"What's so much to ask about this?" It was Zhou Yanru, a scholar, who spoke, "Since all this gold was left by Wei Zhongxian, then we can use it to serve the imperial court without hurting the incorruptibility." Lord Ji, what should be done with this gold, you have an idea! ”

The dignified cabinet scholar would ask Ji Qingwen to come up with an idea.

When Ji Qingwen thought of this, he felt indescribably comfortable and proud in his heart, and couldn't help laughing out loud "hey, hey, hey".

Li Yan on the side hurriedly poked Ji Qingwen's ribs with his elbow and reminded: "Brother Ji, if you have something to say, it's all about it, it's not time to laugh!" ”

When Ji Qingwen heard this, he quickly coughed lightly twice, and said: "Ladies and gentlemen, I also said that this gold is to be given to you, and then transferred to the court and the holy one through your hands. However, there is so much gold here, how to divide it, I still have little seniority, and I don't have any ideas, so I ask you to discuss it yourself. ”

This idea was thought up by Li Yan for Ji Qingwen.

After all, these 270,000 taels are real money, although it is just handled by the adults, but they can also buy a big face in front of Emperor Chongzhen, but it is not something that can be decided casually. You must know that although these adults are in high positions and powers, most of them do not have the strength of "the prime minister's belly can support the boat", but they are all people whose hearts are smaller than the eye of a needle.

Therefore, this group of ministers gathered together, presided over by several scholars such as Han Kuang, Qian Longxi, Zhou Yanru, and Wen Tiren in the cabinet, and discussed for a whole hour, and then determined the amount of gold that each official could take.

These officials were about to ask Ji Qingwen for gold according to the results they had discussed.

Unexpectedly, Ji Qingwen said: "Ladies and gentlemen, this gold is not a small amount, I am afraid that one of you has a bad memory, and he forgot to pay the emperor when he took the gold, or the amount paid is a few taels less than what he took now." Therefore, I would like to take the liberty of making a note so that you can make it clear in the future. ”

Several scholars in the cabinet discussed it and felt that the evidence of the seal was in the world, although it was possible that Emperor Chongzhen would know about it, but it was also a constraint on the officials here, and on the whole, the advantages outweighed the disadvantages, so they agreed.

So Li Yan took out the pen, ink, paper, and inkstone, and asked each official to come forward to claim the gold, and naturally there was nothing to cheat in front of everyone's eyes, and the 270,000 taels of gold were collected in a moment.

It's just that these gold are all in kind, and each official receives an average of nearly 3,000 taels, that is, 180 catties (16 taels per catty). Not to mention these officials in front of him who only know how to dance and write and have no power to tie the chicken, even if they change to a strong man, it is not easy to carry this gold.

So Ji Qingwen simply did it to the end, sent the Buddha to the west, and asked Chen Wenzhao to pick up three hundred soldiers, and every three people accompanied an official, carrying the gold of as little as one hundred catties and as many as two or three hundred catties, and escorted them back to their respective mansions.

Among this group of officials, only Xu Guangqi, the left attendant of the Ministry of Rites, had the best relationship with Ji Qingwen, so when all the other officials were gone, he was the last to leave, and before leaving, he specially chatted with Ji Qingwen a few more words and said some words of appreciation.

After sending Xu Guangqi away, Li Yan brought up a densely recorded list of ninety-two Chinese military officials of the DPRK, and said with a smile: "Brother Ji really did a great job today!" ”

Ji Qingwen smiled bitterly: "Brother Li is laughing at me again." With such a large amount of money, I can't put it in my pocket, and I waste such a lot of effort by giving it away, which is also called merit? It's called iniquity, isn't it? ”

Li Yan shook the rice paper in front of Ji Qingwen again, and said: "Brother Ji is optimistic, these ninety-eight officials have received your money, and they will naturally be a head shorter in front of you in the future-from now on, they will nod their heads when they see you, and there will be no such thing as Zuo Shunmen this morning." ”

"Humph! What do I want them to do with a nod to me? Ji Qingwen said disappreciably, "If they can give me these 270,000 taels of gold, I will take turns to kowtow to them one by one!" Two hundred and seventy thousand taels of gold! Lao Tzu has to save up for five or six years to make such a profit! ”

Li Yan shook the ink on the rice paper dry, and said, "Brother Ji, that's not what you say. Although 270,000 taels of gold is a bit expensive, what you bought was the hearts of the ninety-eight largest officials in the imperial court. If Brother Ji operates properly, you can establish a new party of friends now, not counting the relationship between relatives and friends, fellow villagers, the same year, and protégés, just by screening these more than 90 officials, you can establish a new party of friends that can completely compete with the Donglin Party and the Eunuch Party! ”

Li Yan was extremely excited when he said this, and his white and pure scholar's face turned red: "This is not the Eunuch Party, nor the Donglin Party, but ...... It's Ji Party! Brother Ji is the leader of the Ji Party! ”

Ji Qingwen was stunned for a moment when he heard this, and it took a long time to react, shook his head and said, "Brother Li has a good reputation." How can I have the heart and talent to pull up a friend? In fact, I just want my wife to live peacefully, so that the Ming Dynasty can continue peacefully, make some money, marry a few beautiful women as wives, and then drink and joke with a few of your confidants and friends, and live your life like this...... I'm already satisfied......"

Li Yan recalled Ji Qingwen's words and said: "Brother Ji treats me as a friend, so naturally I don't treat Brother Ji as an outsider. Brother Ji's idea is not as good as the sage's sentiment of 'worrying about the world first, and enjoying the joy of the world after the world', but it is already very rare to be able to be alone and unstained in the mud. ”

"After all, it's a reader. Brother Li, I'm a little careful, and when you say this, even I feel a little amazing. Ji Qingwen grinned, but turned his head to Li Yuanyin on the side and said, "Commander Li, what do you think?" ”

Li Yuanyin was embarrassed by Ji Qingwen's question, and hurriedly said: "Yes, yes, the lower officials are also admired, admired." ”

After a busy day, after dinner, several scholars in the cabinet were busy preparing a chapter to be presented to Emperor Chongzhen, saying that the hundred officials were grateful for the grace of the saint and had donated silver taels to be handed over to the imperial court.

Emperor Chongzhen was originally prepared for the officials to be reluctant to donate money and food, and he was already planning to use the emperor's private treasury, but he didn't expect that these officials, who should have been very selfish, were really able to use money to fund the court regardless of personal gains and losses at the critical moment of life and death.

Although Emperor Chongzhen has a respected status, he is still a young man after all, and he really thinks that it is his enthusiasm for the country, the people, the country, and the society, and it only took one day to clean the greasy hearts of this group of officials.

So Emperor Chongzhen cheered up and ordered the household department to mobilize all the accounts, offices, and master books in Beijing to gather in the household yamen, and ordered the officials to immediately transport the silver taels to the household department to prepare for weighing.

The emperor personally made the decree, and it was naturally up to the cabinet to notify the officials to do the decree.

Although Ji Qingwen said to the emperor in advance that he did not need to donate money and food to help him, this matter had a great relationship with him, so when the cabinet passed the decree, he did not forget him, and also notified him to enter the palace to do business.

When Ji Qingwen rushed to the Yamen of the Household Department with an unusually detached mood, the alley outside the Yamen had been crowded with people carrying gold and silver brought by the officials.

And those officials who received Ji Qingwen's great favor and took Ji Qingwen's gold, naturally had a 180-degree turn towards this Suzhou weaving admiral who did not understand the rules of officialdom - one by one, as Li Yan said, when they saw Ji Qingwen's face from a distance, they nodded with a smile on their faces and said hello.

Looking at the flattering expressions on the faces of this group of officials who were still rolling up their sleeves and wanted to beat them early this morning, Ji Qingwen was extremely proud in his heart, and while clasping his fists and bowing his hands, he thought in his heart: "The 270,000 taels of gold were smashed down, and I finally saw the splash and heard the sound." ”

In this way, Ji Qingwen drove all the way to the Yamen of the Household Department, and saw that the Yamen Hall, which was supposed to be respected by the Shangshu of the Household Department, had already been occupied by several cabinet scholars, and Bi Ziyan, who was supposed to be in charge of the affairs of the Household Department, could only sit down.