After the spring floods, the water level of the canal is relatively high, and the journey south is much smoother than during the dry season. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

On the sixth day of the fifth month, the day after the Dragon Boat Festival, the group arrived at Nanjing, the transit station of the trip.

Shen Xi originally wanted to go to Nanjing but did not enter, and he himself planned to take the coastal line of the East Road to observe how serious the situation of bandits and robbers and pirates in the southeast coast was in the past two years. Before that, he planned to let his family take a boat up the river, from Hukou to Nanchang through Dongting, and then go up the Ganjiang River, take the west road to Tingzhou Province, and then go to Wuzhou.

But this time Shen Xi's errand was different from the last time he went to Quanzhou.

The last time he visited Quanzhou, Shen Xi was a temporary messenger, but this time he went to the place as a feudal official, and he had to stay in Nanjing for a few days, if not for anything else, just to "worship the mountain".

The Ming Dynasty had its own imperial court system in Nanjing, which seemed to be redundant, but in fact, it was the Ming Dynasty in order to strengthen its control and governance over the southern provinces.

There are a lot of nobles in the city of Nanjing, there are a total of 10 or 20 people in the army, these people have a very high status in the military, and they are hereditary, Shen Xi wants to go to the land of Fujian and Guangdong to serve as a senior officer with the right to transfer troops and administrative power, and he must have a good relationship with these nobles, otherwise he may be troubled by these people when he arrives in the place.

If you want to worship the mountain, you have to give gifts.

Shen Xi didn't have many gifts to prepare, so he couldn't visit them all, otherwise he would be bankrupt on this trip, and he could only pick and choose princes with real power such as Wei Guogong, Dingguo Gong, and Chengguo Gong to get acquainted.

After all, after the Tumubao Change, the situation of the Ming Dynasty's nobles in charge of the army has changed greatly, and the authority of the nobles is no longer as great as that of Xuanzong and Yingzong.

Shen Xi sent all the worship utensils, but no one was willing to see him at the end of the day.

Obviously, Shen Xi's gift list is too thin.

What an important errand for a feudal official, who transferred the military power of the three southeastern provinces, you just gave such a shabby gift, and you sent it to Huazi?

The imperial court appointed the feudal officials, or those respected ministers, such as Wang Yue and Liu Daxia, they don't have to give gifts, and these nobles also have to give face; Either they are nobles themselves, like Zhu Hui, Baoguo Gong, Pingjiang Bo Chen Rui, these people go to the local prime minister's military affairs, they are friends with Xungui, and those Xungui are friends with each other, and those Xungui may not know who will give gifts to whom in order to set up friendship.

There is also a kind of prestige that is not high, relying on socializing among the powerful to win the qualification of the feudal officials, because they themselves are "bought" official positions at a large price, in order to be a local official to make money a little more convenient, it is not stingy in terms of honors.

Shen Xi, a person who has no prestige in his own right, and who is poor and white without a title, is really an outlier when he is appointed to the southeast coastal governor.

But these nobles in Nanjing didn't know much about Shen Xi, they just heard that Shen Xi and Xie Ge were always in-laws, so needless to say, he was a young official who was good at managing personal relationships, so they put on a posture and were ready to make a big deal on Shen Xi.

Greetings and gift lists were sent out, and those nobles didn't even pay attention to them, which made Shen Xi very helpless, if he was willing to accept the gift thickly, he didn't have the ability, even if he borrowed money to give gifts, no one was willing to lend him money.

However, Yu Niang was very knowledgeable, and came to visit the post house in person, and asked, "Lord Shen, do you need help?" ”

Although Yu Niang's official identity is a factory guard, she also runs the Qinlou Chu Pavilion, but she is a standard "rich woman", she seems to be saying, you can temporarily ask me for help if you lack silver, we are old friends, and I will give you a discount on the interest.

"How can the Jade Master help?" Shen Xi asked coldly.

Yu Niang said: "The slave family knows some people in Nanjing City, you can help Lord Shen move around, if Lord Shen needs to ask for help, the slave family will also try their best to help!" ”

Sure enough, he is a veteran in the social field, and he knows a lot of people, Shen Xi thought to himself, wouldn't those people be your benefactors?

But Yu Niang is notoriously cunning, she used to say that her identity may have been made up, and what background she had in the past, only God knows herself.

Shen Xi didn't want to know about these old sesame seeds and rotten grains.

"No need."

Shen Xi directly rejected Yu Niang's kindness, because he didn't want to owe Yu Niang a favor anymore, so as not to be played by Yu Niang after getting Wuzhou, and let him help with things.

Shen Xi believes that any benefits harvested today need to be repaid in the future, there is no free lunch in the world, Yu Niang seems to be respectful to him, but there are too many secrets in his body, and he is not a trustworthy person.

Although the gift is not successful, but the handover documents of the passage still have to be handled, this to go to Wuzhou to take office, Shen Xi first has to contact the six yamen in Nanjing, which will take about a day.

During this period, Shen Xi sent Xie Yun'er and others to the ship heading south to Jiangxi, and even Ma Jiu did not stay, and completely handed over his safety to Yu Niang and Jiang Liwei and others.

Shen Xi was not worried about what tricks Jiang Liwei and Yu Niang would play, no matter how much they harbored evil intentions, they did not dare to collude with the robbers and bandits.

Jiang Liwei was born in Zuo Cheng of Dali Temple in Nanjing, and he had a certain connection in the city of Nanjing, and he was generous, sending a lot of gifts to those dignitaries, and also obtained the qualification to participate in the private banquets held by various nobles, which was more beautiful than Shen Xi, a serious feudal official.

In this regard, Shen Xi could only say hehe. What if you Jiang Liwei have more silver, in the end I am a feudal official, and you are just the head of the brocade guard who was ordered to assist in the errand.

……

……

You can't visit Xungui, Shen Xi has no way, he can't go against his conscience to borrow money and give gifts from Yu Niang, he can't do this kind of thing.

Shen Xi's choice is very simple, I can't afford to hide if I can't afford to provoke me, and I will leave for the south as soon as possible, if you don't help, if you make trouble for me, you will have to be smarter than anyone's means.

Wang Shouren went to Jiangxi to take office, and also parted ways, Shen Xi seemed lonely around him, and he was eager to find a helper at this time, and when he was in the capital, he planned to find a person, and he had to visit once...... It is Tang Bohu, a talented man who gradually became embarrassed in his hometown in Suzhou.

Shen Xi asked himself if he was a cunning person, he wanted to invite staff, ordinary people could not get into his eyes, but Tang Yin was unusual.

Tang Yin is not only knowledgeable, poetry and painting, but more importantly, he has a certain wisdom.

In history, Tang Yin was able to gain insight into King Ning's conspiracy in advance, and he was able to protect himself by pretending to be crazy and stupid, so he knew that this person was not bound by etiquette and law, and could come up with good ideas "according to the right medicine". Moreover, Shen Xi admires Tang Yin, who is tall and arrogant in history, and now he has the opportunity to recruit such a historical celebrity for his own use, and he can also learn in his spare time, he is still quite looking forward to it.

Shen Xi originally planned to go south from the East Road, so it was necessary to take Zhenjiang from Nanjing by water, and then go to Suzhou from the South Canal.

In the past two days in Nanjing, Shen Xi inquired about Tang Yin's situation.

At this time, Tang Dacai had just reconciled with his wife, and cut off the way to the imperial examination, even if he was a little famous, he was immersed in the pain of losing the imperial examination and his wife's betrayal, and even the poetry and painting were also hit by Shen Xi, which made him slump, and he heard that he drank and got drunk all day long, and relied on friends to help him live.

Tang Yin originally had the skill to make a living, that is, his good painting skills, in history, after Tang Yin failed the imperial examination, he relied on selling paintings to support his family, and built the famous Taohuawu in history. However, at this time, Tang Yin, due to the impact of the failure of the painting competition with Shen Xi, his painting skills had not yet reached the realm of Dacheng, except for his friends who paid for paintings in order to make him feel better, no collector was really willing to spend a lot of money to ask him for paintings.

Shen Xi went to Suzhou this time, brought 200 taels of silver, and visited Tang Yin in the name of painting.

Because of the "holiday" before the annual exam, Shen Xi and Tang Yin are not friends, but Shen Xi visited Tang Yin after he was killed, and the two resolved a grievance, but the relationship is far from good.

Tang Yin and Shen Xi fought for painting, which fulfilled Shen Xi's reputation in the painting world in disguise, but then Shen Xi's rise in officialdom actually fulfilled Tang Yin's fame in disguise.

It's just that Tang Yin's heart is full of frustration, and coupled with the fact that Shen Xi has lived in the north for a long time, he himself has not realized this change at all.

Shen Xi's departure to Suzhou was unreasonable in Jiang Liwei's eyes, and Shen Xi's hasty departure from Nanjing City caused him to lose his qualification to participate in the private banquets held by many nobles, which made him full of complaints.

But after all, Shen Xi is now a civil official of the third grade, and he is only a martial artist of the fifth grade, and he is completely out of the qualification to argue with Shen Xi, so he can only tactfully say that it is the best policy to let Shen Xi rush to the place where he took office earlier.

Shen Xi's answer is very simple, you are here to protect me, and it is up to you to decide how I go.

There is a folk proverb that Suhu Lake is familiar with the world, which means that Suzhou in Nanzhili and Huzhou in Zhejiang have a bumper harvest in a year, which can solve the problem of eating for the common people all over the world.

Since the development of Jiangnan in history, the status of the land of fish and rice in the south of the Yangtze River has been gradually consolidated, and even the founding of the Ming Dynasty is based on the occupation of the south of the Yangtze River, and after the relocation of the capital, the capital of Nanjing has been retained.

Shen Xi came to Suzhou City for the first time, the prosperity here is not inferior to the north and south of Beijing, and outside the city, you can see the houses built along the city, the shop signs are lined up, the peddlers and pawns shuttle among them, shouting one after another, so lively.

Shen Xi thought to himself: "It's a pity that I didn't bring Dai'er and them over to take a look." ”

Shen Xi, as a member of the three grades, came to Suzhou, and the local government seemed to attach great importance to it, and the prefect of Suzhou even personally sent someone to invite him, saying that he was holding a banquet in the government office, but he was rejected by Shen Xi.

In Nanjing City, Shen Xi's dignified Sanpin master was treated as a grandson, but when he arrived in Suzhou City, he became a grandfather in a blink of an eye.

Those nobles don't care about the officials of the East Palace and the Japanese officials, but the local prefect knows that this three-grade feudal official not only regulates the military and political power of the three southeastern provinces, but also is the teacher of the current prince, the standard Hanlin background, and the emperor's important Qincha.

There are so many noble and prestigious ministers in the imperial court, and the emperor has not appointed any of them, but he chose Shen Xi, which is already very telling.

Shen Xi pushed away the kindness of the prefect's yamen, but even so, the dishes and accommodation conditions prepared for him in the post house were still very high.

Jiang Liwei and Yu Niang and other entourages followed to eat and drink spicy, and at dinner, Yu Niang looked at the delicacies on the table, and asked with a smile: "Lord Shen didn't come to Suzhou especially to enjoy the beautiful scenery and food of the south of the Yangtze River, right?" ”

"Does Yu Niang think that this official is like a person who is greedy for pleasure?"

Shen Xi hurriedly took two mouthfuls of food, stood up and said, "Yu Niang just needs to use it for herself, this official has a tired journey and wants to rest, tomorrow Yu Niang will accompany me to the city to meet someone." ”

Shen Xi didn't have much appetite and was about to go back to the room, but Yu Niang came up and asked respectfully, "Do you need someone to serve you?" Her meaning is obvious, since Shen Xi sent the female dependents around him away and kept the empty room alone, maybe she could let Yunliu and Xi'er, who had followed all the way, go to serve in his room.

"No need, this official likes to sleep alone." Shen Xi refused with a straight face.

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PS: The third update is here!

It's the last two hours of the month, and the Son of Heaven is asking for subscriptions, tips, referral tickets, and monthly pass encouragement! The next chapter is expected to be in the early hours of the morning, so you don't have to wait, get up tomorrow morning and read the same, thank you! (To be continued.) )