was so anxious that she asked four or five times in a row with a rural accent in Yixian.

"Gu Guan (such a big official), why don't you want to be a mile?"

Seeing that Huo Shiqi shook her head silently, she immediately used her woman's logic to find the reason why the monk didn't want to be a commander: yes, someone must be making trouble behind his back; Yes, definitely! The monk is a kind-hearted person, and it is easy not to even blush with others, let alone quarrel with others over this matter, if someone fights with him, he will definitely give up this admiral's seat. She could even think of who was stumbling on the monk behind her back. She gritted her teeth and asked hatefully, "Is someone messing around?" Isn't it Li Shen from Duanzhou? She knew that Li Shen had a grudge against the monk because he didn't become a commander, so she immediately pointed the finger at this person. Their old Li family is too domineering! If you can't keep the Admiral's seat, do you still allow others to sit in this position?! ”

The mother-in-law didn't understand the origin of the matter, and opened her mouth to talk nonsense, Huo Shiqi could only smile bitterly and shake her head again. What is Li Shen? If the monk had only taken office at the beginning of the year, Li Shen had taken advantage of his past majesty and ability to make a fuss, now...... He sneered secretly: With the current situation of Yanshan and the prestige that Shang Cheng has gradually established, even if Li Shen does not give up on the Admiral, he can only do some shady means behind his back. But how effective can this shady method be? Looking at the account book on the kang table in front of you, you can know that so many people give gifts to his family in the Mid-Autumn Festival, doesn't it represent a kind of wind direction in Yanshan officialdom?

After listening to the man's explanation, Aunt Seventeen's anger disappeared a little. But she still thinks that Shang Cheng should find an opportunity to drive Li Shen away. The reason is very simple, because wolves are not well raised, this time you throw a bone to it, the next time it will eat meat, and in the end the bone and meat are gone, and it will definitely eat people. She worries that the monk will end up being food for the wolf's mouth.

The metaphor of the image of the mother-in-law made Huo Shiqi can't help but laugh. He smiled and said to the woman, "You know what. The mother-in-law's family doesn't care about these things, just take care of this family with peace of mind. ”

"How did I not know? People say that Li Shen is a villain who doesn't recognize his relatives when he turns his face, and he returns his teeth, teeth or something......"

"Surely you will repay it."

"Yes, that's it! That's what Mrs. Tao said. ”

Huo Shiqi put away his smile, stroked the teacup and lowered his gaze for a while, and said, "What she said is right, Li Shen is indeed such a person." But you're not right. Do you think, what was the situation of Yanshan at the beginning of the year? Half of the county has just suffered a military disaster, hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced, countless mouths are waiting to be fed, and it is a critical juncture when spring ploughing is imminent, and the two of them will make some trouble for their duties, how to clean up the situation in Yanshan? If the monk really estranged himself from Li Shen as soon as he came up, no one would be left behind, and in the end, not only would neither of them be able to sit on the admiral's seat, but they might also be reprimanded by the imperial court; When the situation is erosive and cannot be cleaned up, the imperial court can only transfer the monks away for the good of Yanshan, no matter what, Li Shen has been in Yanshan for more than ten years, and then there are such and such bad, he is always familiar with the military, government and people of Yanshan, even if he is not good as a commander, he can still take on the major affairs of guarding a state. Thanks to the monk's general knowledge, he didn't have the same general knowledge as Li Shen, and he slept all night, and worked desperately, which straightened out the mess of cotton wool in Yanshan...... "His voice became heavier and heavier. During that time, he had been staying by Shang Cheng's side, and he had personally experienced many things, and at this moment, he recalled the difficult situation when Shang Cheng had just taken over Yanshan, and he was still emotional. Just in order to allow the Li people who fled from home to go home early to live a peaceful life, the monk didn't know how many nights he hadn't closed his eyes; Many times, because of the meeting with officials to talk about official business, the monk was so busy that he couldn't even eat a hot meal, so he just ate a few dry buns with tea and a meal......

Aunt Seventeen was stunned for a long time, and only after a while did her face turn color, and asked cautiously: "According to what you say, the surname Li can't compete with the monk." But why do you say that the monk is unwilling to be the governor of Yanshan? I don't believe him, I don't want to be a big official. ”

Huo Shiqi stared at the flickering candle on the kang table, and didn't speak for a long time, and after a long time, he exhaled silently, and said as if he was tired: "He doesn't want to be this Yanshan Admiral." He's so tired......"

Aunt Seventeen was silent for a moment. She knew that the monk was busy with official business all day long, and when he went out, he either went to the yamen to work or went to the place to inspect, and when he returned home, he was also busy reviewing official documents and meeting officials, and even Yue'er rarely had a few words with him. It's been almost half a year since she came to Yanzhou, and she has only seen monks two or three times.

After a while, she whispered, "What does he want to do, not the Admiral?" Don't you just want to be a military horse? ”

The corners of Huo Shiqi's mouth twitched. He looked at the dim wall in a daze, and said slowly, "There are some things I didn't tell you; Others don't know either. The monk just didn't want to be this admiral at all. He said that his time in the army was short, and he had no experience in leading soldiers to manage politics, so he sat on the admiral's seat and walked on thin ice with trepidation every day. He also said that generals are defeated in battles, and compared with being a commander, he would rather go to other places to lead troops to train, and by the way, gain some knowledge and experience, and wait for the day when he will come back to fight the Turks......"

"How did he remember to lead troops to fight elsewhere?" Aunt Seventeen asked in surprise. Isn't it the same where to lead troops? Isn't it the steppe and the Turks to the north?

"You don't understand." Huo Shiqi shook his head. After all, he has been a Xu official for more than ten years, and he has been in contact with local officials for most of the past half a year, and many officialdom changes and personnel ups and downs that he couldn't figure out before, and now he has gradually figured out some truths, because he said, "After all, he has been a fake commander, and if he really can't be in the right position, the court will have to transfer him away." Otherwise, with the prestige he has established now and the achievements he has made, anyone else who comes to be a commander will have to be afraid of him for three points, and he will have to be afraid of doing things. This is not good for Yanshan......" Seeing that the mother-in-law was holding the brocade box with a confused face, she knew that she had spoken deeply, and the woman didn't understand it at all, so she said again, "Last month, Duke Yiguo sent a letter to the monk from the capital, saying that there may be major changes in the military this year and next year, and several forbidden armies in the Liyuan camp will change generals, and the great Sima of Xilongwei will also be vacant. The monk has already replied to ask Yi Guogong to help with the transfer. ”

"How do you know this? What did the monk tell you? ”

Huo Shiqi laughed and said, "If he doesn't say this kind of thing, who dares to ask?" He said it to me unintentionally when he came to Ge Ping last month, so don't take it out and talk nonsense. ”

Aunt Seventeen also laughed, grabbed her husband and said, "Am I so stupid? What should be said should be said; I shouldn't say it, I can also make a stuffy gourd. But as soon as she had laughed, the clouds climbed up her forehead. The Huo family's family business was only raised by clinging to the big tree of monks, and seeing that it had just improved a little, if Shang Cheng left, what would he do in the future?

Huo Shiqi was not worried at all. Although Shang Cheng is gone, the tiger is majestic, who can do anything to him? Besides, Sun Zhongshan and Qian Laosan are still in Yanshan, and they are also acquaintances with Lu Jidi Xu, so these people can take care of the Huo family. And he has been following Shang Cheng for so long, and it is not for nothing, Shang Cheng has set up a good stage for him, and he has the heart to kick out his own world! He is only thirty-six years old, and he has settled down to do his errands in a down-to-earth and diligent manner for twenty years, and he may not be able to have a state and a government in the future. Coupled with the affection that the monk just sent, it is not impossible to be promoted to knighthood......

It was the first time that Aunt Seventeen heard about the improvement of farm tools, and she was immediately surprised and delighted, and her lips trembled for a long time while holding the brocade box. After a while, she sighed and said, "It is said that according to the friendship between the two families, we can accept the monk's heart." But the changes in our family in the past six months are too great, and we owe too much to the monks, and if we are greedy for the monks' merits, I am afraid that one day the Emperor Bodhisattva will come down and let us rejoice in the bamboo basket and draw water......"

Huo Shiqi nodded with a heavy heart. The two of them thought of going together, and he was also sad about it. But Shang Cheng is a person with no background, and the stories he made up blindly when he first settled down were full of loopholes, and he couldn't stand the old officials' investigation at all; The Admiral's seat is a place where thousands of people are watching, and I don't know how many pairs of eyes are staring at my every move, and the slightest mistake may be wasted; There is also a Li Shen in Duanzhou, as long as Shang Cheng makes a mistake, it will be a catastrophe in an instant...... For a while, my thoughts were chaotic, and I couldn't figure out a clue, so I sighed and said, "There is no other way, we can only admit this account." Privately, we are defending the monks; From the perspective of justice, we are also protecting a good courtier for the court. ”

"I'm afraid that people like Li Shen will make trouble in private......"

"He dares!" Huo Shiqi slammed the tea bowl in his hand on the kang table, and said in a sonorous tone, "If it wasn't for the protection of a monk, Lu Ji and Zhang Shao would have already driven Li Shen out of Yanshan!" With a monk's mind and bearing, and a monk's talent and ability, what ability does Li Shen have to compete with the monk? How can you fight it? ”

Aunt Seventeen was taken aback by her husband's actions, and hurriedly dropped the brocade box in her hand to clean up the tea spilled on the kang table, muttering in her mouth: "You can talk as you speak, how can you smash the table with a tea cup?" This floral porcelain is a good object from the south, and a set will cost more than 40 ......."

Huo Shiqi smiled and said nothing, only then did he notice that the cup of drinking water was not quite the same as the stoneware he was used to in his daily life, and there was a faint layer of faint green in the gray and fluffy color, as if he had not pondered jade; Pay attention to the touch, and there is a clumsy feeling between the fingers that is not too slippery. He didn't know porcelain, and he couldn't tell the quality of porcelain, but he guessed from the careful expression of his mother-in-law when she held the cup that it was valuable, so he asked, "Where did it come from?" ”

"It was sent by the junior high."

“…… The junior high school of Liu Ji Warehouse? ”

Aunt Seventeen nodded.

Huo Shiqi glanced at his mother-in-law very dissatisfied, and said, "Didn't I explain it to you?" We can't help with Liu Ji's affairs, why do you still accept their gifts? "Liu Ji has long known that the capital turnover is not open, and he has long known that the big owner of the warehouse has also looked for him twice, begging him to take a hand in the affection of the villagers and pull the warehouse. This was originally not a big deal for him, it was just a gesture, Ge Ping Curry could let Liu Ji escape with a little errand, but when he mentioned it in front of Shang Cheng twice, Shang Cheng didn't nod, so he didn't dare to make his own decisions. He knew that Shang Cheng had always been very anti-sensory business collusion.

"Gao Xiaosan is here with Jiang Jun, I can't let one go in and drive one away, right? Besides, Gao Xiaosan didn't say that it was a gift from the warehouse. Aunt Seventeen defended herself aggrievedly.

"How did Gao Xiaosan and Jiang Jian go all the way?"

"Didn't you introduce Jiang Jian to them when you were out drinking that time?"

Huo Shiqi raised his face and thought about it, but he probably remembered that there was such a thing. However, how could Gao Xiaosan, a small shopkeeper who dumped the warehouse, make friends with the big secretary of the Admiral's Mansion?

Aunt Seventeen was interested, and said happily: "Jiang Tuan is lucky, and he received an errand from the monk to supply a medicine called 'Rendan' to the army, which is a good medicine to dispel heat and dampness, which can not only support the army, but also be used by the people, and is of great use." I don't know what Jiang Jian thinks, so I gave this benefit to Liu Ji......"

"It's something that the monk made up again, right?"

"Yes and no." Aunt Seventeen said, "The monk proposed a rough prescription, and Jiang Jian found the doctor to carefully consider it, and felt that the prescription was sure before looking for Liu Ji." According to Gao Xiaosan, as long as this Ren Dan comes out, management and insurance is a big money business, and the north will use it, and the south will use it; It should be used in the army, and it should also be used by the people, and maybe one day it will become the imperial tribute......"

Huo Shiqi nodded and said, "Jiang Wei's idea is not bad. Although Liu Ji is a little troublesome at the moment, the hundred-legged insect is dead but not stiff, and the capital to do some medicinal material business is still there. He glanced at the radiant mother-in-law and asked coldly, "How much money did our family pay?" ”

Aunt Seventeen was frowning and thinking about the fact that she would one day be able to contribute to the royal family, where could she think of anything else, and said by the way: "Our family has a thin background, and we have made up 180 yuan by smashing pots and selling iron, and we still borrowed 100 yuan from Zhongshan's daughter-in-law to buy Liu Ji's shares in 3 percent." As he spoke, he sighed regretfully, apparently because he had lost a lot of money. That's when she realized that the man was staring at her with a smile. Hey, hey, I'm slipping my mouth, I'm a dead ghost!

She immediately said: "Not only did our family buy shares, but the monk's family also bought shares, and they gave more than 1,000 yuan to Liu Ji in January, and even half of the warehouse was stocked." ”

Huo Shiqi knew that Yue'er was an assertive girl, and she was basically in charge of the big and small things of the business, but she took so much money out at one time, and it was mixed with business, no matter how dare she be, obviously, this must be the "credit" of her mother-in-law behind her back. He groaned and said: "Business can be done, but there are two things to remember: one is that you can't let the monk know about this matter, and the other is that you can't come forward, and it's best to let Liu Ji do it one by one." Seeing that the mother-in-law nodded in agreement, she reached out and took the brocade box on the side of the kang table, and said with a smile, "Although the imperial court has never despised merchants, merchants are still a little different from goodness after all. I'm a seven-grade official now, and you're also an official's wife, so you can't let others see jokes when you do things. One by one, this was sent by Mrs. Lu? Two pieces of broken stone jewelry, worth it when you pinch it so that no one can see it? He opened the lid of the box with his hand, and when he looked at it, he was stunned.

The box is not any jewelry, but a handscroll, and the frontispiece is left blank and neatly written in large regular script:

"Mr. Yu Missing's Friend's Letter"

There is also a line of small words next to it: "Jiyang Lu's Gonglin".

A facsimile of "63 Stickers"?!

As soon as he saw this book, this thought immediately jumped into Huo Shiqi's mind. Then a question surfaced: This is Lu Ji's beloved thing, how can he be willing to give it away? However, this question only flashed in my mind. His handwriting was originally unsatisfactory, and now he can't take it, and he has been trying to find some book stickers to copy, and now the famous "Six Three Stickers" is in front of him, even if it is a copy, he can take care of others, and his mouth is messy with emotion: "The world is big, only Lu Bofu can know me", unfolded the handscroll, only glanced at it and was stunned and didn't know what to say.

The husband valued this object so much, and Aunt Seventeen was both happy and puzzled. Seeing her husband holding the book and posting it, she couldn't help but push the man and said, "See a rare baby?" A torn paper scroll, rejoicing like this? Now the Huo family and the Lu family and the Di family have a lot of contacts, and she has also heard of the fame of "63 Stickers", but what the Lu family sent is not a genuine handiwork, just a post copied by Lu Ji. She had also seen the facsimile, although she couldn't recognize a few words, and the words on the post seemed to be a little more beautiful than her husband's, but it was nothing more than that, and it wasn't a valuable thing, worthy of being so cherished?

Huo Shiqi relieved his face for a while, and asked thoughtfully, "Have you read this post?" ”

Aunt Seventeen didn't know what her husband meant by asking, so she nodded suspiciously.

"Has anyone else seen it?"

"When I sent it yesterday, the big girl saw it."

"Where's Erya?"

Speaking of the second daughter, the seventeenth aunt was angry. She originally planned to marry Erya to Shang Cheng, but Erya is a girl who is used to going crazy in the countryside, and no matter how she teaches, she can't see any growth, and now she doesn't want to marry Shang, I'm afraid that it's not even easy to find a mother-in-law, who else in the whole Yanzhou City doesn't know that the second miss of the Huo family is a "heroic girl" with good wine? She said angrily, "Don't mention her, just because I didn't give birth to this daughter." I haven't seen anyone for two days, so I sent a maid back to say what kind of drama she watched at Tao's house......"

Huo Shiqi breathed a sigh of relief. He held up the book and asked, "Do you know this post?" ”

"A facsimile of "63 Stickers". One by one, Mrs. Lu said it when she sent it. ”

"Do you know what is written on it?"

"I didn't ask about that. Don't you know, I'm not very literate, and I'm embarrassed to ask others, isn't it very dignified to show my ugliness......"

Huo Shiqi smiled, read the post in a low voice, and asked, "Did you hear something?" ”

Aunt Seventeen wrinkled her brows and thought about it for a long time, then said, "...... It sounds like it was written by a monk, it looks like it was when the monk bought the yard that year, and Quzhou, Uncle Zhuzi or something are also compatible. But, but the monk's words are not like this, I have seen them one by one, they are square, and they are much better than your words. She looked at her husband's solemn face, and also carefully examined the handscroll, and suddenly asked, "Who is this 'third brother'?" ”

"Gao Junior!"

"Really a monk wrote it?!" Aunt Seventeen was first surprised and then frightened, and finally even her face became as pale as snow, her legs were weak, and she sat down on the kang with her buttocks.