Kou Shen, the prefect of Suzhou, was a good bureaucrat in the typical sense of the late Ming Dynasty.

Kou Shen is fifty-three years old this year, and he was already over forty years old when he was a jinshi in the forty-fourth year of Wanli. He understood that he was already too old when he entered the official career, and unless he encountered some once-in-a-lifetime special encounter, he would never be able to get into the best official positions such as cabinet ministers and six scholars.

Therefore, he pays attention to peace and stability as an official, neither clinging to the eunuch party, nor offending the Donglin party, so he will become a candidate acceptable to all forces under the unpredictable political situation at the junction of the apocalypse and Chongzhen, and come to preside over Suzhou, the important place of the imperial court's finance and taxation.

Since arriving in Suzhou, although Kou Shen can't be as clear as water and as bright as a mirror like Hai Rui, compared with the insatiable appearance of the previous Suzhou prefects, the appearance is undoubtedly much better - he will never exploit the small people, but just accept the filial piety of some rich people, of course, if you don't give him money, Kou Shen can't take the initiative to ask for bribes.

The reason why this is so is because Kou Shen has no political ambitions, he just wants his wife to be his official peacefully, and when he is in his sixties, he retires home to retire and retire for the elderly, and runs a peaceful place for the Ming Dynasty, which is not a disappointing life.

Therefore, when this old bureaucrat, who paid the most attention to stability and stability, heard the report of Li Yuanyin, the commander of the Jinyi Guard, saying that "the weavers in Suzhou City may be instigated by the White Lotus Sect and come out to gather people to make trouble", Kou Shen immediately panicked.

But years of political experience have calmed him down quickly.

On the one hand, there are Suzhou weavers - the reason why they will make a rebellion is of course the result of the instigation of the White Lotus Sect, and the second is the dispute between Ji Qingwen and the Suzhou Chamber of Commerce, which caused a large number of weavers to have no livelihood and had to take risks.

On the other hand, the White Lotus Sect - they had caused a rebellion in Nanjing before, causing a major incident that shook the world, and although they were barely suppressed in the end, they ran away with three evil culprits, and they are still wanted all over the world. And the only one in Suzhou City who has had experience in fighting with the White Lotus Sect is still Ji Qingwen.

So after effortlessly analyzing and thinking for a while, Kou Shen, who is not a stupid person, came to the conclusion: If you want to eliminate this imminent major event invisibly, it seems that the key to the key lies in Ji Qingwen.

So Kou Shen put down his identity as a serious imperial examination, and also put down a grade higher than Ji Qingwen, and personally came to Suzhou Weaving Yamen, wanting to ask Ji Qingwen to come forward to solve this major matter.

Ji Qingwen was afraid that Kou Shen would not come to him, and now he came to ask for his help, which would be in his arms.

I saw that Ji Qingwen deliberately made a look of embarrassment and said, "Master Kou, are you looking for the wrong person?" That's right, I asked Commander Li to inform Master Kou about the possibility of the weavers making trouble. But none of the weavers who were ready to move worked in the weaving mill under my name. If Master Kou wants to take any measures, he should go to the bosses of the Suzhou Chamber of Commerce who run the weaving workshop, right? The weaving workshop on my side has already been secured for Lord Kou, so there will be no accident in the custody. ”

Kou Shen was stunned by Ji Qingwen, and he didn't know that he had fallen for his plan of "wanting to capture and indulge", so he hurriedly begged: "Why did Lord Ji say this? Who doesn't know that it was Lord Ji who made the other weaving mills unable to operate, and the weavers in the weaving mills naturally had nothing to eat, so they thought about ......"

"Who doesn't know? I don't know! Ji Qingwen flatly denied it, "I don't understand, I just sold the cloth and satin in my hand cheaper, is this wrong?" Didn't the people say that rice, vegetables, and cloth were expensive these days, and they were all made by us profiteers? Why is it selling cheaply now, and I'm wrong again? Governor Kou, you taught me, what did I do wrong? ”

Kou Shen has a set of mud, but he doesn't understand the real economics, and he was speechless by Ji Qingwen's words.

After being silent for a long time, Kou Shen finally said: "Lord Ji, why don't you come forward like this, how about I come forward and summon the owner of the weaving workshop of the Suzhou Chamber of Commerce to talk to Lord Ji in person?" Everyone sits down to talk, and if there is any misunderstanding, they can clarify it in person. ”

Kou Shen has been the prefect of Suzhou for a long time, and he must be inextricably linked with the Chamber of Commerce. And he is good friends with Ji Qingwen, and every year he has to take thousands of taels of silver from Ji Qingwen's so-called "Bing Jing" and "Tan Jing". Therefore, he did not want to offend these two forces, and proposed to discuss it calmly, and then make a compromise that was acceptable to both sides, which was the only suggestion he could accept.

This suggestion, Ji Qingwen is also acceptable.

But he didn't want to say it to death, so he got up and wandered around the room twice with hesitation, and then nodded and said, "Master Kou, you can talk about it, as for how much you can talk about it, it's not my Ji Qingwen alone." ”

Ji Qingwenken sat down, Kou Shen was already very happy, hurriedly smiled and arched his hand, and said, "It's easy to say, it's easy to say." As long as everyone is sincere and can take a step back, they will definitely be able to talk about this matter. ”

"Well, okay." Ji Qingwen said, "Then there is one more thing, I have something to say first." ”

"But it doesn't hurt to say it." Kou Shen immediately answered.

"In this interview, in addition to inviting people from the Suzhou Chamber of Commerce to come over, Songjiang City Bo Si promoted Shen Liangzuo's father-in-law, and Master Kou also came forward to invite him. With Lord Kou's cleverness, he should have known that behind these profiteers in the Songjiang Chamber of Commerce, Gonggong Shen is supporting them, otherwise they would not dare to go against me if they borrowed their courage! Ji Qingwen said.

As soon as Kou Shen heard Shen Liangzuo's name, his face immediately showed an embarrassed expression, and said: "Lord Ji, Gonggong Shen is the promoter of Songjiang City, and the commander and eunuch of the ceremonial eunuch, and he has nothing to do with the Suzhou prefect's yamen, so it seems a little unreasonable to ask me to invite him, right?" I think it's better for Lord Ji to have a closer relationship with him, and it's more suitable for Lord Ji to invite him......"

Ji Qingwen raised his eyebrows and said, "Whether Master Kou is going to invite Shen Liangzuo, can you invite him, that's your problem, not mine." Don't forget, I'm also a guest invited by you, Lord Kou, only the host treats guests, how can there be a reason for guests to overstep their responsibilities? Shen Liangzuo, if you want to invite, you can invite, if you don't want to invite, you won't invite, I'm just making a suggestion, what does it have to do with me? ”

As he spoke, Ji Qingwen made a gesture to see off the guest and said, "Okay, I have other important things to do today." When will Master Kou invite all the guests, and then send someone to inform me. ”

As the prefect of Suzhou, Kou Shen is a man of his word in Suzhou, but in front of Ji Qingwen, who has mastered a large number of tangible and intangible resources, he is an out-and-out vulnerable group, so he can only reluctantly agree.

Whether or not the Suzhou weavers could be nip in the bud was the most important matter related to Kou Shen's life, so he didn't dare to be the slightest bit lazy, and immediately sent his subordinates to contact the weaving workshop owners in the Suzhou Chamber of Commerce one by one.

The owners of ordinary weaving workshops are still very face-saving to Kou Shen, and when they received the invitation from the Yamen of the Suzhou Prefect, they hurriedly agreed. And those businessmen who have a reputation in the family or have contacts with the bigwigs of the DPRK and China are more difficult to do, and they have to come to the door in person to agree to attend the meeting.

As for Shen Liangzuo, he really wanted to participate in such a meeting.

It turned out that he had already been overwhelmed by Ji Qingwen's price war, not only did the business of Dianshan Port Wharf plummet, but the owners of those weaving mills who couldn't run their businesses also came to trouble him twice in three days.

When he was forced to have no choice, Shen Liangzuo really wanted to dispatch the two thousand Beijing battalion "Royal Forest Army" under his command to kill the city of Suzhou and kill the troublesome Ji Qingwen on the spot.

But Ji Qingwen's subordinates not only have the escort of the "Ming Wu Army" with amazing combat effectiveness, but also have a senior general of the Jinyi Guard to assist - not only the means are sharp, but also the ears and eyes are clear, he is by no means Ji Qingwen's opponent, but he may be killed by his counterattack.

Therefore, when Shen Liangzuo heard that Kou Shen, the prefect with whom he had never had any contact, sent someone to invite him to a meeting, he immediately agreed without hesitation - after all, this was a great opportunity to settle the dispute with dignity.